Floods, Goodbyes, Kitchens and more!

So, apparently I haven't downloaded/taken photos for a while. Here's what's been waiting around on my camera. First, some pictures of a sunset. These were taken during the flood as its not normal to see water from the end of our (old) driveway.
Here are a few other shots from the flood.
These were taken around the same place the last ones were taken.


As I took these pics, my neighbor and I took our dogs for one last walk. June will definitely miss her boyfriend Riley. We also caught sight of these Sandhill cranes enjoying the water.
And here's a short video of their calls.

Thankfully, the second wave of flooding that was forecast for today/yesterday was comparatively mild and the county can begin clean up/rebuilding back to a semi-normal existence.

In the meantime, we got the entire house sorted and packed and the movers came on Monday to whisk away 259 of our most prized possessions, leaving the old farmhouse (mostly) empty for the first time in its entire existence. Though I was all wrapped up in logistics (read: chaos) of moving and it didn't hit me later, it's a pretty emotional thing to see the house empty. More on that later.

We also had both cars filled to the brim, including the rooftop carrier for James. Tuesday and Wednesday we ran our last minute errands, said some of our goodbyes and headed out Wednesday night for Montana. We arrived around 12:30am Thursday, and our possessions arrived with the super eager moving crew 7.5 hours later. More power to these young gentleman who RAN to the truck and off the truck and with our stuff. I can't think of anything less appealing than running around with someone else's junk. While they were running in and out of the house, we kept the kitties locked up in the laundry room:
Precisely so they wouldn't try this:
4 hours after the movers started, they left us with this:
and this (admittedly, hidden somewhere in there is my buffet, so the pile is not as bad as it seems).
Sadly, most of these boxes are marked 'kitchen'. Had the movers put 1 box actually in the kitchen, it would have rendered the space completely useless. Oh how I miss the old kitchen already. Speaking of the old kitchen, here are two videos of Matthew I took in it before we left. First, Matthew and Olivia play:

Then, a video of the weird creepy exorcist/growl/demon noise Matthew keeps making. It cracks me up most of the time, but sometimes when it sounds like he's speaking in sentences with it, it's kinda creepy:

Surprisingly, James and I made a nice sized dent in the above pile and hopefully by early next week I'll have pics of the place looking a little more settled.

Flooding Update

Just a quick update. First, thank you for all of those who are sending good thoughts and prayers our way. Things were slightly better across the county today with some areas receding, but everyone is bracing for the worst as semi-heavy rain and snow are forecast for this weekend. Unfortunately it's raining right now.

Anyway, here are some unique aerial pictures that have been shared on Facebook. If you have a Facebook account you can check them out in this album created by Zac Larsen at http://www.facebook.com/FremontCountyFlood2010#!/album.php?aid=2167591&id=193303596&page=2

Here are just a few he has shared. This one have been posted on many family and friends walls as these are my mother's family's ranch: The ranch house is behind the trees on the left.


And this is of the intersection about a mile down the road from us. Normally there is a road between the two houses, and the highway running SW/NE in the photo is our road.
And here is water on the streets of Lander.
Again, all credit for the photos in this post goes to Zac Larsen. As devastating as the pictures are, there have been no lives lost and the emergency response has been quick and effective and the volunteer outpouring amazing.