A lesser hardship practice run. We just got through a power outage of 90 hours. We are soft, weak and addicted to electric power. In our county, we were blessed with the focal point of a 50 mph wind storm barreling down the Strait of Juan de Fuca. I've got weeks work of outside work as a result.
We have equipment for power outages, but our house doesn't include the switch panel for a generator. So I rig cords running around, tripping hazards which we were somehow able to avoid. I have emergency fuel stashed away, aux. lights. etc. Thankfully I burn wood for extra heat when needed, and that was a major plus considering the overnight temperatures went into the 30's a couple of nights. There is a propane stove for heating water and some cooking.
We live on wooded property, I've taken as much care as possible to keep stuff from falling on our house. But our property is mostly wooded, hundreds of trees including Big Leaf Maple up to 165 years old. Those old maples are craggy, lightning struck over the years, lots of newer wood straight up. Out in the north end of the property, I had some serious wind falls. There are a couple of 40 foot logs laying side by side, and another that would be well over 40 feet exept that impact on the ground broke it in three lengths. All of these in turn had 20 plus feet of lesser brush growing from the tops, plus there were many smaller wind falls, plus lots of smaller, standing dead stuff that was blown down. Of course when those tree tops break off, they tear off all sorts of lower stuff that comes down with them.
Big maple branches that break off go heavy, butt-end first and land on the ground like arrows. Big arrows. One such bored into the ground so deep it pierced a four inch septic drain line that connects my upper to my lower drainfields. It broke that septic line like an eggshell, clear through one side and out the other. Now I've got a job of work digging that all out and splicing it back together. Fortunately, the upper drainfield has taken all the load over the years and has never flowed into the lower field, so the break isn't in a place that is active use. Strangely enough, about 25 years ago, I had the same experience in nearly the same exact place, maybe six or so inches off, but the result was the same. I think this time around, I will place a bull's eye target on top.
So far, I've got all the lesser branches stripped off the big logs, then cut down so they will go through my chipper / shredder. It's a lot of work. I divide the work up into zones, and work them one at a time. I sort out into piles what gets chipped, what is candidate for burning in the wood stove, and what is dead / rotten junk too big for the chipper. Right now I'm concentrating in chipping. I will circle back around later and cut up what is kept to burn. The big logs I will cut up last. It's nice to have room to work on the logs without a bunch of brush underfoot.
We've got the electric power back on now, it's great to be living with the massive convenience that electricity provides in life. When my dad was growing up on the farm, they lived in a big, three story farmhouse that my grandfather rented from an uncle. We're talking 1920's. The house had it's own DC electrical system powered by a massive set of wet cell batteries in the basement. This was for lighting, they didn't have all the powered stuff we now enjoy. When the Depression came along, the batteries started going bad and there was no money for replacement. So they did without electricity. Which came along in alternating current form later in the 1930's when the Rural Electrification Act was put into effect under FDR. But they went for many years in between those two systems without power.
We have equipment for power outages, but our house doesn't include the switch panel for a generator. So I rig cords running around, tripping hazards which we were somehow able to avoid. I have emergency fuel stashed away, aux. lights. etc. Thankfully I burn wood for extra heat when needed, and that was a major plus considering the overnight temperatures went into the 30's a couple of nights. There is a propane stove for heating water and some cooking.
We live on wooded property, I've taken as much care as possible to keep stuff from falling on our house. But our property is mostly wooded, hundreds of trees including Big Leaf Maple up to 165 years old. Those old maples are craggy, lightning struck over the years, lots of newer wood straight up. Out in the north end of the property, I had some serious wind falls. There are a couple of 40 foot logs laying side by side, and another that would be well over 40 feet exept that impact on the ground broke it in three lengths. All of these in turn had 20 plus feet of lesser brush growing from the tops, plus there were many smaller wind falls, plus lots of smaller, standing dead stuff that was blown down. Of course when those tree tops break off, they tear off all sorts of lower stuff that comes down with them.
Big maple branches that break off go heavy, butt-end first and land on the ground like arrows. Big arrows. One such bored into the ground so deep it pierced a four inch septic drain line that connects my upper to my lower drainfields. It broke that septic line like an eggshell, clear through one side and out the other. Now I've got a job of work digging that all out and splicing it back together. Fortunately, the upper drainfield has taken all the load over the years and has never flowed into the lower field, so the break isn't in a place that is active use. Strangely enough, about 25 years ago, I had the same experience in nearly the same exact place, maybe six or so inches off, but the result was the same. I think this time around, I will place a bull's eye target on top.
So far, I've got all the lesser branches stripped off the big logs, then cut down so they will go through my chipper / shredder. It's a lot of work. I divide the work up into zones, and work them one at a time. I sort out into piles what gets chipped, what is candidate for burning in the wood stove, and what is dead / rotten junk too big for the chipper. Right now I'm concentrating in chipping. I will circle back around later and cut up what is kept to burn. The big logs I will cut up last. It's nice to have room to work on the logs without a bunch of brush underfoot.
We've got the electric power back on now, it's great to be living with the massive convenience that electricity provides in life. When my dad was growing up on the farm, they lived in a big, three story farmhouse that my grandfather rented from an uncle. We're talking 1920's. The house had it's own DC electrical system powered by a massive set of wet cell batteries in the basement. This was for lighting, they didn't have all the powered stuff we now enjoy. When the Depression came along, the batteries started going bad and there was no money for replacement. So they did without electricity. Which came along in alternating current form later in the 1930's when the Rural Electrification Act was put into effect under FDR. But they went for many years in between those two systems without power.
