Go Aggies!

After moving to Texas we quickly discovered that High School and College (University) football is big here - VERY big! The tv show "Friday Night Lights" is not an exaggeration.

Our friends have a daughter who goes to Texas A&M so they were able to get their hands on some extra tickets. To get 6 seats together we were 10 rows from the top at the end zone. I was a little concerned about the height but in the end it worked out perfectly because we were able to see everything. Kyle Field seats 85,000 rabid fans! There are 3 sections like this:

There's a lot of traditions at A&M and I was happy to be told in advance that they fire a cannon every time they score a touchdown. We had a fantastic day and even got to see some history in the making - a 97 yard run :) It also helped that the home team won - WOOP!

Our neighbourhood turned into a winter wonderland recently. We had snow flurries and then overnight temps of 24F made for a very heavy frost the next morning. This lake is by our place - you can see the frost on the hill on the other side.
Brrrrr ...
My peas were frozen in their pods!

The beans did not like the frost and didn't survive. We had planted them originally just to help with the nitrogen levels in the soil and we ended up getting 3 bags of beans from them as well so they did their job.

Garden update

The garden is starting to come together. We're getting the beds filled and the grass that we layed after the pool construction has taken.

This is from the west corner of the back yard looking east. We moved the bird bath to the bed near the fence.

My lemon tree is still not looking very "tree" like but is laden with delicious lemons!

We have had a lot of Monarch butterflies this year. They stop in our area during their migration to Mexico. Here is the monarch caterpillar and butterfly sharing the same plant, aptly named butterfly weed. The plant is very resilient and needs to be. A couple of caterpillars can eat all of the leaves off and yet they still survive!
Here's the "Condon" bed in the east corner of the yard. It's a large bed that we're slowing filling up.
Out the front the pine trees are going through a growing spurt. They've shot up about 3 feet since we moved in. You can also see my skull halloween lights :)

The yaupon holly is laden with red berries. In the sun they are really radiant.

The veggie beds are looking better. We've done a lot with the soil to try and get some nutrients in there. So far the beans, peas, radishes, carrots and lettuce that we have here are keeping their bright green colour so that's a good sign. We'll be harvesting beans by the end of this week :)
This is the first bed that we did. We've had a couple of plants not make it. It's a difficult one as it's part shade and can get very wet when it rains. The log that is at the front is left over from our tree that we had to cut down. It didn't make it with the combination of Ike and the drought.

And we're back

I have finally figured out how to get photos to the blog with the new computer that doesn't take a 10 step process!

Way back in Sept we went to Colorado to visit the Bonners and get in a little camping. It was exciting to get all the camping stuff out again. The Texas summers aren't really conducive to camping so we were looking forward to the cooler mountain air. Our home and provisions for 4 nights of the trip:

Our time with the Bonners was well spent tubing down the river :) A little cold for me but the boys enjoyed it.
We camped at the Rocky Mountains National Park for 2 nights. We saw quite a few moose around the camp site. They are very big and can run surprisingly fast!
The elk taking in the view ...
We also planned to do some hiking but at 10,000 feet altitude we only managed one hike. I can't remember being so happy to see the car at the end of a hike. The trail followed a canyon, crossed over the river and then went along a ridge line to a mountain lake. It sounded wonderful in the brochure and was 8 miles so was perfect for a day hike. The 2000 feet elevation gain to 12,000 feet and no trail signage was not highlighted in the brochure. At any point we had no clear idea on where he were. The map just showed the ridge line but with no significant landmarks, there was nothing to set our bearings to! Here's me being brave crossing the gorge (the "bridge" was also not mentioned ...):
We made it to the lake and had a well deserved rest and lunch. The lake was a little disappointing. We were expecting something more like Yosemite, but were just grateful to know where we were on the map! The hike will be remembered for us completing it in one piece rather than for the views.
At Vail we were still unable to hike (my legs were so sore!) so we tried some downhill mountain biking instead! We rented bikes, took them up on the ski gondola and road back down the mountain. I was a little nervous at the beginning but was ready to go again after the first run :)

We had a fantastic time and will be back to visit again if the Bonners will take us :)

You know you're in Texas when ...

you have an Armadillo in your back yard! This fella paid us a visit this week, scrounging around for worms and bugs. He's a 9 banded Armadillo (if you look closely you can can't the bands) and is the most common here in Texas. Unfortunately he found our veggie patch but didn't do to much damage. We'll plug the whole under the fence so he doesn't get any more ideas.

We've been having some spectacular sunsets lately. We've had some thunder storms pass through and though we've had very little rain from them, they've still been a welcome sight.

The back yard is starting to come into it's own. The grass is starting to fill in and the plants are finally starting to grow. We seem to have chosen the slowest growing plants ever!

One very happy camper :)

Summer is here!

Today is the official start of summer (YAY!) and the longest day of the year.

It has been at or above 95F (35C) since June 2nd and overnight "lows" at or above 75F (24C). When you mix in 85+% humidity, it's just darn hot!

We also haven't had any rain for the last 27 days and counting. Things are looking pretty dry. Our community is on Stage 2 water restrictions already. This stage is volunterary but we're only supposed to water 2 days a week (Sundays and Thursdays as we're an even numbered house) and not more than an inch a week. Our grass is already starting to die on our 3 days a week of water so I see no hope of it lasting!

