fill 'er up!

After a whole lot of deliberation, we finally landed on a wine refrig to go in as we remodel the kitchen. And now I need a wine sale to happen!

As we were considering our options for this appliance, we did a lot of online window shopping of a variety of brands and sizes.  We needed one that could be in a "built-in" space with the proper ventilation.  We wanted one that would hold up to 50 bottles, although it will be a bit before we reach that number!  We wanted one that was affordable and definitely did not cost more than the new full-size refrigerator we purchased!  We read lots of reviews by online customers, which tended to be less helpful than I had hoped because it's mostly the crabby malcontents who write the reviews.  One of the biggest complaints I read about was the noise associated with the condenser running, which many people find disturbing, I guess.  It is a fridge, after all, so that condenser does need to run!  We finally stumbled upon this model by Vissani (made by Magic Chef) at Home Depot, a hotbed of winos, I guess!  It was the right price and the right size, so we brought it home.  We had it in the box in the garage until last week, when we brought it into the house with the hope that it soon could be put into place.  We were gone last Wednesday-Sunday, and when we came home we were happy to see that it had been slid into place.  The plug-in had been non-operational, so we didn't think it was hooked up.  After a couple hours of unpacking, I took a closer look.  Lo and behold, it was turned on and cooling!  We had not noticed a single little sound from it, so I guess all the fears of deafening noise were put to rest!  Today I had some time to clean it inside and out, remove and reverse the door (all by myself!) and place the 4 bottles of wine we had on hand into their place of honor.

About a week or 10 days ago, we went down to Iowa to visit my parents.  It's about a 4 hour drive from our house.  There had been heavy rains 2 days apart, and we drove out to "the farm" to see how the crops were effected.  Standing water in many areas means washouts and drowning.  Not a good thing to see.  The picture below is on "the dump road" running next to the land my brother farms.  The low area was always a perfect spot for flooding, so now it isn't actually planted to crops.  But you can see that the water had been high enough during the night to run across the road.

While staying with my mom and dad, Bob and I did some yard work.  We were given the task of pulling out a bunch of overgrown plants from this little garden on the slope.  We ended up assembling that rock wall, planting and dividing plants, and spreading wood chips.  A good result.

Our special little guys are both so precious, so I need to share some new pictures.  Jack just turned 3 months old, and is smiling and cooing now.

Happy Jack

 Ian (age 2) does a pretty good job as big brother, but does have to be reined in now and then when he gets a bit too enthusiastic.  He is quite a talker and surprises us with the things he picks up on.

King of the Cupcakes

By the way, during all of this remodel business, we have made many excursions to stores to look at lighting, sinks, toilets, faucets, tile, paint, etc.  We have the 3 big-box stores within a few miles.  I can honestly tell you that we have found Home Depot to be the best with customer service and selection.

I also wanted to tell you that even though I might lapse in the posts here sometimes, I am also writing posts over on the Bear Patch blog more frequently than I used to.  So you might want to pop over there to see what else I have to say!