Hallylooya!!

Been an excellent week or two. Black Creek metropolis got around 4 inches of rain since July 14th and that fell between August 10th and August 25th. Hallylooya!!
Had an oak tree that measured about 5 feet through the center come down on CR 653 just down from Fred Yanta’s hay farm. During the process, one of Ernest Kruger’s (hope it’s spelled right) calves got caught under it and is no longer with us. Took out power lines across the road from it and the fence under it. Took us three days to clear it up.
Ok’d Judge Bubba in Pct 3 to expand his JP office in the old Courthouse so that his clerks could move without running into each other.
We approved 14 contracts with Juvenile facilities so that we could have a place for juvenile criminals to be housed. Their parents did not raise them right and now the County and the State have to.
We also passed a Resolution calling for measures to secure our border, protect our communities and its residents, support the Governor and request the Federal government to do its duty. Fat chance. Just another reason to not vote for Democrat incumbents.
We voted (3-0-1) to go out for bids on constructing a parking lot at the SW corner of 14th St and Ave N in Hondo. Also voted on speed limits and stop signs at several locations so that enforcement would be legal.
Went by our Post Office the other day and whoever is maintaining the grounds needs to be fired. The grass needs mowing, the shrubs need trimming or need to be removed and replaced. Not to mention the mud swallows mess at the entrance.
When asked about improving the condition, you either get a look of indifference or “it’s not my job”. Looks like a third world country type location. Sure would be interested in the job…after January 1.
Saw where Devine, Natalia and Natalia ISD rejected the Appraisal Districts Budget. If more of the taxing entities would reject it, they would have to re-do it. I sure hope enough of them reject it. It hasn’t come to Comm. Ct. yet….and I aint in favor of approving it.
More rain is predicted for this week so, keep prayin. Aint it amazing how we go from a dried up wasteland to a green oasis in a matter of days after the Man-in-charge tends his creation?
Only 69 more days until we get the chance to vote out incumbent Democrats, 116 days until Christmas and 121 days until the lady out on CR 7720 gets her wish.

Bring out the whole family!

Lytle P.D. managed 47 calls for service last week. Officers conducted 83 traffic stops. Those traffic stops resulted in 72 citations and 11 warnings.
We only had one property crime reported last week! It was an internal theft at NAPA Auto Parts. It is always nice when people don’t get their stuff ripped off by some crook, so I really like the low theft numbers.
Officers made three arrests last week: #1 – Ofc. L. Diaz (assisted by Ofc. J. Cortez) conducted a traffic stop on McDonald St. and determined the driver to be intoxicated. He was arrested for DWI. #2 – Ofc. A. Lopez conducted a traffic stop on Adams St. and determined the driver had an active felony warrant (Agg. Assault w/a Deadly Weapon) out of Bexar Co. #3 – Ofc. J. Cortez (assisted by Sgt. G. Hanson) conducted a traffic stop on Mains St. for speeding. The female driver was arrested for DWI. All three of those were booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail in Jourdanton. It may not seem like a lot when you read it, but stopping and arresting an intoxicated driver in the middle of the night is a stressful and dangerous event. Your officers are out there keeping you safe 24/7.
Sorry for the short and boring report, so what else is going on? We are getting close to our annual National Night Out event. It will be held at the Lytle Community Center on Priest Blvd. The date is October 4, 2022, and we will start at about 6 PM. You can expect a free hotdog and something to drink. You can mingle with our officers, and we will also have some folks from the fire department as well. We welcome businesses or organizations that want to set up too. Just call or email so I can reserve a table for your group. In addition to a free hotdog, you will score some other free stuff. Bring out the whole family! Everyone is welcome, even if you don’t like the “police” I am sure you will like a free hotdog.

