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Nature's Fury

C James

Entry posted by C James

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In a normal year, Arizona's Monsoon season (summer thunderstorms) starts in mid-july, and ramps up by mid August, often resulting, here in the high mountians of northern Arizona, thunder daily, but rain once ever few days at most.

 

This year, a years-long drought has broken, and we've had rain daily, over a foot between mid_July and yesterday.

 

Yesterday, I had major damage to my house (wish I was joking on that). A thunderstorm hit, and in the mountains they can be very violent. This one began typically, but seemed to stall out over my area; the rain and hail kept thundering down, for over two hours. We had about a foot of rain (amking two since mid-july), but the hail, whoa. Not huge, just marble-sized, but it kept coming, and I ended up with about five inches of what looked like snow when an hour before it had been in the 80's. The ground is still covered with ice, and it's in the 40's now. There were also hundred-mile-an-hour winds. My roof was asphalt-shingle. I emphasize "was". The hail stripped away all the grit, plus cracked the shingles all over the darn place, allowing some to pull free of the nails when the winds hit. The "zipper effect" took of about a third of my roof shingles, total. But that wasn't the end of it; I've got a wood deck, and wood siding. The hail chewed the hell out of it. it chipped and flaked all the paint, and if I don't get a new coat on soon It will start to peel, and I'll have to sandblast the whole darn house and deck.

 

I've got plastic sheeting covering my roof now, and I had some major water damage inside as well. Insurance will pay for some but not all, and I've got to do a huge amount of work.

 

Oh, to to it off; the dirt road up the mountainside (basically a rough jeep trail at the best of times) to my house is gone in places. Just gone. and in the creekbed that's part of the road, the flash-flood sent what looks to have been a 20ft wall of water through, and I've now got some rocks, one the size of a car, blocking my route. So I've got to fix the road (I can make it passable with a shovel within a day or two) and move the rocks before I can even get out of here. The big rock? it can't be got around. I've got to get rid of it.

Fortunately one of my neighbors (about a mile from here, I had to walk it in the mud) is a miner, and can help me blast the sucker Wednesday. So, I should be above to get out of here within a few days, but whoa, I've got a lot of work to do on the rest.

 

Ugh.

4 Comments

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Meeko

Hey Cj

 

Wow, and to think i had it bad? thats very rough man, but the most important thing is that your alright... You are alright aren't you? I very much hope soo..

 

I've never encountered anything that bad just yet, but i really hope you are okay, and if you need help, i'd love to fly down there and watch you get all sweaty and take off your shirt>< LOL I'm just kidding hehe or am i?? :wub:

 

Anyway i hope all is well, and that you get everything fixed and back into shape!

 

-LC

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Conner
Hey Cj

 

.... and if you need help, i'd love to fly down there and watch you get all sweaty and take off your shirt>< LOL I'm just kidding hehe or am i?? :wub:

...

-LC

 

Yes! I understand, LC. Once you've been around a sweaty goat, you just want more! :P

 

That totally sucks, CJ. :thumbdown: Mother Nature can be a real sweetheart sometimes.

 

Glad to hear that your insurance will cover some of it. That's going to be a lot of work. :pickaxe: ugh.

 

I bet you're looking forward to blowing up that meteor sized boulder! :devil:

 

Conner

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C James
Hey Cj

 

Wow, and to think i had it bad? thats very rough man, but the most important thing is that your alright... You are alright aren't you? I very much hope soo..

 

I've never encountered anything that bad just yet, but i really hope you are okay, and if you need help, i'd love to fly down there and watch you get all sweaty and take off your shirt>< LOL I'm just kidding hehe or am i?? :wub:

 

Anyway i hope all is well, and that you get everything fixed and back into shape!

-LC

Thanks LC!

 

I'm fine thinks, and I've been working in the mud today to clear my road. Work an hour or two, then take a break at the computer is more like it, but it's getting done.

 

And us goats, well, if we take off our shirts, it's too eat them for lunch. :sheep:

 

Yes! I understand, LC. Once you've been around a sweaty goat, you just want more! :P

 

That totally sucks, CJ. :thumbdown: Mother Nature can be a real sweetheart sometimes.

 

Glad to hear that your insurance will cover some of it. That's going to be a lot of work. :pickaxe: ugh.

 

I bet you're looking forward to blowing up that meteor sized boulder! :devil:

Conner

 

Actually, you're darn right I'm looking forward to blasting that dang rock. :devil:

It won't be that big a bang, though. Ever used explosives before? The way this will be done is I'll use a pnumatic drill to bore a couple of holes, in with tiny amounts of HE will be placed. The miner has the tools, including the HE, but I'll be doing the work. We'll probably mix less than an ounce of HE (High Explosive) Like most small mining operations, he orders it by mail, as a binary; you have to mix the liquids for it to become HE. (that way it's shipable by mail, seperatly of course).

 

So it won't be a big bang (I've used this method when putting in a foundation) but it will break up the rock, into peices small enough for me to winch out of the way.

 

I should be able to get out of here by Thursday; I have no way of driving off my property at the moment. LoL.

 

What I'm worried about is the roof; right now, plastic is keeping the rain out (had more rain today) but if I get high winds with rain, I'll be in trouble. I've got to find a roofing contractor with 4x4's (without 4-wheel drive, they won't make it up here, even in good weather) or, I have to do it myself and that's a big job, plus I HATE heights.

 

But getting the roof back on is my #1 priority, after getting my road fixed and that dang rock out of the way.

Ahh, the joys of rural life. :)

CJ

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Krista

I hope everything works out as smoothly as possible. I know it'll be a mess and a half getting everything repaired and such.

 

 

Good luck,

 

 

Krista

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