Stygian Darkness

Random notes from the powerless. Do you know how dark it gets at night? When there are not street lights, no night lights, no illumination from clock radios, or LED lights from computers, etc. Dang! Its Dark! I was thinking of Stygian Darkness as I stumbled to the bathroom the other night. And, amazingly enough. One candle makes all the difference!

Things learned:

1. When you're cold. Cold water makes it bone-chilling cold!

2. You can't have enough candles. We've been reading by candle light at night. The tapers give off the most light down to the page, but burn faster than the fat ones. I went to a hardware store for a paint brush to finish the cabinets at Adam's house. I heard the clerk say: "If it heats or lights.... we don't have it." No candles, no batteries, no flashlights, no heaters, no generators.

3. When the need arrives, the time for preparation is past. So many people are discovering the need. My neighbor quoted a lady she talked to: "I wish now I had not bought those clothes I don't need and I'd spent the money on a generator." We are SOOOO grateful for our generator. It allows us to get on line, to do laundry, to take a WARM shower, to cook.

4. You can't use a gas oven with the power off if it has electronic ignition. We kept the power on to turn on the oven. But when it gets to temperature, it turns off... and doesn't come back on. We had a little underdone bread the first day.

5. An emergency radio is really useful. We've cranked ours up and listened to news. However.... plastic cranks break if cranked too vigorously.

6. Keep your gas tanks half full or more. Tom had just filled up. How great to know we didn't have to wait in lines for gas. For the first few days the stations were without power and you couldn't get gas.

7. Colored glow sticks are for fun, not illumination. If you want even a "nightlight" kind of illumination, get the untinted ones.

Time for the generator to go off. The icicles are off the clothes line and today the sun is out. I think I'll try hanging the laundry outside today. Church is canceled tomorrow. It still has no power either.

A Natural Disaster

Front Yard Tuesday. Notice the skyline behind the trees in the front yard.

Then compare that with the skyline on Wednesday's photo. The hight of the treeline is reduced. Every tree looks like it has sticks on the top. The crowns are broken off. Many of the branches are broken leaving only jagged stumps stabbing the sky.

We had a good steady freezing rain all day Tuesday. Tom wondered about the tree on the side of the house. He didn't have to wonder too long. By late afternoon we heard some cracks and found branches on the roof and on the side of the house.
This tree branch rests against our bedroom wall. It knocked a picture off on the wall. And if you look very carefully, it looks like the drywall has a small crack in it. Tom moved the branch away from the house. It's really only minor damage.

Today I stood in the yard just listening to the drip of melting ice and the clatter of falling ice. Occasionally there would be another crack or a series of cracks. While I was out there, the cedar by the circle drive dropped a major branch, and then the entire top of the tree broke and fell to the ground. The huge oak in front had a cracked branch leaning on some others. In the short time I was out there, it cracked some more, then all three branches broke. Unfortunately, they didn't fall to the ground, but hung up in the tree.


Tree house Tuesday Morning.

Treehouse Wednesday morning. The railing took a hit from a falling branch and many of the tree branches are down. As I stood outside, I heard ice clattering off the roof of the tree house. Maybe it's a good thing it has a metal roof.

Today they said 3 weeks to a month before the last person has power restored. While the ice is diminishing, cars or trucks have taken out low power lines and a series of utility poles. No wonder they keep saying to stay off the roads. Below is one of the huge oak trees in the pasture that is totally uprooted.

Tom calls this a squirrl-proof bird feeder.

Disaster Zone

Monday the predicted ice storm moved in. The direst predictions came true. Freezing rain, ice, snow, more freezing rain. By Tuesday morning we had a beautiful world. Ice covered everything and shimmered in the daylight. But it kept raining.

A little before 9am on Tuesday, our power went off. As the rain fell, it froze as it touched the trees and the ground-- over 2 inches of rain... which meant over 2 inches of ice. We had some trouble with our generator-- overloaded it and it threw the reset button. But we didn't know that. All we knew was that we couldn't get power in some of our outlites, the lights wouldn't work some places. Of course it wouldn't power the heat at all.

So when night fell, we used candles and used the wood burning stove. Even with the blower motor off, it gave out some heat. Afternoon and into the night the trees became encased in ice. The bent. They snapped. By evening, it sounded like gun shots going off, followed by a crash as another branch shattered to the ground. Lightening flared periodically. But it wasn't lightening, it was transformers, or power lines snaking down and flashing great blue light up to reflect against the clouds.

