Big Storm

[Mortblanc]

We had a big blow here Wed morning around 7 am. Wind howled like a banshee, then the freight train rumble and wind hit the house so hard it sounded like a vehicle had crashed into the wall. Several big crashes and bangs and I was sure I would be found dead under a pile of timber.

Rain so hard I could not penetrate the dark with any light I own. The sun should have been up but it was pitch darkness.

It was not one of our tornadoes, just straight line winds of 100 mph.

After a dicey half hour the light came out again and I realized the damage done. Roof shingles were everywhere, siding of all kinds, a concrete retaining wall of the neighbors was tipping, a huge tree in the neighbor's garden was down and blocking the road.

It took down an ancient tree in my back garden. 1 meter thick and 15 meters tall. It is all over the back yard right now.

All of the screen is blown from my screened in back porch. If I had poly tunnels they would be in the Atlantic Ocean right now. The high winds we have are the reason I do not use that excellent technology. They would be blown down right at the time they would be fully in use with fresh plantings.

Power went out instantly at the first blast of wind. We remained out of power for 26 hours as the temps dropped form around 20c down to zero c.

I got out the lamps and lanterns and fired up the propane heater and did fine but many of the neighbors packed up and went to friends and relatives for the night(also know as bugging out but does not require you to carry everything you own in a back pack).

It also blew some roofing off the lid and took down most of the guttering on the back side of the house. Some was left hanging and I have spent the morning getting that untangled and down so it does not bang against the walls.

Nice work for a 67 year old man with a bad back and bum ticker in 15 mph wind and -5c wind chill.

I still have to go back out and sort out the TV antenna. It is still up but is now pointed toward Argentina rather than north to the local propaganda outlets in Cincinnati.

Full repairs will have to wait for a warmer day with less wind.

I have a notion to put a whole new roof on the place when spring arrives. That would solve the whole problem and insure no leaks for some time to come.

3 people died in this storm a few miles down the road. I am thankful I got away with only a few shingles and some guttering gone.

[Straight Shooter]

You were very lucky MB ! but get some help with the roof shingles even if its a temp solution ...roofs are not for old farts why risk it ? when you don't have to ...pride is a bastard so leave the bastard alone.....last Wednesday a mate of mine came off a ladder....four busted ribs and bruised spine and cuts here n there ...only sixty two ...wiper snapper but that bastard pride got him ...just for the sake of twelve hours ...still in hospital ....dull bastard !

[Mortblanc]

Living where I do makes work on top of the house sketchy even on a good day.

Front of the house the roof is only 10 feet up. Back of the house the roof is 30 feet in the air.

Talk about instant vertigo!

Roof work also normally include climbing ladders with heavy loads balanced precariously. I am not into that much either.

What happened to the time? It was only yesterday that I looked at old guys my age and asked what that old fart was doing up on that roof by himself?

Thing is, half the time I do not realize I am in over my head until I am half way through a project that must be finished before I stop!

[Straight Shooter]

Thing is, half the time I do not realize I am in over my head until I am half way through a project that must be finished before I stop!

If you realise that MB .....then that's the very time to not even try Mate ....get your boy to haul arse and help out, its not about swallowing pride ...just a side stepping it pal.

[Mortblanc]

Our weather has been fantastic for the past three days so I got out the chain saw and worked the big tree into manageable pieces. I did this very slowly with several stops along the way and used up the entire three days. Some of it was still solid and was cut into fire wood. The main part of the trunk was hollow for 50'. All that was holding that tree up was the bark!

That 50' section was cut into several parts and will be rolled into the big ditch on the back corner and burned in place.

My goal is to have the mess out of the garden before the first mowing of the grass is required. That should be about another 2 weeks.

My insane neighbor was out mowing grass in the snow a couple of weeks back. There's something the matter with that old girl.

[Lightspeed]

Hi MB,
Somehow I missed your original post and your subsequent dialogue with SS.

That storm was a major event by any standards. Glad to hear that you are OK and that your preps were up to it.

Three days to process that tree was pretty good going. Sounds like your still strong of arm, as well as not being so weak in the head ( UK joke)

SS is right about roof work, and you know it. Here I went for a new roof a few years ago you may remember, because even though a relative spring chicken compared to you mature guys, I recognised that future roof repairs on my own would likely be my undoing. I fitted a steel sheet roof by the way, and its met climatic conditions not dissimilar to yours without any problem at all.

