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| Oriental Honeysuckle. Each specimen had a canopy that was 10' to 15' in diameter. It took about 3 hours to clear 2000 square-feet. The hardest thing was that the crowns were so entangled that I had to make multiple cuts and yank them apart. |
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| Maybe 6" through the base |
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| I count thirteen rings. |
I was cutting brush today and house-sitting. So you will get half-formed thoughts.
California fires
New reports indicate that some property insurers dropped fire coverage on the polices because the California board that sets rates were forcing them to insure houses in high-risk areas and not cherry-pick the lower risk regions of the state. Additionally, the board did not allow them to pass on the cost of purchasing secondary insurance on the open market. The secondary insurance is one of the ways that insurance companies dilute the risk.
Many policy holders probably did not even open the letters that informed them of the changes to their policies.
Expect this story to get uglier before it gets better.
Also germane to this story is that the cost of property insurance is relatively low in California. $200k of coverage costs an average of $1000 a year in California compared to $3800 in Nebraska and $4400 in Oklahoma. In effect, policy holders in the mid-West are subsidizing the property insurance in California.
A few weeks ago, just before the most recent fires, the California board capitulated and ruled that insurers WILL be allowed to pass on the cost of buying loss-insurance. The articles from a week ago were bemoaning the fact that in some cases the insurance rates might double or triple (!!!!) and however would California home-owners be able to afford it?
Maybe they could go to Nebraska or Oklahoma and ask how they do it.
Sprite's grandson
Sprite lets her grandson hunt on her property.
Michigan's late antlerless season ends January 12, 2025. I suspect "T", her grandson, is done hunting for the season. I heard him burning through a couple of boxes of ammo yesterday.
I never understood the need to mindlessly shoot all of the current season's ammo. "T" shoots a 450 Bushmaster and MSRP on the ammo runs about $45 a box. So he just flushed $90 down the toilet. More to the point, sometimes ammo is hard to find in stores.
There are baseless rumors of a bachelor hunter in a northern region buying three boxes of ammo in 1980. He sighted in his rifle and then fired a single shot at the start of the season to verify the zero. The rumor is that the bachelor hunter is still holding out for a trophy buck and is now half-way through the third box of ammo which cost him $8.97 at KMart, back in the day.
I would bet the actuarial risk of loss is lower in Nebraska and Oklahoma as well.
ReplyDeleteInsurance is just bookies/gambling writ large. If the House cannot have a slight advantage, why would they ever take a bet?
You are not accounting for tornados. Also distance means the fire department keeps the house fire from turning into a prarie fire. Very few partial losses. It is the wind.
DeleteGenerally the business model is to pay out 96% ro 106% and make profit from the money you sit on inbetween the incident and the actual pay out. They are allowed to ceduct estimates of loss. Roger
ERJ, I have a little experience with Property Insurance in CA.
ReplyDeleteFor many homeowners or property owners, they did not even get the opportunity to pay higher premiums: they were simply cut off. The Insurance Pool that the state of CA created will cover you for higher costs (more like what you listed there), but only for fire: other sorts of insurance (general homeowners, liability, etc.) are tacked onto that.
I have no idea how CA is going to fund the claims that are going to come out of this.
lol… I have some of that $8.97 KMart ammo left as well. Still shoots ok
ReplyDeleteI fondly think back to the 1990's, when Federal .22lr Lightning bricks (500 rds.) were sold for $6 apiece, affording several shooters a few hours of plinking fun. Those were some great times that some current shooters still remember. I noticed a box of .22 Magnum is about $18 for a box of 50 - damnation !
DeleteWe are in an area that is liable to flooding on average every 35 years. We had that excitement last year. The insurance gives us a maximum of 5000 Euros coverage for flooding and they will not offer you more. The local government has just recently said that they will give 400 Euros compensation to anybody in the area that has more than 10000 Euros of uninsured damage. They expect us to be grateful for that.