We read by candle light around the kitchen table and went to bed. Snap! Crash! all night long. It seemed like there couldn't be a tree left standing! When we awoke on Wednesday morning, we saw a changed landscape. No tree was left unscathed. Branches bent to the ground under loads of snow and ice. Huge limbs broke and lay piled beneath trees. When we did an afternoon walk... and still branches were snapping... about 10 huge trees had been uprooted and lay sprawled across the pasture, or had cracked other trees as they fell in the woods.

I need to turn off the computer now. We only run the generator a few hours a day. Will write more later and send photos.

Attack on the Kitchens!

A week ago Thursday we had tickets to a Dallas Brass concert. These are five very talented musicians who gave a superb two hour performance. Their last performance in Mountain Home was six years ago during a hail storm that literally rattled the building and delayed the performance. Not only are they impressive musicians, but when they visit the local schools they teach, encourage, and mentor the classes. Then during part of the evening’s performance, the school bands play with the Dallas Brass. A most enjoyable evening.

We have finally resolved one of our remodeling dilemmas. A couple of years ago we switched out cupboard handles in one bathroom; we liked them enough that we decided to do the remaining bath and downstairs kitchen (all three had the same cabinetry); unfortunately, we could not find enough to do the bath – until now. Are you ready for the story of the expanding project?
One of Tom's projects was to remove the last eight or nine sheets of paneling downstairs (mostly in the kitchen area) and replace them with drywall to match the remaining part of the downstairs that was done two years ago. As long as we are doing that, why not replace the 30 year old cabinets? And what about making that kitchen into a function kitchen – complete with stove, microwave, frig (we currently don’t have those three aforementioned items there) and new cabinets? See how this project has grown?! Since we will put in ‘knob less’ cupboards, the bathroom will get the knobs from the old cabinets. All for the want of seven knobs and we get a kitchen makeover!

A sister in the ward is an interior designer and was delighted to come look and provide suggestions and assistance. She had some good ideas which we will include in our remodeling. We will work on it when we have the money available; things like the stove and frig may have to wait a couple of months. Tom has already removed the drywall and half the cabinets. The now exposed cinderblock wall will need to be painted with drylock to keep out moisture and new wood supports installed before the drywall can be installed. That shouldn’t take that much time, but…

While we had Leslie look at our kitchen, Sandy also took her over to Adam’s rental house (which is currently empty) for suggestions. She really got excited! There's lots of room for possibilities. The house is 60 years old with probably the original cabinets-- so things can only get better.

So with our downstairs in a state of destruction, Tom spent Saturday removing Adam’s cabinets—and the dead bugs that went along with them. That left about 3 different colors on the walls.

Okay, so maybe things can't only get better. Tom filled holes, sanded and primed the wall. He had to be extra diligent since a potential renter was scheduled to look at it today.

We will purchase premade cabinet sections, stain and install them. Hopefully we can get all this accomplished this week – We have another kitchen needing Tom's attention! Maybe we need to take lessons from Steve S on how to do remodeling from a distance!

Sandy writes: We had some days this week that got up into the 60’s and I took advantage of them to prune back the dead mums. We also severely pruned the great rosebush that arched over a cattle fencing trellis to the east of the house. It was collapsing the thing. So before spring, we need to replace the trellis with one of heavy wood.

I've been trying to be more diligent with her exercising. I've been going to curves and trying to walk around the property on the days I don’t go. I figure around the perimeter is about a mile… and safer than the street. Still with the Harry and David… and the Sees Candy Cynthia and Jim sent… and the candy Kathy and Steve sent… and the goodies Sally sent … and the candy Sue and Steve sent… I'm not winning the battle of the bulge.

On Friday Sandy went to a Relief Society Soup class. There were lots of good ideas for nutritious and tasty soups, and one VERY rich potato soup made with cream. Sigh. Why are all the best tasting ones, not low cal? Friday afternoon we went on a “date.” Out to some houses to look at repair work needed, out to the Home Improvement outlet to look at cabinets, and then to a late lunch.

Today I spoke in church on Pres. Monson’s talk: Finding Joy in the Journey. I think it went well. My mantra this week has been: I CHOOSE Joy! After church, the Rasmussen’s came and brought most of lunch so we could home teach/ visit teach them. Mmm. Good soup.

