[00:00:00] Welcome back to the Changing Earth Podcast with author Sarah F. Hathaway and co-host Chen Gibson. Blending survival, fiction, and fact to bring you entertaining education that will help you dream, survive, and thrive. And now here's your host, Sarah F. Hathaway and Chen Gibson.
[00:00:27] Chapter 42 The desert sand whipped through the light of the transport's headlights as Monroe pulled the truck to a stop at the Vegas gate. Good evening, Major Virgis. We weren't expecting you tonight, a federal soldier declared stepping forward.
[00:00:43] Just finished a hunt, figured since we were so far south we'd stopped by for a visit, Cole stated. The soldier looked at him curiously. Hold on, sir. The soldier walked towards a guard shack and picked up a radio. He doesn't look too happy to see us, Monroe commented.
[00:01:00] Probably because we're here for supplies not providing them, Cole suggested. True story, Monroe agreed, watching the soldier approach. Captain Reno says your teams can use the guest quarters, but he wants to see you first thing in the morning, the soldier directed.
[00:01:15] Thanks, Cole told him as he opened the gate. Monroe drove the truck inside and directed it toward one of the old hotels. After an early breakfast, Cole stood in front of Captain Paul Arrenault. Cole could never stand this man.
[00:01:32] He did his job ruthlessly, and his breath filled the air with a sour stench as he spoke. Major Virgis, we need the supplies, the captain insisted. I'm not sending my fighters into the radiation zone for clothing. Texas is still producing cotton, Cole protested.
[00:01:51] Arrenault shook his head, countering they want to barter and we're not negotiating with traders. Cole's face scowled at the captain's response. That's BS. The feds do it for oil all the time. That's different. Why? Cole wondered. Because the fuel isn't for refugees, but the clothing is, Arrenault explained.
[00:02:12] Landowners don't need clothing. Everything they're wearing is produced with the cotton they grow. Anything recovered out there wouldn't be good for much except making sure refugees aren't running around naked. Those people you call refugees create enough food for this town to warrant a trade,
[00:02:30] Cole defended, sickened by the disgust in Arrenault's voice. That's not how my superior see it, Arrenault explained. I'm not sending my fighters into dangerous situations because the feds don't want to spend some resources, Cole declared. Fine. Maybe we can use some of our refugee squads.
[00:02:48] We already feed them iodide like candy, Arrenault explained. Still disgusted with the disdain Arrenault had for the refugees, Cole declared. Whatever you think is right, captain. I don't have the authority to make that call. Just keep that supply list in mind while you're out there, Arrenault insisted.
[00:03:06] We will. If you'll excuse me, I have to oversee the supply transfer, Cole declared, eager to be dismissed. Take care, Major Virgis. Arrenault told him. You too, captain, Cole replied, exiting through the door.
[00:03:20] Heading towards the loading docks, Cole listened to the sound of trucks idling and people loading boxes. Major Virgis, sir, Private Jessup greeted Cole as he approached. Private, how's it going? Cole asked, looking at the trucks and the list the young man was carrying.
[00:03:36] The feds are all in a wrinkle over the amount of salt we need, sir. Jessup informed him. Yeah, we need it for Empire. You got it worked out? Monroe did, sir. Is he still over in the office? Yes, sir, Jessup answered. But he paused hesitating.
[00:03:53] Finally, he asked Major Virgis, sir. Yes, Private. I saw Chappy leaving with the last team we encountered. Uh-huh. Cole responded, looking at the list. He knew where the young man's questions would take them, and this was not the right place to have the conversation.
[00:04:10] Why weren't they put with the others we brought here? And where is Chappy, Jessup wondered? Shoving the clipboard back at the young man Cole commanded, keep your voice down, Private. Cole watched Sergeant Bingham and Bennett approach. We'll talk about this later, Private.
[00:04:24] He insisted before greeting his friends. Staff Sergeant Alex Bingham, Sergeant Patrick Bennett. How are you guys getting along these days? Fine, Major. How about yourself, Alex responded? No complaints, Cole declared honestly. The soldiers looked at him curiously.
[00:04:42] Seriously, Alex wondered? Cole nodded, replying. Doesn't do you much good to look back. Sergeant Bennett nodded as well. I'll second that. You got everything you need? Monroe's got it handled, Cole affirmed.
