Author: Javier
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Sabores Chilenos
One of the first things that came to our mind when we knew we were coming to Miami was…Chilean food!!! and after the very first meal, Miami delivered! We don’t have a Chilean restaurant in Nashville (not that we know of, if we do please share the information!), so when we have a chance to…
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DIY Cold frames
The weather in Tennessee has been a little weird. We have had several very warm days during the winter, and then a drop to freezing temperatures for a couple of days. The plants are confused. Bulbs are popping out happily thinking spring is here, but then a couple of below freezing nights hurt their leaves.…
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Soil is the key to happy plants!
The new beds are up and ready and the old beds are “refreshed” and ready too! Setting up everything required some work but we believe it will pay off in the long run with TONS of veggies. The 2 old beds had left over dirt from last year and the new ones were completely empty…
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Fencing the garden
I don’t know about you but somewhere along the way we failed to teach our dogs to garden. I am sure they would be great at digging holes for planting, but I doubt they would dig exactly where I need them to. So in order to avoid any problems with the raised beds in the…
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Prepping the new garden beds
Our vegetable garden is expanding this year. Last year I built 3 beds but only wound up using 2. This year we are using all 3 from last year and adding 1 ½ more. The big beds are 4 x 8 feet and the half is 4 x 4, and all of them are about…
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Cleaning the garden beds
Once we had the edging installed we knew exactly what the garden’s boundaries were and proceeded to the next step: cleaning out the weeds and bermuda grass. These beds needed a DEEP cleaning – there were loads of unwanted plants growing there and of course with the plants came roots. Also, because we neglected the…
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Installing edging
We have a ton of hard work to accomplish in our landscape plan to prepare for the arrival of the plants. We ordered most of our plants online and they will ship when our zone (TN) is ready for planting. Since we moved into the house, weeds and Bermuda grass have taken over the old…
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The Dog Spot to the rescue!
One of Leslie’s biggest fears is Chupete or Choripan running away. Going out of town means losing control over the dogs for a few days, and the only way to do that and have some peace of mind is to find a great place to board them while we’re away. Luckily for us, we found…
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Our new rose garden
Before we continue with tales of our Chicago trip, we’re going to continue with our garden saga. After moving three big bushes from the front of the house to the side, we started working on sections of the landscape that were ready for planting. Ever since we got the house (and especially after visiting my…
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The best yard in the street
When we moved into our house, we quickly learned from the neighbors that the previous owner had the most beautiful yard in the street (key word HAD). We had never taken care of a yard before, so the idea of keeping up with it was a little daunting. We had other priorities in mind: fence,…
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Post-Christmas show at Puckett’s
Puckett’s in Leiper’s Fork, TN is one of Leslie’s favorite places to play gigs. The people who run Puckett’s out there are so great and they have always been so easy to work with when it comes to booking, running sound, creating a great environment for a gig, etc.. Leiper’s Fork is such a beautiful…
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Letters from Grandmother v.2
This is the second letter in our collection. For those who missed the first, please take a second to read it here. For this letter you must keep in mind that at the time the voting age was 21 and she was only 20. (the translated version is after the english version) Esta es la…
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Letters from Grandmother v.1
In our post about our very McClure thanksgiving we mentioned that we spent quite a bit of time during the thanksgiving holiday reading the letters that Leslie’s grandparents wrote to each other when they were dating (well, secretly engaged – in 1944). We are so happy that these letters exist – it really is a…
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Playing Dictionary
Whenever we have a big family reunion we try to play games that include as many people as possible. One of our favorite games, and one where anyone can play since there is no limit for the number of players, is dictionary. Cada vez que tenemos una reunión familiar, intentamos jugar a algo que incluya a la…
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Thanksgiving Javi Style Mashed Potatoes
For a couple of years now I have been assigned to mashed potato duty at Thanksgiving. I am not sure why I was asked to make them in the first place since honestly I don’t have a recipe to make them. I guess I’m an expert now since the family keeps asking me to make…
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Corn bread adventure
Cornbread was something completely unknown to me before moving to the States. It never sounded very tasty or appetizing (much like meatloaf). Bread made with corn?…it just did not click for me until I tried it. With thanksgiving coming up I decided to go for a new adventure and try to make some cornbread. I…
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Los Rodriguez Life Giveaway / Sorteo !
As you might have noticed from our posts over the past week, we were nominated for Best Bilingual Blogger at the LATISM 2012 Conference. Houston hosted the conference this year and the conference featured many popular Latino/a bloggers. We couldn’t be there this year but we hope to join in the fun at future conferences.…
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Los Rodriguez Mansion: Ready for Halloween!
During our stay in Chris and Danielle’s home in Cincinnati we got really excited about their Halloween decorations. They love Halloween and at that point we hadn’t even thought about decorating our house. It’s not that we don’t like Halloween but we didn’t want to pay full in-season prices for Halloween decor (as Dani said:…
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Viva Chile! Tiki tiki ti!!!
September 18th is a huge date for our family! So happy (belated) September 18th everyone! El 18 de Septiembre es una gran fecha para nuestra familia! Asi que, feliz 18 de Septiembre (atrasado) para todos! Now you are thinking…why is it a big date? It’s Tuesday, it was raining (in Nashville), summer is over, what…
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See you next year garden!
Fall is almost here and the weather and pests have conspired against my garden. In the last update we told you about our attempt to rescue all our pepper plants and the harvest of the sweet potatoes. We discovered that squash bugs were the reason why our plants died, but luckily we got the peppers…
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