Home Again

We are back. More about our trip later. First, a few observations after being gone from a hurricane ravaged city for 5 days.

Things that have changed:

• My mother finally has power at her house. (So glad not to have to beg her to come over every time we talk on the phone.)

• Most of the schools have reopened.

• The grocery stores have both refrigerated and frozen items stocked again.

Things that have not changed:

• Our library is still closed.
  

• Most of the traffic lights are still flashing.

• The streets are still lined with dead trees and limbs.

We have already retrieved Aunt Sarah from her friend's house. Her building now has power, but the elevators were damaged and are still not operational. They have no hot water. There is also the small matter of water soaked carpet that hasn't been dealt with yet. The common areas of the building are all stripped to the concrete sub-floor.

As a city, we still have a long road ahead of us to get back to normal, but there is evidence that we are getting there. However slowly it seems.

Sanctuary

I always like to say that with one shoulder pushed way up and dragging one foot behind me. I'm weird that way.

My lack of posting has been mostly due to just feeling rather overwhelmed by the whole mess of things. It has also been due to the fact that we are a shelter. No, we don't have cots lining our living room or PODs with lines of people waiting to receive MRE's and water.

We have had Aunt Sarah staying with us since last Sunday. Although she lives on the second floor, her apartment is on the south side of the building. The sheer force of the rain pummeling her windows caused seepage. She had very squishy carpets. Oh, and no power or water. Things were pretty bleak at her place.

Unfortunately, all of our bedrooms are on the second floor of our house. Aunt Sarah and stairs don't get along so well, so she has been camped out in our living room. We don't really use the living room for much, but we do walk through it every time we come in the front door or go up and down the stairs. I feel bad that she has so little privacy, but she seems OK with it.

I don't know how long our little arrangement will last. Her apartment building has power and water but no elevators at this point. We will be gone for a few days. Maybe things will be closer to normal when we return.

First Look

These are some of the first photos I took as we emerged from our house the next morning. Enjoy!

This what greeted us out the front.

And this is the side view into the backyard.

This is our back deck.

The force of the wind and rain was so great that not only did we get water up on the transom over the front door (which had to travel under 11 feet of porch and 2 feet of roof overhang) but also leaves were literally blown into the cracks in the house.

Walking around the neighborhood immediately after the storm gave us some idea of how crazy it got out there. Trees were down everywhere.

But praise be to God, there was really very little damage to houses. There was the knocked over chimney down the street and a couple of dented porches, but no one in our immediate area suffered losses that would cause them to lose their homes or really even have to live somewhere else for awhile. Look at the size of this tree that came down and took out a carport, but completely missed the house.

Much to be thankful for. Much to be thankful for.

Surviving Ike

We are a Gulf Coast people. My mom is from Houston and my dad is from Mobile, Alabama. We have family all along the coast in between those two places. We have a healthy respect for storms. If you live along this stretch of America, storms big and small come with the territory.

We also have a kind of worst-case-scenario mentality in this household. We always have lots of batteries, flashlights, a generator, full cabinets, full fridge, things chargeable fully charged. We just kind of live planning for something bad to happen.

The storm that came Friday night, the one they called Ike, tested all of that. It was big and it was full on here.

It seemed to take a long time getting here. Friday was a loooong day. Finally night came and the winds picked up a little. Still no rain. More waiting.

Our lights went out at 10:37 p.m. It wasn't really bad then. I don't know why they went out so early. That ended the nonstop news coverage for us. That was both a blessing and curse. Really, the constant prattling on about what was to be was getting a little old. On the other hand, we didn't really know what we were in for.

Finally, the real storm hit. I lost track of time, so I don't really know what happened when, but the winds started to blow and the rain finally came.

The last big hurricane I was in was Alicia. This one felt about the same. Except this time I was in a 2-story house. You know, big buildings move a lot during high winds. My bed is up against the east wall of the house. When I first felt it, I thought the dogs where up against the bed. My husband came in and asked if I could feel the house moving. Oh! It wasn't the dogs. I was acutely aware of it after that. It moved a lot.

We heard the occasionally snap of a tree or pop of a transformer. We ventured out onto the porch occasionally to check things out. The rain was blowing sideways, so we got soaked every time we went out there. We slept off and on.

I can say that I was never afraid. We have a ridiculously large master bedroom. Big enough to hold our queen sized bed, a twin bed, and a camping cot. All four of us slept in that room. While not afraid, I did want to be there with my sleeping children most of the night. It just felt better in there.

