I forgot to update this, but we got lights back on Friday night at 9:30pm. We were in the middle of watching a movie on the laptop when the lights came back on.

Erica and I lost lost the lights about 9:30 on Sunday night. I went over to my Brother’s house and got my Generator so we had light for a few hours each evening. We tried to conserve gas by running the generator just long enough to cool the freezer and charge the cell phones and my laptop.

Before the lights went out, I had downloaded some movies that I wanted to watch, and a few TV shows that we had missed so we could catch up. It was nice watching TV on the laptop. Each charge was good for 4 hours and it turns out we had just enough charge and enough canned video to watch each night.

We used the Jotul wood stove to heat the house every night so the house was warm. It was not a terrible experience. Sitting in near darkness for a few hours before going to bed actually helped me to sleep at night.

The yard did not do well. A very large and very old Silver Maple broke in half and fell on the chicken run, barely missing the coop. There was minor damage to the coop. When we came out in the morning, the chickens were all loose, but the racoons did not eat them in the night. The chickens seem oblivious to their near death experience, event though the chicken coop must have been rocked nearly off its foundations.

A very large White Pine came down in the back and fell on one of the bee hives, smashing it to tooth picks. I repackaged the bees in a new hive, but I am not sure they will make it through the winter. They were exposed to the cold and rain for quite a while.

We hired the guy who provides our firewood to come and cut up the silver maple. We have quite a bit of wood for about the same price as cord of wood, so it was a good investment.

I missed three days of work, so my paycheck was a little short. Other than that, we were inconvenienced, but did not suffer at all compared to many many other folks who lost everything in the storm.

We had Omelets a few nights, and since we rarely eat eggs, it was an opportunity to enjoy our own fresh eggs (delicious) and live off of the land.

Perhaps it was just good luck, but we were well prepared for the storm and weathered it as just a slight annoyance. Next time, I will have more gas, more batteries, and more movies ready. I am going to try to get a “Whole House” hookup for our generator to make it easier to use. It’s nice to be part of civilization again, though.