Hurricane Sandy

G. Seddon · #1 10/29/12, 10:37 AM

Thought I'd start a thread on the storm for those of us in the thick of it or nearby.

So far as of 11 AM, it's about 48*F here, and we've had 1/2 inch of rain, and radar shows that the heavier rain appears to be moving west headed right over us (we're midway between Richmond and Charlottesville). Winds range between nothing and brief gusts. I guess the worst of it will be this afternoon and tonight, into tomorrow. I dread the coming winds because we have so many trees. Fencelines will be a mess.

Most of the cows have no shelter other than trees, but they do have hay. The 5 weanlings have shelter and hay. Donkeys refuse to leave the barn, so I'm scooping manure several times a day. Chickens have food and water in their coop, but they're on auto pilot and want to be outside; at the moment, they are under their coop and somewhat sheltered.

Hope others will post their status. I will try to get some photos in a while. If you're on the East Coast in preparing for this storm, stay safe and take care.

lakeportfarms · #2 10/29/12, 10:55 AM

Best of luck to everybody there. Even hundreds of miles away it's affecting us too. We're on Lake Huron, and the winds are already ferocious due in part to Sandy and a high pressure system in Northern Ontario, which is funneling the winds from the North right down the lake. Wave heights of 25' and winds of 60 mph predicted tonight. The cows have found the hollows in the property to keep from getting blown over

At least were not getting snow! Just a light rain.

G. Seddon · #3 10/29/12, 12:46 PM

lakeport, I heard several days ago that this storm was going to affect the Great Lakes...guess they were right. Hope you don't get snow! It feels very raw outside here even though the temp is about 46, going into the 30s tonight. Ugh.

Just went out to check on everyone and got a few pictures. The rain is fairly steady now. I have one cow due to calve and I hope she keeps her legs crossed until Wednesday or Thursday.

Chickens not too unhappy:
Hurricane Sandy - Cattle

Donkeys determined not to get wet:
Hurricane Sandy - Cattle

The geldings at other barn up the road a short way; had to call them in:
Hurricane Sandy - Cattle

The 7-month old weanlings have access to space inside the hay barn; I'm glad they're using it:
Hurricane Sandy - Cattle

Unhappy cows (except for one in port-a-hut):
Hurricane Sandy - Cattle

More unhappy cows:
Hurricane Sandy - Cattle

Sherry in Iowa · #4 10/29/12, 01:16 PM

I pray everyone and their livestock are spared in the storm. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all.

fitz · #5 10/29/12, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by G. Seddon

Thought I'd start a thread on the storm for those of us in the thick of it or nearby.

So far as of 11 AM, it's about 48*F here, and we've had 1/2 inch of rain, and radar shows that the heavier rain appears to be moving west headed right over us (we're midway between Richmond and Charlottesville). Winds range between nothing and brief gusts. I guess the worst of it will be this afternoon and tonight, into tomorrow. I dread the coming winds because we have so many trees. Fencelines will be a mess.

Most of the cows have no shelter other than trees, but they do have hay. The 5 weanlings have shelter and hay. Donkeys refuse to leave the barn, so I'm scooping manure several times a day. Chickens have food and water in their coop, but they're on auto pilot and want to be outside; at the moment, they are under their coop and somewhat sheltered.

Hope others will post their status. I will try to get some photos in a while. If you're on the East Coast in preparing for this storm, stay safe and take care.

We had 1/4" Sat. morning and 3 tenths last night. Winds are staring to pick up. I think you guys east are going to get hit harder than us. Strongest winds predicted tonight thru tomorrow. You guys be careful and stay safe.

fitz

BlackWillowFarm · #6 10/29/12, 02:04 PM

West Michigan here. Weatherman is calling for 50 MPH wind gusts tonight with possible power outages and rain tomorrow as a result of the hurricane. Not looking forward to it but it'll be nothing compared to what's expected on the East Coast. Hoping everyone stays safe and weathers the storm.

lakeportfarms · #7 10/29/12, 02:17 PM

Gale,

Nice photos...

