COMMON SENSE From OZARK COUNTRY

OZARK ANCESTORS

Well over 100 years ago, my great-grandfather moved his family from Tennessee to the Missouri Ozark Country. There he built a log church and preached the gospel to the rugged, individualistic hill people. The church he built still stands and is maintained by his descendants as a memorial to him and to the love of Christ, freedom and high moral standards for which he stood. One of his sons, my grandfather, likewise preached the gospel of Christ for many decades to those same God-fearing hill folk. Early in the 20th century, my father, born in those beautiful hills, was raised and taught the meaning of life by his father and by the Father who created the spectacular surroundings. As a child, I frequently heard my father tell stories about the life and country he knew and loved so well. Yet today, my father talks with warmth and a tear in his eye about this Ozark country.

I hope to capture some of that feeling by collecting and presenting here selections of stories, legends, and historical episodes of late 19th and early 20th century life in the Ozarks. That was one of the goals for this website but, when it was first composed, back around 1998, the other goal was what today has come to be known as blogs.

The second goal was to present a forum that would be used by all ..." Americans to voice their love for the America and the freedom that olden time life in the Ozarks exemplified. The individualism of Ozark people then is still in the blood and hearts of many of us and we want to nourish and make known to the world that our American freedom of yesteryear is and will be kept alive today."

If that had been written now it would have been recognized as a blog.

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Memories of Long Ago.
I remember spending several weeks as a ten year old child with my favorite cousin, aunt and uncle on their farm in southwest Missouri, near the little town of Liberal. That would mean the year was 1947 and about a year before I would subsequently destroy my eyes in that same small town. But that’s another story. Uncle Clyde and Aunt Maybelle were like my second parents and I loved them dearly. Cousin Charles was like my big brother but close enough to my own age to be a good buddy. Even though I was a city boy I delighted in following Charles around and helping him with the many chores that fell on the shoulders of a farmer’s son. I took even greater delight in “helping” Uncle Clyde with his work and he would let me ride along with him on the tractor as he toiled the fields. One day he asked me, “I’m gonna go down to the old creek bed and make a big bang. Want to come along?” “Sure”, I said, not really knowing what he meant. So I tagged along with him as he gathered up some material and took it with him to the tractor; “Why walk when we can ride?” he chuckled as we bounced along on the rocky ground. The destination was only a few minutes from the house, even on the slowly moving tractor. “Looky here”, he said as he pointed to a pool of oily rocks. “Wow!” I exclaimed, “did you find oil?” “Naw, not really, but let’s see what happens when I blow into those rocks.” After he had hacked away for awhile with a pick-ax and then took a stick of dynamite from the tractor tool box, I realized what he had in mind. He pushed the dynamite stick as far into the muck as he could, lit the fuse, and yelled, “Let’s get out of here and over behind that tree.” “Bang!” It was a bang alright but I had expected something a lot more spectacular. I rushed over to the oily rock area, expecting to see oil gushing from the ground. All I saw were a few more oily rocks and tar than I had seen before. “Do you think there’s real oil down there Uncle Clyde?” “naw, not really. Oil men have been here and they say what’s here ain’t possible to get out. Just part of the rocks.” I was disappointed because I’d had visions of gaining a rich uncle. Many Years Later. That day was almost 61 years ago and I have thought little about it since. Until today. Today I came across a web-based press release with the title,“MegaWest Commences Operations of Deerfield, Missouri Enhanced Oil Recovery Project” As the crow flies, Deerfield Missouri is probably not much more than 20 miles from Uncle Clyde’s farm. There is oil there and it has taken only 60 years to make it worth going after. Oil in Missour? You betcha! And lots of it. But the oil in Missouri is barely a drop in the bucket of the heavy oil in all the United States and that is only a drop in the bucket compared to the heavy oil in Canada. What surprised me most about this press release is not that such oil exists in Missouri, but that recovery operations are actually under way and production is expected to commence within the year. Isn’t it amazing what $100 a barrel oil will do? Heavy Oil Reserves: It has been estimated that known heavy oil reserves exceed known conventional oil reserves by five to one and that 80% of that heavy oil is located in Canada, Venezuela, and the United States. ( Reference source: Petroleum Equities Inc.) According to this reference, if only half the known reserves reach production, the Canadian and US reserves alone would suffice these two countries’ petroleum needs for 150 years. (Current US usage is about 7.5 billion barrels a year.) Production has become more economically feasible with new technology and the current high price of crude assures a boom in heavy oil recovery. Oil Shale: And then, there’s oil shale in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. This is also a potential source of new petroleum reserves but technology and economics are not yet available to make this source immediately viable. But it’s there. It’s like money in the bank for our nation’s future needs. The recoverable oil from those three states alone would add more than another 100 years to our nation’s oil supply needs. (Reference, http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2005/RAND_MG414.sum.pdf) Today’s Faltering Economy. Now, what does Ozarkcountry Common Sense tell you? It tells me that the recent housing bust slowed down the economy a bit. But if it had not been for the sky-rocketing cost of oil the housing problem would have been little more than a blip in our economy. But now our nation is bleeding. And the bleeding is not so much because of the high price of oil, but because those petrol dollars are being handed over to foreign nations, most of which are our current or potential enemies. Well-meaning but misguided environmentalists further aggravate the problem by standing in the way of drilling for conventional oil off-shore and in Alaska. This bleeding of America plays right into the hands of Gore and the sheep that blindly follow his religion of man-caused global warming. Hope For the Future. Don’t be downhearted, don’t despair. Ozarkcountry Common Sense tells you that the American people are smarter than Gore; those who have been blinded will awaken and see again. They will recognize that the current world’s wheels turn on oil and that there is no quick alternative; time and technology will provide for the future. Meanwhile, once again, the entrepreneurs of the New World will respond to the current oil crunch and this nation will regain its energy-rich prosperity. Unless evil OPEC once again recognizes the threat and drastically reduces its oil prices to discourage our more expensive oil production, we will never again see “cheap” oil. But that’s OK, you’ll get used to it and you and our nation can live with it so long as those new petrol dollars end up in places like Missouri. Ozarkcountry Man says, “God bless you and God bless America”.

