well, I wrote that stuff on Monday, and had to wait till we got landlines back to post it.
I am sorry to have left y'all hangin, I have just been kinda lazy. The kids were supposed to go back to school on Wend. BUT, they called and cancled it again. saying they had too many staff still out of town, and couldnt get in food. They would come back on Monday. oh joy.
Tuesday we had to have gas. We loaded the drum and into town we went. 200.00 later we were safe for a few more days. We didnt have to stay in line long. And luckily we got a store that was not rationing it. Once we got home and unloaded the drum we went over to the old folks road and cut a hickory tree. It was leaning over the road and was low enough I could barely get my truck under it, we were worried it would fall. Plus it makes great BBQ wood. BR went down on the tractor and I went in the truck. It was a cool day so I parked on the lane to my grandfathers, left the kids in the truck with the windows down and a movie going (remember, we live in the COUNTRY. PLUS, this is down a dirt road, you turn OFF the dirt road to go to my grandfathers, or come strait and hit us cutting up the tree. AND noone could get in with out me seeing them.)
I unloaded the loggin chain cause BR had left it in my truck and toted it down the lane. That sucker is HEAVY. BR cut the tree and it fell smack into the road, liek we knew it would. BUT the end of it fell BEHIND a stump, so he got on the tractor and tried to pull it. Instead he tore up the road. So he is trying to decide where to cut it and I see a HUGE line truck coming down the lane. THis is literly a ONE car lane. Tree's and drop offs and no room to pull over. I have had to back smooth out of this sucker MORE than one time cause I met someone going in or coming out. I ran down to talk to them. The guy asked me "what in the world have y'all screwed up now?" I just laughed and told him that we were cutting it up and skidding it out so it didnt fall. Plus they couldnt have went under it. He asked if any poles were broken down past it, I told him no. we talked for a few minutes and he told me that they would have our lights back on that night or the next day.
I just looked at him like he was crazy. I couldnt belive it would be that soon. and told him so. I also thanked him, told them how much we appriciated them and that I was impressed. He couldnt belive I wasnt mad.
Seriously. I went over a month during Rita with out electric. less than a week is... amazing.
BR skidded the tree out and we commenced to cutting it up. Less than 2 hours and we had the trailer loaded down, all the branches piled up and were ready to go. The kids helped ALOT. I was impressed. I did get to play on the tractor some. Of course I also had to be the one throwin the chain when ever he needed it picked up by the bucket. I did have a owie moment. I had just unwrapped the chain and he was lifting the bucket, he turned it a little, and the chain came sliding out of the bucket and the hook hit me right on top of my foot followed by 20 feet of chain. I dont know how it didnt break it. That sucker still hurts 3 days later.
In the meantime my grandfathers generator quit. BR said we would bring ours over there in the morning and hook up his freezers, and we would trade out until he could get it fixed. I could handle that. As long as I got it at night to watch TV. Our other one was still at my inlaws.
Once we got it all loaded we had to come home and get cleaned up. Our water hadnt went out this time. but there still was NO hot water. BR took a shower first. Then I got in. I told him before I ever got in to just ignore me. From the second I steped under the water until I was finaly able to get all the soap off me I screamed, I cussed, I hollered, I cried. The kids actually came running into the bathroom to make sure I was okay. Then they all laughed.
You cant wash soap out of your hair with ice cold water. I promise.
It was still daylight and the kids have not spent a single minute inside since all this started. They went out and disapeared into the woods. We went out and got supper started. A little while later BR came in and asked me if I knew where my kids were. I said I didnt. He said they were out and had found the french mulberrys. They had painted themselves and each other with them. They were SOOO not going to like the cold shower..
And they didnt. We told them and told them. But they wouldnt listen.
They cried, they whined, they kept jumping out and still were stained red. I'd just make them get right back in.
Once it got dark we decided to watch a little TV. We were already waisting gas in the generator. May as well enjoy a creature comfort or two. So we watched the news. Nothing about Ike. a few side notes, but the local channels were off and he was already out of the national spotlight. I couldnt get online yet and so we were still in the dark about alot of things. We decided to switch over to a show we watch. The kids were still sleeping here in the living room and it was around midnight. It was nice and cool outside (THANK GOD!) and we got about 1/2 way through the show and the generator quit. It wasnt out of gas, so we went out. We fought with it, we drained it, the gas had water in it. It had fouled out the spark plug. BR cleaned it up the best he could, it took for freakin ever to drain 5 gallons of gas out of it. Then we filled it up and tried again. After 2 hours of sitting outside with a flashlight and trying to fix the dang thing we gave up.
Its VERY hard for us to sleep with no noise. no fan, no fish tank bubbles, no TV. nothing. around 3:30 we finally fell asleep. I had set my phone alarm for 7. My grandfather was going to town and I wanted him to pick up a spark plug. I stumbled out of bed, came in and picked up the phone to call him. I asked him to pick me up a spark plug. HE said he would and we talked for a few minutes. My uncle had let him borrow his generator since they had already gotten lights back, so he wouldnt need ours. Then it dawned on us, we were talking on the land line! I didnt even realize I was on it. I was still in a stupor from no sleep.
