Did ya miss me?.......six days without.......

[Snake Farm]

......power due to the storm. Got our power back last evening and internet today. On the evening of the 29 th. they were saying it could go either way here.....lots of rain or maybe snow. It was pouring the big wet flakes when we went to bed and when I heard the electric go off just after midnight I didn't even bother getting up to look. Got up Tue. morning to about 20 inches of heavy wet stuff....

Lots of broken down timber, fruit trees and shrubbery.......

You could walk outside and hear almost steady crashing in the woods. Got a generator going at my Daughter and Son In-laws next door so they could keep warm and tend to the new baby. It was quite a snow for his "First Snow" but it didn't seem to excite him much

We didn't have a generator at our house but we do have a propane cook stove and we've had this set of gas logs sitting in a box for almost 3 years now trying to decide exactly where to put them and how we were going to build them in. This isn't exactly what I had in mind but they sure felt good...

......and Mrs. Snake Farm and I even had a glass of wine by the fire a couple nights! I didn't take "Miss Daryl" long to figure out where to get either

This wasn't what I had in mind for the '57 either but circumstances and priorities prevented me from getting it to storage

The weather is looking pretty good for this weekend so I'll be taking it to the in-laws and stashing it away for the winter. Other than the broken trees you'd never believe there was this much snow just a few days ago, however there are still tons of people without power in our area and they say many of them will not have power restored until after Thanksgiving! The snowfall varied widely with folks just twenty miles down the road getting only a dusting while just 5 miles up the road they had 36 inches compared to our 20 and up the road another 20 miles my uncle had 52 inches! Quite a mess for sure.

More help arrived today so maybe some more folks will get power tomorrow. On my way home tonight a large group of utility worker were mobilizing in the vacant parking lot of a closed down grocery store.........

.....there were probably 50 to 60 trucks/equipment, several tractor trailer loads of wire, a couple loads of poles, two big tents and three tour buses full of workers!

As unhandy as it was this past week I know we had it good compared to a lot of folks. So, I hope the rest of you are doing well and coping with this mess......and I hope we can just have a normal winter from here on out.

 

[YBeNormal]

Good luck. Sending well wishes your way hope it gets better soon

 

[GJunktionMike]

Holy cow SF. Good to hear you are hanging in there.

 

[Tripper]

OMG... what is all that white stuff?!? Glad all's well at the snake farm!

BoB

 

[CR55]

Sounds like a tough week....glad you came out ok...saw about 40 power company trucks lined up on the side of the road in my area last week. Quite a sight. My thanks to all those who do that thankless job. Btw, that's way too much snow!!!!

 

[Gastrick]

That's brutal man. It's a good thing you missed the thread where I was complaining about the heat

 

[donsrods]

I think I caught a cold just looking at those pictures ! WOW, that looks really bad, glad you guys came through it ok.

There was just a program on public radio about how all of us are going to have to start thinking more and more about self sufficiency because they predict the weather is entering a period of getting much worse. Storms are predicted to keep knocking out our power and our aging power grids are not up to challenges of those storms.

The baby looks really beautiful, by the way.

Don

 

[Neverdone]

I hope to see that quantity of snow this year, just not the same way you did..... or for it to be that heavy. Would love to do some snowmobiling this winter.

Glad you guys survived, and that apparently you are doing well.

 

[26Troadster]

good to hear from you and y'all are ok, here's hoping for a better day tomorrow.

 

[Dirtyrat]

Indeed glad you are ok, and made it through the storms!

 

[Old Iron]

Yep, that's a pretty good bit of snow y'all got.
We didn't have anything to speak of last year so, I figure we're in for one this go round.

 

[mikec4193]

Hi Snake Farm

I was in Kansas when "super-storm" Sandy rolled into town, we watched it via the weather channel and CNN. We got home (upstate NY) on Halloween and it looked like nothing happened around me. I am so thankful we dodged the bullet on that mess.
Makes me wanna move out to the sticks where I wont need all the stuff we have now. Chop my own wood, grow my own food, raise some chickens...you know back to the earth...

So Snake Farm...WELCOME BACK from the other side.

MikeC

 

[bob w]

Dear Mr. S. Farm,

I missed you.

Regards,

Bob

 

[Sam_Fear]

Glad yer back. Doesn't really look much like 'Paradise Road' to me? [S

 

[Rat'l Trap]

Sandy missed me by just a whisker. Between Snake Farm's snow and NJ floods. Boy am I lucky. Snake--I've tried to get in touch with someone in Berkley Springs with no luck. Not sure where you are compared to them, but any idea if they got hammered like you did? That might 'splaine it.

 

[cycledog]

At least that wet heavy stuff makes the best snowmen.

 

[Snake Farm]

Thanks guys for the concerns and well wishes. Things are back to almost normal here at the 'Snake Farm'

...... Storms are predicted to keep knocking out our power and our aging power grids are not up to challenges of those storms.
Don

That's true Don but the biggest problem I see with the grid here is the lack of maintenance on the right of-ways. About fifteen to twenty years ago the power companies decided they were spending too much money on keeping right of-ways cleared and started letting them grow up, and only called in the tree guys to remove trees that had fallen on the lines. I have lived at my current address for 35 years and in the late 70's and throughout the 80's and early 90's the power line right of-way on my property was trimmed up at least every two years and sometimes every year, it has now been at least fifteen years since it has been cut! It doesn't take a genius to figure out how vulnerable power lines become when you operate like this but they have saved millions of dollars by doing this.
As of this morning in my county alone, there were still 2,700 customers without power.....that's a lot of households in a county with a population of 20,000. Also this storm hit exactly four months to the day after a summer wind storm knocked out power in this area for 6-12 days. And sure these storms cost the power companies money but probably not as much as they save by eliminating their maintenance program.........and I heard on the radio today that our Governor has asked the Federal Government for Disaster Relief funds and the "Conspiracy Theorist" in me suspects that if this happens then the clean up and restoration may very well not cost the power companies a dime. However the cost to the people will be huge in the form of lost work, lost production, loss of perishables, loss of education with schools being closed, endangerment to infants and the elderly and even loss of life (there's been two locally, one elderly lady from hypothermia and one guy about my age from asphyxiation while fueling up a generator in a garage). And all of this ( by a company that is guaranteed a profit by the Public Service Commission,) to pocket more money!

...saw about 40 power company trucks lined up on the side of the road in my area last week. Quite a sight. My thanks to all those who do that thankless job.

Yes it is quite a sight, 100 more trucks rolled into town here yesterday so there's probably two to three hundred here now. I've seen trucks from Texas, Oklahoma, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia to name a few, so imagine the wives and children sitting home alone without Dad....more folks suffering hardships

So yes, many thanks to the men and women on the job restoring power [cl But, shame on FirstEnergy for not maintaining their lines

Glad yer back. Doesn't really look much like 'Paradise Road' to me? [S

Yeah I know, But it's HOME!

Sandy missed me by just a whisker. Between Snake Farm's snow and NJ floods. Boy am I lucky. Snake--I've tried to get in touch with someone in Berkley Springs with no luck. Not sure where you are compared to them, but any idea if they got hammered like you did? That might 'splaine it.

I'm not sure how Berkeley Springs fared but I'm about three hours West of there and about 1,100 feet higher in elevation so I imagine there main problem was flooding