A Little More

We have been working on the Tiny house off and on as the weather cooperates. It has been cold or rainy this past week so work on the house was slow.

The center section is almost done. The bottom floor is all framed up and ready for the siding.
This weekend we are having a building party and should have the rafters and walls up on the second floor. Then the next weekend we should have it in the dry, I hope.

The second floor was an afterthought. I decided to build it for more room. 
Let me try and explain the picture. The part I am standing on is over the bathroom and will be Candy's sewing room. The other smaller part is over the closet and will be her sitting/reading room where she will be able to walk out on the widow's walk and watch the sun come up. The small walkway in the middle connects the two. The hole on the right will have stares/ladder so she can get up there from the hallway. The hole on the left is just that, a hole. When you walk down the hall into the bedroom, these two holes will be open all the way to the roof to give it a bigger look. I will add hand made metal railing just to be safe.   

I still have a long way to go on the house and it doesn't help I do something like this and get the wife her Christmas Ranger a little early. We spent most of Sunday out riding the trails around the lake. It will come in handy, I am sure. 

Have a great Thanksgiving,
Jerry

Low Budget Operation

Even though we are making progress on the tiny house, this low budget operation is taking too long. For every board we nail up I can see two more needed which means more time and more money.

The floor is done and the walls are going up. After I get all the studs in, then it's time for the ceiling joists, then the top floor decking and then the roof rafters.
I normally have everything drawn out and designed but this is a design build, one board at a time kinda thing.

Just as I feared, the weather has turned and I really need to get this in the dry before winter. I can't let all this raw wood sit through too many rain and snow storms or it will ruin. But with just me and my dad doing the work, the wife as the gopher, and the occasional family hand here and there, plus add in the limited funds, the short days and cooking chili, it's going to be tough.
I can't work on it tonight due to a freeze coming. I need to spend the evening making sure the trailer can get through it okay, but for the rest of the week I plan to do a little every night.

Speaking of cooking chili, last weekend we cooked in Irving TX and being ranked 11th in the world I guess I grew a chip on my shoulder. I went in there thinking I was something and I had this one in the bank. There was no way I could not win this cook off. Ha, I got close to last place, didn't even make it off the first round. Talk about knocking me down a rung or two.

 But look who came all the way up from Texas A&M to cook with mom and dad. Jessie surprised us Friday night and decided to make the four hour drive for us to see her pretty face and to spend the day cooking with us.
So in the end it did not matter to much that my chili sucked last weekend, I had Jessie there.
  
This Saturday we will be in Denton. Maybe this time I will go in there with a different attitude.


I will let you know what happens,
Jerry

We Made It Back

I would not call sleeping in a tent for five days in the middle of the South Texas desert a vacation, but it was close enough.

Candy and I traveled the eleven hours to the World Championship CASI Chili Cook Off in Terlingua Texas. It is one of the most hostile places on earth, but is has it's own kind of beautiful as well.

 
It was an honor to be there. We struggled for the past two years to get good enough to have the privilege to enter through these gates.

 I know of some really great chili cooks that have been cooking for over thirty years that would love to walk across that stage. From what they say, only the worlds best elite chili cooks ever get called up there. I have not paid my dues long enough to earn it and I knew that.

We left on Tuesday and arrived at the ranch noon on Wednesday. Thursday we drove around Big Bend National Park and saw some really great sights. On Friday we cooked Wings, Beans and Salsa and did not place in any one.
Saturday was the big day for chili. This is what we all came here to do. I knew being first time cooks Candy and I did not have a chance. Fifteen ex world champs were here and many, many cooks I have never been able to beat over the past years. They only call the first twenty spots.

 Well how about that, I placed 11th and Candy won 10th in the world championship. I never would have ever imagined we would have walked across that stage.
They say we were tied for 10th and they had to do a taste off. They also said we were the first husband and wife team to ever do this. We won so many things and with her being in the top ten, she gets extra perks for the year.
One of them is, Candy is automatically qualified to cook there again next year. Me, I still have to chase points to be invited back.  

I really didn't plan to return next year being my only goal was to be invited and to cook with such great folks, but now I have to.  The shock of it all did not wear off for several hours. Neither Candy nor I can remember walking across the stage, everything was a blur.

Do you know how long we have wanted chairs, real chili chairs? Now we both have the chairs everyone wants and cooks for all year long.

This weekend we will be cooking in Irving then next weekend we will be in Denton.

Thanks to everyone for sticking with us and supporting Candy and I through the chili year. We raised a lot of money for charity, had a great time and met a lot of great people. If you are wanting to get involved either by cooking or sponsoring our team just let me know.
Thanks again,

I got a lot more to tell, Later
Jerry