She Is Here

 Baby Rebecca has arrived. 7lbs 9 oz, 20" Long

The C-Section did not go as planned so they ended up inducing Hannah. After 28 hours of labor little Miss Rebecca is born.

I am truly at a loss of words about the whole thing.
I never could have imagined this....... 

Proud Grandparents

Finally, It's On The Way

It's all about Cooking Chili and Family. It has been that way for a while now.

Candy, Jessie and myself just got back from a great two day chili cookoff in Durant OK. On top of that it was the new camper's maiden voyage. We had a really great time and the camper is just what we were looking for. It's like having a mobile apartment. 
Saturday's cookoff was for the title of Southwest United States Champion. 153 cooks turned in, I walked with 23rd place. I was ecstatic, this was the fourth time we have cook this one and finally I walked.  

Sunday's cook off was for the North Of The Brazos Championship. 83 cooks turned in their chili, Candy walked with 8th place and I walked with 1st. Can someone give me a "Hell Yea"?
I am so proud of the wife for walking and getting some more points. This is the best we have ever done at a huge cookoff. She works really hard at making the perfect pot of Texas Red and prides herself on the taste. Candy now needs only 2 more points to be qualified for the World Championship in November.You go girl!
Our next cookoff is in Lone Oak Texas in two weeks.

Now for the important thing. Tomorrow at 8:30 AM we will be Grandparents for the first time. Hannah is scheduled for little Rebecca's delivery by knife because even though she is due, she has not turned and has no plans to do so.
We will be at the hospital at 6:00 AM in support. She is so scared and our nerves are shot. I can figure no sleep tonight for any of us. After a long nine months little Rebecca will finally be here.
I will post pictures tomorrow afternoon if you would like me to.

Thanks for hanging in there,
Jerry 

I Like It

I like Mothers day just about as much as all the other holidays because it brings the family together. It was March since I had all my girls together with me. So what if it takes a made up holiday to do it.
Jessie (mid right) is home from college for the summer, when she goes back she will be a senior. Kylee (left) is graduating High School next month and will a free spirit for a while and Hannah (right) will be having little baby Rebecca sometime at the end of this month and starting the long road of being a mommy.
It's funny how all three are bigger than their momma. I guess they they got that from my side.

As for me, I spent last week wheeling and dealing, doing some trading and coming up with our new bug out house. Alright, I can call it that to justify it, but it's really for chili cooking and camping trailer even though it could be used for bugging out if need be. 

Our old pop up camper was just too small now that our family is growing. The pop up was so cozy that you really had to like the folks you were camping with. With grand kids and son-in-laws, we needed more room.
A tent was nice in our 20's, the pop up was great in our 30's so this here should be what we need through our 40's and 50's.
To tell you the truth, when we saw it for the first time I told Candy (the wife, pictured in the middle above) I don't deserve something this nice. I don't feel I have been good enough to have this. I guess it's a mind thing, when you spend your whole life trying to live below your means it's hard to justify it to yourself you deserve something every now and then that shows how hard you work.
That big square in the back of the trailer, it's an outdoor kitchen. That was the selling point for me.
We will be using it for the first time this weekend. We have a chili cookoff in Greenville about 1 1/2 hours East from the house and there is a nice little lake close by we plan to stay at. Of course we will taking a bunch of folks with us so this will be a grate test for our new equipment.

That's all I got for now,
Kicking it High Class Redneck style
Jerry 

My Little Buddy

I don't think I have ever told the wife, "I'm going out with the guys." or "I'm going to go hang with my buddy."
The reason why, because she is my buddy. We do everything together. If I had a guy buddy then he would only be a friend because the best buddy spot is already taken.

This last Saturday me and my cute little buddy went to a chili cookoff not far from the house. This is our 18th cookoff this year and we still have twelve more to go to finish out the circuit. I already told everyone next year we will not be cooking as many due to time and funds. I think about 12 to 15 is enough next year. I just wanted to give this year 100% and see what would happen.
So this weekend was good, I won 2nd place and Candy got 4th. We cooked against 2 ex-world champs and 4 United States top ten chili cooks. We feel real good about the places we got. We are finally coming up in the chili world.
I have never been around such a great group of folks.

