Our "Family Compound" has expanded!! . . . again!

Last July Mark's sister Vickie, and her husband John, and her husband's  brother Bruce and his wife Bonnie, bought the four acres right next to us where they plan to build their two homes when they all retire in a few more years.  We were SO excited about that!  Then this month, exactly one year later, Ben -- another of John's brothers -- bought another two acres on the other side of the property they had bought.  Talk about GREAT!! 

 

And that's particularly great since he already lives here in Baton Rouge, so maybe he will get his house built even sooner! 

 

Now if someone else in our families would just buy some of that land across the road (there on the right side in the picture above) . . . .  Hmmm.   Wonder if Wendy would like to live in the south?  Wouldn't THAT be wonderful!!!

 

Here is the turn from our road to Ben's road -- Iberville Street.  (His new property is there on the left.)

 

Here is a better view of his land - but it actually runs way back through those trees so it's actually twice as large as what you can actually see.

 

It's interesting to know that just down the road from his property is a HUGE building (at the top of the picture below) that was used to store all the dead bodies found after Hurricane Katrina back in 2005.   And those buildings that are angled there on the top left are actually the St. Gabriel city mayor's office, etc. 

 

 

During that terrible time after Hurricane Katrina, rescued horses and dogs were kept just 10 miles down the road at Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales. 

 

 

That place is enormous.  Good thing, because they kept hundreds and hundreds of horses as well as all the dogs out of New Orleans that were found in abandoned areas where buildings were gone and the people couldn't get back to find their pets.  LSU Vet School handled everything.  (If you haven't read it, check out the book "Horses of the Storm".)

 

 Anyway, my point is that although our state here in the south does of course have hurricanes, our home is far enough north of the coast and far enough south of storms moving across from the west that we simply have never had serious storms right here where we are.  We get a lot of rain at times, but so far we haven't ever gotten any serious destruction around here.  Of course we DID make our barn extremely strong "just in case" but I hope that's never really necessary!