Arkansas flooding & disaster preparation

This past week we've received 9 inches of rain here at Big Rock Farm.  Thankfully, we haven't suffered any water-related issues.  We had standing water in the yard for a day during the heaviest rain. And we had standing water again yesterday.  This really doesn't cause us any difficulty.  We have to manage our water usage - our septic tank can't drain in such wet conditions.  There's no where for the water to go.... But once the standing water was gone, we're back to normal.

Many people in our area are not so lucky.  The town of Hardy had flooding on Monday, April 30th.  Here's a few pictures.

Hardy AR. Located on the Spring River

Hardy is located on the Spring River.  This is not a record level high for the river.  The bridge you see here in the center of the picture was built in 1983, after the previous bridge was washed away in a flood.  That was "the" flood.

Our friends live along the Spring River in the town of Ravenden.  Their yard gets flooded several times a year, but the house has never been wet.  Here's a picture of the water level sign by the bridge near their home.

Water level sign in Ravenden, AR. Located on the Spring River

The Spring River flows into the Black River.  The Black is in serious flood mode right now.  The towns of Pocahontas and Portia are being seriously fit.  People have been evacuated.  The local highway is closed.  We can't get to Jonesboro due to the flooding.

Pocahontas, AR. Located on the Black River

Road sign near Portia, AR. Located on the Black River  

 The White River is also flooding.  Batesville is also being evacuated.

Batesville, AR.  Located on the White River

Thankfully, our circle of family and friends are all safe and dry.  Many people aren't.  Having emergency supplies and a family plan are vital.  All the preparation in the world does you NO good, if you don't have a plan for using them.

My friend Dixie Gordon told me about Smart911 on Wednesday. I'd never heard of this service.  Local 911 personnel can access the data you've entered regarding you family, home, vehicle, medical issues & any animals/livestock you might have.  Here's the link: Smart911.com

My friend, Gena, and I had a booth at the local Ren Faire.  It rained the first day and was very windy the second day.   I think we earned enough to cover the cost of the space.  Just.  Anyway, we did talk to many people.  I enjoy showing people my spinning wheel, explaining how it works & how textile really effect our lives.  Most often, the kids think of Sleeping Beauty.  The men who stop by want to know how the wheel works & the women usually ask about colors & dyeing.  We pass out business cards & invite people to contact us if they're interested in learning spinning, weaving, knitting, crocheting or dyeing.

Me, in costume, spinning at the Ren Faire

Some perspective on "off-grid" living

OK.  I admit it.  I like the modern conveniences of life.  Indoor plumbing, a refrigerator, washing machine and dryer, lights, TV, computer.....

But, I grew up in the 1960's.  In rural Pennsylvania.  On a dirt road, in the woods.  We did have electricity.  Thankfully.

The old homestead, barn, out house, chicken coop.

 We had an outhouse (a 3 holer!)  And a chicken coop, there's also a little building down by the creek off to the right of this picture.  We called it the "pigpen" even though we never had pigs.  When we got a pony and horse, it became the "stable".  The field to the right was the pasture.

The old red barn was torn down during the early 1970s.  There was also a cow pond off to the left, just off this picture.

This was a 39 acre homestead, I lived on this property the first 18 years of my life.  I loved that place!  Most of the property was wooded, but off across the field shown on the lower right here there was 5 acres of blueberry bushes.  YUMMY!

Behind the house was a covered back porch.  Off the porch was the well.  Complete with a little well house, windlass and bucket.  We even had a church pew/bench in front of the well house for us little people to stand or sit on.

That well went dry every summer.  Which sucked!  No water.  That means using the outhouse.  When I was little, we didn't have a phone or TV.  We did have a radio.

The dirt road in winter

 This is a portion of the road we lived on.  I think we were 5 miles off the "blacktop".  The road was well maintained, but could get pretty icy in the winter.

 

And in summer

Here's the same section in summer.














Now I want to show you OUR house.

NE side of our 12 sided house Spring 2013

 We live in rural NE Arkansas, on a long gravel drive.  We're 1/2 mile off the highway.  Our property is 42 acres.  Mostly wooded.  It's very hilly.

