Woof! Woof!

Tax Time!!
Spring is creeping up fast, & I need to get the taxes done before the spring rush overwhelms me. About the time taxes are due the garden will be crying for work and the Beehives will need constant vigilance against swarming. I buckle down tomorrow and start the tallying process so I can plug the numbers in as soon as the tax programs gets here.
First I have to get the bookkeeping program fixed. Then enter a bunch of numbers into it. Time's awasting!!

Still stuffed, but recovering

I now know that one day of overeating can make me miserable for several days. Ugh. However, it seems to have broken the plateau I was on. I could only eat a little yesterday, and this AM I'm down below the plateau. Hooray!

It looked like rain yesterday, all day, but only tiny sprinkles. I'm looking forward to finally getting some rain to bring the oyster mushrooms & woodears back. I'm looking forward to tasting the woodears, since they are so prized by the Japanese. They use them in soups, like my favorite soup with clear noodles and asparagus.

The folks who came by Saturday were so excited about mushrooms and gardening that we never got into the bees. RG, the guy, says he's using hydroponics on his backporch and growing lots of veggies. He was very excited about the greenhouse. He and BMcD left with lots of ideas. RG says he wants to help us with our garden this year. He works out of town for two weeks on and home for a week, I think.

That tiny hive is still alive, but has dwindled so much that I have little hope for it getting through to the summer.

Culling The Herd !

I can hardly believe anyone would do this! (See the story in red) Truly they must feel immortal! Or they're such Adrenaline Junkies that they're using any excuse for a fix. Probably it just seemed like a good idea at the time!

There Ain't No Free Lunch!

I declared a free day yesterday. As in, I could eat anything I wanted. Indulge myself. So I ate homemade onion dip with saltines; spare ribs; hot dogs. I suffered most of last night, and today. My stomach was all twisted up, and let me know about it! I couldn't eat anything until this afternoon. Well, lesson learned? Yes, but with my hard head I figure I'll have to learn it over again. Bran Flakes never tasted so good! I'm still averaging 1500 Kcal. Back on the wagon!

Learning Curve

I learned how to re-boot the Local Area Network (LAN) for the house. It went down yesterday AM and the guys from HSC talked me through it this AM. So simple: Turn it off, wait, Turn it on. Voila! Everything re-boots re-loads the settings and we're back on line. The key is to know which button to push, and how long to push it. I would never have guessed that you have to just tap it to make it work.
I'm also learning that my Dear Husband (DH), wanting me to be 'Happy', will encourage me to break my diet. He likes the 'idea' of my 'slimming', but can't stand that I have to deprive myself to get to a NORMAL, Healthy weight. So he came to me yesterday and pleaded with me to take my book to a restaurant and eat 'a good meal'. Stupid me to listen to him. Foolish me to DO It. The thing I really craved was the chips & salsa! I'm craving salt. Imay need to re-educate my taste buds by going salt-free for a while. I suspect that will help the weight, too.
So, I'm back on the wagon. I'm going to look for some more of those oyster mushrooms today. Macks will love that.
The good news is that I got the scale's fat calculator working again. I'm 46% fat. That means I'm 111 pounds (!) (if the weight of the fat is removed). So all I have to do is set up the conditions to lose the fat and preserve the muscle mass. With a normal 20% fat I'll be 133. It looks so much more achievable that way. It IS achievable!!!

Oyster Mushrooms for Free!

I went for my walk in the woods today, and deliberately looked for the oyster mushrooms I found and ate the other day. I hit the jackpot. Picked 3# 10 oz, cleaned. They were heavy with the rain, so they'd weigh closer to 2# dry, I figure.
I made a mushroom stew by sauteing them with about 2 T garlic and adding the Garlic Mushroom soup (Campbell's) and beef broth. The water from the sauted mushrooms thinned it out. I had my first helping over rice, and the second on saltines! Very tasty! Mostly free, and right on my diet! I'll look for more tomorrow. This makes me anxious to go back out in the woods. I need the exercise, too.

News: Susi worked (kinda)

BG came yesterday, which meant it was a work day for me!! While my guests, the boys and the Father, did their visiting at Hampden Sydney College, she & I planted all the flats in the greenhouse with spring veggies. Then we went to look at the weedy raised beds. I was all for leaving them alone, but BG started tearing out weeds, and cleaning out the old mulching newspapers and plants that either hadn't flourished or were long dead.

Then she looked at the stockpiled rotted horse manure and so 'we' got the tractor out to start filling the beds with it. Of course, I'm a reluctant participant in this, since it's a lot of WORK!!! She has the energy & drive, and I'm still getting up out of my chair!

We used the front end loader to scoop up the well rotted manure. Sounds easy? It isn't. I'm on the tractor, BG gesturing which way to move the loader.... and I'm trying to remember how to move the joystick control to make it go the right way. And it's a hydrostatic transmission, which means there are two accelerators, one forward & one for backing on the right & the brakes on the left. I kept wanting to hit the forward accelerator to stop! WRONG!

My peabrain was overloaded. I had to tell myself what to do out loud, so I could translate BG's wishes into what I had to do with the controls. By the end of the task I was doing better, but poor BG's frustration level was high. She was shoveling the whole time, so each bucket load would be a full one. I was sitting on the tractor uselessly watching her work.

Each load she'd shovel in, because I couldn't get a full load by just scooping (unlevel ground, operator error). Then she'd jigtime over to the bed and guide me in so I didn't dump it on the ground. I'm sitting, she's moving fast. It didn't help that I'd had the stuff put on top of tarps which got tangled up in the manure, and made the last foot or so a dense muddy mess. We did this for about 3 hours.

How can she work at that pace! I called for the only break, as I remember!

See: New Permanent Pictures

I've added lots of photos to the Flickr website, so ask me to email you access to them. GT has ask me not to post folks faces so I can't do the one's of the Schlosser's wedding. I'm loading some garden pictures and will do some of P&B's girls if I can find some that fit GT's restrictions.

Buggy Woman!

We've decided to forgo a second dog. We say later, but that means Max will be our OAO (Navy for One & Only - LOL)
We're going to have a house full of young men this weekend, so my exercise is to clean the basement. That means I have to put the tiny beehive somewhere.
Yesterday I walked for 3 ½ hours around the Eastern boundary of our land. Macks had a ball! Woof! Woof!

