Sunday, November 25, 2012

Hunting Success


Yesterday afternoon we decided at the last possible minute to take the boys hunting.  We grabbed a couple of things, threw them in the pickup and headed up to the lease.  Isaac, Silas and I sat in a blind together and Caleb, Elias and Jude were together in another one.  For some reason the timer on our feeder never went off and I'm guessing the game knew that it didn't work because we saw NOTHING from our blind.  So basically I sat through 2 hours of Isaac and Silas "silent" fighting.  You might not think that is possible but they managed to do it.  Right at dusk we heard a gun shot though so we knew the other blind was seeing animals.  Caleb sent a text that Elias had one down. In fact he sent several texts saying the deer were really moving and to be quiet and still to see them.  I guess the deer could sense the tension in our blind from the boys and steered clear! By the time we were all back together the deer was strung up and ready to be cleaned so the pix I took are kind of gross.  Consider yourself warned. When they had the deer skinned and mostly gutted Jude said "when we get home, I don't think I'm going to be hungry, I think I'm going to throw up".  Then 15 minutes later when we were at Buc-ee's he grabbed a giant package of jerky to eat on the way home. Maybe he doesn't quite understand the FULL circle of life.  He just understands the semi circle of life (or as he calls it, sunny circle).

Friday, November 16, 2012

Project - Faux Mantel

It's taken me a while to get to posting this project. I was waiting for my Brother in Law to bring me some birch logs from Idaho. I really wanted birch for the wood box and Houston just couldn't supply that for me (Thanks Gabe for slipping them in your suitcase!).  It has driven me crazy for the last 3 years that we've lived here that our house doesn't have a mantel.  This is South Texas so I clearly don't NEED a fireplace but when it's time to hang our stockings for Christmas I had no place to put them. As I was searching for bed plans for the boys' room I came across plans for the faux mantel.  I loved it right away.  Just behind me is our grand piano which has hogged the attention in this room.  Having the mantel on the opposite wall really anchors that side of the room.
You might wonder if I wish there was an actual gas or electric fireplace in the hole... Not really.  I looked into some wall mount electric fireplaces and found a couple that would fit the space but they have bad reviews and are not pretty. So for now I'm happy keeping it faux.
Once we made the cuts this project went together so fast with our finish nailer and a few screws. Caleb cut the base molding out so I could mount the mantel flush with the wall. I painted it with the same paint as the trim and caulked around the edges.  It looks like it was always there. 
In a week I will get to put it to the true stocking test. I'm pretty excited about that!!