Power

Severe weather is not as new to us as it was back in the Spring of 2011. One of the first things that we did when moving here was buy a generator.

It came on a semi.

We’ve never needed it until this week.

A storm rolled through on Monday night. We were watching the radar and checking the weather all afternoon. Nothing was unusual and we didn’t have much concern at all. We had the local weather on in the background and the girls were doing their usual. Around 8:45pm, the power went flickered a few times and finally went out. It was during Clara’s fussy time and Ruby wasn’t having a good night either. So, we didn’t hear much outside. Both girls can be really loud. We weren’t very concerned until some of the farm guys started calling and checking on us.

There had been reports on the radio that Byers had been hit by 100mph straight line winds and there was a good bit of damage. Straight line winds are just that, straight and in a line. It’s not a tornado. Just a big ‘ole wind gust, or multiple wind gusts.

Wooster was going to wait until the morning to check on things because it was still raining a good bit and there’s nothing you can do in the dark.

In the morning they found: two twisted systems, flattened soybeans that had been waist high, bent corn, destroyed natural gas shed, dented grain bins, downed hay stacks and downed trees.

An alfalfa company south of us had 17 twisted pivots, a downed bin and stacks of bales over turned.

One section of power lines and poles were gone along a 3 mile stretch…..our source of power.

(pivot foundation pulled up out of the ground)

(Grain bin was pushed up off the foundation by the wind)

We didn’t have any damage at all at the house. All the damage was 3 to 5 miles south of us.

We ran the generator and turned on the power to the refrigerator and our large freezer. We also turned on some outlets inside. Ruby was only concerned that her night light was off, so we turned on the power to her room. We also ran the power in our living room for a couple of fans and the TV. By Wednesday night, Wooster had changed our little generator out for a bigger one from work. We were able to turn on the air conditioning and water for plumbing. You never realize how much water and electricity you use until it is in limited supply. Wooster would drive down to where the power crews were working. There were crews from Wichita and Dodge City working to get power poles and lines back in their proper places. When he went to check with them on Thursday evening, they were just finishing up. By the time he made it back to the house, the power was working. We were without “power” from Monday at 8:45pm to Thursday at 5pm.

(generator with dog house cover to keep rain out. Generator up on car ramps so it won’t sink into the saturated ground.)

We’ve gotten rain just about every day this week. The rain is nice and we are grateful for power.

Things I’ve learned this week:

1. It’s gonna take me forever to catch up with laundry.
2. I use a good bit of water every day.
3. I love these…in this order… generators, husbands who know how to work generators, Power Line Workers, Electricity, air conditioning, indoor plumbing that works, heated food.
4. America is great. Even in our darkest hours, with ever increasing loose morals and sin, it’s still a great country. People work together to get our “needs” met.
5. I don’t want to live in a third world country. Things start stinking pretty quickly when you have to wait for electricity to get them un-stinky; people, clothes and toilets included.