Getting ready for trip north

Tuesday, the base plate for the tow bar was installed on the car. Danny Surwic had ordered the wrong base plate and it had been installed before anyone noticed. Some modifications were made to the tow bar and everything fit nicely. We have lost some weight on the front of the car as a large part of the rack that the tow bar folded up onto is now gone.
We can leave the tow bar on the motor home when we are parked and not on the car. I like this much better. The tow bar cannot be folded onto the car as before.
We also had a receiver put on the back of the car to accept a bike rack. We don't have to hang the bikes off of the trunk as we did with the last car. This will hopefully save the paint on the car and the bikes won't bounce around as much.

The progress on Mike's house has slowed to a crawl, but with all that Mike is juggling, he seems to be taking it in stride.
The dumpster has been removed, as most of the destruction has been completed.
It is yet to be determined if all of the tile on the 1st floor needs to be replaced or just the grout between the tiles. The tile man removed several tile in different areas of the house to see the condition below the tiles. He found water and mud under 2 of the tiles and says all of tile needs to be replaced. FEMA is to determine if the flood insurance company will pay for this work. If so, the dumpster will return.
The entire 1st floor is all tile, no carpet anywhere.
He, Nancy and Dana came out to the house Wednesday. Nancy needed some time out of Dana's house as did Dana. They were both getting cabin fever.
Nancy got very tired quickly, so they didn't stay too long. It was nice to see her again, as we hadn't seen her in about 3 weeks.

Wednesday night Brian, Mike and I went to Macaroni Grill for a "boys night out". We had a good time just talking and having a great meal. I love Italian sausage and their Sausage Selentini is so good.
Mike and Brian had pasta dishes and both seemed to enjoy their meals also.
We were there for over 2 hours, almost like an Italian lunch.

Brian is going to help me change the oil in the motor home next weekend.
I got a generic owners manual, and I;m not sure if this engine holds 17 or 20 quarts of oil. Brian has 2 oil pans that hold 3 gallons each so we should have enough capacity.
Brian is an auto enthusiast so he has all of the right tools. The oil filter is way up high and there is a large metal cage on the bottom of the engine that may need to be removed to get to the filter.
If it needs to be removed it will be a 2 man job.

The orders have slowed at the nursery, but there is always something to do.
Brenda came and helped me pick up all of the dead plants left in the field after the flood.
It was a hot and dirty job and I appreciated the help.
Now the lawn guys can cut the nursery yard without any obstructions.

For all of those that pray, please keep Nancy in your prayers.

Ta ta for now.

New TV & Mike

My brother is a wonderful and patient man.
Since Nancy's last diagnosis & prognosis, Mike has had a lot on his plate. Add to that, the recent flooding of his house and the ensuing repairs. Wow, what a load.He also has a business to run, which has been put on the back burner. There just aren't enough hours in the day and the need for welcome rest for him, to do all that is asked of him.
He does a remarkable job of coming into the nursery 2 days a week to ship orders (His business is 95% mail order).
As stated in previous posts, he and Nancy are staying at Dana's 2 bedroom townhouse and Mike comes out here almost everyday to check on the progress of the repairs to their house. Fortunately, Dana stays and cares for Nancy while Mike is away.

I have been keeping an eye on the nursery, as we are close-by. I check on the watering and clean the weeds out of the pots and generally keep the plants alive. I don't claim to be an expert at these things, but so far it is working and the plants are looking pretty good.
We seem to have had a good year in sales so far (I don't have the sales numbers), but we have sold out of a number of varieties.
We have been looking for a HD TV for the front of the coach, but we hadn't found one at the price we wanted to pay. Mike and I went on an errand run, and we found the TV we had been looking at at Sam's for a good price. Unfortunately, they didn't have any and seemed uninterested in selling the floor model. When we returned to Mike's house, he went on line looking for that TV. He found one and purchased it for us as a gift. He is so generous. I didn't expect or want him to buy it for us, but he insisted.I ordered a wall mount online, and expect it today. The TV came Tuesday.
I have been preparing to install it and I have installed a home theater system while waiting for the mount.

It is good that I have had to wait for the mount as I had time to make it look good after installation. Each of these installations is slightly different with a different set of problems. I enjoy the heck out of the challenge.

We had the windows of the new Hyundai tinted and will have the base plate for the tow bar installed on Tuesday. All we need now is the plates and registration for the car and we are all set to tow the car on our way North.

Becky had her ultrasound yesterday and she and Fred now know what the sex of the child will be. Lindsay is going to be a big sister to a sister.
It would have been nice for a boy, to carry on the Grannan name, but girls are nice, too.

Jessica, Bev's daughter and youngest child, graduated from the 8th grade Wednesday evening with a reception following. No cap and gown, but white dresses for the girls and suits and ties for the boys. A very nice ceremony and reception.
She won a scholarship from the K of C for her commitment to the community.
She will continue her Catholic education at St. Agnes Academy high school.

Brenda is active in the soup kitchen on Tuesdays, and she will be helping a friend at a girl scout camp this weekend. Last Tuesday she helped Bev prepare for Jessica's graduation reception. She did our laundry while she was there, too.

Ta ta for now.

New car

Yesterday, we picked up our new car. Other than it has a spoiler, blue tooth and it is blue, it is the same as our other car.
We have always had a bit of trouble with the clutch of the red Hyundai, but this one is so much smoother. The new one rides and drives the same, but with less road noise.

