Saturday, December 28, 2013

The Ice Storm Part 3: {Return}

Though the sunset was certainly peaceful and beautiful that Tuesday evening as soon as it slipped behind the horizon, the temperature plummeted.
By 9:00, when the guys went out to re-fill the generator for the night, it was a "roasting" negative 2 degrees!  It snowed throughout the night, and when we woke in the morning there was a lovely layer of snow on top of the ice.  

Thankfully it warmed up during the day, and that afternoon we were able to go on a delightful (if somewhat acrobatic) hike.  But more on that later....  The evening went as it had for the past few days, and we were just sitting down to dinner (planning to check on the generator right after) when we received THE call......

The Power had....

Returned!!!


We were very grateful to the mercies of God for the safety we enjoyed during our three and a half day power outage, and for the beauty he created.

~Chs

The Ice Storm Part 2: {Company}

 After the power officially was out, we ran upstairs to start our generator, and then finished our time of worship together.  Later that day we received a call from Grace.  They (Grace, Tim and Julian) too were out of power, and unlike us didn't have a generator, so it was getting rather cold and dark in their house.  We quickly offered that if they wanted to they could come over and spend the night, since we at least were able to have hot water and run the furnace. We were thrilled when they agreed, and that evening we had company.
Grace brought along Shine, a very sweet Golden Retriever, with her, and Shine instantly fit in, looking for people to pet her and a warm place to sleep. :)

Julian was thrilled to be able to stay at "the farm" but unfortunately his favorite person, "Uncle Dewey" (Josiah) had to go to work on Monday.  So Julian hung around with me for the morning while we waited for Uncle Dewey to get home.  We played with Magnets, making all sorts of neat wheels and pyramids.

Then we got out the Dominoes and had fun making shapes with them for a while.  Soon after lunch Josiah returned and he and Julian had fun all afternoon building, playing and creating stuff.

Sadie Rose came in to say Hi! and at first she wasn't so sure about the visitor, but after a little bit, she and Shine became rather good, if slightly nervous, friends!

That evening after supper we called Mr. Reiche and went over to introduce Julian to the famous sled run!

Mr. Reiche had put all his lights on, and they were even more beautiful than usual with a layer of icicles and snow on all of them, giving them a beautiful glow.

Julian went down first on Uncle Dewey's back, and then repeated the experiment with his Daddy, enjoying it immensely.

Even Grace was persuaded to take a run down with Tim. (I think they screamed more than Julian... :D )

After quite a few runs down with the sleds we headed out back for the zip line, and had a blast pulling people up, and riding down.

Julian even went down backwards twice with Uncle Dewey!

We headed home, worn out, but happy, after a fun as always time at Mr. Reiche's sled run.  Our second day (first full day) without power ended.

Tuesday dawned, and we were still powerless.  But it really didn't bother us too much.  Julian was happy he got to stay longer, and due to the wonderful gift of a large generator and house hook up, we could pretty much do anything we wanted, in reason. (Mr. Generator would give us the fits each time we turned on the stove, or oven, and the time we dared to try to do both.... well he got so mad he blew the fuse!!) 
Grace and Tim had to head off for work back in Swartz Creek and to check on their house, and I was gone in the morning at the barn I work at, but back on the farm, Uncle Dewey and Julian were busy creating.

On Monday when Julian and I were playing with the Dominoes, Charity had found some videos of some pretty awesome domino creations.  Josiah of course was not to be out done, so he helped Julian create one of his own!!

That afternoon the sun began to phase in and out, and I ran outside each time it peeked to try to catch the glimmers and sparkles on the ice covered branches.  I failed.

But the sky was blue above, and the temperature just a tad warmer than it had been.  In all, it was a lovely day!

Later on, Grace called letting us know that they had power back at their house, and would be back soon to pick up Julian, pack up and head back.  Julian had to get at least one more Lego Soccer game in with "Uncle Dewey" before they left.

It was a blast having company for a couple days, and hopefully it won't always take a power out to get them to come again. :P

The day ended calm, sublime, and peaceful, with a dazzling sunset, and we headed off to bed.... still to the hum of our faithful generator.

~Chs