I'm a day behind here, in my head it was Wednesday and of course... it's not!
There are reasons for my slight lapse, however... beginning with a massive windstorm last Wednesday that left nearly 200,000 people without power as temps plunged to single digits...
Several households convening under our roof because a woodburning stove and a gas fireplace are pretty good motivators! We used lanterns at night, and candles and we were glad this happened in March and not December, because at least in March we have 12 hours of daylight... not 8! So that's a big plus when you're dealing with kids, right?
We couldn't bake, but we could cook because I have a gas stove. We moved food to the porch to keep it cold once temps dropped, but we had to toss a bunch of stuff.... Here is how beautiful the moon was the night the temps began to plunge.... and folks headed to shelters for warmth and food.
Odd pockets of people maintained power, and more odd pockets lost it. Some roads were still closed this week when a blizzard decided to swing a little further west and hit us with two feet of blowing, drifting snow over Tuesday and Wednesday....
Local kids have had 4 out of 5 days off in an area that rarely closes schools... but they were smart to do it all four of these days. Too many dangerous situations lurking from street to street as downed wires hung like Kudzu vine in the south.
2400 lines down.
Winds of over 80 mph.... backyard playgrounds tumbled like old time Tinker toys.
Roofs peeled off or missing large blocks of shingles...
1000's of trees toppled onto streets, homes, garages, barns, businesses.
Electric poles falling like a game of dominoes....
Most have been put back into place, but there wasn't time to do it all before the blizzard hit.
31 years ago I gave birth to a wonderful boy on March 13.... But March birthdays are somewhat jinxed up here, because we had to cancel so many birthday parties for Luke... blizzards, ice storms, snow storms and flooding.... and of course, this week, between these two life-changing storms... Luke's birthday.
:)
So while I don't have a lot of fun cooking stuff to show off today, we're happy to report that all is well.... all is DEEPLY snow covered.... all is calm (except the chickens are pretty mad, let me tell you!) and kids go back to school today.
In a month this should all be melted. I should be seeing yellow daffodils waving their happy heads around Easter week... and I gave up candy for Lent and I didn't cave this week, even though there was plenty of opportunity!
All in all we made out well. The wind blew a door off our shed... and we got dumped on with a ton of snow. But we had a great time hosting family and friends and kids while the power was out... and 5 days of no Internet or cable was like going old school!
And I couldn't post the granola pics from last week because the internet went out as I was writing that post, so thank you Cate Nolan for jumping in and hitting PUBLISH for me!
And that's it from Ruthy's Place in Western New York...
The storm is gone.... and spring awaits!
Inspirational author Ruthy Logan Herne lives on a small farm in Western New York where she loves to gather with family and friends, and where she pens sweet, memorable stories.... with over a million books sold, Ruthy is still pinching herself to see if it's real...
And it is!
Contact her at loganherne@gmail.com or you can stop by her website ruthloganherne.com or chat with her here.... or on Seekerville (www.seekerville.blogspot.com) and every now and again she stops by her blog "Ruthy's Place".... She loves to talk writing, reading, books, God, romance and family!
