A breath of fresh air...

  As we continue to adjust to the climate, I realize just how much time we were able to spend outdoors in Tennessee.  The wind really creates a cooler climate here.  So, I look forward to seeing how we can "beat the wind" in our new yard since the barn and the woods will offer relief from the wind.
  But until we are in our new house, we are thankful for the mild winter this year...especially the last couple of days.  We have been able to get outdoors for long periods of time and not freeze! :)  We've welcomed time at 2 playgrounds and also have done a little roller skating/blading!

Random but noteworthy events lately...

  As we were working on the house the other day, the whole family was participating and present.  So, Josh was pulling off a part of the framework that he had wrestled free.  After glancing to see where Eric was on the tractor and looking to see that Jake was stopped nearby (like 15-20 yards away), Josh gave a final yank to free the framework from the house.  As it came falling down, lo and behold, Jake came running full speed through the area and managed to time his location exactly with that of the falling wall...which caused him to get tackled by the wall and end up with his head through the drywall.  Not very funny at the time (since my first thought was nails that might be sticking out...followed by a thousand other split second fears).  However, now as I type this and replay the situation in my mind, it is rather hilarious actually....b/c how exactly could a child go from zero to a dead sprint and end up at the only dangerous spot in the area...and (as Jack later put it) run through a wall...and walk away with only a bruised nose?   Even Eric commented that he glanced from the tractor and saw Jake standing still, glanced away, and glanced back in the direction of Jake again (when he was in a dead sprint) at the only moment Eric couldn't do a thing except watch Jake get hit by and knocked down by the falling wall.  Amazing! Glad it turned out as it did and we can laugh about it...

  Last week, we were walking toward the hospital entrance to see Josh's cousin (Melissa and her husband, Josh). They had their firstborn baby girl and the boys were eager to see the new baby.  As we walked, Joe asked, "Is the doctor taking off the baby's belly button?"  Now, my first thought was "hmmm, wonder if Joe has some scarred memory of his own on that" and then I thought "wonder what all has gone through his mind to put together that thought!"  Funny things kids say and you can't help but wonder (and want to further ask) how in the world they arrived at that thought! :)

  

The last of it

Well, the job of tearing off plaster was officially completed earlier this week.  The two remaining chimneys have since been removed.  And now we are waiting on the weather to help us.  First, we have to be able to drive the tractor through the yard b/c it got so muddy early in the week. We have been waiting on a freezing night of weather so the tractor can be driven on more solid ground...then we can clean up the inside of the house with the remaining debris.  Secondly, we need some consecutive days of sun/dry...not rain...so we can tear off and replace the kitchen/dining roof.

 Here are some pictures of the inside downstairs now that it's gutted.  And, in case you're wondering, we did not find any great hidden treasures in the walls! :)

Double take

So...usually the phrase "double take" means you look twice.  Well, if I posted a picture, you would probably do a double take at the double take.   Two raccoons, that is.  Yes, today brought Team Hawkins to a score of 4 while the raccoons are really starting to take a loss at zero.  Jack has the 3 that have been shot lined up on the outdoor stove brick wall.  Kind of a funny sight!  He joking claimed that yesterday he thought about skinning the one for a coon hat, but now there's almost enough for the whole family!
  Josh and Jack can obviously tell the story from today with a lot more enthusiasm.  But I'll keep it short and to the point since there is so much one can't understand with locations in the house right now.  However, the Lord has blessed us with the neighbors' dog (a family that goes to our church).  Their dog returned again today...and easily, quickly with very focused effort tracked each coon separately, but accurately.    
  The poor dog climbed into some odd and not so comfortable places where it couldn't quite get to the coon (b/c of gaping openings in the ceiling where plaster has been pulled--the dog couldn't leap the area to land on anything to get to the coon). But when Jack tried to coax the dog down (thinking he was stuck and barking for help...before realizing there actually was a coon), the dog got a mean growl at Jack.
  So, Josh climbed the ladder and spotted the fur ball...who was running out of places to go.  At this point, many parts of the ceiling plaster have been removed due to coon chasing events...and very little plaster on the ceilings remains.  Thus, there isn't much space for the coons to hide at this point.  And if the dog hadn't barked a trail to the first coon today, Jack would have had a coon coming down on him as he pulled ceiling plaster shortly anyway. 
  So later, the dog started its intense barking again above the kitchen ceiling.  Jack looked at Josh and they quickly agreed that based on the dog's previous behavior, they would have to chase this coon down or else Jack and Josh wouldn't be able to get the dog out of the house today. So, they set out to tear apart parts of the kitchen...removing escape routes and cornering the coon based on where the dog seemed to be barking/indicating the coon was.  Jack had removed some of the bulk head and looked expecting to see the coon, but couldn't find it.  Just as he glanced down to get down he saw to ears sticking up.  The coon was shrunk down between the 2 x 4's with only its ears showing.  Josh gave it a shot to the head...and that was that.
  The dog was delighted at the catches.  And Josh has been giving it marshmallows as a treat!  Josh has affectionately named the dog Buddy.  Jake wants to call it Hunter and Joe named it stoplight (we were heading toward a stoplight as we were discussing what we could name the dog...so of course...stoplight!)

