Strumming and Chopping through Thanksgiving

I headed down to Rob's on Wednesday evening with Kota and Quackster, both of whom are staying the following week with Rob for a vacation. On Thanksgiving Day, Rob and I went over to Lance & Nicole's for dinner and I managed to snap this awesome photo of Ripley as she awoke from her snooze. The men were outside playing with a gun and a fire while Nicole and I chatted.

This gun was used by Rob's father while he was in service. I shot it once and handed it back. It nearly blew my eardrums out. But the guys carried on for a while. 

Zak, Nicole's brother, got the fire going with some gas and a road flare while I watched from the safety of the kitchen window. He's an army dude who has the tough image to go with it and the fire lit without a hitch.

 Rob and Declan monitored the fire by standing by the side of it and poking it on a regular basis. What is it with men and fires?

Both of them here again poking around in the back of the truck this time.

 We had an awesome turkey dinner and Zak also polished off an PBJ sandwich which I dared him to eat with M&Ms inside. Once I told him that I'd eaten a baked potato with coleslaw and vanilla ice cream on top, he ate the whole sandwich. I love a guy who's up for a dare!
With bellies full, we slouched on seats and chatted for a while,  then Rob and I headed off for home, but trouble was down the road, literally. A vehicle in front of us hit a deer and she was floundering in the middle of the road. I leaped out of the truck and managed to calm her down. She was favoring a rear leg but i couldn't see any blood or wounds so hopefully it was just a glancing blow that would leave her lame for just a few days. I couldn't lift her but Rob managed to get her onto the side of the road where she limped off into the dark field. Major kudos to the cars that stopped since we were blocking the whole road, they watched this episode without any shouting or honking of horns. Rob and I felt good as we drove away.
Friday started late and slowly for us. We had no plans to be anywhere which was great. I stood at the kitchen sink and glanced through the window to see Rob in the sunroom with his electric guitar. He saw me grabbing my camera so rushed to the bedroom to dress for the part. I never have and probably never will meet anyone as vain as this man. It's lucky that I'm not the same way as there certainly wouldn't be enough mirror room in the house for both of us. It does make me laugh though.

Rob aka Johnny Cash without the dyed black hair.

Check out the dust on that guitar head. 

Once Rob was content that I'd taken enough photos of him, we put the guitar down and decided to chop some wood.

My axe skills have not improved and I had to accept that I am not and never will be any good at this.

Of course Rob split each of his logs on the first attempt every time so it didn't take too long before I was done and wanted to stop. There are not many things that I am completely useless at, but wood chopping is definitely top of the list.
We used the log splitter to chop up two trailers full of wood so Rob was fully stocked for a few weeks.

Quackster took part took as Head Axeman and managed to look quite sinister as he struck a pose by the blade.

Looking quite at home on the log splitter.

After the second trailer of wood it was time to finish and head back indoors as it was getting colder and colder. I had also picked up some fallen branches for Christmas decorations, spraying them silver along with some pine cones I'd picked up. The wind was stronger now too so I grabbed what I'd done and gratefully closed the door on the blustery weather and the darkening sky. Rob stoked up the fire and then it was time to put up the Christmas tree. We did this in about 10 minutes as there was so little to trim the tree with. I looked at Rob in disbelief at how stark his tree looked so he gave in and we jumped in the car and headed to the shops. A little later we were back home again with more decorations and a wreath for the front door. Listening to Christmas music and knocking back truly awful white wine which left us gasping, we set to our task. The tree was trimmed and a silver branch was erected in the dining room along with a table decoration. 

The house was ready for Christmas and we were ready for bed. 3 bottles of wine later, we headed to bed leaving Kota to party alone. He doesn't look too impressed...