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These blogs are also available at ozarkcommonsense.blogspot.com

2008 (1)
April (1)
America’s Energy Independence Future

2007 (5)

April (1)
Fidel Climbs on Bandwagon

March (1)
Global Cooling is Back

February (1)
Common Sense and Man-made Global Warming

January (2)
Common Sense About Doom's Day Clock

Common Sense About the Ice Storm

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OZARK LIFE IN TIMES PAST
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YOUR COMMENTS ON TIMES PAST IN THE OZARKS
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I know many of you Ozark natives have stories of your own.
Stories that perhaps have been told you by your parents or grandparents of how life was in the Ozarks of a century ago.

Please share your stories here so we all can enjoy them. Send your stories to: ozarkcountry4@yahoo.com

God Bless America!

OZARK LINKS

If you love the Ozarks, you will enjoy a browse through these links:

Ozark Magazine This is the web page of the Ozark Magazine. If you love the Ozarks, you will want to subscribe to this magazine.	Ozark Mountaineer This is another magazine that offers histories of people and places, folklore, out-of-the-way places to see and visit, arts, crafts, pioneer skills etc.
Country Folk Country Folk Magazine states "....As the older generation passes on, they will take with them these oral stories ….unless someone writes them down. That is the mission of Country Folk -- we want to capture Ozark history before it's gone."	Ozark National Scenic Riverways This web page of the National Park Service states "...Two of America’s clearest and most beautiful spring-fed rivers make up the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, the first national park area to protect a wild river system. The Current and Jacks Fork Rivers wind through a landscape of rugged hills and towering bluffs..."
Ozark Folk Center State Park "...Enjoy traditional American folk culture, crafts, music, and festivals in the Ozark Mountains! Arkansas's Ozark Folk Center State Park is America's only facility that preserves the Ozark heritage and presents it as living history."	Wolf Folklore Collection Ozark Folksongs contains transcriptions and audio files to hundreds of folksongs collected by Wolf from 1952-1970. Songs are indexed by song title
Ozark Creative Writers,Inc Would-be writers might want to check out this site.	Ozark Region This is the Missouri Department of Conservation's web page about the Ozark regeion.
Ozarkian Spirit "The Ozarkian Spirit lives to progressively find ways to seek out and promote people, places, projects and ideas which make a difference in our regional community. This site will focus on folklore, cultural, social, political, historical and outdoor events. Only in knowing where we've been and who we are, can we truly know and discover where we're headed. We aspire to provide a place for folks to see and understand the power of our collective voices and the tenacity of our spirits."

