REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

In the garden, and RAIN!!!!

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Tuesday, November 1, 2022 17:55
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Sunday, July 14, 2019 10:05 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I think I'm going to see what I can do to verify that the racoon is out, and focus now solely on closing up access to the attic to keep others out.

I'm thinking that you're right about the gear I should be wearing, but I lost a ton of water by sweating up there for the 10 whole minutes that I was putting up the ammonia and setting it out. I was shirtless at the time. I think an unforseen side effect of doing this at this time of year would be me passing out while I'm up there.

I wore one of those suits with the filter and goggles the whole time I removed the mold out of the basement. It was just as hot as it is around here right now, but that was in a basement... not an attic that reaches around 120 degrees during the day in this weather. I was also only 32 at the time.

I think I might go up with gloves and a bag with a mask on early one morning just to get the large pieces out of there, but when it comes to taking any time to really scrubbing anything I think it's going to have to wait until the fall.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, July 15, 2019 7:33 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Oh yeah... speaking of weather ... I see we have a 10-degree cooldown come Wednesday. I'm doing my very best to get the yardwork done (as much as I can) and the furniture moved back into our bedroom and the shower fixtures put back so we can move back into our bedroom again, before my sinus surgery next Monday. 'Cause I know for sure that I'm not supposed to bend over or lift anything heavy ... or sneeze, or blow my nose hard... for the next few days, and for sure I'm going to be sleeping like shit until the swelling goes down.

Also we ran into a bit of a snag buttoning up the under-sink holes. At the last sink, hubby moved the copper supply lines a bit, and the damn things sprang a leak! One was leaking from the connection to the sink, the other was leaking from the shut-off valve under the sink. YIKES! He managed to jiggle it back into place and stop the valve leak, the other he disconnected, but now we have another repair to make.



*****

Yeah, I hear ya SIX. Attic work, no fun! I found, from my elderly vantage point, that hydrating AHEAD of time, really helps. I drink at least a half-liter of water even before I take puppy-wuppy out for a walk, and at least another half-liter before yardwork. (I just keep re-using an old Powerade bottle.) But, yeah, fall... sounds like a MUCH better option! Working when half-passed out leads to a lot of errors.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .

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Monday, July 15, 2019 12:38 PM

BRENDA


Sunny here today. Suppose to head for a rain by Wednesday.

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Monday, July 15, 2019 2:04 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Yeah, Sigs...

I don't think this house is going to be ready to sell until at least the fall anyhow. My friend kind of berated me on the phone the other day for asking how much he'd charge me to come over to help me with a teardown and said he knows I'm freaking out about things but he's still going to come over and we're going to fix the porch and make it structurally sound. He says I've just got to be patient since he's got a really busy schedule from now to the end of the month. If we can actually do that, as well as fix another more minor problem with the front porch, that will bring an end to my constant feeling of immediacy with all of this and will allow me more time to actually get some more internal rehab stuff done (the stuff that I'm comfortable doing with my skills and money on my own).

Besides, the house would likely sell much better in spring or early summer, and it's too late for that this year unless I just sell it for cash.

In the mean time, as horrendous as it smells up in that porch attic, it doesn't smell at all in the house (or even if you're sitting out in the porch itself, which I regularly do for smoke breaks since I don't smoke in the house proper). If my whole house smelled like a damn zoo because of it, I'd be in a much bigger hurry to clean it up, but really my only priority with the racoon at this point is just getting it out and making sure it can't get back in.

Honestly though, even without heat being an issue currently, I'm kind of afraid to go up there and do anything. I can't imagine that it would stay up there with that ammonia wafting through the air everywhere, but the possibility of being surprised and bitten has been enough to keep me from biting the bullet and going up there.

I wish I had a way of knowing for sure if it was out while I'm up there, and more importantly... if it took any potential litter it had with it when it left.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, July 15, 2019 8:49 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Found my countersink bit set. Well... part of it anyway. Got the box with two of the three bits, but missing a third bit and the do-dad you need to plug it into a drill. Talk about a needle in a haystack there...

I did find my mask though. I was wrong. They are P100 filters. Even better, I have an unopened box of filters to change out when I get around to cleaning that attic up. :)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, July 15, 2019 10:12 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Awesome! on the filters! That should make you feel a whole lot better!

Hey, I have a random question: Has anyone heard anything from JO? Last I heard he was hinting that he wouldn't be able to keep his house; was he serious? Is he OK?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .

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Monday, July 15, 2019 11:09 PM

BRENDA


Been for my yearly review and got the results today. All numbers are good. I am in perfect health for a 54year old woman.

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Tuesday, July 16, 2019 2:55 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


https://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/3364.htm

https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/conservation/wildlife/Pages/Raccoon.aspx

Here's some information I found on a couple of websites that's appropriate to your climate. I was surprised to see that coons den during the winter where it's cold! Here, the only time they den is when a female has and is raising her pups. And here females in dens with their litters are VERY quiet because males predate on babies. And ... like a cat, she'll often relocate her pups partway through their babyhood for the same reason.

Your legal ability to /trap and euthanize/ or /trap and relocate/ is determined by state, county, or local law, whichever is most restrictive. But I think once you either get rid of her or find she's no longer around (does your county have a pest-control service*?), you'll be able to comfortably block any openings without being nervous; and the clean-up and repairs can be securely done whenever they can be done.

*I had a rather large bee swarm on my front fence which is right at the edge of the sidewalk, and I called the county because it seemed rather dangerous, and they sent out a bee relocation team RIGHT AWAY. In fact right after I hung up the phone I went a couple blocks to ACE to get some of those stand-up yellow caution signs and caution tape - it took me maybe 15 minutes - and by the time I got back the bees were gone. So, I recount this story because sometimes the county or city had some useful services.

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Tuesday, July 16, 2019 9:32 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Will my county/city take care of it?

That's a good question.

My grams lives in one Chicago suburb in Illinois that will immediately come over and take care of the problem (or at least she knows that's how it used to be). My friend says that's bullshit and after charging him $250 deposit on a racoon trap for a rental property he had, they nickel and dimed him to death "following up" on things until he owed a total of $500 to basically take care of the problem himself and says the worst thing I can do is let the city know.

