WHATABURGER NUTCRACKER 2024

Yeah, this post is a bit late, ha, but several of you asked if we found a new one for this year.  We didn't decorate for Christmas this, there was a lot going on with the farmhouse packing, then moving, then demolition, land clearing, back and forth with the builder, etc and in the end, we realized we're going to just move the stuff as packed.  We figured, why unpack it for a couple of weeks only to have to repack it?  It's already organized, neatly packed and ready to be moved in a few months.

But we did make a new addition to our collection for next year's decorating extravaganza:

You all may remember our collection from the last few years of these nutcrackers.  This is what a few of you had asked about.  Whataburger (a hamburger chain) is an institution here in Texas and a few years ago they came out with their first one in 2019.  Then in 2020, they didn't have one due to pandemic and shipping issues.  In 2021, they had one and again in 2022 and last year 2023.  Almost missed that one due to my hospital trip but got I before it was sold out.

And this year, like clockwork, they came out with the 2024 version.  Sure, they are all variations of each other, holding something different, different color hair or reversed colors, but, as a Texas institution, we have to have our Whataburger nutcrackers in our Texas Christmas decorating!  Not sure how long they will keep it going but we're in it now, ha.

Anyway, just thought we'd share.  We can't wait to decorate our house this Christmas!

WE HAVE A NEW GATE

 With a new driveway under construction now, we figured it was a good time to a new gate.  Nothing fancy, but we needed a new one.  And by "we", it's for both 2nd Family and us since we share the front part of the driveway.

This is the old one.

It had settled and began scraping the ground becoming more and more difficult to close.  In fact, recently, "J" has just been leaving it open all the time because she said it was so hard to deal with.  For her security, and of course ours and the new construction, we thought it best to get the gate fixed so it can be closed again. 

We found a great company to come see if they could lift it on the pole and remount it by a foot, so that it could swig closed.  But, as with many older things on a rural property, it was rusted and if we started closing it nightly and the builders are opening it daily, it wouldn't last very much longer.

So, we ordered a new one and they installed it for us.

And here it is!

We didn't opt for anything fancy.  At this point, the driveway gate is just to keep out cars and discourage people from being where they shouldn't be.  Plus, when we have construction materials, etc on site, we sure don't want anyone to just be able to drive down the driveway when they aren't supposed to be there.

We also got a new chain and lock, to be set up in something called a "daisy chain padlock".

The builder will put their own lock attached to ours so they can open and close as needed (they don't want a key to our lock) and then we can open and close as needed as well.  The picture above is an example of how that works.  We can lock them together and it stays locked. They can go anytime and unlock theirs, go in and out and lock it back when they are done and we can do the same as we (or "J") need to do. 

Pretty cool solution!

Once we move in, we might look at something more substantial or even an automatic gate of some sort...for those rainy days when you have to get out of the car and unlock the chain, ha!  But for now, this will work just fine, "J" is thrilled and we are happy.

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

 It's Sunday.  It's been a beautiful weekend.  Yesterday was a farm trip to deal with the driveway decisions and a couple other things.  It was a good day.

2nd Man made one of our new favorites, a pork stir fry with lots of veggies.  He uses a new super nonstick pan we got that doesn't need much oil, just a spritz of avocado oil, cooked the pork, then added ginger, garlic, onions, green beans, wax beans, carrots, mushrooms, and snow peas.  A little finish of some sesame oil and it was ready to serve...

...over brown rice noodles!  So delicious!!

We were in the kitchen and looked to the living room to see this.  Hobart was keeping an on us.  Or maybe he just wanted us to fluff up his blanket.   And we did.  Because...

#notspoiled

PINEAPPLE DOORSTOP TRASH TO TREASURE

Regular readers know that I have a favorite place to look for bargains...our downstairs trash area!  Our building has trash chutes on every floor, and they feed into a separate room, but for boxes and other things that people can't put in the chute, there is an area (indoor) near the loading dock where people can put the things they don't want.  I've found quite a few cool items over the last few years.

Saw this partially in a box in the trash and knew exactly what it was.  I brought it upstairs.

A doorstop!  (at least we still think it's a doorstop, ha).  It's made of a heavy cast iron and is a dark brown/bronze color.  It worked great to keep this door open (one that tends to slowly close on its own).

Nice detail of a pineapple which of course is a symbol of hospitality, welcome and good luck.  It will be the perfect thing to use on a door at the new house!

An early housewarming gift! 😊

ANTIQUE PHILCO RADIO

Years ago, twenty to be exact, I bought this for 2nd Man for our fifth anniversary.

The traditional gift for five years is wood and this is wood!  Yeah, I tend to think out side the box, ha. 

It's a Philco 37-630T tabletop radio.  I did some research, and it is from 1937, so it is almost NINETY years old.  We love the art deco styling and super cool retro design with the beautiful wood.

It still worked the last time we plugged it in (a couple of years ago).  It takes a little time to warm up, but when it does, it works great, and it even picks up short wave stations.  It probably needs a full restoration but when I bought it all those years ago, it had already been cleaned and made to be in working condition.

We haven't had it at the apartment due to space limitations, but we can't wait to find the right spot for it at the new house.  We really like the idea of filling the house with both the latest in high tech and then old school vintage or antique tech.  It'll be a nice combination of new and old.

Anyway, thought we'd share!

NEW HOUSE UPDATE

House build update:

With all the driveway issues, we forgot to share these pictuers and updates.  They came out and filled the forms with dirt and sand in preparation for the next step (setting plumbing).

Here is the front corner, from master bedroom closet looking across the house toward Barnabas.

Here is the back corner, master bedroom corner, where my desk will be, ha, looking toward the front yard.

This is the other back corner, where the garage and grilling/cooking porch will be.  Speaking of...

