ptree Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Well the ice storm that stuck Indiana and Kentuckly got me with both barrels. Trees down on top of the trees from himican Ike. One on the bike shed and bounced into the outdoor heater(new in October 09) I did a 6:00 am repair and got the heat back on, using the outdoor heater and a genset. Then a day and a half of neighbors and I cutting downed trees to be able to get out. I am writting from the libary. I expect to be at work tomorrow, will check/post from there. Power out probably 4 to 5 days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted February 1, 2009 Author Share Posted February 1, 2009 Happy days are here again, the power is back on! The ladies got sorta used to a general lack of power, since I did have the heat functional. Especially since it hit about 0F last night. They mostly gripped about a lack of hot water. We started to melt some today, and as the ice sticking limbs together melts, lots of limbs falling. I will have lots of cutting to do soon. That little 3000 watt continous harbor freight genset did a great job. Much quiter than the ones the neighbors have, and eats much less gas. At $299 priceless:) Got to change a busted radiator hose in the ice and snow this afternoon. Sloppy but done. Did i mention the power is back on:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 ptree, congrats on keeping the house warm. Many have come to rely on the power company to do that for them, and the power co has done such a good job that there is no back up plan. Collect the down wood and look for a wood stove for next winter. One advantage will be a limited amount of hot water from the pot on the stove (grin). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ten Hammers Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Ptree, my prayers are with you bud ( and everyone affected with the ice). 5 gallon stainless milk buckets work great to heat water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted February 1, 2009 Author Share Posted February 1, 2009 Glenn, I now heat totally with wood, just an outside burner. Heats wonderfully as long as I have 110V to the outdoor unit and 220V to the inside blower. Note below the failure of the cheap little HF genset! Well the power dropped again last night. Went to start the Harbor frieght genset and no joy. Little to no compression. It will go back on Warrenty. Had oil,drained a little to check and looked like fine brass sparles in the flashlight at Mid-night. Power back on at about 9:30am. Life is again good, but not happy till I get a genset on site. I will probably try to see if they will just refund and try a better brand:) All the ice came off last night. This morning the roads were cover with 2" of ice cubes from the tree limbs. Outside temp is 44F already and melt is occurring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian.pierson Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Ptree, Where are you in Southern Indiana? I was out of power for 4 days in Evansville. brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted February 1, 2009 Author Share Posted February 1, 2009 Brian, I am in Floyds knobs, just across the river on I-64 from louisville. Power dropped twice more today, but was out only long enough for linemen to safely work to hook my two neighbors back up. We are now toasty warm. Outside temp hit 68F at least. Melting like wild. May not refreeze tonight (I Hope) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodge Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Good to hear things are thawing out, but thats not always good. We had a bad ice storm here in Omaha a few years ago and the thaw caused a fair amount of flooded basements and such. Good luck and prayers to you! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quenchcrack Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Ptree, I bought a Coleman 5500 watt unit only because it had a Yamaha motor/generator. It starts on the third pull every time. New oil every 25 hours, though. It was used for 9 days straight after Hurricane Ike with no problems. I fill my tanks up with fuel in May and use that gasoline preservative religiously. If we get no storms, I just dump the fuel in my kid's car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted February 3, 2009 Author Share Posted February 3, 2009 I took the HF genset back for a full cheerful refund. The manager helpfully pointed out that the local Home Depot had received 300 gensets the day before. I stopped by and they had a Husky 5000W 6250 surge, Briggs engined genset on rubber tires for $599. It is sitting in the Rocks van at the house pending my getting it out and in the shop tonight. Snowing at a rate that can best be described as HARD just now, and it hit 11F last night. I really feel for those yet without power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Glad you stay prepared Ptree, these things may not happen often but when they do it's too late to get ready. It makes me feel better to know I have another friend I don't have to worry about if the weather gives a twitch. