Kitchen Chronicles Two

 So on it goes for days and days. 

By Friday, the floor that looked so empty after I'd emptied the bar and Handy Man and Michael had toted it out, was completely full of boxes. I'd say I had emptied out about half the cabinets. 

Time for the Pod-

It was late, imagine that, and the driver was about to give Handy Man a breakdown, so he came inside and let Ol' Henry handle it.  Yes, that man standing in my drive is Old Mother Hubbard's boy.  Bless his heart, he came to help with the next round of hauling. He had a couple of little helpers, Gideon and Finn, who really do try to help. 

They hauled all the stuff I had packed and Ol' Henry aka Oliver, helped his Uncle Phil with a few big items 

He was such a great help. 

Finally the room is beginning to look like something has been done to it. 

Umm, about that dog bed there beyond the vacuum cleaner, well I knew SamWise would be mighty disgruntled that the couch and his place beside Handy Man was no longer available. At first he wasn't interested in his new fluffy bed and would just wait until Handy Man got up, then jump in the recliner. If that wasn't awful enough, we thought it best to go ahead and move his kennel to the bedroom. This dog has always been attached to that kennel. He took zero training and amazed us by just trotting to it at bed time from the time we brought him home. When it is time for Handy Man to head to the shower, he says, "Kennel" and that is that.  Not last night. SamWise would not darken the door of the bedroom, even though we put it just inside the door. He marched right back out and got on his new fluffy bed.  Little does he know his cozy bed will soon be open to the wind and weather. Poor guy. 

This table Handy Man built me years ago has certainly stood the test of time. That got moved into the living room. You can certainly see the wear and tear on the floor. 

So, I still have my stove until Saturday, but am trying some things in the Ninja Air Fryer as well. Today it was chicken wings.  I don't fry things very often, but I wasn't willing to risk too  many wings in the air fryer- just enough to do a taste test. The ones on the left are sitting on the basket included with the fryer/toaster.

Again, the ones on the left are from the air fryer. It says for thick things to turn them or the pan half way through. When I did that, they looked kind of limp, pale and very unappetizing. But when they finished, they looked like fried chicken. 

Time for the taste test. 

All tasters above, me and later my brother agreed that they were about equally delicious. So crazy. What is weird, is that the back porch, where the air fryer is located in the faux kitchen, smelled more like food that had been fried than the kitchen. 

While most of the demolition will not happen until next weekend, the boys wanted to do their part, so the first of the wall cabinets came down. 

I had a few roses that I had ordered last year arrive, so after the cabinet came down we headed outside. Raechel and I tended to the new roses and the boys helped with lawn duty. Finn did his very first little lawn mowing job, then he and Gideon hauled off a ton of sticks and garden debris. 

It was all kinds of lovely to feel the sun on my face. 

Yesterday I went to an orientation at Yew-Dell Botanical Gardens. Such a beautiful, peaceful little spot of ground. I don't know how much I'll volunteer, but I'm sure I'll enjoy being there.