right now

right now

May 26, 2011

Fully operational again!

We are back up, and ahead of schedule too, thank you Dominion VA Power!   There have been non stop power trucks driving by for days, but we are always one of the last to get back online, since our area serves very few customers compared to the rest of Virginia Beach, the area around the air station is relatively unpopulated with homes.

Here are the photos/video I have - I thought I had more video of me trying to get the kids, but apparently I stopped filming in favor of running high speed for Finnegan.  The speck in the orange shirt is Finn in the video.  Not 3 minutes after I got him, a large tree fell in his friend's front yard where Finn was with his bike in the video.  Loch had already ditched his bike and his brother in favor of hightailing it back to the house... not sure how I feel about that??!  What you don't see in the video is that I'm being pelted with sheets of gravel, dust and random objects from peoples' recycling cans :)



While not as devastating as what some people are going through in other parts of the country, it was terrifying to me that my kids were down the street and not with me.  After getting them set up in the bathroom with the dogs and a few essentials (I want a basement!), I filmed a bit of the yard from the back door.  You can hear me breathless, which is part from running against 80 mph winds to get Finn, and part just leftover adrenaline from what I was seeing fly by in the air and not knowing that the storm was coming until it was here.


Afterwards, there was plenty of destruction in the yard, but other homes had it much worse with trees right through houses and live wires down all over the place.  Here, the destruction was confined to the yard, thanks to the fact that I garden, and don't plant large trees for fear of blocking the sun!  

Below, several fence sections were down, mulch gone and the soil torn up -



Adirondack chairs piled up against the fence, and those aren't light!  All 3 of my Colonnade Apple Trees were uprooted - 


Apple confetti...



Tomato Bed damage...



Lots of these were found in the yard...


Along with these... yes, those are Mama Dove's eggs :(


I am happy to report that baby robin is fine!  I found she/he huddling under some of the flopped over Amish Paste Tomatoes, mama robin was squawking away so I shooed the baby out so mama could see her.

Now what?

First I lugged the generator all the way from the shed up to the house.  We bought this a couple of years ago on clearance after hurricane season and even if we never use it, it sure gives a lot of piece of mind.  We have a well, so no power = no water.  The worst it's ever been here was a loss of power about 10 years ago for almost 2 weeks, and water is a precious commodity when you've been sweating all day in 95 degree temps, not to mention the peace of mind of having my freezer and fridge running.

I had to crawl under the house where the well pump is to fetch the plug, yuck!  Shimmying through a space 1' x 2' is no fun at all, matter of fact I got semi-stuck in that opening one year when hubby was deployed and I was 5 months pregnant with Loch, LOL!


After the storm, all you could hear was sirens everywhere for about 15 minutes, and then I was completely surprised that I heard about 4 generators come alive along with mine - we used to be the only people that had one around here.  We are the only ones on a well though, so I imagine they were using them for refrigeration.  

Certain things become painfully obvious when you think of what is pretty important to me...a manual espresso press and bean grinder is obviously on the preparedness shopping list :)  I bet I was the only one on my street running my Breville off the generator LOL
  

Other than securing power for keeping food and water, I was content to do without for everything else, and found it quite peaceful.  If you don't have any real hurricane or ship's lanterns yet, do go buy at least one - they give off enough light to actually read or play games by, and it really gives off an feeling that you aren't "doing without".  Bonus... the homebrew kegs don't rely on electricity to dispense their hoppy goodness :)


Sure there were bumps along the way, like dealing with the oppressive heat (sit in the shade), having to spend my time picking up garbage and branches instead of gardening, spending way too much on fuel for the generator, spilling gasoline all over my bare foot, hubby working 24/7 throughout it all, having to eat hot dogs for dinner (kids thought that was fantastic), but we did well in spite, and I'm really proud of the kids for not whining too much. Maybe all that reading of Laura Ingalls out loud has made them appreciate things more.

I must admit though, when I saw these guys headed onto our street I was glad it was over!  


Glad I had:  generator, hurricane lanterns, fuel, candles, grill, water, lawn chair, shady spot to sit, books, patience

Lessons for next time:  canning more and freezing less as a way of garden preservation would save lots of $$ on generator fuel since I would only have to turn it on when I needed water, hand powered espresso pump, building an outdoor enclosure to hang our solar shower... (ice cold water out of the well is not as refreshing as it sounds!), these things plus a HAND PUMP tied to the well would get us off the generator completely... except for the meat in the freezer... I guess we could have a big BBQ and sell it to people LOL...

Here's a link to some photos the local news team got of the approaching storm, according to the meteorologist, I'm not the only one who saw what looked like a funnel cloud here, and hubby said they saw it right over the airfield headed towards our street, he called us right away but our cell service was down already.

Now, I have a whole lot of laundry and blog reading to catch up on!  More storms predicted this weekend, what is going on with the weather this year?  I'm either going to be stripped of a garden, or will have the strongest tomato stems ever this year!

16 comments:

  1. The scariest thing is that came out of nowhere! So glad you are all ok. These types of things really do make you rethink preparedness. Lets hope that this weather pattern that has been stalking our Country moves on. This is unbelievable.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Although all wasn't lost in your garden, for sure, it still hurts to see the damage that was done. It will take you precious gardening time just to resurrect what you can.

