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| Sun Room | |
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| Topic Started: Sep 13 2014, 04:57 PM (1,639 Views) | |
| Kahu | Jul 11 2015, 03:09 PM Post #76 |
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Well I certainly hope it doesn't get anywhere worse! When there are bushfires in NSW or Victoria we sometimes get quite large pieces of burnt bracken fern which survive the 1900 km (1200 mile) trip across the Tasman. They are large enough to identify easily enough, but they crumble soon after touching. New Zealand firefighters are suiting up to help battle raging wildfires across Canada. The National Rural Fire Authority has confirmed 16 firefighters will fly out to Edmonton, Alberta on Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the authority said most of the staff were "incident management level", meaning they would largely be assisting Canadian fire services with planning and logistics. The crew, who will be drawn from the national incident management and rural fire response teams around the country, are expected to stay in Canada for about five weeks. National Rural Fire Officer Kevin O'Connor said the team would provide front-line support to local firefighters. "Our people have a range of skills in high demand during lengthy firefighting operations," he said. About 800,000 hectares of forest are burning across Canada and Alaska, with a mass of smoke drifting as far as Colorado in the United States. About 1400 Canadian soldiers have also been deployed to fight the blazes spreading across Alberta and Saskatchewan, where more than 13,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in some of the region's worst fires in years. New Zealand previously lent support to Canadian authorities in August 2009 Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/nz-firefighters-canada-bound-2015071014#ixzz3fXmerWTZ |
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| Trotsky | Jul 12 2015, 01:52 AM Post #77 |
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Big City Boy
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I lose patience with endless firefighting. First you hear ecologist after ecologist saying that fire is a natural part of the forest and they should be let burn. They criticize fighting every single fire because that makes for the eventual inevitable IMMENSE amount of readily flammable material since no tree or bush lasts forever. When you allow all this old "firewood" to accumulate and you have a drought (again, inevitable) and a fire starts, it can become a holocaust...and again, here come the firefighters to save as much dead brush as possible for the NEXT fire. Firefighting is making the problem of forest fires and brush fires worse than they need to be, not better. We all know how this works but still society operates as if we know NOTHING about forests. It is absolutely akin to having your beach house swept away in a hurricane and then scurrying to rebuild even CLOSER to the water's edge. Man is not going to beat Mother nature no matter how hard he tries...she hold all the aces. Edited by Trotsky, Jul 12 2015, 01:57 AM.
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| Delphi51 | Jul 12 2015, 04:23 AM Post #78 |
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There are some "prescribed burns" every year to reduce the risk of wildfires, especially in the big parks. Despite popular objections to clear cut logging, it is an important deterrent, too. No government can just let a forest fire burn towns. |
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| wildie | Jul 12 2015, 04:59 AM Post #79 |
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Veteran Member
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My place at the lake is 3 kms. from a provincial park! They have controlled burns there, periodically. Apparently, oak acorns need heat from fires to spur them on to germinate. This park was originally oak savana, but was logged out by the British during the 19th century. White pine was planted as a replacement, as it grows much faster than oak. The MNR is now attempting to revert the park back to being an oak forest, hence the controlled fires! |
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| Kahu | Jul 12 2015, 01:02 PM Post #80 |
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It's usually only those fires which threaten settlement areas which the firefighters are deployed to limit the damage to human lives. In Australia, where forest fires seem to be the norm, probably for millions of years ... the eucalypt forests need the fire to crack open their seeds. The flora has adapted to the physical conditions to allow it to survive and multiply. In NZ it's quite a different scene. Early Maori (±1200 CE) deliberately burnt areas to make cultivations, and to hunt the the giant Moa to extinction. There are areas in the South Island where these early burnings took place and there has been no regeneration of the original forest at all ... tussock grassland replaced it. Native trees are very slow growers. Today, with plantings of exotic timbers for construction and export firefighters are used to primarily protect the investment involved ... on reaching maturity the trees are clear felled, and exotic seedlings are replanted. |
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| Trotsky | Jul 15 2015, 04:14 AM Post #81 |
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Big City Boy
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Not so on the U.S. West coast, especially California. Every multimillion dollar home built atop some hill of dry tinder, saved from the last 5 brush fires, is treasured as if its burning will destroy the underpinnings of society. So every forest becomes riddled with more and more of these homes: "Oh honey, the forest view is SPECTACULAR." Even the dumbest animal eventually learns, but man is unique and can keep doing the same stupid thing ad infintium. "Bad forest fire this year, like last. Firemen from 18 states battling the blaze that has already consumed 4 homes...story at 11." Who knows? Maybe it's a job security thing? Just like prison corporations need prisoners to house, firefighters need fires to fight , every week, every month, every year. Edited by Trotsky, Jul 15 2015, 05:19 AM.
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| wildie | Jul 15 2015, 04:10 PM Post #82 |
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Veteran Member
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Who knows? Maybe it's a job security thing? Just like prison corporations need prisoners to house, firefighters need fires to fight , every week, every month, every year. Its a known fact that individuals do set fires, in order to avail themselves of fire fighting wages! |
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| Delphi51 | Jul 26 2015, 09:34 AM Post #83 |
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The sun room is pretty well finished! Posted Image Quite a job to make a deck at ground level - all the joists had to be dug in. Even the closet is in place! Posted Image I never thought about the space needed to pull out the drawers but by a major lucky fluke it is a little tight but there is just enough room to remove each one and put it back. We moved it from the garage on a garden tractor trailer and I painted it on the deck. It looked hard to get into its spot inside but DW suggested we just put a blanket under and pull it in - which worked perfectly. |
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| FuzzyO | Jul 26 2015, 09:40 AM Post #84 |
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Wow, it really has come together! Why did you want the deck to be at ground level? |
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| Bitsy | Jul 26 2015, 10:18 AM Post #85 |
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Veteran Member
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Sun room, deck and closet looks great, as do you! All that work looks like it agreed with you. |
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| Darcie | Jul 26 2015, 01:08 PM Post #86 |
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Skeptic
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Everything is wheel chair accessible, but apart from that it is a beautiful and well done job. Is that you smiling? If so you should also give yourself a pat on the back. |
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| Delphi51 | Jul 26 2015, 01:30 PM Post #87 |
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Thanks, Darcy. I got a big hug and kiss, hence the smile! And Bitsy - the work has agreed with me - I feel younger for the experience. Yes, freedom from stairs was the idea. Also the slope of the land left little choice in the matter. We had my dad next door for ten years and it got very hard for him to make it into our house despite a ramp I built to eliminate going down from his house on his way up to ours. MIL living with us now is just able to make it up and down the 7 steps from driveway to door. And I suppose we will be next in line for canes, walkers and wheelchairs. A group from long term care was supposed to visit us this week but it was cancelled due to our street being closed for curb and sidewalk building. Edited by Delphi51, Jul 26 2015, 01:34 PM.
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| FuzzyO | Jul 26 2015, 01:58 PM Post #88 |
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I'm sure the visitors from your LTC centre are very grateful! |
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| Delphi51 | Jul 26 2015, 02:13 PM Post #89 |
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Yes, they will be! Most families aren't equipped to bring their wheelchair bound resident home, so they never see the inside of a house for their years in LTC. I brought my dad home a couple of times by pushing his wheelchair across town. I got him into his old house via the back door at ground level. Couldn't get him into ours but we did have lunch on the front lawn. |
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| FuzzyO | Jul 26 2015, 03:27 PM Post #90 |
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Anything you can do to make life a little more normal and a little less institutional is really really significant. |
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