THE GREAT FLOOD OF ’18, PART 6

 

Mike and I went to the farm yesterday (Sunday, May 20), and despite the warnings of Big Mike the Contractor regarding mold danger, we entered the house through the kitchen door.

As Hallie and I were painting the kitchen in 2002, we decided to paint our names in a corner before the cabinets were installed. Frankly, I didn’t expect to ever see it again. I thought maybe she would, or that perhaps a new owner would see it and realize the love that we had for “the dear old place.” It was a time in which the three of us could work together to accomplish this work, and now that time is past. Seems like yesterday, but in reality it was years ago and much has changed.

 

I took pictures so that you can understand the extent of the devastation. Putting the sadness behind and looking to the future, Mike and I are discussing changes / improvements that we can make. I still don’t know for sure if the cabinets will be salvageable. I assume that they won’t be, but they are still sitting in the house.

And I was right – the crew has removed ever so much more of the household contents than I could initially imagine, including from rooms that I didn’t think were affected. In fact, Mike went upstairs to make a repair on Bess’ collar with his leather-working tools only to discover that they were gone. The master bedroom is open and bare of furnishings except for the toilet, which sits in the middle of the room. The other bedrooms and main bathroom have been closed and sealed. We obeyed Big Mike’s request that we not enter those rooms.

 

Despite all the removal, the pantry cupboard remains intact. I didn’t think to take extra crates this trip, but with the one I had, I again packed up food that I can use in town. I noticed, though, that cardboard packaging has absorbed moisture. I’ll toss pasta products.

We focused on our outside work, and that’s another post. KW