As we muddle thru 2020 we are finally at the end of a year most people will not forget in our lifetime.  It will not change at midnight 2021 but we finally have some hope.  My hope is that the vaccines will at least put covid 19 on the same level as the flu.  We tend to forget the flu kills and is dangerous too.  I had it December 2017.  Harvey had wiped us out and we were rebuilding our house.   A few weeks before Christmas I had bronchitis really bad.  I finally went to the doctor and after she tested me she said I had bronchitis and the flu.  I had no symptoms of flu but the bronchitis almost knocked me in the dirt.  

   My husband and I are lucky to have our jobs.  I am also lucky to get to work from home except for a few hours 1 day a week.  I started writing again because I am struggling. I'm lucky my exposure is minimal but it's also hard to be at home all the time.  Being at home has also killed my self discipline concerning my health. While I would like to meet people like me thru this blog, I'm fine just writing it to allow me vent.

   There are a few things to be proud of.  Hubby downsized the garden due to it being so time consuming.  Who knew it would be so needed this year.  We canned and froze what we wanted.  And still had many pounds to share.  Okra, squash, zucchini, mustard greens, figs, oranges and lemons.

Little Spot has become Rick's shadow.  As long as Rick's outside he is too.  

This is just one of hundreds of pickings of the okra.  We cooked, froze, canned, and gave away a lot.  We have drivers our age and they love getting figs, okra, mustard greens, etc.  Like us, they grew up poor.  Their parents or grand parents had gardens and fed their families from them.  

I found this pot of plants for $15 and love it.  There are multiple plants and planned to start some hanging baskets.  Rick put it on the patio to water.  We forgot it and we had a freeze.  It's struggling to come back so all may not be lost.  I love variegated ivy.  I would love a healthy hanging basket of it.  I also lost my basil.  My others herbs are fine.  

Hello Again

    

     I've started this post several times.  Instead of catching you up, I'll start now and catch you up as we go.  We're home and watching the beginnings of spring.  Last week it got up to 80 one day and this morning was 38.  We've also seen more rainy weather since Harvey than we have ever seen.  

     Spring has started even with the crazy weather.

Our blackberries are blooming.

Our only orange tree is in bloom.  

A closeup of the blooms.

And it's loaded.  I never liked oranges before.   The ones from our tree taste different.  I guess because it's not a tree on a commercial farm.  They are delicious.  I'm glad to see the trees making a comeback.  The floods from Harvey damaged the land so badly.  There is no way we will ever know what is contaminating our soil.  

Just a few short days ago Mom's lily's were just blooming.

Look how pretty they are.  We found orchid lily's in the woods behind us.  Once things are settled down again we'll transplant some of them into our yard.  My sis gave me nice dishes many years ago and they have beautiful orchids on them.

We went up country this weekend for a funeral.  After we hit some back roads to enjoy the country.  Look at these beautiful azaleas.  We also saw white ones but you know how DH's are.  He was driving too fast and wouldn't go back.

The wisteria's surprised me.  When I was young mom had one on each side of the driveway.  They were beautiful and smelled great.  But...…the bees were overwhelming.  I didn't realize they would climb trees and overtake a forest.  Over and over again we saw them climbing whatever they could.  So beautiful.

Back to work, work, work.  Hopefully soon, our load will lighten.  I am ready.  While I am grateful for each day.  I do want my fun daily life back.

Thank you for stopping by.

Still not home but close.

   Sorry for disappearing but life this past year has been difficult.  Not sure where to start.  As much as we appreciated Texas Preps help the plumber ended up being a joke.  Hubby ended up having to tear the bathroom back apart.  The toilet wasn't seated properly and we had several leaks.  One day was spent tearing everything out again (double floors, pulling toilet).  A couple of days making repairs, turned the water back on and an hour later decided we were okay...…then the wall started leaking water.  Hubby, under the direction of the plumbing guy at Home Depot did a better job than their licensed plumber.  Maybe we should have asked to see license????
   At our age things are not as simple as we wished.  Hubby is fantastic but he does have his limits.  I'm somewhat useless.  Other than mudding, painting, finding/handing tools, hubby is stuck with most of the work.
   Currently we have to paint a bedroom, mud, texture and paint the living room.  Then we have to lay the flooring.
    Moving will have to be more planned than the last time we moved.  Most of our household goods. (that survived) are stored in the garage, carport, and shed.  To move we have to get the damaged washer/dryer out of the garage, so that we can move the new ones in.  Nothing can go back in without a thorough cleaning and a check for "critters".
   Next time I'll have some pictures.  Thanks for stopping by.

