RedNeckGeek
Super Member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2011
- Messages
- 8,753
- Location
- Butte County & Orcutt, California
- Tractor
- Kubota M62, Kubota L3240D HST (SOLD!), Kubota RTV900
Good Morning!!!! 49F @ 5:30AM. Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain for the afternoon. High 53F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
You can't show us a pic of your home brewed kindling cracker and not tell us how well it works, Eric! Still have all your fingers, or are you back to hunting and pecking?:laughing:
Sorry you picked up a bug, Drew. I started keeping a small bottle of hand sanitizer in the truck's ashtray, and using it every time I got back in while running errands. I don't think it's proof against colds, but it sure can't hurt.
That color is an almost perfect match for your roofs, David! Nice job with the drone photography as well!:thumbsup:
Wise words on hearing protection, Bird. Like Joanie sang in her song, "You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone."
Spoke with my insurance agent yesterday about a couple of issues, and he didn't seem too helpful. That prompted me to review the policy again, and it does cover landscape plant loss up to 5% of the dwelling coverage. After talking to a landscape architect friend of mine, it looks like I will reach that limit easily with my claim. The agent also wasn't optimistic about having the new fire safe credits retroactively applied to last year's premium, but he said he'd try. Every little bit helps I guess, but I can't help noticing that he's much less enthusiastic now than when he was when he was trying to sell me the policy to begin with.:duh:
I also spoke with the owner of the nursery where I purchased most of my plants, and was disappointed to learn he's uncertain if he'll be reopening his business in Paradise. He said he lost 70% of his inventory to the fire, and the damage to buildings and sheds is very extensive. He hopes to have a sale in a few weeks to clear out the old inventory, but beyond that, who knows? He did agree to provide some pricing info for the insurance claim, so in an email to him I let him know he and his staff were the best I found when I was purchasing my plants, and that the community would very much miss his nursery as we move forward with rebuilding. Hope it helps.
First dry day in a while yesterday, and I used part of it to work on the electric gate opener. The battery seemed to have plenty of charge when I checked it (12.7 V), but the opener itself was doing nothing. Pulled the cover off the bottom and found water all over the control board, and a blown fuse. Put another fuse in and it blew as soon as I flipped the power switch, and that's when I noticed a dirty drop of water had bridged the fuse holder mounts on the board. Blew it off and another fuse held up, so I think I found the problem. I just don't know how the water got in there to begin with, as the new and old openers are almost identical and the old one never had that problem. Tried to call Mighty Mule, but gave up after fifteen minutes on hold. Found a post online were someone was complaining about the same problem and ended up using silicon caulk to seal the seam under the cover and the screw holes, so if it happens again I'll try that. Looks like we've still got a lot of rain on the way, so I should know one way or another soon.
While working on the opener I noticed a pickup truck drive down the road to the abandoned boat launch below the house. PG&E has had contractors clearing trees from underneath power lines ever since the fire, so I figured he was just another one. As I finished up, another truck went down, and the driver paused long enough to ask if I'd seen the first one as he passed. I told him I had, and that maybe I'd follow him since I hadn't been down there since the fire came through. When I got to the turn around at the bottom, the fellows were looking up at the power lines, trying to assess if the clearing work had been properly done. Don't know why it takes two pickup trucks and three people to do that kind of work, but maybe it's because PG&E is spending money like a drunken sailor trying to make it look like they really do care about fire safety. Anyway, the fire cleared out a LOT of underbrush, and I was able to appreciate for the first time just how steep the hillside is above that road on my property. Way steeper than anything I've had to deal with so far, and steep enough to make sure I won't be clearing much ground in that direction in the future. To give some indication, the road cut at that point left a thirty foot high wall on the uphill side, and the downhill side was a drop off I wouldn't try without a rope belay.
I don't envy the guys that'll be up there clearing trees under those power lines!
