Sometimes Some Things Move, Sometimes Other Things Move
It has been a wild and crazy month! First there was Helene, then there was Milton and before there was preparing, then moving through each and afterwards there was recovering from each! I have lived in Florida my whole life, except for 8 years in the 80s when I lived in New York. I have been through a lot of storms and hurricanes during this life. These two hurricanes were unlike any other. Now, one can argue that every hurricane is different … yes, I agree. However they still had common ways they moved towards Florida and common ways they approached land and common ways they interacted as they hit landfall. Now it seems all bets are off.
I live in St. Petersburg and my property is about 100 miles north and a little more inland, still on the West side of Florida on the Gulf of Mexico side. I was very blessed in both locations. Helene hit landfall up in the panhandle and was about 100 miles out in the Gulf still as it passed St. Petersburg. It caused major destruction and flooding along the coast from the water surges that ranged up to 6′ high. The beaches in Pinellas County (like St. Petersburg Beach and Clearwater Beach) were flooded out and left looking like two story sand dunes. As any of you who watched the photo and video footage know, the panhandle of Florida, parts of Georgia, Tennessee and all the way on th other side of Florida to N. Carolina where it continued it’s destruction wiping out entire towns. My deepest prayers go out to all those impacted by these storms.
I was blessed. The place I live in was a no evacuation zone and a no flood zone. So was my property. Trees down, but no real damage happened to either location. Then our attention was focused on Milton which also came from an odd direction and seemed to begin to head right towards the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. The debris from Helene was still everywhere along the coast, houses ruined, streets lined with the contents of those homes. This time they evacuated 2 more zones inland off the west coast. Once again I was still in a no evac/no flood zone where I lived and so was the property further north.
Milton quickly intensified to a Cat 5 and then slowed and dropped to a Cat 4, then back to a Cat 5. It barrelled right at us and the state prepped for the hit. People evacuated this time, thousands trying to get out of the way even though Milton looked like it was going to take out the entire central part of Florida all the way from the West to the East coast. It wobbled longer than usual and finally at 8:30ish, on the 9th, it hit landfall about 30 minuted South of St. Petersburg in Siesta Key.
The other odd thing was the 140+ tornadoes that hit south central Florida taking out homes, cars, buildings, streets, etc. When it finally hit landfall it had reduced to a Cat 3 but it was still devastating again. The sea surges this time were 10 – 12 ft. high taking the flooding even deeper into the coastal cities than Helene did. In St. Petersburg, where I live, the winds blew and the rain poured down until 5 AM when it finally started to become quieter.
When the sun rose it had moved past us. We had no water, no electricity. There were tons of trees down and fences blown away, etc. but we were not flooded and we were OK here. My cell service worked so the first thing I did was check the security cameras on the property. My shipping container home was fine … still sitting on it’s 10 piers, 2′ above the ground even though I still had not gotten it tied down before the storms. I was so relieved and grateful. Indeed I had been blessed!
I wanted to run to the property to check it and be on it, but we had no gas here and didn’t know when we would again. I had a delayed delivery of materials that was to arrive Wednesday so I held myself back from going on Sunday just in case there would still not be gas to refill with before Wednesday. I waited. We finally got water again 2 days later on a boil-only basis. We got electricity back 4 days later. Blessed!
Wednesday I woke up before dawn and drove to the property to receive my two deliveries. As I drove the 100 miles south there were trees down & visible damage all along the way. Still it is surreal knowing just how much damage there was elsewhere. I got to the property and the fun began. The first delivery was the wood. Up drove the big truck and the driver lowered his large 3 wheel dolly and rolled it onto the property. He took it and dropped it right near the concrete pad of the shipping container & told me there would be another crew that would come and transport it into the container. Okie Dokie., we’ll credit you the fees, but you are on your own. UGH.
Then the delivery of the actually siding showed up. It was a bit of a repeat. He too took his big 3 wheel dolly and drove the siding and trim over to the storage shipping pad. He wa s nice enough to move the wood pallets so he could get the siding pallets onto the concrete pad in front of the container. He then even put the wood pallets back near by so it would be easier on me. For that he got a tip and I was again on my own. NO delivery into the container. I was now the person to transport that. I needed to get home to my clients but I couldn’t just leave it all outside, or so I thought at that point.
