S Fla Galloping Gardeners 8/19/05

Here is my huge cosmos snapped in half.

My dear Florida Friends!

I have been following the hurricane developments via live TV on my computer (channel 4 Fort Lauderdale) this morning.

Let's hope this one goes over easy, with godspeed and doesn't cause too much dammage and no casualties. That's all I can do from here.

I'll be thinking of you all. So sorry to hear about all your nice plants already dammaged.

SYLVAIN.

From Molly,

She just called. She shut down her CPU, she was tired of it going on and off.

Message to Val....make sure you take cutting of the brug.

From Me.

Val, What are you doing over there? I'm so sorry. Will they be able to be picked up and staked?
You better get out there with an unbrella...lol

So far so good out here. Windy and rainy....surprise....LOL

Hap

Thank you Sylvain. I hope this is all the damage that I'll have to report.

Val

Nancy, I went out to try to stake it but it's hopeless right now. It's completely uprooted. I look like a wet chicken. I have to go change because I'm getting cold here sitting in wet clothes.
Glad to hear that you are doing Ok, hope it continues that way.
I've turned on and off my computer because we had several power losses. I'm crossing my fingers.
Val

I am D.H. of Belaugirl, I'm molly mc's brother. molly lives in Ft. L. and wanted me to let ya'll know that so far she is "OK". At this time she is without power,and no info as to when the power may be restored.
Not to worry though, Bro. jimmy will be sure to come to her aid.

I'm back.
Lost power a little after four. Debated turning on the generator until after 5 sometime when I saw transformers blowing up all over the neighborhood. Bad sign when they blow up on the other side of the street. They never loose power over there. We're screwed!

There are only about 20-30 homes on my power feed (this side of the street) so we are the absolutely last to get power back.

I went ahead and turned on the generator. To quote a line from Francis Ford Copola's Apocalypse Now, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” (my generator's exhaust smells like this)

I had typed three times as much as what you see above, but apparently lost DSL service. I am posting this using dial up. From here down is a rewrite.

Girls, I am sorry you lost so many plants, bushes and trees. We can replace the plants and bushes, even though it hurts. Lets hope and pray no one is injured.

Molly, I have growing bushes in pots of Clerodendrum in orange, butterfly flower blue, and pink.
Tell me what you want and I will get them ready for you.

Val, I have Alamanda in yellow and purple. I will make cuttings for you in a day or so. I will also put in a golden dew drop and Brazilian nightshade for you too.

Here it’s mostly broken bushes and a few branches from the live oak out front. I did loose the tent I had over my sheds, but I expected that. I didn’t want to go through the trouble of removing the cover by myself. It’s too dangerous. At my ripe old age, I am not into danger. I have a few plants overturned in the nursery area, but not many. None of the weekends cuttings are missing. I managed to get them all in pots today during a break today and put them on lower shelves where they are out of any wind. Many of my bushes are sideways at 90 degree angles. I don’t know how many will straighten out or if there is more damage than them being sideways. I know the firebush I was training as a tree has lost most of it’s branches, but that was to be expected. It’s way too young to have any strength yet and it reaches about 4 feet over the five foot concrete wall. The breeze is murder there, although my Frangipani is still holding up ok. It’s a good 7 or 8 feet higher than the wall.

I did have a real laugher before I lost my other message. My stepson saves his beer cans to take to the recycler for cash. He had a large heavy duty yard & trash bag full of them. The wind picked up the whole bag and threw it into the base of the awning covering most of the computer room window. I have about 9" I can look out under. At any rate, this ripped the bag and what seemed like hundreds of empty cans were blowing everywhere and banging into everything. What a racket it’s still making several hours later.

Nancy, that couldn’t have been you at the beach surfing. You are too white to be a surfer, unless you wear your jeans while you are surfing. LOL

It appears I am the only house on the street with a generator. It’s pitch black here. Not even lights from downtown are visible tonight. We sure could have used that Blue moon tonight rather than last week.

