SUMMARY KEYWORDS
fire, zone, dog, fireworks, abt, dad, house, dog sitter, combustible, firewood, andrew, deck, embers, rescue remedy, home, people, shelters, relocate, nevada county, july
00:02
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 Rosalie.
00:18
Andrew Twidwell here, owner of ABT Plumbing, Electric, Heat & Air, once again with the show You Got This!, the show about DIY do’s and don’ts. And I’m zooming in here with Rosalie brown. You doing good?
00:28
I’m good. It’s hot here. Is it hot?
00:31
It’s hot. It’s hot, really hot here. I’m in St. Paul always drove out here and it’s 80 degrees with like, 78% humidity. We just got back from a bike ride and it was pretty sweaty. But yeah, but it’s kind of nice. It’s lovely rain this morning. And you know, everything’s all green and lush in our bike ride. We went through this little forest and it kind of smelled like Costa Rica was kind of cool. Wow, the birds are chirping and squawking and stuff. So it’s like, wow, it’s like being in a rain forest out here.
01:04
Yeah, humidity is funny like that. And if you have, you know, humidity that we get in California, if you’ve never been to the Midwest, you don’t really know the humidity can actually be the worst part of the Midwest. I’m just gonna say yeah, but it can be horrible. But, ya know, I saw all your amazing pictures as you went cross country, and I was a little bit jealous because you saw some really cool stuff. But those skies are what really taught me like that was gorgeous. Just
01:33
being able to see the whole sky and those flat bottom clouds and yeah, it was gorgeous. And we really lucked out. You know, we we took our time we we did it in six days as opposed to three so got to see some neat stuff went through Tetons, and yellow, Yellowstone and Badlands. And yeah, it was really pretty sad bear. It’s not grizzly. And in our cub. I mean, I was so freakin cool. I’ve seen one grizzly before Yellowstone. And it was, you know, through a scope. This I was actually able to see it with my iPhone, right. I had the magnification at nine. But I still got a video and it was still kind of clear. I mean, it was that close. And there was a and just let everybody know, it wasn’t one of those dangerous situations. It was it was, you know, a wildlife traffic jam that you have in Yellowstone. So there was you know, a row of cars and there was a naturalist and a ranger there, keeping tabs on the bear and making sure everybody was doing what they were supposed to be doing and not getting close to it. So it was beautiful bison and pronghorn and ferret across the road with with a chipmunk in his mouth mic. That’s no baby meal.
02:46
Oh, man. No, it’s funny. I almost said the base. And then I’m like, Wait, did I miss you remember that? Because we’re, you know, when I worked at a zoo, we had bison. And so every time I see an image of a bison, I’m like, wait, wait when you know so anyway, so as I get older, I’m like, Did I see Andrew did he see bison, but that was one of my favorite photos. And then my second favorite photo, there’s a few but when they talk about Montana being big sky country, that part of the country being big tech country, I just cannot emphasize enough that those pictures you took really it really brought that home. So most of us if you’re friends with Andrew on social media, you get to go on his little adventures. It’s kind of fun.
03:25
I feel very lucky I get to go on a lot of adventures. My adventures have
03:29
nothing like yours. But my but you know, it’s
03:32
just just to let everybody know you know, on social media like every like everybody else, it’s through a lens it’s through a filter right? So there are some I do I do embellish a little bit on some of the images I really like photography so you can go in and take into apps and kind of you know enhance the colors but what I what I always tell my wife she’s like that’s that’s too much filtration and I’m like, here take a look at my sunglasses and she’s like oh yeah, cuz I run around with I like Amber glasses. I like rose colored glasses, right? Yeah, I like warming the temperature of things in the environment. And that’s what I do my picture so it looks like my what what I see in my classes, my sunglasses.