My daughter fell asleep just after 10 at night. She missed the power going out. She woke up early the next morning when we were doing something in the room. She sat up and drowsily announced, "I wish I could sleep in this storm." HONEY! You practically missed it! The little angel had slept through the worst of it.

We spent the rest of the morning gawking at the downed trees and watching the remaining ones sway. By midday all was over but the drizzle and cleanup.

Ah, the clean up. It still continues. More later.

Yop!

We are here! Our phone/internet service just came up!

Thanks to all for your prayers, thoughts, and concerns. We are alive and pretty well.

We came through the storm with minimal(?) damage. We have 5 pecan trees in our yard. I would say about half of the branches are now in the yard. Maybe not quite that much, but it is A LOT! They didn't hit anything on their way down, so we are good with that. Well, our trees didn't hit anything. Our neighbor's tree took out the side of a small trailer and the back window of one of our cars.

We did lose a few shingles off the roof that resulted in very little water damage.

We lost power about 10:30 Friday night. It returned very early in the morning Monday. Our neighbors on the other side of the street still don't have power.

We were without safe water from the tap for only a day or so.

We had some phone service just after the storm passed, but it promptly went down until just now. We did have some cell service today though.

I have many pictures. I'll post some of them soon. Many stories to tell.

I'm going to bed now. If things hold, I'll try to be back again tomorrow.

Hurricane Watch

The laundry is done.

The cookies are made.

The water coolers are filled.

The chickens are snug in their cage in the laundry room.

The hatches are battened down.

And now we wait.

Come on, Ike. We are ready for you.

Getting Ready

We have spent the morning getting ready for the arrival of Ike. The girl and I took a break and walked around the neighborhood a little to see what everyone else is doing.

We saw taped windows.


A few boarded up windows.


We didn't board up or tape, but we did secure the porch furniture.



A few people left, but most are still here. The only thing I saw that kind of worried me was this.

A small trailer in a carport. Hmm. I hope he makes it.

Distracted

In case you live under a rock some place (and that is the only safe place to be right now!) we are expecting a hurricane 'round these here parts. Being about 60 miles inland, we don't have the trouble that people closer to the coast have, but we do need to prepare.

The kids and I have been out in the yard this morning securing some of the things that might become airborne and decide to be uninvited guests in our neighbor's living rooms. Well, they were helping until they found some frogs and toads hiding under some boards.


*sigh* At least, the toads will survive Ike.

The Challenge

Yeah, I've been playing with the blog. It's been fun. I love the new button down near the bottom that tells me who just got here from where.

You will also notice the cute little chicken button. Lacy made me do it! OK, she encouraged me to do it. OK, OK, I try to do it anyway, but I had avoided the button because I don't always do a good job. Perfectionism strikes again.

But I'm going to step up my efforts to live locally and support the organic farmers. Will you join me? You can read more about Lacy's challenge here.

We already have two chickens in the yard. We eat a lot of eggs, so our poor chickens only supply about a third of what we eat. We also have fig and pecan trees. They supply all we use of figs and pecans. I have citrus trees in pots, but they haven't really produced much yet. I have one enormous lemon I can't wait to show you.

There are several farmer's markets (like this one, and this one, and this one) in our area. I don't frequent them like I should, but I'm going to make an extra effort to check them out. Maybe I'll take you on a field trip!

In any case, I hope you will join me as I try to support my community and try to live the way God intended us to live.

What do you do to support local growers?

Tuesday's Tip

Today's tip: do away with the fabric softener.

There was a time when I decided on what washer to buy based on whether or not it had a well in the shaft for my liquid fabric softener. Those days are gone. I no longer even use fabric softener.

First of all, most fabric softeners are really toxic. They are full of chemicals that we really don't need in our homes or on our bodies. You can read a little about it here or here.

Secondly, does it really make that much difference? Really? I haven't missed it at all. In fact, when I am out on my walk I can smell everyone else's dryers. I don't even like the smell any more. Too much "fragrance".

So save yourself some money. And do without.

But if you can't, there are other options. Of course, I'm going to say it. Ready? Make your own! I can't really speak to how well this works, but I looked it up special for you. Give it a try and let me know how well it works out. Maybe you can persuade me.

Homemade Fabric Softener

You'll need:

• 1 cup vinegar (white)
• 1 cup washing soda
• 1 cup water
• Drops essential oil (good choices include lemon, lavender, mint, geranium)
• Bottle for storage (flip-cap if possible)

1. Assemble the items from the Things You'll Need section.
2. Mix together the washing soda, white vinegar and water.
3. Add a few drops of essential oil. The scent is up to you. Or, you might wish to leave it scent-free.
4. Stir together one more time.
5. Bottle the fabric conditioner for storage. A bottle with a flip-top lid is good for ease of use but any bottle with a lid is suitable.
6. Use the fabric conditioner in the same way that you would use a commercial fabric conditioner.