Well, I hope after this storm people will take these hurricanes more seriously. It’s only a class one hurricane, but you could have fooled me. I wouldn’t want to be outdoors in this weather. Our last hurricane in Ft Lauderdale was Cleo in 1964. Most of us have forgotten how bad these storms can be.

Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts. A few moments of thought for those less fortunate than us would be in order here.

Thanks, and god bless!

Art

I am sorry for the loss of your plants, bushes, and trees. I hope your power is restored soon. I hope you are all safe. Don't forget a lot of accidents happen after the storm during clean up.

Mornin' Art. You have such a great way of painting a picture of things about you! I hope all your blown-about plants survive, even if they are a little crooked. *grin*

In storm times we always have a thread going over in the Weather Forum that helps us keep track of these 'canes as they move. Looks like the DG'ers in the panhandle are in for a much worse storm than we got as Katrina grows stronger. Would you mind if I posted the paragraph about your plant situation over there? Also it's a good place to keep track of other DG'ers in the path of the storm when it leaves Florida.
Let me know about posting your info over here. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/540027/#new
Pati

This message was edited Aug 26, 2005 9:40 AM

I'm here, I'm here......power back........yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee


Finally lost power about 7 last night....right after supper,(good timing) It came back on during the nite, whenever.

Just got my DH daughter and grandkids off to the airport and am just getting to my posts and calls.

I still say we are in a non-weather haven for we had almost no rain from the storm. My lake never went up, nor did the pool. Just a few short, heavy showers. Got very windy about 7-10 and then that died down. Reallllllll lucky out here in this spot....It's too good to be true..

Full report to follow.

Hap

HOORAY...Hap's back!!! Glad you got power and wern't blown away. Don't forget to post over on the Katrina thread....I sent a SOS out for you.
Pati

OOPS, cross posted. Just saw the Katrina posting. Thanks for the heads up on Mollie
Pati

Yeh, back on the farm..

Pati....how are your knees now? a little better than this am I hope. I thought you had them operated on last year.....no? or was it in one of my dreams......lol

We're still getting some rain and gusts of wind, but nothing to write home about. Worst is over. until next time. anything on the horizon, Pati ...?

Hap

Dream on Hap.....I have no intention of getting knee replacements unless they can give me some that will allow me to leap tall buildings in a single bound! LOL

Nothing coming up the line for us, but the panhandle and Gulf coast people are sitting ducks for Katrina. Just made Cat 2 and really looking mean!
Pati

Hi Everyone, I'm back.
No, it wasn't the generator, that's working just fine.

It was my phone service. I lost it very early this morning and didn't get it back until after 7 PM tonight. However it came back with the DSL, which I had lost yesterday.

Pati, you can post whatever you like of mine. I'm honored someone would consider it worthy to be read by others (not counting you folks).

Hap, you lucked out. I drained off 6" of water out of the pool and got back 5 3/4 inches through 7 PM. The last two days we were getting gusts of up to 95 mph. Several people on this street have serious roof problems and there are only about 20 houses on this street.

There was a report on TV about FPL noting they will have all power restored by Tuesday. In only 5 days they expect to restore power in this county to over 500,000 customers. Never happen. I expect mine on by next Friday at the earliest. I see no reason to break precedent here. Usually I am out 8 to 9 days. I don't think this time will be any different.

Ya know, it's one thing to not have electricity, telephone, and cable TV it's another to not have Dave's and the nice folks that hang out here. I missed you guys and your interesting posts. I'm glad to be back among you all.

I have an article in two pices that was in this mornings newspaper. I have the links below. It's from our local newspaper, The Sun Sentinel. The stories are from the home and garden section. They talk about Growing Wild & Wildflowers. The on line version is not as complete as the paper version but it's good none the less.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/home/sfl-hg26wildaug26,0,6594012.story
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/home/sfl-hg26sourcesaug26,0,1842205.story

I am assuming Molly and Val are having power problems. Has anyone heard from them?

Talk at ya later on.

