The Power Went Out

We woke up yesterday morning to a yucky rainy day. By lunchtime the weather seriously began to change as heavy snow began to fall. The hwy to Ear Falls was closed around 11:30 am due to a serious accident. Rumour has it that a young woman flipped a dump truck closing both lanes of traffic.
Around 2:30 pm  when he power flickered the first time it was quickly restored. The second time we were not so lucky.  

I picked the kids up from school at 3:30 pm to find that the entire region was without electricity. The girls and I slogged home through the snowy streets and decided to make the best of a bad situation. We made snow men and snow forts outside until T can home from work around 4:30.

T and I hauled the generator out of the garage and powered up the pellet stove. We didn't realize then that we could have also powered up the fridge, T.V and satellite!!

None the less we were warm and dry and had the BBQ to cook dinner. Hydro One stated that the power was going to be up and going by 8 pm so were were not worried.

Leftovers on the BBQ was a little tricky but I was creative and made it work!

We spent the rest of the evening playing cards, colouring and watch movies on the Macbooks.

The kids set up a comfy bed next to the pellet stove to keep warm.

The power did not come on as planned. T had to zip into work around 10p, as his sewage plant had difficulty when the mine's generator kicked in. He was out until 1:30 am. He had heard that Hydro workers tried until near midnight before calling it quits for the night. Our generator ran until around 2am before running out of gas. Wisely we had the stove running full blast to keep the house hot.

We woke early, T went for more fuel while the kids and I lounged around the house. We had received a lot of snow over night and many of our trees had taken a beating. 

I boiled hot water on the BBQ for porridge, coffee, and hot chocolate.

The kids decided it was more fun to play outside than hang out inside in the dark. They created a pretty awesome snow fort and spent most of the day trudging trough the snow rolling and shaping snow balls.

We finally realized that the generator could support the pellet stove and T.V late in the afternoon, so T and I watched a little Nascar to pass the time.

After being told the power would be restored several times (10 am, 3pm, 5 pm, 6pm) it finally came on at 6:30 pm.

Facebook has been filled with stories of how local families survived the 27 hours without electricity. Some of us were lucky enough to have generators and wood stoves to keep warm. Many others however spent the day and night cold and in the dark.

We learned a lot from this adventure : keep extra gas and propane on hand ( we ran out of both - I waited at the pumps for nearly an hour to get gas). Have emergency cash! We often don;t have cash- luckily the girls are loaded!! Store extra bread in the freezer - pb&j go a long way if needed! other than that we did ok! 

Finally, I have to say how proud I am of the girls, they handled the situation very well. They didn't complain at all and had a ton of fun playing together both inside and out :)