Hurricane Ike Check-in List

Nancy (right?)! Good to see you again!

I did spend my dark evenings knitting away. A few years ago some of us on this forum joked about getting miner's headlamps so we could garden into the night. About a year ago I discovered headlight flashlights, they are brilliant! First one I bought was at Target, I bought an extra one for the storm at Home Depot, a model like this: http://www.energizer.com/PRODUCTS/FLASHLIGHTS/HOME%20USE%20PRODUCTS/Pages/economy-home-flashlight.aspx .

I finished a sweater for Ella, knit a dishcloth from a new pattern, and then did a pillow front of "The Tree of Life" (to tell Ike that he didn't have the last word, lol.)

That's using your head Mary! LOL!

KEWL HEADLIGHT......BRILLIANT!! AND THOSE RAIN LILIES...WHAT A GRAND SIGHT TO BEHOLD!!

'eyes'

Let me tell you, the headlights are almost better than sliced bread. Wherever you look, that's the place that's lit up. And your hands are free to garden, knit.... whatever! I paid about $10 for the one I got @ Target, and $15 for the Home Depot one (it was a little larger.) Many hours of light without running the batteries down - I had them on for about 2.5 to 3 hrs a night the whole week.

I hope you bought rechargeable batteries! Americans put several million lead-acid batteries in our landfills every year. I bought a handful of rechargeable AA batteries and a solar recharger several years ago. They work great but I've noticed the Radio Shack brand don't last as long. Turns out their mAmp isn't as high as some others.

I use rechargeables almost exclusively, but I was given some regular AAA's as a backup by a friend who had a lot (her husband was a "collector"), since I couldn't recharge anything without burning gas in my car - and gas was hard to come by.

Good for you! I think many folks forget about batteries and/or the toll on the landfills until an emergency comes along... and then we buy what we can get. I've been as guilty as anyone. Now, I try to plan ahead...

I'm glad to see everyone's okay. What a storm, huh? We stayed up all night, working in shifts, becuase I was worried about tornadoes that we might not have warning on if whole house was asleep. I have got to be one of the luckiest people in Houston as we never lost power. There is about a 2 block area around my house that has power, beyond that, even one street over, still doesn't have power. We had a lot of damage to flower beds and a few limbs down, but no major damage to house and no injuries. I will be replacing a lot of plants and at least one tree. Good news is the hurricane lilies (lycoris radiata) have jumped up and are ready to bloom and I have hummingbirds all over the place. Worst we got was a nervous puppy. My son and his family lost power so they stayed over with us for a couple of days. My grandbabies thought it was great and didn't want to go home.

I'm so glad all you you made it through with only material damage. Best of luck to everyone with the repairs and clean up.

Crow

Having rechargeable batteries and no electricity is like my complaining about our power outage reporting system. A friend says... report it online. DUH! No electricity, No computer. LOL

I love the LED lights they will last an infinite time on batteries. Darius what do you suggest when there are no battery disposal outlets in an are? Don't know what to do...

Pod, I only buy rechargeable batteries to fit my solar charger. So far I haven't had to dispose of any here in VA, but when I lived in Asheville, once a year they had toxic waste collection and all my old non-rechargeable batteries and a couple of rechargeable batteries went there. Batteries are small... ask a place that sells batteries who collects them... and carry worn-out batteries in a bag in the trunk for the rare visit to a city that collects them.

i hear MaggoieMoo checked in on the other thread....

Hi Tamara, I'm here! :-)

Podster, I think most Radio Shacks and Best Buys will take your old batteries. Otherwise, as Darius said, your city or county probably has a collection site for toxic waste.

Good to see everyone back!

I have one of those headlamps and do use it to garden at night. Hate to say that I'm guilty of regular batteries. When the storm was blowing our way, that was the last thing on my mind. And the lines to get anything anywhere! Oh, dreadful. I can't imagine looking for rechargeable batteries when my absolute needs were water, gas, candles and food. Well, we'll just have to look into that expense now that the storm is over and things are calming down.

Crow - I'm so glad you never lost power. We were lucky too. Ours came on after 12 hours. I've had a house full for the last week since we were one of the few. It's been hectic but nice at the same time. I've thoroughly enjoyed all of the company.

I'm just glad to read everyone's 'faces'. I'm so grateful that nothing tragic has happened to any of our DG friends. Make you realize what's really important in times like this.

