Isaac

It has been a long time since I last posted.  I'd like to say I was holding out for the chicken contest results, but it's not true.  It's been so long because we were busy with the storm and then after the power came back on, our computer wouldn't.  Brian ended up putting a different power source into the computer.  So, now we're back in business. 

 

Speaking of the chicken contest, I'm proud to say that Matthew won with his chicken name.  We're looking forward to our prize!

 

 

 

Now to the news . . .

 

We started preparing for hurricane season back in June when we purchased whole bunches of gallons of water.  When we found out that Isaac was coming for us we had to get serious. 

 

We dragged the generator out of the storage box but it wouldn't start right away for me.  Brian had filled up our two tanks of gas for it.  After several tries it started!  I was so glad.  Brian also took down a few overhanging branches before the storm.  I had just done a big grocery shopping trip (as part of my meal planning) so we just picked up a few non perishable things.

 

As part of our storm prep I roasted two turkeys - that way we would have meat for sandwiches after the power went out.  During Gustav (2008) we had no power for 6 days - so we wanted to be prepared. 

 

We moved the generator over to the patio and then ran some extension cords in the house.  One for the two deep freezers, one for the window AC units in the schoolroom and one for the refrigerator. 

 

Our nearest gas station ran out of gas so I went early the next morning to one further down the road to fill up the can that we had emptied into the generator.

 

We were set. 

 

Then we waited.  LSU was cancelled on Tuesday and Brian also had the day off work. 

 

But Isaac didn't come. 

 

Wednesday we woke up to this.

 

 

Rain and lots of small branches down on the patio.

 

 

We set the candles out.  The boys carried on with school but the candles were pretty distracting.

 

Dark view out of the school room windows.

 

We took the opportunity to make soup and chicken nuggets for lunch while we still had power. 

 

We lost power at 12:30 on Wednesday afternoon.  So, just in time I guess. 

 

 

After lunch some of us took naps.  It's a lot of work waiting for a hurricane to come.  We were tired. 

 

 

We have two skylights in the schoolroom and although they have caused us some trouble with leaking in the past, they are really great for letting in lots of light.

The kids spent a lot of time coloring in the Angry Birds coloring book I bought for the storm.

 

 

That night we had the First Annual Smith Family Hurricane Talent Show.

 

All of the acts were performed in the living room by candle/flashlight.  Prizes were awarded at the end.

 

James did some kind of juggling (he called it hand/eye coordination)

 

James and the girls performed a song

 

There was some sword fighting

 

Andrew and Alyssa sang "Proud to be an American"

 

Brian and I hosted a group Hokey Pokey

 

The girls and little boys danced and sang "Move-It" from the Madagascar films. 

 

It was cute, funny and hilarious all rolled into one. 

 

Then we had a little Bible study.

 

 

 

 

Then it was time for bed. 

 

We were still not dying of heat so we decided to leave the generator off for the first night.  Keep in mind that we were still expecting the "worst" of the storm and had Gustav power outages in our minds. 

 

We woke up Thursday morning to . . . NOTHING. 

 

The power was still out and it was cloudy with occasional rain, but hardly any wind AT ALL. 

 

We decided to run the generator for the freezers and fridge so we got that going - it all went smoothly.  It ran two deep freezers, the fridge and two window AC units with no sweat. 

 

We turned the generator off just before Brian went back to work. 

 

He called us from work to check on us and just after I got off the phone with him the power came back on! 

 

About an hour later, at lunch time, Jon was turning off all the lights - he wanted candlelight for lunchtime. 

 

So, we were able to check the radar of the storm after that.  It seems that we had the front rain/wind and then we were in the 'eye' of the storm and the back of it just kind of dissipated before it got to us. 

 

Thank you, God for keeping care of us! 

 

LSU resumed classes on Friday and there were still some traffic lights out on the route.  And, I tell you what, it's kinda scary out there.  People don't know how to treat a traffic light that is out and it's very dangerous being out and about with them. 

 

 

So, that's the news from Isaac. 

 

Stay tuned for what we did after the storm and how we spent our Labor Day weekend!