The Snow is gone but the cleanup work remains

As you can see SnoTober was not kind to the trees on our farm. Almost everything we've planted is the past 14 years is broken, cracked or crushed, the weight of 18 inches of heavy snow was just to much for the leaf laden trees and shrubs, this was an odd snow not the heavy/wet as we've seen in the past this snow was sticky/wet snow. At one point Saturday night I went out to look around and looked up at the telephone wire, it was six inches in diameter with snow the entire three hundred foot length, this stuff stuck to everything.

The orchards are crushed, we lost 5 complete trees, and numerous branches out of the small orchard, we'll probably end up with four maybe five survivors. Eight brush piles now line the side yard waiting spring, we cut up quite a bit of the apple trunks for firewood, so it wasn't a complete loss.

The Santa Rosa plums seem to have come through OK, the Blueberries are now upright since the snow melted.


While we do occasionally get a good crop of apples mostly they're there for the wildlife because we don't spray them anymore. The apples tend to have a few bugs and are generally pretty gnarly looking. We've had turkeys, come through, the Robins seem to like them as well in the fall and lots of deer that scavenge the grounds for the drops.









Then today we're taking down tree after tree and I see this huge almost perfect apple sitting there on the ground. It's mine!








 

The Bittersweet is spectacular this year this is growing up the back side of the small orchard.

Veterans Day Thanks!

Thank You to All who Served!

Veterans Day is for thanking ALL men and women who have served honorably in the military during times of war and peace.

"We must remember that many who served in our military never lived to be called veterans. We must remember many had their lives changed forever by experiences or the injuries of combat. All veterans are examples of service and citizenship for every American to remember and to follow." -- President George W. Bush, Oct. 30, 2001

Halloween 2011

James and Jason in their stunning Halloween costumes. Everyone was saying "look there's Mario" and "look there's Spidey" all evening. We had good weather, not to cold, Goffstown Police dept was driving around handing out glow necklaces to all the kids, the nursing home had their haunted house and as usual it was great!

Kids enjoyed the evening, so did we!

Fascinating 1936 Footage Of Car Assembly Line [VIDEO]

Amazing video fun to watch the dance.

Fascinating 1936 Footage Of Car Assembly Line [VIDEO]

Surveying the damage

Cleaned stalls today and took a walk down to the pond to survey the damage from the SnoTober storm there, the 18" of heavy sticky snow did quite a bit of damage.  The only good thing is it's warming up so it's melting the snow fast.

We have Pines broken, a lot of the Ironwood is oddly bent over as are the Pussywillows, we lost about 40% of the Poplars the trees crown is still there though so we should be ok. (I am curious about the 8 or so seedlings we put in a month ago).  The Apples and plums didn't fair so well, looks like we'll lose more than 1/2 of the orchard one of the Apples is tipped right out of the ground.  Most of the shrubs in the yard are cracked and broken we'll have to wait a year or two to see if they survive.

All of my Kale broke off and is shriveling in the garden.

The small paddock is torn down as the weight of the snow on the wire literally broke the 4X4" posts taking the back gate with it.  The main field appears to have fared better with some bent posts and wire down but looks like we'll be able to fix the damage easily.

Replaced the blower on the pellet stove today.  $160 later we're back in business.

Flushot today

Got the FLU shot today. So far so good, not feeling bad. I usually get sick from the shot for a couple days. They must'a made a good batch this year.

What is the difference between sweet potatoes and yams? Everyday Mysteries:Fun Science Facts from the Library of Congress)

What is the difference between sweet potatoes and yams? Everyday Mysteries:Fun Science Facts from the Library of Congress)

Time Change again!

Check your equipment!

• Change batteries in your smoke detectors and test them.
• Change batteries in your CO detectors and test them.
• Check your fire extinguishers.
• Review your car kit (Auto winter survival kit) You do have one right?

  Blankets, Snacks, Kitty Litter, Pair of socks, Pair of Gloves,    Matches, LED Light, batteries, shovel.

   
• Inventory your home supplies.  We just went through SnoTober, make sure you replenish the batteries, fuel, candles, etc. that you used during the power outage.  Was there something you wish you had (or had more of?) during the power outage?  Now's the time to get it.

Day 5, We've got Power!

Life is good once again!

Rose made a call to PSNH (several actually, along with most of my neighbors who made 3+ calls each)  PSNH said that their automated outage system fails sometimes, they were unaware we had no power apparently. 

So this morning a white PSNH pickup shows up and talked to Rose after another call and went by all of my neighbors homes who were also running generators and asked if we'd checked our breaker box, (ahh, Yeah, we did)

He said that the system that they look at to tell them the street has power says we're up!  (Nope, sorry no power), he told Rose that as she was nice as she hadn't yelled at him or threatened him and that he'd surely get someone over here to get us power asap. 

Well at 5:30pm the CAVALRY ARRIVED!  Rose said an entire fleet of trucks pulled up Riverdale and as far as you could see up and down Riverdale Road was Yellow PSNH and PIKE (Tenn or NC) trucks.  After a short lived problem with an inoperable bucket that wouldn't go up they quickly swapped trucks had power down at the barn and the living room lit up in short order.

Thanks PSNH lineman! 

We appreciate your help in getting us back to normal!

You thought that was it huh? Nope.

So Rose called while I was driving home and said she had no water at the faucets and the pump wasn't running,  Odd I thought, so I had her go check the pump in the cellar and turn it off if it's running, and sure enough it was running dry... 

Oh no! I though maybe we'd lost the foot valve down in the well letting all the water drain back from the pump in the basement all the way back down into the well 200 feet+ away.  The thought of having to prime the line all the way back to the well was not a good one, dumping 32 or so gallons (yeah I did the math) of water into a Tee one gallon at a time was not something I wanted to do this evening.  I tried to get the pump to prime turning it on and off again several times to no avail.  I felt the pump it was warm but not hot, the expansion tank was completely empty.  Then I felt the brass check valve to the right of the pump and it was COLD.  Maybe, just maybe...  I got my adjustable wrench, opened the pump cap sloowly... dumped in 1/2 gallon of water and plugged her back up.  I turned on the pump to hear a familiar swoosh as the pump pulled water up from the well, the pressure gauge jumped to 25 lbs and stayed there though concerning me a bit, I had Rose open the kitchen faucet and the pressure began to climb one pound at a time up to 50 lbs after 10 minutes we were back in business, whew what a relief!

Day 4 no power...

And you? We are supposed to get power either Thursday or Friday afternoon. We're showering at Jarrod's house, we have a generator running so we have heat and lights so we're doing ok. We are hoping PSNH can pull this off. We definitely have the generator operation down pat usually a single pull. It'll deserve a break after this week!

SNOtober