I'm in coastal Maine and I've been watching it all day, too. Looks like as of this afternoon the models are showing it tracking more easterly and lighter... lets keep our fingers crossed!

I actually came on here looking to see what folks are doing for hurricane prep in the veg garden. I'm right in the middle of a massive tomato harvest and I REALLY don't want to lose everything!

Yep I live in Bristol County MA.. near Swansea... so we spent the day sweating and prepping.
I am worried about my plant sale babies..the perennials that did not sell or were to small to sell this year that I was hoping to sell next yr. I have about 300 of them... i moved em to what I hope is a "safer" spot..
I'll tell ya Sat if it worked.

Everything else is stowed or tied and cleaned up heading out now to pick any veggies that are even remotely ripe.
Charging the cell phones,gameboys and laptop batteries,cars full of gas gill tanks full, ice and canned goodies all set and tequila... So

I hear ya, Stacey. When I was at the garden this A.M. I picked everything that was ripe or showing signs of ripe. That still left a lot of fruit left on the vine. I would have taken it all but I don't have room for it all in the kitchen. The cherry tomato plant is huge and heavy with green fruit, all of which I am sure will be lost. It's been a great year for all of our veggies, I just hate to see it end this way. Tomorrow, when we have a better picture of what Earl is going to do, you could always pick green tomatoes and let them ripen inside. It might take a while and there are several different way of doing that but it would be better than nothing.

It looks like coastal Maine is in the path. Is your cell phone charged?

Good luck.

sooey

Hi sooey!

I spent most of the afternoon bringing houseplants inside and clearing the porch and deck. My two galvanized trash cans AKA birdseed storage containers are tied to the porch railing. The very heavy teak steamer chair is tied up and shoved in a corner of the deck.

Yesterday I caulked the spot where the sliders leaked in the last nor'easter, zipped up the temporary greenhouse and made sure the weighted tarp was covering all the empty pots under the deck. I also filled all the 5 gallon buckets with water, hoping that would hold them down.

Tomorrow morning I'll feed the birds and bring in or stow the bird feeders when the wind gets too high. I'll probably also move the car farther away from the trees (no garage). I'm still mulling over whether to coil up the garden hoses or leave them stretched out. I'll also make a big pot of coffee for the refrigerator in case of a power outage.

I'm just north of the Cape Cod Canal so we've got a hurricane warning with possible hurricane force gusts. Not near what Brewster will probably get, but still very unwelcome.

Claire

Good grief, you all make me feel so last-minute! We just drove down from Boston this evening after dark, and have our long prep list which can't be done until Friday morning. I hope it all gets done in time: cleaning gutters, putting up plywood panels over all windows & glass doors facing the ocean, bringing in all outside furniture, putting my potted roses in the shed, sawing some branches off the nearest tree, storing water in anything I can find, and covering with a tarp the big pile of cow manure that was just delivered. Don't want THAT stuff picked up by hurricane winds. Talk about the $&^# hitting the fan!

Thanks for the coffee-making idea. If Earl's track ends up a bit further west, we may just get in the car and run for it. The shelter for this town is about 15 miles north of here, in the next town, actually.

I'm hoping that my potager fence will somehow save my tomatoes from the wind. --Naah. The winter squash will probably be OK, but if the wind picks up one of them, it could go through a window like a hand-grenade. --Hmm, maybe I could tie down each squash.

So this might be the end of the wonderful growing season we all have enjoyed this summer. Maybe we should all go out before the wind rises and take some photos to remember it by.

Carol

Hi Kids,

Today is the day! It has started out a bit gray but so far, very, very calm.

Claire! It sounds like you are ready and in control. I still have my bird feeders up and still have one small Wren house hanging on a tree just off of the deck. All of those will be brought in or at least stowed under the deck as the winds pick up. Then...nothing else to be done.

Carol...not to worry. That is quite a list of jobs you have to accomplish but, time is on your side. The good thing about that is...you'll be so tired after all that work, you may just sleep throught the Hurricane! Now that would be a very good thing!

It sounds like we are all as ready as we can be for Mr. H. Earl. In fact, we are all SO ready that I think it would be OK if we all went over to ontheteams house for this one...I hear she has Tequila!! Claire, you bring the limes...k?

sooey

I'm in MetroWest. So I really haven't done a thing to prepare. In fact, I'm debating right now whether to head out to the Spencer Fair later this morning. It seems like it won't start raining in Spencer until around 4.