[00:04:56] It's good to see you, Major. But if I'm not needed here, I have to report to the captain. Take care, sir, Bennett said, heading off to accomplish an unknown task. Cole thought the man looked stressed, and a vein in his forehead looked more bulgy than Cole remembered.
[00:05:12] Good to see you, Cole told him as he left. Turning to Alex, Cole declared. He seems even more focused than usual. He's put in too many years at the reeducation camps. It takes a toll on a man, Alex said watching Bennett leave.
[00:05:27] I don't know how he does it, Cole admitted, thinking of how the captain talked about the refugees like they were little more than animals. He believes he is helping. He believes in the system and thinks he's assisting people so they can survive in it, Alex explained.
[00:05:43] He's bought and sold, Cole declared. He was a little disappointed. He liked Bennett, but couldn't understand how a man could manipulate another human being so ruthlessly and still feel he was doing the right thing.
[00:05:56] More like blind loyalty, but damn that man can fight. I'd go into any battle at his side, and honestly he has a way with people. He's convincing Alex respectfully corrected Cole. Encouraged by Alex's explanation, Cole suggested, maybe he just needs a break.
[00:06:16] We could plan a trip to Dolores's place. It'd be fun. Take a couple days to pretend the world isn't falling into shit. Alex smiled at the suggestion. I don't know. He used to take time off before all this, but not since. I'll try though. Where's Chappy?
[00:06:34] I sent him with a load to Colorado. Cole said quietly. Found some good product. Shaking his head affirmatively, Cole responded. I did. I think that's the last of it, Major. Staff Sergeant Bingham, I wasn't expecting to see you down here, Monroe explained.
[00:06:50] I had to stop by and see how my favorite fighters in the North were doing. Alex said, teasing Monroe. We sure did have our hands full on the way here, Monroe explained. Alex lowered his voice, changing the subject. Burgess, did the captain talk to you about clothing stocks?
[00:07:07] He did, Cole affirmed. Are you sending your people, Alex wondered? No, Cole said flatly. Good. I'm glad you decided to keep your people safe. They have a whole warehouse of clothing. They're just using it as an excuse to form the refugee salvage squads. I heard Tweed discussing it.
[00:07:26] I'm surprised that it took this long. They've been using the refugees as fighters since the beginning back east. Hell, half the feds and mercs are refugees. They put trackers in them, Cole explained. Alex looked at him curiously. Really? That way the fighters they trained can't jump shit.
[00:07:44] Did they put trackers in the refugees here? Alex wondered. Who knows what's in those shots they give them and us. You can have one in you, Cole teased. Alex didn't smile. He simply stated, I'm going to look into that.
[00:07:59] Let me know what you find out, Cole requested. We'll do drive safe major Alex declared checking his watch. Take care of staff, Sergeant Cole responded, watching his men load up for the trip home.
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[00:08:35] Go to yourcheapland.com, check out the properties, use the promo code PBN and get $100 off your purchase. Hello and welcome back to the changing earth podcast. This is episode number 441 season 15 episode 42. Hey, Chen, what's up? Chant up y'all.
[00:09:21] Man, we had a little bit of an excitement with our live broadcast there, but no worries. We will adapt and overcome. And we also have Gregory Barone in the house. Hey, Gregory, how you doing? Greetings. I come in peace. Take me to your leader.
[00:09:39] Gregory is one of our spectacular performers from our audio drama and I really wanted to be able to showcase, you know, we got some talented voices on the audio drama, but they also have their own talents and their own rights when it comes to the prepping community.
[00:09:56] So welcome to the show, Gregory. So glad you can make it with us today. Thanks for having me on here. This is like my first time doing an interview in a podcast. And you're live, so no pressure at all.
[00:10:09] I'm so sweet. Huh? I'm sorry. That's just how I am. Upcoming events. We got the big eclipse day tomorrow and I guess my area is just going nuts down here in Texas over all that. So a bunch of hoopla.
[00:10:27] And we also have Prepper Camp, of course, coming up last weekend in September. Get your tickets, get your camping spot now. They will sell out. That is one thing you can pretty much be guaranteed of every year as it will sell out.
