What is a Gewgaw? - What a Wonderful Word!

A gewgaw is a flashy thing of little value.

You've no doubt got gewgaws in your home. Some you may treasure but other family members or friends think they belong in a dumpster. This just might happen once they clean out your house after you've been sent back to Heaven, so you better make sure important things are saved.

One thing's for certain. If you have a few gewgaws, you undoubtedly have some bibelots too!

Here's something I consider a gewgaw, but it's normally in a box. I have instructions inside for it to NOT be thrown away so it can be passed down through my family.

CLICK or TAP HERE to add to your collection of gewgaws!

Look below the photos for what Holly has to say. And don't miss Doug's pithy suggestion. What's that one Commandment about? Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbors' Stuff - or something like that.

Here are a few of my gewgaws:

Holly Daley was moved by this page as you can see:

"Love, love, love it, Tim! What a great idea to start this New Year with thoughts of what items are of importance to you and make great memories to be shared with the family when you take the high stairs up to Heaven. I'm 78 now and have thought of items I want to have saved. You have given me the "GO DO IT" signal to make the list and let family members know about my Gewgaw's."

Doug wants my RR lantern:

"Surely you have friends that agree those things are treasures even though family members are blind to the value. Leave the goodies to them. Send me the railroad lantern and you don't need to wait until you are past your expiration date. Seize the day and mail it now."

If you like unique words, how about this one?

Do you live in a state of tohubohu?

Storm Preparation Checklist - Focus on Critical Things

I just spent the past four days digging out from Winter Storm Gail. While it appeared to millions to be just an ordinary winter snowstorm, she unleashed her full wrath on a narrow band of New Hampshire dumping up to 48 inches of snow in just twelve hours. Much of the water Gail gulped and slurped from Nantucket Sound she spewed on my roof, my driveway, and 8 frozen feet of it on my front porch. You can read all about my saga at Winter Storm Gail 2020 Central NH

I know, you might be dealing with 39 inches of sunlight today and you wear flip flops in January on the beach. Or maybe your typical winter is a light jacket and once every five years you get a dusting of snow. Perhaps you only see snow from a distance coating the tops of mountains near your home. But trust me, this column has your name written all over it. This column is going to save you agony as well as copious amounts of money. It may also save your life or that of a loved one.

Why is a Checklist Important?

I’m going to do my best to convince you in the limited space I have that it’s absolutely essential that you be prepared for the unexpected and that you become a disciple of self-sufficiency. You might be one of the tens of millions of homeowners I feel are fumbling around in the fog of complacency.

In a nutshell, all I really needed was two gallons of gasoline for my snowblowers. Fortunately, I purchased this invaluable liquid while Gail was getting her panties in a frumple 800 miles southeast of New Hampshire. But stop and think about you. What is that tool, product, or job you’ve been sweeping under the rug that you’ll wish you have when the you-know-what hits the fan?

Are People Becoming Weak?

I’ve seen a deeply disturbing trend develop over the past fifteen years, maybe twenty, and you might have been one sucked into this vortex of coddling and comfort. You may be a person that thinks nothing of calling 911 when something goes sideways. You may be one that thinks nothing of calling your contractor friend when you need this or that. What happens when ten, one hundred, or one thousand people call 911 or that contractor all at the same time?

What Should Be On the Checklist?

Stop. Think. What happens when that monster storm, or fire, or earthquake, or pandemic hits and you can’t get what you need? What are you going to do? Are you going to curl up in a ball quaking and crying on your bed? Or, are you going to be like some in your neighborhood who react and protect themselves and their property with the few simple tools and materials they need to survive until such time as things get back to relative normal.

What About Water?

Here’s an example. When I was a small lad, I used to help my mom rinse and fill empty white Clorox bottles with clean water. This was decades before bottled water was sold in stores. We had about fifteen of them stored on our basement floor. It became a running joke and my mother endured all sorts of trolling about these bottles of water until that cold winter day when the water main outside our house broke and we had no water. That fifteen gallons of water saved the day. God bless my Mom!

