i think you need to concern yourself with flooding rains more than wind. but i'm not no meteorologist.

Well, that's a given. We are expecting rain today (not sure how much) but my dad heard 10" on Sunday along with the wind. I'm filling up our rain barrels (food grade) with the hose tomorrow in case we lose power (well) so we have drinking and cooking water. I want DH to go get a spare tank for the grill since I don't know how much propane is left in this one. And of course going to be moving anything loose (including potted plants) into the basement.

As far as flooding, the 400sf near the house drains pretty well, I know I have to pick the cukes and the tomatoes I do leave are going to split. Might lose the squash. I hope my 70 pepper plants do OK. The 75 tomatoes in trenches 1000ft from the house will probably drown but they've been struggling all year and I was going to write them off anyway - will pick what I can b4 the storm. The blackberries are near the end of the season and the bears went through and destroyed pretty much all the canes last week anyway. I will pick up windfall apples next week - just hope we don't lose any trees (we lost 1 a couple years ago in a windstorm after a rainy spring).

That's the best I can think of - what do you think I should do with the productive tomatoes and peppers in the garden near the house? Lay them down on the ground? I'm a little nervous about our deer fencing too - just vinyl-covered steel 7ft stakes driven into the ground and 10ft plastic conduit slipped over them with netting twist-tied to them. The corner posts are staked with 14 AWG wire around an oak stake but all the center posts lean and sway - should we pull them out if there's a potential for 100-mph winds?

{{gwi:75450}}

After living in FL during a few hurricane seasons (Andrew, being 1). I would pull the stakes if the winds are expected at hurricane levels, 72 mph, but at tropical storm levels (39) I wouldn't. DON"T expect your ground to drain, there will be TOO much rain coming down TOO fast for the ground to absorb the rain. If you have time, dig some ditches to take as much water away from your garden. Turn your irrigation OFF NOW and let the ground get as dry as possible before it hits.

Depending upon how far the tropical storm bands are away from the center, you might be getting heavy rains as early as tomorrow. I just looked at weather.com and it is expecting you to get 70 mph winds, with that being said, I wouldn't pull the stakes. If when she gets closer and IF she doesn't decrease that much, then pull them. Looking at your picture, those fancy stakes, get them out of there now. Be sure to put ANYTHING less than 50lbs weight in a building. Also take fibered tape and criss-cross your glass windows, intensively. This will not help with breakage, but it will help with glass pieces becoming projectiles.

I would pick any tomatoes that are close to ripe, they'll ripen the rest of the way off of the vine. If you don't pick them, they will either crack from all of the rain or be mush.

Start collecting water jugs for drinking, and have some non-perishable food that doesn't need to be heated on hand. Try to have at least 3-7 days worth of medicines, water and food. Also have a large bucket with lid, for use as a tiolet, in case your septic fails (which is possible with that much rain). Also have clothes packed and ready, along with blankets & pillows, in case you need to evaucate.

Good luck and God Bless

Marla

70mph, 72 mph, close - I'm a little worried about the conduit/netting. Are those the stakes you said to pull if winds are that high, or just the 3ft metal (flower-shaped) stakes? Pulling the metal stakes tomorrow AM. Raining now. What about the tomato cages? I might not be able to get them totally off, should I try to lay them all down on the ground?

Only irrigation is drip hose, I only ran it for 1 hr this week since we had so much rain last w/e (and 1 squash plant was looking droopy - turned out it was pulling itself out of the ground, so I threw some mulch on the exposed roots and watered. It perked up).

Like I said, I plan on picking cukes, squash, peppers, and any tomatoes that are close to ripe but I don't want to pick lots of green tomatoes right now - if they get storm damaged I'll pickle a lot on Monday (as long as we have power to can them - I may have to use propane burner on grill if it will handle 16qt BWB, or else start fermenting things in food-grade buckets). Only 20% chance of rain tomorrow, Sat might start around 10am (the end of the hourly forecast).

Thanks for the advice, we've been through hurricanes and ice storms b4, other than getting MREs I think we're as set as we can be. I was just wondering what to do with the garden since I'd like to salvage as much as I can for September markets. I've sold less than $50 worth of stuff this season, I can't afford to lose these tomatoes and peppers! Squash and pumpkins might not make it but I don't have too many so wasn't counting on those as cash crops.

Everybody stay safe!

if you get 70+ mph winds your plants will be all torn up. i would watch the weather forecast and when it more certain you will get hit is a good time to salvage what you can. the conduit will probably fall from the wind and the soft ground.

I would pull the flower stakes, leave the tomato cages, especially if you have heavy plants. 72 vs 70 is just hurricane speed versus tropical storms.

