Here we go again...

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Easy Livin’ 3000

Minister of Fire
Dec 23, 2015
3,021
SEPA
Another nor'easter on the way here in the Northeast.

Calling for about a foot of heavy, wet, snow and windy tonight and tomorrow. All the schools already closed for tomorrow. Worked hard to get plenty of dry wood inside. Will try to get plenty of rest tonight for the heavy lifting tomorrow. The snowblower sure doesn't like this wet March snow, and I never got around to putting the rubber wipers I wanted to put on last year...
 
Calling for 18-24" in parts of Mass. No thanks.
 
thought i had it in the clear for heavy snow this year. went out and bought a new insurance policy against snow from the ariens company but i guess that didn't work out. i even got a grapple load early. then after this storm we are in a pattern and it looks like possible monday too
 
Spring snow . . . easy come, easy go. It's New England weather.

I do feel especially bad for the folks along the coast in the Rhode Island, Massachusetts area though since I suspect some of them are still without power from last week's storm . . . or have just got their power back.
 
We're getting to the tough part of winter. I'm out of wood in the basement and will now have to walk to the garage. :)
 
12-18 forecast here. Still hoping for a weather guesser error and 3" actual snowfall.
 
We're getting to the tough part of winter. I'm out of wood in the basement and will now have to walk to the garage. :)

I've reached the point where I am being optimistic and no longer replenishing the wood on my covered porch . . . I figure if I time it right I'll either use up all of the wood on the porch by the time I'm done burning wood or I'll have to walk to the woodshed every day for a load of wood, but there will be no snow.
 
I've reached the point where I am being optimistic and no longer replenishing the wood on my covered porch . . . I figure if I time it right I'll either use up all of the wood on the porch by the time I'm done burning wood or I'll have to walk to the woodshed every day for a load of wood, but there will be no snow.

Yeah - I get a different attitude now than in January/February. I just have to muddle through now and the sun will take care of everything - eventually...
 
Wish we would get snow like that around here. You'd think by living in WI one could actually own and ride a snowmobile most of the winter, but nope! Trails were only open TWO days around here....and even at that they only had about 6" of snow. If it's going to be cold I want SNOW dang-it. ::-)
 
12-18 forecast here. Still hoping for a weather guesser error and 3" actual snowfall.

We got exactly that, 14” forecast and 2” on the ground, but it was heavier than wet concrete.
 
Not really sure what we got. I think the airport about 15min away got 11. The ground was warm, so a good deal melted when it contacted pavement. I never fired up the snowblower. I cleared about 5" last night, and the rest this morning.
 
My 25 minute commute took me 1 1/2 hours to get home.

But, It's melting

[Hearth.com] Here we go again...
 
That's what happens, when you fly a broom. Strong head wind?

Yeah.... kept blowing me in circles. The Monkeys weren't thrilled either :p
 
About 10" here, but miserable, heavy, sticky stuff. Now it's solid ice.

In two of the spots where large trees fell last week, two more trees fell during this one.

In more positive news, my seed shipment shipped, and we can start turning attention to the garden and just work on the wood stack when I need to work out some excess energy (ha!).
 
I was in the bullseye this time. Just under 10 inches of liquid concrete... trees down everywhere, roads blocked. 70% of the town was out of power at one point. School cancelled for 2 days now. Same in all the neighboring towns.

We lost power for 6 hours, got it back, then lost it again when a transformer blew. Now its back. Had a bunch of large branches down all over the yard, and had to chainsaw my way out of the driveway. That wouldn't have been a big deal except the limb was buried in hte snowplow bank so I had to dig... cut... dig ... cut....

A fried of mine with no woodstove or genrator was about to come borrow my generator, but just hten his power came back... and as luck would have it an hour later mine went back out again.

The thing that's really disappointing is reading the town facebook group and seeing how unprepared, clueless and inconsiderate most residents are: People screaming mad about the power after only minutes in the dark....
People who dont know how to call the utility for info....
People who dont know to call the school district for info on school closings...
People who claim that since they have not personally seen a utility truck the utility must be lazy...
People mad that the town hasn't cut down every tree near a power line (its the utilities job AND they DO trim, every summer)
People who expect power back on in under an hour when there are 300k out...
People wanting someone to bring them a generator... so they can turn on their cable TV :(
People who say "I'm cold" on a facebook group and expect by magic someone will come to their aid.
People who dont know you can put refrigerator food in a cooler out in the snow to keep it fresh...


[Hearth.com] Here we go again... [Hearth.com] Here we go again... [Hearth.com] Here we go again...
 
I ended up with about 16-18 inches of heavy wet snow but we lucked out with the winds being a little lighter than expected and minimal power outages.
 
People screaming mad about the power after only minutes in the dark....
People who dont know how to call the utility for info....
People who dont know to call the school district for info on school closings...
People who claim that since they have not personally seen a utility truck the utility must be lazy...
People mad that the town hasn't cut down every tree near a power line (its the utilities job AND they DO trim, every summer)
People who expect power back on in under an hour when there are 300k out...
People wanting someone to bring them a generator... so they can turn on their cable TV :(
People who say "I'm cold" on a facebook group and expect by magic someone will come to their aid.
People who dont know you can put refrigerator food in a cooler out in the snow to keep it fresh...
I have to routinely remind my family that, for most of the history of our house, the residents had no electricity. Or telephone. Or plumbing.

