When I was little, my friend’s Dad was a
Game Warden. One of my favorite visits to
their house at the ripe age of probably nine years old was one that allowed me to
briefly help her Dad and her nurture an injured porcupine back to good health in
order for it to survive after its return into the wilderness. SOOO COOL!
We had had a sleepover the night before
and the following day her Dad left us a note, asking us to feed the porcupine
for him because he had to leave early that morning for work-SAWEET! We ran out to the area where the porcupine
was being safely kept. Once inside the building,
we discovered that there was only ONE pair of gloves available for use. They were rather heavy for us. If I stood next to my friend, I almost
reached her chin as long as I stood on my tippy toes. She had shoulder-length blond hair, beautiful
green eyes, weighed approximately 65 lbs, and did I mention, that she was a bit
taller than me. Because the gloves were
so heavy when she put them on, we were almost able to see each other
eye-to-eye, which still makes me giggle because she looked as though she had
very long spaghetti arms attached to her collar bone and no shoulders with a
head-funniest sight I had seen at that age J
With no arguments from me, my friend
courageously volunteered to wear them and softly hold onto the porcupine while
we fed it. We didn’t want the wild
animal to think it was in danger and then shoot its quills at us.
Once the porcupine had finished eating, we
delivered it back to its temporary home.
Then, my friend and I spent the next half hour plus or minus pulling the
quills from the gloves. I had never seen
a porcupine so close before; touch it; or viewed their quills attached and then
detached. My prior encounters to any
porcupine was watching it run from the road towards the woods and/or examining
their quills after being made into intricate pieces of Indian jewelry.
After feeding the critter, we’d return
to her house and I’d gaze quietly oohing and awing over the numerous animal mounts
that hung from her Dad’s office walls. My
favorite décor on the office walls was the magnificent moose; there were some
other animals too. Though, the moose was
most spectacular.
So, when Jimmie came home with his
beautiful elk harvested from the previous fall, I jumped on the opportunity for
it to hang from one of our walls not as a European mount like Jimmie had
originally intended. NO WAY-Momma wanted
the big shebang! In my defense, it
wasn’t entirely my plan to be pulling out the fireplace; building in a new
wall; tearing out floors; oh and let’s not forget some new furniture. Again, in my defense, everything has to match!
Don’t let it leak to my husband, but I feel
bad for him. I really do have a heart
despite what he says! He’s been working
his tail off for the past few weeks to get everything ready for the big day that
the heavens open, angels sing, and an elk mount arrives to our home to F-O-R-E-V-E-R reside. Hopefully, in June but possibly not til
August, but of course, I will post a picture for you to view! The girls and I have been helping him but
there is only so much my husband would allow us to do. He’s Superman and Superman doesn’t need much
help unless there is Kryptonite in the house.
The first step for preparing for the elk
mount was to take out the fireplace, make the wall sturdier, and apply river
rock as seen below:
Good
thing we didn’t mount and hang the ferocious, man-eating…16.5” CAMPER TIRE that
was previously captured & blogged about!
What a waste of saving would that have been!
During the strengthening of the wall,
I was at work. By the time I returned
home, the project was nearly completed. Thank
you to the girls, Nani, and Papa for their assistance to Jimmie while I was
unavailable! Because I was not there
when the build-up was taking place, I wasn't able until returning home to share with my husband
the GREATEST
idea, and naturally, I wanted to change the plan. My idea was to turn the wall into a built-in secret
gun case with an alarm system like the character from Pixar’s,
The
Incredibles, (1)Edna Mode had to included lasers, fingerprint
identification, retna identification, and a voice activated security system. What man WOULDN’T go for that!?!
It
took a few hours, and I almost had him convinced! While standing in front of the once-was-fireplace,
deep in thought, contemplating, I even had seen him shift from one stance to
another…GO ME, right!?! Unfortunately, he
was pooped and didn’t want to start over.
Geesh, you’d think he built a wall that day or something! J For future projects, I will think outside of
the box BEFORE the construction is finished!
However, preparation of the wall led up
to other projects such as ripping out carpet and prepping for the new carpet (my
job along with the “help” of our youngest); laying tile (our oldest and Jimmie’s
job but grouting & sealing were performed by yours truly); finding new
carpet and having it installed; selling our old furniture; and buying new
furniture that for the past five (5) years we have been diligently conducting
visitations with at a neutral setting also known as American Furniture Warehouse.
In the end, a gratifying feeling from the
accomplished projects in addition to feelings of anticipated excitement for the
mount that should arrive in the very near future.
I
wonder if I should break the bad news to my hubby, now, that when I have my
successful moose hunt; that his elk will lose its status for awesomeness and be
removed only to be relocated to an entirely different wall! HMMM…maybe that news can wait until I find
some Kryptonite…
(1) Photograph courtesy of
http://pixar.wikia.com/Edna_Mode
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