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Today I planted my broccoli-8 plants. I have never been much of a winter gardener-usually just flowers, except for broccoli and radish. I always plant those. This year I may try cabbage. I got some good tips in the vegetable forum. Never planted cabbage myself. This will be a first. I have yet to pull up my okra or my bell peppers. Bell peppers make so good in the fall, I just can't pull them up! Heck, if the market crashes any more than it already has, I may have to plow up the whole back yard and plant!! (let's hope that doesn't happen!)
On a LIGHTER note!! High today was 88, temps at night are in the low to mid 60's. We have a 'cool' front coming through Wed., and its supposed to only get into the upper 70's, night time 50's. Looks like summer is over-I hate that! Time to paint my tool handles, clean up and repaint my yard ornaments. I have some pink paint, yellow, 2 shades of blue, black and white! Everything will be very colorful!! Oh, and clean house-WheW!! Does it need it!
Later gators!
I have a few photos I'd like to share. I tried putting them in hummingbirds and blooms, but I CAN'T MAKE THAT HAPPEN!! Don't know if it's me or the site. If my brother is having a hard time-God know I AM!!! Hope they go through. I have hummers, and a hummer 'fiend', and cockscomb fixining to go to seed, and my bromeliads.
Hello All! We've been busy cleaning up on the river, got a little busy at work after the storm came through. Clean up this time wasn't near as bad as after Rita and the October '06 flood. This one was 'clean". A little silty, sandy mud, MUCH easier to clean up, and because he had never replaced everything since Rita, not near as much to throw away-though he did lose the downstairs refrigerator, the ice machine, the push mower, the weed eater, 1/2 of the dog house (!?) 2 ceiling fans still in boxes, turkey cooker, small bbq pit, lots of miscellaneous hand tools and drills, the grinder, and a whole lot of miscellaneous items. Like the downstairs broom-Gone. Most of those items had been raised 4 ft. He got 52" of water downstairs.
People to the south in Cameron Parish are still flooded in several places. Many people, who lost everything for Rita, moved back, and lost it all again. It is a sad situation there, and to our west from Orange, TX to Galveston. I feel so bad for those people. Recovery takes so long, and it takes a tremendous toll on you both physically and mentally. Here in the Lake Charles area many, many people whose homes had NEVER flooded, had anywhere from 2 inches to 5 feet of water in there homes; but if you've ever flooded, 2 inches hurts just as much as 5 feet!
My yard has been neglected cause I've been helping Pete. We had a little extra help this weekend, so it's going easier. Now, to replace what's lost...Today I stayed home, and my animals were happy. We cut the grass, and watered plants and had SNACK TIME before lunch today! I've pulled up all eggplant most of the zinnias, the basil that comes on its own, clipped back some of the clematis (that doesn't bloom much), mowed the canteloupe (only made 4), pulled up one bellpepper-I think I have enough! Two left-I want to stuff some. I still have okra, but I will soon be pulling those up, too.
Heading out to weed-eat, fill the bird feeders, then maybe sip some wine and watch the birds - And throw Peanut's durn little ball a zillion times!!
My angel trumpet took a beating for Ike. Lost a lot of leaves, and buds, but I see new buds coming out. Too early to start a fall garden for me. I'll plant some broccoli and maybe some cabbage in a couple of weeks.
LATER GATORS!
Ike has passed. It is about 11 AM and it is still very windy with strong gusts, but we think the rain is over. I have a little over 1 inch in my gauge, but the rain was blowing sideways, so that may not be correct, because my yard sure is soggy! Our area suffered little wind damage, but the flooding is unbelievable! Worse than Rita, I have PICS of Pete's house taken from across the river. Water is currently up to the middle of his bottom floor windows. The downstairs area is carport, a shop, and another room with storage and a downstairs restroom. We picked everything up 4 feet. At this time-it is way above 4 feet downstairs!
My brother and family went to Alexandria. They are fine. Dont know about his house yet. They can't get into Cameron Parish, and it is still too windy for the officials to use the helicopters for surveying the area. Lots of small branches and leaves around, nothing major. In our parish of about 140,000 residents, only 42,000 are without power. I am one of those!!
Will check in later!
Well, I stayed. Good Thing-the place we were to evacuate to is having rising water. It is now almost 9 pm here, and we are having gusty winds up to about 40-45 mph. Not bad! Rains have been light ,and scattered. Supposedly, we have not had our bad weather yet. I believe the mid southern part of the state has had it bad today. We have not! I can't explain it, but I don't feel as if we are going to get much worse. A little, but not much. We are having a HUGE storm surge-much more so than Rita. I checked on-line to see what is forecast for where Pete's house its-and it's bad. If it holds true, he wil have 6 ft. of water downstairs-Everything we raised, we raised 4 feet!!! ARRGH!!
I will log periodically as long as I have electricity- and , oh yeah----the Gumbo is on the Stove!!
Later gators.
He's huge. Covers a lot of area. This will be my last blog for quite a while-depending on the effects of Ike. A man we did some work for on his camp south of Baton Rouge said we could use his camp to evacuate to. That is only a 2 1/2 hour drive under normal conditions. I can live with that. Waiting to see exactly where he will go. Rita was supposed to hit Galveston 3 years ago, and was a direct hit on the Lake Charles area. We shall see. My brother, Pete will be deciding in the morning if he is leaving also. My BF, Pete and I will do the same.
I am somber about this one. So much of our area is still recovering from Rita-there are still many, many blue tarps out there. If you read my last blog, you will see what we deal with when we return. In any event, we have been told that we will have damage-and there is always the tornadoes! I wish no destruction on Galveston, but if they take a direct hit, it will be bad. It will be bad for any.