Oh yeah, we're still homeschooling...

  Jacob and I continue to plug away at homeschooling.  He is very eager to learn and very excited to be able to read short, simple books.  Below are the badges we've made with each letter/concept we've studied so far.  Today, Jake colored the elephant purple on his badge!  Love it!

  This past Sunday as we talked about his Sunday school lesson, he promptly quoted James 1:19 with little effort.  It's the first verse that he has really sought to learn and accurately master.  That's pretty exciting!

Team Hawkins=2 Raccoons=0

  So, Jack and Josh were working to clean up the debris after 2 days of not being able to use the tractor due to mud.  Suddenly a dog (with no collar, but with blue painted front nails and red painted back nails), came up to and into the house...sniffing.  It went right up the stairs.
  Jack and Josh kept working until they heard the dog going crazy...barking in one spot.  They looked for the dog...and couldn't find it.  Finally, by sound, they discovered the dog was between the dining room roof and the dining room (sw downstairs room) ceiling.  So, Jack and Josh went to town on the ceiling trying to find the dog and what it was barking at.  Jack found a fur ball and had Josh take a shot at it...knowing the bullet would go through the wood in front of the coon.  Josh got down to reload and by the time he reloaded, they couldn't spot the coon.  They had been working to pull out a wall cabinet insert.  But there were so many spots around the area that a coon could fit. So, Jack took the sawzall and started just cutting out the cabinet...to have a better view.  As he was cutting, the coon ran past where he was cutting...so he went after it with the sawzall....but missed.
  The coon appeared to have gone to the top of the chimney.  So, they stuck something in the chimney to feel if it was down in there...and felt a squishy give.  In an attempt to shoot it, Jack pulled out some brick down lower and cut out a spot to shoot through...only to discover the "squishy feel" was insulation piled up in the chimney--not a coon.
  So, Josh and Jack started pulling more plaster from the ceiling and other areas, trying to spot the coon.  Finally they saw it tucked back in a corner and Josh was able to take a shot at it.  But it'd been shot in such a tight spot that Jack had to really reach up and around in the ceiling to even get a hold of it to pull it out.

Another one?

 Well, we have now found ANOTHER chimney...in the southwest downstairs room.  I do believe it is the last one we can possibly find hidden behind a wall. It brings the grand chimney total to 4 interior, one in the summer kitchen, and the one exterior that was added later.  (so 6 total)

  And, speaking of more findings, we think we have found another well, too.  There is a cistern next to the corner where we first found the raccoon sleeping (southeast corner of the house).  Then, we found the well under the summer kitchen on Sunday.  And there are 2 other wells dug...with tops out in the backyard.  However, there is a pipe near the well we discovered Sunday that has us believing there is another well under it.  It started raining Monday, so we couldn't use the tractor to get at it and investigate.  So, a grand total of 5 water sources...

  Yesterday, Josh was walking to the detached garage with some stuff and saw a raccoon trotting toward the house from the pool area (yeah, in broad daylight).  He got the gun, but hit something with his foot while walking and scared the raccoon off without getting a shot at it.  (He did successfully take aim at a rabbit shortly after.) So...we know there must be more coons interested in our house still.

  Oh...another interesting find...Jack found an animal skull in the ceiling of the downstairs east room. 

Silly Papa

  Joe has been singing songs and making up songs to "sing-song" while he is doing just about anything.  For example, yesterday as he got in the car on the way to church, he sang "Jin-gle Bells, Jin-gle Bells, there's a fountain flowing jingle bells"   So, you never know what he'll sing about.

  Today, he came running around the corner of the house (with a short stick in his hand that he was waving around)...and I heard him singing over and over "silly papa, silly papa..." And it had a sing-song rhythm and flow to it...which is what made it even more interesting and humorous.  But then I realized why he was singing this...I remembered Jack had just driven the tractor up to the back of the house to try to nail down the roof tarp...and he was standing in the bucket scoop of the tractor to reach it. Joe had just seen this...and thought it "silly", I guess! :)

Back at it...

  Well, I guess yesterday wasn't enough because the boys were excited this morning to go back to the house to help me clean up the last of the summer kitchen area today. We grabbed all kinds of shovels, rakes, and more...and headed to work.