Our young adult group is growing. We had a young woman with a 2 year old child baptized last week who is YSA age. Another in our ward looks to becoming single again and two of her YSA aged siblings just moved to town. Oh, and one college grad. is home preparing for a mission. We are having a fireside at our house today and hope to have a good group.

Crater Lake Trip

This picture doesn't really fit with the title, but we were excited to Arrive on Amtrak at Klamath Falls, be met by Adam and Savannah, and drive through the snow back to Medford when we arrived for a visit December 20th. On January 10th Randy and Geneve Spencer and Adam and Savannah and Tom and I drove the 2+ hours to Crater Lake. The day was sunny and beautiful so we had a spectacular snowshoe guided hike up to the perimeter of the crater. The Ranger did a great job of explaining how nature adjusted to the 500 or so inches of snow that fell each winter.

We were amazed at the 6 feet of snow that had already fallen. Note the visitor's center behind us. We had to enter via a tunnel into the place.They say if you can walk, you can snowshoe. That's mostly true. Just don't try to step backwards. Geneve, Randy, Adam, Savannah, Sandy on the show shoe walk.

It was amazing to see all the snow and ice on the trees. Tom at the precipice of the crater.

The I-have-been-there photo.

The scenery was stunning. Absolutely incredible. It was so cool to be there!

December's sort of Mini Sister's Reunion

In December when I visited Mom, Sue was scheduled to come down, so Sally took a day off and Cynthia came over. We had fun!

WE SANG!!! Every Christmas song in the Presbyterian Hymnal... and then some more.

WE cooked. Or at least we hung out in the Kitchen. I didn't know a spatula would stick to a pan like that, did you?

Just kidding. Everything is Fine, just fine. Really.

I really don't know what we were discussing over the stove. but the series of photos looked funny to me. Like a child with her hand in the cookie jar. "Cookie? What cookie?" Anyhow, a good time was had by all.

Sunday Letter-- Walking on Water

We returned to our real home in AR on Wednesday.


Monday was mostly a ‘finishing’ day at Adam's. Install trim around the door, window and tub; touch up the paint; install the toilet-- see previous post; fix a squeaky swinging door. I also finished a couple of smaller projects on the exterior of the house. We went out for Mongolian BBQ and ate more than we should have. Then came back and finished one or two more projects, to include rewiring the guest bathroom light switches and outlet. Between Adam and I, we managed to get all the fixtures to work without burning down the house, so we considered the job successful. There is never enough time to complete all the ‘honey dos’ on the list; when it got to be 930 pm it was time to stop, and I did.

Monday Sandy went to lunch with a friend she met at Curves, then in the afternoon she packed for Tuesday's departure. We had traveled west with four bags, one of which was mainly gifts for others and anticipated a lighter return. Not to be. You can’t stay in Harry and David land without accumulating more stuff (all of which is worth it!). We traded Adam a smaller expandable bag for a larger one he had obtained from us years ago. Sandy’s first packing of that bag weighed in at 75 pounds; only 25 too many! It took her three more attempts before we got it down to about 50 pounds. Of course the domino effect came into play here; you can’t reduce the weight of one bag without having to shuffle the goods in the others as well. Even with all this effort, we still left two boxes in Adam’s care to mail home to us.

Randy and Geneve, Savannah’s parents, arrived before 6 am to drive us up to Portland to catch our 2:40 flight. We had an enjoyable 4+ hour drive there, and even had time to stop at the IKEA store and do some shopping and eat lunch-- yum. Swedish meatballs! They dropped us off at the airport with plenty of time to spare. We really had a good time with the Spencer’s while in Medford and appreciated their driving us to Portland. The troublesome suitcase weighed in at 51.5 pounds, but they did not ask us to reduce the weight to 50 – we expressed profound appreciation for that charitable act. Our Southwest flight actually left a couple of minutes early and arrived a few minutes early in Las Vegas, where we had a two hour stop over. Again, we left a little early and arrived about 10 minutes early at Tulsa; Miranda was kind enough to meet us there at 1130 pm and bring us back to her house to spend the night. Of course we couldn’t go right to bed, we had to visit…

Miranda was able to go to work late, and had blueberry muffins ready for our breakfast when we finally got up on Wednesday morning. Then she was off to work (Dan, as usual, was on the road on Tuesday night), and we headed to Aldis for some quick grocery shopping and two of our favorite used book stores, where we unfortunately were limited in browsing time. We needed to be home to teach a New Testament class at 6 pm. We did arrive with sufficient time to unpack and put away a majority of our stuff before leaving. We had a good lesson with the adults and then, instead of teaching the young adults, there was a baptism scheduled for a young single adult female, so we attended that exciting event.

