Beets

Dinner plate sized beets.  This made two batches of pickled beets on Saturday.

Soaking In San Diego Life

 

 Now that we have a special canoe hauling car, we took advantage of another nice San Diego Saturday and went fishing on the bay.  The fish that my wonderful husband is holding is actually one I caught.  I have to let him take the fish off the hooks because he has all the tackle by his seat.  He says this is a type of Bass.

 This next fish is one that he caught.

we hosted a special church potluck on Father's Day.  We grilled Carne Asada and enjoyed a mexican style feast.  We held a baptism as well.  It is a first for our hot-tub.  We were thrilled to be a part of Chicacco's special day.

I wish blogger would let the video's be of better quality.  I'll have to research that a bit more and see if I can figure out why they turn out this way.  My Wonderful husband is getting better at Mandolin playing, he sure has fun.

My Wonderful husband has been rebuilding our tent trailer.  He welded a new frame, almost starting the rebuilding from scratch.  The other one was made of particle board and was "literally"  held together with just one screw.  I think some of our off road journey's were a bit much for the old trailer.  Now he is ready to put the skin on the outside and try to get the slide- in bedframe and 'tent' back on.  I'll be sure to post pictures when it's all complete.

 

Here is my Wonderful Husband posing with his two more of his girlfriends, the mandolin and the Octave Mandolin.

My Wonderful Husband was able to take a personal day this week.  Were able to spend the day at the San Diego County Fair.  I don't remember what the above flower is, but it sure was AMAZING.  That is really what color it was.  The picture below was during the sky-ride across  the grounds. Beautiful.

Here is out Sully testing out his shooting skill.  He didn't win this particular game but won at FOUR others.

 

This is Sully and his Dad on a ride.

 

This is one of the FOUR games that he won.  He is holding his prize, a white and orange spotted goldfish, who is still un-named.

 

 

These are the three other prizes he won.  He had a GOOD day.

 

I met all my best girls (Tonya and her daughters) at our favorite beach on Shelter Island for a lunchtime hot dog roast.  Banjo is doing what I told him. . . STAY.  But he is keeping his eye on me while I am unloading the car.

And here is Sully, unable to resist a dip in the freezing bay water.

 

And baby Alex flying her own kite.  She eventually tired of doing it by herself and we tied the kite to a chair.

This lady came down with three huge sacks of treats for the Seagulls.  The acted  very excited that she was there.  

We've been taking the TOY-ota most Wednesday's to the car show here in our little downtown area.  This week was movie theme cars.  I only took pictures of my favorites.  Some of the ones I didn't get photo's of were:  The General Lee, Roscoe P. Coaltranes Sheriffs Car, The Green Lantern Car, Herbie the Love Bug and Starsky and Hutch's car.

And from the garden this week:  Okra.  I've got almost two quarts in the freezer now.

I love how they look like little flowers.

 

 

This is the leaf from the pumpkin plant called "Warty Thing"  I think it's just beautiful.  With it's little warts on the leaves.  No pumpkins yet.

 

I can't remember the name of this one.  He is cute.

 

This is one of the first Black Diamond Watermelons.  It is about as big as my thumb.  There are three total on the vines so far.

 

 The neighbors have already been benefiting from the produce fairy leaving goodies at their door.  My zucchini and cucumbers seem to be going crazy.  If we leave the zucchini just a day too long, they grow over 12 inches  and weigh over a pound EACH. 

This last one is a spaghetti squash.  I think we'll be able to get two crops of some some of the squashes this year.

Last night we enjoyed a cultural event.  We attend a concert of  'The Piano Guys'  It was AMAZING!

Sully is posing with his 'cocktail' a Ginger Beer.  He didn't like it, at all.

This is the stage, right before Jon Schimdt and Steven Sharp Nelson came on stage.

I wish this was a better picture but there was HUGE signs all over, Warning that photography WAS NOT ALLOWED!  So I am dragging out my chirping, beeping camera to sneak a picture.

Taking a picture beside a Lexxus.  They were the event sponsors.

 

 We've been busily enjoying life.  How about you? 

Okra, It's What's For Dinner

My garden is doing very well this year.  My Wonderful husband put an automatic waterer on it.  I'm just now starting to get tomatoes.  The collard greens are turning out wonderful.  We planted melons, squash, and pumpkins recently, those are growing very well in the old tires we got for them.  I planted Okra from seed to try this year.  We've tried it several ways in the past and discovered the only two ways we like to eat it are fried and in a chicken gumbo.  Tonight we are having gumbo for dinner, planned just around the ripening Okra.

I've got some amazing beets this year as well, almost the size of a dinner plate.  My Wonderful husband and I really like to eat the beet greens.  I wilt them with a bit of olive oil, garlic and  then hit them with a splash of balsamic vinegar.  YUM!  The beets are also very good in the juicer.  They make very sweet juice.  We've also been enjoying them pickled.

One of our favorite summer dinners is grilled chicken and fresh grilled zucchini and summer squash.  I marinate the chicken in italian dressing all day.  Drain the dressing and then throw the chicken on a hot charcoal grill.  The zucchini has been extra tasty on a kabob with fresh, green onion segments.

That's my helper.  School is over for the season.  I've hired him to pull weeds and pick up poo today.  His payment was $5.00 worth of HALO figurines.  I just made him a concoction of vinegar in a spray bottle to go and spray on some of those pesky weeds.  It must be fun, I haven't heard a peep out of him for almost a 1/2 an hour!

 Doesn't the garden look good?

 The above picture . . .is my Black Diamond Watermelon.  It is one of my favorite things to eat when I visit Kansas City, Missouri in the summertime.

 This one will be a Moon and Stars melon.  It will be a deep green skin with little yellow stars, just like these leaves.

 Not sure what the yellow flowers are.  They are part of the wildflower seed mix I scattered in the wells we dug last summer for Palm trees.  The gophers got most all the palms.  The flowers make it look really pretty around the garden.

The Bachelor Buttons are blooming in all sorts of colors . . . pink, light blue, dark blue, purple.  they are one of my favorites.  These don't seem to smell.  I thought I remembered Bachelor Buttons with a heavenly smell?

. . . And the Ledford Lizard Farm is lively with young baby lizards.

 

Tonyas' girls love to play with my old Barbies when they come over.  Sammie puts them on the fireplace hearth and makes them a cozy home.  She dresses them up and pretends with them.  Her little sister Alex wants to do everything her big sister does.  It is fun to hear them play with my old things. Last week I invited Julianna (our pastor's daughter) to come and entertain the girls while I babysat 1/2 a day for Tonya.  They all had fun, just don't feed them beet greens :-)

Alex

 Julianna and Sammie

 Settling down with Lego Friends on Netflix while waiting for Momma to pick them up.

Two last things.  My Wonderful husband bough himself a new toy.  (Someday we will have to discuss boys and their toys . . .)

 A Weber Octave Mandolin.  It sounds like a guitar.

And to cement his status as MOST WONDERFUL HUSBAND, he bought me a canoe hauler. 

(AFTER he ordered his Octave Mandolin!)

This is how I thanked him. . .

Have a great week!