Friday, June 10, 2022

I'm so thankful for electricity!

We had storms Wednesday night with tornado warnings.  Remember, we live in a trailer house.  I heard the warnings, and went on to bed as usual; we get a lot of warnings here in Missouri, and usually they come to nothing.  I woke up at 2 A.M. and heard Cliff's cell phone in the living room sounding off with a tornado warning.  After going to the bathroom, I went in and looked at his phone... sure enough, Wellington had a warning to go to a safe place.  I went back to bed just in time for the loudest blast of wind ever hitting our home.  My dog was so scared, he didn't know what to do or where to go.  I sat up in bed and forced him to join me, whereupon I recited the 23rd Psalm and then sang Jesus Loves Me; this was for the benefit of both of us, but me more than Gabe!  For fifteen minutes wind and rain beat on the house.  It was possibly the most frightened I've ever been in a storm.  The electricity went off during this time.

Then the wind quieted down, the rain stopped, and I thanked God no harm had come to us.

When I woke up Thursday morning I strolled around the property and found nothing worse than a lot of broken tree-limbs; when the grandson got home from work, he and Cliff took care of that mess.  We did lose one small tree in the yard, but that wasn't a big deal.  Oh, but since the wind came mostly out of the west, and my garden rows run north to south, all the corn, peas, and potato plants were practically laid on the ground, but not much real harm was done except that the two row of peas laid over and stayed there, all tangled up.  There are a few pods ready to pick, but you have to pick up the pea plant to see them.  And pea plants don't like to be handled much.  I may just call the peas a loss, pull them up, and plant corn there.  Peas are supposed to have a support for their vines to climb up on anyway, but Mother always planted Little Marvel peas, which don't grow as tall, and she never used supports.  Peas really aren't a big deal for me anyhow:  You can buy frozen peas in the store for a reasonable price, and they taste exactly like the garden peas I can grow.  The plants do benefit the soil though:  Peas and beans put nitrogen in the soil.  Thank goodness I have cages around the tomato plants; no harm was done to them at all, and every little green tomato is still in place.

Anyway.  We were without electricity all day on Thursday and were beginning to wonder if food in the freezer would ruin.  The Evergy team was out and about, but there were thousands of people without power in the Kansas City region, so those guys had plenty to do.  East of Wellington there were two broken utility poles, and in town there were hot wires on the ground.  It's no wonder we were without electricity until 5:30 P.M.

Now remember, we have a well as our water supply, and without power, the pump doesn't work.  So we can't flush, shower, or wash dishes.  We made do with bottled water to drink and make coffee (we have a gas cook stove, so at least we can cook).  We finally went to our daughter's house, two miles away, and got enough water to flush the stools, but shortly after that, the power was on.

You know, sometimes I think having to do without some things is good for us:  I now have a renewed appreciation of electricity every time I flip on a light switch or turn on a water faucet.  

This coming from a person who only had outside toilets and no running water in the house until I was 12 years old.  How quickly we forget! 

9 comments:

  1. I too am thankful for electricity, even when I have it. We're not set up these days to go without. (which is a little frightening) Glad you made it through the storm with minimal damage.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We learned from past storms to have 5-gallon pails of water stored so we can flush the toilet. Isn't it interesting how quiet the house is when the electricity is off? We tend not to notice the sounds the refrigerator makes until the power goes off.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We've never put any trellis in for our peas to climb. They just flop over and we lean them from side to side when we pick them. Hopefully we are close to getting some to pick before the heat of next week hits.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sorry about the peas but glad you didn't have structural damage. A power outage does make you appreciate the power of the light switch, sound of the fridge running and a toilet flushing. We had so many outages in Florida that I keep gallon jugs of water stored for the toilet. I had a well too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nothing like a reminder from Mother Nature that she's really in charge!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I heard about the tornadoes in your area, Donna! How scary! We take heart when our tornado sirens go off around here. I'm real surprised you folks don't have a storm cellar or something, on your property. And yes, the water issue when the power goes out is a royal pain in the keester. We have a generator that powers Mom's side and we had it connected to the water pump & sump pump too, when it was installed. We keep that baby maintained yearly as it's worth its weight in gold when we need it. I'm so glad you're alright! ~Andrea xoxo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The grandson is next door in the old two-story house we lived in for over 40 years, and it has a cellar under it. However, Cliff refuses to get out of bed and go, especially in a downpour of rain. In this case, because he's deaf without his hearing aids, he slept through it. I have decided if Cliff is going to die, I'll die with him.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous8:20 AM

    I agree, going without something really does make us appeciate it more. Glad you got your electricity back an no harm came two you and your family. Tornados are devastating. Love, ma

    ReplyDelete
  8. Glad you are safe. I used to not be scared but now I often am. Being alone makes a difference.

    ReplyDelete

I love comments!