Prepping

 

As per Bob Dylan, a hard rain is going to fall and will continue for a few more days. As I mentioned in the previous post, lots of rain, downed trees and power outages. NIPSCO which is the power company for most of the customers north of the river, says 300,000 of them were without power on Wednesday. In fact, that was the worst power outage they've ever had. I had to zig-zag a bit on my way home after getting shut out for my lab test, but it would have been much worse had I tried to go north. Long lines at any gas station that still had power and I heard of a couple of stations that ran out of regular. 

So, my advice is first of all never let your tank go below half full and as long as you have a place to safely store it, get a couple of 5-gallon cans, treat them with Sta-Bil or something similar, and a funnel or pump so you can pour the gas into your vehicle. Most 5-gallon cans when full are going to weigh about 45 pounds and, depending on the spout on the can, it'll be tough lifting the can up and getting the gas past the flap in the vehicle's filler neck without thinking it through in advance.

Get some shelf stable grub to keep on hand as well - canned goods, rice, pasta, etc. Having a freezer full of food is great but depending on the ambient temperature and how often you open the door, frozen food won't stay frozen long without power. And of course, you need to be able to prepare the food. If you have all electric utilities, need a stove of some sort or figure on cold meals. Peanut butter on bread or crackers works well in the short term. I have a gas stove in the kitchen plus several types of camping stoves.

Water is a definite item to keep on hand. I have a well and a generator, I keep a few cases of water on hand, and I drove a well a few years back with a pitcher pump. You need water for drinking, cooking cleaning and sanitation. I keep some paper plates, bowls and cups on hand along with plastic utensils.

Fortunately, even though it's August, the temperatures aren't ungodly hot but weather disasters can occur anytime of the year. We had an ice storm years ago in March and were without power for 4 days. This was before we had the generator and the weatherman predicted the storm accurately, so I filled up the bathtub in order to wash up and flush the toilet. I have a small gas heater that's safe for indoor use, put a kettle of the stove and kept a fire going in the fireplace. It wasn't toasty warm in the house, but not uncomfortable, especially for a guy who has camped in all kinds of weather. 

The point of all this is: don't get caught with your pants down!  If you need meds, get some to keep on hand. If you've never done any camping, maybe try a couple of nights at a park to see what type of equipment you need to live unsupported for a couple of days. With all of my bicycle camping, I've got it down to a science - travel light and stay hydrated. Dress for the weather and carry a good flashlight and first aid kit. 

Most importantly, don't be a dumbass! If you have to wait in line for an hour to get fuel for your rig, or you don't have any cash on hand. that'll definitely put you in the dumbass category. The Governor has declared the whole state a disaster area so remember the Scout motto: Be Prepared.  

Jazz, Socks & Rain

 A little old school jazz - music to soothe the savage beast and all that. I need something on the soothing side after what I went through trying to buy some socks.

I went south the other day and went to Walmart to see about buying some socks since the two different orders from Amazon didn't work out. I found some with a high cotton percentage and the right length but they were just a little small for my big feet. Since they were what I was looking for, I decided to order the bigger ones online from Walmart even though I would have to pay the shipping cost - at least I would have the type of socks I wanted.

And this is what I got. Instead of 6 pair of Golden Toe crew socks, I got three size 14-16 Hunter Green  polo shirts. I filled out the paperwork and printed it out to take with me when I headed north to get some lab work done. However, I didn't realize the storm on Tuesday was as bad as it was. My first clue was going through the little town north of me and there was a line about a mile long of people trying to get into the gas station. The next station north wasn't as bad but backed up. The lab was closed, as was the college which was going to be my second stop. I abandoned the rest of the stops, except for Walmart, due to more rain coming down and all the traffic lights being out. I was able to return my socks and as long as I was there, I figured I'd check out the sock aisle.

 

And I got lucky - 12 pairs of 78% cotton crew socks big enough to fit me for $21.16 with tax. I did have to stand in line for a bit. The line wasn't that long but the lady in front of me was dragging two carts through the line and I figured since all I had was my socks, she'd let me go ahead. She never acknowledged I was even there but there's no law saying she should be courteous when shopping at Walmart. Besides, I was pretty happy to stand in line since I finally got new socks.

Celebrating the Missus' birthday today. Just going out to eat locally since there's still a lot of power outages if we try to head north, not to mention the roads that are closed due to flooding and downed trees. Birthdays aren't as big a deal as they were when we were young. The most important thing is we keep having them.

