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Way back when (like last year after Christmas), my DBro and DSisIL asked me to stitch my nephews' names on their Christmas stockings. I said I'd be happy to, of course.
They sent the stockings to me this past January. I just got around to stitching the names this past weekend. No, I'm not usually such a bad procrastinator, but I just hate stitching on waste canvas. I especially hate stitching on waste canvas when I have to have my hands up inside of something while actually stitching. I had to cram my hands up inside the stocking cuff to get this done. Thank goodness DBro and DSisIL requested that I stitch the shortened version of each boy's name instead of their full names!
To motivate myself, I used silk floss. I think they came out okay and they will go in the mail tomorrow.
LoneStar
Well, DH hoped that the floor would install quickly and easily. No such luck. He spent the morning getting the underlayment put down.
Then he started installing it.
Emma supervised.
The further along he got, the more frustrated he got with the cheap flooring. After he had run through his repertoire of handy swear words several times, we stopped and discussed continuing or not. We ended up taking the remaining boxes of flooring back to Lowe's and going with cheap vinyl flooring instead.
And DH is starting over. Photos to follow. We're "hoping" it goes well.
LoneStar
DH is still hunting for that last deer (and a wild pig or two or three would be nice). No luck last weekend and no luck so far this weekend, but the weekend is still young.
DH finally got the last kitchen cabinet remade/rebuilt and installed, and I spent the week repainting it. DH took a badly made three-drawer cabinet and made it into a four-drawer cabinet, so the drawers are strangely sized and the knobs don't match. It looks kind of weird stuck off in the corner of the kitchen, but I wasn't about to give up usable kitchen storage space so there it sits. Weird is good.
DH is planning to install the kitchen flooring today. He is "hopeful" that it will not take too long. We'll see. I'll take pictures of the progress and post them when he's done. After the floor, all we have left to do is install all the molding.
LoneStar
No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Thanks to everyone who inquired and expressed concern that I had. ;-) We've just been busy. My days have been such that at the end of them I've muttered to myself, "Poop. Time got away again and I didn't get a blog post up." Oh well.
I haven't stitched in over a week, and this weekend isn't looking good. I don't know when I'll get "Bone Cheeks" done as I fear my Christmas stitching needs to take priority soon. And that means that I'll have to decide what I'm stitching for my nephews and then get it stitched. I also have the company Christmas party ornament to stitch, but I may wimp out and use an ornament that I stitched a while ago, but haven't finished yet.
My Dallas Cowboys are causing me grief - as in "Good grief! What are y'all doing?!" I may need to pull out that paper bag for my head that I used last year and wear it again.
Have you eaten any of those Honey Crisp apples that have appeared in the stores lately? I am hooked on them. Our HEB either has regularly sized ones, or mutant ones. The mutant sized ones are huge! And yeah, I can eat a huge one in one sitting. Emma likes apples, but I don't share my Honey Crisp apples with her.
The soil in my part of Texas is clay-ey. That means that the ground doesn't "perk." It also means that by law, we have to use an expensive to maintain aerobic septic system instead of the usual anaerobic system. Our system has three tanks, an aeration pump, and two discharge sprinkler heads. It must be inspected and maintained yearly by law. We have a company on contract that does this for us.
Last week, the usual guy, Doug, was out for the inspection with a new guy. The new guy was ogling the old tractor that we inherited with our house and land. One of our neighbors thinks that it has been bogged down and sitting in our yard for about 15-20 years. We've tried in vain to find someone to sell it to or even give it to ever since we've lived here. When we lived in Kansas, our town used to have an antique tractor pull every Fourth of July - we learned all about old tractors and the people that love them. We figured SOMEONE out there would want this old tractor. Well, last week, we finally found him.
When I told the new guy that he could have the tractor if he would dig it out and haul it off, he was rendered speechless. When he found his voice, he asked, "Really? You'd just give it to me?!" Yep. Haul it off and get it out of the yard, please. So he did! When he hauled it off on Saturday, he was like a little kid with a new toy.
