Foods that are good to eat!

We have been using this new table and eating outdoors pretty often.  We usually grill a ton of veggies and some fish or steak on the weekend and see what we can get out of it.  

Here you can probably see we did fajitas.  There is an awesome restaurant down the street called Mama Rosa's Tortilla Factory.  

You just drive through and bam - hot, freshly made, homemade tortillas.  Delicious.  If you have never made your own tortillas or tasted them homemade, they are really easy and so worth it.  I remember learning to make them in 7th grade or so.  Bomb.com

I think we actually made chicken and shrimp fajitas this time and threw some corn on the grill too.  Add a little wine and what a delicious dinner.

Of course we have also been back to that sweet treat that is shaved ice.  Secret Agent Man had Monster's Inc. (Mike Wazowski) I had strawberry colada and special Agent Dad had lemon.

We got some delicious purple potatoes in the CSA box this week.  Cooked them up and had breakfast for dinner.  With yum oatmeal and omelettes.

This oatmeal has a secret ingredient:

A splash of this almond coconut milk at the end gives the oatmeal a rich and creamy texture with just a hint of coconut.  Yum.

Had to do it again.

Special Agent Dad is loving this concentrated iced coffee.  Pour over ice, thin with water and drop in a straw.

Tonight we grilled a ton of vegetables with some trout.  There were mushrooms, asparagus, more of those purple potatoes, bell peppers, onions, summer squashes, and eggplant.  

Building the Sturdy Work Bench

I built this workbench a few months back.  I got the plans from my girl Ana White.  

I really needed a workspace in the garage.  I was tired of building and working on the floor.

I used white pine and the build was very easy.  The plans were great.  I modified it a bit to make it taller.  My cost for wood totalled around $40.  I bought three cans of sample oops paint that cost about 50 cents each.  Strawberry, chocolate and vanilla colored.  A neopolitan work bench!

I never did get to the vanilla colored paint.  It is just a choco strawberry bench.

I also didn't bother to fill the holes with wood filler.  Kept it simple.

I added some hooks on the side for safety gear and an tool belt.

The only thing I might change would be to add the extra width on the bottom shelf to make it fuller.  I'm not so sure I would have changed it to be taller either.  It works for some things and not for others.  

This hound got very comfortable in the late spring sun and went to sleep while I worked.

I later got a peg board from the 50 cent bin at Home Depot and nailed it to the back of the work bench. Now I have tools hanging right where I need them!

You can check out my other Ana White builds here: Outdoor Patio Table

Champion Park

Secret Agent Man and I found a really great park nearby recently.  The park had a huge sandpit area.  Here is the far view.

We followed the path up to it and made a detour to the water.

Some huge fish swam right past us in this little area!  I was a bit worried about water mocassin's because the area was covered with grasses and many hiding spots.  We didn't end up seeing any though.

The park had beautiful areas with the stone, bridges and trees.  

We walked about before the U-turn back to the sand.

The sand had some plesiosaur bones sunk right in for digging.  Apparently fossils of these prehistoric ocean goers  were found nearby and they replicated the fossils for a dig for the kids.

OODog got in on the fossil digging action.

It was a very hot day so she was basically in it to press her belly to the wet sand she found underneath.

This video has Secret Agent Man laughing very loud!

There was an amazing climbing rock

And then a nice water spraying whale

Lastly were some more dinosaur bones for climbing

Practicing for American Ninja Warrior - somehow found this show on TV

On our way home we pass through a neighborhood where the houses have a lot of land.  We see many deer travelling through here.  

Sergeant Stubby

We adopted Agent Chewy Bones Jones, aka 00Dog almost three years ago.

We had never heard of her breed before we got her.

She is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, aka Nanny Dog.

You can read more about this breed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staffordshire_Bull_Terrier

We would describe her as:

Goofy

Emo

lazybones

Happy

lippy

Cow eyes

like Master, like dog

What we didn't know is that the most decorated War Dog of World War I was a staffy just like she is.

Sergeant Stubby was the only dog to be promoted to Sergeant through combat.

Source: wikipedia

He was snuck onboard a ship and the Captain let Sergeant Stubby stay when the dog saluted him!  

He saved many lives, participated in 17 battles and after the war became a mascot for the Georgetown Hoyas!

Sergeant Stubby lives on.  His stuffed body is in the Smithsonian.  Anyone ever seen him there?

  

Lucky for this girl, the only battles she faces are fighting the legos for attention.

Wild Animals

We have seen so much wildlife since the big move to Texas.

Our house is not exactly in a conventional neighborhood.  We have a lot of land around us and each house is on a larger than normal lot.

Just around our house we have seen:

Lizards, deer, opossum, tarantulas, cardinals, blue jays, northern cardinals, black vultures, frogs and hummingbirds.

Tarantula Crossing the road

Out and about we have seen:

western coachwhip snake, various fish and aquatic animals - carp, bass, bluegill, crawfish, bullhead, catfish, longhorn cattle, mules (an especially pretty white one!), horses, llama, goats, alpaca, turtles, road runner, pronghorn antelope, ducks, and an armadillo shell (long dead, we haven't seen a live one - yet!).

Armadillo bones

The Western Coachwhip was the scariest sighting.  We were wading in the river and took a turn up a branch of the river that was bone chillingly cold (the rest of the river was very warm!).

Now this area is pure wilderness.  You may have a few people here and there fishing or hiking.  Otherwise, there is pretty much nothing for miles.

The boys got out of the water and walked along the path ahead of me.

The path narrows.

I'm a little nervous because this is prime snake territory and I know it just by looking at it.  There are plenty of dangerous rattle snakes that live here.

I was walking with a heavy foot to make noise and being very observant.....when I spotted it.

It stood between them and I.  It had the front part of its body raised off of the ground and it was BIG!  The portion off of the ground was a good 18", I bet it was almost 5-6 feet long total.

I said "OH S$#@&*!, Huge SNAKE!" and I ran backward as fast as I could.  They turned around and saw it but, it was blocking their only way back to me.

Luckily that snake took a slow look at each of us and then just slithered away back through the tall grass.  I came home and identified it by the way it held its body off of the ground, the small head and the pattern on its skin.

Pic from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The antelope was a pretty scary encounter itself!

We were driving along a major road that is basically in the middle of nowhere.  Special Agent Dad was driving and there was one car in front of us.

Out of nowhere and faster than you can imagine, an animal flew from the fields on the left, crossed four lanes and smashed into that car in front of us.

We were travelling at about 70 mph!

The animal stumbled, was thrown into the air, spun a 360 and got up, continued running and ran through a fence running just as fast as it had been before smashing the car.

The car pulled over and I got out to see if they were okay.  The driver didn't see anything happen, it was too fast!  She just saw glass flying.

We inspected the car and there was a huge dent in the rear left of the vehicle with all of the corner lights blown out.  Incredible speed and recovery by this animal.

I knew it was no ordinary deer.  It was stockier and had horns.  Plus, it was REALLY fast.

I could be wrong but, I am pretty sure it was a pronghorn antelope.

Pic from the Texas Parks and Wildlife.

We love living and visiting spots where we can enjoy the wildlife.  

We are just hoping we don't run into any wandering Mountain Lions while we are in the remote canyons of the river!