Got One

He did it. Hunter brought home a bear to eat. He was three days into his hunt when he called from the boat to tell me he was on his way back to the house with a bear. 

About a half-hour later he pulled into the driveway with an ear-to-ear grin and a cooler full of half-dressed meat. He finished dressed the bear on the tailgate of the truck, took a long shower, kissed us goodbye and set off again to finish the rest of his week in the woods. 

So here I am, left to put my money where my mouth is and get to work on that bear. Where to start? I think with a skillet. I have no idea what bear actually tastes like, so before I dash off on a tangent, I'm going to have to fry up a naked little steak and find out what I'm contending with. I'll do that tomorrow. I've got other irons in the fire today.

When the Cat's Away
With Hunter off on his bear hunt, I'm free to get into his toolbox and play with the power tools with wild abandon. If he were here, I'm sure my project and my approach to it would agitate the guy to no end. I think it's kinder for the both of us if I do this kind of thing while he's gone. He comes home to a finished project and his tools back in place, blissfully unaware of what went on while he was gone. 

For this week's project, I'm making a headboard out of an old door. I have a rough idea how to accomplish this and to be honest, Google's been a great help. If I said these words aloud to Hunter, I'm sure he'd break out in a cold sweat.  

On Tuesday, while Toddler was at daycare, I sketched out my plan and made a list of the materials I'd need. On Wednesday, after a memorable hike with Toddler where she jumped off a boardwalk into a puddle up to her thighs and had to be piggybacked a mile back to the car, I hit the hardware store with a barefoot, dripping toddler. I probably didn't score any motherhood points with that one but she didn't seem to mind. 

This morning, it was back to the hardware store for wood filler (to hide a few sins) and sand paper to get started on the next stage of the project.

The door itself isn't big enough for my king-sized bed so I had to add some two by sixes to the ends. The end plan is to paint this a grayish green colour and add some dark grey for an antiquing effect. I discovered vinyl decals. They are a total gift to people like me who can't draw to save their lives. I ordered a couple of trees to stick to the sides. I'm pretty excited about those.

I planned put some crown moulding on the top but even after watching a dozen or so YouTube videos I figured it was a bit too ambitious. I'll sketch up a plan B tonight.

I'll post an 'after' picture when I've got this done. Hunter comes home pretty soon so I do need to get this project to a stage that doesn't require any of his power tools. 

I wonder if toddlers find sanding fun?