More Griping About Neighbors

In the comments on my last post Arlene and Billie mentioned ATV problems with neighbors. I've had more than enough problems with ATVs and dirt bikers here. When I first moved here almost 9 years ago, it seemed like almost every kid on this street had a dirt bike. Of course, I didn't find that out until AFTER I moved in. This is a "quiet" dead end road, or so I thought. During the summer and on weekends and school holidays, the ATVs and dirt bikes would be speeding up and down the street.

Not only is it illegal for these vehicles to be on the road (they're not insured or registered) most of the kids were well under 16yo. Nine years later, since I still saw the 2 youngest at the school bus stop last year, that means they were under 10. Mass. law regarding dirt bikes and ATVs states that children under 16 years of age are supposed to be accompanied by an adult! It makes me so angry. Even if it weren't for the danger with the horses and dogs (Lyca seems to think they're noisy deer) I hate listening to the noise all day long and smelling the diesel fumes when I'm out hiking in the woods with the dogs. What is it with the parents letting their kids do this? It's illegal! And, it's illegal because it's not safe for all concerned!

My riding ring runs right along the road and at about the mid-point of the ring the road starts to drop down hill. I swear the kids would come speeding down the road trying to "catch air" there. Doesn't make for calm riding. If I wanted to hack out, I could only safely go out when the kids were in school, or else very early in the mornings. It wasn't safe to be out after 9:00 am on weekends or holidays.

Jeeves, being the perfect horse that he is, was pretty good about most of it. Unless they're going really fast and popping the clutch, he doesn't spook much, but even he gets upset when they're being idiots. Lance is high strung anyway and it's dangerous for her to ride him with the dirt bikes around. So, we started calling the police every time we heard them. I felt bad bothering the police, but fortunately, one of the police officers is a horse person, so he understands. It took awhile, but they started nabbing the kids and slowly things improved. Also, most of the kids have grown up and have either moved away or are in college or working, so they're not around. There's only 2 left and they're manageable. It's so nice now to be able to hop on Jeeves on a hot afternoon and just hack him down the street. I keep my ear out, especially around the 2 houses that still have the kids that ride, but so far, I haven't had any problems. Phew!

Now, if I could just convince Terri that it's safe for her to venture out with Lance, maybe we can actually go out on the trails together.

I Hate My Neighbors...

But, I love my horse. Last Friday, the neigbor across the street started setting off firecrackers about 9:00pm. Jeeves and Lance go out over night, so they were out and racing around in a blind panic. I was already in my jammies, so I threw on jeans and t-shirt, stomped down the driveway and over to the neighbor's. It was actually my neighbor's son with his 4 yo son. The kid took one look at the scowl on my face and trotted off behind his father. I told the guy he was scaring the cra& out of my horses and asked him if he could hold off on the fireworks so I could catch the horses and secure them. He just mumbled that he was done. I went back across the street and into the paddock with the boys and calmed the horses down as much as I could, They were still pretty tense but at least they had stopped galloping and were eating hay.

The next day, when I went to ride, Jeeves had a cut at the top of his left front hoof--in the coronet band, or that rubbery tissue at the top. Grrrr! It's not bad, roughly nickel sized, sort of a horizontal slice along the top that created a bit of a pocket. I've been hosing it off and keeping it clean. A bit of a worry because of where it is, but I don't think it will affect the hoof growth. I hope not.

That Saturday, he was very tense riding in the ring. I can't say as I blame him. The ring runs parallel to the road right across the street from that neighbor. So, my ride that day was focused on stretching and relaxation, not much else.

Sunday, I had a lesson with Kathy. My first lesson in over a month. It was going really well, when I realized something was going on across the street...I heard some tree branches falling. As I started to look up, Kathy told me not to look, just keep riding. I looked up--the guy was up in a big old oak tree just across the street--he was a good 30 feet up with a chainsaw. As I looked he started up his chain saw. Ack! Jeeves can deal with chain saws, we certainly ride with all sorts of noisy equipment going all the time. However, it's an entirely different story to have large tree limbs falling from 30 feet up just across the street!

