ericolson
Well, folks, finally took my first shower in ten days this morning at a gym I go to. Prior to that, bucket baths. Lost power on the first night of the ice storm, so it's been ten days now with no power or heat. The power company says it could be another ten days before we get power back. Power finally came back on at work, so that's why I'm able to get on the forum.
I'm not whining, mind you, not at all. I've been able to keep the temp in my livining room at or near 70' pretty much the entire time with the fireplace and two kerosene heaters. I've got a lot of camping and hiking gear, so no problem being able to cook. Freezer items are outside in a cooler so they stay frozen and 'frig items are in the garage where it's cold but not freezing. Have light in the evening with three oil lamps and a railroad lantern I had sitting in the shop. I was surprised (pleasantly) to find it still had a wick!!
I wander up to the shop now and then, just to look at my machines and tools. I've still got four panels in clamps that I'm not going to touch until the power comes back on!:)
I've got a lot of trees down in my yard and on my property. I'm going to be contacting my sawyer about milling a lot into lumber. There's a beautiful old hickory that landed on my neighbor's barn (crushed it), that's going to live again in future furniture projects. The trunk is huge, about 2 1/2 to 3 feet in diameter. I need to measure it. I'm definitely going to be good on on firewood for a couple of years!!:D
All in all, a very interesting experience. My girlfriend and I are not miserable at all, with the exception of the kerosene smell which now permeates the entire house. I know there are a lot of others still without power that are worse off than we are. Found out yesterday at church that one family was hauling water from a creek on their property!!
I will readily admit, however, that the adventure of living (for the most part) in the 1890's-early 1900's is beginning to wear a bit thin. But, hopefully, I'll go home and the power will be back on...
Just needed to vent a little. Thank you all for listening.
dusty
You live in Missouri, if I'm not mistaken, so you sort of expect cold weather and are probably as well prepared as you can get. You have downed trees and cannot prepare for that. Losing trees is a shame, hope you can recover some of the timber. What a pleasure, to work with rough cut lumber from your own property, of your own milling.
I live in Arizona. We are dealing with cold weather and ice that was not expected. In an earlier post, different thread, I made some rash comments about it not getting cold enough here to effect the SS. No longer true. I turned it on this morning and it would barely turn. I'm waiting now for it to warm up. Hope it does. My grandson is expected, early this afternoon, for a shop session that I really don't want to cancel. Time with him in the shop is to valuable.
Good luck, hope it warms soon.
ericolson
Yep, southwest Missouri, just north of Springfield, to be exact. This was my first true ice storm, as I'm originally from Reno, where it just snows. As I drive around, I marvel at the power of Mother Nature. 100+ year old oaks literally ripped in half, right down the center of the tree. Limbs one foot in diameter torn from the side of trees. I spent two hours Saturday chainsawing one limb from one of the oaks in my yard! I wish I were exaggerating! So far as I can tell, in my yard alone, I've lost a hickory and an oak. The hickory has about ten feet of straight trunk before the lower branches start. The oak is about the same. There are a couple of white oaks that are questionable: I'll have to wait till spring to see if they recover and bud out. I'm kinda mad about the oak that's down, though. It was an owl nesting tree and provided many hours of entertainment with a spotting scope. I can only imagine what's in the forest on the back side of my property! I'm planning on calling my sawyer as soon as power's back on and I can borrow my neighbor's tractor to skid the logs into a spot where I can load them onto a trailer. This could be the time I've thought often about: buying my own Woodmizer type sawmill. The wheels are spinning...
Well, Dusty, stay warm yourself and thanks for the sentiments:) .
paulmcohen
We live in Oregon and my son decided parked his car at the bottom of our hill because it was to icy to drive up. After the 4th or 5th car hit it it was a crumbled cube. I called it car pinball, it was towed away but I will be getting "after" pictures Wednesday.
Auto pinball in Portland
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SPE8vL5hlFA
paulmcohen
rallen
I am truly sorry that the rest of the country gets to share in our rotten weather! In Michigan (Detroit area) we usually get 1 or 2 of these ice storms per year; this one was actually very pretty, if you ignore the damage it caused, in that the trees stayed coated with ice for about a week. And yes, since we expect it, we have it alot easier than the folks who thought they had left all of that behind when they went south.
