Friday May 30th

One of the great things about having a half mile long - through the woods - driveway is it makes for an interesting (and easy) walk. Every late afternoon/early evening I take the dogs for a walk. Even when I'm feeling lazy, their pitiful faces convince me to go. They think it's SUCH an adventure, even if we've already been outside all day. Weirdness. Anyway, if we go halfway and come back it's a half mile hike. That's about as far as Cheyenne can go these days (the German Shepherd - she'll be 15 next week).

The other, and best, great thing is the peace and quiet. The sounds I hear most often are birds chirping and wind chimes tinkling. It's truly a blessing.
(You know you live in quietude when the occasional sound of a truck way out on the highway is annoying. Ha.)

Thursday May 29th

More storms monday night and tuesday, finaly clear now and it looks like we'll have great weather for the next week. Tuesday I called my neighbor to see if their electricity was out too. They weren't home, they were at the hospital in Little Rock. Jim had a terrible motorcycle accident sunday. A punctured lung, 3 broken ribs and a broken shoulder - that I know of, I only talked to Karon for a minute. He'll be okay but it'll be awhile. Yes, same neighbor in front that the tornado hit hard.
Meanwhile I still haven't seen or heard from my carpenter. Looks like they might have lost TWO jobs by being greedy. Doubtful that the neighbors are concerned about remodeling right now. That's the job they left me for, that *I* recommended them to. Yesterday I went back to the lumberyard that recommended them, told them what they did and asked for a new referral. (It's unlikely they'll be getting any new referrals from them) They gave me 3 names. So we'll see what happens now.

Memorial Day

Freedom's Colors

Red is for Bravery; blood shed in sacrifice.

Freedom came with lives the price.

White is for Liberty; freedom's purity.

Life be free from God's decree.

Blue is for Justice; as vast as the sky.

Over freedom's land to occupy.

*

by Roger W Hancock

*

A special prayer today for our fallen heros.

Never Forget - Freedom Isn't Free.

Sunday May 25th

I've been such an emotional wreck lately. Tornados, Tornado warnings (now even thunderstorms freak me out), my house in pieces, the carpenter dumped me for a better job (he says it's temporary).

Then the worst of all - friday morning when I woke up Tux was pretty much unresponsive. He wouldn't even lift his head. I thought he was dying and didn't know if he had tick fever or was posioned by something he ate. I doctored him all day and by the end of the day he had some sips of water and went for a small walk - though he was walking like an old man (he's 4). Yesterday morning he was a bit better and by yesterday evening he was almost back to his normal self and trailing me everywhere. This morning he seems fine but I'm still keeping a close eye on him.

Thursday May 22

A spring on the hillside

Monday my carpenter called in tired from working the weekend. Tuesday they called in to say they had to be on another job for awhile. I was pretty pissed off that they're leaving me with an undone mess. But I've been able to get other things done and yesterday afternoon I decided I needed a break and took Tux for a walk down to the creek. Our trails are overgrown and gone (I'll have to bring a machete next time). We ended up spending 4 hours on our hiking adventure and came home covered in ticks and catbriar scratches. But it was fun. The creek was thigh-high in places and nice and cool. You can't tell in the pic below but that log was pretty high off the ground!

Indiana Tux

Sunday May 18th

We had to halt progress to find and fix a roof leak but as of friday I have sheetrock (and a housefull of sheetrock dust, ha), and all the electrical is in. All that's left is finish work and trim. Then we'll move on to stairs and hopefully kitchen stuff.

The weather has turned gorgeous, it looks like we'll have about 10 days of no rain and temps 70-90. Yesterday I spent all day working outside but today I have to go to town and run errands. Boo hoo. I'd much rather finish up my yard chores.

Wednesday May 14th

Alrighty, how to describe this. When you walk in the front door it's one big square room with the living room and kitchen. The back wall had kitchen on the left AND right with the door to the laundry room in the middle. Mike and I had decided to tear out the left side, add windows and have that be part of the living area. The right side will be the kitchen and fill more area that was empty space. That's the project I'm working on right now.

Above is the 'Before' of the left side. Ugly, isn't it? One of the last untouched parts of the house.
Below is the 'After'. Obviously it's not done yet but you can see what I'm doing and how much better it is already. (The post is temporary)

Tuesday May 13th

Sorry for the lack of update since the storm. I've been sick, picked up a bug probably from getting repeatedly wet and cold in the aftermath. Been busy, trying to keep up my normal stuff before and after the carpenter is here everyday. (I've got a huge mess going on). Had another tornado scare saturday night that about sent me over the edge. These didn't touch down, Thank God.

Other than that, everythings fine. ::::::smile::::::
FINALY after waiting a year got my additional 2 acres as a buffer so nobody can build next to me. Got the second of my 2 new windows in yesterday. Love, love, love it. Amazing how different the house looks. Pics soon.

Jennifer, if you're reading this.....Hope you had a great baby shower saturday. Sorry I missed it. Maybe next time. Grin.

Tuesday May 6th

Everything's pretty much back to normal here now. We even have phone service back as of yesterday afternoon. Bless my neighbors for clearing the road so utilities could get in and I could get out. Otherwise I'd likely still be back here with no power. If the power company had to cut their way in I'd probably have been last on the list.
The pics are of the road now that it's cleared. You can see in the last one that they killed the tractor at the not quite halfway point. After that they had to roll the huge logs out of the way by hand.

Sunday May 4th

Thanks Roxann! Whew, 2 1/2 days later and I still can't believe my house and yard were untouched! I'm back with power now and the driveway is clear since friday evening. These pics are the driveway from friday morning when I was trying to walk out. The one above is 100 yards from my place and the others are as you go down the drive towards the highway.

All Okay!

This is Roxann, Dena's friend. She wanted me to make a post here because she has no electricity right now and can't get on the computer. A tornado passed VERY close to her house this morning, damaging the neighbor's house but not hers. Still, it was very loud and very scary. Dena is not hurt, but the electricity is out, there are trees down all around, but her cell phone works. It only gets good reception outside, though, so if you try to call and she doesn't answer, she'll return your call later when she sees that she missed a call. Her home phone might work, I am not sure, but I think she mentioned that she had a non-battery phone to plug in. We spoke a few minutes ago and she was making some coffee with her non-electric coffee pot, whew! At least the coffee pot works - all will be okay :)