My prediction: The noreaster a few weeks ago will seem like a bigger storm. I don't think there will be any real consequences from Earl, even down here where we have a hurricane warning on the south coast. We will just have a rainy breezy night I suspect. And the rain will be welcome after a full week of blazing sun and heat. So, our destiny continues. When will the next "big one" strike New England? I thought Earl had our number, but he is pooped. There is always next year!

Oops, sooey, I forgot the limes! I'll pick them up on the way to the party.

A few days ago I posted this on theCompost Limericks thread on the Soil, Compost and Mulch forum.

There's a hurricane coming named Earl,
that may give my compost a twirl.
Category 4, 2 or 3,
or a near miss it could be.
A PITA is H. Earl!

If there's a good side to this Earl scare, it forced me to declutter my porch and deck. Of course, most of that clutter is now in my house..... but I'll winnow it out when the stuff goes back out. Really, I will.

Claire

Sure, Claire...that has always worked so well in the past... ;)

sooey
who has some winnowing of her own to do...

Amazingly, we did all the chores on our pre-Earl list, and it's only noon. The humidity has been so high that the slightest activity (such as wielding the screwdriver to put up the storm panels over the sliders) resulted in being soakingly sweaty, clothing totally wet. Now we're sitting on the deck on the only 2 chairs left out, watching the big rolling waves comb in, and listening to the roar of the ocean.

None of the trailers in the park downhill of us have left. But a few of the houses on our street, the ones which like us face straight east to the water, have put up plywood over windows.

Lots of tomatoes to eat, since I picked all the ripe ones. Two acorn squashes for dinner. Lettuce, cucumbers, basil, nasturtium flowers for salad. Let the wind whip the remainders!

So we're all set. I even bought candles, just in case. Except: I have no matches!

Carol

As of 11:40 AM, the hurricane warning has been cancelled for here! A tropical storm warning is now in effect. Yee-Haw! Maybe they'll get it down to drizzle and mist forecast....

Claire

Carol...candles and no matches?...yikes! just as bad as coffee with no cream... Hopfully that will not be a issue for you. Congrats on getting all of your prep work finished. Dosen't that feel great? I got the last of my bird feeders in just before the rain started and I felt like I had accomplished a great deal of work.

Claire...I hope your wishfull thinking of drizzle and mist comes to pass. That would be wonderful! But...does that mean that we still have to do that winnow 'thing'?

sooey

sooey - there's been several bands of rain here but they stop, so I've left the bird feeders up for now. I did move one hummingbird feeder from the east side of the house to the west when the ENE winds began to pick up. It's very calm on the west side. They're talking peak winds between 8pm and 2am so I'll leave them up until early evening if possible.

I'll lay the birdbaths on their sides around then too.

Winnowing is inevitable - I can't justify throwing all that stuff willy-nilly back on the porch and deck (sigh).

Is it Saturday afternoon yet?

Claire

Claire...I was just going to ask if it was safe to put the feeders back up. As I sit here at my laptop I can see the birds are flitting about, looking for a snack. But,I also just checked the weather and it looks like we are still expecting some high, Hurricane type winds before this is all over with. Rats...I want that drizzle and mist!

sooey

sooey: You could throw some seed on the ground for the meantime, but the rain and wind is still coming. Dead calm here right now, but the weather map looks ugly.

From Weather Underground;

I'm hoping it holds off until almost dark and I'll take the feeders down then.

Claire

Yikes...that does look bad. All that yellow. Not well organized but boy, there is a lot of it. I guess drizzle and mist was too much to hope for.

sooey
who thinks it's already been a long day and is ready for some TEQUILA!

I took the feeders down around 5:30 pm and stuck them on or under various shrubs and roses. That way the birds can still feed in the morning and hopefully the feeders won't be blown away. There was a lot of chirping and tweeting (what is she doing???) but they seemed to follow the food OK.

I really wish these storms would come during the day time when I can see what's going on and maybe do something productive. I hate hearing the wind in the middle of the night and worrying (whine, whine).

Also, I've been following this hurricane since it was a mere wisp off the coast of Africa, and I'M SICK OF IT!

Tequila sounds good.

Claire

I'm sick of it also!

sooey
Please pass the limes...

Hope all is well with everyone on the Cape and the Islands! I am looking at the news and it doesn't look so bad in Chatham at this hour. I can see heavy rain there but not a lot of wind. The news person on Nantucket looks like she has more wind there now. I just went to the back door and checked. We have light rain and NO wind at all!!

