With Hurricane Florence churning her way toward the coast of the Carolinas and the projections showing her influence reaching as far as our mountains, yesterday was a good day to make some preparations.
We are safe from actual flooding up here on our mountainside but power outages, falling trees, mudslides, and wind damage are all possibilities toward the end of the week.
John has laid in supplies of diesel fuel for the tractor, and dog food, chicken food, and birdseed. The vehicles are filled with gas, and he's deepened the water breaks on our road to send the water into the branches rather than straight down the road, taking all the gravel with it. I made my usual weekly grocery run -- we stay pretty well stocked up on food and other supplies but I tried to anticipate what might be necessary if the power's out and/or the roads are . Fresh fruit and salad stuff, mainly. The pantry is full as are the two freezers in the basement. We don't have a whole house generator but we have a gas range, a gas grill, a wood cookstove, and multiple kerosene lamps. The pump for the well won't function if we have a power outage so I've filled two five gallon coolers of water for drinking and cooking. We can always get water from the branch for bathing and flushing. If the power goes later in the week, we'll be fine. But I won't be posting. Or checking Facebook. Or reading my Kindle. Fortunately, we have plenty of books. Be safe, all of you in Florence's path!
