Amish Neighbors To The Rescue

          We are wet, wind-blown and weary.

          Our "Amish Country" world is so soggy we could squeeze a morning beverage out of the bricks that are stacked at the pasture's edge.

          In just two days, the heavens deposited 3.3 inches of rain on our hilltop.

          That meant our valley neighbors faced flooding.  Not only did they get rain in similar quantities, but they got our runoff  . . . and some of our topsoil for good measure.

          Then came the wind and this was Wednesday evening.  We weren't hit by a tornado but the straight-line winds that tore across our region wreaked considerable havoc.

          Indiantree Hill suffered only a few broken and tossed trees, some far-flung branches and limbs and a one-day power outage.  We spent three days cleaning up the mess and getting our little world back in order.

          Others suffered considerably more damage.  Mineral City, in particular, suffered a severe blow that flattened buildings, scattered debris and, also, doused electrical power.

          Our power outage lasted almost exactly 24 hours and opened our eyes to the suffering that the people of eastern New Jersey suffered last year .

          We have an emergency generator.

          But it suffered its own emergency.  Wouldn't run properly.

          Our need became critical at about the 12^th hour (dawn Thursday) when we simply HAD to run our freezers and refrigerators to avoid possible loss of food.

          You see, we have six freezers and four of them are used by our Amish neighbors.  They can't own freezers but they can use ours.

          So where do you go looking for emergency generators in an emergency?

          Your Amish neighbors.

          Yes, the folks who refuse to plug into the worldly, temptation-fraught power grid, are allowed the use of generators to: - charge batteries for their LED lights (because they are WAY safer than kerosene or gasoline fueled lamps) – power milking and milk-cooling equipment, - run the electronic controls for their climate controlled chicken houses, - power their laundry washing machines, etc.

          Of course, they were more than willing to supply a pair of generators to power the freezers and a few other devices (like our water pump) that we consider essential.

          Thus followed 12 hours of juggling extension cords, gasoline cans and toilet flushes until the power finally was restored.

          And when I returned the generators in deep gratitude, the response from our neighbors was, "Oh, is the power back on?  We wouldn't even have known it was off if you hadn't told us."