I thought that guys weren't skittish about bugs, but GT told me differently.
She was the first to get to the St Vincent apartment & settled into what, by her standards was an OK situation. However her Roomie didn't agree and thought that it was substandard. They heard that a 3 bedroom in the same enclave was available & went to look at it. Before they did they asked the vacating guys why they were leaving so precipitously. One of the last two to arrive had found a spider in his room! Not just 'A Spider' but "A Huge SPIDER!!!!". It was as big as his palm. Gwin said the guys killed it, but refused to live there. Bear in mind, on this 3rd world island the spider population probably outweighs the human population, in the aggregate! But these guys thought that this spider was 'Apartment specific'. Wait 'til they find out the truth! Welcome to the real world!
GT, being my daughter, swept up the spider, taped up the cracks, and moved into the 'Spider room'. Their loss, her gain! She and Roomie found a likeminded third Roomie and now have a bath for each bedroom and better accommodations.

Angie & Joe's Blog !

Angie & Joe are going to keep us up on their lives, too.

http://theschlossers.blogspot.com

Now if I could just get our West coast contingent to do it....

Ahhhhh, Normal at last !!

I went outside yesterday for the first time in a week! Today I went to the Doctor's and then wandered my way back through Richmond and eventually Amelia County Courthouse and home.

Normalcy is underrated.

GT is starting her own web log: HTTP://Gwinny.Blogspot.com
I'll link to it when it's up and running.

The Doctor was pleased that all my numbers were good, and the fat numbers were the best I've ever had. Total Cholesterol was 167. Maybe they mixed the samples up.

I lost about 10 pounds while I was sick. Most of that was empty gut and dehydration. I'd rather lose it more slowly and keep it off. Tomorrow starts the regular walking. My first goal is to go around the small lake once a day. The rest of the trails will get used later. All I read emphasizes regularity over intensity for the first couple weeks. And I'll log it, like I'm doing the food.

The tiny hive I rescued from the tree is still alive. I don't think they'll make it through the whole winter, but I'll see how long I can maintain them. I got 5 pounds of pollen today for pollen patties this spring. February is the time for them.

BG seeded lettuces and I'm going to start some spinach, etc, asap. I stopped by the wholesaler and got two big bags of potting soil and a box of time release fertilizer plugs. They cost 6 cents each, but last all season. Great for me, since it means I can plant and cover the ground with mulch for the season.
I'm still hungering for a drip irrigation system. It would be a wonderful help with the raised beds.

Cruising to Recovery

I can't imagine getting this gut virus when on a cruise. It's been miserable enough being home with it. I'm sore from doing nothing but sitting or sleeping. Too sick and weak to read or do anything. I've done Sudoku and puzzles to occupy myself. Took me an hour to do a simple crossword puzzle!

I must be feeling better, though, since I've got a meatloaf in the oven.

To the Rescue !!!

Yesterday I was called to a friend's house to rescue a tiny bunch of bees from a tree they had just cut down. Bless them, they suspended operations until I could load up and get down the road to them. Then they helped me prise open the trunk and get the bees out. The queen was so young she could fly... and did, several times. We finally caged her and left the small nucleus (hive body) to let the flying bees smell out their Mom (or sister, if they superceded their Mom).

Not thinking of any other place to let them rest undisturbed, I put them in the basement bathroom, in the dark and warmth. I included some of their comb that had some honey in it, but I'll have to put a feeder on tomorrow. They had already been decimated by the cold, and there couldn't have been more than 3-4 cups of bees, but maybe they'll make it. I read that the smallest hive that had a chance of survival was 120 bees. This is surely more than that... with a very young queen.

I think they were a swarm from my hives, which my neighbors called me to come see. We couldn't find them when I got there, but this is the result. They would have died out with this current cold snap, except for their tree being cut and having been tucked away in my basement.

Unhappy Girls

Christmas Eve was warm, so I decided that was the day to check on the girls in the hives. Even though it was in the high 60's they weren't pleased about my nosiness.
There were two dead hives, too few bees to stay warm, and two weak ones that I joined up. I had to move some of the hives so the sun could get to them. The girls flew low and covered my ankles. I should have used duct tape over my socks. There's no brushing them off when your hands are carrying the hive to a new stand. It was more the actual pricking of my skin, rather than the venom, that made my ankles painful that night! Imagine poking needles all over your ankles. I took benedryl and lavished them with lanacaine before going to bed for 13 hours! Thank goodness my immunity to the venom held up. All was well but the bruising in the morning.
The girls who valiantly defended their homes died. I got off easy. It hurts more to have lost them than to have been stung by them. Their loss may be the difference between that hive living through the winter or dying due to too few bees to stay warm. Spring will tell.

*******Winter Wonders********

.....Mama Macks & Baby Booger.......

............Beehives in the Snow...........

Greenhousing

The greenhouse is cleaned out and ready to go! BG and I are going to figure out what seeds we have and need. Then, look at the calendar and figure out when we seed the flats for set out. Oh, frabulacious JOY! Spring is coming! The calendar is moving! I'm going to make a fire for the delight of sitting by it with seed catalogues on my lap! Now, if it would just snow.

Notice the New Link

LOOK TO THE RIGHT!

I have finally figured out the 'Link' problem.

You'll notice I put a link to Google News and to Maj Robert Bateman's Website. When I found his website I had to figure out how to link to it. He writes really good essays about military life, and things he's experienced in Iraq AKA 'The Sandbox'.

I'll add more links as I get to it: Iraq The Model; Yahoo News; etc

There are some blogs I've stumbled across that merit a link.

I've been playing Sudoku lately, and recommend it for those who are tired of crossword puzzles. It's pure logic, so no vocabulary is needed. Fortunately there are lots of easy ones. I'm afraid I'm not good at it, but getting slowly better.

A Mother's Prayer

Well, GT is getting settled in to another volcanic island in the Caribbean. So far it sounds better than Grenada: better grocery, phone and internet service, etc. The apartment has a good view and air conditioning, at least in the bedrooms.

Today she got the car, groceries, telephone, internet, and stuff out of storage (shipped from Grenada). She's unpacked and having a bunch over for supper, for which they're grateful, I bet. Last night was alone in a strange land, so I'm sure all are glad for company. (Haven't we all done that!)

Monday classes start. By then the island of St Vincent in the Grenadines will be a known area and a feeling of familiarity will have begun. I'm so glad that she went down early enough to get settled.

