Friendly Camping

Friday my brother and I headed out to Gruene Weide to camp out and await my guest, Stephen. He's a former coworker and friend and we've talked about him camping out on Die Weide and bringing his telescope for star gazing for quite some time. So we scheduled this weekend for a campout and star gaze fun.

Since Stephen wasn't due to arrive until the evening, Kenny and I spent the afternoon building a compost bin from free pallets I've scrounged over a few weeks. I'll need to scrounge some more to expand the bin to double or more in size. We divided a huge pile of leaves into dry leaves and donkey manure for the compost bin and we spread partially composted leaves as mulch around the whole garden. The temperature reached 92 muggy degrees and it was pretty hot work

After the leaves were mulched, Kenny and I fired up the pit and started the beans and ribs, anticipating that they would be done by the time Stephen arrived. We relaxed, sipped a brew, and enjoyed the scent of ribs a smoking over mesquite and pecan.

Here I've just added the foil package with squash, onions and butter with seasonings. and I'm stirring the beans. Kenny and I went perhaps a bit overboard adding jalapenos and one serrano pepper. Kind of a Tim Allen (grunt) thing in food. It was a bit too spicy for my taste in the end. Good beans that I'd cook again but go easier on the peppers.

 This is the weekly garden picture. The fire pit cooked quietly in the background and Kenny and I decided to water the garden. I took this picture as the sun sank low in the Western sky lending a nice back light to the leaves. The garden grows nicely and I hope the mulching improves the garden production.

Sunset over the firepit. Notice the roofing material propped up as a windbreak. When we started the fire the breeze was a bit stiff so this setup has been my solution for grilling in a breeze. By this time Stephen had arrived and since the food was ready, we pretty promptly sat down to eat. Photos didn't cross my mind as the smell of the ribs, beans, and veggies left little room to think of anything but food.


We took a dusk hike with Stephen through the property, back down the south side fence, right at the west side fence and about 1/2 way down, cut across (east) to the pond. It was a nice hike ending back up at the camp.  The sky darkened rapidly after this and Stephen and I put together the tent he brought. I don't own a tent yet as I have always "tarp tent" camped out there - stringing a tarp up from the Pecan tree. I have to say the tent is very comfortable and I'll be getting one in the near future. Kenny slept in the shed as the tent was only big enough for two cots.

After the tent was set up, Stephen put up the telescope facing mostly east. Unfortunately for star gazing, the skies weren't cooperative. There was a haze from the Mexico farmer's annual crop burning, and the haze was lit up by a very bright full moon. So we looked at one planet, which mysteriously exhibited a crescent shape. (more research to come) and we looked at the moon. I was really impressed with Stephen's telescope. With a moon filter and the strongest magnification we could focus in on and see individual craters with astonishing clarity. I found it really neat to look around the rim of the moon and see the deep shadows in those craters. I used my cell phone camera to grab the moon shot here.
  

We woke up before 7 a.m. this (Saturday) morning and I cooked up some sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast tacos to get the day off to a good start. Everyone who comes to Die Weide may choose to help with work. Here Stephen shovels donkey manure shortly after sunrise. Seriously, though after this bit of levity Stephen and I took the garden shears and loppers back into the woods and chopped back some brambles and cleared a trail I've wanted to expand while Kenny caulked the shed.

Shortly before noon Stephen took his leave as Kenny and I watered the orchard. We headed home after that chore and on the way home stopped at the Granger Lake Dam where we snapped this lovely scene of Texas wildflowers covering the hill. And thus ended another weekend on Die Manchmal Gruene Weide!