Fun on A Cold Wintry Wyoming Night....NOT!

6 pm - Dark out, snowing like crazy, wind blowing.  Animals are all fed and watered.  Hubby & I enjoy stew and homemade bread for supper.  Watching streaming TV on the Roku....fire merrily blazing in pellet stove.

7:04 pm - power flashes 2 times, goes out.   Hubby groans, pellet stove automatically switches over to back-up battery.  No TV, No radio, I forgot to charge my kindle, so no reading either.  Hubby says mild swear words.  Calls power company so we are on the call back list with updates on power status.  Told power will be on at 11 pm.  We sit and stare at each other in the dark, and sleep .....

Hubby is a Master at Sleeping in Place

8:45 pm -  I give up and go to bed with lots of covers.  Hubby sleeps on couch in living room to man the pellet stove, our only source of heat.  Stronger swear words about power company as I go to bed.

Use bathroom and flush the ONE tank of water we have down the toilet and hope power will be on Soon.

11:00 pm - I wake up to flashlight coming through bedroom.  Battery out on pellet stove.  Hubby coming in for some more clothes as he has to go out with battery to charge it up on pickup.  Calls power company, finds out restoration time shoved back to 3 am.  STRONG words about power company.  Hope power will be back on soon.

11:30 pm -  Hubby comes back in with battery partially charged.  Pellet stove back on,  Temps down in middle 60's in house.  Pray power will be back on soon.

3:00 am - NO POWER.  Battery out again.  Hubby looks different and language is barely understandable other than he his MAD.  Refuses to go with battery yet again.  Says power is suppose to be back on shortly.  Curses....repeatedly.  I go back to bed.  Realize we never may have power again----EVER.

4:30 am. -  NO POWER.  Temps in mid 50's in house, it's damn cold.  I put on my coat, and head scarf and call power company.  Restoration  time now 8:00 am.   Check gun locker and make sure it's still locked.  Inform hubby.   WORDS.  Hubby goes out and charges up battery again. I've given up and wonder what my fate will be. Death at the hands of this mad man or simply freezing to death.

5:00 am -  Pellet stove going again.  Still cold, cannot catch up.   I stay in coat, scarf and sit on couch.  Hubby has many many words about power company including 'grenades', pieces of s..., etc.  Plotting revenge.  I say nothing.  One wrong word and this guy will kill ME.

7:00 am - Hubby goes out and gets propane tank off BBQ grill and Little Buddy Heater to help pellet stove catch up.  I turn on gas oven and stare at mound of dirty dishes from supper and guess water is probably froze up.  Don't know, power out, no water. Hubby Struggles with tank, heater for quite a while.  He calls Power company, restoration time now 1:00 pm.....words under his breath, not discernible.

7:50 am -- Hubby has Little Buddy lit up and heating.  56.8 degrees in house.  Still in coat, scarf, and non verbal as threats are flying fast and furious.  Power company will be toast when this guy catches up with them.

8:05 am - POWER COMES ON.  Blessings, water is not froze in kitchen sink, I do dishes, fix breakfast.  Hubby returns to normal and goes to bed.  Cranky, but not a zombie anymore.  

And so goes life without power at 60 Miles North of Nowhere.

Hope it stays on - lows of -4 tonight predicted and -12 Sunday Night........Keeping fingers crossed.

Winter Moon

I think the Ground Hog has Committed Hari Kari....

I think maybe the Wyoming Ground Hog just committed hari kari (japanese ritual suicide)

Why?? -- I just got an email weather warning for a Winter Storm beginning Saturday afternoon....well I suppose I should have suspected this would happen.  We NEVER get spring six weeks from February 2nd, Ground Hog's Day.  We are lucky if it's spring 10 weeks later.  I've seen Springs in Wyoming that did not arrive until after the first of May with May First ushering in the snowstorm to end all snowstorms.  My freshman year in high school, none of the ranch kids made it to school for a week after May 2nd, 1965, because they were all helping dig out cows from under the drifted snow.  They would find them by the 'air holes' that came steaming out of the drifts.  Quite a few cows were not so lucky and died.  It was the talk at school for a long time about how they found them and what they found sometimes.

On to more current happenings:
I did reposition my snow stick yesterday on my way to work ---

BEFORE - barely holding up

I think it was 40" here. (from top of 48" stick)

AFTER REPOSITIONING IN THE MOUND BEHIND IT.

Now it's at 23" from top of stick.

I have the sinking feeling this could all change drastically by Sunday....

My road has MUD!! at least yesterday in the am (well it was ice but it melted to MUD).

And Another One Bites the Dust: First it was the thirty-some year old Crapper Brush; I have been on the brink of having to replace my eons old Bugaboot snowboots.  The foot that has the poly-something making them waterproof is cracking after so many years.  It's been a shock.  Snow boots are now over a $80 - $100 for a good pair!  HOLY SMOKES. I think I paid $29.99 for my Bugaboots on sale about 9 years ago.  I've decided to put off the purchase thinking one or two more storms and winter will be over and I can go back to my 'pig' boots (so named because they are calf-high and mud-proof and what you would wear to feed a ......what for it.....pig!!).  I'll dig out the GOOP tonight and do some patchwork on the Bugaboots.

Lest you think I'm cheap...I do buy things.  You know the ol' patriotic duty to buy us out of this recession.......

I bought.........................

No More Straining Coffee Grounds outa my teeth when the Power is Out!  I won't have much, but by cracky, I'll have ALL the coffee I want!!!

And I bought TWO of these 

 One for each bathroom.

