Salvaging a Flood Damaged Headboard

One of the items that we have had in storage since leaving New Orleans is an oak headboard. It was purchased by Alice Willmon, Bill's mom, in the 60's, but was made in the mid 1800's. There was a matching wash stand and chest, both with beautiful mirrors, a foot board and rails. None of these were salvageable, but we thought the head board might be. In New Orleans, we removed the bottom two decorative sections of board, pulled it together with straps, removed the decorative pieces for packing, and used a pair of ruined purple sweatpants to wrap the fancy top piece in.

Between holding boards for Bill, who was working on the studs for the garage wall, I started dismanteling the headboard. Two boards at the bottom had to be removed, one is a solid wood trim piece, the other is veneered tiger oak. The veneer had come loose and warped, from all the water and humidity. So I cut it down, glued the edges, edged the back so it would fit in the solid trim piece, and now have it fitted together. I put it back in the headboard frame and added a couple of tiny nails to hold it in place.

The entire headboard needed to be shortened, since we removed part of the boards, as well as the legs look awful from being under water. We used the chop saw to remove 12 inches. I held it up, Bill chopped. Doing this, we discovered that one side is slightly warped. Oh, well, at 150+ years old, I guess it's entitled.

Since there are many dings, scratches and a dullness to the finish, I think from being in too much humidity, I rubbed new stain over the entire piece and all the decorative pieces that still need to be attached. After this has dried good, Bill will help me put all the parts back on, a two person job.

Hello There!

I needed some mint from our front garden. When I walked out the door, what was on the walkway? A very long King Snake! I yelled for the others to come. He didn't have good traction on the bricks, so we had a good look at him. When he hit the dirt area, he could really move. Bill and Dan were trying to take pictures, but I think he was camera shy.....

There is an abundance of wildlife on our property. We are starting to keep a list of what we see, birds, mammals, and reptiles. Oh and can't forget about the arachnides! I have been amazed at the birds. I didn't realise so many enjoyed living in the Sonoran Desert. Maybe that is where the term snowbird was first used? There do seem to be more in the winter.

Scorpion Hunting

Scorpions Beware! The past two nights we have been on a scorpion hunt. The proper tools are a black light flashlight, because scorpions glow this weird green color which jumps out at you in the dark, and something to smash them with. The first night we used an Arizona flyswatter, aka, a hammer. Last night, between the four of us, we had a rock hammer, a tack hammer, a long handled screw driver and a hockey stick. What can I say, he's a Flyers fan!

The first night we found two, but last night, maybe because it was Saturday and they were partying, we killed 7 and saw 2 which were out of reach. All of these were outside the house. We found none in the house, which is very good.

Now you may ask why do we hunt them down? The scorpions which live here are Bark Scorpions. One of the most venemous types. Plus they are very small, beige in color so they blend into the sand and bark, and even if you don't have an allergic reaction, their sting hurts like Hell! If you do have an allergic reaction, you go into anafalactic shock, not something anyone wished to experience. Since Dan is allergic to bees, we don't wish to take a chance. So, a hunting we did go!

Watching the Neighbors

Bunnies, Bunnies, Bunnies! Sitting at my desk I can see 4, no wait, 5 bunnies. They really enjoy the short native grass that has sprouted under the two Palo Verde trees in front of our bedroom. They nibble a bit, then pause to listen, then nibble some more. Sometimes, they all pause at once, then scatter in different directions. I usually can't tell what has frightened them. Yesterday, I did see the hawk fly down really close to one. In fact, I initially thought he had caught it, but the little bunny had dove under the agave for safety. I know they get eaten, I just don't wish to witness the process.

The entire front wall of the bedroom is glass, with no covering of any sort. There is a sun shade on an electric roller which can be lowered in the summer, but it isn't needed now. I wasn't sure about living in a "glass house" when we first moved in, although now I wouldn't have it any other way. Any time I look out, there is something new to see. We have hung a feeder on the eucalyptus which has attracted two different kinds of hummingbirds already. Late one evening, just at dusk, a pack of coyotes strolled by. If I awaken in the night, I can look at the stars before I roll over to go back to sleep. It is very peaceful.

