0:03
Before you start your next do it yourself project listen to this. You got this is on the air you got this is hosted by abt plumbing electric heat and air owner Andrew Twidwell and Rosalie brown with a helpful hand. Here are Andrew and Rosaline.
0:18
This is Andrew Twidwell, owner of abt plumbing, electric heat and air, once again with the show you got this. It’s a show DIY do’s and don’ts. Zooming in Rosalie brown on this wet and crazy day. We’re recording on Thursday. So I know tomorrow, Friday, which will be the day that is airing, we should have a little bit of a break. But, you know, right now we’re still in the midst of it. So kind of crazy. How’s it done in LA?
0:44
Hello, everyone. Happy New Year. So let me just say that, and you know this because you’re on my social media, so you probably saw this this morning, but I just had to post like a thoughts and prayers to everyone who has a dog that needs to go outside to go to the bathroom today. Because Mr. Sugar paws, you know, my lovely dog. He’s up as soon as he gets a tiny hint I might be alive and breathing — he’s ready for potty time. This morning it happened at about five o’clock. So I’m stumbling around in the dark with who knows what, coyotes or whatever. It was a total downpour. I had to take him out against his freewill a few times this morning.
1:44
It’s funny, they want to go out and and you open the door, and they stick their head out. And they’re like, oh, no, no mind. No, I’m not doing that.
1:51
I don’t want to be inconvenienced in the slightest bit. Right. So I get him. I get I get the initial like, you know, okay, you made me do it. I did it. And then I’m getting, I’m kind of getting dressed up. And I’m like you now I don’t trust this. So I was like, We gotta go do big business now. So that was a whole episode. But once I got the big business out of the way, then you know, I thought, oh, streets are supposed to flood maybe today. And, you know, traffic and rain in Los Angeles, you know, whatever. So at 6am Yours truly was at Vaughn supermarket picking up a couple supplies. It was pitch dark. raining. But guess what, there’s no one in the store. So I went in and I grabbed a couple things and raced back home and and I have an app on my phone was not on my phone. I have an app on the laptop. And I check it all the time. That will actually show me like, oh, weather’s breaking right now. Like you have rain stopping at 1112. And you have until 1118 For rains again, that actually alert you. Yeah. And you can sign up for work. Yeah. And so literally, if I’m working, and I noticed there’s a break in the weather. I’ll grab that dog. And I’ll get his 85 pound for you. But outside because we have a small window. So yeah, yeah, so that’s what I’m dealing with. But so far.
3:15
I know we’ve I’ve got the I’ve got the radar app on my phone as well. So I can check and see where the cells are. So you kind of have an idea. Is it gonna be sprinkling or is there gonna be dumping? Right? You get a red celery and I can take the dogs out?
3:27
Yeah, hopefully not. No. Yeah, hopefully not. Right. Absolutely.
3:30
They have to go out that moment. But otherwise, no. Yeah.
3:34
So you know, you know a little bit more about this storm pattern than I do. And of course, people should be hearing this tomorrow, which I think is January 6, is that right? Happy New Year. Again.
3:46
A little break
3:47
here. A little break. And then another storm coming. So hopefully, it’ll be enough for like the, you know, roads to kind of dry off and so I don’t know, a little bit. I don’t know what’s coming next. But it’s a little bit it’s a little bit about it’s supposed to be
4:01
Yeah, the Saturday supposed to be worse. Rain wise love storm that we had last night, Wednesday evening. Once you have to evening through Yeah, night was they didn’t expect it to move fast, which it did. So it didn’t it dropped a lot of rain as a move and it moves so quickly that it dropped a lot. Leonard a lot of rain really quickly. So we didn’t have as much flooding. But the winds were really bad down to the Bay Area and a couple other areas. They weren’t so bad in the bad County. We lucked out there but it could have been really bad with the saturated soil with the trees that have been suffering from drought. And, you know, I mean, I mean, we all know you live in Nevada County. You look out on the forest and you see a bunch of brown trees whenever you got to VISTA, right. And the ones that aren’t Brown a lot more stressed. They’ve got pine needles that are yellowing so yeah, we we dodged that bullet, but this next storm doesn’t look like We’ll be able to dodge it. So, yeah. Yeah. So well, we need the water. So you know, and even though I was watching the news the other day, like, we need a good like four or five more of these to get the get the reservoirs up, they’re still, you know, they’re getting close to half full right now. So it’s been so dry so long that we got a lot, we need a lot of water to fill those reservoirs.
