Hurricanes

[NS'Creter]

Batton down yours hatches folks and take care 'cause it looks like it's hurricane season again. All ya'll be careful and us "highlanders" will be thinkin' of ya.

Seriously. No foolish chances folks.

[aynet]

want you all to know we are ok. Typing on iPhone so messages are cryptic. No electric but do have generator. All of us and all family are safe. I would guess southern half of Louisiana is 33-50% without power. Trees on houses and streets everywhere. We lost 1 tree completely and tops of several. Neighbors have large trees down in yards but thankfully not on houses. Know if at least three people killed by falling trees on houses. Don't know when we will get power. Our elec company lost their whole system. We had sustained tropical force winds up here by Baton Rouge for 10-12 hours (39+mph). We had hurricane force gusts of around 80 mph at our house.
But anyway we are all okay. Keep the people of Loisiana and Mississippi in your prayers. They had alot of damage on coast of east Miss.

[NS'Creter]

Thank you so much for the update buddy! Great news that you're all fine and that it wasn't as bad as predicted. I know that it's not peachy keen, but better than feared. Please keep us updated as you can, we'll be thinking of you.

[alexwright]

Good to here from you. God bless and take care.

[Lindy]

Thank God that although there was damage it was not catastrophic. Houses can be repaired or rebuilt, trees replanted, and possessions replaced ... but we only have one life to live. Glad to hear you don't have to deal with too much to get back to life as usual.

I'm in Waco, Texas (100 miles north of Austin, 100 miles south of Dallas, 160 miles northwest of Houston; in Central Texas). As in Katrina, our city provided a haven for hurricane refuges (shelters and motels were full). We volunteered back when Katrina was coming to take in peoples horses that were in the path of the storm on our small ranch out in the country ... have 3 separate 1-2 acre fenced of areas, all of them have shelters and water, feed barn, etc. ... rest of property is a rather dense cedar tree wood (we like it that way). We didn't keep the Katrina horses very long after this storm since the owners were not in the worse hit area of New Orleans.

Our name is on a list to provide shelter for horses; so, when Gustav was approaching we got a call a few days before its arrival when people were making plans to evacuate, asking if we would be open to providing inland shelter for a couple of horses again ... of course we said "no problem." We have a really nice, all the comforts of home, cabin out on our country place as well, and offered it to the family with the 2 horses if they needed a place to stay. They had relatives they could stay with, so we just took in their 2 horses in to care for until they can pick them back up ... probably this weekend.

Lindy

[NS'Creter]

That's too cool Lindy. Folks like you can restore a person's faith in mankind. It gets shakey sometimes ya know. Good work.

[NS'Creter]

Right now Hanna is dumping some significant rain on us and Ike is supposed to follow. Just what we needed...more rain. I haven't gone to look yet, but that 90' driveway should look like a muddy river by now.

[Lindy]

Maybe you should start fabricating concrete canoes to navigate through all the water that is swamping road, swelling creeks and rivers, flooring lakes, etc. I am sure you have heard, and if lucky had the opportunity to see, the annual "Concrete Canoe" race.

If you don't know much about this, google "concrete canoes." With your skills you just might be able to tap into an entirely new market in your region ... those in your area might really be "wowed" by concrete canoes; after all, they are tough/durable, made of lightweight/floating reinforced concrete, and your decorative concrete skills could be used to further adorn them with limitless custom designs and aquatic motifs. ;D

My son did a local science fair school project demonstrating floating concrete way back when he was in 5th grade and got "1st place locally and regionally (he is now in 10th).

Lindy

[Lindy]

One more note on the subject of Concrete Canoes... there is even a magazine Concrete Canoe Magazine www.concretecanoemagazine.com that focuses on the technical side of fabricating concrete canoes (shape, design, structural analysis, actual construction techniques, etc.) Those used in races run the gammit from small one person kayak like designs up to 5-6 person canoes. Typical team competition (5 person) 20' long canoes only weigh about 150 lbs... so you can see how smaller 1 person kayaks or 2 person canoes would not be more than most people could easily port in/out of the water.

