For my birthday, I got homelessness. For my husband’s – six months after we moved into my mother’s home – all he wanted was to move out; to finally settle on our own land.

There was a problem, though. A hurricane was coming.

We thought and evaluated, spent time in prayer, thought and discussed, and decided that despite the storm, we were going. So we loaded up, headed out and spent our first night in the tent. The mosquitos were apallingly bad. By morning, we all looked like we had chicken pox. We also had some decisions to make, because the weather service was advising that the hurricane had strengthened, not weakened as they had expected, and a tent isnt exactly a safe shelter in a storm.

Ultimately, we decided to take the tent down. Everything that could be damaged by water was either put in plastic bins and stacked in the gear tent, or else bundled, tarped and sandbagged in the center of the tent frame. We battened down as much as we could, loaded the van with food and clothing, bedding, lanterns, fuel, and departed as refugees to our friends’ place, 45 minutes away.

We spent Thursday and Thursday night in the tent. Friday we frantically packed and prepared, with trips to the hardware store and back, Friday by suppertime we were safe in our refuge house. Friday night the storm hit and howled, thrashed and tore. The power went out almost immediately. It stayed out for two weeks. This was the new benchmark storm. It set records for damage. The house we sheltered in had many trees come down, one on the roof. No structural damage, just a lot of mess. For many, though, the damage was extensive.

Saturday remained windy and messy. Sunday, we packed up and headed back to our land to see what OUR damage was. We had a dozen trees down across the driveway, and the gear tent (which had already had some minor holes) shredded, but praise God, that was all. No other loss or damage, and we had no electricity to begin with, so we were quickly back to business as usual. Husband cut the fallen trees down, and the neighbour came over, introduced himself, and then brought his tractor back and dragged the trees to the side of the driveway.

We got set up again, and this time, we sprayed the whole inside of the tent with MosquitoBarrier garlic spray. The second night we spent in the tent was far less infested with vampires.