Kasey, my new dog!

Hi, friends!

I have some exciting news for you! I got a new dog! My 10th birthday is coming up and my parents asked what I wanted for my present. I told them truthfully that what I really and only wanted was a pet dog.

We had been looking to adopt a dog for a little while. My mom always had dogs when she was a kid growing up, so she's used to having dogs around. My dad on the other hand never had a dog, so I kinda had to work on my dad for a little while to get him to get used to the idea of a pet dog.

We went over to a pet store on Saturday where we have before met a man who takes in and shelters dogs that need new homes. I saw the man and walked over to him and right away saw his German Shepherd. I asked him about the dog and he said that the dog, named Kasey, had been living with an elderly woman who had to move into an assisted living home and could no longer care for Kasey. So Kasey needed a new home.

I was able to take Kasey for a little walk, and I knew right away she was the dog for me:

We adopted Kasey right away, and took her home that day. She is so well behaved! She hardly barks, she obeys commands, and she can play fetch and have lots of fun with me! I've been taking her for walks around the neighborhood and even from school. I've introduced her to my friends in the neighborhood and everyone thinks she is so sweet and cute!

You'll have to come and play with Kasey too!

Your friend,

--James

Clayton Fun Run!

Hi, friends --

Saturday was a pretty fun and special day. Let me tell you about an event we had at my school, Clayton Elementary. We have a Fun Run every year that we use as a fundraiser for the Parent-Teachers Association. It was a great event! We run around the school and then afterwards enjoy all sorts of games and activities and yummy food.

Here Andrew and I are arriving at the front of the school ahead of the run:

And here I am gathering with some of my classmates getting ready for our heat:

After all that yummy steak I ate for dinner Friday night, some might say I needed the extra exercise! But hey, I'm just a kid.

Come and Take It (the exercise)!

Your friend,

--James

New York Strip Steak!

Hi, friends!

We had a special treat last Friday. I had finished two of my Star tests earlier in the week and my parents wanted to celebrate for me. Let me tell you about the Star tests we have here in Texas. The tests take not only four (!) hours each, but we have two days of tests! I finished the writing component, and next week we move onto math and reading. All I'm saying is that I'm a fourth-grader and we have tests as long as my dad said he had in graduate school!

So back to our barbecue. We picked up some of my favorite steaks, New York Strips. Here they look as I was starting to prepare them:

These steaks can taste so good, as long as you keep the fundamentals just right. The thickness of the steaks is one important variable. I had these steaks cut one and a quarter inch thick. A thin steak will just cook through too quickly and lose its tenderness.

You don't have to fancy the steaks. All you need is good salt and pepper and olive oil. Here's how the steaks look after I applied the rub:

You have to make sure the grill is good and hot. We got the grill to approximately 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Then I was ready to put the steaks on the grill. You can see a few of my friends came to join me by now:

Timing is another important variable. Because of the thickness of these steaks, I knew I should grill them no more than six minutes per side. Any longer than that I could run the risk of overcooking and drying out the steaks.

At just under twelve minutes I pulled the steaks off the grill and brought them inside the kitchen. I let them rest a few minutes (the steak continues to cook and the juices flow evenly throughout the meat). Now I was ready to slice the steaks:

How does it look to you? It was awesome!

Come and Take It!

Your friend,

--James

Raising my Ebeneezer!

Hi, friends:

How many of you have ever heard the church hymn, Come Thou Found of Every Blessing? In the song there is a verse where it says in part, I raise my Ebeneezer.

Well when I first heard the hymn I didn't quite know what the writer meant. How many of you know what Ebeneezer means? All I'm saying is that I'm in 4th grade and how should I know? That's a pretty advanced word and I can say for sure that it hasn't appeared in any of my AR spelling tests!

Well I finally found out what Ebeneezer means only a few weeks ago when my pastor at church used the word in a sermon. A synonym for Ebeneezer would be cairn. Does that make it any more clear? Well the word Ebeneezer means a physical marker that you would use to guide your way. Think of it as if you were hiking and you didn't know exactly how you were going to get to where you needed to be. What you would do is look for a marker -- an Ebeneezer -- to guide you and direct your path.

Ebeneezers -- or cairns -- are constructed along hiking trails so as to be markers for you to follow, even if you don't have fancy technology to help you find you way.

