Long term forecasts (ventusky.com) are showing he possibility of a tropical storm developing in the western Gulf of Mexico and threatening the Texas coastline by next weekend. Anyone in that area might want to keep an eye on things.
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Posted 12/19/2024.
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I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?
So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.
But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.
Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.
I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.
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Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.
And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
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Responding to email notices you receive.
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In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.
Hurricane season - 2021
- Thread starter WebSlave
- Start date
I really hope it does not turn out to be serious, I am still very ill after being diagnosed with diabetes, can't cope with anything else right now.
So how is the roof project? Are you ready for the inevitable horrible Florida hurricanes?
Didn't you move back to Houston? If so, you might want to start taking precautions and making tentative plans now. Just in case. Might just be a heavy rain event, but you never know.
The metal for the roof was supposed to be in at the roofers on 06-11, but we haven't heard anything further. It is supposed to take a week for the job, so there is not a very high likelihood that we will get a solid week without rain when they schedule the work. I tried like hell to fix the leaks on the roof over several days, but best I could do was to slow it down quite a bit. Fortunately none of the leaking water coming into the living space, but just from the soffit overhanging the enclosed porch. But I am sure that means some damaged boards in the decking that will need to be replaced.
Hmm, I have to find some video I took of the roof a while back that shows all the rusted areas that convinced me to have to roof replaced instead of just patching up that one section.
To further complicate things, when we had the oak tree removed that caused that roof damage, one of the guys impacted the roof over the porch (which is not scheduled to be replaced) with the machinery he was using and cut into the edge of one of the panels. I did not realize it earlier, as we had not had rain since the damage and before the guy came out to figure out what needed to be done for the repair, but apparently the impact from that machinery also broke the caulk seal between that damaged panel and the one next to it. I discovered that when we got over 3 inches of rain yesterday. It is leaking quite noticeably there now on the porch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvVGNvIidY8
But in any event, I am confident that Murphy's Law has me squarely in his sights for that roof work. I seem to constantly be a target of his attention.
As for the Florida hurricanes, they really haven't been all that bad or threatening, discounting Michael, of course. But the good thing is that we don't have animals any longer, so if we need to bail out to a different part of the country temporarily, no big deal. Worse come to worse we can sleep fairly comfortably in the Grand Cherokee if need be if accommodations are sparse because of evacuations. Hopefully COVID is on the decline enough that it won't be the major concern it has been for the complication of compounding one emergency on top of another.
Looks like the updated forecast has moved the bulk of the rain eastward into Louisiana and Mississippi. Doesn't appear that it will develop into a hurricane status storm.
wish we could get some rain, stuck in a giant heat wave and drought out here (and my family in AZ and CA, all in heat wave/drought). Dad said 115 out by him today, yuck.
Although I don't want hurricanes either
Although I don't want hurricanes either
We were going through a hot and dry spell here in north Florida, too, but on Saturday that broke when we got over 3 inches of rain in a couple of hours.
I expect we will get a lot more rain next weekend from that tropical storm moving up from the Gulf.
I expect we will get a lot more rain next weekend from that tropical storm moving up from the Gulf.
Man, can I call it or what? Just contacted the roofers and they said they can be out here on Monday, 06-21 at 08:30am to start working on the roof, weather permitting. Well I don't think the weather is going to "permit". That tropical storm, or whatever it turns out developing into, will likely be making landfall in Louisiana sometime in the afternoon on Saturday. Which means we will likely be getting heavy rains from it through at least mid week following. Which, of course, is the week of 06-21. 
I sure as heck don't want them ripping off sections of the roof with the possibility of rain looming. I know I should trust professionals to know what they are doing, but I have had my fill of "professionals" screwing up one thing or another.
For instance, when we had some trees removed recently, I was watching the whole thing taking video of it all, and when they got to the point where they were cutting what was left of the live oak next to the house, I noticed they had left a rather large limb that had been overhanging the house. That had a piece of machinery roped to the truck to pull it away from the house when it was cut through, but that branch was going to cause a problem. I just knew it. I was actually shaking my head when they were cutting, and sure enough, when that trunk hit the ground, the branch had enough mass and weight that it made the trunk roll when it hit the ground. That branch hit the corner of our screen pool enclosure. Fortunately there was no damage that I could see, but that was just pure luck. I would have felt like a fool yelling out to these guys about what I could see was going to happen, but heck, these were people who do this sort of thing day in and day out, so who am I?
I am generating the video I took of my inspecting the roof with a drone, but it is taking FOREVER for YouTube to process that HD version. It's in 4K/60fps and is 12 minutes long. File size is 3.3 GB. I checked to see what the max is for uploads to YouTube, and apparently it is 256 GB or 12 hours long, whichever is less. I'm thinking it would take more than a month for YouTube to process something like that. Not to mention the length of time to render such a video and then upload it. Heck, who would have TIME and PATIENCE enough to watch a 12 hour video anyway?
