Our adventure at home

Monday was the little man's last art class. He was sorely disappointed to see it come to an end. While he was in class the older two and I went to the library. My oldest was complaining as he did not want to go. Once we got there, he actually found the most books! And found some more he wants to check out next week

Wednesday, we knew a storm was coming, so while the older two finished their art lessons, the little man and I went to pick up supplies in case we were stuck for a few days. Good thing we did.

Thursday we awoke to a raging storm, the wind howled and snow blew. Sprintime in Montana! We had just started our schoolwork and the power went out. The kids finished as much as they could on the computer battery power, but that does go down quickly.

I was able to get the radio running and found there were power outages all over yhe area. I called to let the power company know we were out and they told me it may be a while, we had a transformer station down, as well as broken poles and a fire on 2 poles that lead to our house. We got to practice homesteading and self sufficiency.

We kicked up the fireplace, which the kids love when we do that, I called DH and asked him to pick up some water as we loose our water supply when power goes out.

The kids and I did chores as best as we could, then we read for while. Mostly fun stuff, poetry and short stories. Lunch was leftover fried chicken. I did get a giggle as each of the 3 children headed to the microwave to heat up their lunch and the realization that it does not work without power. To funny!

We gathered buckets to melt snow for the toilet, which they found fun. The oldest saw we were going to run short on firewood, so he took the inititive to go outside in the snow/rain and mud to get more to dry out so we could burn it for heat. He provided enough until well after Papa got home.

When hubby got home, he stocked the house with firewood, brought in 30 gallons of water in jugs, and took over the managing of the fireplace.

Dinner was soup, as I can use our gas stove, but not our oven when we have no power. We also ran some hot soup and Tea down to my mom's house (we hoped she would join us but she did not).

After dinner we broke out games. Popped popcorn on the stove and made hot chocolate.
When it was time for the younger two to go to bed, there was still enough light, but soon we had to light the oil lamps and candles. The oldest got a kick out of writing a journal entry by oil lamp and remember that is how Abraham Lincoln learned.








By the time I went to bed, the bedroom was cold, I snuggled under the blankets praying that the Lord would guard us through the night. Hubby slept by the fireplace to keep that running all night.

Friday we woke to still now power. The kids were impressed with the fact that dishes can be done by hand, after warming water on the stove. They were not so thrilled at the "spit bath" idea, but those were done quickly and into clothes that had been warmed by the fire. We continued with our chores and played some more games. The kids were disappointed when the power came back on. I was relieved, concerned that we would loose all the food in the fridge and freezers.

It is now Saturday morning, we have electric now, but still no water (damage done to a specific line, we are waiting on the power company to come fix this.) I MISS RUNNING WATER. Hubby has taken the empty jugs to refill them as we have no idea at which point the lines will be repaired. The power company has their hands full with this storm.

A good lesson as we are learning what we need to do for future outages (like water storage!), things that worked well and things that did not. HMMMM how do I put this in their schoolwork? life lessons?

What looked like a regular week at the start, quickly turned into an adventure!