Thursday, September 18, 2008

Ike Roars Through the Woods, and More.

This past week has been labor intensive, (Yeah, I'm pooped!) because the remnants of Hurricane Ike roared through here Sunday morning with sheets of rain, followed by a wind that I thought would deposit me in Oz, if I dared to go out into it. (Official word is the wind was 70 miles per hour!)

So, I didn't go to church Sunday morning, listening to the wind sounding like a freight train, instead, and watching the trees dropping their limbs all over the yard, while in the house the lights flickered on and off a dozen times.

I never did lose power though, thank goodness, but many folks around here did, including Eileen, who lives 14 miles east of me. When her power came back on five hours later, she discovered that her Cable TV did not, which made her a bit cranky!

Anyway, later in the day I went out and surveyed things, and began cleaning up the debris left by Ike. My neighbor Connie's husband, Roger came by to check on me, and he went up and down our narrow gravel road with a chainsaw, clearing debris and tree limbs off, so people could drive on it. And I have been cleaning debris here every day, since Sunday, and have finally made a dent in it, thank goodness. I left a couple of big limbs for Greg to clean up and cut up with his chainsaw. Since this house sits in the middle of the woods surrounded by trees on all sides, I was thankful that none of them hit the house! And as you can see in the picture of my front, most of it looks fairly cleaned up now, but I cropped the picture to leave out the scraggly stuff still laying around. :-)

On Monday I took a break and went to town, and heard other people's account of Ike. Many still did not have the power back, some homes and cars had been damaged by trees, but overall it wasn't real bad. Eileen's Cable TV was finally working again, she told me happily, while we lunched at the Chinese Restaurant. Then it was back to cleaning up more of the debris. The scraggly stuff left will be mulched with the lawnmower.

The weather has been heavenly since, and this Sunday promises to be sunny and pleasant, and I look forward to going to church and lunching with church friends again.

Of course, the problems caused by Ike around here were minor compared to so many people who were devastated by it in Texas. My thoughts and prayers are with all of them. I can't even imagine how they're coping with all the devastation.


I also want to thank all my friends who have signed on as my followers! That is so very sweet of you, but how did you do that? As soon as I figure out how to become your follower, "I will follow you," just like song says.
:-) Any hints on how I can do that, would be appreciated, as well as hints on how to show my followers on my sidebar. I am so blogger challenged!

And I want to thank Patti and Grams for the beautiful awards they gave me. I posted them on my sidebar. Thank you again, friends.


And thank you for visiting. Have a wonderful weekend, and a great week ahead, everyone.

Blessings from the woods!

32 comments:

Brenda said...

Renie,
I was wondering how you are doing! Glad you gave us an update. I had a feeling you may live close to the river and wondered if that would cause some problems for you. Sounds like the trees did, but like you said at least they didn't fall on the house. Our waters here crested yesterday, and we can all just hope that no more water comes our way anytime soon. Glad you got out and about.
I am also blogger challenged in that I don't know about the following. I discovered it a couple of days ago on my dashboard. But I haven't quite figured it out yet.
Take care and rest up after all that work.
Hugs,
Brenda

Patty said...

So glad there wasn't anymore damage then what you got. We finally got everything cleaned up and I mowed on Tuesday, it mulched up all the small stuff. Yes, I feel so sorry for the people in Texas that lost everything. We were very lucky. Our neighbors across the street and up the block are sitll without electric. Our daughter about 30 miles south of us got her power back on Wed. and my friend about 15 miles north of us also got her power on yesterday. Thank goodness ours went off three different times, long enough that I had to reset all the clocks in the house but only stayed off for about 15 mins to a half hour. But resetting clocks is a small job compared to what the Texas residents are going through. Have a great week-end, it's jsut around the corner.

Unknown said...

so glad you weathered the storm without too much trouble. you be careful hauling all that stuff and don't overdue it. ike was here too with the same strength, just amazing. except here in the city, people are out getting icecream during 60 mph winds! it didnt seem to phase them that there were wires down, lol.

xox

Jmkdreak said...

hannah says hi, haha. guess she has a Gmail account. oops! lol


xox

Linda said...

Renie,
It's good to hear that things didn't get too bad for you...We had a lot of wind up here in Ohio...A lot of people lost power, but we did not!
Many people are still without Cable!
Thank God we have dish! ha

Glad your Okay!
Take Care

Linda said...