March 2010 Update

The house sit in Northern Ireland is a GO! We have purchased our plane tickets, leaving Tucson on 9 June and returning on 16 November. We will fly in/out of Dublin, since it was more economical with better connections. Then we factored in all the frequent flyer miles it will add to our accounts, and there was no other option but American.

I don't understand how airlines do their pricing,though. There doesn't seem to be any logic to it. One day, it was best to go on 10 June through 15 November, then it changed to 9 June - 16 November, then it was totally unaffordable to go at all, then back to 9 June - 16 November, for the lowest price ever. It would be easier if everyone priced like Southwest, where there are low prices for the early buyers, then when those seats gone, they go to the next level of pricing. It would certainly help my stress level when buying tickets!

I did our Monday evening walk in downtown Tucson yesterday for the first time in 5 weeks. Hurt my knee while we were moving. Didn't do a big "OUCH", it just got progressively more painful to walk. By the time we finished hauling everything over, I was a real gimp. While I still move slowly and take lots of Advil, I can at least walk 2 miles in 45 minutes. (I was doing 3.4 in 55 minutes.)

Today we will work in the yard and garage, as well as price having the concrete floors stained and polished. Should be a fun day.

A Home of Our Own

What a busy month we have had! The house sale finally closed, amid much nail biting, and we have moved. It is glorious to finally have a home of our own. We have unpacked the boxes to find some surprises that we did not realize had survived, as well as finding a few things that should have been thrown away in New Orleans. I've been painting and hanging pictures. Bill has worked getting the garage and workshop organizied. We will soon start on enclosing the carport area so there is one big garage, where, hopefully, we can keep the critters out.

And there are lots of critters! So far we have seen cottontail rabbits, pack rats, a bobcat, coyotes, including one which was not very healthy, hawks, hundreds of birds, a couple of scorpions, and evidence of javelina, who ate the purple wandering jew, including the roots!

The views from the house are spectacular! The Rincons to the east, the Santa Catalinas to the north and the after the beautiful sunsets, followed by the Tucson city lights, to the west. Who ever built this house did a supurb job of siteing. It is on a rise which gives views over the top of the neighbors houses. Then they made the back, north side, of the house nearly all glass.

This will be a very good place to live. And since, after this move, I've decided I'm never moving again, that is a good thing!

We're Going to Northern Ireland!

We applied for a house sit in Northern Ireland over a month ago. We renewed our application after they renewed their ad on Housecarer.com. I sent it twice, without hearing anything back. Then last Tuesday, when we had given up, an email arrived asking if we were still interested! We don't know the exact start date, late May to early June, as their current sitters are stuck in Washington DC in the tremendous snowstorms of the past 10 days. When they are finally able to make it to Derry and thaw out, we will find out the particulars for our arrival.

This house sit, for 5 1/2 months, will involve the care of two Irish Wolfhounds. Since we live with 3 Great Danes; Loki, Clyde and Andre, taking care of giant breed dogs will not be a problem, more of a joy!

We are looking forward to Ireland, which my sister described as the "greenest place on earth". It will also allow us to miss the heat of summer in the Sonoran Desert.

The Way Foreward

After 3 years, I'm back. I found I could not continue writing about New Orleans and our experience walking out. Suffice it to say, we made it. We made it back 6 weeks later to clean out our house, (5 weeks), gut the insides ( 1 day with the services of 2 brothers and their crew), and sell it to a friend. By January we were packed into a trailer, which we had to off load into a truck cause our pickup would not safely pull it, and headed to Pennsylvania. From there, we spent 6 months in Penn Yan, New York on the edge of Kuika Lake at some new friends cottage. Visited back in Pennsylvania with our daughter and son in law. Spent another 6 months house sitting in Virginia.

Now we are house sitting a couple of times a year, when we find somewhere interesting to go. So far we have been to Hillsborough, NC, twice, Ashville, NC, Webster, NY, Tesse Froulay, Normandy, France, Tucson, AZ. and Launceston, Cornwall, England.

