Pepper Paints

Our Little Week on the Prairie

It was hardly a week of real 1800′s life, but probably as close as we are going to get with out a choice. I have heard or read more than a few people refer to Ma Ingalls this powerless week! I think many of us channeled her strength and thanked the powers that be, that our situation was temporary. I can’t say it was all bad. The 7 days with no electricity had it’s high points! Friends and neighbors being a big part of that.

I will start at the beginning…Sunday Sept 14 early in the beautiful day, I took the girls to Via Colori to watch artists work with chalk on the streets in the Short North.

That’s our friend and artist Sharon and her crazy dog.

My girls were inspired to go home and use our pastels outside on our brick walk.

And then about 4:00, out of nowhere the wind picked up and continued to gain strength. Trees could be heard snapping and transformers humming and sparking. It continued for almost 4 more hours. The tree damage was unbelievable!

Many old trees were uprooted. Power was knocked out all over. Miraculously not as many houses were damaged as I would have thought.

Unlike Ma Ingalls, we had cell phones to communicate with friends and family. What did we do before cell phones??? But like Little House, neighbors were out talking and helping each other. The first few days we just made do and kept busy around the house. We lost everything in our fridge between battles with our generator, but I was able to to have a little charging power and a light now and then-which made all the difference. My neighbors sure were glad we had that generator!

Midway through the week a group of us headed to a church for a free Spaghetti dinner and an evening of playground fun. Actually 4 nights out of 7 we got together to eat or commiserated together! Its good to have friends!

There were more than a few campfires in the back yard throughout the week!

And more than one night of sleeping in tents in the back yard too!

A short trip out of town to our empowered friends for a day at the fair, potluck and tasty Birthday cake was a nice change of pace!!!

We made some sun tea and picked up 65lbs of buckeyes that the wind blew off the trees.

Saturday my Mother Artist group had a booth at Independents day-GREAT little art festival! Molly was unexpectedly part of her circus teachers performance!

We managed to squeeze in a couple of nights out for Mexican and Indian too! All in all I can’t complain-we had a generator and kept busy. It was like a mini vacation at home and around town with friends. But I must say I am glad to be plugged back in!!