BrianW

Some crazy HD helicopter footage of the wildfire damage in Oregon. Watch it from the 15 min mark to the end.

Its been an extended summer down here on the shoreline. My hydrangeas and roses are still blooming and I have been mowing every 5-7 days as its been growing like crazy.

Its crazy how warm Long Island sound has been this summer. It was 80-85 at one point in August. It was still 76 yesterday. Been an epic summer for the beach and swimming.

Got almost an inch here. Lawn looks great and my Hydrangeas and roses are blooming again.

72/72 and already. 65 here east of New Haven on the shoreline.

@tamarack I'm down at our lake cabin in NW New Jersey. This Tulip Poplar is estimated to be over 150+ years old. We have detailed land records going back to the late 1800's. The forest is all old growth and the size of the trees here is incredible.

Here was a quick picture I took at the supply ponds.

Its right off route 1 on Chestnut St. The road loops around back to route 1. Also, take a ride on Brushy Plain Rd. Right at the pond on the upper left is Branfords highest point. The road goes over it. There is a ton of damage up there.

Go take a ride around the Branford supply ponds. Insane damage there.

Yeah the New England states have some crazy generous incentives. Massachusetts has the best solar incentives in the nation. The rebate is so big the payback is only 5-6 years.

Yeah. They will come in and check over your whole house and do minor work like air sealing cracks, install weather stripping, etc. At the end they give you a report and show you all the rebates and costs to do further work. The blower door test they will do is cool. They pressurize your house with a big fan to see how much air leaks in/out. That's where you lose the most energy. They guy said some people's older homes are so leaky its like having a 5 by 5 wide open hole to the outside.

To all the CT residents out there. The state energy efficiency fund is now covering 100% of insulation cost up to $10k. A friend just got like $8k in insulation installed in his house for practically free. CT also tripled its mini split/heat pump rebate from $500 to $1500. These are all funded through charges on everyone's gas and electric bills. Energizect.com

What a special summer. Still 77 here at 10....

That's probably exactly what it is. I have friends that do construction work down in Greenwich. People do the exact same thing down there. They level a perfectly fine multimillion dollar 20 year old mansion and build some ridiculous new mansion.

Where do you think would be a good spot to launch the drone from in Branford? I'm thinking the parking lot by the pond at the bottom of snake hill. There is some decent elevation there and it appears to have gone right over the top.

Yep. I just read that something like 83% of NYC restaurants and bars can't make their rent and almost 40% have not paid any at all since March. It looks Iike the commercial evictions are starting here in CT. Just saw a couple posts on Facebook of restaurants/bars near me setting up go fund me's as they are being evicted. Another thing I have been hearing about is there are big impacts to the rental market. CT just extended the no eviction moratorium so landlords are now requiring huge amounts of upfront deposits and like perfect credit.

Same here in CT. Outside of my regular job I have been making a fortune off side work all summer. My guess is the residential sector is doing well but not large commercial construction and infrastructure. Those are the jobs that put a ton of people to work. Stuff like remodeling a house is peanuts compared to building a new 100 unit apartment complex.

Probably because in a place like Stowe where 70 percent of the properties are taxed as vacation homes there is plenty of money and demand for construction work. The numbers are showing its clearly much different in the rest of the state. Considering VT has a population of only 623k the unemployment numbers are eye opening.

Yeah Vermonts number is alarming as construction jobs are usually well paid. Think of all the electricians, plumbers, engineers, architects, etc that are tied in with it Here is a comparison to the rest of New England. Construction job loses from July 19. Vermont -31.6 Maine -2.0 NH -4.0 CT -5.4 Mass -13

I was looking at the unemployment numbers in New England. Didn't realize how bad it is in VT. Every category has had some pretty big job losses. Leisure and hospitality has a 46.5% job loss compared to July 2019. Construction is down 31.6%. How bad is it up there considering a huge portion of the jobs there are leisure and hospitality? Isn't that sector most of the economy up there? http://www.vtlmi.info/press.pdf

If your heating your hot water with oil look into heat pump electric water heaters. Maine has pretty cheap electricity compared to the rest of New England and most states here have huge rebates on them. The efficiency on them is absurd. Based on electricity prices there a 50 gallon would cost you less than $10 a month to run. It will also dehumidify your basement and eliminate a dehumidifier.

There is a massive mussel die off going on along the sound. People think its either from the storm or the record warm water temperatures. The water temp in the sound was 85 the other week.

You NNE's need to get drones. The technology is incredible now with gps guidance. You can fly for miles and the stabilized gimbal camera is nuts. Took my DJI Mavic Mini up for a flight the other day. This is looking west from 400ft just east of New Haven over lake Saltonstall. The drone was over 2 miles away from me. If you or Phin had one the shots of the mountains would be incredible.

I said it earlier in the thread but NWS Upton did an excellent job at getting the tornado warning out in time. I know a ton of people that got the warning on their phones and took shelter as soon as it rolled in.

You should do a southwest style landscape. Convert the grass to crushed stone and plant some cactus and succulents.