Hurricane Florence ....

Hurricane Florence was headed right for the 

North Carolina coast

So we prepared for our first hurricane....

Johnny purchased a generator that would provide power

to our fridge, lights, TV and a few small lights and things

he purchased extra gas cans and filled them with gas

2 full propone tanks for cooking...if needed

10 cases of water

beer

food

food for the dogs

new flashlights

lots of batteries

look at our shiny new generator.....

we were ready!

Our kids were worried and kept telling us to leave

but we just didn't want to leave our new home and felt we 

would be safe

We decided that if it became a category 4 or there

was a mandatory evacuation, we would leave

On Monday we got the call from the county that 

we were on a mandatory evacuation starting 7:00 am Tuesday

so we decided to get ahead of the traffic and leave on Monday

here's my face when we found out....grrr

now I had to start packing clothes and important papers

We had to pack up the dogs and all of their things

food, leashes, vet records, treats

As it turned out, the storm moved south

and it breaks my heart to see the flooding and even now, so much

flooding still going on

We went to stay with one of our daughters and as it turned out

was a really nice week to be with our family

and able to attend 2 of our grandson's birthday parties

We got the ok to return to the island on Saturday morning and

decided to wait until Saturday evening to leave.....again, to avoid

traffic. We arrived home about 9:00 Saturday night and it

was great to see our home was just as we left it.

here we are going through the checkpoint to get back

on the island. As locals, all we had to do was show

our drivers license

Our only concern was to watch the creek behind our home.....and it only reached our property line and never went any further.....thankful

 

later....

Treasures ...

One of my favorite things to do on the beach

is hunt for treasures....

shells, rocks, sea glass, wood

I love it all

and I have a few collections.

Once I come home I wash them all up in soapy water

and lay them out to dry

I collect oyster shells as I'm going to make an oyster wreath

I think after this week I now have enough of the them

I love the "twirley" ones....

and Welkies...

this is the only one I found this week, not whole but I love it

I call these angel wings

because that is what they look like to me

I found so many cool ones this week

this one looks like Darth Vadar....Lynne said that first and

now that's all I can see, haha

Love this orange one

I collect purple shells but now my jar is just about full so

I'll move on to another color now

below are my 2 pieces of wood

these are some interesting pieces and I keep all of these in 

another clear glass container

these with holes in them are for a wind chime I am making

I get so happy with all of these great finds....they

are like presents from the ocean

I found no sea glass this week but Jacquelyn and Bucky

found a lot of pieces....one of which was a very dark green one, a shade

of green that I have never seen before

later......

Life on a Sand Bar ....

Life on a sand bar....the good, the bad and the ugly

here is the ugly....

Those dang sand spurs are so evil

they hurt so bad

the dogs bring them in so you find them on the floor,

in your bed, on the furniture....yikes!! 

I walk the yard about once a week and pull up everyone I can find

and I swear they must grow at rapid speed because

the very next week you find them again!! And before

I even finished typing this post we just had to pull about 8 

of them off of Khaleesi. She was running around the yard

playing and got them. So Johnny went out and dug up 
probably 5 plants
those little suckers might look harmless but wow, they
hurt really, really bad. 

here's another ugly..spiders!

NC must have a million different kids of spiders. Part of my daily

routine (though not always daily) is to walk around outside

with the broom and knock down all of the overnight 

spider webs. They are everywhere

glad I'm not freaked out over spiders

I even opened my car door and one had built a web

inside my door frame!! 
look closely and you can see the spider down in the 
left hand corner. This was on the railing to the steps

Now for the bad.....Hurricanes

as I type this we are awaiting information on Hurricane Florence

we know there is a good possibility of her hitting the East Coast

but we just don't know where.

We have experienced many tropical storms down here

when on vacation but never a hurricane. 

We are very hesitant to leave our home so our plan right now is

to ride it out. Unless there is a mandatory evacuation or a

category 4 storm, then we will leave

Today I prepared for an evacuation....dogs bag is packed, important

papers are packed, and everything else ready to throw in a bag

We have purchased a generator, have 10 cases of water, a full

propane tank for the grill, plenty of canned and non-perishable food

plenty of beer! New flashlights, lots of batteries, back up phone chargers

ready to use. We have sought out advice from locals and we are

as prepared as we can be. So nice to talk to locals...one suggested putting

bottled water in the freezer to use later in coolers

we will also fill up both bathtubs with water in case it is needed

for flushing

Now the good which really is the great....

when I log off of work at 4:00, I go to the beach

as many days as I want. I still can't even believe I live here.
It's unbelievable how much that ocean can calm a soul and
just make you smile! And I'm so happy that our dogs love it
our favorite time to go is afternoon, about 4:30 or 5:00 
we stay a couple of hours and either stop by a happy hour
or just come home and eat dinner
also note the picture below....once Labor Day is done
the beach is no longer crowded nor is the traffic bad

another good thing....fresh local seafood
I always struggled to find good seafood in Richmond
at a decent price. We go over to Colington Island
and buy from Billy's seafood. We were told by locals that
they have the best and at good prices. 

also good....this is one of the nicest community ever
Everyone is so nice, so helpful
It's very cool that it's not just folks who have always lived here, but
also folks from all over the place
and everyone is great! We have felt
so welcomed here.

that's it for now, the good, the bad and the ugly

later......