.... And Nature Sings ??...........

Tim searching for Mr. Toad & Co.













The Sunday night Toad Quartet







The good news is, when your kids are out of the house and responsible, you don't have to worry when the phone rings at 12:00 midnight. They are not out driving when the crazies are out, they are not calling with car trouble, or to tell you they're running late coming home. For empty

nesters, especially ones like us with 4 dogs (courtesy of Kendall's soft heart) it means the dogs have gotten out or are too loud. Actually, we put them in the garage at night so they have soft beds and good airflow, right, who am I kidding, it's because they are the neighborhood alarm system when a siren sounds or with any kind of lights flashing in the night.

So, imagine my suprise when the phone rang right at midnight Sunday night. We had been in bed just 15 minutes or so (us old folks were watching the Olympics) and Tim's phone went off. Since I wasn't going to work because I'm sick, I got up to spare him having to. I saw the number on the phone and saw that it was 347----- and handed the phone to Tim as I said " I think it's one of the neighbors". ( Hey, my night-time courtesy only goes so far!) As he's still wearing his CPAP facemask he listens and then tells the neighbor that the noise they are hearing is the toads in our backyard. The noise HAS been pretty bad the last couple of weeks. It intially sounds like a ceiling fan WAY off balance, making a loud grating noise. Tim has the CPAP machine which puts out air and a good "white" noise and I wear ear plugs, so we can tolerate the croaking, but honestly, I have been suprised that no one's complained sooner. Our good friends and neighbors behind us, that we talk to almost daily, have never said a word..... I digress. Anyway, next thing Tim is out searching for toads wearing his little headstrap light; it straps on his head and gives him light from the forehead area. I think some joggers wear them, he got it to wear when he's working on something so no one has to hold the light for him. So, he is thrashing through the banana plants and then doing a perimeter search of the fenceline to find the offending croakers. This was too good an opportunity for me to pass up recording exactly HOW LOUD the crazy toads can get, so I grabbed my camera to record at least the sound. I think I scared him to death when he parted the leaves and saw me standing there, HA! We looked around for a good 15-20 minutes and Tim caught 4 toads; the bucket they're in is a chlorine tablet bucket for the pool, that holds 35 lbs.!! I'm sure Tim missed Kendall that night, because this is something they used to do together often & Kendall was really good at finding the toads (sometimes they would have more than 10 at a time to relocate). BTW: I don't touch frogs, I'm not even good at locating them, I was just out there for moral support. Poor Tim, by the time he got back from relocating the caught toads to our neighborhood bayou, the remaining toads were croaking again,,,, my response was to turn on the flood lights in the backyard, direct the lights at the pond, and go to bed. Light seems to dampen the croaking substantially; Tim was good with that answer since it was 12:30 and he had to get up for work, so he showered and called it a night. What a crazy night.... really made me miss Kendall!!

Here's the audio, the toads start up good and loud at about 1:18............you're not going to believe it unless you listen!

Spanish Eggs and Doors

Welcome to our home........... Our front door looks new again !!!

the area stained by Gibron, who "work(ed) at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men"

Stain on the door inset, by the first guy that restained the door.......... splotchy and pooling :{

We've been needing to have our front door refinished for about 1 1/2 years now, it faces west and takes an afternoon beating from the sun. I had tried several times to call the guy who restained the door the first time several years ago. He did a wonderful job and was very reasonable; he also put the original stain on our custom built french doors in the living room, matching the stain PERFECTLY. His name is Heuve. Like I said, I had called the number we had for him and the person who answered spoke mostly spanish and said no, it was the wrong number.

So, we had basically given up on finding Heuve. One Sunday after church, our Bible class went out to eat together, during the course of lunch we got the name of someone who had done our friend's door. We called this guy and made plans for Tim to stay home from work and let the guy restain the door. This is the ONLY contractor who has ever shown up at the time he said he would, so we were encouraged about that. When I drove up that afternoon and then came to look at the door, I was literally sick. It looked terrible. Fortunately, he wasn't done and Tim had only paid him half of the stated amount. The door looked streaky and splotchy, like it had pooled in some areas and was much darker than we had wanted. The weather was bad for a few days and then the grandkids were coming and I didn't want them smelling the urethane fumes, so I was able to put him off until I could get the nerve to fire him. I called my SIL Scott for support in how to word the firing. The guy had already majorly insulted us by telling Tim and then me, that the door was the problem, that it was LAMINATE!!! Uuhh, NO, the door cost a large fortune and is solid wood. So, I successfully told him there was no need to come back. We were OK being out the $162.50 knowing that we would not have to live with the door the way we didn't want it, chalked it up to a mistake that we made.

So, I tried the number I had for Heuve again... I actually said the name (who-ve') this time and lo and behold, it WAS his number... I think I must have said his name (whey-vo) the first time I called and the family didn't recognize my very poor spanish!!!! So, he came out, with his Brother Gibron and said yes, the door was a mess. They could redo it for less than what we were going to pay the first guy. Gibron came out stripped the door, sanded the door, resanded the door, stained the door.... told us it was not to his satisfaction, so re-stripped the door, resanded the door (a little) and restained the door. It is perfect, just what we wanted. Oh, and by the way, he insisted on painting the fancy woodwork trim around the door (forget the name for that)! We really appreciated Gibron taking the time to be proud of his work and that his own expectations were so high. So, that is my saga of the door.

Gibron is going to come reapply the urethane whenever we need it for a marginal cost.... We would be most happy to recommend him for anyone needing a door done right :) He works full-time for a remodeling company and does his work on the side............. He truly works as unto the Lord, Colossians 3:23 and we couldn't be happier with him and his work.