Hurricane Milton Anniversary OCT 9

After Hurricane Milton and Pine Tree removed Above, Oct 9, 2024

 Yesterday was ONE YEAR since Milton hit us, a direct hit and being in the eye of a hurricane for the first time in my life. Below is same view after 9 inches or rain in 4 days, the weeds are rampant and really green.

the tree stump is under all these weeds

Its a lot of weeds but its green and gives shade from our firebrand summer sun.

This was our view when eating at the table or breakfast bar, in fact the view from our entire live area. 

Hearing the whine of chain saws and a huge crane and a bobcat, I raced to the door just as the first of five trees went down, this was the last one, I was so upset I forgot to take photos

you can see the man in orange driving the bobcat, they just bulldozed 5 tall palms. 

Above the view from my kitchen is the house and a gap and because they are gone, this is the view from my living area for most of the day.

the blinds are closed most of the day and before this open all day.

the sun is so bright it is blinding and HOT. The palms were our dappled screen from the sun. 

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Flashing light below;  I took to shots of the last tree as it fell and animated

Joining Nature Friday with 

Joining Nature Friday at Living the LLB Life with Rosy and Sunny..

https://llbinourbackyard.blogspot.com/

Just Add Water on Nature Friday

 

old stump from past tree removal

Above is the stump from Hurricane Milton. 5 months of me watering it, because we had only 1 rain in 5 months. When our summer rains begin, IF they do it will go all Tropical by itself

Below photos are closeup shots of what has simply grown there by Adding Water.

The above is moss rose, I transplanted it from the front yard stump and below I transplanted that from the front yard. this plant will take over the yard. the just appear when it rains.

this is the view now of the dirt below 3 months ago. All that changed is I watered dirt with hose twice a week and throw all my dishwater out on the dirt. Its God's weeds but better than dirt.

Nature Friday at Living the LLB Life with Rosy and Sunny..

THE VISIT -Mini Me??????

  My son Dan and his wife of 38 years, arrived as planned Sunday morning and we had so much fun, I totally forgot to take photos. Doesn't matter, I have a large folder of photos, since he loves taking selfies and they appear in my phone on a regular basis. See those smiles? From they time they arrived at 11 am until they drove out at 4 pm, all four of us had smiles just like this. 

We laughed, we talked, non stop, even while he put the post back that Milton blew down, and fixed the eves that Milton blew down. 

Beau and Mama and Dan and Zoe, his mastiff.

Can a man a foot taller than me be a Minnie Me even though I am the Minnie Size?

I had no idea that my 6'5'' son could and did become a MINNIE ME! 

The source of most of our laughter during story telling from all 4 of us, came from the fact He is ME, MadSnapper 2. 

I would name a FEAR, and those of you who know me, know I can catastrophize over any and all things. I would tell a tale of my FEAR, and he could match it with one of him. His wife laughed so hard because we were all exchanging FEAR stories of both of us... 

We nearly laughed ourselves into a coma when He said coming over the Sunshine Skyway, he realized the wall of the bridge was just short enough that if his truck turned over it could roll right over it and down to the water. That is my FEAR every time I go over that bridge.  see it HERE

its 4 miles long and REALLY HIGH

Photo from last visit, showing me how to wave my hand at my phone and take a photo. He lives with his phone attached and takes as many photos as I do. this time he showed me how to hook my phone or tablet to our speaker on the TV and play YouTube music through the speaker.

The repairs on our house went like this...

before and after

The storm blew the post that holds up the porch down, and a neighbor Propped it up and it has stood leaning there for 4 months. Dan took it down and sawed and worked and put it back like is should be.

Bob said to me after they left, Daniel did a damn fine job on that post, he measured and sawed and hammered and it perfect. He also said he did a better job than the licensed contractor did fixing the eve. He said he put 2 nails and if the contractor did that, it would not have come down during Milton.

this part of the roof line has been hanging there for 4 months. 4 years ago, Hurricane Ian ripped it down to the ground, when our insurance came due, they made us have it put back by a licensed contractor who took photos of his work and charged 400 to do the job, that included blowing off the roof and photos that it was done.

Milton blew it like this and Dan in 10 minutes fixed it and put nails in it so it will STAY that the contractor did not do

before and after and bob stood and watched him do it and I forgot to take photos of him doing it

Burgers are my favorite food, and also his, Pizza is next and so is mine. I called to have pizza delivered and it is set to my preference which is no contact delivery, leave on white bench on front porch.

At the time it came, the four of us were standing on the front porch, discussing the work he would do.

Driver came, got out of Car, Dan walks out to the curb and said I will take it and save you time. He replied that is not necessary. Dan brings it on the porch and we go inside, the phone is ringing, the driver is still parked at the curb, the caller ID say it calling from Illinois. I don't answer. the phone pick up and it's the driver, still in the driveway.

