March Wrap-Up

Since I missed doing a Thursday 13, I thought I’d do a March wrap-up for the random things since my last Thursday 13.

A cat picture is always a good place to start, so enjoy this one of Charlie in a basket.  He doesn’t exactly fit in the basket, but he still enjoyed hanging out in it.

We were close enough to some of the NC wildfires to get a lot of smoke and falling ash from them.  I’m not sure how well you can tell in the pictures, but the haze is from the fires.  

We had rain yesterday and today, which has helped with the fires.  Even though we desperately needed the rain, it’s still making me nervous. 

Last week made six months since we were hit by Hurricane Helene.  The recovery process is ongoing.  Storm damage was a contributing factor to the fires.

Our wonderful neighbors have been helping us dig a dry well for drainage.  It didn’t occur to me to take a picture while anyone was in the hole.  Hopefully, you can tell from these pictures how deep it is.  I just dangled my legs in for the pictures because I didn’t want to have to climb out of it again just for pictures. 

We had four tons of gravel delivered last week for the drainage project. 

I started some seeds (only for cold-tolerant plants since we’re not past our last frost date yet) last week.  Hopefully, I’ll be sharing seedling progress soon. 

I’ve decided (at the last minute!) to participate in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.  You can read more about it here, but the basic idea is to blog every day (except Sundays) in April, starting with A on the 1^st and ending with Z on the 30^th.  Some people do themes.  I’m not doing a specific theme; I'm just trying to blog more regularly and hopefully catch up on some of the things I’ve meant to blog about. 

So, how was the rest of March for you?  Are you planning to participate in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge?

Evacuations

Lots of time sitting on I-26

Evacuations have never really been something I thought much about.  Sure, we have fire drills and the occasional bomb threat at work, and everyone has to leave the building.  And I was born in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where there are sometimes mandatory evacuations for hurricanes, but we moved when I was four.  I have very vague memories of leaving once.  All I remember is that we went and stayed in a motel because of a storm.  I’m assuming we went inland because of a hurricane.

I grew up in the upstate of South Carolina, and now live in western North Carolina, so evacuations have never really been a part of my life.  Until last year.

Our vacation to Folly Beach last year coincided with Hurricane Matthew’s imminent arrival on the South Carolina coast.  We left a few hours ahead of the mandatory evacuation.  We found out on Tuesday evening that the mandatory evacuation would start late Wednesday afternoon, so made the decision to leave Wednesday morning.  We got in touch with the owner of the house, did what needed to be done to close the house up, packed up our things, and left for home.

The drive home took more than twice as long as it normally does.  Our average speed on the interstate was about 35 miles per hour.  We saw the National Guard convoys coming in, as well as the school buses from the upstate coming to bus people out.  We saw the east-bound (heading toward the coast) interstate being shut down so traffic could be reversed.

An example of how long it took to get anywhere

 It was bizarre to see all of that, but we talked about the fact that we were fortunate enough to be heading toward home. We had to end a vacation early.  We weren’t leaving behind our home and most of our possessions.  We didn’t have to wonder if our house would still be standing in a day or two. We counted ourselves fortunate that our experience with an evacuation was on vacation.

Then November came, and large parts of western North Carolina and the upstate of South Carolina burned for nearly the entire month.  We had several days of really bad smoke.  There was a mandatory evacuation for part of the county we live in.  We never had to leave our home, but it definitely put us in the frame of mind to plan, at least a little, for what we would do in the event of a mandatory evacuation.

Obviously, sometimes there’s no warning.  People simply have to leave as quickly as possible.  For the most part, with the fires near us, it seemed like people had at least a few hours, sometimes a day or two, before having to leave.  It made us wonder.  What do you take with you?  What do you choose to save when you have to leave your home, not knowing if it will be there when you get to come back?

Even Duke was ready to get home.

People and pets are obvious.  We did go out and buy another cat carrier.  We normally don’t take all of the cats anywhere at once, so have never had need for so many carriers.  When evacuation became a real possibility we thought it would be best to have as many carriers as we do cats.  Of course there’s medication for people and pets.  Clothing.  Important papers.  We decided that pictures wouldn’t make the list since all of ours are saved digitally, but both of our laptops would.  The mat that everyone signed (instead of a guest book) at our wedding.  A few Christmas ornaments that are particularly meaningful.  A few random things with a lot of sentimental value.  Beyond that, there really wouldn’t be much room in the cars.  