It is good to be back home. The house was just as we left it, but the weather took a nose dive. In Oregon the lows had been in the 20s; the highs in the 30s or 40s. Our first night back was in the single digits! And the next two days barely got above 20 degrees. On Saturday morning Tom did something he'd wanted to do for years: walk on water! Okay, so the ice on the pond was thick enough to walk on. But by that afternoon, when the temperatures warmed up, it was no longer safe to do so.

Some important lessons learned while helping Adam and Savannah with their bathroom: A tool belt is a very handy device to have for such projects; a speed square is an invaluable tool; a worm drive skill saw is superior to the regular type of skill saw; and people who loan you their tools are indeed good friends.

After getting our house in order, it was off to Adam’s rental house to do some repairs there. His tenant paid rent last month with a bad check and then up and moved. The property manager had their handy man haul off the left behinds and we had our neighbor clean it before our return, so we didn’t see the worst of it. We did get the carpets cleaned and a new stove installed besides the little maintenance things that were required. There is still some paint touch up to do and it should be ready to go.

I also returned on Thursday to teach GED at the rehab center. Prior to our trip west, I had been working with three clients to prepare them to take the GED test, which they did the week after I left. It was comforting to me to learn this week all three had passed!

Diary of a Bathroom

It's hard to believe the amount of work accomplished. We arrived to see a cement foundation with floor joists. The first day Tom and Blake (Savannah's brother) took down parts of the existing exterior wall.

Then Blake and Tom decided to investigate under the house. They dressed in old jumpsuits. Tom's had no zipper... hence the duct tape. Under the house was muddy with some stuff that fell down, but they cleaned what they could and decided the rest could wait until summer and dry weather. It was about freezing while they were working.

They had to finish cutting through the wall. (Behind the black tarp is the rest of the old bath and the door to Savannah and Adam's bedroom.) Not a lot of security there, and a whole lot of cold air. Up went the wall frame. Then the roof joists and finally the roof. Then on to the exterior walls. ( The did put the tub in before the walls went up. Wouldn't have fit otherwise.)

After the walls came inspections, insulation, electrical, more electrical... and some more. Inspection... drywall, drywall taping and texturing, more mud, more sanding... tile, grouting, etc. It sounds quick when you fit it into two sentences. Sandy tiled the shower surround and helped with the floor tiles. Tom and Adam did a great job grouting and cleaning the grout from the tiles.

Here is the almost final version of the bathroom. Everything is done except the vanity countertop, putting in the sinks, putting shelves in the opening in front of the tub, and putting on the toilet seat. Oh and sealing the grout.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work we go... and some fun

