Venison

This is all that's left of the venison. I've never liked venison before, but this was good - tender, not gamey. The guys did a really good job. They grilled it just right. The rub (a Bobby Flay recipe) consisted of peppers, coffee, mustard, and some other stuff. They used mustard seed rather than ground mustard, and it was a bit heavy on the coffee, but it was OK anyway.

The Centerpiece

I don't usually decorate for any holiday or give any thought to such things as centerpieces, but this year I went all Martha Stewart and made an arrangement for one of my tables. I drove down the road and cut limbs off of trees, arranged them in a vase, and ... voila!

Man Cooks

Mark got a deer at his deer lease a few days ago, so it has been decided that venison will be on the menu tomorrow. Since we ladies don't know how to cook venison (that's our story and we're sticking to it), or, according to Mark, we're lazy...the men are cooking it.

Tom looked up Bobby Flay's venison recipe which consists of marinading it in vinegar for two hours, then making a rub, rubbing the meat and letting it marinade overnight. It has been entertaining.

Implementport

This is Tom's latest building project. His friend, Charlie, who among other things, is a welder and he welded it together. This is for parking tractor implements under to keep them out of the sun and weather.

So, Charlie told Tom about this guy that puts up and takes down billboard signs. Who knew that the billboard signs were actually huge plastic tarps? Well, they are. And this guy sells the tarps really cheap, like 10.00 for a 32' x 20' and 15.00 for the 40' ones. And Tom had this great idea to use them as "walls" for the shed. That way, they could be rolled up out of the way on any side so that the implements could be moved in and out more easily.

It's a grand idea in principle...not so much in execution. I had a picture in my head of how this was going to look. This picture in my head does not match up with reality. Instead, reality is a big eyesore that I don't like to look at and, in fact, am quite dismayed about.

Chicken Fun

Chickens love their dust baths.

Repairs Underway

New floor is being installed today. I had a bit of an altercation with the foreman. The guys that tore out the damaged floor damaged some of the texture/drywall around two of the windows. The foreman insisted that it wasn't their fault and that the water caused the damage. I know that he is wrong about that, but I decided that I wouldn't argue about it anymore. He called his boss and his boss said that if we threatened to hold back any money for the cost of repairs, to just pack up and leave. Of course, he had me in a bind. I couldn't tell them to leave because I want my floor finished.

Some day, I will learn to check and document every move that construction workers make.

And Then There Were None

All my goldfish are gone. I'm pretty sure a racoon got them. We've seen one hanging out down the driveway several times. I think he's been fishing in my water tanks. Hmmm, I want to get more fish this coming summer because they did get rid of the mosquito wrigglers, but it could get pretty expensive feeding the local 'coons.

Caterpillar or Cat Scat

Whoa. I thought one of the cats had pooped in the garage when I saw this. Upon further inspection, I discovered it's a dead caterpillar. The biggest caterpillar evah. I'd love to have seen the moth that this would have become.

Fish Update

I have one fish left. Four of them just disappeared. I'm thinking a bird or a racoon reached in there and got them. Two I found floating belly up. One is left vigorously swimming around in its tank. I cleaned the waterers yesterday and thought that might kill it, but it's still alive today. Poor thing is probably lonely.

Goldilock's Bed

Bad News

The living room floor is being torn up today. About half of the plywood subfloor is soaked and delaminated. You can see in the picture where the water has soaked through to on the plywood. This means that plywood has to be pulled up, too. Then we have to wait for the concrete underneath to dry out. If it's humid here, it could take weeks. That might mess with our Thanksgiving plans.

Water Damage

This is what the water did to our floor. Some of the boards are buckling up enough to push the baseboards off the wall. Demo is scheduled for Tuesday. Hopefully, the plywood underneath is OK. We'll just have to give it time to dry out, then install the new wood over it.

He Said, She Said

"Are both cats in the barn?"

"No, one is missing."

"Which one?"

"The black and white one."

Ummm.

But...