[00:10:41] So get your stuff now. Well, it's still they've done a couple price hikes now, right, Chen? They have, yes. Yeah. So you got to get it now. Well, it's still affordable guys. Does it get any cheaper? Doesn't. It just gets more expensive than we got.
[00:10:56] It doesn't matter. Come pandemic, hell, high water, whatever. We have Prepper Camp. Oh yeah. We're there every year. Every year. I told Rick, I was like, I don't even care if there's not a Prepper Camp. You'll still see me over here on your front door.
[00:11:09] Just a little... whoop-whoop! Who would you be hanging? All right. So when we're reading a Verges today, they were getting back from the roundup that they were doing out in the Badlands.
[00:11:23] And Reno is trying to get them to send guys out into the radiation zone just being classic Reno jerk. More clothing to wear. Yeah, right. And they can't trade for it. Come on now. It's all about supplies.
[00:11:41] The trackers. The trackers was a topic of conversation and how they were installed in vaccination shots and whatnot. Interesting little theory there. And then we kind of have the catch up with the boys. And Verges was like, I don't know about this Bennett guy. You know.
[00:12:08] I don't know about him. It's funny because my good friend Skip plays him and I love Skip. He's my guy. So it was perfectly suited for him. Alrighty. So we're talking urban prepping today. What a great conversation. We were chit-chatting in the green room.
[00:12:29] We had lots of time today because of a couple little technical hiccups. So yeah, we're getting gardens going and whatnot. So Gregory is my urban man.
[00:12:42] And Gregory, how long have you been interested both in gardening but also had the idea that maybe I need to start being a little bit more prepared? And what was kind of the trigger for you to start having that awareness?
[00:13:02] Actually, it happened with my grandpa who in like in my younger years he, well, he's deceased now. He lived in New York with my grandma.
[00:13:16] So he had like this row of like cinder block and concrete of like a 15 foot row by like two and a half foot wide row of this dirt. And he would just grow like peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli and that.
[00:13:41] And then it also kind of moved on to my dad who like wherever you live, you always have a little garden to grow your own little vegetables to save money.
[00:13:52] So yeah, so like on weekends I would have to get pulled away from the TV and help out gardens. Yeah. Yes. Yep. Got to do the weed. And that's perfect.
[00:14:05] So they really help foster that we're going out to the garden and getting those fresh goodies out there and things like that, right? Yes. It's one of those kind of skills you it's good to kind of know about in some ways from others that I know of.
[00:14:24] Yes. You're not wrong because there's so many urbanites, you know, that we talk to you that it's like, well, I don't even know where to begin.
[00:14:33] I'm doing a garden. So to have that handed down through your generation, you know, your your grandfather that passed that to your father and then you're picking it up. That's a really cool thing. There's a lot of people that don't have the skills. So that's that's really impressive.
[00:14:47] Step one on a prepping journey. That's for sure. Yes. Yeah. So and some stuff I've done is kind of what we did for doing this urban garden thing is mostly experimental stuff, but it has worked in some ways. Some stuff we work did. That's the best though. Yes.
[00:15:05] That's what now is all about when you don't have to like rely on it, you know, we had one year that like go furs took a bite out of every single potato we had planted. And it was just devastating, you know, because it was so much work.
[00:15:19] But better for it to happen now and for us to understand like those threats are there than when we needed to eat that food, you know, like rely upon it. So really good to start start practicing early. Yeah, I must have stuck for you.
[00:15:37] Oh, it did. We had just expanded into like a whole it was a big field like a 20 by 20 at least a potatoes and the whole thing got miscred. Ouch. Yeah, to say the least. So those but that's why I say like experiments are good.
[00:15:54] What kind of I'm curious now what kind of like what's your top one or two experimental items that you found that let's let's do one that was like really good and one that was not really good. Um, oh, what was it experimental?
[00:16:15] Like, yeah, we've we've actually took these those storage those thick plastic storage bins that you get from like, I guess like Walmart or somewhere. Yeah, like a rubber made. Yes, one of those.
[00:16:32] And we drilled some holes in the bottom of it to drain out the access water and you put like, um, like well, I want to say polished or very well rounded stone like real small stone that you probably put in like your fish tank or something right.
