OldIHC

What do we call a man hiding in the bushes? ============== Russel.

The house next door sold for just under $2 million, 6 months ago. The renters were sent on their ways. Yesterday, a Hitachi excavator was dropped of on the front lawn, next door. Just minutes after 7am, the destruction started. By mid afternoon the house and the garage were reduced to piles of busted bits and pieces. The digger was getting a grip on trees and yanking them out of the ground. Nothing escaped. The furnace, fridge, dishwasher, clothing washer and dryer were "pinched" by the hydraulic thumb.
We had to put up some cedar latus to contain our dog. The shared fence on the north side is gone.
While I do not like the disruption of construction, I am pleased to see the end of this house. The last 10 years has seen ever changing renter, each bring another set of problems. There has be car thieves, a drug lab and drug dealers. One night the police were next door at 3am There was an ambulance, a hazmat team and the SWAT team. Sometime after midnight the renters got into a fight and used knives to carve each other up.
So far, the contractor seems like a nice person.

A women?==============Rose!

I had thought of Salix discolor. This same person gave me a dizygotheca elegantissima for a gift. I had to pass it along to someone with a high ceiling because it grew too tall for this house.

I knew, from experience, the yards around her have a lot of stones. The owner/contractor next door is filling a third truck load of stones and there will be more. The stone retaining wall is on the removal list. This stone wall has be there since the 1950s. Who ever built the wall did a really good job.

Where is Robert ,KB 48 ,?? Used to really enjoy his input ,lively fellow, I know he had some health issues, a lot of the others also. this is where I learned to use the computer and somewhat type, been a long time coming to this site, missing the old bunch

manic…..
Good to see you back on the site. Just as you’ve been away for awhile, many others have been away, too. There has been a big reduction in the amount of activity on this forum for a couple of years. I don’t know any specific reason, but topics that used to get multiple entries daily, now are lucky to get entries every couple weeks. Some might blame it on the pandemic, others might suggest lack of interest now in our trucks. Your guess is as good as anyone’s. As for KB 48, the last time I recall an entry from him was a few years ago and his commentary seemed a little hindered by age and health issues. We are all getting older, and it is getting harder for some to participate in the forum, much less have the ability to work on a vehicle. Other folks have simply moved on.
Glad to see you back, and I hope we can draw more people back to the site.

I talked to KB48 a few years ago. He had moved into what I thought was an assisted living place with a view.
I thought Robert was doing OK.
I called Lloyd (lbesq) yesterday to see if he had KB48 phone number. Lloyd's computer had died and took out everything on it. Lloyd is in good health.
Trying to stay healthy enough to get out to the shop is a challenge. Old age can be a terrible reward for a life well wasted.
I spent most of the last year in and out of the hospital. I think I am doing OK now. I have been learning to walk again. I can do stairs, now. I need my walker. I hope I can get back to a cane in a few months.

The owner/contractor of the property next door is very organized. He cleared the property, which included removing the house and garage, in one day. The basement was dug out and prepared with gravel the next day. Day three, the footing forms were set, Day four the forms for the basement walls were ready for concrete. Day five was pumped concrete. Yesterday, the forms were stripped. Today the house construction has started.
I am looking forward to having a new house next door. The original house was built in 1953 and it suffered 71 years of neglect from, maybe, ten owners. The original owner sold and moved 45 years ago. The next series were all absentee owners with renters.
The drain-tile, next door, had collapsed decades ago. This caused us to have water problems. We spent $40,000 for new and larger drain-tile and an inground sump to handle "their" water and our water.
Because we live on a steep hillside, the rainwater migrates downhill. There is an underground stream passing below the properties on this street. The stream grows when we get rain. Water will find the places with the least amount of resistance. This was our basement. We have been dry since the new tile was installed.

Nikki posts about his experiences with weather and neighbors occasionally, so I’ll make a post about Hurricane Ian. It’s 11:30 am on Wednesday morning and I’m sitting here waiting for the power to go out. (I have a whole house back-up generator). Yesterday afternoon I put our shutters on all the windows, put the protective “blankets” around our back porch, already dumped 2” of rain out of the rain gauge and am anxious about the predicted 18” or more of coming rain and high winds. Ian hasn’t made landfall as of this writing, but is expected to come ashore roughly the same place Charley did in 2004. Charley was smaller in dimension edge-to-edge, moved across the state quickly, passing directly over us. Ian is larger edge-to-edge, forward speed slower and is now pushing Category 5 wind speeds. My truck is tucked away in my workshop and hopefully will survive without harm. My house is positioned on the high ground between two large lakes, but high ground in Florida isn’t all that high above water level. Maybe 2-3’, some places more. The full force of this storm is yet to come. Probably this evening and we may see the eye pass over as we did Charley since the paths are starting to look similar. I have a son living in Sarasota and a son living south of Jacksonville. Sarasota will be north of the storm as it comes ashore and the prediction is it will exit Florida south of Jax. to make landfall again in Georgia or S.Carolina having exhausted much of its energy over Florida. I will up date this post after the storm is past and made some assessment of the damage. I will ask you to pray, not just for me, but all of the millions of folks who are going to be affected by this monster.