Wet and Icy

I heard ice and rain hitting the window during the night.  Monday morning we woke up to a drizzly rain and an ice covered landscape.  The temperature hovered around freezing all day as the rain kept falling and the trees had ice build up.  The wind was stiff, which made it dangerous to walk under the trees.  Branches were snapping sporadically and falling all over the yard.  We lost one of my cherry trees.  The lights flickered a couple of times, so I hustled through chores and finished grinding feed trying to beat the anticipated power outage.  We lost power around lunchtime, but I didn't hook up the generator until late afternoon.  D-I-L and new grandson spent the day with us because they had no power since early morning.  Throughout the day, just about everyone in the area lost power.  Roads were closed due to downed power lines and flooding.  We cancelled our evening Christmas gathering.  I filled the generator tractor with fuel at 11:30 P.M. and at 5:30 A.M.

View from the kitchen window.

The morning after.

After chores on Tuesday, we sent the generator down the road for the day to my Brother's house.  Ameren kept giving us expected restoration times and then missing their prediction.  Son #2 started picking up limbs and branches in the yard in the afternoon.  That ended up being a big job that carried over to Wednesday.  We kept our Tuesday evening Christmas gathering plans in Gridley (after shaving, showering and dressing by flashlight), and had an enjoyable time.  The generator was back when we got home, so I filled the generator tractor with fuel one last time at 11:00 P.M. before going bed.  I woke up at 12:30 A.M. and looked out to see our signal light was on telling me the power was restored.  I slipped on some clothes and went out and shut down the generator and switched back to line power, then headed back to bed.  We were out about 36 hours, but we have friends and neighbors who are still out.

Our rainfall for the year is about 14" above normal.  Most of the excess came in June and December.  The fields are saturated and the ditches and ponds are full of water.

Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
Isaiah 28:2