Art

Hap, Oops, I forgot to mention my pool. Cleaning my pool has been a real problem. I spent three hours this afternoon in 82 degree water scooping out, what turned out to be 3/4 of a kitchen sized trash bag (with built in ties) of leaves off the bottom of the pool.
(what they need here is a contest for longest sentence) That one I could win. Ya can't say my sentences are not complete. Each is like a mini novel. LOL
The wind, coupled with the giant Egg Fruit Tree on the windward side, covered the bottom of my pool with leaves. Cleaning the pool is just about as important as uprighting my sideways bushes. When out in the yard straightning out my bushes, the job is easier knowing the pool is just waiting for me to jump in. It's sole purpose in life is to refresh ME!

Bye Bye

Art

Hi everyone.

It gladens my heart to see so many of you back on line again. We followed WFOR's livecast by computer all along. We were with you when the storm hit, in a sense. We're so sorry for the loss of so many of your lovely plants.

While watching all this, I asked my wife if she was afraid of that kind of weather. She told me that as long as she was with me, things were all right. Ain't she sweet? Twenty eight years of marriage will do that to a couple. You're joined at the hip, which means it's also real easy to be at each other's throat. We don't ever do the throat thing.

We tried to reach the condo's administration office to get an update of the situation in Lauderhill. We didn't reach anyone. We'll take that as good news. We heard that someone died in Plantation when a tree fell.

For a while on Thursday evening, we were hopping between WFOR and this forum. Jnana posted 2 pictures of her uprooted and broken plants and our hearts sank for her. Art posted something in mid-evening and then everything stopped until the next morning. We figured people in South Florida had better things to do in a hurricane than be on the internet.

Art, your pool is at 82? Dreamy! As soon as September rolls in, I'll shut ours down. Here in the great white North, the highest it reached this summer is a blustery 75. The condo's pool is kept at a constant 86 during the winter months. It is left unheated the rest of the year.

Take care and don't work too hard trying to repair in one day what Katrina broke. Keep safe.

SYLVAIN

Sylvain, you should be fine in LH.......most of the storm went to the south of us..If you lost phone or elec. you'll never know...heheh that should be about it for damage.

Art, I know your pool looks so cool with no screen, but it's a life saver... Not only do I have no leaves, except a few that fall from the orchids, but I didn't have to bring in any plants for the storm. Believe it or not, during the worst part of the wind, the hanging orchids did not even sway!!!!! I couldn't believe it myself. It was great. To think all these years I have been bringing in the 70+ orchids, spiders, lizards, ants, etc ....for nothing.....UGHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. dummmmmmmmy me.

I have solar heating coils on my roof, and when I don't turn them down, like this summer, my pools gets up to over 95. I love it. I sit and wallow....hehehe This keeps the pool swimable for me well into Sept. I know, Sept is nothing, except for a crybaby like me who likes hot water...lol

I guess Molly and Val are still MIA. Will try Molly later, have her phone number, but not Val's....I think after this we should trade numbers....yes?????

Have a great day everyone....keep safe.

Hap

Sylvain, I saw a post in the hurricane area from a guy in Lauderhill. He said although worried, it was no big deal. I don't remember it all, but I think they only got a tad of rain there. Here's the link.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/540027/#new

Being from Connecticut, even though it's not Canada, it gets cold there. On a couple of lakes we went waterskiing on during the summer months, we never saw lake temps higher than the very low 70's. My pool here in the summer has gotten up to 94 (a week ago), but in the winter the only way I can get in it to clean it is with jeans and a tshirt on. (that's probably the way Hap gets in hers) It gets to the low 70's and sometimes below that. I have been here so long I would never jump into 70 degree water.
Actually asside from having the portable AC window units we bought for storms, our main reason for the generator is to heat water so we can take hot showers. I can live on canned food, and even go without AC, but when hurricane Andrew hit in 91 and I had to take cold showers for over a week, I quickly bought a generator.

Hi Hap You are such an easy target to joke about, I just can't help myself. Please don't be offended.

Any idea if the GT for next week is still on?

All those small plants you gave me at Butterfly World are doing just great. If you tell me what kind of sun they need, I will probably get them in the ground this weekend, once my yard is cleaned up. If you can't remember what they were, I will take pictures of them.

