Well, it's time to hunker down. Ice is everywhere and trees are falling all over. :-[ The power went out this morning. just now got my crappy generator running. I have lost at least 15 to 20 trees that I can see. those are the complete tree, roots and all. not counting the thousands of limbs.
Taylor, has this storm hit your area and hard? thank God for wood stove. and a 5 burner ventless heater. Oh yeah, and a battery powered carbon monoxide detector. :D I feel for anyone east of us. looks like it might get even worse there.
Keep safe and warm!
i've never lived in such an enviroment
here in texas, when we hear "hunker down", it means the big blow is a commin'
i know this sound kind of corney, but i'll remember you in my prayers.
i can only imagine what it must be like to be in that bitter cold, i'm whinning 'cause the low tonight
is 50
i talk a big story, about wanting to see some real snow one day, (being from texas, i never really have)
but i dont think i'd last 1/2 a day in that kind of cold
good luck, stay warm
tesa
Well it's finally reaching here. 2" of snow this morning and then by afternoon it started to rain and then freeze. Trees are alredy glazing up. A look at the radar map and we are right on the border line. Who knows I guess we will find out in the morning when we look out and see either dull white or shining on the tress.
We ended up with 1/4" of ice, 1" of sleet and about 1" of snow. Burrrrrr.
Thanks everyone.we made it thu the night,but it was spooky. all night, trees were snapping, then crashing. took a couple of big hits on the house with some hefty limbs but thankfully no direct hit from any of the big trees that went down. It's dawn now and I can see 2 of the trees that were next to my house are down, roots and all :o I'm not ready to venture out yet. Everybody east of this "Get ready" gotta shut down the putor for now. let the fridge and freezer run.
Oh yeah, thank you, tesa I think your prayers worked :)
Glad to hear you made it OK. :)
Stay off the roads!
We kids used to love the ice storms. Made for excellent sledding with the old steel rail type sleds. We had a road near our house going down to the lake that we could get a 1/2 mile run on. Sledding at night was especially fun.
Hope your power stays on...
-f-
glad to hear all is well!
its all over the news down here, i'll never forget the sound of snapping and crashing
trees during hurricane ike
its creepy, especially in the dark
and your welcome for the prayers, a little divine intervention never hurts
tesa
If they are nice trees and you can swing it, think about having a portable bandmill come in and make lumber out of the trees. When life hands you lemons, our oak cabinets and trim came from an ice storm. Be careful cleaning up, our woods were full of springpoles, bent over saplings under the big boys, waiting to smash into you if released wrong.
Our power was out for a while today, I had to get the generator out for a few hours.
well friends this is the first time we've had internet access. storm was worse than expected. Phones went out along with power. last heard on the portable radio that there is 6 dead. 2 from falling limbs and other carbon monoxide. bad, bad. we probably wont have power for 3 weeks. could be worse. town of truman was told 6 weeks or more. got to got saw up some more trees. got at least 2 limbs stick thu the roof. 1 came clear into living room. can't get on the roof to see if there are more punched in. hopefuly the sun will melt the snow and ice off the roof so I can see if I need to roof the whole thing over. >:(
Alex and Linda
zion-diy my heart goes out to you. We faired easy in comparison. The western part of our state was worse than the mountains. I guess they gave us a little protection from the weather pattern. My parents live near the Ohio River and they have been w/o power for 4 days. It is bad enough to have to make repairs but to have to do it in the winter is worse. Good Luck.
Sorry to hear that, Alex and Linda. Be careful working under those conditions -- I went off a roof during the fire - didn't hurt much but still before I did it I figured I couldn't do it.
No walking on water for me I guess... [waiting]
Glenn you must have landed on your head. Nothing hurt. ;)
Luckily a few 2x4's on the gate frame broke my fall. :)
Yes -- you are right - armor plated skull -- Kevlar. You can beat my head with a 2x4 like a pinata and nothing will be damaged... [crz]
Well we are still without power and to make things worse, my 5k generator gave up the ghost yesterday. I managed to get on the roof without falling off :)and quicky patch the holes we can heat and cook on the woodstove. only worry I've got is the freezer. I can't eat all that food fast enough. I managed to get online by using my tractor battery and a small 175 watt Inverter with my laptop. Got out and found the gougers are working full force. $600 for a chinese 3000 watt gen. $880 for 5000 watt, told them to keep it. Anyone who wants to live off grid and be self sufficent needs to come stay here or Kentucky for a bit. a good learning curve :)
Alex-Linda
Can you get your food into some sort of insulated box outside in the shady part of a building? Put some water jugs out at night to freeze, or harvest pond ice to help keep it cold.
Does the power company in Northern Arkansas reimburse you for lost food if the power goes out?
I have friends there near Mountain Home who have been sending me pictures... unbelievable storm.
Do you guys need FEMA or the national guard to sort things out? (I'm guessing NO! Based on my experiences with being a Hillbilly. They would just get in the way).
-f-
170+ hours on generator so far
Bruce
Finaly got a putter that I can log on with. Over a week with no power but we have water and wood for heat so we are better off than some.
We lost hundreds of trees and slight roof damage but not enough to file on insurance.
It seems rough but I don't recall it being much different when I was a kid and I lived through that c*!
