Wow - glad you made it through!

And here I was bit freaked out yesterday when a bad storm took out our power for a couple hours. Mobile ph. service went out at the same time.

Phones didn't come back on until hours after the power was restored.

Oh no! And on the days when you could really use the internet and social media to keep up with the outages, and vent with your friends here!

Many in my town had spotty cell service, we all had the same provider so we think it was their towers. We were without power for only about 24 hours, but we moved our fridge and freezer contents to my parents’ where there was power. I relied on a friend and ComEd texting me and on social media to keep up with power restorations.

That is a lot of tomatoes!!

Those wind storms can be brutal, and so damaging to the foods in your refrigerator and freezer with the power outages! I’m glad things are back to normal for you, though. My sister’s town was hit with a bad storm like that around the same time. Thankfully, our cousins brought one of their generators for them to use after the second day without power.

The power company crews work so hard after these events, and have to coordinate with landscapers/arborists. One grid in our neighborhood was without longer than we were, because they had to figure out taking out a huge tree in a tight space (trees and structures close by) with power and phone and cable lines all around. And it was 90°.

Goodness pink! You have had a time of it!! Good for you on the canning. I usually make pasta sauce from the garden but not this year. I'm sure I'll be missing it this winter!

Wow, i got tired just reading your post! Thankful you are ok after the storm and didnt have a huge cleanup on your property, especially after all the work you have been putting into it.

The tomatoes look great, so glad you were able to continue with the canning and save your hard work.

My goodness….you had quite the ”Three Hour Tour”!!! Hopefully things are returning to naormal! I saw a post about damage at a horse show up there, and wondered about you!!! Thanks for filling us in!!!

oh, my pink—thats a lot of stuff to deal with. im knocking wood as i think about power outtage cause its been awhile

In the name of brevity I left out a few things too. I shorted out my Dad's stove on the second batch of tomato sauce. Dad was gone at the time, before I picked him back up, but he kind of freaked. We got the stove working again, and I found out that burner was on its last legs, but my Dad had been babying it. So subsequent batches of tomatoes I did out on the patio using my butane stove, which was not very convenient or cost effective when the jars have to boil for 35 minutes to sterilize and seal, not to mention cooking the sauces . . .

I got my white gas Coleman stove working so figured when the electricity/well pump came back on at the house I could use that, but when I filled up the tank with more gas, the whole thing broke down, won't hold pressure. Probably a gasket issue, but that's out for now until I can work in fixing it. For the next batches of tomatoes we are going to try using our gas grill.

Now that the electricity is back on I can use water!! Lots of laundry and cleaning to do too, got very behind. Oh yeah, and we get our puppy Saturday . . . I was also still in the middle of puppy proofing the house . . . and yesterday I got randomly stung by a wasp by our tool shed. Having a pretty bad reaction, although it is just local on my arm, big red spot about the size of a small canning jar lid . . .

and a wart showed up on my little finger. I have only had maybe two or three warts in my entire life . . . and I am in the midst of trying to figure out why I have weird nerve irritation on one of my major neural paths. Both my back and chest itch but absolutely nothing on the skin surface. It's from inside. Dr. said there is a major nerve group that goes from spjne to back around ribs to front so the two itches are connected. So now I have three itchy spots if you count the wasp sting on my arm. Distraction with canning keeps it mostly under control but still worrisome.

We had a power outage the week before, for two and a half days then, so I had just moved all my stuff BACK into a clean fridge and freezer when the power went out again . . .

Shingles? I hope not. That would be a crappy capper to a crappy week.

It sounds like quite the ordeal. I'll keep my fingers crossed that things are on the upswing.

Boy, you really have had a week. I'd be tearing out my hair or curled up in a ball somewhere.

I hope next week is better. Your canning will be so appreciated during the winter.

If its shingles it's the "internal" kind. Yes, that's a thing I found out . . . It's been appearing off and on for years though, now it is consistent and worse. I never connected the front and back itching until they started to come at the same time. I also didn't know the two areas were connected as part of a nerve path. I always attributed the itching to some kind of external irritant . . . Difficult to diagnose nerve issues and also to treat them. Ugh. I always get weird maladies!!

I just have shingles on the brain because I had a Shingrix vaccine appointment this morning; I didn't mean to be alarmist.