Storm Preparedness: Securing Outside Your Home

There’s a powerful storm coming your way.  You’ve got some major securing to do.  The inside of your home has already been secured, including supplies, food and water.  Now you’ve got to secure the outside of your home.  We’ll go from most important to least important. 

 

Consider the largest items outside.  These are the ones with no cover at all.  Cars , boats, ATVs, lawn and toy furniture—so many things.  Move all vehicles, including all items of similar size, to at least 30 feet from the house.  Put your vehicles in gear and engage the hand break.  Boats should have their biminis or sails taken down and loose items on deck taken below.  ATVs, outside appliances and yard maintenance machines should be tied down.  Uh-huh.  You  heard right.  Find a lot of rope.  This includes lawn furniture and large toy contraptions.  Get a sharp knife to quickly cut the lengths you need.  Tie these things together, when possible, and then tie them to the house.  Sounds freaky.  But you’ve got to if it’s a very strong storm.  Make sure there’s no give on the rope for everything you tie down.  And let me tell you, I didn’t know how to tie strong knots until this.  You’ve gotta learn what you’ve gotta learn.  Make it happen.

 

Some tips here.  If it’s a very severe storm, leave the littlest crack on one window of each of your vehicles.  Check again and ensure that all motorized vehicles, including ATVs, are left in gear and their breaks engaged.  Plug the drain for your boat and fill it to halfway with water.  Do the same for other large items that are also able to hold water.  This will keep their “feet” on the ground and prevent them from being rolled over.  Tables should be turned upside down and chairs piled on top of them.  What you’re doing is creating bulk and weight wherever you can.  This will help to keep them on the ground.

 

All things hanging have got to be taken down.  Plants in pots, decorations, art or anything that is not already secured to an immobile structure.  This includes canopies and tarps.  Any and all loose items you may have straggling around.  Smaller toys, all types of gear, tools, especially the sharp ones.  Barbeque grills, whatever.  If you can move it, so can the storm.   Piles of wood left where they are?  Piles of anything that can become airborne need your attention.  You so don’t want flying projectiles.  Secure them all and then, only then can you relax.  But, wait!  The garden! 

 

Most amateur horticulturalists will surely consider their gardens to be more important than anything else outside the house.  But, honestly, when it comes to danger, a hard “anything” will hurt more than a flying plant (well, probably not a cactus).  If the plant is in a pot that stands higher than two feet, lay it on the ground on its side.  If the plants are on stilts or on pedestals, take them down.  Put all of these close together. 

 

Drape some sort of netting over them.  Nets allow wind to pass through them but will also hold whatever’s under them fairly in place.  Tuna nets are a personal favorite.  Sections can be cut out of a roll to accommodate every plot of garden that you’ve got.  Try it.  If you don’t secure them, you’ll have to bring them indoors.  Otherwise, they may be gone when it’s all over.  You’ll have to decide what you’re willing to let go.

 

Keep in mind that the trimming of large trees takes some consideration.  If you’ve got large trees around your home, and you love your trees, you’ve got to trim them down.  At the very least, remove dead and dying branches.  Then immediately get them off the property.  These are large flying projectiles waiting to happen.  Don’t risk it.

 

In the midst of a strong storm, when it’s bedlam outside, you really don’t want to have to go out there to tie down something you hear being bashed around and breaking into things.  Plan ahead.  Give yourself time to do these things before the storm arrives. 

 

It’s kind of funny when you think about the whole thing.  In the process of securing outside your home, you’re actually cleaning up all around the house.  Think about it.  You’re removing everything that can fly that isn’t necessary for your livelihood.  Whatever’s been in queue for months will likely get tossed.  All the things lying around will disappear.  It’s nearly immaculate. 

 

Now you could choose not to remove or secure all of these loose items.  You could.  Just keep in mind that the storm will probably disperse it all for you, whether you like it or not.  Many things that are unsecured you’ll likely never see again.  When you do a good job and secure well, you’ll be secure and without concern the entire time.  That’s the best and safest way to endure a storm.  Worry free

 

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Len Q. is a master blade sharpener and an adventurer who strives to protect the natural world.  If you would like to learn about

 

            ▪  Knife Sharpening:  How to Sharpen Knives, Maintain and Store Them

            ▪  Sharpening Other Edges (Maintain and Store Them)

               (e.g. Chain Saws, Lawn Mower Blades, Gardening Tools, Axes)

            ▪  The Fastest Way to Sharpen, Tests for Sharpness and Much more

 

Find it here at www.MakeKnivesSharp.com. 

