Slammr (imported) wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2012 3:20 pm Oregon and Washington have been cloudy and cool, generally in the lower 70s in the Portland - Seattle areas, both of which I've been to during the last few days. I'm from Portland and was in Seattle yesterday. Today, I'm a little west of there on the Hood Canal. It's cloudy and cool where I am today. We're having some sprinkles and had some yesterday in Seattle. We've had little summer weather this year. Sduyck_2000 is also from Oregon.

I'll gladly trade you Slammr, you take my desert and I'll gratefully accept your 70's and sprinkles.

MacW. You choose to live in the desert. . . Gotta expect . . .

Here a mile in, on a bluff with line of sight to the ocean, my concerns are

not being able to drain my pad fast enough during a cloud burst, and electricity inconveniences.

I installed 3 4" drain pipes and have not had to use my portable water pump.

I also installed a natural gas electricity generator that comes on once a week to prove it can

and comes on if the e'city is off for 30 seconds.

No rolling black outs or otherwise for me.

Do those people back East still have natural gas service? Often not much good w/o e'city.

I never made it much beyond Crescent City at the Oregon border.

I would love to see Portland although I like living by the ocean. Don't care for valley's much.

And I don't see much civilization along the ocean north of Eureka/Arcata.

Crescent City does not qualify as civilization although it is home to a Prison.

Low seventies with shoreline moisture returning. Should drop a few degrees.

I've had such bad luck with tomatoes, because I think I nurture them too much,

I planted two hairloom grafted beefsteak tomatoes ($15 each) in the front yard in an area of

lawn void of grass. Tough ground. I needed a pick to break it and a spade to make a trench.

Broken up it seems to be mostly sand. The plants were secured in a mixture of top soil (really compost) and the ground I removed. Cages have just been secured around them.

Radishes just produce seed pods and no radishes. Same problem with my lettuce and cilantro.

It does not want to leaf. Wants to make seeds immediately.

Spotted three baby avocados and one ripening one.

White onions are pushing themselves out of the ground. Will that make them bad?

And my berry patch continues to deliver 5-10 ripe black + boysenberries a day.

Soon I plan to plant some corn. Andy other crop suggestions for a suburban garden?

Oops, I thought I was on the Weather Tread.

No I am commiserating from the O.C. Advocating emergency preparedness as I have.

One aspect I have not participated is storing food and water.

Moi

110 here. We just got back a week ago from DC and VA. It was not bad the day we arrived, but then the heat came and I will take our 110. I don't even want to imagine there without electricity.

Working with some jokesters here has helped. They were trenching for placer and somebody came up and asked what they were doing. They said they were putting in footings for the newest, biggest Walmart in the state. The next day the town was abuzz with rumors of a new Walmart in the failed 60's Arizona reale state scam now called Tweakerville. Then another day, another local asking what they were doing. This time they said that they were putting in a Hooter's. Except there are no young babes in the area. So they are going to make it the first gereriatric Hooters with older women as waitresses. The guy left looking a little crestfallen.

Cainanite (imported) wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2012 9:27 am You can usually just connect the positive lead to positive post, negative lead to negative post. If you use a good power inverter ( converts 12v DC to 110v AC) Those inverters are usually only about $50. They are sometimes called DC to AC Transformers.

I have no idea how to jury-rig an APC for a computer, though I know what it is. It is usually an uninterrupted power supply with its own battery system. In theory, the APC could still be charging from the 12v battery. It would just charge slower than if it were on a steady 110v AC.

A simple power inverter can do the same job for a lot less money.

I suppose the benefit of the APC is that you start from an already charged battery. (20 minutes to an hour of operation with no power.) You'd get slightly longer run time with no variation or dips in power.

...use a windmill and a generator but DO NOT kill any of moi's birds...

I am quite sure that more birds have come up injured from the big bay windows at my house then from windmills, two or three fly into the window every day. I guess I could take away the bath and feeders but I love watching my little feathered friends, I have over a dozen different kinds of birds that use my feeders including a couple grey squirrels.

Oh the Horror of it all, feed the birds then watch hit themselves, or remove the food and water and let them fend for themselves in this cruel hard world. They would need to fly to far off places dodging windmills.

River

Riverwind (imported) wrote: Tue Jul 03, 2012 4:50 am Oh the Horror of it all, feed the birds then watch hit themselves, or remove the food and water and let them fend for themselves in this cruel hard world. They would need to fly to far off places dodging windmills.

River

Isn't Alfred Hitchcock buried near you, River ?

Been 100+/- three days in a row in north GA; even on top of the mountains. I turned on my AC at 3:PM, for the first time this season. Figured running fans all over the house would be the same $. Days were hot, but dry. Yesterday was rather humid. (Warning signs for afternoon thundershowers.)

We had a very violent storm last night.

Had hail and sun at the same time in the afternoon. Strange sight. Then huge rain-drops, like someone was throwing cups of water down.

Then the thunder & lightning started, with heavy rain and winds that lasted most of the night. Scary, no sleep.

I got lucky. Still have power. Lost satellite for a while though. . .

Folks out on the lake did not fare as well. I have several reports of damages & requests to go take photos already.

Been thinking lately a lot about getting a generator. I can a lot of garden produce each summer, but I still depend upon the freezers too.

There is not any hope but is assurance for saving them by some saving people and neighbours. Pray for them

Wetherman and tugon have gone without electricity for several days now. That means everything in their fridge/freezers have to be tossed. Neither can afford to eat out so, by now, they may be starving

my brother in law has a house in the mojave

he moved back to his house in salem the first of may...back to the mojave in october

MacTheWolf (imported) wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2012 3:47 pm I'll gladly trade you Slammr, you take my desert and I'll gratefully accept your 70's and sprinkles.