Wildfire Safety: 20 Essential Tips to Protect Your Home

[00:00:06] Welcome back to the Changing Earth Podcast with author Sarah F. Hathaway and co-host Chen Gibson. Blending survival fiction and fact to bring you entertaining education that will help you dream, survive and thrive. And now here's your host Sarah F. Hathaway and Chen Gibson.

[00:00:27] Hey guys and welcome to the Changing Earth Podcast. This is episode number 482. We are broadcasting live. It's gonna be interesting. I'm learning all kinds of new technology, but I missed having you guys and so here we are. So hey Chen what's up? Hey Chen's up y'all. Hey and I get to watch it live too.

[00:00:57] Right? I know you're not like in the dark anymore. Hey now. Got my feathers all slicked back looking good. Right? Yeah. So here we go. I've got all kinds of things to watch now. So be patient with me. I've got computers set up and chat links and all kinds of stuff going. So you'll have to keep an eye on the element for me if you can do that Chen. That would be helpful.

[00:01:27] So we can kind of see what the PBN members are doing. As well as we're getting the live feeds from YouTube and from Twitter and from Facebook. It's just all kinds of crazy going on. So if you see me. Oh my goodness. I know. I know. Just like ramped up the game. Okay, so let's do a little bit of oh and beyond that. Okay, one more thing before we go in.

[00:01:55] See, I had to get all gussied up. I had to have my hat on everything else. I was literally out just painting and staining the chicken coop. So I was like staying all over the place. I'm like. Suntan. Yeah, right. Is it a homestead or suntan? Texas. The summer. So, well, it's coming. It's getting hot here already. Hey, X shows the changing earth live. Right? Boom.

[00:02:24] Wow. I know. We're stepping up in the world. So, it'll be fun. And then we still have the traditional reloads where it'll play and all of that good stuff over on. I got a couple of YouTube channels for you guys to follow now. Rumble channels. We're going to get into that. I'm still working on the Las Vegas years to get that book out to you guys. I will have it done by September. That is my goal.

[00:02:53] I've got projects that just keep coming up and taking precedence. Speaking of, season two, the remix is done. I've been having just a great time playing with AI and bringing my characters to life like I've never been able to before. So, it won't just be the bouncing ball screen saver on that video anymore. You'll now get to see the actual images. You know, just a few images.

[00:03:22] They actually take a long time to create. It's fun. But it is time consuming. That was that sample I saw, right? Yes. Right. Yeah. He did good with that. Thank you. Yes. Very good. And yeah, it's AI. So, you know, you can look for like the little inconsistencies along the way. I'm getting better at finding programs that produce what I want and things like that. So, definitely a work in progress.

[00:03:52] Season five is actually still in the works. Oh, there are tiny pictures. Okay. I don't want to like put it out too far. Sorry. I got a comment from YouTube and we're awful tiny. So, there you go. There's me and there's Chin. Chin. Oh. So, I made that graphic for Chin because the first time I met you in person, you had that mascot and it just made you look like a duck.

[00:04:22] It looked like a duck. We quacked at you all weekend. Yeah. It's a Peking Chin duck. Chin got his feathers all shined up for the smell. Sorry. Yeah. You'll have to do a little placement of it. But season five. So, season five. I have a couple of episodes done in season five. It's going to actually just absolutely rock your world of the audio drama. And I'm not going to play them until I'm done with all the remixes.

[00:04:51] However, I've been talking with James at PBN and as a special gift to Changing Earth members and PBN members, we're going to start playing season five way ahead of time. So, you're going to get access to it well ahead of when anyone else does. So, go become a PBN member. Go over and become a Changing Earth subscriber. You're going to get access to season five way earlier.

[00:05:21] Membership has its benefits. It does. It does. It does. And so, I want to see. I'm so excited to get it out to you guys and see what's going on. So, we got L2 survive over at YouTube as well. He says hello. Should be asleep. Pulled a double today. Ugh. For more solar panels. Yeah. My money is all being saved for a greenhouse right now. That is the game plan after the chicken expansion is done.

[00:05:48] And unfortunately, we got 15 new chickens and now I'm down to 14 today. So, yeah. We lost one. Just wasn't doing well and we lost it. So, bummer. It sucks. Survival of the fittest, right? Prepper Camp's coming up. So, if you don't have your tickets yet, now is the time. Don't forget you need a camping spot. But I will be at Prepper Camp again this year.

[00:06:17] I can't wait to see you all out there. It's always so much fun. Just, I look forward to it all year. So, it's like family reunion for me as well. With the family that I really like to spend time with. So, I can't wait to see you all out there. Exciting piece of news. I put my books up. The Change of the Earth series. They are available on Kindle. If you're on Kindle Unlimited, you can read them there. And I got over 63,000 pages read of the Change of the Earth series. Man!

[00:06:48] Yeah. You're devouring it. Yes. So, loving it. You guys are the ones that made that happen. So, I can't say thank you enough and let's keep it rolling. You know, Change of the Earth TV series is going to be here before we know it. And you guys are the ones making it happen for real. So, thank you. Appreciate it. Oh, fighting over chicken eggs at the end of the ration. Yeah, that's exactly my thought. Fire Wolf Forge says they were fighting over the chicken eggs.

[00:07:17] And that's exactly where we're at. We only have three chickens right now. They're getting old. And it was time to replenish the flock. And I always love being able to sell them to my neighbors, being able to give them to my neighbors. And it creates a lot of camaraderie if you can be a provider like that. So, yeah. Wait till you see it. I'll do a picture because now that we have the YouTube and everything live, I'll do a picture and show you guys. It is literally like the chicken coop Taj Mahal we're building. It's so beautiful.

[00:07:46] And Brock made it so nice that now I'm like, oh, it's too nice and it needs to be airtight and it can't get water damage. And he's like, the chickens need to be able to breathe or you're just going to smoke them out in this place. So, the argument continues. But it should be done tonight, actually. That's why I was out there beating feet to do the stain and everything. So, alrighty. How cool is this? This is fun. I know. I just saw the chat.

[00:08:14] I was in the private chat and I hit the button and now I'm on the comment. Yeah. It's going off. Yeah. We got lots of viewers. I know. I'm like, James was like, well, you got this tool and you got that tool and you got this. And I'm like, oh, this is, see, this is one of the reasons why I was like, I don't know. Was James calling me a tool? Yeah. Yes. He certainly was. That's why we put the radio antenna. I tried to make it come directly out of your head.

[00:08:45] Yeah. I can hear you now. But the AI wasn't too thrilled about it coming directly out of my head. Awesome. Yeah. It created some interesting things, that's for sure. Alrighty. So we are going to be talking about wildfire safety today. And why are we talking about wildfire safety? There's a few stories that really caught my attention this year. First of all, the hurricane in North Carolina, of course.

[00:09:15] Okay. So there's so much downed material from that hurricane and it's all just turning into fire starter right now. So we have so much ground cover that's just going to get burned up in these events. Michigan lost like 3 million acres due to the ice storm, the tops of trees just snapping and coming down.

[00:09:37] So coming from California, when I saw, you know, these stories multiple times, story after story about how much forest was leveled. I was like, okay, we're got some peak conditions for wildfires this year and areas where you might not be as wildfire conscientious. Right? Yeah.

[00:10:00] There's a huge push in California right now, you know, obviously to get wildfire safe, but I don't see that so much in other states. So I wanted to bring in some of the, some of the information that we talk about. Yeah. Um, absolutely. This. So one of the comments with sprinklers on your roof. Absolutely. Um, I watched a really cool episode of homestead preppers too, where they did a whole irrigation system that put it out to like 30 feet beyond the home. Right.

