Christmas has come and gone and it turned out to be a pretty good one for us this year. We spent lots of time with family and friends, ate good food, and got good presents. We got lots of good things from lots of people and we really appreciate every gift. I won't name any names but a special shout out to those of you who instead of traditional gifts for us bought things (bees, cow, chickens) from Heifer International for us to go to people in need over seas to help them improve their lives.
In other news, I have started working on building a little storage room inside the shop. We needed some extra storage space so we decided to make a place there. While tearing down the styrofoam stuff off the ceiling that the previous owner had put up, we found some wasp nest. There were always tons of red wasps in there last summer and now I know where their home was. These are the biggest wasp nests I think I have ever seen.
Something interesting has happened since Margo's wreck. We have received approximately six letters so far in the mail from lawyers wanting to help us get the money we deserve. I think this is terrible and feel sorry for anyone who actually buys in to that crap and believes that these lawyers are really just concerned about helping others.
We just wanted to wish everyone who reads our blog a Merry Christmas. Here is the picture that was on our Christmas card this year in case any of you did not get one. We always try to do something funny/creative.
I also thought I would share a Christmas carol with all of you. This is the funniest rendition of O holy night that I have ever heard. Click here to listen to it. Listen to whole thing because it gets funnier as it goes on.
I don't have anything spectacular to talk about just a few minor things.
On the way home the other day, Margo got ran into. An old guy pulled out not seeing her and hit the back passenger side of the CRV. This was Margo's first wreck and the first for the CRV. It did not hurt Margo but the CRV is going to need some work. We are just waiting on the guy's insurance company to get their stuff done so we can get it fixed.
I went back to the doctor for my final follow-up today. He released me and cleared me to go back to my usual routine. So, when I got home I cut some wood for the first time in a month and a half. Speaking of wood, I have more wood for sale now if you know anyone who needs any.
Now, for a random current event. Today they (I am not sure who they are) released the top 10 quotes of 2007. I think number 2 is my favorite. Here is a list:
10."I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history." Former President Jimmy Carter, referring to the Bush administration in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper
9."I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man." Sen. Joseph Biden, referring to rival Democratic presidential candidate Sen. BarackObama
8. "(I have) a wide stance when going to the bathroom." Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig, explaining why his foot touched the foot of an undercover police officer in an airport men's room
7. "I'm not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody who has a 9 percent approval rating." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, referring to Republican Vice President Dick Cheney
6. "There's only three things he (Republican presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani) mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11." Sen. Joseph Biden, speaking during a debate for Democratic presidential candidates
5. "I don't recall." Former U.S. Attorney Alberto Gonzales' repeated response to questions from members of Congress about the firing of U.S. attorneys
4."That's some nappy-headed hos there." Radio personality Don Imus, referring to the Rutgers University women's basketball team
3. "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during a speaking engagement at Columbia University in New York
2."I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us." Lauren Upton, the South Carolina contestant in the Miss Teen America contest, when asked why one-fifth of Americans cannot find the U.S on a map
1. "Don't tase me, bro." Andrew Meyer, a senior at the University of Florida, after being hauled away by campus police during a speech made by Sen. John Kerry
This weekend, Margo and I took a little trip to the amazing town of Mena. For those of you who don't know, I grew up in Mena. I think it is a great little town and I like to go back and visit. I wouldn't mind living there again someday but Margo is not so keen on the idea. One of the main reasons we love to go visit is to see some good friends of ours, Steve and Kathy. They are the parents to our good friends Annie and Molly who I have talked about before on this blog. They are the ones who are doing missions work along with their husbands. Their family has been one of the greatest influences on me personally and a big influence on us as a couple. Going and staying with them is one of our favorite things to do because their house is so fun, relaxing, and loving. Walt, Annie, Dylan, and Molly are all moving overseas in January so this was our last time to hang out with all of them, along with Steve and Kathy. As an added bonus, their cousin Tim and his wife Candice came down from NWA as well to hang out. It was such a fun weekend of hanging out, playing games, watching movies, etc. One of the many things we did while there was spend some quality time in the hot tub. It was very fun and crazy because it was like 30 degrees outside while we were in it. Here is a pic of Dylan, me, and Tim posing for a picture in our swim gear. Just to clarify a few things about the pic, no Dylan is not in his underwear, he wears a speedo for a swimsuit, I am not that skinny, I am sucking in my belly, and Tim is not nerdy like he is dressed.
