Flew home from Nashville after a great visit with grandson and friends. The hotel in Nashville was wonderful and I would have loved to spend more time there as I would have loved to spend more time in the city exploring and checking out the talent that is sprinkled throughout the city in various venues. Katie and I went out for breakfast and found a perfect little coffee shop that made wonderful coffee and pastries as well as a hot breakfast sandwich. I had the vegetarian with egg whites, spinach and avocado. It was yummy and it lasted me the whole day of travel.
Renovation Update Outside
We jumped right in to more renovation work. The major portion has been on the outside and putting things back together again after Roger had finished digging all the trenches for the new drain pipes. He is so very proud of his work and talks to himself the whole time he is out there. He says it is a game, a great big puzzle, how to dig around the foundation and make the water go away from the house and then put it all back better than it was. The front and side were fairly simple to do but once he got to the back there was a patio in the way.
On the patio was a very large cement foundation for the stairs. Way oversized for the job it needed to do. However, Roger’s little digger was up to the task and he was able to get it out of the ground and into the back of his truck and hauled it away. It was replaced with a new more appropriate sized cement piece.
Once the digging was finished, Roger began the process of putting it back together and he rebuilt the patio better than it ever was including putting in three beautiful granite steps. Did I mention he is a professional granite cutter? Does lovely work. He could hardly wait to go from the back of the house to the front of the house. He finished the trench across the front door and over to the side of the house, filled it back in and adjusted the front step. This week he will rebuild the wall in the front of the house and add some steps there too. We are so close to the finish line with this phase of the project but we love having Roger around so we will have to think of some more projects for him to do. We hope to put a gas fireplace in our “suite” and Roger will cut the granite for it. I know it will be beautiful.
Renovation Update Inside
Inside the house John took up the old tile floor. He rented a little machine from Home Depot and spent a full day ripping out the floor including the one in the hall. My man loves demolition but he has to wait for the next phase now. Once the floor was up we were left with black glue residue. After much consultation we decided to paint the floor just to clean up and seal everything before the new floor goes in. Again, this won’t happen for awhile because we have foam insulation, the rest of the electric wiring, sheet rock walls and mudding to do before the floor can go in. Even a little construction will happen.
On the upstairs projects the two bedrooms are waiting for closets and the balance of the trim to be put in. We hope to get that done this week along with new windows in the rest of the house. The windows are happily sitting in the garage waiting to be installed.
Adventure of the Week
The dogs and I walked the Morris Trail every day this week. It was truly wonderful and we managed to figure out a loop that gave us a 3 1/2 mile hike up and down hill that took us about an hour and a quarter. We met a few folks out there, walked with their new friend Henry and played with Dunkin a couple of days. So, on Saturday, I said to Katie that she and I and the dogs should go for a good long walk. It was a beautiful day, not as windy as it had been so we were excited to get out in the fresh air. We got on the trail and were chatting away when Wyke started barking at something in the woods and then, of course, Bean joined in. I asked Katie what they were barking at and she said “a bear” – WHAT? Sure enough there was a rather large black bear staring them down. He started advancing towards them and Katie and I let out the loudest screams possible “NO” and the bear turned and ran and climbed up a tree. My goodness they are fast. At that point I asked what we ought to do and retreat was the best solution. I called the dogs who came right away and we started running back up the hill. The bear came down the tree and started running, thankfully in the opposite direction. Needless to say we got our heart rates up and it took me about an hour to stop shaking. I got a picture of the bear up the tree but it’s rather hard to see him. Trust me he was a full sized adult bear. I need to get back out there but am a little nervous. I have a whistle and the dogs now have bear bells on their collars but I think it will be awhile before I can relax out there again. My hope is that the bears will hibernate soon.
Snow and a Fire and a Pot Roast
We had our first snow this week and my thoughts started turning to warm comfort foods. Living in South Carolina we seemed to eat like summer all year round. I immediately started thinking about stews and pot roast and hardy soups. So this week’s recipe is Slow Cooker Pot Roast. Simple and delicious and fun to share with friends. This one I created myself and it was delicious.
My Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Ingredients:
3 lb Pot Roast
Olive Oil
2 cloves minced garlic
3 large onion, quartered
6 medium sized potatoes quartered
8 large carrots cut in chunks
6 stalks celery cut in chunks
Better than Bouillon (beef)
Red Wine
Directions:
Put olive oil in a heavy skillet and add the garlic, salt and pepper. When hot, place the pot roast in the skillet and brown it on all sides.
Add a generous spoonful of Better than Bouillon to the skillet and pour in a good amount of red wine scrape the pan and create a gravy.
Put the browned pot roast in the slow cooker. Pour the gravy over the pot roast and add all the vegetables, Put the cooker on for 6 hours.
We had enough for five adults and some left over for another meal for later in the week. It was delicious.
