20110705

2007 July Skaneateles

Sunset, July 5, 2011

20110613

Somebody's getting OLDER!

20110608--Tornado path from space

The wiki page () has the satellite image of the path which I've crudely pasted onto Google map:

(39 mile track)

20110608 Tornado Aftermath

After the tornadoes, there are so many trees down. Wilbraham is gathering brush in 18 wheeler dump trucks from the neighboorhoods, bringing them to Post Office park where the Mother of All Woodchippers has created a couple of two story piles of chips. This does *NOT* do the piles justice.

One of the kid's friend's house; left side of image showing treetops ripped off:

In the beginning, from the paper, showing the claw loader:

20110603 Two days after tornado

There were 2 tornadoes; the first tore through West Springfield, through Island Pond, through East Longmeadow, up Tinkham Rd about 1000 yards South of me and continued up and over the mountain to tear up Monson. Within the path the destruction is unimaginable.

Here are a few photo and video links. My family was very lucky. Now we need to help our neighbors and church members. The cleanup will take a very long time.

http://www.wwltv.com/video?id=123029943&sec=554827

http://www.wrnx.com/cc-common/gallery/photos.html?album_id=282835&p=17021846#/95/17025273

http://photos.masslive.com/republican/2011/06/aerials_of_tornado_destruction_38.html

http://www.wrnx.com/cc-common/gallery/photos.html?album_id=282835&p=17018792#/34/17018792

http://videos.masslive.com/abc40/2011/06/springfield_tornado_the_day_af.html

http://www.wwltv.com/news/slideshows/Photos-Tornados-rip-through-Massachusetts-123035523.html?gallery=y&c=y&ref=%2F&img=9#gallery-image

20110528 Spring Flowers

20110514 The Flowers of Spring

20110321 First Day of Speing!

That's right. Mother Nature has a twisted sense of humor.

Snow on the first day of Spring.

Sheesh.

20110307 Anybody got plans for an ark?

The rain Sunday did not come into the basement in the two little corners that sometimes get water in the unfinished part.

Monday, however, sometime midday, the water table rose.

There were at least 7 places where the water came up through the basement slab floor.

Up all night with pump and shop vacs.

Heartbreaking losses. Total mess.

Our "game and tv room"



The large storage room


My shop. If you look carefully, between shop vac and table saw, you can see one of the floor cracks that ran left to right all the way across the floor and poured water up through it all night long.

20110212 On this particular Saturday

Monica & I decide to make popovers:




Then when painting, I see these guys checking me out, just outside the window:

20110201. Yes. Seriously. More Snow

The first part of a nice two phase dumpage has ended with another 8-9" on the ground.

But wait! There's more! Mother Nature is standing by, regardless of your call, and will deliver not one, BUT TWO snowstorms to your door, the second one bringing another foot.

That's my car hiding behind the smallest snow mound in the yard. It's has gone from sublime through ridiculous, bypassing absurd, throwing a casual nod to psychotic and heading straight to the "Cliffs of INSANITY" (Princess Bride reference; one of the best movies ever made)

So the last snowstorm, NOAA said storm total would be 3-5 or 3-8 and we got 11. This time it says 13-14--do I multiply by the same factor? Do I buy stock in snowblower companies? Ibuprofen? It's getting nutsier and nutsier. Truly.

20110129 Snow. Roof Rake. Yea.

Icicles. North side. Worried. Have Roof Rake. This is what 3 hours with a roof rake will do when it's too danged short and you get PVC pipe to extend it and then fight with a too-flexible 27 foot long implement of bush bashing fun



First, I had to wade through thigh deep snow to even get to the back of the house so I ran the snow blower around the house first. If I fill it will alligators I can keep the huns out now.


Stalactit-ish-icles, spawning Hemlock-icles


I got yer icicles hanging over the front of the gutters, the back of the gutters...

20110127 Eleven more inches of Snow

A couple of panoramas of the snow

The front yard...


And the back yard

20110127 Eleven More inches of snow

Someone said we've had nearly 58" of snow this season.




The ends of driveways are veritable mountains at this point.


And mailboxes are buried


Note the depth on the top of the pool, not to mention the snow is more than halfway up the side of the pool!

20110120 Snow remnants

This is what 21" of snow, followed by a couple of inches of snow and 1" of freezing rain, then 5 more inches of snow, looks like a couple of days later.

Poor bushes.