Here in Indiana, I think they'd be generally more help than a hindrance. I would have already made the call on it long ago, but until the porch is fixed I don't want to invite anybody in here that doesn't need to be.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, July 16, 2019 1:57 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Probably shouldn't jinx myself, but I don't believe in that jinx crap anyhow...

I think I took care of the racoon problem.

It's overcast, muggy as crap and raining off and on today, but without that oppressive sun heat baking the roof I figured it was either today or I might have to wait until September to do it.

Instead of wasting time and money buying lumber that might have made the job easier and look better, I didn't want to do anything that would keep me from taking care of this once and for all and I improvised with what I had. Doesn't matter what it looks like up there since I've lived here 8 years and until the racoon problem I never even knew what it looked like (or the fact that there was actually nothing stopping this from becoming a problem the entire time I lived here too).

Without going into any confusing detail (I'll have pics up eventually), I fashioned some blockage out of old weatherproofed 4x4's from a since removed pool deck, and after they were in place I used some 1/4" wood scraps I had to screw into those to totally block off access to the house attic from the porch attic. Then I found a whole bunch of bricks that I had recently "unearthed" while cleaning out my garage last week and blocked off the access hole she had (that has been there since I owned the house, which is why I don't understand why this has only now become a problem).

Time will tell if this truly solves the problem, but I can't imagine a single way a racoon could get into the actual house now. I'm hoping this was all I needed to do to keep them out of the porch too.


Oh... and without getting all the gear on, I just cleaned up the crap too. I didn't bleach or anything, but I just covered my hands with some plastic bags tied off, then triple bagged some other grocery bags to fill and I'm done with it. There had to be at least 3 lbs of it that I got out of there. I tried looking everywhere that I could and didn't see anymore. I'm hoping that she didn't do it in the house attic that I have no access to without tearing down walls. But as long as she's not coming back in ever again that would eventually dry out and there shouldn't be any smell as long as the behavior doesn't continue.

Hopefully I don't die of some brain parasite. But I can assure you, as tempting as it was, I didn't eat any of the shit.




After around 3 days of getting nearly nothing done and feeling super guilty about it, I'm very happy with how the day has turned out so far. Fingers crossed. :)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, July 16, 2019 5:49 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Went out after that and picked up a few gallons of ammonia for the racoon. Thought about mixing it with bleach to really smoke them out, but everybody seems to think that's a really bad idea.

I'm going to try just the ammonia first, but desperate times call for desperate measures. If I have to sleep out in the garage for a few days I will if that's what it takes to get them out. Seeing what I saw yesterday I really don't care if they get poisoned and die. I'm so done with this.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

You got me a little curious.

In your belief system, how many breathes of cyanide do you imagine you can endure?

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Tuesday, July 16, 2019 6:28 PM

BRENDA


Still finding thins in weird places.

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Tuesday, July 16, 2019 6:28 PM

BRENDA


Still finding thins in weird places.

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Tuesday, July 16, 2019 7:49 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Went out after that and picked up a few gallons of ammonia for the racoon. Thought about mixing it with bleach to really smoke them out, but everybody seems to think that's a really bad idea.

I'm going to try just the ammonia first, but desperate times call for desperate measures. If I have to sleep out in the garage for a few days I will if that's what it takes to get them out. Seeing what I saw yesterday I really don't care if they get poisoned and die. I'm so done with this.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

You got me a little curious.

In your belief system, how many breathes of cyanide do you imagine you can endure?




The only reason I knew about even thinking to try this was because my grandpa cleaned the entire basement with mixed bleach and ammonia when my uncle (mom's side, his son) and my dad (they were best friends back then) "wussed out" and wouldn't do it because they said they were getting sick. He's so stubborn (a family trait), that he endured it the entire time it took to clean the basement.

Which was immediately followed by a trip to the emergency room and the scare of his wife's and children's lives up to that point.

He spent hours in close contact with the mixture in an unventilated (or at least poorly ventilated basement)...

I was talking about putting it out in the porch attic, above a 3 season room with plenty of ventilation which was largely blocked off by walls to the house I'd be sleeping in.

And further, I stated in the quote you put here that I was willing to camp out in the garage while it did it's work.






But anyhow... I didn't do it. My mom broke down crying and saying she wished she never moved so she could come and check up on me because she didn't believe me when I said I wasn't going to do it and said she was going to lose her first born son... I guess the memory of what happened to her dad was suddenly fresh in her mind.


To answer your question though, I don't suppose I'd live very long messing around with cyanide. I never looked into it before. Never had any reason to.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, July 16, 2019 7:56 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Hey Jack

Thanks for the update!

Hi Brenda

So every day you find a new surprise? Is it like Christmas in summer?
How's your brother doing btw? Still making progress? To me, that's the most hopeful thing. Not to say people don't get better after going backwards for a while, but the going backwards can be hard on everyone. So to keep going forward is always a good thing, imo.

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Tuesday, July 16, 2019 9:33 PM

BRENDA


Quote:

Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Hey Jack

Thanks for the update!

Hi Brenda

So every day you find a new surprise? Is it like Christmas in summer?
How's your brother doing btw? Still making progress? To me, that's the most hopeful thing. Not to say people don't get better after going backwards for a while, but the going backwards can be hard on everyone. So to keep going forward is always a good thing, imo.



Somethings are definitely a surprise that's for sure kiki. I wouldn't call it Christmas but they are good surprises.

As I said last week he was transferred to another rehab hospital. He posted today on FB, that he was up using a walker for the first time today. He said it was in the gym and physio. So, yes he is getting better just taking time.

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Wednesday, July 17, 2019 12:34 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


A relative smashed one shoulder totally and chipped the elbow bone on the other arm. Her shoulder had to be replaced with a metal one and the bone chips taken out of the elbow. Anyway, I did the first week or two of passive range of motion physio in the hospital. And I can say it involved extra hits on the morphine drip ahead of time, paleness, sweating, some huffing and groaning, and grit. Then the rehab moved to her using her own muscles to move her arm, and that was a whole 'nother kind of effort.

The surgeon said the only thing she probably wouldn't be able to do was reach over her head and touch her opposite ear. After a year of at-home progressive rehab she had her last follow-up visit with the surgeon, and she proudly reached over her head and touched the opposite ear. Rehab can work wonders.