Booger & Fuzz-Butt

The Cat Boys, Booger & Fluff-butt, are sleeping off their encounter with my brother-in-law's knife. Most men flinch when they think about what our baby boys had done... You guessed it! They'll be Muuuuch calmer in the future! Gooooood boys. They come home tomorrow!

When Fuzz came home from Daisy's he fit back into the house, licking Macks, sparring with his brother in rolling fights all over the house.

By this morning, after a night of fun, they were best friends.

Wishing You a Happy & Productive New Year!

This year our family is looking forward to new members arriving. There's not much that says HOPE like a newborn baby.

Each new year is a tabula rasa, a blank sheet, to be written on in our best hand. I hope that our actions, in the aggregate, will inscribe this new year in such a way that we can look back proudly on our accomplishments. We will never walk this path again. We write in stone. Pray we write well.

Hope your Christmas was a good one!

My family has been to see each other in various places... Enjoying the catching up of news and the sight of loved faces. Face to face meetings are more than just seeing and talking. I believe that the scent, touch and body language of our loved ones fills the space in the meetings. Physically touching is so very important to our animal nature.

My brother has some traits that are remarkable in these transient times. He works to keep his family close and to keep his friends. He has never lost a friend, to my knowledge, and actively works for their success. When he has a business going he finds ways to profit his friends, who then work hard to make the business a success. Quid pro quo. He is well known in his business circle as one who treats his colleagues as well as he wanted to be treated when he worked for others. He makes friends wherever he does business. He gives, of himself, his time and his experience.

My brother also leads the way in family relations. He epitomizes the loyal, generous patriarch. He reaches out to us, even to the ones who are veering off the path and headed for trouble. I admire his constant reaching out to the extended family... Even those who might not answer him this year, but might the next. Gradually they realize he is not a fair weather friend. He treats family as if they were friends and works to make them his friends.

Back on the wagon!

OK, friends, start praying for this old tub of lard to shed some poundage! I'm using the website 'Calorie-count.com' to post food, exercise and thoughts about my struggles. The website has lots of solid info on nutrition and health. There's also a nice forum at 'Caloriesperhour.com' that seems supportive, along with calculators to see what you have to do. I used their calculators to find that my BMI is 35+ and it'll take me 18 months to lose this 77 Lbs. That's June 07! Sounds like by that time this new way of eating will be engraved in my head.

It didn't accrete quickly, so it will have to slide off gradually too! That's assuming no backsliding.

This is the third day, so I'm not feeling deprived yet. If I can manage it I won't get far enough into the calorie deficit to feel as if I'm starving. I really have to control the desperation that that engenders.

I have to push myself on the exercise part. Macks would love to help me with that, I think!

We have been given 3 gifts of oysters, so one of my meals today was 2 cups of them. I shucked them... then ate them, like the walrus in Alice in Wonderland... or was it Through the Looking Glass?

Musings

I’m thinking of doing a portable beekeeping library to carry to the meetings and let folks check out books. I have a step by step booklet on queen rearing which I think my fellow beekeepers would like to borrow.

I used a stethoscope to listen to my hives today (Friday- 48F so far). Most of them in the sun were flying. The ones I knew were weak were still alive, according to the hum I heard through the box walls. Mine aren'’t taking down any feed. This time last year they were all still taking down HFCS and brooding. This year they had no brood in October, except for the weakest one, which had a small patch.

Sledding & “Grown-up": Maturity is facing responsibilities, doing what you need to do, unpleasant or not. You can sled and clown around all you want and still be grown-up! When you're young is the time to experiment, and learn by failure/success. When you have youngsters/oldsters depending on you, you won’t have the latitude of your youth. When I see a fine young man working to improve himself it makes me proud to be his friend.

She's Home !!!!

I thought I'd posted here in the recent past... Sorry, I must have done it in my daydreams!
Sam's had another IVIg treatment that knocked him silly for about two weeks. BA massaged his feet and did him worlds of good, which helped him through the bad parts.

GT is in the states for about 3 weeks, too short a time to do all she needs to do. My brother invited her along on a trip to see the California part of the family. Babies galore! She's trying to see everyone, and still get the medical appointments and repacking done. Grenada is now in the past and she'll be doing hands on training and classes in St Vincent and the Grenadines, just Northeast of Grenada. She already has a apartment and will share a car with Julie to get around to the clinics. Busses are too undependable and dangerous for single girls. They'll still have to cook for themselves, though. She will at least be with her classmates. The class has shrunk by about 100 to 250. GT really misses some who were close friends, but have to decelerate. I'm pleased she's worked hard enough to stay up with the class.

In May GT returns for her Medical Licensing Board Exams. I think she'll chose the 6 week program in Delaware. Clinical Rotations start in the fall, hopefully in a setting where she won't have to travel extensively. Then she'll get assigned her place of Residency or Internship.

Black Booger Boy

Down at the bottom of this Blog you can play with Booger, a virtual pet who represents our horrid kitten, a spawn of Satan if ever there was one!!! He draws you in with his sweet purring and snuggling ways... then rips your hand into shreds. We originally named him Jazz, after WT's mean-as-a-snake black cat. This one must be a reincarnation and is determined to live up to his namesake. He 'nurses' Mack's, our male German Shepherd's, vestigial teats. Macks even moves his legs so the kitten can nuzzle in. Yesterday the kitten was chewing on Mack's teeth. Macks was holding his mouth open and looking at me with big brown eyes: "Am I being gentle enough?" We don't worry about Macks being bored while Booger is with him, since they play chase around the house. This was never a fluffy fat little kitten. He's always been lean and mean. We got him as one of the 2 week old babies that Daisy asked me to dropper raise. Booger was too dominant to leave alone with his sweeter brother, so I had to separate them. Daisy decided she only wanted the sweet fluffy boy. Sam got attached to this rascal. I thump him hard when he bites into me. He rarely bites Sam. He really is the 'Kitten from Hell'. The virtual kitten is fun. Click on the 'more' button and you can get a toy to play with this sweeter Booger.