Treasure

I have the very special honor of being a god mother again, or “fairy god mother” as one of my little ones calls me.
Little Kenneth didn’t even cry when deacon poured the holy water over him. His eyes just got real big. I guess just about anybody is ready to cool off with this sweltering heat we’ve been having.
There was a pool party afterwards. As Pop Capps came out to enjoy the kids playing in pool, he joked “Well, it’s nice and cool out here!”
I guess a little wishful thinking can go a long ways!
As a child, I can remember, I loved the summer heat. It was a hundred degrees, and I had a canteen full of cold Big Red, and I was ready to go ride my horse. Me and old Dan went on a lot of fun adventures together, and that heat didn’t bother me back then.
I imagine our little boys, Kenneth and cousin Tucky, will have lots of fun adventures running around grandpa and grandma’s ranch in the boiling heat where I once did. What a treasure that place is. The red dirt roads, where you leave your tracks, the cactus where you see the old jack rabbit peeking out, the brush where you never know what’s gonna jump out, the open fields where you can just BE, without another person or building in sight for just a few moments.
Speaking of adventures, I got to interview the landowners and explorers who found the awesome cave underneath a ranch near Hondo. As a young girl, I did plenty of “treasure hunting” myself, so it was really fun to hear about the discovery of this cave–hundreds of thousands of years old.
You just never know what you are gonna find out in the middle of nowhere–but one thing’s for sure–you’ll find big blue skies and a simple kind of peace you can’t find anywhere else. That’s close enough to treasure for me, even if I never find anything else out there.

Vacations over

Last week, I promised you more about our vacation. The trip up and down the mountain on the ski lift was fabulous, and not the least bit frightening. The scenery was as spectacular as all the rest of it had been. Later this same day, we got to go out to the stables and see the beautiful Percheron horses that would be pulling the carriage that we would be going sight-seeing in. They are among the largest horses used for many things. The carriage had three bench seats and we were scattered among them. Everyone had a wonderful time, as our driver, a sweet lady named Nancy drove us around several back roads. We not only got to see some scenery, we also saw several deer and I’m not sure, but I think we saw an elk. When we finished the ride, she allowed the children on board to pat the horses and her assistant helped hold some of them up so they could see better. I know that the little young man who turned four that day is the only one who will remember it. It was a truly wonderful day all around! We went back to the house for the evening and started getting clothes ready to be loaded the next morning, only problem was, it began raining during the night the guys had to load all three vehicles as well as the trailer in the rain. It was not pleasant to say the least, they were all soaked. We all pitched in where we could from inside the house and tried to keep the more mobile of the little boys out of the way, sometimes it worked and sometimes not. Anyway, everything was finally loaded, including all the people and we went down the mountain. We stopped in the town of Angelfire and went into a really nice shop where we could buy souvenirs and such, everyone had a great time in the shop and the lady who was running it was friendly and helpful, and loved our stories about the bears. I got the impression she had heard various stories before and she added a couple of things herself. Soon we were back on the road and in about eight or so hours, we were back in Texas at my granddaughter’s home. We spent the night there and on Sunday, it was back to Devine, and on Monday, it was home for me to face a busy week. It culminated in having part of this same group at my home for a true birthday party for my four year old great grandson. He loved his presents and his birthday cake and ice cream. Thanks again, family, for a wonderful vacation!
This coming Monday is Labor Day. This is the only holiday that has always been on Monday, so therefore it has not fallen to the changes that some of our other holidays have. It is still celebrated on the first Monday of September, just as it has been for many years.
The Knights of Labor in New York City first celebrated Labor Day in 1882 and 1884. Labor Day is now a legal holiday throughout the United States and Canada. It is just about midway between July 4th and Thanksgiving, which is why the first Monday of September, was chosen as this holiday.
Labor Day has always signaled the official end of summer fun. In the past, school always began the Tuesday following Labor Day. This no longer holds true in most school districts, with some having begun classes on the 14th of August. Many families plan their last get-together of the summer, their last trip to the lake or coast, or their last camp out for Labor Day weekend.
In south Texas, we will have lots more weekends with good warm weather (hot, actually), however, we will still be having days of 85ºF to 90ºF well into November, and we won’t be surprised if we can wear shorts at Christmas.
Now, I know I’ve said this unlimited times, but, if you go on any type of outing and take food along, be sure to keep hot foods hot, and cold foods cold. Did you know that you could use your ice chest to keep foods hot? Pour a gallon or so of hot water into the ice chest, close the lid for a few minutes, then drain the water out. I always put several sections of newspaper in the bottom before setting hot casseroles or pots in to keep from damaging the ice chest. I have not tried this with anything other than the cooler type, not the foam; however, they would probably work just as well. Also, if you have casseroles and they are fairly flat on top, you can cover them with foil and then use your cake/cookie cooling racks to add another layer. This works well and I’ve done it in the past, I just forgot about it until I saw how my daughter brought us food this weekend.
Here are a couple of our favorites for picnics/get togethers that are good hot or cold. They’ve both been around for a long time. Enjoy!
Uncle Ben’s Baked Beans
5 to 6 strips thin-sliced bacon
1 can (32-oz) pork and beans
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup barbecue sauce
Cut bacon cross-wise into 1/4-inch pieces and fry until crisp, remove from pan and drain on paper towels. Pour beans, onion, bell pepper, sugar and barbecue sauce into a 2-quart casserole, stir to mix. Sprinkle bacon on top. Bake at 350ºF until thick enough to suit your taste.
Jo’s Baked Beans
3 cans (15½-oz) size
1 envelope onion soup mix
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
3 or 4 strips thin-sliced bacon
Mix beans, soup mix, brown sugar and mustard together in a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with bacon slices. Bake at 350ºF 30 to 45 minutes or until bacon is cooked and crisp.
Layered Spinach Salad
1 package fresh spinach
1 medium-size head of lettuce
8 green onions, sliced, including tops
1 box (10-oz) frozen peas
1 can chopped water chestnuts (optional)
Dressing:
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup salad dressing
1 cup sour cream
1 envelope Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix
8 slices, cooked crumbled bacon
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (not the kind in the green box)
Wash spinach and lettuce; drain well. Place spinach in large bowl. Shred lettuce and place on top of spinach, top this with frozen peas and water chestnuts (if used). Mix dressing ingredients together and spread over top of salad, all the way to edges of bowl to seal it. Just before serving, top with Parmesan cheese and bacon.

