GETTING READY FOR HURRICANE MATTHEW 2016

ROSEATE SPOONBILL VISIT

It was near the beginning of October, we looked out and saw four Roseate Spoonbill birds hanging around on the far side of our pond. These spoonbills are members of the Ibis family of herons and it's obvious seeing them hanging around with the Ibis that they are cousins, similar head and body shape. Both versions have some pretty interesting beak formations. While our white Ibis have beautiful blue eyes the Rosy's have a bright red-orange eye color. 

We had hoped the beautiful reddish hued birds might stop by again but it was a passing single day visit. We're guessing they're migrating to warmer, more southern Florida locations to spend their winter. 

I initially shot some photos with my Canon 24-105 zoom, then ran inside and switched to the Sigma 150-650 zoom to get some closer pictures. The beautiful birds seemed to be not too worried about me working my way over closer to them to get a better look. 

OCTOBER WEATHER SHIFT & CHORES

We're 2/3 of the way through October, this past weekend the weather here in Melbourne FL has shown the greatest change since we left the hot days of July and August. 

September gave us a break from the broiling summer temperatures by having some more rain but the temperature and humidity still made it almost unworkable for outside home improvements.

On Oct 22 our thermometer said it got down to 62 at night, the next night only saw the temp get down to 70 but these lower temperatures combined with overall lower humidity have changed everything for working outside. 

Sunday the 23rd, we cut down a stalk of Emerald bamboo and cut out eight-nodes to try and sprout. This time we completely covered each piece of bamboo with potting soil and left a long leafy branch sticking up out of the pot. 

The Dollar store had some nice 2-gallon buckets for $2 so we got six to test out Marys new watering technique, get buckets of water from pond, transport the water buckets on the black Strongway 4-wheel cart, pour on the plants, repeat. So far this is one of our better interim watering techniques, it is very easy to flood potted plants with delicious pond water which has been a proven winner for plant watering in the past. This process of carrying buckets of water seems much less labor intensive than filling water jugs from the artesian well and transporting those in the LM500.

Nappy Sneetches

Heron

Here he is working his way towards where all the fish hang around looking for nom. It is bound to be a very ugly morning for some slow moving panfish.

THE SILENT GIANT

He stands motionless waiting for an innocent panfish to make one wrong move, then POW, no more panfeesh. It's Baby Huey one of our favorite herons.

When standing upright he is almost five feet tall.

DUCKS ARE BACK
Over the past weekend we counted 40 ducks on the pond at P2.

The ducks love the cracked corn, it's "crack" for ducks, they will risk their lives for it.

We are so glad the ducks have returned, they are so beautiful swimming around on the pond.

DENNIS VISITING P2

He is normally afraid of me but today Dennis was hungry so he put up with me taking his picture so he could grab a couple of yummy panfeesh from our pond.

Last 48 Hours of Hurricane Matthew - Skimming Florida

The path that Hurricane Matthew took up from Haiti to the Bahamas and then up the coast of Florida is interesting, as very few hurricanes take this path.  Here's the "last 48 hours" gif from the University of Wisconsin's Space, Science, and Engineering center.  It really shows you how close the aggregate predictive spaghetti models were in showing where the hurricane would go along Florida.

I found myself studying this predicted path historically...  the day before the hurricane.  I wanted to see how many times a hurricane has skimmed Florida.

Hurricane Hazel in 1954 came between Cuba and Haiti but stayed out to the ocean more, then made a direct hit on North Carolina.

Hurricane David in 1979 devastated Dominica, direct hit West Palm Beach in Florida, then walked up the coast in a similar path.

This data may seem insignificant, but in today's world with endless data available at your fingertips, we are smart enough to not make decisions based on fear alone...   we make decisions based on data.    Unless you're at the coast and subject to deadly storm surge, your decision to evacuate, prep, not prep for a hurricane is really left up to you.  Homes down the street from me did nothing to prepare, and were just fine with the Category 3 Matthew 70 mph winds.  If the storm brought the 119 mph winds that were predicted hours before the hurricane arrived, they would have wished they had boarded their windows as we did.

Hours before the hurricane, I was studying past hurricane paths.  I know the spaghetti models are sophisticated predictive tools that I should trust... but the cone of paths they span are less than accurate.  The explanation for variation?  "If the hurricane makes the slightest wobble, it will mean the difference between a windy stormy day and devastation".  How's that for decision-making data?

INSIDE RECORDING STUDIO HURRICANE PREPARATION

Heavy painters canvas was weighted down with cases of Fiji water to protect the main mixing console.

Racks and other gear were wrapped in heavy gauge plastic sheeting.

Guitar heads were placed in heavy contractor trash bags and taped shut. Mary gift wrapped my 24" bass drum in heavy plastic just in case we had a window breach in the control room.

All of our best instruments were placed in contractor trash bags and got a second bag over the top, then cinched up tight with packing tape, they could survive in up to three feet of water. The most expensive instruments also found home in the bath tub for extra water protection.

MORE HURRICANE PREPARATION

Monumental effort went in to boarding up our windows, it's not the broken windows you need to worry about, it's the 120mph rain that follows a window breach that REEEELY sucks.

MATTHEW HURRICANE PREPARATION KEPT US SAFE

Boarded up sliding glass door and the palms we left outside

50 pound sacks of dog food secured front door preparation

MATTHEW 10.7
The storm raged outside, power went out at about 3am. Mary was following the weather until the UPS on our router went dead, then all we could do was wait it out.

Power was back friday by 1:30 PM, good job FPL!

Uninhabitable?

We're going to be posting pictures soon of our prep and aftermath of Hurricane Matthew here in Melbourne, Florida.  We've had damage to the shed and carport, but the house is fine.  And the bamboo is fine!

One of the most memorable parts of prepping for this storm was the words they used to scare people into evacuating or at least preparing.  Free use of phrases like "uninhabitable" and "you will die" really make you think!  

We're quite inhabitable, I hope the coast did ok.  St. Augustine looks very hard hit with a lot of water.

NEW BAMBOO
- TODAYS COUNT
125 new bamboo canes as of today, that is UP from 103 on Sept 17th.

Today is the first day we noticed a new cane coming up on our "Baby" bamboo plant.

Here is Baby's first real cane coming up.

The "Overachiever" Award goes to Fluffy the bamboo plant, this beast grew at least 36" this week, it's going to be transplanted into bamboo area tomorrow before it bursts through the pool screen roof.