I've only just worked out your approx. location. I thought you were much further to the West. This is a pity as for several years I was on contract with an outfit based just West of the tri-state city and often had weekend free to wander as I pleased. Interesting folk in the countryside around there. My accent never failed to draw interest and I was always being asked where I was from.... and the response to my declaration of origin being UK was nearly always "University of Kentucky?"... bless them... not too many foreigners in some parts around you are there:-)

[Mortblanc]

Kentucky is one of those places like the UK where you can travel 30 miles in any direction and confront a different accent. I myself originated in the Middle Tennessee area 300 miles south and I have a much different accent that those that live locally. I share the Tennessee/Texas accent identical to former President GW Bush.

It is the accent which was shared by most of the settlers from North Carolina across Tennessee and Arkansaw then down into Texas as folks migrated across the southern states. Most were Welsh and Ustler Irish and the accent is slower and softer than that of the northern regions of the US.

The people further south in Mississippi and Alabama are more influenced by a combination of Scott/African and mumble uncontrollably.

The people in the area where I live speak a pidgin-English comprised of the immigrant accents of German, Polish and Scotch- Irish immigrants fresh off the boat in our early western frontier mixed with the common English accents from every corner of GB and the east cost of the US. They think it sounds fine but one of the problems with accents is that the speaker does not recognize that he has one.

I had a friend from GB (the midlands) come visit a few years back and we traveled extensively from the northern states into the south. While in Ohio and Indianian she required an interpreter, as we moved farther south to the KY/TN border she could converse with no problem and understood every sentence clearly.

I have decided to patch the roof on Friday if the weather holds. I was fortunate that I have a bit of roofing material left over from the last repair but I need a small bucket of tar to blend it all in. This roof is made from what we call rolled roofing. It is a thick composite tar paper with grit embedded on one side. It is tacked down with wide head nails and the tar smeared over the joint to waterproof it.

The roof is almost flat, having only two feet of pitch in the 8' span so I am not too concerned with rolling down the incline. I just need to mind my Ps and Qs while working near the edge, which is a full 16' above ground. I can access it from the front, which is only 10 feet up. I also need to watch the weight of what I carry up since I am still recovering from the last back procedure. I will pre-cut the patch before I go up and I will only need a small bucket of tar so I should be fine.

I also have a couple of lights to repair on the back porch, but that is not storm damage, just bad planning. I never dreamed that sparrows would take up residence atop the motors of ceiling fans. I had two on the back porch and I am replacing both with standard outdoor fixtures to eliminate the nesting birds going in and out of the porch.

[CharlesHarris]

West Virginia is another place which shelters regional accents. My own ancestors were Ulster Scots-Irish who came through Pennsylvania and down the Potomac Highlands into Virginia in the 1750s. They settled in the mountain regions as a buffer between the Tidewater Aristocrats and the French and Indians. Senator James Webb's book Born Fighting describes the influence of the Scots-Irish rednecks in America. history.

[Mortblanc]

The tidewater aristocrats in every colony actively recruited immigrants to act as buffer zone between them and the Indians/French.

The Quakers were very active recruiters since they were pacifists and had to throw some Scots-Irish and Germans between themselves and the forces of evil.

As the back country filled with frontier settlers they drifted down fro Philadelphia on the Great Wagon Road until the Piedmont was filled from PA to GA

That continued until the settlement of Texas when the Spanish did the same thing, attracting migrants from TN and KY to act as a buffer between the Spanish and the Comanche and Lipan Apache.

Of course it backfired in each and every case since those wild men on the western frontier were determined not to be subject to any power, foreign or domestic.

TN fought a war with North Carolina for state independence, then after the Spaniards lured them to Texas the grandsons of the fighters of the Regulator War turned on the Spanish.

[Mortblanc]

(22 March 2017, 11:19)Lightspeed Wrote: I've only just worked out your approx. location. I thought you were much further to the West. This is a pity as for several years I was on contract with an outfit based just West of the tri-state city and often had weekend free to wander as I pleased. Interesting folk in the countryside around there. My accent never failed to draw interest and I was always being asked where I was from.... and the response to my declaration of origin being UK was nearly always "University of Kentucky?"... bless them... not too many foreigners in some parts around you are there:-)

I live about 30 miles south of Cincinnati, OH, the left arm pit of the universe. Horrid place that holds itself in very high regard. It is consistently ranked in the worst 20 cities in a nation filled with cities.

I seldom go there unless there is a good sale on ammo at my surplus outlet. I will then risk a run through the city like a Arab on a fast camel.

One of the aspects of our nation being so big is that we seldom run into people from other nations and when we do they are often either illegals or terrorists and unless the speak with your British accent we tend to treat them as such.

Since GB is about the size of two of our average sized states where you would have a Spaniard, Frenchman or German in your midst after a 500 mile drive we have a person we refer to as being from "out of state".

We treat them with the same suspicion we reserve for the arabs, especially if they are from up north. Those folks are not quite right and the talk funny. Rumor is that some of them even voted for Hillary.