Sunday, July 1, 2012

Storm Update: How the Shawhan Farm Fared

CLUCK, CLUCK, CLUCK!!!

I hope everyone made it out OK after Friday night's crazy storm! All of us here on the Shawhan farm made it unscathed, but I can't say the same for my once abundant apple crop...most are on the ground now, but I'll still get some apples! All the animals are fine, thank God, and so were the house and other buildings...we made out OK...I cannot say the same for our neighbor's laundry that ended up in our yard.

We were without power for close to 48 hours, but thanks to a generator, we didn't need to picth any food. When you live in the country and do most of your own meat, a generator is a God send! I know throwing away a week's worth of food/meat would suck pretty bad, for lack of a better word, but a years worth of meat...I don't want to imagine that:


Dan and I agree we can live without power. So can the animals. It got scary yesterday when the water was being turned off, or losing power, or whatever it was that was going on...we heard more than one story and heard different tales of it being out for a fews hours and a also a few days. As we were losing water pressure, I filled every jar and container I could in the house:


Next, we went to the barn and filled every bucket that was clean and didn't have a hole in it. Dan and I cleaned out the old rubber water tank that was once the chickie brooder (not The Palace) and heaved it over into the steer lot and filled it competely full. Normally the horses have an automatic waterer on their side of the fence and the steers have one on their side. But with no county water, if they drink it dry (and that won't take much) it won't refill. I would have had to dip buckets into the water tank and water my horses by hand. That would have been OK, I just would have had to do it several times a day. Horses need lots of water so their food can pass. If it gets too dry the food passing through the digestive tract won't pass through. There is only one exit for a horse, and there is a sharp turn in the GI tract where compaction happens a lot. This of course can cause colic, the horse to be in pain and thus want to roll a lot and then a twisted stomach. The end result is expensive surgerey or death...and since I've dealt with this before (R.I.P. Chief!) I didn't want to possiably deal with it again. Water is beyond important!

Sorry for the equine science lecture there!

Anyway, we didn't lose water competely and this morning when I turned it on, it was back full force. WHEW!

Chicken Hawk found his voice just in time for a power outage and we were woken up at 4:00 A.M. yesterday and about 5:45 A.M. today.  I got up (not that early!) and made scrambled eggs on the burner on the grill:


I figured I'd be posting tonight via the generator but a BIG THANKS to South Central Power here in Highland County for all their hard work. We passed a truck on the way inot the pool this afternoon and talked to the guys, asking how long it would be. That was right before they got the power turned back on. They were so nice and happy; joking around and full of smiles. They weren't grumpy or short with us and I need to write South central commending them on a great job!

We really do take for granted power and easy access to water. I hate being so dependant on it...it should me how unprepared I am for the end of the world and my bug out or bug in plan needs LOTS of work. I guess I'll be wathcing Season Two of Doomsday Preppers!

Thanks to God for keeping us all safe and sound and thoughts and prayrs go out those who are still going without, dealing with damages or even worse.


                                                                                                ...cluck... cluck... cluck...

P.S. I guess spell check isn't working again!

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