Our Grandson's Christmas Stocking

One of the traditions in our family is that I hand stitch a Christmas stocking for each new member of the family.  I have been working on our grandson's stocking since we found out our daughter was expecting.  I got his done just in time for Christmas!  

It's so much fun to see him enjoying it!

Christmas Fun In Wyoming (December 2020)

Our youngest daughter and her boyfriend moved into their new home in Wyoming a couple of months ago, and we are super excited to be heading up their for Christmas.  Of course, since we're in the middle of a pandemic, we are all being super careful to ensure that we are all Covid free before combining our households.  Even the dog is being careful!

We had a few things on our agenda while we are here, but most importantly we just wanted to have some quality time with these two wonderful kids.  We wanted to just live life and enjoy every moment with them.

Drying some apples on her new dehydrator.

Morning coffee.

Just relaxing.

This is life on the ranch in Wyoming, and these are the moments that make life fun!

Starting the Landscape (December 2020)

We've been holding off on our front yard landscaping because we needed the dirt from the swimming pool to do some contouring.  A few weeks ago we rented a large bobcat to move the dirt.  Now it is time to start placing boulders.  

We can carry 3 large boulders at a time in our truck, then we use the RZR to pull them out and place them where we want them.

I told Steve that this part of the landscape project could get expensive because I am having way too much fun!  

We ended up placing 21 boulders in our front yard before we were done. 

Now we are going to place the landscape on hold for awhile because we get to spend some long overdue time with our youngest daughter and her boyfriend in Wyoming.  We can't wait!

Two Front Teeth for Christmas (December 2020)

 All he wanted for Christmas were his two front teeth, and he got them just in time!

The Hat

Our grandson wearing the same hat that his Grampy Steve and great uncle both wore many years ago.  I can't believe that Steve's mom held on to this for all of these years.

Successful Hunters (December 2020)

 Our youngest daughter and her boyfriend are great hunters, and except for store bought chicken now and then, eat only wild game.  They had a very successful deer and antelope season.

With the Covid -19 pandemic still raging, they are finding it hard to get their meat processed this year.  Many of the commercial meat packing plants have had to shut down, which is putting a strain on all of the small mom and pop processors to carry the load.  Luckily the kids have a good connection and are still able to get their game meat processed.

Fireplace Wall (December 2020)

Our final big indoor project, and the one we have been working up to with our tile trials is a fireplace feature wall.  Our family room has a 12 foot high, big blank wall that we want to add some interest to.

We started out by building the front piece of the feature wall, with a cutout for an electric fireplace and another for a TV mount.  We built it in place to avoid any problems getting it into the room.

Once we had the front wall done, we started framing the bump out portion directly on the wall.  Otherwise, there won't be enough ceiling clearance to stand it up.

Once we stood the front piece up, we secured it with ratchet straps to hold it in place until we could get it screwed into the back piece.

Next came the drywall.

We used large format porcelain tile.  Each piece was 2' x 4'.  We laid all of the porcelain tile out in the garage to ensure that we had a pattern that we liked before we started putting it up on the wall.

We used a premixed mortar that was recommended to us by an associate at Floor and Decor, and used a leveling system to ensure that each tile laid perfectly flat.  We painted the nook where the TV mount would go black to make it "disappear" once the TV is in place.

Once we allowed time for the mortar to set up, we broke out all of the levelers and cleaned up the seams for the grout.

We still need to install the TV, but our feature wall is complete.  

This project was a lot of fun, except for the top 4 feet or so.  Getting the 2' x 4' tiles up that high was a bit daunting to say the least, but we did it and are very proud of the finished product.