Monday, October 26, 2009

Water, ice and the cows come home

The next weekend, Gerald uninstalled a row of cabinets so he could lay more tile to accommodate an expanded kitchen.











When J.C. arrived on Saturday, he and Gerald moved the refrigerator in place and hooked up the water lines. Before long we had filtered water and a working ice maker!










Then, Gerald went to work sheeting the master closet so we could begin installing the built-in cabinets as early as the following week.











The other big news was the return of the cows. First, we saw, er, signs, of them all over the roads and even on our driveway. We finally saw a small knot of a half-dozen or so cows as we were on the way into Yarnell for dinner Friday night. This mother and calf were near the ranch entrance on Saturday.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Ranching and Mining Days

The following weekend, we attended our second Ranching and Mining Festival, which is a fundraiser for the Peeples Valley-Yarnell Historical Society. The main component is the music, with something like 30 bluegrass, cowboy and folk bands performing.

This was the main stage.






One of the best things there was campfire cooking demonstration. This dish is called ox eyes. It's eggs cooked in a red-chili beef. We didn't get the ox eyes, but we did try the red chili and cornbread for lunch. It was good.









We had volunteered to help, and our assignment was the silent auction, which featured a number of really nice items.











It made for a long day, but it wasn't bad duty. For most of the day, we got to sit and watch the entertainment on the indoor stage.











The Lynx Creek cloggers were a crowd favorite. While they were dancing, it was standing room only.

Odds and Ends

When we next returned to the land, we brought a prototype of the countertop Gerald had been working on. We both thought it had just the right look.










Meanwhile, Gerald did the remaining work the inspector required on the fireplace upstairs.












Then built and installed the surround for the refrigerator. Once we got it in place, it looked monstrous in our little kitchen space.

We decided that in order to make it look proportional, we'd need to expand the kitchen outward a couple of feet.







On Saturday, we took the day off to entertain our friends Sharon and Jimmy.












They stayed just long enough to enjoy a beautiful sunset with us before going home.