A bird in the hand

Or, I should say, a bird in the house, which is what we had a couple days ago.

Todd I were sitting peacefully working at the dining room table when whoosh! a bird came swooping through the dining room!  It bumped its way around the chandelier and our heads before flying off to the sun room.

We took off after it, including Rigby who was very interested in the lil' guy.  We found the bird resting on a window and...

We didn't quite know what to do.  We didn't have anything handy to catch it with, you know, like a net, but Todd found an old towel that we thought might do.  He sneaked up behind the bird slooooowly and ever so gently wrapped the towel around it and headed outside.

Todd sat the bird on the stoop to let it recover and do its thing.  Poor guy, he was stressed!  He was panting and didn't have the energy to even pull himself upright...

Finally, after a couple minutes the bird got it together and sat up...

Rigby had been watching the scene with extreme interest.  In the sun room he stood on point, staring intently with nostrils flaring, as Todd approached the bird.  And he wouldn't go inside until the bird flew off, which it did moments later.

Stay tuned for the next animal intruder story.  I saw a mouse in our kitchen!

Five alarm

I love fireplaces.

Ever since we moved into our new house Todd and I have been itching to try our living room fireplace.  This isn't a modern, new-fangled gas burner.  Oh, no!  This fireplace operates on old school chunks of wood.  I think gas fireplaces have their, well, places, but nothing beats the crackle and smell of a wood burner.   

The cool temperatures we've had lately gave us a good excuse last night to give it a go.  Here's Todd lighting it up...

 

The set up...

 

Success!  A very happy evolved man...

 

Rigby was not so happy.  He has a weirdness about fire.  He doesn't like it, or to be around it, or to hear it, or to see it...

 

But we were able to convince him to come near the flame with some well positioned dog treats.  Ok.  He still didn't really buy into it...

 

And then there was this...the smoke.  Being our first fire in this fireplace it's obviously a little trial and error, but I'm surprised our alarm didn't go off...

 

While Todd fixed the smoke I made dinner and dug in.  Whole wheat pasta with shrimp, olive oil, salt, pepper, halved cherry tomatoes, and sauteed onions, mushrooms and garlic...

 

And the all important wine...

 

I say again: I love fireplaces!

"Oh, there ain't no lumberjacks in the city..."

That was the first line to a song my sisters and I made up on a trip to the mountains once when we were younger. 

We had an entire musical going on complete with a picnic table as a Conestoga wagon, male and female singing parts, and typical musical dance moves like synchronized "cartwheels" across the picnic table benches.

Oh yes, we gave Rogers and Hammerstein a run for their money!

But, as proven by the following photos, there are indeed lumberjacks in the city: Todd being one of them.

Todd has spent a lifetime working with wood - marking, pruning, cultivating and cutting trees.  AND he's from Wisconsin.  All he's missing is a big blue ox.

He's been itching to go a cuttin' ever since we moved in to the Casper house, which has a giant wood burning fireplace.  So, he and my old friend Jeff S. went out a couple weeks ago on a "man date" to chop and bring in some wood. 

They got quite the load!  Jeff really wants to use their new fireplace as a main source of heat, while I think we're only going to have an occasional fire.  You know, the kind you sit around sipping red wine while the winter winds howl... 

Some action shots...

I just liked this shot of Todd's lumberjack boot with the wood chips spraying...

Once Todd got the logs into more manageable chunks he'd split 'em by hand.  He's got such amazing aim!  More times than not he landed that ax right in the same spot.  I'd be all over the place I think.  And yes, we are doing this in our alley.  We had several neighbors stop to chat - and admire our pile of wood!

A perfect split...

Rigby's not too fond of the chainsaw.  He ran to me several times because I wasn't making such scary noises...

He is, however, very fond of this "stick".  Look at his cute little tongue go!  

The swirly colors of the bark on this chunk remind me of the hot springs in Yellowstone... 

I was the stacker.  This is the beginning of our wood pile...
 

And this is the end result!  Todd proudly told me I did a good job stacking (which is apparently a skill in itself) and that I could be his LumberJILL...

Males: Oh, there ain't no lumberjacks in the city!
Females: Oh, there ain't no lumberjacks in the city!
Males: So, come on down and find a girl that's pretty...
Together: Cuz there ain't no lumberjacks in the city!

The choreography really brings it together...

Todd's a hater too

A couple weeks ago we pulled the stupid Fabulous 400 out so Todd could see if he could figure out why the big oven went kaput.

