Cristobal, you can leave now!

  Well, Tropical Storm Cristobal came to visit the Bayou and is stirring up a tad bit of trouble before he makes his exit.  Yes, I do know that the storm "officially" made landfall in Louisiana but, like I said before, that put us on that right side...the side you do not want to be on during any tropical system.  Why?  Because in any typical storm, that upper right quadrant (our side in this case just like in Hurricane Katrina) is the side that catches the brunt of the wind, tidal surge and rain.  The area that is impacted by the right side of a tropical system in the Atlantic Basin, is in for trouble.  We got trouble by the buckets!  Rain...lots and lots of rain fell on the area and that created flooding and wind..sometimes gusting nigh on to hurricane force, pushed even more water into our area.  In fact, as of this writing, the rain gauge reads a little over 8 inches. This flooding is not going to go away for a while.  Here on the Bayou, we are lucky.  We live on a hill that overlooks the Bay and Bayou.  While the tidal surge came and is slowly receding at this time, the rain filling the creek that empties into the back of the Bayou is causing trouble for those behind us.  Here, the rain slides off into the Bay.  Others are not so fortunate.  The water from rivers, creeks, ponds and any low spots just pools and then floods into houses.  Not good.  

  The pier seems to have taken a beating and planks have wandered off to parts unknown.  Those will have to be replaced.  Hopefully, (I cannot tell yet as water is still covering it) the base structure of the pier is still intact.  Planks can be replaced with a little hard work.  The gardens look a whole lot worse for wear.  The wind has pretty much tattered the plants.  Again, with a little hard work, those can be replaced.  Son and I worked throughout the storm to keep things together.  Several times, we had to brave the pelting rains and high winds to hoist the skiffs a bit further up the hill until we finally just chained the boats to a sturdy oak tree.  Enough of that!  

  Tomorrow will find us with more rain and occasional fierce winds but hopefully the storm surge will be down.  Cleaning up the debris line across the front and side yards will have to wait until Cristobal decides to make a full exit.  As I am writing, the winds are still rapping at the windows and rain is continually pelting the rooftop.   Some of these storms just refuse to leave!