Visiting family, a broken rocking chair, new furniture, and our first (dead) snake

Since the last post a lot of things have happened. Some wonderful, some not. We had the honor of being with Tim's grandmother when she passed away Memorial Day weekend. She was an important person in Tim's life especially when he was in grade school. She had a poodle named Rebel who was her constant companion for the last 11 years. My mom is taking care of him right now.After her funeral, Tim stayed in Savannah, TN, to help his parents begin to sort through the paperwork. Apparently, Maw never threw anything away because he found tax returns back into the 1950s. He and his family came to Kingsport at the end of the week for a week's vacation at our home. The family included Tim's mom, dad, niece (Kelsey, almost 15 yrs), and nephew (Jonathan, 12.5 yrs). Beside the usual suitcases they also brought a recliner, cedar chest, and dining room table and chairs from Maw's home. We don't have to eat on a card table with folding chairs anymore!

We had a great time all week enjoying lots of local activities including Wetlands, Bays Mtn, and Fun Expedition. We worked on the yard and played lots of badminton. The kids enjoyed the slip-n-slide, but only one afternoon. They complained the next day of being very sore and refused to play on it again. We built a campfire and pitched a tent for the kids. We made s'mores and had a good time around the fire before the kids settled in for the night. Or at least it was supposed to be for the night. Unfortunately Jonathan didn't believe us when we said he would get sick if he kept eating s'mores so sometime after midnight he and his sister moved back in due to him feeling very sick to his stomach. They never offered to sleep in the tent again. We had a casualty during the week. The rocking chair that Tim's dad got for us at an auction and painted UT orange cracked right down the middle of the seat. It's now in the burn pile. Our geranium was blooming like crazy though.

On Thursday, Tim's dad set up his kettle and fixed a delicious meal of TN river catfish. We all ate until we couldn't eat anymore. We invited Pat and Midge's family to join us as well as friends from work and church. This meal timed out perfectly for Pat's family as that was his last night on this Earth. Unfortunately Pat was diagnosed with liver cancer only a few weeks ago and was unable to handle chemo. He was able to be at home his last few days and was surrounded by his family. My mother arrived on Monday in order to tell him goodbye and be with Midge. She and Midge developed a close relationship last summer while she worked on the house. Pat was the one who mowed our yard last summer because he knew we didn't have the time. He also offered all his tools to us whenever we needed them. I lovingly referred to their home as the Nunley General Store.

Here's the whole family at Bays Mtn.

My mom left on Friday while Tim and his family left on Saturday. Tim came back home yesterday which was just in time to deal with our first snake. Earlier this summer I saw the tail of a snake as it slithered into the field beside us. I spread moth balls along the edge of our property hoping to keep out future visitors, but apparently it didn't work. This afternoon, while sweeping the porch, I moved the bench aside and saw a black snake coiled up and napping on the cool concrete. Unfortunately, snakes are the one phobia I do have so Tim was called upon to remove the visitor. The goal had been to coax it to the field since it was not poisonous, but it kept trying to come back to the porch so it had to die. Our hoe is now known at the snake killer.