Surprises All Around

Over the course of the last couple of days we have had a number of small surprises.  One was the kind we were happy about, one was the kind that you would expect living with "nature" all around and the other was more of a regional "jolt." I'll talk a little about each in no particular order.

The other day Ann, the kids and I were over at the house.  For those of you who have looked at the pictures of the house as it stands now, you will know that the kitchen is covered in sheetrock painted this green color that.. well, I don't even really know how to describe it.  It's almost like a color you would expect to see on a vest worn by someone picking up trash along the highway.  Anyway, it's sheetrock, its green and it has to GO!!!  So, we decided to punch a hole in it and see what was behind it.  We chose a couple of spots on different walls and the ceiling.  We knew that there had been a fire and that the back wall had been rebuilt so it was going to be just drywall, that was a given but it was the other walls and the ceiling that gave us our pleasant surprise.

When we got through the drywall on the first hole we found wood planking.  Different people call it different things but it was basically 1x4 or 1x6 (depending on which wall) boards covering the entire wall.  This was PERFECT for what we envisioned for the kitchen.  We are going to keep this entire house (with the only exception being the bathroom) as simple and traditional as possible so this siding was such a welcome sight (see picture).

Each time we removed the drywall we found this.  Then, Ann said she wondered what the ceiling was like and a couple swings of the hammer later and we found a very similar wood there as well.  The only place that didn't have the wood was a portion of the back wall where the fire had been.  But that is actually perfect because we are going to install windows along that wall to look out on the summer kitchen and back yard so it couldn't have worked out better.

We also decided to make a hole in the kitchen floor to see what is there. Right now the floor has a "brick" pattern linoleum over particle board and we wondered what was under there as well.  So we removed a layer of linoleum, a layer of particle board, off-white linoleum, wild-colored linoleum, then some Congoleum flooring and finally some 1925 newspapers (really) and found.... the original yellow poplar floor planking.  Jackpot!!  Thank you God!!!

Ok, so the second little surprise gift was "given" to me while I was out walking around the yard.  Ann had dropped me off at the house because Bonnie was asleep in the car and rather than wake her up, Ann had decided to take a little drive and give Bonnie more time to nap. (Letting Bonnie sleep is ALWAYS a good idea... believe me.)  Out near the back corner of the house we have some wild black raspberry bushes.  The berries are small but DELICIOUS and Bonnie likes to pick and eat them whenever she is at the house so I wanted to see how the crop was doing.  As I stood there looking at them I noticed some movement in the bush.  It was like a breeze was blowing one small portion of the plant.  I stood and watched as a tiny garden snake made it's way up one of the bushes and out into the sunlight (see picture).

 
At first I didn't want to get my phone out for fear of scaring it away.  But I soon realized that he didn't really care one way or the other about me being there.  He was looking for sunshine and maybe a bug for a snack.  So I took a couple of pictures, called Ann to tell her about it and watched as he eventually made his way through the bush and back down to the ground below.  The last time I saw him, he was disappearing into some dead leaves and stuff at the base of the bushes.  After I showed Bonnie the picture she asked about "our snake" a bunch of times.  It was pretty cute.

Our final noteworthy event came yesterday morning.  We had the great fortune to be right in the path of a pretty amazing thunder storm.  When it came it came FAST.  One minute there was a light breeze and some sprinkles and the next there was torrential rain, screaming wind and lightening right over our heads.  Having had little exposure to this and based on the devastation we saw on our trip over here (see previous blog post) our minds automatically turned to tornados.  Thankfully the internet stayed up and we were able to watch the storm on doppler radar.  There were tornado warnings for south of Louisville but nothing here.  The most severe part of it lasted about 25 minutes and then it was gone.  While it was a little intense for us, it was cool to watch the power of it and to talk and listen to the kids "oohs and awes" as it was happening.  We drove over to check the big trees at the house, find Bonnie's little pool that we had left out and to make sure "Oscar Kitty" was ok.  Everything was fine.

All in all... a pretty eventful weekend.

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Take care.

Kevin