Adventures in Hobby Farming Chapter 5: Hurricane Irma Prep in North Florida

Irma Be like ... ROAR! And I'm like "Hold mah Beer."

Living in Florida is always a game of not if, but when. I live in North Central Florida which is not known for its hurricane devastation. We're reasonably above sea level and about an hour in from the coast. So, the idea of even a monster storm hitting us is remote unless the storm takes a perfect track coming off the Gulf of Mexico.

Irma is threatening to do just that. Most hurricanes we don't do much prep for because of this. As I write this we're a few hours from the worst of it. But, I wanted to show you what our plans are so, if you do what we did, it may give you some ideas of how to proceed.

The image above is the front of my house. Those plywood sheets are attached to the posts of my overhang (above 6' wide). Behind that is my front door and it'll be where the generator lives. The wood pile is against the house. This is facing directly east.

Two 55 gallon drums are there to catch rainwater for general usage. We have four 20-gallon food-grade drums in the house for drinking water.

Generator Alley. Bedroom sealed for one air-conditioned room post-storm to get some rest

The whole house is post-and-beam construction, 6x10" headers, 2x6" walls. All PT Southern Yellow Pine. Exterior grade OSB sheathing inside and out. Cypress board and batten. Roofs are 5/8" plywood, 36' tar paper and 30 year shingles.

They may not make it.

The addition is both post-and-beam and stud-walls inset.... so, it's completely overbuilt and will serve as our main shelter if the tall roof fails. My 2nd floor is 2x10"s on 16" centers.

The whole house can be torn back to the post-and-beams and rebuilt.

My porch. Hardened on all sides. The dairy goats and dogs will ride it out here

We will bring the dairy goats who are milking onto the porch and chain them to the wall (there are only 3 of them) so they won't fight. They'll have hay and water and the milk stand is right there for me to be able to milk them during the storm. The dogs will be with them. I have a couple that are cowards during storms so they'll just hunker down and wait it out.

I'll seal the door from the inside and leave the top open to allow some wind to whip through. Some of the rafters are tied directly to the 4x6" posts and all are double hurricane-tied.

NOT GOING ANYWHERE.

For the bucks we have two shelters and strapped 1x10" pine boards to the front and back edges of the roof to hold the tin down and keep it from peeling. It's the best we can do.

We also have half an old cistern for some of our bucks. It's 1/2" steel and will take a tree landing on it. It already has. We'll board up the front locking them in with hay and water for the storm.

Wish us luck and please Upvote/Resteem so we can pay for any of the damage and the lost revenue from a week without the Farmer's Market. If the post does well enough I will happily donate some of the proceeds to other Steemians in the same boat I am.