With the pressure that this storm has, there is no way she's not calving if she's anywhere near her date

How do you like your round bale feeder? If I hadn't picked up some greatly discounted Tarter feeders this summer, I would be getting some of the poly ones.

Hope you keep your power. Ours went out early this morning, and it may be out for a while. The emerald ash borer has worked it's way North from the Detroit area, and in the last two years the ash trees have all died and are rotting. I was just out and passed at least a dozen big trees that had fallen on the road.

topside1 · #8 10/29/12, 03:15 PM

Sunny, windy, high 46 here in the volunteer state. How can those chickens not be happy, living in a condo, even looks like they enjoy electrical service, Green Acres must have been a repeat....Stay dry....Topside

Tad · #9 10/29/12, 07:53 PM

We have been getting rain since saterday, not from the storm but just a constant drizzle thats supposed to last till friday. We are getting ther worst of it from now untill early morning. Raining pretty hard right now and the wind is 25-30 with stonger gusts. All the animals are safe in the barn just as long as we have power for morning milking everyone will be happy.

Sherry in Iowa · #10 10/30/12, 07:20 AM

Everyone okay this morning?

lakeportfarms · #11 10/30/12, 08:52 AM

We got hit pretty hard this morning and now with strong winds, gusts to 70 mph. 3 or 4 pretty large trees down at our house, and Lake Huron looks like the ocean with big waves(up to 30 feet from the reports). I took some photos but they don't do it justice . What's saving us from real damage is that the lake levels are at nearly historic lows, down 3 feet or so from average. So while the water is piling up it's not overtaking the seawalls or causing beach or bluff erosion. It's also 38 degrees and a light rain.

Our cows are miserable, with their backs arched and finding shelter from any windbreak they can. I almost think that the 30's and rain is harder on them than below zero and snow. I like below zero and snow and wind more than this too.
We've had a calf with some chronic bloat, so last night my wife and I were out in the pasture with the wind and rain tubing him.

At least we have power back.

Time to go check on them again.

Sherry in Iowa · #12 10/30/12, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lakeportfarms

We got hit pretty hard this morning and now with strong winds, gusts to 70 mph. 3 or 4 pretty large trees down at our house, and Lake Huron looks like the ocean with big waves(up to 30 feet from the reports). I took some photos but they don't do it justice . What's saving us from real damage is that the lake levels are at nearly historic lows, down 3 feet or so from average. So while the water is piling up it's not overtaking the seawalls or causing beach or bluff erosion. It's also 38 degrees and a light rain.

Our cows are miserable, with their backs arched and finding shelter from any windbreak they can. I almost think that the 30's and rain is harder on them than below zero and snow. I like below zero and snow and wind more than this too.
We've had a calf with some chronic bloat, so last night my wife and I were out in the pasture with the wind and rain tubing him.

At least we have power back.

Time to go check on them again.

I'm glad your family is alright. I think you're right about the weather and cattle. I hate to see a cold rain with winds on the livestock too. I guess low lake levels can be a good thing!

Take care.

G. Seddon · #13 10/30/12, 09:17 AM

I think we managed to dodge a major bullet here. 2.5" rain, 38* this morning, still a little rain coming down, hardly any wind (I'm not saying that too loud). But 75-100 miles north of us is a mess. All animals here okay. Red cow not ready to calve yet thankfully.

Lakeport, it's hard to believe that your area received worse than what we had, as far away as you are from typical hurricane territory, but I guess the 2-3 systems joined up and created some real nasty conditions. I agree, cattle deal with bitter cold much better than wet and wind. Don't envy you dealing with bloat in the middle of all this.

Hope things are smoothing out for you today and no other problems are on the horizon. I know how it can be, everything takes longer when dealing with weather problems; no sooner do you get something resolved than you have to go back out and check something else. Get some rest when you can.

lakeportfarms · #14 10/30/12, 10:57 AM

Many have had it far worse than us along the Atlantic Coast and near inland, but due to the open waters of the lake we really got the winds and lots of trees down. The waves were neat to watch.