Do you own a simple and affordable pipe wrench? Do you know how to turn off the valve at your gas meter? Do you even know where your gas meter is? Do you know what the shutoff valve looks like?

The same is true for your water shutoff valve. Do you know how to prevent your home from being flooded with thousands of gallons of water should a pipe burst?

Do you have the skills, tools, and materials on hand, even a simple fiberglass tarp, to make emergency roof or window repairs? Is there a person in your neighborhood that has these skills in case you don’t?

Do you charge your cell phone each night? Do you have storage batteries that will allow you to charge your phone multiple times should you lose power for days?

Do you keep your car or truck gas tank filled all the time allowing you to travel 300+ miles non-stop? What happens if you need to evacuate and the gas stations are clogged with frantic people and the station runs out of gas because the tanker trucks can’t refill the station?

The list of simple tools you need to survive and help yourself is not that big. The skills you need to survive are not insurmountable. There are hundreds of YouTube videos you can watch now before your cable line is taken down by a tree limb.

What Skills Do Neighbors Have?

Now is the time to have a simple neighborhood meeting to see who has what skills. One of my neighbors is an ER doctor. Do you have a doctor that lives near you? Make an inventory of who has what tools and who can do what.

Remember, when disaster strikes you and your house are the LEAST IMPORTANT things in your community. Your first responders will be busy saving community assets, not your house that no one but you cares about. This is the paramount reason why you need to learn to help yourself. It’s that simple.

In Tim's October 5, 2016 Newsletter, September 11, 2018 Newsletter and his August 30, 2019 Newsletter, he offers advise for an approaching hurricane. You need to be prepared for whatever Mother Nature throws your way.

Column 1385

Winter Storm Gail 2020 - Historic Deep Snow in Meredith New Hampshire

Mother Nature was starting to brew Winter Storm Gail in her atmospheric cauldron above the USA a week before December 17, 2020. While the center of energy was still thousands of miles away from my home as Bernie Rayno shows in the following video, I knew it was time to pay attention and get prepared. Here in central New Hampshire where I call home, I've come to discover you need to really take care of early season snow because months more of it is in store.

Bernie Rayno, the chief video meteorologist at Accuweather.com, predicted last weekend it was going to be a big Nor’easter, but even his estimates for snow depth were off. The National Weather Service (NWS) also got it wrong in their Winter Storm Warning. I thought maybe we’d get 8 inches based on past NWS predictions. Gail, unbeknownst to all of us, had decided she was in a record-breaking mood. The narrow band of central NH where I live received record-breaking snow.

One of Bernie’s famous sayings is, “Never trust an upper-level low.” You got that right. They can be liars and the Devil is their father. This one made its dad proud!

Getting Ready

I did some outdoor work on my main ham radio antenna on Monday as I knew the storm was coming. Winter storm warnings in New Hampshire are as common as jet skis on Lake Winnipesaukee on a warm summer day. I wasn’t overly concerned at that time.

By Wednesday, the predictions were starting to make me feel uneasy. I had all three of my snowblowers gassed up to the brim, but my gas can was empty. I was thinking, “No problem. I’ll get gas this weekend.”

But something inside me, a sixth sense, whispered in my ear to not wait. “Go to town and get fresh gasoline stabilizer and high-octane gas.” NOTE TO SELF: Always listen to that inner voice and do what it says. It's important to realize you always combine trips when going to town. I keep a list of errands that need to be run and do all of them when visiting town.

Off I went, first stopping to get a fresh bottle of gasoline stabilizer. Next up was the Irving station where I topped off my truck gas tank and filled my 2.5-gallon gas can with 91-octane gasoline. My third stop was at Aubuchon Hardware for 100 pounds of rock salt and finally, I popped into the Meredith, NH Hannaford to get three bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips so more Christmas cookies could be made. If you’re going to be snowed in, you need provisions.

It’s a great idea to use high-octane gasoline in small engines. Most owner’s manuals call for it. I've got other great small engine tips, especially if you want your machines to start on FIRST PULL as all mine do.

