RIB AND CHILI COMPETITION--

Well I said that I would post the information about the Rib and Chili competition at the VFW here in hesperia------There was about 30 cookers the public was inivited to be fed by the VFW for $7 and they were permited to sample the Ribs and Chili at each of the competitors stations.   Even though the judges decided that another Rib and Chili cooker other than me was to win, I did have a great time and my (home made ultimate rib machine) was the envy of all the other competors.. They had of course their (store bought) BBQs .

This home made rib cooker makes it easy to control and maintain a great temperature and I choose the type of wood that I use for the smoke--I like Apple wood for a mild smoke.  There was about 200 sample tasters and I was very happy with the coments made by a lot of them when they came back to my booth and told me that (in their opinion) they thought  my ribs were the best of all the other competitors.  --too bad the judges didn't think so.....but I cook for me, my family and friends and if the judges like them, ok, and if they don't, oh well.   It might be noted that I did get my picture in the paper and the others did not---ha ha

Also, I think maybe my chili was a little to hot for the tender mouths of the sissies doing the judging.  But many sample tasters liked it real well.

  So there it is, I am looking forward to the next one--It is fun competing even if l don't win, I LOVE MY RIBS and I love to cook em.  ha ha

Now I am getting ready for a high priest social at my place this Saturday the 20th---I am doing steaks to order, BBQ corn-on the cob, backed potaotes and the folks coming are bringing the salads.  Should be 50 to 60 people and lots of fun------

sorry for any mis-spelled words--I aint had much learning!  ha ha

Spotlite on Caleb Packard

Caleb is 12 years old and a Deacon in the church.  As most of the family knows, Caleb loves to play and of all the grandkids, he is probably the most like me.  Sorry Caleb, but, the facts are the facts.   It is hard to get him interested in the kinds of stuff that we all would like him to be interested in.  B U T- Some changes are happening that started about a month ago and maybe a little before that.   Caleb came to me and asked if I would let him come to the barn and teach him to do a little wood work---WOW!!  was I excited to hear this.......So, we talked about what kind of project that he would like to do.  He decided that he would like to make a small  (about 8" X 10" X 6")   junk box for a friend of his and put his friends initials on it.  So I picked him up one morning and we went to Riverside to the hardwood store.  Him and I looked at all the hardwood from the comon stuff like maple, oak, mohagany, cherry, walnut and we looked at all the specialty woods from other countries.  We felt the wood and smelled the wood and looked at the different grains.  Caleb picked out some African Paduak (bright orange wood) and some Cedar.  He wanted to combine the woods to make this box.  Then we went back to the barn and got to work.

Caleb learned all the safety issues and how to use the table saw, the radial arm saw, the scrol saw, belt sanders, the 12' disc sander, the orbital spindal sander and all the hand tools--he learned very quickly and I think he has quit a tallent for wood.  I told him that a large part of wood work is enjoying the smell of the fresh cut wood and the saw dust on the floor and these things are very important parts of wood work.

Caleb learned to use the router to make dovetail joints for the corners of his box and did very well.  he learned how to glue and put the sides and end pieces together using clamps.  He also learned the  importance of the different grits of sang paper and the effects they have on the wood.
Caleb learned how to in-set the initials of his friend into the lid of the box and using a different kind of wood so that it kinda stood out.   He also wanted a 1" strip of cedar wood in the sides and ends of the box for contrast and it looked very nice.

You can't see them very well, but caleb made feet to go on the bottom of the box that raised the box off the surface about 1 inch.  Then he put a little brass knob on the lid and brass hinges.  This is the finished product and I thought he did a great job in only 2 days in the barn.

N O W  I will tell you a little about Calebs other exciting things that he is doing.  Caleb went to Wrestling Camp at Chapman University in Fullerton.  He checked in and started workouts and spent 5 days learning all he could about wrestling (Caleb is very strong for his size and age).   Then after a gruling week, he competed in the tournament.  There was about 200 other wrestlers.  Caleb pined his first two matches but lost the last one and got a 2nd place ribbons.  Not too bad for his very first tournament and we were all very proud.  He competed like a champion and held his head up high.  I think he will be a great wrestler with a little more experience.  I hope he sticks with it and competes in high school in a year or two.

Caleb Has just started his first year of football.  He should be a real asset to the team and we can hardly wait to see him play.

GO GET EM CALEB!!!!!
 

Rib and Chili competition--

This should be fun--A rib and chili competition put on by the Veterans of Foreign Wars here in Hesperia.  I have been told that their are cookers coming from several states to compete.  Altho I think I can be very competitive for both chili and ribs, I think the best part is cooking for fun.....

