I
feel like I can settle down to just living again and enjoying my gifts and
memories of a very happy Christmas to which you added a great deal. – Ina
I can truly echo Ina’s assessment of a good Christmas well-celebrated. We crunched and munched and mussed and enjoyed Silas’ delighted “Oh wow!” with everything Santa brought him. Now the house is so very quiet, but I can “settle down to just living again.”
In my imaginary 1930’s Christmas, Sadie loved the rag doll that her Aunt Shirley made for her, and after Christmas she looked on as Shirley made several dresses for the doll. Eventually Ethel and Sadie will return home, and Myrtle will go back to her job in Portland, but for the rest of this week, they will enjoy a quiet family reunion.
Meanwhile, here in 2025, we thought that the predicted mild winter would mean that we could celebrate Christmas with the ghosts in the old farmhouse. What could possibly happen to cancel a farmhouse Christmas if the weather continued mild and we had no snow? Mike and I made several day trips to the farm to take gifts and food for the anticipated holiday. I made the beds! We brought in the tree! We were sure our farmhouse celebration was going to happen.
But -- Mother Nature had other plans. Instead of cold and snow, on Dec. 17, a
ferocious windstorm (70-80 mph) hit our region. I’ve already reported about the
downed trees and power outage. (See Day 20 below.) We still hoped for restoration of power,
but on the 23rd, Mike made calls and learned that a pole was down on our side of the ridge and had to be re-set.
Our place would be among the last to be restored, probably because we are the fewest affected. At that point, I said it was too late to revive our plans for a
farmhouse Christmas.
On Christmas Eve morning, Mike and I, daughter Hallie and family, and son
Clint drove to the farm. That’s when the roof damage on the back of the house
was discovered. A loose limb, not especially large but with a javelin-like
point, was thrust with such force that it not only pierced the metal roof but also
went through an interior brace and poked a hole in the ceiling of the master
bathroom. The guys got out our longest ladder, and Mike climbed up and onto the
roof to patch it with a scrap of metal roofing and some adhesive insulation.
As
we drove back to town, we met the Clearwater Power workers, and they said power
would be restored by nightfall – too late for us.
Then on a cold Sunday the 28th, Mike and I drove to the farm again. He toured the perimeter on the 4-wheeler and found other downed trees but only a few limbs in the fields. While he worked in the wood at the bottom of the lane, I tended the burn pile. His last task was to patch the bathroom ceiling with a piece of tar paper and clean up the mess. Hopefully it’s sealed for the winter, but we’ll need a contractor to fix this damage, and that’s in the works with our good friends, the folks at Disaster Response. KW
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