I was all ready for this last big windstorm.

The weather report I pay the most attention to is the one on what’s going on in Admiralty Inlet, which is my front yard. Well, really my backyard.

My house looks at Double Bluff on Whidbey Island and Mount Baker. I can see Slade Gorton’s summer place on the beach and he says he can see my house so I’d better not be walking around on the deck in my underwear, which I don’t.

My husband and I tried sleeping out on the deck once to watch the Perseid shower or whatever they call it, but so many critters crept into my sleeping bag with me I retreated to the house, shedding mice and shrews and God knows what else along the way.

One of the first things we learned on moving here to Hansville is that if the wind blows more than 25 knots the power will probably go out — and when the power company starts getting it back on, Hansville is at the bottom of the list.

As I understand it, the power company prioritizes according to how many people are involved in each outage and goes from there. When you live in the boonies, you are omega on the work list.

I live in Omegaville.

The original owners of our house endured power outages until the one that lasted two weeks, during which the wife huddled in front of the glass-doored fireplace which doesn’t do much to heat up the place. When the power came back on, they moved to downtown Bainbridge Island and put the Hansville house on the market.

When we bought it in 1965, a couple and their two children were living here on a one-year lease with an option to buy, but when the year was up, they just sat tight, hoping, I guess, that the owner would come down in price.

When I showed up and obviously fell in love with it at first sight, the couple decided they were ready to buy after all, and so informed the owner.

He said it was too late. They refused to leave. Under the eye of the owner, we moved in as they moved out, passing each other, unspeaking, at the doorways.

Later on, one of their kids had some difficulty at school and they called on me to write about it, which I did, feeling it worthy. I never saw them again but we parted that time with smiles and handshakes instead of glares.

We had a Goldilocks wood stove installed in the kitchen and only use it in power outages. It not only will heat the whole house but you can cook on it. We also have a gravity flow water system so hot showers are available for a couple of days.

I believe the longest outage I have endured was a Friday to Monday night.

I have a good supply of wood, batteries of all sizes and McNaughton’s to make power outages more livable, but let’s face it, power outages are boring.

I have a battery-powered TV set but it only gets one station. I have a battery-powered DVD player but I forget how it works.

I do have hundreds of movies on audio tapes I made before we got the DVD.

When I heard the forecast for this latest windstorm, I dragged out all my lanterns, kerosene, battery- and candle-powered. My brother gave me one that I have to turn the gas on and it on quickly, which nearly cost me my eyebrows the first time I tried it on my own.

I haven’t tried it since and tell him it works fine.

While much of the rest of Western Wash-ington was being ravaged and inundated in the latest storm,

I got not nearly as much wind or rain, but then I live in the Sequim belt, which is the tip of the Kitsap Peninsula that lies in the shadow of the Olympics.

I got away with it this time, but I have been targeted in the past, losing three old second growth trees and a number of large flowering trees in ferocious gusts. When Mother Nature decides to prune, there isn’t much you can do about it.

Adele Ferguson can be reached at PO Box 69, Hansville, WA 98340.