Well, it's been a while since I've taken time to write in my blog, hasn't it? But a lot has been going on.
I was really grateful that the storms that had been predicted pretty much daily just hadn't happened. Nice. I had been able to let the dogs out and deal with the horses without any problems -- except the fact that the grass in the dog yard had gotten about a foot high in a lot of areas in just the two weeks Mark had been offshore! Hey - it IS spring!
I was really grateful that the storms that had been predicted pretty much daily just hadn't happened. Nice. I had been able to let the dogs out and deal with the horses without any problems -- except the fact that the grass in the dog yard had gotten about a foot high in a lot of areas in just the two weeks Mark had been offshore! Hey - it IS spring!
Well anyway, it was supposed to storm last Sunday night but it hadn't done a thing when I went to bed. Great!
But when I got up Monday morning it had not only rained, but the entire property was completely flooded, including the canal that runs down the side of our land. The water in that 10- or 15-foot deep, 20-foot wide canal was running up over the edges and back onto both our property and the neighbors' place. Oh no!! I turned on the news and found that most of the area gotten just 2" or so of rain, but just south of the city (that's us) had gotten 5 to 6 inches! No wonder we were flooded!
And of course the horse paddocks were completely flooded. It was still dark when I went outside initially and their entire paddocks looked like mirrors! The sky was reflected in the water everywhere out there. THAT was a first! Gees!
And when I went out later to feed them, even walking across on the stone walk-way that goes from the house to the barn, I had to walk through deep water. Hey - THAT was a first, too!! So I closed both Duke and Arthur inside their (dry) stalls with plenty of hay. They didn't need to be wading around in that deep water.
And of course the horse paddocks were completely flooded. It was still dark when I went outside initially and their entire paddocks looked like mirrors! The sky was reflected in the water everywhere out there. THAT was a first! Gees!
 |
| This little pond in the pasture was also running over. This photo was taken Monday evening. A lot of the water had soaked into the ground by then but the pond was still running WAY over -- probably because the canal was so high the pond couldn't flow out. |
It was supposed to storm again on Monday night, but it just rained a little, and it has been wonderfully dry for the whole rest of this week. All that water has soaked back into the ground now, too, so that Mark has been able to mow that horrendously tall grass. The front yard and dog yard are done and tomorrow he will be going to work on the pastures. Big job.
And then there's Gigi . . . when I put her out after the storm Monday, the yard was so wet that she ended up pooping inside her crate for the first time in a couple of weeks. NOT a good few days!
But not only is the grass cut back and looking really good again now, but we have cleared out our office too -- big time! We got rid of all sort of things that still worked just fine but we haven't been using so the room is much, much, MUCH clearer now at last! AND Mark got Jerry to help move the queen-sized bed off the sleeping porch up into the office and they're going to move that giant crate of Gigi's from the dining room out to the sleeping porch - where the bed used to be. Once that's done we can take down that "fence" we put up to keep Gigi out of the living room since she will not be hanging out inside until she's grown and stops eating everything in her sight!
Having that bed upstairs does make the office a bit tight, but on the plus side, we now have THREE guest bedrooms instead of two. Probably a fine thing if we have another bad hurricane this year. (We kept people with dogs at our place during Katrina since they wouldn't let them take their dogs with them to the rescue facilities.)
Until now I had been forced to lock Gigi outside in the yard when she went outside because when she came into the sleeping porch she just destroyed all the bed clothes. So now that the bed is gone, all there is out there is her small crate and several dog beds and a couple of steel chairs that she can't eat! So the dog door is unlocked again now and she LOVES being able to come into the porch. She just got left back in this afternoon and every time I went out to see what she was doing she was sound asleep in one of the dog beds out there. Happy girl.
Now tomorrow Mark and Jerry are going to be repairing the fence in the front paddock where Shadow will be initially when she arrives on Tuesday. Duke had stuck his head through that fence and pulled loose one of the wires that were not electrified. With that wire out of place, it's possible that a horse COULD climb through that fence. So to be on the safe side, Mark is going to fix the wire AND electrify it so Shadow will be secure in that paddock until she gets together with Duke and Arthur out in the big pasture in a day or two.
I'm taking off work Tuesday, and they will be bringing her down late Tuesday morning. Can't wait!!
Oh - and speaking of taking off work, I got a notice today that I have to serve as a "Petit juror" over in Plaquemine from May 5 until who-knows-when. Sigh. I hope John can come up with a reason to have me excused. (I WILL ask him on Monday!)
Okay, back to work. I've been going through all our file cabinets. There are all kinds of files in there that I'm getting rid of -- like bills from 2002 or before! Who NEEDS all that crap!