[00:10:30] It was great to have your roof getting wet. What about the vegetation surrounding it? So that's what I've got like 20 tips to go over. It's stuff I teach people all day long as an insurance agent about how to be fire safe. And then I know you have some great resources that you found and that you've been watching. Yeah. Because unfortunately, um, those fires have been near, um, orchard lake where prepper campus. Yep. So how's that situation looking now?

[00:10:58] Oh, it's, I think it's fine now, but it was, it was really unnerving for a while. I mean, you could. So it's a drive for me to get to a orchard lake, but this smoke was like coming into my community. So it was unnerving. Yeah. And then you're always watching the wind direction, right? Yes. That's what I tell people. They're like, Oh, well you got tornadoes now down there. I'm like, yeah. A tornado event is like, Oh, okay.

[00:11:26] Um, let's watch out for a half hour and see if this is crazy. Yeah. Well, yeah. Wildfires can be months. Even like, like, so I came from the coast with hurricanes, right? So you're, it's like the big lead up and then it blows through and then it's recovery time. Wildfires. It just keeps going. Weander in this way. Then reander in that way. The wind changes direction. It goes over this way. Wind changes direction. It goes back. That it's crazy.

[00:11:52] This is my first real like wildfire season I've ever really, really participated in. Yeah. And that's what the last three years we were evacuated in California. It was just so much, uh, you know, that so much stress and to sit there and watch him burn from end to end. And you know, when you smell the smoke in your house. Yeah. Not only that we had the smoke. Um, like when I wrote dark days in Denver. Yeah.

[00:12:22] I don't know if when I write things, they just come to fruition or what you need to stop that. I know. Knock it off. Literally like the sky was orange for days. Yeah. And it was really, really crazy. Um, because of all the, the smoke in the air. And then also like you leave your house open because it's nice and cool at nighttime. All that ash would come in. It would literally be laying all over the place in the morning.

[00:12:49] So, uh, yeah, some scary stuff with wildfires. That's why it's really important to be wildfire safe. So first thing I was kind of talking about defensible space. This is hugely important to have defensible space around your house, at least zero to five feet around your house. Everybody asks like, Oh, so I have to be living on a rock, you know, um, in California for sure. You know, I have to be living on a rock. Mm-hmm .

[00:13:18] Well, no, but you know, people plant like, um, berms of bushes that like continually go on and then they come up to the side of your house. Right. That's like the worst thing you can have. The fire can jump in there and then it's just going right to your home. And you know, what looks really nice is that wooden mulch. That looks so nice up around the house. Right. Yeah. And it's all tinder just waiting to go up. Exactly.

[00:13:44] They actually make like a rubber, um, wildfire safe mulch now. Right. It's going to cost a little bit more money, but it's just way better to have down or stone. You can do the, um, you can do the weed cover for your flower bed and put stone on top of it. So we get, we got one duck dump truck load of, of, uh, stone so far and I'm putting it all the way around the house. Right. Exactly. Cause we originally thought mulch.

[00:14:13] No, no, no. Mm-hmm. I've been throwing around the house. Yep. Yeah. Um, comments coming in, uh, the pump, a pump truck trailer. That's, that is what saved us the last three years in California was one of our neighbors, um, does a lot of paving and stuff. And he has, uh, tank tankers that are water tankers. So they would literally just go surround the fire and then put it out because my other neighbors are local and they would start the fires.

[00:14:42] They drive their truck out there, you know? You can't fix stupid sometimes. So that's true. That's true. Cause come on, how many years in a row? Right. So the defensible space zero to five foot is an absolute must. You really need to think about the zero to five space around your home. This also includes if you have a privacy fence and the wooden privacy fence comes right up to your house.

[00:15:10] That's an, that's another thing. Like if you have that, we have a whole list of wildfire discounts. And if you have a wooden fence within that space, you don't get the discount. I have people are like, Oh, it's just my fence. Well, your fence is another walkway for that fire to walk up. So that's what we're trying to avoid. Um, and then extend that space. So the zero, the zero, the five foot is like minimum. Right.

[00:15:38] And then, um, the up to 30 feet as your ideal, you know, uh, ideal space. If you're going to have wooden outbuilding stuff like that, you want them to be 30 feet off from your house. Obviously it's not, um, able to do that in all urban areas. You might have to switch out the siding, you know, to make it more wildfire safe. Um, but any kind of fuels that are in that 30 space, that 30 foot space need to be gotten rid of.

[00:16:05] Um, you don't have to remove your trees cause everybody likes shade for their house. We'll make sure they're skirted up off the ground. 10 foot is great. Six foot is minimum. And then the grass underneath has to be kept because a lot of that's what happens in California. A grass fire goes along and then it jumps to the canopies of the trees. So that's what we want to avoid. And without all the ground material on the, on the ground, it's going to be really important to do that.

[00:16:35] And then the 30 to a hundred foot zone. So a hundred feet, if you've got acreage, you want to make sure that a hundred foot looks like a park. When we were in Cali, we had to do 200 foot and we lived on a mountain with scotch broom growing really tough. Yeah. It was bulldozer time, you know, to get it to a place where we can maintain it. And then we sprayed chemical on it. You know, we just didn't have an option.

[00:17:05] And, um, or else you're on the side of a mountain trying to weed eat all that stuff down. Yeah. We had a, uh, year and a half ago. We had what it was big, like a vulture deforesting. Yep. Um, a domestic. Yeah. So I had a guy, it's, it's like a skid steer, but then it has this big like grinder on the front of it. Yep. And cleared out.

[00:17:27] Uh, we have over a hundred foot, um, of cleared out brush and stuff and small trees and down trees. And, you know, so that was the, uh, the hurricane didn't help, but that kind of. Like I said, it was 20, 20. Yeah. What I was working on is cleaning up all that down trees. But I was so, I did, I did it because I wanted just to get a little bit of a yard, you know, kind of feel to the house. Mm-hmm .

[00:17:54] But now I'm like, oh, thank goodness I did it because that's created a break. You know, I still have some trees, but like when you said park, it looks like a park, you know, where before it looked, you couldn't see through everything because all the brush and you know. Right. Now, if a fire got into there, at least it's not going to crawl along the ground. Yeah. Right. Mm-hmm . So that it's essential. I mean, you really got to, this year is going to be really important.

[00:18:22] I just have a bad feeling that we're going to have a lot, a lot of wildfires this year. Yeah. And if not this year, next year, because all that stuff is just going to turn to tinder and be very burnable. Um, fire resistant, uh, roofing materials. Mm-hmm . So most typical shingles, comp shingle roofing is at least the class a fire safe shingle now. Right. So that's good news.

[00:18:50] Um, you know, we worry more about like the re wind resistance and stuff here in Texas, uh, in our area, especially we don't have a lot of. Yeah. That's what we had at the coast too. Yeah. Mm-hmm . I was seeing a, uh, prepper for the show. So they were saying, and it does like, you should be looking to make sure your roof is well maintained. Because if, if you don't have total coverage of your roof, that could be a place where ember could get in and, and start fire on, on, you know, the wood structure of your house. Yeah.

[00:19:19] Even, um, moss growth. Yeah. And things like that. It dries out in the summertime. Mm-hmm . And then you have that moss or that lichen that's sitting on your, your building, your siding, or your roof that is now dry. And so if an ember falls on that, it lights on fire. The shingles aren't really that well insulated from. No. And, uh, shingle degradation. So it really starts showing at the edge of your shingles.

[00:19:47] Uh, when you've got so much granular loss that it's just not good anymore. So people are like, Oh, you see your gutters, you know, you look in your gutters and you have like, you know, pebbles, you know, collecting like little mounds of pebbles, almost like the beach, you know, in your gutters. Right. When you're cleaning them out, you know that that's coming from your shingles. From your roof. Yeah. And like, if you just had it done, that's going to be normal. But if you're seeing a lot of that and your roof's getting pretty old, wow.

