Thanks, martne.   It's been really bad in lots of places around the state.  Even in our local area.  Just thankful we didn't have any major problems right where we are.   Lots of major problems around our area with flooding, wind damage, etc.

We're okay here. A few trees down, that's pretty much it.  Just hoping this is NOT a harbinger of our summer and fall this year.   Saw somewhere that this is the first time since records have been kept that there were four named storms coming out of the Atlantic before July even got here.   Scary stuff....!

We go years at a time without these kinds of storms.  I've been in Florida for about 35 years.  We had a really bad hurricane season about eight years ago.   We got hit in this area twice.  Outside of that....Maybe 3-4 in all the other years I've been here.

But these storms when they hit are in the spring, summer, and fall.   The best time to visit here when you're from cold country, is in the winter when everybody else is freezing to death and we are usually having fairly mild weather.

Thanks for the tip.  I was going to pay a surprise visit to Greatmartin this coming winter.  Can you give me any ideas where to go in case he won't let us (me, Polly and Lucy) bed down in his living room?

Well, I'd invite you here, but I have an already overfull house with somebody sleeping in my living room. 

Florida Lady is up in the panhandle area...very north Florida.  You might check with her and see if she's got room.

I already suggested that to her, but she hasn't come back to me.

Do you think she is scared?

LOL!  Nah, just go ahead and show up.  She won't mind.  I'm pretty sure.

Great!  I was thinking of doing that.  I'll tell you that you said it was alright.  Thanks.

I'm sure she'll be just fine with it...lol

But if you're coming in the winter, martins place would still be the best. They're usually real warm there.  When you get up in this end of the state, it does get cold sometimes...even down to freezing at night.

Thanks Bev.  I hope it isn't too.  Eight years ago when we had all the major hurricanes down here, they were in the fall....sept/oct.   Yeah, we're pretty much okay, but many out there are not...Sending out thoughts and prayers to all those folks.  It's exremely bad in many areas.

You guys get waaaay hotter than we do in the summer.  But at least we don't have to contend with that much cold most years.

I chatted with niece on FB this morning close to noontime.  I mentioned is was 81 here then.  She said it was 81 when she took boyfriend to work at 5am this morning.   Apparently you guys are going way up over a hundred most days??????

I'm about to crash...11pm...talk to you again soon.

yep...your niece is right....it was 104 here today, expected to be 105 tomorrow....and its only June.  But it is what it is.....nothing we can do about it and most of us can't stay hidden in the house all day.... critters need feeding,  theres chores to do and life to live.  Besides....  It could be worse. :)

sweet dreams kathi....talk at ya tomorrow.

night night Bev.   Yeah....I'm crashing shorty...barely holding my nead up...will go check facebook than goo to sleep myself.

Yup, I'm glad it's pretty well over, too.  Debby never made it to full hurricane status...but she sure did do a lot of damage around our state. 

Glad to hear you guys came through okay, too.

Nope....we do have a lot of farm ponds around the area, but we're quite a ways from any rivers or lakes.  Have never heard of any gators in the immediate area.  That doesn't mean there are not any......just that we have never heard about them.

Thanks, skinny.  Yeah, it is a real mess in many parts of Florida right now.  So far, we are okay.  I think the worst of it is over at this point.

Thanks, Irish.  We're okay...not floating away at least.  The sinkholes are fixable.  What they usually do is pump them full of concrete, then rebuild the road on top of them.  We have a neighbor who had a big one open up under his fairly new house a couple years ago.  I don't know how many loads of concrete they brought in to fill it up.  But for about 3-4 days, there were big cement trucks out front on the road all day long, pumping it in. 

There is a huge OLD sinkhole right off the back corner of our property. There are big old oak trees growing up the sides of it. It's quite deep.  When you climb down to the bottom it's flat and solid.  It's in a fairly low area and serves as a "bathtub drain" for several miles around.  When we get massive rains like this it fills up, water pouring into the ravines around the top like waterfalls.  Then if you go out 2-3 days later the water is all gone.  It drains back down somehow into the Florida aquafer.  Wish I had the energy to hike out there and see what's happening right now with it.

Thank you,okie.  We're fine...many folks down here are not.  I'm going to post some more pics today, and maybe some local news videos of the areas that really got damaged or flooded.  The water had just started seeping into his house when he got home...one area rug got soaked, but that was all. 

It rained again off and on all night long here.  Don't think it was really heavy rain...I hope.  Haven't gone outside yet to look, probably will in just a little while.

Just good to hear your safe and not floating around without your floaties! lol

Oh and eat! :)

Yup....pretty muddy out there, sloppy in some places, but otherwise we're fine....not have to float, at least.

I'm tryin'.....I'm tryin'.....

LOL good!

Last night I cooked a pound of shrimp for three of us, and 4-cheese rice/pasta.   I snarfed up pretty good on that!

LMBO that's the way to go girl!  Good for u! Keep it up, am proud of you:)

Thanks, rant.  Even though it wasn't a full-blown hurricane it really did a lot of damage all over the state.  It had stalled out in the gulf and just sat there, sucking up water from the gulf and dumping it on land.  I'm going to post some more pics and local news videos later today, showing some of the real bad damage. 