04:11
So basically you have this beautiful view of the world that that people follow you and if they follow me they’re gonna see the gritty urban like ugliness like my big story on on Instagram and social media has been the dog we found a dog sitter for the dog. Nice why just one day, okay, it’s been one day but I’m not gonna lie when I got the first like photo update and she was like, He’s this sweet. I was like, Yes, I was like we gotta we got a dog sitter. So I got to get out are defined. Yeah, I got to get out of the city a bit. Yes. Or get out of work my usual yesterday and run around the city a little bit. So I came home exhausted, but I was excited because there’s a dog sitter, so that means not that I don’t love him, but you know, come on. He’s real Navy so
05:03
and they’re alive. And that was our experience to like coming across countries that you have, when you move in your Hotelling it and not have a place to leave your dogs. You can’t leave in the car because it’s too darn hot. You got to have with them with you all the time trying to find restaurants where you can sit outside trying to find hotels that you can go in with a dog. Just kind of a pin.
05:22
I know that life well. I know that one. Yeah, I know that like, well, and I know I know what it’s like to travel cross country twice with two springing pets in. So I teenager. Yeah, I mean, so I’ve got some miles under my belt. I’ve got some experience. But um, yeah, so So this weekend, people are going to be turning their attention to a couple of things. One, of course, we’re going to err on Friday, July 1, and then that follows us into this.
05:51
We’re actually recording on a Thursday as opposed to Wednesday. So we’re kind of
05:55
firework this season of fireworks were having a very sensitive dog. It’s one of my least favorite times a year because the complete meltdowns are gonna start and then just keep continuing for like a good week or so. But it is that time of year where we celebrate Fourth of July, and that means fireworks and we’ve got some we’ve got a fire going right now and grasp
06:18
the rice and rice as fires. That’s looking good. But yeah, it’s that was scary. Seeing as it’s, you know, not even technically July yet. And we have a 900 acre fire going on right now. That’s relatively close to town. Yeah, it’s a little it’s a little nerve racking. And yeah. I remember when we moved to Nevada County, you didn’t really worry about fires until you know, September. Right. Maybe late August, but not June. So yeah, it’s gonna be an interesting season. I think. So yeah. With the fireworks. Yeah, with that. So we thought we talked a little bit about fire, just because it’s kind of top of mind right now. And the fact that we’re going into Fourth of July weekend, and just kind of remind people a couple of things, you know, about preparedness, and also the fact that, you know, it is, it is where we live in Nevada County is very prone to fires, we have a lot of tall pines that and a lot of them are not doing well. We got a lot of grasses, we have a lot of dry areas. So we don’t allow fireworks in our community, right. They’re not they’re not legal, and particularly the ones in California that have you know, no tolerance or Skype, you know, anything that goes into the sky bottle rockets, any kind of aerial shells that fly into the sky. I’m in the Midwest right now, so you can buy them, but you know, really don’t be taken back to California, because it’s, it’s just too scary. So many fires, I mean, you and I grew up in California. And we remember the shake roofs, right? Everybody had shake roofs were in the 70s. And the bottle rockets would go off and get stuck in somebody’s shake roof and burn their house down. That was pretty much common thing on the Bay Area News every year. Right? So I’m at another house burns down because of a bubble rocket. Now we’re talking about potentially lighting a forest on fire and, you know, potentially hundreds of homes and potentially, you know, people dying. Because of these things, too. That’s not something you want on your conscious. So, you guys, I know most people are listening to this are pretty aware of that. But you know, anybody that’s not or any of your kids that are thinking about going across state lines or going to an Indian reservation buying illegal fireworks, you may want to kind of school them on the fact that you know if they’re deadly.
08:35
And I’ll just be that person, because I don’t you know, I don’t want anyone sending me hate mail. But you know, in Nevada County, technically they are illegal. So I don’t know that the enforcement is going on. But
08:46
even the safe and sane ones aren’t aren’t allowed in Nevada County. So So even in in I think you’d buy in Placer County cash and some other counties. But if you are doing if you are going to be setting off just be really cognizant of the fact that you can’t start a forest fire, so be really, really careful. And don’t be like some of our our parents and get drunk and light fireworks off. Because yeah, I know. It can be a little traumatic for your kids too. My Yeah. Anyway. Let’s see what else we’re gonna talk about. Alright, that’s enough about fireworks, I think. Oh, that’s pretty grim.
09:22
Yeah, it’s always it’s always a big downer when we get out and get on a soapbox.