I have hope for your brother.

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Wednesday, July 17, 2019 12:47 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Ridgecrest earthquake aftershocks are moving toward dangerous faults, sparking concerns of triggered temblors


Quote:

https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/nation/ridgecrest-earthquake-afte
rshocks-are-moving-toward-dangerous-faults-sparking-concerns/article_c223e0c5-8b52-5f7a-a7d5-2f2ddfd2a5a1.html



Ridgecrest earthquake aftershocks are moving toward dangerous faults, sparking concerns of triggered temblors

The U.S. Geological Survey says the chance of an earthquake of magnitude 7 or greater from the July 5 earthquake is 1 in 300 — “possible, but with a low probability.”

Some aftershocks have rumbled northwest of the Searles Valley earthquake, approaching the Owens Valley Fault. That fault triggered an earthquake of perhaps magnitude 7.8 or 7.9 in 1872, one of the largest in California’s modern record.

The Ridgecrest aftershocks have also headed southeast toward the Garlock fault, a lesser-known fault capable of producing an earthquake of magnitude 8 or more. The fault along the northern edge of the Mojave Desert can send shaking south and west into Bakersfield and Ventura and Los Angeles counties. “Those are places we would be more concerned,” U.S. Geological Survey research geophysicist Morgan Page said. “Little earthquakes are telling us where big earthquakes are more likely.”

Perhaps the most famous example of triggered earthquakes in California occurred in 1992. An April 22 magnitude 6.1 earthquake in Joshua Tree National Park began a quake sequence that migrated north in the coming months.

Then on June 28, an earthquake 63 times stronger ruptured — the magnitude 7.3 Landers earthquake with an epicenter more than 25 miles northeast of Palm Springs. Three hours later, a magnitude 6.3 quake struck about 20 miles west, just a few miles away from Big Bear.

“We always worry when seismicity picks up very close to a major fault or if it’s at the end of a major fault — whether it’ll push it enough to start a major rupture,” California Institute of Technology seismologist Egill Hauksson said.

Sometimes fears of seismic triggering don’t materialize.

The Easter Sunday magnitude 7.2 quake of 2010 directed tectonic stress toward Southern California from Mexico. There was concern about a potential triggered quake on the Elsinore fault, capable of a magnitude 7 quake, which extends into Orange County and the Los Angeles area and could produce devastating damage to the region. But seismic activity eventually ended before it reached that fault, Hauksson said.

At the time, Signy pointed it out to me, so I tracked the sequence.
Quote:

“Every earthquake actually increases the probability of more earthquakes,” Page said. In fact, earthquake scientists actually model quakes like disease epidemics. “It’s based on the idea on how a contagion spreads to a population,” she said. “Earthquakes are like that … in general, if there are a lot of earthquakes going on, it’s more probable for a large earthquake to go on.”

While earthquakes do relieve stress to some areas around them, we become less safe after earthquakes because they “redistribute the stress and can push other faults in the area to failure,” Page said.

One big observation so far has been that there’s now a line of seemingly missing earthquakes between the northern end of the July earthquakes and the southern end of where the Owens Valley fault finished rupturing in 1872.

“That’s a kind of thing seismologists can get nervous looking at. It’s got to be filled in,” said USGS seismologist Susan Hough, who has researched the Owens Valley fault extensively. “There’s certainly room to put another earthquake.”

Both the July quakes and the 1872 Owens Valley quake lie in one of California’s great seismic zones, the Eastern California Shear Zone, which generates earthquakes as a result of the southwestern part of California sliding up northwest, toward Alaska, compared with the northeastern part of the state. (Yes, that does mean that eventually, L.A. will be right next to San Francisco a long time from now.)

The San Andreas fault gets the most attention because it’s the main boundary between the Pacific and North American faults. (I think they meant plates.) But “there’s other fault systems that slice California into ribbons,” Hough said, including the Eastern California Shear Zone, which carries a good chunk of the earthquake burden needed to accommodate that tectonic plate movement.

The zone covers a swath of California from Palm Springs to the Owens Valley east of the Sierra Nevada, “and we know there have to be big earthquakes eventually everywhere across this zone,” she said.

But it’s far from certain that the next big earthquake will happen on either of these two faults.

The Eastern California Shear Zone isn’t just one single through-going fault; there’s a bunch of faults there that slip over time. And it’s possible that other faster-moving faults might be better candidates to move in big quakes next, Hough said.

One might be the Garlock fault. A simulation of a hypothetical magnitude 7.7 earthquake on that fault would bring severe shaking to towns across the Mojave Desert and send strong shaking to Santa Clarita and the San Fernando Valley.

Another fault might be one underneath the valley sandwiched between Owens Valley and Death Valley — the Panamint Valley fault, according to some recent analysis conducted in recent weeks, Hough said.

But there are other plausible scenarios as well — earthquakes lighting up south of the July earthquakes and north of the 1992 Landers quake.

Or the next big quake could strike somewhere with no connection to the July quakes at all, say, a devastating temblor on the San Francisco Bay Area’s Hayward fault.

“The bottom line is we don’t ever have a crystal ball,” Hough said. “The next earthquake may be something that no one sees is coming.”


Despite the limitations in what scientists can glean from tracking aftershocks, it’s still worth doing. “Most big earthquakes have foreshocks. It’s extremely common,” Page said. One notable example was small quakes before the magnitude 6.3 Big Bear quake of 1992. “It’s lighting up areas where there’s more stress to be relieved.”

The reason why the Garlock fault is one that scientists are concerned about is that the seismic strain on it accumulates at one of the faster rates in California. It’s in a category a notch below the most worrisome faults in the state — the San Andreas, San Jacinto and Hayward.

The Garlock fault hasn’t ruptured in a big way in the modern historical record, but paleoseismic work suggests that the average time between earthquakes of at least magnitude 7 on the central part of the fault is about every 1,200 years, Page said.

But there’s huge variation in that average. Sometimes, only 200 years can pass between major quakes there; other times, 2,000 years can go by before a repeat performance.

The last time a big earthquake is believed to have hit the Garlock fault is roughly 465 years ago, give or take about a century.


