Tuesday 4: "Bug Out!"

 Tuesday 4

Bug Out!

(The following was written by our friend Annie, who lives along the New Jersey shore, where they are currently enduring the effects of the remainder of Hurricane Ian, which hit the coasts of my state of Florida with a fury last week.  Thankfully, we here in north central Florida are now enjoying beautiful fall like weather, with low humidity, sunny skies, and this morning's wake up temperature is 56 degrees, with a high expected today of only 75! Near perfect weather I'd say.  But sadly so many to the south of us are still suffering from the devastating effects of Ian and it will be many months or even years before some places will be restored, if ever. It was truly a horrific storm in our southwest and coastal regions of the state, and our thoughts and prayers continue to be with them as they try to recover.)

Per Annie:

"High winds, tree splitting winds and buckets of rain since yesterday and more on the way. The wind has been howling here for 2 days straight. Ian is on the coastline and not playing nice.
We can play nicely though with Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 questions. Are you ready? Since the east coast is experiencing hurricanes and tropical storms let us explore the topic. Okay? Let's Go..."


1. Expert survivalists and weather experts say it is wise to have a bug out bag handy in case of evacuation, hurricane, earthquake or any emergency. You can see online how to create one. Do you have an emergency kit or bug out bag?  To be honest, no we don't have an actual "bug out bag". Fortunately where we live in this north-central section of the state, we have never had to evacuate because of a storm. However we do talk about what we would need to take with us if that were to happen and we know where our valuable papers are and it wouldn't take long to gather the essentials should we need to do so.

2. Do you have plans with your family on where to meet and what to do in case of emergency?

Again, I guess we really haven't discussed this that much with our family. It would have to be a decision made once we see which way a storm is headed because oftentimes the evacuation routes end up changing with the direction of the storm. As we saw with Hurricane Ian, it changed its course several times before it actually made landfall, and then it ended up crossing the state to the other side, so both coastal regions were seriously affected. Thankfully for us, it still stayed far enough south of us so that we were not seriously affected either way. 

3. Do you keep your phone well charged and your gas tank topped off ? Is your flashlight kept fresh with batteries? Do you have a list of what to go where to go?  

Yes, we do keep our gas tank topped off. As far as our phones well charged, that became an issue as our power did go off for six hours and we couldn't charge our phones. So once it was safe to take a ride, we rode around in our car so our phones could be charged.  We also ended up going to a restaurant here in our town that still had power and plugged in our phones to recharge while we enjoyed a good hot meal.  Regarding flashlights, yes, we made sure we had flashlights in every room with batteries, as well as candles and an oil lamp with oil.  We do have a generator, but we had some issues with it and it wasn't really ready for use. However, if the power had stayed off longer we would have figured it out to help with long term power for our refrigerator especially.  We now have a better plan for putting it into use should the need arise again.  Oh, and thankfully our temperatures during the storm stayed in the low 70's and even down into the 60's, so it wasn't so hot that we needed the air conditioner. That was a blessing! 
Although this picture of the tents is a nice thought, that wouldn't work here with the high winds and rain and trees crashing about.  Perhaps it would work after the storm has already passed by, but definitely not during the storm.  The only damage we sustained here at our house was to the plastic canvas carport that covered our son's car.  So you can see what would happen to a tent if you tried to stay in one: 

4. How about a little stash of emergency goods and foods to last a week or two? They say it pays to do this.. do you?  Yes, we have plenty of canned goods and other foods that don't need to be kept refrigerated so that we would not have starved. We also have a camp stove, a propane grill and our stove in the house is a gas stove, so I would have been able to cook if necessary. Thankfully this time we didn't need to do that, as the power was only off for six hours.  We bought extra bags of ice to put in the refrigerator and freezer to keep the food nice and cold as well.  

We are very thankful that this storm did not do serious damage to our area, but we know it could happen, so we do have a good idea for what to do next time.