[00:20:16] It's time to probably do something about it, you know? Um, which sucks. I know they're super expensive. Trust me. I just did one. Everything got a new roof last year. It was quite a year. So, including the trailer. So yeah. Fire resistant roofing. If you've got a wood shake roof, get rid of it. They're still there. They're still out there. If you can believe that. It's an architectural shingle three. Not the wood shingles with the. Yeah.

[00:20:46] The asphalt or whatever. Yeah. Especially if you're like in the woodlands, you know, and maybe it's more of a history. Historic thing. I'm sorry, but it's time to go. Metal is good. If you can afford metal and you like listening to the rain on the roof, that kind of thing. Metal is good. Uh, you know, I don't have any qualms there. It's going to hold up against the wind, all of that stuff as well. So, uh, you know, you can think about what's the most prevalent disaster for your area and then kind of champion your roof towards that.

[00:21:15] A lot of times insurance companies have discounts too, for whatever. Um, if you've upgraded your shingles to a certain level, they'll give you a discount on your homeowner's insurance. So you got to just talk to your insurance agent, your local one. They're going to know the best fire resistant siding. This is huge again in California. We're not building with T one 11 on a normal basis in California anymore.

[00:21:42] It's all cement fiber siding that's going up on anything that's being newly built. It's going to be cement fiber siding. Yep. Um, so that would be my recommendation. Yeah, it's a little bit more expensive, but you know what? It holds up for the long haul and, uh, it's, it's going to help prevent that fire from licking into your house. That's what we have some, we have some decorated spots on the, on the, the, um, peak of my roof.

[00:22:11] And we use the cement fiber shingles to look like old fashioned wood shingles. Right. Yeah. It's made out of cement because I didn't want to put the wood up there. Yeah. They have the little scallops for the side. Yeah. No, it looks like wood shingles, like, uh, shiplap, uh, the shingles. Yeah. So yeah, not the, yeah, not the fish. Yeah. But they do the scallops even in that. Yeah. And all the different patterns. Yeah, exactly.

[00:22:38] And then you just paint it and it looks, but it's cement poured. Yeah. And it even has like a wooden, it'll have a, it looks like a wood texture. Yeah. That's what ours is. Uh, uh, cement fiber. Yep. So, um, that would be my recommendation. A hundred percent, a hundred percent. Okay. Uh, this is, this is weird. Cause usually I can look at my notes and everything. I don't have to worry about, you know, everybody being on camera and all that.

[00:23:07] Um, I'm a writer. I write. So it's the physical notes. Yep. Okay. So how you were talking, seal the roof and roof gaps. Yeah. So make sure that it's, you know, a hundred percent. They make a mesh. I forget the diameter, but there's certain size hole that helps with the ember intrusion. Yeah. So like you could put this mesh over, like if you have vents and stuff like that, or. Yeah. To keep embers from getting sucked up into your attic or.

[00:23:37] Yeah. And it's really not difficult to do like, Oh, I'm on a budget. I can't afford to do that. Don't you don't have to go buy the fancy ones. You can just buy the metal. It was the size, right? It was the size. Yeah. Yeah. So you can buy metal screening for your screen and just put it over your vents and that's a fire, you know, the fire safe. Yeah. Mm hmm. They were saying your window screens is make sure your window screens like the bug screens

[00:24:04] didn't have holes in them because that helped with, with the embers as well. Right. Um, enclosed eaves as well. Like if you look at the outside of your house and you look up, can you see the boards from your attic coming out? Mm hmm. If you can, then you want to enclose that. So the fire can go up into that and lick all that as well and do it in cement fibers so that, you know, it's protected from that type of thing. You know, I saw an interesting, uh, uh, pointer.

[00:24:33] They said, look where the wind blows like the leaves, like in the fall, like around nooks and crannies of your house. Look to see where the, where the leaves gather because that's probably where the wind's going to blow the embers. Right. So that's, that's a great way of just, you know, like when you do, when they do like smoke tests and stuff or they do, um, they put dye and like in your car and you see where the leaves are. Or like, yeah, the final hole. Yeah. That kind of procedure.

[00:25:00] But so just walk around your house and if you see where leaves start to collect, you know, that's where mother nature's pushing the winds and where stuff is going to gather. Right. So it's probably going to be where the embers are going to come as well. So put a little more focus in that one. You want to clear out the debris. Right. But two, you want to kind of focus on those areas. If you do have, do have fire. That's true. That's a great point. I'm a, I'm going to keep that one as a tip. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

[00:25:30] And usually too, if like the leaves are piling up there and stuff, then your siding in that area might need a little bit more, you know, you might need to replace that area more often. Right. Great. More damage. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Okay. So the windows as well, you should have them upgraded to the multi pane window tempered glass. It's I mean, that's all they're installing these days pretty much. But if you have an older home, start thinking about doing like one window at a time just to make it a little bit more wildfire safe.

[00:26:00] The double, the dual pane really helps prevent that fire from coming. Yeah. That's what they said in, in one of the articles I read was a double pane temper. Mm hmm. That's true. I mean, it's just, it works. They would not be applying it across the board. Um, cause you know, my hope is that cause let's face it in, in areas like California, the foothills are meant to burn. That's what happens. Right.

[00:26:25] So if we can improve our building techniques to be able to just be a little bit more resilient to that activity, then it's not a problem, you know? Right. Um, here you go. The non-combustible window screens that they make. Yeah. Mm hmm. Um, metal shutters like they do for hurricanes and stuff. You can have a shutdown to your house for if it's a wildfire. Um, you thinking like right now you're like, oh, that's so dumb.

[00:26:53] Um, but if a wildfire is on your doorstep and you're looking at losing everything that you own, you're going to maybe think it wasn't so dumb. You know? They were saying it takes, they, they did some of this, like those lab burns. Like they put a house in a big lab kind of thing and had wind. Oh yeah. It was like 10 minutes for a little ember to ignite a house. Right. You know? Exactly. So an ember, not, not like a grill or anything.

[00:27:22] An ember. Not like we're flaming. We're going to stick a flame on this house. I see the things like the turkeys, you know, when they deep fried turkeys and it lights up the garage and catches on fire. Right. But this is just a little ember, right? A little ember that, that landed next to the house and, and caught a leaf or caught some dry grass or stuff on fire. And the side of the house was burning in 10 minutes. Yeah. And, uh, we're, when we get into the change in earth news, I have, um, information on, but like the Southwest is still in a big drought.

[00:27:52] And so you're dealing with a lot of dry, dry materials. So that's all really scary. Even if, you know, you're like, I'm not in forest. I don't have any of that going on. Well, if something else sparks that fire and it comes onto your house, just like you said, that little ember can make a big difference. So, Oh, always super aware with the forge fire, will forge. All right.

[00:28:21] Well, that's what that's next after the greenhouse. Mm hmm. We've been struggling with the design of that. Sorry to squirrel, but we've been struggling with the design because it's so hot here. We need it to be like shaded in the summer, but catching it in the winter. So yeah. Yeah. Ah, too busy working to make a video. I love it. All right. I like the comments. Keep them coming guys. That's why I went back live.

[00:28:50] I was like, I miss y'all. I got to get back on here. You know, cause I have nothing to do. Oh, it's crazy. Crazy, busy schedule. Um, clear gutters and roof debris. So that's what I was talking about. Like the boss. Yeah. The boss. Yeah. I kid you not. We got pictures of this house that we ensure. It looked like, you know how old men just grow the hair around the crown.

[00:29:20] Right. All done. Top would like the crown. It looked just like that. They hadn't cleaned the gutters in so long. The weeds were literally just growing out of it. Uh, I was like, how do you come home to this house every day and not think that's a problem? Right. And then how do you provide your insurance person with a picture of your house? Yeah. I think it's not going to be an issue. Right.

