FREE Kittens and a TORNADO?

We were welcomed to Kanawha Friday afternoon by this sweet FREE KITTENS sign. Very tempting, but we are not quite able to have one just yet. Puffy tall white clouds dot the big blue sky, tall yellow wild flowers have sprung up in the pretty field across the street. Kanawha is quiet and calm.

Our youngest son, Will has a friend who was flying out of DFW for a trip to Vietnam, but Will our last college student is here in Kanawha. Mike our next oldest has survived another year teaching High School Geometry, Algebra and Testing Skills. He too has volunteered to help us out at the store.

A trip to Home Depot for eleven sheets of plywood and we are settled in to enjoy a good nights sleep. In the AM hours we wake to a long continuous roar, the 16 1/2 ft trailer is rocking side to side and rain hammers down. Bill yells TORNADO??? and we all grab shoes and run for the store. Just as we open the door of the store the glass in one of the front windows blows out toward the porch from the change in pressure. For several hours we huddle in the back section of the store. Soggy, scared and thankful to be alive.

The next morning we see a large tree limb down behind the store, the yellow flowers are bent and mushed in diverse directions and a section of our neighbors fence is down. God also spared our neighbors farther up 410, who lost power and had many trees uprooted and huge limbs twisted off. We duct taped a plastic bag over the broken window as a temp fix. We have much to be thankful for Woodland to Jonesboro.

FATHERS DAY Bill got Great Stuff pressurized foam. Akin to silly string, I knew it was a hit when he was seen passing the window with the long nozzle pointed toward the road side of the store. He was just looking to see if he could find one more thing to use it on. Will on the inside removing the last of the old AC vent and Mike helping Bill fit a board sealed with foam and screws so it is air tight. Giving a man this foam is very entertaining until the stuff expands into large bulbous blobs that harden and look ick. Fortunately once it cures the excess can be trimmed off neatly.

Mike and Bill also found a combination of duct tape and foam stopped water from pouring through the breaker box every time it rained. Imagine our surprise the first time we observed that event!

Inside Will became our go to guy with the skill saw. He probably did 90% of the sawing for the whole trip. Will and Bill covered the entire back wall and eight feet of the side wall as well with plywood. Bill broke 8 drill bits on the steel trying to get holes for screws. With nine screws a sheet there is a lot of screwing to be done.

Mike tackled the mirror in the restroom and the shelves we cut but had not braced in the grocery section. He then used the cedar boards Will sawed to build a bench for the front porch. If all that were not enough he also burned a good bit of the wood we had stacked near the road. Fortunately the wind died down and the ground was wet.

With all the help we were able to get more done in this one trip than about three of our others where Bill is pretty much on his own.

We could not remove the shed out back as the tree limbs and poison ivy were in the way. Jody is going to spray it good for us and we will bring some limb removing tools to try and get to it next time.

We enjoyed seeing our cousins Mary, Bobby and their friend. They were taking a drive to see where they used to live and how things have changed. I hope the three of them will come back when things are cleaner and more inviting.


It used to be DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS but on a bridge going home it said DRIVE CLEAN ACROSS TEXAS.

Deconstruction and Patches

We have been blessed to find Oklahoma cousins. Don is a Walker cousin who also connects to our family through Mary Ann Thompson who is the mother of our branch of Boulwares. His branch of the Walkers is through his grandmother Laura Decima Walker called "Deci" and her husband Cleatus Atticus Devenport. Deci was my Grandmother's sister and Cleatus grandfather was my greatgrandfather's half brother. Don has filled in many blanks for me and our sharing notes has opened up a whole new set of paths to follow north to Victory Cemetery in Oklahoma and south to Kaufman and Hamilton counties in Texas. Don has been researching this family for many years and his generosity is much appreciated.

We also have cousins in North Carolina! North Carolina is suffering a heatwave. Loretta has been a wealth of information with her extensive genealogy she so kindly shared with me. Her branch of the family links back to ours in ways we are just beginning to fully understand. Her Eva Ringwald married Oscar Jefferson Walker, who is the son of Augustus D Walker who is my greatgrandfathers brother. The Ringwald family is German and Carl Frederick Ringwald (Eva's Grandfather), who first settled in Kanawha was born in Baden Germany, his profession being a tinsmith. Ringwalds abound in the Kanawha Cemetery. Loretta has several other surnames associated with this area in her family research. Thank you again Loretta!

It was eye opening to see the difficulties NASA has in regard to the restroom on board the space station. It made our challenge seem small, at least we have gravity and proximity.

The pre-trip list includes another junk store damaged find. It will hopefully be part of the wall we want to build to seperate the storage/office area of the store from the eating area and a surround for the Ben Franklin stove we want to install later. This large piece is very heavy and the gas gage on the truck will probably be reflecting that weight. To lift it on the truck will take the four of us. It will empty out a wall in my dining room and for that I am grateful.

We are gearing up for the next phase of store work. This project involves removal of a steel shed in disrepair. We are not excited about what critter may be lurking inside or removal of a good deal of trash, but cleaning up one more eye sore will be good for the soul. However, pulling something apart with a truck, now that's something the sons can get into. Bill is hoping the steel will match up with the main building so we can use some of it to patch holes. The second phase of this trip is that patch work needed on the exterior walls that may require use of Gorilla Glue, Duct Tape and screws. The last part is the covering of the inside walls with plywood most especially the back wall and hopefully some of the side walls as well. We are bringing muscle in the form of sons, Mike and Will, to help get sheets of plywood in place. These are big projects and it is not clear how much we will actually finish but we have goals just for the sake of the materials list.

On a sad note the Montgomery family has lost their father. Norman's wife is the daughter of Ambrose and Opal Boulware. I know he will be missed.