09:28
So. So yeah, as if we don’t have enough things going on in our lives right now. Pandemic and everything else in the economies and fuel prices and stuff like that we got to worry about forest fires. So we thought we’d talk a little bit about preparedness and getting ready for getting your home ready. We I know we’ve talked about this before. And probably most of you have already done a lot of this stuff. But this is just good reminder. If you haven’t, yet that zone I want to mainly talk about that zone zero this zone zero is extends out to five feet around your property or entry, not your property. around your structure, and any structure, whether it’s a deck, an outbuilding, anything like that, you want to really make sure those those structures are safe from embers so that you know because the fact that we live in an area that has steep canyons and we’ve learned enough over the years that you know, embers can fly miles and start fires and spot fires a lot and then hopscotch along I know I had a few years back we had flying embers in our house from one of the fires that we evacuated from in Grass Valley. So that’s really someplace that you want to make sure that you’ve got got dial that you know the amber zone every resistance zone is currently not required by law, but science has proven it has to be the most important of all defensible spaces zones. So that’s that’s the real kicker, right? Science has proven that is the most important of all defensible spaces zones. This zone includes areas under and around all attached decks and requires the most stringent well fire fuel reduction. The ember resistance zone is designed to keep fire or embers from igniting material that can spread the fire to your home. The following provides guidance for the zone which made shape change based on the regulations developed by the board of Forestry and the fire prediction. So the I mean, so there are some things that we may have learned 10 or 15 years ago that are no longer relevant. So may remember the science is moving us forward. Right? So you know, like me in storing my firewood or if my deck 2015 years ago, that’s something that I wouldn’t do today. And at the time, I was ignorant and didn’t know that was something I shouldn’t do. So if you do or if you do have firewood if you still burn wood you know more power to you. I got old and I’m tired of splitting wood and moving it but you want to keep the majority of your firewood at least five five feet away from your house, preferably 15 to 20 potentially even 50 feet away the majority of it and if you just bring in small loads to your home. So anyway use use hardscapes like gravel, pavers, concrete and other non combustible mulch, material. No combustible bark or mulch around your house. Five feet up to your house. Remove all dead and dying weeds, grass plants, shrubs, trees, branches, etc. All that check your roof gutters. Particularly Yeah, like right now this I just did that week ago. Before we left I just went up on my roof and cleared it completely off and went through and completely cleaned out the gutters. Got all the pine needles out. We live in the forest. So yeah, get up there and take care of it. If you don’t have gutter guards, I would recommend putting them in picket but you want to definitely clean those things up. Make sure the decks and porches and stairways etc are clear of any kind of in the corners, make sure that you don’t have any leaves or pine needles, remove all branches within 10 feet of any chimney or stovepipe. I would go so far as to say you know if you’ve got any kind of limbs that are overhanging your house, you want to make sure you have a 10 foot clearance to to the structure. Yep, trim them up. You know I had a couple of folks that were leaning over, they were almost touching and just cut them off. Just trim them out because you know, hey you don’t want them touching for potential fire but be also if they are touching you have the potential for insects migrating from your tree to your house and you don’t want ants and other things in your house. Limit planting in the area to low growing non moody, properly watered and maintained plants limit combustible items outdoor furniture planters etc. On top of the deck so you don’t want a lot of you know red wood furniture and such or tan relocate firewood and lumber to zone two again, you know you want to make sure that firewood and I forgot about lumber because yeah, I used to have you and you grew up with the contractor as well. So we always had that pile of wood that was really close to the house right? You never know when you need that half a sheet of plywood
13:59
well so like my my dad did something interesting with firewood when you’re talking about firewood I was kind of cracking up because I have a vision in my head a memory vivid memory of my dad would get and you know, we lived in the Bay Area. So I wouldn’t say that it got wicked cold in the Bay Area. I mean, I guess since I’ve lived in snow places like it’s relative, but my dad would have I want to say three chords. Okay, that’s a lot of wood. Here we get three quarts delivered, and it will get dumped into our driveway. Okay, so like this, we have this huge driveway that okay, and then it would be me and my brother, not my dad, my brother would have to stack these Okay, so this would take forever, right? But my father had created this thing attached to the house it actually was it came off the back of the house. He created a whole thing where you would put any put aluminum in there and I don’t know if it was to try to keep like rodents out or whatever. But my dad frankly this whole thing. And so we would literally stack and we lived in a really big house. The entire back wall of The first story of the house and we have stories would be nothing but this firewood that we put in. And then it would have this, you know, it was incredible, right? But I think about that now. And I’m like, well, like so if there’s a fire in the house like, like, what would have happened, you know, so and I just want to get back to three. You were in Lafayette, right? Yeah, we were in that we were in the itsy bitsy part. And it’s like
15:26
they had grass fires out there all the time.
