Tropical Storm Noel

Hi,
Looks like Noel is heading this way. Everything's been put away that could blow away and we have our store of candles and water. (memories of a 7 day power outage from Juan in 03) The wind is just starting up now. How are those of you on the US east coast doing?

Yeah, guess were going to get some pretty good winds. Outside stuff is done. Looks like a good afternoon/ evening to relax, read, watch a movie, start putting a seed order together. Dogs will be bored and prob blast around the House at some point. Cats go up high and just watch, like a NASCAR race. The Shepard tries to make the same turns as the Border Collie but usually has a couple of good crashes. Hope everyone does OK. Later, kdcon

It is starting to blow a steady 25 to 30 but with some much higher gusts (50's). The barograph is at 29.5 and it is a mild 52 with steady rain( expecting 4 to 6") . The expected worse point will come at nearly high tide so there will be flooding. All the boats are cancelled. My DH pulled our small sail boat, but left his work boat in with extra lines.

I had not brought in all the potted plants yet, so yesterday I spent 10 hours hauling them into the greenhouse. I usually do this job in mid Oct over a couple of days with DH help, but this mild winter had caused me to delay the job until this storm forced me to jump to it. My DH came home about half way through the job so we got it done. We dealt with all the yard furniture and anything that else that could take flight. I filled water pots and the tub and brought in wood as I expect we will loose power. We have candles and flashlights ready. I was sound asleep by 9:00. The dogs don't even want to be outside today. DH has been into town this morning to check on the boat which is riding fine and then he picked up fresh donuts so I am snuggling up with the dogs in front of the wood stove all fat and happy. I think Maine and NS could be worse. Take care, be safe. Patti

bbrookrd, I hope all is well with your DH's work boat. We haven't lost power here yet in Yarmouthport--it's only a matter of time in this wind and heavy rain (supposed to get 3-5 inches) -- but the trees are REALLY tossing in the 40 mph sustained wind, with gusts up to 50. Barometer is falling at 29.43. The house is creaking and we're supposed to get winds up to 50 mph later this afternoon and night, with gusts in the 65-85 mph range. This is all pretty new to me, as a former Californian!
I occasionally hear muffled thumps--moved my potted plants into a sheltered location last night. I wouldn't be surprised to see my compost-bin lids flying across the yard about now.
Wow; it took you 10 hours to move your potted plants! You must have a LOT!
Fortunately, the wind is presently from the N and we don't have large trees close to the house on that side. . .
Hope everyone is OK!

We have had some very large gusts that were over 60. Our Webber took a tumble(twice) and it is tucked into a corner. We lost a large swamp red maple that blow down in one of the gust ,but that tree had died suddenly last spring and the tree guy was suppose to take it down last month. We can now do the job ourselves and save a mess of money. His loss.
It came down without damaging anything including the deer fence right next to it. Sweet. Power is still on.

We do have a lot of potted plants. I will post a picture tomorrow of our stuffed GH. I have been recuperating on the couch all day and just enjoying looking and voting on DG photo contest. Some great photographs on there to view.

I plan on working outside if the weather cooperates tomorrow on my new 40 foot pond-less stream that I purchased all the parts for at Country Gardens in Hyannis. The guys (Brian and James) in the pond dept there have been hugely helpful in answering all our questions. Though initially I got really great information from Songsofjoy and shihtzumom on DG who inspired me to start this massive project. There streams are beautiful.

oops, DH says a section of our new stacked wood pile is down as is a large branch on a big Ink-berry by our front door. Hope all is well with all the coastal New Englanders and our Maritime DGers. Patti

This message was edited Nov 4, 2007 8:40 AM

We did fine. No problems at all and barely an inch of rain. Even the dahlias are standing up and in full bloom...but that's only until we get the first frost, due Thursday.

I hope everyone stays safe....I am thinking of you all.

Well, Noel has passed and we feel very lucky: although a big pine tree came down right in front last night (65 mph gust), it didn't hit the house, didn't hit my beloved Fernleaf Full Moon Japanese Maple, and didn't take out the retaining wall. Just made an almighty THUMP! (The photo is taken from our front door steps.)
We got 3.5 inches of rain. Between that and the wind, the dahlias took a real beating, but they were slated for digging up this week, anyhow.
Now I just have to go find where my compost-bin lids flew off to. Somewhere in the ravine behind our house.
I hope other folks didn't have any bad damage.

Glad to hear everyone did okay.