Fortunately, the guy started off trimming small branches, so it wasn't too bad. We were about 30 minutes into our ride, so Jeeves was well "on the aids" and listening to me, though he perked his ears when a branch dropped. Whenever we headed down the long side next to the street, he insisted on doing a 1/2 pass over to the center line as quickly as he could. Kathy just laughed and said she didn't blame him at all. We started to work on trot extensions across the diagonal just as the guy started dropping larger limbs and that gave us some extra impulsion! At that point, Kathy said that was enough, he wasn't going to tolerate much more.

I love this horse! How many horses would continue working relatively calmly under those conditions?! He's so good!

Then, that evening, I had just finished feeding dinner and the idiot started setting off fireworks again!! Argh! Have I mentioned fireworks are illegal in this state? Sigh. So, I marched off down the driveway again and when he saw me he just dropped the fireworks. I told him that if he would just let me know when he was going to set off the fireworks, I would appreciate it, then I could have the horses secured. He just mumbled that he wouldn't do it anymore.

So far, no fireworks since then, but today the guy climbed up in that tree again while I was tacking Jeeves up. He started the chain saw up just as I swung my leg over Jeeves's back. I managed 10 minutes of riding before the big limbs started coming down and Jeeves got so spooked he galloped off across the ring. Oh, well, I'll ride early tomorrow morning.

The pics are of one of my antique roses--Henri Martin. A moss rose--you can see the buds have a mossy look to them. If you rub the "moss", you'll find it has a balsam scent. I have a "thing" for old garden roses. I don't use chemicals and don't pamper my plants. The old garden roses are perfect for that--nothing bothers them. They have fragrance to die for, the modern roses just can't compare. With the boys going out at night, I haven't been taking pics of them, so the garden pics will have to substitute for them.

The Cold is Here!

It was COLD this morning. Temp outside my kitchen window was -10F. Coldest it's been here since 2005. I bundled up in many layers before venturing outside. The dogs and I had a quick, if somewhat abbreviated walk. We normally do at least 2 miles, but given the conditions, I decided a mile was enough.

It was so cold, the horses had a layer of frost on their hair. Jeeves looks like he's wearing white mascara. :-) They don't seem to mind. When I went out to feed them, both he and Lance were standing outside their stalls, happy as can be. Thankfully, there's not much wind.

I put their hay out and Jeeves went right out, happily munching on the hay while the sun struggled to rise above the horizon. They are eating more hay than they normally eat. The girls are eating almost twice as much. The boys aren't getting quite that much, but they have the benefit of blankets to help keep them warm. Plus, they can go in their stalls over night.



If they want to. They seem to prefer to stand outside, though. The girls have the run-in shed and they'll stay in there if it's really nasty out. But, mostly, they hang out in the open, also.



Riley helped me with morning chores today. He kept a watch on things to make sure everyone behaved.


After about an hour out there, I was starting to get cold, so Riley and I headed inside for the warmth of the woodstove.

Fun With Babies (Horses, of course)

The girls, Cara and Em, arrived here in mid-June. They were both 12months old then. Cara is a sweetie, she would like to be a Lap Pony. Em, aka The Red Headed Wench, is also pretty much a sweet heart, but she does have a bit of an 'attitude'. A few days after they moved here, once she was starting to settle in, she decided to start testing. When I was dumping her breakfast from a bucket into the feed tub in the stall, she stretched her neck out and attempted to bite my hand. I saw it coming and, growled at her and smacked her lightly. She backed off, not upset, not submissive, but accepting that this was not allowed.

A day or so later, as I was opening the stall gate to bring herher grain, she decided to see if she could nip my hand then. I again growled at her and smacked her lightly. Again, she backed off and stood quietly, seeming to mull this over, while I dumped her grain in the feed tub and left the stall.