In moving it, we figured out where the 400 comes from – it easily weighs 4,000 pounds.

Replacing this thing is such a kitchen conundrum.  See the cabinets that are under the Fab...?

Those will have to come out with a different stove.  And I’ve already mentioned the fact that the 400 is 40-inches wide means either a) we spend about a million dollars on a new 40-inch stove (that size is considered professional or commercial grade), or b) we get a 30 or 36-inch stove (normal sizes) and have a corresponding 10 or 4-inch gap to fill between the stove and the other cabinets.

We’ve brainstormed that the gap could make a good cookie sheet cabinet, but then there’s the countertop that would be short… ARGH!!!

Do you see where my deep-seated hatred for the Fabulous 400 stems from??

After tinkering with it to no avail then hoisting it back…Todd’s a hater now too.

Mr. and Mrs. Clean

Yesterday was maybe one of the happiest days of my life:

Our washer and dryer arrived!

Ok, it might be a little dramatic to say it was one of the happiest days...but it's right up there.

We've been without a washer and dryer since May 28 when we closed on the new house.  As you can imagine, we've amassed quite the mountain of laundry.  We did do a few emergency loads at the Cheyenne house on one of our trips down to get stuff, but that didn't really make a dent.

We ordered the new appliances about three weeks ago and have been awaiting their arrival with as much excitement as a kid looking forward to Christmas.

The big delivery stork with our exciting arrival...

We debated for months about what set to get.  Do we drop big bucks on the front loading kind?  We were hesitant...but it saves money over time with water and electric efficiency.  You don't know the back and forth we had!  We finally decided on a sale price front loader...

Up and running!  But we almost weren't.  Before we could get going we discovered they delivered an unmatched set!  The washer was correct, but the dryer was not what we bought.  We called Sears to check, and as it would happen the sales lady ordered the wrong dryer.  I nearly had a coronary.  She told us we could keep the wrong dryer - and use it - until our new one came in and we could make the exchange.  Lucky for her she offered that solution...I was ready to drive to the store and raise hell!  We were NOT going to wait any longer for clean clothes (I know you're thinking what's wrong with the laundry mat?  Aside from the obvious 'lots of things' it was down right expensive!  We tried going this route and walked out.  I'm fine with paying a couple bucks to clean my clothes, but $5 or more??  I think not.)

The funny thing about these?  They play what I call a Pied Piper tune as you're unloading.  It's funny and annoying all at the same time.  But I'll put up with it for clean clothes.

Slumlords

That's what Todd and I have become!

Not really.

But we have become landlords.

Our darling Cheyenne house rented yesterday - a HUGE relief!  With the new house mortgage starting this month it was absolutely essential we get the Cheyenne house rented.  Otherwise, I joked to friends, the next time they saw me I'd be super thin from living on Ramen alone.

We think we have good renters, but we're still a little nervous.  Handing your home over to people you don't know is kind of disconcerting.  You hope they don't destroy it or do stupid things to it.

The renters are a young couple who are expecting a baby in August.  I think the girl is very excited and proud of her new home, which makes me feel better.  That and the fact she was already weeding the flowers last night - a day and a half before their move-in!  She's obviously motivated.

So, here's to our first foray into property management.

I hope our lil' home survives.

Range rover

I can look past most of the things around the new house that need addressed: Carpet removal, the need to paint, a fully-concreted backyard...

But the thing that makes me absolutely crazy is:

The Fabulous 400.

It is a beast. And I find it to be anything but fabulous.  


I can see how back in its day it was probably a very progressive appliance.  It has a rotisserie.  That could be neat.  It folds up like a Transformer (It's a cutting board... No!  It's a trivet... No! It's a full oven and stove top in one!), which is creative.

But at the end of the day, it is simply the bane of my culinary existence.

When we first looked at the stove we had no idea how it worked.  Where in the world do you boil a pot of water, for example?  

After some tinkering we found you have to uncover the coils hidden neatly under the cutting board/trivet pull-out.  Oh, of course! (smacking head sarcastically)   

But that feature only gets in the way!  It's awkward to lean over.  And I hate having to go the extra step of pulling it out when I just want to quickly, say, heat a kettle of water for tea.  So, I leave it like this...

But the most pressing issue is it doesn't work.

Our first night in the house we made a frozen pizza in the large oven on the left.  And it worked - fabulously. 