Yesterday we went to Bryan, TX for the "Texas Reds Fesitval". A day of wine tasting, steak and entertainment. Unfortunately we made an amateur mistake and arrived in the afternoon. After standing out in 100F (38C) sunshine, eating and drinking we were close to heat stroke and headed back to the hotel before the bands even started! :) Next year we'll be wise and turn up around 6p and avoid the heat stroke ...

Well, its currently 104F (41C) on the temperature gauge outside so we're headed for the pool!

Bring it on! :)

EDIT: It rained today!! it has been 43 straight days with nothing but we had a great thunderstorm this morning and finally we have some rain! June is supposed to be one of our wettest months with an average of 5inches and we got zero so we need every drop we can get!

Some random pics

We've been working in the garden a bit and have had our first ripe tomato already! We would have had more, but the mocking birds beat us to the punch. We have since put up nets to try and deter them. They're cute birds and all, but I prefer to eat the tomatoes myself!

The beans are doing well. A second row has been put in about 2 weeks after these fellas so we should have a nice steady crop.

Oh, and there's always time for lounging in the pool! :)

Our latest little visitor! Apart from scaring the dickens out of me everytime I uncover him, this little fella is a welcome addition. I hope he eats as many insects as he can! We also have 2 gecko's/lizards living in the front yard but they are elusive. I am determind to get at least one half decent photo of them though!

Some maintenance on the front beds. We took all the border stones away, cleared out all the grass and then replaced them making sure to leave a nice gap between the grass and stones. This will (hopefully) make it easier to keep the two separated. We also put the stones back closer together - a professional Australian gardner told us this would help too. ;)

That's not a bird! THIS is a bird. We had a flock of these Black Vultures hanging around for a day recently. They are massive birds and at 4.5pounds you know when they land on the roof!

Egg-cellent

So we (and by "we" I think we all know who I mean!) have been cooking up a storm on the new Big Green Egg (BGE). We have been taking advantage of the 70degree evenings and grilling every night!

One new thing we tried, that I was very skeptical about is the ABT - Atomic Buffalo Turd. Sounds delicious!! Well, it's a jalepeno pepper, stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon. (below)

Here are the ABT's ready for eating and I must admit they are fantastic. I can eat 6 without blinking! Our neighbor is also a fan but she adds sausage meat to the cream cheese filling for some extra bang! We will be trying that .....

A very large hunk o'porky goodness (above)! This was on the grill for 15 hours - low and slow. And boy, we had no problems eating it! Pulled Pork left overs for a week but oh so yummy!

One particular person is very happy to be at the Egg-Fest. It's a festival where all the food is cooked on the BGE. There is nothing but pork, pork related products and beef on the menu :) No foo foo salads here. The unlimited beers also helped ...

After the Egg-fest we came home and tried our hands at a spatchcock chook. Above is the fella before and below is after it's been expertly deboned.

The spices are put under the skin and a little on top and onto the grill!

MMMM ..... yummy chook!!

Next we're going to try baking on it. At the festival they baked a pie and it was *really* good. Soon we wont need an oven!

Water - kids love it!

We recently went to the opening of the 'Riva Row Boat House' here in The Woodlands. It's a lovely new building were you can rent kayaks and paddle along the River Walk (the section is blocked to the River Taxi's!) and into Lake Woodlands.

Our neighbor took these lovely shots of us coming back in to dock.

Who's doing all the paddling here?

We had so much fun that we went back this past weekend and rented a kayak each and paddled our way to the north shore of Lake Woodlands. We spent about an hour paddling around - we could have stayed out longer but our arms were about to drop off!

We saw so many birds - loads of Great Blue Herons, Cormorants, ducks and a couple of Egrets that I could identify. Next time I'll take the camera. We also enjoyed chatting to the fisherman along the way.

All in all it was a fantastic morning :)

Holiday eh?!

We are back from our holiday to Lake Louise/Banff and can not wait to go back! We had such a wonderful time. We had no idea how spectacular it would be!

Even though the temperature didn't manage to get above 33F/1C for our entire stay and the lakes were frozen, that didn't stop us from hiking!

I can't imagine how cold it must have been for waterfalls to freeze ...

This is a frozen Lake Louise with our Chateau in the back ground :)

And finally on our 3rd day we saw the infamous Elk! We were starting to think the Canadians had made them up as a tourist trap.

And if there is a hike that goes straight up a mountain then we will do it! This is the top of "Tunnel Mountain" in Banff - and yes we went as far up as we possibly could.

And it was worth it - the views were amazing. Everywhere we looked we were in awe.

Now we have to go back in summer so we can do all of the hikes and proper winter for my snow shoeing!

It's a squirrels life

The squirrels have found us and it didn't take them long to figure out the feeder! They have to climb down, sit on the little ledge and then open the top of the box to access the seeds.


This little grey one comes every morning around 7am for breakfast. He's quite shy and if we're in the back yard he'll wait for us to go inside and then sprints down the fence to the feeder. He's wary and eats his seeds while sitting on the fence so he can keep a look out. He's up and down to the feeder every 30seconds, but he seems to like being able to see everything.

This fella comes in the afternoons and stays for about an hour - soon he will break the little sitting ledge. He doesn't seem to care what else is going on, as long as he has some seeds he's happy! He takes no precautions like the smaller grey one, and just hangs out gorging! :)

Some afternoon excerise maybe? A few pull ups to keep in shape?

And a drink afterwards. The pool is salt water so he would have been even thirster after his couple of sips but he doesn't seem to care.