Front porch 2013

 We have a nice covered front porch.  Complete with rocking chairs and dog houses.  Our well house is off behind the house, near the south property line.  I've posted pictures of it before.

North flower garden, veggie garden & workshop.

This section of my flower beds is off to the north side of the house.  I planted lilacs, in honor of the bushed I loved playing under as a kid.  They were located to the left of the house pictured above, beside the large corn field.

Anyway, our beds are filled with edible plants.  Herbs and strawberries.  The guineas and the dog ate most of the berries before we ever got to them this past year!

The same view during the big ice storm 2009.

Here's the same view, in the aftermath of the big 2009 ice storm.

Now, here's the thing about "off grid" living.  During this storm, we were without power for 10 days.  We do have propane heat and a freestanding fireplace in our den.  We also have a bed in the den, and another bedroom off the den as well as a bathroom.

But, no power means NO water.  And for several days, we had NO PHONE.  No cell service.

Our driveway during the big ice storm 2009.

 Our drive was blocked by fallen trees.  It took us 3 days to cut our way to the road!

South entrance 2013.

Here's the south entrance to our home.  This bed is in full sun all winter.  And mostly shade in the summer.  Which is great, because my indoor plants get plenty of sun in winter.  And they don't cook in the summer.  I like that.

I over winter my cayenne pepper, and night blooming jasmine, basil, a tomato, and aloe.

South entrance 2009.

 

During that ice storm, we made a fire ring and set my husband's Grandma's old cast iron laundry cauldron up.  That way we had a constant supply of hot water.  Luckily, we had a cast iron clawfoot tub in the bathroom off the den.  We filled a "solar shower" with hot water and could take a nice hot shower.

My brother-in-law Joey and his family, and his friend Randy drove all the way from Georgia to help us out.  My step-son Joshua worked at Lowe's at the time, so he got us a large generator that Joey brought out.  So, now we could run the water pump.

We cooked food for 7 people in dutch ovens in our fireplace.

The house was nice and warm.  We had 5-gallon buckets with melted snow/ice  to flush the toilets with.
We kept the freezer and fridge cold with the generator.  We only ran it when necessary.  I mean, come on!  It was 30 degrees outside.  The freezer's on the unheated back porch... a no brainer.  No need to plug it in, when it's already COLD.

The 7 of us did just fine during that storm.  John and I had set our homestead up so that we'd be prepared during bad weather.  We have home canned food.  We had 2 small generators, but needed that new bigger one to power the water pump.

We have dehydrated veggies.  Flour, butter, milk... and chickens for eggs.  We have some solar panels and batteries set up for solar lighting.  Hand crank radio, rechargeable digital TV, hand crank generator for cell phones or laptops.  Hand powered kitchen appliances (old fashioned ones and/or brand new ones).  Our new summer kitchen building has a wood cookstove.  It keeps the building VERY warm, and the oven is big enough for a pizza!

Do I want to live without electricity?  NO!  Without my Roku?  Or the internet?  NO!

Can I live without it?  Yes.

I love living in the country.  Walking in the woods.  Sewing on our treadle sewing machine.  Baking bread, making cheese, making butter, canning, spinning, knitting.

But do I ever want to go back to needing an outhouse?!  NO!!!

Do I have a wringer washer? Yes.  Do I have and use a clothes line?  Yes.  Do I want to stop using my washer and dryer in the house?  NO!

People who have NEVER lived in the woods, on a homestead, in really primitive condition make the whole experience sound very romantic.  In truth, it's damn hard work.

Would I want to try raising all my veggies without a gas-powered tiller or the tractor?  NO!  Could I?  Yes.

Would I want to do my canning in our 1960's pressure cooker on the wood cookstove?  NO!  Could I?  Yes.  I could.

Do I want to stop using our propane heat?  NO!  Could I?  Yes.

Sure, we could put the woodstove back in the great room.  We still have it, and all the required stove pipe.  Do I want Josh to have to chop and split wood to keep the house warm, and so I could cook?  NO!  Could we?  Sure.  But, that's hard work!

Could we butcher a few deer, squirrel and rabbits for our winter food.  Sure.  Could we catch and process fish, and store it?  Sure.  Could we can all our own veggies?  Sure.  Make all our baked goods.  Sure.

