Happy Birthday to Me!

To celebrate my birthday, (58th for those that are counting) I thought quite a bit about what I wanted to have to eat. We had the following for the main meal: BBQ ribs, pasta salad using tomatoes from the garden, corn on the cob from a local farmer, and green beans and squash from the garden. It was too much to fit on one plate, so here are the two plates of food. It was really good.
I ate quite a bit and needed to relax a little before I could even think about desert. This is me relaxing on the couch with some presents just before I opened them. Thank you.
For desert, we had peach pie made with Eckerts peaches and served with home made vanilla ice cream.
It was all incredibly tasty.

We also made two additional peach pies that were frozen. We plan on bringing those to Neil’s house for Thanksgiving. There will need to be some work on an insulation/cooling system to safely transport the pies, but there are a few months to work on that.

Thank you to all those who helped make it such a wonderful day.

Green Beans and Squash... and Tomatoes

In the last half of last week, the green beans and squash plants in the garden hit their peak production.

By Sunday, I had so much extra that I took most of it to church to give to others. I filled the bottom half of this cooler with green beans. I then stacked about 30 squash on one side of the cooler and then filled in the rest of the space with green beans to fill the cooler.
Lots of people were happy to have squash and green beans and I gave away all that I had and could have given away even more if I had it.

I have been picking more since then but the production rate is starting to drop off a bit, but Joseph and I eat squash or green beans every day for dinner. I may still need to give some more away, but Mom is going to want to eat a lot of squash and green beans when she gets home in two days. We’ll be prepared.

I have been picking some tomatoes, but it is a war against the squirrels. I have to pick them while they are still mostly green but showing red. They complete the ripening process on the counter in the kitchen. If I don't, the squirrels eat part of the tomato and leave the rest for Rocky. I think I am winning, but not by much. It is a good thing I planted more than I need.

Great Seats

Emerson has a Luxury Suite at Busch Stadium where the St. Louis Cardinals play baseball. The Emerson Luxury Suite is right behind home plate and one level below the radio announcers. Since we also get food, drinks and our own bathroom, it is hard to get a better seat. Occasionally, our division has the opportunity to use the suite for a game. Since they typically have more people wanting to go to the game than tickets available, they sometimes ask who wants to go and randomly pick names. This time they gave the tickets away in pairs for last Friday night’s Baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. I was one of 8 people to win two tickets.

I would have taken my sweetheart on a date, but she is in Utah being the best mom in the world, so Joseph agreed to go with me in her place. This was the first game played after the All Star Game. This is a photo of the field in the 1st inning. If you look at the grass, you can see the image of the arch and courthouse in the way the grass was cut.

Chris Carpenter was pitching, so I thought the Cardinals had a good chance of winning. In the 4th inning, Albert Puhols started the scoring with a home run. When he came up in the 6th inning, the first 3 pitches were not even close to the plate. The crowd booed the pitcher for not giving Albert anything good to hit. He then threw the next pitch right over the center of the plate. Even though it is standard instruction for the Cardinals that you let a 3-0 pitch go without swinging, Albert blasted another homerun.The Cardinals scored 2 more runs in the 7th and again in the 8th. Carpenter left the game after 8 innings leading 6-0. The D-backs scored a run in the 9th off a relief pitcher, but it was still a fun game. Since I was there for the win, I can ignore the fact that the Cardinals have lost 3 out of the last 4 games since the one I went to.
At this game, as we filed into the stadium, they were passing out Puhols T-shirts. The only size was X-Lg. Joseph is hoping that washing in hot water and drying them on high heat will shrink them down to fit a thinner frame. Here is a photo showing the front and back of the shirt.

Family Visit

On Sunday, July 12 (Mom’s Birthday), Neil, Ashley and their kids stopped by the house for a visit on their short drive from Indiana to Arizona. I fixed stir fried udon, with squash from the garden fried with the noodles. We also had green beans from the garden on the side. Dinner was tasty, but the company was better. We played and had a good time.
I made a batch of home made ice cream and served it with sliced strawberries from the garden. The ice cream must have been pretty good. They ate every bit. The green bib was the same one Neil wore when he was two.

We played until it was time to go to bed.

I had to leave early the next morning to go to scout camp and Neil and family left early to drive back to Arizona. Thank you for stoppping for a visit.

Eagle Lake

We went to Eagle Lake again this year. As uaual it wsa lots of fun. This is Joseph and Ryan Blank in kayaks.There was lots of frisbee throwing in camp. This is Bret and Sam involved in the Frisbee throw. Adam, Sam and Jack just loved Bret and couldn't get enough playing with Bret time.

In the lake, Bret towed the boys on tubes with a kayak. I went out to join the fun as a "pirate ship". I used my pirate kayak to attack at ramming speed and splash the boys.

Dallin came with his parents. He liked being outdoors a lot, which is good because there was lots of outdoors. There were also lots of people willing to hold him. Here he is with his grandma.

We had two large campsites that were a good distance from anyone else and we were still close to the restrooms. It was great. As usual, we were camped in the trees for intermittent shade.

Bret's "tent" was actually a hammock. Yes, he really is in there. There is about a 1 inch space between the white sheet and the blue sleeping bag that he breathed through.

This is the group photo before we left on Saturday. I think I speak for all of us in saying that we had a great time.