Storm Preparedness: Tree Trimming

You’ve been warned that a storm is coming.  Standing outside your home, looking over your place, you realize that you’ve got to do something about those beautifully large trees.  If you just let them be, you could lose them.  They may even damage something on your property or something else nearby.  You’ve got some serious work to do.

 

What this means is that you’ve got to make some time to prepare your yard for the coming storm in order to prevent possible damage.  Hopefully, you won’t need more than 2 hours.  You’ve just got to ensure that you don’t have to worry should things get bad.  And be sure to do this only after you’ve properly and completely secured in and around your home, after you’ve stocked up on the supplies you’ll need.  It’s only after all that that your attention should be given over to securing for your yard.

 

Alright.  You’re securing your landscape for a storm with sustained winds of at least 40 miles an hour.  Over a short time, really terrible damage could be done to your trees.  The nature of a storm with an eye is for the target to endure a pummeling by winds from one direction for the first half, as the storm approaches to meet you.  Now, as you’re enduring the second half when the storm is moving away, the winds have shifted 180 degrees so that they are now coming from the opposite direction.  That’s a lot of stress on trees and their root systems.  First this way, then that way—for many hours, if not days.  I’ve seen 10 foot trees, and taller, snap back and forth to the ground, back and forth without stopping.  Very freaky and more than a little scary.

 

Trees at highest risk of damage by winds this strong usually have a large spreading crown that is at least 15 feet off the ground.  A tree, or a branch, could be leaning just a bit too much one way and sure poses a hazard of becoming snapped or broken loose.  A tree could have injured or damaged branches or trunks, a weakened structure somewhere that just needs a little push to finally fall to the ground.  Profuse growth of mushrooms or other fungi at the base of trees or in the ground around them are specific indicators of vegetative decomposition.  Keep a sharp eye.  Could be that the root system is failing.  This could mean that the entire tree could easily topple. 

 

You’ll need to make a judgment whether each tree is strong enough to take it, or if it’s likely unable to make it.  Decide if you’re willing to risk it coming loose and becoming a flying projectile.  And flying projectiles you must avoid.  You’ve got to take down any branch, or tree, that you know is weak enough, or may be weak enough, to break off, be ripped or torn off, or even uprooted entirely.         

 

Take a measure of every tree in your yard to within 200 feet from the house.  Medium to large trees with a full spreading crown need to be thinned down.  This means that you lesson the amount of vegetation up there.  Remove all the branches that make up the perimeter of the crown, along with shorter, heavy ones that you think may break or become airborne.  You could even reduce the crown from the top by a few feet.  If the crown is really thick and full of leaves, you’ll want to trim off branches everywhere.  If you’re really worried, remove a good 50% of all foliage.  I like to reduce it to only 30% of the whole.  This would depend upon each tree and how healthy and strong it is. 

 

Really large diameter trunks or branches can be taken down with a chain saw or an axe.  And I really, really wish that you know exactly what you’re doing and that you’re doing it safely.  If you’ve got to climb, you’d better know how to climb.  Otherwise, honestly, don’t do it.  A ladder is highly, highly recommended.  Smaller trees, even large hedges, can also be trimmed, if you feel it necessary.  Other tools that you can readily use are hedge shears or pole saws.  Now don’t get sidetracked and start pruning just to make your place look good.  A storm is coming!  Focus!

 

You’ve got to consider power lines now.  Look at the location of any power lines that pass over or beside your property.  Are their branches or trunks that, if they snap and fall, are able to touch or even brush against any power lines?  Never forget that a snapped power line or a downed power pole could result in a loss of power, electricity.  This will then result in loss of power to water wells and water pump stations.  And now you have no water.  Believe me, you don’t want to go there.  Trim it down. 

 

You should also consider branches or trunks near the house, near other buildings in your yard, near cars, boats or other large contraptions.  If the storm is strong enough, don’t take chances.  They’ll grow back with time.  You know it. 

 

What you don’t want is to be sorry that you couldn’t just cut that branch.  You wouldn’t just trim that tree.  If you had, your car wouldn’t need a new windshield.  Your bedroom wouldn’t have that large branch in it.  Really give each tree the consideration your home deserves.  Don’t take chances.  Be safe.

 

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Len Q. is a master blade sharpener and an adventurer who strives to protect the natural world.  If you would like to learn about

 

            ▪  Knife Sharpening:  How to Sharpen Knives, Maintain and Store Them

            ▪  Sharpening Other Edges (Maintain and Store Them)

               (e.g. Chain Saws, Lawn Mower Blades, Gardening Tools, Axes)

            ▪  The Fastest Way to Sharpen, Tests for Sharpness and Much more

 

Find it here at www.MakeKnivesSharp.com.