The long weekend, grilling, Bro Daniel’s chore, more grilling

Early Friday morning I went to a local shop and had a tire mounted on one of the rims for my utility trailer. The tire I was replacing was dry rotted to the point that I did not trust it to hold up under the weight of the tractor when I transported it to Bro Daniel’s property. While I was at the tire shop, Mama was at Walmart getting a few items for the long weekend. We were getting these things done early so we did not have to comply with the new mandate issued by the governor of Texas that “masks” be work in “public places” - whatever that was meant to mean – beginning at 12:01 Friday the 3^rd. With the multitude of lawsuits filed against the order, it will not stand for long, but Mama and I are not willing to comply except under duress. Besides, we do not own any masks. Having done those chores, we headed home to start working at the farm.

I did a few hours of yard work with both the wheeled trimmer and the weed eater before I had to get out of the heat. When I got cooled off a bit, I got out the sealer and painted that onto the porch of the small coop. The sealant dries in such a way that it cannot be seen. The wood looks the same as before it was applied, but when it rained, the rain beaded up on the porch versus soaking into the wood. So, I suppose it is working. I will apply a second coat when I get more roller brushes. The one I was using Friday afternoon was the last one I had at the farm. While we were at the little coop, Mama insisted on putting a coat of the sealer in the west wall of the large coop. Again, we could not tell that it had been treated, which I suppose is good, but it did repel the rain more efficiently during the brief showers we got over the weekend.

About noon, I started the pellet grill. I put ears of corn on the grill and set it to SMOKE. That keeps the grill at about 195°. I left that on the grill for three hours. It came out perfectly. I cooked hamburgers, chicken breasts, and asparagus. About 3 pm, Seth and Gabriella came over with Rosalee. Trace came over a little later. Mama made macaroni salad and baked beans. We ate a about 4 pm. Visited for a while before going out to feed, then we loaded up the tractor and headed for Bro Daniel’s.

The concrete pillars I moved for him were heavy enough that it was a strain on the tractor to lift them. Two in particular were very heavy. As I tried to get one of the heavy ones into position – working around things that were in the way of any direct move to the new location – I had to turn uphill and swerve around to where I wanted to place the pillar. In doing so, I had the pillar a little too high and it was causing the tractor to bounce.

At one point I had to lower the pillar to the ground quickly to keep the tractor from tipping over. Once I stabilized, I finished the move and got the pillar into place. The fire pit ring we made with the pillars – about 8x16 feet - was squared up nicely when we were done. Daniel was very pleased. I was a sweaty mess by the time we completed the move and reloaded the tractor onto the trailer. Mama and I visited for a while before we headed home. Mama had followed me over as I trailered the tractor in case anything happened in transport. Fortunately, all went very well. We were home enough before dark that I watered the garden and the trees before I went in for the evening.

Saturday, I completed some of the yard items I had left undone, but I quickly ran out of energy in the heat. So, in order to stay busy, I fired up the pellet grill again. We had six more ears of corn to cook, so we wrapped them in tin foil and put them on the grill at low heat about noon. At about 1:30, I put on some beef stew meat and let it smoke before I put it with shrimp, zucchini and onion on ka-bob skewers. Since we had eaten all nine of the burgers I made Friday, we made more Saturday. Sausages and venison links were added to the grill as the corn was getting done. We had our second pellet grill meal that evening and had enough leftovers that we ate that on Sunday as well. Victoria made some mac-and-cheese with the sausage cut up into it to add to our Sunday meal. What is left of the ka-bobs, I will make into stir-fry this evening. I really like my pellet grill.

Church services on Sunday finished out the weekend in a wonderful way. Praise the Lord for the USA. Protestors have the right to disagree with me and loudly voice that dissent precisely because we live in this free country. We cannot take that for granted.

It was a fun weekend.