I might generate a video of the tree removal clips I did, but heck, I dunno. For the effort and time, is it really worthwhile doing that for a video that might be of interest and get viewed by only 10 people? Not that I make any money off of YouTube anyway, but at least I can have them host my videos for free instead of taking up space on my own server.
I sure as heck don't want them ripping off sections of the roof with the possibility of rain looming. I know I should trust professionals to know what they are doing, but I have had my fill of "professionals" screwing up one thing or another.
For instance, when we had some trees removed recently, I was watching the whole thing taking video of it all, and when they got to the point where they were cutting what was left of the live oak next to the house, I noticed they had left a rather large limb that had been overhanging the house. That had a piece of machinery roped to the truck to pull it away from the house when it was cut through, but that branch was going to cause a problem. I just knew it. I was actually shaking my head when they were cutting, and sure enough, when that trunk hit the ground, the branch had enough mass and weight that it made the trunk roll when it hit the ground. That branch hit the corner of our screen pool enclosure. Fortunately there was no damage that I could see, but that was just pure luck. I would have felt like a fool yelling out to these guys about what I could see was going to happen, but heck, these were people who do this sort of thing day in and day out, so who am I?
I am generating the video I took of my inspecting the roof with a drone, but it is taking FOREVER for YouTube to process that HD version. It's in 4K/60fps and is 12 minutes long. File size is 3.3 GB. I checked to see what the max is for uploads to YouTube, and apparently it is 256 GB or 12 hours long, whichever is less. I'm thinking it would take more than a month for YouTube to process something like that. Not to mention the length of time to render such a video and then upload it. Heck, who would have TIME and PATIENCE enough to watch a 12 hour video anyway?
I might generate a video of the tree removal clips I did, but heck, I dunno. For the effort and time, is it really worthwhile doing that for a video that might be of interest and get viewed by only 10 people? Not that I make any money off of YouTube anyway, but at least I can have them host my videos for free instead of taking up space on my own server.
Ventusky.com is showing another tropical system being born in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, 06-29. This time developing on the western edge of Cuba, much like the one they showed a couple of weeks ago that just dissipated. So not sure how accurate they will be on this one.
But gee, with any "luck" I will have the new roof installed by then only to have it blown off or punched through by a falling tree during this possible hurricane coming through here. Won't that just be ducky?
But gee, with any "luck" I will have the new roof installed by then only to have it blown off or punched through by a falling tree during this possible hurricane coming through here. Won't that just be ducky?
The new tropical storm mentioned above is now showing that it is forecast to be making a turn to the northwest when it comes into the Gulf, so I guess people in Texas need to keep a keen eye on it towards the end of next week.
The roofers cancelled out for today and said they will see how tomorrow goes. Chances are they will cancel out then too. I'm thinking that unless they work over the weekend, nothing will get done till next week. No rush on our part, so no big deal either way. Connie hurt herself working outside so will likely be laid up for several days anyway. The rain is a good excuse for her to just take it easy.
The roofers cancelled out for today and said they will see how tomorrow goes. Chances are they will cancel out then too. I'm thinking that unless they work over the weekend, nothing will get done till next week. No rush on our part, so no big deal either way. Connie hurt herself working outside so will likely be laid up for several days anyway. The rain is a good excuse for her to just take it easy.
The roofing company is supposed to call in the morning to let us know if they will start on the roof or not. I doubt that is going to happen with the way the forecast looks. Probably a washout for the entire week.
Heck, feels like I hurt myself too on Sunday. Using an axe to cut a stump near the house into chunks and I think I pulled some muscles in my abdomen doing that. Started hurting like hell earlier today. Keeping the bottle of Aleve handy for a while. Didn't hurt a bit while I was doing it. Maybe the older I get the longer it takes for the muscles to realize I pushed them WAY too far.
Luckily it seems that my muscles have as bad a memory as my brain does because it feels like they are already forgetting the abuse I put them through. Either that or the Aleve I took is really kicking in.
As for Connie, I found a new use for some of the camera monopods I have laying around here. Made them into something between a cane and a crutch, which she is using to get around on now. Amazing what you can repurpose things into if you put your mind to it.
I am embarrassed to admit that I ordered a walker from Walmart today too.
Heck, feels like I hurt myself too on Sunday. Using an axe to cut a stump near the house into chunks and I think I pulled some muscles in my abdomen doing that. Started hurting like hell earlier today. Keeping the bottle of Aleve handy for a while. Didn't hurt a bit while I was doing it. Maybe the older I get the longer it takes for the muscles to realize I pushed them WAY too far.
