ice storm coming

Sounds like you guys are getting some relief today. My wife talked to her Grandparents in Ava and said it was around 50 degrees today.

Hang in there.

I'm b-a-a-c-k.

Howdy, ya'll.
We got our power back last night about 5 p.m., eight days without. The camping in thing was getting real old, fer certain, fer sure. We were pretty well prepared with our gas log stove, food, stored water, plenty of candles and such. But, it was boring. The cable service got restored Saturday evening and with our little generator (3,100 watts) running we watched a couple hours of TV each night. We even watched the Super Bowl but had to run out once and hour to fill the generator with gas.
Easiest way to describe what the ice storm did is to liken the area to a 'war zone'. The devastation is incredible.
But, except for minor grumbling because of the inconveniences, we are not complaining. By some miracle we didn't suffer any significant damage. The many large branches that fell simply circled our house. Not a single thing on the deck or roof. My truck got a small dent on the hood and the plastic cover over the propane tanks on the camping trailer was broken. That's it for damage. Some folks had trees come through the roof. We were blessed and lucky.
We were not able to get out until Friday. That did help with being able to get more water and some provisions.
I came here first when I got the 'puter back on line. Won't stay long for now. I'm sure my e-mails waiting are in the hundreds. Plus I have a Shrine Club meeting I'll be going to. One picture below, maybe more later.

glad all is well with you frank,,take care bud

Geez Frank! 8 days.... Glad everyone is OK and you're back online.

Frank, glad you weathered the storm without to much loss. I'm sure you have qutie a clean up to do. Good luck!

Glad to see you came through OK Frank. I can imagine some didn't do as well. I'm keeping track of things as it heads through where my Daughter is next to Lake Erie in New York. She says it was not bad yesterday (muddy actually) and the snow looks to be going south of her. my stepson in Boston might get hit by some snow.

I remember years ago back home, we had an ice storm that knocked out power for over 2 days. I remember the trees breaking sounded like shooting. I had my welder/generator in back of my truck, so we had power. Those of us that had snowplows mounted them up and helped clear streets. Lucky it was fairly warm temps and the ice melted pretty soon.

I wish the best to all of you folks effected by this. Although isolated out here, I feel kind of lucky we don't get that stuff here.

Aloha, Tony

Hey Frank in trying to see a positive from a negative, surely there will be some great wood around from downed trees to use in whatever?

Glad to see you came out relatively unscathed, Frank. I knew you had the basics covered, but was still hoping for the best for you.

Rob Keeble said:

Hey Frank in trying to see a positive from a negative, surely there will be some great wood around from downed trees to use in whatever?

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I was thinking the same thing. Now you should have plenty of green wood for bowl gouge practice.

Sure glad to hear your ok. Sure be interesting to watch the birth announcements 9 months from now.

Vaughn McMillan said:

Glad to see you came out relatively unscathed, Frank. I knew you had the basics covered, but was still hoping for the best for you.



I was thinking the same thing. Now you should have plenty of green wood for bowl gouge practice.

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I was waiting fer that. Got a huge oak down in the yard. Yes, it has dozens of bowls in it. But, I hear ya gotta mess with alcohol. Well...actually that isn't too bad a thing. Soap suds and cover with the veil of a wiccan used at full moon on solstice to keep em from cracking and warping.
Enneybody want this wood, they are welcome to it. Will have to hire a dozer to get rid of the root ball.
And, of course, we had some tourists come around just to see what was happening.

Thanks all for the concern. We are fortunate. Others are still in some very uncomfortable situations, and many with small children and no heat. Folks are pitching in to help.
I was at my Shrine Club meeting today. About five guys there have generators but couldn't start them. When asked, all admited they had never test started them in years. I run mine about five minutes every month.

Frank Fusco said:

I was waiting fer that. Got a huge oak down in the yard. Yes, it has dozens of bowls in it. But, I hear ya gotta mess with alcohol. Well...actually that isn't too bad a thing. Soap suds and cover with the veil of a wiccan used at full moon on solstice to keep em from cracking and warping.

Click to expand...

There are a lot of folks who just let their rough-turned bowls dry on their own, without any incantations or special dances. Ah well, you have too much fun hating your bowl gouge...I'd hate to mess up that special relationship by suggesting something that's easier to use it on than dry walnut.

ice storm now a memory

The great Arkansas ice storm of January 2009 is now (mostly) a memory. My many thousands of fallen branches were gathered up and today burned.
We were lucky. Our costs were: extra propane gas to keep us warm; some gasoline to run our small generator; food loss in freezer; $1,500.00 to fix truck from a branch falling on it [covered by insurance]; $40.00 for a new tank cover for camper; $900.00 for new, large, generator [$300.00 recovered from sale of old small one]; $350.00 for new chainsaw; $300.00 to hire guys and Bobcat to pick up branches. (Plus many days of me having a tired and sore back from picking up branches myself, it was a LOT of branches folks.) Not bad considering, many folks suffered much worse.
Should I mention six days locked up in house with wife and no [very little] electricity? Nah, won't do that. Actually, wasn't bad. We are accustomed to camping and making do with candles and such. Kinda peaceful.

Here's a couple of my driveway. Yep that's me looking at the mess. Took 3 hours to cut our way out. Used saws and tractors from both ends. Gosh I miss it so much.

Three days. Still burning, should be gone by a.m.
Appropriate. Another January. Another ice storm? Hope not.