Thursday's Country Cocktails, Friday's Taco Dinner on the Deck and Saturday's Burger and Fries! We Eat GOOD!!

I'm so happy my little herb garden down here is doing so well.

Not many flowers blooming so I cut a bouquet of sweet basil and purple basil!

I had spent a good part of that day painting and Louis Dean was busy working on the front wall where he was evicting a huge nest of wasps up in the eaves.

I came in and started preparations for our Country Cocktail Party!

I miss HEB's olive bar - I like to mix up a bunch of different kinds.

But now they are all packed in the tubs - $6.99 for the small one and $9.99 for the large one - but they are all one kind in each tub. SO I opted for this small assortment and they were really good.

The party theme was Tequila Sunrises at Sunset!

However, we did not sit outside! A strong North wind blew in and we closed all the windows in the front room and put on long sleeves or a sweater.

Crystal, Sherry's daughter, arrived Thursday afternoon and brought that delicious Brie cheese folded in a dough with walnuts and caramel. Oh, so GOOD!!!

Our good friend and sister beekeeper, Rosey, was here and along with Dean and Sherry - we had a party of six!

Rosey came bearing gifts!!

She brought the most perfect ones for Dean and Sherry!

Bug-A-Salt rifles complete with his and her boxes of ammunition salt!

What a hit these are!

I forgot to take a picture of my gift but it will be a featured ingredient in next month's cocktail party - 

The Caramel Apple.

We all had such a good time!

Friday I decided to pick the garden.

Nothing is going to get any riper than it is now.

Watermelons need heat and the heat has gone.

I cut up all of these - and two of the small cantaloupe were good and two of the larger watermelons were, too. The others, along with the rinds of the ripe ones, will all go to the goats.

Taco Dinner on the deck at Sherry's and Dean's is how we celebrated Friday night!

Sherry and Crystal decked that deck out with all those pretty lights!

Dean recently moved the deck down a few feet from where it was and made the supports shorter so it fits under the eaves of their house.

The cantaloupe was super sweet and from our garden while the pickled peppers are from theirs.

I included that perfectly stitched tea towel that Sherry made.

She does such good work that the back side is just as beautiful as the front!

We came back to the camper/cabin at 8:30 and by 9:00 and I was in bed and went right to sleep.

Even when Louis Dean woke me up an hour later to tell me he couldn't find Tabitha in the front room - he was putting them in their kennels for the night - I got up, found her, put her up - and went right back to sleep. I slept for for over 13 hours! I did get up three times to go to the bathroom - but that was a lot of really good sleep!!

We are so enjoying our kittens!

They are more cats than kittens these days as they have grown so much.

They sleep a good bit during the day and I think that's because they play so hard!

Today they chased each other at break neck speed through the front romm and up into the camper and back! Over and over and over.

Samantha seems to like the girl bunk - I find her there a lot.

They are getting out more often.

Louis Dean bought a screen door for the front room and I painted it.

Hopefully we can get it up tomorrow.

They are not all that hard to catch - mostly because they are so excited and they stop to catch a grasshopper or roll in the sandy loam soil.

I don't want them out AT ALL until they are chipped and fixed.

There are a couple of Tom cats around the area and we do not want to deal with a litter of kittens!

We changed their surgery appointment to October 28th and my dear daughter Amber will take them for us. I am praying for her little Ginger kitty. She took her in for surgery but the bloodwork showed low red blood cell count and elevated twmperature so that was cause to postpone it until she was better. They tested her for a few things and all were negative. Amber said she had been off her game a little the last week or so. Not much gets by Amber's watchful eyes.

Crystal and Sherry had a lot of fun today!

They took the kayaks out on the big tank.......

and they did a little fishing!

Sherry caught a Mama fish - bass.

Crystal caught a baby fish - perch.

It took mother AND daughter to catch a random rooster that landed down there by the chicken coops later this afternoon! All their critters were in and accounted for so this one was a surprise visitor.

His tail feathers were missing and he looked pretty beat up.

Sherry and Crystal gave him some food and water and he drank a LOT!

He is now in a nice secure coop and we hope he likes his new and safer home!

Louis Dean was plowing up a garden plot for me to plant some wildflower seeds.

I bought two big bags and the directions say to plant them in October.

He already plented some trumpet vines we brought from home as well as a honeysuckle.

My friend, Olga, gave us a Chinese Elm and Sheryl, Nita's neighbor, gave us a fig tree.

All are doing so well!

Louis Dean planted asparagus - probably because of good memories from his in laws, Jeryl and Ruby Nell. They had a big bush by their back kitchen door and would go out and cut some fresh spears for their dinner. I thought it took years before you would see the actual spears. But looky here!!! A aaparagus spear!! And there were more on the other plant!

I took a break from my Santa's and worked on some other projects before packing it all up and cleaning the table. We had a burger and fries Saturday night dinner to do!

Sherry and Crystal came down early and Sherry set up her fryer.

She did this once before down here to cook catfish, fries and hushpuppies!

Dean made this fryer from an old tractor blade.

 The handles are horseshoes.

And she cooks the best fries ever!!

Dean cooked the burgers......

and we had a Saturday Night Feast!!

Since we rescheduled the kitten surgery, we have one more full day here before we go home on Monday.