Politics in the Woods

I voted today. I honestly did not know all the local candidates.  Have you voted yet? Do you know who you are voting for in the tax assessor position?  I will bet they do in Coldspring, Texas, the county seat of San Jacinto, Texas.  Politics are tricky in the Piney woods, and I love it!  Every business, intersection and many homes have signs in front of them... I wonder what happens if they have the loser's sign in front of their house?

This is the intersection in front of our neighborhood. 

 



Look at the signs around town( they are everywhere so you would have a hard time missing them.) It is possible in the country that you might not know who is running for president or that there are state and national elections at all. I tried, but I could not find a national election sign.



Sam Houston is running for constable along with an NRA member and Mr. Bonds. 


I wonder who attended the meet the candidate session?

 

I wonder who attended the meet the candidate session?  Who were the candidates? 

I love driving past this headquarters.  The Tri County Texas Tea Party Headquarters... love the Beware of Dog sign and the broken Coke machine on the porch. 

 

Politics in the Piney Woods of East Texas are really fun.  I am glad that I get to be an observer.  

Gates in the Country

Before we knew there would be two weddings and a foundation, I was thinking hard that we need a gate at Star Hill. Not just a gate mind you, because gates in the country say something about you. A gate is a social status out in the woods. I love to drive by a great gate and wonder about the people who live there. I do not have a picture of my favorite gate because it is out in the country and we were too busy to drive out there this past weekend.  It says The Double Nickle and has a big 55 on it.  I wonder... was someone 55 when they built the place, is it 55 acres, has it been in the family since 1855? I wonder about things like that.

Here are some of my favorite gates near Star Hill.  I wonder about these folks too.

 I always feel like we are there when we get to this gate.  It is so wooded that I wonder what is behind the gate.

 

 

Is there a mansion or a shack back in those woods?

 

The West Mansion  Solar powered key less entry.  Fancy.

 

A beautiful old homestead in Point Blank, four miles from Star Hill.

 

This is a real deal gate.  I love the longhorns eating on the driveway.  Family Established 1845.

 

Hubby honked to make the longhorn look at me but I was too nervous to get closer.

 

This horse ranch is on a hill near Cape Royale.  Gorgeous.  No lazy people live here.

 

See the tree man behind this artistic gate?

 

I love the landscaping around the gate. 

 

This gate is not used often. I hope the gate at Star Hill never looks like this.

 



This is probably what our gate will look like, just plain old metal, because that is who we are, but I can dream... right?



Building Codes?

We really do have building codes in San Jacinto County. We applied for a building permit when we built the Garagemahal. Driving in to Star Hill I saw the most amazing site on highway 156, and by amazing I mean that I was amazed someone would consider doing this, and more amazed that someone hasn't stopped the progress. I just have to wonder at the conversation that took place before construction began. "I really like my 10 year old portable building. I hope that somehow we can make it a part of the brand new house we are building." "No problem. We will use the portable building as one of the walls." "Great idea!"
There is no other explanation. Hubby says that it probably saved $50.00 in wood to do this.

It is not all Work at Star Hill

We had a three day weekend!  Yeah!  Yippee!  Hooray!  Do you get the idea that it was great?  I catch a lot of flack from Hubby's friends from time to time.  Usually the comment is something like " Stop making him work so hard."  I feel like I need to let you all know that I am not a slave driver... well not a slave driver all the time... Okay... I would try to tell you that he likes doing projects, but that would be an overstatement most of the time.  He does go along with my wild ideas, but he would much rather be in his recliner.   I let the poor guy have the weekend off.  Mostly.  We only did a few projects this weekend and they were just wrapping up other projects that were already started.

I even took a little time for myself.  My Social Planner and I got pedicures in Huntsville.  What a treat.

Hubby did his own craft project this week and I cannot wait to show and tell his handiwork.  He didn't want to tell me what he was doing because I would blog about it.  I love it!  The computer is mightier than the sword.

Star Hill is always open for guests.  Let me repeat, Star Hill is always open for guests.  We love having our friends and family come visit us.  Bring a swimsuit and you should be good to go. 

We even keep spare toothbrushes.  Give us a call an hour before you get there and we will probably have food ready when you arrive.

 That being said I do have some friends who feel like they need an invitation. 

Hubby called his family and we posted on Facebook that we were ready for guests. 

My favorite twin nephews came Sunday to visit.  Of all my twin nephews, I definitely like these two the best.

Apparently they read my blog, so I will have to be very careful what I say about them.  Peat and Repeat arrived along with Repeat's girlfriend,  Amber.  Hubby's two sisters and brother-in-law spent the day with us too. 

Hubby's pride and joy- Big Red came out of hibernation.  She even got power washed so that she would be beautiful.

We are currently babysitting an awesome jet ski so that got to go out on the lake with us. 
The kids had a ball with  the jet ski. They all learned to ride it without any problems. 

 If only we could convince them that there are no alligators in the part of the lake near our house.  There really are no alligators in our part of lake, guys.

We took the boat to  a sandy beach near the house.  It is usually deserted, but  this was a holiday weekend.  We had company at the beach.

 

 

We had hamburgers, beans, chips and guacamole,  some amazing berry crumble, apple cobbler, brownies and homemade ice cream after our trip out on the lake.  I am sure that I will be kicking myself when I weigh in the morning, but it sure was good.  

There are  a few things that we usually do when the family comes over; we  have a bunch of magnetic letters on our fridge.  I try to have a nice welcoming note on the fridge when people come to visit.  One of my nephews (Peat I believe!) Loves to change my note. 

 We keep  the extra letters on the side of the fridge so that others can leave a note.