Thanks Yvonne.  We came through safe and sound, thank God!  Many, many people closer to the coast have lost their homes.  Terrible, terrible situation.

I always thought it would be cool to live on or real near the beach...til I see something like that, then I'm very glad I don't.

Thanks llf!  Yeah, we came through safe and sound, thank God!  Many folks were not so lucky.

Lots of areas around the country in drought right now.  I would really have liked to send all that rain out west, Colorado and some surrounding states, where they're having terrible, terrible wild fires.  Over 6000 acres have been burned, and they're still spreading.  Twelve inches in 24 hours would have gone a long ways toward dousing out those flames.

All my corn was laying on the ground yesterday.  We got it all propped up with bamboo stakes, so hopefully they'll be okay...just have to wait and see.

I know....I hope that Colorado catches a break soon. That is an awesome state!

Hope your corn makes it! But I know.....what is a  few stalks of corn compared to what it could have been.

You're right with that one.  I don't know how the corn will do...not so much from being knocked down, they should recover from that.  But I stepped in one end of the bed a couple days ago, trying to prop them up, and sank into the mud nearly to my ankle.  That's how wet and sloppy it is. Hubby ended up laying out a board for me to stand on to prop up the ones I couldn't reach, and the board sunk down into the mud.  And we've had more rain since then.  Too wet is as bad as too dry.  If it doesn't dry up soon, they'll probably end up with root rot. 

Thanks, ana.  I think it's pretty well over.   It did rain off and on all night, and we'll likely get some scattered showers off of it yet today.  But hopefully, things will start drying out by tomorrow.  I'm going to try to get up a post later with some pics and news videos of some of the really bad damage.

OK, take care. REST, this is a stress-filled situation, so give your body a chance to recover.

Wait til I put up another post today with some pics and/or news videos of some of the really bad damage.  It's been terrible.  We weathered it quite well.

Well, the torrential rains and wind knocked all the corn onto the ground.  We went out late yesterday a propped them back up and tied them to bamboo stakes.   A real hard rainstorm a few weeks ago had already beat my green beans into the ground. I had to pull them up.  Most of my tomatoes are dying from some kind of wilt/virus disease.  But the ones still half alive weathered the storm okay.  The were very well staked up.  I had lost all my squash a couple months ago to a soil borne fungus.  I had replanted them recently in bags of store-bought topsoil.  They're still fairly small, but seem to have weathered the storm okay at this point.

Dang, yer garden is barely hangin' in there! Well, overall, I'm sure y'all could use th' rain anyhow. Imagine livin' in a place where it rains all day, like Seattle! Rain is nice, but if it becomes a daily habit, then it wouldn't be that plesant...

Yup, we're okay.  Many, many people out there seriously affected, though.  I remember Charley.  It was predicted to enter right at Tampa Bay, and come straight up...we would've been just above ground zero.  Everybody was prepared for it.  Here.  Many people left and went to Orlando.  When he zagged to the right, and came right up the middle of the state, he caught everybody there unprepared, and hit all those people who had gone to Orlando to get away from it.  And he was an exceptionally bad one.  Sorry to hear your son lost everything in that storm.  That has got to be extremely difficult to deal with. 

Yup, we're fine!  The front part of the property is fairly high.  We don't have a problem here, however much of the back part is pretty low and does tend to have water standing for awhile after this kind of rain.  I don't think I could go back to living in cold country again.  I have a hard enough time just getting through our Florida winters.   The ideal house structure here would be steel reinforced concrete.  I've seen pics of some really cool houses, and even apartment buildings, built with the big steel shipping containers that would be pretty darn safe here as well. 

Steel reinforced concrete sure wouldn't float away. One of my cousins lived in Liberia, Africa many years ago. Her hubby worked for Firestone and he  supervised the planting and tapping of rubber trees. She had photos of the houses (nice and big too) in the compound they lived in, they were built on tall brick columns because of the rainy season. Bet they were steel reinforced too. They parked their vehicles underneath the houses.

Most of the houses out in our beach area are built on stilts like that, and yes many people park underneath them.  Or enclose them and use them as storage areas.  I don't know that much about how they build them, but I would guess most of them are steel reinforced. 

Back around 20 years ago we got  hit by the March 13 no-name storm.  Technically, it wasn't a tropical storm, but it was like a high level tropical for wind, rain, tornadoes storm surges, etc.   Came out of nowhere...was not predicted at all.  People out in the beach and canal areas woke up in the middle of the night to seawater coming into their homes from the storm surge.   Many houses were severely damaged or destroyed.  County building and zoning issued a new rule, that if the houses in that area had been more than 50% damaged, it could not be rebuilt unless it was put on stilts, same with any new builds since then.  So the vast majority of them are these days.

I take it the canals are for rain runoff? Or are they fresh water?

What I meant was are they for irrigation like here?

Nope.  The canals are dredged out coming from the gulf, so the homeowners can keep their boats parked behind their houses.  Most of the houses out there have their own boat dock going out into the water. "Direct Gulf Access"   Here are a couple pics I swiped off a local realtor's website.

