2011_09_03 Saturday

Well, we all survived Hurricane Irene's torment. We lost power on Saturday night BEFORE the hurricane actually hit, around 6am. It rained the entire day. In the end, we had about 3+ inches of standing water in our basement. Luckily, Dave and I moved all the low-lying things up. Once the rains stopped on Sunday, I took some buckets to the basement in a vain effort to scoop out the water. I do think that I made a small impact, but at best, I was able to keep the water from rising too much more. By the evening, it was back to the level where I had started...and my back and hands hurt. We decided it was best for me and the kids to head out to the Barony on Sunday night. Power wasn't restored until Tuesday around 5am. Dave followed us out on Tuesday night once the power came on and the sump pump and dehumidifiers were doing their jobs. Water was also shut off, and even today it needs to be boiled before use.

So, here we are at the Barony...we played putt putt, went to a 4-H-type fair (saw lots of farm animals, milked a (fake) cow, and watched a "tractor" pull competition: http://s757.photobucket.com/albums/xx211/ldemmert/110829J2Milking%20GrangeFair/?start=all), went to a minor league baseball game (traded autographed balls with the mascot, saw great fireworks, J2 ran the bases: http://s757.photobucket.com/albums/xx211/ldemmert/110901Baseball/?start=all), helped Opa hang owl houses, plant veggies, build bookcases, collect eggs. The boys split off and did an amusement park while the girls got haircuts. Man, we've been busy!