Andrea Doughtie, Rural Painter

Life in Vermont is not all beer and skittles. Thursday we went into town in the morning to shop; then saw “Les Mis” at the theater in White River Junction (motto: “White River Junction–it’s not so bad”); and from there went to an art opening by a wonderful Strafford Artworks member, Micki Colbeck. It had started snowing a little after the play but by the time we left the opening it was really coming down; cars were going off the road. We crept home, using a back road to avoid the highest hill,  and it was a relief to get safely in.  The snow was pelting down. Then, sometime before 2:00 a.m. the power went out. That’s not usually a big problem because our expensive super back up battery kicks in. We tried not to use too much power all day Friday to conserve the battery but at 8:00 Fri. night the battery quit. We had gotten the house really warm so were comfortable reading by candlelight and warm in bed under comforters. But I tell you, we really hated to get up yesterday morning because we knew it would be cold. We dressed in many layers, Ed built a fire in the fireplace– psychologically helpful but actually almost no heat. By then the phone was dead as well so in my morbid mode I started worrying about all kinds of emergencies where we’d need a phone.   When Ed went to take the recycling in he was able to check the recorded message at the power company which assured us that we’d have power by Monday night–Yikes!  Then we started worrying about the pipes freezing since the temperature was dropping every hour.  The house is relatively new,  pretty well insulated but without any heat we didn’t know if it was insulated enough. Friends with wood stoves invited us to their houses but we felt we needed to keep stoking the fire to keep the house as warm as possible. As soon as phone service was restored a friend called to cancel her dinner party. Since she has a gravity-feed well that doesn’t require a pump she offered us some water–all sold out at the general store. But then–hallelujah!–just as we were getting terribly cold in spite of all our clothing, the power came back on. I never thought electricity could make me so happy! Now every time I run the faucet or turn on a light I’m grateful. We went to a big cocktail party last night and everybody really bonded over the stress of the last couple of days. We have to do something, either a wood stove or a generator. After the ice storm in ‘99 the power was out for three days and that would be a disaster. But–silver lining–the world was beautiful with all the ice coating the trees. When the wind blew you could heat the limbs clicking against each other. Here are a couple of photos.

I was sorry I had to point the camera right into the sun but the sun coming right through the ice was what made it all so spectacular. I’d love to be able to figure out how to get that effect in paint.