Here in New Jersey, we had some serious weather this past weekend. A nor’easter is never fun weather but if you have that nor’easter in October when most of the leaves are still on the trees, things happen. The main thing that does happen is that you hear a lot of crack, crack, cracking in the trees then a big giant slam sound. The tree branches were just too heavy under the weight of the snow and ice and leaves and I must have heard those crack-a-lacka sounds every few minutes. Without exaggeration, I think I could fill a dump truck with all the tree debris that fell in my yard.
Lots of broken branches means lots of mess. Some of those branches were up to 8 inches in diameter and made deep holes in the ground when they fell. And we were lucky at my house because down the street and all over town there were large trees down blocking the roads and taking down power lines and causing general havoc. Clean up is going to be a bitch.
And so after the fact, I’m making a wish list for the next storm. These are the things that would have been great to have during the nor’easter of Halloween 2011.
A Big Tarp
– if a tree crashed through the roof, I would have needed a temporary fix until after the storm was over. A tarp is a great temporary fix for a tree through the roof. The bigger the better.
A Good Chainsaw
– Last year we had a crazy storm that dropped two 50 plus foot trees in my yard. I totally burnt out my old chainsaw and need a new one.
A Mini Chain Saw On A Pole
– I’d use a pole saw like this to trim the trees that are hanging within falling distance of my roof. An even better time to do this would be before a storm comes.
Generator
– This is for when the power goes out. You don’t want the stuff in the fridge to go bad. Yeah and you probably want heat too.
Let There Be Light
– It’s hard to do anything if you can’t see.
Entertainment
– As you sit there under the light of a lantern, you’ll need something to do besides eat all of the ice cream from the freezer before it melts. Cards are less fattening than ice cream.
If I missed anything, I’m sure I’ll think of it AFTER the next big storm.