We can deal with that, but the worst part for me was that this past weekend I rented a trencher to put in water lines throughout the pastures for several auto waterers. Five hundred dollars for equipment rental and 14 hours of trenching later because it was so hard going through our glacial clay layer, I managed about 700-800 feet of 6' deep to get below our frost line, but didn't get the pipe and electrical wire in the trench before the weather hit. I'll be out there today in the wet clay/wind/rain, getting the pipe in and weighted with rocks to hold the pipe down at the bottom so I can get part of it covered. I didn't do it yesterday because I was afraid of leaving just the ends open to connect to the waterers, and have that fill with water. I thought it would be better to let the water spread throughout the length of the trench instead. It worked a little, but now its filling too much in the low spots and it needs to get done.

Wish me luck! I know, my timing is terrible!

ufo_chris · #15 10/30/12, 12:46 PM

Good luck, Lakeportfarms! That sounds like miserable work!
We've had 3 1/4 " of rain here , sloppy everywhere! Feel bad for the cows , they do have 2 and 3 sided shelters but they are sopping wet.
The ducks like it but their pen is sooooo muddy! Chickens are even coming out in this.
So is my Horse.
I have not been out on the roads yet but checked the local news and only a few trees down here and there.
We only have some minor branches down, but it's supposed to get windier later again....
Needed rain real bad, just not all at once!

arnie · #16 10/30/12, 02:55 PM

Cold wet rain then 7 inches of snow it rough on the liestock nice weather lately they don't have a good winter coat yet .no electric power for me and as farmers are low priority with the ele. Company none to be here soon glad as a homesteder I'm ready with a genetator and plenty of food .I was in hopes of not haveing to feed out any of the precious hay for at least another month .

G. Seddon · #17 10/31/12, 08:24 AM

Well, all is calm here for the most part. Still overcast, but the rain is stopped.

Arnie, sounds like you had a real mess down there.

Lakeport, maybe the equipment rental place will cut you a break given the weather situation. Oh, and the poly bale feeders work well for the most part; they don't rust and fall apart, but some of the cows are able to crawl in to get to the good stuff, as you can see.

Topside, those chickens deserved an upgrade; I'm not even going to post a photo of what they were living in before the new coop, too embarrassing! I love knowing that they are snug and safe at night and that nothing can get in there to bother them.

I still find it hard to believe that "Sandy" could have such an impact on so large an area of the country; I don't think we've experienced anything like this that I can recall. So many people's lives totally disrupted!

Hope you all are doing okay.

tonyb · #18 10/31/12, 09:48 PM

Lakeport, I knew you guys were getting hammered up that way. We're in your neck of the woods, but south of I-69, so much further off the lake than you are.

We had wind, but not sure about wind speed. Suited up in rain gear and checked on the cattle at 3am Tuesday. Their hoophouse had flipped over and busted a bunch of lumber. Spent 2 hours patching it up and re-positioning it. Other than that we came through fine. Surprising; we almost always have trees or limbs down, but not this time.

Folks in town were without power for the past two days. Ironic since we can see Detroit Edison power plant stacks all up and down the St Clair River. Town is literally in the shadow of the power company.

The kids were just glad the power was back in time for Trick Or Treating. Remember when life was that simple?

lakeportfarms · #19 11/01/12, 05:33 AM

TonyB,

The wind was sure howling off the lake...we lost several big pine trees. Our power went out Sunday night but was restored later Monday and held out through the biggest winds Monday night and Tuesday.

At first I attributed most of the power outages to all the dead ash trees from the emerald ash borer, but when I got out and drove into town to pick up some things, many trees were just uprooted. Given that we didn't really get a lot of rain that's pretty amazing.

For those of you who are in the path of the emerald ash borer, it is devastating if you have any numbers of ash trees! Expect lots of power outages in the future from falling limbs and trees whenever you get a windstorm. They seek and destroy every ash tree, and there is little you can do about it.

G. Seddon · #20 11/01/12, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lakeportfarms

For those of you who are in the path of the emerald ash borer, it is devastating if you have any numbers of ash trees! Expect lots of power outages in the future from falling limbs and trees whenever you get a windstorm. They seek and destroy every ash tree, and there is little you can do about it.

Lakeport, wherever I go (not very often or very far) I see purple box-like things up in trees. Are these traps or something related to this ash borer pest?