[00:29:50] I've had people give me pictures before with fires actively burning in them. They're like, so you were doing cleanup. I'm like, well, you might not want to send me a picture of things on fire. That. It's like trying to sell a car and having like a toolbox next to it. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. I went to look at a car one time and there was like a tube of epoxy in there.

[00:30:18] I was like, oh yeah, definitely buy that one. There we go. Yeah. Okay. Um, old decking. So decks, I hate decks. I live in a log cabin and I just hate them now. But a lot of times underneath the tech decks, you get, you know, it's filtered sunlight. You get vegetation that grows under there and a lot of people don't just don't pay attention to that big problem. That's a big problem. Oh, gravel. Yeah.

[00:30:46] So, old decks that, you know, now are just, uh, pockmarked and, uh, getting, you know, dry rot and stuff like that create a lot of places for those embers to land and catch flammable material. Yeah. So, uh, what they're doing now is they're doing the tracks of course, which I'm not exactly sold on cause we had tons of tracks. Um, or, or it's a poly material, poly, whatever. It's like plastic wood. Yeah.

[00:31:14] I don't want to call out the company, you know, but, um, ours all started warping in the California. So it was just a mess. So, um, I'm not always not exactly sold on that. The other thing they're doing is the suspended concrete decks. Nice. They're very, that's some weight though. It is some weight. Yeah. I looked at, I looked at doing that and yeah, I did the, I did the fake wood deck. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:31:42] And I mean, I did a, I did, um, aluminum deck. The floorboards is aluminum. Um, and then the trim, the railings, the trim is, um, the company that shall not be named just now. I like the iron ones too. You can do like, just. Yeah. Low with like the, I think I did a hog panel for like, instead of doing, you know, flats for the railing, I did hog panel. Yeah. That stuff is good. Yeah.

[00:32:12] And it just goes away when you're looking, I painted it black. And when you look, it doesn't really draw your eye to it. You just see through it. Right. But it keeps the little princess dog from falling off the porch. Amber poo. That's what we should make as your picture. Amber. I know. She'll be like, I'm in this. The dinosaur costume. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

[00:32:40] Um, relocate flammable items from the exterior. So of course, you know, watch. That's in there. Yeah. That what? 30 foot radius. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would put it past three. Like if you have a stack of building materials or, uh, your wood pile, like, and it's not winter time. The firewood. Right. Yeah. I'm like, crap, firewood. You don't want to walk in the winter, but you don't want it right next. Yep.

[00:33:07] So you have to do like your main pile far away and do a staging area. Oh, the main pile got moved way far away. Yeah. Yeah. Like I've been, I've been staging logs for, for cutting, you know, into firewood. And that's like outside that's down in the hundred foot range. Yeah. Way far away. So that all of that material is far away from the house. There's so many chips and you know, when you're cutting wood, bark, all of that.

[00:33:35] The processing area is way far away. Mm hmm. Yeah. We have piles of that stuff. So, um, that is important. Um, I've looked at again, you know, just as my time in the insurance industry go up to a client's house and they have like all their boards piled or paint can. Yeah. Then sir cleaner, that kind of stuff. All right next to their shed. And I'm like, Hey, you're going to have to pick up, you know, your garbage. Oh, that's not garbage.

[00:34:05] Those are my building. Well, great. Put your building materials away inside the shed. You know, cause it's just fine. Yeah. That's what I had all the, like the drops of scrap wood and stuff for building. Cause I saved it all because it's good for, you know, building chicken coops and stuff like that. Right. So I didn't want to get rid of it, but now I'm like, Oh, that's getting out of here. That's so I'm moving that way far away from the house. Yeah, exactly. Don't, don't keep it close. Get it stored up.

[00:34:33] It should be stored up proper anyway, you know, in order to keep it. Well, it was, but it was close to the house. Yeah. Yeah. I had to put the forks on the tractor and move all that crap. Oh, I'm sure it was a big hardship to have to drive the tractor around. I tell you, everybody asks, what are you doing? What are you doing? I'm like, nothing romantic. I'm just moving crap away from the house. Right. From here to there, to there, to here, to here, to there endlessly. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:35:02] Oh, propane tanks is another thing. I know they're big on the West Coast still, but a lot of them are underground in the South. But if you have them close, you know, be aware. Yeah. Again, I'm going to. Fuel tanks for your lawnmowers. Yeah. I've had. Build lattice around their propane tank and then grow vines over it. So because they don't want to look at it.

[00:35:32] Well, that's great. But you just put a bunch of flammable material all around. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, no, no. So, yeah, you're going to have to look at it. But yeah, anything that's flammable, get it away. Metal. Put it in metal if possible. Mm-hmm. Tarps, you know, we wrap everything in tarps and then the sun beats it. The tarps get all fray and whatnot. Tarps are ridiculous. Tarps are useless.

[00:36:01] They're totally useless. I'm like, oh yeah, this will be a great survival tool. It'll last for two seasons and then you're going to have garbage. Yeah. You're better off to go get like a really hardy piece of canvas. And I know you're going to have to carry around. It's going to be more weight. But if you're talking like serious shelter that you wanted to move from place to place, I wouldn't do it in no tarp. They're garbage. I've been living in the South too long. I didn't do it in no tarp. Get that out of here.

[00:36:32] Is this spittoon next to your desk yet? Yeah. How about it? People are always like, where are you from? You got the North, South, California. Yeah. American. American. That's right. America. Fire resistant fence. So same thing. You can use the carbon fiber wood for your privacy fences. Yeah.

[00:37:02] It's going to cost more. But guess what? Most people put up that privacy fence. They don't stain it. It just gets beat by the weather and you have to replace it like three years anyway. So you might as well invest in the good materials to start with and make it last for a lot longer than, you know. The older you get, the more wisdom you see in that, right? Yeah. It's true. That's true. Well, I could do it.

[00:37:29] Well, even with our chicken coop, for example, Brock's like, Oh, cause I was like, I want the roof papered and shingled. Yeah. And he's like, Oh, we don't have to go that far. I'm like, it's the roof, you know? I mean, water flows down. Yes. Out. Exactly. And the sun too. The sun is just as bad out here in California, the South, you know?

[00:37:54] So, uh, I guess I could have, uh, sheeted it in metal or something, but I wasn't a better idea. A lot of shits and stuff out here in metal. Yeah. Just the corrugated metal. Yeah. I mean, why not? So we start making America. It'll be cheaper again. Alrighty. Um, maintain a hydrated landscape. So, amen. Amen.

[00:38:21] Everybody was like, Oh, I got my water tankers and stuff like that going on. Great. You know, that's perfect. They make, um, pumps. Yeah. But what do you do when they put restrictions? Uh, well. Yeah. I mean, we can only do so much. You could turn like a rain catch system to fill up your water truck. It might take a while, but, uh, well, not the way these systems have been moving through. But, um, yeah.

[00:38:49] Maintaining the hydrated landscape, um, is just really, really important. Like I said, I watched that, um, Homestead rescue. Um, the, the scary thing is because the insurance is getting so expensive in the wildfire zones, people are just going without. Insurance. Yeah. Yeah. Without insurance altogether or without fire coverage, because that's the big piece of that puzzle.

[00:39:16] So like, I'm like, you know, I'm advising my clients and I'm like, that's absolutely your choice to do that. However, take that money that you would have been spending on insurance and put it into an irrigation system that can auto run around your house. Even when you have to evacuate, because that's going to save your place. The more you can, you know what I was just thinking today while I was prepping for the show.

[00:39:43] So I have a, well, that's what, you know, I don't have like city water. Well, I need to prep the well, the well has like little fake stones on it right now. Right. Or I really should do like a cement cinder block building with a metal roof on it around that. A little well. A little well house. Because the well, you know, part of that's just plastic plumbing kind of, you know, part of it, it's not all metal piping and stuff.