A Dusting at Zero Dark 2:30 AM

I got up for a nature break at 2:30 AM Eastern Time early on Thursday morning December 17, 2020. There’s a french door next to my bed that leads out to a giant deck that overlooks Lake Winnisquam. Looking through the glass I could see there was a fine dusting on the deck. At dawn I wasn't going to be greeted with a glorious sunrise, that's for sure.

The storm was at my doorstep and the maw was rapidly approaching. I drifted back to sleep, waking up about 6 AM. It was pitch black, but I could see we already had at least a foot of snow.

In that sleepy state, I mumbled softly, “What the heck? We’re already past 8 inches and it’s just starting.”

As the slumber drag wore off, I became increasingly concerned because I knew the center of the storm was still off to the south and southwest of me. 

Typically the northwest quadrant of these Nor’easters gets the heaviest precipitation. Central New Hampshire was in the center of this bullseye as the storm clawed its way northeast. Under the cover of darkness, Gail was gulping and slurping up moisture from the shallow Nantucket Sound off Martha's Vineyard. 

I went up to my man cave and checked to see what the current weather surface map showed. RUH ROH. That yellow band in the green is heavy snow and it was marching east right at me.

As the sun came up over the storm clouds, the steel-gray light revealed the snow coming down fast and furious. At 8 AM I went outside to check the depth and it was already 17 inches. I recorded a video at this time. CLICK or TAP HERE to see that video, as well as others. You’ll also be able to view all the photos I shot of this historic snowstorm.

Buckets and Buckets of Frozen Flakes

I put down a green 5-gallon bucket as a depth marker just outside the garage door and took a photo. I felt it would contrast well with the white frozen flakes. Look closely at my truck in the background in the pictures. Note how you can still see it for the most part. That was to quickly change.

Already this storm had delivered more snow than any other storm I’ve experienced in the thirteen years I’ve been here. As each minute passed, I began to get more anxious. I knew hours of falling snow were ahead and it was accumulating fast. As it would turn out, the average rate of accumulation for the storm was over 3 inches of snow per hour.

My Slick DaVinci Roofscapes™ Roof

Five years ago, I installed a gorgeous long-lasting synthetic slate Davinci Roofscapes™ roof. Everyone that sees it thinks it’s real slate. Watch the video below and decide for yourself.

Davinci told me that I’d never have to rake the roof because the snow would slide right off. Snow does slide off and when it happens, it sounds like elephants are rolling down the roof. You can’t imagine the total weight of snow on a roof. The weight of snow and ice on a roof can be enormous. You're talking thousands of pounds.

The snow gives no warning when it loses its cage fight with gravity. Three years ago I was one second away from getting buried on my front walk under four feet of snow when it let loose.

I was trying to clear the front walk and knew I was in the danger zone. Being hyper-aware, the instant I heard the snow start to slide, I jumped to relative safety. Even still I got buried up to my waist.

Back to the snowstorm. With the amount of snow accumulating, I knew I had to take care of the deck.   I have a deck that runs the entire length of the rear of my home. It’s 65 feet long and 10-feet wide.

I didn’t build the deck but I tried to reinforce it when I installed my Trex Transcend four years ago. Here’s the issue. In New Hampshire, you can get 60-70 inches of snow in a season on average. It can turn to ice and compact. Any snow coming off the roof increases the total amount. This means you must get each snowfall off the deck as soon as possible. If the snow turns to ice, the blower can't deal with it and you have to heft it off the deck one shovelful at a time.

I know for a fact that this deck would collapse under the weight of eight feet of snow. The builder who built this house probably didn’t think it through or he didn’t care if the deck collapsed. Back in the winter of 2006-07, there were about 12 total feet of snow here in NH. Roof and deck collapses were commonplace that season.

I have a dedicated snowblower on the rear deck that stays out there all winter long for the sole purpose of blowing snow the instant a storm is over.

I got out on the deck shortly after 8 AM to start blowing it. All the while I was trying to focus on the possibility of jumping towards the house if an avalanche came off the roof.

