Homemade Holidays: Paisano Horeshoes

NZ & his sister play a game of Paisano Horseshoes

In the spirit of keeping our Christmas gifts unique, NZ and I did our best to continue our streak of making Christmas gifts. Last year, NZ made fishing poles for a few lucky recipients, and this year, he and I found ourselves at Home Depot, loading up on materials to make a couple of fun backyard games for our Christmas "picks".

It took him a few weeks from start to finish, and he even learned how to lay and tack carpeting down in the process while covering the boards, which were made out of pressure treated wood and 2x4's. He's pretty crafty, that ol man of mine.

The Zentil family ( all of them, not just the immediate Zentils) love their games. Every year in Yosemite, there are a couple of games of cribbage going at any given time, using a cribbage board that Nick's grandfather made long ago. We all enjoy word games, board games, and anything interactive. At our wedding "after party", a rousing game of Bocce Ball was played in my father-in-law's backyard until it got too dark to continue.

So, NZ and I decided that a couple of "Paisano Horseshoe" games would be a good gift for our family members. The game is usually called "Mexican Horseshoes" or "Washer toss", but to keep in the spirit of being Italian, I just renamed it. So there you have it, it's now called Paisano Horseshoes, and I'm stickin' to it.

NZ's sister, Breakin' in her new game

 Looking forward to watching these boards get years upon years of use, and good family memories made in the meantime.

a tree-mendous weekend

For a Southern California back yard--ours is considered larger than average. Also larger than average, is the monstrocity of a Eucalyptus tree that has been the primary eye-sore of our outdoor space ...never mind the current state of our dead grass and overgrown retaining wall--we have plans for that--just.you.wait. It's going to be awesome,in due time. We decided that instead of having it professionally cleaned out every two years, and resigning to the fact that no grass in it's right mind would ever grow under it's shade and droppings, that it was time for it to be turned into firewood. This would also open up endless possibilities for landscaping, a real patio, and grass! GREEN grass! without having to fuss over the tree any longer. Besides, I am convinced half the neighborhood's raccoon population resided in it.

Here's THE tree on Friday @ 2:00 p.m.

By Saturday @ 8:00 a.m.

Saturday afternoon

NZ and our neighbor, an "official" tree guy

( aka: knows-wtf-he's-doing)

And, by Sunday afternoon...

It's down. The trunk was at least 5 feet tall, since that's how tall I am

( and by the looks of it I may also be that wide soon !)

..Firewood anyone?