Andy's New Winter Project

For Andy, wintertime means countless hours in the shop working on the chosen project for the season.  With the wood stove in there, it's often a more comfortable warm out there than in the house!

The project of choice this year started with this '77 Nova taking up a spot in the shop:

It was in really good condition and even started up once the battery was charged!

However, it was purchased to be a parts car, so that's what it was!  Andy, with the help of Forrest, parted it out into a pile of give aways...

 

...and a heap of keepers:

Then, Andy found a buyer for what was left of it, and the '49 GMC was rolled into its spot!

 

Now the real fun begins!

You'll hear more about it in the coming months...

This Year's Carvings

We went to our friend Marc's pumpkin-carving party again this year.  It was a wild time, and we came home with some fun designs!  It was frigidly cold outside, with news of a warm front coming up so we left them in the house for a couple of days.  Unfortunately, they didn't like the warm either and sagged almost instantly (notice my poor tree!)  Anyway, was fun!

 

Weekend Visitor!

The weekend of October 17-18, Andy's mom came to see us.  After our whirlwind month of checking off the To Do list, it was really great to take a breather and spend time with her!  This time of year, Moscow is usually afire with fall colors and we'd planned to go looking for some to capture on camera.  Unfortunately, we had a really early hard frost that killed most of the leaves before they could change.  That made for a lot of brown trees in the city.  However, we were determined to find some color.  So, Saturday morning, we went to the Farmer's Market and then to the U of I arboretum.  Beth and her friend Erika joined us for the photography adventure.

It was a really nice autumn day to be out and about, searching out the brightest colors we could find and seeing what creative photos we could capture of them.

 

 

 

Really not sure what they're looking at here, but I looked over and the way they were lined up and walking made a song pop in my head "goin' on a lion hunt..."

 

When we found colorful backgrounds, we just had to do portrait sessions:

 

 

Trying to prevent another closed eyes picture:

Doing Baloo's dance...or....?!

 

Awww, the beauty...

 

 

Two large ponds in the arboretum create perfect habitat for frogs, turtles, geese, ducks, etc.  Here, Andy is showing his mom how to tell the difference between the domestic and the wild ducks:

We watched them for a good long while, very entertained by their feeding habits!

 

 

Back home, Andy decided to enjoy the beautiful weather in another way - take his mom for spin in the new hot rod...

 

And, what fun they had!

 

 

Margaret had to leave the next morning, but she left a little something to brighten up our dining room. 

 

The whole set is beautifully made, thank you!

Once in a Lifetime

This year I was lucky enough to draw the coveted moose tag for an Idaho resident. I was one of several who put in for just 5 tags that would be handed out this year for this particular area of the state. So I took two weeks of vacation and prepared for what was the greatest hunting trip of my life so far. It turned out to be very rewarding as you will see from the photos. Dad and I took off a day before the season opened to stay up at his lake place on Coeur d'Alene Lake. We headed out at 4:00 am to get up to the hunting area before the sun came up that morning. We hunted all day and didn't see a single moose until about 20 minutes before dark. I ended up calling and grunting with this moose until it was took dark to see him anymore. He was a respectable bull but gave me no chance to shoot. The second day of the season was pretty slow, we ended up seeing a couple of cows but no bulls (my tag allowed for me to shoot only a bull). The third day was the one! We were actually driving a logging road to head back to where we were going to hunt for the day when we came upon a moose along the side of the road. I hoped out of the truck and went sneaking off into the area where he/she ran. After a few minutes, I saw a cow, calf, and spike bull moose down in some thick brush less than 30 yards from where I was standing. I grunted a few times and the larger bull called back and started to come out of the brush. This battle between me and the bull went on for what felt like forever, but I could just hear him, not getting a good, clear look at the bull. Finally after about 20 minutes, the bull stepped out of the brush at about 20 yards for a few seconds, looked at me and then turned to head back to the thick stuff. At that time, I quickly decided he was small but would sure taste good. One clean shot and the bull was on the ground, and I was jumping up and down with excitement that I had just shot my first and only Idaho Shiras Moose. Below you can see me with my prize.
He ended up having a broken paddle on one side that I didn't know about until I got up close to him. With all the excitement and the way he presented himself, it wasn't visible. I was amazed at how large this animal was and had no real idea until I got up right next to him. I estimated his weight at about 700 pounds! Here is a photo showing the size of his hooves. There is no mistaking those tracks for a deer.
Since the bull was shot relatively close to a logging road and we had several hundred feet of large diameter rope, getting the moose into the truck was easier than I ever could have hoped. With the help of some fellow hunters, another truck, a very large tree, lots of conveyor rope, a snatch block and some work, we were able to load the moose into the truck.
The bull took up the entire bed of my full-size pickup with feet sticking out one end and head out the other. Dad and I took the bull back to his place and got it skinned and ready to take to the butcher. At about 9:00 pm that night, I was back home showing it off to Teresa. We now have all the meat processed and frozen and are enjoying the very lean, tasty meat. I had a very fun time hunting for the animal but it almost went by too fast. At least Teresa and I are able to share this with family and friends and be able to eat good meals all year! There was so much meat we had to rent a small locker at our local meat shop since our freezer was not large enough. This is a hunt I will remember for a long time and I hope to have others that are just as fun.

