Post Pax

Live Oak thinned by the Ice Storm

It's been a week now since Winter Storm Pax graced us with it's presence down south. Remember, we had ice and freezing temperatures. And then today, the high is supposed to be 79 degrees F. It's 77 now and is a nice change, for sure. I love winter weather, as you know, but even I was ready for a little warm up.

Day one of the ice storm and just minutes after losing power, I was actually having a good time. I jotted these notes down so that I could remember them later, when posting about it. But now, I've decided to just give you a few bulleted points. I'm so over this storm.

ice in trees

pine limbs breaking all around

freezing rain

Cliff went to work

home alone

power went off about 11:30 a.m.

phone battery low

put on car charger

started a fire in fireplace

hungry, want something hot....it figures

heat dumplings in fireplace

lunch ready soon

I'm having a ball

Pioneer Woman

We were without power for six days. Yes, we lost everything from the fridge. It took me a few hours to chunk everything and then wash the fridge/freezer from top to bottom. I put a spit shine on that thing like you wouldn't believe. My yard still needs a little work. With this gorgeous weather, clean up will be a breeze. Mama is still without power. Hopefully, it will be restored this week. We still have a large pile of debris to remove from her yard. And we're already getting quotes to repair her roof.

So much going on!

The carpet installers were just getting started good when the ice storm hit, and now that our power is back on they are back and hopefully finishing installation today. I'm so ready for that to be over, too. Although I am happy about getting new carpet in the bedrooms, having people in my home making a mess, causes me stress. I like things neat and tidy and organized. I'll be spending the next couple of days putting things back like they were, I'm sure.

I'm done with this story. It's time to move on.

What's new on the horizon? Well, let me just tell you. We will be adding on an exercise room. I'm so excited. We met with the contractor yesterday. Yay! This time, I won't have to deal with them in my house so much.....until they bust through the wall to make an opening from the family room to the exercise room. I better stock up on Advil for that one. We are planning to use the same contractor that did our kitchen remodel, so there should be some good stories to come out of that. They're a hoot.

I see Spring quickly approaching around here. Soon, it will be time to start a garden and pull out the lawn mower. Good days ahead for sure.

Does this post feel disjointed to you or like I'm rambling? Oh well, I'll shape up before the next one (no pun intended)....it's an exercise post. Ha! And....and.....my spell-checker has gone MIA. I hope you don't find any misspelled words. I hate that! Just be forewarned, ok.

And in case you were wondering:
I ran my first 9 mile trail run Saturday. I'll have that post ready soon.

Until then,

Laurie

Be Careful What You Wish For

The Oak outside my kitchen window. The limbs,

heavy with ice, are dragging the ground. This was early in the ice storm.

 

I know, I know....I was wishing for more winter weather in the form of snow and 20 degree temps, but not ice and not power outages and tree limbs down and messes to clean. For crying out loud, not that!!

Winter Storm Pax..........akin to a hurricane in that we were left with downed limbs over power lines, through roofs, on roofs, around the yard, across roads.....we were left with no power and no water. And like any disaster, we also experienced neighbors, friends and family checking on and helping each other, sharing food if they saw a need. Or offers of a hot shower (if they were lucky enough to have power and water) and some help in cleaning up the debris.

A few differences....it's cold (a wet cold, the worst kind) instead of 150 degrees Fahrenheit with 100% humidity. We do have ways of staying warm, though - be it a fireplace, lots of blankets, space heaters that use kerosene (dangerous by the way) or warming centers set up at the elementary school. We don't have to worry so much about the food going bad since it's in the 30's outside, unless the outages linger. And we won't have to deal with the gargantuan mosquitos the size of helicopters that arrive a few days after a hurricane.

We have a mess to clean up. I had a beautiful oak tree just outside my kitchen window that is now riddled. It had many huge limbs to break off, one of which landed on my roof. There was minor damage. Mama, however, was not so lucky. She had a pine limb about the size of a half dollar come completely through her roof into one of the bedrooms. She's fine...a little upset that she had to leave her home. But with all those pines around her home, it was way too dangerous to let her stay there. She is at my sister's home and a good thing too because she along with everyone else in our town not only lost power and water, but her phone service.

Here, I will leave you with a few of the pictures I took from inside the house looking out. I wouldn't dare go outside to take them for fear of being impaled by a flying pine or oak limb. We will be busy cleaning up for the next few days. Hope everyone affected will be safe and warm and that their electricity will be restored soon. I will post more about Winter Storm Pax, I'm sure. It's a rare occasion for us. The story needs to be told.

***These photos were taken with my cell phone, so the quality is not the best.

More of the Oak.

Still more......

The beauty of this in real life is far better than this photo shows...

Broken limb from the Oak ....

Another view, and very minor damage.

Seed pods on a crepe myrtle.

The quality is lacking here as I had to zoom way in to get this Cardinal.

 

Just so pretty.

And pretty still.

 

 

So, I guess the next time I go wishing for more winter weather....I'll need to be more specific. Ice is pretty, but so dangerous. We are not equipped in the south for this type weather, really I don't know who could be. Snow is one thing, which for us can be crippling. But ice, that's a whole other ballgame.