So glad you didn't have any major damage from Ike. Wish we could have gotten some of the rain. We did get a little wind that cooler things off.

I'm not sure about the followers. If I figure it out, I'll let you know.

Have a good week.
Hugs, Linda

Susie said...

Hi Renie,
So glad you posted an update and I'm very relieved that your damage was no worse than it was.
The clean up is such a big job, though, so be careful not to overdo.
As for followers: Many of us have it in our sidebar and you just click below it to add your name. You can also manage it from your dashboard under the "manage followers"
Hope this helps. It's just getting started and not too many have joined in just yet.
xo

hippo chick said...

Sorry you had so much wind, etc., but cleaning it up in stages is smart.

Sounds like things are going well now. Good for you.

Hope you have a delightful weekend. Do you have a luncheon at church or do you go out? We go out to brunch nearly every Sunday after service.

~hippo hugs~
Pam

Gigi Ann said...

Renie,

So glad to read that you survived the visit of Ike. He stayed South of us and headed Northeast. We were a little worried he would visit us. We had just had 3 inches of rain one day last week, so if he had made it to Iowa we would have faced the flood situation all over again.

This week weather wise as been just lovely. I love Fall weather..

Have a nice week-end and don't over do cleaning up the limbs and branches. That's what Sons are for...

gramma ann

Midlife Mom said...

So glad you are okay Renie and didn't get more damage then what you got. Better some trees then your home! What a lot of work though to get cleaned up from all of the branches breaking off. I remember the ice storm here in 1998and we lost about 40 trees around our home! Of course now it's a pasture for our horses so that worked out okay after all! Glad your friend got her cable back! I know how she feels, I hate it when my cable is out, I don't watch much regular TV but sure miss my HGTV when it's out!
Have a wonderful weekend and don't over do!!!!! xoxo

Jenn said...

Renie
I was wondering why you hadn't been online. I am so happy to hear you are well, even if your a bit tired. IKE was a bad visiotr to many. Don't you have a local youth center you can call and have them send some kids over to help with the clean up?
Hugs
Jenn

Dawn said...

I'm glad Ike wasn't too bad for you. As for followers - you can edit your layout and go to "add a gadget" and the follower link is there for you to add. I don't know how people can follow someone who doesn't have it on their side bar though. And to follow someone else, look for it on their side bar and just click "follow this blog." Hope that helps!

Mary said...

Renie,

The photo of your yard is lovely. I'm so glad that your house wasn't hit and that you didn't lose power.

As far as following my blog, you can go there and at the top of the sidebar you can click to follow. If you want to add anyone who doesn't have this gadget, go to your dashboard and below your blog, you will see where it says to add blogs. You just click there and add the URL.

To add your followers to your sidebar, go to "customize" and then click "Add a Gadget." You will see a place there to add your followers to your sidebar.

If you have any trouble, just drop me an email and I will help you. I really like this feature.

Have a great evening and stay safe.

Blessings,
Mary

2 LMZ FARMS said...

so glad that you didn't have major damage. We had some limbs and trees down here. Hope you and yours have a blessed day.

ancient one said...

I'm so glad you didn't have major damage. But you can tire yourself out fast getting up all the debris when one of these storms comes through... We have woods on three sides... so our yard is a wreck... the neighbors across the road have hardly anything to rake up..LOL

Anonymous said...

hi renie, believe it or not, i'm totally out of touch with the world lately. i mean, i don't read the newspaper and watch news on TV. i know i should but it's all bad news. i don't want to hear it. well, i'm just thankful that you are safe. (((HUGS)))

know that you are dear to my heart. take care my dear friend. btw, i have something for you in my Color It Green blog. =D

God bless! ♥

Janice Thomson said...

Glad to hear you survived that nasty hurricane with only a bit of damage. Even here in Canada in the East there were effects from it. The people from Texas are in my thoughts too...

Mary Isabella and Kiley too! said...

What a beautiful blog you have. I am so glad everyone was safe from the storm. It was windy here Sunday but not as bad as you all had it.Have a good night...m...

Merle said...