5:21
I guess like that. So So you know, it’s always like, if it’s basically if you it’s either, you know, you’re living drought conditions, and you’re worried about the fire, or you’re worried about the flooding, or you’re, you know, you’re worried about driving in the rain, and then you got the winds. So,
5:39
because of living in California, actually anywhere in the west right now. That’s California, Idaho, or or Nevada. Yeah. You still got the same issues?
5:49
Yeah. Luck. Yes. Okay. So I have to ask, because this is our first show of Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Happy 2023. Right. It’s crazy. So I have to ask, I look, I see. I see a rainbow out my window. Weird. Yeah, that’ll be gone in a minute. But okay, so there’s my ADHD. So here’s my question to you. Write? Do you have any? God I’m gonna write that down as a resolution. So do you How
6:20
does give into it? I mean, you get who I am. And all my horrible foibles.
6:26
It’s true. You’ve been the same person since I met you years ago. Yes. Okay, so
6:32
56 this year is like yeah, I am who I am at this point.
6:36
Well, so that and now I’m looking at little dogs came. Oh, this is weird. I feel like I’m, this is creepy. Yeah, this is weird. Next thing, you know, it’s gonna be a unicorn. Um, I wouldn’t know this freaking me out. I should really be taking the dog out right now. So I gotta go. There’s a window of good. I gotta take I gotta take the you take your, your, um, because then those steps are gonna poop on me and I saw. So back to So 2023 So now, I am always laughing at people because we start the year off and all they want to talk about is new year new me. So do you have any resolutions or goals you’re committing to because I’m gonna put you on the spot. It’s gonna be on the radio, and people are gonna people are gonna hold you accountable man.
7:25
So I you know, I talk a lot about with our staff and I talked about and I read a lot about resolutions and I’m not a resolutions guy, but I am an IT SOUNDS dorky, and to California, he but I found that if I use the word intention, I intend to do this. It’s a little little bit more forgiving. But also it puts me puts my hands to the fire a little bit more. And I write it down. So yeah, I’ve got a couple of them. I’ve gained quite a bit of weight over the last couple of months. Because I typically do during the wintertime I give up and I don’t go outside and
8:07
I’m gonna I’m gonna I’m gonna put a pin in. And I’m gonna ask you to spray everybody right? That’s I want you to read. I want you to reframe this. So you much like a bear. Right? You take on what you need to get through the winter months. So relation there. Yeah. Okay, so you’re just you’re just being a good day are merely of
8:27
sweets and drinking too much wine and beer. But yeah, listen,
8:31
listen up. Check. I have two pies right now in my house. Do I need to do I need two pies? Because two of you. Well, come on now. Come on. Now. We both know who’s eating those pies.
8:44
I’ve got my or we’ve got our 26 year old son with us right now. He’s been with us for a couple of weeks and yeah, sweets gone. That’s been kind of nice. Like I don’t have but he does have he does have a usual lactose intolerance now it’s traveling traveling stomach. But we do get the milk ones like milk chocolate and you get plenty milk chocolate, but any other stuff. If it ends up in the fridge, gone? Yeah, leftovers. Gone. Just weird. Having sent me that eats a lot again. You know when you’re 2016 you can get away with it. Right? Oh my gosh, that anymore?
