Hurricane Irene

With Hurricane Irene bearing down on NYC we assumed we would be better off on higher ground, tucked away in the foothills. We were safe, but definitely not better off. While our friends in the city were back at work on Monday we were busy dealing with the aftermath. We still have no power, and consequently no water – thank god for the rain barrel, it’s been great for flushing the toilets.

We lost one tree near the house, it flattened a maple and bit of our fence on the way down. It was a tree we had been talking about taking out but couldn’t figure out how to do it without hitting the house – once again, nature provided a solution. We spent Monday cutting it for firewood, once seasoned it should do us for a month of heat. The tree is so big around I can’t get through the trunk with my chainsaw, so we need to rent something bigger. We are also considering trying to cut and finish a few stumps to make out coffee table.

Update 9.01.2011: Its Thursday and we are still without power.

Update 9.03.2011: Finally got power Saturday morning, 6 days off the grid.

Updated 9.04.2011: We’ve conquered most of the downed tree and converted it to firewood. There is going to be a lot of splitting.