I didn't make it to the wedding we planned to go to Saturday evening. By the time we got home, unloaded, showered, changed and headed that way it was getting late. I figured we could at least get to the reception, but we have not eaten all day and were starving. By the time ate, ran by and loaded a dish washer a friend gave me, it was almost 7:00 PM. We just could not get there and now I got some folks upset with me cause of it. Well hell, I can't make them all.

Sunday me and my fine little buddy needed to get out and relax so we loaded up the truck and went golfing. I really wanted to go fishing, but an ex semi pro friend of mine asked us to go, so we did. We needed to get out, away from people and just have a good time. Don't get me wrong, chili cooking is fun, but it's tough. Golfing, as bad as I am, I don't even care enough to be good so I have fun.
Like always, I was not hitting too good so my friend let me use his $400 driver. Ohhhh it felt good, but there is no way I would ever. All my clubs combine were either given to me or from garage sales.
A couple of practice swings (man this club felt good) address the ball, (I like this club) Here we go.....Whack, crack. What the hell? Man I spanked that ball, but looking over my shoulder, the driver broke right in half. Holly crap!
Well, now I can check this off the bucket list.
Yup, It's right under #37. Watching the sunset in Greece, #38. Golf with a semi pro golfer and break his clubs, check.

This weeks plans are to work on the gardens, get the baby chicks out of the brooder area and get my fishing equipment out and ready.
Saturday me and my cooking buddy will be cooking in Lewisville Tx. Yall come out if you get the chance.
Then Sunday, She will be my fishing buddy and we plan to spend most of the day down at the lake under a shade tree, watching our bobbers float.

Who said life was boring when the kids all leave?

See ya on the flip side.
Jerry

Busy Is An Understatment

A few months ago I posted about how busy these couple of months were going to be, well I wasn't kidding.
The saving grace is, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

For starters we have had several bad storms blow through and created a lot of damage. As soon as we got one thing fixed another storm would come in and tear something else up. We got a handle on it though but the weather man said another round is coming through tonight so I need to get out and batten down the hatches.

Saturday was my middle daughter's baby shower. Knowing we can never do anything small, we blew this shower up with games, a photo booth, many many decorations and enough food to feed an army.

 Candy and I got the first picture with the mom to be in the photo booth.
Who ever said we were not cool parents.

The men started showing up and we had our own lounging area. I felt really out of place because I had nothing to cook. Usually I am cooking and serving for hours and by the time I get to eat it's cold and not much is left.
This time Candy told me she was going to do it all because I always do so much. So I got to sit out back with the guys and lie, spit and tell jokes. It was a good time. I even had some women folk say they have never been to a baby shower like this one.

I hope everyone had a great Easter Sunday. We spent it having a nice quiet dinner with some friends. A huge change from previous years. I think we are all partied out.
What's next you ask, The youngest girls graduation, the last one.

Next weekend will be about the same. A Chili Cook Off, A Wedding, A BBQ cook out with friends and maybe a round of golf. Sometime I plan to wet a hook and just relax, maybe next weekend.

Until then,
Jerry

Just Life

First off I want to congratulate my oldest daughter Jessie for winning 2nd place at the chili cookoff we were at this weekend.

Yes, the student has now become the teacher. I only got 7th place with my chili and my beans only made 4th. Candy's chili got 13th and out of the group we were cooking with, only one other placed. It was a tough group we were cooking against but I think we made a great showing. 

Saturday night I took some of the family and met the rest of them at the yearly Crawl Fish Boil a guy we know has every year. About three thousand folks showed up and like always, the food was amazing. It took a while, but I did get full.












We had a huge storm blow through Thursday night that caused a lot of damage. We spent Friday afternoon fixing all that and then it rained all day Sunday. We sure needed the rain and it was a good one. A lot of runoff came from it and should fill the lake up at least 6" or so.

