Winter forms our character and brings out our best. ~Tim Allen
We’re having what the weather forecasters like to call a winter weather advisory day with freezing rain falling out there. Ice is not nice when it falls like this and coats trees and power lines. We do love our electricity to keep humming into our houses and that takes those power lines. We haven’t had an ice storm for a while. The last bad one here in Kentucky was in 2009. It was extra bad for me that year because that was when my mother was starting down the dementia road. She was still okay in her own house at that time, but when she lost power there and didn’t have any way to keep warm, she had to come stay with me for a few days. That made her very out of place and worried. We lost power too but we had a woodstove back then and so could not only keep warm but could cook a pot of soup beans and have hot water for tea.
People compared stories then about huddling together under blankets to keep warm when their furnaces stopped working. Even if they had gas furnaces, the electric fans that circulated the heat didn’t work.
A worse ice storm in 2003 knocked out electricity for us for over a week. Again, we did have the woodstove but it’s amazing how many things you think about doing that you can’t do without electricity. By then, I was writing all my books on my computer. No power. No computer. We did still have the landline telephone so we didn’t have to worry about power for that and the water pipes didn’t freeze so we had water. Not hot water, but water. We had flashlights and candles and during the day, light to read by. Books don’t take power other than your eye power and hand power to turn the pages. So it was a great time to catch up on reading. For sure, we weren’t watching television. Of course, pens and pencils still worked too. I could have gotten some words written that way. I’m sure I tried.
Even though ice storms are dangerous and not to be wished on anyone, ice can be beautiful too. The pictures I’m sharing were from 2015 so not during an ice storm, but a time when we had a little ice to decorate the cliffsides. I was expecting the icicles along the cliff, but I was surprised by the ice formations on the trees branches and weeds that looked something like ice birds. I was thrilled to have the chance to see the ice and to take pictures. And no, I didn’t slide down the hill although I’m sure I might have slipped a few times trying to get the best pictures.
One more picture. What do you think this one looks like?
I’m hoping this ice storm we’re having won’t be as bad as those two I remember.
Do you remember any ice storms? If you lost power, what did you do until the electricity came back on?
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I remember one year we had a huge snow storm that started just after my husband left for work. By the time he left work the snow on our road
was so deep he couldn’t get up a hill about a mile from home. He finally tried backing up the hill and it worked.
Like you we had a wood stove and had heat but our pump was electric.
I had buckets of water and we had gallon glass jugs we used for milk before my Dad sold his cows. Mother
had shared some of those and I used tea pitchers so we had plenty water.
But we learned about bird baths too.
My husband learned one of our neighbors had been put in a hospital bed and with no electricity had no way to operate his bed. He borrowed a gas generator and took it to him and kept it filled with gas until they got electricity back.
We have gas logs now and about six inches of ice and snow on the ground.
God has blessed us so far this time we still have electricity. I do have
water saved just in case
. God also knew this year I didn’t have that strong, resourceful husband to help me. We lost him last June, but I
Thank Our Lord every day for having
Him for fifty three years. Our sons and I were truly blessed with a REAL MAN who took care of us and everyone he could. At his funeral one grandson said,” if you knew my Papa you knew a friend.”
me since we lost him last June.
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Oh, Gail, I’m so sorry for the loss of your husband. He sounds like a wonderful man. I have tears from reading what your grandson said about him. What a wonderful legacy to leave behind for you and your children and grandchildren.
Sounds as if you both knew how to deal with a winter storm and how to help your neighbors in need. Thank you for sharing about your husband. It’s so good to know about good men like him.
One year we had thick ice form in our surrounding area were we live not far from Dallas, TX. Our daughter had a terrible ear infection and we needed to take her to see the ENT. That was quite a trip getting there by car. I am thankful that we were able to get there safely and that our daughter recovered from her ear infection.
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Ice is the worst if you really have to get out and go somewhere the way you did, Linda. It’s not even so good when you can huddle up and stay at home. Sometimes you don’t have heat if the electricity goes out. Texas got snow this week and we are in the forecast for snow or ice today. Praying we stick with the snow. I think we’d all benefit with a little sunshine right now. 🙂
As a Kentucky girl the Ice Storm of 2009 stands out the most to me. As we spent almost three weeks without power. But we had a back up power source that at least gave us heat and kept our fridge and freezer going. And a dad who used his grill to cook breakfast and dinner.
I also remember the blizzard of 1994 in Louisville we got 22 inches of snow, however those memories are those of a child who got to miss a week of school and play in the snow with her dog. While my dad’s National Guard unit was helping with state of emergency and my mom was staying at the nursing home she worked at. I got a weeklong sleepover with the grandparents.
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Three weeks without electricity would not be fun, Carissa. We went a little over a week back in 2003, I think. But we did have that woodstove then so we did okay. I went out that year and broke ice off the bushes to put in garbage bags and then put it in my freezer and we didn’t lose all our frozen food.
It’s funny how our age and what we’re doing makes such different memories. Your weeklong stay with your grandparents and fun in the snow made much different memories for you than your parents out there on the frontlines. I’m sure my kids remembering the hard winters in the Seventies have fun memories of no school and snow too.
Your pictures look quite like it could be Arkansas. Pretty, too. We are having an ice storm now, a little more gets added each day. Haven’t lost power yet.