I'll be happy if we just get a couple of inches of much needed rain. The town called on Friday to say we now have a water ban, after not having one all summer. I guess the lack of rain just caught up with them.

Hope everyone stays safe and dry!

We didn't get any rain here in central CT so I look at all my preparations as a 'dry run' for the rest of the month.. Kinda disappointing as I love the wind through the trees when big storms come through. But now it gives me the rest of the Holiday weekend to do some pruning of dead limbs, rake up the dead thyme and spread gobs of mulch over my circle of stone.....they say the heat wave is over, for now.

I truly hope all you costal people are safe and making your list for a good eat out!

Rockman called it: last storm bigger than this one. And no power outage, at least here. So now it's time to walk to the beach and watch the high waves roll in, and the surfers on them.

Carol

In Falmouth, we got 3 or 4 inches of rain but there wasn't much wind, at least from what I see in my neighborhood. I'd have to say that Earl was a no-show here.

We got our yard cleaned up over the past 2 or 3 days, all those little things left around that were meant to go into the garage "later" - so it was worth it.

Following ontheteam's suggestion, we also laid in a nice supply of tequila, so now we're ready for anything.

A couple of inches of rain and moderate winds here just north of the Cape Cod Canal. I've got about half of the outdoors stuff moved back out of the house, bird paraphernalia is in place, and, most important, my deck furniture is back out. Now I can have breakfast out on the deck!

I'll be happy if all the hurricanes fizzle like Earl did.

Claire

The day after Earl is perfect. The sun is out, the sky is blue and we have a very light, delightful breeze. Earl was not much more than a wind rain/wind event in Brewster, MA. No trees down, no limbs about, not even any tree litter left to pick up. The day after Earl and all is well. The rain started at about 8:30 last night, it was heavy at times but not what I would call Hurricane worthy. The heavy rain lasted the entire night but I have no idea how much we got. We will venture out later today to check the beaches and go to the veggie garden, but from where our house sits, in the middle of a Cape Cod wood lot of pine & Oak trees, it's looking good.

So, today will be spent getting everything out of the garage and back up onto the deck and patio, winnowing as needed ;). It will also be spent making some yummy peach pies and getting them into the freezer. They have been sitting on my dinning room table since Wednesday, waiting for Earl to do what ever he was going to do. Now that Earl is gone and, we did not lose power, it is safe to peel, slice, assemble and freeze. Yummm.

So that's it. Mr. H. Earl did not amount to anything at all on my part of Cape Cod and I am very happy about that. He brought us some needed rain and a little excitment but no damage that I can see. I hope all of you did as well.

sooey
lights didn't even flicker :)

So now we know what it is like when the center of a minimal hurricane (cat 1) or strong tropical storm misses the Cape by about 130 miles to the south (100 miles south of Nantucket). The rain without the big winds was welcome. So....our luck continues for now. But don't forget, one of these years, "pow, right in the kisser!" Hurricane of 1938? 1944? Carol? Edna? Bob? It will happen again, and it won't be pretty.

Just shows how uncertain weather forecasting still is. No wind and barely a sprinkle here, just north of Boston. And we so need the rain...More 90s in the forecast...can't stand it.

I just posted on another forum that I'm actually quite disappointed - I was hoping for some nice rain, which we did not get here. It sprinkled around noon here yesterday (not even really a drizzle!) for about three minutes, and then nada. I had to drag the hoses around for four hours this morning to try to resuscitate all my dying-from-lack-of-water plants.

I'm glad, though, that everyone on the coast seemed to make out okay. Some of the forecasts looked pretty scary for the coastal areas, so I'm happy that they did not really materialize.

I also have a garage full of "stuff" I brought in "temporarily" in case of high winds. No winnowing for me today - have to get ready to bring my son to college tomorrow. Things will probably not get winnowed until spring, lol!

:)
Dee

* Posted by rockman50 6b SEMASS (My Page) on
Fri, Sep 3, 10 at 10:28

My prediction: The noreaster a few weeks ago will seem like a bigger storm. I don't think there will be any real consequences from Earl, even down here where we have a hurricane warning on the south coast. We will just have a rainy breezy night I suspect. And the rain will be welcome after a full week of blazing sun and heat. So, our destiny continues. When will the next "big one" strike New England? I thought Earl had our number, but he is pooped. There is always next year!

Rockman you could make a FORTUNE as a CORRECT weather predictor and have saved my poor back HOURS of prep and my bank a count some $$ on batteries lol..
Oh well the Batteries will be here when they start squalking about snow squalls..