Way up in this thread I mentioned I had posted butterfly pictures from my first trip to the Key West Butterfly Conservatory. I have been updating that post with pictures from this past weekends trip. Here is the link. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/509700/

Attached is a shot of my shed area after the storm (it's still that way) This is where the tent cover blew off and what's remaining of the tent. Just on the right you can see a small portion of my nursery area.

See ya in a while

Art

Art, if you can't laugh at yourself, or have others do the same, there is no use living!!!!! you might as well be dead.

Don't let anyone know, but I love it.......joke away.....

Hap

PS, when pool water gets below 85, I ice skate on it....

LOL @Hap!
Pati

Art, I am sorry about your shed. I hope your terrariums are okay. I can't find the thread in which you discussed how to make them. Could you tell me where it is? If you don't mind, I want to print it out as an essay and get my 11th graders to follow the steps to making their own. I'll get them to bring in their own coke bottles and maybe the pots. I'll probably have to bring in the potting mix and root hormone myself. We can walk around campus taking cuttings from various plants and find a nice outdoor spot to work. I guess I'll have to bring cutters because I don't think they'll be permitted to have them. Many times I get silly or lazy process analysis essays, such as how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. By following directions and producing their own terrariums, maybe they'll be inspired to take the essay assignment more seriously and write papers that are more meaningful.
Nancy

That's a great idea....what a great teacher you are.....

HI everybody, still with no power. I'm on generator and I won't hang around for long because I don't want to use the juice I need for other things.

Art, sorry about your shed. Hap I'm glad nothing happen to you. shouldn't be all be that lucky. We had severe winds, I was close to the eye wall. I lost 2 trees and many plants. My garden looks, well, like a hurricane hit it. I can't post pictures yet. My connection is homemade tight now.

Lots of damage in my area, that's why it surprises me that Hap feels nothing happened..

I'ts been 2 days of cleaning up and sweating. Don't know when my power will be back on. Art, I'm with you suffering the lack of electricity. Hope Molly is all right, I imagine that she still is w/o power.

I'm not a happy camper right now, all I can say is that it could have been much worse, I'm grateful it wasn't.

Val

Fireant13 Nancy, I am honored you chose my idea as a project. I think I mention in my thread how I got the idea and that it was submitted to the Girl Scouts of America, probably around 27 yeaars ago by a den mother who was an empoyee of mine. The thread is http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/525641/ I would read it to the end as things are discussed further down.

I do have one addition I have failed to mention so far. When I cut the label off, I try not to do much damage or remove the area where the label is glued to the bottle. I keep this on just in case one of my cuttings gets a bit of sun during the day. The glue area helps to block the sun out.

Hap Nancy, I knew you would be a sport about it. Anyone that wears jeans all the time has to be a sport.
I went in the pool three times today to cool off. It reached 87 degrees this afternoon. We received another 1/2 inch of rain this morning and I had to drain off a bit of water.
I may not have mentioned this before but I keep tract of the day's rain by looking at my skimmer. Because it's up high it's easy to look at it daily. I try to keep an opening between 1/4 inch, on the high side, to about an inch and a quarter on the low side. This gives me a good flow of surface junk into the filter. I had to use junk because I couldn't spell debris. If that's correct, it sure doesn't look like it and it gets by Word's spell checker.
Ice skating! Now, there's a thought. Perhaps one day we could GT at the Ice Arena and go skating. We could check out the bushes and plants around the arena to make it an official garden club function.
Looking East toward downtown I don't see any city lights. There are a few spotlights roaming the sky lighting up the clouds.
We had a great sunset this evening. The clouds were all pink and orange with tinges of blue. Quite a show for those without power that were outside in the coolish night air.
Perhaps it gave them some hope that all might be better tomorrow.

Val, No big deal on the shed. I'll bang out the dents and put another tent over it. I need to have the tent covering it otherwise it gets too hot inside and my tools rust. Then I'll file the story away in my hurricane tales for future reference.

