Thursday, January 21, 2010

Slipping and Sliding

Yesterday brought another round of Mother Nature's whims through the heartland.

The buildup of ice came before Hubby was to leave for work and his foray to the end of the drive reinforced what officials were saying about "Travel not recommended".

Momentary electrical hic-cups occurred through the day...As 6:00 P.M. arrived evening news viewing and computer use came to a halt. The dreaded" no electricity" came to be a fact. We are fortunate,our electrical outage was relatively short compared to others in the state that lost power early in the morning and as of this writing not aware of when it will be restored for them.

We pulled out the candles and the little crank handled radio received as a gift a year ago Christmas. It provided some music to accompany my reading and Hubby's drawing of a new concept plane he hopes to build at some point in the future.
Solar Radio Crank

The house was beginning to chill around 9:30 so we decided it was time to head to bed to stay warm under the additional pile of blankets. I was roused as Hubby got up to turn off  the lights and TV in the living room at 10:30. Electricity had come flowing back into the house to make the surroundings comfortable once again .

As we plan for the future in our new home we know what will be included to keep events like this from being a concern...;)

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Snow Blast from the Past

I am having a great time going through old family photos.These two have brought to mind how we still haven't overcome the wiles of "Old Man" Winter. The pictures don't have a clear indication of what year they were taken but from some of the others that seem to be from the same time period,1929 - 1930, looks about right.The pictures were taken in the very Southern part of Southwest Iowa, or Northern part of Northwest Missouri along the border of the states.

The work looks to be a bit laborious even with the machine in the background.

We think we have it bad sometimes with high drifts blocking the country roads in our day and age. The only difference in the method is a higher powered, sleeker road grader,a county truck, maybe even a neighboring Farmer with a snow blower attached to his tractor to get things moved aside. Can't imagine guys getting out with scoops...

The work has been completed and the side walls certainly do make the man in the picture look small.Sure looks like some great 4X4 terrain if you ask me... ;)