Nancy's Blog

We checked the water a little earlier this morning, at 7:30. It is 2′ 9″ deep. It went down 2 feet in one day. We are figuring 1 inch per hour. At that rate, there will still be 7 to 8 inches of water over the road at 9 a.m. in the morning. Pick-ups & SUV’s should have no problem. By noon it should be down to 4 to 5 inches where you could go through in a car. Completely off around 4:30(we’ll be open until 6p.m.). So you can plan according to what you are comfortable with. Of course this is conjecture on our part, and I will update the information around 8 p.m. tonight, and again around 7 a.m. tomorrow.

As I mentioned yesterday, we boated out to bring some employees in and I got my first look at the sign on the highway since it has been submerged.

Hasting Plants sign at Hasting Lane & Hwy 69

Surprisingly there are letters still left on the sign. Now it looks like a board from Wheel of Fortune….Can you determine the missing letters? 🙂

Here are a few shots of my employees on their way to work by boat!

Lydia, Jo Ann, Brenda

Brenda, Mike & Jo Ann

Lydia & Mike

Did you notice how happy they all seem?

There is one other “member” of the crew that was even happier…..no, not me, but I was happy to have help. This was the one who was left behind. Actually closed up in a greenhouse so she couldn’t follow us in the boat. Crystal was ECSTATIC!!!!!

Crystal, greeting her friends!

She ran from one group to the next just so excited to see them!

We got a lot of clean-up accomplished, so the greenhouses are just waiting for you to arrive!!!!!

Now, I have to leave you with the thought I had last evening. I was walking down Hasting Lane to look at the water gauge. It was peaceful and quiet…I knew no one else could come down the road. I had it all to myself. Then I realized…..Prince William & Kate have NOTHING on me…I’ve been “honeymooning” for 3 weeks on my own private island with Mike!!!!!

I’ll update you again this evening!

Water is at 4 1/2 feet this morning. It went down 2 feet yesterday. It will be close for opening on Saturday…might be a little water early in the day, which should be off by afternoon, so if you want to come a little later, that might be safer. I will post it here as soon as I know the status. I’ll update the home page red comment Friday night and early Saturday morning, so you can check that or call.

Here is my BEAUTIFUL WATER FREE DRIVEWAY!!!!!

No water on the drive!!!!!

More later today. I’m hoping to boat some employees in to help get things ready today.

We still keep looking at the gauges and hope we’re not rushing planning on being open Saturday. The Mt. Vernon Gauge looks real good, but the JT Meyers Gauge still looks high. Do call or check this web site for up to date information.

The water is  6′ 3″ deep in the road today. Our driveway just keeps getting longer!

We are almost dry up to the "mailbox" again!

And, you know I have to show this…..

Mailbox recovery!

You will never look at my mailbox the same again, will you????? It was close by, all intact, just a little beaten up, but usable for the moment….now if our mailman would just come!

On a plant note, I just love having lots of peony varieties in my yard. They are all starting to bloom right now, so I picked a big bouquet to bring in the house….just look at all the colors and shapes of blooms!

Bouquet of Peonies

And the Supertunias are “glorious” right now. I just had to share a photo of that, and then I need to get back to work!

Priscilla, and other "Supertunias" in full bloom!

Dates:

Opening May 14th(call or check to confirm) 9 to 6

Open Sunday May 15(for sure) 1 to 8pm.

Late Night  May 20 8pm. to 12 am.

Sheila’s Reception for 20 years May 30, 9-4

SATURDAY!!!!!

They just updated the river forecast, and it looks like we may open on Saturday!!!!! instead of Sunday. Our hours will be 9 to 6 on Saturday, 1 to 8 on Sunday.

We can’t wait!!!!!

Also, we just rescheduled Sheila’s Honor Day for Memorial Day, May 30. We will be open from 9 to 4 that day.

I’m getting excited…….

Please do call or check the web page before coming.

The water continues to drop. It is 7 1/2 feet deep in the road now….never thought I’d be glad to say that!

Here is the road and “mailbox” view for today.

Our driveway.

You can walk next to the yardstick we stuck out in the field at this point. It is amazing that it is still there with all the current we had.

