Tag Archives: man cave

They really don’t succ.

.

I used to have various pots of succulents scattered around the Barn Mahal/man cave. Mainly because no room I inhabit can be plantless but also due to their relatively carefree nature. Sadly I’m not out there as often as I used to be and though the husband still has friends in to play pool, he never thinks to water them… so with the heat pump sucking every drop of moisture out of the air all winter? A lot of them died.

After retrieving their carcasses, I did something I thought I’d never do.

.

.

Yup.

.

.

I bought a bunch of fakes.

.

.

And I have to say, I’m rather impressed.

.

.

While it goes against my gardening grain to resort to artificial, we have to close the blinds in the summer to avoid drying out and cracking the leather chairs as well as trying to prevent the a/c from running non stop so the real ones spent most of their time in the dark.

Enter the fake succulents.

.

.

And though I really hate to admit it? Fake succulents don’t actually suck.

Who knew?

.

.

I did manage to keep my jade plant alive and healthy so thankfully it’s not all plastic fantastic in there.

And speaking of dead things? I did a little recon in the beer fridge and found some dip that expired the beginning of March and creamer that died in January.

.

.

Old junk isn’t the only thing my husband refuses to throw out.

.

It’s a problem.

.

Rusty old tools.

Magazines from the 1940’s.

Broken toys. Bottles.

Advertising ephemera.

Vintage fishing gear.

Among the other things my husband has been known to hoard? Food. More precisely… food that is near or past it’s expiration date and I’m threatening to throw out. When things disappear from the fridge? I assume he eats the items I have my eye on.

Turns out I’m wrong.

.

.

I found these on a recent clean out of the man cave/ Barn Mahal. I go out there every so often to water succulents, dust, sweep and generally straighten. I don’t usually check the beer fridge but one random glance told me I had work to do.

Pepperoni that expired September of last year? Check.

Frozen egg rolls from June 2021? Check.

And yes, I actually dumped beer because it was types neither of us like with use by dates in 2020.

My husband grew up poor in a large family and hates to waste anything or throw things out. But while I understand his desire for thrift?

.

.

Even he had a hard time arguing it was time to let go of this baggie of cheese slices.

.

.

If you can still call it cheese at this point.

🤢

Because you knew it had to happen.

I was told in no uncertain terms not to string lighted garland in the man cave or bedeck it’s sacred male space with red Christmas bows… so I didn’t.

But I wasn’t told anything about wreaths.

.

.

Or Santas and stars.

.

.

Or pinecone reindeer with shiny ornaments hanging from their antlers.

.

.

Or festive bar placemats.

.

.

Or winterberry trees with bundled up birdies.

.

.

Or glass jars of sparklies with mini glitter trees.

.

.

And speaking of trees…

.

.

I wasn’t prohibited from those either.

.

.

Silly man. He really should learn to be more specific.

.

Random nonsense and something for Mark…

.

Because there’s never a lack of ridiculous things to talk about.

.

.

Do I need to color rainbow animal poop? I do not, but speaking of pooping animals…

.

.

The required new Lord Dudley Mountcatten shot.

.

.

Another item has been added to the husband’s man cave display of torture implements old tools. A hobbler as seen on the upper left. He says it’s for cows, I’m wondering if it will fit in my purse so I can use it on him the next time we go antique shopping.

And lastly, something for Mark…who has a thing for flamingoes and likes to decorate for Halloween.

.

.

I’m always thinking of you buddy.

.

.

🤣

.

Antiquing and some very heavy water.

.

A recent antiquing day trip to search for a final alcoholic crate left me empty handed but did result in a few chuckles.

.

.

Yum.

Not.

.

.

I think I had one very similar to this when I was a kid.

.

.

Bloomers.. complete with reinforced crotch. Who could ask for more?

.

.

I’ve been looking for an old crank phone like this for the man cave. But this one didn’t crank and was missing parts … so for $350, I left it there.

And speaking of the man cave…

.

.

I’ve started to migrate my vinyl out there, though there isn’t enough room in any one spot to line up the crates in a row.

.

.

Guess they’ll have to be scattered here and there.

.

.

And if you’re wondering what’s going on here, it’s the husband breaking his back trying to upend a vintage glass water bottle into the cooler. He’s collected the damn things for years and wants to replace all the plastic containers it came with.

.

.

Prettier, but damn. They’re seriously heavy.

.

Ending our trip with bad beer and a wind up Sasquatch.

