Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Middle of Nowhere

Have I mentioned that I now live in the middle of nowhere? To get to my house you drive out out of the city, past the suburbs, into farmland and then turn down a dirt road. When you get to the end of that dirt road you come to a long dirt driveway. At the end of that driveway you find me. We have hardly met any of the neighbors because you practically have to drive to go see them; two doors down is at least 5 minutes away. We don't really fit in though because we don't own any livestock (except for that week when we borrowed my mother-in-law's goats to eat some of our blackberry bushes). These are all reasons that we love this house.

The downside is that when there are storms it is windier because we are closer to the foothills of the Cascades. There are also a lot more trees to fall down on things. So today when it got a little windy, it wasn't surprising that our power went out. Luckily the house has a generator built-in for just this sort of problem. All afternoon we were comfortably hanging out and watching TV in our nice, warm house. Then we discovered that the generator does not run the 220 power, which includes some important things like the dryer, water heater, oven and most importantly the well pump. That's right...when the power is out we have to take a "when it's yellow, let it mellow" policy. Yay. I really miss my gas powered hot water heater and city water.

At least the power wasn't off for long. I just looked over and noticed a neighbor's light in the far distance. Sure enough the power was back. At least I should get a warm shower tomorrow morning. And I can go flush the toilet now.

10 comments:

Bud2400 said...

Give it another 20 years and watch the whole Maple Valley / Covington area develop like crazy, especially as they finish turning Highway 18, and whatever freeways necessary, into the new I-605 that bypasses Seattle. You need not go to the city - let the city come to you.

Cece said...

Middle of nowhere sounds nice to me right now. And hurrah for generators! We lost power when Hulk was 6 days old for 18 hours. It sucked hard.

RBandRC said...

There is something to be said for peace and quiet! :)

Sunny said...

We had a couple of "brown outs" yesterday during the storm. We were lucky not to lose power completely. Glad yours came back quickly!

Are they really turning 18 into I-605? Your blog is a wealth of information. :)

Jen said...

Right now we're zoned rural 5 acres, meaning that people can't subdivide to smaller than 5 acre parcels. Our 1 acre parcel was grandfathered in. I'm hoping it stays that way, but who knows.

George said...

Generator definitely helps! Let the yellow mellow ; )

Jamie said...

Ahhh . . . as much as I love the convenience, I would give my right hand for my next door neighbors to live five minutes away.

Thanks goodness for generators!

Amanda said...

Where you live would be my Dad's ideal place. Me? Not so much. I must live closer to a grocery store and a Wal-mart or Target.

Yay for the generator! I'm glad it's already come in handy. Is there a way you can wire it to the 220?

KandiB said...

We're in city and Sunday left most of the neighborhood in black (but for once... not us, yay!).

I'm surprised the gen doesn't work on 220...what did they do to keep the plants warm :) hee hee.

Barb said...

AAAAHHHHH I'm so jealous!