Here is us hanging out in the hot tub.
I also wanted to show you a pic of one of my projects last week. Steve restores and collects old gasoline pumps. So, I patterned a bird feeder after one and built it for him for Christmas.
This is the pump I patterned my feeder after.
Here is the finished product. It turned out pretty good I thought.
Another side note about the trip.... We went to church this morning with everyone and when we walked in I saw a very nice lady who used to be a secretary at the Middle School in Mena. She gave me a hug and then asked how my hand was doing. I was puzzled by this because the only time I see her and talk to her is when I go to their church down in Mena. I asked her how she knew I had surgery a few weeks ago. Well, I was surprised out that she reads my blog, I had no idea. It just goes to show that you never know who is going to read what you write online and I better be careful about what I say. I think it would be very interesting to find out who all is reading my blog.
I have been growing my hair out for a little while. When my hair gets longer it gets a little wavy/curly. It gets really curly if it is really humid or if it gets rained on or re-wet. Last night I was out working while it was lightly raining and after I came back in the house and it dried it was really curly. I had a little fro going so I thought I would take a pic.
Here is an updated picture of my hand. It has been a little over a month since I had surgery and a few weeks since I had my stitches removed.
No I don't mean Margo, she is still a new bag. As you all know I am a big fan of sustainability, environmental friendly, supporting local business, etc. I am also a fan of Wal-Mart which may seem a little contradictory so let me explain, for us Wal-Mart is local (home office in Bentonville) and they have started doing a lot to be more sustainable and environmentally responsible. It is a big deal because as the biggest company in the world they will have a far reaching effect on all the businesses that support them, supply them, had have merchandise in the stores. For more info on what Wal-Mart is doing click here. That is not what this blog is about but I figured I should clarify the possible contradiction. What I really wanted to tell you about was a new thing Wal-Mart is doing to help cut waste. They have developed re-usable grocery bags. The normal plastic bags are a huge contributor to landfills and a big time non-sustainable waste product. Wal-Mart has started stocking these re-usable bags (they are now in NWA) and they only cost $1 each but can be re-used over and over. They are made of recycled material and can be recycled themselves if they ever wear out. They also hold over twice as much as a regular plastic bag so you don't need nearly as many (we bought 4 and they held all our groceries that usually take around 10 plastic bags). They get the MSA (Margo Seal of Approval) because she really liked them after using them. A couple reasons she liked them was because they are square shaped so they sit in the back of the car better and don't roll and move all around while you are driving and they are easier to carry. They don't have to be used just for getting groceries, they have tons of uses like carrying clothes to change into if you are going swimming, carrying your kids supplies if you are going to a play date, taking your lunch to work, or lots of other things. That is cheap for a tote bag- $1. I hope that all of you will consider getting and using these re-usable bags when you go to Wal-Mart, you could even take them to other grocery stores besides Wal-Mart if you prefer, I am sure they won't mind.
Look how fashionable they are. They even make wearing christmas themed flannel pajama bottoms look good.
While Margo was gone the other night (she was at a livestock conference in Missouri), the dogs woke me up barking at about 5:30am. This happens semi often because there are lots of varmints and things that come around that the dogs bark at and chase off. Usually it is a feral cat that is trying to steal some cat food or is trying to sleep in the barn. Most of the time I just ignore the dogs and they eventually run off whatever it is and quit barking. Well, this particular time they just kept barking and barking and would not stop and I could not go back to sleep. So I decided to get up and go tell them to shut-up. When I got up, I realized the dogs were over by the chicken coop and not down by the barn like I expected. This concerned me because some of our local varmints like to eat chickens. So, I grabbed the closest gun (4-10) and slipped on my flip-flops and ran out the door. As soon as I stepped outside (in the 30 degree air with only shorts and flip flops on) I smelled a very distinctive smell (I'm sure you can guess). So, I ran over to the chicken coop and shined my light inside but did not see any striped beast. I then started searching the woods around the chicken coop and I spotted it. It had it's tail up ready to defend itself (it had already got the dogs really good) But before it could, I shot it. Dead. I think skunks are pretty cool animals over all, especially their fur markings. But since they will kill chickens if they get hungry enough, (I am sure this one was just eating the chicken feed) I had to do it. Here is a pic of my early morning wake-up call.
For any of you who are still looking for good Christmas presents to get people, I have some ideas for you...
Consider purchasing fair trade products. For those of you who are not familiar withFair Tradehere is a quick description...
