Welcome, September

This week was full of heart ache as we watched our city get slammed by trillions of gallons of water from Hurricane Harvey. Today's newspaper headline read '51 Inches!' We were fortunate to have a safe and dry place to live while all of this was happening, but we're emotionally drained and feeling all sorts of survivors guilt in the aftermath of it all. So many families are displaced. People we personally know have gone from being self dependent to having no where to live in the course of a few days. We got to go inside one of these majorly flooded houses this morning. Entire subdivisions had piles and piles of damaged household furniture, sheet rock, and ruined flooring out on the curbs. The houses have to be stripped down to the studs, and fast, before the mildew and mold start to really rot it and it becomes in-salvageable. So very overwhelming and sad. But in the midst of it all, there are so many volunteers helping out. Lots of love is going around, and that is what is keeping everyone's spirits up.

Schools have been delayed until after Sept. 11th. And even now, the district isn't entirely sure if it will meet that deadline. This year Briggs will be going into grade 1. Finn will be attending a Waldorf mixed kindergarten class, and little Max is going to do some half-days twice a week at the Waldorf school too. I'm not really sure what Madeline and I will be working on while the boys are away. Probably tending the animals and trying to conquer the fall garden. I'm determined to get the back of the house painted at some point too, along with an infinite number of small yard projects that are calling me.

We've done a bunch of cleaning up this week while the sun dries out the ground. We had to drain our animal run with a new pipe to get all the standing water out before mosquitoes took advantage of that. I spent a good portion of a morning mucking out the chicken coop and cleaning all the mud out due to the chickens AND goats co-living in it for 4 days straight while the rain poured. The animals were (for the most part) high and dry through it all. Saffron and Aurelia kept head-butting the hens out the door, poor girls. The hens managed to avoid becoming broody, and only one entered molting season so far. Our egg production has slowed down because we're in the heat of the summer. I'm so looking forward to those cool crisp mornings where I can't feel any humidity suffocating my nose! I must be patient though.

Keep all of Houston in your thoughts and prayers. And if you want to come help with relief efforts, you have a place to stay here. We have 1 bunk bed in the kids' room, a double mattress we can put on the floor, and a tent platform on the deck outside (although, I would really only recommend that once it cools off).