[00:40:11] If the fire comes through there, I have fireproof the well. So if we need the water, because I'm going to lose water if I lose that well. Yep. And it's expensive. Thanks to the show, Changing Earth is another project to work on. Now you got another item. Thanks. Another item on my list. That's serious, right? It is. It is. I mean, that's essential to your home set. Yeah. So it's an essential piece of the puzzle that needs to be considered.

[00:40:41] Yeah. And with the wells, you can also turn them into places where firemen can hook up their hoses to. Mm hmm. So it is an added cost. That's no doubt. But you can make it so that a fire crew can literally come up and hook up to that. Mm hmm. Well, the other thing, I don't know if this is on my list or not, but the houses where so the fire truck has to be able to turn around in your driveway.

[00:41:10] That's code. Right. And I think that's in like most states. It has to be able to turn around your driveway. But if your area is so nice that they can actually land helicopters there and things like that, guess whose house is going to get protected? Yeah. Right. Well, that's what we saw here. If you look up the fires around here, the helicopters would dump in the lakes and the ponds. Yeah.

[00:41:36] Like all the retention ponds and all the like where they have livestock ponds and stuff. Yeah. The helicopters would dump the hose in there and then go work on the houses. Yep. And if your house has that defensible space, it's going to be safe. Like they're going to put attention to it. Yeah. If your house is in the middle of the trees. If there's no. Yeah. They get their truck there. Guess what?

[00:42:04] Your house is your, your on your own. There's only so many, so much resources. So they'll. Right. The focus of what they actually can use the resources to do. Right. National. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's true though. They're going to save what they can. Not what. Puts them in danger as well. Yeah. Another thing that people might not think about. Tile roofs.

[00:42:31] If you have a tile, a clay tile roof or a cement tile roof. Yeah. That roof is not going to be on their list to go into your home. Because it's so heavy. And if the homes on fire, they're at a bigger risk of that roof collapsing. So they're not going to go in there. Hmm. That's just one of the, it doesn't burn as well. Right. The, the roof doesn't. It's definitely a fire safe roof. However, it's a lot of weight. And so if things are burning underneath, it's going to come down.

[00:43:01] They don't go in there. Um, plant your plants. So you can get fire resistant or fire attractive, uh, vegetation. Yeah. So we had this plant in the front of our house. Oh, we called it the grass ball. I don't really know what it was. Honestly, I'm not the landscaper. My husband is, but whenever I wanted Tinder, all I did was go in there and pick out stuff out there and boom, I got Tinder.

[00:43:29] So like, how smart is that to have it right next to your house? So we moved it away from the house. Um, I saw where they, they suggested, um, consulting with a local forester or, you know, like a, what are those, uh, uh, with the colleges, the local colleges and, um, oh yeah. They're like ag department. Yeah. And they probably have, um, like services where they can come out or show them pictures

[00:43:55] and stuff and they'll help you, you know, with, you know, you might want to turn this back or that's a good tree. This is a bad tree or, you know, prune this. Like you were talking about pruning trees and stuff. Um, they could help you with that. Yeah. Um, in California, the, the fire service guys actually go out to everybody's house. Yeah. And they have a list of like, okay, we're not going to this house. Right. Yeah. Yeah. If they can't access it and everything.

[00:44:25] So they, when they're out there, they also give you the report, right? Like this is our concerns at your house and you have the option of improving it or not. It's not like they're, you know, giving you tickets over it or something, but, um, you know, it's a good, good idea. So they definitely have the resources to be able to do that. Yeah. Yeah. There's lots, lots and lots of material on this. Uh, it's just, you, you need to think about it. So, okay. The exterior sprinkler system, always good.

[00:44:55] You can do it over your roof too. People do that. Um, I I'm fine with that. I mean, I don't have any problems with that. Um, but I'm more prone to water the surrounding areas because if you can keep the fire back, you know, to where you don't need it right over your roof, that's best case scenario. Um, chimneys in, in the state of California, every chimney has to have a spark arrestor on it.

[00:45:24] So, um, I don't, that's definitely not the rule across the country, but it's probably not a bad idea to have a spark arrestor on your chimney. And the, yes, the screens do get city and yes, you do have to go clean them. Um, what we found worked well was we just shot the airsoft rifle and hit it with the shot, the airsoft rifle at it. We just stand back and it would knock all of the soot off the screening.

[00:45:53] So let me see what color is your neck? Yeah, I know. I know. We have like gravel driveway. We're teasing about we're repaving it in airsoft bullets. They were everywhere. Just everywhere. You can get biodegradable ones. So if we're out in the woods, then we use biodegradable ones. Um, secure garage and outbuilding.

[00:46:21] So just because they're far away, you know, don't pay it. But like we were talking before, don't have all your building supplies out there, all that kind of thing. Um, it's all still a risk and you still don't want to lose your outbuilding and you're still going to be subject to your deductible to rebuild that outbuilding. Um, there's different coverages. It's not as much coverage for your house as on that outbuilding. So if you have a really nice shed or shop or barn or something like that, you want to

[00:46:47] make sure that your, um, dwelling extension amount has been increased to account for that outbuilding. But if you never have a fire touch it, that's going to be your best case scenario right there. Um, create water supply for firefighting. So that's why I was telling you, you can actually turn your well into a system that the firefighters can hook up to. You can have water tanks, you can have water storage, get the pump for your pool so that you can pump that water out.

[00:47:16] And, uh, you're just going to make that better defense, that better move. A lot of people, you know, it's totally up to you if you stay or leave. If you have a really, really defensible space already in action. I mean, this is the time, like, this is, this is the prepper material right here, right? This is what it's all about. Like we are fortifying home hardening before the threat ever reaches us.

[00:47:42] So if you have faith in your system, uh, and you've done all of these things to make it fire safe, then I would agree that you might not want to leave your home because you're there to spot treat your house. However, that's your choice and that's a risk, right? That is an absolute risk. But I've seen people that, you know, saved it because they were already ready for the event before it happened. Right. That's the key.

[00:48:11] Otherwise, if you're not ready, get out of there. You've got insurance. You know, life is worth way more than stuff. Late James Yeager. No, I am. So what else you got? You got, you got any, uh. Yeah. So, um, get your community involved. So don't, don't just dig your house. Try to get everybody on your road thinking the same way. Share some of these, share this podcast with them.

[00:48:40] Share some of these ideas. Right. Because the more, the further you can keep the fire away, the better off for everybody. Right? It's true. If your neighbor's house, if the house catches on fire, well, that's a lot more stuff coming your way than if, if everybody on your street or, you know, in your little subdivision is, is prepared for it. Yeah. Um, you make a great point. There's a program that's available through the federal government.

[00:49:08] I know, but it's called a fire wise community. Yes. And that was one of the sites. I just sound, it was, it was, uh, yeah. Fire wise. Yep. And, um, most insurance companies, I know definitely in the state of California, if you're a fire wise community, you get a discount for that as well. So it's a great way to approach the subject with your neighbors and to get them encouraged, get their properties cleaned up as well. So, because then you're just expanding your bubble. Right.

[00:49:38] And it might be a good, but we're also like, we we've talked in the past about gardening could be the gateway into having conversations about being, right. So, well, this wildfires could be the gateway into having conversations too, you know? And if, you know, if people are prepared, are you, you know, do you have, um, exit strategies? Do you, you know, have you made plans on where to go and how to get your family communication

[00:50:06] plans and also, so use of wildfire as the catalyst for broader conversations. Yeah. So definitely having your go bags ready that evac plan. Huge. What about your animals? Oh, that was the other thing I was going to mention. Yeah. Yeah. Some shelters won't take your animals. So it's really, really smart to be heads up ahead of time about like what shelter.

