My oh my oh my. We have just come through a windstorm. I have never experienced this sort of thing, on so many consecutive days, in my life. The worst part was the never-ending noise. We had 100 mph winds clocked at a small airport down the road from us, less than a mile away. We lost power off and on for three days. The worst was about 8 hours straight, but thankfully we slept through much of that. The power going on and off wreaks havoc with electronics. We have to keep resetting clocks and timers, etc. One of the most affected, apparently, is the electronic thermostat on my oven. I guess it doesn’t like being messed with.
Our dogs were off a little with the noise, the power being off, and the stuff blowing by. The wind chill had us at about -25f and I can assure you it was frigid outside. The dogs loved it; especially Maggie. Being a puppy, this was her first experience with wind and snow. And she loved it. She would come in with an ice beard and solid ice down her backside. She cracked me up. And she hated being toweled off – it became a game to her. We would chase her around the house to get the snow off her, but it was flying off on its own. Once she settled down, we would cuddle her and get the snow off that way. And she kept asking to go outside! Our older poodle, Kolbe, knew better. He stayed inside more often, by the wood stove. In the photo above, Maggie is running on the TOP of our raised beds – which became obscured by the wind and snow. Did not stop her! It was blowing so hard she was barely visible!! Silly girl.
I cannot even say how grateful I am for our Blaze King stove. What an amazing wood stove. Aside from being totally gorgeous for a wood stove (that shiny brown enamel just gets me) it kept our house warm when the power went out. Ed kept it running 24/7 and our living room stayed at a toasty 73-degrees! When it’s -25 outside and you lose power, warmth is a necessity! The rest of the house stayed warm enough with sweats and sweaters on to be doable. We laid a sleeping bag across our bed and slept in our sweats and we were fine. Three days of cold and noise and oh so much damage!!!
The photo above is of our beloved greenhouse this summer. We had an amazing growing season in that greenhouse. I had 20 tomatoes and 29 bell peppers, some dill, some indeterminate tomatoes strung along the sides. It would get to well over 100-degrees in there on a sunny day. It was perfect for our little homestead. Along with the raised beds, we had an amazingly bountiful harvest. And then winter arrived. We prayed the greenhouse would survive the rain and snow. It did. It took a considerable load of snow with no problem whatsoever. We breathed a collective sigh of relief. Well, until this weekend that is. *sigh*
And this morning, this is our greenhouse. And our raised beds – they’re buried under snow. So much debris on the snow – branches, leaves, sticks…the dogs love it. LOL. They brought a huge branch from a pine tree up onto our deck – together because it was too big for just one dog. Anyway, our skies have cleared and the wind has slowed to 40 mph gusts! Actually it has been pretty calm most of the day. Cold, but calm. With clear skies come a big drop in temperature. No clouds to buffer us. So the high today was expected to be zero (0). And the low well into the -6 range. As the sun is waning, I look out and just see a frozen mess. The cover for our little camper is shredded. My husband’s BBQ was toppled over and moved. The back deck cannot be seen – there is a huge mound of blown snow that has covered our table and chairs. And with it being so cold, everything is frozen in place.
You know, as the saying goes, “It could be worse!” Above is the Carrs/Safeway grocery store. Apparently one of their fire sprinklers burst and the system pretty much exploded over the entire store. With the blowing winds, no electricity, and the cold temperatures in the -25 range, it froze inside the store. The entire store.
And the outside of the store froze, as well. I’m not joking when I say we had a major storm. The roads were almost impassable. We had whiteout with the blowing snow. Semi-trailers overturning and landing on the roads; people’s storage sheds flying across the highway. Debris was flying so much the local police department was begging people to stay home and not come out and take photos like the ones above (got these from a friend who was a patrol officer). I know God protected us – once again – and I feel blessed. Friends had their windows explode and another had her door wrung from the frame and blown inside. The governor declared an emergency and asked us all to shelter in place. I was good with that. Stayed home in my sweats, making sure everything was charged up and we had food to eat. My hubby insured we had warmth by constantly stoking the stove. We made it through the Great Windstorm of ’22 and we are doing fine. Whew. Another new experience to chalk up to living Alaska!! I still love it here. With it being so cold, the snow is glistening and it is sooooo pretty. Almost makes me forget my greenhouse and those shingles that flew off our roof…almost.
kaiserswest 