The Bunkhouse/Den/Garage/Mancave

I'm not sure what we're going to call it yet, but the garage that we originally bought to store the tractor is going to become a workout facility and guest room.  It's already my laundry room, but I've been waiting for Alan to finish a more permanent hook up.  

Permanent means a drain that stays in place so I don't have to use the swimming pool hose out the door.  I'm still using garden hose hookup to the outside of the building.  I'm sure we will do something more permanent in the long run, but in the meantime, this works great!

Even in December, clothes dry quickly in the Oklahoma wind.

I love hanging my laundry outside.  I can do 3 extra large loads in half a day here, but it takes me a full day at the condo because of the drying time.

Alan has insulated about half of the building and hung bead board.  I am going to try to finish varnishing it by January 1st so that we can use the building before Mae has to go back to Charleston.

We hope to get an exercise bike from Alan's mom and dad for Christmas.  We just don't think Alan should go running here.  He'd have to run with the gun!

Some folks were pretty skeptical when I said I saw mountain lion tracks down by our creek last year, but they believe me now after the multiple sightings in Oklahoma. Here's a story about a mountain lion found on the highway near Minco.

Honey, We're Going to Need a Barn

We're using the garage for laundry and wood working.  Now with the UTV (which can't be stored in the girls' room) we are out of space.

As I have said before, if we come up with an idea, it's only moments until we are acting on it. The minute after Alan said maybe we should get a barn, I'm on Ernest's website looking at the horse barn he sells.

A couple of weeks later, we had complete the purchase and were waiting for a call from Eagle Carports.

Again, Kenny Sexton came to our rescue.  He graded a flat location for the barn behind the power pole.

This image is distorted for some reason.  The door in the center is 10'.

I'm going to give Eagle Carports a mixed review.  Granted, we changed our minds and wanted to add another roll-up door, but that was 10 days before the construction was scheduled to begin AND they agreed to do it.

But when the contractors, who drove up from Texas, arrived, they didn't have the door and didn't know anything about it.  When they called the company, they were told to reschedule and had to drive home at their own expense.  It didn't seem right to me.

Finally, they returned and started work the week before Christmas.  Alan hadn't noticed that Kenny had moved the markers, so when the men started building, they were building the barn at an angle to where we located it.  Although they weren't happy about being told to pull up the materials they had installed, they did start over in the right location.

He gave the workers a small gratuity for making the modification which was a smart thing to do.  The last thing you want to have is a bunch of disgruntled workers who have already been penalized by the company.

In the end, I am happy with the barn and irritated with the process and communication.

Rethinking the Garage Door

The look on Stephanie's face told us to rethink the way we were building out the cabin.  The loft idea wasn't going to work.  So instead, we had Joe finish the small garage room with bead board.  It is now the girls' bedroom.  The only trouble is that we can no longer imagine pulling the UTV in over the fuzzy purple rug Stephanie uses at night when she likes to lie down with her book in front of the heater.

Steph likes to drive it, but she doesn't want it in her room.

Even worse than the lack of practicality, heavy rains from the south leak in and run across the floor if we aren't prepared with towels ahead of time.

Joe Terpstra said he could install French Doors back there, but it was going to be several weeks until he could get to it.  I'm crossing my fingers for good January weather when he shows up to do the project.

In the meantime, Joe said to hang plastic sheeting from the door to prevent water from coming in.  While this has been more effective, it still hasn't prevented all of the leaking.

Thanksgiving at The Ranch with The Big Green Egg

The back deck is not finished, and the wind is strong from the south.  We've decided to set up our Thanksgiving dinner on the front porch to get us out of the wind.  Maechelle won't be joining us this year, but Christy and Dilish along with Amanda and Clark will join Alan, Jack, Stephanie, Marissa, and me for dinner around 1:00.

The Big Green Egg is an important part of our dinner plan.  Even though I'm cooking a meal for this many people without a traditional stove, I think my plan will work.

The Big Green Egg will cook the turkey, baked potatoes (while the turkey is cooking) and two pies.  I'll cook the pies ahead.

The Camp Chef will cook the green bean casserole in the dutch oven.

The Microwave will cook the pumpkin cake and the stuffing.

The multicooker will cook the gravy.

The Turkey:
We cooked the turkey like you cook "beer chicken."  We bought a 24 oz can of beer.  Alan had to work to get it into the holder, but he did.   Working together, we coated the outside of the turkey with beer can chicken seasonings (you can buy this pre-mixed or make your own).

We put a lot of charcoal with soaked apple smoking chips in the BGE and preheated it to 375.  I wanted to cook the turkey low and slow.  Once the charcoal was started and the fire was going,  we set the plate setter in the egg with the legs up, and set the grill rack on top.  When the BGE was at 375, we set the turkey on the rack.  I planned to cook the 14lb bird for 3 1/2 to 4 hours.  After two hours, I put the baked potatoes on in a circle around the turkey.  The turkey was done at 3 1/2 hours.   I checked by piercing the thigh the way the chef on the BGE DVD demonstrates.

