hot

Is HOT the best word to describe the 2017 crew of hot sauces? NO.  Mouth of fire... the Punisher... or May Cause Death, as one of Mark's sauces is proudly named, are way better descriptions.  These are not for the weak!  Even his buffalo style sauce, which is the "mildest" of the four, is still full of heat.  There's a good reason a dropper is used here because you're really insane if you think you need to pour this stuff on.  Mark's pepper plants were outstanding this year as it was a perfect summer for growing peppers.  The 2017 Sauce Line Up is made from his Carolina Reaper, Trinidad Scorpion, and UK hybrid Bubblegum peppers.  Eat at your own risk.

Craft Beer Advent Calendar

Nothing says the Holidays like a box of beer!  I surprised Mark with my Craft Beer Advent Calendar last night and needless to say, he thought it was amazing.  Without even planning, I chose 24 beers from Chicago-Indiana brewers... 3 Floyds, Revolution, Byway, and 18th Street.  Yeah there's a Lagunitas beer in there too but they DO have a Chicago location so I suppose it works.  What could be better than selecting a beer from this box every day until Christmas??  I have a plan for a wooden, more designed version of this for future years.  I'll keep you posted!

bed

 

Thanks to Mark for building my dream dog bed. It turned out perfect!!  We actually had everything to make this bed... cedar, vintage mod legs, and two beds that fit perfectly inside.  I am partial to the bed that fits directly inside however the bed with the snuggle-up sides is probably preferred by the dogs.  Lottie loves her custom bed.  Now we need to design one for Minnow...perhaps with a built-in step since she's got the luxating patellas in her back legs. 

hang

 

We made some hanging baskets out of a couple of old planters we were no longer using. Some stainless steel (multi-stranded) wire worked perfectly to hang them with a modern look.  A fresh coat of spray paint and a nice bunch of succulents brought these light weight, fiberglass containers back to life. 

These containers were purchased at Joann's about 4 or 5 years ago.

slatty and wirey popularity

Even my little blog gets some traffic from Pinterest, especially from the slat wood air conditioner cover that Mark built.  Pictures of this project are the most pinned photos from HousePet.  Who knew it would be such a hit?   Some Pinterest viewers had questions about the top of the A/C cover so I've included a couple of photos here that hopefully will help.  Truth be told, those top slats weren't even nailed down when I took the pictures for the original post.  I was just so excited about Mark's handy work that I busted out the camera before he was completely finished. 

 

Each week I also get people clicking over to ol' HousePet from the Ikea Hackers site for my Tradig wire bowl planter.  It amazes me that something posted almost 2 years ago continues to be seen.  Crazy!  In a few weeks it should be warm enough to get the Tradig planted for Summer 2013... I can't wait to get things growing again outdoors.  Happy Spring and Happy Pinning!

what's new at the ranch? a pool side bar!

Last year Mark was offered a 10 foot concrete bar top for FREE. It wasn't the easiest thing he has ever carted home but somehow it made it to our house in one piece. Upon seeing it, our neighbor was convinced that this top was meant to be a pool side bar.  Ten months later...we made it happen!  This concrete beauty, poured Nov. 1, 1957 according to the marking on the underside, came from a Chicago high rise condo that was getting a kitchen facelift with some Silestone.  Keeping with the look of everything else by the pool, we used cedar and stacked stone to create one kick ass bar.  Once the main bar was built, a back bar was added as well as some electrical and lighting.  A mountain of pea gravel and some square pavers were delivered to our driveway so we could make a small patio area.  Yep, more shoveling... it just never gets old around here.  Tagret came thru with some super clearance priced bar height chairs that may not be as pretty as my Bend furniture yet function perfectly.  In case you were wondering why you haven't seen me in a while, it's because I'm at the bar.  Come on over!

Thanks to our dear friend and Lottie for being such lovely models for the bar at night photo.  Lottie does manage to get in as many photos as she possible can. 

the sauce

Some people bake Christmas cookies... we make holiday hot sauce.

Mark is the heart and soul behind this project. He selects the peppers to grow in our garden and then creates a sauce recipe which is different each year. I am more on the packaging and distribution end of things.

In the Spring Mark planted Bhut Jolokia peppers which are more commonly know as the Cobra or Ghost Pepper. These peppers are the world record holder for the hottest chili on Earth. I have zero tolerance for all things hot so I have not tasted this sauce however Mark says it's surprisingly NOT as hot as he thought it was going to be. He said it's the hottest sauce he's ever made yet completely edible and enjoyable. Yeah, he's pretty happy with it!


The pepper plants were so tiny back in June! (they are on the far left)

We collected peppers all summer long.

We had quite a few green peppers on the plants in October. Mark learned a trick to ripen this last batch of the crop by hanging them upside down in our garage window. It worked!


There was some fire roasting that occured out on the grill. I was out Christmas shopping so I missed that step.

hide that ugly AC unit!

BEFORE


AFTER


After 5 years of hatin' on that monster, the old and ugly AC unit gets hidden with some slatty goodness!! As you can see my attempt at hiding it with a potted foxtail fern didn't really fool anyone. The wood slats are threaded with a steel rod at the corners creating a hinge - allowing it to fold up when we have to store it in the winter. The ends of the steel rods also act as stakes going into the ground a few inches - this keeps it in place around the AC unit. This project was Mark's concept...I just did the nagging...and the constant pointing out of good wood slatty-ness. Thank you Mark!






refer to this post back in February for the AC unit in the winter snow

jump to the future to this post to see photos of the top