Stay safe-stay tuned!
later, gators!
Things I learned from Rita:
It will be days, MAYBE weeks before you have electricity. No banks will be open. Gasoline will be scarce. BOOZE will not be sold (martial law-stock up before!). Vienna sausage are good. You SWEAT! It's Very quiet and dark at night. There will not be a leaf on a tree, or a flower to be seen anywhere. The amount of Trash/debris is unbelievable! For months! Okra will continue to bloom and make when flat on the ground, with a 10 year old Crepe Myrtle laying on them. It will be days before the birds come back. Hummingbirds will SWARM your feeders!(remember, no leaves, no flowers-stock up on sugar) When Wal-Mart finally opens, only so many people will be allowed in at a time-then Maybe, 1 1/2 years later, it will be open 24 hours again. You finally get tired of Vienna Sausage. Restaurants will be a looong time coming back, with limited menus and then some will be drive-through only. Next spring you will have plants come up that you have never seen before, and didn't plant! The mosquitoes are UNBELIEVABLE! If you have a generator, you can only catch one channel on the TV.
And then there's Ike. Last forecast here says Galveston-but we are so close!! IF it goes in at Galveston, we will have 6-8 ft. storm surge here in Lake Charles. For Rita, it was 9. Pete will have 3-4 feet of water in his downstairs carport, shop area. We know that, its a given, even if it should go a little further south because it is so big! It leaves about a 4 inch layer of black, slimy, stinky mud everywhere.
You guys have a good day! Later.
I'm tired of hurricanes--THIS ONE LOOKS LIKE IT WILL MISS US! So here's what my animals have been doing to torment me. Bought Peanut a new ball-he chewed the other one until it had a hole in it-He won't let it out of his mouth-even chases the pigeons with it in his mouth while BARKING! Sounds weird. He puts it down beside his dish when he eats and drinks-and snaps at the cats if they get too close! It sleeps with him, too.
This morning Pretty Boy (alias FAT boy) came and jumped on the bed for loving while I was getting dressed. I picked him up and he smelled like ROSEMARY! Went outside to see how much damage he had done. He kinda split it down the middle, but it's ok. One hummingbird feeder is above that plant! I swept up tiny hummingbird feathers yesterday (no bird, no feet, no beak-just feathers!)
Yesterday morning they brought me a snake--A SNAKE!! About 8" long, but it was still a SNAKE! Did you know that frogs make a high pitch squeal like a kid screaming at 3:00 in the morning? Under the bed? I should be running out of moths, soon, cause they bring me some (plural) every nite. And they can jump from the floor to the ceiling fan in no time flat! Here's a picture of those little devils-yeah, they're cute when they're sleeping...
Pretty Boy's favorite position-on his back sprawled out.
Later Gators!
Hey, guys- I finally heard from Bayou. Her home fared o k, but she, personally had a hard time. Her nerves in her brain are still healing, and the barometric pressure was torture for her. She is starting to move around some, but is still not feeling real well. She has pics, which she will post when she is able.
Here in Southwest La., we did fine. In fact, we weren't even on Fema's "red" list, even though we were under Mandatory evacuation. I wont' go into that. My personal feelings are, that if you didn't leave, you don't deserve/need the money. And if you did leave, you should be re-imbursed for the room and board and gas to get you there and back. Kind of a screwy thing, both for Fema and us. I'm not bad mouthing FEMA, but I'm not entirely on their side, either. You can't blame the government for where you live. IT'S KIND OF LIKE WELFARE!! OO-let's not go there.
On a lighter note!! We have no rain forecast through the weekend. Am watching my friends on the east coast, and those other 2 DEVILS in the Atlantic. When we came back to work from Gustav, we didn't take all of the boards off the windows at work (we have about 40 Ft. of glass). Waiting until the hurricane march is over.!
All, stay sate. If you are even minUTELY in a hurricane path. Start making prep, now!! It's easier on the nerves and for GOD'S SAKE--MAKE A LIST!! A long list!!! And get phone numbers! You never know who you're gonna need!
Carolyn
For me, it's over. My little part of the state had some gusty winds and I had 1 1/2 inches of rain in my guage. Well below what was predicted. Bayou got it worse. I still don't have cable, though I never lost electricity! (Yay! Slept cool!) There are spotty outages all over. Pete doesn't have electricity at his house. Now we wait to see if the river is going to flood. I have a few small branches down-the zinnias are flat, as is the ever lasting bell peppers. Those durn old Eggplant hanging on! Skimpy on leaves, but still bearing!
I have some yard clean up to do, and I should get rid of some of this "stuff" because there's 3 more storms brewing!
Thank you all for your prayers and concerns. Wishing for the best for those of you on the East coast. Florida certainly doesn't need another big rainmaker, or another hurricane. It really is best to start preparing early-cuts down on the panic!
The Gumbo was great!!
Later gators!
Strange isn't it? Ever since I was old enough to remember and a storm/hurricane came through, we had gumbo. The middle of the summer, hot, no electricity and we had gumbo. Can't shake it, got one on the stove cooking!
We stayed. Arkansas was just too far away, and the late night prediction had it coming in further east than originally planned, so we stayed. It's too much trouble to get back in when you get out, and with Pete's house being on the river, and the Sheet Metal Shop being a large, old metal building, we decided not to leave. Breezy, now, about 20 mile an hour winds, light rain, not much going on. I lost cable YESTERDAY when everyone was evacuating-something must have happened on my street, cause others who stayed have it! I have our local channel, which is not bad, got all the news I need there. Still have electricity, and should be ok until sometime tonite.
Got reports of some arrests last nite-but I must say, our local governing bodies are all working together and it's all good. Will go now-wish us luck!!
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