The Aftermath of the Storm of '26

 Hello Everyone,

It's been a wild and wooly ride through the storm of '26 here at Wilder's Last Resort.  All of the downed trees took our power and Internet connection out on Monday, 2/16 and wasn't restored until Thursday 2/26. Our Internet was restored on 2/27. During that outage, I did what I could on the Timeless quilt when we turned our generator on.

I've been working on the Ohio Star blocks for the final, outer border of the medallion quilt.

I prepped as much as I could during the daylight hours.  I would trim HST, and do as much as I could with the quarter square triangles.

I've started stitching the red border blocks together and I should be able to finish that 'round' and get it on the quilt.  I was tired of making the red blocks, so I switched to working on the final border to maintain my sanity.

Here's a refresher picture so you can see the last two borders.

As the temperature warms to unprecedented highs, the snow has been melting rapidly and exposing more and more of the damage to our small community and the area around our cabin. 61 cabins have trees on top of them or the trees went completely through them.

Many of the smaller trees couldn't handle the weight of the snow and either snapped off or just fell over.  During the day, all we hear is the drone of chainsaws.  We will wait until the snow melts before we begin the cleanup when our kids can help.

On a very serious note....because apparently Mother Nature thought we needed some more drama, Thursday night (2/19), while we were completely snowed in, no power, no Internet, Mr. Joe decided to pull a full-on Victorian fainting spell at the dining room table.

One second he’s sitting there, the next he puts his hands to his head and does a perfect face‑plant directly into his plate. And just to be clear....my cooking is NOT that bad.

In about half a millisecond, a hundred thoughts stampede through my brain:
“Is he alive?”
“Can an ambulance even get through to us?”
“Oh wait—the phone doesn’t work, so how am I calling anyone? Smoke signals?”

“Should I trek to the neighbors? Mike’s a former firefighter; he'll know what to do."

As I’m frantically poking around for a pulse, Mr. Joe suddenly pops back to consciousness, looking… well, about as coherent as he normally does, so no major changes there.

I took his blood pressure, and it was perfectly normal, which is more than I can say for my stress levels. Then I got him to his recliner while doing my best impression of an old-timey hand‑wringing heroine. I convince myself he’s probably just dehydrated from all the shoveling...which I didn’t tell him to do that much of, and I was right by his side shoveling along with him.

I finally got him to bed, but of course I couldn't sleep. Instead, I repeatedly look over to check that he’s still breathing.

Friday and Saturday? Still snowed in, because why not.
Sunday, our neighbors heroically dug us out, and off we go sliding down to the Bay Area for a medical checkup.

He got an EKG, and has bloodwork completed and the doctor agrees: just dehydration. All his tests came back fine.

In my last post I didn’t share all this because we didn’t have any results yet, but now you know the whole saga of Joe vs. Fainting in a Blizzard.

I hope to never see a repeat performance.

Soon,

A hand-wringing Lynn

The Winter of 2026

 Hello Everyone,

We finally were able to dig our way out of the cabin yesterday.  We felt like two prairie dogs with bad backs digging their way through 4' of snow. The storm wasn't only brutal, it felt as though we were two-bit actors in a disaster movie. I took this picture last Tuesday while I could get through the snow to the back of the lot.  There's absolutely no way I could navigate my way down there now through the hip-deep snow.

This picture was taken on Wednesday of the front of the cabin.

We tried to keep up with the shoveling, but the snow was coming down just as fast as we could shovel. One of our woodpiles is under the big lump of snow.

This was on Thursday when the sun came out briefly. There really are two cars underneath all the snow.

This is a daily progression of the snow, taken from the master bedroom.

Thanks to the help of two neighbors, one of the cars was unearthed.

The power went off on Monday night 2/16, and we haven't seen a flicker of electricity since.  The power is supposed to be restored Wednesday, 2/25.  I'll believe it when I see the light(s)! We turned our generator on for only two hours in the morning and two in the evening to conserve our 5 gallon propane tanks.  We were rationing propane like it was gourmet truffle oil! While we had electricity, I sewed like a madwoman!

I marked and trimmed what seemed like hundreds of HST when the power was off, and would get everything organized to make blocks.

The last forty-four blocks are all prepped and waiting to go under the needle.

Many quarter-square triangles are waiting to be trimmed.

My community of Arnold is in a state of emergency.  Trees came down like matchsticks all around town.  We lost five trees on our two lots.  Two trees hit our deck, and one tree hit the cabin.  We can't really assess the damage until the snow melts. 

The snowplows couldn't get through due to all of the downed trees and abandoned cars stuck on the roadway. Downtown Arnold is a mess!  The parking lots at the post office and the grocery store are staging areas for all of the emergency vehicles.

One of our sons asked everyday if we needed him.  We did need him, but he couldn't get to us. Our main propane tank is currently buried somewhere under a snow drift that might be large enough to qualify for its own zip code. The kids are coming up next weekend, and we're handing them each a shovel. Whether they help dig or use them to escape is up to them. The last I heard, there are 400 people on the list waiting for a delivery and we only have 16% or 40 gallons currently in our tank. We have to clear a path to the tank before the propane can be delivered.

If there's one silver lining to the storms, it's how our community showed its true colors.  Neighbors helping neighbors, people sharing whatever they had, everyone checking on everyone.  It was like a rugged mountain version of a potluck, but with generators and snow shovels instead of casseroles.

We adore our community and the beauty of living up here in the mountains.  But, if we're being honest, at our age it might be time to take a thoughtful look at how many more winters we want to wrestle with Mother Nature's mood swings.  She's impressive but also exhausting. Now, she is gearing up to deliver an atmospheric river of rain starting tonight!  Maybe the kids won't have to shovel!

Soon,

Lynn

Nanook of the North

 Hello Everyone,

In between major power outages lasting for 10-12 hours, I've been working on Timeless and attached the green border.

The snow started early on Monday which was ahead of schedule.  Our power went out Sunday night at midnight and didn't come back on until yesterday afternoon around 3pm.  We had the neighbors over for dinner and I fixed a delicious pot of meatball soup. We enjoyed our soup, salad, and a glass of wine or two and they walked back home.....right next door.  They no sooner got home, when the power went off again around 9pm and came back on at 4:30am.

 

Recipe for Sopa de Albondigas

Broth:
1 medium onion chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
8 cups beef broth or stock
4 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon crushed oregano
1 teaspoon salt

Meatballs:
1 lb. ground pork
1 lb. extra lean ground beef
1/2 cup uncooked rice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten

Condiments to put on top of your bowl
chopped avocado
chopped fresh cilantro
chopped fresh tomatoes
sour cream
grated Monterey Jack cheese

To make the broth, sauté onion and garlic in the olive oil. Add tomato sauce, beef stock, fresh tomatoes, cumin, oregano and salt. Meanwhile mix together ingredients for meatballs. Shape into little balls and drop into boiling mixture.

Cover and cook for 45 minutes. Serve with the assorted condiments. This soup is actually better the next day. I mash up some of the meatballs prior to serving.

I didn't think to take a picture as we were ready to just dig in!

The ongoing snowblower saga continues.  Our son got sick and he didn't come up to try and fix it.  I just finished shoveling the driveway and now I need a long winters nap!  Here's the cabin from the street.  We are supposed to get another foot of snow today, more tomorrow and Thursday.

I took this picture of the deck off our bedroom yesterday at 4:30pm.

Here it is this morning.

Now it's time to quilt for a couple of hours before I go back on shoveling duty.  

Soon,

Lynn