This and That and OH NO

Hello friends and family,

               Here we go again with our latest update.  With winter arriving in Tennessee, things have surely slowed down as far as projects.  The weather has definitely been chillier and then we get bouts of rain.

               The first week after we last updated, we did not get a whole lot done.  Rick was extremely tired most of the week.  The day he felt good, it was raining.  He then battled with a stomach bug for a few days. 

               We did get our solar panels hooked up.  They were charging our batteries like a dream.  We were spending time to see which would work better for us hooked up in a series or parallel.  Please don’t ask me what that means.  I know the very basics.  We decided we were going to go back to series after the storm blew through. 

               Rick spent some time researching our diesel heater.  We kept having problems with it blowing black smoke and gunking up the system.  After watching several YouTube videos, we discovered the factory settings were all jacked up.  He spent a day cleaning it up again, changing seals, and adjusting the settings.  It is working like a dream now.  Thank you YouTube University.  You saved the day again. 

               One other project we got under way was cutting the facia boards and get them stained.  They look so pretty.  We were going to install them, but the weather did not cooperate.  So, they are safely stored in the conex until we have favorable conditions again. 

I tired my hand at butter swim biscuits. They were amazing. You need to try them. Rick mounted the crates on the wall around the door to store gloves, hats and such.

               Other prep work was taking place to get ready for the siding to go up.  We got the thimble in for our diesel heater.  The ledger boards are installed for when we put on the covered porch.  We just have to mark the area for the jchanel for the water heater.  That has to wait for now.  We had to transition into storm mode.

               We pride ourselves on being prepared for anything.  We have been stocking our freezer and our food shelves.  We keep plenty of gas and gasoline on hand.  We had been restocking the indoor kindling box and wood holder.  We filled a huge garbage can full of kindling.  It is covered to keep it dry and ready to go.  We made sure all of our bathroom buckets were empty.  We made a list of a few things we needed to pick up and topped off the gasoline, diesel and water.  It just amazes me the mentality that people have.  Walmart was a nightmare from what we understand.  No milk, no bread, no lunchmeat, no toilet paper and so on.  People were rude.  Driving like idiots.  Buying several carts of food and supplies.  They were panicking.  Slightly understandable, because the forecast kept changing.  Then again, I guess I was raised to put stuff away for the bad times.  I have even gotten wiser in my older years.  You have back ups and plans for everything, and you will not suffer near as bad.  I do know there are just some people out there that are barely getting by as is, so planning ahead is not feasible for them.

               Saturday arrived, the first day of the storm.  We woke up to snow on the ground.  We accumulated about an inch to and inch and a half.  Later in the day, it turned to misting. We had high hopes that this storm was not going to be what they predicted.  We went to bed thinking all was right in the world.  Sunday morning, I was abruptly woken up at 6:30 with a loud noise and the cabin shook.  Rick didn’t budge.  I woke him up and told him I thought something fell on the cabin.  We got on all of our gear, grabbed a flash light and headed out the door.  A tree was laying on our cabin.  It did not appear to cause any major damage.  It was raining ice outside and was very cold.  We headed back into the cabin and made some coffee.  Thus began our day from hell.  I don’t think I have ever been so scared, upset, sad and defeated in my life.  Ok, maybe one other time, but I am not going down that path. 

               Our day was full of loud pops and the loud crash of trees.  One by one we were watching our beautiful forest turn into a mess.  There was nothing we could do.  We just had to watch it all play out.  Our poor cats hid all day.  We would go outside with our umbrella to have a smoke, and we just sat there watching it all unfold.  Trees were uprooting.  Most were topped out.  We would watch a domino affect of trees falling.  My beautiful tree lined driveway was not carnage.  There is literally one tree still standing.  We were sitting and watched one tree fall onto our bathroom.  That is where are solar panels are located.  The first tree came down on our starlink.  We watched another tree fall, and it missed the ball of the camper by a few inches.  I literally cried.  We chose this place because of the forest.  We wanted the beauty, we wanted the wind break and we wanted the shade.  One by one it was all disappearing. 