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Posted April 4, 2007

Fidel Climbs on Bandwagon

When it comes to scare tactics, Al Gore now looks like a real amateur. You and I might think the use of ethanol as an alternative fuel is a good idea, right? Will it reduce our use of imported oil and will it reduce air pollution? And, will it not even reduce the atmospheric CO2 said to be the root cause of catastrophic global warming?

Well, if you answered "yes" to the above questions, maybe you need to pay close attention to yesterday's words from Fidel Castro as quoted exactly below:
More than 3 billion people are being condemned to premature death from hunger and thirst
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
By: Fidel Castro
Capitalism will not meet human needs.
It is not an exaggeration; this is rather a conservative figure. I have meditated for quite a long time on that after the meeting held by President Bush with the U.S. automakers.
The sinister idea of turning foodstuffs into fuel was definitely established as the economic strategy of the U.S. foreign policy on Monday, March 26th last...

Fidel goes on to inform the world that Cuba has all but eliminated their "carbon footprint" by switching from incandescent to florescent bulbs. Ozark common sense seems to have eluded the Cuban dictator as it has certain of our own former almost presidents.

But there are some serious questions regarding the rush toward ethanol, and I, as did Fidel, plan to meditate on it before further comment here.

Ozarkcountryman says, God Bless All

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Posted Marc 22, 2007

Global Cooling Is Back

I don't know about you, but the increased hype scare-mongering about global warming has convinced me that warming really is occurring. But the source of that warming is my blood boiling. There is no definitive evidence that man is causing an increase in global warming. Sure, the climate is changing. That's what climate does. There are and always have been periodic swings within the overall trends, but it should be as obvious as the nose on your face that ice-ages are followed by periods of global warming and we are still recovering from the ice-age of 14,000 years ago. Why do you think the glaciers that at one time covered much of the northern United States have since retreated to the Arctic region? And this slow warming trend will continue, remain relatively constant, or reverse toward another ice-age as God has intended. But Mr. Gore, the new high-priest of the Church of the Most High Green and his loyal army of activist believers continue to wail about eminent doom unless you and I commence immediately to abandon our cars in favor of walking and bikes, exchange our clothes-driers for a clothes-line, our washing machines for a scrub-board, and our electric lights for stumbling around in the dark. And keeping us in the dark is exactly what he and his cohorts want as they use this phony new environmentalist religion as their vehicle for establishing one-world government with them as controlling rulers. Hey Americans, wake up! What happened to that great independent, freedom-loving spirit of 1776? These Greens have even called global warming the capitalist's weapon of mass destruction. The Greens weapon of mass destruction is the liberal media and they have used these willing servants effectively and constantly to brainwash the masses into accepting their lie as gospel truth. One lie that is repeated loudly and often is that the scientific community is over-whelmingly in agreement with the Gore exaggerations. Nothing could be further from the truth but if a lie is told often enough it has been shown time and time again that the lie will be accepted as truth. Many eminent scientists are speaking out in opposition to this exaggerated lie of man-caused global warming and these brave souls are being crucified for their honesty. More and more we are seeing scientist converts from the Gore-Global-Warming church seeing the light of truth and recanting their support for the Gore Greens. Most recently, Bjarne Andersen, professor at the renowned Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, has pointed out that the basic premise behind the current global change (remember, 30 years ago it was global cooling and today it's global warming) of an increase in the average temperature of the earth is, in itself, an invalid concept. The March 18, 2007 web issue of Science Daily states "Discussions on global warming often refer to 'global temperature.' Yet the concept is thermodynamically as well as mathematically an impossibility, says Bjarne Andresen, a professor at The Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, who has analyzed this topic in collaboration with professors Christopher Essex from University of Western Ontario and Ross McKitrick from University of Guelph, Canada...." The current hype has been propelled into particularly prominent head-lines because of the recently issued summary report of the IPCC (a United Nations organization), the Academy Awards given the Gore sci-fi movie, and Gore's appearance before Congress. Gore talks about temperature increases of up to 20 degrees but even the IPCC has scaled this back to a relatively insignificant level. The latest published information I could find from the United Nations in their Vital Climate Graphics report states the following: " The mean global surface temperature has increased by about 0.3 to 0.6°C since the late 