Lindy

[Lindy]

You know, if all you ever built was "1" small concrete canoe or kayak, and rowed it around in the waters in your area it would definitely get the publics' attention. They would all think that anyone who can build a concrete canoe and get it to float is quite an innovative craftsman/engineer (the general public doen't know that the building of concrete canoes, for competitive purposes, has been going on worldwide for well over 20 years); in fact it is just the opposite since 99% of the people you ask would NEVER believe that concrete can float!

Prospective customers that see your concrete canoe or kayak would believe you to be just the kind of professional they have been searching for to create a high defintion concrete surface (residential or commercial) utilizing their interior/exterior concrete substrate (after all, if you can make concrete float you are a true genious). ;D

Could even have someone "drop a bug in the ear of news media in your area" in relation to a "local concretist builds a concrete canoe," which would definitely make a great human interest story in local newspapers and TV stations ... which basically amounts to "free advertising for you." Your inside man (freind, relative, etc.) could take a photo of it on the water, send in a short blurb, to your local newspaper and TV news person; they will come to you since news media is always looking for unique features articles.

Of course, along with some sort of cool grafic design and coloring effects on your small canoe or kayak, you would also have showing: "custom built" by (either your name, company name, or both) on ... showing "above the water line."

As I stated above, my son made a small 12" floating concrete boat for his science fair project way back when he was in elementary school. It was easy. You can do the same, just as all those do that construct them and enter the concrete canoe races in the USA, Canada, and around the world every year. It could be a fun father & son indoor project for ya'll during the long winters up in Nova Scotia ... to be "revealed in the spring during your maiden voyage."

Lindy

[NS'Creter]

That is one very cool idea. I like it! I will definately be researching this one. I wanna build a concrete canoe. Thank you Lindy!
The East River is the main focal point in New Glasgow...there's beautiful walking trails, a marina, an entertainment venue...there's always events going on at The Riverfront. Oh yeah, I like this idea...very do-able too.

[Lindy]

I thought it would intrigue you. Having a river, in such a public frequented area, is a major plus as to gaining attention Am sure that you and your son can create an impressive vessel ... you have all winter to read up/research concrete canoe construction (materials and methods). Can start out small model one of perhaps 1'-2' that you can float in a bath tub, perhaps putting a sack of potatoes in it. Who knows, you could get lucky, if you email one of the engineering students from a college in Canada that has now graduated that would answer specific questions for you that would be able to provide guidance; however, you should be able to garner enough information from internet research and the magazine I gave you link to above.

Lindy

[NS'Creter]

Checked out that link...very cool. I haven't involved any Gypseys yet, but I can see one of those in my future.

[aynet]

we may need a concrete conoe soon!
Look out! here comes Ike!
We are going to at least get winds, if not a good bit of rain because this storm is just massive in size. so, no matter where it landfalls, (looks like at this point - Thurs. am) we'll get some of it over here. That's real nice because our parish gov't hasn't seen the necessity of removing all the limbs, trees and other debris that's been piled up on the sides of the streets and roads everywhere. You can hardly drive through our sub-division and pass another car because there are so many trees (yes, I mean cut up whole trees) lining the streets waiting for debris removal. Oh well, just more projectiles to dodge if the winds get high.
Hopefully, this one won't be as bad for us. I hate for it to hit anyone though. It's no fun!!

[Lindy]

Sounds like it may be a while before your life returns to normal and you can modivate around without obstructions again.

Hurricane Ike will be hitting us here in Texas VERY soon. I'm in Waco, which is about 180 miles inland from where it is predicted to make landfall, we ares still supposed to get about 8-10" on Saturday and winds of 50-60 miles per hour.

Since we are on the Humane Societies large animal haven list, we area again getting "four legged visitiors," just as we did a short time ago during Gustav evaculation (and way back during Katrina). This time it is 2 llamas that are to arrive this afternoon with their 2 legged human family. We have provided haven from storms for horses and donkeys before, but never llamas ... I'm assuming that they are very passive animals and hope they don't spit as us (as I am told llama do). Also hope that they don't scare our donkeys since they have been around other donkeys and horses, but never llamas ... guess it won't really matter since we have good fences to keep them separated.

Lindy