Fair trade is an organized social movementand market-based model of international tradewhich promotes the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production ofa wide variety of goods. The movement focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts and agricultural products.Fair trade's strategic intent is to deliberately work with marginalized producers and workers in order to help them move from a position of vulnerability to security and economic self-sufficiency.
There are several websites devoted to selling these products. Some of our good friends Dylan and Mollyhave a company that sells some products from India online. It is calledAsha Importsand they have products that are made by poor people in India to enable them get out of the slums and out of the sex trade. Their products are really cool. You should also check out all the free trade product websites below and consider buying some of their products for your friends and family this Christmas.By purchasing fair trade products, your helping to free more and more people from impoverished circumstances. www.ashaimports.com
Another great thing you can do this Christmas is to give to World Vision or Heifer International. You can go on their website and buy practical things for impoverished individuals in other countries. Things like livestock, clothing, medical kits, etc. You can even buy a goat for an impoverished family, in honor of the Farm of Hale. For any of you wanting to get Margo or I a gift, this would mean more to us than anything else. Why not consider giving to those in need this year for Christmas.
This past weekend Margo and I bought our Christmas present. The reason we bought it so early is because it was on sale this past week. We bought a foodsaver vacuum sealer. It is pretty awesome, it helps prolong the life of food for a lot longer. For instance, beef in a normal freezer container stays good for about 6 months, with the foodsaver it is 2-3 years. One bonus we got with it was a canister set that you can vacuum seal, so we can put chips, coffee, or other like things in them and it keeps them good a lot longer, like 3 times as long. It will really come in handy when we freeze our fresh produce from the garden or if we butcher animals. Here is a pic of Margo displaying some of our vacuum handywork tonight. No we did not vacuum seal our own poop, is is actually some leftover refried beans we made tonight from leftover pinto beans we made the other day.
I mentioned a few posts ago that I would feature one of my vacation purchases in an upcoming blog entry. Well here it is.
We got it in Lancaster county, at this little Amish shopping village. There was a sign shop that would make customized signs. So, if you come to see us, this will greet you at the end of the driveway.
Yesterday, I went back to the doctor for follow-up from my surgery. They took off the big bandage, took out the stitches, and put some steri-strips on. The stitches kind of hurt coming out. I have to take it easy with using that hand for another month but at least I can use it some and get it wet and stuff. It is still sore and a little bruised and swollen. Here is a pic of it now, the reason the incision is purple is because they marked where they were going to cut with a marker.
I got some good gifts for my birthday yesterday. One of them I wanted to highlight on here because it is really awesome. It is a Star Wars pop-up book that my friend Rebecca gave me. It is called Star Wars - A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy. I know some of you may think it sounds stupid but even if you don't like Star Wars, the pop-ups are amazing, they are very intricate and detailed. The last page even has Luke and Darth Vader pop-ups that are holding light sabers that actually light up. It is so awesome (have I mentioned it is awesome).
And finally here is a political video for all of you. For those of you who don't know I am a fan of Huckabee, I will probably devote an entire post to him at some point but I thought I would go ahead and post this, his first political TV ad.
Yesterday was the final day of our vacation. My sister drove us around Lancaster County in Pennsylvania, which is where all the Amish live. It is really awesome because there are lots of really nice Amish farms. We saw some buggies going down the road. They even have buggy parking at the Wal-Mart there. We went to this touristy place where they have lots of little shops where they sell Amish goods. It was pretty cool, we bought a few things, one of them I will post about in the next few days. We stopped at some other Amish furniture stores and other stores along the way and found some stuff we really liked but could not buy because it would not fit in our suitcases. Back at my sister's that night, her husband Philippe made crepes for dinner, it was so good and a good finish to our week.
We had a really good time in Pennsylvania with my sister and her family, it was lots of fun and lots of good food. We are back home now after leaving at 5am this morning and flying to Nashville and then driving 8 hours home. It is nice to be home. We had a great vacation both in Nashville and Pennsylvania.
