This is why I have AWD...

Just never be complacent about it. My house had never been flooded in at least 150 years, and when it did flood, it peaked at 2 feet above the second floor! We were watching, and when we went to bed, the river was still in its banks, about 10 feet below grade at the house [the house was about 100 yds from the river]. The next morning, I jumped out of bed into a foot of water [on the first floor]. We couldn't believe it would rise any farther, so we stayed. By afternoon, it was up to the second floor. You could see the water "walking" up the stairs, it was rising that fast! The boat that picked us up pulled right up to a second floor window. About 20 feet above flood stage.

We lost everything. It's just stuff, but some stuff is irreplaceable. That's why I never lived near a river again, no matter how beautiful it can be. I wouldn't wish the ordeal on anyone.

That sucks. Honestly, I don't have any stuff I care about besides my firearms and computer setup, which is all rapidly portable. And insured. The house and car of course, its obviously insured. I don't have any , antique furniture, etc. like many people do that would be lost to a flood. Even my firearm collection would be fine, just strip and reoil. Flood lasts a few hours max, and it's on second story anyways.
 
"never" is a word nature doesn't respect & follow. 30 years or 500 years is nothing in the timeline of this planet.

Arizona use to be a tropical area with volcanoes. Now it's a desert. Remnants can still be seen with Flagstaff mountain (volcano) and the cinders from the eruptions and the petrified forest east of there.

Nature does what it does and there's no stopping it
 
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"never" is a word nature doesn't respect & follow

Arizona use to be a tropical area with volcanoes. Now it's a desert. Remnants can still be seen with Flagstaff mountain (volcano) and the cinders from the eruptions and the petrified forest east of there.

Nature does what it does and there's no stopping it

This is very true and accurate, fortunately, "fast" on nature's timeline is several of our lifetimes.
 
Life goes on.
So now I live in the mountains, and like you did, have to consider wildfires, and live with the smoke from them all too often.
Not to mention the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
But I love it anyway.
"It's always something!"
Sorry to hear your story. There's no place on earth is perfectly safe to live and there's always something! Here in North Texas we have long and hot summer,、cold and freezing winter、very short and nice spring and fall but with frequent severe weather of hail storm and tornado! But life is short, as long as we like the place we currently live enjoying the life, like you and Unobtanium, that's good! (drinks)
 
Cheers all! I may not be in the mountains anymore, but I'm 5 minutes away. (drinks)
 
Nice spread you have there....

One could have a heck of a family reunion there



I mowed the lawn today and decided to explain in pictures why I'd choose to live 45 minutes from work in a place that I NEED AWD. I gave up sports cars for this, basically, but I DID at least retain high-speed internet :) (if you call 9.5 down and 2 up "high speed"...it's good enough for FPS's as my ping is low).

River forms the northern property border, and is 50 feet to the left of the gazebo in the second picture.
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Buying this currently (under contract) which is adjacent to my property current, and will double my water frontage from 3 to 600 feet. Photo taken across the meadow with the gazebo from t he second picture as the focal point in the distance at about 11 o'clock in the photo.:
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It looks great. My property is way too hilly and there are too many obstacles for a zero turn. I have one of those articulating rear, Swedish riders with a front deck and AWD. I wish we could get the more commercial versions of them in the US. It only has a 41" mulching deck, which is nice getting between and around fruit trees, but not so quick in the open areas.

With your space, I'd be devoting some to pasture.
 
One of my grandfathers had a place years back on a local river. It had some really steep areas on it he wanted mowed so he braded a heavy gauge extension cord with rope and used it to lower an electric mower over side of hill to mow. The electric mower was pretty lightweight and surprisingly worked well. It really was too steep to even try to cut with a brushcutter/weedeater.
 
Good job actually. What do you do with all that grass?
Thanks!
Nothing? It just lays there and returns to mother earth.

Soon, these girls are gonna be rootin it up! I thought it was a helluva deal I got. $400 delivered for the coop + $200 for the solar electric fence that I installed after the first night of seeing raccoons eyeballing it, +$140 for 5 month old birds (3 buff orpingtons, 3 white leghorns, 3 black stars, and 1 leghorn rooster. The feeder and waterer and so forth was another $75ish.
All in all, I feel like I got everything for less than the price you'd normally pay for a coop like that.

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It looks great. My property is way too hilly and there are too many obstacles for a zero turn. I have one of those articulating rear, Swedish riders with a front deck and AWD. I wish we could get the more commercial versions of them in the US. It only has a 41" mulching deck, which is nice getting between and around fruit trees, but not so quick in the open areas.

With your space, I'd be devoting some to pasture.

My neighbor has something similar, with a 15' deck. It's beastly.
I don't have or want big livestock at this point, but I now have chickens, so who knows.
 
Thanks!
Nothing? It just lays there and returns to mother earth.

Soon, these girls are gonna be rootin it up! I thought it was a helluva deal I got. $400 delivered for the coop + $200 for the solar electric fence that I installed after the first night of seeing raccoons eyeballing it, +$140 for 5 month old birds (3 buff orpingtons, 3 white leghorns, 3 black stars, and 1 leghorn rooster. The feeder and waterer and so forth was another $75ish.
All in all, I feel like I got everything for less than the price you'd normally pay for a coop like that.

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025-jpg.1390240

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15264981087068668177766363761527-jpg.1391180
That's really nice life style you're now having! Chickens! I like that if I still have much energy to handle all the hard work!
 
Yes, it's not the weight that is the issue. It's the height. All the weight is on one end and it just tips right over.
 
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