and today i have mostly been...

[Doggy]

Glad to hear you're ok - I read the earthquake could be felt in Zagreb, which is more or less your manor, innit?

[steve_earwig]

Ta Felt in Zagreb? It damaged buildings in Zagreb, it was felt in Vienna! Petrinja is SWS of Zagreb, we're SE of Zagreb about 50km from there, no damage that I can see but it gave us quite a shaking. Oh yes, the big pile of old roof tiles from the shed fell over, oh dear.

My cousin asked if our cats and dogs did anything before it happened. No, but we were eating lunch when it happened and when we rushed outside the cats finished it off for us

[Doggy]

Well, our feline friends are apt to be practical, resourceful and above all opportunists...

[Doggy]

I see they're still having serious aftershocks - hope all's well with you

[steve_earwig]

We're fine thankyou! The one at 6:15 this morning woke me up and I could hear the house rumbling, but it wasn't anything like as strong as yesterday's and by the time I'd come to my senses it was over anyway. We've been feeling the occasional one all day but I then feel like the ground's shaking all the time anyway (faith in terra firma destroyed) so I have my trusty half a bottle of water next to me - if the water's sloshing about I know I'm not imagining it, then there's https://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/ to confirm. They seem to be getting weaker and weaker so we can only hope it'll settle down soon.

While I'm here, I'm a bit concerned about our Welly because he's not logged in since November 30th

[Doggy]

Must be disconcerting having terra firma anything but err firm.

Yes I'd noticed a lack of Welly of late, let's hope all's well with clan Welton.

[steve_earwig]

Have pm'd him, although I suspect the 406oc doesn't have his email 'cos his profile page didn't offer it.

I could probably do better than to sit in a computer chair with a spring in it, every time I move it bounces a little... I can't help noticing that, although the earthquakes are weaker, there's still loads of them and they're getting closer. There was a mag 2.6 this morning 9 km away I slept through it 'cos I took half a sleeping pill though. In fact last night I had a set of clothes all bundled up by the door ready to grab while t'wife's been wearing a tracksuit anyway.

We went to the bank this morning and donated 300 sovs to the victims of Tuesday's earthquakes, I think that's enough for me not to feel like a miser or a twit. We've also offered my small genny but nobody came from the firehouse for it yet.

[Welly]

Great updates there steve and your own water supply! I hope it's not an old cesspit might need a sample taking or summut?

We're all ok soz for lack of postages - the forum's been very quiet though for sure.

[steve_earwig]

Thanks! It's definitely not an old cesspit (thems is wide and nothing like as deep), we took a sample (old tin on a string) and it's clear as, didn't even leave much behind when we boiled some (unlike the mains water we tried ). Sadly t'wife says there's no way she's drinking it whatever I do to it, so that nuked any ideas I had about reverse osmosis and plumbing it into the house I worked out that it would only have saved us about 150-200 quid a year anyway, unless we want to deal with our own waste water/sewage too. My current thoughts are connecting it up so it's easy to get to, I don't want to have to lift the lid, put a pipe down, prime the pump, fish a pussy cat out... At the moment it's paved over but I can get to it when I've figured out what I'm doing. I can't easily get power to it unless I break up some concrete paving and go through a wall so it's heading towards a permanent pipe inside with a small lid and a connector underneath to hook up a pump. Maybe, depends what I can get hold of or make. Alternatively I could put a hand pump on it,

if it's not in the way and I can connect an electric pump to it to shift anything more than a watering can's full (need to get one to see but they're about 60 quid). The water butts get a reprieve but I don't need so many, nor do I have to depend on the weather to fill them.

Current state of play on the path:

It's rain stopped play at the moment.

Sorry for panicking there (seems to be all I'm doing at the moment for one reason or another ). I should update a bit more often myself, the trouble is there's so much up in the air just now.

[steve_earwig]

Soooo, anybody about? I got an update, albeit a small one.

Another strong earthquake yesterday, mag 5.0 down by Petrinja again (2 buildings fell down there but no injuries this time). Here the lights were swinging about, the floor moving from side to side and the house making a rumbling noise. So we all ran outside again, then stood about in the cold with the neighbours for 20 minutes. And I was thinking why are we doing this? We're ok, the house didn't fall down, so what's the likelihood of another earthquake following straight on? So I searched it, advice seems to be: Stay indoors, modern houses in earthquake zones are built to withstand earthquakes (ours is meant to survive up to a mag 8 ). If available go under a solid table or similar, or lean against an inside wall (preferably load-bearing), Stay away from windows and doors to the outside, standing in a doorway is ballcocks. Above all don't panic and run outside because that's where most injuries occur, either by falling base over apex or part of the exterior of your house falling on you. If you're in bed lie on your front and protect your head and neck with a pillow.