    So, so glad it wasn't worse than it was and that you rounded up the boys, dogs, etc. and got them safe without incident.

    You made it through without injury or too much discomfort because you're so prepared. Makes us all realize we really have no defense against Mother Nature at her worst, do we?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sheesh. Oh, how sad to see scattered apples, and broken eggs. Luckily there was not fruit on those tomato plants, I would think they will make a full recovery in time.

    I may be purchasing a hurricane lantern asap, if I can get past the fire hazard part.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm so happy you guys already have power back. It is sad so see how your garden suffered, but the main thing is you guys made it through safely. The weather right now is just crazy, we had the sirens go off last night and our phones (weather call) were ringing like crazy. Power went out until almost 5:00 this morning, but thankfully no tornado touched down.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We're pretty used to occasional high winds here....remember my giant maple tree that snapped in half and landed on my garden in 2008? We also have lost our shingles in 80 MPH winds, twice. A few years ago, my daughter's best friend's house was demolished by a falling tree, and most of the big sycamores in our city park were uprooted. Luckily, there have been few injuries and no loss of life. Gardens, houses and vehicles can be replaced, our loved ones can't. I'm just happy you and the boys stayed safe....and the baby robin, too. Poor Mama Dove.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jane, it's all crazy! I saw today that your part is set to get hot with maybe severe storms too?
    ***
    MamaPea, you're right! I deal with lots of hurricanes and stuff but when Mother Nature throws something right out of the blue so scary, all you can think of is your family being safe! What did we all do to scorn that woman we call Mother Nature? Hell hath no fury... LOL
    ***
    Kelly, just about every tomato plant has several fruit set already! I didn't notice even one had fallen, crazy! Tied them all back up and hoping for the best! I grew up with hurricane lanterns since I lived in tornado alley and we didn't have all these fancy wind up things and big battery lanterns then and we were all just taught to respect it. I remember filling them as a kid! I think it's the same as gun safety, if you don't teach it to your kids, an accident is bound to happen, either at home or somewhere else
    ***
    Anke, I wish we had sirens here, back home they always tested them every Wed, but if we heard it any other time we high tailed it inside! Hope the weather clears up for you too.
    ***
    Granny, 50+ mph winds are not uncommon here, but whatever that funnel cloud was, IS, LOL! It literally sunny 8 minutes before it all happened, I'm just glad I went outside when I did to call the boys in, that was just coincidence!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, that was scary. Blessing everyone is safe and looks like the garden took some damage but sure glad it wasn't worse. How about this heat?....not even Jun 1st yet!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh wow that is scary! Our power goes out sometimes in winter and we have a manual natural gas fireplace that we can use for heat. If we need to cook we just use the camp stove outside or use the barbeque. In warmer months we have all our camping gear to cook with and a couple of lanterns. One is battery that we keep in the house and the other is a propane lantern we use for camping. I'd lose all my food in my freezer and fridge though.

    I'm so glad you are all safe and I hope your garden comes back quickly. Sad about all those apples though.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lorie, you are right - HOT! Wow, it's 93 still at 6:30 pm, yuck!
    ***
    Sparkless, I think it's the food spoilage thing that's the worst, especially for those of us who don't have money growing on trees LOL! I was really upset about the tomatoes, but they look pretty good today - it's amazing how as seedlings they get babied, but send some 80 mph winds in there and tear them up and they just spit back and say "you wanna piece of me?"!

    ReplyDelete
  10. update: I'm missing an entire chair from the backyard, what the heck?! LOL...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Having grown up in Oklahoma, I have at least a little clue what you went through, and I am very sorry that it was so bad. We don't get as many of those very high-wind (tornadic) storms here in Georgia, but it happens occasionally.

    One of our dogs (back when the kids were little; she's been gone a long time now) noticed out that when the sirens went off I put the kids in the bathtub in the hallway bathroom. After seeing this happen for a couple of big storms, she was the first one in the tub, and she was HUGE. A couple of years later, she got to the tub before the sirens even went off, and eventually she just headed there at the first sign of thunder. It was funny because she really wasn't a smart dog, but she had a good sense of self-preservation.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Glad you are all safe... Our high winds here in Oregon start up in November, so in September/October, I start moving all the yard decorations, chairs, etc into the garage and lean-to. The neighbor never does, so his stuff always ends up in my yard. But you, poor soul,get hit in the most "growing" time of year. Glad you are safe, how scary, though I did love the video...

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wow, that storm looks scary. Sorry to see all those photos of your garden plants ruined by the storm. Poor colonnade and tomato plants! I must say, you are so prepared! A generator, that is awesome. And I giggled when I saw the espresso maker photo. I wouldn't be able to live without coffee either. We use a French Press, so if we don't have power, we could still use it. Glad you are all okay.

    ReplyDelete
  14. OK Dorthy -I feel like I should head for the basement too, my daughter says"what you watching" and" oh-I what to see to"-I'm afraid for you-she loves storms.Sorry about your garden and momma dove---hope you can feel back to normal and get your garden going.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thank goodness all of you are OK! You did a great job, as always, taking care of your family.

    It's really amazing that the garden did so well with all of the other damage. Keep us posted

    ReplyDelete
  16. The weather this year has been crazy all over the country, we've had our fair share here, including a hail storm last week that did a lot of damage to our garden....so far it is recovering nicely

    ReplyDelete