I'm in Indiana, and the last hurricane than came anywhere close with Katrina, and by that time, it was just heavy rains and a bit of wind.

If it's raining now, I'd get picking. only more rain to come.

I'll be thinking of you, I have a BIL that lives in Stanford, CT, and they are watching carefully to see if they have to evacuate.

Marla

Marla

Marla - just at my parents' watching TWC, Cape May NJ is evacuating and NYC is evacuating Zone A, Stanford is near the coast so they'll get walloped and I imaine they'll evacuate. Governor has declared state of emergency but we're up in foothills of NW CT so we just are expecting lots of rain, not sure about wind, depends on track. Tomorrow is acutally suppoosed to be nice, will pcik what I can for market tomorrow night and hope I can get some peppers and tomatoes to survive and ripen.

I've been telling DH I'm worried about the fence, he wants to wait til Sat and since I really need his help to get it down neatly and reuse the netting I will wait. I told him I'm going to cut all the twine and just try to lay the tomatoes down gently so the vines don't get broken, maybe I'll be able to lift them up after it dries out next week, or maybe everything will rot but if the vines break I won't be able to get any tomatoes anyway so nothing to lose. I've got those cheap ring-type cages, I *thought* they'd be enough for determinate tomatoes (my 1st year growing Glaciers) but they're not, they want to pull out and fall over anyway.

Gonna move my potted peppers into the garage tomorrow, put the garbage cans, soccer goal and porch furniture in the basement, start filling containers with water and putting them in freezer. We have 2 55-gal hot water tanks so plenty of water but pain to drain, so Sat I'll fill the 55-gal food grade rain barrels (1 with spigot) on the back of the pickup truck so we have it elevated and can access it easily. I've also got some 2 gal and a 5-gal food grade bucket with lids so we will be set for water. Not much food (except cereal, PB&J, pickles, salsa, applesauce) that can be eaten w/o heating/cooking but DH thinks we have plenty of propane though tank isn't full. Got flashlights, radio and spare batteries. Without MREs, I think we've done the best we can prepare for.

DB is in NC and says they're so far inland they're not expecting much, though they could use some rain.

Just watched TV this morning, they suggested bleaching your bathtub, then filling it for some extra water. PB&J is one of the best thing for housebound food. Do you have crackers? Also nice to have. Have alot of drinks on hand. After it hits, it will get very cold, so pull those blankets out. You can even use the heavy blankets to nail up across your windows, they will also help to keep the glass from flying.

I wouldn't count on haveing market until after the storm is over.

Also you will get hit 2x, once by the front winds and then again after the eye is past. All depending on the track.

I facebooked the family in CT and they are watching and preparing in case of evacuate.

Marla

Hve at least 6 loaves of bread in freezer, just bought 4 jars of PB and I've been making jam so have a lot of that (not much variety but can't be picky now). I'll brown some ground turkey that's in the fridge so at least we can warm it with jarred sauce and cook pasta on the grill burner. Fish in the freezer will be the 1st to grill if we lose power (I'm moving all the fish and thin things like boneless breasts and pork chops to the kitchen freezer). No crackers, 1 bag of chips and lots of salsa, cheese. Just opened a gal of milk this AM - not sure if it's worth buying another, rather drink water, soda and juice (warm if necessary) than have milk go bad.

I washed and bleached out 14 gal worth of food-grade buckets and big water cooler-type thermoses, ready to fill. We have 2 food-grade rain barrels (1 with spigot) made from 55-gal sauerkraut barrels I will fill at least 1 of those and put in the back of the pickup truck for water pressure. Not too worried about the septic since it's higher than the woods at the edge of the lawn, shouldn't have problems with leach field - we're expecting 5-10" and we've had times when we've had 3-5" in one day, we've had 2 weeks to dry out from the last storm but we have plenty of wet wipes, hand sanitizer, garbage bags, milk jugs, and 5-gal nonfood grade buckets if we need them.

I'm just going to keep the blinds down - have roman shades, most rooms are a sheer and a heavier layer, though the kids' rooms are just single layer of fabric they're heavier (denim in DS's room, jaquard in DD's). If the winds get real bad we'll be in the basement anyway. We've had 60 mph winds here no problem.

They are planning on market tonight - just picked all the tomatoes showing any color, as well as green serranos, etc. I'll go for a little bit but come home when DH gets home and we'll get that fence down (I pulled the stakes this AM).

sounds like you're as ready as can be. I've froze some juices ahead of time, that way there are keeping things cold until they thaw out, and then there're colder.

Marla