Ah, the wind....

[Jim Becker]

Well, lost a good portion of a large ash tree down by the road this afternoon...took myself and my neighbors son about an hour to get it chunked up and off the road while the police directed traffic. Sadly, it also took out part of our post and rail fence as well as destroyed the dogwood tree we have been nursing since moving it out of the way of our addition project a year and a half ago. I suspect we're going to have to have the rest of the tree taken down, too, as it's not in good shape internally. Unfortunately, that also means getting a pro due to the proximity of the tree to the road and utility wires. :(

Stihl and Kubota came through in a flash to help get the job done, however! Gotta love power tools...

[Michael L. Martin]

That's a bummer Jim! You work and work and work to steward the land, and in a matter of seconds it changes and negates your work. Hang in there.......

[Matt Meiser]

If you get lucky maybe the wind will push it over on the power lines and the power company will take care of it for you. :D

Other than having absolutely no idea where one of our trash cans is, we somehow seem to have escaped any damage what so ever, despite 60MPH winds last night.

[Glenn Clabo]

Stinks Jim...no trees down here...but coming home from work today all I could think of is... Toto...Toto...
http://www.virginmedia.com/microsites/movies/slideshow/animal-movie-stars/img_8.jpg

[Fred Voorhees]

Stayed home today (Thurs) to nurse a viral respiratory infection and the wind has just been howling here in Ringoes all darned day. Sick or not, I did manage to sneak up into the shop this morning to mill up around 130 slats for the fronts of the radiator covers. I have been hearing limbs fall all day on the property here. Trouble is.......yours truly is going to have to get out there and pick them up.

[Christopher Stahl]

If you get lucky maybe the wind will push it over on the power lines and the power company will take care of it for you. :D

Other than having absolutely no idea where one of our trash cans is, we somehow seem to have escaped any damage what so ever, despite 60MPH winds last night.

We're looking for a large dumpster that seems to have blown away. Hard to believe this thing could have blown to far due to it's size and weight. I did have some of the contents laying around the yard. :confused:

[Chris Padilla]

Uh....pics?? :D :D

[John Keeton]

Stihl and Kubota came through in a flash to help get the job done, however! Gotta love power tools...
What! No crosscut, no mules and drag lines? I thought you were moving over to the neander side??

Sorry to hear about the tree, and attendant damage:( We escaped damage from the wind storms yesterday, but several people we know were not so lucky. It was very spotty. Our home is high on an open ridge, and we usually get the brunt of it, but not this time luckily.

Maybe you will at least get some good firewood, if not lumber from the deal. Will your insurance pay for the fence, etc.?

[Art Mulder]

Uh....pics?? :D :D

Ahem. No Pics, Didn't Happen! :D:p;)

Most of the weather had blown through by the time I left for work, so I still biked in like normal. The rivers sure have overflown though. And yeah, that wind was pretty intense over night. I heard it around 4:30am, and and again howling around 5:30 and pretty much stayed awake after that.

Didn't notice any trees down ... this time.

Matt, we lost a trash can in windstorm a couple years back. The problem is that half the people in the neighbourhood have the same cans, so you see one laying in front of someone's house and you don't know if it really is yours. When we bought a new one we made sure to write our name on the inside in permanent marker.

...art

[Jim Becker]

Sorry, Chris, I had to bail in the middle of a conference call just to help get the road open...and it's a major state road. So no pics of the work. I could, perhaps, snap one or two tomorrow when it's light out of the resulting pile of "broken cellulose"... :)

Matt, despite the accuracy of what you say, having the rest of the tree fall such that it would take out power lines would not be a fun thing. It would close off the road; cut power to the immediate neighborhood and...cut power over a very wide area 'cause at the top of the poles are three phases of major distribution lines. I remember the chaos when a wayward cement truck took out our pole a few years ago. Ugly. And it took nearly 15 hours for them to restore power to the grid.

That said, if this tree goes, there is likely going to be a need for another pole on this side of the road due to the distance from the lines to both our neighbor's and our houses. The lines for power and communications are lashed high up on the tree with ropes to support them at elevation and have been that way for years as the road is a main route for "oversize" loads...like those big poky wind turbine components and other very large tank like structures. Professor Dr. SWMBO and I were talking at dinner about how we might go about getting the utilities to deal with that one...:o

[Jim Becker]

Chris and Art...for your viewing pleasure...

109920

109921

109922

Guess what I'm going to be dealing with on the weekend...

[David Christopher]

Looks like future bowls to me

[Art Mulder]

Chris and Art...for your viewing pleasure..

Thanks, Jim. Don't worry, I'm not applying for the "Picture Police" job... ;)

And about that last photo, in the background, what do I see? Oh, Jim, you've got a violin student in your house. I'm so sorry for you. Have you got good earmuffs?

...art (one year of violin in Gr6. screeeeeeech, screeeech)

[Lee Schierer]

ATTENTION Chris Padilla - this post should be mnoved to the wood turner forum with a large bold title of Free Turning wood at Jim Beckers house. :D

We survived the wind at my house (gusts reached 60 mph) by retrieving the trash bags from the middle of the yard. No trees down, not even the two scotch pines that are dead and need to come down. Anyone wanting some scotch pine can have them for the taking......

Lee

[Tom Majewski]

The moving men came to deliver all my household goods yesterday at my new house. Woke up with no power or heat. They arrived 8am and I went outside to see about 50 sq ft of siding torn from the house. As the tractor trailer backs into the driveway, it smashes the neighbor's mailbox....great way to meet the new neighbors. So now all the doors are open as they're bringing in furniture, boxes and tools into the house, wind blowing everywhere. The garage doors are open and it feels like the roof is going to take off. The basement has no windows, so it's pitch black down there, and the guys are tripping down the stairs moving my laser down there. I run out to Lowes to buy a genny and wait in line with 3 other people who did the same thing.

Along with all my tools and laser cutter, the truck also had a stack of 4 by 4 foot veneers, and a few of my best sheets of oak and maple veneer plywood. As the kid is carrying the ply from the truck to the garage, the wind takes it and lands in the street....butter side down of course.

All in all it ended ok, power came back on in the afternoon. The worst part is some of the funds of my new granite topped table saw kitty went to buy the generator.

[John Sanford]

Gee, I guess the whole "found wood" bit isn't quite such a great thing when its your trees that are blowing down. :eek: Fortunately for me, when the wind blows like that, all I have to do is avoid the tumbleweeds! :p

[Jim Becker]

And about that last photo, in the background, what do I see? Oh, Jim, you've got a violin student in your house. I'm so sorry for you. Have you got good earmuffs?

Viola. Interestingly, Alesya, in fact, doesn't have the best tonal ear, so her infrequent practice isn't like listening to the Philadelphia Orchestra, that's for sure! (Tosca and Spike, our birds, start screeching, too...) LOL

But having grown up with music (keyboards) I'm not about to discourage either of them from doing anything they want to musically. Once she's in middle school, the music program spends a lot more time on things like pitch, so she'll likely get some benefit then. Our older really has been helped by that in 7th grade this year.