Tastes Great, Less Filling!

I never thought a cold beer would taste so good! And power has been on for more than 24 hours!

Worked on the front and back yards all day today. Got almost everything cut, sawn, raked, bagged and bundled! Just a few more piles in the back yard to finish bagging and then I will almost officially close the book on Ike.

One of the oaks in the back yard has been slowly dying. It lost a big limb about 2-3 months ago in a storm. A few other large limbs have since lost all their leaves, and appeared threatening to fall at any minute. We knew we would have to cut the tree down eventually. Ike brought down a couple more limbs from the oak, so today I pulled them all out and started trimming and lopping them. When I got all the side stuff off, I started to saw them into 4 foot pieces with a hack saw. Anyone want some good oak firewood? Next I look for someone to take the whole tree down.

Raked all the little branch bits and the leaves and pine needles and all the junk into piles around the yard. Got a total of 15 bags of stuff, including the little stuff I clipped off the limbs to start with. Chris went around helping neighbors finish their yard work earning a total of $30, as well.

While I was working in the yard, our neighbor appears at the fence with someone and they are measuring the fence discussing if they can save the pickets and replace the posts. (That part of the fence was replaced about a year ago.) Turns out he is a friend of theirs and has done other work for them, so after asking if he has a bit of time, he comes by and measures our yard for fence replacement and that is one more thing I can check off my list! Yeah me! We want to get it replaced quickly because Abbey has figured out that she has openings that lead to places she has yet explored! Dukie tends to stay close by now that his eyesight and hearing are going.

Grilled some T-bones for dinner tonight, with a nice green salad, some sauteed mushrooms and onions, and some seasoned fries. Mmmmmm! Sitting here now with a nice cold beer, in my air-conditioned living room, blogging away. (Smelly, but you can't tell that!) Actually today it was really nice for doing yard work. I don't think the temperature got over 85 and the humidity is uncharacteristically low because of the cold front that came through.

Drove around a bit last night to see what other damage might have occurred. Over at the Green Meadows Apts, one wall of brick from one of the front apt buildings fell away from the building. The Loch Katrine Apartments, behind the old K-Mart on Hwy 6 look like they sustained quite a bit of damage as well. Many houses in the new subdivisions along West Little York had extensive roof damage - seeing a lot of blue tarps over rooves there. One of the storage facilities nearby was extensively damaged as well. But it looks like it was pretty poorly constructed, corrugated tin sheets and some 2x4's. I did not have my camera with last night, so I did not get pics. Sorry about that.

Have not heard any more about school. I know some of the buildings in the district sustained damage, and not all areas in our district have power yet. So we shall see if we do indeed go back Wednesday or not. I will use that time to find someone to take the tree down and make an appt to get my car looked at. (Chris plugged something in on the way to Luling and blew fuses. I have no radio or data screens now.) Also need to get papers graded and the house cleaned inside.

I think I need another beer! Oh and BTW, additional pic loaded to the Ike file with todays trash heap and better pics ofour fence damage. Going for that beer now and a nice hot shower! Oh, and Marie - thanks for the loan of the clippers! ;-)