Sometimes cuteness just needs to come into the picture

This is Miss Evelyn and I had made her a doll and a matching dress, the dress is a size two . I think that her mom was anxious to try it on , It may be next year before she can fit into it properly. But she sure is cute!!

On the flip side

My robotic quilter has been saved and I am making use of it while I am waiting to do anything I can on the yard. The wait is killing me and I hope that soon I can start moving ahead.

I had made these tops during the winter and now have time to get them all stitched up , I have one more quilt top that needs to be dressed and then I will have to start getting CREATIVE again.

Goodness knows I have a lot of fabric to do stuff with !

And this is why you have not heard from me in awhile

Most have been evacuated and in Ottawa Hotels. We choose to stay and man pumps. I just put 39$k in renovations and too stubborn to loose the house. Many have walked away. 

Those that are high and dry have opted to have the city put them into nice hotels. I laugh and call them wimps as we soldier on. The volunteers have been called off the Salvation Army leaves on Thursday. It is like living in a ghost town.

The city is manning some huge pumps down the street to try to keep the integrity of the road but it is miserably crumbling. Several times a day they pass by and honk and wait for me to appear. They seem to be worried about me.

I trudge about 3/4 of a mile in hipwadders to  get to the car luckily most times the police or city workman pick me up when they see me.

I am pretty popular. Another young family not far brought me goods I can eat. The Salvation Army food is delicious but not suited to my diabetes. We can’t leave the pumps for more than an hour. So hard to get groceries but Ben can eat all the prepared foods. The legion is feeding people 3xa day and I went there for breakfast and found food I could eat. They let me bring some home to last throughout the day.

If the water recedes in another week all should be well. It appears as if we have had the second wave the water level is up 3” today.

Can’t say life is boring but my house is a mess when the kids elevated everything and boxed stuff up. Still looking for stuff. We have so many folks come by and then truck through the house the whole place is topsy turvy.

My deck is full of my fence posts that washed away and the woodpile I chased. I am drying the wood so we have heat in the house the heater wiring is in the crawl space and pretty wet so we keep those breakers off.

We heat up wash water and there is a set of portable potties several lots down. The community center allows us to use the showers and bathrooms.

That poor deck is full of generators and pumps what a site!!!

I need to get a structural engineer in here not sure if the house may have shifted. But until the water subsides nothing can be done!

CBC radio interviewed me last week with the man that Sandbagged my house. Apparently they stopped counting at 12000 bags. Just wait I have to drag them all to the roadside for pickup after the water subsides. They are heavy!!!

Good thing my folks are dead they would probably suffer coronary’s with my tales.

The Salvation Army waded in to check on me they were worried I hadn’t been seen for a day or two. Apparently they came to give me spiritual support. Heck I wanted hard labour! They think I am pretty funny! Ben all but kissed the legion ladies he was so hungry and they had a lovely hot meal for him. People have been so good to us.

Twice the pumps went down and I had to call for help boy they were here in 10 minutes . These wonderful men just dropped everything and ran!

We are so appreciative you have no idea. I do hope that the city crew stays around for awhile they are pretty helpful! 

The police are present as well but they informed us if we get into trouble they can’t get to us. I told them that was ok I have lived a good life! Lol

Missing Jennifer’s little ones haven’t seen them since October!! Teddy really 

Misses us but we will babysit him for the first two weeks in July- he may change his tune!

Updates

This has been our life since we returned home on May 1.
First we were at awe for the many families we knew who were literally under water. Our house was saved by mere inches. The WCDR volunteers, our daughter and friends, the Mennonites and army all helped. There is a 6' high sandbag wall at the waterfront and a 4' sandbag wall at the roadside. We have no septic or water and we have a little hydro. The water is slowly going down and we need to have it do so quickly as we are soo wet and we need to address all the problem areas.

We are in an evacuated zone the road was washed out now almost dry by there are only residents allowed in and out of the zone, For awhile most of our neighbours left. It was quite earie at night.


Things are looking up but we have a long way to go , we were thankful to the Salvation Army who fed us and looked out for us as we had no way of going to gather grocieres, walk 3/4 mile in hip wadders and loft those groceries over our chest to get into the property. In the end we had 7 pumps running and 4 needed to be gassed up every 1.5 hrs. We were exhausted but could not afford to sleep.

Now out of harms way we sleep in spurts waiting for the moment we can start clean up. The road is opened to residents and we have now got our fridge and freezer stocked, We can now eat at will- this may not be a good thing!

We are quite anxious for the water to receed for obvious reasons , what a delight to maybe have running water one day , Although it may be contaminated but we can deal with that. Our garage is swimming and we really  need to have that dried out soon , so we can get in there and reach our much needed tools.

It is simply nerve wrecking at this point and terrible to watch the river as it swells once again .

This is us in the brown house with my daughter being interviewed.

https://globalnews.ca/video/5219097/ottawa-residents-rush-to-save-homes-from-rising-waters


This is us today. tired of seeing sandbags but hope they will soon not be needed!