Summer and Skis

This is our summertime team at the chateau at the moment from right to left Anne-Christine, Me, Lily, Emilynn, Michael, Jay, and the not pictured Debbie and Austin.
Here was a mornings project to carry a bunch of skis, 70 maybe, 1/4 mile from a little building at the entrance to the chateau attic. It was a project. Here are we girls after we got every ski up there. Just in case you are wondering why we have 70 odd skis, one of the chateau associations that hosts an annual ski camp for youth bought out a ski rental place, so they would have them for the kids.

Here is Emilynn starting the long journey with 2 pairs of skis, notice the kids watching, wondering what we are doing with all these skis.

Finally, we got them all up there. Now the next person who takes them out has to put them back.

Burnt Cake and Bastille Day

Today, is bastille day, pretty much the french 4th of July. Yesterday evening Macon had their fireworks and we had the fun of not knowing all day if they would have them as it was raining off and on all day. We had dinner with friends, a progressive dinner from the patio to the dining room to the patio again as the weatheher allowed. In the end though the weather was fairly clear and we were able we to go to the river and watched a nice show of fireworks. The most fun part was the ooo's and ahhh's of our friends little girl who was sitting on my lap.

In going to our friends it was our duty to bring desserts. I had decied to make a choclate cake which unfortunatly became a slightly burnt offering, I am too easily distracted when reading cookbooks. This morning when prowling around looking for breakfast I came across the cake and decided to do an experiment. I made french toast with slices of cake, which turned out to be a quite tasty experince, much better than the dry cake it was. So there you go next time you burn your cake, it is not lost from all usefulness, throw it in a little french toast batter and enjoy, just don't burn it this time too.

Crowbars, chisels, and implements of destruction

This week's project has been the Hockings house. Originally, we were just going to be removing wallpaper but after we started Debbie began contemplating if we tore down the drywall we could expose the stone walls, and deciding to go for it we changed tools. Here Emilynn and I are ripping down the drywall, a job we decided would be best those with anger problems.

Here we are, putting some holes in and making a big mess.

Who says that destruction was not a girl thing? So far, this project has been 95% done by us girls.

Now that all the drywall and framing is down we are chiseling out the old grout, I'm sure there is a techincal term for this. We then will be eithor sandblasing or wire brushing the wall and repointing the stones. We have had a lot of fun so far and the time has gone fast listening to audiobooks.

This is a picture from 2 weeks ago at my old co-worker melody Brickel's wedding in Paris, this is the group from the church at Macon that made the trip.

Back in the kitchen again...

So the chief has returned and I am finally back to being the peon in the kitchen, Happy am I! I am actually wishing though that the current group of 6 that I am cooking for waould be slightly larger in number so I would be a little busier, but as it is only 6 I am trying a new recipe.

Hypothetically this is what my new recipe should look like, we shall see. If it is a winner I will post the recipe for all to try.

The cats away...

Since Jay and Debbie are gone at the moment they left us a list of things to keep us busy. One of which being removing the wallpaper in one of the dorm rooms. Here I am, you can tell it was the begining because it was still fun.

Here is a bit of the wallpaper mess, as we were mid-removal.

We did do some fun stuff though before they left. We all went and climbed a regionally known rock formation called Solutre. Here is one of the views from the top.

Here is me on the top, picture evidence that I made it to the top.

From the chateau...

Lots has been going on at the chateau over the last few weeks with my visiting friends/ family, cleaning and cooking for groups. Here are a few pictures to give you some idea of what exactly has been going on here.

The summer keepers of the chateau, Emilynn, Me and Jay and Debbie Hocking.

Marion and I, as she was up teaching at a children's weekend at the chateau.

My pastor and has wife at my house for dinner.

Here is our little group of quilters, it was a little crazy with 50 women at the Chateau, poor Jay was the only guy.

Here is a delicate procedure of dusting coaco powder onto the top of each piece of chocolate tart, it took only 3 people to do it.

Here are the happy cooks, because we know that if you feed them you will come.

How many Americans does it take to cut a loaf of bread?

Here we are doing a little shoppping for one of last weeks groups.

Visitors, cooking, and all that fun stuff...

Here is me with my visitors, my mom and Mrs. Johnson, we took a day to hit some of the local highlights.

Micah and Debbie came along with us and we had a picnic along the way

Oopps, someone caught me putting in a little more garlic

Our first group, and already trying new things, Potee

Mrs. Johnson at work putting together clafouti

Here Micah and Jay were ripping down vines and got a record length one, yes the thing on the ground is a vine.