               The ice continued for several hours more.  Everything was coated with so much ice.  Most of the trees we have left were leaning to one side.  We were beginning to think we were going to lose them all.  When the ice stopped, clean up began around our whole area.  Landstruck and their crews were out trying to clear roads.  There were neighbors that had the equipment out helping as well.  We told them we had all we needed, that we did not need to be a priority.  Our driveway was not accessible.  Our road was a hot mess. 

               We had some amazing neighbors that came down our road and get it cleared.  They stopped at our place.  The had a flat bed trailer truck with a winch.  They were cutting and pulling.  They cleared our driveway for us.  They came in and helped get some of the weight off our roof.  They also pulled over a tree that was endangering our cabin.  They were so awesome.  The finished clearing our road.   The stopped back by and grabbed up our emply gas can and diesel can and filled them in town when they went to get more fuel.  That gave us some hope that we will get through this.  We knew we would, but sometimes you just need a little positivity to get you out of the funk. 

               With all the trees gone, we can see a lot of other roads and other’s plots.  It was after dark one night, and we kept seeing vehicles driving down the road that goes behind our property.  It was lit up over there like a football field.  Then we heard it.  Life flight had flown in and landed.  We were so worried it was our friend.  Earlier in the day he said he was waiting on an ambulance, but never heard anything back.  We did get a confirmation from a friend the next morning that it was him.  It took rescue 5 hours of work to get him out.  He was in rough shape.  I am happy to say that he is out of the hospital now.  He had an infection and they caught it in time. 

               Clean up has been slow going.  We wait for it to warm up in the morning.  Go out and get trees cut up and put away.  Always being conscious of what is above us.  With all that ice still built up, a tree can snap at any time.  We also had uprooted trees that have not completely fallen over.  Oh, and plenty of widow makers just waiting to ruin your day.  Of course, the winds kept kicking up. We started getting quieter days of little to no snapping.  Then came the sun.  The ice started melting off the trees a couple days ago.  We had to then focus on working away from tree locations.  The clouds would come now and again and ruin the progress. 

               Yesterday was a great melting day.  Very dangerous to work anywhere near trees.  The ice was dropping like crazy.  We decided to take a trip into town, do laundry, top off tanks and pick up a few extras.  It was a very sad drive.  Seeing all the destruction.  Plus, we needed to take it slow on the roads until the main road.  Debris, ice and slush.  We got into town and took care of business, but we were fighting the sunset to get home.  Did not want to be driving in the dark.  When we did get home.  Most of the ice was off our trees.  Most of our trees are standing upright again.  That was a welcome sight.

               We were so fortunate, many people lost their home, vehicles, animals and pens.  We have most of our yard cleaned up now.  The two trees are still on the cabin.  The roof is covered with ice and is not safe to get up there and carefully remove the trees.  We did get our starlink uncovered and as you can see, we have internet.  We still do not know about the solar panels.  Pretty sure one is wrecked, hoping the other isn’t but, not counting on that.  We have one tree left to cut up over the herb gardens.  Then it is time to tackle the huge mess lining our drive way.  We will get there.  It just takes time. 

               As for the woods, we plan on clearing more of it so we never have to worry about any of our belongings again.  Not sure how much of a woods we will have left.  We suspect more will uproot after everything melts and saturates the ground.  We just have to focus on moving forward.  I got that little reminder today.  I have had bird feeders up since we moved here.  Never got any birds.  We would hear them. I put them out just before the storm.  With all the destruction, I wanted them to have something to eat.  We had birds at our feeder today.  It made my heart happy. 

               I know this blog was long.  Honestly could have been a lot longer.  I will let the pictures tell the story.  Thank you for taking time out of your day to read.  Be safe out there.  Be prepared.  Be kind and take care of one another.