I have one more picture I want to show. This just came to me today from my middle daughter Hannah.

  This is the face of my grand baby, Rebecca. I cannot wait to pinch those little chubby cheeks. Only 1 1/2 more months to go.
This is truly amazing, I am blessed 

Chasing My Tail

At the begging of the winter I do as we all do and winterize everything outside.

Among all the other things I did to get ready for the freezing months, it also includes draining all the irrigation lines and draining the bathhouse. No matter how hard I try, there are still a busted pipe or two when I pressure up the lines again in the spring. Last year I had to replace my solar water pump and fixed two broke lines out in the gardens and one in the chicken pen.  
This years broken pipes are unbelievable. I drained everything, ran my pump dry and blew out all the lines. I thought I was set. I turned on the big rainwater tanks and right off the bat the pipe was busted just outside the valve. Fixed that one, crossed my fingers and turned the pump on. Right outside the pump box another one, fixed that one. At least the pump was still good. Then two more right before the pipe enters the bathhouse, so I fixed fixed those. I ran the pump and watched as water started pouring out of the bathhouse, fixed that one as well. Finally, the pump pressured up and I thought I was in the clear then, "Pop", blew another line, fix that one to.
After all that the bathhouse is up and running again. I took my first shower of the spring in it two nights ago. I sure have missed those showers. It's natural, refreshing and best of all, free.

I have not even pressured up the gardens yet, I am almost afraid to do so. 

This last couple of weeks have been really busy. I have some more stuff to tell ya but I don't want to sit and bore you with too long a post. plus it will give me something to say later.

See ya then,
Jerry

Turn Out The Lights.....

The party's over. They say all good things must end.
I don't know the rest of the song but it is fitting for the occasion.

Due to the weather, we ended up moving the whole thing over to my Dad's barn. It took three days to set up and all day Sunday to break down. Needless to say, we are tired.

 I could not have asked for a better turn out for Kylee. Somewhere between 60 and 70 people showed up with about 30 calling and cancelling. The weather had a lot to do with it.
Good people, good food and good fun.

 The band played Old Southern Rock and Old Country for most of the night. I can't thank these folks enough for coming out and doing what they did for her.

 We served smoked wild whole hog we caught a month or so back with several side dished cooked in dutch ovens and many others were cooked and refrigerated until eating time. We also had so many appetizers that I can't even remember what all they were. The stuffed peppers were the biggest. Folks were eating them right off the grill. 

 You can tell in this picture I am tired. My Dad started cooking around 6:00 AM and I finally got started around 7:30 AM

I finally called it a night close to midnight. Here it is Tuesday and I am still trying to recover.

This was my last big party I ever plan to host. Next month is the middle girls baby shower and all we are planning is finger foods and about 20 people. The women folk will stay inside and do whatever they do when the men folk that are dragged along will sit outside with me, around the fire, drinking a cold one. Now that sounds like fun.

Until next time,
Jerry

18 At Last

Tomorrow is my youngest girl Kylee's 18th birthday party.

This has been in the works for 18 years, to have the last one of our daughters become an adult. Candy and I are done raising kids.
That does not mean we are done being parents, it just means we have raised three great daughters the best we could and now it is up the them with little guidance from us. We are now in the advisory role you might say.

Kylee and I bonded early in life. She was my baby girl and always followed me around doing whatever I did. Her and her momma hardly saw eye to eye because Kylee knew all she had to do was bat her eyes at me and I would melt. I tried to always have Candy's back like a good husband and stand behind her decisions, but Kylee knew in the end I would have hers as well so she played it like that. I guess after being such a hard ass with the other two girls I wanted to try and be the good parent with this one. 
The thing about Kylee is, she can always make your bad day into a good one. She is someone who you want to be around because she is always trying to make you laugh and when she sees you need it, she will force you to hug her. There are days I don't want to be in a good mood, but she makes me. She is the sunshine in any room she goes into.

