Outdoor Escapes

In the past few years, I’ve watched as the Knotens, then the Roberts, have put in retaining walls and nice back patios or kitchens. With our large yards, we have big canvases to work with and many of our neighbors have added more living space to their homes by creating these outdoor escapes.

I recently had an opportunity to photograph the wonderful space that Gena and Dr Roy Morrison commissioned Scott Greene (Boulevard Homes) to create in their backyard. Using the surrounding hickory trees as a design motif, Scott has created a “fire/conversation pit” (shaped like a hickory leaf) that allows for an appreciation of our lovely surroundings here in Country Place.

Lane Norvell’s Wonderful Photo of Hidden Lake

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Lane Norvell shot this great picture at Hidden Lake in Country Place. Fishing, anyone?

Fire in Country Place


Ed & Joy Smith lost their home last night in a fire. Their pretty brick home backs up to Lake #2, but today there isn’t must left of it. I dropped by the home this morning to watch the KLTV crew shooting a report followup and saw Joy going through the house trying to find anything to save. After four hours of fire and thousands of gallon of water poured through it there wasn’t much left. She told me the fire started in the garage but they didn’t know what had caused it. Luckily they were able to get out of the house without injury. When more information is available, I’ll put it up here.

Rebecca sent out an email letting folks know that the Smith’s are staying with family now. For those of you who have asked how you can help, we’ll keep you posted. It is very sad to see a neighbor lose their home. I was reminded that night of how little I think about fire safety, but I came home and talked to Andrea and the boys. We now know where our fire extinguishers are (one in the garage, one in the kitchen), and have decided to add a smoke alarm in the garage.

I shot photos of the devastating fire that took the Smith’s home and have posted them here:

Country Place Fire

I hope that all of us will take a moment to review our family’s exit strategy in the event of a fire. Don’t forget to check your smoke alarms and be sure your fire extinguishers still have a charge.

Rain In Country Place

Kratos and I like to visit with the neighbors on our morning walks and we’ve all been commiserating about the abnormally dry weather…until now. Yesterday I poured 3/10’s an inch of rain out of our gauge; this morning I poured out 5.25″.

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We got a gully-washer last night, and in fact some of our gulleys here in Country Place have been washing big stones down the road…you can see them on the hill heading down toward Ron & Theresa’s. There were also a couple of trees knocked down last night across the Story’s driveway.

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