The kids woke up and there was no going back to sleep. BR was able to sleep for a few more hours. My grandfather showed up at 10 with a new spark plug. and BR went out to try and fix the generator. His hand was literly with out feeling. I bet he pulled that cord at least 300 times the night before. He couldnt even make a fist.
It started right off. I called and spoke to my sister in law, she wanted to have a "we survived the hurricane' party. Just hamburgers and such, and since BR still couldnt work he was going to cook them.
about 2 hours later the generator went back off again. BR went out and worked on it. The new spark plug was all fouled up. he cleaned it, and tried to get it restarted. he redrained all the gas. 5 more gallons wasted. well not totaly. I found a fire ant pile and relished in the fact that they would die. It was just NOT going to work. at all. I called my sister in law ad asked her to pick me up a few more spark plugs. The gas was good. We had gotten rid of all the bad gas. We just couldnt fiqure out what was wrong. mechanics we AINT.
I was out and was helping BR tear apart the carburator, trying to find SOME reason for it to not work. The kids were in the house watching Bow and playing. Then Brett came runing around the side of the house. He was screaming that the lights were on. BR and I just looked at each other funny. Then we told him to make sure everything was unplugged and we went back to working on the generator. Lights this soon was way too good to be true and we needed the back up. After another hour we gave up. the lights hadnt flickered and we needed a break.
I called Suzie and told her that we had lights. She switched to us having beef tips, gravey, rice and biscuts. Cause we could actually cook on a stove. BR told her he still wanted those spark plugs, we didnt trust something that was too good to be true. And he was NOT going to let that engine whoop him.
I started laundry, and gathered up everything to make biscuts. And did more laundry, and MORE.
My mother in law called me when she got home. She said that she had just had the scare of her life. I asked what happened. She said that she went in to use the bathroom and heard water running. At first she didnt realize what it was (they are on a well, and hadnt had water since the lights went out), then it dawned on her. And she jumped up, ran outside and saw the porch light was on. She couldnt belive it! She had been home for an hour.
We went over to my mother in laws and all the daughter in laws started cooking.
We had a good night. The kids played outside and Rayley convinced her uncle Luke to catch one of the old nags so she could ride her. She came in and asked if she could ride Blondie and we sent her to find her uncle Luke. He came in and she asked him if she could ride. he told her "I cant catch that horse, she will think I want to ride her and run" Rayley told him "silly, I could show you how you do it. You hid the lead rope behind your back and dont let her know you are going to ride her." He told her that that old horse was smarter than that. She said "well, I reckon she aint" and he asked just what made her think that. He had known that horse for longer than she had been alive and that she was a smart old horse.
Rayley said "well, I dont know who is dumber, you or the horse, but Matt is standing in the pasture right now holding her waitin on me to get you to get me up on her. I bet he's been there for 10 minutes"
Sure enough, There stood Matt, holding the horse. Luke took her out to ride. 99% of the time you really dont catch these horses. Luckily they aint mean. Just lazy. They dont want to be ridden!
while we were there my MIL cleaned out the fridge in the kitchen and then started putting all the food back in it. They had stoped trying to run 2 fridges and a freezer, plus fans, TV's and other essentials, so they were trasnfering food back to the inside fridge. Every time I opened it I would say it wasnt cooling. But kept being told it would take a while. Then about 4 hours later I went to the other one and got out a coke. They were hot. Since theyhad been cold when I put them in there I commented on it. It dawned on my sister in law that noone had plugged it back in.
We visited for a few hours and then came home. The kids fell into bed, I didnt even try to get them to take a bath. It was just too late.
The next morning they got up and went strait outside. back to playing. I set about cleaning the house, doing more laundry and trying to pick up all the extension cords. Putting the surge protectors back where they came from and returning all the phone calls that I had on my voice mail.
BR was able to go back to work, and although he didnt pull but one load it was at least some money to go on the paycheck.
Once they came back in I told Rayley to go and take a bath. She looked at me crazy. then she said "is there hot water yet?" I told her yes, and she gladly went and got clean. The boys too.
I havent went to town again, so I dont know if its slowed down up there much at all. the day we went I couldnt belive how awful it was. Everyone was scrambiling to get what supplies they still needed to live, grocery stores were trying to keep things on the shelves, only staying open for short periods, and gas stations were awful.
Things here at home are getting back to normal. They cut the hay yesterday, I will have to go and load it tomorrow or the next day, I am starting to see the bottom of the laundry room floor, or I was until the kids had to clean their rooms, and I cooked a roast today.
The generator is still sitting otu there needing fixed. BR has already forgotten about it. I think in a few weeks (praying we dont get another hurricane) I will take it into the shop and get it fixed. I am starting to run low on supplies so I will have to go in and get groceries soon. we are down to 2 cases of water. ANd the freezer is getting low.
The kids have eaten me out of house and home. Not to mention, all this 'at home' time is eating into my 'school year quiet time'. I rely on the 5 days a week that I am down to 2 kids to keep my sanity. BR is back to work. partly. there is still problems hauling oil. he isnt working as long of hours, and is home alot more. home and awake.
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