Fun and Surprises

Kaitlin, Torben, Sammy and Montana arrived Wednesday evening and left this morning. Ordinarily they would have arrived Tuesday evening and left yesterday, but they decided this way we could have a day up at the land to ourselves–no workmen.

It was a good idea and it partially worked out. Even with the workmen there they saw the present status of the land.
 


Seeing the “orchard”, one of the fenced in areas where Andy had fruit trees before the fire.

 
And we took several little walks.
 


Kaitlin, Torben, Sammy and Montana (on the right, investigating the bushes) on one of our walks.

 
They decided it would be fun to spend the night, and Friday night seemed the logical time because we didn’t expect workmen there Saturday morning.
 


Kaitin (in car), Sammy and Torben blowing up the air mattress.

 
Before we left they fixed us a scrumptious picnic dinner–our first in the new house.


Andy watching Torben grill the steaks.
 

Our banquet laid out on the attic stairs.

 
We did have a few surprises. The first was the building inspector came Friday instead of next week. That was great news because it means Andy can start fixing up the shed as his workroom.

The second surprise was the workmen didn’t come up at all Friday, so we had the place to ourselves. But Joe said they might come up Saturday. We didn’t know if they would come or not until we got back here, and then it was too late to let Kaitlin and Torben know (no cell phone reception). They weren’t concerned because they figured they would go to bed early and would be up long before 8 a.m., when the workmen would arrive if they came. Their only hesitation was Sammy and Montana might bark and keep them awake if the dogs heard animals outside.

As it turned out the only animal wasn’t outside, it was in the attic, and the dogs slept right through the excitement. At first Kaitlin thought she was imaging the footsteps in the attic, but then things started dropping off the attic stairs. There was definitely something there, probably trying to get at the food. So she and Torben took the stuff off the stairs and closed them. That might have solved the problem except then they heard the critter gnawing on the stairs. Presumably it was trying to get out?
 


The area where the animal was gnawing is circled.

 
They didn’t like the idea of someone eating our new stairs, so they opened the stairs and the doors and took the dogs with them out to the car. The idea was the animal came in before the front door was installed and couldn’t get out. They waited in the car for a bit, then went back inside and closed the stairs again. After a bit the gnawing started again. Torben took a light and looked up through a crack by the side of the stairs and saw a little nose and two eyes looking back at him. So whenever they heard gnawing they pounded a warning and eventually managed to join the dogs in sleep. They were still asleep when Kaitlin heard the workmen arrive outside.

It wasn’t quite the way they had envisioned the night, but they did see some stars and did have an adventure. They were very good sports about the whole thing and we now have another great family story.

What about you? Did you have any fun, adventures or surprises this week?

Thanks to Nick, Rummuser, Max and Dixie for commenting on last week’s post.
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6 Responses to Fun and Surprises

  1. Cathy in NZ says:

    I just had a mini surprise this evening. I have been so frustrated at my drawing status and issues that after I had finalised my travelling egg project, mused on that and other issues…

    So after an early dinner, got sidetracked today with egg and forgot to have lunch! I decided that I had to begin mastering the “art of pencil” or similar. So I got out a book, from library that I had browsed at least week and had a really good look at the introductory ideas on the drawing art…

    I said to myself “even if it takes all night…you’ve got to find a way” – well it wasn’t all night (because it’s a different way to hold pencil, tired) but I have found something important!!

    The first projects for TLC certificate were all about something that had caused me no idea of trouble. They start with the idea that drawing a face, hand, shoe, cup, apple is really easy AND then add that any tool, not a brush can make significant marks. Yes they can but I couldn’t get my wonky hands to work well because holding any “tool” was a mission.

    I decided that these objects had to go – so I looked at the way the book said to hold the pencil and decided to give something else in the book a go…not the face chapter but rather landscape in stylised form. And it worked. I would have worked longer but it is going to be a mission to hold pencil in a different way, practice and get stronger etc.

    So hopefully now what is in my minds’ eye/brain will translate down to my hand/wrist and allow marks to gently surprise me 🙂 🙂

  2. Dixie says:

    Quite the adventure at your place; hope you catch the little creature, and return it to the forest. 🙂

    Spoke to my best friend who lives in Australia; three and half hours of sheer laughter and delight. We’re like a couple of kids when we get our monthly minutes to talk…and we talk! Thanks for asking.

  3. Nick says:

    So what was doing the gnawing? Lucky your visitors weren’t put off by such mysterious noises. I don’t think I’d have slept until I found out what it was.

  4. bikehikebabe says:

    I’m totally shocked & delighted by the amount of green everywhere. Love, love, love the pictures.

  5. Rummuser says:

    It is nice to see signs of renewal. Great time seems to have been had by all. Mine pales in comparison. Totally bland except for the early part of the week when I had my sister down.

  6. Jean says:

    Cathy,
    Good for you!

    Dixie,
    I’m afraid if Andy catches it he wouldn’t return it to the forest even if the forest was still there. The poor little critters can do a lot of damage.

    I’m glad you had a great time with your friend. Modern communication is great.

    Nick,
    It was probably a pack rat. They thought it might have been something bigger, like a raccoon, and they weren’t taking any chances just in case. It was dark and they only had a little light. I think that was good thinking. Better the attic stairs than them. 😀

    BHB,
    Yes, I was delighted by all the greenery too.

    You may also be surprised and shocked when you see how the house looks after it’s painted. Andy still wants the row of bittersweet chocolate at the bottom, and when I played around with the columns on Photoshop it looks as if they would have to be bittersweet too. It’s more assertive than he would like, but he doesn’t want to have just the antique copper (brown). We’re curious to see what it looks like.

    Rummuser,
    Yes, we always have a great time when we get together. I imagine it’s the same when you get together with your siblings.

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