Mustang, Oklahoma, United States
60-ish 'child of the prairie' who loves sewing, baking, knitting and most of all -- family & friends.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Winter Wonderland

It's a 'wonderland' here in Oklahoma. The 'Ice Man' paid us a visit and did some winter decorating for us. Everything is encased in a pretty coating of ice - over an inch of ice to be exact.
These pictures were taken Monday as Hubby and I broke the ice off the bird-feeder (gotta keep those little birds fed and besides it's entertainment for our kitty-cats) and checked out the ice damage around the homestead.















Our little tree in the front yard has branches drooping to the ground, which worried me -- but, after a call to my Mom, my local garden-guru -- we are both hoping that the limbs are young and flexible enough to survive. If not, it may have to have a radical 'hair-cut'.

Tuesday morning I awoke to the sound of ice falling from the trees and sliding off our roof -- and, also the sound of thunder. The overnight temps were above freezing which was a very welcome surprise. My drive to work was in a cold-cold rain and they are predicting at least an inch of rain on top of all of the ice. That's ice on the grass in the picture below -- not snow. Snow going to be coming this weekend -- 4 to 6 inches.



With all the ice on power lines is was only a matter of time before blackouts began. Currently here in the OKC Metro Area - we have over 650,000 homes without power -- and Hubby and I have been so lucky. We have been in the dark twice in the past 48 hours but thankfully both times the power has come back on -- you don't know how much you depend on modern conveniences until you have to do without for awhile. I'm telling you - it's a humbling experience. A few things I've learned with our power-outage adventure:
  • Always keep extra batteries on hand from and that a battery-powered radio is a very good thing ( so is a book light )
  • There's a reason our grandparents went to bed early -- it's warmer in bed !
  • Never under-estimate how good a hot cup of coffee taste until you don't have one.
  • You can knit by candle-light and if you are knitting a wool blankie for a baby -- it can keep you warm while you knit.
  • Keep some un-scented candles for emergencies -- at one point over the past three days we had a Citrus/Sage, Garden Rose, Peppermint & French Vanilla candles burning at the same time -- it was little overpowering -- but, at least we had light!
  • Pray: thank God for small blessings -- and, remember no matter how bad your situation is, there's always someone else in worse shape and they need your prayers and support.

This post may be a little 'dis-jointed' -- it was started on Tuesday and the power went out again. We are now back in on the power grid again and very thankful.

The Sooner State will survive this blast of winter but the recovery will take time. When you talk to God tonight -- please pray for all those who still don't have power in our state and neighboring states.

NOTE: We are keeping our fingers crossed that our grand-baby who is due any time now -- will hold off at least until the weather is a little better and the hospital's aren't running on back-up power. The baby's Mommy told me that she had a little chat with baby and told her to stay where she was for the time being -- it's definitely a warmer place that out here in the big wide world. Hang on for a little while longer Laney girl ! The sun is going to come out soon !!