Necroleadicon turns two!

Hello,

yesterday was my blog's second birthday! The time really flies by - I made a quick pass through my posts around last year's february and I couldn't believe most of my youngest terrain is a year old already! I am a bit reluctant to build anything larger until I find a job, but I have painted and sculpted quite a lot last year.

While 2013 was more than obviously a Strange Aeons year, I am slowly restarting  a new project for 2014 - modern infantry combat. The project was started months ago (remember humvees?) and I've been doing some sculpting (remember the rifles?). Now I've ordered some miniatures and I am full of confidence and enthusiasm that I hope will stick with me. But more on that in my next post (as usual)!

I actually wanted to post on 1st february and I had (I've managed to delete it somehow) post all written. I took some photos of my WIP sculpts and before I could put them on my computer, it has happened - the black out. Not counting few hours of blackout on friday, we were without electricity from 1st feb until yesterday. Even now electricity is provided by larger portable generators, so the bigger machines aren't working too well. All this included, I might as well dedicate a post to what people here like to call "the worst catastrophe in history of an independent Slovenia". Emphasis on "independent", to make things sound a bit less horrible :D. I might add I had this post written yesterday morning, but our power was cut just before I could publish it!

So, what has happened was frost. Lots of it. We were expecting rain on that first february weekend and I for one was looking forward to it. As any sane man living under the Alps, I dislike snow. But the thing was, the freezing rain proved problematic. Long story short, the electrical lines are mostly damaged, I've heard 40-50% of forests are also damaged (around half of the country is covered by forests) and there has been incalculable damage - estimated three years will be needed to clean it all up, passenger train on a line Ljubljana - coastline won't go anywhere until May, orchards are damage. Just imagine how many companies were out of business etc etc.
As for us, there is no large property damage. My parents had to work from family friend's house as their work can't wait. I am home most of the time either way, so I was reading a lot. And sleeping...but mostly reading, there was enough . We had running water, provided by generator, but it was freezing cold as our heating needs electricity. As do lights (doh), stove, refrigerators, aquariums etc etc. Luckily, we have a fire place that was a nice source of heating for the ground floor - my room is pretty much uninhabitable due to cold. We got a gas stove from somewhere, so food wasn't much of the problem, either. After some days, we borrowed small generator from an extended family so we afforded to watch a film or two every night . I haven't been to bed that early in a while now! So it really wasn't too bad all in all. Just annoying.

I managed to do some limited sculpting and painting, too. I'll show what I've done in future posts, and I'll just post some photos I took to let you know how it all looked like (it all melted in a day or two, oddly enough):

This was our driveway on the first day or so. In retrospective, I'd prefer shoveling snow than breaking ice with a hoe, shovel and a pick.

Add caption

This roof is pierced and it's about all damage we had, not counting the trees

generator providing us with running water

That's an "emergency" pole. I case of another freezing rain, those will all break I suppose

That's how most of the forests look like. Not many pine trees have kept their tops

That's from a town close by. Another town in other direction mostly kept its electricity

That's a generator that provides energy for my sister's apartment block. I heard it uses 300 liters of diesel every hour.

Not much else to add really. I'd just like to compliment the emergency services that were and are working outside in cold rain and snow...from electrical engineers to firemen, policemen, soldiers and all the foreigners that came here. I wasn't too informed as walking outside was literally lethal, but I haven't heard any complains regarding the work of people working 24/7 to make sure people got electricity as fast as possible.

Back to hobby in few days,
Mathyoo