Then, a day or so later, as I was leading her out, I could see the little wheels in her head turning. I realized she was looking at my hand...so conveniently holding the lead line just a few inches from her mouth. Sigh. She tried to nip, but I was ready and backed her off.

She IS tenacious. The good thing is that she never tried to nip again in the same situation once I corrected her. So, she does learn. She just wanted to see if there was any time when nipping was allowed. She also tested any new people in the same fashion, so I always warned anyone who might be handling her or near her to keep an eye out. She seems to have grown out of that phase, which is a Good Thing.

Cara tried to nip me once, as I was leading her. I didn't even have to smack her, just growled at her, and she started flying backwards in total submission, head up, ears back, teeth clacking. She never tried it again, to me or anyone else. They're so different.

There were a few other things that the Red Headed Wench tested me on over the summer. She's not nasty or mean, mostly she's just having fun. One thing I learned was that I needed to make sure that Em kept out of my space. That was fine until we got into December and the nasty weather and I relaxed those "rules". During the ice storms or snow storms or just the nasty, cold windy days, I felt bad for poor Em being outside the run-in shed while I was cleaning it out and dumping their grains and hay. So, I started allowing her to stay in the shed and get closer to me while I was in the shed.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been telling myself that I need to get back into working with Em to get her out of my space. She's been getting....oh, more comfortable around me. Coming into my space. Just not as respectful as she had been. Nothing nasty, just a little niggling in the back of my head telling me that I've been lax with her. You know, that little voice that you should listen to but you put off.

Yesterday morning was quite cold with a stiff wind. I fed and hayed all the horses then about 30 minutes later I noticed Em was standing outside the run-in. Usually, the girls will spend at least a couple of hours eating their breakfast hay before venturing outside the shed, especially on the colder mornings. I decided to go out and check to make sure they still had plenty of hay. As I entered the paddock, Em came over to the gate and she had that impish look in her eyes. I told her to back off and she did, though she did follow me to the run-in, which had plenty of hay, so I turned to go back to the gate. At that exact instant, Em squealed, kicked out, and took off bucking and running. I jumped to get out of the way of her hooves as she went past me, stupidly not paying any attention to Cara. Normally, Cara is not a problem, but she IS spooky and she figured Em must have been running from something scarey, so she took off running after Em. Unfortunately, the angle she was coming from, she couldn't make it between me and the edge of the shed, so she collided with me, knocking me down. Ack! Fortunately, lots of layers of winter clothing and good layer of snow made the landing painless. Thank goodness she didn't kick out or anything, as she could have quite easily gotten me right in the head.

Lesson learned, thankfully with not much damage. My left back and hip are pretty sore and nice shade of purple where Cara ran into me, but I count myself lucky that that's all. I can't be lax with these girls. They don't mean to be bad, they're just young and full of themselves. Living alone here, it would really be bad if I were hurt out there. It could be days before someone noticed I was missing and in this cold weather, i wouldn't last days. As I write this, it's already below 0 and getting colder. Tomorrow the temp might not get above 0 all day. I probably wouldn't last a few hours out there.

Since then, I've taken a broom out there with me whenever I enter the paddock. It's long enough that I don't have to worry about getting kicked if one of them reacts by kicking out. A dressage whip isn't long enough, and Em gets excited with the lunge whip. The broom seemed to me to be ideal. It didn't take much to remind Em that she's supposed to stay out of my space. She is back to staying out of the shed when I'm in there. She stayed a respectful distance from me when I attempted to pick the frozen manure out of the paddock. Hopefully, there won't be any other incidents.

I just hope none of my neighbors reports me for "beating" the horses with a broom. Not that I've actually made contact with the broom--just a lot of growling and posturing. Of course, maybe they'll report me as a lunatic...

