Bye Bye Irene-UPDATED

There are two videos at the bottom of the post too!
The back fence at 4:00. High Tide came in at 9:00 and at that point the water was up past the shed.


The camp out....

We survived Irene rather gracefully. Water made it into the fence line but never reached the house. We lost cable, internet, and phone but never lost power. Katherine is still running a 101.5 but managed to not throw up yesterday! The winds were strong but not enough to knock down a tree. Overall, I say we came out GREAT! I have some pictures and video I will post later. Nothing dramatic like you see on the news!
The first video was taken around 2:00. The winds were no where near their strongest at this point . The second was in a lull around 8:30. I found it humorous that there was this lone toad talking away. He was actually in our garage during the storm.

Today's View

It's a little hard to tell but the houses in the distance are VERY clear on a normal day. This was taken 3 1/2 hours after the sun came up-it is not fog. It's smoke. These pictures really don't do it justice

T

What's Next???

I woke this morning to a very smoky yard. Apparently the winds are blowing the right direction again and the smoke from the huge forest fire in the Great Dismal Swamp are headed this way. Yes as crazy as it sounds, there is a fire in the swamp! I sit down to read the paper and the front page is about the Earthquake that struck the other day and then the next 4 pages or so deal with the impending hurricane. Life should be fun over the next couple days. We will keep you posted...if we have power.

Recycle, Reduce, Reuse

Yesterday we worked on the reuse or re-purpose. We had a left over pringles can from our pringles can solar cooker, so with a little designer duct tape an 2 zip ties we now have an import ant things transporter for the bike. Ahhhh the little things in life

Didgeridoo Down Under

We spent the morning at the local library learning all about Australia and especially the didgeridoo. We have found tubes to make our own. I'll post picks when we are done. For now you will have to enjoy the sounds of a real didgeridoo!

The Saga Continues......

Matthew returned for a eye follow up and is doing well. There were improvements over the last 2 months even though we failed to do homework our entire trip! Unfortunately there still seems to be fluency problem. We have a few new homework assignments to see if they help. If not then there is a good chance that he may have an auditory processing disorder and will refer us to an audiologist. ADHD, vision issues, and auditory processing disorders all have very similar indicators so we shall see......

I'm Back

After a several month hiatus, I have returned!It has been a busy few months. 3 birthdays, a visit from my parents and dad's 70th, end of second grade, soccer, gymnastics, and scouts and the start of a summer adventure. Visits from Kendra and Jeff and trips to SC and to the midwest. Mom was visiting her dad and was kind enough to put up with my grumpy rear and help drive us back to VA. Thanks Mom! This years adventure was 3,931 miles, 4 weeks, and 11 states. Worth every minute. We have been making the most of our time left in summer. We have been to the zoo, the Virginia Living Museum, pool, Nauticus (Thank you to everyone who bought us year long passes-these trips have cost us nothing or next to nothing!) The kids have been helping me bake bread, next up is dog treats! I promise to get some pictures up and to be much better about updating from now on. Love you all!!! Thanks for being patient!