If you try it or have your own recipe, let me know. I'd love to hear your results.

Well, what do you think?

Yes, I have been playing. What do you think of the new layout?

I went over and visited The Cutest Blog on the Block and checked out a few of their designs. They are cute. And easy and free! You may see a few more before it's all over. I love to decorate. But you knew that.

Also, I added a couple of new buttons on the side. One is so you can easily subscribe to the blog through whichever means you choose. Just click on one of the two choices under "Subscribe to the News". You can either subscribe to get alerted to new posts or to new comments.

I also added a "Those Who Follow" widget. I know many more of you read than comment, so I thought it would be fun to have a list on the side. If you would be so kind as to add your name to the list, I will smile every time I see your name or face. I like to smile. I like to know people are at my party.

Miss Eris

Whew. It has been a long week.

I got called into help out at church this week because the regular cook for the day school was sick. They wanted me four, but they only got me for three days. (The fourth day we were playing with Michelle and her beautiful babies. What fun we had!)

When I cook for the thundering hoards at church, there is lady who helps out in the kitchen. Her name is Eris. She is one of the most amazing women I have ever met. Here she is:


Eris had a stroke. I will not call her a stroke victim because there is nothing that says "victim" about Miss Eris.

I don't know her well. She doesn't talk all that much. The words don't come as easily as they used to. She doesn't have use of her right arm. Her right leg is a little slower than her left. I do know that she worked for 20 years at a major oil company in their computer department. Not anymore. Now she pushes this little cart to bring food and drink to the kids in our day school. She washes the dishes, prepares their juice, divvies up their snacks, and keeps this cook company.

She is only allowed to get paid for 4 hours of work each day because of her disability checks. I'm not sure when she gets there each day. I have never beat her there. I see her work about 6 hours.

And do I mean work. This woman works as hard as anyone I have ever seen. She hardly ever stops moving. In fact, just today she didn't feel well. She said she didn't get to sleep until around 2 a.m. She sat down to eat a little lunch. After a few minutes she said she had to get up or it would be naptime. So she got up and went back to work.

It is hard to complain when you are around Eris. When you see her determination to accomplish her tasks despite great odds, you can't help but be inspired.

I know from talking to other people at church that her children would like her to go to a nursing home. I find that laughable. I didn't have the privilege of knowing Eris before the stroke. I'm sure she is very different from the mother they grew up with. I'm sure they see her impairments and wonder how she can survive each day on her own. The Eris I see in the kitchen each day is doing just fine, thank you very much. She's not so proud that she won't ask for help when she needs it, but she is determined to do all she can by herself.

I feel proud to call her my friend.

Small Victory

I got a desperate call at 8:00 this morning. I was needed today as cook for the day school. The regular guy was sick. The good news is, the director said she now loves me forever! : )

On today's menu was, of course, more blond food: cheese quesadillas, corn, fruit cocktail, and rice krispie treats. In true homeschool fashion, the kids came along and did their work in the library while I cooked.

I always feed them whatever I cook there. I told my son what we were having. He asked what fruit cocktail was. ??? Wow. I'm impressed. I have raised a child to the age of 13 without him ever having to eat canned fruit cocktail. Am I a good mom or what?

Tuesday's Tip

Today's tip: try something new with your laundry detergent.

While I was away. I made my first batch of homemade laundry detergent. I had been using a pretty expensive brand trying to cut down on the amount of chemicals that my family is exposed to. That was getting old. Fast. I combed the web looking for a simple recipe. I'm not nearly as ambitious as Lacy, at this point. Maybe someday. I really wanted powdered detergent.

I found a simple recipe and went to work.

First, you grate a bar of Fels-Naptha soap. Surprisingly, I found this sitting on the shelf in the laundry aisle of my local Kroger. I just grated it by hand using the small holes on my cheese grater. It yields about 2 cups of soap.

Then I took a cup of borax and a cup of washing soda and added it to the grated soap.


I mixed it all together and ended up with 4 cups of laundry detergent. While that doesn't seem like much, it only takes 2 tablespoons per large load of laundry. And it cost me less that $3.00 to make that batch.

Of course, the big question is, does it work? As far as I can tell, it works fine. While I'm not doing Pioneer Woman's manure soaked laundry every week, my crew can do OK. I have only been using it for a little more than a week and everything comes out clean and fresh and quite satisfactory. I'm pleased.