Snowmageddon Week

 It took two days to plow the driveway open with my 4 foot blade attached to the DR 15 hp unit in order to get to Wildflower Lane where a neighbor with his tractor opened it up to the highway.   At this point there was not much to go to since the local towns had lost power too and most businesses were closed, including gas stations, restaurants, fast food joints, banks, ATM machines, etc.   The Shop Smart grocery store was open in Sutherlin where one had to shop with a flash light, write the price of the product on each item as the scanners did not work and no diary, meat or perishable products were available due to the loss of refrigeration and pay in cash only.

This all started the night of February 24th with the flickering of our lights.  In the 12 years we have lived here power outages only lasted 1 to 2 hours, so we thought everything would be up and going by morning.   The next morning we woke to no power, a cold house, six inches of heavy wet snow as it continued to fall and the sound of crack, snapple and pop of tree branches breaking from the weight of the heavy snow.  My first fear was how would I grind my morning coffee beans.  My old used $50 generator saved the day.   The wood stove was fired up and operated 24/7 until the power was restored at 8 pm March 4th putting a good dent in our dry wood supply.   It became our center of life in addition to cooking some of our meals and boiling water.  My old Coleman camp stove was also put to use on our back deck.   After talking to neighbors and friends on the cell phone we started to realize the extent of the damage.  Miles of power lines had been damaged or destroyed and many roads were closed from falling trees throughout southern Oregon.  It was declared a disaster area by the state and help was on the way by utility crews, tree service companies and loggers to clear trees from roads and restore power lines.   Another storm hit us on February 27th dumping another 6 inches of snow giving us a total of 16 to 20 inches.   Our manufactured home is only designed to take 25 pounds per square foot on the roof, so I starting to lose sleep thinking the unthinkable.  Two of our friends, Janice and Kasey came to our rescue and helped clear the snow off the roof, they also brought us a care package of Costco goodies.   Our utility company, Douglas Electric CoOp informed us it could be another two week before power was restored and my old generator was not doing the job.  A call to a friend in Oakland, landed us with a generator from a man living there and he let us borrow it.  

Safety was our first concern, one slip on the snow which would freeze during the night and would be over with it.  I did suffer burned finger tips when I slipped while refueling the DR and catching myself on the hot muffler.  The snow saved me from much pain throughout the day, and the tips of those finger on my left hand are like leather now.  

All this makes me think of how our ancestors survived in the "good old days" cooking on woods stoves, oil lanterns, candles, no stores to go to, etc.  The only features we did have to deal with was the outside outhouse in the dead of winter as our water supply did gravity flow into the house and would refill the toilet tanks.  

A word to the wise--Be Prepared!

Celia & Mike