 

More later,

Laurie

Winter Storm Leon

(If you're visiting from the GYBP, you might want to start here.)

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February 2010



You remember this photo from our snow storm in 2010.....This is what I was looking forward to last week from Winter Storm Leon. Everyone in South Carolina was ecstatic. We watched the Weather Channel like it was our job. The storm would start with freezing rain or sleet and turn into snow.  There were warnings of power outages, if the ice got really bad. The Weather Channel was giving us a STORM:COM of 7. They were telling us that it was going to be significant. We could possibly get 3-5 inches. For Heaven's sake Jim Cantore came to Charleston. And we all know what that means......he goes where the weather is going to be the worst. So, we set about making preparations.

Prep 1: Heat. In the event we would be without power, I needed my fireplace in good working order. I had already summoned up Mr. Tanner the Chimney Sweep to come out that Tuesday to give the fireplace a clean bill of health. Well, as luck would have it, that's when the ice was supposed to start. So, I thought Mr. Tanner would probably want to reschedule so as not to be stuck on the roads in the slick stuff. And, He Did Not! God love him, he came anyway. I was so happy. That meant I could have a fire that night, in case we lost power. Heck yeah!

Prep 2: Water. I live in the country and we have a water pump. Because our water pump operates with electricity, if we lose electricity, we lose water. Get it? Ok.....so our preparations are that we run the tub full of water in order to flush toilets (we do the same for hurricanes).  For drinking, we either buy it or store it in empty milk jugs. I did both. Milk jugs are plentiful around here. Mama saves milk jugs like nobody's business. She is the epitome of preparations, y'all!

Prep 3: Food. I didn't really need anything...I had just been grocery shopping a few days earlier. But, Cliff felt like we needed extra cans of dog food for Spooky. So off to the grocery store I go. After arriving, the parking lot was full. Everybody and his brother was stocking up at the last minute. I did not feel panicked like some...after all I was just there for dog food. So I got one of those small buggies and head for the dog food aisle. I passed the bread aisle and it was wiped out. Don't know what the milk inventory looked like, but if it was anything like the bread.....there were going to be some people in a world of hurt. Why is it that, in times like these, milk is so important? I loaded up on can dog food and headed for the register. Well, you would have thought I was slightly retarded from the looks I got. They looked at the dog food and then looked at me and back at the dog food. HaHa!  Here they are frantically looking for bread and milk and all I have is can dog food. I can only imagine was was running through their minds.

Preparations were done and now I was ready to hunker down and ride out Winter Storm Leon. I waited all afternoon. Finally, we started getting some sleet late in the evening and I got excited. Cliff built a fire and I sat there in front of it and knitted for what seemed like hours. I kept getting up to check the sleet hoping it had turned to snow. It just wasn't happening that fast. I went to bed with hopes and dreams of seeing drifts of snow in the morning. I rose early the next day, fixed my coffee and headed to the windows to check for our winter wonderland.......and this is what we got.......

January 2014

Gah, I was never so dissapointed! I wanted to jack slap Jim Cantore. Oh well, nothing left to do but get out in it. Can't let an opportunity like this go to waste. So, I woke Cliff up and we decided to ride around town to see how pretty it looked with a dusting of snow and a little ice. I guess the roads were a little worse, they did have ice on them until traffic picked up and then they cleared up quickly. I had my camera at the ready mark, but who can get a good picture when Cliff hits the breaks every two minutes to see if his Jeep will slide on the ice. Lord! Even so, a little more exploration was needed on my part. So, Cliff took me to the Francis Marion National Forest....the place where he hunts and the following photos are what we saw. I would have to say, ice can be pretty in a whole different way. I enjoyed our little adventure. And now, I'm ready for some more. Come on Mother Nature, cooperate...please!

Johnson's Swamp...just down the road from our house.

Black River

The Hell Hole Swamp area in the Francis Marion National Forest.

Ice coated Pine needles.

Ice covered Holly leaves.

An old gas station near the Francis Marion National Forest. Notice the ice hanging from the tin roof.

 Day 2 of Winter Storm Leon: Icicles hanging from my roof.

I am very appreciative that no one lost power. Ice events are nothing to sneeze at. It could have been really bad. The ice stayed around a couple of days because the temps didn't rise out of the twenties. And now, it's just a distant memory. I sure do love winter weather. And I hope, we get to experience a little more before spring pops in. For all of you that are sick and tired of your snow and cold weather, I'm so sorry. Time does march on and it will be hot, sweltering and humid before we know it. For now, let's enjoy what Mother Nature has gifted us with.

Talk soon,

Laurie

Waiting For The Fun To Begin

February 2010

I'm just sitting here waiting for the fun to begin. Certainly not looking forward to ice, but HOPE this is what it's going to look like tomorrow. This was my house in February 2010.  We rarely get snow events like this in the south, so when we do.....watch out. Some kind of adventure is bound to happen.

And.... far be it from me to hold out on an adventure story gone wild....so while we patiently wait for the white stuff, thought you might like to read about a sledding adventure I had at Sista's in the upstate about this same time last year. You can read all about it by clicking here.

Oh wait, in case you were wondering about the workout at the gym yesterday......I survived without nearly a barf.

Let it snow,

Laurie