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!