[00:16:53] You put that on the bottom there and then we put like a multi dirt on top of that for it to kind of for the water to go through. And just put the season the dirt and let them grow using that as your storage for a raised bed.
[00:17:10] That's actually a killer idea. Yes, I mean you can actually do that indoors to right yeah because we're going to be building a greenhouse and we're always in debate over whether like to do concrete. Board or to do wood board with the liner.
[00:17:26] But I never even thought about like a plastic product and if it's not in the sunlight, then you're it's going to be able to last a lot longer. Killer idea. Yeah, I think we also did liner one time too and that worked pretty well.
[00:17:43] You just had to put the dirt in it and it worked well. Yeah. Yeah, we've had one last. Oh, I want to say like eight years in the California sun that was wood with the liner. So it's not a bad system.
[00:17:57] It just when it failed, it really sucked because like now you have the wood and you have to remove the wood. Now you got piles of stone and all that stuff, you know, so I mean whatever you use your kind of be in the same boat there.
[00:18:12] Yeah, apparently the thick plastic that these bins are made out of are very durable. Right. You would not think it would work but it worked. Huh, I like that. Okay, what about something that just total like oh we're never doing that again.
[00:18:31] For me it was everybody's like oh planting an egg carton right? I didn't have good success with planting an egg carton. I thought the ball was too little and then they're like oh you could just plant the egg carton and I guess but I don't know.
[00:18:49] It didn't decompose quick enough for the roots. Yeah, one time we tried this thing that's supposed to like help like help grow the seeds and like just a little thing that looks like a well like smushed down net and that didn't really work so well. Okay.
[00:19:14] The topsy turvies right? They always marketed those as like the urban grow your tomatoes upside down. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh I remember those. They were the worst. I didn't have any success with those. You tried those.
[00:19:27] Oh like in California the sun's just baking that dirt that's in the ground you know above ground now. My father-in-law was like oh topsy turvies, topsy turvies all the way and the topsy turvies were the worst. They sucked so.
[00:19:46] So yeah, that's some good ideas and then I guess one of the other things I was hoping to go over is like the right vegetables to grow depending on what region of the country you're in.
[00:19:59] So and then you have then of course like if you think about depending on how things if anything goes wrong in today's society you need to have some kind of way of getting vitamins inside you because I remember from some history thing that sailors got a major.
[00:20:26] The scurvy? Yes. From not having yeah from not having. Yeah the vitamins in you and all that. That was not fun. That would not be fun for anyone. Pine needle tea.
[00:20:38] You can drink a pine needle tea it gives you vitamin C and that's that's how you can ward off scurvy if you're not getting like access to oranges and that kind of stuff. Oh that's a good one for me.
[00:20:50] Yeah yeah the pine needles are super useful but that is one you know that the natives taught to the westerners. Yeah.
[00:21:00] Yeah I also have a list of different things you could actually grow depending on where you are so like you're not limited to like potatoes, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, peas, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries. Artichoke is a good source of vitamin C too. Oh artichoke is? Yeah.
[00:21:21] How about that okay and I know that milkweed thistle is an artichoke relative so I'm gonna have to check that out now you're just perking all kinds of interest I mean now I'm like oh yeah. Thank you I did a lot of work on this.
[00:21:35] Yeah yeah that makes sense. So yeah don't forget broccoli and cauliflower too here. Now do you grow those in your region? Um. Because you're in Virginia so how's that for you? Yeah we can grow those where I live so. Winter crop. Yeah.
[00:21:53] Because I've when I plant it in the spring and that and I've lived in warm areas it's just too warm and you get the vaulting that happens like they grow like they want to bloom too fast so. Oh.
[00:22:07] And then when I was planting in the fall because there was a plant in the fall um I was getting worms in it like these I know they get worms and that happens but more so in the fall so yeah.
[00:22:22] Do you plant that like as soon as you're coming out of winter? You're in a different latitude is me so. Yeah I mean sometimes you can grow that where I live is just apparently grown much of anything as of late so. Just. Gotcha.
[00:22:39] Yeah so and then of course you have your herbs too like thyme and rosemary you can also grow. I have thyme like crazy. And text it off. Yeah I got thyme man I had some thyme.
