Mar 5, 2019 3 min read

Another blanket of snow is covering the ground, and cold temperatures are again clinging to the air. I no longer believe in what the groundhog said last month, but I am hopeful that the old adage “in like a lion and out like a lamb” holds merit this year.

Perhaps worse than the snow and cold temperatures was that windstorm last week. Coupled with the soggy ground from the excessive precipitation we had last year, the wind just tore trees up by their roots and laid them over in yards, fields, across roads, and of course, across power lines.

We lost power at home Sunday morning and got it back Monday evening. It wasn’t too bad for us, as we normally heat with our wood stove and we have a small generator that we can use to keep our food safe in our freezers. We have access to running water at our many springs in the pastures, so we were able to keep our toilet flushed, as well.

I know others who weren’t as lucky, having their power out for nearly four days. I think the trees being down made it more challenging for the power company to make repairs, as safety concerns are different when working with trees and limbs. In addition, those high winds lasted for a long time, and being in the air in a bucket truck with arcing power lines whipping at 50 mph doesn’t sound safe or fun.

We had no power at work, either, but we stayed open and made the best of it. Already touted as somewhat old-fashioned in our approach to customer service, hand-writing slips and calculating totals without the use of computers made it feel like we were actually employed by one of the olden-day mercantile shops.

We used flashlights to show customers merchandise in the back corners of the store. We wrote down SKU numbers from the shelves, figured prices and added tax, but were only able to receive payment via check or cash. There was no heat, so we worked in winter coats and hats.

I was surprised at how many customers we had, although I guess if you have animals, they need fed regardless of the weather. Unfortunately, many people were looking for propane to keep heaters running, but we were unable to pump it without electricity.

We had power back at work the next morning. Still, it took us quite some time to key our previous day’s transactions through the computer. Without that, our inventory and sales records would’ve been messed up indefinitely, but we were very pleased to discover we were only nine cents off in our calculations.

I also appreciate all of the calls, texts and emails from people checking on my well-being after missing last week’s column due to the power and cellular service outages. It appears that everything is back on track this week. As far as I have heard, all power has been restored. It was just in time for Sunday night’s snowfall. Hopefully, no one loses power again this week.

And hopefully, this is winter’s last hurrah and spring will spring soon.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.