[00:50:32] I mean, I, obviously I'm don't want to go to a shelter, but if you do have to go to a shelter, you have horses, right? Things like that. Where are you? We saw people loading up horse, you know, cattle and horse trailers and sheep and goats and stuff. Yeah. So what, that's just something you're not going to do on a spur mode. Oh, you need to have a plan for that. You do. Yeah. So yeah. And it's one thing to throw a cat in the carrier and back of the car in the back of the car. Yeah.

[00:51:00] But, you know, if you have large livestock, it's what do you do? Unfortunately, a lot of people just have to let open up the gates. Yeah. And let them fend for themselves. That's a scary position to be in. Yeah. And it is a really, really scary thing when the wildfire is on your doorstep. And now you have all this stuff to think about that you never thought about before. Mm hmm. So, um, yeah, the evac plan. If you guys need information on that, just go change in our series.com.

[00:51:27] We have, we have all of those bases covered for sure. Um, well, uh, firewall forge did bring up an interesting one, the blankets. So they have fire blankets that you can climb into. Mm hmm. Personally, I would want my space so well defended that I have never would never need to think about crawling into one of those blankets. Okay.

[00:51:54] However, my friend is a firefighter and he was in the big Montana fire and they were out at this house fighting the fire. The propane propane tank exploded. Their only safe spot was under the truck with the sprinkler going over the top of them. Oh, wow. And they climbed into those blankets and stayed under the truck with the sprinkler going around them and they all survived. Mm hmm. So, yes, I do. I would say not a bad idea.

[00:52:24] Would I ever want to use one? No. But we have, we have them on in the, in the bedroom because if we ever had to evacuate because of a house fire, I had to get out of the house, wrapping myself in that would, I'm thinking would help me from getting burned as I exit the house. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. So I have those in the bedroom. Like one three, you can cut your feet through like little waders thing. Proper footwear by the bed, right? I want to see that, man. I want to see that. I mean, no, I don't. I know.

[00:52:54] I, I wouldn't. Thanks. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I did it. Don't write that into any of your storylines. No problem. No problem. Um, your, your character survives. I think. Mm hmm. Okay. Um, let's go ahead and get into some changing earth news. Cause we are, we are long. This is a long show today. That's okay. We're having a happen. So when you'll get out here once a month, I know it's true. It's true.

[00:53:23] And it's a good topic. All right. Ready? We have changing earth news. Maybe, maybe I tested it beforehand. Yeah. I was excited. Oh, okay. Hold on. Let's go to this. Yeah. Okay. Oh, I see why I'm on the wrong one.

[00:53:53] Okay. Got it. Dream. Survive. Thrive. This is changing earth news. Okay. I found the right button and we're good. How do you like the video? Oh man. I need like the applause. I get to be part of it now. I know. It was always silent.

[00:54:23] I always had dead air when, when Sarah played that. When are we coming back? When? Okay. Now. Right. So we've had some interesting activity. So did you hear about the Spain blackout? Yes. Right. So there's been three of those blackouts due to solar activity. But like watching what's happening on the sun.

[00:54:52] There was not that much happening on the sun. Okay. So we weren't like in any kind of big, big solar storms. And that's, that's scary because that means our magnetic shielding is way weaker than we thought it was. So guys, you gotta be ready. Um, this, the situation is, uh, very, very interesting as we, our poles are moving and the earth's just doing all of these incredible things. It's awesome time to be alive.

[00:55:22] Um, did you hear about Mars? Like we were always taught Mars was a dead planet and now they've actually found, uh, so it's having seismic activity now, which is just incredible that cause we thought it was like this dead rock. Everybody. Oh, we live on a rock. It's a dead rock. Yeah. So, and they actually found what they think is stages of life. So they've got like some liking or something like that off of it.

[00:55:47] So like, you're going to have a new, a new, uh, lead in music changing Mars, changing Mars news. Yeah. You know, I just think it's so exciting to be, be alive. It's just, I don't know. Maybe get you a new habit, like crochet or something. Oh my gosh. You and my mom. I was like, I'm gonna have to teach you to crochet. I'm like, do you think I can sit still long enough to crochet? My blanket would be that big.

[00:56:17] I wouldn't want to be sitting next to you. You'd be stabbing the needle in my leg. God darn it. Oh, for real. For real. So, um, yeah. So I found that rather interesting and I don't really have a big explanation for you on a lot of it. Um, that's, that's it because there was just, it wasn't like we got to see a me that day or something like that. Um, so everybody in the back channel was asking you about it. I know. And I'm like, we haven't even.

[00:56:46] So, and then Ben had a little blurb on it the next day. Um, space weather news over on YouTube. Great place to go to watch, um, about sun news. And when you start watching space weather news, you're not going to understand hardly like a quarter of what he's talking about. But I'm like three years in now and I'm like, oh, oh, okay. Yeah, I get it now. Oh, yep. I remember that. I remember, you know, so you start to get a little bit more educated as you, as you go.

[00:57:14] But, um, basically I, I at least always watch what's going on with the sun. Um, it's a great temperature gauge as far as for the public as well, because when we have those high solar events, people that are a little bit on the edge psychologically, they get a little bit even crazier on those days. So for me, I'm working with the public a lot. Um, I like to know, is everybody going to be cool or psychotic today? You know? All right. So let's break it down.

[00:57:44] April 4th to the 7th, uh, central and Southern United States. This is Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, got six to 15 inches of rain flooding event. Um, at least 25 deaths were unfortunately reported from the flooding that happened. 500 homes were damaged in Frankfurt, Kentucky. Agricultural losses were significant due to the flooded farmlands.

[00:58:11] Um, luckily we're right before planting season kind of up north. So we're, we're getting on the doorstep. We don't want to see that, um, when seeds are going in the ground and stuff like that. So, um, yeah, big event up there. Then on the same day, that same storm was a tornado breakout in the, um, Southern and Midwestern United States, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois.

[00:58:38] Uh, most of this activity has been going north of where I live. Thank, thank the Lord above. So, but that wasn't the case for everybody. There was 156 confirmed tornado touchdowns, including an EF three in Selmer, Tennessee, killed five people, damaged 332 structures. So prayers for everybody out there. Um, it's just, it's just a mess when stuff like that happens.

[00:59:06] Um, nine people unfortunately lost their lives due to the tornado. And then 15 people died in non tornadic events. The price tag on that event was $6.25 million or billion dollars. As somebody who's in the insurance world, I don't understand how we're going to just keep soaking up these events. Mm. We have to read.

[00:59:36] So many big major events going on all over the country. All the time. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we're still struggling with Helene. We're still struggling with Southern California. We're still. And then all to have tornado season already coming in, walking into hurricane season again. Um, yeah, I just don't know what the future is holding because the wildfire problem in California is not the only place experienced in that Florida.

[01:00:03] Try and get a coverage, you know, when you're on the coastal areas and that. So, um, it's going to be a challenge. That's for sure. Definitely landslide potential. We saw that with hurricane Helene, all the landslides that happened because of saturated soil. So, um, luckily none of that was going on April 5th. There was a 7.2 earthquake, um, stuck struck off the coast of Papua New Guinea. It was in a remote region.

[01:00:30] So we're not really worried about that, but the uptick is there. And that's what I'm still concerned about as far as like our earthquake, volcanic activity uptick. Well, that's why I picked a little volcano picture for today. Right. Cause, uh, yeah, it's still really, really concerning. Um, they were warning about a tsunami from that event. There was no associated tsunami. So that's good. Um, if it was, it was tiny. I did hear a tiny one came in.

[01:00:59] Um, but it wasn't anything to write home about then in the panhandle of Texas. If you can believe this is why I don't live in the panhandle, the fifth and six, they had a blizzard. So what? Yeah. Late season blizzard, 12 inches of snow in Silverton, Texas, four to seven inches. And I'm a real, um, when gusts of 50 miles an hour, just zero visibility on the road, having to close roads down.