I have really enjoyed watching her grow up over the years even though it happen way too fast. It always does. It has been such a blessing to be her daddy, that part will never change. I only hope that one day when I am long gone she will be able to reach back in her memory and think of me and smile.

I love you Kylee and happy birthday. 

Cow Town Chili

Yesterday was a blast.

I cooked with my wife Candy and oldest daughter Jessie while the middle girl and some other family members came by for support.
Hannah is getting so big and I felt my grand daughter move for the first time yesterday. The grand baby thing is still a little weird to me, but I'm growing on the idea. I have finally come up with what I want to be called, Gpop. I know it sounds a little gangster, but what the hell.

There were seven of us all cooking together from our Pod. A Pod is a group of chili cooks inside the CASI (Chili Appreciation Society International) organization. There are Pods all over the US. All you have to do is find one near you by going to casichili.net and get involved and start cooking. You don't have to be a member of anything to cook chili, but it's better that you are, even if it's for support.

This cookoff was a big one, 133 cooks in all. Some came all the way from Illinois. I did the best out of our Pod by getting 21st and making final table. They called down to 22nd place so I just made it. That's not as good as I wanted but it is saying something. There were about ten ex-world champions cooking and they didn't make final table.
We could have cooked again today but the weather did not hold out. By turn in time yesterday it was raining cats and dogs. The winds picked up and it became just stupid to be out there. About 55 cooks stayed the night and are cooking today in 40 MPH winds, not me my friends. I am sitting here in the house fat, dry and happy.

Y'all have a great week.

Jerry 

I Have Fought Tougher

I got my butt kicked this last week, it put me down for seven days. I have fought tougher, but I can't

remember when. His name is, "The Flu"
Back in October I got my shot just for that reason, but a different type of flu found me out, type B.
It has been 15 years since I last called into work from being sick, now it's only been three days.
I was so careful though. It makes me wonder if all the things I was doing to keep from getting sick was worth it. 

Being I feel better and now back to work I plan to do some chili cooking this weekend at Cabela's in Ft. Worth. If anyone is around that way and wants to stop by, just look us up. Last year there were 160 cooks. This one is a good one to come out and get your feet wet if you ever wanted to cook.


Trying to knock the cobwebs out,

Jerry
 

Another Round Of Ice

This weekend cooking chili in Oklahoma was kinda nice. It was my birthday weekend and it was good to get away, even if it was for only a day and a half.

The thing about cooking competitively in Oklahoma is that I am from Texas. Everyone knows the rivalry between the two states and yes, it goes all the way down to chili cooking. There were four of us from Texas and twenty four of them. I have seen worse odds, but I can't remember when.
The chili was cooked and turned in and when they started calling the top ten, the first three were Okies. There were cheers and laughter, chest bumps and high fives, taunts and whistling all from that side of the room. Our side was quite, we only had four, talk about segregation, but we sat patiently. One guy even hollered across the room, "TAKE THAT TEXAS." I just gave him a thumbs up and waited.
Sixth place, Texas. Fourth place, Texas. First place show, Texas. First place chili, TEXAS.

There was no need to gloat, no need to hoot and holler, no need to jump up and run around the room with the Texas flag. We all knew this was going to happen. In the end I thanked them all for Oklahoma sucking so bad because if not, Texas would fall into the Gulf.  

We were planning on staying another night, but an ice storm was coming in. Last time we were away we got stuck out in West Texas and almost didn't make it back because of such a storm. Now if I was to be stranded somewhere in an ice storm, I sure don't want it to be Oklahoma so we headed back Saturday night.

The storm did come through and I was sure glad we made the decision to go back home early. All day

Sunday and Monday we were iced in with nothing to do. The wife got bored and made up another four dozen tamales. It's an all day process and I watched her from the couch. My only job was to keep the fire going and I did that well. If they gave a medal for the person who kept the fire going the best, I would have won first place.
She did a great job and now we have enough tamales to last a long time.



It's back to work today and now I am a year older, a little slower, a little dumber and a lot more fatter than I was only a year ago.    

See y'all down the road,
Jerry