You are probably wondering why we haven’t posted in a while.  Well, up until recently, we haven’t had much to say.  June was an incredibly busy month, but it was mostly because every weekend we had projects to complete.  This is all in preparation for Andy’s 40^th birthday party or at least that is the excuse I’m using, because it’s better than admitting we just have found other things to do! 

• Finish the garden – It looks great and is growing fast now.  Soon we will have fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, squash, and jalapeno pepper.  We also planted brussel sprouts, but I’m not so sure about those.
• Add new mulch to the front planting beds – It took 9 bags to remulch.  I had no idea so much had washed away in just a year’s time.
• Clean the outside of the house – Ask Andy about the house wash that he found at Home Depot for only $8/bottle.  Spray it on, let it sit for 5 minutes, and rinse it off.  All the mold GONE.
• Clean the deck – We used the deck wash from the same company that made the house wash.  Our deck is amazingly clean.  It had a lot of mold on it and it’s gone now!  Of course, the actual cleaning process was a lot of scrubbing and hard work, but it looks great now!
• Change up some pictures in certain rooms
• Etc., etc., etc.

On May 22, we had a fun get-together we called Bacon-Palooza.  Although there wasn't really THAT much bacon involved, we did try to make sure everyone brought a dish that had at least some bacon in it.  We actually came up with the idea because of a recipe Erica got from a friend for Bacon Cake.  Not everything actually contained bacon, and nothing was made entirely of bacon, but the day was sufficiently filled with yummy, bacony goodness!

I started off the day by firing up the smoker for a long day of work.  I made a pork shoulder roast, coated with a favorite rub and wrapped in bacon.  It was a good sized roast, and I wanted to make sure it could be on the smoker for a good 7-8 hours at least, so I got going relatively early.  The roast was on the smoker just after 10 am.  Erica and Laura made the Bacon Cake, and we also made some ABTs (Atomic Buffalo Turds), which are Jalapeño peppers split in half, filled with cream cheese, wrapped in bacon (of course), seasoned with pork rub, and smoked for 3 hours or so.  The Lowery's and the Simmons' were there as well.  The Lowery's brought some home made fries, smothered in bacon and a ton of cheddar cheese.  They were awesome.  The Simmons' brought some green beans made with bacon, some deviled eggs, and a cheesecake (alas, no bacon in the eggs or the cheesecake).