Bonfire Day

Being of English/Irish extraction, I grew up with a passing familiarity with Guy Fawkes Day, as celebrated in the UK (at least how it was described to me by my father).  Living in the country now, we can have a bonfire wherever there is no burn ban in effect.  This is handy, especially since we are heating with wood this winter, and have a fair bit of scrap from the trees we've been cutting.

So last week we began to pile up the burnables, in order to have our Nov. 5th bonfire, though we won't have a dummy to burn in effigy (too much hassle, and far too many politicians to choose from!)  I might even wrap a couple potatoes in foil to cook 'em in the coals.

Just Snoozin'

Our sweet old boy, Bullet, snoozing on the leather couch.

Gettin' His Mad On...

Somebody didn't have a good week at work--too many trips 2 hrs west because of orders... in a work van with bad tires and crapped out suspension.   Tends to make the hips unhappy.

So DH decided to go for a PR on squats last night.  Here he is coming up out of the hole with 365# on his back!

Work day

Since we installed our fireplace insert this past spring, I have been eagerly awaiting the turn of the weather, aka Winter Is Coming.  Finally, this week has seen chill mornings for NTX, and it has been nice to learn to use the insert.

The insert is an older model, think non-freestanding wood burning stove...that fits into your existing fireplace and seals it off.  It came with a rather large, and clunky looking blower, to move cold air around the fire box, heating it, and blowing it back into the room.  Blessedly, it is VERY quiet, yet puts out a fair bit of air.

Having subscribed to a couple wood burning forums, I did pick up a cool tip on how to keep the insert glass clean.  If it gets smoked up/creosoted, you take a damp paper towel, dip it in cold ashes, and wipe the crud off the cold glass.  Don't do it to warm/hot glass though.  But it works like a charm!  And is essentially free.  I like free.

Since we split so much of our firewood sized for the old fireplace, which was huge, we need to re-cut a goodly amount of our existing woodpile to fit the insert.  Today, as it was only a sunny calm 69degrees out, I decided to break out the chain saw and hydraulic splitter and get some work done.

A small pile pulled from the cord and re-cut.

Cut logs, not really worth splitting.

Stacking work for the Monkeys.  I'm sure they will be thrilled! NOT!

After around 2 hours, I had the above cut, and split.  It did take awhile for the splitter to start up, but once it caught, it ran fine.  I suppose it would be helpful to download an operations manual for the thing, right?

Sunrise, Sunset....

Sunrise, sunset,

Sunrise, sunset. 

Swiftly fly the years, 

One season following another, 

Laden with happiness, 

And tears.

Full moon and fire

Small watercraft advisory

There is a small flat bottomed boat up here, that gets used sometimes to go out on the pond to fish from.  This year the paddle was broken, and the pfd is floating somewhere in the pond, growing moss I believe.

DH and I picked up a new paddle at Cabela's and we tested the waters, so to speak.  This of course inspired two Monkeys to beg for their own chance to paddle the pond!  They all swim well, and are not allowed tip boat without direct supervision, so we were not too worried.

Just a bit nervous!

Initially Monkey3 got in and was too scared to do much. So her big brother, who had one paddle Texoma at Cub Scouts camp had to take his turn.  He did rather well, and this convinced his sister to go again, overcoming her great and successfully navigating the pond near shore.

Like an old pro!

Second time's the charm.

Let's go fishing!