Yesterday was one of the best days of our vacation in my opinion. We just relaxed at my sisters house for the morning since it was raining outside. For lunch we drove to a nearby town called Phoenixville. It was a lovely town with a great old downtown area with little shops and restaurants. I could totally live there. We ate at a little Irish Pub for lunch and the food was amazing. After lunch we drove around a little, this part of the suburbs of Philadelphia is really nice with lots of huge old houses and farms, there is like no bad or ugly houses. It makes for a great drive. Our drive took us to Valley Forge Park which was the winter encampment of George Washington during the Revolutionary War. There was a small welcome center with a museum that had lots of tools, weapons, and other things from that period. They also had a short video about Washington's stay there. Then we went on a driving tour (it is a huge park, approx 3500 acres) of the park and it had stops along the way to show you significant things. It was a really nice park and the leaves are still changing here so it was beautiful. We had a great time and a great day.
First Bank of the United States Carpenters Hall - This is where the First Continental Congress wrote the Declaration of Rights and Grievances and was a hospital and arsenal for American Forces during the Revolutionary War.
Franklin Court- place where Ben Franklin's House was and there is a museum dedicated to him, an old printing press like he used to use, and the post office he ran when he was postmaster general. Christ Church- First Anglican church in the U.S. and place where the American Episcopal Church was born. It is where Ben Franklin, Betsy Ross, and George Washington among others went to church. Christ Church Cemetery- lots of signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried here including Ben Franklin Declaration House- Place where Thomas Jefferson lived when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. U.S. Mint - where coins are made National Constitution Center- Museum about the Constitution and how it affected the U.S. from past to present. There is also a room with life size sculptures of the signers of the Constitution. Betsy Ross House- Betsy Ross created the first flag and this is where she lived
Overall, it was a fun and interesting day. This part of the city was a little odd because all these major historic places where right in the middle of the city with huge buildings all around. The most interesting thing was learning more about Ben Franklin. He did amazing things and was a genius. I couldn't believe all things he did and invented. I really liked the epitaph he wrote for himself when he was 14- The Body of B. Franklin. Printer. Like the Cover of an old Book. Its Contents torn out And Stript of its Lettering & Gilding Lies here. Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be lost. For it will as he believ'd appear once more In a new and more elegant Edition Corrected and improved By the Author.
I am not sure what is on the agenda for today, you will just have to wait and see.
The second and final leg of our trip is in Philadelphia. My sister and her family recently moved here. We have never been here before and I was excited to come because I really like history. We got here yesterday and are flying out on Saturday. Yesterday we just relaxed at the house and played with the kids. We had to get up at like 5:15am to catch our flight so we were kind of tired. One of the good things about visiting my sister is that her husband (Philippe) is French so they make lots of good French food. Last night we had lamb which I love but we also had good wine and a large selection of cheeses. It was very good. Here is a pic of the plate 'o cheese.
Today we went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was a very large museum and had lots of good exhibits. They also had a special Renoir exhibit that was extra good. The best thing about this museum though is this is where Rocky runs up the stairs and pumps his hands in the air. There is also a statue of Rocky outside the museum. I love Rocky.
After the museum we went down to Reading Terminal Market which was started in 1892. It was fun to walk around and see all the vendors and we ate lunch there - Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches of course. After that we walked to a building we had seen while driving. It is actually city hall. It is a really cool old building that looks like it got brought over from Europe and dropped in the middle of the city. That was all for today, tomorrow will be a big day of sightseeing so stay tuned and don't forget to check out the rest of the pictures.
We are officially on vacation. We are going to be gone for like 10 days. We told people we were going to Nashville, Tennessee and Philadelphia but we actually are in Greece right now, surprise. Here is a picture of us at the Parthenon. Just kidding. This actually a full size replica of the Parthenon that they have in Nashville. We got to Nashville on Friday evening, we are staying with our friends Ben and Erika. On Friday night, we got to go see Ben's band Heypenny play a show. It was really good and fun, I highly recommend checking him out and buying a CD. On Saturday, we watched the Razorbacks suck at a really cool sports bar in town (as a side note, I hope Houston gets fired soon). On Saturday night we went down to the main street in Nashville and walked around and ate dinner. Then we went to one of the many honky tonks. It was a lot of fun and one of the most white places I have ever been. Here are the honky tonks This is inside This is Margo and I honky tonkin like crazy, notice the boots in the background, the is the first place I have seen that uses cowboy boots for decoration. Today, we went on a hike which was nice because the weather was good and the leaves were still changing. Then Margo and I went to the Country Music Hall of Fame. I don't really like very much country music except older stuff but it was fun and interesting. We also walked around downtown some and saw the sites (including the Ryman Auditorium). Tomorrow, we fly out to Philadelphia for the rest of the week. As always, you can check out other pictures from the trip by clicking on the link on the right or click here. I will leave you with one more pic of Margo and I and Nashville in the background.