Rationing of electricity. It takes me back to our oil embarago of the 70's when you could only get so much gasoline per car. If you are frugle with your usage you can have almost everything.
I turn off the breakers for my hot water heater after the water is heated in the morning. Then we do a load of wash. After the wash I shut down and maintain the generator. I usually leave it off for three or four hours.
When I turn it back on again, I turn on the pool pump. That stays on until I start cooking dinner (yes, I do all the cooking here). After dinner and showers, we turn down everything so I can use the computer. After shutting down the computer we turn on the bedroom window AC's. A little bit of radio or reading and I am done for the day. I only keep the refigrator and a couple of house fans running all the time. In the morning the first thing on is the hot water breaker and we do it all over again.
I am using about 12 to 13 gallons per 24 hour period. I didn't mention I cook and dry laundry with gas. I could never use an electric stove.

Tonight I will leave you with a picture of my nursery area complete with the beer cans I mentioned in an earlier post. This picture will remind you of a true redneck's yard. LOL

Art

Thanks, Art. I couldn't remember the thread, and I visit quite a few for ideas. I admire your economical ways.

Thanks you for the compliment, Happy. I don't really feel like a successful teacher. I hope this project will work.

Well, you certainly sound like a great teacher to me. I have 90% success with impatients and coleus using these or similar methods.
You WILL have sucess!
sidney

Art, I am thinking about hooking up a generator to my propane tank. How do I do about figuring out my usage so that I get a big enough generator? I want to run my air and ref. I also cook with gas...wasn't that an old saying or joke about something?

Hap

Hi All,

I am up and running only temporarily. Every one around me on the west, north and east sides have power. I borrowed some long construction extension cords and have plugged into Annalisa's laundry room. This is good for 1 fridge(or 1 computer), 1 fan and 1 TV. Friday when FP&L turned on the power in our grid, they blew a transformer and fried the lines.

Now we are on the bottom of the list for repairs. After talking to FP&L yesterday, that was the news they gave me. Easy first, tough last. There is a line down in my yard and when the lines were smoking Friday, I thought I would lose my lungs.

Now I just have to worry about losing my optimism.......oh wait, I think I lost that yesterday when I talked to FP&L and sat down and cried. I discovered a lower back, legs and feet ailment that stayed hidden when under climate control. Getting up to use the john in the middle of the night is a real chore right now. Poor Snowy discovered that last night when I stepped and tripped on her. We were all sacked out on the floor in the Florida Room in front of the 1 fan blowing.

Well, I shall stop complaining now. I know there are a lot of people out there a lot worse off than me. I shall find my blessings and count them, right now.

Molly
:^))))

Hi Nancy. Deb and I are thinking about replacing this gas generator with a propane one in the fall. I haven't looked into it yet, but when I do, I will let you know.
I would guess you would need about 8,000 watts to run everything, depending on how big your AC was. I am currently using a 5,500 watt model and it's not enough to run the central AC alone.
My usage is a little rough here because I share my generator with my neighbors on the N & S of me. I let them have an extension chord each for their refigerators and a few lights. Without the added
draw down from them I still can't run the central AC. I can run everything else without turning off breakers. It's a small price to pay for helping out the neighbors. I even let the folks across the street come over and shower in the hot water.

This afternoon the neighbor to the South is packing it in. He is moving in with his girlfriend until we get power back. This will help some in my gasoline usage.

Hello, Molly,
It's good to hear from you. The situation sounds trying. I hope you get your power soon. Be careful.
Nancy

Glad you're back Molly.....just take it easy.....and aspirin...

Hi Molly. Sorry to hear about your luck in the draw. We are in a similar boat, except I have a generator to make it sort of comfortable. I can't get anything on our tv's but snow, although as a small kid I rember sitting in front of the tv looking at the snow until a program finally came on. Back then they only had a few programming hours during the day. It was still nice to see this big contraption in our living room making all that noise and showing us snow any time of the year we tuned in.

It looks like Katrina is going to be a big problem for a lot of folks from New Orleans through New England.

A few minutes ago I heard on the radio they are now watching tropical depression #13.

