5-3 The Joy's of Being a Homeowner

Smoked Pork Roast

Last week when we did our weekly grocery shopping we picked up a pork roast so today Larry decided to smoke it. He didn't realize that we had picked up one that had a bone in it. So he was surprised when he was preparing it for the smoking to see a bone in it. That was ok now Flo will have a bone to eat. While he was preparing the roast I decided I would go back to bed for about an hour. When I woke up the roast was smoking away on the grill. The first pork roast took 7 hours to smoke so we figured we would be around the house all day.

Larry smiling for me

Larry digging out the leaves

Larry spraying the small stuff out of the gutter

When we built the house we didn't have gutters installed because we knew they can be a pain but after a few rain storms and watching how the water ran off the roof Larry decided we needed them in a few places. They actually work really well until spring when our oak trees drop all their leaves. The first spring they clogged up and were overflowing so Larry got on the roof and cleaned them out. The downspout was so clogged with leaves and other stuff he had to push a hose through it and flush it until the stuff came out, it was a pain so he went to the internet and found some strainers for gutters that helped prevent this from happening. The last couple of times it rained hard Larry noticed that gutters were overflowing but he wanted to wait to clean them until the leaves had stopped falling. Today while we were hanging around the house smoking the roast he decided to clean the gutters. While he was doing this I mowed the back of lot. It took about an hour. Larry said it was still a mess cleaning the gutters but at least the uprights weren't clogged. This is one of the joys of being a homeowner, home maintenance.

The roast was done in 5.5 hours instead of the 7 hours. Larry likes smoking pork better than beef brisket because it doesn't take as long. Beef brisket has to slow cook for a very long time so that it gets tender. Larry sliced the roast up, the bone was actually not very large. Once the bone was cooled off I gave it Flo. She was one happy dog.

In the evening The City of Temple was having a Transportation Capital Improvement meeting that Larry and I decided to attend. We had never attended this type of meeting so we weren't sure what to expect. Well, only three concerned citizens showed up and seven government employees were there. It was a very informative meeting. Nicole Torralva, Public Works Director conducted the meeting and there were employees from other departments such as, engineering, legal, and planning. Her staff handed out the presentation on paper and asked if we wanted them to stand and show the slides or if we wanted them to sit down and do it one on one. We said lets do it informal. Nicole explained projects that they were working on, projects that were completed and projects that were in the future. As Nicole was going over the projects she would stop and address questions and concerns. Larry and the other gentleman both asked questions. If she couldn't answer the question one of the others would be very helpful in answering it. It was only an hour long and we left well informed. One of the cool parts of living in a smaller town is you can actually talk to the people in charge of getting things done. On the way home we stopped by Freddy's and shared a Turtle sundae for dessert. When we got home we read for the rest of the evening.