Well, last night one of my biggest fears came true, visitors of authority with no notice. About 3 a.m. the fire alarms in the building went off....not normal fire alarms but the kind that are put in industrial buildings as that is where our loft is. 4 sirens on each floor and emergency strobes going off everywhere.....needless to say I was almost resigned to spending the week in the slammer. Within 2 minutes we had a ladder truck and 3 firetrucks out front of the building along with a farm's worth of pork doing what they do best....nothing. They evacuated the building, minus me and the wife as they didn't know we were still in the loft, and proceeded to do a floor by floor search.
As soon as the alarms went off I shut down all my lights, fans and equipment for both my veg and flower areas and covered it all with a huge blue poly tarp. Yes, this was my only plan to make everything "stealth" as we don't have visitors and the landlord does not enter our place....ever. Within a minute of the trucks arriving we had 4 burly fireman at our door asking us to evacuate the building as they needed to search for the source of the "fire". Immediately I objected and told them I was not leaving my cat as she is an endangered species (which is true) and I did not trust them to make sure she didn't bolt. Didn't work My wife got furious and told them that they could not afford to lose her as it would be six months of salary for them to replace her and a public relations nightmare if they lost an endangered species....they caved in finally . After a few minutes of them grudgingly wandering around our place checking walls for heat they came to the big blue tarp. Just as one of them were about to lift it my wife said "Unless you want to be responsible for what is under there you shouldn't mess with it". To my amazement it actually worked as he smirked and muttered something under his breath as he walked away.
Turns out the people that moved in above us had cut the wires to the alarm system thinking they could wire it to provide power (think heavy duty wires). Don't know what the idiots are up to but I am pretty sure they won't be here much longer....good thing as they almost compromised my grow.
What I have learned from this experience:
1. There will always be outside variables that can compromise your grow
2. My new room needs to be completed sooner rather than later so that it is hidden and lockable.
3. Trying to steal power is never a good idea
4. I can move pretty quick in the dark
5. My wife can be a real bitch if she wants to be....no offense honey but I have never seen you like that before.....she thought quick and really sold it.
Hopefully today will be uneventful....