All for a shower

Woops, forgot we left our tree in the middle of the road! You can see the power lines coming off the pole on the right side of the frame and running along the ground. Large tree hung up in the wires.

At the crack of dawn this Saturday morning, Tim was up and getting our house running. The order of the day: to take a shower. The first step of course was to get Grandpa's freezer connected to the generator so we could leave guilt free for the day for more parts. After letting the animals out, getting the generator going and running extension cords to Grandpa's tv, the internet, his heater and freezer and lights, we were free for our outing. Only a 40 minute drive each way, we headed north to Oak Harbor, also providing the perfect opportunity for some reconnaissance work.

This does explain why our power is out! And knowing that it is like this and worse all over our island! Evidently, the fire department chop up the wood and leave it stacked on the side of the road - at least when there are cold winds that knock out all the power, free firewood is in surplus.

Our power allegedly comes from the north, from Classic Road, so we went to see what was holding up the flow of power and make our own estimate for when we might be back on. To the south, we had already seen a large tree pinning down the power lines and are confused how anyone that direction can have power. If that was the not-so-bad side, we wondered what might be in store for us ahead. As we drove towards Classic Road, power lines alternated between running along the ground and trying to hang on to crooked power poles. More large trees lay on our lines, and the down power lines wrapped around our street sign; and then we got to the 'Road Closed' sign. I guess this was the okay stuff! We parked and took Tilly for a walk to scope out what could be worse. Are power poles supposed to be slanted like that? A power line and tree lay across the road, solving the mystery of why no through traffic was allowed. As we surveyed the scene, the power company drove by, looking to be taking pictures and surveying the damage themselves. Though there were a few orange cones by the hazards, no work crews were anywhere near the three large breaks we identified, or anywhere else on our road. We took Resort Road and continued north around the closed Classic. The residents of Resort Road had the advantage of some sections with underground power lines, but where the lines came above ground, both their power and phone were severed. We have been very lucky to still have our phone when homes all over the island are without even the ability to call for help.

I would say those three roads are all out of luck!

With the damage surveyed we confirmed, 'yes, our power will be out a while longer and it is worth taking action to resolve on our own now.' We passed at least 5 large line-fixing trucks heading south as we neared Coupeville - a good sign for us and our south-end neighbors! Though of course we are not high on the priority list and they were not heading for us. At Home Depot, everyone else had beat us to the good supplies for generators and extension cords. The Saturday afternoon after the wind blows out most of the power in the county is probably a little late to stock up on supplies, but we were able to find most of what we needed and got the last plug end from Ace before heading home.

This road is closed. All the roads were covered in branches like this - I don't think the city truck with the snow plow came down this road...

Through amazing skills and talents Tim was able to get our generator hooked up to the well pumps to re-fill and pressurize the water tanks, then connected the generator to the house for light and tv and all the other luxuries and amenities that power provides. Grandpa asked about the hot water heater, so we fired it up and the generator made no complaints. While the water heated, I made use of the propane oven to make some pizzas and got roaring fires going in both the upstairs and downstairs fire places to thaw our fingers and warm the house again. The upstairs fireplace is amazing and blew 500f air into the room soon after getting started, quickly turning a few logs into heat for the whole high-ceilinged, large-windowed open space of the house. The downstairs fireplace isn't nearly as productive, but after removing 10 gallons of ashes, there is a huge improvement in the heat output. With warm houses, warm water, lights, and full water tanks, by after dinner we were finally able to have a hot shower! Delightful what we can do in a power outage.

..Probably because of that. Power lines running across the road, large branches and trees down... And up there at the top of the pole something doesn't seem quite right. Many of the poles have crooked cross arms or the whole pole is leaning significantly. Just a little wind caused a lot of trouble here on Whidbey!