9:18
Oh my gosh. All right, so that’s good. So you’re gonna lose some weight. Maybe you intend to lose some weight and then what’s your
9:23
intent and lose some weight again, we want to continue to grow the company. You know, we saw a big increase last year. We’ve grown by about 35% Maybe closer to 40% with the headcount so we’re giving a lot more people opportunity to make a good living and and has actually spend more time with their family like we actually was our first year that we close the shop between Christmas and New Year’s and everybody you know all my consultants and staff and business coaches and stuff like your net And because we just we gave up all that revenue right for an entire week. But the thing that it did for our, my co workers, my God, the amount of people that were so happy about having that week off and be able to spend it with their family was it was invaluable. I couldn’t put a price on it, we lost, we lost quite a bit of money. And it was not cheap to do, because we paid them while they’re off. And we didn’t have any money coming in. But in terms of the goodwill that I got from my co workers is huge. And they’re ready to come back to work and happy. So I want to continue to do that and want to continue giving people that opportunity to better themselves. And we got some kids that are that are coming up and getting into the that are getting into the trades. We got some 20 year olds that, you know, have kids now babies having babies, right. And hopefully, they’ll be able to make enough money that they can buy a house and send their kids to college if they want and put some money in their 401 K and those sorts of things. So that’s I’m really that’s my big intention right now is to help more people. Yeah.
11:06
Wow. I wasn’t ready for that. Okay,
11:09
I know it’s heavy shit, heavy stuff looks like this almost almost worth heavy stuff. But it is the immediate, but anyway, it is heavy stuff. But that, but that’s what gets me up in the morning, right? It’s, you know, make a good living and but it’s nice to be able to share with people and give them the opportunity that I’ve been so fortunate to have been able to send my kids to college and be able to buy a house and help take care of to help take care of my adult children. Right now. It’s nice. You know, retirement?
11:41
Yeah, I mean, I can I can say that, when we put the message out that, you know, we’re gonna commit to, you know, be having the staff have the time off between the holidays. It was really, it felt good to see such positive. There’s a lot of positive feedback to that. And I think that
11:59
I really like a lot of customers coming back to us and saying, That’s so nice. Yeah, I mean, we
12:03
had people on Facebook and other outlets that were, you know, saying that was a great thing to do. And I’m be honest with you. I’m thinking and put a price tag on mental health, by the way. And I think that we also are we we work ourselves to death in this country. And I won’t get on a soapbox, but to be able to work in an environment where your boss says, hey, you know what? Your mental health and your personal life stuff like that, there should be a balance between work and personal. So I’m gonna go ahead and do that. So that’s a great, so
12:32
yeah, that’s been my philosophy ever since I started this company is family first, right? Business. Maybe third? Maybe second, depending on your spirituality. You know? I mean, if you really? Yeah, but other than that, it’s really it’s not top. Yeah. Family. Family Friends. Yeah. Yeah, of course. Yeah. I mean, like everybody else, you know, you got this family members that weren’t exactly born into your family, but are considered family. So spend time with them as well.
13:01
Well, we live in you got to take care of people. You got to take care of each other. Right. Okay, well, you’re so your resolutions are really?
13:10
How are you? Well, actually, we should get on to it there, shall we? I talked too long. I apologize. Because yeah, my question that I just went on. You know
13:18
what, I got news for you, sir. My resolution is to be the same charming lucky charm that I’ve always been. I will continue to show up and be my fabulous self. So there. That’s what I intend to do for 2020. Good working for me all this time. I’m going to keep it up. Okay, so we do do a show. It’s called you got this. It’s a show of DIY do’s and don’ts. It is basically presented to you by ABC plumbing, electric heating air. Andrew Twidwell, owner of ABC plumbing, electric heating air, what would you like to talk about this week?
13:53
What would I like to talk about? Well, Rosalie, I have to admit, my wonderful producer gave me a good list of things once again, so I don’t have to think about it because my brain is on other things at the moment. You gave me a good list of what to do if your power and heat goes out in the winter, which I think is very topical right now.
14:13
It could have been Why are listening to this, you know,
14:15
yeah, I know we’ve had some power outages and there’s some people without power right now. And these next, I mean, looking at the forecast for the next week, it looks like we’re gonna have rain and wind for the next week, the storm doors open. And they’ve got systems all the way up to Japan right now that are tracking on that are coming towards us that you know, we don’t have a high pressure system, blocking it right now. So which is a great thing, but it is something that you have to be aware of and be prepared for. So you want to make sure that you have things prepared. When the power goes out, obviously, it has an effect and if you’ve lived in Nevada County at any length of time, if you’ve been here for more than five years you’ve already had you’ve experienced some pretty long On power outages, if you’ve lived here for 10 to 20 years, I mean, as you and I can attest to, you know, you could go a week without power in Nevada County and sometimes sometimes longer.
