Continuing the Cleanup

Saturday dawned bright and clear and very cold. This was good because the refrigerator and freezer were starting to warm up. So, I packed the meats from my freezer into coolers and put those outside, hoping to save them. The fridge contents were, at first, a bit more problematic. I didn't want to put the milk, cheese, and fresh veggies outside as they would quickly freeze. Then, I remembered the closet that is off my mudroom. It's a walk in closet---actually used to be the closet for the master bedroom when the house was first built. Long before I bought the house, the wall for the bedroom had been torn down creating a large front-to-back livingroom. Last year, I remodeled and turned the back half, what used to be the master bedroom, into a new kitchen. At that time, I made egress to the closet through the mudroom. The closet has no heat, no windows and, as far as I can tell, not alot of insulation. It was perfect for keeping fridge items cool. :-) It became my walk-in refrigerator for the rest of the power outage. By the time the power came back on Thursday, everything was still good, including the milk.

I spent the day trying to clear more debris. The going was slow with only a hand saw, but I made some progress. I still worried about the water for the horses. Neighbors with a generator told me that I could get water from them, but I don't think they realized HOW much water I needed. Jeeves will easily drink 15-20 gallons/day. Lance about 10, and the girls will empty their 100 gallon stock tank in about 4 days. That's 50-55 gallons/day. A lot of buckets to fill up and truck back.

Terri showed up in the afternoon and helped with clearing branches and making sure the fence was secure. The roads were terrible--it took her over an hour to get here, normally it's 20 minutes. She took a couple of muck buckets home so that she could fill them with water and bring some water back the next day. That eased my mind a bit, but it was still a worry.

Later in the afternoon, my dear friend, George, showed up--with batteries and drinking water! :-) Not enough for the horses, but enough for me and the house critters.

At the end of the day, we took the dogs for a walk. People had done more clearing along the road, so we were able to go all the way to the end of the road. The damage was incredible, though. Trees down every where you look. The trails are totally impassable. Beautiful to look at with the ice glistening in the late day sunshine, but such destruction. As we were heading back, a truck came along--surprising since we were at the farthest end of the road, past any houses. Turns out the truck was one of the guys who helped build the run-in shed this summer. He had gone in to Boston to pick up a couple of generators: one for himself and one for a buddy. By the time he got back, his buddy had already found one, so he had an extra one. Did I want it? YES!! :-) The Universe came through for me, once again, and supplied me with what I needed.

On Sunday, Jenn (owner of the fillies) and her boyfriend came out and hooked up the generator for me. Since two of the horses here are hers, she has an interest in making sure they can get water. Dave also brought his chain saw and cut up a few of the bigger trees that had come down. George, Jenn, and I loaded the branches into the truck and took everything out to the growing brush pile at the back of my property. By the end of the day, I was exhausted--physically and emotionally. But, for the first time since Thursday evening, I wasn't worried about how I was going to manage. With the help of friends and neighbors, my animals and I were going to be just fine.