.

On our last night in the White Mountains we skipped down the road to a very popular brewery called One Love.

.

.

It was a huge place, and so busy on a Friday night we had to schlepp up the stairs to the second floor bar.

.

.

Sadly One Love brewery doesn’t take their beer very seriously and only had three of their own on tap, all of which were quite disappointing

.

.

They did however make a stellar blood orange cranberry margarita.

.

.

Which I consumed with some amazing lollipop lamb chops so the visit wasn’t a total waste.

Our trip home the next day was uneventful, consumed mostly with me bugging the husband to stop at multiple gift stores so I could purchase a thank you gift for our Lord Dudley Mountcatten cat sitting neighbor.

.

.

In case you’re wondering, this did not make the cut.

Upon returning home I happily put my newly purchased brewery crate into service.

.

.

Four down, probably two more to go. Since my idea for vinyl storage/display containers is proving more difficult to procure than I originally thought, I have culled my collection down to a more reasonable number and now have a rather large stack of never listened to albums in the closet. It was hard to be ruthless, but necessary. I need to get my crates out to the man cave before the husband bogarts all the available floor space.

😉

A classic car drop in.

.

A friend of my husband’s dropped by the man cave last week to say hello, though I think the actual reason for the visit had 4 wheels.

.

.

Behold his new toy, a 1970 something Le Mans Sport convertible.

.

.

This car is cherry. 27,000 original miles and spotless.

.

.

After we oohed and ahhed appropriately there was beer.

.

.

And pool.

.

.

And after a nice visit…

.

.

A shit eating grin of a man who always wanted an antique auto and is quite pleased with his purchase.

.

Finally, I scored.

.

On our drive home from the mountains the other day, I got lucky.

.

.

I finally found a man cave appropriate crate for my albums! No, I’d never heard of Holihan Brewers but neither did I care.

.

.

They existed.

They brewed beer in Massachusetts.

.

.

And that was good enough for me.

Okay, the crate wasn’t in the best of shape….

.

.

But after a lot of elbow grease, scrubbing and oiling…

.

.

It didn’t look half bad.

.

.

And then there were three.

I’ll need at least 3 (probably 4, possibly 5) more.

I wonder if I’ll live that long?

.

Bar treasure.

.

If you know anything about Guinness, you’ll know they had a fabulous ad campaign back in the day.

Their first ad was published in 1794, their first tagline introduced in 1929. In the early 20th century, doctors thought the brew had medicinal properties and promoted strength. Until the 1950’s Irish mothers were told to drink Guinness after giving birth because of its iron content. Guinness is good for you! remained the slogan until a random trip to the circus drew inspiration from the performing zoo animals.

It’s these advertisements that became synonymous with the brand, and this collection of vintage coasters I found at an antique store.

.

.

The perfect addition to the Barn Mahal man cave bar.

.

.

There were even a few Christmas themed ads.

.

.

And if you recognized the famous toucan on the bottom right….

.

.

It might be because our original poster was one of the first things we ever hung in the man cave.

🙂

.

A pool table tune up.

.

The husband came in the house the other day complaining his pool table felt was loose. You know, the extra expensive, special order, professional grade imported fabric he just had to have when we bought the table. Fearing this would be the usual Casa River nightmare… I was pleasantly surprised when after one call to the store of purchase the owner’s son was here to fix the problem the next afternoon. For free.

.

.

Free is always my favorite word and to be honest I never even knew pool tables needed tune ups but apparently it’s quite common.

.

.

And it isn’t a quick fix by any means.

.

.

Rails must be removed, fabric must be loosened and peeled off the slate. The wax seal must be checked and smoothed.

And then tugging begins.

.

.

Which of course the husband had to be in on.

Men. You do love a good tug.

.

.

After a solid two hours of pulling and tugging and securing on this side, and then pulling and tugging and securing on that side, only to repeat the pulling, tugging and securing on the first side etc etc until I would have heaved the whole table out the door, it was done.

.

.

Rails were replaced, stray threads were trimmed, felt was cleaned and no bill was presented. When I asked the young man how long the warranty on the table lasted… he floored me by saying forever. Granted the fabric will only have so many stretches in it, and because ours is thinner than normal felt it won’t last as long… but as far as normal maintenance goes we’re golden.

This happens so infrequently I was at a loss how to respond. So I pressed a big old tip into his hand to show our appreciation.

🙂

.