Dinner is Served….

We had a busy week last week.  T had been pulled in the moose lottery this summer for the October hunt.  This was his second go around after having tagged his first moose back in 2005.

My man knows how to provide:

He wasn’t going to be picky.  First cow he saw was coming home.

Sure enough - on Monday morning, down she went.

She weighed in at 694 pounds.

We split the meat with his buddy (sub-permitee).

What ended up in our freezer and on our shelves:

• 20 canned quarts of stew meat (21 – I broke one)
• 8 packs garlic & cheese sausage
• 8 packs sweet sausage
• 7 packs hamburg
• 18 various cuts of steak
• 3 roasts

We had our first stew this weekend.  The meat is fantastic - and canned, it is so wonderfully tender.  You just dump your jar in a pot and add veggies and a bit of water and you.are.done.

Nom.

We’re heading out to target shoot today because I’ve yet to bag my first partridge.  I made nuggets with a few last week and the kids DEVOURED them.  We need some more for the freezer – I need to get on my game and stop missing the birds.

:-)

Hair Clip Organizer

We’ve had this frame for quite some time:

This summer, while I was refinishing a coffee table (I’ll share that soon – it’s been done for months but I haven’t taken any pictures yet!) I needed something to entertain the kids with.  They wanted to help paint – I was NOT letting them touch the coffee table.  So I pulled out an old quart of paint, grabbed a couple of foam brushes and dug this frame out of my heap of a craft room.  Monkey wanted it in her room but I had no inspiration, so it’s been sitting pink ever since.

Until now.

I found this adorable organizer on pintrest a few weeks ago.

We’ve seen them done over and over again so what stood out with this one?

The hooks for the headbands!

Brilliance.

And ridiculously easy to recreate.

I had a couple packs of cup hooks I never used in my kitchen remodel at the old house (you can get them at any hardware store – I’m sure you can even find them at Walmart in the hardware section).  I grabbed my trusty spray paint and gave them some love (Eden by Rustoleum).  After they’d dried, I just screwed them into the bottom of the frame.

Then I grabbed some strips of fabric leftover from the shades I made for Monkey’s room and stapled them to the back of the frame with my heavy duty stapler.

The frame was missing a hanger hook on the back.  I’m too cheap to buy them for such a light weight project so I hot glued the tab from a soda can (meh – who am I kidding?  It was probably a beer can. ;-) ) to the back of the frame to hang it.

Voila!

The inspiration photo looks like the hooks were attached and then the entire piece was spray painted at once.  (I’m assuming – I never went looking for the link because it’s not linked properly on the pin).  Ribbon was used rather than my scrap strips of fabric.  Use what you have!

While we were at it, we had this old mirror we got at a yard sale this summer for $1:

I taped up the mirror to protect, hit it with some Heirloom White (Rustoleum) spray paint, lightly distressed it and…..

She wanted it down low so she can admire herself after she puts clips in her hair, of course.  How did I end up with such a girly girl?  lol

Total for both projects = $1.  Yup.  I had everything on hand.

I love when that happens.

 

Linking up here:

300 Miles in 3 Months Update:

Update #1 of many (I’m sure).

I calculated an average of just over 23 miles per week to stay on track if I want to complete the full 300 miles. 

Week 1: 10/1-10/7 I completed 10 whole miles – entirely on foot.  Awesome, yes?  Hardly.

BUT, over the weekend, I got in 14 miles (on bike).  I think I’ve managed to get on track – and if the weather holds, I may even be able to sneak in some extra mileage as well.

Excellent.

I’m having more fun doing this than I should be, I think.  ;-)

300 Miles in 3 Months

Kim at Achorn Farms is taking part in a challenge – Complete 300 miles in 3 months via biking, walking, running, elliptical or swimming.

I’ve decided to join in and give her some company in her challenge.

October through December, I’ll need to average just over 23 miles a week to complete the challenge successfully.  This could be super challenging seeing as we’re entering our snow months in Northern Maine – and my miles will include pushing or pulling Monkey and Little Man for most (if not all) of them.

After spending so much time on my bike this summer, the past 6 or so weeks, I’ve not been very active.  I can feel it in my pants bones.  I felt amazing all summer and was getting into great shape.

I put in 4 miles on foot this weekend with the Walk to End Alzheimer’s.  Only 19 miles to go for the week…..

This could be interesting.

Family Day

We woke up to rain yesterday morning, but we weren’t going to let it ruin our plans.  Thermoses were filled with piping hot [homemade]chicken noodle soup and hot chocolate, woolen socks and flannel shirts tossed on and a couple of mugs of piping hot coffee made for The Man and me.  We were off on our first ever family hunting adventure.

There’s something calming to the soul to be out on the dirt roads in the middle of the woods, no cell phone service, just surrounded by trees.  The leaves are changing over beautifully in these parts.

The rain stopped and we had only the occasional shower for the rest of the day.  We stopped frequently to stretch our legs and just breath in Fall in Northern Maine.

We saw a couple of turkey vultures hanging out together.  (Look just to the left of the center of the picture – 2 black things on top of the dead tree)

 

Those are some pretty big birds.  I’ve never seen them so up close before.

I can’t end this post without giving you a chuckle at my expense.  Yesterday was the first time in ten or so years I shoot a gun.  We came upon a partridge on the road I could have hit with the door of the jeep.  It was maybe fifteen feet away – and I missed my shot.  Really?  Perhaps I should stick to Gatherer and let T keep the Hunter status of our home.

I did redeem myself on a soda bottle later in the day.  We found one on the side of the road he set up for me to have some target practice.  I took one shot.  He wanted to know where I was aiming before showing me I was spot on.  Spot on.  We should have done the target shooting first, perhaps?

Alas, we came home empty  handed - courtesy of my blunder.  That bird should have been dinner!  But, we had a wonderful day together so the day was most definitely not lost.

We’ll be going back out tomorrow.  I am determined to add Huntress to my Jill of All Trades accomplishments.