©2019 Los Angeles Times


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Wednesday, July 17, 2019 2:01 AM

BRENDA


Kiki,

I'm sure that my brother will be okay. Now, that he is moving a little more he won't be so frustrated as he has been.

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Wednesday, July 17, 2019 12:59 PM

BRENDA


Rain has arrived.

And also don't you hate it when people try to blame you for their mistakes.

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Wednesday, July 17, 2019 1:02 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Rain has arrived.

And also don't you hate it when people try to blame you for their mistakes.

Cringe. Oh no. I think I hear a story about your boss coming on. Peeks an eye open. That's too bad.

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Wednesday, July 17, 2019 3:09 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


So... With the insane heat coming down on us later this week, I was considering re-purposing a tiny vornado fan that kicks some ass into a means of pulling out air through the single window from my attic while pulling air in through my basement at night time. It's something I had always considered doing but never got around to.

But then it occurred to me that I got an old furnace blower unit from my step dad before he moved. I was actually trying to give it away to my brother the other day when he was here because I know he had borrowed it at one point in an attempt to dry out their carpet in the basement when it flooded years ago. (If it had worked, he probably would have taken it, but they had to throw all that carpet out and they got a really nice flooring down there that's flood proof now).

I'm not sure if a blower will fit in the tiny window in the attic or not. It's also not the type of window that I could slide up and down to help it fit that way either. So it's nice that there is some DIY directions online for something like this, but I'd have to figure out a way to improvise a lot here. It wouldn't make much sense to bother with it if I'm not pulling the hottest of the house air from out of the attic every night when I'd do this (especially on nights later this week that are a low of 80 freaking degrees). It also wouldn't make sense to use a window in the basement or 1st floor to do it and pull all that hot attic air down through the house either.


I'm going to do some figuring. If I build something I'll eventually have the pics up for it too and let you know if it does what I want it to do.




Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, July 17, 2019 3:23 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


I actually knew someone who did this. It involved a table to lift the blower up to the window, and an extension cord. I suppose he could have rigged some kind of cowling between the blower and the window. But yes, it's doable! :)

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Wednesday, July 17, 2019 7:41 PM

BRENDA


Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Rain has arrived.

And also don't you hate it when people try to blame you for their mistakes.

Cringe. Oh no. I think I hear a story about your boss coming on. Peeks an eye open. That's too bad.



It's about her husband but I won't bore you with the details. They just can't get their acts together is all I am saying.

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Wednesday, July 17, 2019 7:46 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


I'm glad to hear it's just non-serious stuff!

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Wednesday, July 17, 2019 7:47 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:

Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Went out after that and picked up a few gallons of ammonia for the racoon. Thought about mixing it with bleach to really smoke them out, but everybody seems to think that's a really bad idea.

I'm going to try just the ammonia first, but desperate times call for desperate measures. If I have to sleep out in the garage for a few days I will if that's what it takes to get them out. Seeing what I saw yesterday I really don't care if they get poisoned and die. I'm so done with this.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

You got me a little curious.

In your belief system, how many breathes of cyanide do you imagine you can endure?

To answer your question though, I don't suppose I'd live very long messing around with cyanide. I never looked into it before. Never had any reason to.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Hmmmmm.

You are trying to create cyanide by mixing bleach and ammonia.
But you have no interest it evaluating the effects of the cyanide you'd be creating.

Why do you think entire towns or neighborhoods are evacuated when spills of these happen? Unless your garage is in a different township. Or maybe your attic is better ventilated than THE OUTDOORS.

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Wednesday, July 17, 2019 9:23 PM

BRENDA


Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
I'm glad to hear it's just non-serious stuff!



Ah, it is so-so stuff. He had to pay me and wrote out a cheque on his American account. He talked to me on Monday about it and then said, "You try to do a favour for someone. And you seemed like you were in a hurry on Thursday." Should also add that he dragged me to my bank to talk to them about it and I told him that they noticed the difference on the cheque.

I was waiting for his wife to get home to pay me but he was and I stress he was the one trying to rush me out of the house. He couldn't make up his mind then decided to pay me.

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Wednesday, July 17, 2019 10:27 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Hmmmmm.

You are trying to create cyanide by mixing bleach and ammonia.
But you have no interest it evaluating the effects of the cyanide you'd be creating.

Why do you think entire towns or neighborhoods are evacuated when spills of these happen? Unless your garage is in a different township. Or maybe your attic is better ventilated than THE OUTDOORS.



Mixing bleach and ammonia does not create cyanide. It doesn't create mustard gas either, which is a common misconception.

It creates a toxic chlorine reaction.

This wasn't going to be a spill either. It would have been a controlled environment with a few small cups mixed.

Dangerous? Yes.

But you're mistaken about the magnitude of the danger.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, July 17, 2019 10:40 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
I actually knew someone who did this. It involved a table to lift the blower up to the window, and an extension cord. I suppose he could have rigged some kind of cowling between the blower and the window. But yes, it's doable! :)



I DID IT!!!!!

And it is WONDERFUL!

Constructed a table from some scrap 4"x4"'s I had from an old pool teardown that I deemed inappropriate for my new stairs, but it was perfect for this job.

When I was looking around for something I had to make the tabletop, I found an old piece of artwork that was framed that I picked up 20 years ago at a goodwill that has followed me around for years but I was getting rid of. I wasn't going to be able to get rid of it until after garbage day, so the timing couldn't have been any better. It was PERFECT for this job.

I got my heaviest thickness tarp from my garage and cut it to the size of the window. Then I took my sweet ass time making the cutout for the blower to make sure I didn't overcut and eventually wrapped it up heavy with duct tape before fitting it on the blower and then wrapping it around the interior of the window frame. I'm sure it's not airtight up to NASA specs, but it's great for what I need.

Had a few extra extension cords when my folks left, so I got the shortest heavy duty one I could find and cut it so I could make a plug for the blower. Made it short since I have an outlet right under the window and don't have to worry about extra heat from voltage drops of a long cord. :)

Most of this work I did while in a 120+ degree attic because it was easier than making a ton of trips up and down from my garage to the attic. I was covered head to toe in sweat and my clothes were soaked by the time it was done.

But then I plugged it in and the wind tunnel blew all that moisture away.

This thing is so powerful that at the slightly downward angle I had it pointed I could feel the wind gusting at me 20 feet away from the front of my house from that window.