I wanted to share these pictures of this little wren that was on our back porch yesterday morning:

If you know anything about Wrens, you will know that they are a very small bird with a very loud voice. You can usually hear them singing above all the other birds, and normally their song sounds a lot like they are saying "judy judy judy".    Well, yesterday morning I kept hearing what sounded more to me like, 

"Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!"  

And as I looked outside and saw this Wren sitting there on the porch railing, I noticed that every time he sang, he was looking up to heaven and saying

"Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!"

Do you see that above?  He was singing his praises to God and thanking Him for sparing us in that storm. 

At least that's what I think and believe...

Job 12:7-10  

7 “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you;

And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;

8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you;

And the fish of the sea will explain to you.

9 Who among all these does not know

That the hand of the Lord has done this,

10 In whose hand is the life of every living thing,

And the breath of all mankind?

Thank you Annie for these questions this week! If you want to join in, click HERE

Monday Monday

Oh my goodness! Here it is the third of October already and I haven't posted my October calendar pictures yet!  It's been a busy start to this month, which you already know from my last post on October 1st.  And thank you all for your lovely comments on the tea party event pictures. It truly was a lot of fun and a day that I know I will remember for a long time. Now what to do with that lovely hat? I doubt it will be worn ever again...but it was such fun for a day! I may hang it on the front door in springtime...that's a thought.  Anyway...moving right along...and in keeping with the "tea theme" for a moment or two, here is the picture from my Tea Pot Calendar for this month:

A sweet little German Woods scene... 

And some helpful hints from Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management, circa 1861: 

Sounds delightful, doesn't it?

Perhaps we could have our woodsy tea party in this rustic cabin in the woods along the shore of a rocky stream (or here on my Still Waters Pond would be nice too)

My Thomas Kindade calendar always has wonderful Bible verses for each month to ponder...

Perhaps that is what this young lady is doing here in my Country Seasons Calendar by John Sloane:

The title is "In the Moment"...and she is pondering some sweet thoughts...perhaps even thoughts of love.

Oh such a beautiful scene! Wouldn't you love to step back in time and sit there with her in that carriage? I know I would. I could even wear my hat! LOL.

Speaking of "sisters" (see the little tiny book in the picture above? My sister gave me that years ago and those pictures beside it are of me with my sister and my mother, many years ago)...I don't know if I showed you the other sweet little gifts I received on my birthday from my sister and my sister in law:

The two fall dish towels are from my sister, and the "Grateful" pumpkin is from my sister in law. They were both thinking about how much I love decorating for autumn and I appreciate these thoughtful gifts!

Also, I don't think I showed you the sweet gifts from my son and daughter in love Rose...

This sweet tea cup is actually made to sit on a little pole in my garden. It should be used as a little bird feeder, but after my experience with the squirrel on my other pretty bird feeder I have decided it will not hold any bird seeds, but just look pretty in the garden.  I will post a picture once I get it set up. We have taken everything extra out of the yard right now since the Hurricane, and I haven't had time to put everything back out yet.

Benton also found this cute tiny little teapot at an estate sale he attended and thought of me. It is really sweet, and on the bottom it says "Salada Tea".  Do you remember Salada tea? Apparently it was made my them and it a tea for one pot. I love it.

Oh, I almost forgot! Rose and Benton also gave me the Vintage Hummingbird puzzle, and my sister Doris gave me the pumpkin puzzle! So I guess I need to get busy and put some puzzles together!

Our sweet son Scott blesses us with his talents when he comes home for a day each weekend...this was before the hurricane...and we were so thankful he got the grass cut down to the pond before the storm. That really helped a lot:

I love to watch him work! LOL.

Okay, so we took a nice walk the day after Hurricane Ian passed through...we've had such beautiful weather ever since...low humidity and much cooler days.

But our thoughts and prayers continue for those who were not so fortunate in that storm, and although it is good they are having good weather now to begin the clean up and restoration of their homes, it will be a long time before things are back to normal for them. They are very much in our hearts.

