Sunday, June 05, 2005

Alone during bad weather

This is my first experience being alone for a couple of days. My father in law is in critical condition in a nursing home about 2 hours away from where i live. My husband has gone there to be with the family and make necessary arrangements. I had to stay home to take care of the animals. I would join him if things turn for the worse. However, those 2 days were, the weather decided to turn bad. There were bad stormy days and nights, with tornadoes and thunderstorms and hailstorm. We had had bad and severe weather before, but my husband was around to take care of everything.

Before he left he had made sure that the underground cellar was prepared. He made sure the batteries for the TV and weather radio are working. He also made sure all the important documents and stuff were moved into the cellar. The only thing we did not do was to run the drill for the dogs again. Well, the weather turned bad the first evening he was away. I put the chicken in their pen and fed them real early. There are a few hundreds of them. I put the pick up truck in the barn because if not the tornado, the hails would break the windshields. I could not put it in the garage because, the 2 garages have 2 ATVs and my car. I could not squeeze the pick up into it without knocking something.

I was prepared. I brought pillows, food and drink into the cellar and waiting for the time to go in. When the time came I let the dogs off their chains and whistled for them. I fixed the ramp for them to go in. I did a trial run, 2 dogs did just as instructed, but my puppy max refused to go in and had to be pulled in with the leash. Great, it took about 3 minutes to get them in.
The weather was not tornadic the first evening, but with wind and hails, I decided to wear the weather inside the cellar with the dogs. So when it started to have lightning, I got the dogs into the cellar, without much problems, because this time I had food to persuade the puppy to get in without a fuss.
We stayed there until the storm blown over, about 0ne hour or so. All went well until last night. Storm at night was quite difficult to organize, but the chickens were already inside their pens. One chore eliminated. Only the dogs. This time I brought the dog one at a time, so that they did not wander away, while waiting to get in. That was easier than the first time. Stayed in the cellar longer this time because there were so much lightning and rain.
We got out almost at 11 pm and we survived the storms without my husband.

Hopefully we will not have real bad weather before summer comes. If there are, we are prepared.

8 comments:

Kak Teh said...

kesian sal!! thank God u are okay. we had a spot of bad weather a few days ago - but nothing compared to what u get there. Ihope yr father in law will get better soon.

Iskandar Syah Ismail aka DR Bubbles said...

kak sal,

i hope yr father in law will recover soon. bila u cerita pasal; tornado ni teringat filem wizard of OZ...

Ely said...

isykandar, yeah the wizard of oz! i was thinking of that when i was reading this post.

kak sal, i should say that u had done a great job! u were so calm and knew what to do. and i hope that ur dad in law gets better soon.

AuntyN said...

Tak boleh pikiaq macam mana kalau jadi kat sini nihh, hari tu masa terasa bergegaq sikit pun masa Tsunami pun dah panik habih. Alhamdullillah semua OK, Kak Sal.

Unknown said...

I'm glad you were well prepared. We never had tornadoes before, but who knows with these on-going unpredictable weather. How is your FIL doing?

Skater Girl said...

Hi there Sal,

I assumed your name is Sal since everyone refering it to you. Anyway, I heard that OK is a tornado alley. Hope that everyhing goes well with you and your father-in-law --> health wise.

For me here, it's also tornado season and heavy wind and rain showers too... Do you always get tornado during this month?

-->Suriyati

Mutiara said...

Thank you all for the concerned thoughts for my father in law. He is in a coma and the doctor thinks he will not recover. We can only hope he will go peacefully.
Isk: macam cerita tu lah..pernah tengok movie "Twister"
Ely: For us who live in the tornado alley, we are all prepared. Barang musnah tak apa, asalkan nyawa terselamat
massylassy: I am still getting used to the weather here. I sure respect and pay attention to it.
AN: nanti jadi besa dah, cuma kena bersedia selalu.
anasalwa: The key point is to be prepared all the time.
suriyati: thanks and yes, spring is the tornado season. Usually may is the worse month, but this year, none in may. I guess it is rather late this year. Where are u?

Skater Girl said...

Sorry for this late reply in answering your question.. Am in NC.. right now it's kind of hot and once awhile we have hurricane here.. tornado.. well we have that but occasionally depends on the seasons.. right now.. no tornado.. :) Alhamdulillah...