Hurricane Michael and My Moat

Hurricane Florence was pretty devastating for the NC coast, no doubt. An hour east of Raleigh and those guys were in a world of hurt. But Florence didn't really have any effect on my area of the state. I had some debris, maybe a limb, mostly I just had to rake the yard like I'm going to have to do again when the leaves fall. Hurricane Michael actually had a much bigger impact on us, after it came up from the gulf of Mexico. The winds were really sever, and it dumped a TON of rain.

I finished digging the ditch the day before the hurricane hit. It quickly turned my ditch into a 2' deep moat!

The last part of the ditch

Long side, finally at depth

That's a mighty ditch

Ready to dry fit those blocks

During the hurricane

In other porch supply updates AND hurricane news, we have supplies! Kelley was out at a Habitat for Humanity re-store when she found some brick. I had budgeted $600 for bricks for the porch based on online estimates for quantity (750) but she found 1000 bricks at the store for only $200. This is an amazing deal! They came on 3 pallets, and we stacked them up next to the boat.

It was the easiest place to put them

Then Hurricane Michael came through. The only real casualty was the custom short sawhorses that were holding up the strongback. 2 out of the 3 of them collapsed! Eventually I did pull them out and rebuild, but the wind was that strong. It just blew over the boat in whole.

Dang! Boat down!

One last sweet note. Kelley wanted to know what the porch was going to look like when it was done, she wanted the design that was in my head to exist on paper. Draw it like one of your french girls, she said. So I drew out a few views. Not sure how the picture is going to come out here, but this was pretty neat to see it on paper.

Front view, side view, top down view

So finally I'm ready to start building something back up!! It's taken so long for the prep work, destruction, and digging. That means it is time for some concrete. Foundation, blocks, bricks, bring on the masonry.

Lastly, a funny. Tuesday is election day! Go vote! Do your civic duty and support your candidates. I'm going to vote just so I can complain about whoever wins.

North Carolina is not a penis. Florida, you never know what's going to have a penis.