Noel is still raging here in Cape Breton.........we didn't get as much rain as predicted but the south westerly winds are still gusting up to 100. We managed to batten down the hatches and make sure all our outdoor ornaments/furniture/pots/compost bins were all put away. The power flickered a few times but we still have it. Nice day to cozy up with a few good movies in front of the fire place. There are huge branches down in the yard but they did not do any damage.......11 meter waves are predicted here, there are still a lot of fishing boats in the water. Hope they stay safe.
Anyone here from New Brunswick which I believe was going to get hit the hardest.
Hope everyone is safe

Wow - that's scary at those speeds. Good luck and let us know how you did when it's over!

Noel was a minor storm here. We had some good wind gust, sheets of rain, and most of the leaves are now off the tree's. Some parts of Maine lost power and tree's were down, but this was a very minor Nor'Easter as Nor' Easter's go. Northern parts of Maine ended up with 5-10" of snow, I am thankful it was up North!

Kdcon, did you lose power? I was watching the news and it said that alot of the Alfred area was without power. If I remember correctly you have a generator, so you weren't completely in the dark were you? They come in very handy don't they!!

Glad to know that tree missed your JM and your house, Emily.

bluecow - as Victor said, please let us know how things are today.

pixie - I'd say it was just a noisy storm more than anything else, here.

Yep. Just noise and a bit of leaf re-arranging here.
I hope everyone else did OK.
Sorry to hear about your tree, Emily.

It was very windy during the night. Lots of small branches down on the roads, but no major damage I've seen, although I hear part of a hospital roof was blown off across the harbour. No power since 5 am, and we cooked lunch with a camp stove, but now the electricity is back on, the sun is out and it looks like a lovely day. A few of my taller plant supports are not so upright and it blew over one kale plant , so overall we seem to have come through unscathed. Best wishes to anyone in New brunswick or Newfoundland who is still in the storm

CapeCodGardener, That was a nice looking pine that came down. Glad it spared your house. My dahlia's final hollered "uncle" too. They will get dug in a few days.

We have three cedars that need to be pulled back up and staked. DH cut the swamp maple down. I hauled downed branches most of the morning. Then did some rock work on the stream. But getting the mess cleaned up seemed to be the first priority or I would probably end up leaving it until spring. We lost power for only an hour between 8:30 and 9:30 last night, but the storm was done by then, so I think they were fixing other areas on the Island and shut us off to power them back up. Bluecow and all, I hope you and the rest of the DGer's in the Maritimes fair well too.

I stopped early today as I can feel my back being not happy with me.
Here are some of our tree damage. Not much really. Best to all. Patti

Wow, Patti, that looks like some tree damage to me! Glad that you were able to pull the cedars back up and stake them. Sounds like you did a LOT of physical work today. I recommend a hot bath for those back muscles.

Pixie, we never lost power on our road. As you said not a real big deal here either. Yeah leaves are pretty much gone, colder and gray skies, looks like November. Later, kdcon

PS - great foliage pics you posted, was a great fall for color this year.

I saw some film clips on the national news last night that showed some of NOEL'S power. We were fine here, but so many others in NE were not so lucky.

Well we faired through Noel with no problems.....just a few downed branches. We did not loose power but areas of our town & neighboring towns are still without power. We took some great pixs of the waves, will post one later.
I thought for sure all the leaves would be down but there are still quite a few trees that not only still have their leaves but those leaves are still green. We still have not had any frost. Cleaning up yesterday it killed me to compost geraniums, impatients and the like that were still in bloom. Today I hope to spend the day getting over 200 assorted bulbs in the ground. Great weather for working outdoors. High of 10 C expected for today.
Glad to hear everyone in DGs fared well

Good to hear!

Hey how can you hear on here?

Could be working up to a good old caucophany ! Had to turn down the volume of the puter speakers.
:) kdcon

Thanks for letting us know, bluecow. I had heard that NS took things pretty hard from NOEL, so it's good that you are OK.

Welcome to the Forum (I think!) I don't believe that I've seen you post before.

Thank you for the welcome Candyce. I have posted a few times but maybe not in this forum.....mostly lurk. I am fairly new to DG. I joined this summer. I am rather new to gardening but love it with a passion. I never realized though that it is highly addictive.

Schickenlady.........you would be surprised what I hear on here LOL

Worse than Oxycontin, blue!!

We are both new members, then, blue. I've only been a member since the end of June, and I've had a fantastic time ever since!

I actually call myself a Freshman Gardener, as this is the first year we have taken gardening seriously enough to actually LEARN about the plants we are growing.