ReplyDeleteWow, if that's too much of an annoyance please mail that useless 400 euros (or about 400 dollars) to Samaritans Purse in America for the North Carolina folks.
DeleteWe'll figure out the conversion into dollars and supplies.
Honeysuckle looks bad. Here in NH my nemesis is oriental bittersweet. In a recent FB discussion someone informed me that the official name for it was changed to "roundleaf bittersweet" because racism. It's a horrible vine, catching on anything it touches and winding around ever more tightly as it grows up stem and branches. It will kill a large tree. I found a carbide-tipped blade for my string trimmer which cuts through it beautifully. But the only real way to kill it is literal eradication.
ReplyDeleteWhat would the harm be in total deregulation of property insurance prices?
Insurance is fiercely competitive. Deregulation worked in Georgia to drop auto rates15 years ago. We have a tort reform battle going on now. Court decisions have left the carriers defenseless. They just send checks without dispute. No choice in the matter. Of course the mechanism is that everyone shares the bad luck of the few. So we are getting billed for the lawyers "looking out for 'the people'". I wonder if they can see the people from the deck of their yachts. Roger
DeleteOf course, you don't just deregulate the rates. To be fair, all regulation except perhaps for capital adequacy and preserving the right to sue (no mandated "arbitration") has to go.
Deletehttps://bioone.org/journals/natural-areas-journal/volume-35/issue-2/043.035.0206/Cutting-and-Herbicide-Treatments-for-Control-of-Oriental-Bittersweet-Pale/10.3375/043.035.0206.full#t03
DeleteThe article is busy because it talks about three different kinds of invasive, alien plant species.
Cutting to the chase, brushing 0.75ml of 50:50 41% glyphosate concentrate:water evenly over the cut-stem of Oriental Bittersweet anytime between April-to-August had a kill-rate of 90%. That included stems (plants) up-to 40mm diameter.
Another alternative is to paint1.5ml of 13% triclopyr (usually diluted with diesel) on the unscarred bark of the vine during the same time-window. The kill-rate is a less impressive 70%.
Ammo: https://ammoseek.com
ReplyDeleteIt's popular, but it's not the best ammo search engine since sites have to pay to be listed.
DeleteI prefer gun.deals or gun-deals.com
When buying online, beware of shipping costs - some are free and some ridiculously expensive.
Jonathan
When my Dad passed, I got his Marlin 30-30 he purchased in 1969, along with a box and a half of ammo from that same time period. Boxes were water damaged and falling apart, but the rifle was clean and I fired 5 rounds of the old ammo thru it, still dead on at 100 yards. Probably been 30+ years since the last time that rifle was fired.
ReplyDeleteAttitudes are different towards range day and practice shooting. Back then, you sighted in a deer rifle, then maybe fired it once or twice a year at most. If you actually wanted to practice, you picked up a 22 rimfire or something. People didn't go to the range and burn thru several boxes of ammo. Today? With the AR craze and militant U-tube crap, people send hundreds if not thousands of rounds down range every year. It's nothing to burn thru multiple boxes of ammo in a single range session. I consider it the cost of entertainment, having burned thru 6 boxes of .38 special last weekend.
When my cousin complains about paying $80.00 for a brick of 1000 primers he gets a picture of ones I bought for $10.00 20 years ago. And they still perform.
ReplyDeleteAmmo costs are going up with everything else, I encourage people to use common calibers that have enough competition to stay relatively reasonable - and then to shop around for good prices as well, watching shipping and taxes closely.
ReplyDeleteJonathan
Practice with a .22, I'm still working on a box of Silvertips I bought over 10 years ago. 1 round to check alignment and foul the bore before I go to the stand. If I don't get a shot, clean the rifle and put it up until next year. Practice with a Savage .22 bolt gun with the identical scope.
ReplyDeleteThe wife brought home 2 boxes of Hornady A-Max 168 gr. 308 from Rural King. Around $30-32 per box, think I'll keep her.
ReplyDelete