Thursday, March 24 Day Four
31 outside/ 61 inside Dark, gloomy, drizzly/slush/snow falling. We got another dusting of snow, 1 – 1 1/2 inches. First on the agenda, refill containers with snow. While replacing snow packed containers in the freezer I see dark red on the floor of the freezer. NO!! I start removing the meat, it’s solid, the puddle color looks odd. It’s blackberry juice. The freezer baggie of hand picked blackberries leaked. Items with a lot of sugar are harder to freeze. I take everything out of the freezer, clean, reorganize, repack. I bake 2 small cobblers and bread. We can pour the vanilla ice cream on the cobbler!
Before the storms the birds had been gathering nesting material. The neighborhood ravens made many passes over the house with twigs in their beaks. Towhees had been gathering dried grasses from our yard. I wonder how their nests survived the raging rain storms and heavy snow fall. Dave walked down the street to assess the damage in that direction. On the lot next to us a mature cedar fell one way onto the lines, taking out a mature oak as well. Falling away from the cedar, also onto the lines was a mature Ponderosa pine. I have wondered if the wind and saturated ground brought them down since our power went out before the snow load.
2 pm. Finally 63 degrees/36 outside. The house didn’t want to heat today. Dave read crossword puzzle clues out loud as I knitted. I finished knitting the vest sections. There was rain and sleet most of the day. A package arrived from our older daughter. It was strange to have a delivery in the midst’s of roughing it.
4:20 pm POWER!!! I waited a bit to plug everything back in just incase it was a false start. I changed the bathroom towels, sheets and decided to quickly shower. I was so paranoid about loosing power during my shower that I freaked when the lights dimmed. I quickly rinsed, grabbed my towel and started drying off. A sound wasn’t right. My hair sounded like plastic. In my panic I had forgotten to rinse my hair. The lights had dimmed from the bathroom heater coming on. I felt very silly, but at least I felt like a human again.
Morning, day 4, another inch of snow.
Friday, Midnight March 25 Power OFF DAY Five
29 degrees outside/ 62 inside We woke to another inch of fresh snow and SUNSHINE and a clear day!!!. We refreshed the snow in the fridge even though it had a chance to run for about 8 hours. I unplugged everything again. It was so pretty outside that I had to go walk around. I found cougar tracks that came down the driveway, skirted the deck and fence, then continued up the hill . I hope it leaves the dogs alone. The electricity returned at 11 am but went off again at 1pm. On again at 2:45, off again at 3:20. During the day I stitched the vest pieces together and sewed on pockets, ate and took care of the animals as usual. At one point Dave came in and turned on the light. I had no idea we had power. I was getting used to the quiet and simple life. It was a gorgeous day until early afternoon, then hail and sleet began. I tried checking emails but when the electricity would go off in the middle of composing a return email, I finally gave up. I napped from 4:30 – 6, then locked the chickens up. They were happy to have sun and exposed grass again. We finally had electricity late in the day. Our camping trip was over. Thank you PG&E for your excellent service!
My boot tracks, cougar tracks and the budding willow.
Morning, day 5, another inch of snow.
Yay! Sunshine.
The poor splayed willow at the top of the drive. Somewhere in there is/was the Manzanita.
