baymule
Garden Master
We all have our weather differences and we all have our weather related disasters and tribulations. What extreme weather does your area have, how does it affect you, your home, garden, animals, outbuildings? What do you do to prepare for the worst?
I was digging through old papers a few weeks ago and found what I had written about Hurricane Ike in 2008. I chuckled as I read it and thought ya'll might like to read it too.
Friday, September 12th 2008, 7:47 PM
CNN is saying Ike is as big as Texas itself. Galveston has lost power, Texas City has lost power in some areas. Ike is a Catagory 3 winds at 110-135 MPH. As Ike gets to us, he will slow down to 75-110 MPH. Oh goody. CNN doesn't know whether to cover the politics or Ike. WHOO-HOO!!!!! There is so much going on to make all the news guys happy.
Talk about ruin MY weekend! And this is RED wine, don't know what name it is, don't give a damn. Have another.
Survived IKE
Monday, September 15th 2008, 10:17 AM
Hey all, at work, so this will be short. Our house is secured from more rain now, tree is off and all tarped up. I am grateful to have a job to go to today, think of the people who can't go to work and won't get paychecks. My husband is one of them. The horses are fine, Ike ripped leaves off trees and they are eating them like candy,LOL.
With a tree on the roof, water in the house, Saturday nite, YES I hit the wine!!
About Ike....
Saturday, September 20th 2008, 10:09 AM
Thank you Bossie Sox and Tobar for keeping everyone informed that I was still kickin'. I can not stress how good it makes some one feel to have a contact in the outside world when your world is going to crap at that moment. Thank you, thank you, thank you Tracey and Pat for being there for me.
(This was posted on another forum I used to frequent. I had two text friends that I could let know we were alright and they could let me know what was happening elsewhere. I strongly recommend having an outside your area text friend to keep appraised of what is happening to you. Your forum friends want to know if you are ok)
I sit here smugly believing that I am safe 100 miles inland. I look at beach houses as a nice place to visit, but crazy to live there. Ike was a great big blast to my attitude. I have gone through hurricanes before, but never one like this. When it is all sifted through, weather is weather no matter where you live. You pick the place of your heart or the place where you can make a living and go with it. But I still wouldn't build a home on beach sand LOL.
I got a Houston Chronicle newspaper thrown in my driveway Friday morning. I cradled it in my arms like a newborn baby. Word from the outside world. Wow. I sat in FEMA lines for water, ice and MRE's. What we didn't need, we gave to others. My husband and I searched frantically for some one to get the rest of the tree off our home. Note to self: call the durn loggers the FIRST time. I stood in line at Lowe's in the rain, for plastic, nails and blue tarps to cover the roof. My husband and I spent 2 wet soggy days trying to save our home from further destruction. As a truck parts buyer for a garbage company, I never missed a day of work, a blessing paycheck wise, but making it much more difficult to deal with problems at hand. My husband's work was closed until Friday and he was able to take care of a lot to get our life back to normal. Our town does not look like the swept clean pictures of Galveston and Crystal Beach with a side order of debris that we now see on TV, it looks like tornados struck whimsically where they wanted with 100 MPH winds filling in the gaps.
Monday evening we got a generator. My freezer stinks, but I haven't had time to care, just plug it up and worry about it later. Orange extension cords snaked through the house feeding gasoline driven electricity to hungry appliances. God blessed us with a cool front, unlike the 100 degree plus temperatures we had 3 years ago with hurricane Rita. We are grateful. Friends came to take advantage of our HOT water (gas hot water heater) for showers. We were glad to share. Our town was under dusk to dawn curfew. Things were nuts at work with grocery stores calling for 30 yard roll off boxes to dump spoiled meat, frozen food, ice cream, milk and anything that used to be cold in. Lineman crews and tree trimming crews from around the country are everywhere-our heros. There are still over 1 million people without power this morning. We are blessed.
Several of the huge oaks that line our yard are now stripped of branches, looking like arms thrust out of the ground with fingers missing from their hands. We will miss their cooling shade from the fierce summer heat. Even losing the great oak from next door that fell on our home is like losing a friend.