Storm Wrapup

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. With the generator, I was as stressed as I had been. There was some extra work involved in doing the chores, but nothing that couldn't be handled. I continued trying to clear away the broken branches, but we got 2 feet of snow last weekend so there is still alot out there now buried under snow.

I got fairly good at cooking basic on the wood stove. One morning, I made bacon and eggs. with my cast iron skillet. I heated up soups for evening meals. The last morning without power I used up some shallots, gruyere cheese and eggs by making on omelet with my cast iron skillet. So, I really didn't do badly as far as that goes. I'm not sure how much gas for generator would have been used if I had used the cooktop or the oven for cooking. I preferred to make do and conserve.

Lessons learned--be prepared. I need to get an evacuation plan in order. I have 4 horses and just a two-horse trailer. What would I do if I had to evacuate?! Another one of those "it will never happen to me" things, that I now realize COULD happen. Just because I don't live in CA where wild fires and mud slides are common or in the southeast where there are much more devastating hurricanes, doesn't mean something dire couldn't happen here.

Also, I need to get a supply of sturdy rope. I was lucky that only a few top boards on the equine fencing were broken. If I had lost complete sections of fencing, the horses could have been wandering around the neighborhood. Actually, I'm pretty sure the boys would hang around--they know those dangerous dirt bikes are out there. But, the girls definately have the "oh, let's go visiting" personality. On Saturday morning there were 3 cows wandering around on the main road at the end of my street. No one knew where they came from. It sends shivers down my spine thinking that that could have been the horses.

I also need supplies for mending the electric fence. Not as important as the wooden fence, as that's mostly to keep certain equines from eating the boards, but still, that needs to be repaired and if I lose parts of the wooden fence, a few strands of the electric wire will help to safely contain the horses. I need the wire, the connectors, etc. I just have to figure out where to get all these things.

And, keep as much food on hand as I can for humans and animals. The grain storage is a problem here as I can only keep 2 weeks worth at a time. I am considering getting more bags and just piling them up, but I worry about the rodents getting in them if they're not in barrels. I used to have squirrels living in the barn, before I got the horses. Now that I have the horses here and I spend a fair amount of time in and out of the barn, I don't notice the squirrels that much. I did have a raccoon in there one summer--he killed the last of my chickens. :-( I just worry about attracting nuisance animals. I think I will devise a way to be able to store more horse grain and try not to ever get below 2 week's worth of grain. I never get that low on hay. I start to worry about getting more hay in when I get down to about a month's worth.

And, of course, first aid supplies. I was very fortunate that none of the horses were injured by falling limbs. I'm making sure I have a supply of sheet cotton, betadine, standing wraps, etc. The horses were all good about the sounds of all the chain saws, but I think I'm going to get some calming herbs. Especially since I suspect this spring there's going to be alot of brush pile burning and Jeeves does NOT like fires. I'm not sure how the girls will be about that. But, better to be prepared with some calming herbs rather than risk colic from anxiety.

Last--emergency contacts. Make sure people know who lives close by who can take care of the animals so that in case something happens to me, others can be called to step in. I've got a list of emergency contacts in the barn, which I will be updating. I'm going to tell my neighbors about this list, so that if they see that something has happened to me, they can contact someone to take care of the animals.

If anyone can think of anything else, please let me know.

Saved by the Generator

Dave got the generator hooked up and working by mid-afternoon on Sunday. The first thing we did was start scrubbing out the stock tanks and refilling them. Who knew that it would be so exciting to do such a mundane chore?! Unfortunately, the water stopped when Jeeves's tank was only about 1/2 filled. :-( Dave was still here, so I grabbed him and told him what had happened. He looked at things, scratched his head, looked at things, and decided to move the circuit breakers to a different slot in the panel. That seemed to work as the pump started working again and we had water. Dave left. Shortly after, the pump stopped working again. Eeek! I checked the circuit breakers in the barn and in the main panel in the basement. All looked alright. Lights were working. But, not the water pump. I jiggled things. I kicked the generator, I cursed. The pump wouldn't work.