Update on Bees and Garden

The sun is shining on the colorful trees, making the outside look like stained glass windows in a cathedral. The fall change came late this year, and slowly. The warming trend has extended our Fall season into mid to late November. Usually the leaves are in piles by now. Instead they are still on the trees, and some trees are just changing.
My thanks to all whose insights have helped me though my fourth summer beekeeping in Mid Virginia, USA.
My bee buddies and I have started a round-table group to share info from the web and otherwise help each other (2-125 hives). Your info is the major part of my input.
The following is an update on the bees here. Most beekeepers are treating, some with Apistan, others with Checkmite. Varroa is a major problem. A couple larger guys have left Apistan in all winter, despite warnings.
Referrings to my bees... note the starvation, which is rampant, after a promising spring:
After everything I have 23 going into winter (17 last spring). I'll be happy to come out with half, with no treatments & a hard winter. The Russians are wintering with smaller clusters, since they slowed down during the drought. We really suffered from July through September with no rain; had too much rain for several weeks into October. No nectar, little pollen, then rain washed out both.
I've ordered my Purvis Bros. Gold-line Queens for June 06. They are the mite resistant Italian bees. With last year's Blue-Line Russians mixed into the gene pool I'm hoping to produce honey & not have to treat. I'm hoping to give the Russians some drone brood to flood the area with better genetics. If I do then the supercedures and swarm virgins will have a chance at the resistant genes.
The bees are full of syrup, but have little pollen. Some pollen is still coming in, though. I spotted a couple hives that might not make it, but since they're Russians I couldn't be sure. If they were Italians I'd join them with stronger hives. Only one hive has brood, and that is the weakest of the F1 Jester hybrid Russians, with only two frames of bees and a three-inch patch of brood on those two frames. We'll see if she survives. There were no drones, and I saw every queen.
Without brood, and with small populations (one box), the bees should have shown some phoretic mites. I was looking very closely and saw one only, in a hive where there were three 'greasy' bees. I'm sure that's caused by a virus. I killed all of those. I went in very late in the day to forestall robbing. It was about 59-60F, and the long shadows were falling, so most of the foragers were home. They were feisty, but not unmanageable, since I took off all the tops and they had to defend every hive.
All in all, with the outbreak of EFB and my scare with AFB, they look really good. I'm confident I'll still be a beekeeper next year.
My bee buddy and I made a trip to Brushy Mountain Bees and bought 424 gallons of HFCS 55 at $2.02/gal. With gas & taxes it came out to $2.40/gal. We borrowed the truck and trailer for free and didn't charge for our labor. It probably would have been $3.00/gal with all that. That would still only be $15.00/5 gal bucket. ADM quoted me $17 plus shipping ($12.50 for a truckload with no shipping
Since I last wrote the garden has been cleaned up. Lessons learned are: 1. Plant earlier. 2. Don't plant Brandywine or Heritage Tomatoes (newer varieties are better) 3. Put row covers on the Brassicas early. 4. Do all the work before the heat comes. 5. Plant fewer beans in the same space. 6. Put up a canopy for beans that spans the grass walkway between the beds to save bed space and let the beans grow higher. 7. Put up higher pea-fences. 8. Plant more peas, lettuce, radishes, & beets. 9. Try carrots in the deep dirt. 10. The raised beds are better than the main garden area. 11. Weed more & Work harder.

New Behavior vs Old Behavior

Change is painful. Changing how one eats is painful & difficult. There are so many triggers to eating. Besides the obvious ones of smell, tummy growls, sight, mouth watering, the habit of eating certain foods at certain times really grabs me. I find myself eating before I think. I'm thinking of writing down the projected food intake the night before so i don't go on auto-pilot eating.

All day today I kept correcting myself, chanting 'New Behavior'. My mouth rarely stops watering. Time will solve that.

Cheap Cooking

Oatmeal additions:
Boullion cubes
Salsa and/or Cheese whiz
Strawberries and/or whipped cream
brown sugar and cinnamon

Cook bacon/sausage in a skillet, remove it and put Oatmeal in the grease, toast the Oatmeal until brown, stirring, and add water and beef cubes. Cook until thick and crumble bacon on top. Yummy! I have money now, but still eat it (draining the bacon fat)

You can also cook rice until it's creamy by adding water until it's cooked down and use the additions.

One of my favorites when I had little money was to put tunafish in a cassarole, add a vegetable and put a slice of cheese on top. If you don't have an oven, then use a saucepan with water in the bottom and weight down the cover. Put it on low/Med heat to cook. Or use the microwave. Works with any combo, the cheese makes a sauce in the juices. OOOOHHH.

Letter from the Enemy

If there was ever a letter that should strengthen this country's determination to stand and fight THIS is it. It is from Osama's right hand. READ it at http://www.dni.gov/release_letter_101105.html

I am looking for another translation of it, since so many words in Arabic don't translate exactly. But the gist should be close. Note that he says that the Islamic Militants only have to wait until the US Media forces the US to desert Iraq as happened in VIETNAM. Our past comes to haunt us. As a democracy we can be led to make bad moves by skewed information. We must require our media to report facts, not rumor or emotional reactions, as they did and continue to do in New Orleans.

Just the Facts, Ma'am! And all the facts, without selecting the ones that will lead us to their desired conclusion. I used to respect Daniel Schor. After hearing him distort stories by selecting facts that made his conclusion valid, and ignoring facts that contradicted him I have no more respect for him. Yes, he's an editorialist, but he calls himself unbiased. He lies.

Bless the Internet: if you look you can triangulate on the truth and don't have to depend on the distortions of biased reporters. "Biased Reporters" is an oxymoron. The only bias should be in the Editorial section and plainly labeled as such.

Volunteer Heroes

Cliff Morrow's Blog (blogspot.com) tells about the local Volunteer Fire Department (VFD) saving his crop when a spark set off the dry foliage in a field. And then the local insurance agent heard about it and filed a claim before he could start it himself! Small Towns are wonderful. The Hurricane victims are finding out about that!

My comment on CliffMorrow.blogspot.com:
Here in Mid-VA, Rice, VA, it's the same. Small towns are the glue that holds the country together. Local high school boys become heroes when they join the VFD. At close by Hampden-Sydney College the Local VFD is manned by college students, who are excused from class to answer the fire horn. Many find local jobs so they can man the VFD during the summer! Every year there is an EMT class that requires many hours of work and study, but the boys happily take that on in addition to their studies. The HSCVFD has won competitions, too. Volunteer Fire Departments are working clubs, tightknit groups of friends helping neighbors. And the Rescue Squad!! WOW! I know a local lawyer who spends more time running and working the Squad than practicing law!

