TAKE A HIKE-IKE!!!!!

I TOLD YOU we had LOTS of sticks down-just look at this pile. Well to be truthful this is the pile at the local dump. You know-TO THE DUMP, TO THE DUMP, TO THE DUMP, DUMP, DUMP. After 4 days of picking up sticks, we have our acres pretty much back in order.

CLEAN WOODS! I love clean woods. We have all of these people come here and say how great it is to live in the middle of the woods and have all of this maintenance free yard. OK-PEOPLE- take a walk through the "Real Woods" and note all of the vines, underbrush, sticks down, and trees and large limbs on the ground. This "Natural" beauty comes at a huge physical labor cost. The cost this go round was my sore back. Bend down-pick up 20 sticks within arms reach, straighten up, walk to the pile, put them in the pile, after all are picked up, bend down pick up pile and put in the back of the truck, take to the dump and pull the tarp out of the truck. I AM POOPED-but the yard looks great-once again.

Do you remember the television show, "Green Acres"? Here I am wishing I looked like the star. Note the back end of the truck is full to the top of the cab. We took 6 of these loads to the dump today.

My hubby, "The Genius", after the first trip came up with the wonderful idea of putting the tarp in the bottom of the truck. This meant that instead of having to manually unload each and every stick, we could just pull the tarp out and dump the sticks. I LOVE THIS BRILLIANT MAN! This means less work for me!

I see on the weather that Hurricane Ike is predicted to come into the Gulf of Mexico. My yard is clean and we have had our share of destruction. IKE YOU JUST TAKE A HIKE! Our South Louisiana friends may be without power for up to three weeks. Son #2 is down there with a catering crew feeding the utility workers. He told me today that he had slept about 30 minutes a night since they started the catering. There are around 1400 workers just in the area that they are in. The company he is catering for is the smaller local company. Entergy is the large provider for the area. I saw this morning as I was running another group of trucks headed that way. We owe a huge THANK YOU to utility workers from all over the nation as they come to the aid of our stricken state. The local shelters are empty, but the state is a LONG WAY from recovery. I consider 3 weeks without power-and all of the businesses and services that depend upon this power a MAJOR BIG DEAL. True-No Levees broke in New Orleans, but as I have said before-THERE IS A LOT MORE TO THIS STATE THAN JUST NEW ORLEANS. We are in a mess and DO NOT NEED another hurricane!