Friday, February 26, 2010

Country Winter Living 101

Woke up at 5.44 am to no power. It was a restless night and when we looked out the window we realized why. It was like a war zone out there and snow had performed a hostile take-over.





Poor Cali-Ebba, her first New York winter. She don't know what hit her.


Question #1: What happens if we don't get our power back and our pipes freeze? The answer of course is: turn on the generator that every self sufficient country dweller keeps in the barn for such emergencies. Plug in the space heater and heat em up. Right.

Question #2 immediately followed by Question #3: How the hell are we going to get our car out so we can go and buy a generator before they are all sold out?

We made some feeble attempts at clearing the drive way but it was pretty useless. Also a giant branch was blocking it. Around the bend comes George who is the foreman at the Minard apple cold storage next door with his little tractor-plow. Without saying a word he just mangled King Snow along with branches and all. Very neighborly of him! In the 20 seconds that I saw James talk to him he managed to get out of George that he really enjoys banana nut bread so apparently I have to bake that now. Recipes anyone?

So that solved the first issue, the car was loose. Off to Lowes. Of course not a genny in the house. A friendly young man named Joe called every Lowes in the Hudson Valley and finally found us one in Chester 45 mins away. Whatayagawnado? Get in the car and drive to Chester, that's what. Montana boy likes to put the Nissan in 4 wheel drive and drive in the snow anyway so here we go.

We got a generator, flashlights and water. 

And since we spent so much money on emergency gear the power was naturally up by the time we got back home. Oh well, the snow is still bucketing down and who knows when we will need this stuff. At least now James is a little more even with our neighbor Tommy Toys. He's got every gadget in the catalogue and is prepared for a meteor strike. Now they can talk about BTU's, horsepower and chainsaw brands. 

Anyway, with power on in the house we could relax and just try to tackle a little bit of shoveling.


And it's still coming down!!!


The Swede in her correct element.


Also Clintondale has seldom looked more beautiful!



When I cooked broth the other day I drained the vegetables and unfortunately I couldn't find a good use for them. So the best way to not feel wasteful is to give it to these guys. They trudged right through the waste high snow for funky turnips and mashed up carrots. 



It also gave us the opportunity to say hi to the lammies again. We saved some veggies to give to mom.


And this time I just happened to have my camera....


And this guy about knocked me over in the snow cause James was ahead of me with the bag.


That's all folks.




2 comments:

  1. Not too long after we moved into Gunk Haus we realized that this is a great neighborhood. Our neighbors (in a greater sense) have been so accommodating and supportive and helpful, it makes me blush. Needless to say, we owe muffins and banana bread all over town ... ;-)

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  2. If you need to rig your generator to your furnace (and a few other things), our neighbor (two houses down) Joe's son is an electrician, and he did just that for our neighbor Evelyn (just across from the Biergarten).

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