[00:22:56] It's done really well here and usually we have basil that is just like growing like weeds here um. Wow. But yeah parsley is a good one you can get to go year round um. Yeah.
[00:23:10] Depending on where you're at my mom used to even grow that under the snow. Oh wow.
[00:23:15] Yeah like she just cover it in leaf clutter and then you'd be able to dig down through the leaves in the snow when we were in Michigan and still get to fresh garlic it was or fresh parsley it was really cool. Oh. That's cool.
[00:23:29] Yeah so how about water storage where you're at? I'm always interested to hear like how urbanites are tackling water storage. It's just curiosity in my personal curiosity. Do you.
[00:23:44] Sometimes you just put a big huge like plastic bin out and just let it rain and you just collect the water and you're good. Right. Yeah. Yeah sometimes like that. For where you're at it's probably more coastal right so. Yes so we get lots of rain.
[00:24:02] And so before like when you're here in hurricanes coming and stuff you're just worried about like filling up a water storage at that point then you don't have like a permanent supply on hand.
[00:24:13] Yeah as always somehow plants in some areas grow better with actual like rainwater than you would from like your. Oh I'm talking personal. Personal for you for like hurricanes coming your way what do you have for water storage at your house?
[00:24:31] Oh well sometimes we have the those like one gallon jug things of water that we have to store somewhere in case things go like the power goes out and we can't get any good water.
[00:24:47] That's what I have in kitty litter like the kitty litter the big kitty litter ones are really good for water storage for like gray water of course but yeah.
[00:24:57] So I'm just curious I just always like to kind of pick into that question because it's such a challenging thing water storage is.
[00:25:06] And so I'm always curious like how are other people tackling that beast is that something I can you know adapt to my system because my system is mayhem so. Yeah.
[00:25:18] Some people I've seen actually like collect water from like what's the term I want to use here with the stuff the gutters for for your roofs here the downspouts.
[00:25:31] Yes downspouts do that sometimes but think in some cases you need to have like a special permit or something for isn't that whack I know. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:25:44] And then I've also seen like done some research on that and I've seen like people actually have like these very intricate water filtration systems to do that. I'm just like whoa off of their rain storage. The water.
[00:26:02] Yeah they actually use like the rain storage and put them through water filters. Fair enough. Why not. Yeah.
[00:26:09] And then there's also some way like to have like this what's called a water collector it's actually like it looks like an in like upside down umbrella but there's a hole in the center and the water just comes down and just drains right down into the bin. Yeah.
[00:26:28] I want I'd like to do one of those for my system up when we do the greenhouse. I just don't think your flow of your property needs to be good or you got to have a pump for it. So yeah. That's not true too. Top of the property.
[00:26:44] So. So yes. I think I've also since used some diagrams of actually making your own little homemade water filter. Yeah. So I have the system that I have is an Alexa pier and I love that filter.
[00:27:01] I don't get paid by Patriot supply or anything but my Patriot supply. Yeah. But yeah there they are really good.
[00:27:10] And even if your filter is gone out of that thing you have the stainless steel jugs to be able to do that same system you sent me inside of there and it's so efficient. So. Yeah. So it's a very good little system the Alexa pier.
[00:27:26] Yeah I'm actually having this kind of crazy idea of actually trying that and then get one of those special like water test sticks to see how well it works. You should you absolutely should. And those would be good to have on hand as well.
[00:27:45] I don't have anything that would like check contamination of water. So if you had a test sticks you would kind of find on Amazon because like there's that thing. Zero water they have like that filter was like five different ways of filtering water right.
[00:28:04] They give you that little stick to test the water and it's just like huh. And then I looked it up online. I found a bunch of test sticks on Amazon nuts. That's good idea. That would be a good thing to have in the go bag even. Yes. Yeah.
[00:28:20] So we can't forget compost. Yes. Okay bring it. So like if you have like this is what she needs right now.
[00:28:32] So like if your food goes bad or like you're moving like you so yeah you could just use anything like egg shells in there on fireplace ash works to mixed in there. Like animal poop of course. I mean it's efficient.
[00:28:54] It does a good job except for not for pig poop is too close to humans. Chin can't use that one. Oh yeah. So you have some ideas of what to use for actual dirt to help with your gardening kill. I always thought they would smell.
