Busy HOT weekend!!

We have all be working on replacing the bad deck floor boards for my elder daughter.  We made the mistake of waiting till early afternoon on Saturday. Two hours later it was 95 degrees outside and we were all ready to collapse .

Luckily Sunday was Father's Day and my grandson's 16th birthday.. so no work plus cake and ice cream!

Back to work Monday ( Federal holiday Juneteenth) but we smartened up and started work at 7 am. Much cooler !

No gifties from Scout this time but ready to help Bob and our grandson. They got quite a bit done and are planning on starting to replace the railings etc. next weekend

Scout's giftie

 We were out at my daughter's house finishing up some house repair chores when Scout ( my daughter's black younger dog) came running up the deck stairs with a gift in her mouth! I couldn't decide what it was and as she ran back down the deck stairs I followed her. I told Scout it was "mine" and she dropped it. My giftie was a small box turtle. Completely unharmed and all closed up into its shell.

I took the turtle and set it up on some boards and waited... slowly but surely it opened its shell and a nose appeared!!

We decided to put it out behind Laurel's wooden fence near a small creek. Bob carried it out hoping not to get any ticks.... it's pretty rough back there and it is tick season...! So no ticks and hopefully the turtle won't try to get back!!

PS Box turtles don't bite... they just pull inside their shell and close up!!

water water water

 As Bob was doing the laundry ( yes, he's special does all the laundry every week!) he noticed a huge puddle ( 4 feet in diameter) where the A/C drain is ! Yuck 

Our laundry is in the basement and there are 4 iron drain pipes taking care of the water from the bathrooms, the kitchen, the washing machine and the a/c that go into the main sewer pipe and out ibto the city sewer.

 After turning off the washer we got out the wet/dry vacuum and sucked up the puddle... but the drain wasn't draining!! All the water we sucked up had to be carried up out of the basement and dumped out in the back yard.

Bob called our usual plumbing company.. no help till the middle of next week and we were  going to be without water or toilets etc. The next company, a referral from the first, couldn't help till next Monday. This company referred us to the third which could be out that afternoon ..

Not knowing how long this whole thing was going to take, we reserved a hotel room not too far away...

The plumber came.. found the two pipe openings and got to work with his snake and an inspection camera. He was successful... no break in the sewer pipe which collects from all the other pipes and goes out into a collection place for all the houses on our cul de sac. But the pipe does have scale and after 47 years I am not surprised.

So we are back to normal... Bob finished the laundry... we cancelled the hotel... turned the a/c back on. The plumbing company will be back and de-scale the sewer pipe.... and we crashed!!  Not how we planned to spend the day... cost - over $400.

sirens blowing and blowing last night

 Bob was getting ready for bed ( up late last night playing XBox) when the tornado sirens started wailing! Woke me up and we headed downstairs to check things out on the TV and our cell phones.... sirens still wailing louder and louder.

A tornado had been sighted over the state line in Kansas and more possibilities were being watched!

Headed downstairs to our "safe" spot - the basement! Settled ourselves down on two folding chairs and waited for the sirens to stop!! In other words... the storm had passed.

The storm moved quickly with loads of thunder and lightning but not much rain.

When the sirens stopped wailing and things got quiet... it was back to bed for us. One daughter living east of us lost her electricity. The other daughter and family slept though it all !

One actual tornado - EF1 - in the area. Trees down.

seems like forever

Lili and Spencer out in the paddle boat

Bob on the dock cheering on the kids in the paddle boat

Bob on the deck...

 It seems like forever since I posted.... Our week/ weekend down on the lake was great. The weather was fantastic and the water not so cold that the younger members didn't go swimming and paddle boating..

We took turns making dinners so the food was good and varied.

Missouri is the "cave state"... due to the type of sediment and the inland sea. There was one people could tour about 2 miles away so the three younger ones went to visit. The didn't do the "crawl" tour... felt they were too big and Dominic hit his head on the ceiling of the regular tour!! The cave is open year round and the temperature stays in the mid 50's. They did enjoy the tour!!

For those who don't know... the Lake of the Ozarks is a man made lake...  made for electrical power and recreation. The lake is still owned by the power company but the shore has been developed since the 1930's.  This area had deep valleys and rivers and when dams were built the area was flooded. This may have been a Works project... providing employment and recreation possibilities to central Missouri.

The geography has meant lots of little coves and shoreline depths up to 20 feet. Little is walk-in and some very steep hillsides.  But a great place !!

We were so lucky weather wise... on our trip back ( we were the last to leave being retired and little work obligations)  rain hit us heavily!! So heavily that cars pulled over on the highway and semi-trucks went much slower than usual.

Laundry done... things put away... thinking about a possible next getaway!!