Longhorns

Well the two days of slaughter house are done.  Friday turned out to be a very long, but very interesting day.  It went by a lot faster than I had imagined.  Firstly, driving up to Bean Station at 6:30 AM, I was literally driving through a cloud almost the entire way.  I could not see more than 3 cars ahead of me.  It has been a long time since I've seen fog that thick!  I was afraid it was going to be very lonely all day since Kim was not with me, but I ended up talking a lot to the USDA guys.  Quite randomly, one of them mentioned something about horns that set off a thought I had been thinking in the back of my mind.  I just happened to ask what it would take to fix up a set of horns and that just started the ball rolling.  To make a long story short, I now have a set of horns that are at a taxidermist being boiled and cleaned up.  I will have to sand them and lacquer them in order to finish them off, but I am so incredibly stoked.  I have always wanted some horns and really love that old western stuff (ie wagon wheel tables, antler chandeliers, cow hide rugs, etc).  What is even crazier is that Jason, the guy who got me these horns, told me that they are killing LONGHORNS on Monday!!!!!!!!  He said he would get me a great big set and send it back to me with Jessy (who just happens to be going on Monday, how convenient!).  I'll take those to the taxidermist Monday evening and will hopefully be able to get them to Raleigh by Thanksgiving so my daddy and I can work on finishing them! 

So this taxidermist is awesome.  He has his shop in his back yard off a pretty road down in Lenoir City, TN (about 20 minutes from me).  He is a sweet old grandaddy, very kind and funny.  He has two grandchildren, that I saw, who are so cute running around the shop and riding bikes.  I'm really glad I found him because he seems to want to do exactly what I want him to do.  He is all about the customer and making sure everything gets done properly.  Once I get the horns back, I will post pictures so you can see them!  The ones I have now are about 3 feet wide from tip to tip.  They're gray-ish with a couple white rings on them.  So pretty!  Anyway, just a little update on that exciting find. 

I spent the whole day cleaning my apartment, going to the grocery store, and Wal-Mart, and taking the horns to Mr. Rick Hill.  I also took a nap and am going to skip the run I had planned because I am just still pretty pooped from the past two days.  I'll start back tomorrow.  Justin and Tim are in Wilmington right now and will be going wreck diving tomorrow!  I'm so excited the weather is cooperating this time and hope they have an awesome time (without getting bitten by all the sharks they're supposed to encounter).