Ice Storm

[Gary]

We're not melting here! In perhaps the worst ice storm of the century we have been without electricity since Tuesday afternoon (all-electric house). I have about 100 tress in my 5 acre "yard" and most look like a 500 lb. bomb was exploded in their center. I spent two hours yesterday with my tractor clearing the driveway of tree limbs from what was a drive flanked by 30 foot tall Bradford pear trees; now flanked by stumps.

Temp has been in the 14-30 F range with snow and freezing fog on top of the ice since Monday. Just about everything outside has 1" of solid ice on it.

Not fun! Hot water is missed most. Ice cold water is plentiful.

Have spent a great deal of time hauling in firewood for the two fireplaces and fueling and repairing generators to power the fireplace blowers, refrigerators and freezers. Have oil lamps, flashlights and a camp stove, but ready to move back into the modern era. House is a maze of extension cords as the two generators can only handle small loads (one 7200 watt peak and one 1700 watt peak).

The good news is that we have plenty of gasoline, diesel, propane, batteries and food.

May move to Florida soon. I hear Key West is nice.

 

[Rocky]

Wow Gary, that is wild! Sounds like you were well prepared. Good on ya :y115:
I'm not sure where you are, but I think we got the tail end of that storm. It turned to rain and stayed above freezing so no ice damage.
When the temp dropped yesterday we had skating rinks all over the place - and in places where you don't want skating rinks.

 

[The Seeker]

If you have any water pipes that are questionable for freezing, crack open the valve on the cold side and allow it to drip. As long as there is water still moving inside them, they won't freeze and break.

 

[CarlS]

Gary, we have a friend in MO in the same boat you are in - except she has no generator.

 

[DaveM]

Gary this is harsh nothing worse than not having electricity I know form our constant power cuts some time back. Sorry but you guys can keep your cold I would rather be with Lee in his 40c + climate or right here in sunny South Africa

 

[Simmer]

Hey Gary:
Sorry to hear about your situation Pard. We have been having a little break in the cold here. We never had the ice though. Hope you get those electrons flowing soon.
Dave

 

[Rocky]

I just saw the incredible and shocking destruction the ice storm caused in Kentucky on CNN. Until Gary mentioned his situation I didn't know about it.
It's hard to believe the extent of the terrible destruction until you actually see it.

 

[Gary]

I have six mexican laborers coming to help me clean up tomorrow. I spent last night cleaning bars and sharpening chains on chain saws, and I went out this morning and bought another chain saw; so I now own four (2 Stihls and 2 Poulans).

I'm guessing that if I cut up the big stuff into firewood, I should get about 10 cords. Just two weeks ago I burned a wood pile 20 feet high and 40 feet in diameter; this time it will probably be about 30' high and 50' in diameter, which is about as big as I have ever had to burn.

Luckily, just before Xmas I bought a 36,000# force log splitter that mounts on the three point hitch on my tractor and runs off of the tractor's hydralics. I thought it was a bit excessive at the time, but now I am relieved to have it.

I'll post photos soon.

 

[CarlS]

Gary, that is just as bad as cleaning up after a hurricane.

 

[The Seeker]

[quote author=CarlS link=topic=3532.msg23488#msg23488 date=1233942981]
Gary, that is just as bad as cleaning up after a hurricane.
[/quote]


Hmmmmmm????

Where's FEMA ?

Obama doesn't care about White people.

 

[CarlS]

Interesting question.

 

[The Seeker]

Before I have someone misinterpret what I meant above....

I was being sarcastic. After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, certain people liked to say that the Bush Administration was deliberately holding back FEMA and accusing him of hating Black people.

Well, what's fair is fair.....it's been over two weeks of people without electricity after the ice storm and Obama has yet to send in FEMA.

Maybe those states didn't vote for him?

 

[DaveM]

Gary if you were this side you could make plenty $ with all that fire wood as we love it for our braai (barbecues) :y18:

 

[Gary]

With 94 hours of labor, 4 chain saws (20" bar, 18", 16" and long extension 12"), 1 tractor, 1 4x4 pickup, 1 12' tandem trailer, 3 logging chains and various other tools. The clean up started on Saturday morning at 7:00 AM and was completed at 1:00 PM on Sunday (in time to go to special 2:30 PM blessing of the tartans Sunday presbyterian services complete with pipes and drum corp). The tractor had a front end loader on the front and a log splitter on the back; it was used to pull down broken limbs from trees, knock over stumps, carry loads of small debris and split wood.

The result was 3 cords of split oak firewood and 5 burn piles approximately 30' foot in diameter and 20' high. We ended up having to completely uproot about 20 trees from the yard (mostly big bradford pears and a few red maples).

I bought a new Stihl model 270 commercial grade chainsaw last Friday with a 20" bar and it was a real "hoss"; it probably did 1/2 of the chainsaw work and only needed one two minute chain tension adjustment. The smaller saws (including a Stihl 210) constantly needed adjustment, sharpening and attention; I probaly spent 6 hours of my time over the weekend making sure at least two saws were always in usable condition. If you want one really good chainsaw that will handle just about anything, the Stihl 270 will do it; for light jobs, the 210 with its 16" bar is a good buy too. We burned 3 gallons of chainsaw gas/oil to give you some idea of the extent of use.

Casualties - One badly cut right hand index finger (mine) while sharpening a saw chain, one very sore aching body (mine), and one 16" saw chain and bar.

Thank heaven its done!

 

[Rocky]

Oh brother, what an ordeal you've been through!!!!!

 

[The Seeker]

At least you didn't fall off the back of a pick-up truck unloading limbs and stab yourself with a pitchfork and bruise ribs like I did!

 

[Rocky]

Geez you guys, be careful will you!!!!
I think my wife said that to us before we went to Peru :ya2:
I should have listened to her

 

[CarlS]

Gary, you got it done, I can relate.