19th century and by about 0.2 to 0.3°C over the last 40 years, which is the period with most reliable data. Recent years have been among the warmest since 1860 - the period for which instrumental records are available." While this report does not cover any of the 21st century, it does show that, if there is indeed an increase in global warming during the last century, it has been very slight. But the key to me in the UN report is the statement, "...the period for which instrumental records are available..." This certainly implies that even they put little faith in the accuracy of temperature estimates made for periods prior to 1860. But the scare tactics never stop. The latest is a report from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory that has the liberal media lackeys barking headlines of pending world starvation. The headlines shriek, "Cereal Fields Produce Less Due To Global Warming" as they go on to state from the report that "... Fields of wheat, corn and barley throughout the world have produced a combined 40 million metric tons less per year from 1981 to 2002 because of increasing temperatures caused by human activities, said the study ..." As I read said report the words that kept jumping into my mind were "figures don't lie but liars figure".So I looked up the stats and this is what I found: "In the past decade and a half, agricultural net production increased annually by 2.2%. This growth has been mainly in the developing world which increased output by almost 3.4% per year, while the developed countries increased by just over 0.2% per year.... Food crops gross production went up 2%, but the most important of them, cereals, just 1%". Who are you going to believe? The lying manipulators or the actual figures? The fact of the matter is that food production, including cereal production world wide is up, not down. Would global warming or global cooling be more disastrous to the world food supply? How many of you are familiar with the nick-name, Little Egypt, given to the southern third of Illinois? Have you ever wondered why? Well, it seems that in the winter of 1830-31 Upper Illinois suffered from a long winter and late spring, so crops were not planted until June, and much of that harvest was killed by an early September frost. Southern Illinois, however, was milder that year and produced grain, much of which was shipped north. I'll bet the people of Chicago in those days were worried sick about global cooling. But we don't need to go back quite that far to find a period of time when climate extremes posed severe threats to man-kind. There are still some old-timers around who remember the "dust bowl" of the 1930's. "... 'Dust Bowl' was a term born in the hard times from the people who lived in the drought-stricken region during the great depression... The decade was full of extremes: blizzards, tornadoes, floods, droughts, and dirt storms." Excerpts from "The Dust Bowl, Men, Dirt and Depression" by Paul Bonnifield. Since Mr. Gore associates global warming with drought I must assume that these drought years were the result of global warming. Temperatures in Oklahoma hit 120 degrees on some of those hot summer days. Come to think of it, we know there have been temperature extremes and droughts since the beginning of recorded history. Have you heard about the seven year famine that shook the whole civilized world? The incident is described by BBC Weather as follows: "The famine in Egypt in the story of Joseph is a ‘physical famine’, which means that it was caused by the environment’s natural hostility to Egypt’s agriculture. Drought is the most common cause of famine, and it was an unpredictable drought and a sudden change in the state of the climate that would cause the famine in Egypt." Does Mr. Gore realize that he is about 4000 years late in warning us about global warming? Finally, you have to dig really deep to find this article in a recent issue of Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics titled “Multi-scale analysis of global temperature changes and trend of a drop in temperature in the next 20 years.” I certainly have not and expect not to see any mention of this paper by our liberal media friends. The article was published in a highly respected, peer-reviewed scientific journal and the research was funded by the impartial Chinese National Science Foundation. Read details about the article in World Climate Report. . The authors, Zhen-Shan and Xian gathered temperature data for the globe, the Northern Hemisphere, and 10 regions in China from 1881 to 2002; the datasets they chose are the same ones used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Based on their statistical analysis of this data, they predict that the average global temperature during the next twenty years will drop from its present level. Furthermore, their work demonstrates that although carbon dioxide increase may have a positive effect on temperature increase, the effect will be insufficient to over-come the temperature drop attributable to other natural causes. What do you think? Ozark common sense tells me that what-ever will be, will be and the future's not ours to see. Put your trust in God. PS: See below exact quote from NOAA. "February Temperature: 34th coldest February in the 1895-2007 record. The preliminary nationally averaged temperature was 32.86°F (0.48°C), which was 1.84°F (1.02°C) below the 1901-2000 (20th century) mean." ********************************************************************