This is when I had my little temper tantrum. I threw myself on the couch and pulled the afghan over my head and tried to escape from life. Unfortunately, life has to go on, the horses need water, and I had to figure out what was going on.

Long story, not so short, the generator is 5000 watts. Which sounds like a lot and should be enough to power the water pump, along with the fridge, etc. George and I checked the few things that were plugged in and they didn't add up to 5000 watts. That is, until we looked at the water heater. The electric water heater. That little monster uses 4500 watts! Aha! The light bulb started to dawn over my head. I have a mixer valve in my basement that mixes hot water with cold for the line going out to the frost free hydrant by the barn. Soooo, as we were filling up the stock tanks it worked fine until the water in the heater cooled off enough that the water heater had to turn on to heat up. Then, that would overload the generator. Dave and Jenn actually drove all the way back out here to look at the generator again. It turns out there is a circuit actually on the generator that had to be reset. Once we did that, restarted the generator, turned the mixing valve so that no hot water was going to the barn AND turned off the circuit breaker for the water heater, it worked fine!! I got all the stock tanks filled up and never had any problems again.

Because the generator sucks up gas, I turned it off over night. In the morning, the first thing I did was throw on some clothes, run outside, and tried to see if I could start the generator myself from a cold-start. The day before didn't really count since it was already warmed up when I started it. The generator is started with one of those pull cords, which I usually fail miserably at. It takes me forever to get the weed wackers started up. But, miraculously, the generator started right up!! I ran back into the house and used the toiled...and flushed!! Brushed my teeth with the lights on!! Oh, the simple pleasures in life. :-)

I then turned OFF the circuit breaker for the pump and turned ON the circuit breaker for the water heater. I let the generator run for a bit over an hour, then I reversed the circuit breakers--pump ON, heater OFF. Then, I took my first shower since Wednesday morning! Oh, the joy! Those cold water sponge baths just weren't doing it for me.

It was a pain having to play with the circuit breakers, but it worked. The biggest thing for me was the water for the horses--everything else was a bonus. After that, I only ran the generator for a few hours a day. Usually an hour or so in the morning, so that I had water for the horses meal, quick clean up and toilets and to cool off the fridge. Then again late afternoon for the same. I would turn the water heater on in the morning and, except for when I showered, it would give me enough hot water to make it through the day with frugal use. Everything in my freezer had already been tossed since it had gotten too warm before the generator got working. But, I put a couple of 1/2 bottles of water in the freezer to see how cool it stayed and running it like that, a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the late afternoon, kept the fridge and freezer cool enough. So, now I know for the next time, how to keep the food good. I could have run the generator longer, but I wanted to conserve the gas. It took too long to go out and get more gas--the nearest gas station that was operational was over an hour away. Normally, it only takes 20 minutes to get to that station but with the condition of the roads (trees down, hanging over the roads, roads closed, etc.) it took over an hour to get there. It also gets pretty expensive refilling that thing. I didn't use it enough to really figure out how long it would run on a tank (6 gallons) but I'm pretty sure it would go at least 8 hours with the kind of use I was doing. The more watts you use, the more gas it takes. I now have 2 5-gallon containers of gasoline out in the barn (not where the horses are stabled, it's more an equipment barn). So, I am prepared.

My friends have a whole house generator. They have 3 large propane tanks that they use to fuel the generator. I think they can go weeks without power on the tanks they have. There are diesel generators that probably use less gas and therefore would run longer on a tank of gas. I didn't have any choice, I just took what showed up. But, it is good enough for my needs. If I had a lot more horses, I might want to upgrade to a bigger generator. I don't mind some sacrifices. The neighbors across the street have a generator and even when we just lose power for a few hours, they start that thing right up. I swear they can't go an evening without TV. :-( Now, the neighbor down the street is a disabled woman. She's on an oxygen tank and has to have electricity, so she ran her generator all the time. But, for her, it's a matter of life and death, not a convenience.

