Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Getting Back To Normal After Hurricane Irene


We really lucked out with Hurricane Irene. Many people in our area are still without power.
We only lost power and had to use the generator to run our sump pumps for about four hours the night before last, while they patched the electric lines on our road.


Jerry spent two days pumping water from across the street into our horse pasture to divert it from flowing further down the road and through our basement.



His efforts really paid off. The basement is starting to dry up. The sump pumps are running a little less frequently and we don't have to go down and wet-vac every hour anymore.



The bridge just up the road was flooded with about three feet of
"water over the bridge" on Sunday.



On Monday, Jerry put the plant stands back up.
We hung the flower baskets as Princess supervised.  


It took most of the morning, but we got almost everything
dug out, rearranged and hung up. 


All morning, the hummingbirds showed their delight
with loud vocalizations and synchronized, ariel displays.

Along with lots and lots of water, Hurricane Irene also brought
out a great deal of misquotes, flies, aphids and other insects.

She also brought me another unexpected visitor.


I felt a pair of teeny tiny eyes watching me from a large grey stepping stone.
It was an adorable baby Snapping Turtle coated with wood chips and debris.
He was all dried out, hot and exhausted.


Not much bigger than a silver dollar,
he must have gotten washed away from his nest far away in the storm.


I put him in a box and walked him down the road to an old irrigation pond.
He really perked up when I put him near the water and he enthusiastically jumped in.


He's a shot of his new home. I hope he likes it.

4 comments:

  1. The baby snapping turtle looks almost prehistoric; such an unusual looking fella. Glad you found him a new home!! Happy the waters are receding.

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  2. Doesn't he though Robin? All I could think of was little baby dinosaur! I guess they haven't changed a whole lot since those days!! Oh and I meant to write we have a lot of mosquitoes here now, not misquotes. Sometimes spell checker puts words in my mouth. :-D

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  3. Sandy, I am so glad you and Jerry and all the beasties are fine! It's a good thing you have Princess there to help you get things back in order. Good for you, for your turtle rescue; it looks very homey [for a turtle] where you relocated him.

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  4. Snapping turtles are cute as babies. Glad you found him a good home.

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