Flotsam and Jetsam

 

            The last week of our winter stay this year.  This post is just odds and ends from our last week: the chores, the shopping, stocking the freezers, and storing the stuff in the cabin, cookshack, and shed.  But first we celebrate our first Annual Thank You BBQ for our neighbors who faithfully keep an eye on our place till next fall. We have been blessed with many good neighbors, the two finest being James Davis, his family, and Brenda Butler Seidenberg who live a quarter mile to our west.  We communicate with them several times each summer just to 'check in' and see how things are going.  With the current border immigrant crisis this proves very helpful.  There is a lot of transient traffic but has yet to cause a problem.  This also includes keeping an eye on the local deer population.  We tried to do this last year, but our plans became accelerated due to events we had to leave early for.  Barb did make 2 big pans of her delicious lasagna that we left for them.  

      I planned this menu thoroughly and finalized our plans with Wood Pit Beef Dino Ribs, Barb's Baked Beans, Funeral Potatoes, and Barb's Ham Rollups.  I got up early the day of the Q and fired up the wood pit with lump hardwood charcoal and a bit of oak.  These ribs take anywhere from 4-7 hours to cook, depending on fat content.  There is no injection, just rub and smoke.  

Rubbed out and ready to go

Temp @ 177F Wrap & return

Sliced Beef Dino Ribs

Friends & neighbors alike

       We had a wonderful time on a beautiful 80-degree day just relaxing with our new friends and enjoying some good food.  There were lots of leftovers as well which I made sure we sent home with the folks.  

Beef Tongue for Barbacoa and Tacos

       The week also included a fun shopping trip to Sabinal and Uvalde.  Although there was some other groceries to pick up the main purpose of this trip was to fill the freezers with the meat I didn't provide venison for.  I ordered and picked up Beef Thor's Hammers, Tongue, Picanah, Pork Belly, and Oxtails.  The usual brisket, ribs, baby backs, pork butt, and duck I can get in Michigan, but not these.  

       

Beef Shank Thor's Hammer for BBQ

      We got most of this from Cattlemen's Beef Company in Sabinal.  This is the ranch store for sale of their beef.  Santa Gertrudis, Hereford, and Wagyu.  This is the finest beef you can get.  Cattlemen's Beef Company.  The rest we got from HEB, the finest grocery store on the planet.  We did still have to pick up several different sausages, but that would depend on space available after Barb worked her 'packing magic'.   This will make for some tasty meals on the wood pit up north in Michigan this summer.  

Pork Belly for bacon

Picanah for BBQ Reverse Sear Grilling

Oxtails for stew

       My menu for our last week was not so inventive.  I chose meals we would both love as well as require minimal prep and cleanup.  Sunday/Monday would be baked spaghetti, a favorite of ours that came from our daughter in law.  After that it was Hot Dogs and FF, Crawfish Antipasto, Beef Rib Meat Tacos, and Beans/Weenies.  Comfort food, even at our age.  The day before departure our neighbor, knowing I wasn't converting to vegetarian, gifted us with about 8 pounds of venison backstraps and sausage.  God bless a friend who knows I didn't get a deer this year.  

Baked Spaghetti

Chicago Dog

       Our chores kept us busy most of the week, but we just paced ourselves and still had time for an afternoon nap. (Insert smiling face here).  We hooked up the RV and got everything in 'final countdown mode' the night before departure.  We didn't have to get up very early as our first day was only 206 miles NE to Salado.  Lock doors, pull out, and close/lock the gate behind us.  Impulse power please......Vaya con Dios, Rotodome Ranch.

"I refuse to accept that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him"

Martin Luther King

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