Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit us recently.

Helene was not really powerful in our area, being on the north side where the wind was coming across the state.

There was a oak tree blown over. We have never had any significant sized branches lost before, but because of the highway widening project, the state has removed 4 businesses from near the house and every single tree on those properties. We have no wind buffer anymore.

The large oak in the front yard, next to the Georges’ house was uprooted and fell over. Fortunately, it only hit the corner of the portico roof. The only real damage was the crappy wall that Bob had built, it was already wobbly and I should have pushed it over before the neighbors had moved in. It was directly in front of my RV, but it went the other way, phew.

I had noticed it late that night, because it was blocking most of the light from their front light. I went out first thing once the sun was up and began cutting away some of the smaller branches away from the walkway.

The next day, I was at Tru-value rental first thing and reserved their 50′ man-lift. They won’t let me tow with my car (insurance reasons) so I went home and reserved a truck from Enterprise, then went to their office to wait for them to open.

After sitting outside quite a while, I get a phone call. The agent says they have no trucks available, despite the website saying they do and the fact I can see several sitting there. I call others in the area and only one has a truck, but when I ask to verify it has a tow hitch, he states they never allow towing with their vehicles, even though I specifically have rented a truck there before with the precise purpose of towing.

After giving up, I went back out to Tru-value to cancel the man-lift, but I find out they can deliver it for another $125, which is cheaper than the truck rental was going to be anyway. I had it rented for Saturday with Sunday included.

Saturday went smoothly, but since I had used my car to reposition the lift and I was parked in the road, I moved it at the end of the day. Sunday morning I placed it back, but could not get it to “level”, every time I tried to use the controls to lift or move the basket, the siren would blare. Not a sound I want. I tried multiple times, over 5 hours, repositioning it, lifting and retrying to get it even. Every time, the bubbles were showing level, front-to-back and side-to-side. WTF!

They are closed on Sundays, so there was no one I could even call. Monday I was able to get someone on the phone. Turns out, there is a small sensor wheel on the bottom of each of the outriggers that has to be fully extended, otherwise the machine won’t work. One of the sensor wheels was cocked just a bit and was hitting the side of its slot and wouldn’t extend out. I wasted an entire day because of that. I later had to pay for another day (and delivery), without them even giving me a discount.

I spent 6 days cutting branches and piling them up, using the man-lift to get the majority.

Unfortunately, the man-lift could not reach everything (there were branches that were in the way of the basket), and I was left with the main trunk and one branch poking into the ground, which supported the trunk. If I tried to cut that branch, not only would it absolutely pinch the chain saw bar, but it would also fall right on top of me, there was nowhere to run once it started to come down.

I had to call for actual tree guys to come to “finish” it. One company came out and gave me an estimate of $11,000, which was higher than the estimate I had gotten a few years ago to remove the entire tree (before the roof was redone). I did get one to do it for $350, but their skid steer did tear up some of the grass. It will grow back eventually.

My pole saw started sparking internally, so i bought a new one. After dissection, one of the brushes was “frozen” and wouldn’t make good contact any more. Normally the spring pushes the graphite brushes against the rotor, but this one was stuck in place. Oh well, I bought it at Harbor Freight, so what can you expect.

All in, I spent almost $3,000, not counting the money lost from not working.

 

Milton is only a week later. Hurray!

While there was no significant problem with the wind or rain, we did loose power for nearly 72 hours. The power flicked a bunch that evening, but around 10:30 it just went out.

After a few minutes, I could tell it wasn’t going to come back on, so i shut down my computer and web-server and their UPS’s, and having nothing else to do in the dark, so we went to bed.

The next morning, I was worried about another tree that I would have to deal with, but nothing was wrong. I was surprised and relieved.

The neighbors brought out a generator and proceeded to run it for many days and nights. Right outside my window.

I ran an extension cord from the RV to keep the fridge and freezer cold. But I ended up disposing of most of the fridge anyway.

Unlike some people, I have little in the freezer anyway, so little loss there. Before going to the store to refill the freezer, I did do a defrost and cleaned it well. Have to do it sometime, so might as well when there isn’t much to shove into the fridge overnight.

I did not run the generator all the time (unlike the neighbors), after I had turned it on Friday morning, I heard a load screeching coming from it. Either I have a loose belt or my generator’s water pump is froze up. At $300 per hour, I really hope it is the first. Either way, I can’t get my hands or tools in there to do anything myself.

We had power by Friday afternoon, but I still could not go to work as the gas was in short supply in the area. Good, more lost income. I did not work for 18 days, over half the month.

I was able to go to Gainesville for the UK game, it was Homecoming, so I did make a bit of money, but not enough to cover all I have already charged up.

 

I still have a huge pile of debris from the oak tree, too much for the city to collect for free. I want to rent a chipper, but it is $400/day plus delivery, so i will have to wait. Maybe the city will get tired of the pile and give me a break and take it away. Fat chance.