Kitties, Edible Greens, and Al Fresco Dining! Our Thursday.....

Tabitha is really and truly Louis Dean's cat!

When we are at home, every morning she comes in while we do our reading and wraps herself around his neck and purrs loudly. Here at the ranch, she still pays him a lot of attention when he's sitting in the big green wing backed chair. She keeps trying to position herself around his neck but the chair back is too high! She is the sweetest and most loving kittie. Samantha is beautiful and as sweet as she can be - but she's a real cat - life is all about her! She seldom has time for humans.

They both play and race through the camper or front room or both if the door separating the two is open. They play hard and then they crash on my girl bunk and sleep pretty much the rest of the day.

I worked on my art today and Louis Dean worked on all sorts of things. No plumbing but lots of thinking and he cleaned up his 'shop' and did a lot of this and that.

Bottom line, it looks like the brand new high dollar water heater we bought FOUR years ago will not work. It has been sitting down here all this time and it's wired up and getting electricity - but it will not turn on. At this point I have given up all hope of a hot shower or running water in the camper in the next few days. We will have to come back next month and pick up where we leave off this trip.

Louis Dean does think he can get the shower put back together and lay the linoleum down, install the laundry sink and the toilet - before we go back home. YAY! I will take what I can get!

This afternoon, I made a pan of brownies in my little toaster oven.

The pan barely fit put I angled it and got it in there.

Dean was smoking a pork loin and some chicken while Sherry was making Pablano Pepper soup and homemade guacamole.

I was making the salad.

I went out to the gardens and searched for edible geens.

I had to use my Plant Snap app to identify this one. I've never seen it down here before.

It's varigated milk thistle. 

While it is totally edible and actually very good for you - especially your liver - it has prickly points along the leaf edges. I decided to pass on that one.

I have two kinds of lettuce growing in my herb garden so I picked some of both along with three small stalks of asparagus and a handfull of other edible greens.

Many of the wildflowers are edible, as well, but I saved those for another time.

I like to put lots of stuff in a salad.

Today I used tomatoes, celery, carrots, boiled eggs, an apple and an orange, a little onion, half of an avocado, a little fresh broccoli and some diced jicama (HEE-kah-ma) which is an edible root vegetable native to Mexico.

Louis Dean and I sat out under our new carport and had our own personal happy hour.

Bringing the rug that had been in the bathroom and our metal table (which he gave a fresh coat of paint this afternoon) and the two metal chairs made a nice little place to enjoy el fresco dining!

And we pulled another couple of chairs around when Dean and Sherry got here and that's where we ate supper tonight.

It was delicious!

Sherry had the pablano soup at the Homestead Heritage Cafe when she and I were there last week.

This was her version of it and it was really good.

We are all going back there tomorrow as an outing and we intend to eat at the cafe again.

Plus we are going to make a point of going to the Cheese Cave!

What better way to end our evening than fireworks???

It is so much fun!!

I squeal like a girl and sometimes I scream a little, too.

Mostly I laugh!

There was a big one we've never had before and it was amazing.

My pictures don't turn out well so I only take one to post and the rest of the time I just enjoy the show.

Sherry and I always have a few of the ones you hold in your hand and they shoot out like rockets!

Louis Dean is already in bed and I will close tonight's journal entry and go back out to the front room and do a little more painting.

Can you believe I started on a Christmas one??

This year I am not painting two of everything.

I discovered having my art printed on canvas!

As I was writing, I glanced up and noticed Samantha sipping my iced tea!

Reminded me of Maggie.....our sweet senior cat who loved to drink her water from wine glasses. 

Picture from 2014.

Goodnight from the country!