Sunday, June 29, 2008

My Last Day in Iowa

I apologize to my reading public that I did not get a blog posted yesterday...which was my last day in Iowa...between working at the house, packing my crap, getting a bit of my crap out of the basement at Pam's, driving to Elkader to visit Gram and Aunt Billie, I'm afraid there was no time to blog.

BUT I did get pictures uploaded so I could finish today.

I'm coming to you from Wall, South Dakota. Welsh's Motel. It's not AS cool as The Hillcrest (no valance store) but the wifi is accessible, not just extant. I do enjoy the instructions on the outside of the door. "To open door. Insert key in slot. Turn key. Push door." Perhaps some of their clientele are incredibly STUPID.

Back to the flood report.

Yesterday, at one point there were 17 people in the house working:
me, Pam, Rob, Sher, Fred, Shelly, Brian, Megan, Joni, David, Julie, Cathy, Joe, Kenny, Bill, Sara Jane, Slugs(aka Bob)


The floors had to come up. Here are Brian, Fred, and Bill (always in overalls) working on the kitchen.














Actually, it appears only Bill was working. The other two must be union bosses.

Joni and someone working on removing the bottom 2' of the walls.














The sparkly effect is not some fancy photography. That is plaster dust reflecting the flash.
Pam had a small heart attack while taking out wall board in the dining room. She pulled out a bit of insulation and it moved! She couldn't breathe for a minute. She thought it was a nest of snakes. Turns out it was only a nest of giant night crawlers. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's Sara Jane trying to get her hands on the REO truck again.














It's loaded with the floor boards. The ENTIRE hardwood floor was removed in a day! Pretty amazing.

And Sher helping wash poosludge out of and off of ducts. Gross gross gross.














That crap stinks.

And here is what Rob referred to as the "money shot"...














The snowblower had been living in the front end of Fred's fishing boat. Fred was pretty sure that the snowblower was stuck because he could not move it. Turns out, Fred is just a puny weakling. You get four guys with some weight on them and that baby popped right out.

Sunday's food report: 3 new cakes showed up! One is cheesecake to go with the fresh picked strawberries from the day before. Another plain marble cake. Ever more food came in and we had sandwiches at 10 in the morning. For 2nd lunch at 1pm, Fred fried some fresh caught walleye and bass and more sandwiches and salads. And cake...and ice cream. I honestly have now had enough cake. I'm sick of it. I just had crackers for dessert today at the hotel.

While I was packing up Cathy made sure I had breakfast bars for the road and they are delicious (homemade of course). I must get the recipes.

I talked to Sher today and got the update:
The dehumidifiers went in today. They had to sweep up the basement first and they brought in the cabinets from the garage to get them dried out too.
So it's fantastic the walls are open and the floors up! Ready to dry out the wall guts and subfloor. Thanks especially to Brian, Shelly and Megan who worked their butts off for two days and stayed in very good cheer and brought their own eats. Julie, Dave, Cathy, Joe, Kenny and Bill helped along the way, too.

Sher said it was a calmer day than the weekend. That's quite good. Everyone needs rest.

I visited Gram...haven't seen here in years. She's tinier than ever. Then I went out to Billie and Keith's for the evening and a free bed. Thanks Billie! Nice to see them all.
I missed seeing some of the cousins but one can't be everywhere and this was not a leisure trip.

Sorry it's not as funny as usual, but I am crusty from the drive and just want a shower and some sleep.








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