Slow week

 It rained almost every day this week. We measured over six inches of rain since last weekend. The wet weather brought out a visitor to The Acre.

We had another visitor, this one was a little faster.

Since we couldn't get in the garden, or do much of anything outside, Lawman decided to get caught up on his soap making. We needed a batch of lavender for tick season, so now we have it.

We love to bake when we can't get outside, so we whipped up a chocolate pie one day. And none of that instant pudding pie like crazy granny makes. All scratch. Even the shell.

Cupcake had been requesting fried chicken for dinner one night, comfort food at it's best.

Sunday we planned on throwing a couple of burgers on the Blackstone, then the boy and the girl-in-law stopped by, and the girl and the boy-in-law. Brother Kevin and Denephew were over at Pop's working on their race car, so we invited the whole family over. Lawman whipped up a batch of banana nut cookies and then a batch of choco-chip cookies. Along with choco pie, we had plenty to eat.

We didn't get our nap this weekend. But it was worth it.

K&K

That's no Deer

 We worked in the garden all week, it's that time of year. We got it all weeded out and tilled up, fertilizer down. All we needed was a little rain and we would be all set. What we got was two inches of rain in about an hour, along with some hail and wind. So all the gardens washed out, we will have to wait and see if the beans washed out or not.

We left out the next morning to check the damage and got a bit of a surprise. We found tracks in the garden.

Looks like a bear wandered through the garden. Our guess is, he's plotting to return later and go all buffet on our vittles.

Rear foot

Front foot

Looks like there's a good chance we will be dining on bear meat this winter? We're excited about our prospects. 

The rain may or may not have contributed to the killing of one of our catfish. We don't know for sure. We were impressed with the size it grew to before it died. 

On the food front this week, we have a few updates. We got a request for buttermilk pies, and Lawman said he hadn't made one in a while, he better whip one up to practice before we go to giving them away.

Lucky for us, he has pie crust down pat.

No "crazy granny" store bought crust for us

It's a good thing he did. He remembered his recipe calls for waaaayyy too much sugar, and he always cuts the sugar down by half. This one was way too sweet.

Cupcake surprised Lawman with a new seasoning. He approves

It's funny, because Lawman surprised her with a new candle at the same time.

And we added to the decor with a moo cow.

Our kiwi bush is in full bloom. We will have kiwi coming out of our ears, if they all come in.

Cupcake requested a throwback this weekend. Chicken wings. 

We ended the week with heavy rain, several naps, and clear sinuses.

K&K

The Boys are Back in Town

 This week we played host to a few of the boys Lawman worked with in The People's Republic. Every spring they make a trip to the dragon's tail and stop off at The Acre. We like to cook, they like to eat. It just works.

Knowing they were coming, we pulled out the stops. Lawman smoked a pork butt and made BBQ.

The boys like our carrot cake, so we whipped them up one

Lawman has been vexed by pie crust. Getting one to 'do right' has eluded him, until now. With the food processor he could use frozen butter and mix the dough all at once. So a pecan pie was the way we celebrated the correct crust.

In a "bad week to be a pig" thread, we found a pork loin for ten dollars. We sliced up several packs of pork chops, to include several thin sliced pork chops for biscuits.

Cupcake went so far as to buy a new candle for the boys arrival.

The rest of the week we did garden stuff. Lawman planted a couple more grape vines, and we got our shipment of baby chicks this week. We ordered five dozen new birds. We hope to keep half of them alive long enough to start laying. 

The DT's seem excited to have new birds

And the new birds fit right in with the rest of the crazy stuff. We're convinced they will die of thirst while standing in a bowl of water.

The boy and the 'girl-in-law' spent the remains of the weekend working a picture puzzle. Which is funny, because around Christmas time, the boy thought puzzles were for old people. 

We ended the week with a long nap.

K&K

That's Our Jam

 Well, jelly.

The big report this week is strawberry jelly. Cupcake picked up four flats of local grown strawberries and we made jelly. Eight batches of jelly in two hours. That's almost two gallons of jelly. Each bite tastes like springtime on a biscuit. 

The half full jar on the right we didn't can, we just kept out on the table for Sunday breakfast. It's gone now.

The Boy-in-Law came over for a visit with The Girl, and we gifted them a couple of jars. They are also fans of banana nut bread, so we whipped up a batch of banana nut bread cookies for them to take home with them.

One other food related thing from the past week. 

We picked up another round of sea bass for dinner this week. They didn't have perch this week, so we substituted sea scallops and fried them up on the Blackstone. There is officially nothing we can't cook on the Blackstone now.

We added a new bird to our collection last week. Neighbor Zach had a rooster left from his flock. Foxxy got all his hens, and wanted to find a good home for his rooster, but we had a rooster. Then while we were on our camping trip, Foxxy got our rooster and all but two hens. Anyway we took his rooster and he's fallen right in at The Acre. 

We called the missing rooster "Sonny Black" because he was solid black, so we named the new rooster "Sonny Red." 

We planted our onions, cucumbers, a couple of rows of corn and a few tomatoes. Mother nature hasn't really cooperated with our garden plans but the coming week looks better. Fingers crossed.

We ended the week with naps and jelly biscuits.

K&K