DH got a seven-point buck with his bow last weekend - three deer down and one to go. Rifle season opens this weekend, so DH is hoping to get his spike buck. Four deer is his limit by law and four deer will fill our freezer nicely. We've already enjoyed venison steaks from the two doe he got in October. And we're still hoping to get a few pigs. DH has seen and heard pigs, but he hasn't been able to shoot one. Now that rifle season is open, he should be able to get a few.
And the kitchen is nearly done. I know, I've been saying that for weeks. I was hoping for and end-of-October finish, but now I'm hoping to get it finished before the Thanksgiving weekend.
The weather here is turning. We've had nights in 40s - cold enough to fire up the wood stove. And I had to wear shoes last week one day. I hate shoes. I put on a long-sleeved shirt, but kept to the shorts. I cling to shorts, T-shirt, and bare feet as long as possible. How's the weather in your neck of the woods?
LoneStar
Hunting season (bow hunting) started last weekend. After bow hunting season comes rifle season (early November) which lasts until January. This means that until he bags his limit (two doe, one spike buck, one antlered buck), DH is out hunting every morning and evening of the weekend. While I am thankful that I have a DH whose hobby can provide food for us, said hobby seriously cuts into our home remodeling time. ;-) Oh well.
DH harvested two doe on Saturday morning and he worked quickly to get both doe field dressed so that he could take them into town to the meat processor before they closed at noon. Just when I was down to the last pound of venison from last year, our freezer will get replenished! (Two deer down, two to go.)
On Sunday, we got rain! It rained about 1.5" at our house. In this drought, we'll take all we can get!
I've got about 90% of our kitchen stuff back in its proper place in our kitchen. DH got the last drawer installed. Before we can declare the kitchen "done," he has to rebuild a cabinet (which I may have to paint or polyurethane) and make drawers for said cabinet, install the trim molding, and lay the new flooring. I am hoping that we get all this done by the end of October as we'll need to cut and stack firewood in November.
And I'm posting my progress on "Bone Cheeks" which isn't very much because all that I stitched on Saturday morning while DH was hunting and field dressing, I had to frog. It was a very extended frog visit and not at all appreciated.
Oh, and my Aggies beat DH's Red Raiders on Saturday. Gig 'em!
LoneStar
What a weekend for football. DH's Texas Tech Red Raiders did well and beat Kansas. My Aggies lost to the Woo Pigs (Arkansas).
And the Cowboys...oh my! I think I've got that paper bag for my head left over from last year here somewhere...
DH's hunting weekend was a bust which made him grumpy. His mood did not improve when he learned that one of the guys at work got an eight-point buck on Saturday. But there are many weekends left to hunt, so we'll fill up our freezer eventually, and I'll have a happy hunter around the house. Grumpy ones are a bummer.
DH is still doing battle with the raccoons. One gnawed through the top cover of his deer corn feeder, so he had to do a "weirdly" repair. Then he caught another raccoon digging corn out of the feeder from the bottom. That raccoon won't ever do that again. Next year, DH will get an all-metal feeder with a better varmint cover. At least we haven't had them waking us up at night trying to get in the trash lately. Darn varmints.
DH got all the doors put on the kitchen cabinets and we are in business! I only have one drawer left to polyurethane as DH just made it on Sunday afternoon. DH still has another small cabinet to rebuild and make a drawer for, and we still have trim molding to install and the floor to put down. But at least the kitchen is much more usable and stuff is making its way back into the kitchen from the den. YAY!
LoneStar
...the start of bowhunting season, and my kitchen was piled with hunting paraphernalia. DH got up this morning at the ridiculous hour of 5:00 a.m. and went out to his tree stand to hunt. He puts all his stuff in the kitchen so he can get dressed without waking me up too much. He saw six deer, but couldn't get a shot. He is out right now on an evening hunt. I hope he gets a deer as I'm down to four pounds of venison left in the freezer from last year.
I've been a polyurethaning machine this week and have finally finished as I got the last coat on the cabinet doors this afternoon. After DH gets the doors hung back on the cabinets tomorrow, I can start moving my kitchen stuff out of the den and back into the kitchen where it belongs.
I haven't stitched much this week. Emma got a haircut. It wore her out so much that she felt compelled to take her ball to bed for a nap.
LoneStar