Chores and Projects Galore

 Reality hit when we returned home and summer was gone.  With the yard and garden and a shop to heat, autumn brings lots of work to do.  As if that wasn't enough, we'd both come up with other goals and projects we wanted to do at the same time!  So, we made a little To Do list on the marker board - trying to keep each item to one word.

 First, the pad.  This was the beginning of Andy's big fall project and had to be done before night temps dropped below freezing.  My coworker, Ron, came out with tools and helped Andy prep for and pour the concrete.  Then Andy's good friend, Nick, came out to help with framing.  Andy and I tackled the metal siding together, and Andy did the insulating by himself.

The result: a great little lean-to off the shop for the noisy air compressor!

Next on the list, the fruit.  Once it froze, it all had to be picked and the trees were loaded!  Andy and I picked a number of boxes before taking a few-day break.  Fortunately for us, we had some help to finish it up.  Can you pick out 3 people in the apple tree?

They'd be the fabulous Suzie, Bethers, and Marie!

Daisy, Cleo, and Jersey patrolled the base of the tree:

 The loot!

Andy had gone out twice to chop trees for heating the shop.  It was in heaps of rounds in the backyard and needed to be split and stacked.  We rented the hyrdraulic splitter again this year, and Susan, Andy, and I spent hours splitting the rounds into quarters and stacking them neatly.  It took way longer than last year!

 My personal project of the month was giving the house a little facelift.  The previous owners had a different taste than we do, but it was easier to just live with it while finishing school.  Finally, the time had come for a fresh look!  Susan committed 2 weekends and drove over to help.  Beth joined us the first weekend, and we spent it in the living room.
Before:

 Happy painter!

 Priming and applying the new color:

 

After!

 

 

Two weekends later, Suzie was back and we had a whole painting crew this time to tackle the master bed and bath.

Here's Before (lovely sky blue everywhere):

During:

 And, After!

 

 

Then, we had to put the fruit up.  Beth came out in the evening to join in on that time-consuming task.

 

I must say, I don't know what we'd do without my sisters around.  They're almost too willing to help us stay on top of the chores and projects we signed ourselves up for!  Thanks ya'll :)

So, what about that last item on the list?  Well, Andy got all that stuff packed up and headed north.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story...

Canada - Last days

 September 5th - a beautiful Saturday morning had us looking for a market of some kind to visit.  We found one with a wide variety of vendors and live music from a fellow named Jude who plays acoustic guitar and has a great singing voice to boot.  Nearby shops sold coffee and ice cream, and after walking around, we sat in the shade listening to the music and enjoying our treats.

Once back at the resort, the guys went golfing and Faith and I spent the hours before dinner in the swimming pool and hot tub there.

The next morning was cool and rainy as we headed south for home.  

Andy had decided against buying the old car, so there were no detours going this direction.  Home we went to play catch-up from the time away!