As If the Lockdown Wasn't Bad Enough...

As if we weren't restricted enough because of the virus, we had a string of thunderstorms and tornadoes last Sunday night through sunrise. A few areas surrounding us were hit. Thankfully, living in a hollar like we do, the tornadoes pass us by.

Me, I slept right through it, but Mel was awake until the power cut off. I blissfully awoke at 7AM unaware of the night's events. The sun was shining and it was already 70 degrees. All was right with the world except the power was still off. I had forgotten to plug in my phone. It was 11% charge left. My laptop battery was sitting at 2 hours of charge left. With the power off, the modem wasn't working. We had no signal on our phones without it. It's the down side of living in a hollar.

I just got an earlier start on homestead activities since there was no power. I started the day off weeding the garden. Yes, the weeds are healthily and robustly growing again. Some have even started setting blooms. I grabbed the 3-gallon bucket of plantains, wild strawberry leaves, dandelions, grasses, and lemon balm, and headed to the back with the rabbits and chickens daily allotment of fresh greens. I also had a 5-gallon bucket full of Virginia creeper for the compost bin.

I opted for hand weeding the garden rather than till it under. There were just too many weeds that propagate by their roots. Imagine the explosion of these weeds after tilling! God save me from this insanity!

I gave the adult chickens their cracked corn and black oil sunflower seeds. The adult free ranging chicken no longer eat the commercial pellets instead they'd rather free range from the smorgasbord of goodies on the property.  Right now they are having their fill of red wiggler worms that get turned up in the garden as I weed. I've been feeding their pellets, cracked corn, and black oil sunflower seeds as scratch to the pullets. There's no since in wasted layer feed lying around uneaten.

I went back out in the garden to pull up more weeds from my rows. Mel is setting up self wicking containers on 2x4s on blocks for some of the garden. I asked her to come outside in the sunshine and help pull weeds. She declined. I almost finished a 26'x 4' piece of the garden before she came out. She went into her workshop intent on cutting wood for her container garden only to realize that without power, she couldn't use her power tools. Now, I've already mentioned how Mel is without her tech. Three days had her bouncing off the walls after Hurricane Irma hit us two years ago. And no, I haven't bought a generator nor installed the solar back up system yet...there's just been too many have-to-have-it-right-now emergencies.

We now after 12 hours without internet, she was pacing. She paced around so much that Whirling Dervish, her emotional support cat, was yowling at her as she followed her around.  She must have gone around the outside of the house three times while I picked up a bucket of kindling. Finally on the 3 and 1/2 pass by me, she said, "Road trip!"

I took my bucket of kindling inside, got my drink and headed to her car. She grabbed her washcloth with alcohol in a baggie and her keys. We didn't go far. Just three miles down the road to get gas. The price was lower than I'd seen in a decade...$1.39 a gallon. Once the tank was filled, I asked, "Where to now?" Her response was, "I dunno. I just have to get away from the house."

Unlike with Irma, we couldn't just pop into McDonald's for a tech fix for her. Our county is on lockdown and not much is open except for drive through services. We drove to and through to the next town. There are almost no cars on the road. If stopped, we could always say we were on our way to the grocery store, or pharmacy, or even our way home. As the minutes ticked by, she began to relax. I thought she was on her way home but she changed her mind and drove to Tractor Supply. She wanted to put out some weed and feed for grass in the backyard. She really wants to kill off the garden area down to the dirt, but I'm against it. I don't want those chemicals anywhere near my food crops. I'd spent four years to keep and build the garden organically. Not to mention that it's now five times as big than when I first moved here. There was quite a bit of work and expense to grow the soil.

The good news is that I managed to find my non GMO/heirloom seeds! I didn't find everything I wanted, but I've got a good start. Their already started plant section was hit pretty hard. There was nary a tomato, seed potato, cuke, pepper, nor greens left. Only the empty containers that held the starts were visible. The same goes for the chicks, but they'll be getting more in Wednesday.

My quail breeder put me off for two and a half weeks for delivery of quail that I wanted. He said his phone has been ringing off the hook since this crisis started. Even the 250 quail eggs in his incubator (due to hatch tomorrow) were bought already. He promised me 24 quail, straight run, from the next batch of 250. That isn't exactly what I was looking for, but it will do. In six to eight weeks after delivery, I'll have my own eggs to incubate and birds to eat. The powers that be, now say it will take 18 months to heal from this shut down so I'm not worried. We're homesteaders and not doing this for the short run.

