Part 2 of Irene

A place that flooded.

Barry (neighbor in mobile park in Florida lives on 145) working as volunteer on route 145 where road was washed out. He home just missed the flood but his brothers on was flooded and the down stairs had to be gutted.

Barry talking to Arlene & Gary.

Road washed out where Barry was working. After we talked to Barry we went farther south onto 23 west toward Windham.

Flooding along the main street of Windham.

Damage left from flooding in Windham.

Mud left from flooding.

Cleaning out.

Route 23 going into Prattsville. Closed due to the wash out of bridge.

With the washout of bridge we had to go back the way we came.

This house was on 23 outside of Prattsville.

There was a road running along side of 23 that went over this bridge. Most of it was washed out.

Sign in front of church in Windham thanking people for helping.

HURRICANE IRENE 2011

Irene hit the eastern coast along North Carolina and moved up the coast. It was supposed to do more damage in New York City than it did.

People said that there wasn’t much damage from the hurricane. In Upstate New York the hurricane didn’t do the damage but the amount of rain that came with it.

It caused the Schoharie Creek to rise and sent flooding through the Schoharie Valley. The Schoharie Creek empties into the Mohawk River. There was flooding downstream of the Gilboa Dam through the small towns of the Valley. The hardest hit was the towns of Middleburg and Schoharie.

The Mohawk raised so much that it flooded along the Mohawk Valley. from the towns of Amsterdam down through Scotia and into parts of Albany.

In Amsterdam the historical site of Old Fort Johnson built in 1749 by William Johnson only had some flooding but down the road Guy Park Manor, the 1773 home of Guy Johnson, nephew of William had a lot of flooding plus lost portions of the exterior.

The flooding of the Schoharie caused many homes to be destroyed.

We went for a tour of the area on Sept 5th with Arlene and Gary. Here are some of the pictures that I took.

This is cornfield on 145 that was flooded and flattened. The smoke in background is barn that was burned because the hay in the barn got wet and caught on fire.

House in Schoharie that was flooded and people are cleaning up.

Here is what is left of someone's deck.

Somebodies mobile.

Debris in trees along creek.

Pizza shop trying to clean up before it can open.

Workers trying to straighten out creek and remove rocks and debris.

Somebodies lawn.

Continued on to Part 2.

.

Cold Weather

It’s been cold since we came back from Florida. We had a lot of limbs down again this year. We have lots of trees around our place but it gets quite hard trying to keep it looking nice. We had a hard winter this year with a lot of snow. When there is a lot of heavy wet snow it breaks the tree limbs. So we spent about 4 days picking them all up and burning them. We have a spot in the back of the property where we burn brush without causing any harm.I didn’t take any pictures this year but it looks like it did last year.

We haven’t been doing much of anything lately. It’s been quite cold out. We decided that we came home from Florida to early. Next year we plan on staying down there a little longer. Besides being cold we have had a lot of rain. Today there were a few snow flurries in the air.

The only reason we came home so early is Jerry had a couple of doctors appointments and we had to file our tax return.

This Sunday is Easter. So I hope everybody has a Happy Easter.

Rest of Winter in Florida & My sister Bobbie

After Lois left she flew to Alabama to visit our sister Bobbie. She stayed a week then flew home from there. Then Jerry’s buddy Terry came to Florida. He stayed at his sister’s in The Villages.

We went golfing a few times. Jerry and Terry went to OBS while I went shopping. Jackie came down and we went golfing, to the casino, out to dinner and other things together. They left and then our daughter Tracy and friend Mary Ellen came down. They wanted a brake from work and Mary Ellen’s family. They stayed from Thursday to Sunday.

Mary Ellen & Tracy

That Saturday night I got call from Lois that our sister Bobbie (in Alabama) went into the hospital. My sister never when to the doctors much less go to a hospital so we knew that it was serious.  She fell and a blood clot formed in her leg. She had many complications. The doctors operated on her Monday afternoon the 21st but she died that night. Lois flew down and we drove over from Florida. Her funeral was Friday the 25th. After the funeral Lois came with us back to Florida to close up the mobile. We then drove home. We stopped at Brenda’s in Virginia for 2 days and came on home.

