Yes, I'm still here, water logged and on a generator. Day 5 without power. Having trouble keeping a connection and keeping the laptop's battery charged.
Things are a mess, but all things considered, we're in good shape, and certainly in a lot better shape than many in this region of Texas & La. Water has receded a lot, almost off 1/2 my property now.
"4 cows lost" ..
I'm not 'sure' all 4 are drowned, just unaccounted for.
Neighbor called today to tell me a little light colored beefmaster looking calf floated up in the backwater of one of his pastures today, so i am assuming that is the premie that was born early last week and is among the missing. a 4 yr old horned BM, a Char heifer about 2 yrs old, a 6 yr old char cow, and a 3 yr old BM cow.
Inversely, I have 2 in the pasture that aren't mine, so maybe mine are in someone's pasture downstream.
They have no idea how long before the power can be restored. It's down somewhere in the river bottom on Nat'l Forest land where the water is still high and running fast.
Won't be long before I have spent more for gen fuel than the meat in the freezers are worth.
On the morning we left, water was already up to the 2nd step of my front porch steps and not an inch of dry land in sight 360 deg around. I knew we could never make it paddling upstream to the highway, and knew there was a deep wide gorge we would have to cross going South that was now just flat water, level with all the rest of the place. I wasn't sure I could handle that cross flow in that deep spot alone, and my wife is not an experienced 'paddler', so I called the fire dept. I figured it would be awhile, but 45-60 minutes later, I saw a guy wading up my road in chest deep water. VFD. He had 2 cell phones in a ziplock bag and called for a boat to come in from the highway, and they launched from the other side of the river, but when they got to my property, the velocity of the water where it crossed the highway was too great and they couldn't make the 90 deg turn safely, plus were concerned about crossing the fence. It was covered in debris and that caused a lot of turbulence. He and I decided the 3 of us would paddle out the same way he waded/swam in. We paddled 1/4 mile off my property, then another 1/8 mile up a county road that dead ends on my property to where he had parked his truck.
We all got out, I tied the boat off to a tree and we got in his truck. He took us to a waiting dump truck the precinct had sent and we rode the dump truck to one of my sister's homes about 8 miles up the FM road.
Today, that boat is still sitting there on the side of the gravel road, not a drop of water any where around it.
Looks strange as heck.
I'll lose almost everything in my shop, even tho I put everything up on shelves and workbenches. Chop saw, a gas powered welder, a crackerbox welder, 2 pressure washers, tablesaw, and a compound mitre saw.
Some of it might be salvagable once I get the covers off and it dries out.
Garden tiller, 4 wheeler MTD lawn tractor, push mower..might salvage some of it if I get it all drained and cleaned out tomorrow.
Just stuff.
:frowns: :cry2: 
