home without hubby for weekend

[DrBee]

Thanks! I think the storms have pretty much passed by us now. The lightening display is pretty amazing, though. I just did a tour around the outside of the house. The water is backed up in the street as bad as it was when Rita came through (~ 6 in to 1 ft deep) and the backyard is almost completely under water. I just cleared the drain in the back (luckily the previous owners installed a drainage system) so hopefully that will help. Our house sits higher than everyone else (built for a realtor), so we're nice and dry. Can't say the same for the neighbors, though.

[maillotpois]

Boy you're lucky.

We're on the side of a (small) mountain. The flat part of town is sunnier (we're in a redwood grove so it can get dark), and the houses in the flat part of town were way over our price range when we bought 2 years ago (million dollar tear downs). But... the flat sunny part of town floods, and has flooded several times this year.

So as long as our house stays attached to the hill we're doing okay!! (Although I don't feel comfortable letting our daughter ride her bike down the 14% grade that goes from our house to town yet.)

[DrBee]

Yikes - that's a bit of a drop. Here, my daughter is afraid to ride her bike down the "hill" that is literally a 1 foot drop out of our driveway to the road. It's all relative, I guess. The redwood grove sounds nice - very nice - except for the hoping your house stays attached to the hill part.

[pkq]

Y'all do really good work. You have to love the rich, dark character of wood along with the feel of it.

Glad you survived the storm. TN has been hit pretty hard again. I was born and raised in Louisiana. I miss the violent thunder storms but I do not miss the flooding and humidity. Good thing you bought a house on high ground. Flooding really sucks!

[Waverly]

The pieces are gorgeous. I wish I had some sort of talent like that! We had some bad weather about 4:30am that freaked the dogs out, but not much really happened at my house except a lot of lighting. Other parts for the state were hit harder though.

Jessica

[DrBee]

Thanks for the complements - I'll pass them on to my husband. He's a biologist, but when he decided to stay home with the kids, he found that woodworking was a hidden talent.

Hopefully all of us over here in the southeast made it through the storms last night. It's 20F colder today than it was yesterday. Yikes!

I was born and raised in Louisiana.

pkq-where in Lousiana? I went to grad school there (USL) and my husband is a south Lousiana native.

[solobiker]

HI there, love the pics. I too am a woodturner. I have made bowls and several wine stoppers. My next project will be to turn some pens.

[DrBee]

solobiker - that's funny because our next endeavors are winestoppers and pens. Let me know how it goes!

[pkq]

fishdr, I grew up in Florien then lived in Lake Charles for 18 years. Graduated from McNeese in Lake Charles. USL is now University of Louisiana. Don't know when the name changed but it's been in the last 8 years. They tried to change it during the 80's but the entire higher education system rose in opposition thinking it would detract and confuse people about LSU. I went to McNeese because Lake Charles is near Holly Beach, wiped out by Rita, and near Toledo Bend Lake. My uncle had property both places and I had keys to everything.

solobiker, why not post pix?

[DrBee]

yeah solobiker - I want to see pics! Hubby's learning how to do segmented bowls at the turners workshop today and is getting some good advice on the pens.

pkq - I received my dr from USL the year it turned to ULL (ooh la la) - 2000. I still call it USL, though. My hubby is from LaPlace (over by NO). I have a friend that works for NOAA that is in charge of wetlands/coastal areas in western LA. He said Holly Beach was completely leveled. I did some collections in that area during grad school - it's hard to imagine. Let's hope this year is better.

[pkq]

If you want to see photos of before and after Rita of Holly Beach, I have some at a photobucket account http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ricane%20Rita/. My uncle's camp was front row. We fell asleep at night watching the oil rig lights twinkle with the waves. High tide, in those days, always came underneath the camp and often crossed the road behind the camp. They put in breakers to prevent coastal erosion, hauled in sand, and the results were amazing. It's really hard to imagine Holly Beach gone. I'd gone there since the 60's.

I've heard of LaPlace but never been there. Been to NO a number of times and Lafayette more times than I can count.

Did you ever do the canoe trip in the Atchafalaya Basin? I tried to do that several years running but it never materialized. Imagine it's gorgeous back in the swamps.