Yes, VERY, VERY Expensive.  But it is a beautiful area to live in EXCEPT when there are storms...lol

In other words, if you live there, you'd better be able to have another house to move to when the storms wipe this one out.

Pretty much!  LOL!

I know I'd be scared to stand in the water like that.  And they warn people not to do it.

According to the news story, the elderly gentleman that lived there, his wife was in the hospital, and he stayed in the house all night as the water was rising.  The other two were neighbor kids, who noticed it looked like somebody was in there, and went in and helped him get out.  I don't know if the old guy was maybe a little senile, or just scared and didn't know what to do?????  I have no clue.

Oh for sure, I'll take hurricanes over tornadoes or earthquakes any day.  At least you generally have some warning, so you can be prepared or get out of the way. 

I think it was 2005, when we had all those bad hurricanes hit Florida. Our area got hit twice.  Fortunately, both times it came across from the other coast, so had lost a lot of their steam by the time they arrived here, and had downgraded to high level tropicals. That was bad enough.  We live in a mobile home out in the woods, so had to evacuate.  Went to a friend's house for the day.  No problems or damage to speak of out here, thankfully!  Both times we were without electricity for 8 days.  No power means no water....we're on a well.   I have a gas range, and always said that at least I'd be able to cook in an outage...what I had never figured on til it happened, was after a couple of days you start running out of pots and pans to cook in...lol

Thank Eagle.  Lots of areas really in dire shape.  A house almost totally underwater just a few miles from us.  Our main road out is flooded at one end, have to come in the back way.  Some of the coastal areas are really messed up.  Tornados around the state also caused lots of problem.  They had to evacuate the county jail, as the water was seeping into the buildings....transferred the inmates to another facility temporarily. 

HOpe your family is all okay.  The ones on the east coast should be fine.  Even lower west coast wasn't damaged too badly, as far as I know.  The worst was in the central and upper west coast and inland from there.

It was a real mess, because she stalled out there for a couple of days and just kept sucking up water out of the gulf, and dumping it on land.

Thanks Sally.  Yeah, we're okay here.  The ground is still pretty squishy and a few low spots are holding water.  We haven't walked out to the back, but I'm pretty sure a good bit of it is underwater...it usually is after this kind of rain. They said we got about 12 inches in around 24 hours, Sunday.  Plus we had at least a few more inches after that. 

Many folks not so lucky.  Lots and lots of houses damaged or destroyed by water and/or wind.  Quite a few roads and streets closed--underwater or due to sinkholes.  Our main road going out is closed one direction.  Have to take the back way into town.  Found out last night, the top picture with the people waist deep in water is just a few miles from our place.

 We were really lucky this time! Our ground needs watering again here, the grass is nice and green but the soil is dry once again. And the heat came back with a vengeance too!

Thanks, turf.  It's still pretty messy out there a week later, from what I hear.  I haven't been off the property at all this week, so that's going by what people tell me and what's been on the news.    Son said somebody told him at work yesterday that there are 10 sinkholes on Mariner Blvd. a main drag in Spring Hill, maybe 20 minutes from here.  The main road out of here to the highway has been closed since Sunday night, apparently due to sinkholes, so having to take the back road to town. 

I really will try to get a post up this afternoon with some pics.  I've been saying all week I'm going to, but feeling kind of blah and flat all week, just haven't scrounged up the mental energy yet.

Probably a few times, but not this much....I'm crashing now...too tired to think straight....tty tomorrow...I'm a done deal.

Goon night Kat....it is very hot here.

Actually, I don't think we've hit 90 this week...yesterday topped out at 88, the day before at 87.  The humidity has been horrendous, though...after all the rain last week.  But think of the bright side...half the country is running up over a hundred right now, some waaaay over.  It's really something when half the country is hotter than Florida...lol

It certainly is a really big mess here...and I feel so bad for those folks in the fire areas, what a horror they are experience.

We're fine here.  I was afraid the back of the property would be underwater, but it's not.  Pretty soggy, but no standing water at least.

We are relieved to know that all is not too bad, regarding your property.  May everything return to normal as quickly as possible.

Thanks, hodge!  Yup, we're doing okay now.  Scuba gear is put away.

Thanks!  Lots of people on this side still under water.  It was pretty bad here. 

Where've ya been?  Haven't seen you around in awhile.

Hope you enjoyed Georgia.  I've never been, except driving through a few times.  Some very pretty country up there.

I seriously doubt if you're as bad a packrat as I am...lol  I need to start chipping away at some of that, as we're hoping to sell the property....my limited energy kind of keeps me from accomplishing much at a time.  But if it sells, it's definitely going to have to be dealt with.  But maybe at that point, I can hire someone to come help with it.

I've kind of had the blahs for the past couple weeks, too...altho not really sure why.

Glad to see you back.

Thanks.  We switched realtors several months ago, and have had more activity since then than in the previous 4-5 years put together.   We don't need all this property, at our age we can't keep up with it anyway, even though the place is beautiful, it's a lot of work just to keep the forest from encroaching into the living spaces.   What I need is a bigger house, and maybe 5 acres or so.