[01:01:28] Nobody died. Thankfully drifts were like 9.5 inches tall. And, uh, like Montana or Alaska. No, this is the panhandle of Texas. It's just crazy. No, I know it's, it's insane. So, um, that's why I don't live over there on the west side of Texas. Just a nightmare. April 8th, uh, magnitude 4.8 hit near Taiwan. Uh, depth of 50 meters.

[01:01:58] It was low intensity, no damage, no injuries. Just were eyes on that area is still rocking and rolling, still trying to settle down. Um, we had a volcanic eruption in the Philippines. 4,000 meter high plume coming off of that. Displaced over 8,600 families in that event. Um, debris ignited wildfires. There's your embers. So the embers coming off of that ignited wildfires. Um, this is just making problems that already existed worse.

[01:02:28] So there was $3.7 million worth of damage from the volcano last year. And so they're still going to deal with it this year. Um, I, and I don't see that it's, I think the volcanic activity is still going to uptake, uptake, uptake as the earth is going through its current, um, pole shifts and changes. So we'll have to see if I was right or wrong. I don't know, but that's just my gut feeling on it. Um, earthquake eruption in Costa Rica on the 8th.

[01:02:57] That's a really active volcano down there. Um, it was just within the park. So no, nobody hurt. Kilauea also went up on the 9th. It's been making noise and doing its thing for a little while. Same gig there all within the park. However, Yellowstone, April 14th steamboat erupted for the second time this year. And steamboat geyser is a geyser that used to be, it used to be really rare for a steamboat geyser to erupt. And now it's just happening more and more.

[01:03:26] Um, so do I think Yellowstone will erupt on the level that people warn about? No, I don't. Um, but there's other super volcanoes in the United States and in Europe that I have my eyes on. Long Valley caldera in California. And then also, um, can't be flag gray in Italy. You know, those ones I have my eyes on way more than Yellowstone.

[01:03:52] Yellowstone has, even if the magma chamber, cause we've tracked the magma chamber of Yellowstone and it's moved over the millennial. And so even if it's still on top of its magma chamber, it has a lot of release mechanisms. Steamboat geyser. Right. So, uh, um, yeah, I'm not like raising a flag there. Big time flooding April 20th in Singapore, um, due to heavy rainfall, disrupted traffic. There was no deaths.

[01:04:20] Um, a lot of times you'll hear about it, like electrocutions and stuff and mad flooding events over there because of their, um, power systems. Um, but no deaths reported, uh, likely that it, um, it was due mostly to poor drainage within the city and the trash buildup and whatnot. Um, Mount Etna and Sicily went up. Um, Pele still on the list as far as active volcanoes.

[01:04:46] But, um, um, I always watch Pele and Vesuvius because that was the big warning from Edgar Cayce. Once you see Pele and Vesuvius going at the same time, it's coming for Nevada on the West Coast. So I keep my eyes on that. Whether it's true or not, I don't know. It's just, you know, the Lord only knows. Uh, volcanic eruption on Kamchaka Peninsula in Russia. That one was a low risk event.

[01:05:14] Um, another 6.3 earthquake rattled Ecuador's coast. I know, um, the audience has family in Ecuador. So I try to keep eyes out there. Um, some damage to homes in the Northern areas, but no deaths reported. Thank goodness. No significant agricultural losses. Um, in Russia, Kamchaka went up again on the 23rd. This was a much bigger eruption event with plumes reaching up to four kilometers in the air.

[01:05:42] Um, there was 153 earthquakes the previous 24 hours before that one went. So that's why earthquakes got to keep your eyes on the earthquakes. That's going to let us know what that wildfire activity is. Speaking of wildfire activity, New Jersey, big wildfire happened. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Approximately 8,500 acres. Evacuations for about 3000 people threatened about 1300 structures.

[01:06:11] Um, and it was only 10% contained in late April. So, um, yeah, I think they're still number one on the list. Yeah. They're still number one on our wildfire list, New Jersey. That's crazy. That's what I'm saying. Um, that's why I thought it was so relevant to do the wildfire show today because areas that aren't used to seeing this stuff are going to see it this summer. So be prepared guys, not, not freaking out.

[01:06:36] Um, and India, they also had a massive forest fire breakout near, um, Pradesh near the China border. So it isn't an unpopulated area. However, this area is really, really politically sensitive, like geo politically sensitive. So, um, it's noteworthy because, um, you just don't want to see that area get shaken up. China and India going at each other would not be a good situation.

[01:07:05] Um, we had another eruption of, uh, of Tonga. Um, oh, another earthquake at Tonga was a 5.6. It takes a lot of those deep activity earthquakes, usually coming from sometime of solar event. Like I say, there wasn't too much of like, oh, you know, we had a X class on this day. It wasn't too much going on. Um, April 26th, there was flooding in, um, India caused by massive amounts of rain.

[01:07:35] One of the rivers surged about eight foot and it's definitely endangering the crops there. Those crops feed a lot of people. So we're keeping eyes on that to make sure that everything stays good over there. Um, of course, landslide watch for that. There was an, uh, tornado in Italy. This is Northern Italy. So Viter, Viterbo.

[01:08:01] Oh, it's probably more Spanish than it is like European. Uh, but yeah, Viterbo, Italy, a tornado. You just don't usually see them, uh, very often in other countries. So that's very interesting to me. We just have a perfect storm here in the United States to set up for tornado alley alley. Sicily saw heavy flooding.

[01:08:25] Um, again, those islands have just been taking it in the Mediterranean big time. Uh, so I don't know, just personally, probably not a good time to be on an island. I'm just throwing it out. When is a good time? When would you really want to be on it? Me? Yeah, you. Me, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm good. But, uh, just, you know, heads up on that one. I mean, Indonesia used to be connected to Asia, you know?

[01:08:56] So now it's just beep. Like, um, Japan had a 7.4 earthquake, extensive power outage, structural damage. They are used to these types of events. They're obviously, luckily there was no tsunami that came after it. The event resulted in four deaths, 107 injuries from that earthquake. So Japan is still rocking and rolling.

[01:09:25] The ring of fire is still in motion. Um, so West coast, I know you always hear it, but please don't, um, please keep your shoes by your bed. Mm hmm. April 28th, um, South Africa is still in severe drought right now. They've been having some major problems as far as trying to keep their wildlife alive. That's their major tourist attraction, having to call herds and stuff like that.

[01:09:49] We've talked about it in the past, um, so this is the worst drought that they've experienced in over a century, still dealing with it right now. Zimbabwe alone is reporting that over half of its harvest is destroyed and that it puts 7.6 million people in risk of hunger. So there's big problems going on down there as far as not getting the water. And it's a feast and famine issue that's going

[01:10:19] to happen on our planet. The highs are going to be higher, the lows are going to be lower. Some areas are going to be just inundated with water and other places aren't going to get it at all. And it is prevalent across the world and within just tiny countries. One side's just getting tons of rain, one side's not. Again, very interesting to me. Earthquake 6.8 Macri Island near New Zealand.

[01:10:44] That one was a low level event. There was a 6.2 that happened right after it. Again, minor shaking, but no lives lost, no ag damage, risk to livestock, that kind of thing. There was a 4.7 earthquake that happened April 29th near Anchorage, Alaska. We do know that's a nice heavily populated area.

[01:11:09] It did shake Anchorage and they're having severe concerns about Mount Spur erupting. So again, that ring of fire and it's working its way around kind of, I mean, the West coast of the United States and Canada has been really, really lucky so far compared to what the rest of the ring of fire has been doing. So either it's getting released in small bites and we're going to, you know, and everything's going to be okay, or it's building pressure. And that's the concern

[01:11:37] that is building pressure. Um, then April 29th, we had some severe storms in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and the, um, in the United States. Luckily, like I say, they skirted to the North of my house. That wasn't the case for a lot of people. We're talking hail up to 13 centimeters large in King County. Um, super cell hit Benjamin, Texas tornado warning in Springfield, Missouri.