15:11
And I think I think I did, yeah, it’s not like
15:15
the Bay Area, or some larger metropolitan areas where you’ll lose power for hours in, you know, rarely days, we can go weeks. So I, you know, even people that are out in this out further out on the ridge or up in the mountains can go months, sometimes without power. So, you probably have already taken a lot of things into account. But we’re kind of going to kind of go over some of the simpler things, you know, the obvious things is make an evacuation plan, make sure you’ve got, make sure you’ve got some kind of emergency kit, if you will, you know, we also live in a fire prone area. So you should have some kind of kit together anyways, so that you have your group go back together, making sure that you’ve got some warm clothes, some some warm blankets, some water available, I know I can’t, I always have water in my truck these days, just to make sure we got in a blanket, and warm clothes just in case I get stuck because I have been stuck on the summit before overnight, and it’s no fun in a snowstorm. So make sure you have that survival kit, make sure you have that go bags set up and ready to go. If not in your car right now at least somewhere that you can grab it easily make an evacuation plan to get to a local heating shelter. You know, I’ll be honest, I think we’ve only got one, usually, in our area. And a lot of times that doesn’t even show up unless it’s a really long, long period, or period of time without power like days. I don’t know if they normally even open them if it’s just like a 12 hour thing. But if you at least have an idea of where those places are, especially if you have if you live in a home that you don’t have. If you’ve been in the bad County for 10 to 20 years, you’ve got an alternate source of heat, you’re gonna have a gas stove, you’re gonna have a wood stove, you’re gonna have some way or you’re gonna have a portable, portable heater of some sort. Because you’ve already gone through this thing. Make sure you got flashlights and lanterns. And make sure if you’ve got battery operated ones that you have batteries set up in them refuel the refuel your heating fuel propane. You know, I mean, again, obvious stuff for most of us Nevada County that have been here for a while, you know, if you live up high in the in, you know, Banner mountain or 20 or something like that, you’ve already done this, because you may not be able to, they may not be able to get the propane truck into your house for a couple days for a couple of weeks, sometimes stocked up on non perishable food items, bottled water, pet food, diapers, battery packs, phone chargers, etc. I’m a big proponent of backup batteries. I know I’ve got a couple that I have with me all the time now just for my my electronic devices, because I’m kind of addicted to my electronic devices. But you can pick up a really nice little battery, USB battery backup for 50 bucks, that’ll keep that’ll charge your iPad and charge your phone. It’s just really handy to have also considering investing in a power generator. So you know, you can do a whole house generator we installed and we install color products. Color has been in the industry for building generators longer than any other company and in the world, let alone the United States. And they are locally made in Kohler, Wisconsin. So if you’re interested in getting a generator, also make fresh reviews at any other company.
18:42
So let me ask you a little bit about the generator. Because I have lived in a home. I was house sitting about three years ago when we were the PSPS were brand new, and we are getting no power for weeks at a time. So as how sitting and thankfully, the house had a it was amazing, like a full generator. It was amazing. Oh, my life was so much easier. But so I have a question for you. So if I were to, like call up, you know, abt and say, you know, come out what’s the process? Like you don’t have to give me a timeframe because I know that there’s a million different things. But if I said hey, I don’t have a generator right now, what’s the process of getting a quote? So I know what I’m, you know what I’m looking at,
19:22
we come out to a site, a site inspection. There’s a bunch of hoops that we have to jump through for Nevada County, we got to make sure we have a site plan. Make sure you’re not going to be sitting on top of a septic tank, make sure it’s likely sitting on top of the gas line, those sort of things. Make sure that’s set in a place that’s going to be safe and then pulling the permit. And we’re getting the bid together approving the bid, getting a deposit order and equipment. Pulling the permit getting everything set up. So it will take you know once we get the approval it could take a week or two before we can actually install it just because there are a lot of Oops that we have to jump through. And sometimes we do have a couple generators that we have on stock. But a lot of times we want necessarily have the one that you want. And we’ll have to order it. But we just ordered out a Livermore. So it’s not, it’s not like it’s a real hard drive to get it to us.
