The Gastrocast

It’s snowing again. I’m trying to find time and spirit to get this week’s show started. I am also trying to sort out refridgerators and freezers which were off for three days.

So meanwhile, have a look at the photoset of snowy pictures, and register for the FORUM–where even now I am uploading a "Members Only" video of the Wood Oven (pictured here, covered in snow) being used for Thanksgiving Turkey.

With a little luck this latest snow and the warming (it’s 29 degrees F, horray!) temperatures that have come with it won’t take us out like the last storm. One can hope anyway. Then maybe I can get caught up and produce a show!

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Three days without power has left me with severe lack of internet and blogging dementia.
Three days of cooking on a woodstove and trying to conserve propane when having to boil all water has left me with a new appreciation for all "new-fangled" labor saving devices like water heaters, dishwashers, ovens etc.

We finally got power back tonight, but it is tenuous. Trees are heavily overburdened with snow and the wind is picking up. In the snowy silence the only sounds have been the gun-shot like snapping of frozen trees and limbs and their crash to the ground.

Tonight is supposed to be the coldest yet–near zero F and more snow is expected tomorrow.
This wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary in Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine–even Alaska. But here on the island a foot of snow in 12 hours is an oddity. This is more snow than we have had in three or four years combined and the last time this much fell in one night we ended up with three feet. That was over 9 years ago. We are not set up for any amount of snow. We get rain and wind in the winter. The trees, giant Douglas Firs, Shore Pines and Cedars are used to that. Add the weight of tons of snow and problems occur. With soil that is only 8 inches deep in most places over rock, the trees have nothing to hold them in as the topple like dominoes. Our island is one of the smallest and it looks like it will be at least two weeks of cleanup just to clear the roads back to two lanes.

I’m going to try to get a show out this week–if the power stays on. I’ve had to move the smallest of chickens into the house to keep from freezing and I’ve got freezers and refridgerators to clean out and fences to mend but I think I need the sanity of routine to help me out here. It’s only the middle of the week and it feels like we’ve been at war with the elements for a month. And we are some of the lucky ones–we have fuel and water and a way to heat our house during this sort of emergency. We have food supplies for a month, at least and resources so we don’t have to leave home. I can’t imagine people  who don’t.

More later.

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