We've already had some pretty good rains, and my new neighbors thought I was a nut out there poking around with my cane checking my gutters and cutting back my trees. Yup, right up to the night they had what looked like Niagara Falls crashing down past their sliding glass doors. It was pretty spectacular to see. About 65 feet of gutter along the entire back of their house, completely overwhelmed by the downpour. Quality ladders are worth every penny when you really need to get onto the roof to patch a leak right now. I have one traditional aluminum extension ladder, and it's very light, but it lacks all the stability and adaptability of the Little Giant combination ladders. Being older and injured, I have no fear of climbing these stable ladders. Walmart has a cheaper version. I saw the neighbor in his yard trying to fit the pieces back together when they'd pulled apart. You really do get what you pay for with ladders. My weekend project is to dig a narrow ditch and lay some perforated pipe to help drain some areas of standing water that accumulate after heavy rains. They stay wet just long enough for mosquitoes to breed in them, so they have to go. Are you ready?
Giving it a crank here, Waiting on a Ventura for the Honda 3500 It ain't much of a generator but its a Honda and good enough for a frig, freezer, small ac.
AlaskaChick had a little Fire Issue, two days before my Brother and I traveled out here to our Alaska. Bush Home… Somehow she burnt down the PowerHouse, to the ground, in a total loss, including all the Gensets, Air Compressor, Trace SW4024 and SW5500 Inverters, plus all the Electrical spare Parts and storage items.. So we brought a New Honda 3000i Inverter Genset, along with 500’ of Direct Burial 10/2 wire, and a new Master Breaker Box, to get power back to the place.. She also burned up the 1/2 HP Creek Pump, with success, putting OUT the impending Forest Fire… All the neighbors came, and spent about 5 hours, drowning. all the Hot Spots with Creek Water, to be sure of no after action FlareUps… We brought a replacement Creek Pump, and got it installed as well… My Brother is just finishing up the last of the Replacement Electrical Connections to the Out-Buildings this afternoon… The Long and Short of it, Our God watched out for her, and gave us the required Inspiration to put the place back on a Turn-Key Operation… That Honda Inverter Genset is a wonder, on ECO-Mode… We only burnt 5 USG in the last three days, where before, it would have been closer to 15USG… and Quiet, the deer are coming with their little ones, even when the Genset is running…Totally amazed… Life is getting back to normal, out here now, Thank the Maker, many times over…
Wow ,,, sorry to hear about all that . So happy to hear it wasn't any worse than it was ,, and happy to hear Alaska Chic is doing well also .
Dang BT, that's not good, the important thing is, Alaska Chick didn't get hurt, or anyone else, everything else can be fixed or replaced!
Well she is doing OK, but feels responsible for the loss, and all I can do is try and mitigate the damage… We got the Water System rebuilt, and just finished getting the Power System, finished and tested.. So now it is fully functional, and powering all the buildings …
My hurricane prep was to move to new Mexico in 2010. But this is a solar maximum ramp up year and with heat built up in the oceans from nearly 3 years of little to no sun spots as solar storms help whip up tropical thunderstorms and tropical depressions into cyclones. It should be a busy year.
We had a little practice with flooding this morning. Washing machine decided it would overflow. I did a little creative plumbing since I couldn't shut off the 35 year old hot water valve at the washing machine. Broke out the shop vac and three big floor drying fans and had it drying up pretty fast. It was a good thing that the valve at the hot water heater would turn off all the hot water to the house until I could get the washer valve bypassed and isolated. I'll have to put some heat on the valve to get it moving, but it sits in a plastic enclosure, so I'll see if some penetrating oil and by BIG electric soldering iron will get it moving. Now I need to find a new washing machine. I've been limping this one along for 20 years. It's time for a new one. Good hurricane flooding practice. We've had enough experience with that, but it was good practice.
@hot diggity You are better off repairing your old washer, than buying a new one, with all the imbedded computer controller stuff…
Hope so. We need the rain over here in Arizona. NWS is predicting a more active than normal monsoon, and it arrived about two weeks earlier than usual, although so far we still haven't seen a lot of rain. Sometimes it take awhile to get going. Somehow I ended up with three generators. My Propane / gasoline Dual / Fuel stopped outputting power a couple weeks ago. Tracked it down to a failed AVR module. Found one on-line and replaced it - Bingo working again, don't know for how long. Ordered a spare.
You shouldn't have a problem finding a used one somewhere,,, but if ya can't find one ,, let me know ,, I've got 3 of'em ,, gonna switch out the one I've been using the last 5+ years with one of the others and get rid of the others . The other 2 I have are in great shape, and have the matching dryer with them . I'll make ya a great deal on them .
Might sound odd but I pay close attention to the hurricanes that take the gulf route. More often than not we get out worst storms of the year from the remains of the Gulf hurricanes that spin up into Southern IL. LOL always amazes me how dense the seagull population gets here during hurricane season!
I don't know BT, putting up with you all these decades AlaskaChick should be allowed to burn stuff down now and then. Glad she and everyone else is OK.
Very sorry for your fire incident BT. I'm sure that living in a remote area causes your daily routines to be standardized with an eye toward preventing such things. I'm guessing Alaska Chick has shaken her head and ground teeth on the circumstances that caused things to light up. Whatever those were, I know you all have done a root cause analysis to the point where it won't happen again. There's always some factors that are on the machinery, material, mechanical, electrical side of the ledger. Then there are other factors that land on the human side of the ledger in terms of procedures or processes omitted or committed. Can't cry over "spilt milk", but be thankful everyone is safe and for the neighborly help received.
@BTPost sorry for the loss, but if something is learned it's not all bad, and "things" can be replaced. We only get the remnants of 'cains here, but sometimes they can be just as bad with the tornados and excessive rain and wind. I did my annual pruning of the trees earlier and mother nature helped some by having an ice storm in Feb. Refreshed our emergency water supply recently, still have plans to get an emergency pump on the well.