These wild flowers are in the woods where we love to walk, and I love to see them each fall:

And this was our sunset the day (evening) after the storm had totally passed through...it was a gorgeous sky sent from heaven above to remind us that life goes on and that God is with us through every storm of our lives.  We have much for which to be thankful...

And with that I will say May God's peace reign in your hearts and minds throughout this week and may He hold you safely within His hands always.

Have a blessed week.

 

Hurricane Ian Update

The "calm" after the storm...

Although you can't see it in this picture, those trees are still moving back and forth in gusts of wind as they pass through, but thankfully for all practical purposes, Hurricane Ian is pretty much over and done here in our area.  We are very very thankful for all the prayers and well wishes that helped to see us through a long rainy, windy night.  We never lost power until this morning around  9:00, when a tree blew down on the power lines down the road a little way from our neighborhood. Power was knocked out for a very large section of our community, including our son's house.  He's still "batching" it while his sweet wife is visiting her family in Minnesota...so when we found out that our local Nanna's Country Cafe' still had power and they were open for business, we decided to meet there for "brunch"...(Benton and I had breakfast, hubby had lunch).  

Afterwards we drove past our church and discovered that a large tree had fallen on our ancient log cabin structure on the property.  That building is now used primarily for storage of lawn equipment and other maintenance items, but it once was a Boy Scout Hut, and then our Thrift Shop was started there many years ago.  The building is over 100 years old, and is built from palm tree logs, which are very very sturdy.  It is a landmark in our community.

But this also very old oak tree was rotten to the core apparently, and it could no longer withstand the winds of a very strong hurricane, and so it fell and landed on the roof of the log building:

Apparently the roof is caved in. We've been discussing in our church board meetings that something needed to be done with this old building because it is getting beyond repair, etc., and I guess God decided to take matters into His own hands.  It will be sad to see the old building go, but we've been realizing that we actually need the space for parking because our little church is growing...so we shall see how it goes. We are very thankful it was this building and not our church buildings....

The other item of interest today has been the temperature!  60 degrees is pretty nice for a change, even if it did take a hurricane to bring it down to that level...

We later took another ride (ostensibly to charge my cell phone since we still had no power), and discovered the power trucks down the road from us, repairing the lines that had been broken.

What a wonderful sight to see!!!

These fellas were busy cutting up the downed tree and directing traffic, etc...

We are very thankful for the linemen, who put their own lives on the line literally to take care of these dangerous missions so that we can have electricity restored once again. There have been many linemen traveling here from all over the country to help out with the massive cleanup that will be required throughout the whole state. Over 3 million people have been without power...and many will have to wait several days or even weeks before it can be fully restored because of all the damage from this storm.

Our thoughts and prayers are with so many who didn't fare as well as we did. Many are flooded out of their homes or have other serious damages that may never be fully repaired. This was a brutal storm. I haven't heard the total death toll, but even one person is too many.

And finally, around 4:00 this afternoon, our power came back on! Hallelujah!

This is the worst damage that we sustained in our yard...our son's "carport" over his Camaro didn't quite survive the wind...and that special cover on the car itself had to be weighted back down several times. The winds were quite vicious, and we are only on the outer fringes of the storm.  You can only imagine how terrible it was for those in the main eye of the hurricane.  Yes, we are very very thankful.

And so with that I will close down for now. Tomorrow is a new day. We plan to open Dixie Cottage back up for those who just might want to do some shopping. Thankfully the store never lost power and there didn't appear to be any damages there either. We are so very very blessed.

I am trying to add a couple of other pictures, but I keep getting a message the blogger.com server can't be found. So now I don't know if this will publish or not. I will go ahead and try to publish as is, and that will explain why it may seem "unfinished."  Is anyone else having such issues?

God bless you all, and thank you again for your prayers over the past few days.

You are the best!!

 

Waiting on the Storm to Pass By

Today has been a day of waiting and preparation for Hurricane Ian to arrive.

