Posted on 08/29/2015 1:00:40 PM PDT by BenLurkin
John Belles said he was prepared for the inevitability of a wildfire when he built his thin-shelled, concrete dome in 1999 surrounded by dry fields in Okanogan County.
Earlier this week, Belles just happened to be working 30 miles out of town when he received a voicemail from a friend warning him about a fire approaching his home, he told ABC News today.
After shuttling three vehicles off his property, Belles said he realized he had to hurry as the fire was only a couple hundred yards away.
“The fire was getting close, in fact, there was a firefighter there at the time who got trapped inside when I shut the gate inadvertently,” Belles said.
“I grabbed the hose, soaked my clothing down and doused the north side of the building as much as I could. [The fire] got close enough that it was super heated and getting uncomfortable out there in the smoke. I went inside, shut the door behind me and watched it move by.”
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
If you don’t use it; you lose it. That’s what they tell me. I still climb the big flight of concrete front steps at church. They have a small, claustrophobic elevator inside; but the only time we used it; we ended up getting caught up in with the choir crowd as they were lining up to go into the choir loft. We almost ended up in the choir loft that time. - So, we’ll use the stairs as long as we can. - I guess they’ll tell us when we get too accident prone to be out in public. ‘Till then; it’s full speed ahead (that would be a crawl at this time).
How about on of these Subterranean Dome Homes?
I wonder if the poured that thing in a massive bunt cake mold.
A man built a concrete home on Perdido Key, and it was one of the only ones that survived when Hurricane Ivan rolled through in 2004. Several neighbors actually made it to his home, during the height of the storm, and rode it out.
That pic must have been taken after the fire, because in the story, it says the owner shuttled his vehicles away from the property before hosing down his house, then going inside.
SCOTUS has ruled three times that only Treaty Tribes have rights, all others (including non-treaty tribes) have mere privileges which can (and are being) revoked at any given time.
Whenever a case involving Treaty Tribes comes before the Court, in every instance I know, they have found for the tribes. The one I was involved with was WASHINGTON v. FISHING VESSEL ASSN., 443 U.S. 658 (1979). We lost ... and with that lost faith in the US as a viable country. We are not equal, and yes some are more equal than others.
This went with the whole property rights battles in the west. and none of them won either. These cases never made it to SCOTUS, having already ruled. Interestingly some of the cases at appeal the lower courts actually overruled SCOTUS to find even more in favor of the tribes, but were never challenged (lack of money).
They have the look of mini planetariums but at least you would save on home insurance and rebuild costs in those storm/fire areas. And save trees, to placate greenies!
After seeing those, I don’t even want to fix the roof on the current abode, THOSE look better than an old missile silo!
I haven't heard about the need for fireproof window shutters. If you have a sufficient defensible space, is that still necessary?
Our house is toast if there is ever a fire going through here. Eucalyptus trees surrounding us, and a wood shake roof. One ember would light the whole thing up. We know that, and are prepared to leave on short notice. Our evacuation routes are not likely to get jammed, we are close to a freeway. We have had a few close calls, and when you look at which houses burned up and which didn't, you can really tell how doing just a few things will ensure that your house will be pretty safe.
They, probably being the people who are 32 years old and exercise for fun, or that other group who spend their lives in a swivel chair.
Knees are going south on me, but where I really feel it is in the hips.
But I guess we just got to “keep on keepin on”; or at least in my case, until the wife has to throw a cable around my ankle and drag me down to the house with the truck so the meat wagon can carry me away.
I had got to where climbing the flight of stairs in our house hurt so bad I would almost cry. I started taking New Chapter salmon oil capsules. It has made a huge difference. (I have a hard time remembering to take two a day like I should. I can’t take two at a time if I don’t want to burp them up. If I would just REMEMBER to take the recommended dosage; it would be even better.) Anyway, I can climb our steps & the steps at church without my knees creaking & hurting. - New Chapter has made the difference when the cheaper drug store brand of “fish oil” didn’t help at all. (I don’t sell New Chapter stuff, or anything else; but this is a great product.) - We have to just keep on moving. If you don’t use it, you lose it. “Old” is relative; even some people in their 20’s & 30’s are lazy as “quarn” as my parents used to say. - I hope to be here when Christ returns; but I have to admit, I hope I’m asleep when we start rocketing into the sky & I just wake up somewhere else. Heights give me a scare & that will be a really high height. The signs are all coming together quickly.
