Semi-pioneering, home educating family of three living on 7 acres in the MidWest. These are the mom's thoughts/ramblings about our life, spirituality and whatever else pops up. :) Please feel free to post comments and/or questions. I will get to them as soon as I can. We would love to hear from anyone who is reading along here.

Showing posts with label high winds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label high winds. Show all posts

Sunday, September 21, 2008

A Submerged Boat & High Winds!

This boat is submerged. There were some people on the dock watching it in the water. When Dave asked if they needed rope to tie it back to the dock, he was told that the back end of the boat had been broken out. It was a total loss.









Watch it in these videos. In this one it is being blown along dock:




In this second video, I tried to narrate a bit, but the sound of the wind is pretty loud. Basically, I point out how rough the river is. This river is normally pretty smooth, but here it is very choppy. You can see the white caps and miniwaves.

As I was filming the boat being blown along by the wind, it suddenly dawned on me that the boat was being blown UP river...against the current!


Photos & Video of Trees Down

These are trees by the river.








In the video, you can see that one is broken:



More Hurricane Ike Videos!

Here are some more videos!

This is the Flag at the Post Office:




This is a tree in the backyard of a house near the church we used to go to:


Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Hurricane Ike and Wow!

Hurricane Ike came through our area on Sunday afternoon. We knew we were supposed to get the edges of it...high winds, etc. Wow! It was pretty intense. There were many trees down and some neighbors and us had to cut through two huge trees to get back home from church. The phone lines are a mess.

I am at the library trying to quickly catch up on some things. I am writing rather hurriedly as I only get a half hour online right now. We do not know when we will get power back. It could be not until next Sunday...or even longer.

As for the phone (which also means internet), it could be longer. The irony of this is that they don't trim any trees back from the phone lines. Apparently, some time ago there was a huge storm and the state decided that the phone company was being negligent about trimming trees back. So, what did they do? They now charge the phone company a fee for the state to use to trim the trees. Sounds great, huh? The problem is...the state is not trimming them either! Hmmm...wonder if we could get a class action against the state for charging the money and then not using it like they said they would?

We are actually doing fine. As long as our 12 volt holds up in the RV, we have propane. Propane means hot water, stove burners and a small refrigerator. So, we are doing OK. We have oil lanterns, candles and flashlights. People have brought us ice, candles, flashlights and some food. Two families came out quite some distance just to check on us. We were very touched by that. Yahweh God is so good.

I have so many things I would like to write about, but just have no time. I have pictures, but no way to upload them. I even have a video of the wind pushing a mostly submerged boat UPriver!

Well, from our little RV on the hillside to you in your home. I hope you are safe and warm. I hope you have power and phone...or at least will have soon. I hope the storm did not effect you negatively. Blessings!

Monday, March 3, 2008

Wind! and Random Observations!

Wind! Sometimes we have incredibly powerful gusts of wind. The tarp over the top of our rv is tied down to cinderblock bricks in some places. It is amazing to see how high the wind lifts that tarp. Sometimes I wonder if the strings are going to break and I will see the tarp blow away.

This is the second day of warmer weather. It won't stick around, though. The cold is on its way back in; but it is nice to have a couple of days of respite. Later today we are supposed to get some rain, which is supposed to continue for the next few days. During that time we are supposed to get some snow showers along with the rain. It always concerns me when we get this snow/rain mix. I hate the thought of icy roads, not to mention icy driveway!

Last night is the first night in a while that we did not put the foil insulation sheets in our windows. That was sure nice, especially since our heater was also on low all night. We were nice and cozy.

This morning when I first looked out the window I saw the sun shining on one side of the trees. It was beautiful, as if a golden color had been lightly brushed on some of the branches and tree trunks. It was clear which direction the sunshine was coming from. It seemed as if the trees had taken on this golden glow. I had to take a few moments to sit by the window and just gaze out at them.

In our little valley, the sun rises at one end and pretty much goes down on the other. Our valley curves a little bit...but it is fairly narrow and the sun follows it. This means that we get a lot of sun. Although we have trees on the hillside above us and below us, they don't really shelter us. One end of our RV is now somewhat blocked from the sun due to the location of the laundry room we are building. Come summertime, that might actually be nice!


Monday, February 18, 2008

Slow Day

Dave was home today. It was nice to have him home on a holiday. We did not do a whole lot with all of us still recovering from being sick.

Today starts a temperature change. We are moving into colder weather with nights of snow and freezing rain. This is weather that is a bit concerning since the rain often turns to ice. Things have changed weatherwise in this area over the years. The winters have gotten milder and wetter.

When I lived not too far from here for a few years during my childhood, we had snow either by Christmas or within a few days after it. Once we got that first snow fall, there was pretty much snow around all winter. We would go out everyday to play in it. I don't remember rain other than in the summer. So this weather is wierd to me...and annoying to us. It is dangerous with the ice.

Dave covered up the washing machine and fixed a place in the plastic on the roof where the rain/snow kept pushing it through. Every time it would push through it would cause it to leak into the upstairs and then down into the bottom floor. Yesterday, he disconnected the water hose going into the laundry room and drained it so that it would not freeze.

Last night we had some strong winds again. I was already restless, thinking about my sister, whose birthday was today. Suddenly, the wind kicked in and knocked something over outside with a big bang. It woke Dave up and startled the heck out of me. It took a long time to get over it and calm down inside.

Dave got up and went out to see what it was. It turns out that a sheet of insulation that was held up by a folding chair that was leaning into it was blown over. We heard the chair hitting the gravel. Dave put it back in place and said that everything else looked fine.

For some reason, the high winds really bother me. I always wonder what it will do to our tarps and all the stuff we have out there. I just have to trust Yahweh to protect all that He wants to protect. He will make sure we have what we need.
There are times when we have had tornado warnings, although not last night. The likelihood of one hitting here is really small. We live in a tiny valley and tornadoes tend to bounce when they hit hills. Still, there is something about the really high gusty winds that bothers me...at night. They don't seem to bother me quite as much during the day...probably because I can see what is happening.

As I was laying in bed, I remembered a hurricane I lived through as a child. Well, I sort of remembered. All I really remember was being in the back seat of a car. The skies were darkened and my parents and I were going to the home of people I did not know. I remember arriving there and being in a house with a bunch of strangers. It seems like the lights were either out...or maybe just low? That is all I remember myself. My mother told me that we went through two hurricanes while we lived in that state, but these little blips are the only thing I remember.

After we had moved into the RV park where we stayed before coming to our land we went through some tornado warnings. I felt so vulnerable being out in an open field like that. I much prefer earthquakes over things like tornadoes and certainly over hurricanes!

Today, it snowed for quite awhile. Big, HUGE, flakes. But nothing really stuck around. After two rather warm days, the ground just was not cold enough for it to stick. It melted. But watching it come down was awesome! It was SO beautiful! We loved watching it blow back and forth as the wind changed directions. It was as if the flakes were dancing in the air...swirling and twirling about and having a grand old time.

Well, that's it for now from our Little RV on the Hillside!