Yes Maggiemoo - it's Nancy. You are such an expert knitter to be able to put out those things in semi-darkness. Ella is so blessed! Our neighbors came down to see us with those light things on their caps while I was lugging a huge flashlights in one hand and my battery radio in the other. When it all calms down, I'm off to find them - they got theirs at Gander Mountain. KN - are those the kind of headlamps you talked about?

Crowelli - great to hear you are ok and have had power and that your garden damage is fixable. Fun time with grandbabies - great as well!

KN - I agree about appreciating everyone here even more. Thanks to everyone for checking on us. Hope your company appreciates you, KNolan!

A half block from our house is still dark. I feel so badly for them. I've offered our guest room to friends who left town, but return on Monday. It's getting really hot here, and the mosquitoes are getting really nasty.

Gymgirl - did any of your fall tomatoes make it? I have 2 earth boxes that are limping along.

With each posting of one my virtual friends my heart leaps. Have been praying for all of and will continue to do so as you put your lives back together. We were fortunate in the Dallas area. Ike veered off to the East and we didn't get anything. The predictions were quite different. So much for that. Just want you to know I watch your posts and feel as though I know you. When you don't post for a while , I worry, worry, worry. So here is one of my favorite scriptures:

"Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything...
PHIL. 4:6

Thank you so much Christi for caring about your fellow Texans. Hope you are doing well, too! Thanks for sharing the scripture. It's one to live by, for sure.

I also haven't posted anything, and just wanted to add my thankfulness. I haven't gotten to meet all of you personally, and may not have chatted with you here. But I've read posts from everyone and still feel like I know you. So I'm very grateful as everyone checks in, and it looks like all the DG-ers are safe.

I also have family in Houston and Marshall (!!) who suffered from Ike. No one was injured, and they're very grateful for that. But even if there's no injury to you or a loved one, it can be very hard to live with the damage and loss of power and things like that. I have a friend who lost the beach house on Crystal Beach that her family has had for 40 years. She inherited the house a year ago when her dad died, and as she grieved for him on the anniversary of his death, Ike rolled in and took her inheritance, Nobody was there, so there was no injury, and she's very thankful that no lives were involved. But it still takes time to recover emotionally from fear and loss like that.

There must be a lot of people who are struggling with similar things. I'm keeping all of you in my prayers as you recover.

Has anyone heard from the folks in Lumberton? I haven't seen any posts from brigidlilly anywhere and heard that Lumberton really took a beating.

i am concerned too...

there is a very good chance they still dont have power. there is a lot of ET south of me that is still without it.

tracie

I haven't posted.. somehow I missed this thread, but we also are ok, and just got power back on last Friday. We have a camper and generator so it wasn't too bad. Lots of limbs and shredded leaves so lots of raking, and our storm door blew off. My Momma's house sustained a lil damage from a huge tree that blew that direction. TG the limbs forked and barely missed the front porch! The sad thing is we'll be raking again in a couple months..lol

Harbor Freight opened a new store in Sugar Land on hwy 6 Thursday (before Ike hit). Got one of their headlamps for less than $3, and 3 tap-lights that run on AAA batteries - put a taplight in 2 of the bathrooms and one overlooking the stairway - was great for the 4 days without power.

They also had hand operated siphon pumps, but were higher than WalMart - $10 vs $6 - but none were available at our nearest WM, so glad to have one to get the fuel out of the generator.

Saturday, mowed and shredded about 90% our 50 x 12 x 4 brush pile that I accumulated after Ike pruned.

Checked the 6 foot chip pile from Pre-Ike Friday's tree pruning - had put a gallon of dry molasses on it - worms already working their magic.

Tomatoes in garden appear ok - I did not stake them, so they were sprawling anyway. The dill, parsley and cilantro seeds have sprouted, too.

Bubba ~ do your tap lights have LEDs? They are great! I used them in bathrooms and now am still running one each night to see how long three AAA batteries will batt! Not as bright but still a nightlight.

Yes - package said the LEDs were good for 100,000 hours -- just wish the batteries would last that long - LOL.

Hi all..I just got my comcast service back on an hour ago. Lights were our for about 6 days. Not too much damage to the house or yard. The Crape Myrtle trees were stripped of their leaves but this Mockingbird nest made it. I even saw the baby bird that hatched from this nest yesterday.

lis

No power, and no tomatoes. Planning to sow some winter seeds maybe this weekend in 5 EMPTY EBs. But -- I have ayard FULL of tree limbs!!! and men climbing on the power poles. Their best estimate is that we won't have power for another week -- IF we're lucky....