Need to say Thank You

     As we make progress in our house restoration, we need to stop and say a couple of thank you's.  When Harvey hit we had flood insurance on the house but not the contents.  It was the first place we had lived that flood insurance was thru the roof.  It had flooded 1 time in over a 100 years.  Any how, the insurance settlement was a joke.  FEMA turned us down.  Then, in January someone called us and told us FEMA had recommended us for the Texas PREPS program. Partial Repair & Essential Power for Sheltering.  PREPS people came and surveyed the property, wrote up a list of our needs, and arranged a contractor.  You get the basics for moving back in.  A basic bathroom, 8' of kitchen cabinets with a sink, a mini refrigerator, microwave, hot plate, and 3 a/c & heat units.  They will insulate and sheetrock your outer walls 4" down.  The idea is to help you move back in.  Nothing fancy but you can bathe, cook, and sleep in your home.

     Luckily for us, the contractor was wrapping up some jobs so he allowed his workers to finish some interior walls too.  They helped with some additional plumbing and worked with me on my needs for the bathroom.  Our house is small and the bathroom is really really small.  They wanted to install a prefab shower unit covering my window.  I was willing to accept anything they would give me but couldn't let go of that window.  This house was built in the 50's with no vent.  Being tiny it has little light.  They relented and gave me a shower, tub, with water proof panels around the window.  We have to finish it but that's okay with us.

    Here's some pictures so you can see the before and after.

Bedroom 1

Bathroom

Standing in kitchen looking into bathroom

Kitchen

Standing in Bedroom 1 looking towards hallway and dining room on the other side.

Bathroom

Standing in the living room, looking thru the dining room, with hubby in the kitchen.

Hubby in kitchen.

Living room.

In living room looking thru hall to bedroom 1.

I'll be back later hopefully with more.

Surviving the Freeze

   And work goes on.  Hubby is working on our bedroom floor.  I hesitate to say "we" because he is doing the bulk of everything.  I just fetch, hold, and try to assist as much as I can.

Daddy didn't insulate the house when he built it, so we are doing that going back.  It's not that expensive and will hopefully help our utility bills.  To be such a small house, it is really hard to cool.  Heating is not as difficult.  

A friend of his knew someone who was thinning out some wild hogs and brought 2 to him.  He dearly loves sausage.  We've only replace a couple of things since the flood, our bed and 2 recliners.  Yes, we live in an empty house.  It goes a long way in helping change your view of your life.

Anyhow, when he received these huge beautiful pigs we knew we had to replace his grinder.  He took time off from the house to have some fun.

Sausage and snack stix.

Look at that face.  A much needed vacation from work on the house.  FYI - he was still working but spending a lot of time at the smoker.

When daddy built this house it was a built as they had money.  They moved in before it was completed.  My sis said at first mom didn't have a kitchen.  Stove, fridge, water, but no cabinets.  When we started pulling the upper cabinets down we found this wallpaper.  It was behind the cabinets and the wood veneer.  

I was kind of surprised to see wallpaper.  If money was tight I wouldn't think they would spend money on wallpaper.  But maybe daddy wanted to give Mom something pleasing to look at until she had proper cabinets.

When they had money, dad hired a carpenter to come in and build cabinets for moma.  Typical 50's house.  Vinyl counters and wood veneer on the upper walls.

When we pulled this down we found unblemished shiplap.

 I had better go and get some more work done.  

Find the sunshine and enjoy it.

New Normal?

Thanks to our crazy weather here, gotta love Houston, I rearranged my sewing room Tues and today.  We were sent home early yesterday before the rain and freezing temps. Because of the weather today I was not required to come in. My sewing room has seen hardly any action since we had to relocate here.  

I've mended clothes but haven't really felt like doing any other sewing.  I haven't done much crocheting either which is my favorite thing.  

So, I decided to organize the sewing room.  It was a hodge podge since I basically "piss anted" bits at a time and things just landed where they were placed.  So I rearranged the furniture and then all my "things" 

While cleaning a tub of stuff, I found these appliqued blocks.  I can't tell if they are my Mom's or the great aunts.  It doesn't matter.  They are special and I have started working on a quilt top.  