Mike checking our mail 🙂

Yes, now we can see our non-existent “mailbox”….at least the post! The entire cross piece is gone with the box.

As we walked up to the road this morning, there were several Great Blue Herons right in the road, but they flew off before I was close enough for a photo. A little later, I was able to capture these 2.

Great Blue Herons

We have been pumping our well pit since Friday evening. Mike did it every hour for 2 days(I was gone to Bloomington). Sunday night we put a fountain pump in the pit and were able to stretch it to 1 and 1/2 hours between pumping. I took the night schedule until 3:30a.m. so Mike could sleep in the bed for a while, then I go to sleep later. Monday night(last night) we were able to go 2 hours between pumping, and today it has seemed to slow immensely. We still have the fountain pump running continuously. If we can stretch 4 or 5 hours between pumping, just think of the sleep we can get!!!!!

Still hoping to be open Sunday May 15, 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Late Night rescheduled for Friday  May 20, 8p.m. to midnight

I failed to tell you of the sign I saw on my way to Bloomington. A church had this message posted “Noah, do you still have the plans?” I thought that was appropriate. I guess I know a little of how Noah felt after he sent the dove and it finally came back with a branch! It’s just hard to wait with the end in sight. At least it is great to be able to give an actual day when we hope to be open when you call (Sunday, May 15). I will  stay open from 1 p.m. until 8p.m.(or until people quit coming) that day. I will also have all plants 20% off until the end of season sale starts. One reason is to thank you for waiting to get plants from me, another is to make up for the coupons which “expired”, another is just to encourage people to come on down to shop. If you had hard goods purchases(non plants) you were wanting to use your coupons on, I will  honor the coupons on merchandise until May 31.

Here is the mailbox (my flood level reference)  from this morning.

Mailbox view

Having trouble seeing it? See the post sticking up in the center of the picture????? That’s the post where our mailbox used to be….who knows where it is now…..

And our driveway  looks better evey day.

Driveway view

The water is dropping at about 1 foot a day right now. You can almost hear the sucking noise of water swirling down the drain! 🙂

Reopening(we hope) May 15, 1p.m. to 8 p.m.

Late Night/ Flood’s Over Party May 20 8p.m. to Midnight!

Happy Mother’s Day!

And it is a Happy Day! The water is starting to drop!!!!!

Driveway beside sales building and old barn.

If you see all of the blocks and bricks in the drive, they were thrown in the road as the water was raising to mark the height at different times. The brick in the lower right hand corner was the highest point. So you can see it is dropping. I threw a stick in the road and was amazed to see how much more road showed each hour after that.

By this afternoon, we could see the yardstick again!

The yardstick reads 29 inches.

I was amazed this hadn’t floated away with all the current that rushed through there! And wonder of wonders….can it be…..at the end of our drive….

The post on the mailbox!

By tomorrow we might actually see the mailbox again! We measured and the water has dropped 12 inches from the crest. I actually kayaked out today since the water was smooth and it looked like the current wasn’t too bad, so I could see the gauge on the road.

Gauge reads about 9' 3"

At least we can see it now! It had gone over the top of the 10′ mark. And just for kicks, here is a view of Hasting Lane from my kayak.

Heading East on Hasting Lane

About mid-morning I got real excited when I came to the house and looked at the river gauges, I had originally thought I would be able to open around May 16 or 17, but now it looks like I can open at least by Sunday the 15th! Woo Hoo!!!!!

Late Night will be rescheduled for May 20. I think we will bill it as Late Night/Flood’s Over Party!

Hopefully by tomorrow the water will be off of Hwy 69 north of Hasting Lane. It will make getting out a whole lot easier.

I’m Back!!!!!

Yes, I made it to Daniel’s graduation!!!!

On Thursday afternoon, a friend boated me out. We had to boat through the river bottoms on out and up the Ohio River, where we came back in at the rock yard.

Hwy 69 south of Hasting Lane

You can see the road signs sticking out. The highway is along the tree line. And here is what you can see of my sign:

Sign at the corner of Hasting Lane and Hwy 69

As we came off of the Ohio River, here is our vies of Hwy 69 and the rock yard.

Boating up toward the highway near the rock yard.

The vehicles belong to people who have boated from there onto their houses as well as sightseers.