Luckily it seems that my muscles have as bad a memory as my brain does because it feels like they are already forgetting the abuse I put them through. Either that or the Aleve I took is really kicking in.
As for Connie, I found a new use for some of the camera monopods I have laying around here. Made them into something between a cane and a crutch, which she is using to get around on now. Amazing what you can repurpose things into if you put your mind to it.
I am embarrassed to admit that I ordered a walker from Walmart today too.
Well, not even a trace of that hurricane in the forecast now.
Ventusky seems bound and determined to have a hurricane blow up sooner or later at the western tip of Cuba, though.The roofers have postponed the new roof until Monday of next week. This week is just going to be a complete washout with the rain forecast for every day. We have been getting over an inch of rain each day for the past few days.
I expect mosquitoes are going to be taking advantage of all this rain. Now that the yellow flies seem to be fading away, this will now be their turn to try to make life unpleasant while outside.
Another potential tropical storm brewing, according to one of the models on Ventusky. Possibly making landfall as a hurricane around Steinhatchee, FL on Wednesday night, 07-07-2021.
But a lot can change, of course. Sure is coming close to me. Figures, having a new roof installed, so I can just see that being ripped off and tossed into the forest as so much scrap metal. There would go $24K right down the toilet.
But a lot can change, of course. Sure is coming close to me. Figures, having a new roof installed, so I can just see that being ripped off and tossed into the forest as so much scrap metal. There would go $24K right down the toilet.
Not sure when the roof will be finished. They didn't start until 06-29 and although the weather has been pretty good, today, well, not so good. They have just under about 3/4ths done. They said they will be out again tomorrow (Saturday) but the weather forecast doesn't look all that good. And of course this is a holiday weekend, just to put some icing on that cake. Matter of fact, the weather forecast doesn't look all that good all through next week. But just because they will say there is a 40 percent chance of rain, that only means there is a chance of sometime during that 24 hour period of getting at least one drop of rain. Or perhaps buckets full. I have seen it be bone dry at our house, yet about a half mile away I could tell they have very heavy rain. It is all guided by pure luck.
And, of course, no telling where that tropical storm/hurricane will actually wind up. One forecast track is calling for landfall near Apalachicola, which would put us on the east (bad) side of the storm. But other forecasts are calling for it to dissipate over Cuba and then pop back up just east of Jacksonville which would mean nothing for around here. So who knows? I sure to hope they can get the roof done tomorrow at perhaps Tuesday. But that is kind of out of my hands.
No we don't have any home owner's insurance. It got to be ridiculous and an unfunny joke. During a declared hurricane, the deductible was something like 10 percent of the value of the house, if I remember correctly. So unless the house were leveled, the out of pocket expense for any repairs would be outrageous. Which means we would be paying insurance for absolutely no benefit at all. We asked the insurance company (State Farm) if we could just drop the hurricane coverage completely, since it was a joke, and they refused to do so. So we just told them to take a hike and dropped them. But on the bright side, I am pretty sure that the money we saved by NOT making home owner's insurance premium payments for the past ?? years would cover most repairs we would need to pay out of pocket for. And if the house gets leveled and everything destroyed? Well, time to sell the land and whatever could be salvaged from the wreckage, buy a motor home, and become rootless gypsies.
But sure would be a kick to the groin to have our brand new roof blown off, though. But that would be Murphy's Law for you.
Looks like it slowed down. Even if Cuba breaks it up it will still spend two days in the Gulf over warm water which will strengthen it. The good news is it looks like it will hit to your east.
https://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/atlantic/2021/hurricane-elsa
https://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/atlantic/2021/hurricane-elsa
The forecast tracks are all over the map, so I'm sure they really don't know what is going to happen with the storm.
The ICON track I am watching on Ventusky.com is showing the center of the storm making landfall around Panama City, FL. Which, if true, will mean the brunt of the wind and rain coming our way.
https://www.ventusky.com/?p=28.88;-85.25;7&l=rain-3h&t=20210707/2100
A couple of guys from the roofing company came out early this morning and finished up the last couple of panels at the cupola on the roof, so the roof is now finished. I will be using the drone to do visual inspections over the next few days, weather permitting. But all in all, the roof looks pretty good from what I can see. I took video all the while the roof was being worked on, so I have been keeping a pretty good eye on things.
