Father's Day! Greg and I both failed!

Yesterday was Father's Day, so Greg wanted to grill.  Nothing new about that, his nickname when we were younger was "Greg Grill!"  One of the first meals he cooked for me was steak that he grilled in the rain (under the neighbor's garage overhang) and in about 40 degree weather!   So, Greg wanting to grill is no big deal.  He wanted to make a Beef Brisket that we had in the freezer, so he took it out a couple days early and rubbed it down.  It was kind of a "thin" brisket, but was a brisket nonetheless.  He figured it would take quite a while to cook, along with adding some smoke.  Somehow, he managed to cook it at too high of a temperature and we ended up with shoe leather!  Mind you, HE is the one that called it a "failure!"  

And, just to be truthful here, I had my own failure.  For the first time, I made my mother's Pineapple Upside Down Cake.   I didn't realize at first that it called for a 12" cast iron pan.  I have more cast iron than most people have regular pots and pans, so imagine my utter shock that I do not own a 12" cast iron skillet!  Oh, the horror!   I had to improvise, so I used a 10" skillet and a 6" skillet.  I thought because of the amount of baking powder, that it would rise a lot more, and be OK.  Well, THAT was wrong!   My skillets are completely smooth and totally non-stick, but apparently, it was too much for them to have that much butter and brown sugar!  I don't know.  I DO know that I will have to try this again!  The cake tastes amazing, it just looks a little ugly!  LOL

Now that you know I've failed at cooking something, you need to know that that was NOT easy for me to admit!  LOL  Even with this, I'm still an AWESOME cook!  LOL!  

Aside from all the yard work I've been doing I was finally able to finish planting my flowers and cleaning up the deck!  I've had to put the plants under cover a lot because of all the storms we've had.  I certainly don't want to lose them!  I do that every year, but this year we are having a LOT more storms than normal.  Like every other day or every third day.  That's very unusual for North Central Wisconsin.  So, I've often times felt like the "Dunkin Donuts" guy -- put the flowers away; take the flowers out.  OYE!   

So, here's some pictures from the deck that I took the other day. 

We made the benches on the deck two years ago based on something I saw on Pinterest!  I changed it up a little bit as Pinterest didn't have "backs," and I felt it was too "unfinished looking" without the backs, so we added that.  Plus I had to figure out how to do the corner so that I could do both sides.  I painted the cinder blocks last year, and they turned out really nice.   They're actually quite comfortable, too.  You just have to be careful not to "slide" on them, so you don't accidentally get a sliver in your butt!  Ha, ha!  

Three years ago, when the steps were starting to rot, we couldn't afford to replace the stairs, so we did the next best thing by adding bricks to them!  That also turned out very well and very reasonable! 

And one final picture.  Every time it rains, the barn seems to fall a little more.   

So, that's all that's going on right now.  Greg is doing very well since his last radiation.  They told us it would get worse before it gets better, and so far, that ball has not dropped!  There is still much amazement from his doctors at how well he is tolerating all of this, especially considering how poisoned his body has been from previous radiation and chemos. 

Prayers to all!

Julie 


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