The Apple Pie:
We actually baked the pie on the BGE the night before Thanksgiving.  I used an oil pastry the way I would do it if I was baking in a regular oven.  Steph and Marissa helped.  I use Granny Smith apples in my pies and add Turbinado sugar (about 1/8 to 1/4 c), a little flour (2 T), and a little cinnamon to the sliced apples.

This is not a "true" lattice because we use oil pastry.  We just  placed stripes of dough on each other without weaving.

I set the plate setter with legs down and put the pizza stone on top.  I also used a baking rack to prevent the pan from touching the hot stone.  I cooked the pie at 400 as suggested on the livefire blog.  Just as the blog suggests, I watched the pie and at about 45 mins it looked done (bubbling center, brown crust).

Broccoli salad and jellied cranberries (I cooked ahead on the Camp Chef)

 This was a wonderful tasting pumpkin cake I cooked in the Microwave.  With whipped cream on top it looks better.

Here's the link to the pumpkin cake recipe.

You Had Me at Cornbread

Last night was tough with wind gusting from the south at 35+ mph, rattling the garage door in the cabin room that is now the girl's bedroom.
When we ordered the 14x 32 building we thought we could build loft sleeping space for the girls.  The 10x14 apace that is now their bedroom was intended to house the UTV.  Once we saw the building (and our 16 year old's reaction to climbing into the loft) the plans began to change.
Now we wish the French doors that we are planning to replace the overhead door with were here already.  The noise of the rattling kept us up all night.
So I was cooking breakfast little later this morning than I had planned.
We had a busy day of deck building planned so I wanted breakfast to be quick.  I am very happy with my new camp chef stove and the griddle plate I bought to go with it.  So eggs and Bacon this morning were a snap.
Now I don't eat carbs, but I always serve them to my family.  Yesterday I made cornbread for breakfast and saves the leftover for today. 
Marissa appeared an the front porch while I was frying Bacon and inquired about the menu.  I mentioned that I had saved yesterday's leftover cornbread and how it could be warmed...
"You had me at cornbread" she interrupted.  I laughed then wondered if she had even seen Jerry McGuire.
It was a good day, but that moment with her clever comment on the front porch may have been the highlight.
Or perhaps it was driving the UTV with loads of dirt to repair the road to the dam with Steph at the wheel.
Or maybe it is sitting inside right now with all of us devouring the ribs that Alan cooked on the big green egg while waiting for the football game to start.  What a good and simple life.

We bought the Camp Chef to complete our outdoor kitchen

The Floating Deck and Sidewalk

A tiny house with a large covered front porch and an even larger back deck.  The back deck will have an outdoor kitchen since the kitchenette in the cabin doesn't have a stove.

We hope to celebrate Thanksgiving out here with the family, which means we need to start on the deck immediately.

The ground is rock solid from the drought this summer.  Digging is nearly impossible, but the floating deck system we saw at Lowes looks like it will work.

Here's a link to the website where you can get plans and calculate the supplies you need.  We ordered composite from Perkins Building Supply to match the composite that Joe Terpstra used on the front porch.

Stephanie using the front loader to bring composite over during the sidewalk construction

Alan constructing the sidewalk

The front porch that Joe built.

We believe the "weekend project" touted by the website to be somewhat misleading, though.  IF you build a small deck, and IF you have 2 men with some basic carpentry skills it might be a weekend project.  We bit off a much larger project since we wanted to get up out of the mud.

It's amazing.  No rain all summer, then right when we move in, we're walking in mud.  The sidewalk which is now finished is wonderful.  It connects the two buildings.  I often go out in my slippers since it stays nice and clean.

The Big Green Egg for Our Outdoor Kitchen

I emailed Joe Rider at Stone Age for a recommendation about our outdoor kitchen.  I love his products and needed the name of an installer/mason out in our area.  He gave me a recommendation, but after talking with the installer, I was not confident that we could meet our timeline or our budget.

Alan mentioned that he wanted to take a look at a Big Green Egg especially since our friend Matt Marcacci at The Hill told Alan how much he loved his egg.

We discovered that not only was the egg a smoker (which is all we had intended), it was basically a wood fire oven and more.

This thing makes the best wood fire pizza you have ever tasted!

We bought our egg at Everything Barbecue in Oklahoma City.  The salesmen were very helpful and we ended up buying the Extra Large egg with the cart.  We also bought the baking stone and the rack extender so that I can bake two pies at once.

The salesman didn't realize he talked us out of buying the Weber grill station that Alan was in love with.  We realized we didn't need it.  The egg would do almost everything we needed except boil water or provide a gas grill option.

If you plan to drive off with your egg the way we did, be sure to have PLENTY of strong backs around.  It is very heavy.  Also, be careful about storing your baking stone.  Ours was left tilting against something and ended up falling over and breaking.

The Big Green Egg uses hardwood charcoal and special lighter fluid or an electric starter.  You don't want to use Kingsford or lighter fluid in it since that will taint your food.

They sell a starter at the egg store, but we bought an inexpensive one from Walmart that works just fine.

With the egg as our wood fire oven, our plans for the outdoor kitchen have changed.  We have decided to wait until we build a bigger home to do the stone work which keeps the budget more appropriate for the cabin.

We've decided to cover the corner of the deck for the kitchen which is slowed the construction while we look for plans.