Tractor pictures

DH had to come home early yesterday to fix a PVC water pipe that had sprouted a leak under the kitchen from all the sub-freezing weather we've had. The longer we live in this house, the more we learn just how much the previous owners had run water all over the property.

We have hot and cold running water coming out from under the house near the kitchen. Who needs hot water in their backyard?! Maybe the hot water was for an outdoor shower before the house had indoor plumbing - who knows?!

We also have water (vertical black pipe) near an old iron stand that is now grown into two trees in the backyard. We think - as this house was originally a hunting cabin - that the water near the trees was used to clean game.

Anyway, DH was able to fix the leak quickly and easily and had time left before dark to cut more firewood with the chainsaw. Of course, he HAD to get out the tractor to move the wood from the wood pile to the log rack using the front-end loader. ☺

Here's the tractor with the front-end loader and brush hog (mower) attached. DH is loading the "bucket" with logs.

Here's Emma "inspecting" the seat. This was right before she discovered the rabbit scent in the wood pile and bolted off to investigate.

A happy tractor owner. It's all about the power tools.

And I haven't stitched a lick since last Friday. Maybe I can get some stitching done this afternoon.

Wild Card weekend

DH and I watched three of the four NFL Wild Card games this weekend - we love football. Way to go, Cowboys!!

The tractor arrived on Saturday morning. The delivery guy was a hoot. We stood around freezing our butts off talking for about half an hour after the tractor was unloaded and we received "tractor driving lessons." After he left, DH put the finishing touches on the wood stove and went out to cut firewood. He also spent a bit of time puttering around on the tractor.

I ended up going outside and helping because 1) it was a nice sunny (although very cold) day, and 2) I wanted to play with the tractor, too. ☺

Here is the stove all finished. Yes, it looks off-center between the windows. We will be gutting this wall and moving and replacing the windows, so we installed the wood stove based on the future window placement.

Here is Emma inspecting the inside of the stove before DH put in the firewood. Yes, she is always this nosey. I often find her "snootling" around in the lower kitchen cabinets if I forget and leave a door open.

Firing it up!

Here is the first fire! It is so nice waking up in the morning to a warm house! On Saturday when we got up, the temperature inside our house (with three space heaters on full blast) was 48 degrees!

The last start of '09 or the first finish of '10

I finished the March boot from Redbird Designs "Southwest Seasons" today. It's stitched on 25 count antique white Lugana with DMC, AVAS, and MH beads for the cactus flowers. I have no idea what I'm going to do with the set after I get finished stitching them all. Oh well. I'll figure it out. Here it is before washing and ironing.

We're having arctic weather down here in south central Texas. Our wood stove is not usable yet. The company we ordered everything from was supposed to help us make sure we ordered all we needed. DH was about to put the last piping together when he realized that he needed "fireplace caulk" which we didn't know to order and don't have. Lowe's and Home Depot don't have any such thing.

After calling the wood stove company, DH learned that an equivalent could be had from an auto parts store. Then he had to find an auto parts store that carried it in the color black instead of vivid blue. I like blue, but not on black stovepipe. Anyway, he found some, the pipe will be put together this evening, and then the caulk will be allowed to cure overnight.

DH will cut firewood tomorrow after the tractor gets delivered in the morning. Hopefully, *crosses fingers* we'll have the wood stove fired up tomorrow afternoon. With three space heaters going, the dial on the electric meter is spinning like a top.

I'm next getting out and stitching on the BAP I promised to stitch for my MIL, "Wild Things" from Cross Stitch Pattern Gallery. (This was a limited edition pattern, so don't look for it.) I'm planning to stitch on it until it's finished. Or until it makes me crazy. I've done two pages out of fifteen.

Tightwad versus pink

I was the lucky recipient of a Hobby Lobby (HL) gift card at Christmas. I also noted that HL began selling online as of January 1st. This gave me the opportunity to check out whether they had something I've been wanting to add to my stitching tools.

