Did your farms and property survive those storms the last couple of days? We had winds knocking over large heavy trash dumpsters on Friday and about three inches of rain in less than 30 minutes...I thought that was bad and then last night winds heavy enough to shove concrete parking curbs (or chocks or whatever they're called) around. I see that two people died in a tornado just northwest of you. Probably hit Gipper too.
We had nothing too sever last night. Mary heard some thunder but I slept through the whole thing. I believe there was a tornado south towards Sarasota. Ralph may have gotten more than we got.
Thank you for the concern it's appreciated, we did okay receiving roughly 5" of rain Fri-Sat night but evaded the multiple tornados. The area the farm is located in will be without power until later today as a tornado or straight line winds (feels like a twister to me) destroyed an electrical sub-station in the area. The main areas affected, Duette where the couple died when their mobile home was destroyed and Siesta Key in Sarasota are very personal to me as I have friends in both areas...I was up at three watching the Tampa news stations report the weather and I have to say I have NEVER seen a Florida tornado travel 50-60 miles like these were doing, incredible... This is going to be a very interesting month or two as the super El Niño induced storms head our way every 7-10 days, next one is on Friday... You guys are incredible, thank you again for asking and stay safe and keep your cell phones on to be aware of any storms heading towards you...
Glad to hear you're ok, been a rough month for Skyboxers with Scott having to deal with weather in the Dallas area and now the weather in Fla.
Glad to hear you're OK, Ralph. I know some folks who winter along the Gulf coast, from Sarasota down to Venice. Hope they're OK.
Ralph, Glad to hear you escaped for the most part. Five inches of rain is still a lot of rain in my book.
Don I agree 5" is a lot of rain and it will change up what I had on the agenda as the fields will be saturated, but not trying to sound callous our entire development is engineered to move water off the location. We are literally located at the headwaters to the Everglades and the farmers of yesteryear would have never grown here to be honest...We fired up all nine out pumps and will run them 24 hours nonstop for a grand total of 162,000,000 gallons when completed. I'm throwing more water in Stu's direction... Metoe what???? That's very interesting and the first time I've ever heard the term used before....And I live every ten minutes of my life checking the weather reports....Thanks for sharing Stu
Ralph, you are allowed to send your water our way. It's that Lake Okeechobee diversion and the sugar cane fertilizer that is so hard on the habitat and estuaries here.
LOL, they are a little wind burned and probably threw a little fruit on the ground but they look fine. I will spray a fungicide tomorrow because of all the rainfall but they are still hanging tough. It looks like we will be shipping peaches to two different grocery chains in Texas this season, HEB grocery and Fiesta Market Supermarkets. The higher end fruit will be at HEB and the lower quality fruit (a hair smaller) will be going to Fiesta which caters to the latin crowd. Same taste and quality in eating but packed in a bulk pack shipment. This lowers our cost and makes it more affordable for the consumer. I hope you get to try some this season Terry...
I'm trying to get a geographical fix on everyone in Florida. MCG is in the Tampa area? Gipper is in The Villages. Sounds like Stu is in Naples. I have a place in Hobe Sound ( next to Jupiter ). Exactly where are you, Ralphie boy?
Well George that would give away my James Bond status I secretly hold myself in... I sleep in Lake Placid (Highlands County) and visit my bride on occasion according to her and work in Eastern Charlotte County (There's not really a town I can say I am near). If you look at Punta Gorda on the map I am 30 miles due East, 29 miles Southeast of Arcadia, 45 miles Northeast of Ft. Myers and 25 miles West of Palmdale.... Just think the middle of nowhere and 26 miles from the nearest gas station... Lake Placid has been my home for 20 years but I am still meeting new neighbors who think I'm a stranger, "yep a farming life for me"... Florida is such a diverse and transient State, I can stand in line at the convenience store in the morning behind cowboys wearing spurs on the way to work cattle and be at a restaurant at lunch eating with folks who have never been 10 miles away from the coastline in thirty years...
Ralph, 29 miles SE of Arcadia puts you smack dab dead center in the middle of nowhere... lol. There's a restaurant?
LOL, no restaurant in the area, hell its a 60 mile round trip to the post office..The salesman who call on me are always wanting to go to lunch but it kills 2.5 hours on a good day so I normally pass on the invitation... It's the busiest place in the middle of nowhere I have ever seen though, with 300 people here at times on a given day...Except for when I managed 2,000 acres of lemons and grapefruit on the Big Cypress Indian Reservation for Dole Foods, that was a 100 mile round-trip to buy a soda...