Not a shop project but definitely something we did recently.
We had quite an ice storm over the weekend - freezing rain and just barely cold enough to coat the trees and shrubs and everything else. Very unusual for us here in the 'banana belt' of the 45th parallel in western Oregon and the trees weren't ready for it.
Luckily, the weather forecast was timely and we could move our vehicles out from under the trees. I also shut down all the computers and servers that usually run 24/7 because their UPS batteries only last about 45 minutes. Better safe than sorry, and a good thing we did!
Friday night as the ice coated the trees with about 1/2 inch of solid ice we heard loud cracking and banging as many crumpled to the ground under the weight of the ice coating. Challenging to get back to sleep while thinking about a big tree visiting us in the master bedroom.
Woke up Saturday morning and checked the alarm clock - it was very, very dark. So was everything else. According to news reports, power outage for about 200,000 homes in the region (Friday evening to Monday morning for us, and others still waiting to get back on line).
Very strange combination of events. The one Verizon cell tower serving most of our small town apparently had a failure of its backkup generator so all cell service was lost. Also, the cable TV provider that piggybacks VOIP phone service and Internet only has about a 45 minute uptime without utility power to feed their repeater amplifiers. Cable TV went dark and anyone getting Internet or phone via Cable TV was also SOL. Our POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) with ADSL from the central office was not affected since the CO runs on batteries with a nice big diesel backup generator on autostart. Phone companies knows how to engineer for emergencies. They've been doing it a long time.
This was the first time we've ever really needed our backup generator at the house in 30 years. An occasional outage for an hour or so but this was 48+ hours straight. Cranked up the 12KW Onan, flipped the transfer switch and behold, there was light and heat and Internet and most everything we needed. Now I know what other circuits are really essential and will be re-jiggering the emergency circuits. Bathroom & kitchen lights, microwave and toaster top the list to switch over. Had a nice visit with neighbors we invited over for coffee and continental breakfast. The Onan purred along steadily, but ate natural gas at the rate of about $1 per hour. It was worth it in chilly weather.
Photos are of our house and down the driveway. Our big trees and arborvitae suffered badly and many won't make it.. Good thing we moved the cars that are usually parked under the trees!
The wife and I spent Monday morning nibbling away at the fallen trees. At the rate we were going it would be a 12-week project to for the two of us to clear the driveway. On Tuesday a couple of entrepreneurs showed up with a couple of chain saws, a serious 30- horse Gravely chipper and a trailer to haul away the debris. It was an easy 'sell'. About 4 hours later of these two guys working like demons the driveway was clear for passage and they departed, somewhat richer for their efforts. We'll attend to the rest of the downed trees at our leisure.
Not much machine shop content other than an excuse for not being in the shop!
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