[00:29:10] I know I'm going to like for I'm going to show myself but like I always was opposed to composting as much because I'm just so afraid of like just having a stinky freakin bin of grossness.
[00:29:23] I feed them to the I just feed everything to the chickens and then they I use their excrement will go from there. So how. But that's like hot right you can't put the chicken poop right on your garden. Yeah.
[00:29:37] Yeah you got to mix it in with dirt and stuff like that but I still do use it that way especially when the super deteriorated over years and years to like give it that re-invigration. Yeah. Yeah. Rabbit's the best though. Yeah.
[00:29:55] Yeah rabbit droppings are like the best for our garden because they hold their shape. So. Yeah.
[00:30:02] J.B. saying in the chat just on the water restrictions Washington where where she is it's illegal to collect the rainwater which is crazy because it rains so much up there lifting the rest of the restrictions. Oh she thinks it's because of mosquitoes and that would make sense.
[00:30:25] Oregon though has like gone full assault on small gardens is what I've heard. I don't know if anybody else has information on that but oh that was kind of crazy to hear why but OK. So continuing on the sorry. Got.
[00:30:43] So continuing on the compost thing we had a compost bin at one of my houses that I lived at it's not that bad of a smell depending on what you put inside it. OK. And mostly just put in like like like grass clippings like eggshells bad vegetables. Yeah.
[00:31:05] Food scraps. Yeah food scraps sometimes. So those things would help absorb all the nasties. We really need to do it. We really need to develop a good compost system because the soil here is just the worst. It's all sand. Yeah.
[00:31:24] Even grow potatoes in it or peanuts love sandy soil and it's just there's no nutrients in it. Yeah. Yeah we're up against the wall but we're figuring it out.
[00:31:37] We got like I say we got a nice couple beds for root vegetables now we're going all containers for other stuff this year. So I'll have to report back on how that all goes but it's looking pretty good so far.
[00:31:51] Definitely best Texas year so far and because we're not in the ground. So I know it's weird but like we're you know when it's in a container you can be sure of like the drainage and all that.
[00:32:07] So if you can grow like in the ground the soil sucks so bad here that maybe you'd grow eight tomatoes but they only have eight tomato plants.
[00:32:16] But they only yield like five or six tomatoes a piece I mean that's not enough to can or do anything with right. So if I can only if I grow four plants instead but the yield is up to maximum level then it should be fine.
[00:32:32] So we'll see how it goes. It's still experimenting like you say stuff that works and stuff that does it. Yes. Very cool. Yep. So anything else you want to ask me here?
[00:32:45] How about security concerns from an urban area so when you think about big storm comes in that kind of thing is that throwing up more of a red flag. And your head or are you feeling like you can pretty much trust the urban people that you're around.
[00:33:12] You know how does that how does that sit from your your standpoint there? Well from when we've done it we had like no issues depending on where you live. I mean in New York I guess like it might be different now. Right.
[00:33:29] But you've seen like when you're in a disaster because you've had hurricanes and whatnot up in your area everybody's still like coming together for the community type thing doesn't pull it together or or kind of people are just kind of going on it at their own pace.
[00:33:44] That kind of is going on at their own pace because like you have like down power lines sometimes and this is like almost like stand still so it takes a while for things to get back to normal.
[00:33:57] Got you. So everybody just kind of like wait hold your breath and wait for. Yeah I just basically bunkered down and wait for the go kind of blow over the authorities to come get things cleaned up before you're worried about it again.
[00:34:10] Yeah down trees are real bad too. Yep yeah so but yeah that's what I'm kind of curious about. Yeah if you ever look on like like you type in that you're like typing Google and look at the pictures of all the down trees on cars. Right.
[00:34:26] So how does the general cleanup let that go like is it people taking care of their own spaces or is it the city that comes in and does that.
[00:34:34] Sometimes the city comes in and does it and then some people who have their own tools kind of help out too. Yeah take care of that.
[00:34:43] Okay yeah we've done quite a few shows on like just what kind of tools you should actually have at your house to be able to be the road crew.
[00:34:53] That was an interesting topic that Jen had brought up a little bit ago as far as like you don't really think about that when you're in an urban area but what if you don't have those people to rely upon to take care of it. So yeah interesting. Yes.
