Ian....heads up

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Anyone near the Gulf of Mexico should be paying attention to Ian. He ( i think i am using the right pronoun, LOL) is coming up thru the Caribbean at this time and expected landfall mid this coming week. Check generators, radios, chainsaws and supplies (food, water, personal safety and medical). The cone of uncertainty is showing FL, AL, and GA in cone but a little wobble to the west and LA would be in the cone...stay updated...

One guy I listen to is https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/

Stay safe....

[surviort_wwdnet]

Good site! I am paying attention to Ian and already making plans on what I need to do to secure the homestead. The grow bags that are just filled with dirt will go against the back of the shed, and the bags with plants will go to the garden shed in the garden cart I just took the pool salt out of. The whole shade cloth will come down and go into the garden shed (I sure am glad I cleaned that shed out this year!); half of it is rolled up, but the frame is attached and will stay up (unless the wind knocks it down). The seedlings and the greenhouse rack will go to the garden shed also. All the garden stakes I pulled will get cleaned, sorted and banded by size, and moved to the garden shed. The containers will get a good watering to give the soil more weight. Pool rafts will go in the jacuzzi under cover, and deck chairs will go under the pool deck. Front patio furniture will go into the garage, flag will come down, and that's about it. All of this is a day's work. We have a full tank in the big generator, which was just started yesterday, and I will position the small generator at the front of the shed in case a neighbor might need it. I'll straighten up the workshop as I have time. All of our gas containers and auto tanks are full. We have a new AM/FM/SW/weather radio as well as a small weather radio. Lots of batteries, way too much food, lots of water, and meds are all good. There are a bunch of ice packs in the freezer. Both freezers are jam-packed full. I may (or may not) pull out the ladder and check the screen porch gutters and take down the camera solar panel.

Are you ready? We try to stay ready except for last minute moving outside items.

[Lowdown3]

It's looking like Lootie Klaus might be coming to town! Be ready boyz!!!

[surviort_wwdnet]

...and girlz...

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Okay, anyone in FL better be taking this storm seriously. The size of this storm is 750miles long by 536 miles wide. This means that even if the eye runs FL's west coast, the right side (dirty side) of the storm covers the entire state. This storm will be able to feed itself with water from the Atlantic and the Gulf. My AO is supposed to be receiving tropical storm winds tonight to early morning tomorrow. Once the storm "hits" the west coast of FL, it is supposed to stall and slowly move further north. The news sites are reporting the flooding issues will be catastrophic. Heck, we are supposed to get 6"-10" at my place and I am not on a coast. The east coast is under storm surge warnings as they expect the Atlantic to be affected by Ian and push water onshore.

All my generators and chainsaw have been tested are up and running ready to go. Multiple cans of fuel, multiple bottles (small green and 20/30lbs) of propane. My truck though is in the shop and will not be available....bad timing for a problem to occur. Will fill my camper fresh and grey water tanks up to give it more weight and hope for the best as as of the 5am track we will have at least tropical storm winds (not gusts) of >39mph - 74mph. Have 9600w (800Ah) of solar with my battery system with 3000w of panels when sun is shining as well. Have a solar generator with 2000w of battery being charged now.

Going to move my grow bags to a better protected area as I cannot move them inside anywhere, advantage of grow bags I guess. Will be taking down the sun shades today and completing my home/yard prepping. Went to Wal Mart yesterday for a few "comfort" things that we do not usually keep...ice cream...LOL. The water there was almost sold out, they literally had maybe 20 cases left in the store and they were limiting to 1 case. The isle was crazy busy so the water was likely gone by the time I left the isle. I bought one case to be able to distribute if needed as I am good on water and backup water. It was funny when we went to store yesterday as we saw everyone going crazy and we were just taking our time. We looked at each other and said, and this is why we prepare. If store would have been any busier, we would have turned around and gone home and been fine with what we have stored (but would have missed my ice cream comfort food).

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

For those that have a scanner or a HAM radio you can listen to the SARNET for FL. All repeaters are connected so you can monitor the storm as it gets near south FL...If your are NOT a licensed HAM radio operator, DO NOT transmit unless it is an absolute emergency and you have tried other sources to get help. You must be a licensed HAM operator to transmit on a HAM frequency, but you do not need to be licensed to listen.

http://www.sarnetfl.com/

[surviort_wwdnet]

Even being prepared still leaves a lot of last-minute preps, mostly moving things from unprotected areas to sheltered areas. I didn't need to shop or gas up - I did that already. Gas cans full, propane full, generator gas tank filled. Food always stocked up with lots of eat-from-the-can if necessary.

Ice cream? 3 half-gallons and 4 boxes of ice cream bars. I think I'm good there😂

[Lowdown3]

We are forecast to get some of it this weekend as well. Got to move some equipment and pick up some flyable/float-able items from the range that usually always floods when this happens.