Anyhow, we left Tractor Supply and headed home. We were praying the electricity was back on. It wasn't. We had cold leg quarters I'd cooked over the weekend and a salad. Between foraging and leftover salad goods, we aren't lacking in salads. About three hours later, the power came back on. Mel is a happy camper now. She's had a hot shower (the water well and water heater are both electric) and now, she's glued to the computer binging on the COVID-19 coverage. Me, I'm writing this post to tell you about it. My shower is waiting for me next as soon as our water heater recovers. I got mighty sweaty weeding the garden.

But tomorrow is another day. I hope to get another 26'x4' weeded, then I can plant the corn and green beans. Yippee! By the way, that's only 1/4 of the house garden weeded. Well, the bunnies and chickies are enjoying the weeds I've pulled. Next is the orchard. H e l p!

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo

Argh! It's Snowing!! Addendum

An addendum to my last post. I write my blogs early, sometimes the basic blog is written a month in advance. I'll add certain current points of interst before the blog publishes. I do this in part because it takes my stroke addled mind almost a week to write a blog and a few days more to edit it. Often, it will coincide with a publication of a video or draw attention to a video of YouTube except this year. Technical difficulties have kept us from doing videos since spring. Unlike this blog. Please ignore misspellings and grammar erroers. I didn't catch in two quick editing passes before publishing this. I'm still brain damaged.

In our preparing for winter, I forgot a key supply...batteries for our lanterns! But then, we have oil lanterns and oil as back-up for them. As you might have figured out, we lost power. From Friday night, the heaviest snow fall, until Sunday night. We were not alone. Some 20,000 households in our EMC (electric membership co-op) were in the same boat. Some 12,500 households are still without power. The Co-op estimates full power restoration by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.

Now, we heat our homestead with a wood stove and cook with gas. We are fortunate. Many other homes depend on electricity to heat and cook wth. A lot of our "quick fix meals" were home canned months ago and in the storeroom. No can opener needed just an old church key. Heat and eat or not. With nighttime temperatures dipping below freezing and daytime temperatures maybe ten degrees warmer, they are really in a tight jam by not only being in the dark but freezing as well. We keep 20 gallons of water in our storage shed, because the well does not run without electricity. We currently use 5 gallon buckets (6 of them) to catch rain water, or in this case snow melt, to flush the toilets with or at least wash our hands.

I found out something interesting about Mel during all this. She can't unplug. She's a dyed in the wool techie. Being ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and suffering SAD (seasonal affective depression). She can't live without power especially in winter. We ended up spending a good part of Saturday and Sunday at the local Mickey D's charging her two computer batteries, her phone, her Kindle and using their WiFi. Unlike getting hit by Irma, the whole county wasn't dark. There were quite a few businesses open. Like Lowe's where I picked up an 8-pk of D cell batteries.

Me, on the other hand, was content reading a gardening book, knitting, and talking with my Heavenly Father by oil lamp. I did find it difficult removing the globe and lighting the lamp in the wee hours of the morning, but nothing I couldn't overcome. Not that I didn't rush to my computer to check my emails once I knew power had truly been restored. I could just unplug.

After calling our EMC's power outrage reporting center multiple times since the blackout, their suggestion not ours. Each time we called, a real person answered every call. The person was apologetic, courteous, and gave us an update... for days now. Not a few times, but every six hours. Now, that's service! After the power was restored, we called the power outage reporting center once again. The customer service representative answered. We gave them Mel's name and address. But instead of complaining that our power was out, we thanked her for our power being restored. The rep was taken aback. She had a smile in her voice, and she thanked us for calling. We made her night.

Even though we were inconvenienced by the power outage by being homesteaders, prepared, self reliant, and proactive, for the most part, we adverted a disaster this could have caused. Now, knowing this new thing about Mel, I think a generator and/or solar panels and batteries might be in our future. At least, we'd have power to run our well or charge whatever Mel needs. I can't do anything about the WiFi unless we plug the modem into the generator for short periods of time to help her out. What do you think?

Y'all have a blessed day and we'll have a better one.