The Waiting Game

So now, we wait. Will we get slammed with 8-10 inches of rain? Should I get all the 5 gallon buckets I can find and just recycle the sump pump water for the toilets, or do I count on the tubs doing the job? Everything with the exception of the last two bird feeders and the bird bath has been brought in or lashed down.

It is the waiting for a hurricane that drives you nuts. Days of countless emails, weather reports, emergency notices, and then there’s the people out everywhere. Trying to get gasoline. Long lines. hitting the stores. I have stockpiled 8 bags of ice in the kitchen freezer in order to cover over the meat in there. If the power stays off too long, I will transfer all the meat to the heavy coolers if necessary. Interestingly enough, people don’t buy ice in advance. I made room for the ice in the freezer and cranked the temperature down a few degrees. I know we can drive west of here and load up coolers with ice, after the rains and wind stop. What is in the freezer now will keep it for at least two days.

TP and Milk. I love it that those two items seem to be the most popular before storms. Do people really think they will run out? Weird. Neither of them are on my preparation list.

The birds know something is happening. They are noisy, and flying back and forth to the feeders. Today, the nuthatches are back. With the downy woodpeckers, they are all over the suet and peanut feeder.

The nuthatch is on the suet while the woodpecker waits patiently. The finches and other birds have been coming in looking for the thistle feeder and the small hanging one, both of which are already down. The last one to take apart will be the primary feeder, which would be blown over. I really need to anchor that permanently now that we found the site where the squirrels can’t leap across the deck or jump from trees.

I also took fall folliage pictures today, figuring that the leaves will get blown away and we will come to an abrupt end of leaf peeping. This view today reminded me of how quickly the leaves changed this year.

Here’s hoping I get to see the gorgeous red colors of our maple in the back, which hasn’t turned yet. That may be good, or not so good. With the leaves on the trees, they tend to crack under their weight with heavy winds and rain. The maple is my birding tree, and one of the prettiest in the fall.

The view of it last November. We generally get the peak of the colors the first week of November. I just hope we don’t lose any more of our mature trees in this storm. It has been a pretty rough couple of years, when it comes to wind damage. Trying to sleep at night while trees crack and fall is not fun. This past two years we have hauled away at least a dozen trees from the property line, and we lost a few conifers in the ice storms before that. Besides the cover they give us, they are home to the birds and squirrels, which is why we have so many birds visiting us. They love the conifers.

Good luck all the east coasters in harm’s way. Stay safe.

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