Power outages here are nothing new, but it sure puts a damper on your daily routine. We had gone to bed knowing that the wind was going to pick up sometime during the early morning hours. We are always prepared for these times, so there really wasn’t anything to do. There is plenty of wood for the wood-burning stove, a water cooler for drinking water, water-filled buckets for the toilet, a gas camping stove for cooking, and the generator to keep the food cold. The wind was really strong and somewhere between 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning is when the power went out. Nothing flickered or hesitated, it was just out. As time marches on, you’re hoping the power will be restored before you wake up. Well, this wasn’t going to be the case.
Later that morning we ended up driving around a bit to see if there was any obvious storm damage. There was nothing too major out on the roads, so either the cause was farther out than our small town or more widespread across the state. Usually, we find some hope in the local hearsay, but no one was around for chatting. Along with the power being out, this also means no internet. I suppose I can get by without the internet for a while, but some information would have been helpful. Things weren’t looking good, so the plan was to get in the car and head down to the Farmington Public Library the next day. This way we could find out what the story was and we could also get some work done.
The next morning before going to the library, we drove around a bit to see if there was any activity from Central Maine Power. We didn’t see any trucks or technicians, so we decided to proceed to the library. On the way down to Farmington, we stopped to take a few photographs of a few Highland cattle, a Scottish cattle breed, and a red deer stag on the next road over from our place. Highland cattle do pretty well here because they are a cold-tolerant breed having been bred to withstand the conditions in the Scottish Highlands. They were a bit curious at first as to our being there watching them and then they went on their way.
A grazing Highland bull Bos taurus.
A red deer stag Cervus elaphus.
A side view of a Highland bull.
A Highland bull.
A red deer stag winking for the camera.
A Highland bull on a hill.
At the library, we checked the Central Maine Power website and according to their power restoring schedule, our town would have power back on around 3 o’clock pm. With some time to kill, we stopped to get eggs from the Farmington Farmers Union. We ended up getting three dozen eggs this time. We get these eggs quite often and enjoy them a lot more than the eggs from the grocery store. You can’t beat fresh local eggs for three dollars a dozen. We then stopped by Abbott Park. I only took a few photographs here, because it started to downpour. We will have to come back here though to do some more exploring.
Abbott Park sign in Farmington, Maine.
The Abbott Park University of Maine Farmington.
Reflection on the pond.
Hiding behind the Abbott Park sign.
One of the stone bridges in the park.
A pond in the park.
Stone bridges in the park.
Stone bridge in the park.
Snow-covered grass.
The power ended coming back on around 4 o’clock in the afternoon. According to the weather forecast, we were in for another wind storm the next day. I ended up cleaning up around the house, doing my laundry, and making sure all of the dishes were clean. Things can go awry pretty quickly around here when the power goes out. We also made sure to take showers and at this point, all you can do is hope we don’t have to do this all over again over a few days.
I woke up around 7 o’clock the next morning and discovered we had our first snow of the season. Although it wasn’t much more than a dusting really, it was very beautiful. Some of the trees were snow-covered and bathed in a nice light from the sun. I was tempted to grab my camera for a few photographs, but it was just too windy outside. The power ended up going out again later in the morning, but only for a couple of hours this time. I went outside to take a few photographs of what was left of the snow. I love the combination of autumn leaves with the snow.
Snow-covered autumn leaves.
Snow-covered creeping thyme Thymus serpyllum.
Snow covered rose leaves Rosa.
Sugar maple leaf on top of the snow Acer.
Anyway, these are just a few photographs from during yet another power outage. I also got quite a lot of reading done these couple of days, so it wasn’t all that bad. I’m currently reading, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. If you are interested, it is quite a good read.
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