Labor Day weekend at the Ranch

Well folks, life is getting better!  Cabinets are being made and some should be delivered next week.  My husband is my hero, he was so upset that I was upset that he traveled down to the cabinet makers shop to confront them on this matter.  He was successful in finding them open (that has been a rarity of late) and met AJ's father Artero.  He looked him in the eyes and said (something to the effect of), "I can't believe the position you all have put us in. My wife is in tears because she loved the design your son did for her and the kitchen is the most important room in the house to her and now she has nothing and has to start over again. I can't stand to have her this upset. Also this delay is going to cost us a lot of money in delayed completion".  Then Artero explained that they had been buried with work from a national home builder.  Jay proceeded to say "and what is the excuse for not returning phone calls and emails."  There wasn't a good answer for that.  Artero then promised Jay they would get started on the cabinets Monday morning (meaning last monday).  I wasn't holding my breathe but really hoping they would.  Well they did and we should see our first set of cabinets sometime this week.  YEA for Jay.  Also now my friends Marsha and Steve don't have to worry about seeing me on the nightly News and visiting me in the County Jail.

When I got there on Friday the painter had finished staining the ceiling.  It looks awesome.

We towed the smoker back down this weekend and decided it was a good weekend to do some smoked meats. I brought down a ham shank and a brisket from the freezer plus some of my special spicy rub and away we went.  Jay started the smoker at 9:00, added the hickory wood about 9:30 and we put in the meat around 10:00.  Then around 1:00 we wrapped it up tight in foil and let it slow cook for another 3 hours.  Both the ham and the brisket we delicious and we will be eating on them for the next week.  We are improving our BBQing skills every time we use it.  Our repertoire includes ribs, pork loin, chicken thighs and sausage in addition to the brisket and ham.  We are getting to the point where we say, if it's meat, we can smoke it...

I didn't harvest any pears this weekend because we are putting our current house on the market this week and I am trying to make it look it's best for showings.  That is really tough when you are still living in it and have extra guests staying with you (one who sheds continually).  Wish us luck on selling the house, I think we are going to need it.  Seems like the market has cooled off a bit.  Actually the house looks so nice right now if's almost hard to believe its our house.  So next week I should be able to add adventures in selling ones house.