The Rest of the Disaster: Mississippi and Texas

On both sides of the Louisiana borders are towns and neighborhoods that are pulling themselves up toward civilization. They have pitched tents in yard clearings, or are driving in from less damaged areas to clear and rebuild their lives. Some are lucky enough to have jobs, still, and have to balance work and cleaning, clearing and reconstruction. Others are selling what's left - as is, where is - to the Real Estate Investors buying up land for the casinos and construction companies who have deep pockets. Whether you sell or rebuild depends on how deep your pockets are, mostly. If you have, or can get a good line of credit and have a construction crew available you probably will rebuild. Construction guys are flocking down to that area, but matching needed workers with companies will be the crux of the solution. The guys at DirectNIC (mgno.com) are thinking of setting up a matching service. I hope they do, since I think they'd do it well.

Oh, NO! Wretched Kitten!

The stronger of the two kittens chews on the weaker's hind parts... left alone this would cause a bladder infection and death for the weaker. I have kept them apart and the weaker was getting fiesty and doing well, so I allowed them to play for about 10 minutes. OH, NO!!!! Poor littlest one is now all swollen and tender. Of course I parted them again, but poor little fuzzy one is still sore this AM. Shame on me for not recognizing the problem sooner, DUH. I thought they were play-fighting. I wonder how long this will be a danger? I may have to let DC take them home one at a time. Until I can be sure the littlest is strong enough to defend himself.

Positive Overviews of Hurricane Recovery

The best so far from onsite folks is the DirectNIC guys
They saw it through, with pictures, from the main business district area in NOLA.

TAG at Gulf Sails has gone through both storms on the ground in a NOLA neighborhood. He went out on foot, bike and boat taking pictures of areas and specific houses. He helped rescue animals by boat. His story is a vital and frustrating one. Kudos to him. He posted through the dark times using car batteries and salvaged gas from neighbors cars. His shows us what it was to survive and thrive in the middle of the chaos of the storms.

He's getting burned out by now and hoping to head West for a while to clear his head. I hope his audience, who owes him so much, will offer hosting for his trip. I think he should be appreciated for his perseverance.

Remnants of Rita back in the Gulf

Rita joined a cold front that moved East. The Southern end, the part that Hurricane Rita joined, are now circulating in the Gulf. These are being watched closely. There is also a weak depression coming into the Gulf in the Yucatan area. Time will tell.

Hurricane Rita

Yes, it's a major storm, but it's not Katrina. Read really good information at Steve Gregory's Wunderground Blog at

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/SteveGregory/show.html

I read that the storm may be Cat 3 but the surge will be Cat 5 due to the way the storm is strengthening so close to the shore, then weakening and turning North.

It will hit New Orleans hard. Pray for the levees to hold. Even so, the pumping system is impaired and the rain water won't be able to be pumped out. Maybe it will wash off some of the muck. At least it will be clean water. The critical factor will be the extent of the surge. It would be awful if the dry areas get flooded due to Rita. Possible, since NPR had the Corps of Eng official saying that they were surveying the levees and found lots of weaknesses in the ones they'd seen, but more worried about the ones they hadn't seen. They have 500 miles of levees. Weakening by scouring action of the water was extensive. Hints that some levees weren't built properly.

Gulf Sails for info on the conditions in NO: http://gulfsails.blogspot.com/

And there are some who will be reporting from inside the area Hurricane Rita hits. If you find them send the link!

Daisy's Kittens

I was warned kittens would suck on each other, now the reality sets in. I've had to separate these two because the stronger is really bothering his brother. Both are doing better. I'm increasing the baby food meat part of their food and hope to have them off the eyedropper by the end of next week. I never could get the bottles to work, but the eyedropper works like a charm. I also think I caught a gut bug; lesson learned. Daisy is excited and wants them as soon as they get big enough. I'll second that!

Hurricane Rita

Whenever there's a Hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico all of us who live there, or have lived there, perk up our ears and go to our favorite tracking websites. Here are mine:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/SteveGregory/show.html

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200518_5day.html

Jeff Masters is my #1 professional; Steve is really close behind! They give you all the FACTS and their professional opinion.

I really like the discussions at both NOAA and Wunderground. They tell you the discrepancies in their models and encourage responsible actions.

Tiny Bits of Protoplasm

DC called me this morning, and asked if she could raise two week old kittens in her exercise shed. I explained that they need feeding frequently and probably wouldn't survive in her shed, since she has to work. So, of course, who is now feeding two tiny bits o' protoplasm. AW was here & pulled out her trusty (if dusty) kitten rescue kit. Neither of us could get the bottles pierced enough to allow the kittens to suck and get milk. We are lucky W-M had kitten formula. I am valiantly keeping my eyes open until 10PM to give them their last feeding, then I'll collapse and start again tomorrow. Eyedroppers and milky kittens are in my immediate future. We figure they're about 3-4 weeks old, so it won't be too long. I offered DC Cecil if she just wanted a mouser, but will happily give these back when I get them weaned to kitten food. Shoot me! Two more cats bring the total to 8 again. Macks is facinated. I feel a headache coming on. Yeah, but they're cute: black with white markings.

Meanwhile, Back on the Farm....

The melons are ripe, and over ripe. I'm going to try making watermelon jelly and maybe jam. The cantaloupe jam turned out great! Everybody loves it: Smooth and sweet with a completely different taste that makes you wonder about what went into it. Cantaloupe wouldn't occur to you, unless you knew.

GT got wonderful grades on her mid terms!! Woweee! 24/7 studying really paid off. She celebrated with an afternoon at the beach. She's still sickly with the croup, though. I'm a great believer in the healing power of a med rare steak: lots of B vitamins.

I clean picked limas & green beans, so will be able to pick fresher beans in a couple of days. Still have tomatoes, & they are smaller, sweeter and dryer than earlier.

Started feeding the bees, too. Thanks to BC for helping me get them reorganized for the winter. I have 24 hives, now, but too many are down to 3 frames, awfully weak. The drought (4 weeks) has shut down the Russian queen's laying. They keep smaller clusters through the winter, but the feed will revitalize them and get the queens laying the longer lived winter bees. No mites!!!! We didn't see mites or any evidence of them. Good genetics. I'm taking a risk, but I'm not treating them for mites this fall. I may be down to very few hives come spring. I'll use powdered sugar on them on one of the warm days in the winter when they're without brood and that will cause the mites on the bees to drop off. It makes them unable to hold onto the bees & makes the bees groom themselves and dislodge the mites.