[00:35:10] Alrighty well let's go ahead and get into some changing earth news and get this show on the road. Are you going to stick around Gregory you're going to take off. Sure I'll stick around. All right. All right we're going to roll out some changes.
[00:35:26] We've had some interesting things happen so the earth is having fun right now. All right here we go hold on one second. Dream. Survive. Thrive. This is changing earth news. JB is reporting in that trees are an issue there too.
[00:35:50] Yeah trees have been a huge issue in California as well. And you know it's a serious storm when you see the big trees that come down the old growth ones. That's how I knew when we hit Texas that we had been through a big storm.
[00:36:08] I was looking at old growth trees you know they've survived a lot of storms. They didn't survive this one right. Carry the chains on the car. Yeah I don't carry chains on my car but. But my husband's got one. All right changing earth news today is April 7th 2024.
[00:36:31] The sun is calm today but it has been an interesting two weeks. Of course everything decides to light up the week that I'm not going to do a show. So we had some big X class solar flares that could have been big problems.
[00:36:49] Luckily none of them were a big problem no major systems went down. But it was some interesting solar activity that we've been watching. Today it is calming down. We're only looking watching one plasma filament. It's a gigantic one but it appears pretty stable.
[00:37:09] But we will be upticking solar activity as we go into the end of this month. The official hurricane forecast came out from the University of Colorado. And it is not looking good guys.
[00:37:25] They are basically saying we're going to be looking at double the amount of hurricanes that we usually deal with. And possibly it could get severe enough to produce a category 6 hurricane. So we're going to... I know.
[00:37:42] Well Acapulco last year down in Mexico that was like a cat too and then it just instantly went to a 5 and just smacked Acapulco. It was really really odd to see it uptake so fast. So they're kind of concerned.
[00:37:59] And Ben was like from suspicious observers was like it's not a forecast for a cat 6 but it wouldn't surprise him if there was one and I was like wow for him to say that that's something. He's pretty exact on what he actually lets fall out of his mouth.
[00:38:19] On April 1st it's true. It's true like you know if he's going off if it's politics or whatever fine but when it comes to like real scientific stuff that he knows his stuff on. Yeah, there's... it's pretty right on. Okay April 1st 2024 364 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger.
[00:38:41] Biggest of which was a 5.9 in Japan. On April 2nd there was 375 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger. The biggest of which was the 7.4 that hit in the Philippines C and Taiwan. So that is the Taiwanese earthquake that hit. That was a massive earthquake.
[00:39:02] It's the biggest earthquake they've seen in 25 years. It injured at least 800 people and killed nine people. On the 2nd Southern California received two inches of rain in one hour causing flooding more flight delays there in Southern California. St. Louis was also seeing some flash flooding with heavy rains.
[00:39:25] Venezuela has had a record drought bringing wildfires with that activity and Quebec also had its third wildfire of the year. In Indiana in the United States there was a tornado that came through flipping semis and cars so lots of disruptive weather going across central United States.
[00:39:45] And in West Bengal there was a cyclone that came in. I'm not even going to try to say the name of the cyclone. I will just slaughter it. It killed five people and injured over 100 people. Madagascar was hit with cyclone Gamani
[00:40:02] and 18 people were killed in that event when that cyclone hit. On April 3rd of 2024 there was 467 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger. Big uptick from the day before. This is solar activity for sure having an effect. There was a 6.4 follow-up earthquake in the Philippine Sea by Taiwan.
[00:40:24] Those are aftershocks that were hitting. Cincinnati, Ohio saw some major flooding with subdivisions submerged in water and in Brazil their Amazon is having record wildfires for February so that's never a good thing when the Amazons have fire. Tennessee, the town of Sunbright was hit by a tornado.
[00:40:46] In Iceland they saw another eruption at the same time as the Northern Lights were displaying and so those pictures are really, really neat to go watch. If you're going to go watch any of the volcanic activity that happens in Iceland
[00:41:02] go look for the pictures of erupting with the Northern Lights in the background. It's beautiful. Right? It was pretty cool to see the pictures. On April 4th of 2024 there was 435 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger. Biggest of which was a 6.1 in the North Pacific Ocean by Japan.
