A Sunday Spring BBQ 2017

  The weather this month has been wonderful, so we've been playing in the yard a lot. Sunday I figured it was high time to fire up my old pit and "Q" up some meat. I planned to go "low and slow" this time, so I set my ol' pit fire up in the wick method.

 I placed a split hickory log (bark removed) at the far left, against the wall by the air intake, then put unlit charcoal spread out by the log.

I lit my chimney using wadded up pieces of the charcoal bag to get the coal lit. I've owned several of these charcoal chimneys over the years, but I can't brag enough about the Weber chimney in da picture that Peggy got me for Christmas this last year. By far the easiest lighting, best drafting, quickest chimney I ever used and I highly recommend it.  

I poured the lit coals on top of the log, which got the log lit and smoking, and also the charcoal I had next to the log. This technique gives me a nice long-lasting fire that stays hot for five hours.

Next, I placed a piece of a brisket (I had gotten on sale) onto the pit. (It's just me and Peggy, so when I get a brisket on sale, I cut the thin end off for the pit and make three or more pot roasts out of the thick end for Sunday dinners.

To keep the brisket company I invited some pork strips to the party.

After a couple of hours of nice low, slow smoke I threw on a pack of cheap weenies for appetizer treats for us and da dawgs.

The brisket tail came out wonderful, tender and delicious.

Sorry...when I fixed ya a plate, I forgot the brisket but ya have pork, weenies corn on the cob, Peggy's wonderful coleslaw and when I wasn't looking, she piled a load of 'healthy' California blend on top. Hope ya enjoy it, cause Lord as my witness, I sure did.

 

Please remember clicking a add is like pennies from heaven to us and we pray for all who visit our sponsors on the way out. 

Thanks and may God bless you and yours. 

Peggy's BFF, Louise

 

  Readers of our blog have heard so much about our good friend, Smokin' Sam, but very little about his beautiful wife, Louise. Since people have asked about her, I think it's long overdue that I tell you who she is. She's the mother of three.

  
These are her two daughters, Kim and Alana and their daughters. In the photo on the right is their son, Stan and his wife, Kelly.

  




She's also the grandmother of five precious Grandchildren.

 

   Personally, I think Louise is an angel. She loves the Lord and has a heart for people. I've never heard her say one negative word about another person and she does not gossip. Now when does that ever happen? She's the nicest, sweetest woman I have ever met. Before I even met her, Sam told me, "She's sweet; you will love her." He was so right. She's funny, intelligent and talented, as well. She's helped me out of several jams and we have a lot of silly fun together. I call her my "Lucy/Ethel the-Brains-of-the-Outfit". It seems to often happen while out shopping. I search and search and can't find what I'm looking for, so I ask her to help. She looks at the shelf right in front of me and says, "Uh...here." Doh! Good thing she's patient and kind as well. Once I dragged her to western NY State by train during winter. She had always wanted to see Niagara Falls. I'd seen them all my life, having lived there until sixteen years ago. It was FREEZING the whole time she and I were there and snowed most every day. She wasn't used to walking in snow, and it was about three feet deep that year. She found herself unceremoniously plopped down in snow banks several times as she tried hard to negotiate unshoveled pathways. I told her, "As long as you're already down there, go ahead and make some snow angels", but she laughingly refused, so I accused her of making "angel butts" every time she got the chance. Well, she finally did get to see Niagara Falls...the top part of them, anyhow. The bottom three fourths was solid ice surrounded by dense fog. We got to hear them tho', behind the thick, misty façade of white.
  She'd never experienced that kind of cold. It was misery just standing there.

(Not that she was thinking of this.)

Now, when I say she's talented, I mean she's very talented. She has artistic talents and can draw very well, but her favorite "media" is yarn, which she uses to crochet her works of art. I wish I had a photo of the cake she crochet'd, or the food, like fried eggs, she made for her grandchildren. I love the delicate, intricate Cross Bible bookmarkers she makes; and she made several of them, many multicolored. I use mine every single day and think of her when I do. I cannot knit or crochet, but I certainly know how to appreciate the talent that goes into making quality handcrafts. The only way I know how to show you what she's done is to put it in a video; so, enjoy, friends.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Puppy Jolie` Got Broken

    We finally got Jolie' to the vet. After two failed attempts to actually get her there, we began to fear she would go into her first heat before we could get her "fixed". I never understood why they refer to it as "fixing" pets. Since nothing is broken, why do they call it that? Well, anyhow, it's done; we got her "broken".
  The veterinarian instructions were the usual, "no running or jumping or playing".  
                                               Busted!

 That's no halo she's got on her head up there. As soon as we turned our back on her, what does she do? She somehow got herself way up on the back of my chair, her favorite perch. (I think she learned this from BeauxBear...this being a regular place for most bichons to sit. It was bad enough when the bichons sat there, and I guess it might have been okay for her to follow her brother's example when she was a little puppy, but now that she's a Lummox...sighhh, well, we just don't have the heart to tell her "No"...shrug...so sue us.)
  Always on patrol, the dogs all like it up there because they can see out the front door window, the back door and most of our small home.   (for those who aren't squeamish, like Peggy, if you look close in the picture below, you can see her incision.)

Poor pup was none too happy and kinda moped around for the next day or two.

BeauxBear seemed a little worried about her, but I'm sure he was enjoying the lull in the terrorizing of him, which she does in her attempt to love him to pieces...and she DOES love him, but if you ask BeauxBear, I'm sure he'd call it "rough love".  She loves all her toys, too, but each one has been gnawed into almost unrecognizable submission. So, for a while there when she was medicated, she was nowhere as playfully rowdy as normal, but she was never too medicated to not keep an eye out the front door window in case the FED-UPS guys showed up.

It wasn't long, tho' before she perked up as she was healing nicely,

and her smile returned.

It was tough on all of us keeping her cooped up for the heavy thunderstorms followed by a very soggy pond-like yard. Not that she didn't have fun barreling into all of us with that neck cone on her head. We've all got crescent shaped black and blue marks on our legs. BeauxBear spent most of her recuperation growling, "Stay away from me with that...that 'thing'!" More than once she'd send him flying across the room. It was like the running of the bull-in-a-china-shop for him.
 Finally today we let her run and play outside, so she's having a ball galloping around the yard woofing at neighbors. Tomorrow we get her stitches out  and then she can lose the dreaded collar but til' then our little "cone head" makes quite the racket in and out the doggy door but, awwww...look, she is back to her sweet self.