Update info on N. O.

I stumbled on this excellent Blog that updates conditions in the city:

http://gulfsails.blogspot.com/

There's a good deal of back postings on his trip through the storm. Thanks for all those who documented their experiences we will have a good database to work from for planning for future disasters. Scholars will mine this trove of data for centuries.

Headlines We'll See in the Future

New Orleans Rebuilding: Fight of the Century!

Con Men steal Katrina Widow's Mite

Bulldoze it over my dead body!

Evacuees Find Relocation to their Benefit

Dead Zone in Gulf Larger Due to N.O. Water

Dutch Engineers Assist Louisiana's Recovery

Last Evacuees Evicted from Shelter

Katrina: Nature's Urban Renewal

Whole Gulf Coast Evacuates in Path of Hurricane

President Federalizes Guard over Governor's Objections

N.O. Children Get a Better Education After Katrina

Incorrect info!

Thanks to a comment the post from the WL Loop about the Merritt Island info has been refuted.

Even more important: We now have a new source to use to check information:

Thanks a million to the commenter (though he could have been a tad nicer about it)

The linK: http://www.snopes.com/politics/katrina/nagin.asp

Just the facts, Ms Katrina.

Doesn't it just brown you off when folks take the facts and force them into a mold to fit their preconceived notions?
Please, just tell us the plain, unvarnished truth in our public media. I know the selection of what to report is biased, but couldn't we try to weed out the folks who are most biased? Reasonability, common sense, and a little less grinding of one's own ax is required of the editors in the newsrooms of the world. Bias belongs on the Editorial Page.

The best sites I have found are
http://mgno.com/ [These guys are SUPERMEN]
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/weather/index.ssf?storylist=ortropicalweather
http://www.gulfcoastnews.com/ [a friend's brother]
http://www.irishtrojan.com/ [Law student who took time off to help the world]
http://www.scipionus.com/ [an annotated Google map]

These are the least biased and the most non-political. Just the facts, Ma'am.

I apologize for posting such long items. Since there's SOOO much on the web now, I will go back to posting only about my little world!!

Thanks to all of you thousands of peekers at this site. I wish you well and hope you live wonderful, rich lives believing the best, and working to alleviate the worst.

Katrina Timeline Info

Try this link for a timeline: http://www.thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline.

Thanks to one of our kind readers!

And this site for another view: http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2005/09/04/katrina-response-timeline/

YES !! I know they're both biased. That's OK. Later it will all get straightened out. We need multiple viewpoints right now.

And this: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/katrina/interactive/timeline.katrina.large/frameset.exclude.html

Tulane Hospital : A Katrina Story

From the LSU Alumni - Richmond - Online Newsletter
Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2005 07:36:55 -0400
Subject: Tulane Hospital Story - Compelling

This is my dad's story from his experience last week. Thought you might like to read it. Thanks for your concern & prayers. M.

I thought it might be easier to compose an email to all of you at once that tells some of the story of the past few days. First and foremost
I felt your prayers and heard your concerns that were registered with
Donna and others and they comforted me and kept me calm which was essential in this time.

In this crisis the images were moving so fast that I think it'll take awhile to put it together but here's an attempt to do so.

This storm as of noon Friday the 25th didn't seem like it would be much of an event, but by 5pm things began to look different. We met as a group on Saturday to begin our routine preparations for a hurricane, I went home to put things together there. I started to think what do I absolutely not want to lose in case the house would be swept away and the answer only revealed the photos of the family thru the years so that and few clothes was all I took.

The Storm: God's Natural World has an awesome power. From the small observation windows [in the Hospital] from our tallest floors, we observed awnings
being blown off, a blinding rain and a general sense if God's ever angry we're going to lose big. Our first inspections revealed little damage. A few broken windows and some roof damage but the building held up well. In fact, if you were in the inner core of the facility you only vaguely heard it.
We even walked around late in the afternoon since there was only limited flooding no worse than a heavy thunderstorm. Overconfident, we even stated we had
absorbed the best punch that nature could throw and we seemed intact.

At 1:30 am on Tuesday morning began the biggest crisis and challenge of my life and in the life of Tulane and no doubt New Orleans. I was awakened by my COO who told me the water in the boiler room was rising a foot an hour since midnight and if it continued at that rate at best we had only another two to three hours before we would lose all power since we already were on emergency power since early Monday morning. We had only 7 ventilator patients whose lives would be in jeopardy, and we had to move fast
to get them out. We had no boat and no helicopter pad. Houston we have a problem.
I called Acadian Ambulance (who I know well) but had no business connection to our hospital and asked their immediate help. We have a parking deck connected to the hospital that we had evaluated as sturdy enough to support helicopter flight, but it had four light poles in the
middle. I want to tell you what happened in the next four hours was nothing short of a miracle. Our maintenance group got the light poles down; Acadian agreed to pick our patients up, we made arrangements with our other HCA
hospitals to take them. Our staff and physicians got their
patients ready,and most importantly, the water rise began to slow to an inch/hr and a little after the sun came up copters were on the roof and patients began to be transported.

Early on Tuesday morning we met with our key managers who were at the hospital. We prayed for support and comfort and guidance for what we knew was going to be a difficult period. We talked about what we knew,
and what
we didn't know which was considerable because we had no contact from FEMA or the Mayor's office. We had no idea why the water was rising and from what limited facts we had, no one did. We had to assume that it would keep rising and we would lose power and then we would have no power at all. Thus, no light, no ac, suction, oxygen, elevators, phones ie. everything that is precious to good care. We had to get out so we hatched a plan and I tried to stay out of the way and let our physicians and nurses triage patients; others determined what vital supplies we needed replenishing; HCA was working frantically to coordinate a transportation effort to pick up patients and eventually, our staff. How many people? Good question. At least 1200 which included a total of 160 patients, employees and physicians and their families and 76 dogs and cats that I didn't know about at the time.

Tuesday: The looting began. We witnessed people, dozens of them, wading in front of the hospital with bag after bag of stuff from different stores in the vicinity. Bandits took over two hotels adjacent to us and forced out many of our employees families who had been housed there forcing them back to the hospital creating further complications. That night our people on the roof evacuating patients heard gunshots in the air but they continued their work. The lawlessness and insurrection certainly was a distraction but our Tulane Police were great, and they are very capable.