Path to the end:





My dad insisted on sweeping off some of the dust...

We just need to sort this end of it out so if we do decide to pave towards the back door we won't have any problems going along the wibbley-wobbley wall.

Mina & Kika:

Kika always looks grumpy, even if she's purring her head off. She's booked in for a, er, small operation next Friday I always feel guilty but, apart from a hungry night and a day feeling drunk, it never seems to bother them.

Btw you may have noticed the forum was down most of yesterday, I emailed Nick and he sorted it (you're welcome )

[Doggy]

So it's still going on - maybe it'll quieten down once Trump's finished throwing his toys out of the pram?

Must be really strange to experience a single earthquake, never mind repeated rumblings and so on. I guess the advice makes sense - getting outside far enough away from anything that could fall on you is the instinctive response but I guess it's going to get parky pdq. (We've got temp of -3 tonight, which no doubt will be enough to cause travel chaos despite everyone staying at home).

Cats look fairly relaxed, guess they're not too precious about it all.

Path looks smart BTW

[Doggy]

...and today, I received a letter inviting me to:

'Get your State Pension'

in very large easy to read text

Not being in the first flush of youth any more is getting all too real

[steve_earwig]

At least they didn't print it in tiny black text on a dark red background My dad enjoys it when he goes to the quack for something, only to be told it's normal. For someone of his age. I ain't far behind you there and I'm really beginning to get the message that I'm over the hill, past my prime, no longer of any importance, just a relic and the quicker I'm out of here the better. Because, you see, the future of the world belongs to the young. He he he hahahahahahahahaohohohohoho *cough* *splutter*

The forecast here is for -6 or -7 for the next few nights, running outside is making less and less sense (but I suspect t'wife will still rush outside regardless of what I say ) The fact is Croatia is a seismological active and in normal times we still get a couple of dozen small tremors a month ( why did nobody say?) but this lot is a bit more, er, enthusiastic than usual. The 6.4Mw that flattened Petrinja and surrounding towns on the 29th was apparently the strongest earthquake here since 1880 (before that there was no way of measuring them).

None of the animals seem to be reacting to the earthquakes that we've noticed. In fact the cats snaffling our lunch in our absence is completely normal for them

Path looks smart BTW

Why thanks! I'm still not entirely convinced it's necessary, I was going to stick gravel over the whole lot anyway, although that plan was on hold after I found out the original gravel was just dumped over turf with nothing in the way of a base. I suspect that when me dad's gone home I might still take all the slabs up and use them elsewhere

[DaiRees]

Right that's me all caught up again. Happy New Year to you all

Good path shaky Steve. Glad to hear you're avoiding quake damage.

I'm hibernating at the moment, working from home is wearing quite thin but I've become a bit of a hermit, barely setting foot outside. Need to get some exercise but the house is warm and comfy! Had a bit of little bit of storm damage a couple of weeks back (was it Dec 28th?), a few sheets of the car port roof tried to make a break for freedom, repeatedly standing up straight against next door's fence then crashing back down onto the frame. Half an hour fighting with them at midnight in the torrential rain and gusting winds got them down and safely stowed in the garage. Then a couple of hours the next day saw them back in place and secured like nothing had ever happened. Also had a leak around the door of my new shed the same night leading to a unexpected paddling pool feature. Schoolboy error of not sealing correctly where the sill meets the walls so had to remove and refit the door frame to rectify that one, hasn't rained much since so still waiting for a test.

Other than that, everything's tickety boo.

[steve_earwig]

And a happy new year to you young man! Blimey, we're already 2 weeks in, it'll soon be christmas...

Gales sound like fun, especially up on the roof in a hurricane. Bin there, standing outside on a window ledge trying to stop an overflowing gutter pouring water in the house. It wasn't even my house, I must have been nuts. Leak could have been a lot more subtle, my brother just found water dripping into his downstairs bog, upstairs is his fully tiled bathroom done about 3 years ago and it looks like one of the feeds to the shower is leaking. Dropped ceiling to find... rotten joists He's trying to do a temporary fix but it sounds like the whole lot's gotta be redone to me.

The earthquakes seem to be slowing down now, I've stopped myself looking at the EMSC website but there were only 12 tremors in one day the last time I looked. Now I'm trying not to think about it. The firemen never came for my little genny, ah well, at least I offered.

We've had a bit of a flap on about our newest little kitten Mina (the one with the bum leg). Kept throwing up, didn't want to eat anything, miserable. She's fully vaccinated and our vet couldn't find anything to explain it, she's been back and forth since last week and I've ended up force feeding her. But last night, while I was squirting pate in her gob with a syringe, she decided she actually liked food. Phew! The conclusion is she ate something, maybe a houseplant