But here's the thing.  I want to do it when I want to do it!  Not because I have to.  Maybe I don't WANT to mess with cooking today.  Maybe I want to go to town and have Mongolian Bar-b-que.  Maybe I want someone else to cook me chicken fried steak.

I like living in the modern world with modern conveniences.

I'm very greatful that I grew up the way I did.  I learned a lot.  I know how to do a lot.  I hope to keep all these skills alive and teach them to others.  But I don't want the modern world to go away.  That would be a hardship.

Ice storm and preparedness

We experienced another ice storm yesterday.  When I got up at 5:00 AM, it was only 26 degrees.  It wasn't raining out yet.  By the time I headed out to care for the chickens, it was 28 and drizzling.

Yes, liquid rain was falling at 28F.  And it froze as soon as it hit the ground.

As the day passed, we lost power twice.  Once for about 2 hours during the late afternoon.  It was 31 degrees outside.  We weren't worried because it was still light outside.  We'd already eaten lunch and Josh had the fire going in the fireplace.  We just went on about our afternoon.

Once the power came back on I decided I'd better do up the dishes and get out the oil lamps.  Now, here was a problem.  It seems that only 3 of the lamps had oil in them and I couldn't locate the bottle of oil we keep on hand.  I searched everywhere, but no oil was to be found.  Crap!  So, I put lamp oil on the list for our next trip to town.

We were also out of potatoes.  I had used the last 3 on Wednesday when I cooked pork roast.  And we're out of carrots.  I'm not really worried about that because we have home canned carrots and potatoes.  But I added them to the list of things to get.

While I was up puttering around, I filled all available bottles with water - just in case.  I keep about 30 gallons of distilled water on hand at all times.  But, I filled some various 2-liter jugs and such with well water.  And since it was raining outside, 5-gallon buckets of water (very COLD) were available for toilet flushing if needs be.  I also filled up the Big Berkey.

I decided NOT to bother getting out the Water Bob and filling it up.  Heck... I don't want to open it and use it (it's designed for 1-time use) unless I was really sure I'd need it.

We had plenty of batteries on hand.  Plus I had just invested in a K-Tor Pocket Sock hand crank generator.  It's a portable power supply that provides 10 watts, 120 volts.  Best thing, it's made in the USA!
Pocket-Socket-Generator-Portable-Supply

Later in the evening, the power went out a second time.  But the outage only lasted about 45 minutes this time.  No biggy.

When I got up this morning, it was 31F.  By the time I got outdoors to start taking care of the birds, it was 33 and the ice had started melting.  I measured the ice at 1/4.  Not awful.  And the world was lovely!

Here's what it looked like.

Measuring the ice

The ice was 2/3's of an inch.  Subtracting for the twig and dividing by 2 - 1/4 inch of ice.

Lilac and peaches covered in ice on the NE side of our house

The west side of our house

Facing east

When I went out to the chicken houses... I found them totally encased in ice.

Ice encased bird cage

When I opened this cage, the birds were perfectly happy.  The water was still liquid.  I'd say it was about 45 degrees in there.  All that plastic really made a difference.  There is only 2 birds in this cage, Henry and Jet.  And she was happy enough that she laid her egg during an ice storm!  What a gal!


No frozen combs or frost bitten feet.  Just happy chickens.

The chickens and guineas in the larger cage were equally happy, although the guinea made their displeasure at being confined well known.  Greta laid her egg, just like always.  Sissy and Missy weren't as industrious.  The bantam chickens in the cage in the background of this picture were equally warm and happy.  Pebbles laid her egg yesterday as well. 

We weathered the ice with no problems.  I'm aggregated with myself for not having lamp oil on hand.  That could be a real problem if the power outage had lasted a few days.  Thankfully, it was not a big deal.

Bad weather!

Yesterday, I touched on the bad weather that can hit our part of Arkansas.  And when I say bad weather, I mean REALLY bad weather.