Little man, big thoughts

Out of the blue my little boy looked up and asked, “Did you know God lives with Jesus?”
“Yes,” I replied, asking what sparked this conversation. “Did someone tell you that today?”
“No, I just knowed,” Tucker replied in his cute little 4 year old voice.
Later HE reminded ME that we needed to say our prayers, and when he said something funny, he chuckled and said “That made God laugh.”
So sincerely. So sweetly. Moments like that can really take your breath away. Little children surely have a special communication with God.
Sure, we try to teach them these things, but when the teaching comes from the little one himself, it’s really something. Goes straight to my heart.
I don’t know what sparked such deep thoughts from a little guy who spends 99% percent of his day talking about dinosaurs, but we went for a last minute vacation to the beach recently; maybe it refreshed his little soul as much as it did mine. There is just nothing that compares to being able to hear and watch the waves roll in and out, like a deep breath. I recently learned something really interesting about the ocean too. The oceans produce a majority of the world’s oxygen.
Indeed on NOAA it states, “Scientists estimate that 50-80% of the oxygen production on Earth comes from the ocean. The majority of this production is from oceanic plankton — drifting plants, algae, and some bacteria that can photosynthesize.”
I accidentally discovered that little fun fact, but I’ll use it to talk my hubby into even more beach vacations–strictly for health reasons, haha!

