• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Hard freeze coming-how's your weather?

Is getting a propane tank an option? That's the standard where I live.
Yes, though we're in a bit of a weird situation with respect to installing them. We have deed restrictions that would prohibit a permanent setup, so no 500+ gallon tanks on a concrete pad would be allowed. A few homeowners have gotten around that by using the 120 gallon tanks on a gravel base for a "temporary" setup. When the tanks are empty they just load a pickup or trailer with them and head to the local RV place for fill-ups. They just have 1-2 appliances though, like a gas fireplace or an outside kitchen in a three-season porch, the whole house isn't plumbed for gas.

Our ten day forecast is looking warmer so we'll be good for a bit. Was looking online at kerosene heaters as backup heat just in case the power goes out and we don't want to deal with the generator running outside, especially if the weather is awful.
 
Low temp of 19.0 degrees here last night. Supposed to be warming up but might still get down to the high 20s tonight.

Some of the citrus trees don't look very happy. Lots of curled up leaves.
 
Actually NONE of the citrus trees look happy at all. It was just too cold for too darn long for them. Lots of curled up leaves on all the trees, showing their displeasure. So now the question remaining to be answered is were just the leaves damaged, or are the trees unhappy enough to die?

Probably won't be seeing that answer until they either start producing more leaves, or they don't in the Spring time. Sure would be a major disappointment for us to lose most of our trees we have been growing for years. This would be the rotten icing to the miserable cake that 2022 has been for us.
 
The citrus trees look really bad. Might have lost three of the four satsuma trees completely. Others are trying to make a comeback, but there are going to be a LOT of dead branches we are going to have to lop off once we are sure there won't be any new growth coming from them.

And something really odd is manifesting itself from a couple of the trees. In particular the youngest pumelo tree we have, that I thought for sure was going to be big enough this year to be producing fruit. Looks like some sort of hair. Citrus tree hair, I guess. I have no idea what this is, but I am guessing it is not a GOOD thing at all.
 

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Oh yeah, some pics of Connie's lemon trees that I took back at the end of January. They aren't looking any better today. :(
 

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Most of the citrus aren't looking all that great. Some seem to be declining even further even though they started putting out new growth, that subsequently has been dying off too.

I am about ready to take a torch to it all.
 
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