Connie, Carl and Gabby helped out today

Connie, Carl and Gabby came today and much was accomplished.

Carl took out many loads of mud which enabled Robert and him to
rebuild the table that had been knocked askew. They also sorted
and boxed or bagged any good stuff they found. There were two
new pumps, bought as backups for the well and pool. So far, that
is three pumps found and Robert has the first one working again!

Connie worked some in the barn, but then concentrated on
Robert's parent's shell collection. When they died we found
500 pounds of sorted shells in their garage. These were the
ones, before mentioned, from Sanibel Island. Connie and
later Gabby washed and sorted the shells and rescued the
delicate ones and put them safely in storage containers.

With Gabby's help I pulled about 65 LPs out of the mud soaked
box they were in. Many of the jackets were covered with mud,
but I think by and large the records themselves will be OK. The
only jackets that I really want to save are two. One is of
Robert Frost's poems read by Robert Frost. The record appears
to be fine, but the jacket is not. Likewise, I have a record of
Thomas Dylan's poems read by Thomas Dylan. Again, the jacket is
a mess, but the record seems to be OK. I hope I can restore the
two jackets.

At Carl's suggestion I Googled "LP sleeves." Up popped a site
that sells sleeves and storage boxes. I have ordered both so
that after I clean up the records I have good storage from them.
Some of them I have already converted to CDs, but I have many more
to convert.

It was a very productive day. I can't believe how much we
accomplished.

Thank you Connie, Carl and Gabby! You are the greatest!

Help from many directions!

Help from several sources.

We have been so honored! Many people have come forth to help.
The Ecoscape crew had 6 guys and a Ditch Witch working for
almost 4 hours to clear the mud from the barn. You can actually
see the floor. Now we have only the corners to clean.

Marti came and took out many loads of mud from the freezer
room. She found all sorts of stuff buried under the mud, some
retrievable and some not. She did yeoman duty!

Another day Erin came. She worked on the SE corner of the barn.
She found goodies there, too. Most notable were the box of sea
shells that we brought back after Robert's folks died. This is
the best of the best that his folks had collected over a twenty
year period from Sanibel Island in Florida. They survived. She
also found their sand collection, most of it in tact. Some had
lost their labels so aren't going to stay in the collection.
There is still much clean up of them to do.

The work continues. Connie and Carl are coming today to help.

Yesterday the County came and carefully looked at our barn and
its precarious situation. They have told us they'll bring Jersey
barriers for the west and north sides of the barn and position
them in such a way the water of the next flood should be diverted
from the barn. The barriers will be placed and the sand bags
relocated against the barriers. They also will finish cleaning
the mud from the sides of the barn and will take away the huge
pile of dirt and debris that sits in the barn yard.

All of the above has made our lives much better. Robert doesn't
show depression, but I know I have been terribly depressed at the
seemingly insurmountable job of the clean up. It seemed we would
be spending the rest of our lives on the barn and I was decidedly
unhappy about that. One never knows what is coming next in your
life, but if you are in your 80s and in Robert's case struggling
with a chronic disease that is eventually terminal...but in the
meantime robs you of any stamina you might have had, spending
so much on the barn is hard.

Now, the tunnel is still long, but there is light peaking
through!

Pictures of the clean-up

Today, Bill Melvin's Ecoscape crew came and cleaned the mud
out of the barn. It is truly amazing. The light in the tunnel is
still far, far away, but there is light.

We had another flash flood warning and a thunderstorm, but
so far no flood.

This is one of three piles of debris from barn






















Inside of barn after the Prius has been dug out.

Muddy debris mostly from Robert's shop.


Sand from middle of barn














Backhoe working to clear debris from the east
end of the barn; the part that is pushed in.

The flood clean-up goes on...

The clean-up goes on.

We have now had two floods, but the second only affected
us emotionally, no damage. It wasn't as big as the one
on Wednesday. There were warnings on Saturday, but no
flood.

Yesterday, Bill from Gold Hill came down and spent the
morning hauling mud out of Robert's shop. Paul from
the DSES group also was there all morning and most of
the afternoon. Paul is involved with a group who
is studying the rain fall patterns nationally and there
was no rain gauge in this area. Now we have one. We
also have a couple of hail pads. Those take me back
to the NCAR days.

Viki spent the afternoon cleaning the Prius. It is
ready to go again!

Last evening Carl, Martha and Gabby brought up pizza
and ice cream. Viki stayed and we all enjoyed a
relaxing evening together. That was nice.

Connie's house is getting into shape. When it is
finished she'll have the joy of unpacking, but
next weekend she is planning to come here and lend
a hand as are Carl and Gabby. Martha has her
annual dance weekend so won't be joining the crew.

Today, Ecoscape Co. is here in force donating time
to the flood victims. They are working on the
barn. The county is bringing up a dumpster some
time today! All of these are very helpful.

Robert reports that the Vermillion's driveway
which is also drainage for a gulch is now a
mini, but still Grand Canyon instead of road!
I hope to get up there today.

Dodged the bullet today

There were huge thunderstorms with hail, rain, wind, etc, but not in the burn area! That meant we dodged the bullet.

We had two local teens working this morning and made some progress on the mud in the barn! Gradually, things are appearing from under the mud. Many things can be salvaged with a little washing. Some, of course can't. I'm trying to list the losses for our taxes next year! The biggest may be the Prius. We'll not know about that for a while yet. Robert took more stuff out of its innards again today. I didn't do any digging, just washing.

Word has it that one of the houses that was hit hard last Wednesday was hit again with the storm yesterday. People worked to clean out the house all day yesterday and after they went home another mud slide hit the house.

Another neighbor had their well filled with mud. They spent the day digging that out and then discovered the board holding the pressure tank was rotted and down went the pressure tank. I think they have been able to retrieve it, but I don't know what shape it is in.

Today, two folks from the Deep Space Exploration Society (DSES) came up to help. But, we under threat of more storms so they spent most of their time looking at Robert's solar system and carting away some extra batteries that Robert was donating to the club. They are the outfit who have taken over the 60 ft. dish at Haswell, Colorado.

I think I am getting used to the fact of the barn and that cleaning it out is not going to be finished this week nor next nor the next. We'll gradually rescue stuff. All the dry food in the freezer is fine. That is the food I store in case we can't get out of here for weeks. That is rice, beans, flour, sugar, etc. I also had gallons of water. At least one has turned up from under the mud.

That's the story from here for now.