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Storm Damage

 

It rained Sunday a bit and again Monday night into Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning rain was a genuine storm. Lots of thunder and lightning. I received a phone alert from the college later in the morning, even though I no longer work there, warning of a tornado and the chance of winds up to 100 mph. I don't think the storm managed to get to 100, but it sure did blow and rain. We lost power for about 5-6 hours, but the generator kept the lights on. It finally quit raining about 3:00 PM, but we got a lot of rain - especially when you add in the rainfall on Sunday and Monday.

As you can see in the photo, lost a big part of the elm tree in the back yard. The photo doesn't show it very well, but two large branches split off the main trunk, opening up a big gash. The trunk had already been compromised by the loss of another large branch a couple of years ago. I should be able to clean this up myself, rather than having the tree guy come back out since where it broke off is not too high up the trunk.

The windstorm seems to have pushed the old oak over a little more. If you look at the photo a couple of posts back, you can see the difference. Also, if you look at the right side of the photo you'll notice the end of the lower branch is now touching the ground. When I mowed the other day, it was about two feet above the ground. I might have to have the tree taken down. I had that one and the other one to the left of it trimmed a few years back so nothing was overhanging the roof of the house, but at the angle it's now leaning, if it goes down it might hit the corner of the house. I'll give it a good hard look and decide what I'm going to do. I'll hate to see it come down, but I'd really hate to see it in my bedroom.

Tomato

 

And I'm lucky enough to have both.

The first of many to come from the garden. I had another ripe one already, but it had some bottom rot so I tossed it on the compost pile. This one's a keeper, though. 

I've already picked some cukes, and the peppers are coming in. Just a small patch but I've managed to keep up with the weeds and the weather this year. Maybe expand it a little more next year.

I need to get back in the shop but I've still got some work to do with the logs in the yard. Clean up, splitting and stacking will continue as time and weather allows. However, I've got a guy coming by tomorrow with an aluminum welding job. Have to see what that entails.

Rainy Day Radio

 

Rainy day yesterday and the "domestic help" was here continuing with the kitchen cleaning and rearranging. I spent some time moving things and being close by without being in the way. Pulled out the computer for a bit and rather than feed my paranoia listened to some music. My buddy Kevin and I had looked into starting one of the low wattage radio stations at the high school, but it didn't look like it was going to get any support from the office at that time, so it didn't go anywhere. So today you get a few of my favorites. No classic rock or jazz in the lineup, just some nice, easy stuff for a rainy day - the Johnny Winters tune being an exception.

 

I don't think I've featured any of these here before - maybe the John Prine tune, but "that's all right mama." 

Tar & Chips

 

The Surprise lilies popped up the other day. You never even know they're there, then overnight they're a couple of feet tall and in bloom. Lovely.

I've been getting a lot of yardwork done but still a long way to go. It's been relatively cool, so I've been trying to take advantage of it. Ninety-degree weather is not for me but by going out on my bike in the morning and working outside late afternoon/evenings, progress is being made. 

However, the county hit the road in front of my place with a fresh coat of tar and chips yesterday. While there are some cyclists who relish riding gravel, I'm not one of them. After a couple of weeks, since everyone drives down the middle of the road, the chips will be pushed to the side and it makes it tough on a cyclist to ride when moving over to allow a car to pass. Plus, the cars and trucks don't always slow down, so they end up slinging chips on the bike rider. They also do the same when going by another vehicle in the opposite lane resulting in broken windshields. The fresh chips end by the railroad tracks just out of the photo to the left, so if that's all the farther the county is planning to go, that'll be the way the Missus will be going in her new car whenever she leaves the shack regardless of her destination.

 

Tree Trimming

 

The tree crew showed up yesterday morning. They took down two oak trees and trimmed up a bunch of stuff. In the photo the bucket man is trimming the branches away from the shop roof and then moved on to the big barn and did the same thing. He topped a couple trees in the front yard to keep them out of the power lines coming into the house as well. That should be good for a few years now - at least until the trees grow back into the power lines.

These will be the next ones to come down. They both are leaning as a result of a big storm that came through right after we moved in. There was another one to the right of these two that was uprooted. After it got cut up, I started counting the growth rings but gave up after getting to two hundred. The tree was probably at least 300 years old as are the ones in the photo. There's another one to the left of these two that has a trunk a bit larger. It'll be a shame to have to cut them down when the time comes but they both dropped a large branch in the last big blow. 

I've planted a bunch of trees since I've lived here and I've allowed some volunteers to grow. I've been cleaning up some of the scrub trees and undergrowth lately. The backyard looks like a park when it's trimmed up. I'll do a little more trimming and start splitting the pieces the tree guys left for me. I'm going to have a lot of nice firewood.