We have ALOT of dead ash trees up hear from the emerald ash borer, and accordingly on my 3 acres I have a bunch of branches down, an apple tree uprooted, and an old Elm that decided to shed some of its upper weight, fortunately just missing the house.
Could make alot of baseball bats out of that ash...wish I could figure out something else to do with it!
Robert
ericolson
Robert;
I couldn't agree with you more. A few days after the ice storm, the sun actually came up. I gotta tell ya, watching the sunrise and seeing how it refracted in all of the ice was simply beautiful. Now, the sun is out, it's in the mid-40's, everything is melting, and my yard (which was so easy to walk around and chainsaw) is now sludge.
Oh, I still don't have power...
deanthom
I'm SO sorry for you, man. It is very much calmer in KC, I assure you. We had sleet 10 days ago, and snow this past weekend, but dodged the nasty ice bullet this time.
Keep us posted, friend.
ericolson
deanthom wroteI'm SO sorry for you, man. It is very much calmer in KC, I assure you. We had sleet 10 days ago, and snow this past weekend, but dodged the nasty ice bullet this time.
Keep us posted, friend.
Well, it's day 13 and still no power. According to Ozark Electric's website, I've got power. According to the lady on the other end of the phone line, I've got power. Well, I can assure you, I do NOT have power. There's a 1.1 mile stretch of road with 13 homes on it (mine being one of them), right smack in the middle of my farm road, that don't have power. Everyone all around us has power. This is all getting pretty irritating.
Ed in Tampa
Many went 21 days and longer after the huricanes here in Florida without power. My brother lost his for 14 days one huricane and about 2 weeks later after he got power lost it again for 11 days.
Unlike you there is little hope for fozen foods, and if power is out in the whole area you might have to drive 50 miles for ice.
Where I live we are on wells and many people have to have lift stations on their septic tanks. So when you lost power you have no water and can't flush.
After 2004-2005 everyone bought generators, and they were selling for a premium. Now after this year and no huricanes the want ads are filled with generators for sale. They are a monster to store.
I usually suffer through a couple of days without power eating really good from everything that was in the freezer. Then I declared a holiday and take a vacation to some place with power.
Ed
ericolson
Now that the weather has warmed up a bit and most people have their power back, I'm noticing a lot of generators coming up for sale on Craigslist and the local classifieds. I know they're a pain to store, but we usually get a couple of good tornados ripping through our area every spring. You'd think people would want to be prepared, but lessons always have to be re-learned.
One lessoned I've learned is that the big, propane-fired, whole house generator I had been wanting to have installed is now moving quickly up my home-improvement priority list.
There've been a couple of times over the course of the last week where I've actually thought to myself; "Man, I lived better over in Iraq!" Then I quickly shook the thought from head because, as lousy as things have gotten, there are those that are worse off than me and: I'm not getting shot at.
rolands
After 13 days it would be more then irritating to me. I know these guys work long hard hours after the storms, but if the lights are on all around you for some reason they think you are taken care of also and they have moved on down the line. If you don't keep calling them they won't be back. Hang in there.
ericolson
rolands wroteAfter 13 days it would be more then irritating to me. I know these guys work long hard hours after the storms, but if the lights are on all around you for some reason they think you are taken care of also and they have moved on down the line. If you don't keep calling them they won't be back. Hang in there.
POWER!!! Got the power back on yesterday afternoon! Yes! What finally did it was an inside connection with the power company. My girlfriend called her sister whose best friend is a dispatcher with the company. Well, after a little coordination, the friend routed a truck to my area and within twenty minutes had the power up and running for the last 13 homes. A part of me feels bad that we had to do it that way, but the other part of me says, "screw it!" I mean, after five days of calls to the regular operator and getting nowhere, we had to pull out the trump card. Anyway, after cleaning up the mess that our living room had become, I HAD to head over to the shop and power up the machinery, just to hear it all!! Music to the ears. Won't be getting shop time for a while, though. I've still got one heck of a mess to clean up in my yard and three oaks and a hickory that came down that I need to get to my sawyer.
