Weekend re-cap - Cooper's, Perissos, Highlands, Save the World

Hubby's last day at his old job was Thursday, so we both took Friday off.  It was our plan to spend time in Burnet and get a few more things done at Highlands - just in time for summer heat to hit full force.

We started out by stopping at the storage building place.  We intend on purchasing a storage unit that we can use at Highlands.  It will be handy for the riding lawnmower, dump cart, and camping equipment.  Plus we will need to load it up while we finish out the barn.

 After that, we traveled to Llano for some BBQ.  The ribs were huge and delicious!  We might have also had coleslaw and some jalapeno cheese sausage, but I didn't get pics of that before we inhaled it.

Apparently this place is famous - and as we left a line was forming.  We will definitely eat there again!  We were going to enjoy some beer at a new place Hubby found, but got pulled in by the siren song of wine to Perisso's.  We enjoyed a tasting inside, then sat out by the vines with some chilled Bella. 

The owner happened to be out there and did a little show and tell about the happenings in the vineyard. I'm not a gardener by any means, but I find all of it to be fascinating.  This year I want to be sure we are available to help with the harvest! We spent the evening at Highlands, then grilled pork tenderloin and summer squash and hit the hay early.

Because the next morning we had this beast to unload.  It's been sitting here since last weekend.  We cooked a quick breakfast and got ready to work.

Here is a better shot of all those red pavers which will become a patio of sorts in front of the barn.  Each one of them must weight 35 pounds.  And here was what we started with:

Plans included:  moving the swing to a meadow, removing that stump (why is it even there?), removing the smoker and a plastic barrel to the left (not in the photo), and moving those gray pavers to the back of the barn to extend the "floor"  where we stand for tabletop cooking.

It was a mess back there, too, but we cleaned it up before moving the grey pavers back there. Note to selves: must buy burn barrel to take care of that green box of old files. (that sort of thing cannot be stored out there - scorpions love to live in it.)

And those gray pavers were very heavy as well.  Thank goodness for the dump cart.  I don't have a pic of the finished area in the back, but we got it all arranged.

 Anyhoo, returning to the front, once we removed all of the crap, we raked the gravel out as level as we could.  We had play sand on hand to help with low spots.

 Then we placed the pavers, tasking our time to get it all even and level.  By the time we finished, it was 104 in the shade!!

Those pavers had been the BBQ area of the backyard in Rustown for about 5 years.  They need to be powerwashed for sure!  We moved the patio table over from under the trees, and added a couple of folding chairs that had been in the back.  Not fancy, mind you.  But it will be nice to sit out here under shade for a meal.

The patio table had an umbrella frame and lights strung above it - the frame had broke, but the lights worked fine.  Those got moved to the pergola, then we purchased another extension cord to plug them in at night.  They are Disney Frozen C9 lights - they twinkle and glow softly and were a steal on clearance.

(see the sun up there?  It is not kidding around)

We were pretty spent by Saturday afternoon, but we got a shower and headed over to a brewery Hubby wanted to try.  (So we might have joined...)  It was a family-friendly place with picnic tables in the tank room and lots of smiling people.  We ate our last two ribs from Cooper's, played cards, and met new friends.  Then we left for catfish and live music at Doc's and I have zero pics of that.  But we were, again, in bed early for the day.  Whew!

It was our plan to eat breakfast in Burnet and get back to Austin early - Hubby started a new job on Monday.  But we still had to empty the trailer of things that were going to the dump.  That took about an hour and once again we were struggling with the heat.  We did manage to find a suitable meadow to park the swing (you can barely see it from the driveway!) and we got the empty trailer stored.  We spent the afternoon parked in our chairs under the shady pergola, eating lunch and just trying to cool off.  We visited TNL on the way out of town and had a glass of wine on their deck.  Then we headed home to make dinner and get ready for the week.  I'm still pretty tired as of today...we need a weekend of no building things for sure - it's just getting too hot.

Gina