Texas Fall/Winter thread!

[Bird]

Charlie, I remember that the best shows; i.e., best time to be at the Fair is in the late evening, but I've become a morning person, get up early and usually run out of steam by noon, then almost never get out after dark.:laughing:

 

[jinman]

Bird, I think if I were going to the Fair, I'd drop down to the N. Carrollton Dart Station and take the Green Line Train all the way in to Fair Park. The Green line departs every 20 min during the week and every 40 min on weekends. All day parking in their lot is around $4. Driving, parking, and getting to/from the Fair are the hardest parts. Seniors have free admission on Thursdays.:thumbsup:

Ron, I agree that the boiling of the pickled peppers takes a lot of crispness and bright colors out of them. I don't know for sure, but I suspect packers like Vlasic and Mt. Olive use sterilized jars and UV light in their packing process. My pickles stay pretty and bright even when I pour the hot pickling solution into the jars. It's the 15 min boiling in the canner that makes them softer. I see some recipes call for less than 15 min at boiling and I have to believe that the higher brine and vinegar content would shorten the time required. Quick cooling might also help. I pre-soaked the peppers in a salt brine bath with alum and turmeric for about 2 hours. The alum is supposed to keep them crisp and the turmeric gives them yellow color (as well as everything else it touches). I have a pretty bright yellow rubber spatula now.

 

[Western]

You guys are talking about the fair and I cant wait just to get home:laughing:. Fixing to leave Ruidoso Downs, finished the job and on to Las Cruces. Hoping to be in by next weekend. Seems the longer I'm gone, the more "chores" I come up with that are needed at home. Been a long month and a 1/2 with my busted back. Thank goodness I finally got an appointment with the Doc too!!

I have gotten word, that my lawn needs mowed! Wife said she may get it today, if the weather holds. I know I have allot of cut wood to split, I'll go till the back say's its quitting time:thumbsup:

Jim, How old is your asparagus plants? they look good. IIRC it took mine a few years to get going, but once they did, it was great.

Wish I had been able to post more Fall photos, been a pretty trip, the few times I was awake in the daytime.

 

[Bird]

Jim, I've no doubt you have the right idea, but like many Texans (and some others), I like to have my own transportation nearby and ready to go whenever and wherever I want. The last time I used any kind of "public transportation" was in 1986 when I parked my motorcycle in the Pentagon parking lot one Saturday and rode the Metro to the Smithsonian for the day.:laughing:

And this morning, we went to see something different; Victorian Era funerals. And since we were the only ones there, we got a lengthy, detailed guided tour by a very nice lady. It was quite interesting.

 

[txdon]

Bird, I hope your getting into the Halloween spirit and not looking into the near future.

 

[Bird]

Bird, I hope your getting into the Halloween spirit and not looking into the near future.

Don, you know we have a son-in-law who is a funeral director; in fact, manager of a funeral home. That was quite an exhibit we saw today. The lady said a lot of the stuff is on loan from the National Museum of Funeral History and I had no idea such a museum even existed.:laughing:

 

[Western]

Never heard of a funeral museum , of course not something I've flipped through the phone book for:laughing:

I see it is plenty cool back in N, Texas, 2* warmer here in Las Cruces, but here, it will get to 82* with sunshine.

 

[Bird]

Never heard of a funeral museum , of course not something I've flipped through the phone book for:laughing:

I see it is plenty cool back in N, Texas, 2* warmer here in Las Cruces, but here, it will get to 82* with sunshine.

NWS says it's now 50 degrees in Denton and going to remain steady with 50 degrees also being the high for today. But they've lowered the 40% chance of rain to 30% today and 20% tonight. I was sure hoping for rain.

 

[jinman]

Don, you know we have a son-in-law who is a funeral director; in fact, manager of a funeral home. That was quite an exhibit we saw today. The lady said a lot of the stuff is on loan from the National Museum of Funeral History and I had no idea such a museum even existed.:laughing:

Bird, I was sure the family connection to the funeral business had your interest a little higher than others. I'm not sure that display is going to be very highly attended. I wonder who was responsible for getting the loan from the other museum? That old Selby house used to be located about a mile south of where it is now on the Selby Greenhouses and Nursery location between Myrtle St. and S. Locust. It was a stone's throw from where I grew up. There was another old house there that was similar, but it was updated while I was in high school.

 

[Bird]

Jim, the "museum" is now 3 houses and they have another one that I didn't pay much attention to, but it's a church building of some kind and looked like a pile of junk that's going to be a major restoration job.