So what about you?  Have you ever had to leave your home as part of an evacuation?  What did/would you take with you in the event of an evacuation?

Fire Drill, (Almost) Flaming Cat Tail, Cold Wind & Soup

Are any of you in an area being affected by Hurricane Sandy?  I suppose the more appropriate question would be are any of you NOT in an area being affected by Hurricane Sandy?

We’ve had a VERY windy past few days, and it has been cold; very, very cold.  I realize that we’re fortunate and I shouldn’t complain, but I do miss the warmer weather.  Our area has had some power loss, but we’ve been lucky so far.

The wind has been blowing lots of things around; we’ve lost a Halloween decoration, lost some branches, and gained a bunch of leaves.  I think the branches and leaves are a pretty fair trade, so nothing to complain about there. 

The building I work in lost power yesterday afternoon, so we were able to go home an hour early.  We apparently lost power at home at some point (the digital clocks were flashing when I got home yesterday), but it was back on by the time I came home from work.  Some of the traffic lights were out on way home, but were working again by this morning.  It seems that the utilities people are doing an amazing job keeping things up and running here.

I decided that this was the perfect weather to try a new soup recipe.  Soup is just so perfect for cold nights, and I thought there was a reasonable chance we’d end up with company due to power outages, or end up at my husband’s grandparents’ house if we lost power (they live on the opposite side of town, so we were going with the thought/hope that at least one household would have power).  So a big pot of soup seemed like a good idea.

I found this recipe for Beer & Cheese Soup.  It was delicious!  We didn’t have Dijon Mustard, so I left that out.  I also added one extra cup of cheese.  I thought it was a little on the salty side, but my husband didn’t.  I think I’ll use half the salt the recipe calls for when I make it again, but it was still fabulous.  It makes a lot, so it’s great for a crowd, and re-heats well.  I didn’t serve it with popcorn either, just bread. 

We have turned on the heat in both parts of the house now that it is so cold.  We have a room that’s an add-on, so it’s not part of the central heating and cooling system.  It has a wall heater that is natural gas.  It isn’t pretty, but it keeps that room very warm, and my husband says it will work if we lose power.  We plan to eventually replace it with some sort of gas logs fireplace type thing. 

It turns out that “eventually” may need to come sooner than we thought.  Tara was walking around the heater last night (it’s next to the cabinet we keep their food in) and brushed her tail into it.  Her tail was on the flame!  It was one of those heart-stopping, I can’t believe this is happening moments.  We both just knew she was going to catch on fire.  She scares so easily and always runs when she’s scared, so we were terrified we wouldn’t be able to catch her quickly.  Somehow, she didn’t catch on fire.  Her tail wasn’t even singed.  I think it took some years off both our lives, but she is fine.  We turned it down to the lowest setting, so there was less of a flame, for the rest of the night.  We also locked all of the fur kids out of that room. 

I’ve been emailing my husband various fireplace screens that I’ve found online.  We will probably be ordering one tonight.  I don’t know if we can take another close call like that.  We have to keep the fur kids safe. 

This morning they apparently decided to make us pay for the extra hour off yesterday.  We had a fire drill shortly after 8:30.  I have no idea why they picked a day when it was 34 degrees and windy for the fire drill, but they did.  We spent about 15 minutes standing outside shivering and complaining.  I think we made it back inside in a lot less time than it took us to leave the building!

Here’s wishing for warm, sunny days for everyone.  I hope you’re all staying safe and doing well during the storm. 

Volunteer Firefighters

Think about the last time the local fire department came to your home or business, or the last time they directed you around a wreck on the interstate.  There’s a pretty big chance that at least some of those people weren’t being paid for the work they were doing; they were volunteer firefighters.   

The reasons for becoming a volunteer firefighter are as varied as the men and women who choose to volunteer, but include following in a parent’s footsteps, a desire to help and improve the community, a need for something exciting, or a desire for positive role models.  Regardless of the reasons for volunteering, volunteer firefighters provide valuable services for their communities including responding to medical calls (approximately half of all volunteer firefighters have an EMT certification), traffic control, and rescue work, which includes everything from people stuck in elevators to vehicle extrication, as well as preparing landing zones for emergency helicopters. 

Volunteer firefighters are highly dedicated, usually spending a minimum of about 35 hours per month on training, meetings, and responding to calls.  Many have been volunteering for ten or more years, and plan to continue volunteering for many more years.