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted February 4, 2009 Author Share Posted February 4, 2009 I tend to try to be prepared. That comes from the Hillbilly side of the family, who always want enough food to get thru a couple weeks of bad weather/times, the ARMY, and being an industrial safety guy:) Now once it melts, I have some serious sawing to do. I will also get a crawler in I think as one pile of jackstrawed pined is too badly sprung to be safe to cut for the no value wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Me too as does Deb. I think in our cases it comes from having depression era parents and in my case the Boyscouts. Then there is the little matter of having spent almost 20 years as a field guy in the Alaskan bush. There's just no telling when something's going to drop in the pot and you'll need something you can't go out and get. For instance, right now Mt. Redoubt is showing signs of activity again and there's always a good chance when a Cook Inlet Volcano erupts we could bet a heavy ash fall. Anchorage got an inch or so last time 89-90 but worse it shut down air travel for most of a couple months so some supplies got short. For those of you interested in volcanoes. Alaska Volcano Observatory To save you some surfing these are some pics of the last eruption. http://www.avo.alaska.edu/volcanoes/volcimage.php?volcname=Redoubt&search_year=1990 The last close by eruption in 06 (IIRC) was Mt. St. Augustine and the AVO had live web cams set up all over the place so you could watch it in real time. They even went so far as to set up an IR cam so you could watch at night. Anyway, being prepared is always a good idea, even if you need nothing more than keeping a rain coat in the car or in our case cold weather gear. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidney brink Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Ice storm in arkansas to no power for 7 days .get out the camping gear .lite the wood stove in the crawl space under the house and let the heat rise through the floor.lanterns, dutchovens,gas water heater,but missed the tuesday night blue print. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCooper Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 I just got my power back yesterday whew... 10 days of roughing it. They're telling my grandpa 3 more weeks, as he has 4 poles down in the field. It looks like somebody set a tree bomb off here in western KY. Oh well, at least we won't have to top and limb the trees we cut for firewood this summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted February 7, 2009 Author Share Posted February 7, 2009 TCOOPER, I have been watching in the paper the news about Western KY. You all got it worse then we. I feel for you brother. Did you and yours at least have warm shelter? Sounds as if you heat with wood. Fire wood ought to be cheap and available this year at least. Today I start Jihad against the remaining pine trees on my place:) NO pine will be left standing. The other trees will fill in:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCooper Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Yeah, we stayed pretty warm. When the power line fell to the house it somehow managed to open the valve in the oven and let gas pour out. After plugging the line, we broke out the old Colman stove we used for heat treating so we could cook. Fired up the lanterns for light. So we stayed pretty comfortable. We were pretty lucky the old maple in the back yard didn't fall, we just replaced the roof from Ike's aftermath. I think I'm gonna get that cut down, twice in one year I've sat there sweating, watching those branches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted February 8, 2009 Author Share Posted February 8, 2009 TCooper, I too have trees that I am sweating, but it will take an excuvator of high lift crawler to push them over as they are leaning towards things I like. I am calling the excuvator guy tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayco Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 We used to have tall white pines in the yard and other places around the farm until the ice storm of 2006. We still have white pines on the farm, but a lot of them are still dying from having the tops broken out. After that ice storm, we cut all pines that could fall on the house, barns, shop, garage, etc. They do grow quickly and make nice shade, but they're absolutely vulnerable when covered in ice. I went out to town today and noticed a lot of broken white pines after this last ice storm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted February 11, 2009 Author Share Posted February 11, 2009 Once more into the breach dear friends... Today is supposed to yeild winds to 60 mils/hour and possible tornados. We have had perhaps an inch of rain on top of the snow/ice melt so the dirt is mud and the roots nothing much to hold onto. Ohhh boy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
element Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 Dont forget to plant new trees to replace the old ones. Plant hardy trees that dont get to tall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCooper Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 ptree, jayco, made it through this one unscathed hope all is well on your end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayco Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 I'd seen on the news where Bowling Green, Paducah, and Cadiz had seen damage from the high winds. In North East Ky, it seems we're all right so far. This is some bad stretch of weather! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted February 12, 2009 Author Share Posted February 12, 2009 No trees down, but power off for 7 hours. Element, Nature plants the forrest, not me:) Beechs, maples and such will now thrive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayco Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Here's what the ice storm looked like for us. Power was out, cold, roads were slick. Actually, we were fortunate not to have down trees on our buildings. We had removed them after the big ice storm a few years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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