Well, it is good to be back and connected to the internet again ! Like 400,000 other customers in new hampshire, we lost all electric power on Thursday evening due to a really big nasty ice storm that came in thursday and lasted until Friday afternoon. Fortunately, we just had our power restored around 3:30 PM today (Sunday), but there are many thousands of families still without electricity. It is tough when you throw in a couple nights with the temperature dropping to around 0 degrees ( F, not Celcius !).
Each morning I chopped a hole in the ice to lug buckets of water up from our lake (for washing, toilet, etc), and carried in 4 or 5 armloads of wood to keep our woodstove going full tilt. We moved our food into coolers outside and kept the house habitable, avoided frozen/burst pipes, and were still able to cook on the stove. But, it was tough with no electricity and all that comes with it. I wouldn't mind so much during the warmer months, but during the dark, cold winter, it really bites !
Another messy storm is coming on Tuesday - I hope that we don't lose power again, but there are plenty of folks who are still living in shelters set up in schools and churches who won't likely have power again for another week. I'll have to post some pics I took today - very pretty with all the trees completely encased in thick ice, but the consequences are not pretty.
I am glad to be "connected" to our clan again !
AND, THE MAIN reason I wanted to post here was to say that those R65.org flashlights that Justin got us are FANTABULOUS ! I used them every day for very long intervals and they are still working and still fairly bright, with the original batteries. My old oil lamp wasn't doing the job anymore of providing enough light to read by these evenings, but one of those flashlights worked perfectly. If we ever end up ordering more of those things, I' think that I'll have to get a few more.