Now, let me explain.  I grew up in Northeastern Pennsylvania in the woods.  It was not uncommon to get 36 inches of snow at one time.  Sure, we had floods and thunderstorms.  But during the time I lived there (1959 - 1979), I only remember one HUGE flood.  And that was caused by Hurricane Agnes.  It washed damn near everything away.  My great-grandparent's house got knocked off it's foundation and swept away when it was hit by someone's BARN!

But, the Ice Storm of 2009 was really something else!  I mean it was Biblical!  Here's some pictures from our place.

We had snapped off trees.












The power junction on the side of the house was torn off by a falling branch.  This pulled the soffett off, exposing our bedroom closet to the elements.  We were without power for 10 days.













It took us 3 days just to cut all the debris from the driveway so we could make it to the road.

My step son Joshua was living in Ellijay, GA at the time and was working at Lowe's.  He got us a generator.  My brother-in-law Joey and his family (Lisa, Jacob and Jareb) drove the 517 miles from Ellijay to bring us that generator.  Their friend Randy came along also.





That was a very hazardous drive in awful conditions.  They risked their lives to help us out.  I'll never be able to express my true thanks for their help.  And then,  Jake & Jareb stayed an additional 6 weeks to help us out.

And we sure needed their help.

The one good thing about ice is that it melts into water.  So, we had plenty of water to melt so we could flush the toilet.  We used John's grandma's laundry kettle to boil water over a fire outside.  That made about 40 gallons of boiling water all day every day.  Thanks Grandma!

We had 2 small generators to keep the freezer & fridge cold.  And the big generator from GA was strong enough to pull our well pump.  Our well is at least 400 feet deep.  That's how much pipe there is to the submerged pump... we know because we had to replace it.  So it takes a bigger generator to get that water up from the ground.

Shelter Insurance was great!  Their adjuster came out & took pictures.  And we got a check within a few days.  That sure helped pay for the repairs we needed to have done.

Here's a picture of what the trees did to John's workshop.

And to the barn roof.

We've met some other wonderful people who helped us out after that storm.  Joe Barnett came walking out of the woods with his chainsaw one morning.  And what a gift he & his wife Jackie have been.  They've been wonderful to us.  Their son Matt has become a friend, as well as their grandson Payton.

We also got to meet Rex and Jennifer Bouldin.  What wonderful people!  Rex has since passed on and we really miss him.  We still get to see Jennifer.  We've also got to know their daughter Ashley and sons Eric and Chris (and their families).  Eric's been great to us, and his son Seth is quite a wonder young man.

And let's not forget our wonderful friend Gena Stout and her husband Kevin.  We've been so blessed to meet them & have them in our lives! 

We've also had help from our friends Julie and Perry Morgan.  Their sons Tanner and Logan have been over to help cut up deadfall and make piles.  And piles there are.  Still after almost 4 years.

I can't express the wonder I feel when I think of all the people we've met and become friends with since we moved here.  Many people thought we were crazy moving off into the woods by ourselves.  Our house had holes in the walls & there was junk everywhere.  But, it's been the right move for us.

Moving to the country makes you learn to plan ahead.  If we hadn't had the time and resources to prepare for bad weather and power outages, we wouldn't have faired as well as we did during that ice storm.  We have propane heat which requires no electricity.  We also have a freestanding fireplace in our den/guest bedroom.

We had the 2 small generators to keep the fridge and freezer cold - not that the freezer was a problem during an ice storm!  Damn, it was cold!

We had a way to boil large amounts of water.  And we had a way to cook for 7 while we were doing repairs and cleaning up.  Dutch ovens over an open fire.  And it worked great.  We weren't going hungry, that's for sure.

And we had canned food in advance.  My family had done hotwater canning my whole childhood.  My husband John taught me to cook with a pressure cooker and to can using one.  And I've really been canning these past 7 years.   And now we've taught Jennifer how.

I'd always lived in the North (Rhode Island and Washington State), so I was no stranger to cold, snow, ice and power outages.  I was a stickler for having commercially canned food in the pantry just in case.  And I love to cook and bake, so we always have our pantry full.

These all helped get us through that bad storm.  If we hadn't been "country kids" and learned these lessons from our parents, this storm would have been deadly.  Instead, it was an adventure.  We had a great time with our family - eating, talking, playing board games, working outside together.  It's one of my fondest memories.