The destination was set! The route had been decided!

The destination: Lafayette Louisiana.
The route: Going north, Through Jasper.

We loaded the truck up with as much as we thought we needed for a week or two and hit the road. My parents were going just a few hours north with family.
A really super awesome friend gave us a place all to ourselves to stay for a month. On our way out some other friends in Jasper offered to fix us dinner on our way out. Of course we stopped and visited, cried, ate, and then went on our way. A lot of nothing happened during the next few days. We hung around not sure if all this was actually happening. We tried to wrap our minds around what happened and what the next step was. The family that offered the place to stay again offered to go back with us and help clean out our house. What lied ahead of us seemed so daunting! We didn't know how much the water had risen since we left but were aware the tear-out process would be brutal, but we were encouraged knowing we would have some good help!!

### September 5^th, 2017

Melissa and I left the kiddos with our friends in Louisiana to head back home and check out the extent of the damage. Deep breaths

The water reached the bottoms of the windows, about 3 foot above the floor. Currents running from the creeks pushed anything not anchored down into this corner of the house. It took me several minutes just to dig my way past all the rubble. Not to mention all the stray bees that were in a not so great mood hanging around all the upturned bee boxes.

Unfortunately, we lost half the flock in the flood and another handful to critters afterward. I left the coop open so they could escape if the water got too high but apparently the water rose overnight and got them when they were on their roosts. We are currently down to one chicken!

The fridge was mostly empty so we dodged that smelly bullet! I didn't, however, consider how buoyant it and the chest freezer would become. I had even set some expensive kitchen appliances on top of the fridge to protect them from the water. The fridge floated up and then tipped over , throwing them in the water anyway. **Epic Fail**

Debris in our home school classroom. We lost some minor pieces of curriculum but managed to save the important stuff. The bulk of the clean up in there had to do with the massive amounts of empty canning jars I had saved up. The Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles) was right around the corner so we snatched up some camping gear so we could clean it up and air it out to dry once we got back to Louisiana.

Once we scoped out the situation and picked up a bit, we headed back to Louisiana and friends. There we could rest and enjoy the company of good friends and great wine! In a few days we would all be headed back for the dirty job of cleanup and tear out! I am not looking forward to this but am ready to get the process started.