2009 we had a bad ice storm, I was in town working and my hubby was here at home (about 1 1/2hours away). He had filled up the jacuzzi bathtub and was using that water to flush toilets. He put the pellet stove on a battery, so was able to stay warm. He had a small generator he used for cooking and was able to watch dvds in the evenings.
I had a place where I did house sitting in town, power lines were down everywhere. At work, there were many generators going and power cords stretched out everywhere. I did bird baths in the bathroom sink and a coworker let me come over to her house to take a shower, charge my cell phone and laptop. Power was off in town for a week and at home for 2 weeks. I was stranded in town and hubby was stranded at home. I worked at the post office and we’d come in and do as much work as we could and leave to deliver as much mail as we could and bring the rest back and stack it out in front of each route. I was rural and there were 24 routes. So, a ton of mail.
We have an even larger, nicer generator now, we are both retired, so it’s quiet at home. We do like the prettiness of the ice but don’t like to have to drive in it.
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Thanks for sharing your experiences in the 2009 ice storm. I hope the one you’re having now and the one we’re having too won’t be that bad, but they say more bad weather is headed our way and the ice on the trees is still hanging heavy.
I smiled at your term bird bath. Took me a minute to know what you meant as I imagined you giving birds baths in the sink. LOL. We always called it sponge baths, I guess. But we do miss our electricity to keep all our devices running and our homes humming along. It was interesting about your mail routes too. I’m guessing it took you a while to catch up with all that extra mail stacking up.
Good that you can now hunker down, stay warm and safe when the bad weather comes. A definite advantage to well earned retirement.
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I guess each area of the country has their unique weather problems, Suzanne. Here it’s ice or lots of snow and the occasional tornado. The west has those awful fires and the south has hurricanes.
My son and his family lost power for this ice storm. They have four dogs and the two youngest girls have been cuddling with their furry buddies. They did get power back on after almost a whole day. My son cooked them all breakfast on his charcoal grill out on the icy yard.
When we lived in a woodsy area of CT and often lost power…. for days at a time. Because we had a well as well if a septic system we had to make sure our bathtubs were full and a bucket there to flush toilets, soup kettles filled as soon as the storm was predicted and thankfully a wood stove. But we enjoyed the pioneer time reading by the stove and candles etc. but oh how I appreciated the return of electricity!!
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Having that woodstove makes a big difference, Bonnie. We don’t have that now, but my husband did get a generator so we might be able to boil water and keep the refrigerator and deep freeze going. So far although we have ice, we still have power. Hope that lasts but it hasn’t melted yet so more trees might fall.
I’m like you. Being a pioneer is only fun for a short time. 🙂
I remember lots of them. We have a wood stove in our garage to stay warm when needed. We had ice and snow again last night.
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We had about a half inch of ice last night and every bit of it has stuck around, Lucy. Very cold today. They say we don’t have much chance of it melting tomorrow either but I’m hoping they will be wrong and we have a little sunshine.
Ice storms, not really. I do remember when living in Indiana as a child being so cold my teeth would chatter uncontrollably! And I would get goose bumps-wonder why they are called that??? I’ve been living in the South since I was13 and will turn 80 this month. No chattering teeth and no goose bumps. 😊 Ice storms in central and North MS but not anything to speak of here since 1974 when we moved began calling this home. . A little sleet that coated the bridges and porch steps, but gone as soon as the sun appeared. Seldom does it get below freezing on the coast and stay there. The coldest I’ve seen it here is 18. At that time the bayou almost emptied from the North wind and the fish froze. Brrr!!! 🥶 The picture you asked about looks like a frozen waterfall. Praying you don’t lose power-stay warm! What happened to your wood stove? My grandparents in upstate N Y kept two burners when they modernized. Do you have a fireplace? Bundle up! ☀️🔥☀️
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You live down in those warmer climes, Karen, but sounds like that one year things got pretty cold. It was cold all day here so our half inch of ice is still a half inch on everything. I’m hoping no more trees fall to give us problems with our electricity. So far we’ve been fine. Our chimney had problems and so we had it taken down. We still have the stove but no chimney. We do have a gas fireplace if we lose power and a generator we might can keep some things going with.
I’m not exactly sure why we say goosebumps, but I always thought it was because when you pluck a goose, it leaves little bumps on the goose hide. Somebody might tell me differently and I’m ready for any theory.
A waterfall is a good description, but for some reason I see either a horse or a bug something like a praying mantis. Two opposites there for sure. 🙂
I remember those ice storms. I think during the one of 2003 we didn’t have electricity but K-Hall did. We would go to K-hall to cook and get a sponge bath. Good luck to you all. We’ll be praying for you!
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That’s a fun memory, Ronda. I’d forgotten that you did that. Poor church has been empty now for months. I do hope we’ll be able to go back soon, but Br. Fred is still having health problems. Hope you’re enjoying sunshine and warmth. Marley misses you. He was a good soldier dog and walked on all that ice with me today.
I remember an ice storm when my husband and I were living in Atlanta, GA, during the 1977-1978 school year. It was obviously in winter, so I’m guessing it was early 1978. Although my husband was off on a business trip, Puppy and I were home together to keep each other warm and company. We lost power and hunkered down in the den, where we had a fireplace to generate some heat and light. I don’t think Puppy and I got much sleep, but we cuddled under blankets on the sofa near the fire. After we moved to Houston in the summer of 1978, it was hurricanes that would cause us to lose power for a couple of weeks at a time.