Blue Birds and Things That Could Have Gone Better

Wednesday, before the upcoming Nor'Easter, the birdfeeders were the site of a feeding frenzy. Just before 3pm, I looked and was excited to see I had bluebirds on the suet feeder. I don't remember ever having bluebirds at either house in NH, so of course I grabbed my phone and snapped some pictures.

Wednesday night thru Thursday afternoon my area got hit by 20-22" of snow. It was a light, fluffy snow which was much better than the sloppy and heavy stuff we got two weekends ago. BTW, as late as Wednesday evening, they were calling for my area to get 6-12+" (after starting the day before at 2-4" - if the storm didn't stay south of us). By 3AM Thursday they upped it to 10-18"

At 4 AM Thursday, the road plow went by after the first 8" of snow had fallen so at 5AM I went to clean up the driveway for the first time. The berm was over the top of the snowblower intake, which means it was over 2' high.

The plow went by a second time about 11, so I took an hour lunch to do another cleanup of the driveway. After I logged off from work, I went out and started clearing paths around the house, to the compost barrel and started on the "driveway" to the tent garage, but didn't get the whole thing done. Neither did I clear off the front porch steps. I figured I would do them Friday morning since I was taking a PTO day anyway and the temp would stay low. Snow totals a bit to the NW of me had some areas getting over 40" of snow within the 15 hours that the storm lasted

And then there was the record set in Concord for total over a 12 hour period

Friday morning I went out o clean up what the roof had dumped on the driveway and the path to the fron door, as well as shovel the front porch/steps. Then I finished up the second "driveway" and brushed the snow off the back window of the truck. Everything seemed to be fine at that time.

I took a break and went to go rake the snow off the shed and tent garage about 9:15 am, when I saw this

At the bottom of that last picture you can see little glass shards on the dash. Well, nothing to do but call both insurance companies. Of course I don't know the full extent of damage to the truck since the structure will have to be removed first. As you can see, the roof of the structure had already dumped part of the snow load (the snow along the side of the structure is all from the roof), so I'm unsure why it didn't hold up, but apparently it got tired of standing upright.

The house insurance adjuster called me back later that day and had me send pictures. He also provided a couple of names of companies that might be able to help with the clean up. Since they were 20-30 miles away, and he used them for water/fire/smoke damage clean up, he wasn't sure if they could help or would be willing to come out to my area. I got ahold of the first name on the list and he will be out this morning to take a look.

Once again it is a good thing I have a second vehicle for going to the dump and getting groceries since the truck will be out of commission for goodness knows how long. And I am fortunate to be working from home, so I don't have to worry about commuting in slick conditions. So far the ton of pellets in there are untouched and hopefully the structure can be removed without damaging them (they are covered in plastic, so I'm not worried about snow getting on them).

The worst part will be that thru the rest of the winter, I'll have to scrape and remove frost/ice/snow from the truck, which I have really enjoyed not having to do. But, in the scheme of things, this is a minor blip.

 

Comments

[Cop Car]

I got a jolt of joy when your top bluebird photo appeared before my eyes. They are so beautiful. It was definitely not a jolt of joy that I got in viewing the damage to your tent garage and truck/SUV. I am sorry that the supports got so tired. Is that an electrical junction/outlet box that did the dastardly dead to your windshield?

I would love to have your snow; but, I would attack it with less vigor, so probably should not live in your area.

Your dad and I, having worked there at various (different) times, were interested when the news carried reports of over 3 feet of snow in Binghamton NY. You are right up there with them.

[bogie]

Yes, it is an electrical box. It came set up for running an extension cord to provide electricity but I've never used it. Had no need since the only time it would be useful is if I had to have power tools out there for some reason. Since I only store pellets, dirt/landscape rocks and the truck in there, had no need..