How I spent my Sunday afternoon is almost indescribable...
Roommate and I had to take her son to get his tetanus shot for school (which was a bust) and on the way home, her daughter began whining about how boring it was at home. When we got home, she suggested that we get the kittens out of the chimney (because they are about five weeks old and were still in there). I changed clothes and got my hammer and out we go. There was already an opening on one side of the chimney so that's where I started. This was no easy task because Soldier nailed the boards up with a nail-gun, meaning that the nails are correctly sunk into place and no ordinary claw hammer will ever pull them out. Good thinking on his part, but what a problem it was for us! I had to use the claw of the hammer to pull the board away from the stud enough to loosen the nail. Then, I had to hammer the wood back so that the nail stuck out where I could pry it out. The other issue is that I have been hearing the kittens, but I've been hearing them on the opposite side of the chimney from where we were working. We quickly gave up on that spot. The opposite side had three times the amount of nails and the one board went about six feet over my head. It wasn't looking good for the home team. I had to change my approach. There were two pieces of plywood going across the front of the chimney and I figured it would be easier to try the bottom piece, and it was presswood so it would be easier to demolish if need be. The first problem I encountered was, again, the nails were buried so deep into the wood. I tried the approach from before of pulling the board from the stud, but it didn't work with the presswood. I was merely chipping away at the wood. Daughter fetched me a flat-head screwdriver and I hammered it between the wood and the stud like a chisel. That gave me enough slack to get the claw of the hammer in there, and finally I got the nail out. But that was just one nail, and as I began to count, there were five rows of nails. Soldier has a jigsaw, and I know how to use one of those, and I was beginning to think that this would be the easiest way. Roommate and I had already discussed that there was plenty of plywood in the shed to replace this piece and that we know several people that could replace this board for us. However, I was afraid to use the jigsaw for several reasons. 1. I didn't want to scare the kittens to death, or harm them. 2. I didn't know how much room I had between the board of the chimney and the actual fireplace, and I didn't want to saw into the fireplace. 3. There was an electrical outlet at the bottom of the chimney and yesterday wasn't the day I wanted to saw into a live electrical line. So mark the jigsaw idea off the list. I did what any 26 year old girly-girl would do in such a situation. I called my Daddy. He said that I could try a crow bar, or wait til "he could get to it." Yeah right. Roommate went to Soldier's work trailer in search of a crow bar and came back empty handed. I had managed to get the first row of nails out with little incident, but moving to the inside rows was going to be a much bigger problem. I went to the trailer to look for a crow bar, because Daddy said he was sure there would be one in there. I found three in various sizes and back to work I went. I was trying to pry the wood from the top. However, I wasn't working on a stud so the crow bar was not only cracking the pressboard, but also the piece above where I was working. But that was a good learning experience; now I knew that I had to keep it on the studs. By this point, I had pulled the wood back enough to peek in and see one little kitten; and in seeing it, I felt the urgency to get the job finished. I had enough of the board pulled free that I could pull it back pretty far. I began tugging on it with everything that I had in me in hopes that I could just break it off. It wasn't working though because it was still nailed too tightly. All that tugging did pull some of the nails loose enough for me to pry those off, so that scenario - me tugging on the wood with my entire body and then picking off more nails - played out several times. With Roommate's help, I was able to break away a chunk of wood from the bottom corner. I had a crow bar wedged between the board and one of the middle studs. Then it was on. I used the other crow bar and the claw of the hammer for the next part. I began chopping at the board and tearing away chunks at a time. This took a long time and I was pouring sweat from every part of my body. It wasn't easy, but it turned out to be quite fun. It was therapeutic as well. I chopped about half of it away, moved the crow bar, and began trying to snap the board again. This time it stated cracking and bending and all kinds of stuff. Roommate jumped in and helped and the next thing we knew, we snapped it off. It was so graceful and fulfilling. She reached in and got the one kitten that we had been seeing. It was so cute! She took a flashlight and looked around the chimney for the other kittens. Wouldn't you know it, there were no more!!! We went through all of that for ONE KITTEN!!! I named it Trouble. It seemed fitting. Roommate was super impressed with my labors. We have a friend who has been in the hospital recently and when he went back to work, he didn't slow down for a second. I told him the other night that he needed to take care of himself because he wasn't SuperMan. He was slightly offended to say the least. Yesterday while Roommate's daughter was playing with the kitten and I was sweeping up nails and chunks of wood, Roommate said, "I'm gonna tell him all about this. He is not SuperMan. You just kicked his ass! You're Wonder Woman!"