Harvey has made my husband and I re-evaluate everything in our lives.  I love my hobbies but I had too many.  I've always had a list of more active life things I wanted to do but settled for the home based things.  We also planned to stay at our place in Houston forever.  My parents were flooded here in 2001.  At that time, it was thought to be a fluke. They had high water back in the 60's during a hurricane but it didn't get in the house.  

But after the latest flood we realized how much the lay of the land had changed.  While we are in a 100 year flood plain, one of our bosses lived in a high end neighborhood north of us that had never flooded and wasn't in a flood plain. Sadly they did not have flood insurance and looking at a couple of hundred thousand just to get their house back to normal.

A lake north of us was built to help supply water to our city.  Unfortunately, it has been the cause of the recent floods that are affecting us and our boss.  The lake depends on tourism and of course the lake has to be at it's best levels during the best months (hurricane season).  When I got up that Sunday morning and saw that this lake had opened it's dam gates I knew we were screwed. Lawsuits have been filed but I doubt anything will be changed.

Since we plan to leave the area when we retire, the house will be "bare bones" and simple.  Last weekend the last big floor got pulled up.  There is still a floor in the bathroom so we can use it. But it's so small we don't count it.  Since it's just a few of us working on the house we have been pulling floors up a room at a time and then replacing them.  The original floor was a sub floor on top of the joists, then felt, then the oak floors.  To help with utilities we have gone back with a sub floor under the joists, insulation between the joists, and then plywood on top of the joists.  An inexpensive floor cover will go over that.  

The legs you see are standing on the last floor going away, our bedroom.  I'm standing in the dining room taking the picture.  The next space is the hallway.  I love this small house.  I loved being there.  It's so sad that we can't stay, but we don't want to ever go through this again.  As long as there are no restrictions on the lake releases and mother nature can be a bitch our only option will be to sell in a few years.  

This is our old floors.  Almost bonfire time.  

Ice at the old house.  You can probably see why we decided to leave this house.  It's in a subdivision, it's too big (4 bed 2 bath).  I do thank God frequently for this house not being sold before Harvey.  I don't know what we would have done.

Thanks for stopping by.

Ironic isn't it............

I just read tired, tired, tired and posted it even though it was written last spring.  I definitely wish I was dealing with that problem now.

Hurricane Harvey came to visit the Texas coast.  We were graced with a personal visit from him like so many others.  Our little tiny house took on several feet of water while everything else on the property got close to 4'.

We're facing a long road ahead.  I'm not sure why I've decided to write about it.  Maybe I need the process to be documented to help me get thru this.  There are days I am strong and days I want to give up.

Please know that we are blessed and much better off then many others.  It doesn't matter what your losses are or who you are, it's a tough road for all of us to travel.

This was the first trip we made.  We had 3 trips planned but it came up too fast.  This is our neighbors property.  The white between the houses is greens bayou. I was up and down Saturday night.  When I saw the bulletin that Lake Conroe was opening their flood gates, I knew we were screwed.  And it wasn't just low income people like us, our VP lived in a subdivision north of us that has never flooded, but did this time.   

Wednesday we returned but it was bitter sweet.

 My little house looked okay but didn't do okay.

 Second trip out was horrible.  I was ready to give up after the first trip to safety.  Rick said we had to go back one more time.  Even in the one ton going back the truck was swamped.  We got back to the Honda CRV and the other 3 dogs.  I panicked, the water was rising so fast.  We left without the last 3 girls (dogs).  I'm trying to kiss the one ton's ass so I can follow his wake. The road had a river flowing over it.   At the worst part I could feel the car slipping and I just prayed.  I was wearing a life jacket with my window down.  Praying that if the car was swept away I could climb out and survive.

 We left Sunday before noon.  This is Wednesday.  We cried for 3 days for abandoning the 3 girls and I take responsibility for that.  I was selfish and scared.

d

Wednesday the water finally receded so we could get to the house.  The girls survived.  I don't think I have ever cried that much.  I was behind hubby in a car.  We pulled into our little lane.  He stopped to move boards in the lane that might have nails.  I saw a flash on our driveway and honked my horn at him.  He jumped in the truck and hauled ass to our house.  Mama was at the gate, and when he asked where her baby was, she led him to the garage.  We found her baby in the rafters of the garage.    Our old girl who belonged to daddy was outside the yard.  We don't know how she got out.  The fence is 4' so maybe she floated out or panicked and climbed out.  

Everything is a mess but all of us survived.  That's all that matters.

This will be a long process back to normal.