Within 20 minutes my attic temperature dropped 40 degrees. This type of temperature drop would normally not have happened until at least 4:00AM in the morning with the windows open by themselves and no forced air flow.

It's still 80 degrees out even though the sun is down, and it's only going to get down to 75 degrees tonight and 78 degrees the next two nights. So it's not exactly going to be A/C here for the next few days, but I should be able to get the indoor temperature down to whatever the outdoor temperature gets down to by the time the sun comes up and I close the windows for the day.


This is so awesome.

I'll be starting my morning off tomorrow with a temp in the mid to high 70's on my 2nd floor and in the attic instead of the low 80's and low 90's respectively. The attic will still get super hot again, but the house will not get as hot tomorrow as it did today because it started off cooler than it did yesterday even though it will be hotter tomorrow.



Next week the temps will be getting in the 90's during the day but the mid 60's at night. I might actually need a blanket when I'm sleeping now if I've got this thing running then.



The entire house has so much airflow right now that even though it's still around 80 I don't even need a box fan on me in front of the TV now.




Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, July 18, 2019 10:20 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


78 degrees on the 2nd floor as I write this.

So... I didn't quite get down to an equal temperature outside. The low last night was 74 degrees a few hours ago, but only for that hour. Right now it's around 76 degrees. It might be impossible to get it completely even without any actual cooling forces at work. You've got to figure that there are heated up areas, particularly in the shell of the house that's exposed to the sun all day long, that are just not going to have all of the airflow necessary to cool off completely in the time between sundown and sun up.

Seeing a temp in the 70's is still amazing though, given how hot it was yesterday and how it didn't drop that low last night. I do believe that the next few days will be entirely manageable without A/C, even if they aren't 100% comfortable.

I actually woke up at some point in the middle of the night and with the box fan on me I was so chilly I had to pull up my blanket!

It was 85 degrees on the second floor at around 9:30PM when I first turned it on for the whole night. By that time, since I had already run it about 20 minutes earlier, the attic was already much cooler than it normally would have gotten until around 4:00AM. I figure that compared to my average night here without the new system in place, I got an extra 4 degrees of cooling on that 2nd floor thermostat than I would have in the livable space. The attic is just as cool now, which never happens. It's unknown how much effect this will have though.

My hope is, that overall, the temperature on the 2nd floor thermostat doesn't go over 83 today with the windows closed, even though it will get to 94 outside. Fingers crossed.

...

I would have already shut it off now, but we're having a thunderstorm and the humidity is plunging a bit in the next 1 1/2 or so. Maybe I can get a little of that drier air in the house before I button it up for the day.



Next 3 days will be the real test. High of 94, Low of 79. High of 98, low of 79. High of 93, low of 73.

After that, the highs all seem to be in the 80's with the lows in the 60s. I won't count on that until it happens though.




Oh... and the house has probably never smelled so nice. I'd imagine that there were parts of the house that haven't seen much if any airflow in decades that got all that fresh cool air.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, July 18, 2019 11:57 AM

BRENDA


Suppose to rain today. But pretty bright right now.

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Thursday, July 18, 2019 1:36 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


It got down to 77 before I closed the windows for the day.

Starting the process of going through and organizing all of my tools so I can take an inventory and hopefully find those missing countersink parts. Won't be painting or mowing the lawn with all the rain we've had so far.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, July 18, 2019 7:52 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
78 degrees on the 2nd floor as I write this.

So... I didn't quite get down to an equal temperature outside. The low last night was 74 degrees a few hours ago, but only for that hour. Right now it's around 76 degrees. It might be impossible to get it completely even without any actual cooling forces at work. You've got to figure that there are heated up areas, particularly in the shell of the house that's exposed to the sun all day long, that are just not going to have all of the airflow necessary to cool off completely in the time between sundown and sun up.

Seeing a temp in the 70's is still amazing though, given how hot it was yesterday and how it didn't drop that low last night. I do believe that the next few days will be entirely manageable without A/C, even if they aren't 100% comfortable.

I actually woke up at some point in the middle of the night and with the box fan on me I was so chilly I had to pull up my blanket!

It was 85 degrees on the second floor at around 9:30PM when I first turned it on for the whole night. By that time, since I had already run it about 20 minutes earlier, the attic was already much cooler than it normally would have gotten until around 4:00AM. I figure that compared to my average night here without the new system in place, I got an extra 4 degrees of cooling on that 2nd floor thermostat than I would have in the livable space. The attic is just as cool now, which never happens. It's unknown how much effect this will have though.

My hope is, that overall, the temperature on the 2nd floor thermostat doesn't go over 83 today with the windows closed, even though it will get to 94 outside. Fingers crossed.

...

I would have already shut it off now, but we're having a thunderstorm and the humidity is plunging a bit in the next 1 1/2 or so. Maybe I can get a little of that drier air in the house before I button it up for the day.



Next 3 days will be the real test. High of 94, Low of 79. High of 98, low of 79. High of 93, low of 73.

After that, the highs all seem to be in the 80's with the lows in the 60s. I won't count on that until it happens though.




Oh... and the house has probably never smelled so nice. I'd imagine that there were parts of the house that haven't seen much if any airflow in decades that got all that fresh cool air.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Basement is supposed to hold around 55 degrees. Unless it is exposed, not in dirt, the ground.

That IS your A/C, I'm thinking geothermal is the term, but I might be wrong there.

If you get your attic down to mid 70's, then 2nd floor should be up to 10 degrees cooler, and 1st floor another 10 degrees cooler. That runs out of scale on the thermometer, so it's likely closer to 75, 68, 61, 55. But you suck in humidity from outside, middle of the night.

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Thursday, July 18, 2019 8:24 PM

BRENDA


Little tired. Emptied some more boxes.

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Thursday, July 18, 2019 11:28 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


SIX, that's great news about the attic fan! What you've done is install a "whole house fan" which does a great job pulling cool air from the outside and venting hot air out the top! One of these days I'm going to try something similar. Yes, we have AC and solar but the attic must be about 130 F up there during the day, and for sure it heats the ceiling and just radiates heat into the house. I'm really glad you got that figured out because I read somewhere that you're going thru a heat wave about now, right?

