Last Friday evening, Sept. 12th, Pete and Hannah entered the little bunker in the hill at about 10:30 pm. Bug was very excited and anxious to stay in the bunker. So she rushed her daddy down there.
I hung around in the comfort of the house a while longer with Bubba. Drowsiness began to overtake me, and I decided that I too would join them.
Bubba wanted to watch a movie and said he'd cut everything off and come to safety then. The winds were really whipping but not to the potential for any real damage.
Sometime after midnight, Bubba come to join us in our small little bunker. The door is on the left hand side, standing and looking at it. There is about a 4' wide strip of space when you first enter. Just enough to set up a couple of lawn chairs. Behind the lawn chairs and against the back wall are two bunk beds. Sitting in front of the beds and facing the door, there is shelving in the left hand corner. There Pete had placed an older TV. On the floor was a cooler with drinks, water, and sandwich material. Above the cooler in the middle of the front wall Pete had cut a window in the metal, on steel hinges with a bolt action fastener on the inside. Metal down....solid. Metal raise up on the inside of the room and you had a window. Just large enough we could squeeze through if need be. Chain saw on the floor under the shelving, should any trees block the actual door which opened out.
So there we are. Relaxing. Watching the continuous coverage on KFDM. By now I am laying on the top bunk by a sleeping Bug. Bubba dives under us to the bottom bunk. He lays there a couple of minutes and then he says "Hey, there's a spider web under here!" Well, Bubba HATES spiders. Will act plumb silly over them. So his Daddy hands him his lighter and tells him to burn it. Then we hear Bubba say, "there's one in there! I burnt it's legs. Oh, no, it's a bad one! Black with a red dot!" Daddy hands him a screw driver and Bubba smashes the black widow spider. Then he uses the light to check every nook and cranny for signs of any more. Satisfied he goes off to sleep.
We hear the wind pick up. We occasionally hear a tree break and fall down the hill in front of us. But in our bunker, I felt snug as a bug in a rug! Judging from how well the kids slept, they did also.
We lost power about 3:30 am. With no TV on I drifted on off to sleep as well. Sometime around dawn Pete crept out and turned on the radio coverage in my car at the top of the hill. He and Bubba had wired a speaker to it earlier on Friday.
I awaken to daylight and the sound of four-wheelers coming up. It was two of Pete's nephews who had rode down to check on us from his brother's house. The time was 8:30 am and still rather gusty, but not threatening.
Once awake, none of us could stay in there. We all came out and went about checking things out. Later that afternoon I told Bug to come with me and let us get out the covers we had left in the shed. Her and her little Blackie Dog ran on ahead of me. We get down the hill and turn to go in the bunker and suddenly Bug jumps back and hollers, "Mama, isn't that a snake?!" Yes, it was. Dark and solid in color from where we stood. Right in front of the door, facing it. Like he was just about to knock and go in. I didn't stick around to decide if it was a moccasin or a chicken snake.
The guys went right down with their guns and searched all around outside and all through inside the bunker. No sign of the snake. They retrieved my covers.
Needless to say, I decided that we will have to do routine sweeps and exterminations in that thing if we are going to continue to use it when threatening weather approaches.
