The fence is almost here!!!

We are closing in on our fence!!! After 2-3 weeks of waiting, the homeowners association FINALLY approved our proposal. When I got home from my errands today the survey guy had been here and marked our yard. It was an extra cost but I'm really glad we did it. Our yard is this strange diagonal shape (I forgot my geometery...it's a rectangle that angles...anyone???) and now we have visuals for the neighbors in case they don't know their yards do that. We won't have anyone questioning if we're in their yard or not.

Then at 3 today the fence guy will come out and go over exactly where we want the gates and which decorative posts, etc. Then he'll come out Monday and put the posts and cement down, and I believe then they'll come out Tuesday and finish it! Kodi is thrilled!!! It took me 8 years, but I finally got him a yard!

Of course last night JM was talking to one of our neighbors and it turns out there's an invisible fence already in our yard. But without the transmitter I think we'd still have to pay quite a bit...and not to sound like the old grouchy neighbor, but I'm tired of the teenagers cutting through my yard!

I was excited when I got home and saw the stakes were up so I took pictures!

Kodi's already out there wishing he had a fence so he could lay outside all day.

And then he refused to come inside with me. Just a few more days, Kodi!!!

Beer can chicken

Tonight I made Beer Can Chicken for Dad's birthday dinner. I made two since I had Greg and JM there, and with a total of 4 of us there was just a tiny bit leftover. The chicken itself was delicious, but it was definitely a messy situation! Especially for someone who doesn't like to see bones and that kind of gross stuff on the food she eats!!! After I got the chickens all oiled and seasoned up and put the cans up their behind they cracked me up so I had to take a picture...

Here's the recipe that I found on foodnetwork.com. Keep in mind that they will be dripping, oily and hot when you get done so have a way to cut them up close by!

Ingredients
1 (4-pound) whole chicken
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons of your favorite dry spice rub
1 can beer

Directions
Remove neck and giblets from chicken and discard. Rinse chicken inside and out, and pat dry with paper towels. Rub chicken lightly with oil then rub inside and out with salt, pepper and dry rub. Set aside.

Open beer can and take several gulps (make them big gulps so that the can is half full). Place beer can on a solid surface. Grabbing a chicken leg in each hand, plunk the bird cavity over the beer can. Transfer the bird-on-a-can to your grill and place in the center of the grate, balancing the bird on its 2 legs and the can like a tripod.

Cook the chicken over medium-high, indirect heat (i.e. no coals or burners on directly under the bird), with the grill cover on, for approximately 1 1/4 hours or until the internal temperature registers 165 degrees F in the breast area and 180 degrees F in the thigh, or until the thigh juice runs clear when stabbed with a sharp knife. Remove from grill and let rest for 10 minutes before carving.

I also made corn souffle with fresh corn from the farmer's market. We get it from My Dad's Corn up in Tipton County and it's amazing! I found the recipe on their website:

3 cups corn -- 1 cup sour cream -- 1 egg -- 1 box Jiffy corn bread mix --1 stick margarine

Melt margarine. Stir in egg, then all other ingredients. Bake at 350º for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Kodi's 8th Birthday

Today was Kodi's 8th birthday and Murray's 6th. For those of you who didn't know, Mom had been told Murray's birthday was sometime in July so she made it Kodi's birthday so she wouldn't forget. I can't believe Kodi's 8 already! I swear I just got him!!! We've been really lucky so far, for such a big dog he's had no major problems. He has a thyroid issue but I forgot to refill his prescription over a month ago and he seems to be doing fine, and he had a touch of arthritis in his hips this past winter but it only seemed to bother him on really cold days.

Of course, since I thought 8 seemed like a big birthday, we had a mini-celebration of a trip to the dog park and doggie cake :-)

Kodi's licking his chops already!

I finally figured out I should cut it in half so they didn't have to break it themselves.

Kodi's half didn't last long!

Murray looks like he thinks he's in trouble! No Murray, that is not the beer bread from the counter...this is ok for you to eat!

