Work Release Day 1

I've decided that I'd share with the world how productive I can sometimes be. It doesn't happen often, just whenever I take time off work. I extended our long weekend through the end of the week and have a list a mile long of things I would love to accomplish. I know I won’t get to all of them, but my goal is to do as many as possible. I’ll update you when I can, hopefully daily, as to my progress.

Monday, “Vacation Day”
Leveled and plumbed up new garden gates
Poured cement around posts of said gates
Broke out the chainsaw to cut down some brush behind the garden
Put up Tiki-Torches on the deck (Love those things)

Tuesday, Work Release Day 1
Put up the actual doors on the new gates (Pics to follow)
Cut down a tree
Mowed the lawn
Trimmed the lawn
Took the string trimmer to the grass in the soon to be flower garden
Trimmed all the grass around both gardens
Went to Sandpoint for groceries
Went to Sandpoint again to pick up cookie dough from a soccer fundraiser
Made muffins for Mike so he would take Andrew to school for me this week

P.S. This would have been out sooner, but Blogger wasn't nice to me yesterday.

Oriental Dressing

Just because someone asked for it. You could probably substitute the mayonnaise for vegetable oil, but you will have to whisk that in slowly at the end. Curious to know if that works. Enjoy.

6 tbls Honey
3 tbls Rice Wine Vinegar
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
2 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp sesame oil

Combine all ingredients into a bowl and whisk to combine.

Servings: 1 cup

Time: 5 minutes

Like a Ton of Bricks...

... or maybe 3 or 4. I lost count. Let's just say it's a lot.
I've had a dream of building a wood fired brick oven to cook breads and pizza in for the longest time, ok, 3 or 4 years, but still, a while. I've had my eye out for free used ones for quite some time. The first one's I found someone that I work with buried. The next ones I saw were coming off an old building. I saw them in the morning, but by the time I went home the whole lot had been hauled off. I had given up hope.
Last week I told my wife to go pick up some down at Grandpa's for her garden. He's had them laying around since the '60's, but I didn't think he had near enough to do my oven. Well, a few trips later and my wife had stacked up over 700 of the little guys. Not quite enough for the oven, but still a good showing. She told me I couldn't touch them.
Then a couple of days later the bro ran across an add in our local classified paper for 4000 of them for $.20 a piece. I really wanted them free, but for a few hundred bucks I could get my 2000 that I think I need for the project. We called back and ended up getting them for $.10. Now that I can handle.
Well, Mike wanted some too for his nifty new front yard, so we rounded up the truck and trailer and proceeded to go pick up bricks. I never knew how much 3600 bricks could weigh. I can tell you that my back is killing me and my left butt cheek is still killing me from bending over and picking these little dudes up. By 9:30 Saturday night Mike had two little piles at his house and I had my 2000'ish bricks nicely stacked in one big pile at mine.
The only thing left to do is start designing my brick oven and get the sucker built. The kido is already bugging me for pizza. Hopefully by fall I'll have the time to get started and maybe I'll be able to roast the Thanksgiving turkey in it this year.
More updates and research to follow. For now, check out the sites I've tagged on del.icio.us.

Spring Time

Just a quick pic of some spring time flowers.