I got the deck blown before that happened but at 9:30 AM a massive avalanche came down. In seconds there were 42 inches of snow on the smooth Trex Transcend decking. And not all the snow had come off the roof!

Here’s the snowblower doing its best to get rid of the avalanche.

Remember, I had already blown 17 inches off the deck. The top of the discharge chute for most snowblowers is about 36 inches off the ground. BIG GULP.

The Toro Power TRX™ HD Blower

As I worked on the deck, I knew I had to start to clear the drive which has a steep grade to deal with. Past experience with a decade of NH snow has taught me that a traditional snowblower with wheels would not make it up the drive with snow like this. 

Fortunately, about two months ago, I got a new Toro Power TRX™ HD Snowblower with tracks like a bulldozer instead of wheels. I’ve affectionately named this new snowblower Mary Anne because of a character in one of my favorite childhood books.

The Toro Power TRX™ HD saved the day! I was able to make a pass up the center of the driveway. It was now just after 9 AM and the snow was 20 inches deep with no sign of slowing down. When would it stop? How much would we get?

I texted my neighbor telling him it was much worse than he might expect. He and I share the top part of the driveway and we have a gentlemen’s agreement to pitch in together to keep it clear. We both normally wait until the storm is over so we don’t have to blow the drive twice.

But this storm was different. If we didn’t act to clear the drive now, we might not get it done - or it would take far greater effort.

Steep Drives Can Be Tough

He’s got a steep drive too and I knew he’d never get up his hill using his traditional blower with wheels. It’s easy for a blower to cut a path going down a hill. But going up a steep drive is a horse of a different color.

Once you have a path cut through the snow, you can take partial bites out of the fresh snow going back up the hill or you can go up the path you just cut and have no resistance. It’s all about resistance and you’ll have some while the blower is gobbling up snow and blowing it out the chute like smoke from a speeding locomotive

I figured I’d have to cut two paths down to his garage to help him. By this time the snow was 24 inches deep and it was still dumping out of the sky with no end in sight.

Zero to Eight in Sixty

It took me about twenty minutes to blow the entire length of my driveway and the shared top portion during the height of the raging storm. I made about seven passes up and down the drive.

As I was working, my glasses were getting fogged up and covered with ice crystals from the wind blowing the snow. Once I was finished, the first pass I had made already had 4 new inches of snow on it! Holy Tomato!

Within an hour, there were eight more inches on the drive and it was still snowing. Fifteen inches more would fall before Mother Nature felt she had thrashed us enough.

And So It Ends

By about 2:30 PM, the storm was racing to the northeast over the Canadian Maritimes. It was still snowing here, but the worst was over. I’m sure Prince Edward Island (PEI) was punished too. PEI gets epic snow like you might order ice cream on a hot summer's day.

Snow started to tumble off the house roof and by 3 PM, there were over eight feet on my front porch. You're looking through my kitchen window to the front porch in this photo. My front door is to the right of the snow.

The front walk had 4 feet of snow on it and the garage roof across from the kitchen window had yet to let go. It’s a lower-pitched roof than the main house and the snow takes a while to give up its tug a war.

I got out my tape measure and was astonished to see it read 37.5 inches. It snowed lightly for another 90 minutes and I ended up with 39 inches at my house.

Never in my life had I seen so much snow accumulate in such a short time. I can tell you as the morning wore on I was so happy I had gone out to get the extra 2.5 gallons of gasoline. There was no doubt I’d need that much to do all the cleanup that remained.

The moral of this story for you is to always do your best to be prepared. Stop depending so much on others. Try to become more self-sufficient. Don’t expect someone else to take care of your personal problems, your snow, your out-of-gas blowers, or whatever it might be.

When a major storm like this hits, everyone is affected. You’re going to be on your own. Your kindergarten teacher is not going to be coddling you doling out fruit roll-ups and juice boxes. It’s going to be your responsibility to get food and treats. Oh, and don’t forget the chocolate chips!

(C) PEANUTS © Peanuts Worldwide LLC. Dist. By ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.