Shack Wacky

I think I'm figuring out what cabin fever feels like.

We have been snowed in for just over a week now. We have been without power, without heat, without diapers, without life sustaining medicine, without milk, without fruit and vegetables, without meat.

We've been living on pancakes made with water. We have water.

And I've realized, we could all be dead back here, and no one would know. We could be dead a week and no one would know.

Well, except for the fact I was able to text Steadfast "no power" with my dying cell phone (can't charge them without power, you know)... He is off in California with Elizabeth and Mary. Working hard while the girls stay with my parents. So he knew we had no power and our phones weren't working. Had the power stayed off, he would have noticed, and caught the next plane home.

When the power went back on, a sweet lady from church called. She asked how we were doing, and I told her we were unable to get out and we were without diapers or life sustaining medicine. And she said "okay, well, let us know if you need anything" and hung up. I wondered for a moment what would happen if I called her back and said "we need diapers and life sustaining medicine", but I didn't want her trying to get out here and getting stuck and freezing somewhere.

Steadfast called a colleague at work who came out in their SUV. They were unable to get through, but hiked down through the snow in their nice shoes and brought us diapers and shampoo. Bless their heart. I have cloth diapers, but I didn't have any power to run the washing machine, and washing diapers in below freezing temps is really hard on the hands.

I wonder how pioneers did it? Many did not even have a church family to forget about them. They didn't have phones to lose power. They were without those things to begin with. I remember in Laura Ingalls Wilder's book "The Long Winter" how they twisted straw all day long, without stopping, just to keep their fire going. We had no place for a fire, and our goats need all our hay. But I guess if we lived back then, we would have made sure to have a place for a fire. Thanks to Steadfast we have a healthy supply of firewood. Just no place to burn it. :) I know my cousin Brenda would have us just build a fire in the middle of the living room floor, wouldn't you Bren? :D I wonder, now, how much trouble I got into as a kid and it was actually her fault?

I remember the Ingalls family had to grind wheat in a little hand crank coffee grinder all day long without stopping, just to make enough meal to feed a family of five for supper (Mary was away at college). How blessed I am with my electric grain mill and 25 lbs of wheat berries! When that power came back on, I ground and ground in case the power would go back off again, which it did, a couple more times... but I had my canister of ground wheat! Bread making elitists would say "you should use it right after you grind it, it's not as healthy if you wait". Well. health, smealth. :D At least my children are not hungry. And surprisingly in all this, our chickens are still laying 3 eggs every two days. :D We're going to put eggs in those pancakes tonight!

Or maybe.... we have a bit of a thaw going. The 8-12 inches of snow in the driveway have shrunk to about 6-8 inches... I'm eyeing it, willing it to melt some more.... There is a tree weighted down with ice bent down across my driveway... if it pops back up after the ice has melted, we just might make a run for town... and La Rosas. Mmm... La Rosas. But first I'll make a stop for some life sustaining meds. And the package the FedEx guy called to say he'd leave at our neighbors' house yesterday, since he couldn't get to our house. I wonder what it is?