A few Ice Storm Photos Today (not much else to do)

Mark, you can build one of those conestoga chuckwagons for the BBQ competitions I see on Food network. Heck, your four-legged assisstant is already gathering fuel for the campfire!

Stay warm…

-- Living on the square...

The ice in the trees is beautiful, but nasty!

-- Dick Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Good observation Domacles, Luke prefers to play “fetch” about as much as he likes to chase song birds from one tree to the other. I think the birds actually like the sport of it also.

The only trouble with him helping to pick up the limbs, is that he likes to pull them out of the pile as much as he likes picking them up.

He’s a great dog, a breed we would get again.

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flinthill's Artisan

Tough times. I remember these when I was a kid. I feel for you. Great good luck to have a generator. Hang in there. We always kept a deck of cards handy for the power outages and snowstorms. Of course, milking the cows by hand took up a lot of time.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Our place used to be a dairy Thomas. I didn’t take a photo of the milking machine shed, or the entry line shed. They need a lot of repair these days.

Dick: the camera didn’t pick it up well, there is about 3/8” to 1/2” thick ice on all of the limbs. It could have been much worse, but last night it all changed to light wispy snow as it was falling.

It is a beautiful spot, for Kansas. It isn’t the Rockies, nor the Smokies, nor the beach, or the big lakes, or the dense forests. We live in a valley across the road from Wildcat Creek, which feeds Middle Creek, which feeds the Cottonwood River. This area is called the “Flinthill’s”. The hills are mainly layered limestone. There are several rock quarries in the area, some for road gravel, others for cut stone.

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flinthill's Artisan

Awesome Mark! Talk about a commitment to LJ!

...but then again, what else is there to do?

Thanks for sharing! Ellen

-- Ellen -- www.goodadvertising.com/woodwork

I live in central Iowa, 25 miles south of Des Moines and we got a full inch of ice here, a little less to the north and a little more to the south. I took some pictures as well but didn’t think to post them anywhere…...I spent the day in the shop working on some cabinet bases I have been working on for the garage and just let it rain and freeze, I did hear a limb come down in my yard so I stepped out to look and all around me there were trees dropping limbs and splitting under the weight of an inch of ice. from up the street where you can’t actually see it happen it sounds alot like gunshots as the poor tree gives up under all that tension. I have seen bad ice storms through my life but this would be one of the worst, it is absolutely amazing just how much a 40 foot tree can droop under all that weight and not break, some of them look like crystal mushrooms. Very beautiful, especially at night.

Merry Christmas All

-- So Much Wood - So Little Time! --

brrrrrr

-- Ron, Twain Harte, Ca. Portable on site Sawmill Service http://westcoastlands.net/Sawmill.html http://westcoastlands.net/SawBucks2/phpBB3

All is well in Delaware today it was 56 deg.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

I’m in eastern Iowa and had about the same experience as knothead. I’ll try to take some pictures and post them. The trees look very pretty all covered in ice, too bad it’s so dangerous to create such a winter wonderland.

-- Owen Johnson - aka IowaWoodcrafter

Ah yes the Flint Hills, beautiful country, I miss some of the time I lived in Council Grove…..if I did now it would be an opportunity to visit you. I still have friends in Wamego and get there occasionally. Sure glad your storm is over…..for now.

-- Only the Shadow knows....................

John: we aren’t far from Council Grove. I think about 22 miles, but much less as a crow flies.

“Kip” another LJ’er lives outside of CG. If you do get to the area, let me know, and we’ll make a lallapalooza out of it. There are a handful of us in Kansas now that are LJ’ers, and we could make it a get-together. There is another LJ’er that lives up by Manhattan pretty closer to the Wamego area. One of these days, we can all plan vacations with LJ stops along the route, no matter where we want to go!

Chirs: you have more ice than we do. Our trees are holding up if the winds stay down. The only limbs I have seen break were ones with bad spots, or small ones. Still, the power is out. We are headed into day three this morning. We are doing fine still. “Crystal Mushrooms”, watch it, you’re going to send some folks into flashback. ha.

thanks for the comments everyone it is encouraging while I’m twidling my thumbs here,
Mark

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flinthill's Artisan

I should not have let this go the first time Damocles. What are you doing watching “Food Network?”

Don’t worry, it is on most of the time my wife is in the house, so I see it quite often also. I like the cake decorating competitions, and watching Flay get beat in his throwdowns. I’m not an Emeril fan, but Rachel Ray is good (I’d say more, but that would be inappropriate). I really like that guy that rode the motorcycle across the country eating, sounds like my kind of vacation. He stopped not to far from me the first series, and ate at a resteraunt some friends of ours own, and stayed in the bunk house another friend owns. Pretty big news for around here!

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flinthill's Artisan

beautiful pictures.
The barn shots are awesome.

Thanks for taking your precious internet time to post them!

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Well, the power company is telling us 5-7 days. I feel they always estimate on the conservative side, so surely it won’t be that long.

This is day 3.

Back to twidling,
Mark

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flinthill's Artisan

Glad to hear you are ok Mark. Just think, 100 years ago most people did not have electricity even. Now a days, we complain when it goes out. Wow, three days of it being out, and more to go. Hang in there.

I guess you could work on your carvings at least, but you might need to bring them in the house to keep warm.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Hey Bill: How’s sunny Cali?

My next project is a couple of Maloof-Inspired Rockers. I just can’t really do much on it with the power tools. I could, but I can piddle around with other things, like cleaning, and organizing. I have about a bijillion antlers to sort out and put in tubs to store again. I dug them all out with the steak knife projects. I organized my inlay materials and ivory pieces yesterday. I can keep the shop warm with the wood stove, just not much light unless I work right infront of the windows.

I’ve been working on pen & watercolor art on some of my own greeting cards I made this morning. Something I’ve wanted to try doing for awhile, finally took the time to do it. I worked on some tax information when the generator is up. I hate that, but jail is worse.

thanks for the note,
Mark

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flinthill's Artisan

and you could write a blog or two and have them ready for posting once you are online officially again! (ok that is a little selfish but still a good idea!)

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Hurray, we have our electricity back. The blessed event happened about 10:30am today!

Snow storm headed in now. It’s not much for folks that live in other parts of the country, but a heavy snow is not typical here, and a real worry for us. Must be the global warming?

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flinthill's Artisan

Sunny California has been around 32-52 degrees (morning/day) for the last few days. We do get cooler weather here, but nothing like ice storms.

Glad to hear the electricity is back on! Now you can turn on the heat.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Glad to hear you back among the warm as toast. Inside the house.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Hmmm…cooked food again will sure taste better….Welcome back Mark.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com