We Survived Winter Storm Fern

Well, we survived Winter Storm Fern, but just barely, it feels like!  Haha!  If I told you I still had little ice patches in my backyard two weeks later, would you believe me?  Because we do!  If I never see ice again, it will be FAR too soon!  It’s been an ordeal, but to be fair, there are still so many in our state without power and running water.  We have both, so I feel very blessed, and I continue to pray for those still in the trenches with this.

It all started for us on Saturday night.  By the time we went to bed, we had lots of freezing rain.  The wind was howling, and it was bitterly cold!  We even had thunder right before we woke up, and it was very eerie.  The kind that rattles the windows in the house, low and long.  I woke up at 6 AM to go to the bathroom, and that’s when we heard everything suddenly cut off.  We had lost our electricity.  I made it downstairs to find our backyard in shambles, tree limbs down everywhere, and the whole outside coated with thick ice. However, I had high hopes that the electric company would get us back on right away!  No poles were down, and I was convinced that we’d be back on in no time.  Well, no time ended up being two days later.

We stuck it out all day at home and into the evening, but by nightfall, it was super cold in our house.  My mama had lost electricity, but hers was restored that afternoon, so we packed up all of our necessities (including Jake!) and headed to my mama’s house.  I was so very thankful we had somewhere warm to go and stay, with lights and running water.  We came back home each day to check on things. The thermostat in our house read 46 degrees! My main concern was Beetle, my little black outside cat.  He will not stay inside our home (I have tried so many times), but he has a heated house on our patio, which didn’t do much good when the electricity went off.  We called and called for him.  We left food out twice a day (and something was eating it), but I spent a lot of time crying over that cat.  I just knew there was NO way he made it through this storm.  It was absolutely freezing, and the temperatures never rose above freezing for over a week!

It was early Tuesday morning when we got the text that power had been restored to our home, so hubby and I headed over to turn the heater back on and check on things again.  I was so thankful that we could return home.  Of course, I loved being with my mama, but I just had all of my creature comforts at home.  Around lunch time, it was finally warm enough to move everything back to our house.  And that night, as I was preparing supper, guess who showed up at the back door?  Beetle! I was startled and then SO relieved to see that little booger bear!  I bundled up and went outside to feed him and hold him.  Thank you, Lord, for protecting him!  I don’t know how he made it, but he did!

Hubby and I left the house on Wednesday and went to Walmart.  The food aisles were ransacked (mainly the food items you didn’t have to cook), but we were there to get other things, and mainly just to get out of the house.  Even days later, all of the roads still had a thick coating of ice.  I’m so thankful for hubby’s big truck!  And I am so thankful he was here, not out on the road, when this happened.  He took care of so much for us and so many others.  He made grocery store runs for some of my mama’s older friends, fed someone’s dogs, and helped some elderly neighbors clear tree limbs from their driveway.  Just this weekend, he cleared our yard of all the broken limbs.  He has been my hero!  We couldn’t have made it through this without him.

But Saturday, it hit 70 degrees!  I was so very thankful!  I spent last week putting my house back together and doing a full cleaning.  It has been nice to be able to wash clothes when I want to (and not have to wait until the temps go above freezing to risk the pipes) and not to have to leave my faucets dripping. I can finally walk out my front door without risking a fall on ice. It’s the little things!  This ice hung around for a LONG time.  Usually, it melts off in a day or two.  It hung around a full week before the roads were mostly safe.  Young Man’s school was cancelled all week.  All of the schools were.

This week is looking even better temperature-wise.  I am so ready for spring!  I pray this is the last we see of winter weather for a while!