Thursday, October 4, 2018

Bad Wind Storm

We had a whopper-doo of a wind storm last night.  It started about 10 p.m. and roared on until the wee hours this morning.

Grid power went out almost immediately and the winds were clocked as high as 56 mph.

We were up several times during the night really concerned about things that were going bump in the night, but couldn't see much because of the darkness.

This morning our solar energy system provided us with lights, water and power to our freezers and refrigerators so we weren't inconvenienced to any great deal.

We had some damage but, we're happy to report, nothing very serious.


The little house where the three new chicks and their two mamas have been ensconced was topped over by the wind.  Thankfully, all five inhabitants were alive and well, happily pecking in the poultry pasture first thing this morning.  (Talk about being resilient after what must have been a really rough night for them!)

The two cold frames I had on those raised beds I recently harvested were relocated.


This one hung on to its moorings (sort of) but the top was ripped off backwards.


See that cold frame over there in the distance?  It was on the bed in the forefront of the picture.


Given the distance it traveled (and I'm guessing it must have rolled over a couple of times), it still looks to be in good shape.  But we haven't located the top cover for it.  Yet.


The biggest tree that went down was in our back wood working area (convenient, eh?) and missed hitting anything it would have smashed to smithereens.


It doesn't look too big in the first picture, but this one above gives more of an idea of its 18" diameter.  We spent a good part of the day limbing it, hauling the branches away and getting most of it cut into pieces, some of which will, needless to say, have to be split.


There were several trees down that blocked our driveway.  You can see a couple in this picture.


There is a driveway under there somewhere.

There's a main power line through the woods and crossing our driveway about two-thirds of the way down it.  Before we could get to that area, men from the power company arrived and started the job of removing one huge tree that had fallen on the lines.

They said they had cleared two spots where trees had fallen across our driveway to get in to the power line.  That saved us a lot of work we would have had to do.

One has to give the power company employees a whole lot of credit.  They had been on the job since ten o'clock last night working in difficult conditions.  And they do this regularly at all times of the year.

The grid power has now been restored, thanks to those hard-working people (even earlier than we had been told to expect), and I'm exhausted (I think Papa Pea's a little tired, too) and hope there's nothing to interrupt my sleep tonight 'cause I'm gonna need it.  

We're very, very thankful we suffered no real damage from the crazy, high winds that blew through with this storm.

The forecast for us for tonight?  Rain and snow mix, 1"-3" possible.  Here we go!  

20 comments:

tpals said...

What a storm! I don't feel very far from you, but we didn't get any of that...except for the drop in temps giving our first nip of frost. It's just begun raining here; I was racing to get the last of the wood put away before it started so I understand your exhaustion.

Michelle said...

Future firewood!

wisps of words said...

Ohhhhh nooooooooo! -sigh- So glad you didn't get really bad damage. But you certainly got enough!!!!

And today has been a very stressful day. Sleep well tonight, for sure.

Oh my, rain and snow mix forecast! -sigh- What else is there to say, but sighhhhhhhhh........? :-( And stay well!

✨ 🍁 🎃 🍁 ✨

SmartAlex said...

Snow! I'm glad we're getting an autumn. Because we could be bracing for snow right now too. We've had some pretty nice days. But last evening I was sitting out on the steps conversing with the neighborhood cat when the top of a good sized ash tree fell in the front wood about 50 feet away. And last night sleeping with the window open I kept hearing limbs break in the back. Not fall, but crack. The woods is restless.

Nancy In Boise said...

Glad it wasn't any worse! Yes, more firewood :)

Anonymous said...

Wow. Glad your chickies are safe and sound. I worry most about my livestock when it storms here. We are still having fall, luckily. Stay warm

Goatldi said...

Boy do you two know how to throw a party!

Hooray for linemen ! They work the most horrendous hours in the worst weather.And a very dangerous job it is also.

Glad the avian family managed to ride out the wind. Enough to make a birds feathers stand up straight I would think. Tough birds.

Isn't it nice to have solar at times like these? Makes the stress of having a situation like this a bit easier to bear when you don't have the added stress of a potential melt down of appliances and spoiling food. Not to mention being in the dark. Glad no one was injured.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Oh my gosh. Glad everyone is okay and power is restored.

Lisa said...