...here's a great view of what I'll see while I'm grilling or canning.  I think I can live with this view!  Ha!  The neighbors have a new horse (at least one, could be more elsewhere) and some cattle.

It still looks so different with our clearing and then the clearing the neighbors did.  We love it.

This week, the new driveway project will begin. The construction supervisor said it should take about 3-5 days so it could be done by the weekend.  Either way, I'll have to go out this weekend to return the plants to their proper (temporary) spot now that Winter is over.

Stay tuned!

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

 Still cold, today is gray and overcast (yesterday it rained all day) and it's 49 degrees.  But warmer and drier days are coming, so they say.

Recently, 2nd Man made a large pot of Pozole Verde...it's a Mexican style stew, made with lean pork, hominy, tomatillos, poblanos, etc.  It makes a big batch so we eat on it for several days.  So good.

When you serve it, you add cabbage, avocados, fresh white onions, cilantro and lime.  Also usually add radishes sliced up but we didn't have any.  It is so good, so filling and warm and satisfying.

Hobart was sitting on the other couch, on his fuzzy blue blanket, and he looked over and I thought it was a cute picture with him looking at us saying hello!  Then he finally curled up and slept.  Because...

#notspoiled

IT IS COLD

It's been a cold week (well, cold relative to our "usual" cold weather, ha).

In fact, it was colder this time around than during our snowstorm of a month or so ago.

This was Wednesday around noon at the farm...25 degrees with a feels like of 13 degrees.

But not to be outdone...

At 7:16am Thursday morning, it was 19 degrees with a feels like of SEVEN!  Single digits!  It was, as they say, dangerously cold for people, pets, pipes and...plants.

Speaking of, never fear...

...our well travelled mini-orchard is safe and sound in the parking garage at the apartment. Bananas, avocados, cherries, goji berries, an olive tree and two muscadine grapevines.

This was sent to us by a dear friend and it made us laugh.  Sorry Punxsutawney Phil, we'll take you seriously next year!

Stay warm!

BIQUINHO PEPPERS NEW EXPERIENCE

Not too long ago, I was grocery shopping and saw these.  Red Peruvian peppers.  They intrigued me and so I figured I'd pick some up.

It's the little self-serve section, so I got some in a container and brought them home.

They are oddly shaped (have a nickname of "little beak peppers") and are called Biquinho peppers.  They have a wonderfully unique flavor profile.  Smokey in a way, sweet and not at all hot, they are on the very low end of the Scoville heat scale, coming in at 500-1000 (considered a rare mild pepper). By comparison, jalapenos come in at 2000-8000.  These originate in Brazil (not sure why they called these Peruvian at the store) but they have a delightful flavor more like the flavor of a roasted red bell pepper with floral and citrusy notes as they say.

I could just eat them like this, just finger food out of the package (and did, ha). They have a pop as you eat them which is kind of a fun burst of flavor.

 ...but we put them into our salads and we love them.  They are a unique addition to a salad.  Best of all, they can also be pickled/canned...and so with that in mind...

...I went online and found some quality seeds and ordered some!

They are supposed to be easy to grow and we figured it would be fun to grow at the new house!  From what we've read, many families in South America grow them in containers on their porch and harvest lots of little peppers.  It'll be fun to at least try to grow some and heck, we might be the only people in our whole area growing Brazilian/Peruvian/Little Beak/Biquinho peppers in their garden!🤣

OUR FIRST HURDLE

Well, it as bound to happen, just didn't know it would happen this fast, ha.  Our home build has been put on a temporary hold while they addressed and figured out a situation that had arisen.

So, they got the forms set just before the snow.  You saw that post HERE.  The next step was to put in the fill soil.  That is when they bring in a dozen full dump trucks of soil and fill and pack the foundation.

The trucks are large and weigh 30,000 lbs each.

Our driveway was inspected, several times over the course of the process, and it was deemed ok.  Alas, that was the not the case.

Here is one direction looking toward the build site.

We aren't land/driveway engineers so we they told us it was fine we were like, ok, great.  I mean, this is the driveway we will use to access the house and it's been fine for all these years.  But, the super heavy weight of that many trucks and the wet ground after the rain and snow melt was just too much and the underlayment collapsed and the trucks had trouble getting down the driveway and pretty much destroyed it.

And here is the other direction from the same spot in the first picture.

I couldn't get any further down than where I parked (this was a couple of weekends ago).  It's the entire length of the driveway from where it starts at our part of the property.

You can also see one of the dump trucks, the last one they brought in actually, in this photo.

For a close-up, this is the truck after it tilted into the ground when the subsurface collapsed and it was stuck.  They did finally get it out.

This is from this weekend.  They have smoothed it out for us and it was better, for cars anyway.  When it's not wet, it makes it OK to drive on. In fact, grass is even filling in as you can see.  

Still, it left a mess that needed be addressed.  The builder put the project on hold to a) let the driveway dry out of course and b) to figure out a solution.  There was some negotiation, but in the end, we have to fund a new driveway.  That was NOT in our plans or our budget but it is what it is.  They are going to build a new driveway for us, the way it should be, that will last us for years.  We are meeting them in the middle for the price.  We pay the bulk of it because they are going to be doing it at cost and they will maintain it without any additional expenses to us, throughout the build.

It has to come out of savings and some of our contingency, not happy about that but it was pretty fair in the end.

It will look something like this (not sure of the color yet).  They will grade it flat and then build up layers on top of that, ending with crushed gravel and will raise it about 6 inches and put a culvert down the side to help with drainage.  Once they start, about 3-5 days to complete then work on the house can continue.  It's about 600' long, but in the end, we'll have a good, solid, driveway that should last us for years to come.