Vacation fun

This past week was a totally awesome week for me! Many, many thanks to my children for taking me on a mountain get-away week. My fun week started the morning of the 12th when I left my home to go to Devine to my family. The trip was uneventful, with some traffic but not so much that I was miserable. When I got to my son’s home, I found out that it was truly a family vacation, as my youngest grandson and his family were going to be with us also. There were a dozen of us in a gorgeous five-bedroom house located over 5,000 feet up a mountain. The trip up and down took about 30 minutes because of all the curves and also the speed limit of 25mph because of the up or down grade. Monday started out as a “Monday” with the power going off just after full daylight. We managed to get breakfast and everyone dressed, etc. Then it was down the mountain for us, some plans had to be changed as the power was out over the whole area! We were pretty flexible and worked around the problems and had a wonderful time together. That evening, back up the mountain, we were planning an evening of games. My granddaughter looked out the window and told her dad that someone was getting into our car. Turned out the “someone” was a bear who managed to get into and out of the car with no problem, after stealing the Sour Patch candy and a bag of cashews. Of course, all of this was caught on the trail camera my son had set up. Talk about exciting! The rest of the week, we went sightseeing, had a picnic, took a walk around a beautiful little lake, went horseback riding (not me!), my son, his wife and the younger couples with a couple of the small children went hiking to the top of the mountain, and had to be brought back by the bus they use up there, the ski lift was not functioning due to the weather. The weather interfered with our plans several times. On Wednesday night, a different car had a bear visit! This time none of us saw it, because it was the middle of the night, but the camera caught him and we saw it the next day on film. And it also began to rain intermittently, and this was absolutely beautiful, you could see the mountains and suddenly there were no mountains to be seen. Then Friday, when it cleared up for a while, we all went to the ski lift, rode it to the top, which was another 5K up in the air and a truly fun adventure, the view was spectacular, as were most of the ones we were seeing. Part of the group were playing Frisbee golf on the course that is marked off, and the rest were waiting for the zip line to open. I watched most of this from a beautiful deck at the very top of the mountain, yep, I’ve said “awesome” so many times that even though I tried to find a different word, I couldn’t. OK, my times up, I have a meeting at 1:00 and I’m not completely dressed. Next week, I’ll tell you more about my trip! Thanks again family for a wonderful week.
Chocolate Coca Cola® Cake
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 sticks (1 cup) butter
3 tablespooons Hershey’s cocoa
1 cup Coca Cola®
½ cup buttermilk*
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1¼ cups miniature marshmallows
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Mix together flour and sugar in large mixing bowl. Heat butter, cocoa and Coca Cola® to boiling and pour over flour mixture. Add buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, vanilla and marshmallows; stir together until combined. (This makes a rather thin batter, and the marshmallows will float to the top. Pour into a 9×13 pan and bake until cake tests done with a toothpick. * You can use whole milk, just pour about 1 to 2 teaspoons lemon juice into your measuring cup and add the milk to the ½ cup line, stir to mix and allow to stand a couple of minutes and it will thicken.
Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly as you make the frosting:
Frosting:
1 stick butter
3 tablespoons Coca Cola®
1 box (1 pound) powdered sugar
1 cup pecans
Place butter, cocoa and Coca Cola in a saucepan and heat just until boiling. Pour over sugar, add nuts and beat until creamy. Spread over cake.
Now, for those of you who can’t eat chocolate for whatever reason, here is a chocolate-free version of the Coca Cola® cake.
Chocolate Free Coca Cola® Cake
1 package yellow, butter flavor golden cake mix* (no pudding added type)
1 package (4-oz size) instant vanilla pudding
1 cup cooking oil
1 cup flake coconut
1 cup pecans
10-oz Coca Cola®
Grease and flour a 9×13 pan OR grease the bottom of the pan and line it with parchment paper and lightly grease the paper. Heat oven to 350ºF.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer combine cake and pudding mix, oil, coconut, pecans Coca Cola® and eggs. Mix well and pour batter into prepared pand. Bake about 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove cake from and cool thoroughly before frosting. *This recipe is from when cake mixes were 18.25 ounces. The new ones are 16.25 ounces, so you can add about 3 Tbs. baking mix (i.e. Bisquick or Pioneer Baking Mix) to the cake mix and this will give you about the same amount as the larger box of cake mix would be.
Cream Cheese Frosting
½ cup butter
1 package (8-oz) cream cheese
1 pound box powdered sugar (sifted)
In small bowl of electric mixer, cream butter and cream cheese together, continue mixing and gradually add powdered sugar, beating until fluffy.

