Exactly three weeks after Frances, we started preparing for Jeanne to hit. The first step was filling up Andie's closet with all kinds of stuff.

And Laura's closet too. Storage space is at a premium during a hurricane.

We were better prepared this time around. We had 40 gallons of generator fuel ready and waiting.

We moved all the bubble solution underneath the garden counter so we could set the bubble housing on its side.

Mike got on the roof to cover the turbines.

Then he covered the vent holes.

Natty enjoyed her last few hours outside.

Some men came by and trimmed back the Mango Tree the day before Jeanne hit.

It was very tall and would have done a lot of damage had it fallen during the storm.

They worked really hard and gave us a great deal.

The highest branch was almost impossible. They tied it to Mike's Jeep so he could pull it outward as they cut it off.

It fell on the fence anyway.

But it still wasn't as bad as it would have been had the tree fallen during the hurricane.

Mike and our neighbor Russ try to get the rope untied from the Jeep's bumper.

They didn't have a lot of luck.

The Mango Tree is now cut back to a safe height.

We left it as is so there wouldn't be a bunch of missile sized tree limbs flying around the neighborhood.

Bright and early Saturday morning, the crews from Oklahoma were out picking up limbs left over from Frances.

So Mike got out the chainsaw and we started cutting up the Mango Tree, so they could haul it away before the storm.

Picking up the neighbor's limbs

By then we had a nice neat pile of Mango for them to take away.

Picking up the Mimosa branches from our yard - unfortunately that's as far as they got.

Before they could gather our Mango branches, they were called back due to the rapidly approaching Jeanne.

We filled up the bathtub again, and we also got more buckets this time. You learn something new in every hurricane. We learned we needed more water.

This is the battery set up Mike made to run our TV and lights when the power went out.

It worked really well. See how clearly you can see the stupid reporter standing outside reporting that it's raining and the winds are high?

Bogart freaked out and tried out Libby's bed. It's rather small for him, but he didn't much care.

Natty found her own shelter.

Bogart turned into a lap dog...

...looking for protection from the storm...

...and for some comfort from Andie.

We drank a lot of coffee.

During hurricanes Twinkies are standard fare. Libby didn't mind so much.

This was Jeanne's first outter feeder band.

Palm fronds are already starting to fall.

Palm trees will shed their fronds in an attempt to save themselves.

Too bad the Palm tree that fell on Andie's car during Frances didn't seem to know that fact.

Mike is trying to determine how bad it is by watching a squall through the peep-hole.

It wasn't so bad that we couldn't go outside and video tape some more.

This Ibes stopped its struggle to fly to take a rest in our yard.

He eventually took off again and had to fight the wind the whole way.

Look at the Palm Trees in the distance. The wind was blowing hard.

Hurricane skies once again.

Didn't we just do this?

This guy on TV is announcing that we are now heading into the worst part of the storm.

So Mike screwed the door shut once again.

We were out very early the next morning.

About 6:00 a.m. early, in fact

Our neighbor's shed didn't make it through this one. A lot of the contents ended up in our back yard.

The Banana Tree had quite a bit of damage.

And we lost more shingles from our roof.

Mike had to get up on the roof between rain squall feeder bands and patch it up.

Hurry! There's another one about ten minutes away.

The neighbor kid sitting on his roof - it was drier outside than in, because they lost a lot of their roof during Frances.

The back of our female Palm Tree is bald now, but she's still standing.

The Mimosa stood her ground this time around.

Andie once again whipped up a nice breakfast on the camp stove.

At a little before noon, drinks were served. It's five o'clock somewhere.

This was taken the evening after Jeanne tore through.

The skies were beautiful after all that fury.

The morning after, the Oklahoma crew was hard at working picking up the rest of the yard debris.

There's no way we would have ever gotten cleaned up without all of the out of state help we received.