Hey, did you know there is a hole in your wall?

Good morning and Sunday Salutations to all, except that prick at work.  You can go eat your own boogers!

I was up way too early for a Sunday.  5:30

Oh well.  I lay there in bed thinking about how great that first cup of coffee is gonna taste out of my new Kuerig coffee pot that Mom and Pops got me for my birthday.  It lures me out of bed every time.

I worked a bit of overtime this Friday which was great because I needed extra money to purchase the new chimney system.  With the dough I saved over the summer selling a little firewood and the overtime I was within $40 of covering the pieces I bought.  They were up in Cadillac, Mi which is roughly 2 1/2 hours away.  The nice lady actually drove down and met me about 6 miles from my house.  She was on her way to Jackson and was kind enough to make a little detour.  She was able to get 7 -36" pieces of chimney pipe in her car.  Unfortunately for her there were 2 sections that were already locked together and she couldn't get them apart so they were sticking out of her trunk and secured with a bungee cord.  She said the entire trip her dashboard was dinging and telling her that the trunk was ajar!  OMG can you imagine that?  Ding, ding, ding, your trunk is ajar, ding, ding, ding........   That would be like taking children on a road trip except you can't duct tape the voice in the dashboard!

I made a great deal with her as what I bought (which was new and never used) would have cost $1282 plus tax at the store and I grabbed it for $525. (and she delivered)  I was pretty happy.

Momma and I delivered the rooster to the brother in laws house and grabbed a load of wood while we were there and on the way home we stopped at a yard sale and found this antique kettle for $7.  Will be perfect for the wood stove.

Then we stopped to see her parents and they gave us this cast iron dutch oven

I will clean both pieces up and they will be sweet setting on the stove.

I made 7 quarts of salsa with this haul out of the garden

This is going in the freezer.  I'm still trying to perfect my canned salsa recipe.  It's good but not great.  I don't do good so who knows how long it will take but I have plenty of peppers and tomatoes to figure it out.

Then after dinner I got restless (shocker) so I decided to tinker around with the fireplace and tinkering turned into all full blown removal!

I had to cut out a row of brick but I put a drop cloth down to catch most of the mortar chips.  The rest will serve as cat toys because Dash will love batting them around on the wood floor.  

It was all done and cleaned up by 9 pm and momma would just shake her head at me every time she walked by.  She said," Really?  You pick this time to do it?"   

Apparently me chiseling bricks was interfering with Criminal Minds or Sue Thomas FBI or Robert Downey Jr DUI!  

(really I don't think it bothered her that much we just like to give each other a hard time)

Once I have the new chimney in place I will frame in the hole and drywall it and then cover the hole with brick again.  It is only "face" brick.  1/2" thick and you glue it to the wall and then mortar in the joints.  It looks and feels real but it's not.  Sort of like the women from the Real Housewives TV episodes!

That was all I did yesterday.  Sort of a slacker day!  

Enjoy your upcoming week!

-Bushman