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| we had TWO Maples that size... now we have ONE! |
I know that many people were terribly devastated by Hurricane Sandy (although since we do not have power yet I have seen NO TV and so I have only heard of the devastation... I know it's out there..) and by relaying our personal story I don't want to minimize the destruction Sandy brought onto many families... It's funny how when something like this happens your world becomes incredibly small! Although with Facebook, my family in Sweden was able to get news from us very quickly... thank you Facebook!
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| I know it's not safe.. but they were having so much fun! |
We knew what was coming and discussed back and forth, "should we board up our windows? or not?" (our entire South facing wall is windows!) We even drove ourselves down to Home Depot, only to decide when we got there - I think we can do without the boards... we had survived Irene and the fact that the winds were going to be coming from the East, we thought we had a better chance of making it.
In case you don't know our home - we are one mile from the beach in Rhode Island, on a hill, the first incline from the beach, so when the winds come from the beach we get hammered. Winds from the East, we are maybe okay... Nonchalant Mom (the store) is in our small town of Wakefield, RI - we just hoped for the best there, and moved everything away from the windows :)...
As Sandy made it's way through Rhode Island, we hunkered down just like everyone else and watched the weather channel and played UNO just to distract ourselves. I filled up the bathtub with water so that we could flush the toilet if the power went out (since we have a well, when the power goes out so does our water) and as many jugs of water as we had... The storm came on fast once it hit and by 2pm Monday we were getting blown away! By 3pm we had a large Maple tree in our front yard down and power was out at about 2:15...
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| chainsawing ALL day! |
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| except when we stopped for a lunch break of Swedish pea soup! |
Sandy blasted away at the house until about 7pm and then started to let up. Since there was hardly any rain we walked up to the neighbors (okay not so smart with trees falling everywhere.. but we did it) and had a glass of wine while we all stared out the window at the pounding wind coming across the lake. When a huge Oak tree in their front yard went down... we all got scared and went home. I think we were lucky that throughout the storm the temperatures were a balmy 65 degrees, those who had snow in the storm (Virginia) must have been devastated.
The next morning we woke up to trees down everywhere... and this large Maple tree down in our front yard. Our friends and neighbors came over and together we cleaned up the entire mess, it took ALL day.. but it felt great! and we got it DONE! and now we have enough wood to keep the house toasty warm all winter! Thanks to all of our fantastic neighbors who came together to help, it's amazing what we got done and had fun while we did it.
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| the boy's side of the fort |
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| the girls side of the fort (isn't it nicer! ha!) |
Power was restored to the store on Thursday, we are still waiting for our home to get back on the GRID. Meanwhile we have lots of candles, no showers, a mounting laundry pile, ice in the fridge keeping things cold, but keep up the smiles. With the leftover branches we made this makeshift fort for the kids... We haven't seen them since, they are too busy decorating their fort, or in the boys case - defending the fort from... well 'on-lookers' or photographers..??
It's been great for the kids to be 'unhooked' for some time now from the TV, they have also been doing a lot of work and going to sleep at 8pm.. (what ELSE is there to do!) just like farmers! It's a nice break and it's been so nice for US to be unhooked as well, although I am ready to get back!!
cross your finger that we have power tomorrow (or maybe not...)
good luck and our prayers are with everyone in New Jersey and other places hit by this devastating storm, and THANKS to all our friends for your help.. you know who you are! Especially that little 7 year old who comes to deliver wood each day on his John Deere! - yes we are a bit like farmers our here!
love - carina