15:28
Not sure. I mean, it was still there was still a lot of space, which why wouldn’t say a lot. But there’s still a remarkable amount of space between houses. Because remember, my dad built my dad must have built that house in 61 custom build. And so there was still land right out there like we would we would sit in our deck. And it would overlook contrast to you know, the Contra Costa area it was I’m trying to think we looked directly at like Concord and Pleasant Hill. And if I were to go back to that same spot, and look, the landscape has changed like humans. Okay, yeah. But when I was a kid, you know, in the 70s, there was still open space, right? And so, but when I think about the amount of fuel for a fire, my dad had us like, the entire back heartbreak. And the pain that we were in for three days, because we just thought we had moved three quarters of wood. I gotta tell you like, that might be why I don’t get I don’t really force my kids to do I never force my kids to do changes. Because all
16:28
I can think I never force my kids to do anything because
16:32
I totally I still do. I still do. I’m like, no, no, no, no, I family stuck in
16:37
that post you posted yesterday for ABC of getting screened up by your dad for not holding the light on the spot that he he’s telling them to hold the spot on. It’s like, dude, yeah, totally remember
16:48
that. Remember the flashlight that magically could never find what your dad was looking for. But you were the one in charge of it. And he’s like, screaming and you’re like, But dad, I knew that. You know, like, I don’t know what you’re talking like. I just yeah, like I like so. So when I was married, you know, and my husband be like, hey, get one of the kids. I’m like, No. Like, I was like, No, that’s gonna damage them. Like you don’t even know. I hope so go to therapy for a lot of years later. Yeah. No, no. Anyway, sorry. That was a tangent. Yeah, so we could relocate
17:20
the firewood and the lumber. Replaced combustible spinning fence or replace combustible fencing gates and arbors attached to the home with non combustible alternatives. I haven’t done that.
17:34
Get busy. You’re out of town.
17:36
consider relocating garbage and recycling containers outside of the zone do definitely do that. We consider relocating boats RVs and vehicles that other combustible items outside the zone. And that’s something Yeah, I mean, I’ve actually been in witness to a couple house fires because of vehicles. And apartment building, which I had when I was working in an apartment building where somebody had this classic truck, and it’s gas can cut off marks was parked next to the furnace. And yeah, fortunately, no one was hurt. It was just last smoke damage. But it was scary. Yeah. Anyway, so those that’s kind of the zone zero. So you really want to go through there. And that’s one set place you really want to make sure you kind of that’s like one of the most critical areas and kind of go around your property and make sure it’s all clear and you don’t have any, you know, piles of, of if you’re doing some landscaping and you get this piles of pine needles, clear them out, Move out, move away from the house, even if it’s just a matter of putting on a wheelbarrow and moving it to the side, you know, 20 feet away from the house. You’re better off than just leaving it you know. Just want to make sure you guys are safe because it is I mean we are we have entered into that we’re entering we have entered fire season now.
