Soule: Don’t Take The Weather Personally

For New Year's Eve, the weather was all warm and balmy with shirt-sleeve temperatures, no wind, and pretending it didn't try to kill us the week before. I was on vacation in Georgia when the Arctic weather descended. Below-freezing temperatures, weather that we in New Hampshire take for granted, had Georgians frantic to keep pipes from freezing. Most newer houses had adequate insulation and no external water pipes, but those living in pre-1990s homes were told to keep a faucet running all night. And high winds made everything worse.

Meanwhile, back in New Hampshire, the weather was worse. A mini-tornado whirled across Miles Smith Farm. Farmworker and next-door neighbor Marianne told me, "The weather was warm and breezy on Friday afternoon when I drove to the farm to get my cell phone that I'd forgotten in the store. As I pulled up to the barn, the sky turned black, rain pummeled my car, and the wind tried to tear off the car door. Within 10 minutes, it was over, but by then, six trees had toppled onto the road to my house. I had to scramble through the tumble of branches to get home. I missed being crushed by the trees by mere minutes.”

That 10-minute storm caused the power to be out for days, but fortunately, our whole-farm generator kicked in to keep our freezers and refrigerator running and pumping water to the cattle. In winter, our herd drinks more than 400 gallons of water daily. That would have been a lot of buckets for our house sitter Craig to carry.

We had no trouble flying to and from Atlanta on Jet Blue, but I read that some, less-fortunate travelers, spent days stranded in various airports.

Read More

Carole Soule is co-owner of Miles Smith Farm in Loudon, N.H., where she sells beef and other local products. She can be reached at carolesoule60@gmail.com.