Renovation Ensues

The old blue/gray shag carpet is staged in the garage, awaiting its final landing place - the local dump.  Rolled into itself, the dog pees stains gross me out and I am even more glad to see it go.  Not our dogs, by the way.  I have learned that from now on, I will be wearing a 10-95 mask when I tear out old, skanky carpet.  Bad stuff there.

Mike and I put the new vinyl laminate down, finishing it up this weekend.  It is stunning!  Funny to get the floor covered with such beautiful flooring and then roll out the giant floor carpet I made off with from a garage sale last summer.  This thing is perfect and came with a thick floor pad!  It looks simply stunning under the bed.  With luck, Roomba will be able to clean in this room soon too!!

Next, the removal of the wall paper.  Having never done anything like this before, I was quite perplexed as I began.  It is true, I did very little research on the whole process.  Learning as I went, by the end of the day, I was ripping off large chunks of the old gray stripped, pink accented paper, wetting down the wall, and removing the final papery glue-backed backing paper.  It's quite the process!  Only one small wall left and the room will be done.

Now the walls are boring.  No doubt, there was visual interest with the wall paper.  An interesting development, indeed......they make stick-on, pull-off wall paper now......

The pink bottom areas will be covered with brushed corrugated metal.  Oh man, oh man - I can't wait for the bubblegum pink to be gone!!  Mike has a plan for covering and I know it will turn out awesome. 

We decided to stay the night last night, working until 7:30pm on our various projects.  He welded up a wheeled frame for the new fire feature, making moving it around on the deck a breeze.  I pulled off my last sheet of paper around 7 and made dinner.

We finished the evening with a long, rewarding hot tub soak!! 

 

Sunday Morning in Freedom

Ahh.  Freedom.

Dinner with friends last night. We shared food, wine, and stories around our new deck feature.

Very nice. Very nice. Around the inside table for lamb meat balls with delicious tomato sauce on angel hair pasta, home made bread, and a pan amazing pie from Stephanie.

As it is said, life is good, life is good!

Hol-i-Day!!

 A slight wave of guilt surrounds my coffee and egg with Swiss chard breakfast. Mike has gotten up early to go work at the Walton Ranch, today is a holiday for me. I sit in Freedom and watch the snowfall, the breeze blow through Dani and Evan’s prayer flags which fits so perfectly between the chains on our outside swing, and I prepare for a day of ripping up the old carpet.

 Each to their own, I try hard not to judge. Old wallpaper, Carpet with plenty of dog pee stains, and bubblegum pink walls are just not my style. We have commenced the remodeling of the master bedroom in the house. Doing it all backwards, we’ve started with the flooring first. I’m sure this will cause a major headache later but it seems the only way to get going. And we’ve had a hard time getting going on this project. There’s always something that gets in the way. Heavy snowfall that needs plowed, decks it need to be shoveled, snow plows the break - there’s always something!   My quest today is to finish ripping out the rest of the carpet and prepare for the final half to be finished next weekend   Here you see the old carpet, the pink walls, and the new laminate. It will definitely be an upgrade! Onward with the cutting knife, yes I will be careful! A good way to cure a case of guilt is to get to work! I hope you all enjoy your day  whether you are working or on holiday!

Our Friend Addie

Addie and I have known each other for 18 years.  Wow!  She and I cooked grand meals for guests at Flat Creek Ranch , the lovely place at the end of a rough road, fifteen miles from Jackson and an hour and a half drive.  You will have new scratches on your rig, tires worn through a bit more, and the possibility of making contact with the undercarriage of your vehicle verses the rocky outcrops on the two track road.  The drive is worth every hard-earned mile!

Addie treated her girlfriends to a fine meal last night in her lovely town home here in Jackson.  Wine (and water for those driving county vehicles) flowed with the many conversations.  We heard of broken legs, overwhelmed schedules, a mother daughter trip to Italy, it always rains on August 4, the struggles of feeding a gluten free husband, growing girls in the most rural norther Wyoming setting of Moran, worries of avalanches taking those we love, and many times - more than one story going on at one time!  As we chattered away the evening, we relished the supple Jasmine rice, a perfect bedding for spicy red curry and the sweet beef dish which mixed well together.  Of course, the meal was completed with an array of Addie's finest; lemon bars, rocky road, and a chocolate gnache. 

Check out Addie's Blog Site and marvel at her brilliance in creating the most beautiful cakes ever!  Can you imagine having to cut into one of these pieces of artwork? 

Thank you Addie.  Thank you for gathering us all up.  Thank you for taking the time to cook for us all.  Thank you for being a long time friend.  And thank you ahead for a taste of that beef jerky!!

We all love you, Addie!!  I think this picture says how we all feel about YOU!!

Painful Week Start

I am not a complainer.  And I'm pretty tough.

Yesterday, while chipping some ice away from some windows, I flipped a big ice chunk into the air and it came smashing down on my hand.  I knew a blood vessel had broken and was rewarded immediately with a growing hematoma.  Soon it was the size of a golf ball.  By the time Mike and I returned to Hoback Junction - after a day of snow moving in Freedom - my giant hematoma was starting to hurt quite a lot.  Off to the Emergency Room.  Happily, there were not bones broken.  I was wrapped up in an Ace bandage and told it would be pretty painful for a week as the stuff was absorbed up by my body.

Come Thursday of this week, Mike will deliver me to an oral surgeon's office where I will get the fractured root to a tooth that broke off extricated from my gum/jaw.  We will be driving to Idaho Falls for the procedure.  I am thankful to have a husband who is able to me my driver.

I hope  your week is going better than mine!! 

Sunday Morning Dreamin'

Two poached eggs over English muffin, drizzled with Hollandaise sauce, slice of ham, sautéed kale, all topped with a triangle of sweet roasted pepper. And coffee. In just the right mug.  Here’s to the start of this week and dreaming!

Bringing in A Below Zero Year

And so, the tradition lives on!  Disturbed only once before midnight by a call I was cancelled for shortly after leaving and returned back to the card game swiftly, we ate, played cards, and marveled at the clear star-studded sky from the luxury of the 102 degree hot tub on a -8 degree night.  By morning, the temperature would be -20.  The Walton Ranch saw -26 on their thermometers. 

The cold day dawned with a blue sky but still at noon, it was -4 degrees.  Not a great day to be frolicking outside.  A much better day to take a nap in the warmth of indoors! 

Here is what happens when your champagne sits on the rail next to the hot tub in -8 degree temperatures.  Janet brought in the ale to warm up a bit!!

Dinner was a bit stressful for me.  The undercurrent stress of a potential call that I might have to run off for caused a bit of anxiety.  Sorry Mike.  I was a grump until it all got put out on the table and I could sit and sigh with relief!  I have been on duty two of the three years we've carried out this tradition.  It is better to not be on duty.  Plus I missed a lot of amazing and delicious wine.  Although I am pretty sure Todd drank my share!! 

Salmon on top of fresh sautéed spinach, a dollop of white grits, and topped with a caper cream sauce.  A nice salad and a charcuterie board of goodies started us off in style.  How did we end that meal?  With some of Janet's cannoli desserts, of course!  A fine meal to the end of 2018. 

And finally a note of thanks.  Thank you to all who have reminded me, once again, how incredibly blessed I am to be supported by so many people who love me and call me daughter, sister, inlaw, wife, and friend.  Your generous gifts - things and words - have overwhelmed and humbled me.  I am sure I am not worthy of all this, but I thank you and want you all to know how very full my life is because of you!  The word gratitude does not even come close to how I feel as this holiday season comes to a close.  What a wonderful feeling to begin this New Year!!  Thank you All!