Several days of snow piling up + freezing rain = four days no power, tv, phone or Internet = God pushing the reset button on our normal lives. (Pictures enlarge for your viewing pleasure by clicking on them)
It was a beautiful mess around here with a massive amount of trees down (looked like a bomb went off in some places) resulting in roads closed, whole blocks of stores closed, schools closed, towns closed, etc. all dressed up in white snowy, icy glory so much so that you could almost pretend all was well in the world and ignore it. At least we could. And we did.
We took the "reset" in stride and just had fun making a fire outside for ambiance as we listened to the amazing sounds of crashing trees all around us. (Our neighbors thought we were nuts of course)
Mark spotted this eagle surveying our neighborhood. Seeing this reminds me of Isaiah 40:28-31, one of the anthem scriptures of Samuel's life.
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is inscrutable.
He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who lacks might He increases power.
Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,
Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.
Isaiah 40:28-31
The litle dogs LOVE the snow.
Max, however, not so much.
We maybe had 6" of snow on the ground but it wasn't the snow that was the problem. It was the massive amount of ice that lingered for several days.
We actually started the fire after Mark broke a lot of the ice off our tree limbs in the hopes that the hot smoke would melt some of it before limbs started crashing into our neighbors garage. Thankfully, none of them did.
Bushalee and Bunny. (Dad and daughter)
This is the first time I've ever seen anything like this! Truly amazing.
Bud enjoyed a week without having to wear his muzzle. He was bundled up warmly as you can see and enjoyed lots of extra food rations.
As we were driving around, we saw another horse with Bud's same blanket on, only it was orange. Of course I loved it and wished I had bought orange for Bud, but with the help of Adobe, he has an orange blanket for my personal viewing pleasure, and yours!
Doesn't he have the cutest butt?
He's quite playful these days....
Especially when Mark chases him. Love this one!
Bud is really coming along training-wise and once the weather clears, I cannot wait to show you his Christmas present.
Blackberry bushes covered in ice.
So yummy!
The views from Bud's barn.
And heat is not the only reason to own a wood stove. It also dries clothes, towels, and shoes plus cooks dinner and BONUS boils water for those warm baths we were able to take for four days with no hot water heater.
Up here we have the pressure canner boiling water, the ceramic crock simmering Mexican stewed elk, and the stock pot simmering cornish game hen stock. SO yummy!
One of Mark's many talents is preparedness and I am always so grateful for that when God chooses to reset our normal. Mark took preparedness to an all new level when Samuel was here knowing it would be so much harder to care for him if we had to endure a prolonged outage. That said, we were quite comfortable and in good spirits because of all his well thought out plans and gadgets. Read, it was kind of fun! At least for us adults and even though the kids complained about their "severe lack of entertainment," they didn't starve, they weren't stinky, they didn't have to go to a "warming shelter" nor were they blinded by the darkness. The girls didn't even bother to get dressed half the of time. They sat around in jammies and read books, drew pictures or watched movies on the laptop. We also enjoyed watching the 70's version of "The Adventures of Black Beauty" where they lived a much simpler life than we do today when we weren't visiting my Black Beauty. Mark and I think we had to have been born in the wrong time period.
We all learned a few things about making the best of the resources you do have during this time that we plan to implement into our normal lives. Things like cooking on the wood stove. That food was fantastic and fun. I also really enjoyed getting up to candlelight. We'll have to do that more often. We have also had some entertaining family time that we don't usually get these days with all the blessed technology.
Our time was well spent. I'm sure everyone can benefit from defrosting their refrigerator and thoroughly cleaning it out. I know we did! Anna found magnets under the fridge that are at least four years old. It was like lost treasure in the midst of a lint mountain. We also canned the game hen broth yesterday and today I am cooking up some ham soup with it since I need to cook all my now thawed meats as the freezer became a fridge for awhile.
Aren't they pretty? Tasty too!
The leftovers will become dog treats. I love that! Nothing is thrown away/wasted.
All in all, I enjoyed the "reset." Parts of it felt like camping and parts of it felt like a vacation from my regularly scheduled life. It was a nice break from the work I've been doing for my own healing as spoken of in the previous blog. We all agreed, however, that the one thing we all missed most was access to the Internet.
We're back online! At least until next time our life is reset.
