Houston & Sam(antha) after a hard days "Ike" night.
Hurricane Ike Check-in List
Thanks so much, LouC.
Ann
Checking in! I'm fine, not enough damage comparatively for me to complain one single little bitty bit. Out of power for a while, and the office was down until today (no internet at home). A couple of shingles I have to glue down, and we've fixed the one bit of fence that fell on the forsythia (it's perking back up). The plants took a beating but they'll be fine.
Anybody got a nice little 5-acre parcel they'd like to sell -- in KANSAS!?!?!
yeah, but wouldnt you love the tornado's there? remember Dorothy! lol i think it was Kansas, wasnt it?
tracie
There isn't anyplace you're secure from everything, I guess! At least you have warning with hurricanes.
We got back Sunday. Power came back on a couple of hours after we got home. The garden is a mess and the skirting was blown off but no trees on the roof this time. Everything back to normal.
Glad to see some of our southern gardeners surfacing again. Glad it was no worse than it was for y'all!
brigidlily
Garden_Mermaid and TamaraFaye were asking if anyone had heard from you, make sure you dmail them if they don't post soon.
Glad you only had minor damage.
I have a friend who lived on the Bolivar peninsula. He got out with a bag of laundry and some photos. I have NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO complaints! Thanks to all y'all for your concern.
My son's inlaws have made their home on Boliver for quite a few years now. They had to leave because of Ike. From what DS says, their home is the usual stilts home but w/a great difference. They have fruit trees galore, gardens of veggies and flowers, tons of vines. They also have several lots down there that they grow on. Besides that he is an avid fisherman, shrimper and crabber. After we saw the aerial pictures of the fly-over that Frank Billingsley did in a 'copter we were convinced that Boliver was pretty much a disaster area but DS says that from what they have been able to determine their house was back away from the Gulf side of the peninsula more toward the bay side and that their subdivision is fine and intact. I certainly hope so because the place was (is?) a real show stopper and visitors went out of their way to go by the house to see it The In-laws retreated to Arkansas to get away from the storm and I don't when they are coming back.
Ann
I hope their place is okay! Their plants may suffer. The saltwater intrusion has killed thousands of cattle and I have no idea what it will do to any surviving plants. It could dilute it if it would rain, but no one around here seems to be wanting rain right now. Hmmm...
Here is my little gardenia outside the back door at about 8 o'clock the morning of the storm. When I first got up at four o'clock it was doing the same thing, only the other way!
Evidently there was some talk that they were going to give up on Bolivar and just move back to Arkansas.
Ann
Arkansas sounds pretty good to me right now, and I was NOT devastated by storm damage. It's the way it wears out your soul that you'd like not to repeat.
Hi, everyone! We finally got our internet hooked back up yesterday. Our neighborhood's power lines were repaired on Friday - yayy! 13 days without power wasn't much fun, but we managed without too much stress. We were very grateful for a gas powered water heater, running water, and the cold front that went through the day after the hurricane! We didn't have any major damage - lots of branches down, but dh trimmed the ones (that he could reach, anyway) overhanging the roof before the storm got here, so most of the branches that fell landed in the yard. Yayy! Our neighbor to the west lost a lot of branches from her big ash tree, and the neighbors next to her lost their entire big live oak (no damage done to other property in either case, praise God!), so we will have a little more afternoon sun than before - there's always an upside. :-)
You can plant more of those sun loving natives Marylyn!!
Shelia that's one of the first things Marylyn said to me when I talked to her the day after Ike.....
Gotta LOVE them Gardeners!
Welcome Back!!!!
Ric
It'll still have to be part-sun loving natives, Sheila, but at least it doesn't have to be deep dark dungeon loving ones now! LOL
Thanks, Susan!! Thank you for all of the text messages and prayers, too. They really helped. :-)
Marylyn_TX, I'm not too happy w/Comcast either. That's the only thing that was wrong at our house: we had TV but the phone and computers are on Comcast. Finally got it back on after they determined that the line from the green thing in the corner of the yard to the house was faulty and so then we had to wait until the guy-who-puts-in-new-line came around and he did such a lousy job that the line is haphazardly across the yard thru the lawn and about 2" below the sod so now we have to be careful if we want to extend the flower bed (which we were planning on doing). It also took an entirely different man to come and bury the line under the sod and it took him about an hour to do a 10 min. job. So even tho we shouldn't complain since we had power and all that good stuff and didn't have to line up for water, ice and MREs we still can't figure out why it took them over 10 days to get here and were beginning to wonder what bills and msgs we were missing. I know for sure one thing: never will we plant a live oak again. Those things have such a canopy that the wind grabs it and over it goes onto The Good Lord Only Knows What. Glad you are back w/us and ok.
Ann
Marylyn, so glad to see you made it through all that time without power! How did the bunns do?
They had a good time playing with flashlights and glow sticks at night and bubbles and sidewalk chalk during the day. :-) I put some photos up on a Picasa web album for my family... If you want to, you can look at it here: http://picasaweb.google.com/commerce.acct/HurricaneIke?authkey=6WxlPUSGxX0#
Sad to see the limbs of your sage and pecan down, but they will grow again. Glad you both and the bunnies were safe from harm. They are really getting big. Tell Joy I liked the Wall-E movie too! lol!
Well, my aluminum roof was declared a total loss and will have to be replaced, along with the fence, and possibly the garage doors. A neighbor with the same roof (only 3 aluminum roofs in the subdivision) had just purchased the shingles, and provided me a copy of his paperwork, which I proudly handed to my Allstate Adjuster (who was a delight to work with!). Soooooooooo, I need a contractor to replace the roof and the fence. Any referrals for bids in the SE Houston (Hobby Airport) area would be greatly appreciated.
Do get referrals and check with the BBB. You don't need more heartache from an crooked contractor.
Oh, I'm so sorry, Linda! We had our roof replaced last year, but it was shingles not aluminum. I'll ask my DH where he filed the ppw (I thought it was right here... but it's not... hmmm..) so I can tell you the name of the company, just in case they can help you, too. We really liked the company. :-)
I hope Allstate takes care of you properly. I used them for car insurance before I got married and I really liked them. :-)
Thanks, Marilyn!
I've always been in good hands -- Allstate is just my secondary backup!