From freezing to flooding and flying...

We're in the middle of a huge Pineapple Express. So far the first of 3 waves of hellacious weather have come through, with yesterday's blow knocking out power from 10am to 10pm. Here's an eyewitness account:

J was at work, yesterday I was off. I tried to get something done outside, but ended up mitigating wind issues, until it drove me back inside. My tactic was to get out from under our trees whenever a gust came up. Our large firs around the house, over 150 feet high or more were seriously bucking. We have an empty 55 gallon used plastic olive barrel that is waiting to be integrated into our rain water system. I watched a gust pick the barrel up and tumble it across the yard, until I could get to it and secure it. A gust took a cedar bench in the yard and tossed it 12 feet into some thimble berry bushes. I hear a "Crack!" and just across the road a tree comes down. The bottom half toppled onto the power line, and blew a pole fuse. That's when we lost power. The tree came to rest on the stretched out wires, some other wires lay in the road along with the entire tree blocking 2 lanes. I grabbed my cellular, called the power company and headed back out to assess the damage. That's when the strongest gust I'd seen yet came up. It was impossible to be heard on the phone, I had to hunker down in it and turn my back into the wind in order to stray on my feet, and that turned me towards our chicken run. The chickens were just freaking out running across the yard, and were actually being picked by this gust and blown through the air. Poor little buggers.When the wind eased, it poured rain. I went to pick J up at work in the afternoon and it was coming down in buckets, wipers on high, standing water on the roadway. Fortunately chinese take-out and a bottle of Cahors wine, eased the weather issues as our house was cozy after busting out Dietz lanterns and such. Did get some prep flaws pointed out that we need to work on, but all in all pretty good as last years wind storms had us pretty well prepped.Still raining today and Sunday we hear is when it really hits. We better tie off the chickens!

We're just getting ready to head to town for errands and supplies, but the weather has caught up with us again. The rain & wind that had lightened up a bit are starting up, and the forecast is for 50mph+ gusts in a few hours. The next wave comes Sun/Mon and calls for 6-8 inches of rain PLUS 50mph wind. Yeee haw!!!!!