Cleaning up and making do...

By Wednesday afternoon everything we owned was packed up, secured, and we were settled behind a strong wall in the centre of the house, locked inside. Our bathroom is in a corner, refurbished from a verandah and not safe at all. We did fill the bathtub with water, and lots of buckets...

 

 

All the donated 'New Beginnings' Kits were under the dining table, and in plastic crates.

The next morning, after the worst of Yasi had passed us by, Mr E and I went under the house to a safe corner (the winds were still very strong and stuff was flying around the yard) and untied the bbq. We boiled water on the bbq burner, and cooked up bacon and eggs. The power was gone so we had to use foods that were perishing.

 

 

We repeated this at lunchtime and cooked up a pan of mexican mince to make nachos. 

By the next morning (Friday) we had to throw out so much spoiled food. I'm glad we got to use some of it this way. 

By Thursday night the power was on again in half the town - we were in the blessed half. I started to put things back together in the kitchen so we could at least eat during the following days of clean up, while Mr E and Sam put our mattresses back in the bedrooms. 

The view in the backyard...

 

We were so blessed to only have tree damage. The pets are fine, as they were locked inside with us through Yasi, but the dog next door went missing in the hours before the storm and has still not been found. A sad but familiar story. :-(

We drove up to the hill at the top of town and looked over the region...

You won't be able to spot it (but I circled it and you can click for a large photo) but we could see the river for the very first time since we moved here. That's how high it had gotten - higher than when the floods went through in December. We were just told that the highway either side of the river has all been ripped apart, so no access for supplies for a long while. 

All that water will flood country Queensland again. :-(

The supermarket in town lost nearly all it's cold stock in the power loss and as our town had not yet fully restocked after the floods last month, we now have empty shelves. So many will have had to throw away spoiled foodstuffs, and there was only so much to go around at the supermarket. We are going to be very cautious with what we use until supplies arrive again. The river was over yesterday and roads cut off. It will take a while till life is normal once more, but we are BLESSED that we have homes, water and drygoods, and our lives.

Those in Tully, Mission Beach, Tully Heads, Innisfail, Cardwell....so many do not have this, not even in it's simplest form.

 Pray for them

Pray also for our friends in the US who are battling their own weather disaster with blizzards and ice storms. 

I don't know what your thoughts are, but I agree we are experiencing global warming, and this planet is only going to get more and more weather crises. What are we leaving to our children and grandchildren? I shudder to think.

~~~~~

This morning I had to use the last of the apples, and didn't realise till later that I was using the last of the self raising flour....

..and baked cinnamon/apple/currant muffins with the last of the homemade yoghurt. 

 I don't have any baking powder so will need recipes with plain flour. How can I make baking powder, do you know? I might have ingredients? **(Thanks to those who shared the recipe for baking powder! I don't have cream of tartar so will have to shelve that idea)** We do have bread flour so I can bake some loaves as we need them.

 Now to start unpacking the sewing room, begin lunch (baking olive focaccia breads), and finish washing the blankets. Mr E spent yesterday cutting up fallen trees at the school, and today is starting the clean up around the house here.

It's raining again and lightning storms are predicted, so a quiet night inside will finish our day. 

I'll do Show and Tell tomorrow. :-)

Hugs

Jenny

xxx

After Yasi

We're ok. :-)

4 trees came down in the backyard and 1 in the front, but the huge mango tree right outside the bedroom and front verandah windows stayed firm - if this had come down we would have lost the house and damage to ourselves as it is almost twice the height of our home.

⁹ If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,”
   and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰ no harm will overtake you,
   no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
   to guard you in all your ways;
¹² they will lift you up in their hands, 

(Psalm 91)

We kept the hundreds of glass louvre windows open throughout the cyclone as my husband deemed this the safest option - it would prevent pressure build up inside - and it worked. Not a single louvre was broken or even cracked. 

The house was wet inside, leaves, twigs, bugs etc - but we were fine, huddled together behind the safest wall with our mattresses, the cold winds rushing around us on their path through the windows.

The prayers and love of so many of you, and of my friends and family, carried us through - as Wednesday night began to get serious and things were flying down the road I felt a calm come over me and I knew we'd be ok. We just had to sit still and let it pass. It was a long night and we lost all power, but by late afternoon on Thursday the power came back on and the clean up began.

PLEASE pray for those in areas that received the full bore of Cyclone Yasi - some of the areas are devastated beyond recognition. My heart is so full right now, knowing what we ourselves experienced during Yasi, and being aware that their own experience was so much worse, their time of recovery much greater.

Mr E secured all the New Beginnings kits that had arrived so far, and they are all dry and safe. I am thinking we will need more...and we really need drawstring bags so that the extra kits made up from various fabric/thread/notions etc donations can be put together. 

If you can make up a simple drawstring bag (about 10 inch square?) please email me and I'll give you the address to post to. 

From my heart to you all...

¹⁶ I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers...."

Ephesians 1:16

Hugs

Jenny

xxx

Cyclone Yasi

Dear friends,

I'm sure many of you know of the monster cyclone about to hit the North Queensland coast in the next 16 hours.

It is the biggest cyclone to ever hit Australia, and we are no strangers to tropical cyclones every summer, so this is quite frightening.

Our little town will be affected badly. I am asking you to pray for us all, every one of us facing this disaster. It is now Category 5, and we are to prepare for Category 3 or 4 to hit our little town.

I have friends in towns up here that are as scared as I, and we are all joining in prayer for each other. 

In our own home we have battened down what we can, and will lock ourselves in the most secure room of the house. We have glass louvre windows all around the house, and these are of great concern to us as the wind already whistles up through them, but with a cyclone...

Pray. Just pray for all of us affected in North Queensland. We have been told we will receive 1,000 ml of rain in our town - that is unfathomable to me. 

You can track the cyclone HERE throughout the coming hours,

God bless us all,

Jenny