Pioneer School Days

Oh what a way to start the day....

Actually the clock may have said the day had started, but I had only been asleep for a couple hours when dear old hubby woke me enough to tell me that our power was off (not surprised with the wind). The catch was only OUR power was off. The neighbors all still had their lights on. Hmm...what to do? SLEEP. Nothing I could do at 1am, so sleep I did.

Well, just as I started to return to the waking world this morning I hear loud screaming from the kids room and Kayla came bursting through our bedroom door with the words no one wants to hear before they've had a chance to use the bathroom and put their contacts in. "The alpacas are out!"

Shoot, guess that means I have to get up. Did I mention it's kind of cold? And where are my glasses that I never wear? So, glasses found and boots on, I run out with Jim to find 16 alpacas casually roaming the backyard, munching on an apparent feast of green grass. Thank goodness they didn't wander.

Seems that horrendous, previously mentioned wind had snapped their gate latch. The gate swung open and presto....a green smorgasbord. It took some doing but we finally convinced them that home is where the fence is and fixed the latch. Now they are out there glaring at the house. Oh well....

Now by this time I realize I still haven't found a chance to call the electric company. Phone number...where is that phone number? One phone book had the wrong number, nice. Finally found a bill and called them. Was stuck on hold for nearly 10 minutes because I wanted to talk to a human instead of the computer. Nice lady though was I finally got her.

Okay...now what. Breakfast. Cold cereal was the best I could do under the circumstances and then on to school. But mom, how can we do school with no electricity? Think....think.... We are going to have school like the pioneer children. I dug out my oil lamp and what do you know...that was enough to impress them. So we spent the morning doing school work by lamplight (very cloudy out so not much natural light).

Now for the most impressive part. Consumers Energy was here almost exactly 1 1/2 hours after I called. I couldn't believe it. Have you ever had service from any utility company that fast? And it only took them 10 minutes to fix the blown fuse on our pole!

Now by this time the energy workers had noticed the alpacas so I put my coat on and gave them a super quick tour and let them feed them a little grass (always a hit with my girls). Off they went and I went back in to enjoy the electricity being on.

Mom, can we turn the lights off and have more pioneer school days? {{sigh}}......