Late in the day we ran out of fuel so our generators shut down and the building began to get hot. The last of the ventilator patients had to go up six stories by way of pickup trucks since the elevators shut down and our ambulance was too tall to squeeze to the top. During the day, I had a conversation with a patient's father who told me that the parking deck pad would hold big helicopters. How did he know? Because he was a Blackhawk pilot. Ok. Then there appeared out of nowhere this guy, John Holland, who was sent in by HCA to be our Flight Coordinator - whatever that is. "The man" had arrived who would communicate with the birds in the air and boy is that important because our patients had begun to fly away.

Wednesday: If you would like to know if we slept. Here's a little experiment. Try heating the bedroom up to about 90-95 degrees. First, you're hot and then you sweat and get cold and then the cycle repeats. Daybreak and I tell you patients are being moved into a queue to move. I saw our staff, residents, and faculty move sick patients with a grace and dignity that was most impressive. This was our third day and the stress on our people began to show. Everyone was asking when, where, & how were we going to get out. The city sewer system was obviously backing up and spilling out and creating an acrid smell that over the next few days made it almost impossible to breath. With no water pressure you can't bathe. But here's a general observation: if everyone smells the same you really don't notice it, you just feel unclean. On this day, the La. Wildlife and Fisheries Department showed up to help us move some patients that we had inherited from the Superdome on Sunday night. Yes, over 60 extra medically
needy people with chronic conditions. So by boat we sent them and their loved ones away. I met a woman whose most valuable possession was her pillow and her radio that I personally promised her to protect. It's in my office now.

The Big Birds began to fly. Blackhawk's down. Instead of one or two patients they could move up to four with some additional staff. Beautiful sight but there was more to come. By the end of the day we had moved all but about twenty patients including two who weighed more than 400
lbs and one artificial heart assist-device patient, which was the challenge of the week since the device itself weighted more than 500 lbs. So imagine hauling this weight three to four floors down a dark stairwell at 90 plus degrees. It was a young man's job and it was done. Let me tell you that the coordination from the patient's room to the staging area to the helipad into the helicopter was a work of art composed by many painters. It truly was a thing of beauty and it touched everyone who was there.

By the end of day, HCA had constructed an extraction plan for the remaining staff. Helicopter to the airport, buses to pick up and take to Lafayette.
Sounds good but there were lots of needs and who knows what the government may decide to do.

Thursday: Line up and get ready. Have a little breakfast. We basically were living on Strawberry poptarts, honey oat bars and for dinner a little
protein, tuna fish. Fortunately, I like all of them but I'm sure I lost ten lbs. or so. Anyway, the line was formed and I personally counted. 700 hundred people. Our staff, physicians, their children and spouses, and just to top it off 76 dogs and cats. Holy God. How are we going to deal with that? So we relegated them immediately to second-class citizenship to another line and pray we don't have to put the pets to sleep if no one will haul them.

At first there were just a few small copters and we had some patients to move and it was slow. Moving through the line people were calm with a few exceptions but overall they managed their plight well. Then a situation developed. A frantic Medical Director of Critical Care showed up by boat from Charity. Major problem. Charity was in a meltdown. He had 21 critical care patients many being hand ventilated for two days and he couldn't get any help from the state. You may have heard this story reported by CNN. Their version and ours differs but raise your hand if you think the media gets it right all the time. Can you help me he asked? This was a tough question but it had only one answer. We would give them access to the small aircraft, which wasn't going to help us move our staff anyway.
So that process began much to the chagrin of our non-professional staff and family. They just didn't understand it. Our nurses and doctors did but it increased the crowd's intensity. Midday and it was moving slow.
It didn't look good. Then from 3 to 5 things happened.

A Chinook helicopter is big. Two rotors and it carries about 50-60 people. It moves with a slow deliberate confidence that is hard to describe. But one showed up. We had questioned about could it land so we asked "the man, John" and he said yes but nothing else could be on the pad when it did due to the turbulence. I want to tell you as it approached cheers broke out from below and people thought they had a chance. So for a few hours we made progress and then it stopped. No more big birds, big problem.

What happened? Don't know. I called my daughter Megan where Donna was staying and she seemed elated. "You're back". "What?" I asked. She tells me Gov. Blanco had just announced that Tulane had totally been evacuated.
According to my account she was about 400 people short in her analysis. But we now had a new problem. They think we're not here. Better let someone know. I called the La. Nat'l Guard. Guess who answered, Brad Smith, the patient's father I spoke of earlier. He had gotten a ride back with some of the Wildlife boys and was now flying sorties into New Orleans. He quickly got a hold of the Office Of Emergency Preparedness and let them know we still needed help. So maybe Friday we'd get out. People were remarkably calm when we told them they'd be there another day. The just sat down and began to prepare to go to bed.

We left the hospital and remained in the parking deck. One it was cooler, two, there would be less confusion in the morning and three it was safer since there was less territory for our Tulane Police to patrol. I know the media has played up the anarchy, and no doubt there was some concern, but I always thought we were safe.

So imagine trying to fall asleep on your concrete driveway without a pad or pillow. It's kind of tough. Then throw in an unexpected helicopter landing at 1 am. The wind is a little dicey. The bird dropped off 50% of the Marines in New Orleans. One guy who need to go to Charity so we had to take him over. Next event for the evening: at 4 am we were treated to a massive explosion at a warehouse on the river several miles away. I happened to be looking directly at it at the time. It must have reached a 1000 ft in the air. Then by the end of the evening we began actually to get cold. But it finally ended.

Friday: The end is pretty anti-climatic. At 8 o'clock unexpected Chinooks began showing up taking 60 people at a time. I wonder if our pilot friend in the Guard had anything to do we it but I haven't asked him yet.
So in a matter of 2 1/2 hrs. everyone was gone but our Police and the last remnants of management. So after attempts to arrange a coordination with Charity to use the helipad, we left for home sweet home.

Obviously, this is only phase one of a complicated recovery for New Orleans. Each of you no doubt is praying for this recovery. So many people have lost so much and it reaches far beyond New Orleans.

I talked to the Chairman of the Board of HCA yesterday upon returning and told him it was the worse and most difficult challenge I have ever been personally involved with but at the same time I don't think I've ever felt as great a sense of accomplishment from anything I've been
involved with.
Our staff performed like clockwork and it was a beautiful thing to observe.
Our success in this week is simply measured by the fact that we didn't lose a patient during this trying time.

J.