Well yesterday I went for a hike together with a few friends and dads from church. We hiked along Barton Creek here in Austin. Because we haven't had much rain lately the creek was fully dry, but the bed of the creek was full of cool stones in all shapes and sizes. Well of course we had to take the opportunity to raise our own Ebeneezer. Here we are:

I wish you could have joined us on our hike. You would have enjoyed the fresh air and the get scenery as well as making an Ebeneezer with us!

But for this time I'd say, don't come and take it. We all need our Ebeneezers as markers from God to guide us at school and in our other involvements like our neighborhood (and for our parents needing guidance at work and home!).

See you soon my friends.

--James

Salmon!

Hi, friends!

So my mom sometimes says that eating too much red meat isn't so good. So as much as I love traditional barbeque like brisket and ribs -- not to mention steak -- I have to try different things. Last weekend we had some fantastic ribs, and next weekend we're planning to have hamburgers and hot dogs on a camping trip we have planned with our scout pack. So this weekend we tried the Cornish hen, and then some salmon.

I've tried to barbecue fish before. You might have seen my earlier post on the Drum fish. That was a bit of hard work -- you try working with a 7 pound fish! -- and this time I had a salmon fish to work with. I thought to keep the rub simple again, just some salt and pepper, with lemon juice and olive oil (the same as I put on yesterday's Cornish hen).

Here's me getting the salmon ready for the grill:

And here I am getting it on the grill:

And the finished product:

It was pretty good. Fish is good on the barbecue, and you can both smoke it as well as grill it. I was technically grilling the salmon. With some rice and caesar salad that my dad made up (from scratch!) it turned out to be a great supper.

Come and Take It!

Your friend,

--James

Cornish hen!

Hey friends!

We found some new things to try on the bbq this weekend. My dad and I picked up two items at the grocery store: Cornish hen, and salmon fish. The Cornish hen was smaller than chicken that you might ordinarily try, but what makes it so great is that it might even be a bit more tender and sweeter than chicken.

What I did with the Cornish hen was to put a small amount of salt and pepper rub inside of the skin, and then to use a small mix of lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper on the outside. It looked pretty good to add to the grill, once we got the barbeque hot, about 300 degrees F.

I kept the Cornish hen on the grill for about 35 minutes. Here it is once I pulled it off the grill:

And how did it taste? Let me just say, my brother and I thought, thumbs up!

Come and Take It!

Your friend,

--James

dad by the White House

Dear friends:

Even though this week is Spring Break my dad still had to work. He got to do something fun: a trip to Washington, DC. Here he is in front of the White House, for proof!

I wish I could have gone with him too. It would be a great experience to visit our nation's capital.

Your friend,

--James

back to some great ribs!

Dear friends:

This week is spring break here in Texas. So me and my brother have been out of school and playing around the neighborhood with our friends.

Of course we had to barbecue! Today I wanted to smoke some ribs that we had in the 'fridge. This time I made a new rub, a Memphis, Tennessee-style rub. Here I am putting together the rub ingredients:

Then I got the charcoal ready. I made sure to keep the temperature between 200 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Finally the charcoal was hot enough:

How does that look?

I left the ribs on the grill for a very long time, almost five and a half hours. Sometimes I've put ribs on for as short as four hours. Wow the ribs turned out so tender! I put so much spice rub on the ribs that they turned out a little too spicey however.

Y'all are welcome to Come and Take It!

--James

Drum fish bbq!

Dear friends:

We were grocery shopping at our local HEB and they had a fish we've eaten before but have never had a chance to barbecue. It was called Drum and it is fished out of the Gulf of Mexico. We've eaten it in Louisiana and it is pretty good.

So we wanted to buy one of those Drum fishes. We went to the counter and the smallest one they had was 7 pounds. Between you and me, that's a pretty big fish. Check it out!

My dad also had the idea to barbecue the Drum fish on our fire pit in the backyard. So here we go:

We probably grilled that Drum fish for a few hours. It looked pretty good on the grate on top of the oak wood and charcoal:

But I have to admit the finished product needed some extra work. It was hard to grill evenly, what with the very large size of the fish. We ate some of it, and then had a ton of leftovers. We ate some for fish tacos the next day, and then my dad took the fish bones and made a fish stock. Yum!

Come and Take It!

--James

Scouts Pinewood Derby!

Dear friends:

We had our Scouts Pinewood Derby race-day a little bit ago. I got to lead our Pack's honor guard to march in the Texas flag:

And I got to race my car. Here is the track behind me:

See you soon, my friends!