Roommate and I had to take her son to get his tetanus shot for school (which was a bust) and on the way home, her daughter began whining about how boring it was at home. When we got home, she suggested that we get the kittens out of the chimney (because they are about five weeks old and were still in there). I changed clothes and got my hammer and out we go. There was already an opening on one side of the chimney so that's where I started. This was no easy task because Soldier nailed the boards up with a nail-gun, meaning that the nails are correctly sunk into place and no ordinary claw hammer will ever pull them out. Good thinking on his part, but what a problem it was for us! I had to use the claw of the hammer to pull the board away from the stud enough to loosen the nail. Then, I had to hammer the wood back so that the nail stuck out where I could pry it out. The other issue is that I have been hearing the kittens, but I've been hearing them on the opposite side of the chimney from where we were working. We quickly gave up on that spot. The opposite side had three times the amount of nails and the one board went about six feet over my head. It wasn't looking good for the home team. I had to change my approach. There were two pieces of plywood going across the front of the chimney and I figured it would be easier to try the bottom piece, and it was presswood so it would be easier to demolish if need be. The first problem I encountered was, again, the nails were buried so deep into the wood. I tried the approach from before of pulling the board from the stud, but it didn't work with the presswood. I was merely chipping away at the wood. Daughter fetched me a flat-head screwdriver and I hammered it between the wood and the stud like a chisel. That gave me enough slack to get the claw of the hammer in there, and finally I got the nail out. But that was just one nail, and as I began to count, there were five rows of nails. Soldier has a jigsaw, and I know how to use one of those, and I was beginning to think that this would be the easiest way. Roommate and I had already discussed that there was plenty of plywood in the shed to replace this piece and that we know several people that could replace this board for us. However, I was afraid to use the jigsaw for several reasons. 1. I didn't want to scare the kittens to death, or harm them. 2. I didn't know how much room I had between the board of the chimney and the actual fireplace, and I didn't want to saw into the fireplace. 3. There was an electrical outlet at the bottom of the chimney and yesterday wasn't the day I wanted to saw into a live electrical line. So mark the jigsaw idea off the list. I did what any 26 year old girly-girl would do in such a situation. I called my Daddy. He said that I could try a crow bar, or wait til "he could get to it." Yeah right. Roommate went to Soldier's work trailer in search of a crow bar and came back empty handed. I had managed to get the first row of nails out with little incident, but moving to the inside rows was going to be a much bigger problem. I went to the trailer to look for a crow bar, because Daddy said he was sure there would be one in there. I found three in various sizes and back to work I went. I was trying to pry the wood from the top. However, I wasn't working on a stud so the crow bar was not only cracking the pressboard, but also the piece above where I was working. But that was a good learning experience; now I knew that I had to keep it on the studs. By this point, I had pulled the wood back enough to peek in and see one little kitten; and in seeing it, I felt the urgency to get the job finished. I had enough of the board pulled free that I could pull it back pretty far. I began tugging on it with everything that I had in me in hopes that I could just break it off. It wasn't working though because it was still nailed too tightly. All that tugging did pull some of the nails loose enough for me to pry those off, so that scenario - me tugging on the wood with my entire body and then picking off more nails - played out several times. With Roommate's help, I was able to break away a chunk of wood from the bottom corner. I had a crow bar wedged between the board and one of the middle studs. Then it was on. I used the other crow bar and the claw of the hammer for the next part. I began chopping at the board and tearing away chunks at a time. This took a long time and I was pouring sweat from every part of my body. It wasn't easy, but it turned out to be quite fun. It was therapeutic as well. I chopped about half of it away, moved the crow bar, and began trying to snap the board again. This time it stated cracking and bending and all kinds of stuff. Roommate jumped in and helped and the next thing we knew, we snapped it off. It was so graceful and fulfilling. She reached in and got the one kitten that we had been seeing. It was so cute! She took a flashlight and looked around the chimney for the other kittens. Wouldn't you know it, there were no more!!! We went through all of that for ONE KITTEN!!! I named it Trouble. It seemed fitting. Roommate was super impressed with my labors. We have a friend who has been in the hospital recently and when he went back to work, he didn't slow down for a second. I told him the other night that he needed to take care of himself because he wasn't SuperMan. He was slightly offended to say the least. Yesterday while Roommate's daughter was playing with the kitten and I was sweeping up nails and chunks of wood, Roommate said, "I'm gonna tell him all about this. He is not SuperMan. You just kicked his ass! You're Wonder Woman!"
This is Me and Trouble. I've been telling people a lot lately that "trouble" seems to find me, but I guess this time, I found her!!!
Helloooo
T-R-O-U-B-L-E!!!!!!
This is Lucy the Wonder Dog... I've talked about her plenty of times. She was getting insanely jealous while we were trying to take pictures of Trouble. I said, "Lucy, go sit down and I'll take your picture in a minute." And she did just that. Isn't she adorable???
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