Waiting for Laura
As I write this, Hurricane Laura is in the Gulf and headed towards the upper Texas Coast. At this point, landfall is predicted to be right on the Texas - Louisiana state line. If this turns out to be correct, we will be on the dry side with basically no rain and a bit more wind. But hurricanes always wiggle around some so the track of the storm could still shift to the west and slam the Texas coast in the area of Houston and Galveston with winds of 125 mph and storm surge of nearly 20 feet. That's what we are preparing for. Of course, we are far enough from the coast that we won't get any storm surge but we could still get winds of 100 mph and 10 inches of rain. I'd be happy with the rain but not the wind.
We battened down the hatches yesterday. We moved any loose items into the shed or the up on the porches. It's amazing how much stuff we have just sitting around. All the yard art got pulled inside as well as random flower pots, various odd tools and all sorts of stuff.
I topped off all the water troughs and filled up all our muck buckets. We are on well water here which means no water if the power goes out. Yes, we do have a solar panel array but decided against installing a field of batteries. When the power goes out, we are out of power.
All the barbecue cookers have been moved into the shed.
The tables, tubs and shelving we use for dyeing fiber and yarn have all been moved into the shed.
We have checked our flashlights and added new batteries where needed. We pulled out the candles and filled pitchers and pots with water. We have charged up our phones and iPads and filled the cars up with fuel.
I think we're ready. Now we just have to wait. Stay safe out there everyone!