A slow week, on paper

When you look at the call volume, only 47 calls, it might appear it was a slow week. It was a busy one with 9 reported property crimes, more on that later. Officers conducted 71 traffic stops which resulted in 63 citations and 8 warnings.
Let’s get the arrest activity out of the way, we had 4 arrests last week. Here we go with my simple numbering system to help me from getting confused: #1 – The detergent theft lady from last week was located by Ofc. D. Lopez, she was given a citation and released. #2 – Ofc. Pena conducted a traffic stop on Main Street and found the driver to be intoxicated. He was booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail. #3 – Ofc. A. Lopez responded to a disturbance on N. Prairie St. A male was arrested for assault causing bodily injury (family violence) and booked into the jail in Jourdanton. #4 – Ofc. Pena observed a single vehicle accident and arrested the driver for DWI, he too was checked into the jail in Jourdanton.
Property crimes reported last week: #1 – A rear door to a home under construction on Lonesome Dove was taken. #2 – A laptop valued at $1,000 was taken from a vehicle parked at the H.E.B. Plus. #3 – A complainant reported that an unknown male took a folder full of personal papers from her unlocked vehicle, this occurred at the Dollar General. #4 – A light blue 3-wheel bicycle was stolen from a residence on Oak St. #5 – A complainant reported that an unknown person entered their business on Main St. and took approx. $60 worth of misc. brass fittings. They slid under a garage door that was left just barely open. #6 – A resident on Huckleberry Dr. reported the theft of a trash can. #7 – Criminal mischief was reported at the IH-35 Park & Ride, a truck tractor was damaged in an attempted break-in. #8 – On Sunday evening (8/21) a complainant reported that his 2020 Dodge Ram Rebel p/u was stolen while parked in the 15000 Blk. of Main St. He had left it in a parking lot for a 24-hour period and the keys were left inside. #9 – Later that evening officers took a report of a 2003 Ford F250 taken from the H.E.B. Plus parking lot. It was recovered several hours later by S.A.P.D.  Now, we have a lot of investigating to do.
I took three days of leave and headed east with the family. The first stop was Livingston/Onalaska to spend a night with my wife’s sister and her family. We dropped off a couple of the kids and headed to Monroe, La. for a conference my wife and oldest daughter wanted to attend. I was mostly along for the trip to take care of the baby. After a couple of nights there we headed back to pick up the kids. We slid into Lytle on Monday night; I was 30 minutes late to the city council meeting. As usual, I did a good bit of eating at good places. I can’t resist touching on a few high points:  The Main St. Café in Carthage (TX): Catfish & frog legs plate lunch, fried okra, and coleslaw. (I opted out of the frog legs and got extra catfish). Don Chuy Mexican Grill (West Monroe, La.) – The chips and salsa. The Ranch House Café (Leesville, La.) – The crawfish etouffee and chocolate chip cookies. Let’s end this out with cornbread from 3rd On Main Kitchen in downtown Bryan (TX). On a side note, to this already side note, downtown Bryan has really been fixed up since I was a kid there in the early 80s, other than Woolworths and TSO there wasn’t much reason to go downtown.
Now back to something official. I testified in district court early last week over in Jourdanton at the Justice Center. I have said before that place is lovely. I just found out the whole second floor is not being used and hasn’t been built out. I can’t believe somebody hasn’t cut a backroom deal to fill that place up with those 8-Liner gambling machines. The cops would never suspect an illegal casino on the second floor of the justice center. All the traffic at all hours of the night could be attributed to the courts running around the clock to catch up from a COVID backlog.

55 service calls, 104 traffic stops

For the week ending August 14, 2022, …. Officers handled 55 calls for service and conducted 104 traffic stops. Those stops resulted in 94 citations and 10 warnings. 

     We only had one arrest last week. A traffic stop on Railroad St. resulted in the arrest of a female with 3 active felony warrants out of Atascosa Co. She was booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail.

     Property Crimes, 3 of them:  #1 – We had a shoplifting call at H.E.B. Plus, and then the crooks committed a vehicle burglary (#2) before they left the parking lot. A couple of males with purple, green, and blue hair took about $27 in items from the store. All our witnesses and the store camera confirmed the hair color, otherwise, I would have thought our witness was stoned. Our thieves decided to remove a couple of items from the bed of a pickup before they took off, they got a duffle bag full of tools and a weed eater. Our multi-color hair dudes were in a Ford Fiesta, and they couldn’t fit the weed eater in their small car, so they just dumped it in the parking lot. A witness returned it to the bed of the pickup. So, we learned today that if you drive a small vehicle you may save on gas but, it will limit what you can steal. #3 – A female with a small child left the store without paying for 4 big containers of laundry detergent ($70 value). We think we have her identified. Everybody uses laundry detergent and it’s expensive, so it is easy to sell or trade. A lot of that stolen product ends up at flea markets, I guess some of it gets traded for dope too.

     School is back in session! Please watch out for all the kids and expect delays around the school in the morning and during the afternoon release. Feel free to report any hazardous situations to us. 

     At the last city council meeting our City Administrator, Matt Dear, was given a supervisory role over all the department heads. Matt is now my boss, and I was looking for a way to commemorate this event. I was going to write a song, but I took a shortcut. I just took the theme song from “Charles in Charge,” one of my favorite 80s sitcoms, and replaced “Charles” with “Matt”. It does get a little creepy in a few spots. If you don’t know it, search it on YouTube …. it’s catchy, you might just be humming the tune all day. Perhaps, all the department heads could perform it at our city Christmas party? 