I had surgery today. I had a ganglion cyst removed from the base of my left ring finger. It was not too big of a deal, but my wedding ring irritated it and using tools like shovels, rake, and splitting maul made it swell and hurt also so I decided to have it taken out. Here is how it went down...They gave me some sedation medication to put me to sleep briefly, then made an incision and cut it out, then stitched it up, put a bandage on and woke me up. It was a pretty quick procedure and I was not too loopy afterwards. I have to keep the bandage on for a week and then I get my stitches out, but it takes about a month to totally heal. I will try to put up another picture when I get the stitches out. By the way, it is very difficult to type with one hand.
Be sure and stay tuned to the blog for the next 9 days or so because we are leaving on vacation tomorrow and I will try to do daily updates of what we are doing.
Margo was out of town for most of the past week at a conference. It was just me at home doing what I want to do. So, you may ask, what did I do with all my freedom and time to do what I want to do with no one to answer to. Well, I built a hay feeder for our animals. We needed something to put our hay in (we use square bales) to keep the hay covered from rain and also keep the animals from wasting it by laying on it or pooping on it. I found a few feeders online for sale so I used the pictures of those to design and build my own. It turned out pretty good I think. Maybe if this nursing thing doesn't work out, I could be a designer of farm equipment.
It is also on skids so we can pull it around with the truck to move it where we want it.
You put the hay in the V that the wire panels make and the loose stuff falls down into the trough below, so the animals can eat the hay in the V and the loose stuff that falls into the trough.
As you can tell from the title, this is going to be an interesting post (it might be kind of long also). So, this weekend Margo and I took a little weekend getaway to Mountain View, Arkansas, also known as the Folk Capital of the world. There are a few reasons why we wanted to go there. First of all we wanted to go check out the Ozark Folk Center. This place is run by the State Parks and basically is a place you can go to see how things were done in the good old days. Things like soap making, blacksmithing, wood carving, etc. I really like to learn about these kinds of things and try to do those types of things as much as I can. Here is a picture of a ride that they used to have at carnivals back in the day, it is a swing ride that is powered by a donkey walking around in circles.
Overall, the Folk Center was alright but I had hoped it was going to be a lot better. One highlight was they had a guy demonstrating tomahawk throwing and he would "teach" you how to throw and let you try it out. This guy was alright at teaching people to throw but he was not very good at throwing himself. As many of you know, I bought a tomahawk a while back and have practiced throwing it a little at home (I did not tell him that though). Anyway, I went up and threw the tomahawks (I think there were 5 or 6) and got all of them to stick in the target. I was pretty proud of myself, and I'm sure the other spectators were amazed.
The next amazing attraction on our trip was the 25th Annual Beanfest and Outhouse Races. Basically, they have a pinto bean cook off, modified outhouse races, lots of people around the square playing bluegrass/folk music, and arts and crafts. We did not realize how big of a deal this whole thing was. By my guesstamation there were at least 10,000 people there and there were like 20-30 teams in the bean cook off. They cooked them in huge iron pots and then all the festival goers got to eat the beans for free. The beans were really good. It was also fun to see the races and listen to bluegrass music. I think the town secretly harnesses all the gas everyone is making from eating beans and use it to power the city for the rest of the year.
Here is J.Lo, I mean Margo enjoying some beans in her martian glasses
Next stop on the folk tour was a celebrity concert. That's right celebrity, at least to me they are celebrities. It was the bluegrass group the Dillard's. For those of you not familiar with them (I doubt any of you are) they are better known as the Darlings (TV name) that were on the Andy Griffith Show. As many of you may know, I love the Andy Griffith show, it is one of my favorite TV shows. I even have a lot of the seasons on DVD. If you are familiar with the show the Dillard's are actually the 4 sons who don't ever say anything. Anyway, the show was really good, they played a really good show. They also told lots of stories about the Andy Griffith show and even answered questions from the audience about it. It was very interesting, if anyone wants to know more, just ask. This was definitely the best part of the trip. My ultimate dream would be to live in the Andy Griffith Show.
Overall, it was a really fun trip. I really enjoy old timey stuff. Margo and I seemed really out of place though because 98% of the people at all these places were over 60 years old. People told us several times during the weekend, "I think it's great when young people are interested in these things".
