Sunday
Getting ready for church. After church the 5 little kids performed their baby doll primary program for me, Lori and Thomas. Madalyn played the piano for it.
Thursday: Hurricane A-brewing
It rained all week as Hurricane Helene drew nearer. Thursday night it started raining pretty hard. We had popcorn and read after the little kids were in beIt rained all week as Hurricane Helene drew nearer. Thursday night it started raining pretty hard. We had popcorn and read after the little kids were in beIt rained all week as Hurricane Helene drew nearer. Thursday night it started raining pretty hard. We had popcorn and read after the little kids were in bed , which is always fun and probably Maddie’s favorite part of the day.
Friday: Hurricane Helene
Friday morning the worst part of the storm hit. It poured and was really windy as to be expected. Lots of leaves and branches down. One huge red oak fell across the driveway, pulling the electric lines down with it, knocking out our power and blocking us in.
- Electric wires all over the ground
Saturday: Clean Up
One of Thomas’s friend’s hadn’t heard from him all day on Friday since our power and wifi were out (the only way he can text), so they came to check on us! It was so sweet! They got part way down the driveway and saw the down tree. I happened to be out there with Andy checking it out and at first we thought it was the power truck coming to fix the power! But he was still good news. He had a chainsaw with him and cut out a good portion of the tree so that at least we could get out our driveway by driving under the huge branches still hanging over.
For dinner we cooked frozen pizzas over the fire and other frozen foods that were going to go bad in the freezer with no power.
Sunday: More Clean Up
After church (in a building with no power), we were told to go out and help others. Three guys chose my house to help and spent a couple of hours cutting up the fallen tree even more. The tree is very green but we’ll have lots of firewood for the winter that Thomas is on his mission! So nice of them to help us so much. Their chainsaws were huge and powerful. It would have taken me months to do all they did with my tiny chainsaw.
- This will keep Thomas warm this winter as he splits it.
- This is ready to be stacked after we pull the old wood to the front of the pile.
It was an adventurous weekend for sure. No power or water for 4 days. We didn’t mind the no power. We love to read, play the piano, do yard work, play outside, crochet, etc.
But the no water was harder. We have a good amount of water storage but it’s a pain hauling it from the basement to flush the toilet. And with 8 of us there is a lot of toilet flushing. So we used the woods instead and saved water for drinking and washing. I didn’t mind cooking over a fire or eating unheated leftovers out of the fridge, but it was hard not to have running water to wash dishes. Hard not to be able to do laundry either. do we use towels to wipe a spill or dry our hands and have no way to wash them, or paper towels which are expensive?
Luckily we have nice friends who let the 8 of us shower at their house and another nice friend who let us drop off our laundry at her house the Monday following Helene and had it all washed, dried, and folded for us when we came back to get it! That enabled us to leave on a 4 day little road trip the next morning. Which I”ll write about in the next Holladay Happenins!