Our New Tornado Shelter

We finally bit the bullet and had a tornado shelter installed on our RV lot at Cedar Blue!  I cannot tell you how much comfort this gives us.  It's not pretty but if it gives us a place to go in high winds and tornadoes then it is totally worth it.  Cedar Blue has 600 lots in it and they have one tornado shelter that might hold 25 people.  In the 15 years we have owned this lot we have only had to leave our RV twice.  Once for high winds and we just sat in the car and once for a possible tornado and the rain was coming down so hard late at night that we cold only see a few feet in front of the car to drive the half mile to the shelter and then we couldn't find it.  Seriously!  The rain was coming down so hard we had no idea where to go so just sat it out in the car and prayed.  So now we have our own place to go. 

It's a 6x8 shelter that can hold about 9 people with room for our dogs in crates behind the stairs.  We have a couple of neighbors that we have shared the lock combo with so they can use it as well, if needed. 

The company that installed it actually had it done from start to finish in 2 hours and 15 minutes!  That included feathering the large amount of leftover dirt out across the hard.  What was really nice was that the didn't hit any large rocks while digging the hole.  This area is noted for lots of big rocks in the ground so once again prayers were answered. 

You can see from the pictures that it really is a monstrosity and has absolutely no asthetic value but in time we plan to grow some grass around it, plant some flowers and shrubs and try to pretty it up a bit.  I'm thinking about painting it green as well to help it blend into the ground.  They told us everything would settle a few inches so for now we are just going to let it sit and possibly this fall or next spring start to pretty it up.  I'm hoping it adds value to the lot should we decide to sell at some point. 

So now we have a tornado shelter at both the place we stay in Newcastle and Cedar Blue so to our family and friends - we are completely protected!

I want to also give a shout out to Oklahoma Shelters out of Crescent, OK.  When I was searching the web for places that might come to Cedar Blue I found this place and it is several miles north of Oklahoma City -- Cedar Blue is 80 miles south of the city.  I emailed them over a weekend and had a response with prices in less than a day.  They were very responsive by email and didn't seem to mind all my questions.  They didn't require a down payment and I was able to pay the installers out here in the boonies with a credit card and got this for under $3,000!  Money well spent don't you think?  You can also get shelters that have a flat surface (kind of flush with the ground) but I was concerned about flooding so didn't opt for that one although it would have been 'prettier'. 

John has been trying to figure out how to have a bath tub so I told him if he could come up with a pumping system maybe he could fill it with water, enjoy it and then pump it out! 

If you read any of my blogs about our recent trip you know that I beat my poor body up pretty good with a bruised bone in my foot, a cut foot, an infected leg and a bad back.  Well while cleaning up after the shelter install I slashed open the tip of my finger badly (yes the rock was dirty) so decided it was time for a tetanus shot.  I probably should have had the finger looked at but cleaned it as best as I could and bandaged it up.  We headed to a Walgreens in Ardmore and both of us got tetanus shots, had a nice dinner at Luigis and called it good.  I was already on antibiotics for my leg so I pray this will heal with no problems.

As I'm sitting her writing this on our deck the hummingbirds are enjoying the feeders.  One of them keeps flying almost up to me on the deck so I can almost reach out and touch it.  They don't seem the list bit bothered by me sitting here.  Very cool!