The next night, wanting a home-cooked meal, I put a meat loaf in the same oven.  Everything was cooking nicely when out of nowhere the 400 started buzzing.  At first I thought it was a timer going off.  I fiddled with that for a bit, then realized the oven was no longer on and the meat loaf was cooking on the slowly fading heat I had initially set it to.  

It hasn't worked since.  

Fortunately, there is a second, smaller oven on the right.  But cookie sheets and other pans are too big to fit in there, so I've either had to not make something or find a creative pan to put it in.


We're going to replace the ol' Fab with a normal gas - not electric, which I hate - stove.  

But to add insult to injury, the ol' Fab is 40 inches wide!  Today, that size is reserved for commercial or professional grade stoves, which, as much as I would love that, I do not love the cost: $5,000, $10,000, $15,000!!

What we don't understand is, the kitchen is remodeled with new, nice cabinets that were built around the Fabulous 400.  Why, oh why, wouldn't you replace the stove with a normal one and build the new cabinets around that?  

It's mind boggling. 

Fabulous my foot...

Homestead hopping

I've taken a hiatus from the blog it seems because, well, there's been some other things going on.  Like...moving into our new Casper home!

By the way - we closed on the house on Friday morning and my name was on there, so I am officially a first time homebuyer!  Yay!

Wednesday night and Thursday at ol' 304 in Cheyenne was nothing but packing central.  Our goal was to be on the road to Casper Thursday night, but we were apparently delusional.  We packed until midnight on Thursday, got up at 4:15 a.m. on Friday morning and were on the road to Casper by 5:30 a.m.  Why up so early?  Our closing was at 8 a.m.  We like to keep things exciting.

Here's our life since Thursday...

Ol' 304...

Our little mail slot.  The mailman spelled Todd's last name wrong - it's 'el' not 'le'.

Me packing up our bedroom...

The first mow of the year.  We were the worst kept yard on the block!  But with not being there or it raining we weren't able to get it done.  So, we took some time from packing to weed the flowers and mow the yard...

Packing up the trailer...

Our cute little living room in total disarray...

The kitchen...

Rhubarb from the backyard and a pie our neighbor Betty made for us with some of our rhubarb.  If I had to pick a favorite pie rhubarb would be it.  Pumpkin is a close second... I LOVE the color of rhubarb!

Taking a break to enjoy a piece of pie...

Rigby also taking a break.  It's hard being a cute puppy dog...

The beginning of the purple flowers and end of the tulips that Todd and I planted...

Friday morning, 5 a.m.: Pulling away from 304...

The next few photos document what might be classified as a disaster zone. It's the new house with all our stuff - EVERYWHERE.  The kitchen isn't as bad here.  Not like it was...

But brace yourselves! The living room.  We've slept on the air mattress the last few nights even though our real mattresses are in the bedroom.  Problem is, we don't have the bed frame and it seems pointless to put the mattresses down just to pick them up again and situate on the bed frame.  We have one more substantial load to get from Cheyenne and the frame will be included...

The dining room... You'll notice the place needs some cosmetic upgrades.  I'll get into that later, but let me say: The formal curtains are going, the carpet that is over every square inch of the house (and covering perfectly good, beautiful hardwood floors) will be out, and any wallpaper will be ripped ruthlessly down.  The chandeliers stay...

A prime example: Blue and white shag carpet covering wonderful hardwood floors...!

The upstairs bathroom.  We've decided this will likely be a complete gut.  It's awkwardly arranged making it tight and leaving very little room for storage.  And who puts carpet in a bathroom?  How gross around the toilet!

Speaking of the toilet... It's trapped between the tiled tub wall and the bathroom door making it a tight squeeze.  And it prevents Rigby from his, what we call, Potty Petting Time (PPT).  For some reason, the moment we make our way to the toilet Rigby makes a beeline for us so he can be pet.  He started this at 304 where the bathroom was much more open.  Now, he's having trouble squeezing around the door which seems to be kind of disappointing for him!  And we've become so accustomed to PPT we feel bad for the lil' boy...

And, speaking of Rigby, here he is comfortably sitting on his new front porch.  He loves to go out there and watch the world go by...

I've been jealous of folks who have dogs that are so well behaved they can be trusted to sit peacefully on a porch unattended.  I never thought Rigby would be that dog.  He's a very good boy, but he's also very social and usually can't resist the urge to meet and greet every dog and human within a one mile radius.  At the new house he's been different.  He just lounges out there.  I've only sneaked out a few times to make sure he's still there...