Big Winds & Cleaning Up
Sat Dec 20, 3pm
Current temperature: 34-degrees (1C)
Current weather: a skiff of new snow which is now melting, with a bit of sun shining
A few days ago, we were the recipients, along with many other people in many other states, of fiercely high winds. I had seen the wind warning alert ahead of time. It spoke of the likelihood of power outages due to falling trees and encouraged folks to stay put, and also away from windows. Turns out the warning was right (it isn’t always). We received huge gusts that shook our cabin. Fortunately no trees fell in our immediate EM village. Many trees, however, were snapped in half or completely uprooted along our gravel road (see pic above).
The closest town to us, Superior, lost power for 2-days, as did many other smaller towns and sections of larger populated areas around western Montana. Many places will be involved in clean-up efforts for weeks or even months. So very many trees came crashing down. While the power was out, I was thinking of all those affected, hoping dearly they were staying warm and had enough food to eat. In Superior, no power meant no grocery store, the only one in a 60-mile radius. And it meant no getting gas, which meant also that the mail carrier was unable to fill up their vehicle to deliver the mail. People didn’t have access to water. No power meant mayhem. Rightfully so.
Fortunately many people around here operate on wood or propane for heat, but some, I’m sure, especially in town, have electric heat and were without a means to stay warm. Cell phones still continued to work though. And when I hopped on the Facebook page for our county, which serves as the best way to stay informed about things happening in our low populated neck of the woods, I was touched by all the posts of people offering support, food, water, and care. People were offering tree cleaning services and our only grocery store, along with one of our only two gas stations, were posting regular updates to keep folks informed about their status. Both the grocery store and gas station received help to get up and running temporarily on generators before the power company was able to restore them back on the grid. And the Red Cross set up an emergency shelter place for those who needed help. The town really banned together.
On the home front today, Mike is working on cleaning up the sauna house build, which is no small feat, and finishing up the last of the insulation in the walls. He’s done with the messy foam blocks and just has the easy stuff left: the rolled insulation batting that tucks into the exterior walls of the anteroom of the sauna. Never has the sound of our big generator sounded so nice, as today it indicates that the shop-vac is being used to clean up the foam disaster zone inside the new build. Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t me complaining about the mess. I’m well aware a mess must be made as part of what it means to build, but gosh it feels nice when a good clean up is underway.
Mike has also gotten my hopes up that we might do a dump run soon. On the list we made of “Things to do before the snow flies,” making a trip to the nearby transfer station to drop off our pile of collected trash, which then gets hauled to the landfill in Missoula, was on it but we agreed to put it at the bottom. I knew there was a chance we wouldn’t get to it, as we deemed other things to be more pressing. Still I held out hope of getting rid of the pile we’ve collected over the course of this past year.
We’ve been averaging making a trip to the transfer station once a year since we moved here to the woods. I carry out our household trash once a week (the amount of trash we accrue on average is pretty minimal, especially since we compost food waste, burn paper and cardboard in the wood stove, and we recycle), but we pile up in our parking meadow all the bigger stuff, which mostly consists of packaging from tools and building material waste. Our current pile also contains our old futon mattress which, after many attempts to keep it in play as our bed, we finally made the hard call to say farewell to. It had a good long life. The day when we can load all of that stuff up in Mike’s small truck and haul it away will be a good day for this gal. I’m a big fan of organized and orderly living spaces.
Piles of trash are a practice of patience for me, and eventually my patience does run out. It’s a give and take for sure. A matter of needing to compromise for both Mike and I. We do pretty darn well, especially considering our very different mannerisms, personalities, and preferences. A good relationship requires a middle road approach; a willingness for both people to bend and flex a bit from time to time, especially when it matters most; and a reciprocation of meeting wants & needs, paired with a whole lot of genuine care and kindness. If it were up to me I’d get rid of everything that didn’t have an immediate use. If it were up to him I’m not sure he’d get rid of anything. Both extremes have their detriments. The best course of action, in my view, lies somewhere in between. So that’s what both of us are aiming for.