18:51
Yeah, just being just being July, you know, this first week in July. I think the the focus courses of firecrackers are fireworks. firecrackers. Yeah, can I can I just say like a little public service announcement about this whole fireworks thing. Okay, so here’s the thing about pets, and I’m an expert on this because I have a highly sensitive, very large dog. I just want to say that the shelters across the country will tell you as we’ll probably our local you know, animal care facilities that this is the time of year when pets get lost and shelters are overrun. And I don’t want to be gross but when shelters are run guess what happens. So it’s it’s very easy for the shelters that do not have a no kill policy in place that have to move make space. They make space and you know how they do it. So also, we want to make sure that your animal doesn’t run away from home and this is the time to do it. So if it’s possible at all to keep your animals inside especially this around the holiday or that the day of that would be amazing. That would be helped them a lot and then I just want to recommend and I’m not getting a kickback on this. There’s a couple different things you can track you have a pet owner if you’re a pet owner. There’s a product called Rescue Remedy. If it is actually does not have any alcohol in it and I didn’t know that was a big thing with apparently there’s a big raging argument online about stuff that has alcohol or not what whatever, I don’t know any better. Yeah, rave reviews I tried it with mine helped a lot Rescue Remedy doesn’t cost much you can get it online or at your local you know, I think probably more than just your pet store, you can probably get some other places anyway. And the other thing you can also try is they do have very low grade CBD chews for dogs. And I don’t know how the cats are affected by fireworks. I’m not gonna lie. I’m not a cat expert. But your dogs are so sentient. So anyway, just keep in mind. Yeah, getting rid of
20:41
a lot of dogs are great. Unfortunately, my dogs don’t really care about it. But yeah, I know a lot of dogs that will just disappear. And you know, and it’s hard when your dog disappears for days on end. It’s really stressful. So be cognizant of the fact that you may have a neighbor that has a dog that very deadly are deathly afraid of this of this noise. And you were mentioning also, you know also flick don’t forget, I know you guys aren’t going to be doing this but you know for the guys that you may have friends that do this shooting firework firearms into the air. Well, let’s come down to it. And they can ignite they can hate before us, you know. So that bullet ricocheting off of off of a boulder can spark it and ignite a forest fire. So it’s a it’s never a good idea to fire a gun or firearm into the air. And be you know, don’t do it this time here
21:37
are things like that seems like common sense. But anyway,
21:40
it says an order and I get it I get Yeah, it’s fun to go out and shoot but don’t shoot the air. bullets come down gravity. Gravity has that thing man it brings it brings everything back down. So
21:53
we’re in our 50s as we kind of were chuckling gravity is not your friends. Okay, so in the last couple of moments we have left, can we talk something about something really quick? I’m gonna spring this on you. But you already know the topic. So abt is an amazing place to work. And we are looking to fill our team. Right. So can we talk just a minute about what’s available and how they can apply?
22:20
Yeah, so we’re still we’re actually always hiring we’re always looking for for qualified people. Right now, we were looking for customer service representatives, somebody that answers the phone and works with customers. So it’s somebody that has to, you know, is good with people and likes to talk on the phone. Not everybody likes that. So that’s ideal. We’re also looking at the possibility of doing alternative work scheduled with that position where somebody could work on the weekend, and have a couple of the weekdays off, which works for a lot of people. I know what one of our plumbers is going to be doing that this. We’re putting we’re transitioning. And we’re also looking for plumbers, we’re always looking for plumbers, we’re always looking for HVAC technicians. We’re always looking for HVAC installers. So those are our, I’d say, four positions that are available, but we have multiple slots available. And each one of those departments so yeah, we’re actively looking. So if you know anybody or if you’re interested, definitely send a resume, you can go on to our website. And you know more better about that, because your handles all this stuff. What are they? What are they looking for on the website.
23:25
So if you just go to our website, easiest abt.com, you will see we have a page listed that has all of our opportunities. So go on there, follow the prompts, you can apply right there, you can send me a resume the email addresses on there, easy peasy. And on that note, we got to bring the show to a close. So where can they find Andrew? Where can
23:45
they call us if you need plumbing, electoral Heating Air work, then you can find us at 530-230-9092 That number again, 53230 9092 You can find us on the web at easiest att.com or abt plumbing.com. You can find us on facebook, please like it and we’ve got a lot of good information there and fun silly things as well. Like, you know, holding your flashlight for your for your dad kind of funny things. So anyway, thanks for listening, and we’ll catch you guys next week. Have a great Fourth. Keep safe. Bye.
24:13
Thanks, Andrew. Thanks, Rose Lee. 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