Ike Farts in Our General Direction

We finished up the first CDS Wilderness First Aid class hosted at our new place just in time for Ike to start passing wind at us. I'm glad to have sent our great group of students on their way before the roads became hazardous.

A number of of members of Allegheny Mountain Rescue Group, and several prospective members, spent Saturday night on bivouac in the back forty. Glad they chose last night's icky sticky humid discomfort over tonight's Was That A House With a Little Girl In It That Just Flew By? ambience.

1400 miles from Galveston, and we are getting 50 mph gusts. Power has gone out twice, but back on quickly.

This afternoon, as the air started to get moving, young Rosie set upon barking at the power transformer at the top of the pole outside the house. I don't know whether it was making some uncharacteristic sound that I couldn't hear, or perhaps swaying when it is clearly supposed to remain stationary. Rosie did not succeed in driving it off, and has abandoned the attempt.

The barn kittens demanded to be let in, and are enjoying the good life in the living room.

Grill cover, a couple of trash cans, a heavy wooden bench, and several noisy objects unknown have gone walkabout into the darkness. We'll have a treasure hunt in the morning, and assess any damage to trees around the place.

After the second fire call of the night, Ken decided to just hang around the station until things quiet down; lots of jumping spitting power lines to enjoy.

All told, I'll take Ike's blowhard ways over Ivan's inland incontinence. I suspect the citizens of the Western PA towns that found themselves underwater four years ago are inclined to agree.

Casualty Update: All sentient beings under our protection weathered the night just fine. The barn roof, not so much -- quite a lot of roof shingles on the ground this morning. Ripe wild cherries that were going to become syrup this week-- trees are stripped bare. I've recovered the grill cover, several chairs, buckets, tarps, the wooden bench, bird feeders, trash cans, a pineapple plant, a broom (no one riding it at the time). One screen door may be a total loss, and a cable runner that easily withstood the lunges of a 70# GSD popped completely.

Country Living Insights: Remember to stockpile water before the power goes out. It is hard to internalize the fact that my water comes via an electric pump.

Also, those solar-powered LED landscape lights are the balls! If the power goes out, you can just go out and pluck them from their posts and bring them in -- safer than candles, and they'll last all night. If the power stays out, just set them back on their posts in the morning, and they'll recharge. We're cavers -- I've got three sources of light on me when I go to the mall. So no worries about being left in the dark. But those solar LEDs can light the whole house enough to get around. I can't say enough for the advances in LED technology that have gone commercial in the last five years.