- Thread starter
- #111
A Little Backyard Homestead Project
- Thread starter sumi
- Start date
Only have a bit of charge left on laptop and phone, so just checking in quick. I'm hoping they'd get us sorted out soon...NH Homesteader
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Hope your power comes back on soon! Glad you're safe!
frustratedearthmother
Sustainability Master
Uh oh... sorry it's out and sure hope it comes back soon! Thanks for letting us know you're ok!
Joel_BC
Super Self-Sufficient
Yes, sumi, I hope things get normal soon there.
A similar thing (but drastic) in my family. My brother got a job warehousing for a high-tech company down in California, in the vineyard country. He started to play around with real-estate investment and did fairly well. So he and his wife have been living and working there.
Well, about a week ago the high winds and grass fires started getting near the edge of the city where they're living. And when the power went out as trees fell on power lines, they had no radio, TV, or internet. Their cell phones were working, and they were charging them from their pickup... but text messaging had apparently become slow. A battery radio supplied their only reliable incoming official info.
Starting when I first learned of the fires, I phoned them and they were living in the dark for about 10 hours a day. Worklife was disrupted in parts of the city. The fires had spread to within a mile of their home, having burned many homes & commercial buildings to the ground. Various districts had been evacuated. They were sleeping in shifts and trying to stay up to date with radio or text-message updates.
I've talked with my brother four times since the first call. He promised to update me of any change. As far as I know, the fires haven't advanced in their direction any further, but instead are coming more from the south & east, fairly far from them.
A similar thing (but drastic) in my family. My brother got a job warehousing for a high-tech company down in California, in the vineyard country. He started to play around with real-estate investment and did fairly well. So he and his wife have been living and working there.
Well, about a week ago the high winds and grass fires started getting near the edge of the city where they're living. And when the power went out as trees fell on power lines, they had no radio, TV, or internet. Their cell phones were working, and they were charging them from their pickup... but text messaging had apparently become slow. A battery radio supplied their only reliable incoming official info.
Starting when I first learned of the fires, I phoned them and they were living in the dark for about 10 hours a day. Worklife was disrupted in parts of the city. The fires had spread to within a mile of their home, having burned many homes & commercial buildings to the ground. Various districts had been evacuated. They were sleeping in shifts and trying to stay up to date with radio or text-message updates.
I've talked with my brother four times since the first call. He promised to update me of any change. As far as I know, the fires haven't advanced in their direction any further, but instead are coming more from the south & east, fairly far from them.
- Thread starter
- #115
frustratedearthmother
Sustainability Master
Glad you've got power Sumi!
@Joel_BC - hoping that your brother and his family will be ok through this.
These fires are so devastating!
@Joel_BC - hoping that your brother and his family will be ok through this.
These fires are so devastating!- Thread starter
- #117
sumi
Rest in Peace 1980-2020
Neighbours and Irish weather... I did not love either yesterday… The former got our shared drain blocked. The drain takes care of sewerage and rain water that runs down our backyards... And it was pouring rain most of the day yesterday... I looked outside around noon and saw a fast growing pond approaching my back door. I called my landlord and grabbed a bucket and started carting off water into the further back where it can drain into the soil instead. 5 Hours of that later, my landlord brought me some sand bags to keep the water out my kitchen (which did get a bit flooded, twice). He did his best to get me sorted as soon as possible, but he broke a rib 3 days ago, so he had to find someone to fill some sand bags for me and come here with them… We got a plumber out this morning finally, it was the quickest they could come, since everyone's flat out repairing storm damage and dealing with floods and other storm related messes still. What a week?!?
NH Homesteader
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Ughh! Bad neighbors! Glad you got it sorted out but how miserable!
frustratedearthmother
Sustainability Master
Oh no! So sorry you had to deal with all that...and hope it resolves quickly. 
- Thread starter
- #120
sumi
Rest in Peace 1980-2020
I forgot to mention after drenching two pairs of shoes and four of sox I gave up and starting running around barefoot out there! It was a crazy afternoon… The plumbers came early this morning, fixed the drain, cleaned that, the whole area around it and my floor 
After having them and their equipment (including a long pipe for water for their pump trailing through my downstairs, was prepared for some mess, so I that was lovely of them.
My landlord was awesome. He came over twice since they left to make sure everything's o.k. here. He's happy that I kept the water out of the house, but understandably upset that I had this situation in the first place! I didn't fuss by him though, it really wasn't his fault. I did say to him I was so tempted yesterday to go knock on the next door and tell them to come help me bail water. He told me I should've! lol
I showed him this morning what I did in the back. He was surprised and happy to see that. He said I got to the boundary with my trimming, so that is the "fence" for now.
If it ever stops raining, I'll get back out there.
After having them and their equipment (including a long pipe for water for their pump trailing through my downstairs, was prepared for some mess, so I that was lovely of them.My landlord was awesome. He came over twice since they left to make sure everything's o.k. here. He's happy that I kept the water out of the house, but understandably upset that I had this situation in the first place! I didn't fuss by him though, it really wasn't his fault. I did say to him I was so tempted yesterday to go knock on the next door and tell them to come help me bail water. He told me I should've! lol
I showed him this morning what I did in the back. He was surprised and happy to see that. He said I got to the boundary with my trimming, so that is the "fence" for now.
If it ever stops raining, I'll get back out there.
