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