Outage

Yesterday was eventful, as usual. I awoke at about 2:30 in the morning to a flash of light and a crashing boom. The storm had caused our power to go out. I got up and called in the outage and spent the rest of the night getting in and out of bed to tend the 3 month old. We didn't have electricity for over eleven hours yesterday. Luckily we have a generator, which we turned on periodically to keep the refrigerator cold and to flush toilets and get water. (Our well pump is electric.) It was a first world problem, for which I am only grateful. It makes me appreciate what we have on a daily basis. My children got a kick out of seeing the repair men too. But it still complicated my day.

Additionally, the tractor place came and hauled off our tractor for repair yesterday. It needs a new clutch, which my husband can't replace himself because it is part of the tractor's structure and requires special stands and such to complete. A giant flatbed came and took it away.

My oldest boy installed the new belt on the riding mower yesterday as well. My husband had made the long drive to the big city to pick up a new belt from the dealer earlier in the week. They gave him the wrong one. He found this out only after trying to put it on. But he went back and got it exchanged, and my son put it on. Unfortunately, the intermittent rains we've been having are seemingly never ending, so between the delay in lawn mower repair and the tractor repair being completed by someone else who is "scheduled out a few weeks", the place is getting rather jungle-ish.

After the power kicked back on, I washed laundry and dishes like crazy, and the children flushed the toilets with abandon. After the tantrum-ing preschooler wound down and the teething baby fell asleep, we finally got around to collecting another water sample last night also (water quality issues, well repair/modification).  The jar has to sit for 48 hours before we can read the results. Hopefully it turns up clear. I'm tired of the brood washing and brushing with the filtered water at the kitchen sink. Oh, and I took a much-needed, long shower. That was nice.

gratuitous photo of my teething 15 week old

I did discover that the telephone line is down, though. I hadn't thought to check it earlier, assuming that the cordless phone was out of commission due to the lack of electricity, so something unusual was saved for today. What would it be here on the homestead without a daily adventure, anyway?! Besides, I get swallows over the hay field, the screech of baby birds being fed, the smell of French Toast, baby smirks, and cool breezes to tide me  through today.