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.