[00:41:23] The East Coast of the United States got hit with flooding, tropical storm force winds, lots of power outages. That storm that was hitting the Central United States moved over there onto the coast and then Quebec also got hit with probably that same storm pattern
[00:41:39] and left thousands of people without power there as well. On the 5th of April there was 409 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger. The biggest of which was a 6.8 in the Philippine Sea by the North Mariana Islands. On the 6th of April there was 392 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger.
[00:41:58] Biggest of which was a 5.4 in the North Pacific Ocean near Japan and that area is still just rockin' and rollin'. There was a 4.8 earthquake in Pennsylvania, biggest earthquake in 140 years. Felt all the way to New York. Big earthquake up there.
[00:42:17] That was a big topic of conversation on that day. Sydney, Australia is breaking rain records now. They had over 200 flood-related rescues from the amount of rain that they're receiving over there. I gotta get on the line with Ellen, make sure she's good.
[00:42:37] Oklahoma had a series of wildfires break out on the 6th but they were contained as of today and Cyclone Olga is headed for Australia's west coast. Australia's east coast is getting pummeled right now and then the Cyclone is gonna head in for the west coast of Australia.
[00:42:57] Storm Kathleen is headed into the UK, hundreds of flights were delayed because of that huge storm comin' in. And then as of today, 413 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger. Biggest of which was a 5.2 in the Solomon Sea. In Osk, Russia over 2,000 people have been evacuated so far.
[00:43:22] They had a massive dam burst. It is affecting 30 regions in Russia. They have over 4,000 homes flooded so they definitely need some prayers over there with that incident that happened. It was a dam break and so it's really unusual to get that amount of flooding in those areas.
[00:43:42] So prayers for the people over there. As far as volcanoes, we have 30 erupting volcanoes today, 20 showing minor activity and 30 showing unrest. So we've actually added three to the list. Not very surprising with the amount of earthquake activity that just happened but also something of note.
[00:44:04] So added one to the erupting. We never see them up at 30. That's a lot of erupting volcanoes and added three to the minor activity. As far as wildfires in the United States, we have only three large wildfires going right now for a total of just above 1,100 acres.
[00:44:24] So we really have no fire activity going right now. Number one on the list is Alabama with 604 acres. This is from one fire. The big, that's, well there's five new ones and four contained so there's still one fire burning. And in Florida there's 290 acres of blaze.
[00:44:44] This is from one fire it is not contained at this time. And there's also reports coming in from Missouri, 250 acres burning. This is from one new fire and they have three of those contained. And then as I mentioned, the wildfires in Oklahoma are also 100% contained as well.
[00:45:04] Alrighty, well that's, I mean, you know, during the Easter break, I was just watching the sun go off and I'm like, oh, figures we're not going to have a podcast. And our sun's just going crazy.
[00:45:17] And that was one of those hold on to your britches moment because that X class was really, really big. Always impressive to watch too if you're into watching that activity happen on the sun. So. Alrighty guys, well short show today. I got other plans tonight as well. Yeah.
[00:45:45] It was fun. And I want to thank you for coming. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Always good to have those voices, those diverse voices on the phone. So thank you for both coming down the show and of course your work with the audio drama.
[00:45:59] Without you guys, I can't make that show possible. So I appreciate that as well. Oh, I am. I would love to come on again some other time too. Absolutely. Let's do it. Keep keep learning, keep learning and we'll keep getting updated with your journey. Thanks.
[00:46:16] And I also have some other interesting little subjects to cover too. Awesome. Very cool. Alright guys, well thanks so much for joining us tonight. If you want to help the changing earth world go round please head over to www.changingearthseries.com Become a subscriber.
[00:46:34] Help the show keep going. Thanks everybody for joining us in chat room. It's always good to see you there. I always appreciate the input. Alright guys, until next time remember dream, survive, thrive. Nice. I love it. Very nice. Alright have a good night guys.
[00:46:54] Thank you for joining Sarah and Chen for this episode of the changing earth podcast. Don't forget to pick up your copy of day after disaster, without land, the walls of freedom, battle for the south, dark days in Denver and the endless night at www.offerceraffathaway.com
[00:47:19] If you love the changing earth series and podcast become a supporter while you're there.