Dan and I started work on making and installing windows.  Most of them need new putty so we set up a work table in the court yard and I got to work.  We went and bought the first load of lumber at Lowe’s and started with the upstairs windows.  In the early afternoon, we had a visit from Johnny, the youngest son of the family that who lives up on Sunflower in Bone’s old house.  It’s amazing what that family have managed to create out of that filthy old shack.  Johnny’s 19 years old; a nice kid and a real talker though he has a sort of Cajun/Texas accent that can be a bit tough to interpret and a definite tendency to repeat himself…often….  But he came over to offer to help in exchange for a daily pizza or two.  Now that’s a medium of exchange I can deal with and as good a deal as the Dutch got for that handful of beads in exchange for Manhattan. 

Johnny and Richie seemed to hit it off and the two of them went off together to cut brush and pull branches in the parking circle and stack it for firewood in the courtyard.  Richie is a bit of a mixed blessing.  It seems he is a recent inmate of The Cunningham Children’s Home and he definitely has some issues, beginning with A.D.D.  I will give him a chance, but he isn’t the most conscientious of workers and has spent a lot of time running round the woods in various stages of undress playing "NINJA" with a plastic sword and a black kerchief 'round his head.  It’s just a bit unnerving, but Danny just smiles sardonically and takes it in stride.  How do I manage to attract these people?

------------

This is Johnny’s family's place.  I wish I had a picture of what it looked like when they first came, but imagine the worst tumble down ruined shed you ever saw and multiply by 4.  Old Bones, the previous owner had died in the place and it was the proverbial tarpaper shack buried in years of trash and garbage and wrecked-you-name-it.  They shoveled and hauled and cleared the land and moved into that shack and started work.  Two years later they have this fine little house, some beautiful open pasture and garden space and the nicest little log barn you ever saw.  A place to be proud of and the best of neighbors.  Oh yes and a few dogs too…14 at last count.

------------

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2007

Johnny came early to help out and brought along his sister, Samantha.  Sam is a year younger than Johnny, I think, and “a big boned gal,” as Mama used to say.  She has curly hair in the style of Shirley Temple and definitely thought our Richie was the dog’s dinner.  I’m going to have to keep an eye on that situation as I don’t intend to be the cause of any shotgun weddings in Origanna Woods. Johnny and Samantha helped out with the raking and brush clearing.  Ken & Joyce have promised to bring their chain saw and help us clear away the fallen tree, which is blocking the yard and then we can finally mow the weeds around the house.  I couldn’t believe the change in Ken when he came in the door.  He has lost a ton of weight and shaped up and he looks 10 years younger, at least, and very, very healthy.  The beaten city-man I met a year ago is long gone.  Joyce is looking pretty good too and the rough country life seems to have agreed with them.  They spent the winter in a tent improvised over their house frame.  The walls were built of pallets and sacks of leaves were used for insulation.  It’s amazing they didn’t freeze to death, but they seem to have thrived.  Ken is interviewing tomorrow for a job as a reporter at the local paper in Lebanon.  I hope he gets the job.

Later in the day, we finally got to meet Jack, the new tenant at Adrianna’s.  We got his side of the dog and horse feud with Denny.  Seems Jack and his family had to move from their rented place in Ava with little or no preparation and the first few weeks here were a bit disorganized, considering the well pump was out and they were hauling water and feed.  He seems a very nice man and I hope we can all get along.  We also met Jack’s dog, Draco, a short fat bandy legged French bulldog, who seems to have taken a shine to Miss Mint.  Draco looks a bit like a pot-belly pig and has a definite Napoleon complex.   He seems to think he owns the house and lets himself in and makes himself at home on the chairs and beds.  He snores like the dickens when he isn’t snuffling about.  He really is the funniest little dog, but Duchess doesn’t seem to approve of him at all.  She gives him the cold shoulder when he pays his respects.  But Mint seems to like his company.

Dan got the window in the big bedroom upstairs installed and the upper window in the stair bay is complete as well.  It looks really good.  A quiet night of reading and so to bed.