• Ice and snow last Tuesday; 4" more snow Friday
• outside temp about 19 degrees F
  
• Road's been plowed down to ice-y layer on driveway. 'Bert' drove up just fine (and out too)
• oil: just over half full, furnace on when we arrived
  
• kitchen temp 57, basement 46
• watered plants with water left from last time
• 'shoveled' walk way to door: now path is almost on level with the stone step!
• more snow predicted for Tuesday!!! I'm tired of this now...
  

catalpa trunk

view from porch door

view of brook from bridge

Power's on!
After Several calls, expert plowing by Bobby N., more plowing by CL&P, the transformer was replaced on the telephone pole. We got the call that power was restored Saturday Night at 9pm!
Here's the sequence of events:

• Wednesday we got the first call
• Thursday morning after Bobby plowed, I called to report the outage again
• Thursday evening, I called CL&P to see if power was on: they said there was no record of a problem, If I called ADT, maybe they could tell me if the power was on, or try calling the phone and see if I got the answering machine.
• Friday morning, I called ADT and they said there was a report of low system battery recorded on Wednesday at 6pm but nothing further. If the system battery isn't being charged by the power, it eventually dies and there is no longer security at the house.
• The phone answering machine didn't answer
• I called CL&P and they said the only way to check power was to go to the house.
• Saturday morning, Bob and I went around 9:30am: road well plowed, at least 2 1/2 feet of snow!, but no power and and there were tracks to the house (by CL&P?) and telephone pole.
  
• The kitchen temp was 28 degrees when we got there, there was liquid water in the pitcher that I use to water the plants, upstairs toilet tank was full of water, downstairs toilet had ice in the toilet, but liquid in the tank, and the big ceramic pitcher had about 1/4 inch ice on it's water
  
• We called CL&P (luckily there is a phone there that doesn't require power to operate, yay for old houses!) to report the problem AGAIN
• within 1/2 hour a CL&P pickup truck drove up and told us the electric truck would be there as soon as possible, they were working in Colchester with a subdivision that had no power and Thicut would be next.
• We went home.
  
• 3:45pm got a call from CL&P that it would be longer to get there
• 7:15 got a call, saying they'd had to call their plow to come to get to the pole
• 9:00pm, they called to say it was fixed. Bob and I were out at a Rowing Club dinner, so
• ADT called Eric V and Anna Ruth to tell them that there was now a low system battery and low temperature signal at the house: another indication that the power was on
• Sunday: Bob and I went down this morning and checked for leaking pipes or dripping water and found NONE! Hopefully that means there continues to be none . The water and pump have been off since November and we'd opened the upstairs faucets once or twice this fall so I'm hoping that, if there was water in the pipes, it was able to expand as it froze and not split anywhere.
  
• We covered the piano with a sheet of plastic just in case there are leaks from the ceiling in the future. We lifted the piano lid to the lowest setting so any drips would roll to the floor and not puddle on the piano
  
• kitchen temp 55 degrees, basement temp 46
• oil tank at 9/16
• watered plants with water we brought. Most survived being freezing for several days.
• called ADT to reset alarm panel: the system backup battery was completely dead because the power was off for so long, but is now recharging: should take another 6 hours. If it doesn't charge, we'll have to replace it. Since the power is on, however, the security system is working; the backup battery is for when the power goes off.
• shoveled snow from the doors to the barn so Bob could start Johnnie Deere
• shoveled some of the snow from the roof overhangs over the mudroom door and the entry door
• weather is warming so icicles forming, hopefully gutters hold
• took pictures!
  

Nor'easter of 2011!
4:30pm:
CL+P called (electric co) and said power out at Thicut: couldn't get up the road because of 3 feet of snow! They somehow found ARM's phone number in Bethesda and she told them to call us.
Called Bobby N. and he said he'd plow it as soon as he could.
He called about 8:30pm and was able to clear the 8foot pile left by the town plow at the bridge and get part way up the hill when he got stuck. he will finish tomorrow morning in daylight and call to let me know.
Then I'll call CL&P back so they can get up the road to fix the problem.
I called ADT (security) to temporarily suspend notification service until the power is restored. I don't want them to call me at 3am to say the basement is too cold (due to no heat/power). The system will reset when the power is restored.
The temp is supposed to be below freezing tonight, let's hope the house stays warm enough so the pipes don't freeze... and that the power problem is easy to fix.

Jen and I checked things out today:

• The road had been plowed after the storm this past weekend, probably a 1/2 inch covering the road after the dusting we had Sunday morning
• oil tank at just less than 5/8
• basement at 46, kitchen at 56: felt like the heat had just gone off when we got there
• watered plants
• mouse evidence in upstairs bathroom sink: teeth marks on some Dove soap I'd put on the sink. I brought the soap home :)
• saw large animal prints covered with the dusting of snow; larger than fox/deer/coyote: could it be a bear??? They were out in the yard leading from the woods behind the barn to the mowed field in front of the house.
  

HAPPY 2011!