Posted February 10, 2007:

Common Sense and Man-made Global Warming

Even Ozarker common sense can become befuddled sometimes, particularly when the mind is plummeted with conflicting facts, or so-called facts such as those indicated in the following head-lines I noted this morning: TED TURNER: Global Warming is 'single greatest challenge that humanity has ever faced'... GORE: 'Never before has all of civilization been threatened'... NORTH MICHIGAN EXPERIENCING AMONG TOP 10 COLDEST STARTS TO FEB -- IN LAST 100 YEARS... Thick Ice Forces Emergency relief for Sweden's starving reindeer... Mr. Turner recommended that no new coal-fired power plants ever be built in the US. Is it only coincidental that this billionaire is the major investor in DT Solar, a New Jersey company involved in large-scale solar power projects? And what did Mr. Gore say on February 8 to an audience in Spain? "Emerging economies such as China are justified in holding back on fighting greenhouse gas emissions until richer polluters like the United States do more to solve the problem..." Mr. Gore advocates letting the lights go out for you and me so that this giant emerging economy of China that is already cleaning our clock can grow even richer and stronger. Hmm, the Ozarker common sense is wondering what happened to Mr. Gore's common sense. Wouldn't we expect more from the inventor of the Internet? We are being bombarded with stories from the liberal media warning of an imminent doomsday because you and I are causing the earth to rapidly approach the heat of Hades. Last week's release by the IPCC of the executive summary of their latest report has sparked even more scare-oriented propaganda. The IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said in this report that "it is almost certain..." that humans are the cause for current global warming. But the more I study this issue, the more scientists I find who disagree with the view that humans are the major cause of climate change and who, in fact, also disagree that we are currently undergoing any abnormal trend toward global warming. Even some of the scientists working with the IPCC on the research have objected to the summary report, stating that it is a political statement rather than a technical summary. In support of this, they voice their objection to the fact that the actual technical report has been withheld for at least an additional three months so that it can be "...edited to comply with the summary report..." See report. Ozarker common sense also makes it hard to worry about global warming when we are currently freezing our tails off. While we here in Ozark country are having trouble trying to stay warm, we get little comfort knowing it's a lot colder for our orthern neighbors. Northern Michigan is experiencing among the top 10 starts for February in the last 100 years. For example, at Houghton Lake Michigan the average temperature for the first week of February is 5.2 degrees F whereas this year it has been –7.6. The weather reports, if you can believe long-term climate forecasts a week ahead, are that the cold snap will continue. Come to think of it, if you can't believe weather reports a week ahead, how can you believe them 75 years ahead? Does this not also stretch our common sense when it comes to forecasts of dire consequential global warming? Has anyone told the reindeer about global warming? Maybe our green environmental friends should turn their attention to the Arctic where the reindeer are starving because they cannot forage through the thick ice to get to their normal food source. The Swedish government is granting millions of dollars to the native reindeer herding people to provide food for these animals because of the unusually severe conditions. It is because of conflicting observations like these that most Ozark people I know are intuitively skeptical and relatively immune to the brainwashing of the Gore scare-mongers. That makes me proud of the Ozarker common sense. Now, using that same common sense, I realize that the industrial revolution that started a century and a half ago along with the ever-increasing human population has no doubt resulted in a huge increase of carbon from the earth back into the atmosphere. But the question is whether or not that increase is sufficient enough to overcome nature's inevitable direction and rate of climate change. The climate has been continually changing every since God created the earth. Hot-house to cold-house to hot-house to ....., you get the idea. It was ever so. No one can question that global warming is occurring, the earth is in its normal cycle of recovery from the last ice-house age. But I think it is highly egotistical of the environmentalists to think that we measly men can have greater effect than the sun and other mighty forces of nature that God uses to control the world's climate. Debate as to the extent of man's intervention in climate change continues to rage among the scientists. We lay-people can only listen to the arguments and use our own common sense in assessing the relative validities. Your common sense, and mine, are at least as good as that of the most vocal of the loud-mouths, Mr. Gore. The problem, however, is that those loud-mouths have the biggest vocal cords in the form of the print and television media and over-whelm the public with their one-sided message that would weaken this country's economy and hasten their desired trend toward one-world government. But there does exist an opposing view among many scientists and it can be found if you dig deeply enough. For example, data presented by Prof. Mann has been the back-bone of the IPCC's claims even though a congressional investigation resulted in a report which found great fault with the Mann data. See reference So as not to bore the casual reader with more of the facts of the matter, I have presented them in a separate web page. If you would like to read more in support of questioning the validity of the IPCC claims, go to ozarkcountry.com/climate
References and a brief excerpt pertaining to each subject below are presented at that site.