20:16
So it’s a process that I used to process. Yeah, it’s something
20:19
you want to plan for. So it’s not an emergency thing where you know, I don’t have any power right now. Can you come and talk to me for today? No, we can’t, sir. Because it’s not, you know, it’s a bit it’s a big involved process, because we also have the conversation of what do you want to power, that’s power, that’s where I was going, the more expensive it is, if we’ve got to put in, you know, the difference between an eight, eight kW and a 20. kW can be two or three times as expensive, they are a lot more expensive a piece of equipment. And that’s the difference between having everything in your house turned on, or having to select things based on your water, your heat, those sort of things. Once you start putting air conditioning in every light and everything in your house, your range, everything plugged in, is going to have power, then you’re going to have a much larger piece of equipment. So we have that conversation of what kind of investment you want to put into the house for set emergency. So yeah. But you can also use portables, you know, I mean, I’ve used portables for a long time. I’ve actually never, you know, the cobblers kids have no shoes kind of thing. I’ve never had a whole house generator, my house. I’ve just used portables and they’ve worked pretty good. And we can come and install switches in your house that you can hook up your portable power to your house to certain circuits so that you can power it like the well like I’ve got one set up in my house just for the Well, sir, I’ve got a little portable one that can run my fridge. But the other thing that I’ve gotten into, and we got, yeah, I really wanted to bring this up and just got a couple more minutes. One thing that has come down dramatically in prices is battery backup. So we’re we’re in the process of trying to get licensed to install certain animals, like the Tesla wall kind of panel, but we’ve got Kohler that’s offering one so you don’t have to deal with Tesla, because we’ve heard some some, there’s some shaky stuff with Yeah, we’ll go there. Anyway, with that company,
22:12
things catch on fire, could it be things catching fire, okay, next guy, so keep him in,
22:18
you can get like there for a while there was about $1 per watt. So you get a 2000 watt battery for about two grand and I’ve got one of those and that thing, oh my gosh, between that and a small generator, I can run my entire house. Not my entire house. But everything that I need all my lighting, my I already have a wood stove or a gas stove, refrigerator, my Wi Fi, my TV, all that sort of thing can run off this one battery, and then I use the generator to pump power back into that when it starts to get low. And then I can turn my generator off and I have to leave the generator constantly running. So just for that, you know you got 10 2000 watt generator that you got to keep running because you want to turn a light on and turn it off and the fridge comes on every once well. If we do the battery, it’s not you know, it’s the idle time when it’s not really using any power but it’s still running kind of like stopping at a stoplight. We’re using gas and you’re not really moving any longer but you’re still using gas same sort of thing with that battery backup game changer. I highly highly recommend them. And with that, that actually puts us at our end of the road show but check out the battery backups, portables and we will be getting into putting in wall panels here shortly. This year. That’s the plan. Game changer For for getting through the power outages. Be safe you guys you know things are. You know, I know a couple of my guys were kind of downplaying this last storm. But you know, people literally died because of the storm. I know there’s four people that died in the Bay Area. Looking at the news this morning. It’s scary. So you want to make sure that you’re prepared and ready. You don’t want to, you know, we saw what happened at Buffalo where people were stuck in their cars and stuff and and stuck in their homes in Buffalo, New York last week or Yeah, last Christmas week. Be prepared, get ready for it because it’s coming. And on that flight note. Happy New Year, everybody. If you need any help with plumbing, electrical heating or air needs, our phone number is 530-230-9092 by 302309092. You can reach us on the web at easy as abc.com or you can also find us at Abt plumbing.com. Like us on Facebook, we share all this information and some fun stuff. And with that, like I said Have a Happy New Year and we’ll catch you next week. Thanks for listening. Bye.
24:35
Thanks, Andrew. Thanks, Rosalie. Now let’s get that project started. You got this. We’ll be back next Friday morning at nine o’clock on Cancio Newstalk 830
Transcribed by https://otter.ai