Hurricane Irene

Well all the hype is over and the skies have cleared. Hurricane Irene made it here, and I seem to be so far inland that we didn't even get rain! I know it hit the coast very hard, but all we had all day was some winds and cloudy skies, and that would be it! The rest we only saw on TV. ☺

♪ ♫ Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On ♫ ♪

Tuesday I was in the craft room paintin' and minding my own business when I heard something from the roof. At first I thought it was a squirrel and the louder it got, for a second I was seriously wondering if someone was up there! Then I realized that the ceiling fans were moving and so was my chair! Everything in the room was rattling. That can't be...an earthquake?? I ran out of the room only to meet my mother at the doorway saying "We are having an earthquake!"

My mom thought at first that I was behind her jumping up and down or making her chair move. Until she turned to catch me in the act and realized, I wasn't there! (I have no idea why she immediately jumped to that conclusion, hehe) She heard the dishes rattling in the cupboards of the kitchen and saw the lights lightly swaying from the ceiling. That was when she realized what was really going on, and ran to get me from the craft room.

It only lasted 30-60 seconds...we were soon on the phone with Beepa, who thought her kitty Becky had somehow climbed into her recliner she was sitting in and was trying to get out! Wasn't Becky moving her seat. ☺ Immediately after we were on facebook where friends and relatives all over the east coast were saying they felt the earthquake too. It took the news a bit of time to catch up with what happened. The phone lines were all jammed and we were having alot of trouble getting ahold of anyone. Letting everyone know that we were just fine. Just a lil' "shaken up".

Later the news reported that it was indeed an earthquake located in VA, and it was a 5.8 or 5.9 depending on who reported it. Once the phones were working again the county even called verifying that our county did indeed experience an earthquake and giving us a number to call to report any kind of damage.

I heard somewheres that we only had a 2.5 here. So no biggie, but I sure don't wanna have that happen again, once was enough for me!

Nasty Weather

Just last week, we had some nasty storms roll through. With it came lots of rain, wind and even hail! It pulverized most of the gardens...

That Just Wasn't Fair

I have already said several times, that we take Toby for a walk every night. Well, tonight was no exception...we are walking along and noticed it starting to sprinkle. Which on a day like today doesn't bring much alarm, it has done it in the past and most of the time it stops sprinkling in a short amount of time, and we don't really get wet at all. So we just coaxed Toby to go a little quicker with his walking and continued on our way. The sprinkling let up as we kept walking and Mike and I continued our conversation.
Then without warning...it started to pour, and I don't mean just rain hard. It was one of those driving down, blinding rains. Within seconds we were soaked. Trying to squint to see our way, and looking back at Toby, and giggling to each other, because he was making the same squint. At that point he could of cared less about going potty, Toby just wanted to get home. I decided to make the most of it and starting dancing and running in the rain, what else was there to do? Toby joined me, having fun running through the streams of water running down the street Hehehe...Mike tried to hurry us along, all he was wearing was a T-shirt, and he was starting to get cold quick. Needless to say when we arrived home, all three of us were dripping, freezing, and laughing. But...we finished the walk :-)

There Goes Hanna

Tropical Storm Hanna came and went with out much of a fuss. Luckily most of the storm stayed to the east of us. We got a good amount of rain and wind, but only a small stream came through our yard and under the house; as appose to the rapid river from T.S. Fay. We came to the conclusion that we definitely need better drainage around the house and driveway, something we hope to remedy maybe this fall, if possible.
The funny thing was, after the storm when Mike and I went grocery shopping. (As the sun was shining brightly and everything was drying up.) When we got there we found that the store was pretty much cleaned out, I guess alot of people were expecting more then what we got, or they are paranoid. Like in NH, whenever we were suppose to get snow (no matter how little) people always went crazy, crowded the stores and bought everything in sight. Can anyone tell me why they do that? I don't know if I am the only one that sees no reason to go all wacky and buy as much food as I can fit in my fridge. Besides, what happens to all that food if your electricity goes out during the storm, and you don't have a generator? hehe

Fay arrived

Tropical Storm Fay let her presence be known yesterday. After being blamed for several deaths further south, the remnants of the storm came to our neck of the woods yesterday, and she packed a heck of alot of rain. Most of Wednesday it stormed, and we had a bit of a scare with a tornado watch (the pets and I spent a little time in the closet under the stairs, since we have no basement and the weather people told us to take cover NOW! They said with all the rain, we wouldn't hear it coming til it was too late). Luckily we didn't have a tornado here, but last night she really let loose with the rain. I made the mistake (I say mistake, because it freaked me out a bit) of looking out the window...squinting, with only the street light to see, I saw what looked like a river coming out of the woods, and through our yard. They warned us about flash flooding, and they weren't kidding. About 6 inches deep and 10 feet or more across, was the worst one out there, there were of course several other streams going every which way. I wasn't sure if my car would still be there in the morning, as there was white cresting water barreling into all our vehicles.

I took the liberty (between the torrential rain, and "house shaking" thunder) of taking the dog out late last night so he could take a wee-wee, and I could scope things out...good thing I did, because, I just so happened to look over and see debris and water trying to come out from under the door to our crawlspace. I continued to open said door and let the debris out...to let the water, which was gushing out from under our house, have a easier time of it. Needless to say, I didn't sleep too well last night. Between the worry, and the lightning lighting up the house.

Waking up this morning, was weird. Just like yesterday, the windows are still steamed up, its almost tropical outside, from the storm. The skies are still gray, and there is an eerie calm outside. I went out and I heard no birds, no bugs, no squirrels fighting for nuts...just the sound of chainsaws (there was a tree across the road). I got a good look, and well, we were lucky. Parts of our driveway are pretty much gone (so is all our bark mulch), the water washed it all into the woods, but our cars are alive. There is mess to clean up, but our house is still here, and everyone is safe.

I think the only thing that kept the railroad ties from going any further, was Mike's Jeep was in the way.

All the stuff that came out with the water from under the house.

That's all the gravel, that is suppose to be our driveway, looks like we have a sidewalk going through the woods now! That's the best way I can describe it... All the leaves and brush were also taken out of the woods, I don't know where it went. There was also a black tube that must of been buried under the ground, it's now exposed, and I don't quite know what it goes to.

Toby being the 'model' hehe...as you can see, the new "sidewalk" to your left and the strip of wooded area and then the driveway on the right. Something is wrong with this picture? There was no sidewalk when we moved in!

I guess we will be spending the weekend fixing the driveway, trying to get everything as even as possible so that we won't get stuck. I couldn't get over how much was moved, and how much of the wooded area was just washed right out.

Those few pieces of gravel were all that were holding up most of my car this morning!! Everything else was washed right out from underneath it!