It’s post-Irma.  We were so very lucky.  The eye went over us at about 2:30AM early on September 11th.  It was a Category 2 Hurricane by that time.  It could have been a Category 5 like in the Caribbean Islands.  We are so lucky.  We lost trees, but no lives.  We have fencing repairs, but not home repairs.  The sound is deafeningly quiet today.  I wouldn’t have thought it was so very loud during the storm.  But my ear drums feel numb & buzzy right now just like after a rock concert.  So it must have been loud.  I just don’t remember that.

I do remember a scary sucking noise around the doors.  It was a noise you could hear/feel/sense all at the same time.  The hinges and locks on the doors were straining and creaking.  A hurricane is serious business in the day light, but it takes on the unimaginable after night fall.

 

Even where our little farm sits———we are lucky. Further east was hit much worse than us with the storm bands.

 

ALL of our animals came through unscathed—–very wet, not so happy, sleep-deprived,  but unscathed……………………………Their ID’s stayed on. Their fly-masks (to protect their eyes from flying debris) stayed on.  Most of the fluorescent spray paint on their sides (our telephone number) stayed on.  And most of the fluorescent surveyor’s tape stayed in the braids in their manes & tails (albeit some were eaten off by herd mates)……………………I’m sure I will be finding the resulting, glow-in-the-dark manure here in the near future.

We do have quite a few downed trees……………………most of which aimed for the fence line.  So much so that there was a unanimous, family vote that we just change the fence line, rather than chainsaw the trees that fell over it.  (Again this is a good time for my Father’s adage———-“Just like the man who sat on the cactus, it seemed like the thing to do at the time”.)

Why hit your head with a hammer unnecessarily?  We take “easy” wherever possible.

On any given day during a normal, summer, tropical storm we loose electricity.  If you sneeze too forcefully in the front yard, we loose electricity.  We were sure we’d be one of the first to be out of power. Ole’ Sparky was primed and ready to crank over (theoretically), but……………………..somehow, miraculously, we have kept our electricity throughout.  I heard that at least 60% of Florida is still without power.  I also heard numbers like 4.4 million have no electricity.  Wow.

During the night, waiting for the arrival of Irma, we started getting short power outages.  But it never stayed out for more than a few seconds.  So I figured the time was nigh and I should prep some of our hurricane lamps.  I had the oil.  I had the wicks.  I had the lamps………………………..

My older daughter was watching me intently.

When I was finished, I set two of them on the hearth.  My daughter asked me how they would work?……………………………………(?) Hmmmmmmm, sensing a generation gap coming………………………..

I know I’m a late-life mother, but I didn’t think there was THAT much difference in our generations…………………………..I mean, I had a hurricane lamp in my bedroom when I was a child…………………………..as a toy………………………..WITH  matches……………….and they weren’t safety matches either!

Maybe it wasn’t my parents’ most cautious decision for a child’s room accoutrement………………………….(I actually had scarier ones).  But back to my daughter.  Her next question was priceless……………..

She checked out what I had done.  Looked at all of its features.  Then carefully put it back down on the hearth.

Then…………..(here it comes………..) she asked……………….”How does the oil get from the bottom up through the metal thing to the wick so you can light it?”………………………….I had so much fun saying—————–

“Honey………………..by wicking.”

Those little words make so much more sense when you have their original meaning illustrated right in front of you.

She was concerned about the dangers of having a lit oil lamp in the house, but I put her mind to rest by saying she should be more worried about the old, faulty wiring in the walls…………………this house is a BIG electrical question-mark.  Hoo-Boy!………………………..I think I put her at ease about the open-flame & adjacent/abundant lamp oil…………………………I think so anyway.

Our septic system held true!!!  Tum!  Ta!  Dah!  We were able to flush throughout.  And this was good because along with hurricanes comes cyclone-related I.B.S.

So a cracker-jack septic system is always a plus!!!!!

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We have to get the boys out of flooded pastures…………………………Horse hooves & extended periods of time in water are not a good mix…………………..just think of how your fingers look after a long soak in the tub……………………….now think of pruny-looking horse hooves.

So my husband, my daughter and her boyfriend all banded together and temporarily extended the stallion’s pastures to dry ground (my artificial knee is just not ready yet for mud bogging).  Our thoroughbred (Mason) immediately started testing the new pasture-line’s hot wire (which wasn’t hooked up yet)………………………..

Well apparently Mason was leaning on the electric wire/trying to push it down/all four hooves in mud puddles/when the wire went “hot”.

Geez, I wish I’d been there to see that………………..those moments are so very satisfying and perversely fun for me.

Message to Mason:  STAY IN YOUR PASTURE!

Becky’s just not interested……………………………………………………….