Day Nine – The Scariest Day of All – Sunday; Nov 6^th

Pumpkin

As if adding insult to injury, daylight savings time ends today.  It is already an adjustment dealing with bedtime at seven or eight pm due to no lights in the house and waking up anywhere between two am to six am to load wood in the woodstove, now we have to fall back on our clocks with days getting darker earlier.

And today, is turning out to be one of the scariest days of all during our power outage experience from Snowlloween.  Although the power company insists they will reach their goal of 99% restored with power by midnight tonight, my husband is determined to take down a dead tree in our backyard in case this doesn’t happen.  We are out of fire wood.

This dead tree was not a victim of Snowlloween, but has been dead for two years, standing there by the east side of our yard’s edge.  We did not take care of getting it taken down, like we should have, and were lucky it did not fall down during the storm.

Situated very close to our house and pool, I didn’t want to think about Steve’s attempt to take it down alone.  So at my insistance, he called an expert, my Dad, who worked as a forester in his younger years in Canada. With my younger brother tagging along, the three of them got together to tackle this project together on day nine of our ordeal.

As they discussed the project outside, I was starting to get really worried and began yelling out the door to them to please be careful.  My heart pounded a bit when I saw the tree wobble and finally fall in the correct, intended direction.  After that happened, I could tell the three of them breathed a sigh of relief as well.  They all started laughing and patting each other on the backs.

Dad with Steve

Was this the right thing to do?  Probably not.  It is best to get a professional if you are dealing with a situation like this one, especially during a disaster situation.  I didn’t want to consider another problem during our last planned day of the outage.  Thankfully all went according to their intentions.  And again, with the help of someone, my Dad, that did this in his former career days as a forester.

When seeking a professional, make sure the tree removers are fully insured and ask of their experience.  And ask for a trusted references.  Get more than one estimate if you are not in a hurry, which most of us are right now, and be wary of people doing this job just to make a quick buck due to the devastation.  Unfortunately, they are out there.

And be patient – unlike my husband was that last day without power.  It is those moments when we can make costly mistakes.  Last night, I read a house that blew up in Coventry, CT.  They said the blast could be heard for miles, and people lost their lives.  Things can go wrong.  This storm was and is no joke and the effects and lessons will last a long time.

Steve and Jim

Our power returned at six pm on this day; but we still had no phone, internet or television due to one detached telephone wire.  After the house was clean, laundry done, food stocked in fridge, plants previously stored in basement cared for, and my mother in law cozy on the couch recovering from her own ordeal in her town, the power went out again – briefly, for 45 minutes, three days later.  So we brought out the candles, put on the headlamps once again, and said, ‘Oh-no.’ Fortunately, it was a short down period, and the internet repair guy showed up right after the lights came back on.  He was here for two hours working in the dark.  And we let him.  Cathy T

 For information — see these links:

www.arborday.org     www.isa-arbor.com     www.treesaregood.org    www.americanarboristsCT.org