If these many generations of past residents managed to live long and prosperous lives, in those conditions, we’ll surely be fine for a few days. The only substantial difference is that our outhouse was torn down, long ago.
 
A fried of mine with no woodstove or genrator was about to come borrow my generator, but just hten his power came back... and as luck would have it an hour later mine went back out again.

The thing that's really disappointing is reading the town facebook group and seeing how unprepared, clueless and inconsiderate most residents are: People screaming mad about the power after only minutes in the dark....
People who dont know how to call the utility for info....
People who dont know to call the school district for info on school closings...
People who claim that since they have not personally seen a utility truck the utility must be lazy...
People mad that the town hasn't cut down every tree near a power line (its the utilities job AND they DO trim, every summer)
People who expect power back on in under an hour when there are 300k out...
People wanting someone to bring them a generator... so they can turn on their cable TV :(
People who say "I'm cold" on a facebook group and expect by magic someone will come to their aid.
People who dont know you can put refrigerator food in a cooler out in the snow to keep it fresh...

The veneer of polite society is thin.

I moved from where I was because my neighbors were completely unprepared for anything and I was the only one with a wood stove, generator, a little extra food, etc. Where I live now everyone around me is at least as prepared as I am and there's no worries when the weather gets bad. Even in the depths of winter I can get by for a month or so with resources on hand if need be.
 
Buncha a little wussies around here!

You only think you got it bad there: Low of 36 this morning, high of 58 with the sun shining all day!

Eat your hearts out!!!!!
 
Yeah, the level of preparedness around here is pitiful. I shudder to think what would happen if we had a true natural disaster like a CAT3 hurricane or such come though.

My neighbors sold off a barn a couple years ago and a McMansion house was put up on the lot. No backups for anything, gas fireplace. Owners are nice but they only have a rink dink corded electric snowblower. Yesterday with the power out I was out chainsawing the tree across my drive and I see them out hand shoveling their 100ft drive. I yelled up and asked them if they want me to bring my gas blower up there to help, or if they want to come by and warm up by my stove..... just got a blank stare.

Oh well I tried....

Our police department had to put a statement out on the town facebook group and the local cable acess channel asking people to stop calling them to ask about power. Apparently the call volume was clogging the lines preventing people with real emergencies getting though.....and the police station itself was on generator backup. Same thing with fire. I suspect they get realllllll tired of telling people to call Eversource.
 
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Yeah, the level of preparedness around here is pitiful. I shudder to think what would happen if we had a true natural disaster like a CAT3 hurricane or such come though.
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I would venture to guess the vast majority of the population is unprepared for EVERYTHING. The list would include all weather related events, but also things like financial planning including retirement. I think most wood burners fall on the more prepared side of the population.
 
I, but also things like financial planning including retirement.

Oh boy dont eve get me started on that... The statistics are almost a joke, the percentage of Americans who have no savings at all, the percentage that dont even take the free money (401k matches etc) their employers offer.... The pitifully small average savings nest eggs of even households in their 50s and 60s..... How many people think SS is a bank account :(

its downright scary.

And we keep killing off pensions and nobody wants to fix SS.

Sorry about the rant.... I'm a closet Boglehead. I know we have a few others on here too....
 
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I was in the bullseye this time. Just under 10 inches of liquid concrete... trees down everywhere, roads blocked. 70% of the town was out of power at one point. School cancelled for 2 days now. Same in all the neighboring towns.

We lost power for 6 hours, got it back, then lost it again when a transformer blew. Now its back. Had a bunch of large branches down all over the yard, and had to chainsaw my way out of the driveway. That wouldn't have been a big deal except the limb was buried in hte snowplow bank so I had to dig... cut... dig ... cut....

A fried of mine with no woodstove or genrator was about to come borrow my generator, but just hten his power came back... and as luck would have it an hour later mine went back out again.

The thing that's really disappointing is reading the town facebook group and seeing how unprepared, clueless and inconsiderate most residents are: People screaming mad about the power after only minutes in the dark....
People who dont know how to call the utility for info....
People who dont know to call the school district for info on school closings...
People who claim that since they have not personally seen a utility truck the utility must be lazy...
People mad that the town hasn't cut down every tree near a power line (its the utilities job AND they DO trim, every summer)
People who expect power back on in under an hour when there are 300k out...
People wanting someone to bring them a generator... so they can turn on their cable TV :(
People who say "I'm cold" on a facebook group and expect by magic someone will come to their aid.
People who dont know you can put refrigerator food in a cooler out in the snow to keep it fresh...

Hope this is the last you see of winter for awhile. It sounds like there is an uncommon lack of common sense in your area. Are these young people complaining? Folks around here expect outages and hunker down. If a neighbor is without power and heat for an extended period of time, others with wood stoves invite them to stay over and warm up.