Today they are going to take the bodies to the cemetery. I wonder how many more bodies have been dumped there since the guys dumped the first ones. We have been hearing gun fire going on in other parts of town so we know there has to be more than one gang or they had split up and were trying to take more than one place at a time.
Last night the guys poured over my notebooks looking for more ideas on how to protect us. Suddenly Steve pops up with "I wish we had cow bells". I asked him why he wanted them and he said to run trip wires to so if some one got to close to the house they would trip the wire and cause the bells to ring. Remembering my days of having an childcare in my home I said
"Why don't we make some? It's a simple process really. All we need is some empty food cans, some heavy fishing weights and some fishing line and we have all that stuff between here and the garage. The only tools we will need is the drill and a small drill bit." Steve and JR went out to the garage to get the weights, fishing line and a small drill bit. Mike went upstairs to get the drill while I grabbed some clean empty food cans. Remembering some small eye hook sets I had a grabbed them to. I showed the guys how to drill three holes in the bottoms of the cans. The middle hole I just barely started and then screwed the eye of the hook in to it. Using a real thin piece of beading wire I threaded one end of the fishing wire through one hole of the can and out the opened top. Put it through the eye of the weight and then threaded the line back out to the bottom of the can. I pulled the line just enough to bring the weight up inside the can, cut the line and tied the two ends together. Holding the bell by the eye hook I gave it a ring. It made a loud clanging sound. I asked Steve if this was what he had in mind and he said it was. I left the guys to continue making them while I went off to look at the food storage and figure out the menu for the next day.
After they took the bodies to the cemetery today the guys came back and using fishing line, more eye hooks and pieces of wood the guys strung fishing line around the yard about a foot from the ground and ran it to the 'cow bells" they now had hidden around the yard. The neighbor acrossed the street from us and then one behind us seeing what the guys were doing came out to ask them about it. Steve showed them how we had made the bells and how they had ran fishing line around the yard to the bells to act as a alarms. When some one walked in to the line they would trip the bells and make them ring. The neighbors thanked them and then said they were going home to make their own.
Nikki, after seeing the alarm system the guys were setting up came up with and idea of her own. She said "Nana you have a lot of chimes hanging up and a lot of plant hangers. Why don't we take down a couple of each and place one at the back door and one at the front door that way if any one does manage to get the doors open they will make the climes sound off."
I thought it was a good idea so we took down the loudest chimes and when the guys came back in the house I had them take down two of the plant hangers that swivel and place on over each door and then hang chimes on them. Once it was done the guys opened the doors to see how loud the chimes rang. Since they were the big heavy chimes they made a loud sound that could be heard upstairs and from both sides of the house. I had them use the swivel hangers so that during the day when we were going in and out the house the chimes could be swung way from the door and swung back in front of the door when we were all in the house for the night.
Though none of us felt completely safe we all felt that we could slack off some on the guard duty leaving only one person on guard duty durning the midnight shift with Steve, JR and Mike taking turns. The rest of us would take the day and evening guard duty. It was going to be nice for everyone to get a normal nights sleep again. It's been so long since we had any.
Last night the guys poured over my notebooks looking for more ideas on how to protect us. Suddenly Steve pops up with "I wish we had cow bells". I asked him why he wanted them and he said to run trip wires to so if some one got to close to the house they would trip the wire and cause the bells to ring. Remembering my days of having an childcare in my home I said
"Why don't we make some? It's a simple process really. All we need is some empty food cans, some heavy fishing weights and some fishing line and we have all that stuff between here and the garage. The only tools we will need is the drill and a small drill bit." Steve and JR went out to the garage to get the weights, fishing line and a small drill bit. Mike went upstairs to get the drill while I grabbed some clean empty food cans. Remembering some small eye hook sets I had a grabbed them to. I showed the guys how to drill three holes in the bottoms of the cans. The middle hole I just barely started and then screwed the eye of the hook in to it. Using a real thin piece of beading wire I threaded one end of the fishing wire through one hole of the can and out the opened top. Put it through the eye of the weight and then threaded the line back out to the bottom of the can. I pulled the line just enough to bring the weight up inside the can, cut the line and tied the two ends together. Holding the bell by the eye hook I gave it a ring. It made a loud clanging sound. I asked Steve if this was what he had in mind and he said it was. I left the guys to continue making them while I went off to look at the food storage and figure out the menu for the next day.
After they took the bodies to the cemetery today the guys came back and using fishing line, more eye hooks and pieces of wood the guys strung fishing line around the yard about a foot from the ground and ran it to the 'cow bells" they now had hidden around the yard. The neighbor acrossed the street from us and then one behind us seeing what the guys were doing came out to ask them about it. Steve showed them how we had made the bells and how they had ran fishing line around the yard to the bells to act as a alarms. When some one walked in to the line they would trip the bells and make them ring. The neighbors thanked them and then said they were going home to make their own.
Nikki, after seeing the alarm system the guys were setting up came up with and idea of her own. She said "Nana you have a lot of chimes hanging up and a lot of plant hangers. Why don't we take down a couple of each and place one at the back door and one at the front door that way if any one does manage to get the doors open they will make the climes sound off."
I thought it was a good idea so we took down the loudest chimes and when the guys came back in the house I had them take down two of the plant hangers that swivel and place on over each door and then hang chimes on them. Once it was done the guys opened the doors to see how loud the chimes rang. Since they were the big heavy chimes they made a loud sound that could be heard upstairs and from both sides of the house. I had them use the swivel hangers so that during the day when we were going in and out the house the chimes could be swung way from the door and swung back in front of the door when we were all in the house for the night.
Though none of us felt completely safe we all felt that we could slack off some on the guard duty leaving only one person on guard duty durning the midnight shift with Steve, JR and Mike taking turns. The rest of us would take the day and evening guard duty. It was going to be nice for everyone to get a normal nights sleep again. It's been so long since we had any.