Quote:

You are trying to create cyanide by mixing bleach and ammonia.
I stumbled on that a bit too, but was too busy to figure it out. Bleach is sodium hypochlorite IIRC NaClO. (sodium, chlorine, and oxygen) Ammonia is NH3 - nitrogen, hydrogen. Cyanide is HCN - hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen. You can't make cyanide out of bleach and ammonia because cyanide contains something that neither one contains (carbon). Since there's no source of carbon with the starting ingredients, cyanide can't be created.

*****

Hubby, dear daughter and I moved most of our big stuff back into the newly-painted, re-windowed bedroom and newly-cleaned bathroom. I bought some new shower fixtures for hubby ... he's been looking for that feeling of standing in a warm rain since whenever ... and fortunately the shower head and wand turned out exactly right. We unearthed a "Purple" mattress that I bought a while back ... we have both been looking for a mattress that we can BOTH sleep on and not wake up with an aching back (not enough support) and sore shoulders and hips (too hard), and so far this mattress works for both of us.

The next thing to do is move some metal shelving from the garage to the spot in the hallway and set it up as our "mud room" - not that we have a lot of mud, but a place to hang keys, sun hat, dog leash, umbrellas and to set down purse, grocery bags, shoes, outgoing mail etc. It'll be great to have that all in one spot.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .

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Thursday, July 18, 2019 11:47 PM

BRENDA


Did a little more. Ow!

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Friday, July 19, 2019 12:05 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Basement is supposed to hold around 55 degrees. Unless it is exposed, not in dirt, the ground.



It's exposed, completely. Tri-level layout. Half of the house is a 2.5 foot tall dirt crawl space with a vapor barrier. It's definately cooler down there, but after a few days with temps near 100 degrees there's no way it's 55 degrees.

Quote:

That IS your A/C, I'm thinking geothermal is the term, but I might be wrong there.


Until yesterday, that's the only thing I had. And it didn't work good because of the tri-level layout.

Quote:

If you get your attic down to mid 70's, then 2nd floor should be up to 10 degrees cooler, and 1st floor another 10 degrees cooler. That runs out of scale on the thermometer, so it's likely closer to 75, 68, 61, 55. But you suck in humidity from outside, middle of the night.



I don't think you can go by anything with a typical house layout for a tri-level layout. Especially since the previous owners did things like put up drywall and carpet in the attic space to make it "livable" and there's hardly any insulation as a result.

Thermostat is on the 2nd floor at the top of the stairs. It read 78 degrees this morning, and the attic felt the same temperature until the sun came out in the afternoon.

I don't have thermometers up anywhere except for the thermostat since I can't find the one I was using during the winter after getting rid of a lot of stuff and moving stuff around. I need to find it.

But I'd guess at around 9AM when I closed the windows up it was 80 in the attic, 78 on the 2nd floor, 72 on the first floor and 66 in the basement.



Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, July 19, 2019 12:22 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SIX, that's great news about the attic fan! What you've done is install a "whole house fan" which does a great job pulling cool air from the outside and venting hot air out the top! One of these days I'm going to try something similar. Yes, we have AC and solar but the attic must be about 130 F up there during the day, and for sure it heats the ceiling and just radiates heat into the house. I'm really glad you got that figured out because I read somewhere that you're going thru a heat wave about now, right?



Yeah. Pretty bad heat wave for a few more days. I think the high today was only around 90 because of the thunderstorm but the heat index reached over 100 degrees. 96 tomorrow and 98 on Saturday before it cools off again.

I was really looking forward to using it again tonight, but I don't think it would make any sense really. Last night did so well getting the temps down that even after being heated all day the house is still relitevly comfortable. It's even not half bad in the attic. So until 2 hours from now, the temperature outside isn't going to even be lower than what I'm reading on the first floor currently (81 degrees), and it's only dropping to 79 for an hour or two early this morning before rising again.

Other than just moving the air around, I don't think I'd be accomplishing anything tonight other than wasting energy and possibly bringing in more humidity than is already in the house.

So that leaves me starting tomorrow morning off 4 degrees warmer than I did this morning.

Not the end of the world though. Since the attic was cooled and never got super hot today, the total rise in temp was less than it usually would have been, on top of the fact that I was able to cool it in the living space about 5 degrees more than I would have without the fan. Starting the morning off at 81 isn't bad considering it would probably have been closer to 88 to 90 degrees in the house right now and probably would have only dropped to around 86 to 87 before I had to close them in the morning.

Temps look to be around the same tomorrow night, but I probably will have the fan on at least half of the night though since I will probably end up being around 86 to 87 by the end of the day tomorrow night.


I highly recommend a whole house fan. Especially if you can afford to have a professional do it that really knows what they're doing. I really just half-assed it here with very little knowledge and spare parts I had out in my garage. It's amazing. It's probably not super cost effective though the way I've got it set up. If you had a real pro job done you could probably have the same results by only needing to have the fan do the work during the cooliest 2 or so hours in the early morning instead of leaving a 20-30 year old furnace blower motor running for 11 hours straight.

Quote:

Hubby, dear daughter and I moved most of our big stuff back into the newly-painted, re-windowed bedroom and newly-cleaned bathroom. I bought some new shower fixtures for hubby ... he's been looking for that feeling of standing in a warm rain since whenever ... and fortunately the shower head and wand turned out exactly right. We unearthed a "Purple" mattress that I bought a while back ... we have both been looking for a mattress that we can BOTH sleep on and not wake up with an aching back (not enough support) and sore shoulders and hips (too hard), and so far this mattress works for both of us.

The next thing to do is move some metal shelving from the garage to the spot in the hallway and set it up as our "mud room" - not that we have a lot of mud, but a place to hang keys, sun hat, dog leash, umbrellas and to set down purse, grocery bags, shoes, outgoing mail etc. It'll be great to have that all in one spot.



Good to hear. It's nice when you start making your house work for you.

Bet you're kicking yourself for not doing some of this stuff sooner. I know I am.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, July 19, 2019 1:50 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Yuck...

It's 82 upstairs right now... It shouldn't be going up when the sun's been down for 4 hours already.

Thought about opening up the windows now and turning it back on just to get the airflow going, since weather.com says it's only 81 outside. But it also says it feels like 90 and they're not kidding with that humidity. I just stepped outside and it's like a sauna out there.