Water aisle was completely empty in a Walmart in S. GA yesterday. Don't "need" any, but like to keep distilled around. Noticed diesel pumps were shuttered at the gas station.

Going to drain all the rain water tanks coming off the house today. They fill up quickly and last gully washer we had this weird thing wherein I think the overflow couldn't keep up with the downspout and gutters leaked back into roof line. Crazy weird thing but it's all I could figure happened. Several more rain water tanks, as well as potable water tanks so if 300 gallons of rainwater are gone between now and the rain it shouldn't be an issue.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Even being prepared still leaves a lot of last-minute preps, mostly moving things from unprotected areas to sheltered areas. I didn't need to shop or gas up - I did that already. Gas cans full, propane full, generator gas tank filled. Food always stocked up with lots of eat-from-the-can if necessary.

Ice cream? 3 half-gallons and 4 boxes of ice cream bars. I think I'm good there😂

Agree, even being prepped it took us from 0830-1330 to get everything outside "cleaned" up. Filled the grey and fresh water tanks for the camper so it will give me more water plus add a ballast to the camper. Shifted the solar to Duke energy yesterday to keep batteries full as the clouds and rain was here yesterday. Watching the report today and they are reporting wind speeds at 155mph....it was 120mph just a few hours ago...IIRC 157mph is a CAT 5.....gotta go and recheck things as we are supposed to start getting winds and outer bands by noon....will check in when I can...

[surviort_wwdnet]

Stay safe! Ian looks like a record-maker for SW FL. Unfortunately, it looks like the storm will exit mid-peninsula and hug the coast on its way north. I'm not sure how much rain we can absorb and we may have to pump the yard to the storm drain. I hope your solar panels are ready...

I'm cooking this morning in anticipation of power outages. At least the temps will be lower than usual, so the A/C will get a break and we won't steam in the heat/humidity.

[Lowdown3]

You all stay safe and check in as you can.

[surviort_wwdnet]

So far, so good - wind and rain but nothing too serious. Small branch from neighbor's tree is down across their driveway. I'll move it later.

[Lowdown3]

It continues to track East so we are mostly in the clear here. Been pretty darn windy yesterday and today however.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

So, up and okay. It was an emotional time with this big of a storm headed directly to you. It was a CAT1 when it reached the southern part of our county. Solar systems worked great and we were stealth. Garden took a hit and I lost one watermelon..split open. We will see how things do as the plants took a beating. I still have over 50 tomatoes still on the plants. Have water standing in the yard but home held up well. Lots of flooding in the area called Florida. I know two people that had water intrusion into their homes one 2" and the other 6". Please pray for the people in southwest FL as they have a steep hill to climb. If you want to see how nature can devastate an area look on YT for Ft Myers-Ian hurricane. Even if you had evacuated, think about how you would rebuild and what you had to leave behind. Heard on the news from a FEMA guy that was here staging, that FEMA just closed the last claim on hurricane Andrew a few weeks ago...which occurred August 1992...

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

we went and helped good friends with their water damage. He had 2" inside house for 8-10 hours and still has about 8-10" in yard and on roads. He was renting the house out and the tenants have a mercedes car that was totaled as it had 3" in the floorboard. They also had a Porche Cayanne that had airbags and they were able to raise that enough for the water to stay out of vehicle. Sad part is, oh there are many sad parts, they had changed insurance companies 6 months ago and he gave them the old companies policy and said I want the same thing. The company screwed up and forgot to add flood insurance to the new policy and my friend did not notice...so he is on the hook for repairs. His entire wood floor in the house is ruined. As you can tell from the cars the tenants had, this is not a cheep POS home. My friend had hernia repair a week ago so he cannot lift for 4-6 weeks, his wife took a spill yesterday and thought she had broken her hip and went to ER and luckily she has only a bad bone bruise....So we will be helping them a lot to get this place back up and running...My wife and I started pulling up the bamboo wood flooring yesterday and got about 1/8th done...going back today. Oh power is on, but outside AC unit had been under water so it is not working. My SIL is a HVAC guy so he is coming over today and see if he can get it back up. He considers himself lucky as the damage in the few block around him is devastating. House with still a foot of water up to house, large water oaks on and thru houses, cars flooded...yeah, bad...we had to drive in the road that had 6"-8" of water still standing.

You can see the water level height, and add the 4" of water on ground. and his front yard...


All I ask is keep all of the people that have been affected by Ian in your prayers. There are so many that have had their lives destroyed or turned upside down. As we all go on with our daily lives we forget that there are fellow humans that are searching thru rubble to try and find one piece of their former life...maybe a picture, maybe a toy or maybe just a piece of their house. As I said he feels lucky that nobody was killed or injured as he is around a lot pf trees. He has a positive outlook, but to say the least he is very stressed...We removed a lot of his pictures and such, but we have no where to place furniture. Many people in the area, we saw they had emptied everything that sat on their floors to the outside at the road....very sad....oh, he was inland, and not on the beach...