As soon as the winds died down, we went to check on my Mom, then the horses. Mom was fine, no damage to her home, but a tree twisted off below ground and laid over. At least there is no stump to deal with! I will replace it this fall with a redbud tree from our property. The horses were ok, none of them were limping or bleeding. Rocki had a swollen eye, probably from flying debris, but she is fine now. The neighbors said they spent part of the storm in their barn, most of the storm out in the open. There are trees down everywhere. A lot of trees on the fence, but none of them have knocked it down. Good. Deal with it later. We have been so busy trying to deal with everything that I have not had much time to spend with them. I feel guilty. They gathered around me last Saturday, not biting or fighting for position like they usually do, but calmly waiting their turn. I was the hub in a wheel in which the spokes were made of horses and 1 bay mule. Each one buried their head in my belly for comfort and received soothing words, hugs and scratches. Their trust is humbling.
We have a long way to go before our home is back to pre-Ike. We do not look forward to dealing with various contractors to put our home back together. But we are grateful to have a home that is not in a million splinters piled up where ever the wind blew it. Life goes on. And about the box of wine..........Saturday night with a monster oak laying on our home, water raining in the garage, kitchen and dining room, mess and more mess, me and my box of wine got to be real good friends. I finished off the brownies, and much to my husband's amusement, drank 3 small glasses of wine, got s_ _ _ faced and went to bed. LOL
Top 10 List For Hurricane Ike Survivors
Saturday, September 20th 2008, 10:20 AM
You know you are a hurricane Ike survivor when:
1. Your house has a new roof and it is a blue tarp.
2. You are on a camping trip, but you haven't gone anywhere.
3. The insurance company says they will put you on the list.
4. You can't watch the news on TV because you ARE the news on TV.
5. The pile of tree limbs in front of your house is bigger than your house.
6. You wait in line 3 hours for gas, and it runs out right before you get there.
7. Candlelit dinners of MRE's are no longer romantic.
8. Your new favorite grocery stores are FEMA trucks.
9. The hum of a generator lulls you to sleep.
10. You take a "brown bag lunch" to work and it is a MRE.
I was digging through old papers a few weeks ago and found what I had written about Hurricane Ike in 2008. I chuckled as I read it and thought ya'll might like to read it too.
Friday, September 12th 2008, 7:47 PM
CNN is saying Ike is as big as Texas itself. Galveston has lost power, Texas City has lost power in some areas. Ike is a Catagory 3 winds at 110-135 MPH. As Ike gets to us, he will slow down to 75-110 MPH. Oh goody. CNN doesn't know whether to cover the politics or Ike. WHOO-HOO!!!!! There is so much going on to make all the news guys happy.
Talk about ruin MY weekend! And this is RED wine, don't know what name it is, don't give a damn. Have another.
Survived IKE
Monday, September 15th 2008, 10:17 AM
Hey all, at work, so this will be short. Our house is secured from more rain now, tree is off and all tarped up. I am grateful to have a job to go to today, think of the people who can't go to work and won't get paychecks. My husband is one of them. The horses are fine, Ike ripped leaves off trees and they are eating them like candy,LOL.
With a tree on the roof, water in the house, Saturday nite, YES I hit the wine!!
About Ike....
Saturday, September 20th 2008, 10:09 AM
Thank you Bossie Sox and Tobar for keeping everyone informed that I was still kickin'. I can not stress how good it makes some one feel to have a contact in the outside world when your world is going to crap at that moment. Thank you, thank you, thank you Tracey and Pat for being there for me.
(This was posted on another forum I used to frequent. I had two text friends that I could let know we were alright and they could let me know what was happening elsewhere. I strongly recommend having an outside your area text friend to keep appraised of what is happening to you. Your forum friends want to know if you are ok)
I sit here smugly believing that I am safe 100 miles inland. I look at beach houses as a nice place to visit, but crazy to live there. Ike was a great big blast to my attitude. I have gone through hurricanes before, but never one like this. When it is all sifted through, weather is weather no matter where you live. You pick the place of your heart or the place where you can make a living and go with it. But I still wouldn't build a home on beach sand LOL.