What's that you say???  What is a five gallon gas can doing sitting next to my toilet?  Well look at this...

Another one in the bathtub and an empty kitty litter jug full of WATER.  All three are full of water for when I have NO power.  Toilet Flushing will still be possible (unless the darn sewer line freezes but we won't go there AGAIN hopefully).  So we are set for the on-coming possible snow storm.

Here's our weather forecast.  Doesn't it just sound L-O-V-E-L-Y?

Saturday Night: Snow. Low around 9. Wind chill values as low as -10. Blustery, with a north wind between 23 and 29 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible. 

Sunday: Snow, mainly before 11am. High near 13. Wind chill values as low as -15. Blustery, with a north northeast wind 23 to 26 mph decreasing to between 11 and 14 mph. Winds could gust as high as 37 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible. 

So the question is - will our power stay on?  Maybe, Maybe not.

And for those of you who thought it was cruel to Jerry aka Shitmeier when I clipped him, he got even.  He came in from 'helping' feed livestock so stinky it was BEYOND belief.  He had eaten something really poopie or really dead.  UGH.  Instant trip to the Bath!!!  It WAS BAD.  Now he will probably throw up on my carpet.  Ranch dogs....................................................................sigh.

I tell yah, the WOMAN is positively obsessive-compulsive about giving me baths.......

Well, we'll be hunkered in and waiting for this snowstorm....but it takes snow & rain to make grass so I guess I cannot complain.  At least the road has melted enough to be plowable again.

CALGON Take ME AWAY!!!!

Came home from work to find A) Grumpy Bear aka Hubby had worked his tail end off ALL DAY and was well,  grumpy extremely tired and exhausted.  And his accomplishment - he got the water back on!  Only to have the pressure switch on the well quit..........................................

Now I may be a Bear of Very Little Brain but the ONE THING I've learned living Sixty Miles North of Nowhere is to keep an extra Pressure Switch (and maybe two) on hand!!  (Pat myself on the back here. Note - replace it TOMORROW)


The whole house has....well,,,,,er....an aroma.  Like a still plugged sewer line, like a decaying frozen whale in the bathroom.  You know it smells like shit not exactly like an air freshener.   I need a semi load of Febreeze.

The bathroom commode (along with every other drain in the house) is still non-functioning, nada, zip, zilch, ZERO, FROZEN shut.  So even though we at least have livestock water, we cannot use it in the house............................oh well.

Perhaps tomorrow said Pollyanna.

And on that end I did discover NOW was not the time to say "And how did your day go, Dear?" Nah, I didn't do that.  I KNOW better. Ever notice how we as young brides were prone to do stupid crap like that?  Not anymore....with wisdom comes age. The only damn benefit to getting old.

 I tell him I was a good investment - I grew every year!!!!! I

am twice the woman I was in 1973. Come to think of it, it was 
below zero the day this picture was taken.  

Doesn't it EVER Warm up in Wyoming???
NOPE.

Well I have to go -- outside---quite literally....give me a minute.

Ah back now.  Which brings up a question, what do eskimos do?  Do they have an igloo outhouse?  Is it white inside????   Hmmmm inquiring minds want to know.  And how do they keep from getting butt cheek frostbite?  I would think that could be one situation where 'layering' clothing was NOT your friend.  Think of trying to pull up all those layers in a hurry at 50 below.....I'd get mixed up and walk like a hog-tied penguin for the rest of the day.

But I digress. Eskimos have their own problems and I have mine.

I have noticed how my page visits have SHOT UP since my shitter quit.  Is this the secret to blogging success?  Are you all tuned in to see if I will survive the lack of a commode?

Or slap the crap out of Grumpy Bear and blame him like that dysfunctional chick on Teen Mom? It's your fault Gary. It's your fault Gary.  Gimme a break here Amber.

Maybe I have the material here for a new sitcom.  Two People and A Half Commode.  Well in our case it is still NO Commode.

Seriously, I do find the event of having my own waste come up in my bathtub rather distasteful.  Thank you very much Rotten Miserable Power Company.  You might think you had me fooled with your nice timely phone recorded messages. "Our power crews are working on the problem.  We are aware of the outage in the your area and 320 customers are affected.  We estimate your power will be restored at __________(pick a time because they ALWAYS called back and extended it another two hours)."

And 18 hours later - "Your power should have been restored at 2:47 pm.  If not, please call this number.  This outage was caused by SNOW."  WHAT????  What snow - we had only gotten about an inch at this point.  Your system cannot take an inch of snow? Or 13 below zero which is common at North of Nowhere? 

Oh yeah, I forgot.  As your recorded messages came in on my phone, at first it was 320 households without power, then 120, then finally 27 --- AH HA.  That's the number of users on MY FEEDER LINE - My 60 year old feeder line (I kid you not folks, the power line was built in the early 1950's. I still cannot believe they charged us almost $10,000 for 3 spans 10 years ago to hook into that crap piece of line).  And you guys just told me you traced the entire outage to that line in a 1" SNOWSTORM!!

Here's a clue Rotten Miserable Power Company - maybe you need to REPLACE that line. (I used to work for a power company that built private power lines so I know a thing or two here guys.  You need to get up earlier to pull the wool over my eyes.  I didn't fall off the tomato truck yesterday you know.)

Well the blogging adventure continues....thanks for all your comments guys.  I read every one of them several times and tell myself, ah ha, someone else has gone through this.  They lived through it, and so shall I.

I will do as they say - "TIE A KNOT IN THE ROPE"

(Only I will be on the other end of it - you know who Power Company will be on this end).