The outer rain bands have been gradually building throughout the day, along with the winds.

The real storm has not arrived here as of yet. It only made landfall this afternoon way down on the southwest Gulf Coast near Ft. Myers, as a Category 4 (almost 5) hurricane. It is a huge storm, but thankfully is beginning to gradually weaken in strength as it slowly works its way north east across our state. We are on the northern edge of its projected path and the impact will not be nearly as great here as it is further south, for which we are very thankful. However, I fear there will be much damage to those who are closer to its eyewall. 

I woke up this morning around 5 a.m. in hyper hurricane mode. My adrenaline kicks in when there is impending danger of any kind, and my main thought was to try and get as much done as possible today before we lose power...which is most likely inevitable possibly sometime tomorrow or tomorrow night, but I keep praying it won't.

For those of you who remember our sweet "Lily Grace", this is quite an adventure for her...Her first hurricane! But sadly I've been too preoccupied to help her write her own posts lately...however, she is very concerned about this storm and is watching all of the news/weather updates with us.  Her puppy Bailey keeps her company.

So some of the things I did today were:

1. Three loads of laundry, including our bedsheets.

2.  Cooked beef stew in the crock pot all day.

3. Baked a meatloaf to have for tomorrow's meal/sandwiches.

4.  Searched until I found the power cord for the generator, which was lost behind a shelving unit in our shed...It had slipped down behind the shelves and it took some praying and seeking God's help to direct me to find it.  Now we just need someone to come and hook it up when and if we need it if the power goes out. We do not know how to do that.  It requires someone with more electrical expertise than we have to do it correctly. I'm still praying we won't need it.

5.  I baked biscuits to go with our beef stew for supper. Our son Benton came over to join us as his sweet wife Rose is still visiting her family in Minnesota.

We have some biscuits leftover for breakfast tomorrow.  Maybe with applesauce?

As most of you know, I am looking forward to going to a special "tea party" this coming Saturday..., but now that is up in the air depending upon what is going on with this hurricane by then. It should be further on up the coast and away from us, but if we are without power then of course they will have to postpone it.  Already one of my friends who was planning to attend with me is not going to be able to come because they've been away on vacation and can't get back into the state because of the storm.  The southbound lanes of the major highways have been closed to southbound traffic so that people can evacuate to the north and get out of harm's way.  I am hoping that if they do have to cancel it for this weekend they will reschedule sometime in the near future.  And with that in mind I decided to work on my hat design today while I still had power to operate the hot glue gun.  Here is how it looks...

So my hat and gloves and little purse and fan are all ready to go...let's just hope it will still happen in the near future.

In the meantime, here's a song that is going through my mind that expresses my prayers and thoughts as we wait for the storm to pass by...

Till the Storm Passes By

sung by the Gaither Vocal Band

In the dark of the midnight have I oft hid my face,

While the storm howls above me, and there's no hiding place.

'Mid the crash of the thunder, Precious Lord, hear my cry,

Keep me safe till the storm passes by.

Refrain:

Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more,

Till the clouds roll forever from the sky;

Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand,

Keep me safe till the storm passes by.

Many times Satan whispered, "There is no need to try,

For there's no end of sorrow, there's no hope by and by"

But I know Thou art with me, and tomorrow I'll rise

Where the storms never darken the skies.

Refrain

When the long night has ended and the storms come no more,

Let me stand in Thy presence on the bright peaceful shore;

In that land where the tempest, never comes, Lord, may I

Dwell with Thee when the storm passes by.

Refrain

Music and Lyrics by Mosie Lister (1958)

I will try to keep in touch as I am able, but if the power goes off it may be a while before it is restored since as of right now there are already almost a million people in the state without power, and they can't do anything to repair it until the storm is over.  So we will just stay as safe as we can and pray.  God is with us and we are very very thankful.  Thank you for all of the prayers for our people in this state...there are quite a few of us bloggers here and all of us will be affected in one way or another by this storm.  Praying for each and everyone to be safe.