We spent last winter in Amarillo, TX, remodeling a bathroom for a Bill's sister. From there, we moved to Tucson AZ, where we are buying a house with our daughter and son in law. This will give us the freedom to travel without having to worry about our home, and give them the freedom to go while we watch their 3 Great Danes.

We have tried to put Katrina behind us, but even so, she crops up when one of us will ask, "Did ??? survive?" At this point the bulk of our belongings have been in boxes for over 4 years. Although I made a good list when we were cleaning out, it's still been a long time since we have seen things. We are looking forward to moving into a new home and unpacking.

Walking Out of New Orleans, Part Three

The closer we came to downtown, the more people were coming up asking us where to go. Most of them were going to the Super Dome or the Convention Center. We just kept walking to the bridge over the Mississippi. Nick had left a message for his dad, so we were looking for him as well. But, how do you find someone in this mess? Bill and John, as well as Sebastian, were over heating. Somehow, in leaving the house in the middle of the night, we had all forgotten our hats. Can you imagine that?

As we came to where the interstate and the start of the bridge happened, we had to take the long way around, as there were trucks and military guys coming into town on the shortest way for us walking. But in all these people coming to "save" us, no one would even acknowledge that we were there! And no one had thought to bring water!?! If my cell phone had worked, I could have called WalMart, used my MasterCard, and had them deliver a truck load. The roads were clear so why did it end up taking them 5 days to bring in water?

We could hear people walking on the road beneath us, who had been turned away from crossing the bridge. Nick and Mike walked on ahead of us. Nick was talking to folks in pickups who had come to help, but were being told to leave. Some of these people had been here helping on a daily basis, but now that the official rescuers were here, they were being ignored. Nick found us a ride in the back of a pickup!

When Bill, John and I finally made it to the truck we had been joined by a gentleman who heading to his daughter's house in Austin. He was retired Air Force. A black man with light colored skin. Now the color of his skin is important to the tale. I asked the owner of the truck if Sebastian could ride it in, and he said sure. But he looked really closely at the man with us. Bill said, "He's with us, ok?" The truck owner didn't look too pleased, but agreed. He had already made some disparaging remarks about a woman who was yelling at her kids.

We all piled into the truck. As we started over the bridge, we were stopped by a policewoman. The man driving the truck said we were family. Well, she looked us over and looked really, really hard at the black man, who had taken the seat next to me. Since his skin was lighter, he might be related. I smiled at her. She seemed to hesitate, then looked back at the driver and told him to go ahead.

Sebastian was the funniest. We had carried him most of the way up to the truck. I was sure he was dying. But when that pickup started moving, he insisted on puttin his head over the edge of the bed, so his nose was in the wind and his ears were flapping. He still couldn't stand, but I knew his doggy survival instinct had kicked in. How could he die when he was going for a ride in the back of a truck?

Crossing that bridge was entering a different world. There were very few people on the other side. No flooding, but quite a bit of wind damage. We were let out at the toll booth parking lot, as the man was heading home to the east and we needed to to west to Gonzalez. As we stood in the parking lot, two young men from Lafayette, in a small truck with a boat on the back, asked if we needed a ride. We piled into the bed of the truck, putting our suitcases and back packs into the boat. They gave us bottles of ice cold water!!

The vehicles going west were few, but the ones coming east were a solid line. The guys in the truck drove really fast, and the boat behind bounced and wiggled. I was sure all our suitcases were going to fly out! About 10 miles out of Gonzalez, we ran out of gas. Everyone piled out, but I stayed in the truck bed, stood up and waved, putting my thumb out in the hitchhiking position. A couple in a big pickup stopped. They gave Nick, Sebastian and I a ride to Nick's parent's house, even though it was a bit off the freeway.

When we pulled up in the driveway, two women came out on the porch. One was saying, "Where have you been? Where's your dad?" Nick explained, while the other one asked if I'd like to take a shower. Oh yes! There were no introductions, just welcome home. I later found out they were Nick's aunt and her sister, who had come there from Slidell to weather out the storm.

