Bright, Sunny Monday

[Colliemom]

Good Morning all,

Just signing in for a few minutes and wishing you all a pleasant day. But have to say to Irmi, that I am so sorry that your house floded. And for the mess you are going to have to clean up. I hope you haven't lost too many of your belongings. But thank goodness for your MH, at least you have a roof over your head and hopefully you can get into a campground till you can get back into your house.

Soos, sounds like your Ruckus was a big sucess as usual. Loved the pictures especially the Banner one. Now it's time to get ready to be a "grandmother". You asked on a thread I posted about the state parks here, how far it is from your place to mine. I will get back to you on that so as I have a chance to look at a map. I do know that if you were to cross in Detroit it would be at least 250 miles from that point to here. But I sure wouldn't go that way it if were me and tangle up with all the traffic in that area. Nope, Port Huron/Sarnia is a lot easier and closer too.

Been busy around here too. Sinuses acted up last Wednesday after I got back from my camping trip and I lost a day of work cause of it. GRRRR. Then my lawn tractor's battery cable disenegrated and had to get a new part to hook it back up to the battery again, so I could cut my ever growing grass. Work this past weekend was hectic. With all our college students gone, we are really short staffed and there are only three of us to hold down the fort on the weekends. And we were near full to full this past one. Plus we had some issues with water well, plumbing etc. yesterday which kept me busy trying to repair plumbing problems cause of it. Never a dull moment. Luckily there were two of us, so one was cleaning the bathrooms to keep up with that.

Looking at the pictures of Irenes' aftermath right now on the weather channel. Water flowing everywhere. Lots without power etc. What a mess, but I guess it could have been much worse, had the winds not died back somewhat. But never the less, the flooding is bad enough.

So I'm off to clean house and then get into some other things needing done around here. Catch up week after two weeks in a row of camping on my days off. Hope all of you affected by Irene can get your lives back in some sembalance of order and the rest of you have a good day.

[rvgrammy1953]

Good morning, all....Well the BIG STORM is over here and our clean up is small....just some limbs, branches, and leaves to clean up on our site....the weather is wonderful....clear, sunny, and comfortably cool.....Now it's time to ready things for the trip to GA on Weds.....clean the fridge in the camper and the shed, do up one more basket of laundry, secured stuff in closet and cupboards, and do some last minute errands.....we are so ready to hit the road again....the plan is to travel down I-81 to I-77 to I-26 the I-95 all going south into GA.....it maybe 42 miles longer, but less stress than doing the I-95 route.... Had a great afternoon with the kids and grand-kids yesterday....great, always, to see them before we take off for the fall/winter months....

Okay, got to get busy.... .....Ernie's already out leaf blowing the site...

Have a great day, all...

[Nasoosie]

GOOD MORNING, AT LAST, TO ALL!

FINALLY the relentless wind and constant rain have stopped! I dumped my rain gauge, full to overflowing at 5 inches capacity, twice yesterday! The trailer rocked and rolled most of the night, and my electric heater was coming on and off (when the power or my Honda generator was on) to keep Molly and me warm. The volunteer firemen all over our areas were out all night with the power company, clearing the roads and re-hooking wires. Today dawns with partial sunshine, some clouds, hardly any wind, (thanks Mama Nature!) and the birds are able to fly again. Many apples and some branches were blown off my ancient apple tree in the yard. a lot of its leaves ended up in my pool, tons of trees and branches were blown down in the surrounding towns and roads, power was on and off all day and night yesterday, many streams and rivers have flooded over their banks causing tons of people to flee their homes for their lives and closing a bunch of roads. Where I am located is high, so no flooding here other than the brooks under my dirt road, and I imagine the pond overflow pipe is a sight to see! (Pics when I get down there later.) When the news was saying that Irene was passing on, she was wreaking havoc up here in the north country!

Mandy's and Joe's baby shower in Saranac Lake yesterday afternoon was lighted by candles as she and Joe opened baby presents and the rest of us snacked and feasted on cake. Everybody said they would still attend despite the weather, so we all did! Power was out in the village there for mostly the entire party-time! The trip there and back was treacherous with branches and trees down on all the roads, traffic lights out in town, and blinding rain. I am looking forward to seeing the pictures and reports in the Adirondack Enterprise newspaper today when it comes out this afternoon. The towns of Jay, Upper Jay, and AuSable Forks got socked really badly I have heard. Vermont also got socked with Irene's back draft, washing away some old landmarks over there. I haven't talked to Richard yet this morning---he lives in the heart of the bad stuff over in VT, so I will give him a call later to make sure all is well with him. I do hope his RV made out ok, as well as him and his pups, too.

Molly and I will walk to the pond to see what destruction went on down there. I hope no trees came down on the leanto or the cabin. I had my generator here at the house for power and my refrigerator in the trailer automatically switches to propane when power is out. I had many gallon jugs of drinking water as the well pump runs on electricity.

As the weather in our warming-up earth gets more and more violent over the coming years, we will also get the old diesel generator from the pond revamped and set in a sheltering shed between the two main houses on this front acreage. It will be connected to both houses to kick in when power goes down. The new generator at the pond cabin will run on propane as well as solar/battery power, so living down there should be a piece of cake. By then, I am hoping all immediate family members will be living back here on the compound, and can keep things up and running. We should be able to live very comfortably on wild foods, solar power, wood heat, people power, and family love-----hopefully!