We found the flooring on the internet for 6.30 per square foot. And when Tom ordered it, they gave us a 5% discount, which just about paid for shipping.

Ahhh, the magic of the internet.

Too Good To Be True

Despite the fact that when I called the insurance company the first time about our water damaged wood floors, they told me that it was covered under our policy, they are now telling me that it isn't.

Since Direct Buy no longer carries our flooring, I'll have to pay 10.00 per square foot for the flooring alone. That doesn't include the tearing out and the installation.

"So, it doesn't cover it...OK, I get it, but don't sit there and tell me that you didn't tell me that it was or that I didn't clearly explain the water damage. You did and I did."

Bad day.

Sold!

The buyers signed the closing papers on our house today. They are supposed to take possession Thursday. Let's hope they don't die before then.

We spent the day finishing up packing and cleaning.

It is done. It is finished.

Wheee!

The fish are still alive.

Meagan gave her hermit crabs to the neighbor's little boys. They are enthralled. Go figure.

Moving Day...Again

Tom and I spent the day at our other house packing up. Mom helped us. We worked 7 1/2 hours, packed up the pick-up truck and the back of Tom's car and we still have more to get. Of course, things couldn't go smoothly...where's the fun in that? One of the bathroom sinks backed up so Tom had to deal with that for a good part of the afternoon. He couldn't get it unclogged, so he poured Drano in it and left it for the night. If it isn't unclogged by tomorrow when we go back, we'll have to call a plumber.

I think the house is punishing us for leaving it.

Crazy Daze

On October 13th we had four inches of rain in one day. Walking through the living room, I discovered water squishing up through the wood floor boards. Bad news. Water was rushing to the outside corner where the dining room meets the living room and got so deep that it was above the foundation, so it came in (probably a weep hole) between the concrete foundation and the wood floor, soaking the plywood underneath and ruining the finished wood.

I thought about a third of the room would have to be replaced, but the wood floor guy that came to give us an estimate said the whole room would probably have to be replaced. We won't know until he starts pulling it up. And I've waited this long for him to get back with me with an estimate. He's having trouble getting the supplier to call him back.

In the meantime, we've been haggling with the buyers for our other house. Finally we agreed upon the contract and everyone signed. Then their inspector found several little things that needed to be fixed and said that the heaters were old and might need to be replaced. The buyers latched onto that and said they were going to terminate the contract if we didn't replace the heaters and several windows. We had the heaters inspected and cleaned and they are perfectly fine. We told them that we would not replace them or the windows. After haggling some more, we told our realtor to just terminate the contract because we're sick of dealing with them. As soon as we did that, all of the sudden they decided that everything was OK and they wanted to close right away.

So, we went from "we're going to terminate the contract" to "we want to close in less than a week". So now we are scrambling to find the kids a place to live and getting the house emptied. Tom spent the day with Jim and a friend packing up all the big stuff. I'm going back as many days this week as it takes to get everything else packed up. Hopefully, it will take just one day and Tom can come back with the truck and trailer to clear it all out.

It will be really great not to have to worry about the other house when it's finally sold, but this week is going to be crazy busy.

The Big Stink

Just when the last odor had worn off, Harry has gotten himself skunked for the THIRD time.

Pearlie is right. He is a big dope.

My Fish Experiment

I read somewhere to put goldfish in livestock waterers (tanks, buckets, automatic waterers, etc.) to keep the mosquito population down. The theory is that they will eat the mosquito larvae and live just fine in the tanks. So while I was in Dallas yesterday I dropped by the pet store and discovered that I could buy "feeder fish" for 13-24 cents a piece depending on how big the fish was. I guess I never knew that some people had pets that required feeding them live fish.

So I bought six of them, figuring that if they all died from my experiment, I wouldn't be losing more than a buck fifty and they were destined to die anyway. I put them in three different waterers yesterday, checked them today and they are all still living as far as I can tell. A couple of the buckets have an overhang that the fish can hide in and I couldn't see them in one of those buckets, but in the other two, they were swimming around. So far so good.