-Richey

Bring on the rain… 2.4 inches+

By Jerry Beck

Getting a little rain this Monday morning…2.4 inches was a Godsend as of this writing.  Don’t know how long its gonna last, but we could stand it for a week or so.

Had to add a Bailiff at the old Courthouse due to the addition of new courtrooms at the Annex.  Also had to add a position for the County Clerk to keep up with the demand in her office.  Good thing is that she has a fund that replenishes and will pay for the position.

Did a lotta vacating and replatting and establishing speed limits and stop signs to make them legal enough to enforce.  

We also approved an Interlocal Agreement Kendall County to fund a DPS satellite Crime Lab to better process drug evidence that would move cases through the trial process and finalize the cases that have been lagging due to pending lab reports.

Spoke with Judge Schuchart about the freezing of County taxes for folks 65 and over.  Oughta have the wording tomorrow (Wednesday) and an explanation because plain English don’t work on stuff like this….gotta be in lawyerpolitical speak.

I do not see how approving the Republican Chairpersons “Declaration of Local State of Disaster” would improve or even effect the safety of our citizens in Medina County.  Our Sheriff and local Law Enforcement are already doing all that they can to quell the influx of illegal immigrants.

I would rather see our Republican Party get on the bandwagon with the over 65 tax freeze than press us to agree to a Declaration that is a formality more than anything else.  After all, they represent “Medina County” and this is a Medina County issue that should occupy the front burner.

We have finished our latest paving project and are looking at our next possible endeavor.  We are now on the bottom of the list and will hopefully be able to include another project before the end of the calendar year. 

I need to look at my Budget and decide if there is enough funds to attempt another paving project because we also need another big truck to pull our belly-dump trailer and they aint cheap….somewhere around $130,000.  In addition, we need another pickup.  

Folks need to keep last weeks edition of the Devine News cause they don’t come around too often..there wasn’t a picture of Lewis Stroud in it.  I kid him but, he does a lot for our community and most of it is newsworthy.  

November 8th is approaching and everybody needs to be ready to vote in that Election.  Not only will the tax freeze item be on the Ballot but there will be the opportunity to un-elect some of the people that are bent on ruining our country.  

Only 83 days till Election Day (November 8th), 105 until Christmas and 135 until December 31st!        

The Creative Little Campfire

Last week I built an indoor tent fort in Tucker’s room and sat down on the floor to play “camping in Jurassic park” with my son.  I thought I’d be smart and build the tent fort in his bedroom instead of in the living room, so it wouldn’t be in the way.

He wanted to make a pretend campfire. So, like a good creative little mom, I took the lantern he had set up by the tent, and I used a washable orange marker to color the lantern lens and make it look more like a “campfire” for our camp. You know, when you are camping in Jurassic park you have to have a campfire to scare away the T-Rex and other “meat eaters”.  Then we proceeded to search his toy boxes for firewood, and Lincoln logs did the trick. We set those up all around our new, imaginary campfire.  

Tucker got really into it, and I was proud of my ingenuity. After all, how many moms can build a fake campfire so good? It was a lot of fun.

Well, shortly after our camping expedition ended, cousin Audrey and grandma came knocking on the door for a surprise visit. So then cousin Audrey went camping with Tucker for a while. 

In the next few days, I noticed an odd smell coming from Tucker’s carpet. I searched for it everywhere, with no luck. Eventually sister found a pile of empty water bottles in his room, and he told us what happened. 

“Me and Audrey put out the campfire,” he said proudly, with a beaming smile. “We poured water all over the fire wood to put it out really good!” 

It was very Boyscout -like of him, except for our creative little campfire was built right on top of a big thick carpet–which was now nice and wet underneath it–hence the odd smell.  So that was a nice, fun mess to clean up this weekend.

To make the story funnier, Audrey’s daddy is a firefighter, so I guess it’s fair to say she takes after him….leaves no fire untended.

We also found the jumbo box of snack-size bags chips that had gone missing.

 “We sneaked the box of chips into the tent and hid them under my bed!” he shrieked with joy.  It was apparently, the perfect camping snack assortment.

I think I’ll build the tent in the kitchen next time, and let Tucker know there is a burn ban!