  They did a lot of pushing and pulling things into the well opening.  Jack used the tractor to clean up the broken brick piles from the front of the house and we dumped those in the well, too.  We think this well is about 8 feet wide by about 13 feet deep.  So, you can imagine how much we could put in it to fill it.

  While digging, the boys found all kinds of treasures to add to their growing pile.  They found a baseball, a large wooden clothespin, tools and parts of tools, an old metal flatbed truck...to name a few. They had fun just playing in the soft dirt, too.

Other noteworthy parts of the day...
--I drove a tractor for the first time...ever...today.
--We think we have discovered another well...at the edge of the summer kitchen area. 
--We found another chimney in the southwest corner wall of the dining room (next to where the concrete block exterior chimney is).
--And we're on the look-out for more raccoons after Josh spotted one coming from the pool area to the back of the house...in broad daylight!

That's one for Team Hawkins

Yep, it was a big day today.

The sun was shining.  The back yard where we were working felt pretty warm.  And we had all hands on deck (in an attempt to beat the rainy/snowy forecast that's coming).  The goal...project summer kitchen clean up.

Jake and Joe helped by trying to sled down the hillside...while we worked.  But it worked! :)  Josh, Jack and I started pulling lumber to the burn pile.  Then, Debbie joined us and we picked up "sticks". Then, Eric and Rachel showed up and we cleared the ground from there.

In the midst of it all, we discovered there was a raccoon in the trap.  I guess we've gotten so used to not catching anything, that nobody bothered to look.  I had taken Jake to see how Trent was removing the staircase and decided to take him out through the kitchen.  I glanced over and then did a double-take because there was a big fur ball in the trap.  I knew Jack had gone through the kitchen earlier...so I yelled out to him.  We all got excited...enough to halt work for a minute and celebrate.  So, our "trick" must have helped trap him (a mouse glue trap at the back of the cage in front of the last marshmallow...so his hands getting stuck would distract him and lower his back end...allowing the trap to shut).  Jake and Joe wanted it to stay in the cage, Rachel wanted to take it home for a pet, Eric, Josh, Debbie and I wanted to shoot it, and Jack wanted to let it go.  Jack won! :)

In other news...we found another chimney (in the kitchen wall near where the raccoon had made his bedroom).  And we discovered a well opening under the summer kitchen.  Praise God there was a solid piece of wood over it because it is a good sized opening...that we had been repeatedly walking over among the clean up.  Any one of us could have fallen into it. 

What'd you do today?

I love thinking about how to answer this question on a day like today...when some really bizarre and "not so normal" things were part of my day.
Yeah...we dropped the roof on our new house today.  Oh, and we pulled up some siding and found a raccoon in the wall...between the kitchen walls.   You know.  Just another day in the neighborhood.

 Josh had pulled up this siding to see what was under it. About 10 minutes later, I pulled it up to take a closer look myself and subconsciously spotted fir INSIDE the wall while looking at the exterior.  I quickly dropped the siding and danced away from the house.  Jack laughed and said, " Is there a coon in there or something?"  I said, "It's something with fur!"  Josh went for a pitchfork and Jack held the siding with a broom while Rachel watched and I took pictures.  The pitchfork wouldn't fit through the opening b/c of a piece of wood across the area.  So, the coon got away.  BUT, we have purchased more marshmallows and some glue boards to see if the glue boards will create a distraction in the trap to cause the coon to fully get stuck inside!  We'll keep you posted!   Exciting times around here!!!

So, what'd you do today?

Up in smoke

So, it's been a few days since I've posted anything about the house.  That's because we've been working.  :) There have been several nice days (after a few VERY cold days with snow blowing in the house through the chimney holes and the open doors/windows).

First up...the chimneys...We have officially removed the two interior chimneys and almost all of the nearly 2000 good bricks that we stacked in the house as we took them down.  Yes, there was a day last week where all I did was move bricks around...stack 'em or throw 'em out the window. (I feared I would dream about bricks---and throw something in my sleep!)
  WOW!!!!  And Jack did so much more.  I think he actually touched all 3000 bricks in the 3 chimneys.  (He helped a co-worker take down the summer house chimney since his co-worker was interested in the brick.) The summer house chimney had two kinds of brick. So, we aren't sure yet what we'll do with the remainder.  We think we have enough brick to make a driveway, though...seriously!
  You see, the front room chimney was about 14 x 14 all the way from floor to roof.  The other main chimney (the one that Jack literally pushed over upstairs b/c the brick was so loose) was 14 x 14 from the roof through the floor joists on the second floor.  However, last Monday when we were taking the interior brick down, we had nearly finished the front chimney and had about 2 hours before dinner.  We thought we could get the main chimney done in the time we had.  So, Jack finished the front chimney while Josh and I started to tear into the wall around the main chimney.
  Josh pulled the fancy newer brick from the insert in the east room while I had the pleasurable job of whacking the plaster off the wall in the west room.  I couldn't believe it when I kept struggling to get the plaster off...only to find another brick.  The 14 x 14 shape had spread to a good 5 feet wide.  We soon discovered that just below the floor joists on the 2nd floor the 14 x 14 chimney continued down, but was housed in a 2 foot x 5+foot brick layer...that became solid brick from about shoulder height to the floor.  YIKES!  We worked on it until dark on Monday.  Then, Jack and Josh worked all day Tuesday to finish removing all that brick. (I was glad I missed that brick party!)
  Josh spent Wednesday moving the brick outside...10 at a time!  (Fun)  As a side note, when Jack and his co-worker removed the summer house bricks, they discovered several shoes, a couple straw hats, and a cane in the wall!