Mikes house is progressing. The packers came on Monday and said that they will be finished packing today.
The PODS storage unit came Monday and the packers started loading it yesterday.
The restoring company won't start on the demolition until all of the packing is complete. Mike has been given an estimate of 2-3 months for the work to be done, but the owner of the company expects closer to 3 months. He is afraid that if rushed the quality of the work won't be there.

Mike and Nancy are still at Dana's house. Nancy and Dana really like the arrangement, but Mike misses his space. Dana's house is rather small for 4 people.
Mike spends almost all day out here with all that is going on with the house.

Sunday, Adam and Chrissy invited us over to their house for Mothers Day. We had a good time with all of Mikes kid's and families. Vickie and Vick were there, too.
All of the mothers got flowers or plants including Brenda. That was so sweet of them to think of the flowers and include us in their celebration.

Alan and I worked on Monday. We had planned to clean up the plants that are still in the yard from green house 4. But, it rained hard all-day-long. So, we transferred seedling from 128 planting trays to 3 1/2" sale pots (18 plant to a tray) and rearranged greenhouses for room for the new plants. We did 1500 to 1600 plants. We felt that we got a lot accomplished.

Monday, Brenda went over to Vickie's house to do laundry. It is so nice not to have to use a laundromat. She made our reservations for campgrounds along route of our upcoming trip to Washington this summer. She got a lot accomplished.
That night she played bunco with the girls. She didn't win but had a good time.

Today, we work again and hopefully the weather will cooperate so that we can get the nursery yard cleaned up.
We have a few orders to send today, so Mike will be with us for part of the day.

Ta ta for now.

Saga continues

The cleanup has begun.
We are progressing with the insurance adjusters and the cleanup after our stormy weekend.

Mike house is about dried out, but uninhabitable. They are staying with Nancy's daughter. Mike is out here daily, either for the nursery or for the many aspects to getting their house repaired and returning to some semblance of order in their lives.
Nancy came with Mike and Dana yesterday to gather some things that they need, but were unable to get upon our evacuation last Saturday.

Brian is living in different places until he can find a house. He has siblings and friends where he can stay until that happens. He has been actively searching for a house for sometime now. We wish him the best of luck.

We heard from our insurance company yesterday. The adjuster came out early Tuesday morning, and he recommended that our car be totaled. I am so glad. I won't have to fight with the insurance company. I have heard really great things about National Interstate, and so far they are living up to that reputation.
We have been looking for a car and have found 3. Two of them were new Hyundai Elantras, and one was a used Jeep Liberty. We have decided on a 2009 Elantra GLS. The dealership was trying to sell the last of the 2009's. We got a good deal on a new car that we need due to Mother Nature. I just hope that this car is as good as our 'flooded car'.
The other Elantra was a 'Blue'. That is a new (2010) edition of the Elantra. It lacks some of the amenities of the GLS and it cost more.
Both dealerships were knowledgeable of our need to register this car in Texas, and the dealership we bought from handled the matter nicely.
The jeep was nice, but, the MPG was 17/22 vs 25/35. Also there was a need to buy an extended warranty. Brenda really didn't like the black color either.
Now, we need to get a base plate installed, so that we can tow it, and a hitch receiver for a carrier for our bicycles.

Yesterday I finally cleaned all of the flood debris from under the coach. There was an unbelievable amount of leaves , sticks, logs and other flotsam there. Luckily, Mike has a compost pile in the side yard and all of the natural debris went there.
A dumpster is supposed to be delivered, for the rehab debris, in a day or 2, so I will put the man made debris in that when it arrives.

Ta ta for now.

Quite a storm

So Much water it washed this pecan tree right over.


This boat drifted from about 2 or 3 homes north of Mikes house. It was wedged between our car and Mikes truck.


Friday night a storm blew into the Memphis area and stayed for a while.
It rained and rained and rained. I heard on the news that we got 8" officially, but I think we got much more in Bolton.
Mikes house gets some minor flooding when it rains a lot. But, this was ridiculous. We had somewhere near 2 1/2 feet of water flowing around the motor home and around Mikes house.
There was water in our car up to the dashboard. It looks like we will be getting a new car. Yuck, we really liked this one. I just don't trust a car that has been flooded.Luckily we didn't get any water in the coach, but Mike was not so lucky. There was 6-8" all over his first floor.
This is the water mark on the wall just outside of our coach on the garage wall.
This is what is left of our walk after the waters receded. We never found the other 2 pieces.

We had two trucks there that were not under water so we were able to evacuate. We left about 10am and Mike, Nancy and Marilyn went to Dana's house for a while, until other living arrangements can be made. They are going to be out of their house for a few months anyway.

We never lost power for more than just a blink, so we left Cleo at home. We are staying at Bev and Richard's house tonight and heading home tomorrow.
It is raining again here in Bartlett, but it is not steady rain like Friday night and Saturday morning.
The nursery got hit pretty hard also.
Greenhouse 4, which is not covered and open to the weather, was destroyed, There were several hundred plants, and most of them are spread throughout the yard or washed away or in the bottom of the pond. It is quite a mess. There was a ground cloth over the entire area, and it is almost rolled up along the outer edge.

All in all a mess, but we are insured. A minor inconvenience for us, but a major disruption in the lives of Mike and Nancy. She has been uprooted from her home for the last part of her life.

More on the saga later.

Ta ta for now.