So many odd things have been happening lately and I haven't really documented them. I'm not quite sure why. I know I've been busy with random things lately, but so much has happened in our area and in our lives.
First up is the devastating tornadoes that hit on April 27 {it's also Whitney's birthday!}. We didn't have much damage in our area, but other places like Huntsville & Tuscaloosa, AL and Smithville, MS were dramatically changed. Smithville, a small town with a population of less than 1,000 was hit the hardest in our area. Basically the entire town was wiped off the map. Just about every single business and home in the area was completely destroyed. Tuscaloosa had major damage as well. Hunstville didn't have as much damage {as in human lives/deaths}, but the main power line feeding Hunstville and most of North Alabama from TVA were wiped out by the tornadoes. It's amazing to see people jump into action... people that know no one from that area or have any connections are loading up to make the two hour drive to volunteer. Plenty of food and clothing has been donated and they're updating the "needs" list daily.
Secondly is the major flooding that's happening with the Mississippi River. It finally crested today. The highest it's been since the early 1940's. Tunica, MS is almost completely under water and all of the casinos have shut down; they were smart and prepared and closed before the water got there so most of the gaming machines were moved and money was already transported out. Not that I'm too upset about the casinos flooding, but that means additional 1000s of people are now unemployed. This is not the time to be unemployed. Luckily, the levee didn't break so thousands of other homes/businesses/land were saved. We heard today that the water will begin receeding today and constantly go down over the next couple of weeks.
I took major interest in the flooding since Brad and I are separated by the Mississippi River! There were talks of shutting down the east bound lanes of I-55 and parts of I-40 were already shut down. This would have prevented Brad from getting back home and Fema Lema might have been floating in a wheat field somewhere?!
Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day! I went to church with mom, Mama Lynn, Aunt Shelly and John Aaron. Afterwards, we had lunch at Chapman's. Brad came in on Saturday and he spent most of his time in MS bush-hogging our land in Hinkle. It's hard getting and keeping things in order over there since Brad is only here for about a day a week. I really wish the house would hurry up and sell! I'm ready to be done with that chapter and move on!
Speaking of... our house is for sale and now our airplane is too! Talk about paying for advertising?! Ha! I know that now is not a good time to be selling
anything, but we're going to try anyway. What else can we do? We need to get rid of both things ASAP {I plan on using what ever money we make on the house as a down payment on a car!}. Now you know why I'm in such a hurry {other than paying a mortgage payment on a house we're not living in, along with power/water and the airplane payment on a plane we aren't really using}! :)
I finally come to a good stopping point on reading for now. I'm going to start using what free time I have to attempt to sew?! Yep, after 5 months of my NICE machine sitting and collecting dust, I'm about to start using her! I've already got my instructions, fabric and accessories lined up. Hopefully today I can start. I'll be sure to post pictures of anything decent I might come up with.
Oh, and I almost forgot! A good friend of mine, Mathieu {Matt} and his girlfriend are in from Wyoming. I haven't seen Matt in a very long time, other than 10 minutes at Christmas, so we met up for lunch yesterday at Borroum's. It wad great catching up and finally getting to meet Kelsey. They've been together a little over a year now and we've only "talked" on facebook and email and one phone call. They're headed to Baton Rouge then to Denver for his next job. He probably won't be in again until Christmas 2011 unless he happens to find a house for sale here. We're both watching the internet and listings hoping to find him something. IF that happens then they'll fly in and check it out one weekend. I keep telling him he should buy the Hinkle House and just build in front of the house. Too bad he won't listen?! HA!
It's Tuesday and I hope to have an easy going week, but so far it's already busy! :(
This was an entire field, completely under water!
See the tops of the fence posts?
This is the southern part of Crowley's Ridge in AR. From what I've heard, this area became famous in 1937 after the MS river flooded. When the river did flood, it came as far out as Crowley's Ridge which is over 40 miles from the river!
On our way to Pug's, he talked with Brad and told him that my car would not make it down his road. There had been more flooding and we would need Brad's truck to make it. We turned around and got Brad's truck {and me a pair of boots}. When we got close to his road, we saw this... Apparently, a catfish farmer decided to take matters into his own hands. He used dynamite to blow a levee to save his fish ponds, but in turn, it flooded a very large area! That man is now in jail :) It's probably safer for him there anyway...
The area between the grass and dirt is Pug's road!
Yeah, my car would have never made it!
Pug's driveway {or where it normally is} and his house
Me sportin' Brad's boots!
I put away the camera until Sunday when I was headed back over the bridge. This is the Mississippi, er, the overflow from the Mississippi!
See the sign?
Power poles!
Definitely something I've never seen before and hope I never see again. I just wish the pictures would do it justice. It was actually a lot worse, but this is what I could get... the other time I was in charge of driving :) I don't think the other cars really cared for me passing them while snapping pictures out the window, but oh well!