Dining room down

It took almost an entire day, but the dining room is presentable!!! Here are some before pictures (and yes, we've been pretty much living like this for the past couple of weeks)...

And the after!

Our July Getaway

Early in the week of the 4th I was at work thinking how I needed a break. From work, from everything. And of course, my scheduled vacation from work isn't for another 4 weeks. As I was dealing with a very sick patient it occured to me that I couldn't wait another 4 weeks! I was testing the limits of my insanity.

I did some research online, trying to find a little getaway that both JM and I would enjoy. I came up with doing the Indiana Uplands Wine Trail (which was mainly for me) and staying the night at the French Lick Casino Resort (mainly for JM).

We left Friday late morning after JM got off work and headed down to Huber Winery and Orchard. My original plan had been to taste wine here AND pick our own blueberries and peaches. We were so impressed by this place. Orchards as far as you could see, a winery, restaurant, huge Farmers Market, and even their own store where they made their own cheese AND ice cream! Needless to say, we never made it to picking our own fruit. We tasted a few of their wines...this summer they even had a peach wine that they made from the peach harvest. It was great by itself, but they had also made peach sangria (made from the wine, brandy and peach nectar) which was amazing! After tasting (and buying) a lot of wine, we walked around and did our own little tour. We spent so much time there we had to hurry off to make it to the rest of the wineries!

Our next stop was Turtle Run Winery. Obviously, I liked this winery because of all the turtle stuff! We made ourselves only buy 2 bottles there since we had gotten a bit carried away at Huber. Here we also learned about Best Wineries, which I had seen at the Vintage Wine Festival but they weren't online for the trail yet. We decided to stop by there...it wasn't too far, plus, we needed to visit all the wineries to get our gift!

So, we headed off to Best and enjoyed ourselves there. It was also set off in the countryside. They're relatively new so they only had a page of wines, but what they had was very good.

We didn't stay too long at Best as it was getting late in the day and we still needed to stop at Winzerwald Wineries. This is one that doesn't sell their wine many places outside of the winery and we LOVE their wine, so we wanted to make sure we got there with plenty of time. This was also the only place we took a picture on our whole trip. But, I think the picture sums it up quite well :-)



We were somewhat surprised, this is a very small building and it's kind of a pain to get to. But their wine makes it totally worth it!!!

Then we headed up to French Lick Winery. We lucked out, not only was it across the street from the Resort but it was also open till 9! I had drank A LOT of their cherry wine at a friend of mine's wedding last fall so I was interested to see if it was really as good as I thought it was! I was pleasantly surprised...it was even better!

After tasting and buying (kind of the theme of the day!) we headed back to the resort and got checked in. We had reserved the cheap last minute room and it came with an amazing view of the air conditioner units :-) No, really, it was a fine room. The resort was interesting because it's so old yet the upkeep is great. We went to the pool party they were having for the resort and napped by the pool. Then we had dinner at their steakhouse (bad bad experience, but I won't get into that), then headed over to the casino. JM played a bit of craps and I sat my butt in front of the fisher slot machine and fed it money!

Saturday morning we won all our money back at the breakfast buffet and then headed back home. It was rainy and dreary, so we decided to leave the last 3 wineries for another time. They're all in the Brown County/Bloomington area which isn't that far away from us. We did stop at Carousel, though. Like Winzerwald, this winery doesn't sell their wines many other (if any) places other than the winery itself. It's another small winery but I absolutely love their wines and the people who run it. Somehow we bought another 6 bottles there...oops! We already had an overflow at home (about 48 bottles) and yet we bought another 22. We probably need to have a party!

After Carousel we headed home. Stopped at Lowe's and bought the much anticipated and awaited grill. We had a little cookout on Sunday to try it out and I'm in heaven!

We even had some more neighbors come over and introduce themselves on Sunday morning. They had even made oreo truffles to welcome us to the neighborhood! Adorable! All of the neighbors have been so nice and stop by all the time...we couldn't be happier!