I contacted Nair, my GC and she said that made no sense. She contacted the not-to-be-named big box company. There was a bit of a tussle and they said they would contact driver and get back with us. They did and said basically: OOPs, we don’t deliver into shipping containersSo I started hauling it in. Wood first. It was 2 pallets . 10 ft long wood of varying dimensions. I could take one at a time and so I did. I got about a pallet & 1/2 into the container and the day was moving on so I decided it was now time to get the siding in since it looked more challenging. Figured I’d start with the trim. I immediately understand that the “cement” in the Hardee fiber cement siding was real cement & therefore really heavy. I picked up each of the 12 trim pieces & pulled and wiggled it into the container. It took over an hour to do just that.
Now the day is moving into mid afternoon. I figured I would start working on the 4′ x 10′ Hardee Primed Fiber Cement Panels. In about 2 min I knew this was going to be a no-go. I was no match for those boards. They were heavy & BIG and I was neither LOL. I managed to get 3 of the 29 into the container and that took a little over another hour of dragging and pulling and begging and pleading with the great gods of siding. No Bueno!!! By now I really needed to leave so I decided I would just tarp it all, pray that the weather forecast that said no rain would hold and I’d have to get back to it Sunday.
I tarped it. I went to the left most shipping contain door and pulled it mostly closed knowing I needed to close the right door first. I went to the right door and as I began to pull it closed I, for the first time, saw that the pallet of siding was placed about 3 inches in the way of the door closing. OMG!!! There was nothing left in me – I already knew I could not move the individual pieces of siding. I thought I’d try one more thing – I hooked a chain to the pallet & to the tow hitch on the Jeep Gladiator & tried to pull it out of the way. Fail. So it was going to have to stay as it was with everything tarped & the right door wide open. I had to go. I had no idea what kind of bugs & creatures I might come back to in the container when I returned but so be it. I would deal with that when I needed to.
Sunday I was back up at the crack of dawn and headed to the property. Nair, bless her heart, was going to meet me there and help me get the siding in. I arrived and we went right to work. We first got the rest of the wood in and then tackled the siding. With her carrying one end of the 10′ siding and me the other we managed to get the other 26 pieces in within about an hour! VICTORY!!!! And … we didn’t see or hear any creatures as we worked LOL. I know better than to think that creatures aren’t smart enough to hide quietly from us so after Nair left and I finished folding the tarps back up and rearranging some of the rest of the container, I sprayed the whole thing down with a natural peppermint repellent just in case and locked it up finally.
Before Nair left we got a few minutes to sit in the Adirondack chairs and hang out some. It was so good to see her and have her there. She loves the land so it was great to just be there and share it all with her. I was pretty pooped out so I just piddled around the rest of Sunday and headed home. I would get back to brush cutting next week.
I posted videos of everything related to both Wednesday and Sunday including the wood and siding deliveries, the progress of getting it all in the container and a rainwater collection tank update after Milton on the Freedom Acres YouTube Channel, and as always my exciting end of the day report on Sunday & various videos with Gracie. Feel free check it all out by clicking HERE. Also, feel free to subscribe and you can get notified when new videos go up! 🙂
We are now moving into the last week of October and I am still in the game to be living on the property THIS yearl!! LOL. I am still dealing dealing with what I am needing to do to get past the county’s latest demands of 9 weeks ago. I have certification letters for the architect from everyone except the plumber who got stopped with his own things he is dealing with from Milton. Bottom line now is that I am hoping to get that this week and get it all to the architect. Nair and I figure the architect will get his letter to the county within 10 days then. So I have no idea how long it will all take to get the county’s response. I am just praying for speed to delivery. I want to get my Certificate of Occupancy before Jan so that I can homestead the property for taxes in 2025 … Game ON!
Hopefully Jason and gang can get started with the siding and then move onto the decking soon. Helene and Milton really did slow everyone down and get everyone behind in schedules. I am holding onto it is all still somehow possible, nevertheless! Nair and I have bought cabinets for the kitchen and will be appliance shopping soon and my friend Lu, who is gifting me lots of high quality new features like a toilet, sinks, shower hardware, faucets, etc. is busy ordering things for deliver soon. I just keep moving AS IF everything is moving forward coz wellllllll …. that is how I roll!!! LOL. So, STAY TUNED still coz no telling what will show up this week!
As always, I send you FREEDOM and LOVE!
