Anachronist58 Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Hi All, it is the 21st Century in California, and for once, they have cut power when it is actually VERY windy. Our hearts go out to those north of us - it is terrible. Please note that this is not a forum for political discussion, that is What PM's texts, and phone calls are for. Feel free to help us make light of it though - time to go out to the smithy and put the tea kettle on the shop heater (coffee can on a brake drum). Robert Taylor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAG Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Robert, You seem to have forgotten the beer and beer cooler. Also, perhaps, several bottles of single malt scotch. All to ease the ordeal. Hang in there good guy! SLAG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 I woke up about 5:00 am Alaska time, pretty normal start for me. I set up a pot of coffee while listening to the TV. I'd taken my morning meds and was nuking a breakfast burrito. When the nuke dinggged I headed back to: sit down, eat my sausage, egg and cheese burrito and watch while the mud brewed. Then I heard a long ago familiar name, "Simi," Looked at the TV and saw brush fire in high winds. Simi Valley is burning, there's live helicopter and drone footage of streamers, waves and walls of fire. Flame traveling an average 40-45 mph. the fire was is spreading at 45 mph. Gusts into the 80s in places. This isn't new, there is archaeological evidence it's been doing this for millennia, longer. It was as terrible then as now and will be in the future. Thank God it's not as terrible now as the last fires, those who survived the last ones, grabbed what was really important and ran this time. The folks and I used to square dance at the Moore Park rec. center and we rode dirt bikes in those smoking hills. We rode our horses on the S.W end between the movie lots, Corrigan Ville the name changed with the movie or TV show I bet. The ranch we road past every time we took the jugheads out might be known. "The Spawn Movie Ranch." Not at a time it was their hideout. It's almost 50 years now and there's so much I miss and so much I don't. Sorry, not really the time to be long winded but it was home for some good times. My prayers are with you all. Keep your go bag close and keep a candle lit against the night. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted October 31, 2019 Author Share Posted October 31, 2019 Charles, we came out here from the Texas panhandle. SLAG, beer is in the icebox, which is not currently a quaint anachronism, but rather, the current mode of operation . Frosty, Paradise, California, hit very close to home last year. Ahh, but supper was dispatched with great speed, cooked over handcrafted charcoal (cholla cactus, pine cone, mulberry, and black locust): But watch out, this is no slow cooker! Do not neglect the bun, lightly toasted. Should be in the high 40's F tonight, thanks for the company. Robert Taylor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Ringing the anvil three times, to send prayers and hope that everyone stays safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 I noticed you did not use your coal to heat with. When things so sideways, blacksmiths can survive without electric. Thanks for checking in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted October 31, 2019 Author Share Posted October 31, 2019 Glenn, love the smell of coal smoke, but not that tasty on a frankfurter. Thanks All. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyGoatLady Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Glad y'all are doing ok. Actually looks like a good camp out. Beer would stay plenty cold here. We are supposed to have our first freeze tonight. 28 degrees... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Having the opposite problem here, unseasonably cold temps and snow. Was about -11 degrees this morning with a wind chill of -23 here in Laramie. Several inches of snow on the ground. I-80 closed intermittently. I read that someplace in Utah set a new lower 48 record with -45. Big Piney, WY ( common cold spot) was -24 this morning. My prayers are with those under threat in CA. It is the housing prices, often caused by NIMBYism, that have driven people into the Urban/Wildfire Interface. Also, PP&G has not done a good job of maintaining their power line rights of way to keep the vegetation from getting close to the lines. A perfect storm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Olson Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 I hope for the best for all effected by the fires. I am into radio controlled car racing and the IFMAR (international federation of model car racing) are holding there worlds national race at a track east of Los Angeles. This is a huge race for rc racers. People come from all over the world to race for the top spot. They do this every 2 years for 1/8 scale on road cars in locations all over the world. They posted that Wednesday qualifiying was cancelled due to high winds affecting the cars stability. Wow!! These cars are only 1.5 feet long and very low to the ground and the wind blows them around!!! No wonder those fires are so hard to put out. Its like a forge with a blower the size of a house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 I can generally tell how high the winds are out here as I have a bunch of "wind bells" made from pressurized gas tanks and each one rings at a different wind speed due to size, type of chain, etc. Well they have all be ringing, including one out of tune one that sounds like a bell on a buoy in heavy seas... 22 degF right now, luckily it's so dry we don't usually get frost on our car windshields. We closed the window in the bedroom and I'll shud down the swamp cooler when I get time next week. We need to clean out around the woodstove to have our backup heat online---primary heat is thermonuclear. A-58; nothing like hot dogs cooked over artisanal charcoal! We get range fires out our way. which is why we put on a steel roof to go with out stucco walls. One fellow down in the Bosque put up a large Quonset