Zucchini Overload

What a fun week!  My dear precious sister-in-law and my niece and nephew came down on Wednesday.  By the time they arrived my counter was overflowing with zucchini and squash from the garden.  It was complete madness.  I had been using them in every meal and not a dent was made and each day I was picking more.  So with her canning expertise and my abundance of veggies, we made zucchini/squash relish and zucchini/squash pickles.  I must say this really didn't sound like it would be a success - pickles not made from cucumbers REALLY?  But the final product was beyond amazing!  We used the relish that night on our hotdogs.  The next day we put some pickles on our deli sandwiches.  It is just beyond good.  After day one of canning, we made zucchini/squash GLUTEN FREE cookies.  They were so moist and delicious with a lemon frosting.  It was great!The best part of the entire process was doing it with Maria.  She was so fun and we had a good time talking and chopping. 
Owen and Ruby shadowed their Uncle Jim all day and he is always great with the kids.  The first day he took them fishing down at the pond.  Oh my ~ Ruby caught a 14 inch Catfish and reeled it in all by herself.  Owen did even bigger with his 17 inch catfish.  I was so excited Jim used his phone to video these amazing catches. 
Saturday night we had a big ole' pot of what I like to call "Ann's pot".  It has potato, corn on cob, keilbasa, shrimp, onion in a pot of water seasoned with Old Bay Seasoning.  MMMmmmm.  This came from my friend Ann S. out of Nashville, TN.  Of course she told me the real name and I just can't remember it, so I renamed it Ann's Pot.  Well we added to this delicious meal Rhubarb Margarita's posted on FB by Gillian - It was just a delicious night.
I must say it was a great week other than a few crazy moments.  Like our bright idea to try to shade the front porch using one of those canopy tents.  Let me just start by saying this thing held up in 40mph Oklahoma wind at Rocklahoma.  All was going GREAT - no wind in Kentucky it provided great shade to cut the heat off the front door and windows.  Then while cooking lunch I hear a loud bang.  I open the door to discover the canopy was over my car.  Ok, I try not to be materialistic, but my car is my baby!  All I saw was white paint from the canopy poles all over my nice black car and of course lets not forget the scratches and dents.   Many tears later and smart thinking from Jim (rubbing compound) the white was gone and we only have 2 scratches (barely visible) and one dent.  No more great ideas coming out of me ~ well for a few days at least :) 
Our other not so great moment was when Lucky (our grandma dog - 17 years old) went to get up out of her dog kennel and she was all leaning and kept falling.  Well we have found she had a stroke.  Ruby is such a caretaker, because she just has loved on Lucky and takes care of her.  I pray she recovers, but readers I will say she has gone 2 days no eating.  Yesterday she did eat a couple spoonfuls, but last night she was throwing it up.  Many tears, much  more than the car, have flowed daily.  The tears have been full of sadness, but also just pure joy of all the wonderful memories I have of Lucky in our family.  She is one super special dog!  I pray she recovers and continues to bring us many great memories, but if her time is more limited than I want it to be, I will hold her in my heart forever and thank God for us finding this stray dog in Hawaii and making her part of our family.  We were truly LUCKY to find her!
Focus for this week - learn to compost.  It seems like it would be easy, but when I google there just seems to be way more to this activity than I thought.  Of course dad said - just throw the food scraps in the garden.  So I did this, REALLY dad - have you met my dog Rufus?  I didn't even have the bag empty yet and he was eating it all up.  I think Rufus may be part pig.  So I will need to figure this compost thing out with a more contained system to keep the dog out.  Wish me luck!  Have a great week.