I had to weld some wheels onto my (home made) Rib cooker so I can load it on the trailor--everything has to be cooked on site and my rib cooker does an exellent job.  Oh, and by the way, I am rounding up some SPECIAL Mystery Meat for the chili--ha ha ha    This should be a hoot.  It is Saturday 7/30 so I have about a week to get things together.......I will do another post when it is over to let you know how my chili and ribs did.......  

Grandma's Terriffic Sewing Camp

LaWanna,  (Grandma), has been wanting for some time now to put on a sewing camp for all her grand daughters.  Her goal is to increase interest and hopefully a great love for sewing for her grandaughters as she has had all her life. You might say it is "IN THE BLOOD".  Aunt Monna loves to sew, my grandmother Great Granny was a super seamstress for years and years and my mother was a great seamstress sewing draperies as a contractor for JC Pennies, Broadway and some other department stores.  She also made all of my shirts and my sisters dresses all thru our school years.  So, all of these grand daughters have the long background of sewing in their blood.

As it turns out, we have 9 grandaughters, but only 6 are old enough to learn to sew on a sewing machine.  They are:  Bailey 12, Skylar 9, Campbell and Sydney 7, Holly 6 and the youngest is Quincy 5.  Grandma has lots of help from Mindy and Merilee, as the picture indicates.  It will be really somethiing when the other three grand daughters, Heidi 2 1/2, Greta 18 mos and Mackinly 3 mos. can join the fun with all their girl cousins at grandma's sewing camp.  Our 9 grand sons were NOT invited to the "all girl" sewing camp.

Next is DAY ONE:  

   

These are the six machines that the kids were being trained on.  To start with, Grandma went over the safety of the machines.  Then they learned how to use the machine and all the things about the machines that do different things.  Thenthey started sewing on paper, following straight lines and then curves.  Then she had a dot-to dot picture and they had to connect the dots by sewing one to another.   (Grandma has it all figured out and is SOOO organized) and the girls loved sewing.

Also on the first day, the girls made some PJ bottoms for their dolls.  They used this for training for the next days challenge, (making their own colorful shorts).

DAY TWO:

After breakfast the girls got started on making themselves some shorts.  Grandma had already got the patterns ready for them and so they started at the cutting table getting their materials organized for sewing. Grandma also had little sewing boxes made up for each girl with sizzers, thimble, needles, pins, tape measure and a needle threader in each.  WOW, these girls were set.  Now they learned to sew the cut pieces of material together, iron the flat, sew in the place where the elastic goes on top, sew up the bottom and that took the whole day--of course there were breaks and lunch in there.

DAY THREE:

Well on day three the girls were given colorful shirts that grandma had set up for each girl and they had the assignment of selecting some decorations to sew on the shirts.  With the help of the internet, they all made their selections, cut them out of material of their choice and ironed them on to the shirts and then started sewing the decorations around the edge and adding buttons and other fancy things--What great looking shirts.  There was plenty of time for all the cousins to play in between sewing.  Here they are swinging and playing with Millie and her toy.  Every one loves Millie.  Ethel (bloodhound) is just waiting for food.

  

DAY FOUR:

Well now after 3 grulling days of sewing, what could be better than having a fashion show to show off what the girls have created.  So, invitations were made up and delivered, brownies and ice cream was prepared, chairs set up and the guests arrived and enjoyed the girls struting their stuff.  From first to last: Bailey, Skylar, Campbell, Sydney, Holly and of course Quincy.  They did such a super job and everyone loved it.  You might notice also that the camp host and helpers also made shorts and decorated shirts.  Ha Ha  what a hoot.

  

    
DAY FIVE:

Day five is a day of play, rest and reflecting on the first and TOTALLY SUCCESSFUL sewing camp.  Accept, of course, for the camp cook------ME!     No rest yet, it aint over till it is over, so I prepared a BBQ of 4 large chickens, corn on the cob, my famous baked beans and macaroni  salad using my moms original special recipe.  I felt obligated to do all the cooking, cleaning and swatting flys all week--breakfast, lunch and dinner, so that grandma and helpers could focus stricly on the girls.  I still have dish pan hands.

The Brothers Koford and The Constuction Job.

While visiting the Kofords in Visalia while the newest of our grandchildren (McKinley) was having surgery, it was important for Owen and Henry to get started on building some shelves and a work bench for their parents to store stuff and so this first picture is a "before" picture.

Now that the problem has been identified, it is time to get started.  So a trip to Home Depot is in order and here we are getting the necessary supplies to build something cool.

Now after unloading the lumber and setting up the saw horses, we got to work.  It is a tough job but as you can see the Brothers Koford are up to the challenge.

As you can tell, these fine brothers, working together as a well oiled machine, made quick work of the job and WOW, what a difference it made in the garage.  Their mom and dad (Emily & Tim) are so proud.  And also, little McKinley surgery went very well and she will soon be joining this construction team.    

Spotlight on Tristan Packard

This is Tristan Packard.  My first born grand child.  His father is my son, Chad.  Tristan is 14 years old and this is a picture taken just a week ago at his graduation into High School.

Tristan has worked very hard to perfect his baseball skills, particularly  PITCHING and BATTING.  Tristan was notified just tonite that he was voted by fellow team mates and league coaches to the all prestigous ALL-STAR TEAM--in this league that he is in, is the 14 to 16 year olds and he is one of the youngest players in the league--I tried to make it to most of his games to watch him pitch and hit.  In most of the games that he pitched, he struck out 2 batters in most innings and held the other team scoreless most of the time.  He also cranked many long hits and scored many runs.  Tristan is certainly to be admired and is a great example for all my other grand kids.

Tristan has started "hell week" this week for high school football.  He is on a wieght lifting program and conditioning and  working out with the quarterbacks.  This is a little different for us Packards, usually we are on the linemen.  I sure hope he excells and enjoys football and baseball in high school.  

More M Y S T E R Y M E A T---MMMMMMMM

Well are you ready for another pot of Dougs Secret Chili?    I hope so because I just captured a great ground squirl from LaWanna's garden--ha ha           He is not only handsome,  but he looks very tasty also...ha ha.   Mystery meat is a very important ingredient for an award winning chili at any chili cook off altho I usually use pork, beef, chicken, turkey, sometimes some goat and if I am lucky, some vinison or elk.  But I think that a squirl would work.      YOU TRY IT FIRST AND LET ME KNOW!!!  ha ha ha 

TRISTAN PACKARD

This is just to inform ya'll that I spotlighted Tristan but due to my vast expertise in blogging, it got put on the FIVE FOODIES blog insteat of mine......Check out Tristan.

Tristan and Caleb's pine wood derby cars

These are the pinewood derby cars that Tristan and Caleb made for the derby coming up this tusday.  They asked me to do my majic to make them go fast----I have just finished polishing the axels and puting on the wheels and we hope for the best.......Tristans is the silver one and Caleb has the blue one.

I have included a picture of the red truck called BIG DADDY.   This truck is still talked about today at the church in New Jersey from the ward pinewood derby---Jason and I both built cars and both had much success beating the crap out of every one in the ward--as it ended up jasons car beat BIG DADDY by about an inch.......I have repolished the axels and it should improve even more and I will have Chad run it at their derby this Tuesday......

The end of the tomatoes....

As most of you know, we have a garden each year----Well, LaWanna has a garden each year and I get elected to help  YUK.....She does good but I am afraid if we had to depend on our garden for survival-----we would starve.     I think she does it because the profit tells us to.......ANYWAY, last year all thru the growing season we harvested very few totatoes but had large vines--about the end of september the tomato plants started putting on tomatoes, tons of them, but, in october when the growing season ends, we had tons of green tomatoes.   So we used an old indian trick (learned from Monna) and we picked every dang green tomato and ended up with 4 buckets full and we put them in used cardboard fruit separators, "from the produce section of Stater Brothers market. then we put them up in several closets where it is dark and cool and waited for them to ripen-----these are the last of  LAST  YEARS  tomatoes--pretty good huh. I guess they lasted for about 8 flapping months......WHAT A SAGA.   anyway, these are them---we have been eating last years tomatoes they ripen for months.....   

Moms sewing room tour---

What a fun day for LaWanna---She has worked for a couple weeks on making decorations and planning this sewing room tour to make it a special experience for all attendees.  And I could tell she was in her element.  She was having the time of here life with her friends in the sewing guild.....She made cookies that look like spools of thread and buttons and canvas bags that she embroidered on and filled with stuff and she made place settings with a piece of material, sisors, 4 buttons and some rick rack--an assignment came with this place setting that each person was to make something out of it and bring it to the next guild meeting------all the women loved it.  There was a total of 5 sewing rooms that they traveled to and then ended up at our place for the luncheon--LaWanna made home made rolls and potato cheeze soup and the others brought salads and deserts.   Here are the pictures that I took of the event--Take a look at how clean the cutting table is-----not likely to stay that way. ha ha