Unscathed...

We are thankful to report that we are on the back side of Sandy, and most in our immediate area have come through relatively unscathed!

The rain began on Sunday evening, and it rained throughout the day yesterday, with winds picking up as the day progressed.

We had one hiccup yesterday afternoon, when our lights began flickering, and we lost power in parts of the house and barn, but not others.  We were a bit puzzled by this, and decided to use the generator for evening milking.  We couldn't milk without consistent power...not good for the cows or the equipment!  So, Jim hooked up the tractor to the generator and when he started it up, all the lights and equipment worked just fine!

We milked a little early last night, just to get finished and out of the barn as soon as possible, as the winds were really picking up.  As we milked down the first two rows, a PPL (electric company) truck showed up at the pole out front.  Jim went and talked to them, to explain our problem.  They checked the transformer...it was fine...they  checked the meter, and discovered that we weren't getting good voltage.  (this explains the intermittent outages we were having)  The problem was where the wires attach to the house above the meter...

A relatively simple (minus the weather) fix, and we were good to go!

The worst of the winds were from around 5pm Monday until early this morning here.  I don't know how high they got, but not nearly as high as were predicted, for which we are very thankful!   The rainfall total this morning around 5am was about 3.75".

As we milked this morning, we noticed the weather calming.  I looked at the weather reports, and saw that the eye of the weakening storm was almost overhead.

The worst damage here?

This limb came down on the driveway...

...and some ruts in the yard where the PPL truck got stuck when fixing the wires last evening...

I'd say that's nothing to complain about right here!!

We are to have windy conditions the rest of today into tomorrow, along with more rain, but we are very, very thankful that we didn't feel the effects of Sandy here, that were predicted.

There are many others, especially along the coast, who were hit very hard by this storm.  I can only imagine how they must be feeling, and the damage they are left to deal with!