Good morning to you all, and God Bless everybody!
Well, yesterday Deb and I took a little “our time,” and went to a barbeque cook and contest here in Haines City. This is called, “Ribs on the Ridge.”
To be honest, we both were quite surprised at the amount of contestants, AND the number of people in attendance. But to be honest, it’s not surprising when you’re talkin the South…and barbeque. We both had a good time and it was a nice little outin.
My cousin Vince was in the cook, so we went over to his setup and hung out a while, visited, and…sampled?? Vince is who did the cookin for Deb’s bash she had a month or so back. As bad as I hate to admit it, that scoundrel can cook! He found his callin, and by his doin so, dern if we don’t try to “hang out” with him bout every chance we get! LOL!
We did see him prior to his “cookin days,” just not as often! Vince’s team is called, “Hog Jim’s,” after his Grandfather. Before Deb and I left, I’d been hung with the handle… “Hog Dub!”
I told Deb that I’d never even met Vince’s Grandfather! She then informed me that Vince’s Granddaddy’s nickname had absolutely NO BEARING whatsoever in the reasoning behind why they were callin me that!
For the life of me… I still “don’t get it??” Deb tells me that it’s better “I don’t…get it!”
For you guys who aren’t familiar, there’s four categories you enter. I believe at this contest you do the chicken first, this was at 11:00 am., then that’s followed up with ribs, then pork, and last is brisket. All are taken to be judged at 1 hour intervals.
The judging results aren’t until 5 in the afternoon, so Deb and I missed that, so we’ll call Vince today to see how he did.
We had a good time with Vince, Sandi, Tom, and Vince’s brother Dale. Then Dale dropped by our place and dropped us off a tomato magazine. Good night a livin, Deb and I had no earthly idea there were so many varieties…it is amazing!
Deb and I wandered around at the barbeque and were checking out all the contestants and their points of origin. Ohio, another team had the Great Lakes on their cooker, and I’m sure there were other places too, plus a ton from all over Florida.
I was takin some videos, stopping by a few booths to shoot the bull and MAYBE try out a sample or two. While doin so, we covered from one end of part of the place to the other, and it was pretty neat. We got down to the far end of where we were at and Deb stopped me. She asked, “Are you sure the camera’s on?” I asked her, “Are you kiddin me? What kind of a question is that?”
Then I looked…the dern thing hadn’t been on! I couldn’t believe it! Man, I’d been easin down through there, bein my usual shy self, talkin, laughin, pickin at people and possibly with a little sampling goin on too! The camera wasn’t even on!
Deb’s just standing there laughing at me, and I told her… “Well, we’re gonna have to do it again!” She’d seen “my samplin” going on, and asked, “Did you do that on purpose, JUST so you could go back and do a little more sampling?”
Shocked by such an accusation, and honestly my feelings were hurt a little bit, I replied, “OF COURSE NOT!” LOL!
So, off we go again…this time with the camera on!
I tell you guys, we had a great time, and met some really, really nice people. EVERYONE was friendly as they could be, and the atmosphere was great. The food wasn’t too bad either. OK, it WAS very good!
Here’s a couple videos if you guys would like to see them.
The first is of Cuz showin us around a little. He tells us a little about what he’s cooking, how he prepares for the competition, and what SHOCKED me, was the amount of time and work involved doing one of these contests!
Deb and I had always kicked around the idea of possibly doing some of that, just foolin around, BUT, after we saw the work Vince and his team had put into this, we were like…ya know, just wanderin around enjoyin everyone’s company ain’t half bad, and much more along the lines of…our cup of tea! LOL!
Seriously, I take my hat off to all the teams competing. Those guys and gals have put forth a lot of effort just in prepping for the competition, much less being involved in the competition itself! Our hats go off to every one of them! We think they ALL did a great job.
Once again I do take my hat off to Vince’s team and everyone else in the competition…a lot of work involved!
The next video is of Deb and I looking around some…
After we got back home, Deb and I walked out to the greenhouse, and we had some seedlings sproutin. There were radishes, Japanese cucumbers, lettuce, broccoli, and a few Rutgers tomatoes startin to stick their heads up outta the ground.
Some of these seeds were set out on the 21st, and some on the 22nd. Our nights had still been down in the low 50’s, so I was a little concerned with the germination. But we let the curtains down at night and it’s looking like they’re going to be fine. Again, this greenhouse stuff is new ground to Deb and I!
I tell you though, we can’t wait for the next couple months to roll by and we can see how everything is doing at that point. This is going to be very enjoyable, and very beneficial to us both. Juice products for Deb outta be right out the backdoor…daily! The Good Lord DOES provide, and he’s sure smiling on Deb!
Let’s closeout today with a little laugh. It’s supplied to us by our good friend Jerry. Jerry lives in the far western edge of Canada. He’s a great guy, and one that Deb and I visit with from time to time. Jerry is another one of you guys who’s become another member of our family.
Jerry is 95 years old…I’m just kiddin Jerry, but he is 75, but looks and acts…55. He works all the time and I believe Jerry can do just about anything!
Anyway, let’s see what Jerry sent us. Thanks Jerry!
SYLVIA:
Hi! Wanda.
WANDA:
Hi! Sylvia. How’d you die?
SYLVIA:
I froze to death.
WANDA:
How horrible!
SYLVIA:
It wasn’t so bad. After I quit shaking from
the cold, I began to get warm & sleepy,
and finally died a peaceful death.
What about you?
WANDA:
I died of a massive heart attack.
I suspected that my husband was cheating,
so I came home early to catch him in the act.
But instead, I found him all by himself
in the den watching TV.
SYLVIA:
So, what happened?
WANDA:
I was so sure there was another woman
there somewhere that I started running
all over the house looking. I ran up into
the attic and searched, and down into the
basement. Then I went through every closet
and checked under all the beds. I kept this up
until I had looked everywhere, and finally
I became so exhausted that I just keeled over
with a heart attack and died.
SYLVIA:
Too bad you didn’t look in the freezer
—we’d both still be alive.
As you guys can plainly see, Jerry is quite a card too!
You guys have a great day, and God Bless. You know we can’t get outta here until Deb says for ya’ll to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!
Dub and Deb