I saw a label on one of the rolls of metal going into their former, and they used 24 gauge Galvalume Plus, which should mean a pretty good rust resistant and sturdy roof covering. Of course, they did cause the roof over our side porch to leak at one of the seams from their walking on it and using it as a work area. When we had the big live oak tree overhanging that roof removed (it actually was the cause of the damage to the main roof in that area), they hit the edge of that porch roof with their machinery, cutting a gash into the edge and breaking the seal between two panels on that side. They came out and "fixed" it with a sort of peel and stick roofing tape material. This new leak is the next seam over from the first one. I'm guessing the rain we can expect from this storm will shake out any possible leaks anywhere. So I will be going up into the attic while it is raining hard and use a flashlight to look for leaks there. Hopefully I won't find any, as from what I could see, they seemed to do a pretty good job putting down that roof.
Depending on what the roofing company does when they come out for the new repair needed on the porch roof, I think I may have to go up on the porch roof myself and do my own repair. Re-caulk the seams, then cover them with the aluminum peel and stick tape I used to patch up the rusted out areas on the main roof. That seems like some pretty good stuff. But the impending rains have to get out of here first, and the mosquitoes are getting pretty bad, so that could delay things even further.
Connie is still laid up and using a walker, and is going stir crazy being in the house for so long. She injured the abductor muscle in her right thigh and was in a lot of pain and could not walk at all. But I tell her about the mosquitoes, and she is better off staying inside any way.
I have been having to use the screened in side porch as kind of a staging area going in and out of the house, instead of using the front door. That way when I come back in, I can kill off all the mosquitoes in the staging area before opening the doors into the house. “Open the pod bay doors, HAL.”
All of the forecast model tracks are now showing Elsa making landfall to the east of us, so we shouldn't get very much, if any, notable weather here.
We did get 0.31" of rain this afternoon, so I went up into the attic to check for any leaks. None were visible, but honestly I can't move around much up there for a thorough inspection. It's a hip roof and I swear the builders put enough 2x4 supports in there to nearly nuke proof the thing. Trying to walk among all those two by four supports would be a real challenge and could result in me losing my balance and putting a foot through the ceiling in the living quarters. Plus it is heavily insulated, which makes the beams I would need to walk on a challenge to see. So I did the best I could from a single vantage point at the attic entranceway with a strong flashlight.
I wanted to take the drone up for an inspection of the roof after completion, but the weather did not cooperate today. I have used the drone every day after the workers left for the day, however, so I have been inspecting all along. Plus I have been using the camcorder during the process every day, and the 600mm lens it has allowed me to do real time inspections. I figured if I spotted something early that was questionable, I could bring it to their attention sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, there was only one of me with the camcorder and there were very often multiple areas of the roof being worked on simultaneously.
Maybe if we get rained in the next few days I can render some videos from the raw footage. Not that this would be of much interest to anyone, though. But one of the owners of the roofing company did stop by here one day and mentioned that he would like to see the videos. Of course, taking video at 4K/60fps creates some pretty large files. All total the video files take up around 415 gb of storage. Wonder how long it would take to email them to him? 
We did get 0.31" of rain this afternoon, so I went up into the attic to check for any leaks. None were visible, but honestly I can't move around much up there for a thorough inspection. It's a hip roof and I swear the builders put enough 2x4 supports in there to nearly nuke proof the thing. Trying to walk among all those two by four supports would be a real challenge and could result in me losing my balance and putting a foot through the ceiling in the living quarters. Plus it is heavily insulated, which makes the beams I would need to walk on a challenge to see. So I did the best I could from a single vantage point at the attic entranceway with a strong flashlight.
I wanted to take the drone up for an inspection of the roof after completion, but the weather did not cooperate today. I have used the drone every day after the workers left for the day, however, so I have been inspecting all along. Plus I have been using the camcorder during the process every day, and the 600mm lens it has allowed me to do real time inspections. I figured if I spotted something early that was questionable, I could bring it to their attention sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, there was only one of me with the camcorder and there were very often multiple areas of the roof being worked on simultaneously.
Maybe if we get rained in the next few days I can render some videos from the raw footage. Not that this would be of much interest to anyone, though.
But one of the owners of the roofing company did stop by here one day and mentioned that he would like to see the videos. Of course, taking video at 4K/60fps creates some pretty large files. All total the video files take up around 415 gb of storage. Wonder how long it would take to email them to him?
Well, two of the three models I am looking at (ICON and GEM) are showing the center of the storm passing right over top of us in Crawfordville Wednesday afternoon. I sure do hope their forecast of it being a fairly weak storm is accurate. Sure would hate to have to go hunting for the pieces of my new roof and putting it back together like some sort of jigsaw puzzle.
I sure do hope their forecast of it being a fairly weak storm is accurate. Sure would hate to have to go hunting for the pieces of my new roof and putting it back together like some sort of jigsaw puzzle.
I'm hoping too that it will be a small weak storm and not affect the roof. Now that you have it, have you ever considered selling and moving to a more hospitable area with no hurricanes?