Lost

Freezing rain, sleet, and icicles hanging from trees and rooftops were the norm for over a week. I may have aged an extra decade during that week...maybe not. Chilling or freezing are methods of preservation, Yeah that's better. Let's put a positive spin on wearing a hood and gloves with scarf wrapped around the face with four layers of clothing under my heaviest coat. Still I was cold...COLD! Somehow I do not feel younger...maybe a little naive (as opposed to just plain dumb). Living in the beautiful tree covered mountains with never waivering electricity, phone lines and clean running water, we were blissfully ignorant. Neighbors accumulated enormous stacks of firewood covered by awful blue tarps. Many have those ugly propane tanks located somewhere on the back of their property near their all-electric homes. About a cord of wood stacked neatly at the edge of the holler seemed totally adequate to us and we absolutely would not cover the natural beauty of the woodstack with a (shudder)plastic tarp. Then..ice covered trees dropped bombs of ice. Power lines were no match for the awesome weight as giant limbs and whole trees fell. Tuesday night we recalled descriptions of London air raid survivors from World War II. Constant popping and huge thunks followed whooshing just outside the windows in the total darkness. Suddenly those tales of woe came to life for us. Dry wood burns more easily in a fireplace and a cord of wood can disappear quickly when fueling the only source of warmth in a household. We survived but lessons have been learned. Alternate heat sources are being researched and downed wood is being cut and stacked for next year's use when it will be covered with a shiny tarp of any color to keep it dry. A battery powered radio is on the shopping list and we'll beef up the outdoor cooking utensils to better utilize the gas grill and fish fryer...just in case the propane powered generator(yep, we are shopping for that) cannot handle the necessary load. The sun is shining again on the mountain and these happy grasshoppers have now become worker ants preparing the mound for disaster.