The message had us all rolling on the kitchen floor. He said this is Carlos, Door dash Driver, protocol says if the instructions of leave on front porch, no contact are not followed and someone takes the pizza, even though I saw the pizza go inside the house, the app will not let me move on until I call.

I assume if he came to the door, where the four of us were standing in front of the bench, and he sat it down, he could have left without a call.

As we hugged goodbye he said, don't worry about the weed's mom, Bob would not let me do the weeds against the house, I will do them the next time we come. 
UPDATE ON COLONSCOPY 2 WEEKS AGO, I AM OK, NO CANCER, POLYPS BENIGN AND WILL TELL YOU MORE TOMORROW... I HAVE A RANT AND THIS POST IS TO LONG. 

Clever Me! Tips for You Found in Drafts

  Look what I found in my drafts, it's been there since Nov. 29, Not so Clever Me, forgot all about it.

Clever Tip 1: instant coffee I can drink. I bought this for hurricane season two years ago and we never used it. Power or no power We Gotta Have Coffee. This coffee was really good made with cold water and sugar for bob and saccharin for me. I give it a 10, with cold water, but have no idea how it taste hot. We used all the little pouches in 7 days.

Clever Tip 2: for 7 days of power outage we used two bags of ice per day, 1/2 bag in small cooler for easy access for Bob's Must have ice water. 1 and 1/2 bags in the large cooler.

I placed a small trash can that allows the ice chest lid to close, and put it under the tiny lid on top, allows for reaching in and getting what you want, and food in baggies stays dry.

I kept bottled condiments in the ice, a few cans of soda and bottled water and 2 bags worked for 24 hours. 

Clever Tip 3:See the blue bowl? white tray? we knew Milton was coming. for 3 days before due date, I filled bowl and containers, and dumped ice trays all day each day and filled the freezer full of ice

Day of the storm our freezer  was jammed with homemade ice cubes and 2 burgers, loaves of bread and 2 baggies of left over spaghetti. 

We woke up to the first day and no power in the entire county. Could not buy ice. The stored cubes kept the things until 2n day when we could buy ice for ice chests.

Clever tip 4: They day before the storm was expected, I put all our RX bottles of meds in the small blue chest, my name, address and phones on the outside, taped shut and they were ready to grab/and or float if we were flooded and hope to find them after the storm if we had no roof or house

In the large ice chest, I placed all important papers and anything I wanted to save, taped it shut and put our info on it in hopes it to would be found floating, or in the closet undamaged after the storm

Clever Tip 4: Clever me ordered these backpack pots/pans to sit on the grill to boil water and heat canned things.

 the next morning, we fired up the grill, grilled the sausage and burger, and placed in the ice chest in the handy dandy small trash can and ate them cold on the by now thawed bread.  clever me, signing off now...

PS. the pots worked well but would be better on a small propane burner. They have handles but they are only 5 inches, and I burned myself twice trying to stir. They get hotter with lid on, but you can't see the water to see if it is boiling, and if i had it to do again, i would just forget them. I AM NOT THE CAMPER TYPE ... If we survive until next hurricane season, I will purchase a small propane burner.

PSS.. I know you are sick of hurricanes by now but I may need to refresh my memory next year.

PSSS: this could work for ice storms too

Lantern Love!

 

I bought two of the lanterns to use during Hurricane Milton after Helene came and I needed more light. I like it because it hangs from my elbow and I can walk around the yard with Beau and see my feet. I tried to show you how it hangs on my elbow and failed (try taking a selfie of your elbow)

Todays Christmas Joy photos were taken of the poinsettia around the oil lamp on red and made the poinsettia glow.

WARNING! strange things may appear on this blog. I HAVE NOTHING TO BLOG ABOUT... in the past 2 weeks, I put SEVEN miles on my car.  Walmart and Publix. I last bought gas.fuel.petrol, 2 months ago. 

I  found this Dec 11th post in drafts and I was about to delete it but thought, just post it... 

Doesn't matter if its dumb. Right? Right?  In fact I have a few crazy things in drafts and they might show up HERE..

Photo Dump from Milton

 

It has been 3 months since Milton, left overs POST FOUND IN DRAFTS since Dec 11

It has been 8 weeks today, since Hurricane Milton Kicked us in to chaos and we are mostly back to normal. I found these photo that had not been posted, consider this the anniversary Photo Dump

These are photos of the trash Bob dug out of the pool. He was scooping it out and I was dragging it to the front curb, he would throw it on the deck. I dragged a big garbage can to the side of the pool and said fill the can and I will drag it to the curb, dumping it on the deck is double work.

the next photos you can't see what is under the water because the water was green and dark

The Pool was full to the top, it is 5 feet deep on one end and 10 on the other.

It took bob 3 days to get it to what you see below

and the pile to the front of below photo is what he dragged out of the pool, and I dragged to the curb.