EUGENE ENCASED IN ICE

Sunday morning starts out frozen. No changes during the night we are still encased in ice. It is now noon and things are starting to drip. Tree's continue to loose their branches you can hear the cracking noise throughout the neighborhood. As of now we have lost a couple sections of our arborvitae shrubs in the back, they are what gives us privacy from our backyard neighbors. A big limb fell from the tree beside our travel trailer but fell in front of it. I hope no other limbs come down off that tree and land on top the trailer. Needless to say all of the shrubs, flowers and small trees that surround our home will need to be cut to ground level and we will hope they survive. The heart breaker for me is our Star Jasmine which grows by leaps and bounds every summer has succumbed, looking like death at this point. This plant fills the deck rails at the north end of our deck and I have been training the trailing vines to go through and along the rest of the deck railings. But now all will have to be cut to the ground. Our spring scene will surely look different without foliage softening the perimeter of the house. There will be much work to do.

My hubby talked to the contractor whom he is doing work for this morning. The contractor was clearing the long driveway at the job site with a bucket tractor. So my husband left for the job site about nine-thirty. I watched as he spun out going down our street. He must have made his destination in the Coburg Hills as I have not heard differently. He has not been able to get that job started for four days now because of the weather.

We lost power after going to bed last night it was only out for about three hours or so. The news this morning said to be prepared to lose power again as more and more trees and limbs come down while they are thawing. I have the oil lamps ready, candles etc. We had already decided in the middle of the night when the power went off that if it were not back on today we could stay warm and cook meals in the trailer as we have the propane tanks full.

My grandson Tyson, Lindsey and baby Olivia are stranded in
Central Oregon, the roads to bad to travel back home to Oregon City. Tyson was there the past couple of days applying for a job with the Dechutes County Sheriffs Dept. I think he is still at his Grandpa Carl's who lives between Sisters and Bend. They had a huge dump of snow over there and the news reported this morning that the highways are not cleared as of yet and to stay off the roads unless it is an emergency.

Bless the newspaper delivery folks. Our paper was late but then here the delivery man came spinning down the street and brought our Sunday paper. There are still thousands of folks without power. We heard last night while watching the Olympics that 24,000 homes were without power in the Eugene/Springfield and outlying areas. 

I am not going to do anything today other than what I have already done which is tidy the house. I will make us a nice comfort food dinner tonight. I thought I would make scalloped potatoes we have not had them for a while and I will make some sauteed veggies to side and I may make a nice warm loaf of bread to go with.
My husband will not be too late as he wants to head home before dark in case he were to have a problem.

I think I will relax today, read and scan a few photo's of the grandkidlets when they were little. Obviously we did not sleep well last night. After we discovered there was no power we snuggled in bed and talked for well over an hour. So we both felt a little jet lagged this morning.

I think now is a good time to fix a little lunch for myself. As we had taco's last nights I saved a few remains to make a taco salad bowl.

Have a nice Sunday and I hope you are not dealing with a mess like this.