I got a Houston Chronicle newspaper thrown in my driveway Friday morning. I cradled it in my arms like a newborn baby. Word from the outside world. Wow. I sat in FEMA lines for water, ice and MRE's. What we didn't need, we gave to others. My husband and I searched frantically for some one to get the rest of the tree off our home. Note to self: call the durn loggers the FIRST time. I stood in line at Lowe's in the rain, for plastic, nails and blue tarps to cover the roof. My husband and I spent 2 wet soggy days trying to save our home from further destruction. As a truck parts buyer for a garbage company, I never missed a day of work, a blessing paycheck wise, but making it much more difficult to deal with problems at hand. My husband's work was closed until Friday and he was able to take care of a lot to get our life back to normal. Our town does not look like the swept clean pictures of Galveston and Crystal Beach with a side order of debris that we now see on TV, it looks like tornados struck whimsically where they wanted with 100 MPH winds filling in the gaps.
Monday evening we got a generator. My freezer stinks, but I haven't had time to care, just plug it up and worry about it later. Orange extension cords snaked through the house feeding gasoline driven electricity to hungry appliances. God blessed us with a cool front, unlike the 100 degree plus temperatures we had 3 years ago with hurricane Rita. We are grateful. Friends came to take advantage of our HOT water (gas hot water heater) for showers. We were glad to share. Our town was under dusk to dawn curfew. Things were nuts at work with grocery stores calling for 30 yard roll off boxes to dump spoiled meat, frozen food, ice cream, milk and anything that used to be cold in. Lineman crews and tree trimming crews from around the country are everywhere-our heros. There are still over 1 million people without power this morning. We are blessed.
Several of the huge oaks that line our yard are now stripped of branches, looking like arms thrust out of the ground with fingers missing from their hands. We will miss their cooling shade from the fierce summer heat. Even losing the great oak from next door that fell on our home is like losing a friend.
As soon as the winds died down, we went to check on my Mom, then the horses. Mom was fine, no damage to her home, but a tree twisted off below ground and laid over. At least there is no stump to deal with! I will replace it this fall with a redbud tree from our property. The horses were ok, none of them were limping or bleeding. Rocki had a swollen eye, probably from flying debris, but she is fine now. The neighbors said they spent part of the storm in their barn, most of the storm out in the open. There are trees down everywhere. A lot of trees on the fence, but none of them have knocked it down. Good. Deal with it later. We have been so busy trying to deal with everything that I have not had much time to spend with them. I feel guilty. They gathered around me last Saturday, not biting or fighting for position like they usually do, but calmly waiting their turn. I was the hub in a wheel in which the spokes were made of horses and 1 bay mule. Each one buried their head in my belly for comfort and received soothing words, hugs and scratches. Their trust is humbling.
We have a long way to go before our home is back to pre-Ike. We do not look forward to dealing with various contractors to put our home back together. But we are grateful to have a home that is not in a million splinters piled up where ever the wind blew it. Life goes on. And about the box of wine..........Saturday night with a monster oak laying on our home, water raining in the garage, kitchen and dining room, mess and more mess, me and my box of wine got to be real good friends. I finished off the brownies, and much to my husband's amusement, drank 3 small glasses of wine, got s_ _ _ faced and went to bed. LOL
Top 10 List For Hurricane Ike Survivors
Saturday, September 20th 2008, 10:20 AM
You know you are a hurricane Ike survivor when:
1. Your house has a new roof and it is a blue tarp.
2. You are on a camping trip, but you haven't gone anywhere.
3. The insurance company says they will put you on the list.
4. You can't watch the news on TV because you ARE the news on TV.
5. The pile of tree limbs in front of your house is bigger than your house.
6. You wait in line 3 hours for gas, and it runs out right before you get there.
7. Candlelit dinners of MRE's are no longer romantic.
8. Your new favorite grocery stores are FEMA trucks.
9. The hum of a generator lulls you to sleep.
10. You take a "brown bag lunch" to work and it is a MRE.