Dear Renie ~~ I am so glad to read this post and to know that you are all right and didn't lose the power. Sorry you had such a lot of clearing up to do and hope you are doing it a bit at a time. Take great care of yourself dear friend. Thank you for your comments and I am feeling much better. I hope the Follow this Blog works next time you try. Amd I will follow yours when you get the thingo. Take great care, Much love, Merle

China Pattern said...

Hi Rennie,

Ike decided to hit Arkansas, Kentucky and Ohio, too. I just got my power back on Sunday night (Sept. 18th). Our cable and internet are back on but barely. We don't have voip phone or all of the cable tv channels back yet. The damage here in Ohio was severe. I will probably include my diary of the week I spent without power since my blog is a journal. I am glad it wasn't too bad where you are.

Tossing Pebbles in the Stream said...

I am glad you came through the storm OK. I am always glad I have no trees around my house when there are high winds.

Ike showed up here in Ontario and gave us a good rain storm and some wind, no longer a hurricane.

The W.O.W. factor! said...

My goodness Renie! I had no idea you would feel the wrath of Ike too! I've seen so much devastation on this blog world...more than the news! I am so glad you are safe! Surrounded by trees can be scarry in heavy winds...and so can wide open spaces like me! I DO NOT like wind storms!
My heart goes out to everyone who has felt Ike! I cannot imagine living with the threats of hurricanes/tornados...I'd have to become a mole...or and eagle!
Don't work too hard cleaning up! I'd come help if I were closer :)
{{A HUGE Hug for you}}
Barb

The W.O.W. factor! said...

Ok Renie...I think I got the following thing up and running properly now :) Thanks for telling me I was doing something wrong.
Here & Gone..I haven't a clue what I was doing...

Gigi Ann said...

I don't know what is going on with blogger. But it seems everytime they are setting up something new, other things get messed up. Anyway, that's my theory...So just keep trying.


Have a nice Week-end again.

gramma ann...again;)

Loretta said...

I am gonna work on my yard this week end, if it doesn't rain both days. We had a good rain this afternoon. I also have a lot of scraggly looking stuff all over.lol We had 60 mile an hour winds here. I live in the middle of trees to, so I was walking the floor! Sure glad you're o.k.

Unknown said...

I am glad to hear that you and your friends didn't get hit very hard, but still I can only imagin at what it must of been like for you being surrounded by the left over Ike's fury.

I am still learning about that new tool about the following yet, I am not even sure if I even have it being now I am trying out the new blog roll list which I think is a new wonderful tool.

I too feel sorry for those texans for so many had lost everything there and I still not heard anything of the fate of one of my cuzins there, the other cuzins has been accounted for and from the sounds of it looks like they are thinking of moving back to california.

Kentucky Dreamer said...

Ike rolled thru my area too. My basement had about three inches of water and my back yard become a temporary marshland for a few days but I am glad all is back to normal now.

I really enjoy your blog, Renie.

BClark said...

Hi Miss Renie,

So glad Ike was fairly gentle with you. Maybe you can use the wood next summer for a nice bonfire.

Thank you so much for your kind comments on my blog, as usual you made my day.

Best to you, Barbara

sandy said...

Wow Renie, I can imagine the clean up and glad it wasn't near as devastating as some areas. With the Santa Anas we get, which can get up to over 70, but usually dry and hot, I know what clean ups are all about because we have a lot of trees.

The photo you posted sure looks beautiful. I can imagine how great it must feel to be done with it for the most part and back to church and lunches out.

take care and I hope you find the time to relax.

Tina Coruth said...

Renie,

I'm so happy that you made it through Ike. I can imagine how many trees and tree limbs must have fallen. By the time Ike's winds reached us they were significantly diminished. I think we were in the 40 mph range. Even at that we had a lot of small limbs down and only one tree in the woods.

What nice neighbors you have to check on you and lend a hand. That is heartening to hear!

I hope you are having a restful and pleasant weekend, my friend!

Love & hugs,
Tina

Nancy said...

Sounds like you had quite a wind there! Nice that your neighbor checked on you and helped clear your driveway. So glad you didn't lose your power. I always hate it when I lose mine here....no TV, no internet....sad that we depend on these things for entertainment, isn't it? LOL

(((((( HUGS ))))))

audrey` said...

Praise God for His protection over you, Renie =)

(((HUGS)))