So, do some research--figure out what you want to have powered if you ever have an extended power outage. Check to see how many amps those things use. That will help you figure out what size generator you need to get. But, definately do some planning ahead of time and be prepared. I'm 50 yo and have never experienced a power outage like this. I didn't think I ever would. Surprise, surprise. I hope I never do again. When we have horses, we need to be ready. I've learned my lesson, fortunately, without any stress to the horses. They didn't have a clue all this "drama" was going on. They were getting fed and had water and were turned out as normal during the whole power outage. That's all they cared about.

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.

Cleaning Up the Mess

I only cried for about a minute. I just needed the emotional release and it was over as quickly and unexpectedly as it started. With a deep breath, I looked around to figure out how I could get my morning cup of tea. The woodstove was the likely method of heating up the water, but would it really get it boiling? Well, I would find out soon enough. I opened up the flu, added some more smaller logs to get the stove burning hot and put some water into a small pot. I didn't want to use my regular kettle as the handle has a rubbery covering on it and I was worried the heat from the wood stove would melt it. It wasn't long before the water reached a rolling boil--perfect for tea. :-) I was set! If I can have my morning cup of tea, I can face whatever the day brings.

I dug a ginger scone out of the freezer, wrapped that up in aluminum foil and placed it on top of the stove to heat it up. That didn't go as well as the tea--the bottom of the scone burned pretty quickly. Oops! It was still good enough to be a go-with for the cup of tea, though. Playing with cooking on the wood stove during this power outage, I figured out that to heat up scones or muffins, it was best to get a rack out of the oven, put that on top of the wood stove, then put the foil wrapped treat on the rack. That way it warmed up but didn't burn...as long as I remembered to turn it and keep an eye on it.

After the tea and scone, I went back outside. I noticed a few of the neighbors out in the street, so I walked back out there to see what was going on. The men were getting their chain saws out and started cutting up the trees and limbs that were blocking the street. I grabbed the cut up pieces and dragged them off to the side of the road. Some of the older kids came out and helped me with the debris removal while the men handled the chain saws. We had to be careful, as there were still limbs crashing down. But, it wasn't long before the road was cleared enough for a car to get through. There was still an obstacle course for the cars to weave around, but it was passable. I didn't even consider venturing out, though. If I went out and something happened to prevent me getting back, who would take care of all the animals?!

I spent the rest of that first day cleaning stalls, and starting to remove the debris from the paddocks. Mostly what I did was get as much off the fence as I could. I used a hand saw to cut up what I could and tried to clean up what I could. I also took the dogs for a walk as far as I dared to go up the street, trying to find a spot where I could get signal on my cell phone. No luck with that.

The most heartbreaking loss is my little Hawthorne tree. :-( I planted that little tree the first year after I moved here, 7 years ago. It's spring flowers aren't much, but the berries in winter are so beautiful. And, in January,when the berries completely ripen, the birds come and eat them in one day. It has such a pretty shape. In the pic, it looks like it's a weeping variety but that's just because of the weight of the ice. The branches are supposed to be arching upwards, not drooping down. I will get a new one in the spring. For now, I just pruned off the branches that have snapped and will leave the rest there for the berries to ripen for the birds.

The worst thing that first day was that after dark, there wasn't anything to do. I had no batteries for the radio. Candles did not provide enough light to read and I didn't want to drain the batteries by using the flashlight. I needed that flashlight to be able to go out to give the horses their bed check hay. No phone. The dogs and cats, while cute and good company are not very good at holding their end of a conversation. So, I took the opportunity to do some meditation and some yoga...in the dark. :-) I have gotten out of the habit of meditation and this was a good reminder for me. I have promised myself that I will make the time to meditate even if only for 5 minutes day. Just a few minutes sitting in the quiet, focusing on my breathing and nothing else. A good way to center myself and focus my energy for the day. Some good comes out of the disaster.