If we get power back soon I think I can post some pics. on the home computer!?!?! ???
Here's hoping you all have plenty of gas.... be careful out there.
finally. last nite, the juice started flowing again. just in time as temps went to single digits here.
NM_shooter,fema, we don't need no stinking fema :D
Dog, I feel for you. hope the gen stays running.
Cordwood, you're right, it probably isn't any different from years gone bye. I guess it's cause I can't get around like I used to. Golden years my butt :)
I'll have to get the womans help to post pics. lets just say I'm putor stupid..
10am today will be 10 days on generator.
still haven't seen any "officials" of local government
OldDog make sure you shut it down long enough to change the oil, Often in long use periods this is forgotten.
I have had 2 oil changes this week & checked every tank of fuel.
A lot of people never look at them.
There are several week old generators showing up for sale. I think they will get cheaper when the credit card bills start rolling in!
Thought I would post since I finally got power back, I am here in the middle of Springdale, Ar, our yard is, was, full of 100 year old oaks, about 10 of them, every one of them had severe damage. A few split into, most of them lost the top 20 or so feet. Without power for 6 days here, my hats off to the power crews who have come in from all over the area. The ones who restored our power were from North Carolina and West Texas. These guys do not get the respect they deserve... I know some areas in Newton county, about 60 miles east of me, will be without power until maybe June, early July. Newton country had over 1500 power poles that are down or broke, so it is basically like running power for the first time again. Have seen Fema trucks with their 116KW generators heading that way,
Our land out in Kingston took some major tree damage also, I had a 100' oak come out of the ground by the roots from the weight of the ice. It missed my truck by about 3 feet. But, a cedar managed to get it.. The bus I have out there took a glancing blow, a tree nicked the front corner, flattened the air horn to the size of a can of peas, and took out the front right window. But, all in all it could have been worse. It looks like a twister has come thru from the way the trees are all topped off,
For all those out there who have went through this, hope you made it and hope the clean up goes well.
Ohhhhhhhhh geeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzz, you're handling it well, but I really feel for you and the other people caught up in this mess.
Sounds pretty bad, Jim. Be careful.
The little light came on at 6:58 pm last night! :) :) :) :)
The wife is starting to warm to the idea of "Off-Grid" self sufficient living.
12 days of no power and the only thing I wish we had was an old ringer washer :-\ I hate coin-ops >:(
Trees look bad but I just keep telling myself thats fire wood for next year ;)!
Congrats on the power being back on. I went out and counted the number of trees on my land that I have to cut, I came up with 27 that were either totally down of broken in half. I have been thinking this would be a good time to start work on that cob place I have wanting to try, maybe use the trees that I can manage to move around as the roof supports and roof rafters.Then just cob up to the roof. That and have a really big bonfire this summer,everyone is invited over, bring your own hot dogs..
8 hours into 12 days of generator power. 3RD oil change today.
thank goodness gas is not still $4 A GALLON.
Quote from: travcojim on February 08, 2009, 04:07:17 PM
Congrats on the power being back on. I went out and counted the number of trees on my land that I have to cut, I came up with 27 that were either totally down of broken in half. I have been thinking this would be a good time to start work on that cob place I have wanting to try, maybe use the trees that I can manage to move around as the roof supports and roof rafters.Then just cob up to the roof. That and have a really big bonfire this summer,everyone is invited over, bring your own hot dogs..
Sounds like that bonfire might be big enough that I may be able to just stand over here and roast my 'dogs. Glad the power is coming back!
8 hrs and 40 min past 15 days on generator!
our 3 phase line down the highway was back up until the wind storm filled it full of trees this afternoon!
the insurance adjuster looked at my boat shed today and said I couldn't save it and paid for it.
Dang! I have a lot of trees to clean up at my home, my cabin & my moms home.
We're all ok and have a home so I'll buy more generator gas tomorrow
Bruce
What fun you are having, Bruce. I hope it gets better soon for you.
Well I am not in the Ozark's but can sympathise with those who have been without power. We have regular power outages due to an old line and equipment. In fact we have been without power since Wednesday. After a trip to town to buy the correct plug for the generator we now have enough to run the freezer and recharge the portable lights. Estimated time to restore is Saturday at 1200 noon. I just intermitently switch the breaker for the function that is needed. Oh Yesh CP is one of the necessities. While waiting for the freezer's and fridges to get cold again I thought I would check in to see what I have been missing. Not that I have been missed so much as what I have missed. Now I will haul it up and get in 1/2 day work at the cabin and bring it back down this evening. So if I have missed anyone that has directed anything to me I apoligise as I haphazzardly went through the E-mails of about 200. Check back with you'all later.
Of course we miss you, John... careful out there.
The grid is so unreliable. d*
OK I'll hush-----------
18 days 2 hrs later there was electricity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's over 1/2 a month.
Glenn,
$340 for gas and oil for 18 days makes for HIGH utilities!!!!!!!!!
Olddog I sort of know where you are coming from . I just keep stacking the receipts on my project. Been running a gas generator for 3 years coming this May. I wouldn't want to figure on what I have paid out in gas for 5 days a week. But one rainy day I will when I get done. d*
Until I improved my solar system by adding the tracker, we were paying around $60 to $80 a month for added gas for generator power and I thought that was high. d*