[01:12:04] So this sucker was long. It reached all the way from Texas, like all the way up towards Michigan, Canada. Um, it just wasn't as a, as, um, impactful in some areas. So it was a biggie though. We got, we got hit. We just didn't get it as bad as like last year, April 29th. There was a blizzard in the

[01:12:25] Ural mountains in Russia, uh, as it's a mountainesque area. Um, but it did cause significant powder outages, power outages, stranded buses, and left vehicles abandoned. There's also been a severe drought going on in the Southwest of the United States. This is Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.

[01:12:48] Definitely a feast and famine type situation. Um, they in, in the United States, sometimes I think that they, they claim things like a drought too fast. This is only like the 16th consecutive week, but you can look at like just how moist the layers are, you know, of the earth and things like that like how deep the impact is going to be. But this is 36.99% of the lower 48 States and drought.

[01:13:19] So when it comes down to it, that's pretty significant. And again, that's going to create burnable material. So wildfires, I'm just, I just have a feeling that we're going to need to be wildfire ready, um, this summer. And also if you're in another country and you guys haven't seen the amount of rainfall that you're normally do in some areas, um, like down in South America last year, they lost

[01:13:42] major wetlands, like huge chunks of the wetlands and the Andes. So, um, and you know, when we were in Costa Rica, they just burn a fire on the side of the road and never think anything of it. It's not attended. Nobody's standing there. Right. So, um, we need to be aware on the wildfire topic, Jerusalem,

[01:14:04] Israel, they had over 25,000 dunnams, which is 6,175 acres. It's not a very big country, um, on fire, forced evacuations of communities, uh, 45 reported injuries. The pot, the fires were possibly the largest in Israeli history. I don't know if you follow revelations, but, um, I mean, we just got to

[01:14:33] keep our eyes out signs and wonders earthquake in Pakistan, a 4.4 earthquake hit no damage. It was out in a pretty much non-populated area. Another blizzard in Moscow on May 1st and 2nd. These are unusual events. It is historic for this time of year for Moscow to get hit as hard as they did. Um, they were

[01:14:58] blanketed with 43 millimeters of snow in 36 hours, breaking 116 year record. Toppled trees cause power outages for 26,000 rest residents against 93 across 93 settlements. So we're, you know, when you see this happening all across the globe, you know, something's up. How often do we break records like this these days? Right. Seems like every storm is like, Oh, we have a, that's a worst storm

[01:15:27] in a century. That's the worst storm. It's like both extremes at the same time. Right. Wildfires and blizzards routes and floods. Yeah. It's pretty crazy. Uh, 5.2 magnitude earthquake in Xinjiang, China. That's an area. I swear they're like testing something out there or something. I don't know. It's right up by Russia and it's a pretty non-populated

[01:15:53] area, but it is very seismically active. I've watched them on the map hit there like day after day after day. Uh, it's, it's pretty active area. So whatever they got going on there, um, it's definitely causing earthquakes. Um, and then severe storms and tornadoes May 1st, May the 1st be with you. We just got hit again in Northern Texas line of severe storms swept across producing winds, hail, um, multiple tornadoes were reported.

[01:16:24] We were even under a tornado, uh, warning for a while, but there was no deaths caused by the storm, just structural damage, um, potential crop losses. And then, um, Eastern Africa is also facing pretty bad droughts in Kenya. Um, they had a brief respite of water coming in. Then they're looking at it again. Um, we're kind of off of their season. So hopefully they just have

[01:16:52] some rain that comes in. I'm kind of putting that one in the court category with, um, the Southern part of the United States, as far as like, it's not that far gone, but, uh, we do need to keep eyes on, but the situation down in South Africa, um, and Zimbabwe has been quite a few years of me reporting on that now. Um, so that is concerning. Uh, as far as volcanic eruptions, we currently have 39 volcanoes

[01:17:21] erupting on our planet. So we're back up to the highest number that I've ever seen. We went down to 38 for a couple months. Now we're back up to 39, 40 showing minor activity. So on top of the highest number erupting that I've ever seen in my years of recording volcanic activity, we backed that number right up with an even higher number showing minor activity. I was blown away when I looked at it today.

[01:17:46] Um, I, over the past couple months, I'd seen a little bit of a decrease, but definitely wasn't the case this, um, today when I looked at it. So that is concerning. Uh, 23 volcanoes showing unrest at this time. So a total of 102 volcanoes that they monitor are in action right now. As far as wildfires in the United States, we're at a preparedness level of one. We have eight new fires. Seven fires are

[01:18:15] contained a total of 31,792 acres on fire in the United States right now. Number one state is New Jersey. They have one active fire, which is burning 15,300 acres, no new fires, but the good news is that fire is contained in Florida. They have two active large wildfires for a total of 9,067 acres, three new

[01:18:41] wildfires for those are contained. And then number, uh, number three on the list is North Carolina. We have two active wildfires there. One of those is new total of 4,032 acres and no, neither of those fires are contained. Yeah. We had just had another one start up. Yeah. Yeah. North of us.

[01:19:06] Yeah. Today was it new on the docket today? No, I think it's a new one you were just mentioning. I think it was a day or so ago it started that it just kicked out. It was maybe Friday. Yeah. Um, Arizona is four on the list. They have one fire burning again. It's dry out there guys. Be careful. 2,138 acres, one new fire. And that fire is not contained. Oh, uh, firewall forge says,

[01:19:34] uh, West Texas had an earthquake of six something a day or so. Not surprised at all because that activity comes in from Alaska feeds down the North American crate time. They're keeping, um, eyes on that volcano. That's out, um, off the coast of Oregon big time right now. It's one they like reporting on because they don't believe that if it like went off, it would cause a lot of damage,

[01:19:59] but it is literally like right there. It could be tsunami damage, that kind of thing. Um, but yeah, the activity comes into that North American crate time comes down to West Texas because there's so much fracking and drilling that we're doing there. Whenever, like if you have a rock or you're at your forge with these metal and you have that imperfection in it, that's where it's going to break. So, um, that's where it's going to release that, uh, energy. So like I say, hopefully maybe

[01:20:28] we've done enough kind of alterations. Like maybe this is a good human manipulation that we've provided lots of like Swiss cheese holes for this activity to kind of release itself without the West coast just going crazy. But come on, we're talking to huge scale, uh, mother nature, right? So you never can tell. Well, that's the change in earth for today. That was a good show. That was fun.

[01:20:56] How are you liking the new, the new setup? Oh, it's awesome. I get to see stuff. Yeah. I think it's pretty cool as well. I'm a fan. So we do the change in nurse, um, show the first Sunday of every month. Now I do my audio drama as well. The change of the earth audio drama, which comes out, um, weekly right now till we're up to season five. So that, you know, it takes up a lot of my time and I just have a lot of projects going on. So I did,

[01:21:26] we did reduce the show to a monthly show, but we're here. We're going to be live, um, on as many platforms as we can go on every, uh, Sunday, first Sunday of the month. So if you, you dug the show and you want to come back and visit, we'd love to have you. If you ever want more information, you want to reach out to chin, you want to reach out to me, go ahead and follow the link there on the screen, changing earth series.com. It's where you're going to find everything changing earth.

[01:21:54] And, uh, I've thanked everybody for your support. I love hearing feedback from you guys. I have a few fans that reach out specifically, and, uh, it's just always really encouraging to hear all your guys's feedback, how you're feeling about the audio drama, cool things that, you know, struck you and whatnot. So please don't ever hesitate to reach out. Don't feel like you're bothering me, no matter how

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