P.S. This event is just below a nuclear catastrophe in its degree of magnitude, and it's clear we're not ready and if we don't do better the next time a really hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Katrina Timeline Info

AMERICAN MORNING
Grim Mission in New Orleans
Aired September 5, 2005 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED
Excerpt:
S. O'BRIEN: There are people who say your evacuation plan, obviously in hindsight, was disastrous.
MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: Which one?
S. O'BRIEN: Your evacuation plan before -- when you put people into the Superdome. It wasn't thought out. You got 20,000 people in there. And that you bear the brunt of the blame for some of this, a large chunk of it.
NAGIN: Look, I'll take whatever responsibility that I have to take. But let me ask you this question: When you have a city of 500,000 people, and you have a category 5 storm bearing down on you, and you have the best you've ever done is evacuate 60 percent of the people out of the city, and you have never issued a mandatory evacuation in the city's history, a city that is a couple of hundred years old, I did that. I elevated the level of distress to the citizens.
And I don't know what else I could do, other than to tell them that it's a mandatory evacuation. And if they stayed, make sure you have a frigging ax in your home, where you can bust out the roof just in case the water starts flowing.
And as a last resort, once this thing is above a category 3, there are no buildings in this city to withstand a category 3, a category 4 or a category 5 storm, other than the Superdome. That's where we sent people as a shelter of last resort. When that filled up, we sent them to the Convention Center. Now, you tell me what else we could have done.
S. O'BRIEN: What has Secretary Chertoff promised you? What has Donald Rumsfeld given you and promised you?
NAGIN: Look, I've gotten promises to -- I can't stand anymore promises. I don't want to hear anymore promises. I want to see stuff done. And that's why I'm so happy that the president came down here, because I think they were feeding him a line of bull also. And they were telling him things weren't as bad as it was.
He came down and saw it, and he put a general on the field. His name is General Honore. And when he hit the field, we started to see action.
And what the state was doing, I don't frigging know. But I tell you, I am pissed. It wasn't adequate.
And then, the president and the governor sat down. We were in Air Force One. I said, 'Mr. President, Madam Governor, you two have to get in sync. If you don't get in sync, more people are going to die.'
S. O'BRIEN: What date was this? When did you say that? When did you say...
NAGIN: Whenever air Force One was here.
S. O'BRIEN: OK.
NAGIN: And this was after I called him on the telephone two days earlier. And I said, 'Mr. President, Madam Governor, you two need to get together on the same page, because of the lack of coordination, people are dying in my city.'
S. O'BRIEN: That's two days ago.
NAGIN: They both shook -- I don't know the exact date. They both shook their head and said yes. I said, 'Great.' I said, 'Everybody in this room is getting ready to leave.' There was senators and his cabinet people, you name it, they were there. Generals. I said, 'Everybody right now, we're leaving. These two people need to sit in a room together and make a doggone decision right now.'
S. O'BRIEN: And was that done?
NAGIN: The president looked at me. I think he was a little surprised. He said, "No, you guys stay here. We're going to another section of the plane, and we're going to make a decision."
He called me in that office after that. And he said, "Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor." I said -- and I don't remember exactly what. There were two options. I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision.
S. O'BRIEN: You're telling me the president told you the governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision?
NAGIN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Regarding what? Bringing troops in?
NAGIN: Whatever they had discussed. As far as what the -- I was abdicating a clear chain of command, so that we could get resources flowing in the right places.
S. O'BRIEN: And the governor said no.
NAGIN: She said that she needed 24 hours to make a decision. It would have been great if we could of left Air Force One, walked outside, and told the world that we had this all worked out. It didn't happen, and more people died.
(END VIDEOTAPE)

Wall Street Journal Katrina Info

Blame Amid the Tragedy

By BOB WILLIAMS
September 6, 2005; Page A28

As the devastation of Hurricane Katrina continues to shock and sadden the nation, the question on many lips is, Who is to blame for the inadequate response?

As a former state legislator who represented the legislative district most impacted by the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, I can fully understand and empathize with the people and public officials over the loss of life and property.

Many in the media are turning their eyes toward the federal government, rather than considering the culpability of city and state officials. I am fully aware of the challenges of having a quick and responsive emergency response to a major disaster. And there is definitely a time for accountability; but what isn't fair is to dump on the federal officials and avoid those most responsible -- local and state officials who failed to do their job as the first responders. The plain fact is, lives were needlessly lost in New Orleans due to the failure of Louisiana's governor, Kathleen Blanco, and the city's mayor, Ray Nagin.

The primary responsibility for dealing with emergencies does not belong to the federal government. It belongs to local and state officials who are charged by law with the management of the crucial first response to disasters. First response should be carried out by local and state emergency personnel under the supervision of the state governor and his/her emergency operations center.

See the Wall Street Journal Online for the rest of the article

The MAN

The article below doesn't begin to do justice to LTG Russ Honore, who is commanding JTF-Katrina. I am hoping some other reporters can do better.

The real story might be the fact this guy ever made it to three stars. Some might recall that a few years back, when he was an Assistant Division Commander in the 1st Cavalry Division, he made a speech at some sort of gathering --AUSA ?-- that was outspokenly critical of Army policy with respect to maintenance and supply. Copies of his speech made the rounds back when email was still new, and many thought the Army would show Russ Honore the door.

That it did not is perhaps a story to the Army's credit -- the type of story we all complain seldom gets told.

*******
Gen. Ragin' Cajun
By Andy Geller
New York Post
September 3, 2005
The three-star Army general tapped to lead the National Guard's recovery operations along the battered Gulf Coast is a cigar-chomping "John Wayne-type dude" with a Cajun accent.

Lt. Gen. Russel Honore was commander of the 1st U.S. Army in Fort Gillem, Ga., when he was named to head the newly created Joint Task Force Katrina, based at Camp Shelby in Mississippi.

In flood-ravaged New Orleans yesterday, he hit the ground running. Mayor Ray Nagin, who has been very critical of the actions of President Bush and the feds, singled out Honore for praise.

"Now, I will tell you this and I give the president some credit on this he sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done, and his name is General Honore," Nagin said.

"He came off the doggone chopper and he started cussing and people started moving. And he's getting some stuff done."
One of Honore's hobbies is throwing tomahawks. The other is collecting military medals and decorations. He's earned more than two dozen, including the Bronze Star and a Distinguished Service Medal.

See the New York Post Article for more