Well, we lost power around 2pm today. My iPhone is my only link to the Internet. The snow is heavy and if you stand outside our log cabin in the woods, you can hear a big oak tree come down in the forest about once every ten minutes. We’ve already lost at least a half dozen trees on our property, and possibly many times that number. We have no running water and i am typing by the light of my head lamp. It’s down to 58 degrees in the house. I have no idea when we’ll have power again. There are so many trees dropping that it wouldn’t stay on even if they fixed it.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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I was wondering where you went. Don’t you have a fireplace or a wood stove? Are your pipes frozen or something? How many inches of snow? Good luck with the falling trees; that wind passed by here on Friday.
Parts of three trees came down in the last two minutes. It’s like some beast is marching through the woods ripping off branches and toppling 60 year-old trees left and right.
Must be an unusually heavy snow – very dense, very wet. Otherwise trees that have survived hundreds of big snow storms in past decades wouldn’t be falling.
These will be more common as the earth continues to warm. Typically Colorado gets one every 5-10 years in late spring, but this year we had one early this month. Fortunately the relatively light volume (only 6″) prevented a lot of tree falls. In April 2007 I had to chop up the remains of 30 pine trees, most over 100 years old, and perform extensive repairs on the deck.
If you’re going to stay there you should definitely invest in a portable generator and have it set up to start when the electricity goes out.
The danger of being outside in that kind of destruction is in itself a pretty daunting thought. News is reporting the combination of extremely wet and heavy snow piled onto branches heavy with Fall leaves is to blame. So sad to see old friends on the property be overcome by the storm.
Sounds like the family is going to be living off CHeerios for awhile.
Meanwhile, at Granny’s house, she has three separate clusters of trees and massive branches blocking her driveway.
Not any more, thanks to BooMan and the trusty clippers!
Still snowing in Hunterdon County NJ, though it was supposed to stop around 8pm. We have at least 8″ on the ground but it is hard to tell because it is so wet. Just about 5 miles north of us and a few hundred feet higher elevation they report more than 12″.
Lost a big tree limb in the front (it luckily missed taking out the fence) but my neighbor’s woods next door in filled with the constant sound of breaking limbs.
Power is fine but it is out all around us.
And I actually spent most of the day learning to trouble shoot my whacky radiant heat system and so for the first time this heating season the sleeping quarters is now warm. The wifey appreciates that.
Good luck bro. Remember a cold house is a good reason to snuggle with someone you like. Make sure you small OK. 🙂
Radiant floor heat, the best heat for the winter. Waking up in the morning and your feet are toasty 🙂
Too bad the house I’m residing in doesn’t have it, but I installed them in many houses over my college summers.
Everything has trade-offs. Radiant heat means no air circulation. And repair costs are much, much, much higher (voice of experience).
But our cats and dogs do love the warm floors.
Well, my uncle and I devised another method using air to heat the house using the attic. Maybe it’s been done before, but we’ve tried to get people to take it up and they don’t seem interested. The air isn’t musty or anything either. We hooked a pipe coming from the attic directly to the basement, installed a blower, and blow the hot air from the attic. Cost like $500, the heat rarely ever has to be turned on, and the heating bills for that house have never been lower 🙂
We hope you get your power back soon and your early preview of winter goes away.
I really think you should move into the city for the winter months. You wouldn’t have to worry about the trees AND you’d be closer to your most excellent friends.
I actually thought it was about time we came for a visit…
In the January ’98 ice storm you could hear the branches cracking off hundreds of yards away, and poles transformers popping miles away, because it was so deadly still otherwise.
We were without power for 11 days. We camp, though and have a couple of everything Coleman ever made, so it was bearable. Thank God for town water. The folks outside of town were melting snow and/or boiling water from the stream.
Three months later you could smell the pine sap from all the wounded trees just driving through the woods with the windows down.
In the near future.
Bet on it.
Too many people, too much pollution.
Climate changes…unpredictable ones…will ensue. I watch the wild mammals…mostly squirrels, raccoons, skunks and possums around my area of da Bronx. This year? They are fat and very hairy. All of ’em. Headed for a long, hard winter.
Buckle down, winsockies, buckle down. Occupy Wall Street won’t survive this winter, but you might if you play your cards right.
Buckle down.
And…a tip from a survivor of many Maine winters…get a good, reliable gas powered generator.
You be bettah off.
Bet on it.
AG
What’s that you say? A big snow? Further proof to the right wing that global warming is a hoax.
Maybe Jim Inhofe and his family will come over and make a snowman for you.
Hope snow has stopped and power is back!
Snow has stopped and is melting, but power will take a while. We went over to CabinGranny’s house because she has power, but the drive told me what I needed to know. Our power line is beaten all to hell.
hope you get the power on soon. How long before the pipes freeze?
sorry to hear about the power line – hope it has warmed up a bit. temps here are well above freezing now (44, 50’s expected for tomorrow). we had a strange combination of snow and thunder, but no serious winds or outages to my knowledge
Here I am in west Ohio and completely unaware that there is this much snow coming down in the PA / NJ part of the country.
We’ve had some heavy frost but no hint of precip.
Hang in there, BooMan.
Boo,
Hope you and the family are safe and warm. We had this happen in central Oregon last November. Two of the largest trees in the neighborhood are in our front yard, and the snow-burdened limbs were ripping from the trees and making big thuds when they hit the ground.
Most important, we were told by the power company that the problem created a very hazardous electrical situation in our house. So please be really careful there.
We lost 15 tree limbs, some 5″ around and 15 feet long. Took out power, cable, telephone lines for our house and two neighboring houses.
At one point we had utility repair crews in seven trucks in front of our house.
Not a fun time, but an “event” to remember.
For a minute there, I thought you might be the last guy alive at the station in the end of the movie The Thing…
Looking on the upside though, you’re going to be better positioned to survive in a survival of the fittest way when Armageddon finally arrives as it almost certainly will soon, especially if the Rs sweep the next election and martial law is declared.
Also I understand living in harsh weather conditions builds character.
Me I prefer to tough it out in sunny CA and deal with the occasional earth upheavals and wacko cults of celebrity worship.
Prayers for you and the family. Hope you find a way to stay warm, especially the baby
Every time something like this happens, I vow to buy a whole house backup generator. Give it serious consideration. You don’t want Finn to freeze!