My nice note: A WEEKEND IN THE COUNTRY  became  WEAKEND IN THE COUNTRY.  Very funny. 

The other thing that usually occurs in a mean game of  Last Word.  I an not sure that we play the game according to the rules in the box, but our version is loud, a little rude and very funny.

We knew it was a great day when we  looked at our fence.

We would love to have you come and visit.  Really.

Composting at Star Hill

I feel like I need full discosure here.  At Star Hill we have terrible dirt.  It is clay and as far as I can tell the only thing that loves it is pine trees.  Also, we do not have trash service at Star Hill.  We are too cheap to pay for trash pick up at two houses.  Those two facts along with giving birth to the Southern Belle who is VERY eco-friendly has led us to compost at the lakehouse. 

Inside the house we have two trash cans; recycle and trash.  We bring all that home and put it out by our curb.  We also have a compost jar.

 For a long time I just had a big bean pot that we put all vegetable scraps in, but my social planner suprised me with this one two weeks ago.  It even has a charcoal filter in the lid.  Fancy.

It is kind of gross to look at, but I wanted you to see what goes in to the compost pot.  Potato peels, cantalope rinds and seeds, egg shells, cilantro stems, jalapeno seeds and stems, apple cores, and onion skins were in the pot this weekend. 

We know that we do not follow any of the composting rules.  My parents are champion composters.  They have been composting for years.  The cage we have does not have a center post.  It was free and the post was missing.  It is supposed to have a cener wire square post that allows for air circulation.  We have to stir our compost from time to time.

 The compost cage is located in the backyard near the creek that runs through the back of the property.

Not attractive but out of the way.  The stuff really packs down quicky.  We add stuff all the time and it is rarely over 1/2 full.

We do not bag our grass clippings.  Our mover mulches them back into the yard but our neighbors have a lawn service that bagges their lawn clippings.  About once every two or three months we bring up a bag of clippings.  The nitrogen is good for the compost.  It looks like we need more soon.

I dug into the compost so that you could see the dirt that is being made.  When we need dirt, we just dig deep into the compost and add it to any holes we dig.  The soil is rich and loose and the plants love it.  We are also getting ready for our first fall garden so we will be using the compost a lot.

Here are the vegetable scraps from the weekend.  After they are added, I just have to cover it with the grass clippings.  During the summer when it is hot and dry we water the compost every once in a while.  The moitture helps break everything down. 

Having the compost up at Star Hill makes me feel guilty for not doing it at home, but it hasn't happened yet.

Man Slayer

Although I do from time to time name my kids on Facebook when I post, I do not call my children or my husband by their given names in the blog.  There are several reasons: 

• I want to protect their privacy.  They did not ask to have a mom who chooses to write her business on the Internet for all to see, even in other countries.
• There are some scary people out there.  I would rather that those I love are not easily identified. 
• I think nicknames are just so darn cute!

Baby Boy, my youngest sweetheart, let me know the other day on my visit to the Lovebird's apartment that he does not appreciate his name.  He is not thrilled with being a grown (debatable) married (true) man ( the momma is not ready to accept this) called Baby Boy.  I asked him what he would like to be called and his answer was "Something manly...like Man Slayer."  Really?  My sweet little baby boy wants to be called Man Slayer?  I don't think so.  I guess I need to rethink his blog name.  It is hard for a mom to let her little chicks grow up, but I will work on it.  I am soliciting names on my Facebook page.

Baby Boy will have a new name soon.

Cooking for the Week Without Working Hard

This is a warning.  Vegetarians- avert your eyes.  This blog is all about meat.  About a year ago one of my teachers schooled me on the wonders of an electric smoker.  He swore to me that I- a professed non-cooker- could in fact smoke my own turkey.  I threatened him within an inch of his life if it went wrong, but did go buy a smoker.  I have to admit that I had no confidence in my skills so I cooked a turkey two weeks before Thanksgiving just to be sure it would work.  It did.  We were hooked on the Smoker.  We know that the coming week will be crazy with the start of school so we wanted to get some food cooked ahead.  In the city, I do not cook.  Hubby handles this duty, but it is his first week of school too so unless I want sandwiches or cereal I knew I needed to have a plan.  My plan... cook this weekend at Star Hill.

The smoker now lives at Star Hill.  It is the most amazing device.  I can cook a ton of food without worrying about it.

Step one buy some wood chips.  They are located where the barbeque coals are.  We buy different woods.  This time Mesquite.  I have a bag of Applewood waiting.  The wood chips have to be soaked in water for about 15 minutes before putting them in the cooker so I start soaking them while setting up the smoker.

My Smoker.

Not too attractive to look at.

The water soaked wood chips are placed around the heating element.

Next I get the steam bowl ready.  I have used a ton of stuff in the steam bowl but this time it was peach nectar and water.  Whatever you have.  Apple juice, Soy Sauce...

The steam bowl goes in just above the heating element on the hooks in the tube.

Next comes the meat.  Lots of meat.  When I am using the smoker I load it up.  It is going to be on all day so I think it just makes good sense to make several different meats at once.  On the rack above the steam bowl I put chicken breasts. 

The next rack had a pork loin and boneless beef ribs.  It was packed.

At this point, put on the lid and plug the smoker in.


In a few short minutes you should see...

 

SMOKE!  It smells heavenly.  We are starving all day while it cooks.  I put he smoker on at 9:00 in the morning and took everything off at 4:00 in the afternoon.  About every two hours I checked to see if it needed wood chips added to the bottom or water to the steam bowl. 

The door in the side is where you check everything.

 

The meat was amazing.  We had ribs Saturday night.  We will have chicken pork loin and ribs to eat this week along with salads and vegetables.  We are good to go.  This is a great way to start our first week back to school.