While I was up at the gate, I noticed that the trash hadn't been picked up. It's usually gone by 6:30AM, but they missed it two weeks ago, and it was still there at 1:00PM. Tried calling them, but again hung up after being put on hold, this time after twenty minutes. That was enough wasted telephone time for one day, so my call to Verizon was put off until today...
You can't show us a pic of your home brewed kindling cracker and not tell us how well it works, Eric! Still have all your fingers, or are you back to hunting and pecking?:laughing:
Sorry you picked up a bug, Drew. I started keeping a small bottle of hand sanitizer in the truck's ashtray, and using it every time I got back in while running errands. I don't think it's proof against colds, but it sure can't hurt.
That color is an almost perfect match for your roofs, David! Nice job with the drone photography as well!:thumbsup:
Wise words on hearing protection, Bird. Like Joanie sang in her song, "You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone."
Spoke with my insurance agent yesterday about a couple of issues, and he didn't seem too helpful. That prompted me to review the policy again, and it does cover landscape plant loss up to 5% of the dwelling coverage. After talking to a landscape architect friend of mine, it looks like I will reach that limit easily with my claim. The agent also wasn't optimistic about having the new fire safe credits retroactively applied to last year's premium, but he said he'd try. Every little bit helps I guess, but I can't help noticing that he's much less enthusiastic now than when he was when he was trying to sell me the policy to begin with.:duh:
I also spoke with the owner of the nursery where I purchased most of my plants, and was disappointed to learn he's uncertain if he'll be reopening his business in Paradise. He said he lost 70% of his inventory to the fire, and the damage to buildings and sheds is very extensive. He hopes to have a sale in a few weeks to clear out the old inventory, but beyond that, who knows? He did agree to provide some pricing info for the insurance claim, so in an email to him I let him know he and his staff were the best I found when I was purchasing my plants, and that the community would very much miss his nursery as we move forward with rebuilding. Hope it helps.
First dry day in a while yesterday, and I used part of it to work on the electric gate opener. The battery seemed to have plenty of charge when I checked it (12.7 V), but the opener itself was doing nothing. Pulled the cover off the bottom and found water all over the control board, and a blown fuse. Put another fuse in and it blew as soon as I flipped the power switch, and that's when I noticed a dirty drop of water had bridged the fuse holder mounts on the board. Blew it off and another fuse held up, so I think I found the problem. I just don't know how the water got in there to begin with, as the new and old openers are almost identical and the old one never had that problem. Tried to call Mighty Mule, but gave up after fifteen minutes on hold. Found a post online were someone was complaining about the same problem and ended up using silicon caulk to seal the seam under the cover and the screw holes, so if it happens again I'll try that. Looks like we've still got a lot of rain on the way, so I should know one way or another soon.
While working on the opener I noticed a pickup truck drive down the road to the abandoned boat launch below the house. PG&E has had contractors clearing trees from underneath power lines ever since the fire, so I figured he was just another one. As I finished up, another truck went down, and the driver paused long enough to ask if I'd seen the first one as he passed. I told him I had, and that maybe I'd follow him since I hadn't been down there since the fire came through. When I got to the turn around at the bottom, the fellows were looking up at the power lines, trying to assess if the clearing work had been properly done. Don't know why it takes two pickup trucks and three people to do that kind of work, but maybe it's because PG&E is spending money like a drunken sailor trying to make it look like they really do care about fire safety. Anyway, the fire cleared out a LOT of underbrush, and I was able to appreciate for the first time just how steep the hillside is above that road on my property. Way steeper than anything I've had to deal with so far, and steep enough to make sure I won't be clearing much ground in that direction in the future. To give some indication, the road cut at that point left a thirty foot high wall on the uphill side, and the downhill side was a drop off I wouldn't try without a rope belay.
I don't envy the guys that'll be up there clearing trees under those power lines!While I was up at the gate, I noticed that the trash hadn't been picked up. It's usually gone by 6:30AM, but they missed it two weeks ago, and it was still there at 1:00PM. Tried calling them, but again hung up after being put on hold, this time after twenty minutes. That was enough wasted telephone time for one day, so my call to Verizon was put off until today...