Ozarkcountrymand says, God Bless All

REFERENCES
1. IPCC Summary Report Takes Precedence Over Technical Report
2. Earth's Climate Always Changing
3. Glaciers Come and Go
4. Past Earth Temperatures Higher Than Today's
5. Sun Is Major Source Of Global Warming
6. Climate Is Result Of Multiplicity of Complex, Interacting Factors
7. Drastic Weather Changes Nothing New
8. Global Climate Models Omit Significant Seafloor Methane Cycle
9. Global Climate Models Inadequately Account For Southern Ocean.
10.. Global Climate Model Based On Erroneous Antarctic Snowfall Estimate
11. Ocean Organisms Not Taken Into Account In Global Climate Model
12. Russian Scientist Says Greenhouse Gases Not The Culprit
13. Water Is Most Powerful Greenhouse Gas
14. Global Climate Model Based On Erroneous Arctic Soil Carbon Estimate
15. Effect Of Volcanic Eruptions Under-estimated
16. Gain In Antarctic Ice Sheet Belies Global Warming
17. Effect Of Vegetation On Climate Change Too Complex To Model
18. Global Climate Models Incorrectly Predict Temperature Variations
19. Climate Change Is Nature's Way
20. Global Warming Scare Invention Of The Media
21. Man-made Global Warming A Hoax
22. Congressional Hearing Slams Mann Data
23. Climate Record Of Last 14000 Years
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Posted January 17,2007:

Common Sense About Doom's Day Clock

Everybody duck! The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has moved the doomsday clock to five minutes before it's all over for mankind. And it's not just the nuclear nuts in North Korea and Iran who prompted the scary jump forward, or is it backward, toward annihilation. It's also Mother Nature and Her screwed-up weather. No, there I go being wrong again; it's our fault because it is us who screwed up Mother Nature.

But wait a minute, are we sure that the cause is not really the scientists who started the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists? After all, did a doomsday clock even exist before they invented it? "... Its hands have been moved forward or back 17 times before the latest announcement..." Now, I ask you, are these scientists so powerful that they can move time back and forth? It seems to me, if they can do that, then this should be the real story.

I'm not too worried about it, though. The scientists who started this organization in 1945, with an average age at that time of, say 35, are now over the century mark. Most really old people I know are real worriers and generally pessimistic about everything, particularly about the future of the world. "Help, help, the sky is falling." Personally, I wish global warming would hurry up and get here and melt the ice rink that used to be my back yard.

