You may not understand the dates December 9 through 23, 2007 but that’s what the ice storm we had herre in Tulsa. Here at the “homestead” it was a brutal two weeks as far as living went.

The storm started with rain on the 9th and then through the night and morning of the 10th it was freezing rain. Right at 4 AM on the 10th, we lost power. Now you may think you are prepared for emergencies like this (I thought we were OK) but if you don’t give it some thought you really aren’t prepared. It continued freezing rain through the 10th and 11th and into the 12th. By this time things were really getting bad. The temperature was down to 48 degrees in the house. Guess where it was warmer, in the refrigerator where it was 52. The only good part was we had hot water. But have you ever tken a shower and stepped out into 48 degree temperature? Its cold. Reminded me of the time I spent in Korea.

Finally on the 13th when the house got down to 46 we went to Matt’s house to spend the night. This was the first day we saw anyone from the power company in the neighborhood. No work on there part but they were around. Nothing against Matt or the accomodations but it wasn’t a very good night for sleeping. For four days up until that time, we hadn’t really had a good nights sleep. We were just terribly tired. About 4 PM on the 14th we were about ready to go and spend the night at Matt’s again, when the power came back on.

Lucky enough I got the pickup moved from the driveway to a clear spot in the neighborhood on the morning of the 10th. By the 11th our driveway was completely blocked. For the next 12 days it was clean up time. The driveway took two days to clear. It would have been a lot faster if my chain saw would have started, but it didn’t so I had to use a hand bow saw. All the “stuff” in the freezer and frig had to be tossed. Limbs onto the fences had to be removed. Following the instructions from the city I got most of the down limbs into piles in the back yards and in the front. Of course over the next week they changed there minds about what to do with all the fellen limbs. Put it curb side they said. This required moving all the stuff piled in the back yard from the back yard to the front curb.

We are now almost 4 weeks into this event. We still haven’t seen an insurance adjuster and haven’t been able to get our “tree guys” out. We have limbs that are just hanging in the trees, just waiting for a gust of wind to shake them loose and onto the roof. There are broken limbs in the trees. We may have roof damage to go with the fences, guttering and other areas that were damaged. The power pole in our back yard never fell (all the poles to the south of us did fall) but it is split. The power company guys said it will have to be removed but “should be” OK for the time being.

Now there is probably another month or so before we know what’s the final tally will be around here. Now Karen was without power for 10 days or so and had damage similar to ours. She has had an adjuster out but is awaiting the “tree guys”. Laura was without power off and on for two or three days but they lost water pressure as the water station lost power. Matt was without power for a few days but they were able to keep the fire place going until they ran out of wood after two or three days.

We had lots of blankets, portable radio’s and even a hand held 2 inch TV plus lots of batteries. We certainly could have used a generator at least to keep the frig and freezer going. Maybe even hooking up the computers to the generator for a few hours and certainly having the ability to plug in an electric heater here or there for a few minutes. And we should have had the fire place relined and in working shape. We needed candles (the long stick type) as the little candles in glass jars may smell nice but they don’t put out any light. Need to get the chain saw working again.

All of this takes effort and I can assure you working in the yard 6 to 10 hours a day wears you down at least the 77 year old type. My hip is just now getting back to feeling half way OK after two weeks of a little rest.

I will put the pictures I have taken on another page. See Below.

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Laura and Steve live in Skiatook, OK, which is about 30 miles to the North-West of us. They live on 20 some acres of wooded land. These next four (4) pictures show some of the damage they had.

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On September 20, 2007, we lost a very close family member, Ovella Taylor. Ovella 72, was the wife of Paul Taylor, Marie’s brother. She died surrounded by 12 members of the family at her sons home outside of Mannsford Oklahoma.

We are putting in place a DVD of some of the many pictures of Ovella and the family and we hope to have it available in the next week or so. If you are interested in a copy of the DVD, just send Marie or I an E-Mail note at “budmarie@aol.com”.

Bud