Here he comes . . .

I am FINALLY sitting down.  Whew!  And not all that soon.  We still have to bring the horses in and close up the barn - probably about 7 or so - and bring the cats inside from the screened porch.  Oh - and put up a rope barrier to keep Duke inside his paddock when we open his stall door tomorrow.  We don't want to let them out completely until we're able to check out the fences.  And we don't want to have to do that until all that rain goes past.  They're saying it could be a looong time since Isaac is moving so slowly. 

 

We're being told that the storm surge in New Orleans is going to be about 6 1/2 feet.  Given that New Orleans is actually BELOW sea level, that's not a good thing.  For us, it's a bad thing because we live in the middle of a swamp and it will not be able to drain - in fact it's bound to rise, given the fact that all the rain won't be able to run down the streams and bayous and out to the Gulf with the water from it coming IN. 

 

The absolute BEST thing today, though, has been the tree folks who came this morning.  Again, they were the Semper Fi Tree Service - Jim Utz, an ex-Marine, and his wife who was an absolute sweetheart. 

 

 

I can't begin to express just how grateful I am that they came right on out and made the horses safe through this storm we're about to have to deal with.  And he not only cut down that huge tree over the barn, but he topped off those two tall old trees close to the front of the house, too. 

Those trees were super tall, too -- probably 70 feet or so.
And VERY close to the front of the house.

 

 

So I asked him to top them both off and since the one on the
right could have split, half of that one is gone completely.

I know both those topped trees look really ugly now, but at least they AREN'T dangerous.  If they don't fill out later, we'll ask him to cut them down completely when we ask them to come back over to top all those trees in the back pasture.  You might notice in the picture above, by the way, that his big ol' bucket truck is in the driveway across the street.  See his Humvee over there on the right?  That's because our neighbor came over while he was topping those trees in front and asked them to come cut down all the trees in his front yard that are very close to his house.  When I came out of the barn a couple times while he was doing their trees, I saw a jeep one time and a truck another stopped over there.  His wife was talking to them  - presumably arranging to go to THEIR place and cut trees, as well.  Wonder how many people actually stopped over there to hire them.  Those two were just in the few minutes I wasn't inside the barn.   ;-D    Well, that's good.  I hope those two get a BUNDLE out of this storm!

I wouldn't be surprised if he works right up to when the storm begins either.  They seem like a very sympathetic pair.  We would have had them do those trees in our back pasture today, too, except that it is so soggy back there.  And I think he said that bucket truck he has weighs something like 30 tons!  No way could he drive it back there and expect to get out again.  He couldn't even use it to cut down that tree by the barn!  That worried me a lot since that tree had already been so heavily cut.  What if it fell while he was up there!?   But he CLIMBED that tree and cut it down one branch at a time before they finally pulled it over with their Humvee.  (That COULD drive back there into the "swamp"!)  Whew!  And at the end, when the Humvee pulled the main part of that tree down, the tree twisted and fell slightly to the side, and part of it hit the gate into Duke's paddock and the corner post of the dog yard.  They felt bad about that, but I'll tell you what -- seeing that just makes me that much more grateful that the darned thing is finally just DOWN.    If one part of it did that kind of damage, what would have happened if the whole thing had fallen on the barn!??? Really frightening.  Check out that gate, would you.

 

 

Well, it's 5:30 PM now.  Isaac is supposed to BEGIN to come ashore in New Orleans in about an hour with winds somewhere between 80 and 100 miles an hour.  They SAY the winds will drop by the time he gets up here.  Obviously, I hope they're right!   Isaac is so SO wide, though.  I think we may begin getting rain and wind by 7 or 8 or so.   We'll be bringing the horses in then, anyway, just to be safe.  So I guess I'll go get something to eat now.  It's been a VERY long day already.

 

I'll keep you posted.