This and that

As always, I appreciate all the comments y'all are leaving on my posts! Thanks for taking the time to read and respond (and make me laugh!).

Well, it's Friday the 13th. Whoopdedoo. No, I'm not superstitious. Superstition and my faith in Christ have no place together. But I am happy that it's nearly the weekend!

I am pleased to report that we are now cow-free. Our neighbor (or his minions) fixed his fence this weekend. Having noted the lack of cows and cow patties, DH investigated and found the fixed fence. He said the cows were hanging out near it and came right over to him when they saw him. They must miss us.

The framers were supposed to start yesterday, and I went out to spend the day at the house in eager anticipation of observing, but they never came. Maybe they'll start today. I'll go out there hoping. The lumber is sitting in a neat pile near the house all ready for use. I just love the smell of fresh lumber! I love lumber yards! I know, weird, huh?

I stitched a bit yesterday and will post an update early next week - maybe even a finish!

My bovine WIP

Well, I actually got to stitch some on Sunday afternoon and yesterday afternoon. So, I'm posting my Texas bovine. I'm almost done with the scenery, and then I'll start on the wording and border (click here for pattern picture).

Stash in the mail!

Whoopdedoo! I got stash in the mail yesterday!

I ordered these two booklets from 123 Stitch! about a week ago. There are eight designs in each one. I love a lot of the designs from Little House Needleworks (LHN) designer Diane Williams. She apparently designed under the Leisure Arts label before striking out on her own. Leisure Arts still must have the rights to some of her earlier work as these designs are definitely hers. In fact, the ones in the "Cherished Scripture Samplers" are attributed to her. The other booklet mentions no designer, but the designs are her style. Anyway, I like them. Now as to when I'll actually get around to stitching them?

A man in trees

On Friday, the contractor and a couple of guys came out to start work on our addition. The first thing he had to do was cut down two large oak trees. Silly me, I assumed he would sub-contract this to professional tree cutters. He didn't. He did it himself. It took over half the day and struck terror in my heart.

I am the daughter of a safety maniac. I know and follow every safety rule for any tool or machine made. I annoy other people with my knowledge of safety rules, but I am usually right. The rules are there for a reason.

Our contractor marched into our backyard with his two guys, two chainsaws, a very long extension ladder, and a rope. Notice that I did not mention any safety equipment as there was none. No safety belts/harnesses, no safety rigs for the chainsaws, no eye/hearing/head protection.

I watched the whole thing from a very safe distance, mentally running through first aid procedures in my mind as the day progressed, and hoping that the contractor had adequate insurance. I was sure that he would lop off one of his own limbs, or drop a tree branch on one of his guys. There were several times where I was sure he would fall out of a tree or off the ladder. I was amazed that neither of the running chainsaws fell, and neither did the precariously perched ladder. I expected that the man would put one or both of his eyes out with flying wood chips. There were several times when I expected a tree branch to fall on our house. None of these things happened, proof that God watches over fools.

After the trees were down, they laid the footings for the addition and then left. Later that evening, I took a picture of the gutted-to-the-studs bedroom and some of the concrete block footings. DH is cleaning up some residual fiberglass (I hate that stuff!) so the dog wouldn't get into it.

Herding cows and launching rodents

Thursday evening, DH and I went out to the new house to do some work before the contractor arrived on Friday. Things did not go as planned. It turns out that the person we thought owned the cows does not. But we got the name of the correct owner and DH planned to call him the next day.

Best laid plans. We had left the gate open and the cows sneaked over to it and escaped. They saw the open gate and ran like bats out of Hades down our 1000 foot driveway and out into the road. The cattle guard at the end of our driveway did not phase them. DH called the owner, introduced himself, and then said that though there was a fence down between our properties, his cows had escaped out our gate. The owner, who lives in Houston, told DH what to do. I wonder if every landowner around our place who keeps cows live in Houston?!

We found a five-gallon bucket, hopped in our truck and drove out to the road to find the cows. They were about half a mile down. DH got out, threw some gravel in the bucket and shook it at the cows. Stupid things thought he had food, so they followed him home. I followed DH and the 11 cows back to our land in the truck and then SHUT THE GATE BEHIND THEM. DH called the owner who was very relieved that we had rescued his cows. He will be out this weekend to fix the fence. We did not get anything done on the house.

As we were leaving that night, I pulled open a drawer in the kitchen and let out a yell. There was a mouse in the drawer (filthy peeing and pooping rodent!). DH was wearing his leather work gloves so he snatched open the drawer, grabbed the mouse by the tail, opened the kitchen screen door, and hurled the mouse into the air and about 100 feet away. We will have to seal all the mouse holes in the kitchen before I put ANYTHING in the cabinets. And I'll have to re-clean what I already cleaned. Ack!

More of our home-moaner tale tomorrow. I didn't stitch a lick today. Phooey.

Duh. And she's not blonde.

While browsing blogs this morning while munching my morning bowl of oatmeal and walnuts (with brown sugar and cinnamon, of course), I stopped by Michelle's blog and read with interest her entry regarding an audio tape.

Actually the entry was about an audio book. As a hard-of-hearing (HoH) person, audio books don't interest me. I have a hard time understanding the reader - especially female readers - and usually end up frustrated and annoyed because I have to keep playing back portions because I misheard them and didn't understand what was being said. Besides, I read faster than anyone can read aloud anyway. I was relieved to see that a print book was available.

That reminded me of a recent encounter with a nameless person. This person shall remain nameless to protect them from numerous and incredulous "duh!" looks. This person is not a blonde. This person mentioned that she had listened to a great audio tape of a speech recently and that I would probably like it and that she would loan it to me. I graciously thanked her for her offer and then gave her my "why HoHs don't like audio tapes" spiel. She replied, "Don't they have to close-caption those for the deaf?"

DUH.

Now you see it, now you don't

We are still dealing with inadequate fencing and cows. I haven't stitched since Sunday. Wah.

The contractor starts later this week on the addition to our bedroom. He is not doing a complete finish out. DH and I will be doing a lot of the inside work ourselves, including insulating the walls, sheetrocking, electrical, plumbing, tiling of the bathroom, flooring, etc. Although we can both tape and bed quite well, we both hate it with a flaming purple passion and are hiring it done. Anyway, DH is nearly finished gutting the bedroom COMPLETELY to the studs. Here is a "before" picture:

Here are "after" pictures: