Garden Updates

On Sunday we made the most of our garden and made the following meal:

Eggplant and chicken parmesan: eggplant, basil and oregano from our garden

Bruschetta: tomatoes from our garden

Pesto: basil from our garden

Mojitos: mint from our garden

It's so fun to use items that we've grown to make food! Our lone potato is starting to grow and the swiss chard seems to still be holding on. Our peppers may be stunted at their current size and we have another 10 tomatoes ready to be eaten. All in all, not bad for a small garden like ours!

My Buster, Your Buster

I babysat Lucie and Audrey the other night. When I walked up to their house, Missy told me that Lucie was so excited to see I brought Buster with me. She LOVES Buster (who she used to call 'tee tee'). I think he reminds her of one of her stuffed animals. In fact, I know that's what he reminds her of....

As I walked in the house, she promptly shows me her small, white stuffed animal that she has named 'my Buster'. She pointed to Buster and said, 'your Buster' and then to her stuffed animal and said, 'my Buster'.

So adorable.......

Since Buster recently became a dog with only 3 teeth (yes, 3 teeth), the fact that Lucie loves him unconditionally makes my heart melt.

Shed Complete (I think?)

Today I (finally) finished painting the shed. Turns out, it was a much bigger under taking than I imagined.

Kelsey helped me get started a few weeks ago, I did some work on my own and then Jess helped me with the finishing touches today. Needless to say, this would have taken twice as long without their help and I'm not sure I could have survived that. Between the heat and hand cramps, I feel like such a wimp but painting is hard work!

I'm proud of how it turned out although I had hoped the green would be a little darker. It's a little mintier than I wanted but there is no way I'm doing a second coat.

So what's next? Well, we'll continue to eat the fruits (er, veggies) of our garden and begin to work on building out a patio area near the shed.

We (er, Carl) also bought a condo that we'll lease out. At least for now. It's really close to my work (literally I can walk to work) but our current plan is to stay in my house and eventually move into this condo and then build a house out in Dripping Springs on the land he has out there.

Owning multiple homes wasn't necessarily part of where I thought my life would head. But that's probably because there's no way I could afford to do that alone.

It's fun to have a cool, modern condo and think about what it will be like (one day) for us to live in there.

In the meantime, we'll enjoy our mint green shed:

Livin' Off The Land

Ok, we're not really living off our garden now BUT we are getting creative with what we do.

We have so much basil and mint (anybody need any?) that we had to do something with it.

So we made pesto and mint syrup (thanks to Ken's idea) this past weekend. I plan to freeze some of the mint syrup in ice cube trays so you have ready to drink mojitos (just add rum and club soda) and the pesto we're going to eat this Friday with some gnocchi, fresh mozzarella and some of our tomatoes.

I'm guessing our eggplants will be ready to eat next week so I'm sure we'll grill them and/or make some eggplant parm. And our green peppers are coming along nicely.

Road Trip

Carl and I took our first vacation together this past week. While we were in Marfa a couple of months ago we decided to take a week long road trip to New Mexico. Both because I'd never been and he's been a lot and wanted to show me some of his favorite spots.

Neither of us had been to Taos, though, so we decided to start the trip there and then head south to some of Carl's favorite camping and climbing spots.

I took notes during the trip so I wouldn't forget the details but there is no way this blog will live up to the actual experience. So many of the details won't be as amusing to others but Carl and I crack ourselves up so we had a great time.

Brace yourself. This post is a doozie.

Day 1 started with a 13 hour drive to Taos. I (of course) brought along many hours of car ride entertainment - audio books, crosswords, book of questions and snacks aplenty. Miraculously the long drive went by quickly. We got to Taos around dinner time and got food from a local restaurant that Kelsey and her parents recommended.

Day 2 was spent being lazy in the morning - sleeping in, making breakfast and planning our day. We decided to hike up Taos ski valley and picked a short 7.5 mile round trip hike. This may be the most intense hike I've ever done. Not only because we started at 9000 feet elevation (and climbed over 2500 more) and my breath was harder to catch but it was steep and windy.

It was a beautiful hike and Carl was very patient with my need to take many breaks. I almost stopped about 50 feet short of the top because I was just so tired but I pushed through (mostly because Carl was going to go with or without me) and I'm so glad I did. The hike took us over 4 hours and we were pretty worn out that night. We went out for a nice dinner and were asleep by 10ish (a theme throughout most of the trip).

Day 3 led us out of Taos after stopping in town for some coffee. We drove through Santa Fe and made a quick stop in Albuquerque at REI and Whole Foods to stock up on camping, climbing and food supplies.

We got to The Enchanted Tower around 6pm and set up camp. Now I've been camping before. In fact I lived in a tent for almost 2 months in Americorps but we had bathrooms and showers accessible. This was a bit more primitive. We had to pump and filter our own water from a cow trough, shower outdoors by letting the water heat up in a sun shower and there were no bathrooms to speak of. I was prepared for this so it didn't bother me. What I wasn't prepared for was the mass amounts of flies and wannabees (our names for the flies who look like bees but are really just more annoying flies).

Day 4 started after a great night of sleeping in the tent with a cool breeze. We slept in and got up to make coffee, bacon and eggs. This is when the flies and wannabees swarmed in. There were so many it got to be comical - watching Carl and I use our flip flops to swat them away. During this time I managed to spill hot coffee on myself (twice) and get stung by a bee. I was pretty close to tears of frustration but was really trying to stay positive.

We packed up our stuff and began our hike up to the climbing spots. I'm still trying to stay positive and focus on making the most of the day. The fact that there were less flies at the higher altitude of climbing helped my mood but it still took me awhile to bounce back.

I've only climbed a few other times and still have a lot to learn. There's so much about climbing that's mental. Clearly you need physical strength too but you need to understand how it works and get past your own fears. Carl was (as usual) very patient with me - even when I wouldn't even look him in the eyes because I was trying to (not very successfully) fight back tears.

I managed to bounce back from my sour mood (which I think Carl was most appreciative of) and got a good last climb in, improved my skills in belaying him so he could have a few good climbs and had another early night to bed after hot dogs, apple sauce and cookies for dinner (yep, we ate like 5 year olds).

Day 5 started much better - less flies due to our much earlier wake up. We both love leisurely mornings with many cups of coffee and good breakfasts. So mornings have always been a great time for us to spend together.

We decided, since we were having an early start to our day, that we'd leave this camp spot a day early after an afternoon of more climbing. This day of climbing was so much better! I did two climbs right away without the hesitation, fear and insecurities I had from the day before. I was so proud of myself and loved how proud Carl was of me. He then, once again, had an amazing climb. He is so confident and skilled in climbing that I love watching him do it - everything from the process of how he'll do it to watching him actually succeed. His dedication is pretty inspirational.

So we hit the road in the early afternoon with the plan of driving about 5 hours to the next camp site in Sitting Bull Falls in Lincoln National Park.

Unfortunately we didn't make it. We knew there had been a terrible fire in the park in late April and was temporarily closed. It remains closed 6 weeks later so we tried to come up with an alternate plan. Then the lightning and heavy rain set in. At this point, we're near Carlsbad, NM and it's 10pm. We can either stay in a hotel or persevere and drive through the night. After a quick meal at Sonic (and a jump start from a local) we decided to drive straight home - an approximately 8 hour drive.

Carl did most of the driving but thanks to an audio book, some delirium and good music, we got home safely at 7:30am. We crashed out for a few hours and now get an entire weekend in Austin before going back to work on Monday.

While the day by day recap gives you all the details of what we did, where we went and how far we drove (almost 1900 miles), it wouldn't be me if I didn't summarize the most memorable parts of the trip with a list:

1.our first food stop in Lampasas and being served by a woman wearing blue glitter eye shadow (at 8am)

2. playing the longest game of trival pursuit (90s edition) EVER

3. drinking the smallest espresso ever at a restaurant in Taos

4. going to bed before sunset

5. hearing a bear (and later having nightmares that I heard many other animals)

6. stopping at Camel Rock outside of Taos (trust me - it's not worth the stop)

7. the names of the towns we passed (I can't write them without offending someone)

8. the morning that I spilled coffee, was stung by a bee and surrounded by flies - all within 5 minutes of waking up

9. car games that included 'listography: your life in lists', which was a gift from Jess. My love of lists actualized. Carl may have rolled his eyes but he willingly participated.

10. eating sea salt and vinegar chips - a staple in mine and Carl's diet, especially on road trips

After spending almost an entire week together with some days where we had no contact with any other people, I think it's safe to say we not only got along, but we didn't get sick of each other. But I think we're both happy to be home, out of the car for a bit and using plumbing again.
Our next vacation is only 4 weeks away, though, so I can't complain too much about going back to work. Maybe just a little.....

Grillin' and Growin'

Carl and I just got back from our New Mexico road trip and I'm working on a blog (in my head) that will cover that adventure, including lots of pictures.

But, before we get side tracked on that excitement, I've been meaning to share an update on our garden. It's a good thing I waited to update after our trip because we came home to (not only a carefully watered garden by my dad) but 46 total tomatoes in various sizes, 3 budding eggplants, 2 more peppers and growing chard and basil!

We've also started composting in the backyard and are doing our best to manage that.

And, one final bit of exciting news is that we got a gas grill! It was actually an early (yes, very early) birthday gift to me from Carl.

I've wanted one for years and with the addition of the shed (which is done and only needs to be painted....I'll still take volunteers to help...). We had Jim, Kelsey, Devon and Nicole over last week to celebrate Jim's college completion and christened the grill with stuffed-to-order burgers inspired by Your Mom's (the site of mine and Carl's first date).

So food is plentiful in the Sileo/Stewart household. Clearly we're very proud of ourselves!