Power is back on...
Hurricane Wilma wandered up the east coast earlier this week and hit most of us with rain and wind, but since we are at a higher elevation than the seacoast we got heavy wet snow instead.
The complication for us was that the leaves are still on the trees and the weight of the snow was too much for many of them. There were a lot of downed limbs and trees, which in turn took out power and phone lines in the more outlying areas (like ours).
We were without power for a couple of days, but fared well. By not opening the fridge or freezer, we didn't lose any food. The house is pretty modern (by our standards, circa 1989, I'm used to drafty old Victorian houses) so there was minimal heat loss through the insulated walls and double-pane windows. After the second day, the temperature had dropped to 60 degrees upstairs, which is reasonable if you dress warm.
If we had the woodstoves hooked up, there would have been no real issues with being without power for a while. Since the phone, computer, power tools etc. don't work without electricity, it was like having forced days out of work for us so we made the best of it by doing out-of-the-house errands. We secured pretty much all of the smoke pipe etc that we will need to hook up the big wood stove, and rounded up a few other home-improvement items like a new check valve for the well's pressure tank.
I haven't figured out exactly where to put the small wood stove, but I want to put it down here in my office/library area. It will be a bigger project than the big stove upstairs because for that one we are just tapping in to an existing chimney. The little one will need a whole new one.
I'll just add it to the list of pre-winter projects!
The complication for us was that the leaves are still on the trees and the weight of the snow was too much for many of them. There were a lot of downed limbs and trees, which in turn took out power and phone lines in the more outlying areas (like ours).
We were without power for a couple of days, but fared well. By not opening the fridge or freezer, we didn't lose any food. The house is pretty modern (by our standards, circa 1989, I'm used to drafty old Victorian houses) so there was minimal heat loss through the insulated walls and double-pane windows. After the second day, the temperature had dropped to 60 degrees upstairs, which is reasonable if you dress warm.
If we had the woodstoves hooked up, there would have been no real issues with being without power for a while. Since the phone, computer, power tools etc. don't work without electricity, it was like having forced days out of work for us so we made the best of it by doing out-of-the-house errands. We secured pretty much all of the smoke pipe etc that we will need to hook up the big wood stove, and rounded up a few other home-improvement items like a new check valve for the well's pressure tank.
I haven't figured out exactly where to put the small wood stove, but I want to put it down here in my office/library area. It will be a bigger project than the big stove upstairs because for that one we are just tapping in to an existing chimney. The little one will need a whole new one.
I'll just add it to the list of pre-winter projects!
posted by MVTCoPete | 3:40 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Pete, Wendy, and Caleigh,
Just wanted to drop a line to say that I enjoy reading about your life on the farm. I have book marked your page and check in when I have time. I was on pins and needed to see if the fracking would work. :-)
I grew up on a farm, too, but am now studying in a city and miss the daily surprises living in the country can bring.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know that someone out there appreciates your writing and your posts.
Glad you have weathered the storms well.
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