As many of you know, I love youtube. I love watching videos and seeing all the amazing, crazy, and funny stuff people come up with. Well, I have come across a few particularly great ones that I thought I would share. A couple of these some friends sent to me or had on their blogs.
This one is just amazing. It keeps blowing my mind what people are able to come up with and do.
This video is from SNL from their series of Digital Shorts. This is one thing I love about America, freedom of speech, which means we can make fun of world leaders.
And this one is amazing and one of the funniest things I have seen on youtube. I have not laughed this hard in a long time. I recommend checking out his other songs as well. This one is "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns N' Roses. If you don't know this song he does many others that I am sure you would know. And yes it is real, be sure to watch the whole video because it is amazing.
Tonight we had an amazing meal. I have been wanting to do it for a while and finally got around to it today. First Margo and I took a short walk to our pond and caught some catfish. We used cheese for bait and caught them pretty quickly. The catfish in our pond are pretty good size, one that I had hooked and was reeling in broke my line. Anyway we (I) caught 3 good sized ones. I then filleted them, something I have not done very much, but I got the hang of it after I butchered the first one. They made some really good sized fillets. Then we cooked them, this is why I had been wanting to cook some fresh fish for so long. A doctor I work with had given me a recipe for cooking fish that he uses and it sounded really good so I had really been wanting to try it out. And let me tell you, it was amazing. It was some of the best fish I have ever had. We cooked up some corn and french fries to go with the fish and ate outside around a fire in our fire pit, it was a great evening.
Here is the biggest catfish I caught (almost as big as my huge muscles, do you have your ticket to the gun show)
Here is one of the fillets
Here it is cooking
Here is Margo enjoying
Now that your mouth is watering I guess I will give you the recipe, it is actually pretty easy and we bought all the ingredients at the greatest place on earth: Wal-Mart. We dipped the fish in beer batter and then coated them with blackened seasoning. To cook them we put some olive oil in an iron skillet and put it on the grill, closed the lid, and got it real hot. Then we put the fish in the skillet and cooked it for 3 minutes on each side with the grill lid closed. I highly recommend trying it.
As I am sure most of you know, it has been getting pretty chilly at night around here. It won't be long until real cold weather is here. And you know what that means. We get to start having fires in the wood stove. So, tonight Margo and I prepared the wood stove for the winter. Basically this entails detaching the stove pipe from the wood stove and me getting on the roof and shoving a large round wire brush-like thing down the stovepipe to clean all of the creosote out so that it does not build up and then catch the house on fire. While I am doing this, Margo is in the house holding a bag under the pipe to catch all the falling particles. It is not very hard to do. Now we are ready to have a fire whenever it gets cold enough. It is so nice to sit inside and watch the fire crackle while it is cold outside, there is something soothing about it. And we can make smores every night, inside.
I also have an update on the wood for sale. I started with 10 ricks and have sold 9!!! I stacked 4 new ones so I currently have 5 ricks for sale. It looks like the money we make from the wood is going to be enough to pay for our vacation in November.
The wood I have been cutting recently I have been stacking into ricks (which is 8 feet long, by 4 foot tall). I have already cut what we need for this year so what I have been cutting and stacking recently I am going to sale and try to make a little money. I am charging $35 a rick, which is cheaper than anyone else I have seen, but I don't deliver. So, if you know anyone who needs wood, send them my way.
We had a three day weekend because of Columbus Day (In 1492...). So, we got together with a couple of our friends, Adam and Sarah, and went camping at the Buffalo River. I had not been camping since I was like 12. We drove over there Sunday night and set up our tent at Lost Valley campground. We then went back to where we had seen some elk earlier while driving. When we got there, there were tons of people parked along the rode watching the elk because they were really close to the road. We took a ton of pictures and watched them for a long time. And we were extra lucky because the bull elk were bugling. We then went back to the camp and settled in for the night, I did not get much sleep though because the ground was very hard and uncomfortable (and Adam snored all night). The next morning we drove to Jasper to eat breakfast at the Ozark Cafe which is an amazing restaurant, I highly recommend it. Next, we went down to Steel Creek and walked along the Buffalo a little and then back to camp and back up the tent. Then we hiked the Lost Valley Trail and explored the cave at the end of the trail. When we got to the cave it started to rain and was still raining when we got out so we had to walk all the way back to the car in the rain, we got soaked. Overall, it was a very nice little trip and lots of fun. Here are a few pics, but you should also check all of them out at our Picasa sight by clicking here.
