December 15, 2008

Crushed by Ice

Last Thursday our town was pulverized by the ice storm that rolled through New England. The force of the storm came in two interlocking phases; first, the freezing rain covered everything in ice, and secondly, the wind worked over the heavy frozen branches causing them to snap like little tiny sticks. The destruction was impressive and the center of town looks like a tornado bounced through it. One of the many trees that fell managed to tear our power lines right off our house, which is why we've been under radio silence for the past few days. Not that we're complaining though, our neighbor's garage was practically sliced in two by a massive elm.

We kept the house going with a wood stove for the weekend, but finally realizing that we were doing little more than waste a whole lot of good wood, we moved our operation in with some relatives who have taken pity on our miserable state. Because our power was cut between the main line and the house, we're pretty low on the priority list as far as getting our power back goes.

We're not sure how much time we'll be able to spend on the site this week, but as soon as we can, we'll be back with daily updates (and a lot of articles on portable generators, flashlights, and hand-crank radios).