By Guest Columnists Gerald Kerner and Sherry Landrum It was June 16 when our old oak tree fell onto our kitchen, causing extensive damage to the roof structure and to the kitchen and sunroom. This home restoration was completed on December 4, just shy of six months after the tree fell. We had no idea…

The first week after the oak tree fell on our kitchen was difficult and stressful to say the least. This disaster did not come with instructions on what to do or even where to begin. Fortunately, Miss Sherry has friends who called a tree service to remove the tree, and our neighbor recommended the contractor…

Our Olde House definitely took a big hit when our oak tree fell onto the kitchen. Tree branches covered the roof of the house, the back deck and most of the backyard.  The most important thing to us was to be sure that all people and pets were fine, and this we quickly verified, but…

By Guest Columnists Sherry Landrum and Gerald M. Kerner It was not officially a tornado, but at 5:13 and 39 seconds on June 16, eighty-five-mile-per-hour winds that lasted less than one minute pushed over an oak tree in our backyard, and the tree landed on half of the kitchen in Our Olde House.   Sherry:…

After three weeks the painters finished painting Our Olde House. I was expecting people who saw the house after the painting was completed to say something like, “It looks nice” or even the ever-popular and confusing, “Did you paint the house?”, but no, the only comment I have received so far, and this includes the…

The inevitable part of making a significant home improvement is that the surrounding un-improved things suddenly look really bad.  Yes, the shower is beautiful, but the wallpaper looks a hundred years older than it did last month, and the wood trim needs to be repainted to match the tile and the new wallpaper.  So off…

Ding dong the hedge is gone, and I did not get stung.  Everyone, even me, has noticed that honey bees disappear at night; I decided to attack the hedges at dusk.  Since the flowers were facing the street, I came up behind the hedges on the house side with my chainsaw on a stick and…

Oh goody, Daylight Savings Time again; another two weeks of jet lag for me. I have to admit that our annual stupid Spring forward day has been much less stressful for me, since I decided a few years ago to stop arguing with those poor souls who think that changing the clocks actually CREATES one…

Our orange cat, who I call Fuzzy, divides her time between inside and outside the house.  We do not have a doggy door because the raccoons, possums and other cats would undoubtedly use it, so we have to let our cats in and out either the front or back door.  I usually let Fuzzy out,…

Before I moved to Mississippi, I have to admit that I did not read the “Why Y’all Should Move to Mississippi” brochure cover to cover; however I am pretty sure that there was not any mention or oh-by-the-way warning that it could be 12 degrees Fahrenheit on Christmas Day.  Miss Sherry and I were very…

Winter in Mississippi is a time of reflection for me, mostly because it is too cold and dark to go outside, and when I look out my window I see my reflection.  Returning the clocks to Standard Time is unsettling for everyone, especially me.  I know that the clocks are reset only one hour, but…

It seems that only Columbo is left under the house; apparently the possum is now too big to squeeze through whatever hole the rat uses.  Columbo has been standing up on his hind legs looking around, maybe on the lookout for a snake or possum, and I swear he is staring at my camera.  Everyone…

When I was up early one morning taking my usual short walk, I looked at the camera under the house and there was a rat in the electronic trap; that makes six rats total.  I got up the next morning and gleefully went under the house to remove the moribund rodent, but when I looked…

This past month, I convinced myself that I should not paint outside due to the excessive heat and incessant rain, but I thought that I could easily replace the mini blinds on a bedroom window.  After all, this is a very simple task so what could possibly go wrong in a 150 year old house? …

Since I rebuilt my crawl space wall, I was confident that I had in fact plugged the ‘last’ hole that was allowing small rodents to get under the house.  But the next time I was checking the camera under the house there was a rat; so much for my Karma-killed Happy Dance.  I found my…

I finished my new fence and started thinking again about going back under the house to finally fix the sagging floor; in the meantime, I caught and relocated two more little possums from under the house. I was unable to raise the floor significantly using the lift points I identified before, but I thought that…

Miss Sherry and I decided to take a little trip for a few days since our travel plans for the past two years have been canceled by others.  We finally left after arranging for our flocks and herds to be cared for while we were gone.  Upon our return, I was a little anxious about…

We have definitely left Spring behind with temperatures now approaching 90F, but before we start Summer we still have a few weeks of Ant season.  I saw the first two ants of the year in the kitchen a couple of weeks ago, which immediately triggered my ‘set off an ant bomb under the house’ response,…

Apparently, we are running a retirement home for red wasps because they are everywhere, one flying every ten feet or so, and of course the usual squadron guarding the front of the house.  I made two more futile attempts this past month to climb up the ladder to paint the front peak of the house…