Mother Nature threw her hardest at us, making the woods icy and magical...........
until...............
the power went out..........for 24 hours.........
and the trees started groaning and breaking.
This is the large tree in front of my vintage shop.
Small limbs and big branches........fell everywhere.
We have a total electric house.........so with no power.......no running water, no heat.
We do have a wonderful fireplace and we tossed what dry wood we had to keep it going. It made me reflect , as my husband and I sat in the quiet darkness, how simple the late nights were for those
"back in the day" when there was no electricity.
All over the grounds......tree branches are lying,
even some of the stoutest and biggest trees snapped
each wrapped in inches of ice.
we were fortunate that our power came on after only 24 hours. There were others who were without power for days. As we drove on a trip to Lubbock we counted 30 telephone poles in a row.....all snapped. I was very worried during our outage about my chickens and my greenhouse.
My chicken house has a layer of plastic over it with heating lamps inside. My greenhouse has a layer of plastic over it with a heater inside. I was just hoping that all would be okay after the heat went off.
The chickens were comfortable in the nests........slightly chilly however,
and my greenhouse flowers were still green and blooming.........
what a relief!
and then..........
the power came back on...........
and the sun said hello and smiled it's warm smile through the ice coated trees........
and if it couldn't get any better.......
my son flew in on leave for a short visit
and brought us a fresh pineapple
from Hawaii!
I decided to make an upside down pineapple cake..........
in my iron skillet!
If you would like this recipe, click onto the link below to go to my cooking blog!
Hope this finds you all safe and warm!
16 comments:
What dreadful weather, but thank goodness you still have a fireplace, and wood! We have a little wood-burning stove and without that we would have frozen the winter we had snow and the central heating boiler packed up!
There were a lot of trees and branches down in your area - and all those telephone poles too!
I'm glad that you didn't lose your chickens or your greenhouse plants.
Pineapple Upsidedown cake is one of my favourites = you did well to make it in your skillet : ) I made a fruit sponge dessert with apples and mixed berries tonight. Yummy.
Ice storms are such a strange mix of beauty and disaster! I hate it when it destroys the trees, the trees in my yard are like old friends, and it is such a mess to clean up. I am glad the chickens and greenhouse survived. I have plastic over my chicken run too, and a heat lamp to help them stay warm. Your son coming home, what a lovely treat, and that pineapple upside down cake looks sooo good. one of my favorites :>)
Thank you so much for commenting on my blog, so I found yours. And I love it! Thank you for sharing your country life with us. I do love the nature and the animals on your pics and the farm as well. Once we have had the same here in Russia. All trees were covered with ice.
Stay safe and warm
Natalia
Oh my goodness, Kathleen, I'm sorry to hear your power was off and that you had so much damage to your trees. So nice that you had a visit from your son. The cake looks tasty! :)
I missed Day #4, what was it like on #1 to#3. and I hope this is the last day, otherwise you can compose a new song to the tunes of " The 12 days of Icicles".Hope the road is safe when you venture out, and the chickies, so glad they are safe too. Hugs, Jean.
So glad you didn't suffer worse damages from the ice storm, that your chickens and greenhouse beauties survived too.
The ice on the branches is beautiful though. Wow!
The last photo with the setting sun is wonderful and cheering.
FlowerLady
So glad you have power back on. We went without power for 4 days several years back. We were total electric as well. I enjoyed using our oil lamps tho. Even tho it is so dangerous the ice frozen on everything is beautiful.
So glad you're back on the grid and all are well. So sorry about your trees though. I'm sure our ancestors got more sleep than we do!
I can only imagine how happy you were to have your son home for a visit. Hope the bad weather is over.
Glad you're all safe and sound. Ice is so damaging, but beautiful. I keep oil lamps ready for such occasions. I can't imagine doing my sewing to such poor light! Glad your son came to visit......pineapple fresh from Hawaii mmmmmm goood!
Wow - you guys have really had it! So glad the chickens and plants were okay, though. And, you mentioning being without power and wondering if that's what it was like before anyone got electricity! At my grandmother's house in the country; she had electricity but only for the light bulbs that hung on wire from the ceiling. I remember the baths we were given on the old back porch with water that had been heated on the wood stove, and being afraid people would be looking through all those windows. :)
Hope things are much better for you guys today.
xoxo
I do love a happy ending, and I'm so glad you had one - especially your son's visit! So happy for you that all turned out well. (And that pineapple upside down cake looks delicious!)
I hope by now you are getting back to normal, I am sad that you lost so many of your trees. Kathleen, I would love to see some of the flowers you have in the greenhouse, sometime when you get caught up. Say hello to the chickens!
Hi, very interesting post and pictures, it sounds like from fascinating novel but it 's your life, I 'm happy that all finished well, greetings from Warsaw ann, I wish all best,bye
You guys have been having it rough! The ice is so beautiful! But so unforgiving! I hope you store fresh drinking water at your place. And it might be a good idea to make little brick or block "heaters" for the chicken house and greenhouse for such events, that you stoke with charcoal or logs, and let the blocks radiate the heat, especially over night. We lived in Lubbock when our daughter was small. We had a jeep then, and a winch. My hubby would drive on the icy or snow-blanketed roads and pull cars out of the ditches, as a gift.
Kathleen, I am a bit late in catching up on blog reading, but glad to read that you & yours, the chickens and the plants were all OK after the storm. We are currently awaiting what is predicted to be a major blizzard here in the northeast.
Your upside down pineapple cake looks so delicious. I would love to have a piece. I'm sorry about the bad weather you are having. I hope the ice will melt soon and the sun will shine. I'm really glad your power came back on.
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