A Quick Two Weeks

Wow! It has been two weeks and I haven't posted one thing. It sure went by quick.

Here is a quick recap of what we have been up to.

We made the trip to College Station for my oldest daughter Jessie's Ring Ceremony.
She got the Gold!!!!
When the girls were Senors in High School they all wanted a big High School Ring. We all know the High School Class ring is just for High School so I bought all them a cheap Walmart Class Ring. You really couldn't tell the difference between it and one of those high dollar rings everyone else was wearing. I told each of them when they graduate from college I will buy the real deal because it will stay with them for the rest of their lives. So Jessie was the first to call my bluff on it and I had to dig deep, but she has got the gold now, it's the real deal. I am so happy I was able to do it and I was even more proud when I slid it on her hand. I was going to write a long sappy post about her and that ring, but it would not do justice to the way I feel. My girls are the best thing my wife and I have and will ever do. Graduation is set for August.

It was my honor to perform the wedding ceremony for my Nephew and his now wife last weekend. After three attempts, with the wedding being pushed back for one reason or another, they finally tied the knot.
I think I was more nervous than they were because I did not have the time to prepare. I wrote the ceremony on Monday and did not have the time to go over it until the day of.
Just so happens I had my Chili Hat in the truck and my Nephew said he wanted me to wear it, so I did.
Everything went off without a hitch. I am happy for them and wish them the best of luck. 

Other than that, last week we made several hand crafted decorations for a friend of mines soon to be grand son's baby shower. We made cup cake holders out of real trees and some other little wood crafts. We also made some trophies for an upcoming chili cook off in two weeks out of horse shoes. I don't know why I don't have pictures of any of it.

And this week we are getting ready for the new chili year by holding our own Chili Cook Off this weekend so preparations for that are underway as we speak.
I need all the support I can get on this so if anyone is around Gainesville TX and would like to cook, we would like for you and need for you to be there. Come on, you know you want to.


Really, other than that it's just the same old boring routine looking for something else to do.

See ya at the cook off,
Jerry

Going Out In Style

Last weekend we did a two day cook off in the little town of St. Jo
This was our last cook off of the Chili year and what a way to finish.

Our year runs from October 1st to September 30th. In that year you can cook at as many cook offs as you want, its all for charity and points. The only way to get invited to the World Championship is to get the points of your required state within that year. In my case Texas is 12 points. You get these points by placing. 1st place is 4 points, 2nd place is 3 points and 3rd place is 2 points. 4th through 10th gets 1 point. Some folks get their points right off the bat and not cook again all year. Me and Candy got ours a few months back but continued to cook because after all, it is for charity. I ended up with 24 points and Candy had 20.

Saturday I thought I had the winning Chili but I didn't even walk, I just made final table. Candy on the other hand walked up and received her 5th place trophy. I actually got a little frustrated for some reason.
Sunday, our last cook off of the year, me and Candy took it home. I won 1st place and she won 2nd.
We also won 2nd in show. Now that's how you finish a chili year right there.

Three weekends from now we start all over again. This time we only have about 18 cook offs scheduled and not the 30 we did this year.

While in St. Jo a fellow Modern Day Redneck reader came by and talked. We shared some good information and made plans to follow up with one another.
It is always good to meet fellow bloggers and people who have the same mentality as you do. You can learn from one another. In this case he is a lot more advanced in the solar configurations than I am so I am looking forward in getting some ideas on how he is did his house. 
To you my new friend, thanks for coming out and it was a pleasure to meet you.

This weekend I will be in College Station for my daughter's ring ceremony. She said it is almost as big as graduating. I can't wait.

Talk to ya later,
Jerry

It's About Time

Finally, I think summer is over.
Three days ago it was 101 degrees and today it's only going to be a high of 73. Also a little rain came in with the cold front so it's twice as good.

Tonight we are loading up for a weekend of Chili cooking in St Jo Texas. This will be our third year to go and the first time for a two day. We will be staying in the truck tent because it's too much trouble to break down the camper. If we were not living it, then we would take it.
I have never had any luck at this cook off. The wife has made top 10 two times but not me, not even in beans. Then again, this will be the first time I have cooked this recipe up there so we will see.
A big group of folks will be staying for day two and I know this will be too much fun.

Tiny House update.

After much deliberation and redesign, we decided to make it a little bigger, two feet wider to be exact. By doing this it will cut down on the crap pieces of lumber by utilizing the complete board and give us 32 more square feet. I think this will put us out of the "Tiny House" category and into the "Small House" one.
They say (and I don't know who they are) a tiny house is anything under 500 square feet.  We are now up to 560 square feet.
We also had to make our house pad a little bigger for it to set on. That meant bringing in more dirt and building the pad up. We will still need more dirt hauled in later to even out the edges and make it where it's a gentle slop up to the house and not a step up.
There has even been talk about adding a widow's walk to the middle section, but I don't know about that yet.
The buildings should be moved in next week so we can get them in place and get started. I can't wait to get out of the camper.


See ya next week with a picture of my first place trophy,
Jerry

Chugging Along

Even though things are quiet in my neck of the woods we are still chugging along.

It's been hot, too hot to really get excited about much. I have seen hotter Texas summers, but when it's hovering right at the century mark every day it's still too hot for me.

A couple weekends ago we moved the camper up to the land and are back living in it. It is a lot better than the RV Park by far. Out here it's quiet, away from town and most importantly away from people. Call me a hermit all you want but I sleep better now than I have in years. The Grand Baby is only three miles away now so we get to see her more along with my other two girls.
I guess I can sum it up by  saying "so far so good."
In two weeks we will be moving our buildings over and getting started on the tiny house. I will be using my shop (12 X 24) and my garden shed (10 x 16) to make it. The bathroom and laundry room will go go between the buildings. I think it will work out, it looks good on paper so to speak.

Last weekend was the Oklahoma State Chili Championship up in Durant. We did not take the camper

but still had a great time cooking with our chili family. Out of 93 cooks I took 9th and Candy took 5th. Both of us being in the top 10 in Oklahoma is saying something right there.
We had no intention on cooking chili Sunday. We were just going to hang around and have fun but we were talked into it. Sunday had 46 cooks and we did not even make final table. My excuse is that we had to borrow from other cooks, different spices and different recipes because we did not bring our own award winning supply. It was for a good cause so it really does not matter. We have our points so were are good.

What else........tap.......tap.......tap....., Hmmmmmmmmmm

Oh, last weekend was mine and Candy's 24th anniversary. Yup, 24 years. She wanted to go somewhere so I took her to a chili cook off. I'm such a romantic hu.  

Well I guess that's is for now,
See ya down the road.
Jerry