New Coop Weathervane

When Hurricane Ike came through a few years back it did a number on our stained glass weathervane on the Coop. 

Up 'til now it has either been too cold or too hot or too wet or too windy or I was too lazy to do anything about it.

But food cooked in the Coop just doesn't taste as good when you know something is amiss.

So I loaded up on strong caffeinated coffee this morning and took on the task of replacing the old weathervane with a new brass one Spring Hen gave me for Christmas.

Knowing I could possibly break some flagstone if I should fall I thought it through and made me a type of chicken ladder to get from the bottom of the roof to the top. I included a hook on the upper end to keep it from sliding and installed some speed bumps to slow my slide should I fall.

Then I had to climb up with a sack of tools to remove the old and see what I needed to install the new one.

After a few trips back and forth, I finally got 'er done and survived for another day. Here's some photos.











We won't know for a bit if the food tastes better but the rum and coke I'm drinking tastes wonderful. I'm thinking the second and third one's will too.

I should point out that No Flagstone Was Injured During This Event...

David and Rhonda's Wedding

Judy and I drove to New Orleans to attend the wedding of our nephew, David Ranlett, to Rhonda Ramos.  The night wedding took place in the small town of Mandeville which is across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans.  There was a great turnout of family and friends in spite of a Saints playoff game that night just a few miles away.  It was a nice wedding.

Here they are as Husband and Wife.

We returned home Sunday to await the LSU/Alabama BCS Championship Game also being played in New Orleans. 

It was a fun trip. 

New Year - 2012

First of all, Happy New Year.

Second, we're both happy to see 2011 go.

That being said, we did nothing and went nowhere to ring out the old and in the new.  Well, we did watch the ball drop in NY on TV but three minutes later I was asleep and remained that way until 6:00 AM. 

Meanwhile, I ended the year in a doctor's office.  Yep!  My 'good' knee is really acting up and causing some serious pain.  It may also be causing some back pain that literally puts me down.  The only way I can get relief is to lie flat on the floor for fifteen or twenty minutes.  Of course, the back pain and knee pain could be totally separate from each other. 

The doctor was concerned that I may have a blood clot in my right leg so he made immediate arrangements for me to get a 'doppler scan.'  I won't know officially until tomorrow or Tuesday but unofficially, it's not a clot.  Otherwise I would have been kept at the hospital for treatment. 

The first treatment option will likely be a cortisone injection in my knee.  He's thinking that by taking away the knee pain I will walk normal again which, in turn, will reduce the back pain.  If not, we can tackle the back to see what's causing it.

Anyway, it would appear that I'll be seeing doctors during 2012, just like 2011, 2010, etc. 

Happy New Year

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve here at the Chicken Ranch and all is quiet.  It's a real wintery day with rain and wind and getting colder.  Perfect weather to stay inside until Santa gets here.  At least I think he's stopping here.  I could be wrong.

Meanwhile, the Chicken Coop is sitting idle because of an electrical problem.  It appears that a rat chewed through an electrical wire 'under' the flooring.  I can't remove the flooring to get to it so I'm having to re-wire around it.  But I only got about halfway done before my knees and back gave out.  Plus, we had to go to New Orleans for a wedding shower.  It was a fun trip which we will repeat in three weeks for the wedding.

Then I'll wait for a nice warm sunny day when my bones aren't creaking to tackle the Coop project again.

Maybe there's some football on TV to keep me occupied this weekend.  If not, there's always a book to read, movie to download or a nap to take.

Merry Christmas all...

Thanksgiving 2011

Most Americans have plenty to be thankful for.  So 'Thanksgiving' is truly a day to celebrate.  And that's exactly what we did this year.

Judy's brother, Curtis, and his wife Sandra drove over from Kerrville, Texas. Her sister Joyce, and husband Allen flew over from New Orleans.  Actually, they live in Metairie. 

Needless to say, the kitchen got a workout, as did all four of the Big Green Eggs in The Coop.  The smells in the air was wonderful and all of the food turned out delicious.

We also took advantage of the occasion to celebrate Sandra's 70th birthday.  That meant extra dessert for everyone (who can turn down birthday cake?).  By the end of the day we were all popping but we still had to watch some football to complete the day.

Here are a few photos of the occasion.

Yes, we had a good time.

New Gate

If you have visited us during the past 20 years probably saw the Texas Gate I made to give us some privacy in the back yard. It was 7' tall and weighed in at about 100 pounds not counting the side panels.



Well, time, weather and hurricanes did a number on it so I built a new one from the ground up. I included a few changes. It is also 7' tall and weighs about 100 pounds.



I think it looks pretty nice.

Plano Outlaw Eggfest

This was the third Plano Eggfest and it was well worth the trip.  We had a great time the entire weekend.  And as usual, we met a lot of new friends and tasted some very good treats. 

I took a load of video and photos (plus those of other Eggheads) but with the holidays and my gate project I've had no time to assemble them into a movie.  I promise to work on it.

Now we're all looking forward to Salado on March 17th.

Texarkana Eggfest

Ever since we got into cooking on the Big Green Egg back in 1999, we have met some of the nicest people in cities and towns across North America.  We have formed friendships and bonds that will last the rest of our lives, all because of the Big Green Egg.

We try to attend Eggfests as often as possible.  This is where we Eggheads gather to enjoy cooking and sharing recipes with old friends and new friends as the number of Eggheads grows.

The latest Eggfest was in Texarkana, Texas, on October 1st.  Most of us out-of-towners went up a day or two early and returned home on Sunday.  It's about a five hour drive for us.  The host dealer, Dot's Ace Hardware, went out of their way to make us feel welcome to Texarkana and provided us with Big Green Eggs to cook on. 

There were approximately twenty cooking teams prepared to cook enough food to serve up to 600 local residents who were curious about the Big Green Egg.  Yes, we all worked fast and furious to feed them and eventually we had more food than empty stomachs.  We filled them up with a wide range of delightful dishes just to show them how well the Big Green Egg cooks food.  At least 22 visitors purchased Big Green Eggs and will now begin to have the kind of fun we have when we cook our our Eggs.

As always, we had a lot of fun, met a lot of people and introduced Egg'n to a community that loves good food just like everyone else. 

I put together a little video of some photos I took during breaks.  Enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIdjUXFeOKw

Kitchen Remodel

We've lived in this house for 23 years and have improved upon a lot of things we simply could not afford when we bought the house, or for that matter, for many years afterward.

We did most of the improvements ourselves because it was the only way we could justify the expense and because we enjoyed doing it ourselves.  Of course we had to learn as we went in most instances but even the learning part, mistakes and all, were fun.

The most recent improvement was to get granite countertops.  The old Formica countertops had pretty much seen their day.  So new countertops became the highest priority.  It was expensive but well worth it in the end, especially when we opted to tile the back splash ourselves.  In addition, we installed the plumbing which included a hot water recirculating pump that will probably save us 15,000 or more gallons of water that went down the drain while waiting for it to get hot.  By us doing the plumbing and back splash install ourselves we saved $1,000 in labor costs.  And we think we actually did a better job than what a contractor would do.

Take a look at our latest project.