It's actually cooler in my attic right now than it is outside at 1AM.

The lowest "feels like" temp all night is 3 degrees warmer than it is on my 2nd floor right now.

Pretty safe to say the windows are staying closed until tomorrow night. I don't think I'll be needing the blanket again for a few nights.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, July 19, 2019 4:00 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


So, I have a lot of experience with heat and no AC. I know I get a lot of heat gain through the roof even though I have a 'cool roof' and it's helped quite a bit (I'd say ~15F cooler). But I also get a lot of heat gain through my sun-exposed south and west walls despite being well insulated. By around 3PM in summer, most of the west interior walls gets significantly warm to the touch. The exceptions are the west walls of the bathroom, and family room, which stay very nicely cool. And that's because a coast live oak (evergreen) tree



planted itself many years ago and is now a substantial source of wall shading. So shading the walls helps.

Some people here will take a porch roller shade, but instead of hanging it around a porch or patio



they'll hang it from an exterior wall overhang, to keep the sun off the walls. When I've seen it, it looks nice to me. A coworker did that with their house and said it helped the house stay cooler.

That's one of the things I'm going to work on soon, after I get the security/screen door installed on the side door, and the gopher out of my yard (which probably came off the wild hill across the street).

When it comes to daily heat cycles, even this far inland we often get an ocean breeze starting anywhere between 3PM and 6PM, for about an hour and a half. Sometimes it's earlier, sometimes later; sometimes cooler, sometimes not as cool; sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker; sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. Still, it cools the house down as long as it's breezing and the windows are open. But when it stops, the temperature inside the house can go up as much as 10F because the structure itself is really warm. And that heat radiates in from the ceiling and the walls. The other thing I've noticed, like in this last heat wave where temps were always above 95F and never below 75F, is that the structure builds heat day by day. So every day the house starts out warmer, and fails to cool down quite as well compared to the previous day.

At some point I'm going to have at least an attic fan installed, but I'm hoping to have a solar one with battery and thermostat, to avoid having to run wiring.



Many years ago, when I was the newbie kid on the block and all the old people (like in their 80's) had been here at least 4 decades before me, I asked one of them what they did in the days before AC. (I was hoping for tips on livability.) And she said with a laugh - 'we just moved slower'.

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Friday, July 19, 2019 9:18 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Yep. The rear of my house in the morning is probably where a lot of that heat comes from. I've got 4 large maples in the front of the house that don't do much good for my lawn, but make mowing the front much more enjoyable on a hot day than the back where there is zero cover on the lawn or house. The neighbors across the street all have large trees in their front yards too, so once about 2PM hits there really isn't much of an issue of direct sunlight on the house.

Fortunately for me, that's what happened yesterday or it could have been worse than it is. Thunderstorms all morning and clouds into the early afternoon. By the time the sun was out in full force my attic was shielded from it. So even though the "feels like" temperature was over 100 for around 5 hours yesterday, my attic never felt that hot after being able to really cool it off the night before.

I could probably stand to do something to my windows on my rear walls that is similar to what you're talking about on the porches. My current setup (more accurately my lack therof) is not doing me any favors. 2 of the 3 windows are not covered at all and just let the sunlight straight in during the first half of the day until the sun goes overhead. The third window has a black trashbag over it because I blocked out the sunlight totally in that room for sleeping during the day. I wonder what's worse? No cover or black cover that sucks in all the light and heat with it?

Quote:

When it comes to daily heat cycles, even this far inland we often get an ocean breeze starting anywhere between 3PM and 6PM, for about an hour and a half. Sometimes it's earlier, sometimes later; sometimes cooler, sometimes not as cool; sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker; sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. Still, it cools the house down as long as it's breezing and the windows are open. But when it stops, the temperature inside the house can go up as much as 10F because the structure itself is really warm. And that heat radiates in from the ceiling and the walls. The other thing I've noticed, like in this last heat wave where temps were always above 95F and never below 75F, is that the structure builds heat day by day. So every day the house starts out warmer, and fails to cool down quite as well compared to the previous day.


Yeah... if there is no breeze overnight before I put this fan in, I was dead in the water. Almost zero cooldown overnight. But even when their is a breeze, it doesn't accomplish much. There's not enough windows, and the stupid tri-level floor plan leaves almost zero crossbreeze I could never even fit a box fan properly in any of the windows either, so there really wasn't any solutions.

What you explained about the house not ever cooling down as much at night is what I tried (and probably failed) to explain before. There's not much that can be done when it gets THIS hot, but even when we're talking highs in the high 80s or low 90's and lows at night around 65 to 72, I still was never able to cool the house so it was always just kind of miserable, and the effect was cumulative. Once it did get hot inside to where it was uncomfortable, it just kind of stayed that way until we had a week or so in the low 60's at night to start cooling it down again.

Without actual A/C, the next two days aren't going to be all that great, but it would have been a lot worse if I hadn't been able to do a real good cool down the first night I installed the thing. After this heatwave is done, I imagine, this new fan is going to feel like A/C for the rest of the summer if we don't have any more serious heat waves like this. You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to seeing what this thing can do when we start getting back down in the low to mid 60's at night over the next week. :)

Quote:


At some point I'm going to have at least an attic fan installed, but I'm hoping to have a solar one with battery and thermostat, to avoid having to run wiring.



Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today, my grams always says. You probably shouldn't have to run too much wiring to it. You wouldn't be running it except for at night when you're not nearly as likely to be running a lot of other stuff in your house. Even though there will be a lot of draw on the circuit while it's running, as long as you don't have it on the same circuit as the fridge, or important things like the sump pump (if you've got one), or on the same line as other large appliances you might forget not to use while it's on (microwave, washer/dryer, etc...) you should be just fine.

To tell you the truth, I really lucked out. I forgot that there was an outlet installed right underneath the window there. But I have no idea what circuit it is on. I mapped everything out years ago when I first got the place. I'll have to try to see if I can find that document. One thing I do know though, without even tearing walls down to find out, is that the outlet is either tied to electrical whips or just straight up Romex since any asshole who lived here before didn't know what the hell they were doing.

