Happy Father's Day

Major props for probably my best Father's Day ever. Gran and Jessie (and Sassie and Josh) came to visit. We had a great time. Before they arrived, Sally took me in her arms and said the most romantic thing she has ever said to me. She said "Since it is Father's day we should do something you REALLY want to do. Let's take down the dining room wall!!!" Is there any doubt as to why I love this woman. So, Saturday morning I got Jessie up early and we harvested the garden. She got to pull the first watermelon (more on that later). Then, we went to work! Jessie had such a good time tearing down the wall. She and Sally were great carpenter's helpers. I was was so proud of how hard they worked and so excited to get this project on its way to complete. As a reward, we took Gran and Jessie to see "On Golden Pond" at the Unity Theater.

Sunday was very laid back. I worked on finishing up some loose ends on the wall project. Sally and Jessie got lunch ready for the grill. Sally also finished MAKING PLUM JELLY from the plums off of our tree. I grilled hamburgers, tatume' and corn. Jessie gave me a gift certificat to Lowe's. So she was fully invested in the wall project. She provided capital and labor, thank you very much! Sally gave me an oscillating sprinkler on a stand. This is awesome. It makes it so much easier and better to water the garden. After a fabulous lunch, Sally told me to close my eyes for another surprise. She stuck something very sweet into mouth mouth. It was our watermelon. But that wasn't the surprise. The surprise was the color of the watermelon. It was yellow and it was awesome! What a wonderful way to end a very wonderful weekend.

Going Green With God

Last weekend started with dinner and a show. Sally and I went to see "On Golden Pond" at the Unity Theater in Brenham (http://www.unitybrenham.org/). For me, this was the most enjoyable production we have seen. Dinner was also very enjoyable. We actually meet two couples that are our approximate age!

Saturday morning found us on our way to Waco. We met Heather and Lucy Petter at Ruby Caroline (http://rubycaroline.net/) to observe a wedding that was being set up. this was to prepare us for the set up of Heather and Jared's upcoming nuptials. It was very lovely and I thoroughly the trip. After that, we went to Sam's and bought the non-alcoholic drinks, plate, napkins, cups, etc for the big day. After that we headed back to Gran's where we met up with Whitney and Kristen Schuetz. Gran fixed a lovely dinner. Megan, John and their kids showed up. We all had a lovely time. After that we ran over to the Litteral's for drinks with Andy, Tracie, Gary and BeBe. Shaun and Katie Jo were in. She is so pregnant! We had a great visit.

Sunday found us at St. Louis for Father David's last mass. It was kind of sad. He is really the only priest I have ever known. Sad as it was, it was very good to see all of our old friends. You don't realize how important some things are until they are gone. We really do miss the community that we had in Waco. After mass we ate with the girls. They gave me a lovely garden book for Father's Day. After lunch we headed back to Brenham so Sally could start Vacation Bible School. This year's theme is "Going Green With God". She is helping for the whole week. She talked me into giving a talk about composting. It went well and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. After the talk I visited with Father Ivey. He is a very interesting man. His under grad is in Horticulture from A&M! Whoop!

Memorial Day Weekend

What a wonderful and busy Memorial day weekend! It started with my first horticultural article being published on HortUpdate (http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/2010/may/potager.html). This was a very exciting event for me. I was at A&M when it happened and everyone there was so complimentary. Sally was truly over joyed as well. I am very happy about this and I look at it as the first step down the road to my next career. After work, I went home and Sally and I mowed and edged our property. It was hard work but the house and yard are really beginning to look very nice.

The weekend really started on Saturday. All of Sally's siblings came to our house for breakfast and a discussion on where to bury MiMi. It went well and everyone had a lovely time. Kim and Mike both suggested hosting these get togethers more frequently. Everyone liked the changes we are making to the house and they loved the garden. Before the got there I picked 26 pounds of beans, squash and tomatos. They all took food home. After they left Sally and I went to the dump and got a load of mulch. We mulched our beds. That really made a diffence. Everything looks so nice. After that we went to mass and then just chilled on the porch.

Sunday was the annual "100 Days of Summer" festival at our church. We worked the "Trash to Tresure" booth. Sally was awesome! She worked so hard and sold so much junk that I was truly impressed. After it was over we were beat. We went home and crashed for an hour or so and then we started grilling. We cooked corn, hamburgers and calabacita squash. We washed our meal down with Diet Cokes with a splash of lime. Very refreshing. The whole meal was awesome, but the squash gets some extra praise. I will definately be growing this squash variety again.

Monday found us in the row graden by 7:00. We built the beds for our purple hulls and okra. We also finished mulching the potatos and we laid down the soaker hoses and newspapers between the rows for weed control. We also worked on cleaning up the mess behing the cedar fence. After this we showered and ate wonderful leftovers. We then took a holiday nap. Once we got up we went to DQ for a sundae. After that we rode around in the country for about an hour. Then we hit the yard again. We planted the plants Sally bought for me as a present for getting published. We also planted all of the plants that we got at the palnt booth at the church picnic. All in all it was a lovely, lovely, long weekend.