Those stitched floss tags are cute and I'd like to stitch one. (I don't use floss tag rings; I store my WIP floss in a Darice box.) Still, I'd like to stitch a floss tag. You need some way of installing an eyelet on your floss tag if you are actually going to use it on a floss tag ring. (I plan to string ribbon through the eyelet and hang the floss tag as an ornament.) Anyway, I'd read about the Crop-A-Dile, a tool that installs eyelets and snaps used by scrapbookers.

HL carries them, but only in pink. I hate pink. Did I mention that it's also a 40% off coupon week at HL? I hate pink. I looked around on the Internet for a lower-than-40%-off price. No joy. But I did find that the Crop-A-Dile is also available in a nice green color. But not at HL. I hate pink.

If I ordered the green Crop-A-Dile off the Internet, I'd have to spend ten more dollars plus the value of my HL gift card. My inner tightwad beat up my inner pink hater. My new tool and case, complete with 400 assorted eyelets, cost me $1.56 after using the gift card. A tightwad triumph!

But I still hate pink!

Pipe up but not down

Thanks to all of you who read and who comment on my blog. I appreciate your notes and enjoy reading them!

DH took part of the afternoon off yesterday and came home to work on the wood stove. He got all the pipe installed from the ceiling upward. Tonight he hopes to get the pipe installed from the ceiling downward. Then he has to get all the firebricks placed back into the stove before we can have a fire. Of course, we don't have any firewood yet, but DH assures me that with his trusty chainsaw, getting usable firewood won't take long. Uh huh.

I won the door prize at our stitchtogether last Saturday. It was a stitchy door prize. I got some GAST floss, a piece of Charles Craft linen, a sampler pattern, and three fabric fat quarters that will work nicely for finishing the backs of ornaments. Next month, since I won for this month, I will bring the door prize.

Some stitchers don't care for Charles Craft fabrics because they tend to be stiff with a lot of body. I like stiff fabric for certain projects. When I stitch on Aida, I always prefer Charles Craft. For years, before I learned to stitch on evenweaves, all I ever stitched on was 16 count Fiddler's Lite from Charles Craft.

Stoveless

Well, we are still wood stoveless (with a major cold front on the way). DH was making great progress on Sunday afternoon. He was just about to go up on the roof to cut the hole for the stovepipe when it started to rain so he had to stop working. (Never mind that rain was not in the forecast - dang ol' Texas weather!) It rained for the remainder of the afternoon until after dark.

The only bright spot was that the Cowboys won their division and are in the playoffs!

Here is DH using his new palm nailer. You can see why it is called a palm nailer. And the second picture is of "The Inspector." She was trying to climb the short ladder to get at all the wonderful new smells coming from the attic and DH decided to indulge her.

I stitched on the March boot a bit this weekend and am close to finishing it. I can't decide if it's the last 2009 finish or the first 2010 finish. I'll probably count it for 2010.

Into the New Year

DH and I went to bed at our usual time on New Year's Eve and were awakened by shotgun blasts and fireworks at midnight. We're boring; we rarely engage in NYE revelry.

On New Year's Day, DH continued with the wood stove installation. We made two trips to Lowe's/Home Depot. DH acquired another power tool - a pneumatic palm nailer. It allows you to nail in very tight spots without swinging a hammer.

Here is DH cutting a hole in the ceiling sheetrock. The second picture is DH reframing and cutting rafters so the stovepipe can go through the ceiling and on through the roof. It is very important to do this correctly or your ceiling/roof line will sag at best or collapse at worst.

Yesterday, I went to the IH35 Stitchtogether and DH stayed home to continue with the wood stove installation and to hunt. No joy with hunting and instead of working on installing the stove, he spent the day cleaning out the drain to the toilet in the old bathroom. This is the only working toilet in the house, so understandably, it must be kept in peak working order.

The pipe under it is very badly done and will be eventually replaced. But the pipe clogged and DH ended up having to uninstall the toilet to clean it out. He also had to make two trips to town for supplies. It was a very yucky job. I arrived home to a working toilet and a very disgruntled DH.

The stitchtogether was a blast. There were many show-n-tell pieces to admire and we all managed to stitch while we discussed things of great importance. ☺ We also ate a lot. And laughed.