Good Morning All. Happy Friday the 13th. Mostly clear and 69°. Heavy dew and no wind so that makes it trash burning morning on the SFW estate. No wind also enables me to water the garden since it has been eleven days since the 2.5" rainfall. The timing is actually perfect. The calm morning won't last long though. It was good to sleep with the windows open again last night, we might get another week of the night time temperatures in the 60's. While the humidity is high here in the morning, it drops off rapidly to the 30% range by noon, about the same time that the temperature reaches the 90's.
Garden is coming along well. No pictures today, but the broccoli is starting to form heads, there's small tomatoes everywhere, the remaining five heads of Romaine are holding their own, onions are forming bulbs and the peppers have flowers. Yesterday I removed the red lettuce and remnants of the spinach plants since the heat meant an end to their useful lives. I won't be planting that variety of red lettuce again as it is just not as heat tolerant as I would like. We did have an early heat wave this season which didn't help. I'm seeing more grasshoppers than I would like to see, that could be a problem later.
The repair shop should be bringing my garden tractor/mower back today, so that I can resume mowing. That will help by chopping up some of those damn grasshoppers. Despite their name, those thing don't eat grass, they eat trees, flowers and vegetables.
Good grocery/beer trek yesterday. I was able to grocery shop, get gas, stop by the pharmacy for a prescription, the Vitamin Shop, and Lowe's to pick up some additional tomato cages; all in just under three hours including the 30 minute drive each way. I see gasoline is now $4.15/gal. Seems like last May, it was hovering around $2.35. In May 2020, it was $1.40. I wonder what's causing this? That war didn't start until late February. I'll leave it at that since "poly-tics".
Thanks for the likes and comments regarding the progress on the latest structure;
Karl, Guy, Smudge, Steve J, James, Sherrel, Tom O, Hughie, Patrick, Dave B, Curt, IB Ken, OB Ken.
I did not go out into the train shed yesterday, so no further progress. Grocery trip, laundry, gardening, supper prep and dealing with my late brothers inheritance took up my entire day.
Onward to the archive to see what I can find that I have not posted
How about a freight train passing through the town of Charlottesville, led by a pair of SD40-2's, only the lead engine visible.
Jeff - Got to admit that those were petty random thoughts!!!
Troy - How did the brisket turn out? I normally smoke mine in the smoker for 2-3 hours and then wrap in foil and move it to the oven to finish off for 7-8 more hours. For me at least, the temperature is easier to control in the oven. You would be surprised at how much the July sun shining on a black smoker can alter the temperature. Smaller cuts of meat are much easier to control.
Dave B - Good for you prevailing on the insurance thing.
There have been better opportunities for pictures of those Longhorns, but they occur when I am driving by and don' t have the camera. I don't always carry the phone either. As a breed, they are really quite docile.
Tom O - Regarding smoked meats - I don't smoke beef cuts except brisket. I am much more in favor of grilled cuts of beef. I do smoke pork and poultry cuts much more often. Buffalo is best grilled as it is just another form of beef,
I am not a theater person. When the lights go down, I'm asleep within a few minutes! I look at the scenery whenever I drive through either of the college campuses in Denton. The scenery also strays into the grocery store. There's close to 50,000 college students in Denton, UNT and TWU.
Everyone have a great day and an awesome weekend.