Barbara Rose when she graduated.

The last time we went to visit Bobbie after Christmas  in 2008 on our way to Florida.

Here is a pictures of her sons and daughters.

BACK HOME

Well, I haven’t written in quite awhile. We had a busy time in Florida. We went up to Brenda’s after Christmas for a couple of days.

Jerry was busy working on mobile. I can’t remember what he was doing, when, but he got the mobile livable again. Here are some pictures of the finished place.

 

Lois came done on Jan 10th and spent some time with us. On the 16th Lois and I went on cruise with Arlene, Gary, Barry, Sally and a group of other people that we know. Jerry didn’t go because he said he wanted to stay home and do some work on mobile. Here are some pictures from cruise. We went to Grand Caymen Islands, Isle Rotan,Costa Maya and Cozumel.

Lois on deck just before we sailed.

Lois, Arlene and Gary at dinner.

Sally & Barry

Holly (Gary’s cousins wife) and Flo

All of us at Turtle Farm in Grand Caymen.

Lois and Arlene holding baby turtles.

Flo with pirate.

We went to a cameo factory on the Isle Rotan. Here are some worker carving some cameos.

Some of the beautiful scenery of the Caribbean.

For the rest of the time in Florida we spent working on mobile and having our afternoon get togethers with everybody that was around.

 

Merry Christmas

I hope everybody has a very Merry Christmas.

We were supposed to be up to Brenda’s for Christmas but Wednesday night she called and said that their was a storm coming through with a lot of snow so we decided to stay here for Christmas. Dulse was disappointed so we are going up Monday after the holiday traffic is over. We will stay for a couple of days.

We stayed here and Jerry is busy sheetrocking. He has started on the taping now. We will have a quite dinner with the two of us. His brother Bob that was here went back up to NY for the holidays. His sister Joan and husband are going to some friends so we will be by ourselves.

The weather has been quite cold at night but during the days it gets up into the high 60’s. I’d like to see some more warmer weather. I shouldn’t complain because up home there are getting a lot colder weather.

Well, stay warm and enjoy the holidays.

In Florida AT Last

Well, we finally made it back to Florida. We got here on the 14th. I haven’t had a chance to post a blog since my birthday on the 7th of Dec.

On the 10th of Dec was our 50th wedding Anniversary. Well, we didn’t plan to do anything special. We went out to dinner for our usually Friday night fish fry with Terry, Jackie, Charlie and Ann.

On Saturday we planned to go up to Turning Stone with Terry and Jackie for a couple of hours and then stop somewhere for dinner. Well, on the way home they took us to the VFW hall in Richfield Springs. When we got there we were surprised with a party put on by all the kids. JJ, Eric with son Dolan, Pam with her two daughters Arica and Amber, Brenda with Dulce, Tracy, Jeff and Donna were all there. We were really surprised because that is the first time they have been all together in a couple of years.

JJ, Jeff, Eric, Brenda,Tracy, Pam,Jerry And Flo

Amber, Dolan, Arica, Jerry, Dulce, and Flo

Florence & Jerry

We had all of our friends there. After we went home all the kids came to the house. Lois also spent the night.

Pam, Arica, Amber, Eric and Dolan had an early flight out the next morning so they left that night to stay in motel in town. Tracy, JJ and Lois left the next day. JJ was getting a flight from Rochester so he stayed Sunday night at Tracy’s. We left Sunday morning with Brenda and Dulce and spent the night at Brenda’s. We left the next morning for Florida. We stayed in Stark, Florida Monday night and got to Belleview around 10:00 on Tuesday. Since then we have been quite busy cleaning and getting things organized. Jerry started sheetrocking this week. He has only the bedroom wall left to do.

Tomorrow we leave to spend Christmas with Brenda and Dulce in Richmond. We will be back Monday night.