And where does God fit in here? Don't you think maybe He has something to say about when He'll pull the plug? Or do these old geezers of the "Bulletin" have a direct line to The Big Guy? I may not have a direct line, but I do have the Word. And the Word tells me that no one will know in advance as to when the end time will occur but that we all better always be ready. In Matthew 24:42-44 Jesus said:

Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you be ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.

Ozark common sense tells me that I'd better live today as though He is coming tomorrow or maybe tonight. If we live that way, our future is secure no matter when the doomsday clock hits midnight.

(For more information on the doomsday clock, see The Doomsday Clock, It Tolls For Thee)

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Posted January 16, 2007

Common Sense Survivor of the Ice Storm

Today, all is warm and toasty here at the Walker home at the Lake of the Ozarks. But yesterday was a different story. Good and faithful dog Casper woke us as usual with his insistent bark to be released from his safe and secure cage next to our bed so that he could welcome the day with a brisk relief break in our back yard. Alice and I played our usual morning game as we each pretended to be still asleep despite Casper's ever increasing bark insistence until one of us finally gave up and answered his pleas. This morning, as most often, it was Alice who lost the battle and answered the call.

She unlatched the cage in the dim light of pre-dawn and Casper sprang out like a drag car and sped down the steps in a flash. Alice followed much more slowly and flipped on the lights before heading down the stairs; but the lights remained in their darkened state. "oh oh", she exclaimed, "the power is out". This was the third day of a multi-phase ice storm that had been pounding the mid-west in general and Missouri in particular. Tens of thousands of Missourians had lost power in the first two days but we had been fortunate in missing the bullet.

Phase one of the ice storm hit on Friday but, having been forewarned, we had stocked up on emergency supplies and were prepared to cocoon out the storm. Alice laughed at me when I ran the bathtub full of water and filled all available jugs with drinking water but I knew that water would be a problem if we lost power. That's one of the disadvantages of not being on a public water system. But she was less doubting when I carried many arm-loads of wood from our wood pile outside to a secure spot indoors. When oil and gas prices soar, it's comfortable to be an "all electric" home. But when power failure occurs it's a different story. All day Saturday we simply enjoyed the excuse to do nothing but relax and watch the weather deteriorate. Our KIA mini-van remained safely in the garage as our driveway became a thick sheet of ice. Getting the van onto the main road would have been impossible since the driveway becomes almost immediately a steep upward slope as soon as you leave the garage. Our truck set unprotected near the top of the slope but it was locked in a coat of ice. We were content to just stay warm and safe in the security of home. Our sparsely traveled road was devoid of any traffic at all except for the frequent passing of the road-crew truck as it kept the road clear and spread its security blanket of sand and salt. We were pleased when, on Saturday afternoon we got a call that church the next day had been cancelled.

Casper woke us as usual Sunday morning and all was well. The sky was cloudy; the thermometer read 26 degrees, but nothing except the birds were in the air. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast as we listened to weather reports threatening a final punch of the three-prong ice storm. "Maybe we'd better try to chip away the ice in case an emergency came up and we would have to get out," Alice announced matter-of-factly. I knew she was right but dreaded the thought of the daunting task. Nevertheless, we bundled up, put on warm gloves, gathered a snow shovel and flat-nose shovels (I know there's a proper term for such a device but never can remember what that is), and bravely ventured out into the challenge. We had no more than started when good neighbor Doug showed up with his shovel in hand. "I'm sure glad to see you guys out here," he exclaimed, "I was getting cabin fever." Doug had parked their Dodge mini-van at the top of the driveway and would be able to get out by simply removing the vehicle of the ice enshrouding it. He joined us in chipping away the ice on our driveway. We soon learned that any form of "shoveling" was an impossible task, but that the ice could be removed by first beating on a small section of it with the blunt end of the steel shovel so as to break the ice off chunk by chunk. We soon had a system working whereby two would chip while the third shoveled away the small chunks of ice. Shoveling was the easiest part of the job so we rotated chores until, almost three hours later, a path had been cleared by which we could drive the van to the top of the driveway. Alice deftly backed the car out, turned it around and drove it up the slope without a hitch. We decided to leave it there for the duration and retreated to a well-earned rest. Later, we invited Doug and Vera over for a light supper and a game of Mexican Train dominos. By the time we retired for the night, the threatened final thrust of the ice storm had given way to higher temperatures and we felt confident that the resulting rain would wash away the remnants of the dangerous ice. But, as noted above, that was not to be the case and we awoke the next day to join the thousands of our neighbors who were without electricity.