So glad nobody was hurt nor any property damage to speak of. Severe storms are hard enough to deal with during the day..... but to hit like this at night is super concerning. Snow?!!! Did you say snow?!!! We are hitting 89 degrees today! Snow sounds reeeeeally inviting to me right now. *sigh* :)

Mama Pea said...

tpals - We didn't need this wind storm (to say the least) added to our list of things to "get done before bad weather hits." Last night Papa Pea said, "This wasn't how I planned to spend my day." No foolin'!

Michelle - You're a "glass is half full" kinda gal. And it's so true!

wisps of words - We have rain at the moment, temp at high 30s, but they're still forecasting a rain/snow mix for today. Ha, will be good to get an inside day for our recovery! We both took arnica before bed last night, slept well and are fine this morn.

SmartAlex - Gosh, sure wish we would get some really nice autumn days. There's still time. I hope. Yes, we had a lot of blow down in our woods, but of course there's no plan to work on cleaning that up this year. Maybe next year (or hubby says this winter) for firewood.

Nancy - The wood won't go to waste, that's for sure!

Ruth - Some nice fall weather for us would be loverly! In bad weather, I'm always concerned about the animals, too. We once had a horse standing under a tree in a summer storm. Lightning hit the tree and he, unfortunately, got some of the side effects of it. :o(

Goatldi - Almost the worst time for power to go out for those who didn't have a back-up. At least it would have been for us with freezers packed FULL of summer's gardening bounty!

Kristina - Yep, all over now . . . well, except for the predicted rain/snow mix today. :o(

Lisa - The only serious damage we've heard of was a house a ways down the road from us where two large trees fell . . . each on one end of the house! That would be a lot with which to cope.

Your temps are still close to the 90s?? What a long, long hot period you've had! We'll stay warm and inside today. You stay cool and inside today.

MrsDuncanMahogany said...

Yikes!!! That must have been some wind! Glad to hear that nothing was damaged heavily and that the hen and chicks were ok too! We have mostly oaks on our land and I am hoping that "mighty oak" means something. The prairies can sometimes really blow a hooley out there!

We are due more rain/snow mix here. Lovely *insert sarcasm here*

Mama Pea said...

MrsDM - The last property we owned in Illinois before moving up here to Minnesota had a lovely, large, very old (but healthy) oak tree smack dab in front of the house. Hubby was always afraid if it fell in a storm, we would have a pancake house! To have lots of oaks on your property is appealing to me. We don't have much up here in the way of deciduous trees other than birch, poplar and a few maples.

Vera said...

Glad you got through that storm OK. Vx

Rain said...

Oh wow! That's a scary thing, I'm not a fan of wind storms. Good thing you have your backup power! We have one winter more to survive on the grid only, no back up power that is...I hope in our new place we can get the back up systems in place before the following winter. Kind of scary.

Mama Pea said...

Vera - Plus, the best thing about the storm and power outage is that no one got hurt. A couple of trees on houses (ouch) and cars (darn), but no people got hurt!

Rain - We were very thankful (again) for our alternative energy. Sure does come in handy! Sometimes I get tired of the "fiddling around" it takes to keep it operating properly, but all in all we're glad to have it.

Lynne said...

What a mess you have there. So glad your both O.K. You just never know where the trees will fall. It was nice you had help with some of the clean-up. The utility men are great when we need them, and like you said it's dangerous work!!Take care!We have bad winds here quite a lot.60 to 70 miles per hour winds.

Mama Pea said...

Lynne - Do you think your winds are getting more frequent and stronger than they used to be? We sure do!

It could have been a lot worse and we consider ourselves lucky not to have had any really bad damage. Living in such a wooded area, we're constantly being cautioned about keeping big trees away from buildings. Plus, keeping a tree-less area around the house and buildings is also a fire precaution. I sure hate to take down big, beautiful trees though.

Lynne said...

Yes I do feel the winds are getting to be more often. Haven't figured why. It seems the whole world is changing. I'm situated on a hill and have oak trees around , but not too close to the house. Their a deep rooted tree so maybe a little safer, but not if they have rot inside them. We also have scrub pines and they are very deep rooted. You just never know whats going to happen with the darn wind!!

Leah said...

Crazy storm I agree! We ended up with a few downed trees as well, but it was in our woods so they weren't urgently needed to be cleaned up. Glad you had no damage!!

cocoya said...

And today has been a very stressful day. Sleep well tonight, for sure.
D2bet