Batten Down The Hatches — Hurricane Irene Is On Her Way!

I hate to say that I’ve given into the hype, but I’m pretty nervous about this category 1 hurricane. I’m worried about the big, old trees in our yard that drop branches even in a mild storm. I’m worried about our old windows that shake even when a gentle wind comes our way. And I’m worried my tomato cages will blow away carrying all of the tomatoes with them! But probably what I’m worried about the most is the leak in our ceiling. Yep.

I spent last night bringing in all the hanging plants and almost every potted plant that I have outside. That’s kind of a lot. It took me over an hour. There’s still a couple of heavy planters out there, but I don’t think they’ll go anywhere, even with the 50-70 mile an hour winds we’re expecting. Or at least I hope not. I also brought in the rocking chairs from the front porch.  I could just visualize them rocking right through our french doors.

Most of my potted plants had to go out of the cats’ reach and into the greenhouse. 

Potted and hanging plants in the left side of the greenhouse.

Potted plants in the right side of the greenhouse.

Earlier today when I discovered that our stained laundry room ceiling was bloating and cracking, I contacted our old neighbor around the corner in desperation. He came over and poked a hole in it to help it drain. So we’re all duct taped and plasticed up with buckets underneath. Let’s hope the ceiling holds up with the 5-10 inches of rain we’re expecting.

Water-damaged ceiling in the laundry room.

Laundry room ceiling after we duct taped plastic around it.

 We already had a record breaking amount of rainfall this month, so I’m not sure what that much more rain will do to the garden.

Already lots of rain and the hurricane hasn’t even hit yet.

 So we’ve battened down the hatches and are hoping for the best. The worst of the storm is supposed to hit between 10pm tonight and 8am tomorrow morning. We’ll see where we fare after all of that.