I need to have a tree trimming party -- and i do NOT mean a Christmas Tree -- Pine trees!!!

But, lest you worry I am suffering in the heat, I'm making it just fine. DH, being the industrious man he is, has TWO generators, and one is powerful enough to light up the whole house. But, we're being conservative, only running the freezers by day and the fans by night. Also, this cave woman discovered how to make FIRE yesterday, on the almost brand new Members Mark grill the DH had sitting under a cover on the patio. Been there all along, and I'm just now cooking on it. Been over that hot, hot plate all week long!!! Anyway, my menu last evening was smothered pork chops, rice & gravy, potato salad, mixed veggies, and fried bananas with a sweet roux sauce. Lemonade on ice. I'm not suffering -- much....

Hugs to you all for checking in and on each other!

Linda

This message was edited Sep 22, 2008 5:10 PM

Ummm ~ sounds good. Necessity is the mother of dinner? LOL

FancyFlea ~ Welcome to TX! Still happy to be here? Glad you didn't take any serious hits...

What time's dinner, Ms Linda? I can smell it from South Texas--yummy. Glad you and the DH are hanging in there!

Patty

Wow, Linda, I'm coming to your house for dinner!

Linda, you can do a lot on a grill. We had used one during a kitchen remodel one year and even cooked cornbread on it.

I finally got my power back on but hate to look outside my home..doesn't look good to me...
This pic is just part of my front yard..

This was Friday's sunset before Ike.

Beautiful....what ever happened to "Red at Night... Sailor's Delight?


"eyes"

There was a 50 foot brush pile from the left tree to the right fence taht I collected on Ike Saturday - got about 95% shredded this past Saturday. Anyone need mulch?

What do you use for shredding? I have wanted to get something for the constant supply of dropped branches my water oaks "contribute", just really don't want to pay much (plus I don't have much storage space.)

My DW bought me a Sears 5hp Shredder / Bagger several years ago. Only requires about as much room as the lawnmower. Occassionally, I wish it was bigger, but it will handle up to 3inch limbs in the small shute, and 1 inch in the big shute. I really like that the big shute can be lowered to the ground so you can sweep leaves into it.

When I first got it, I had a really hard time starting it - even took it back for servicing. Then discovered what I was doing wrong. Need to pump the priming pump several times, not just 2-3 times. If it doesn't start then, remove the air cleaner and spray with some carb cleaner. Once started, replace the air cleaner.

It is not completely self feeding, so I always reserve a few 1 inch limbs to help break up clumps and keep it going. When then get chewed to less than a foot long, use another.

I am trying to talk DH into getting a shredder. They have them all the time listed on Craig's list. But he doesn't think we would use it that much.
Hey Bubba....you need a flower bed along that fence, throw down some cardboard, soil, and spread that mulch! LOL!

Gotta replace that fence first - Shelia.

We first moved to this part of Texas in 1969, and I rebuilt and repaired fences for 14 years. Saw what most of the fence companies were building and did not like them. Six foot pickets were always bug and water damaged at the bottom. Knew I wanted a treated horizontal board on the bottom, posts set with concrete above ground and crowned, and 6x6 for corners and gate posts. That is what I got. Can't complain about a fence that lasted 20+ years.

Gonna enter a plug here - Had the fence built by Atlas Fencing when we moved back to Houston in 1987. We will call them this winter when they have had time to repair the majority of the hurricane damaged fences.

We made out like bandits from Ike. We only had intermittent power outages for seconds at a time. All around us in the adjoining neighborhoods things were much worse. We ended up w/a pile of pine branches that were no worse than a slight pruning and went into 2 bags. We had a good flood in time for going to church onSunday so no church. Storm debris in the storm drains. The worse thing was having no internet and no phone as both are thru Comcast. We just got our internet back but no telling when we will get our phone. Luckily we have our cells but I really, really hate mine so only use it if I have to. Strangely enough we have had TV all along. (That's on Comcast also.) I'm glad that everyone is doing great as well.

Ann

I just found this thread, again so I am double posted somewhere. Thank goodness I didn't tell any lies because I never would have been able to remember them...........

This message was edited Sep 23, 2008 3:31 PM

Ann, I think it is time some good luck came your way.

Christi