other dog

This is what I'm going to do with some of those jalapenos, it's called cowboy candy. Vicki from Florida told me about it, I'd never heard of it.

Yep, I've been staying pretty busy lately with moving, the garden, tearing down and putting up sheds, but when I first retired I couldn't help but notice that what used to be muscle turned to flab fast!

I like fried squash and onions, add some potatoes in with it and it's even better. That's about the only way I've ever had squash, but Zina makes a squash casserole that is absolutely delicious. It's got onions in it too, and I think she mentioned Bisquick, but I couldn't tell you what else. I was watching that yellow tomato that's almost ripe and never even noticed this red one- These peppers will eventually turn red too, I've only picked a couple of them so far.

Yep, that's a yellow tomato all right. I could have picked it yesterday, but it still has a little bit of green on it. I'll pick it this afternoon. Speaking of green, I picked the green beans yesterday, but I cooked them already. We had them and some squash with the ribs I smoked. Anybody want some squash or zucchini? We've got plenty 😁

Zina's new bird feeder, held onto the window with suction cups. Works great. A here's a girl in a car, from the interweb.

Nice garden! I don't know what to do with so many peppers either. I'll make some hot sauce like always, but I still have hot sauce from last year. I have a bottle I haven't even mailed to Bob yet, and have a box of hot sauce we were going to take to Macungie but forgot. I'm not used to having the garden grow as good as it did here this year. I was happy to get a tomato the size of a tennis ball in Gladys, and I put fertilizer in the rows when I planted, sprayed Miracle Gro on everything, but it didn't make any difference. This year I worked for a couple of days tilling and raking this spot over and over, and then just planting. Never put any fertilizer on anything but the peppers are huge and those tomatoes are almost softball size, and the vines are loaded. Maybe I should set up a roadside vegetable stand, about 4 or 5 vehicles pass by here every day.

We'll have green beans in a day or two, more peppers, and the tomatoes are looking good too. Everybody wants a ripe tomato by the 4th. of July, so these better get a move on! I planted some yellow tomatoes too, so maybe that's what these are, who knows...

Garden's looking pretty good too. We have lots of squash, zucchini, and peppers.

I got the grass cut, it's about 90 degrees here. As soon as I get the truck unloaded it'll be Miller time. My favorite Miller picture-

Guess I'll load the push mower in the pickup and ride to Gladys and cut the grass. We had a lot of rain in the last couple of weeks and I haven't cut the grass since the last time. We still have stuff to move too so I'll be loaded both ways.

Just for contrast to the photo for contrast, here's the group photo from 2018. It was on my Facebook memories today. I might have added the photographer and the caption later though.

I was going through some pictures a while ago and found this extremely rare, probably the only photo in existence, of the very first smoker shack I had. This was like a lean-to off the end of my back yard shed when I lived in Appomattox before. I built that shed too, it was closed on the back and both ends but open in the front. I used roof sheets that I salvaged from a house that caught fire, and all the wood was scrounged up from wherever I could find it. It's a wonder any structure I've built lasted more than a couple of days before collapsing. Anyhow, the smoker here is an old electric range, it has the door propped shut with a bar, and the fire box appears to be sitting on a cinder block and a piece of wood.

Well, it looks a lot better than my redneck Riviera. I mean my "all bidness station", I wouldn't think of sitting in that folding chair and drinking beer 😁. And now, "the rest of the story" behind that "smoker shed"... I just wanted a little shed to put over the smoker to protect it- and me- from the weather. I talked to "fence guy" about building me something because he did a pretty good job with the fence, his wife just had a baby, and he does handyman work for a living. And he's just a nice guy. I sent him this picture and told him I wanted something like this- This was a "do it yourself" kit from Lowe's or Home Depot, I think it was about 11 or $1200. I told him it didn't have to be anything fancy, just a small shed like this one that I built myself out of scrap material that I accumulated. So he said "ok, I'll build you something like that for $400". So I said OK, and he came over here when we were still in Gladys and put this "monstrosity" as Zina called it up, taking up half the back yard. That shelf he put on it was about chest high. When I saw it I was so pissed I made it look like this- Zina was beyond pissed, she was irate. It was nothing like what I told him I wanted, and nothing on it was straight, nothing was square, nothing was level. It was way taller than I wanted, and it was turned the wrong way - I wanted it parallel to the fence, not sticking way out into the yard. I had to take all those boards loose, and take the shelf apart with a ratchet. Not a nail in anything, he used all screws. And for some reason the screws were countersunk halfway through the board. I caught hell getting all those screws out, but I had to reuse the boards. He sent me a text message a few days later and said he was coming over to put the roof on it. I texted him a picture of it completely dismantled and laying on the ground and told him he could just drop the metal off, i'd do it myself. Then I had to go to the hardware store and get a pair of tin snips to cut the roof sheets shorter, and they were $22. But I'm real happy with the finished product, I think it looks pretty good. Now I've got to get the other grill that's still in Gladys over here. I'm going to need help loading it, it's really heavy. Hopefully I can get my neighbor to bring his tractor over this weekend to load it.

By the way, Jim did tell me to say "hello" to the guys on here- "well, most of them anyway". I said "what about the rest, tell them to gfy?" And he said "don't be too harsh". I don't know who's who, or even what the issue was/is, and I didn't ask. It was nice to talk to him for a bit though.

I had a 68 Camaro with a 250 in it. The rear main seal leaked the whole time I had it, ran it out of oil many times. I think they had to be one of the toughest engines ever made, I'd fill it back up with oil and ride on, never hurt it. With that being said, at least we know what to get you for Christmas - a piece of wood!

You're welcome!

I did get a picture of a dog and a Dodge that didn't get posted on Flickr.

Thankfully we've had no hail or storms here, but it's rained every day this week. We needed the rain though, and it's been raining ever since we got home, light and steady for the most part. Still haven't gotten the bed moved because of it, we're going to try to get it this weekend.

You're welcome.

I agree.

I got all my pictures from all the cameras on all the days posted up on Flickr...except maybe a few that's on my phone...anyway, here's what i've got so far- just click on the picture.

well, I finally got my pictures on Flickr- just click on the picture for all of the exciting photos from Macungie!

...and that barbecue that Star made was fantastic!

Yes indeed, very good eatin'!

I got it hooked up and working, got all the pictures downloaded off of both cameras, but I'm not connected to the Internet. One camera had 240 pictures, the other had over 200, I forgot the exact number, but there's over 400 pictures anyway. Lots of duplicates I'm sure, because when I passed by a truck that I really liked I'd take a picture of it. Then if I passed by it again 5 minutes later I'd take another picture.