We had very strange weather at the end of October. One day it was a beautiful fall day with the trees a mass of color.

The next day, this was the view with 10 inches of snow eventually falling.

The night after the snow fell, there was the constant sound of trees falling and limbs breaking. The electricity went out Saturday afternoon. We have an all-electric house and a well so no electricity means no heat, no light and no water. We had some water for drinking and melted snow water for flushing the toilets. We also use the melted snow for bathing and washing hair the first few days, however, since we had thrown bird seed on the snow, you had to be careful when washing hair with the snow to scoop out the bird seed.

The electricity remained off for six days. In addition to the damage to the trees, electric poles were broken and down all over our area. Each day when I came home from work, I checked the status of the broken electric pole near our house and I knew when I saw the lines still lying on the ground, it would be another cold night.

The electricity finally came  back home Friday night. I had traveled out-of-state to visit my granddaughters on a previously scheduled trip so I was enjoying hot water and heat. It was certainly an interesting and very cold/dark week so we are now thankful each day when we flip the switch and light appears.

The clean-up of all of the broken limbs and downed trees will take a very long time. Each time we have a heavy wind, more limbs fall that had been broken in the snow but caught in the trees. Because the trees were still full of leaves when the snow fell, there is a lot of damage to trees througout the area. Everyone will be picking up limbs and cutting trees for some time to come. Hopefully, no more snow in October!