We don't know why our power waited until this final day to give up the ghost. The driveway we had cleared was now dry and without a trace of ice on the area that we had cleared. Reports on the radio indicated that those without power might not be relieved for days and temperatures approaching zero were on the way. My first task was to build a fire in the living room fireplace. Even though the fireplace is a heatalator, like most fireplaces today it provides a lot more atmosphere than useful heat to the house. Nevertheless, it would provide a place of warmth if the fire was blazing enough and if you stood close enough. We decided to venture out to replenish our supplies in case we were in for a long period devoid of power.

On Saturday I had heard a radio report that Home Depot had gotten in a shipment of 400 generators but they were going out like hotcakes. Home Depot was therefore our first stop and, as we entered the store we became quite concerned because we saw that what seemed to be about every other shopper was leaving the store with a very large box on a lumber cart. Each such cart contained a generator.

I didn't have the vaguest idea of how to make use of a generator in our home but I figured if so many people were buying them it couldn't be too tough a job to put them to use. We queried a clerk as to the location of the generators and were sent toward the lumber department. There, behind a closed gate, we found a smiling Home Depot employee, with his assistant towing a cart with a generator on it. He gave us some quick advice on how to use the generator, opened the gate and handed us the handle of the cart, then closed it as his assistant went for another generator. At about $700 per generator I now know why he was smiling.

Alice brought the van around as I pulled the cart toward the pick-up area and a store employee helped me lift the heavy contraption into the back of the van. I wasn't sure how we would get it out once we got home. Fortunately, we had no more than backed up to our garage at home when Doug came over to help. We removed the box from around the generator while it was still in the van and then Doug and I had no trouble lifting it to the pavement. As expected, some assembly was required so we took it into the garage to get out of the cold wind. Assembly was not difficult as all that was required was to put on the front wheels and a support bracket in the front. We then rolled it back outside next to the garage, added the oil that had been included with the generator, and filled it with about five gallons of gas. It fired up on the first pull and we were in business. Now, I know the "right" way to use a generator is to have it wired directly into the house circuit box, but without an electrician at hand that is not a choice. For the type of immediate emergency use we needed, the supplied electrical cord was pretty slick. We simply plugged one end of the heavy duty cord into the generator, closed the garage door on it, and fed the other end through the garage door leading to the house. This end of the cord divides into four separate outlets into which four extension cords can be inserted. This enabled us to turn our living room/kitchen area into a cozy and relatively warm environment. We hooked two small space heaters up to two of the extension cords, and in the others we sent power to the TV set, to a lamp, a coffee pot, a crock pot, and a small microwave. So long as the wood and gasoline would last we no longer needed the electric company. We invited Doug and Vera to join us and planned for a camping trip of unknown duration in our living room. Coffee was made and Alice had put a delicious looking beef stew into the croc pot. We gathered around the kitchen table contented and happy as we played yet another game of Mexican Train dominos.

But since both Doug and Vera had to work the next day, they decided that they would be better off staying in a motel for the night if they could find a vacancy. Doug found one that had three rooms left so he went and checked into the room to make sure it would still be there when needed. The lights came back on just as he walked back into the house and our adventure ended.

We were lucky but we were prepared and could have endured the power outage for a long time. As I write this I hear reports that there are over 100 shelters open in this area for those in need of a warm place to sleep. I know that there are many out there who are too elderly, too sick, or too poor to be prepared for this cruel trick of nature. Let us all pray that they will be safe and that none will be missed or forgotten.

Take care. If your area is threatened by a storm of any type, use some good old common sense to be prepared.

Ozarcountrymand says, "God Bless".