Then our next project will be clearing out the library. We're just going to pack up all the books we would read only once and drop them off at Good Will or at Here Today, Gone Tomorrow. I WAS going to take them to a used book store where they give you credit for additional books in exchange, but when I thought about it, I realized I really don't need credits for additional books. I just want them ALL gone! Well, all the mystery and fiction books, anyway. We certainly wouldn't want to read any of those a second time. I DO want to keep my horse and dog books and Mark certainly wants to keep all his history books. And I want my non-fiction books about various things like linguistics, gardening, decorating, law . . . well, everything else! But compared to all those fiction books, those won't take much space at all! There are hundreds of fiction books to go. We can get books (and CD books) from the library or download them to our Kindles. So we actually won't need to buy many books at all anymore! But it's going to be quite a process. In fact, in addition to all those books, there are still all sorts of things removed from the office, even though most of that stuff had been taken away. Okay, I guess I'll take some "before" pictures of the library so I can remember specifically how awful it "used to look."
Having that bed upstairs does make the office a bit tight, but on the plus side, we now have THREE guest bedrooms instead of two. Probably a fine thing if we have another bad hurricane this year. (We kept people with dogs at our place during Katrina since they wouldn't let them take their dogs with them to the rescue facilities.)
 |
| A queen size bed in an office with two huge desks DOES make it a bit tight. But it's not a problem. There's still plenty of room for us to hang at our desks. And it's good that that bed can be used now for company. No one but me ever wanted to sleep on it when it was on the sleeping porch -- not even Mark! Well -- I guess I shouldn't say "no one" . . . the dogs definitely enjoyed it! |
Until now I had been forced to lock Gigi outside in the yard when she went outside because when she came into the sleeping porch she just destroyed all the bed clothes. So now that the bed is gone, all there is out there is her small crate and several dog beds and a couple of steel chairs that she can't eat! So the dog door is unlocked again now and she LOVES being able to come into the porch. She just got left back in this afternoon and every time I went out to see what she was doing she was sound asleep in one of the dog beds out there. Happy girl.
Now tomorrow Mark and Jerry are going to be repairing the fence in the front paddock where Shadow will be initially when she arrives on Tuesday. Duke had stuck his head through that fence and pulled loose one of the wires that were not electrified. With that wire out of place, it's possible that a horse COULD climb through that fence. So to be on the safe side, Mark is going to fix the wire AND electrify it so Shadow will be secure in that paddock until she gets together with Duke and Arthur out in the big pasture in a day or two.
I'm taking off work Tuesday, and they will be bringing her down late Tuesday morning. Can't wait!!
Oh - and speaking of taking off work, I got a notice today that I have to serve as a "Petit juror" over in Plaquemine from May 5 until who-knows-when. Sigh. I hope John can come up with a reason to have me excused. (I WILL ask him on Monday!)
Okay, back to work. I've been going through all our file cabinets. There are all kinds of files in there that I'm getting rid of -- like bills from 2002 or before! Who NEEDS all that crap!
 |
| Too bad I hadn't taken a picture of this desk BEFORE we began getting rid of things . . . I'm sure it still looks like there's a lot of stuff on there, but it's NOTHING like it looked before, believe me! |
Then our next project will be clearing out the library. We're just going to pack up all the books we would read only once and drop them off at Good Will or at Here Today, Gone Tomorrow. I WAS going to take them to a used book store where they give you credit for additional books in exchange, but when I thought about it, I realized I really don't need credits for additional books. I just want them ALL gone! Well, all the mystery and fiction books, anyway. We certainly wouldn't want to read any of those a second time. I DO want to keep my horse and dog books and Mark certainly wants to keep all his history books. And I want my non-fiction books about various things like linguistics, gardening, decorating, law . . . well, everything else! But compared to all those fiction books, those won't take much space at all! There are hundreds of fiction books to go. We can get books (and CD books) from the library or download them to our Kindles. So we actually won't need to buy many books at all anymore! But it's going to be quite a process. In fact, in addition to all those books, there are still all sorts of things removed from the office, even though most of that stuff had been taken away. Okay, I guess I'll take some "before" pictures of the library so I can remember specifically how awful it "used to look."
 |
| The two saddles on the back of that loveseat are inside so they'll stay tidy, but that giant red one (see below) is a Mexican parade saddle that I have no intention of ever using but I just haven't gotten around to getting rid of it -- yet. |
 |
| That box under the table contains every single John D. MacDonald (Travis McGee) book in that series -- 40 or 50 of them as I recall. We both loved those things. So we may well decide to hang onto them and actually read those again down the road. |
No comments:
Post a Comment