Here is the boat beached on the highway.

How amazing to think the water is level with the highway here!!!!

If you came down the highway, this is what you would see near the rock yard.

Bridge on Hwy 69 just before Bonebank Road.

Here is the riverfront at Mount Vernon. I have never seen water this high. The tall pillar to the left has the 1937 flood level marked on it. The 2nd largest flood was 1913, and the lower pedestal has 1913 marked on it in magic marker, so I’m guessing that may have been the level for that date.

The river gauge for Mount Vernon is a metal strip in the pavement ending with the 1937 pillar.

So, I was on the “outside” at this point. I drove to Bloomington Friday morning for a ceremony on Friday afternoon, and Graduation was Saturday morning.

Daniel next to the stadium (close to his apartment).

Closer shot of Daniel

It was a wonderful time of feeling great pride in our son’s accomplishments. It was also a bit bittersweet as well since everywhere I looked, graduates were standing for photos with their whole families around them. Mike really missed being there. Also, I wish Olive were still alive to enjoy this event, she would have burst with pride for her only grandson!

Today,  I rushed home from Bloomington and our neighbor was kind enough to drive me down Hwy 69 in his tractor, where Mike picked me up in our boat. Thankfully the wind wasn’t strong like they had predicted, and it all worked out.

Here is Hwy 69 right before you get to Hasting Lane.

Hwy 69 north of Hasting Lane (taken from the tractor)

So the flood story continues from the inside. Thankfully Mike reported that the waters have dropped 5 inches! We could see the top of our 10 ft. gauge in the road as we boated back in. Our problem now that the water is beginning to recede is that the water had begun to seep into our well pit. Mike is having to pump that out every hour or so. Let’s hope that when the water drops this week, that that will go away.

Thanks so much for your kind comments here, by phone, email and when I happen to see you(not often since I’m not “outside” much). I ran into a customer at the grocery store before coming home who told me she would be down when the water is off the road. It just makes me feel so humbled that all of you care so much!

Water is up AGAIN today, 2 1/2″ deeper than yesterday. All of our gauges have been flooded over so now we are using a flag we stuck in the water’s edge a couple of days ago. We stick our yardstick next to that & measure how deep it is. Will it ever quit rising??????? We are getting so close to the old barn and sales building. Mike is wondering if we should start moving things out. We look at the crests daily, but it seems we exceed the crest each morning & they make a bigger one each day. We went out on our boat a couple of days ago to look at Mike’s irrigation pivots.

View of the house from the south side

This is what our house looks like from the south. There is quite a drop off in the ground on that side.

This is Mike’s irrigation pivot.

End gun on Pivot # 5

The end gun normally is 12′ up in the air. Mike spent quite a bit of his time before the flood got so deep taking the motors off of the wheels at the base of each tower and hanging it from the top of the tower. There are even some of those motors that are submerged. Who would have thought…..

Now the current water at the sales building.

Water in the road near the sales building

As you can see, we had to move some of the soil we normally store next to the old barn. We have thrown those concrete blocks you see in the water at the water’s edge to mark how far it is in the past couple of days.

I’m hoping to boat out to Daniel’s graduation today & then hope to be able to get back in at least by Sunday. If I can’t get back in, I will be frantic. You probably won’t hear again from me  “from the FLOOD” until Day14!

Well, I didn’t blog this morning…..I was too disheartened. The water rose another 3 inches overnight. It is 10 feet deep in the road. That isn’t what disheartened me. I was/am hoping to get out tomorrow to head to IU for Daniel’s graduation, and things weren’t looking good this morning. We can boat on up to the highway, but now that Highway 69 is covered, it was uncertain if I could get on out to my car.  I was looking for helicopters, or anything to get out. Right now I think I can boat to the neighbors & they will take me through the 2 feet of water on the highway in their tractor. The only problem is how soon I can get back in.  If it is windy, we don’t trust ourselves on the backwater, and they are predicting several windy days ahead in the forecast.

If I can’t get back in, Mike will have to care for the plants. That is asking a lot of him with all the other things he has to do, and he isn’t experienced at watering…..

I  enjoyed reading your comments after I made that blatant bid for more of them! 🙂