Our New Year's Day came in with a roar! We awoke to moderate winds blowing about 15 - 20 mph and the temperature at 38 degrees. Ernie put on the morning coffee and I opened the curtains.
When we looked out the window we saw the corner of our boats' gray tarp cover flapping in the wind - a sure indicator that we needed to go immediately and resecure the tarp before it took off into the wind. When we went outside to take care of our chore, we discovered the yard was mostly one slick sheet of ice as a result of all the melting taking place.
We put on our crampons and with caution, we walked down to our boat and began re-tying the tarp. As we continued with our task, the winds picked up - creating more of a challenge to hold and re-tie the tarp. Just as we were almost finished with the tarp, the winds picked up some more and began to rock the boat back and forth as though it were on an invisible high sea. Ernie looked at me and shouted above the winds that we'd need to go get the old tires - so off we went to retrieve old tires. Once we brought the old tires to the boat, we began stuffing tires under the boat, and the rocking stopped. Satisfied, we went back to the cabin for breakfast as the winds continued to increase.
As the winds continued to blow, Ernie assigned us an after breakfast task - to go around our cabin site and make sure everything was secure then, go and check on our nearest neighbors cabins. So out we went after breakfast to check things around our cabin and pick up small, fallen branches. Then, we set off to check our neighbors cabins. I took my portable wind meter and took readings along the way - gusts clocked at 30 mph!
As we walked along the now exposed rocky beach - we were distracted and fascinated by the winds pushing large waves of 'standing water' across the ice then, dropping the waves which continued forward - scooting across the lake ice as rippling sheets of water.
While checking cabins, we noticed the winds were becoming stronger - clocking at 40 - 45 mph - so we turned around and headed back to our cabin. WOW - when we turned around the wind was pushing us back and 'throwing' small bits of lake ice at us. With that surprise - we left the beach and headed into the tree line to bush whack our way to our neighbors back cabin trails - we reached his place to find stuff on his deck tossed about - we picked things up - staggering about the whole time like two drunk sailors.
Afterwards, we continued on through the back trail - looking up at the tall spruce trees bending and bending - the winds were definitely very strong. We arrived back at our cabin and settled in - working on projects and making comments about the wind seeming to increase in velocity.
After dinner, we heard strange scooting noises out on our side deck. Ernie went out to discover that our freezer and coolers were gently being pushed towards the edge of our side deck. Ernie secured those items as the wind continued to blow harder.
Then, as I was drawing the shades for the evening, I spotted the little moose just outside of our side kitchen window. It was good to see her since we've not seen her for weeks. She looked fine and was staying out of the wind but then she did something odd. She knelt down on her front knees and began licking our drain pipes - which we've not used for quite sometime. It then occurred to me that she was licking the rain water off the pipes - so I turned on the water faucet and let the water drain down through the pipe - when she saw the water she moved to the end of the pipe and began to drink the flowing water for quite a few minutes. Ernie told me that was a bad idea - that now she'd come to the drain pipe for water. Oops.
So we settled in for the evening - or so we thought. As we were reading we began to hear a strange flapping sound. Ernie jumped up and yelled out some descriptive adjectives before ending with "...the cabin roof!!!" We quickly got on our wind gear, grabbed flashlights and headlamps and went out onto our front deck. Sure enough - the cabin roofing was peeling back, flapping and vibrating in the strong winds!! One metal panel was rolled back three-quarters of the way - bent backwards and crumpled - two others were lifting and fighting the wind like wild horses at the end of a rope
Ernie yelled " I've got to get up there!!!" -- I yelled back "Are you freaking nuts! These winds are clocking at 50 plus mph and you'll get blowen off!!" A lively discussion followed regarding the merits of climbing onto a roof with strong winds blowing -- the discussion ending with me reluctingly following Ernie's directions.
Together, we retrieved three 'shepard jacks' from the workshop, a ladder, hammer and roofing nails. Fortunetly, our deck makes reaching the roof only a seven foot climb. I held the ladder so that I could block the wind and provide a safety weight support as Ernie climbed the ladder. Up and down he went with each Shepard jack as he placed a jack onto a flapping panel. Then, he went onto the roof and began nailing the 'flappers' and 'could be flappers'. All - while the wind was gusting and blowing so hard I was being pushed into the side of the ladder and worried about Ernie.
Finally, Ernie set the last nail and came down stating "that's one lousy job but, it'll have to do until morning." We left the Shepard jacks on the roof.
Once it is light, we'll need to go back and see what sort of damage there is exactly and if we have materials to make repairs.
Well, that is how we began our first day of 2011!!
The wind ----
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.