Duane and I will soon be celebrating our 41st wedding anniversary. We were reminiscing recently about the years we had been together and all the funny things that had happened to us over the years. So we thought we would tell you about them this month in our newsletter. Hope you enjoy hearing what happened to us during our lifetime together.

Soon after we were married we decided to fry a chicken but neither one of us knew how to cut it up. So we called Duane's mom on the phone. It happened to be a party line so we were aware there would be people listening in. We got a big bowl, the chicken and a sharp knife and went in and set down on the couch where the phone was. Then Duane's mom proceeded to tell us how to cut up the chicken and she said "now you take the breast in the right hand and hold it tight so you don't drop it". Right then you could hear little "snickers" all along the telephone line. We proceeded to cut up the chicken with his mom's instructions but you could hear laughter every time we got to a different part of the chicken. The people listening in on our conversation may not have heard that we were actually trying to learn how to cut up a chicken. We still laugh at this today every time we get a chicken out to cook.

Duane and I lived out in the country during the first few years of our marriage. Duane worked at a post office in a town quite a few miles from home and so he was gone quite a bit. One day our dog "Penny" kept barking by our back step so I went out to see what the dog was barking at and I had to get down on my knees to look under the step and there was a snake looking back at me. Well.........since I was scared to death of snakes I about froze on the spot. I knew it was a rattlesnake as I could hear it. I called Duane's mom who lived a few miles away and said we had a rattlesnake....she didn't believe me but came right over. When she got there she was carrying a can of bug spray. She thought she could kill it with the spray I guess. She got down and looked under the step and was surprised to see it was a rattlesnake after all. She immediately got on the phone and called Duane's dad and he came over with a gun and shot it. We had a few more encounters with rattle snakes and that's when I decided to move to town. It was not long before our son who was in grade school came home carrying a snake. He had to walk through a vacant lot on his way home from school and he thought snakes were the "coolest things". So I didn't really get away from the snakes but at least they were not poisonous snakes. We laughed and laughed at Duane's mom trying to kill a rattlesnake with bug spray. One comment I would like to add is that where we live in town now there have been no more snakes......thank goodness! I still watch my step though....ha,ha.

As you can tell we have had some very funny things happen. We would like to close with a really scary experience we had also. A year ago last Christmas Eve our children came over for supper .........that was when we always got together to open our Christmas gifts. Our daughter brought over a little toy for our cat "Angel Kitty". Angel Kitty was no where to be found so our daughter went downstairs looking for her and all of a sudden we heard her holler "I smell gas down here". It was located around our furnace room. We had noticed it over the last few years and had called the gas company but they could not really find a problem anywhere so we let it go. Well this time we thought it was worse than ever so we called the gas company once again and when they came to our front door their meter was going off like crazy. They told us if we had lived in an apartment we would have had to get out immediately. As I look back now we probably should have gotten out of our house anyway. We have the two animals and didn't know where we would go so we stayed. The gas company immediately went all over our property checking for the gas leak. Our basement had high levels around the outer walls. They finally decided the leak was in a main pipe outside our kitchen window. They immediately dug a deep hole to let the gas escape away from our house. Soon the gas company had huge machines digging up our yard......5 different holes to be exact. Since it was the middle of winter it was cold and not an easy job for them. There was ice everywhere it seemed. Before it was all over our backyard was full of holes and most of the lawn was torn up along with our underground sprinkling system. There was lot's of excitement for many days around our house as I think most of the gas trucks and employees ended up at our house. It was a leak in the lines so they had to fix it and it did not cost us anything. It was very stressful wondering if you were going to blow up or what. Every time I heard a loud sound I got scared all over again. We really got to know the gas employees in the coming weeks. For months they came by every day to check out our basement with their meter and as time went on it would be every other day and then once every week. It was not until summer that the gas fumes were gone from our house and yard. They had to put tall pipes down into the ground all over the yard to help the gas fumes escape. Needless to say our yard looked rather funny. It took us all summer to get our lawn back together. They did come in and put sod down and help with some of the mess they had left. We are so thankful for our daughter and the cat......they probably saved our lives. We were the talk of the town for quite awhile over this. The gas company had to replace the main line pipe around us and also our neighbors. There were a few times we had to call the gas company during the night as we could smell gas and we would panic.....the manager gave us his home number and said "you call me anytime day or night......believe me we did too! The cold weather was causing the gas smell to linger in the air more was the big reason we were smelling it.

We hope you had a chuckle or two about our experiences. Duane and I now just beginning to relax about the gas situation at our house.....I think we were pretty brave to stay here all that time now that we look back on it. We had one busy summer last year getting our yard back into shape. We had a lot of ground that kept sinking after all the holes they dug. We were pleased though that once we told the gas company about it they came right out and made it right. They also had to repair our back fence as it started falling over during the summer. We both are doing great and looking forward to spring.....our favorite time of the year. We have our yard back to normal now so I think we will be taking it a lot easier this summer. We did learn how to plant sod though.......it's the only way to go! I would never go back to putting in grass seed anymore.....sod is so much easier. The gas company only replaced part of sod and we did the rest. Until next month we will say "goodbye"for now. Have a great summer!