New Orleans fried chicken

and some other tales from behind a fork...


While I'm not a fan of New Orleans, the food there can be incredible and since I had to be there for work I wasn't going to miss out on some good eating.

First stop after checking into the hotel was Commerce Restaurant. Conveniently located across from the hotel, it's not a place that many tourists would stop in. It's run down, the people working there might have enough teeth for one full set, everything about the place just screams keep walking.
Except the fried chicken.
Not many people can make really good fried chicken, the kind that makes you pick at your plate until you are sure there isn't anything but bones left. Yum. I had to pry myself out of the rickety chair and leave before I ordered a few more pieces.

Tomas Bistro was next up, a little cocktail hour with snacks and then dinner. The service was horrible, they seemed to not only be short staffed at the front of the house but also the back. They did have the best chocolate covered strawberries I've ever eaten and the gumbo was spectacular. I sort of wanted to get a little drunk (as an excuse to eat more strawberries) but I never got a refill so we decided it was time to get some sleep.

Another day we headed to the Hermann-Grimma house. This is a 19th century mansion with a working outdoor kitchen from the 1830's (my favorite part of the whole place). We toured the house and I learned a few things (they would roll up and store the carpet to protect it during the summer since they would have the windows open to keep the house cool). Connected to the mansion is a fancy restaurant that we visited cocktails and appetizers. I never saw the name nor can I now find it on google maps but they had the best chocolate eclairs ever.

The Palace Cafe was another dinner pick, it's several stories but we sat on the ground floor so we could watch all of the people. It's not Mardi Gras but that never seems to matter. Bourbon street was busy and loud, and all sorts of people enjoying themselves created a great watching environment. I opted for a simple filet and veggies, my coworker landed on a pork chop and he said it was the best one he had ever eaten.

We had a lot of food and just a few drinks over the long weekend and that meant running. I managed to get about 4 hours of running done in total and avoided a few sketchy areas by simply turning around.

While I was having fun, someone was home and getting father in-law settled in an assisted living place at least for the next month. This was also the 1 year since mother in-law passed away. All of this led to a quick trip to the emergency room for dehydration and exertion so I boarded the first flight out and got home as quick as I could. I'm glad we keep money in an emergency fund, it was $1200 for the flights and we don't need to pay the credit card off over the next year just because of it. We really do try and be prepared and every once in a while something happens to keep us pointed in the right direction.

The washer and dryer are now stacked safely at the cabin. This created room for more shelving and I'm trying to locate some barn wood so this project can be finished up. We replaced the toilet and flooring in the bathroom, carpeting in a bathroom finally wore on our nerves and it just had to go. Here are a few pictures from the postcard life:

Somewhere under that snow it's almost spring

The view back towards home after an hour of running

Rock was worn out from our adventures

Obviously not that worn out

A little snow finally.

While winter isn't over around here until the end of April, it's nice to see the mountains blanketed in snow. There isn't much snow anywhere else but the peaks and in the trees. The light for this picture was really amazing, the entire area just seemed to have a glow about it.

Rock and I were hiking a lot, navigating the ice patches on the road until we got out in the open. He enjoyed the mud, I didn't enjoy cleaning him off every few hours. We had a good time, father in-laws dog is staying with us while we are determining what a good course of action will be. He is in a rehabilitation old folks type home right now. It's a nice place and it's safe, we are worried about him being back home and something happening but it's really going to be up to him.

What's it like in the trees?

Whatever snow lands out in the open blows across the valley, but it does like to stick around at home. The last few weeks have been windy, upwards of 120 mph gusts and sustained 60+ mph especially in the city. We had about 20k worth of damage at work from the wind and flying debris and my company car is missing a back window. Fences are broken and sections just missing all over the county but ours is perfect. I remember my first blogger post was about metal fence posts, and those saved us from not only fence work, but they fence kept everyone else's debris out of our yard.

It's a pretty incredible difference in/out of the tree's. I've driven in and had to shovel (especially the occasional drift) in order to get the door open but the valley looked clear like this photo. Even in the tree's the wind can blow hard enough to have dirt collect on the inside window sills of the old non-storm windows.

We really love living here, and while it might not be full time, we are starting to remodel and update a few things in 2017 so when we make the full time move, it's all set. We are even thinking of adding a 2 car garage and turning the attached 1 car garage into a regular home room. Unfortunately, watching how slow construction goes in the valley that might not be something we will do this year. If we can get a concrete pad put down without too much trouble, we will most likely get a tuff-shed type garage so at least we have a shell up fast and can go to work on the insulation and interior finish.
Something like this:

It will give us storage for 2 vehicles and room for the ATV's and other things. We don't need an upper level so perhaps just a nice pitched roof with a loft type area for storage.

Rock is as cute as the bear. I was loading up heading in for work while he tried to pull the ears off 'sir knottingham'. I also had to shovel the foot of snow that had fallen while we were sleeping. It was coming down hard and I'm sure we got close to 18 inches or more over the course of yesterday. In town there was maybe 1/4 inch but honestly it makes my job easier when we don't have to manage with weather. Work is nuts, as usual, and I'm heading to New Orleans next week. Yuck.