I was happy to read that Pete made it home safely yesterday, and that Carol is still up and kicking. (I wholeheartedly agree with you about the severety of this hurricane---it seems that many people believed the whole thing was just news hype and that nobody should have been made to take precautions or evacuate. What on earth goes on in the minds of those who get disappointed when Armageddon doesn't materialize in their vicinity?) Yet to report in this morning are Liz, who was on the chatroom for a bit last night, but then seemed to fade out, and Anita who is somewhere in PA. Hope to hear from both of them soon.

Here's hoping you all are keeping your heads above the overflowing water, that your power, if you lost it, will be back on soon, and that you are all safe and cozy somewhere.

Regards to all from all of us in the North Country---we are tough!

[Liz]

The storm was just a rain event where I was. I'm sooo glad I decided not to go to the Bluegrass Festival Richard told me about near Quechee, VT. Rte 4 that I would have traveled was flooded, and the covered bridge in Quechee washed away, as did others. Much flooding over there. The Lord looks after me.

Laundry to do today and give the pets lots of outside time after being cooped up all day yesterday.

Wishing all well on their cleanup efforts.

[Queen]

Hope all of you impacted by the storm are doing okay and getting things sorted out.

Spent the weekend in St. Louis and got to go RV shopping! Looked at Pleasureway's and Roadtreks, I have to say while looking at some used ones... the previous owners made some very interesting choices regarding interior attachments. One that we looked at had no less than 40 plastic hooks stuck to the walls! They were everywhere, at odd angles, inside small cabinets...

[HorizonSeeker]

Good morning ladies! Glad to see that most everyone made it through the big storms unscathed. I was shocked to see the news about Mitch and George and am keeping positive thoughts going for them in the back of my mind always. I pray things turn out well for them.

Today is my next to last Monday in my bricks/sticks house. Last week I went through closests, cabinets, and such pulling out things that I will need in Seeker. Everything else went out on the carport for a big yard/carport sale that lasted 3 days and brought me another $1500 for the road. The house still isn't sold but a neighbor 2 doors down came up to see me with her 23 year old son to talk about renting. Seems young son and his 3 year old daughter have been living with the folks for long enough and the young man and I came up with an agreement on his renting the house along with a roommate (another young man with a small child). I think this will be a good deal for them as they both have been relying on their folks for long enough and this will give them an idea of what being out in the world is like. But of course I do have the parents 2 doors down who will be keeping an eye on things too. Plus I don't have to worry about wild parties, drinking, or drugs as they are both very aware that they could lose parental rights if they move in those circles (the little girl's mom is back in rehab again hence the dad's custody). So sad for me to see how kids are being raised in today's world, but at least these two will be in a nice home in a quiet neighborhood with grandparents practically next door. My stepson has promised to be the defacto rental agent for me which is good because the boys are terrified of him so I doubt they'll miss paying the rent.

So as of the 15th of this month Seeker and I will be on the road. I am going on a short trip to Ward, AK to visit my cousin who I haven't seen in over 20 years. We were so close as kids but just reconnected this winter when another cousin died suddenly. When I leave there I will return through the west side of the side and stay a weekend in Hohenwald for homecoming weekend events at the high school. My neice was named to the homecoming court so I have to be there for all the festivities. Then I'm off to Campbellsville, KY to begin my job at Amazon. Guess I'll meet up with Beth there since we are both staying at Green River State Park. Wow! I need to get going. I've got lots to do!

[dayspring39]

Good morning everyone I finished my coffee as I read the posts so glad everyone is safe and makes a lot of extra work cleaning up branches and trees and leaves but being safe is good. Irmi I'm so sorry for the flooding in your home I hope it is not too bad and that it can be cleaned up I hope too much is not destroyed.
We have a good cool morning it will get in to the low 80s later... I have a fan in the window in the door open when he gets hot I will close up again...
Finishing up my coffee then I will send a few e-mails...
If you're on the road be safe those at home do the cleanup you have to then take a break,
Kathleen

[BarbaraRose]

Wow! Sounds like Irene really did her thing out east! I haven't even watched the news at all to see for myself all the damage. Glad to hear all is well with our group (other than Irmi's home ).
We finally have the heat out this way! It has been around 115 for the past 4 days here and another one today and tomorrow before cooling off some. Can't wait to move further south!

Got a call from the owner of the shop I am going to, yesterday. He is offering me a assistant-manager position at another shop down there. However, it only pays .50 cents more per hour. I asked him what the job responsibilities would be and he said basically, everything the manager does. So I would make $4.00 more per day ($2.00 after taxes) and do a lot less haircuts and make a lot less in tips...and have a lot more responsibility and stress...hmmm...no thank you. I told him I would think about it and get back to him. I just want to cut hair and be stress free while enjoying my free time exploring the San Diego area and beaches.

We have a kitty love story going on here now. My downstairs neighbor, cat-sitter, friend, has been feeding a stray tomcat she calls Tiger (he is a white tabby cat). Well, apparently he fell in love and mated with a small stray gray kitty and she recently had kittens. He brings her to my neighbors patio each night now to eat. He just sits back and lets her eat all she wants before he eats and then they leave together. We don't know where the kittens are but she is definately nursing. I have never heard of a tomcat staying with the female like that. How sweet!

Gotta get to a few things this morning before heading off to work later.