Thanks for that information PIF. Your info woke me up to another constitutional controversy on the nation's timeline, a problem dealing with statehood, treaties dealing with Native Americans possibly intertwined with questionable congressional terms for statehood.
In case you have not seen the following video, you might find it interesting. Mr. Steven Pratt has claimed possible constitutional problems with the terms of statehood that Congress required at least the last twelve states that were admitted to the Union to agree to.
Steven Pratt, Bound by Oath to Support THIS Constitution
Based on Mr. Pratt’s video, I suspect that the post the Civil War Congress had found a backdoor way to bypass the restrictive terms of the Constitution’s Clause 17 of Section 8 of Article I and the 5th Amendment to acquire land. More specifically Congress was seemingly expanding the land it controlled for free, and with no restrictions on its use, simply by requiring new states to allow the feds to retain control of certain parts of US territories as a condition for new states to be admitted to the Union.
And if such is the case, while I’m glad that the Supremes have decided land use cases in favor of Native Americans, the terms of treaties concerning land for Native Americans were probably affected by this backdoor politics to enlarge federal control of land outside the framework of this Constitution, including regulating water rights.
Again, I respect the clarifications by Thomas Jefferson and state sovereignty-respecting justices of limits on the federal government’s power to negotiate treaties. The feds cannot use their power to negotiate treaties as a vehicle to create new powers for themselves.
Finally, noting that Washington v. Fishing Vessel Assn. was decided in 1979, consider that FDR’s activist justices had swept the 10th Amendment under the carpet decades earlier.
Washington v. Fishing Vessel Assn the inside story: We brought the case, but were not allowed to present it. Instead Slate Gordon, then WA State Attorney General, was up first and changed the topic and we had to spend our time rebutting.
Our case was based on equal rights, not property. At the time Washington v. Fishing Vessel Assn was a landmark which set all other tribes on the road to claim all natural resources as well as enshrined their claimed sovereignty and the resulting first casinos - built and financed by Indonesian money.
While all this was going on, we were being decried for virtually every pulpit in the Western part of WA as thieves, robbers and child molesters - in fact we were even designated WORSE than child molesters.
Even a faux Indian (Marlin Brando’s girlfriend at the time) was brought in from Hollywood to proclaim publicly how vile we were.
The whole thing could have been settled amicably between us and the tribal fishermen, but such hatred was whipped up by the left that it became impossible to even sit in the same room together.
While the Salmon War lasted (1973-1985), lives and families were destroyed, but small consolation that we were the number one topic on the nightly news on all networks at the time. Commonly, the reporters would get both sides and then only show or print the tribal point of view. Any other point of view cost the reporter his/her job and that story was round-filed.
All we wanted was to continue the profession and feed our families. Later, of course, the tribes got theirs for the extreme greed they worked so hard to achieve.
Thanks for the inside story. It’s nice to hear from someone who was a part of constitutional history, not that your experience was a happy one.
I’ll think about your New Chapter stuff, my hips could use a little lubrication probably.
When it comes to the Spirit In The Sky, don’t you worry about your fear of heights.
When GOD opens the entire universe to you, all of past, present, and future time to you; all of what was, what is, and what will be; trust me, the last thing you will be thinking about is your fear of heights.
GOD created everything, and he is just keeping it in an escrow account for those who earn it.
ping - interesting
In addition to the NC salmon oil capsules, I’ve started on Calcium Asporotate capsules & Vitamin C capsules (have the dog on them for her arthritis; so it’s worth a try for myself, too). Read about it in the dog & cat book of natural healing. (I have to climb the flight of stairs in order to keep it from getting totally potty from neglect up there. Guest room is up there & son is coming to visit for several days soon.) I also don’t get much calcium from milk due to lactose bloat!
I figure it’s either give up or else keep on trying - so I’ll keep on trying.
Don’t take the calcium CARBONATE. That stuff collects in the arteries. (I still take TUMS once in a while; but not very often.) - I cannot take glucosamine because I have a shellfish problem that gives me splitting headaches (it’s the theobromine I’m allergic to). Chondroitan & Glucosamine work for some people; but not all can take the Glucosamine.
And that was only the tip of the ice berg as inside stories go ...
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