28 August 2011

How To Survive a Hurricane

When Mother Nature comes to town all a-rantin' and a-ravin', and you're couped up inside all day with the windows shut tight, a little comfort food really hits the spot.
In times like these, I take solace in 1950s style old lady food, like some tuna melts with American cheese on white bread, grilled up on an old Mirro cast aluminum griddle that was a wedding present in 1948 to my father's aunt. A simple pleasure, but a real one, it helped us to forget, if only for a moment...

that an entire tree, and a big old one at that, was completely uprooted and fell into the back yard.

I wonder:

1) what does one wear to deal with such a mess?
2) can I find it for a buck at a thrift store?

Yikes.

11 comments:

Grant said...

Sorry to hear about the tree. I'm glad it didn't hit as hard as anticipated up there. It was pretty rough down here in NC.

What to wear? Work boots. I prefer Cabelas brand duck boots (1/5 the price of Bean Boots. Got some after I wore out my Sorrels.). Carharts. Any thick (probably flannel) button down that you don't care about. Limbs will scratch you up through anything thin.

Unfortunately, it ain't the time to buy a chainsaw. They're best had on craigslist after such a disaster. Try to borrow a neighbor's I reckon.

Best of luck.

Pasquale said...

Take the insurance money, go to a continuous lean and find out where to buy an axe, waxed coat, work boots, jeans made of real deal selvedge and maybe a DNA jet from Freemans. Insurance will definately give you $4000 towards the urban lumberjack look.

randall said...

You've already got those "Indy" boots for the deal of the century. Why not put some "patina" on them with some "authentic" work. Go get yourself one of those gourmet axes and a Pendleton and go to town on that tree.
You could probably borrow some carharts from 10e and you could give your wood away to YWP.

Anonymous said...

We had a huge spruce fall on our house a few years ago. No real damage to the house (luckily, otherwise we'd probably be dead now), but I called our insurance company and found the tree itself wasn't covered. It was only covered if someone had vandalized it.
Anyway, it turned out to be the most expensive firewood in the world.

davidsl said...

call the insurance company, and buy, if you don't already own, a chain saw. they are the bomb for this kind of thing.

and am so glad to hear you and yours successfully weathered the storm!

Rob said...

I was lucky enough to go for a stroll around DC in the middle of the hurricane.

I went for the Doc Martens, worn jeans, a jean jacket, and my dad's old wax shell jacket.

I still ended up soaked head to bone, but at least I felt like nothing under the sun (save a falling branch, power line, rogue dog swept up in the wind) could hurt me.

Anonymous said...

typically insurance will cover the cleanup if it falls on an insured structure.

lying in your yard, you're typically out of luck, but if it damages your house, your garage, your fence, you can usually claim it.

Yankee-Whisky-Papa said...

I wear a chainsaw, bowsaw, and an axe. Want help clearing that tree?

Gabe said...

Yikes. Buy a chainsaw at Home Depot and wear you oldest jeans, boots and sweatshirt. And invite over three of your most loyal friends to help. Glad everybody's OK!!

Unknown said...

I'm sorry to hear, and sorry to say... but I think it may call for... "Well curated-authentic-heritage-urban-lumberjack-gear". Yikes!

Anonymous said...

What to wear? What, when you make the call to an arborist? Leave the tree to the pro's. Wear khakis and a polo while pressing the numbers on your cell phone.