Oh, deer

One morning, as Todd and I were out hitting up garage sales, we came across these little culprits gnawing on a neighbor's trees.

Naughty!

When animals go urban it always makes me chuckle.

Old Glory

We have been wanting a flag on our house for a while, but we just haven't gotten around to it.  With the 4th of July just around the corner flags are everywhere in stores, so we decided to pick one up.

Here's Todd marking where the screws have to go for the base...

Drilling the holes...

Base is up...!

Putting the flag up...

Doesn't it look AWESOME!  (What doesn't look awesome are our front steps.  We pulled the nasty green astro turf off and the adhesive is still there.  It looks bad, yes, but not as bad as the astro turf.)

Flying proud...

Water closet wonderfulness

We have bathroom walls!

And a ceiling.  And a floor!  

Very soon we will have a fully functioning upstairs bathroom that will serve as our main bathroom, as well as mine and Todd's primary powder room.  

We have been doing all the work ourselves (well, mostly Todd and some friends here and there), so projects are taking longer than they would if we hired a contractor.  

I'm proud of Todd too.  He's a regular handyman kind of guy who knows how to do the job RIGHT.  He ran all the new plumbing in there, had to replace a couple old, cracked floor joices, replace the sub floor, insulate the exterior wall (this was hired out because we did spray foam), put up a new ceiling, put in the ventilation fan and run it to the roof, he and a electrician friend finished up the electrical, and most recently...

Got dry wall up on the walls!

For a little perspective...Where Todd is standing is where the vanity (which Todd took a woodworking class to make himself) will go.  To the right of that the toilet.  Those two pipes sticking out of the wall are the hot and cold lines that will go to the claw foot tub that will run along the back wall...

That big hole in this wall is for a built-in cabinet that will be kinda Hoosier-cabinet like.  Todd will be making that himself too.  Right now, the hole opens into the master bedroom closet...

So what's left?  Mudding and taping and sanding the walls.  Laying the heated floor pad and tiling the floor. Priming and painting the wainscoting and putting it up with the baseboards. Putting the finishing touches on the vanity, and hooking the sink, toilet and tub up!  

Of course the fun stuff is yet to come too, like picking a curtain, wall color and shower curtain.  

We're so close!   

Cool as a cucumber

Summers in Wyoming are pretty amazing.  It can be hot, sure, but there's no humidity.


After growing up in the Midwest, living for a time on the East Coast, and being reminded of how sticky-miserable a humid summer can be while at family reunions in Illinois, I decided without a bit of hesitation that I will never, ever again live in a region with humidity.  


In humid climates an air conditioner is an absolute must.  I can not imagine Washington, D.C., in August with no A/C - and I have a pretty vivid imagination!  But in Wyoming, air conditioners strike me as silly and wasteful.

I also hate being in a bottled up house.  I love the windows open, breeze blowing in, and fresh air circulating through the house.

Recently, we were at dinner at our friends Jeff and Linda's and they very graciously offered us an old window air conditioning unit stored in their garage.  I politely declined, telling them of my preferences for fresh air blowing through our home and we eventually changed the subject.

This week, 90+ temps and no wind - NO WIND! Unheard of in Wyoming! - has made our old 1920 home HOT.  Rigby and Lulu just lie around, trying to find relief on our tiled entryway floor in front of a fan.  Todd and I can't bear to even accidentally touch legs on the couch watching t.v. at night.  The ceiling fans are pushing around hot air.  There isn't a breeze to be had.

I told Todd he should ask Jeff if they still have that window unit.  I knew I was going to eat crow because of it.  I didn't care...at least too much.

I figured it could help us through this week, which is forecast to be much of the same dry, hot, still weather.  Also, there is a life development coming our way that I haven't talked about yet on here (I will, it's just not time yet) and I wanted to experiment with making the house more comfortable.

Jeff dropped the A/C off last night and Todd got it up and running immediately.

It's not a total miracle worker, but it's made a difference.  It's really meant to only help cool one room, but we hoped with the openness of the living room into the dining we might feel a little more far reaching effect.  Combined with the fans it's not too bad.  And as much as I dislike having the windows shut it does keep the heat from pouring in.

And I console myself for breaking down by the thought that it's only temporary.  We'll only be switching it on when needed and not relying on it all the time.

Besides, there are only a few weeks each year in Wyoming when an A/C is desirable.  So, if we're looking at even one month of air conditioning out of 12 I think we're doing pretty good.

I love this photo

Todd and I were watching t.v. on the couch one night and Lulu, who just has to know what's going on outside, ran to the window to see why the neighbor dog was barking.

We had already shut the door for the night, otherwise she would have tore outside to be on neighborhood watch.  

She looked SO DARN CUTE sitting there like that.  I had Todd snap a picture with his phone. 

The thing you can't see very well is her one ear flipped back in just the way that makes me want to pin it there with a barrette.  Trademark Lulu.

P.S. The painting of a black lab on the chair is of Rigby, painted by Todd's Aunt Barbara.  

Recipe mania

I have this issue, see...

I love recipes.  I'm kind of addicted to them.  

I already have an impressive assortment of cookbooks and recipe binders, but for some reason I can't bear the thought of cancelling my Cooking Light subscription.  I am a little disenchanted with the Rachael Ray mag, but until my last renewal runs out I will diligently flip through each issue and pull out new recipes.  I pin a new recipe on Pinterest almost every day it seems.  

I don't like missing new recipes and ideas!  There are so many interesting concoctions out there!  But I've got to stop, or at least slow down.  

I've acquired a few bigger kitchen accessories lately like a blender, food processor and ice cream maker and I have no place to put them...except on the shelf where my recipe books have been stashed.  

I pulled them all down this evening to a) clean that shelf and b) put the appliances up there.  This is what our kitchen counter now looks like.  Overwhelming, huh?

These are my two recipe binders that are literally busting at the seams. Mind the stack of recipes on top waiting to be put in their appropriate sleeves...

I have a handful of these homemade cookbooks like Coy and Angela's wedding favor; and a very nice subscription to Cook's magazine that was an engagement gift from a girlfriend...

I'm thinking this Best of Cooking Light book will have to go.  After all, I've had a subscription to the magazine version for years and some of the recipes are already clipped and in the recipe binders!  I haven't gone through the top book, a Farm Journal's Country Cookbook, very thoroughly, but I don't want to get rid of something so cool and old...

I'm also thinking this one to do with tofu is going to go.  I love tofu, but let's be real.  Our deep freeze in full of antelope, elk and the like.  There aren't many tofu dishes going on our table...

More of the homemade cookbooks...

And more...

Seriously...

Oh man...

The new home for the appliances.  Now where will all those books go...?