It was an interestingly busy week with moments of frustration, jubilation, awe, wonder and gratitude. We do live exciting lives!
The goal of the week was to ‘mud’ the drywall, get the walls and ceilings painted, tile the floor and hook up the plumbing. We mostly achieved that…just read on. I spent some time mudding, sanding, and mudding some more. It actually turned out pretty good; the challenge was trying to do more faster when the mud was slow to dry. And then we did take some breaks from the work to retain sanity.
Sandy, Adam and I joined Savannah’s parents Tuesday evening at the local bishop’s storehouse to can some bulk items for the family. We managed to get 125 number 10 cans canned in less than 2 hours. Wednesday morning we attended the Medford Temple; it was a large group with about 30 missionaries in attendance. Thursday morning we took the official tour of the Harry and David complex; it is amazing how they produce such a variety of specialty foods, and it all started with pears back in the 1930s.
Okay, now back to work. While waiting for the mud to dry, I built a shelf at the head of the bath (between the plumbing and wall), we installed the backer board for the floor tile, and I installed the exterior soffet. Wednesday evening, Sandy held an essential oils party for Savannah’s friends; about 12 attended. Meanwhile I sequestered myself in the bath and spent two hours sanding the drywall. When finished, I felt like Pig Pen in the Peanuts cartoon, leaving a trail of drywall dust where ever I went. I actually climbed into the bath tub to disrobe and then take a shower.
Thursday we started tiling the bath; we put up 12 inch square tiles and painted the walls and ceiling. That evening we also invited the Spencer’s to dinner and ate the small turkey Savannah got from work. We then used their manpower to move the 74 inch vanity out of the garage and into the new bath into its 75 inch space. Friday, Adam and I got the final coat of paint on the walls, Sandy finished tiling the tub and we were able to install the medicine cabinets, lights and such. Adam jumped in to grout the shower area – a MESSY job.
(Sandy takes over the writing) Saturday morning Adam and Savannah had a primary activity to attend. Then we hopped into the Spencer car and drove to Crater Lake. WOW. Talk about beautiful. They had 72 inches of snow on the ground (average annual snowfall is over 500 inches), trees were flocked in snow and some bent nearly to the ground with snow and ice. We took a ranger guided snowshoe hike and learned about how nature adjusted to winter. It was our first time at Crater Lake and it was a fun and beautiful trip. We took turkey sandwiches and the Spencer’s made hoagies, so we had plenty to munch on. When we returned about 6 pm, Adam went to work to finish the grouting. It’s beginning to look a lot like a bath room now.
Adam’s ward has been very welcoming! I feel like I’m getting to know people and now we’re leaving. This morning I tried the knife trick of stabbing the avocado pit to remove it, and ended up stabbing my hand through the avocado instead. Poor judgment. Goodly amount of blood. Small hole. Slathered oils on it, and it seems to be doing okay.
It’s time to be thinking about how we’re going to get all this stuff back home! We just seemed to attract more things here—Especially Harry and David things.
We hope to be posting photos shortly.

My goal was to begin a blog this year. Okay, the first unexciting post is our weekly letter:

We have been at Adam’s house for 2 weeks now. Work is progressing on the bathroom. The first week seemed to be spent out in the cold doing exterior work. Monday Adam and Tom finished the roof and shingled it and put up most of the siding. Tuesday Tom finished the siding. There was a rush to find a plumber who could rough in the tub and sinks so it could be inspected and we could stay on our time line. Alas, I fear the time line suffered a set back with the electrical. We got the rough structural inspection and the rough plumbing inspection done on Wednesday. Blake (Savannah’s brother) manned the fort while Tom and I went to the Temple with Randy, Savannah’s dad. Geneve, Savannah’s mother, had been feeling poorly since Sunday.

Tom started on the electrical on Tuesday and was working on it on Wednesday when the inspector came. It was quite a job—running wires from the box, getting the right circuit breakers, wiring the switches and outlets… and the lights, and the jets and heater in the tub. This led to late nights and a disgruntled Dad. The Electrical inspector instructed us on some code things we didn’t know. He also had some good suggestions and even drew a diagram. There were calls to Andy and Tom employed his help. Adam worked with him and ultimately they called in a friend who showed him how to do the last things. Finally on Friday we got another electrical inspection and passed. On Friday we also got the insulation inspection… even though we needed to go back and staple the insulation flaps. He again had good information about how to deal with the crawl space opening—it’s below ground level. So the rest of Friday and into Saturday was sheet rocking. Oh, and cutting holes in the walls for the medicine cabinets that Adam and Savannah chose Friday Night.

Sandy’s part of the project has mostly involved trips back and forth to Lowes, to Grover’s electrical, and even a day at the Re-Store—a shop run by habitat for humanity that has lots of recycled home things—doors, windows, toilets, tile, countertops, light fixtures. It’s a venerable cornucopia of useful things. Adam and Sandy had a great time there checking things out. We got a gallon of primer for $5.00 and a ceramic soap dish for free since he bought something else. Tile was about 50 cents a tile and the beautiful decorative ones were like $2 a tile. Sandy tried to talk Adam into a vanity countertop with built in sinks and the faucets, but he wants tile.

Sandy had great plans to spend time working on her Young Living Business, but has done less than she thought. The excuses of playing gofer, going to Curves, having to check or hold something, and the lure of a few books have taken up far too much time. I guess it’s time for more discipline.

We went out to dinner on the 30th to celebrate Blake’s 14th birthday. And we celebrated the new year by watching “The 10th Kingdom” a miniseries of about 10 years ago that Savannah had. Fun Stuff!