Back at the truck, another car had stopped. This was a woman who had filled 5 gallon cans with gas and was driving down the road helping stranded folks like us. We were given her last can of gas, but since she was heading farther west, the black man hitched a ride with her. I hope he made it safely to his daughter's home in Austin. The guys continued to Gonzalez, where Nick saw them at the gas station. Bill paid for their gas and thank them from all of us. I don't know any of their names, but they know who they are. Someday, the good will come back to them.

Walking Out of New Orleans, Part Two

Sebastian was getting tired and hot. He wouldn't drink any more, so I started pouring his share onto his head and body to cool him down. We would take turns carrying him for a while, but he didn't like that. So, we would carry a while, then let him walk a while.

When we came to the area by the projects, the side of the road became more crowded with people. We even saw some firemen setting up a rescue operation with boats. I recognised a couple of them from a delivery I had made for work. Nick knew one of the guys, so talked to him for any updates. He knew less than we did.

There were only 2 times I was concerned for our safety. The first was when I saw 4 guys stealing a car that was parked on the side of the road. As they were getting into the car, on of the guys stared hard at me and flashed a gang sign. I looked away from him and kept walking. They made a uturn and came up behind us, but passed and kept going. I breathed a sigh of relief.

The second time, a man came running toward Sebastian and I, pointing his finger and saying, "You, I know you!" Well, I didn't know him, but I said "ok". He continued, "You live on Clermont. I see you and your dog walking all the time. When did you leave? How high was the water?" My response, "Yes, we live Clermont. We left about midnight last night. And the water was this high at my house." I held out the front of my teeshirt, which was stained from the nasty water almost shoulder high. "I was walking on my tiptoes when I waded out." He looked very depressed then and said, "My house must be under water too. Where are you going?" "Gonsalez." " Well, if anyone can walk that far, it's you. I've seen you walking every day, in all weather. Good luck." "Stay safe, yourself."

For all the nastiness the tv reported. For all the evil deeds that supposedly happened. We only received support, hope and good wishes from people. All everyone wanted was information, and water.

One man called out to us from the side of the road, "Drink of wine, $50!" Nick muttered to me, "If it was ice water, I might take him up on it."

It seemed like we had been walking a lifetime.

We're Walking Out of New Orleans

As we walked, the scope of the flooding became apparent. Everywhere we looked there was water, some areas deeper than others. We came upon more people by the side of the road, including the woman and her parents that are been dropped off at the intersection of I610 and 10 during the night. Lots of folks just sitting and waiting. We walked at a fairly brisk pace. People would call at us from the side of the road, "Where you going? What do you know?" We finally started answering, "Out of here, we don't know anything."

There were some vehicles driving on the road, mostly government types, a few tv vans, an occasional private vehicle, but they all seemed to be going no where.

After walking a while, the 3 young guys changed out of their wet shoes into flip flops, and I changed into sandals. Bill was already in dry shoes. We were stopped by a tv van from ABC in Houston. They had their camera out, so I kept walking. Didn't want to be seen looking like this!!! The four guys stopped and talked. The tv folks were very concerned we were walking in to a bad part of town! They had been warned! After talking to the guys, they let Nick use their satellite phone to call his parents. He told his mom where we were and what our plans were. His dad was going to come to New Orleans to meet us at the bridge and take us out. They also gave us a gallon of water. Thank you to them.

There were dogs on the freeway, some already dying from dehydration. One was a beautiful pomeranian, obviously well loved, running around with a broken leash attached. We tried to get him to come to us, but he would only come so close then run away. I have often wondered what happened to him.

Walking down the freeway, we found ourselves in step, with a certain rhythm. Mike started humming, then said, "What's this song, it's something about walking and New Orleans?" Well, it was "I'm walking to New Orleans." We sang a bit, then changed the words to:

We're walking out of New Orleans.
We're walking out of New Orleans.
Got blisters on our feet,
There's water in the streets,
So, we're walking out of New Orleans.

We're going to Gonzalez.
Cause that is where Nick's house is.
Got blisters on our feet,
There's water in the streets,
So, we're walking out of New Orleans.

As we passed people, they did give us strange looks for singing, but hey, it was a strange day.