We had some sun today and it warmed up and became much more humid then the previous few days. Tomorrow will probably be a scorcher.

Those fortunate enough to have indoor jobs will probably enjoy going to work more than they normally do.

A few minutes ago I took a break and went out to enjoy the sunset. It was kind of normal looking. Nothing to speak of. However the street lights are on across the street. I see a house about four doors down on their side with lights. Nice to see someone I know getting power back.

The electric repair people must be getting their act together so they can finish up here and head to New Orleans.

Who knows I may have power back before Friday after all.

Have a good one.

Art

Art,

They did say they would have us back up in power by Tuesday. Guess they better get on the gun and get on up to Louisiana.

They already came back and shut my neighbor back off and on. So they got two of us at the same time. Don't know what that was about. I was hoping they would be working on us. Not even in my dreams.

Not even a breeze tonight. So hot and I am streaming with sweat, and I am sitting totally still. I am about to go jump in my gold fish pond. Okay, I shall save them and take a cold shower. My only choice right now.

I don't feel real good about going to work yet. I'd like to wait until the power is back on. With a line down in my back yard, I kinda want to keep an eye on it.

Molly

Hi Molly, I feel for you it is very tough to brave this heat and humidity without A/C. I just got my power on today, so I know how tough it is. When we meet the next time I'll tell you all how and what I found out about not getting power on before. I'm mad as hell and the mayor of this town is going to get a battle from me.

Right now, I'm very worried about my in laws. They live in Metaire, La and Gulfport respectively and thankfully they headed towards Jackson to my brother in-law's house. At 6 we heard from my father in law. He was still on the road having traveled 98 miles in the past 5 hours. He figured he had another 3 to get to Jackson. He told my hubby that he already had accepted the fact that he will lose everything he has. My heart just broke into pieces. My dear mother in-law arrived this morning in Jackson and in a calm tone (which I certainly admire) told me that she knew she wouldn't have a house to go back. She sounded resigned. My DH is very, very worried understandably so. It's going to be a long night for us and some more trying times in the weeks to come.

And then there is my mother (who lives in another country). They've had severe storms since Thursday and the region where she lives has been flooded horribly by rivers that overflowed their banks. They've had mud slides and houses and people have just dissapeared. She lives at the bottom of a hill that carries a canal on top. When it overflows the water comes rushing down to her house. She has 3 feet of sandbags in her front porch. They do not know when the storms will subside. As you can tell, I have plenty to worry about it and the worse that these loved ones are so far away.

Hang in there Molly, I know it's horrible to be without power but you will get it soon. My thoughts are with you. Do not have a number to reach you, so I can call you. The same with you Art, I hope that they restore the power as soon as possible. I admire your patience and craftiness.

Pretty soon all of this will be in the past and we'll get together to visit some other nursery and have a good time.

(((Hugs)))

Val

I know all you FL people like to stick together (I'm a native) and post on this forum. HOWEVER, many, many DG folks are standing shoulder to shoulder for you in this dangerous storm and posting on the weather thread: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/540994/

and your posts would be helpful there so they have an idea what's going on... and how and for whom to Pray.

Darius, I have been there and I'm following the thread. I feel horribly about them and my heart, thoughts and wishes for safety and well being have been there all along. I have them very much in my heart.

Thanks for reminding us.

Val

Thank you Val,

I'm so sorry to hear about all the ills that are befalling so many people in your family. I am one with relatively few troubles in the overall scheme of things. I just tend to complain and feel sorry for myself on occasion. I know La. is in for a really bad night and pray for the people who live there. Will also pray for your mother.

((((hugs for all)))))
Molly

Thanks Molly. Don't worry, we all tend to feel sorry for ourselves when things are going bad. It's just normal. I know you are having it tough, just having come out of it a few hours ago. I felt like you yesterday, I was so darn hot and miserable that all I did was complain. My hubby felt the brunt of it LOL. He certainly has patience thank goodness.
Write me a Dmail if you want to talk Ok.

(((Hugs)))

Val

Me too Val.
sidney