Monday, September 15, 2008

Ike Strikes. Yikes.

Power restored. Sort of... but I am getting ahead of myself.

I haven't been able to post. Or read mail. Or pretty much do anything. Firstly due to some personal issues. I'm not entirely sure if I want to get into that in a public forum just yet though. But they certainly have kept me busy.

Secondly, my power was gone. I don't mean my power was out. We had power. It was gone. The power was dutifully delivered to us and then was leaking out on the ground. A big ass tree top was blown down on top of our power meter and on top of my beloved Kubota.

I dug out the Kubota with a chainsaw on Saturday night while the storm was still wrapping up. No damage. Not even a scratch. Once I got the thousand pound thingy off of it, it was fine.

Yesterday, I picked up the freezer with the tractor bucket, placed it in the back of Sally (the goat truck) and drove it over to my sister's house where it has been dutifully humming along in her garage.

Today, after waiting patiently for the power company for 2 days, I decided to take it into my own hands. I carefully cut the remainder of the tree top off the downed line, then hitched a rope to the top of my power pole. Using another tree branch as a pulley I tied the whole shooting match off to the tractor and pulled it upright. This was literally a rope, duct tape and 2x4 fix. (No bailing wire used. Sorry.)

I know this is useless without photos, but as we have been gypsies for the last 3 nights, the camera and various sundry items are strewn about town like so much hurricane debris. As we gather it back up, I will try to post pictures. Really, the power pole is a total Bubba work of art -- a regular Leonardo DiCaprio.

I still will totally have to redo the power feed to the Stuga. But we have power for now (until the next rain storm, where I am relatively sure it will blow out.)

[Later edit: photos here]

5 comments:

Enos Straitt said...

I had forgotten you were in the path. I am truly sorry to hear of the issues cause by the storm.

As for the personal issues, don't go to a public forum...some nutjob will have way too much fun with them.

Og Make Blog said...

I can't imagine the decline your mental health would have taken had the Kubota been scratched! Glad to hear it's OK. Too bad no mention about Ellie Mae..... I guess she is still under the trees??

Now that is a new approach to power management .... take the perishables to the power, not the power to the perishables. Glad to hear you are up and running.

No power Monday morning here when I returned. My neighbor called and told me power was on yesterday. She didn't have the heart to call me back and tell me it was only a couple of hours. Power was back on by Monday afternoon and has held steady now. Everything in the freezer was still frozen.

Some branches down in the yard, pool looked like a scene from "Cocoon," but no damage.... well...
One shingle cracked 1 inch at the back of the garage at the edge where a branch (big) fell and my mailbox door is nowhere to be seen. The one in the yard down the street isn't mine. I don't think I can bubba engineer a replacement, though, but I don't feel like standing in line for hours to replace it today, either. Maybe a midnight requisition is in order?

Not bad for a direct hit.

Spork In the Eye said...

Ah, I am mostly back in the real world now.... at least for the time being.

as for personal/nutjob: not really. And I don't care. It's probably not what you would suspect.

We've finally been able to do a once-around the border of the land. We've lost several good sized tree tops (besides the power/tractor top). And there are one or 2 entire large trees.

I have enough oak/hickory to barbecue the entire pig population of the south. The only one that ever takes any free wood is the electrician I have on retainer.... now if I can just get him to bring a trailer, I could probably get the whole Stuga bubba power put back to normal.

And og: I am SO sorry about your mailbox! Gasp. I don't know what to say. I feel your pain man.
Photos tomorrow hopefully.

Og Make Blog said...

Hey, life is tough. I'm soooo glad I have your sympathy. I even had to buy a new mailbox today ... I wonder if I can get FEMA to pay for it? Now that it's installed, all is normal except for the immense pile of brush and bags out by the curb.... well, that and the fact that I'm down to my 100% Royal Kona coffee.... and only a half pound, at that.

It's been a great few days meeting some additional neighbors and the weather has been great for cleaning up outside. It's also been a good time for BBQ'ing and feeding the neighbors that are out of meat. Seems no one else that wasn't here and running emergency power had the frozen goodies survive. All hail the mighty Samsung!

Oh, two feet of water inundated Laura's house in Galveston. That will be a mess to clean up and she is not the most emotionally strong under duress.... stresses way too easily over the small matters. However, she has never really had any bad times or trials of character, so it should be good for her.

Spork In the Eye said...

BBQ!?!?!?!

Can I take that to mean you need oak or hickory? Don't give me no lip about mesquite. Its much too hot for BBQ.