--James

dad skeet shooting

Dear friends:

My dad went skeet shooting at Christmas. Here's proof:

--James

Christmas turkey!

Dear friends:

How was your Christmas? I hope it was a wonderful time with your family and friends. We had a great Christmas day at home. Most people in Austin would eat turkey at Christmas, and many would bake it in the oven. Not me! I made sure to barbecue the turkey. And it turned out great!

You can see how mild the temperature was on Christmas day. I got to wear a t-shirt and shorts!

And here's the finished product. Yum!

Come and Take It!

--James

back to San Francisco!

Dear friends:

We had one more day to be with our friends in San Francisco before we had to fly home to Austin. And what a fun day it was! Our friends took us to another great park with all sorts of activities. Here we could climb a rope tower:

We could ride some swings:

and some slides:

We went back to the Japanese garden and explored around:

The garden had some authentic Japanese structures built to commemorate a relationship between the U.S. and Japan:

The garden was filled with beautiful autumn colors. It was a perfect time of year to be visiting to see fall colors again. We don't get that same diverse set of brilliant colors in Austin!

So that was our trip to San Francisco to see some great friends. What a wonderful time. I hope we can go back again!

Your friend,

--James

Carmel!

Dear friends:

I must tell you about Carmel, California. What a great trip we've been on -- starting with friends in San Francisco, then driving to Monterey, and then making our way to Carmel.

Carmel had an amazing beach. You started up on a hill -- here we are climbing a tree to catch the view:

Then you race down the hill to the surf! So much fun.

I had another "first" experience in Carmel: I got to try oysters! Kids, you have to try them, especially with lemon juice. They are a bit slimy, but yummy!

Next stop: back to San Francisco!

See you there, my friends.

--James

Monterey

Dear friends:

While we were in California we wanted to explore a little bit. So me and my family rented a car to drive down the coast, on a famous route called the Pacific Coast Highway. What a beautiful drive! Check out the scenery:

Of course me and my brother had to climb around the rocks:

We went to a small city called Monterey. You may have heard of it before. There's a famous American author named John Steinbeck who wrote a novel about Monterey called Cannery Row (Steinbeck is maybe more famous for another one of his novels, The Grapes of Wrath). Your and my grandparents might appreciate his description of the Great Depression that took place in the 1930s.

While in Monterey we visited their great aquarium, located in a former fish canning factory (hence Cannery Row). Here I am checking out the marine wildlife that fills the bay that surrounds Monterey:

  After a little while in Monterey we kept on driving to the next village, Carmel. Wow what a great little town and an amazing beach!

More in the next post.

Your friend,

--James

more San Francisco!

Dear friends:

San Francisco was a beautiful city. It is located right next to the Pacific Ocean, and it has a really fun harbor area with all sorts of destinations to check out.

You might have heard of the famous Golden Gate bridge. Here is my family!

We kept on exploring.We found a really nice beach to go walking on at sunset time. Here's me and Mom!

And then the sun finally set. Here I am checking it out with a nice rock pool behind me:

You can't leave San Francisco without checking out the marine wildlife. Here we are at the waterfront harbor. Those seals were as loud as dogs barking!

Next stop: Monterey!

See you there, my friends.

--James

San Francisco!

Dear friends:

Over the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. my family went to visit some friends in San Francisco. I had never been there before, so I was so excited for the trip! The friends were new to me, but my dad knew them. My dad and the other dad were roommates in university, and they were looking forward to catching up after all these years. Meanwhile my brother and me were looking forward to making new friends with their two children.

And what a great time we had! Our friends showed us all around San Francisco. And you can believe we ate some really yummy food!

Here we are on the airplane getting ready to leave Austin for San Francisco. Thumbs up! For those of you who might never have been on a plane before, it's really cool. You go something like 500 miles an hour and you fly above the clouds. Way cool.

We got to San Francisco and hit the ground running. We immediately went to the city park and explored.

We found a great museum and would you believe they had a snow display outside? I've played in the snow before, but it's a rare day in Texas that we see snow. I couldn't help myself in trying to start a snow-ball fight!

Next we found an impressive Japanese garden. I have two cousins who live in Japan and I'm thinking they would find this garden just like at home. Beautiful!

We then took off and went to drive to our friend's home. On the way we stopped at an overlook park where we could see the whole city. Check it out!

We then met up with our friends. I'll share some of those photos in my next post!

Your friend,

--James