But it worked all night without tripping a breaker or setting the house on fire. :)

Don't make too many excuses for yourself to put it off. I'm telling you it's one of the best things I've ever done regarding this house. And since you've got a bit more money at your disposal than I do, you can have somebody who knows all about airflow come in and give you a permanent and professional job that looks great and does the job way more efficiently than mine, I'm sure. You will not be disappointed, even if it's not solar powered.

Quote:

Many years ago, when I was the newbie kid on the block and all the old people (like in their 80's) had been here at least 4 decades before me, I asked one of them what they did in the days before AC. (I was hoping for tips on livability.) And she said with a laugh - 'we just moved slower'.


That's something else my grams says.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, July 19, 2019 10:00 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Oh... BTW.

82 degrees in my house this morning at 9AM. It rose to 82 from 81 somewhere around midnight last night and has held steady there since. Outside temperature did dip to 79 for a few hours, but the "feels like" temperature never got below 88 degrees and the humidity was like a thick coat of fog, so I never put the fan on.

I'd imagine the house is going to get quite warm today with the high of 98 and the heat index pushing 110. With the same lows tonight, I won't get much reprieve, but I imagine I will be using the blower to at least vent out the attic since the inside temps in the living area probably won't be much different than the outside temps.

Just two more days to go of this crap and we're golden.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, July 19, 2019 11:50 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


86 degrees on the 2nd floor right now. Hotter in the attic, but not as bad as it usually would be after two days in the high 90's with heat indexes well over 100. If I hadn't cooled it off two nights ago, it would be 90+ on the second floor right now.

This is pushing well into uncomfortable territory now though. Took a little nap earlier today with the fan on me and woke up sweating.

I still can't open everything up yet. 84 degrees outside with the heat index at 93. I'm going to stay up a few more hours though and get it started for a while before i sleep. It won't be as much releif as that first night, but I should be able to cool it off somewhat before the last hot day and it will probably actually be more comfortable tomorrow than it was today as a result.

Can't really do shit in this weather. I did manage to bring down most of the stuff I had in the attic that wasn't newly packed into moving boxes so I could go through it and get rid of most of it. Just never got around to sorting through it. If I'm not directly in front of the fan I'm a sweaty mess.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, July 20, 2019 1:50 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


If I were you SIX I'd be tempted to be in the shower for the next 24 hours, yanno, take a pool floatie as a cushion and sleep in there with the water running!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .

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Saturday, July 20, 2019 2:45 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


lol yeah...

I did take two showers yesterday. After that I really stopped doing anything because I didn't want to sweat up another storm and need to take a third one.

This would have been a lot worse without that fan though. It's been about 4 or 5 years since we had temps like this, but I remember seeing that thermostat on the 2nd floor hitting 99. I'm not sure if it actually shows 3 digits even, so it could have been hotter.

The hottest the temp has gotten since I put the new fan in is 86 tonight. I put the fan on and opened a few windows on the 1st floor about a half hour ago and it's down to 85 now. We're going to see 77 for a few hours this morning, so as long as I wake up early enough to close everything up at the right time, it shouldn't be bad in the house tomorrow. I started yesterday morning at 82 degrees already since I didn't even want to open the windows. Hopefully I start this morning out a few degrees lower than that.

It'll just be 12 more hours of the heat after that and then we've got highs in the 70's and lows in the low 60's for the next three nights after that.



86 really isn't bad. It wouldn't be so miserable right now if the gorram humidity wasn't close to 90%.



UPDATE: 6 minutes after I posted that and it's 84 now.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, July 20, 2019 1:23 PM

BRENDA


Found my old coffee pot. It is in pretty good condition. It can be donated.



Laundry day. Later peeps.

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Saturday, July 20, 2019 1:26 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Got it down to 82 by 8-9AM.

84 on the 2nd floor right now. 92 outside now. 109 outside with the heat index!

Not doing anything outside today.

By 8PM it will be cooler outside than it is on the second floor and this will all be over... at least for now.

Then it's back to work tomorrow. Nothing even close to the 90's predicted in the 15 day forecast.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, July 20, 2019 5:01 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


85 inside on the second floor now. 94 outside. Heat index at 107.

Only 4 more hours left and it drops to 82 and I get that fan going again. They've dropped the overnight low a few degrees to only 72, and the high tomorrow is only 77 with a low the following night of 67. Going down as low as only 60 on Monday night. :)

I'm pretty sure for most of the summer this fan will be more than adequate, and A/C isn't even necessary at regular temperatures of 90 degrees or below during the day as long as it gets into the low 70's at night.

If plans change and I decide to stick around in this house for a while, I might invest in a single room A/C unit that I could use to just pull out the humidity on bad stretches like we're having right now. I'm perfectly comfortable with 85-87 degree temperatures if the humidity is reasonable.

Currently, it's not though. The ceramic tiles on my basement floor have darkened grout because of the excess humidity, and I'm damn near breaking my cigarette machine and can't get a good roll because the tobacco gets too moist in the humid summer and keeps jamming up the machine. (Both of these happen every summer).

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, July 20, 2019 6:23 PM

BRENDA


Top shelf in storage room reorganized. Found some things which is good.

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Saturday, July 20, 2019 7:45 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Summer is in full swing here in SoCal.

At my place the high for the day was 86F, which is nicely cool compared to the previous AND upcoming hot spells. In the house is roughly 84F. The previous hot spell, the highs never got below 95F, and lows never got below 75F, with ~66% humidity. Then we got a nice 4 day break, today being the last day, with highs ~85F. The predicted high tomorrow is 93F, the 5 days after that are 95F and up, then 2 days at 94F, and then 92F.

Below 90F is OK, 90ish is bearable even though I slow down a lot, but over 95F completely halts me. From 85F to 90F goes from livable to manageable, from 90F to 95F goes from manageable to merely endurable. What a difference those measly 5F steps make!

In tune with the weather, my progress has been slower than I'd like, but I'm still getting things done day by day. My pattern is to start something, run into a problem that's been dogging me for years that I didn't have the time (and energy) to get to - derail myself and finally FIX the darn thing! - and then continue on where I left off. Aside from the weather, that's another thing that keeping me from making huge amounts of progress in a short amount of time.

But I'm also hiring people to get things done, like kill the darn gopher and install a screen/ security door in the side door. So that's a boost of progress, too.

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