Visitors on Our Property!

1st Thing on Our Check List..... Storm Shelter, CHECK

Bulldog Man and I decided, if we lived in Tornado Alley, a tornado shelter was mandatory.  Granted when we decided this, we were living in a rental home without a shelter.  Each time a major (F3, F4, &F5) tornado came through; we would grab our bug out bags, the dog, and evacuate the area. In other words, drive the opposite direction for safety.   

No more running!!!!

We purchased a home in the country; and the first thing we installed was a medium size (6X8) tornado shelter.  Inside this shelter, we will place emergency supplies, i.e. communications, lights, first aid, water, food, tools, and protection.  The shelter is registered with the Emergency Operations Center within our county; just in case our home and property are hit by a tornado, emergency personnel will come to our rescue within minutes of the storm.  

Tornado shelters are normally used a couple of times during tornado season.  In Oklahoma, tornado season generally runs from March 1^st to July 1^st ; with the month of May being the most prominent month.  Time spent in the shelter is usually just a few minutes.  

Our idea is to use part of the shelter (the area behind the stairs, and along that wall) as an area to store harvested vegetables and fruit (kind of like a root cellar).  Bulldog Man and I will do some more research before moving forward with the idea of using the shelter as a root cellar.  

   

Without further adieu, here’s the installation of our medium-sized tornado shelter.

Video #1   shows our contractor measuring, spray painting, digging, and leveling the location where we want our tornado shelter to be placed.

Video#2   tornado shelter arrives on a boom truck, is lifted into place, and once again leveled.

Video #3   lifting the top half of the shelter to remove particles of concrete and dust from edge, adding water proofing adhesive and finally adding nonskid strips to the stairs.  Then re-attach the roof, and secure the top with steel fastening straps.  

Video#4   re-attach the roof, level once more, and secure the top with steel fastening straps. 

Video#5   filling in soil, packing it around the shelter, and cleaning up.

Video#6   final product, now time to add our emergency supplies……and possibly food storage (root cellar style).

Any questions?

The Move Begins!

There’s been a lot going on around here at the rental home, and at our country home. 

We’ve been totally breaking down the raised garden beds at the rental home.  The wood was separated into two piles...the good pile (which we gave to a neighbor, and the bad pile (wood no longer of use, needing to go to the dump).  To save time, and our backs, we rented a Bobcat to breakdown and spread the soil, compost, and peat throughout the side yard.  Tank, our son, offered to run the Bobcat to make things a little easier on us old folks (he loves being a smart a$$).  Granted, we rented the Bobcat for the entire weekend; our boy had the job done in less than 45 minutes.   This gave us the opportunity to return the Bobcat early, and not beat our bodies up from the constant jerking and bobbing back and forth.

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The moving process has begun!!!  We rented a large enclosed trailer for two weekends to move all of my garden stuff, the garage with all the tools, and equipment.  Then we started working on moving our household items (the small stuff).   The last Saturday of this month a local moving company will come in and move all the furniture, and the real heavy items. 

     

Tomorrow, I’ll be back out at our country home to receive some new appliances, and have a satellite installed for TV/internet access.  On Wednesday we’re having a tornado shelter installed on our property.  My plans are to use the shelter as a root cellar for harvested vegetables (onions, potatoes) when we’re not using it for tornadoes.   I still need to complete research to make sure the tornado shelter will be cool enough here in Oklahoma for certain vegetables and fruit.

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Because there were so many foot prints of wildlife around our new home, Bulldog Man and I setup a few game cams, and we wish to share with you some of the pictures.

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Now I know a few of you will get a kick out of this next picture.  It’s the new roller skate designed specifically for trucks……check it out……

I know I’m being a smart ____  _____ _____!!!!

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I’ll be in and out of Blogger while we finish moving into our new place, and get setup. Thank you for being patient while this happens.

Here are some of our neighbors!