hut and then built a free standing house inside it because of the fire issues. Hope you can keep your beer cold and coffee hot---and more power to you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted October 31, 2019 Author Share Posted October 31, 2019 Power came back on twenty minutes ago. Small consolation with all of the devastation north of us. Thanks all, for the first class company! Robert Taylor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 I don't know about your "planned outages"; but for the unplanned ones we get we expect power to be pretty flaky for at least a day afterwards. So as soon as it comes back on we would pump water for storage for use in the bathroom, do any tasks requiring electricity in the house, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 The mass exodus’s in the 90’s was a nightmare. I am glad your safe and have power back. Miss that an couch spring on your hobo stove? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted October 31, 2019 Author Share Posted October 31, 2019 (edited) Thomas, same here. Red Flag warnings are still up, so we are charging everything up. Forty pounds of ice in the refereezer, and no loss. In 2003, we were without power for two weeks. Charles, LazyBoy keeps on giving. Those couch springs hold some of their temper quite nicely over multiple cycles, and provide generous air intake. 16 hours ago, Glenn said: I noticed you did not use your coal to heat with I DO mix coke with my charcoal - works nice! That big piece of coal goes in the museum. This is California, after all! 6 hours ago, Kevin Olson said: Its like a forge with a blower the size of a house. Kevin Olson, these passes and valleys are like huge tuyres. The air compresses and heats as it drops and heads west. Once the fuel is ignited, it makes its own weather, reaches forging temps at opportune locations. In 2003, I did the cutting torch demolition on one house and two mobile homes. Note the molten glass on the jack. Very little glass found intact. What is that, 2700°F? The steel tensioners attached to those turnbuckles were laying about like spaghetti. Edited October 31, 2019 by Anachronist58 Post Assembly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 One of the great advantages to preferring my beer at cellar temperature is that I don't have to worry about keeping it cold during a power outage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Cellar? What's that? I've been in 1 house with a cellar out here so far in 16 years and that was the battery backup for the State Police that once used it. A local brewer built a steam powered ice making plant just so he could brew---He emigrated from Germany back in the way back. Sold Ice as a byproduct and had the coldest beer for 80 miles at least! Anachronist; I have to worry about keeping my insulin chilled. I should research a local mine to store it in emergencies, make the ice last longer when it's 112 degF out here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shabumi Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Glad your safe, anachronist. Our power has been off for 10 of the last 21 days, without any wind that I could see that would down even a branch. We just had 7 straight days without power from 2 planned outages, only we didn't get power back from the first so it was just 1 for us. Plus 1 day when the power would have been turned on, but pge had to go house to house to find the idiot who plugged their whole house into their generator without shutting the breaker off from the main line. I live on the end of the lines so we are always the last to get power back in the area. I also lived off grid for most of my childhood, so living with a generator/kerosene/candle is no big deal for me, but what sucked is the lack of showers. We have plenty of water, 2 miles of 4" pipe from a natural spring, gravity fed, but we couldn't run the wood stove with the hot water coils in it because it was too dry to attempt a fire. Sponge baths get old pretty quickly, but you make due with what you got. It is unseasonally dry here though. In the 30 years I've been here, its only the 2nd Halloween that I can remember where you didn't need to incorporate rain gear into your costume. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 I've taken quite a few cold water showers/baths for one reason or the other. The coldest was in OK using a stock tank fed by a windmill, midnight and with a strong wind. Much colder than the time I chopped a hole in the ice in a nice sheltered pond with a lot of sun...Most recently when the propane was low in the rental and my wife didn't want to pay to refill it as I was moving out. Get wet, step out & soap down, rinse, dry. No solar heated water set up Shabumi? That system sounds like it would be easy to run through a coil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shabumi Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 Hahaha, no solar heater yet. The house I'm in was built 100 years ago this year. The stove im talking about is pretty cool. A 6inx6inx20in firebox that heats 2 ovens, a flat top griddle that's 5ftx2.5ft and the hot water coils. Im convinced that they had to have built the house around the stove as I have taken the stove apart to clean it and it will not fit through any of the doorways. We've used it multiple time to cook Thanksgiving dinner for 30-50 people, without power! The coldest I've bathed in would be an irrigation ditch in the high country near donner pass, right before dark in November. There was ice in my hair by the time I made it back to the cow camp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted November 1, 2019 Author Share Posted November 1, 2019 8 hours ago, Shabumi said: Glad your safe, anachronist. Thanks Shabumi, Nevada city is in the heart of PG&E infamy. We used to spend our anniversary weeks at our sister's home in Paradise, kept my prospecting stuff there. She and two kids lost their homes, but survived. You stay safe, yourself. I wish hot showers all around! Robert Taylor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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