Second...demolition...Jack and I worked on plaster removal in the downstairs north room on Wednesday.  There was a lot of insulation in the walls in that room.  So, it was a nasty job.  But we loaded the insulation and plaster in the front loader tractor to start a pile.  Then we bundled the planks and started a burn pile.
  On Friday and Monday, I worked on removing the plaster in the downstairs front hall. Thus, the design of the curved staircase is fully visible.
  And Josh, Jake, and Jack worked on tearing off the summer kitchen on Friday and Monday.  I have to mention that Jake LOVED helping finally.  He grabbed a hammer and helped rip out nails and yank the siding off.  He wasn't too sure about the scaffolding on the wagon at first, but he got used to it.  When we got home, he was eating a snack (or a fourth lunch) and asked..."So, Mom, what was your favorite part about working on the house today?"

Third...the burn pile...The growing debris pile from all the upstairs rubbish was now in the way.  So, we couldn't throw more out the windows from the downstairs.  Thus, it had to be moved...and burned.  Jack started moving it on Saturday and then we (Jake, Joe, Josh, Jack, and I) worked on Sunday afternoon. Jake helped load the wagon and his little wheelbarrow...eager to help.  Joe wanted to know if we would be able to roast marshmallows...as he happily journeyed around the yard with a couple sticks in his hand!
  The best part of the burn pile...getting the CARPET OUT OF THE HOUSE!  Boy, did it stank big time.  And it was an interesting item to watch burn...very black smoke!   So, I do think that the house smells much better all ready.  Or maybe I should say... the house smells a lot less now.

Fourth...the raccoon...We think we are dealing with a fat raccoon.  He loves the marshmallow trails to the sardines in the trap.  However, the closed trap with no raccoon inside is getting old.  We think it is so big that its bottom keeps the trap gate up and he can back out after feasting.  UGH!
  Josh and Jack have witnessed the 8-10 inches of poop piles in the summer house ceiling.  I think I will just trust them on that one...no need to see it to believe it!

Trains, trains, trains...

  This past week had an exciting moment when we came to the train track near the Soup Kitchen in Greensburg and a real, live, working train passed in front of us carrying Honda cars to Cincy.  The boys were so excited to watch and to see it...after hearing train whistles often while we're in town, but never seeing a real train!

  On Saturday, the boys and I had a busy day.  We headed to Home Depot in Greenwood to make a savings shed bank.  Joe was so disappointed that we didn't stay to paint it.  But both boys did a great job hammering the stuff in by themselves.
  After a few other stops (mom's stuff), we headed to the Indiana State Fairgrounds building to a huge Expo with trains, train displays, and train exhibitors.  Boy was there a lot to look at.  The boys were in heaven for the next 3 hours as we went from place to place looking at all kinds of trains and models and layouts. 
  The favorite model...two Lego layouts.  They were so neat to see. I can't even begin to describe the creative detail...all built with Legos.  We spent quite awhile there looking at details.  Next year, I think I'll bring a portable step stool.  It was tough to hold Joe and try to help Jake see, too.  But they were good sports about it and we got to see more than we could have imagined.  ...Even Mr. Spitler!

Careful where you step...

  Today (Dec 31)...bricks from the chimney were flying east as Jack started to tear down one of the four chimneys on our house.  He got the exterior tops off two of the chimneys (one between the east and the west bedroom and one between the wall of the north bedroom and the foyer/stairway north wall)

  Meanwhile, I was fully masked inside the house shoveling out debris and throwing it west.

  Needless to say, Santa will run out of chimney options soon.  And the piles on the west exterior side of the house are growing mounds.
  No raccoons have been caught yet.  But we did kill one of two mice in the wall today.   So, we call it progress...!

These are some "before" pictures...

Current views (Jan 1)...(the whole upstairs has the wall/ceiling plaster removed.)

  This week, we'll work on getting the interior parts of the chimneys out. Then, we'll start on the downstairs.