PERFECT WEATHER

We finally got some rain over the past week and everything has greened up. The temperatures are in the low 90's for high, and 60-70 in the morning. Andy was able to burn a brush pile in the middle of the week, and then it rained that evening. We have some visitors from Dallas coming tonight, and we are planning on grilling salmon for dinner (that we got in Oklahoma City) with polenta, and probably make eggs with chorizo for breakfast.

The vegetable garden is producing lots of cucumbers and we've canned some bread and butter pickles, with jalapeno. We are just now starting to get some okra production and should be able to put up some pickled okra this coming weekend. We've had lots of tomatoes and jalapeno and banana peppers, so Andy has made fresh batches of salsa about every other day. It's been fun to sit on the front porch and eat chips with fresh salsa and drink mojitos!

Our double oven finally gave in and stopped working. It is only about 35 years old and we knew it wouldn't last forever, but we were hoping it would last another year . . . oh well. We aren't ready to remodel the kitchen yet, so Andy will have to be careful and not tear things up too much when he replaces the oven. Actually, he found a new oven unit that will almost fit in the existing space, and since the space is enclosed by brick wall, that is a good thing. He will only have to do a little bit of cutting cement and brick to get the new unit to fit into the same space.

We have been busy cleaning out the living room/dining room space, going through packed boxes and either unpacking or moving boxes to the garage, as we still don't have storage space for everything we brought from Dallas. We're making progress and my goal is to have the living room and dining room set up by the end of September. We aren't going to replace wallpaper or carpet in that room for the time being (money, money, money) and the existing decor is in good shape, so that will be a project for down the road. I do want to get the dining room chairs re-covered (they are currently an orange fabric) this next month. As with all things out here in the country, it will take some research to find someone to do the reupholstery, and to find the fabric. I will probably have to make a trip to the City -- not much is available here in Watonga.