Bocce Ball

It’s about time we started having a little fun on the patio.  Bocce Ball is an ancient game brought into today’s modern times.  It’s a little like bowling, takes a little skill, and some luck.  Checkout this website to get the rules of play, and good luck getting your sweet 16 points for victory.

The nice thing about this lawn game is that you can play with two, four, six, or eight players.  It gets the patio guests up off their comfortable lawn chairs and having some fun.  Of course you may have an advantage is you’ve got some Italian blood in you.  The kids will love it, and so will the adults.  There are no nets or goals to install and it just doesn’t get any easier to provide entertainment just off the patio.

I even saw Bocce Ball courts at the the Green Valley Ranch Casino in Las Vegas, talk about a beautiful patio……

Patio Planters

You know what this patio needs?  Some flowers, and now is the time to get some in.  It’s after memorial day and the flowering plants are at a reduced price all over town. 

My first choice is geranium plants, maybe it’s my Swiss heritage, but the colorful geranium flowers are perfect.  They are low maintenance, and don’t complain if you miss a watering once in awhile.  They come in many colors, but I prefer the deep red ones.

Now where to put our new flowers?  If you have a deck, the railing makes a perfect spot to install some flower boxes.  For the floor of your deck or patio there are some great pots.  The pots can be used to breakup the big spaces of your area, act as railing to guard to against people (or young children) from falling off, and you can even drag them over to hide your grilling equipment when not in use.

Now if you’re lucky enough have an overhang or roof on your patio, you have the opportunity to install some hanging plants.  This is good place to put those flowers that need a little shade instead of  full sun.  This is also a way to keep  pets from digging in your flowers, etc.

What ever your application, that patio definitely needs some color and flowers are the answer!

Camp Chef Portable Stove

As long as we’re talking about eat’in, let me tell you about my current grill.  Over the years I’ve had a lot of different grills. Smokey Joe, Weber, and even a smoker, all of which I’ve enjoyed and used a lot.

I am currently using a Camp Chef 2 burner stove with the grill box.  Camp Chef makes what they call a modular system, where you start out with the basic 2 or 3 burner stove, and then they have accessories to put on top of the burners like a grill box or griddle.

The grill box I like, because it uses a heavy cast iron grate to grill on. The grate is pre-seasoned and ready to use.  This cast iron grate holds the heat and more evenly cooks your food.  The grill box also has a handy thermometer to read from the outside.  Just perfect for making bbq’d pizza, ya I’ll get the recipe and instructions in a future blog.

Your grill will contain 2 or 3, 30,000 btu burners.  Believe me there is power and heat to spare with these big burners.  Some ladies even use them for canning at the end of the summer out on the patio.  This keeps the mess and heat of canning outside.  The top of the stove is also designed so that you can use your Dutch Oven on top of the stove. 

 The best part is that the whole stove is portable!  That’s right, remove the legs, sack it up in the handy carrying bag, load it into the SUV, and take it to the neighbors patio and show off your cooking skills.

 

Dutch Oven Cooking

Cooking and eating outdoors on your Patio is truly one of our favorite activities.  One of our favorite ways to cook is in a Dutch Oven.  For those of you unfamiliar with these heavy cast iron pots……

 The cast iron pots come in several sizes.  The ones with the three short legs on the bottom are what we use, because that allows you to use hot charcoals under the pot.  The lids are designed with a lip around the edge to hold hot charcoals on the top as well.

Because of their design you can fry, bake, simmer, and even serve in theses versatile pots.  Any recipe you have, can be adapted to the Dutch Oven.  You can even bake a pie in the Dutch Oven, and I promise lot’s recipes in future blogs (including the pie).

While everyone else is grilling you’ll be the hit of the party when you food comes out of one of these majic black pots using charcoals.  oh, the food smells soooo good !!!

 

Firepit

 

 

Now this is what I’m taking about !!! A real firepit, with a real fire, smoke, heat, and it smells so good!!

Safety first, it’s a fire after all.  Keep a fire extinguisher close by. My brother always uses a 5 gallon bucket to haul the wood out to the firepit.  In case of an unexpected fire, he dumps the bucket of wood and steps out to the lake, or his nearby hot tub, dips a bucket of water and extinguishes the fire.

A screen is also a good idea to keep those crackling sparks in the firepit, and not out on your wood decking or outdoor carpet.  Just make sure it’s not sitting in the corner ….. use it!

Adding a firepit adds countless chilly days and hours to your patio enjoyment.  The patio isn’t just a daytime activity anymore.  The season starts several weeks earlier if you have the heat of the fire to make the area more comfortable, and those cloudy days of fall?  You’re still enjoying your patio along a nice warm fire.

It’s just not complete patio without the firepit.

The Outdoor Patio

Every blog has to have a first post, and this is it.  I started this Blog to write about patios.  We all have them, rent them, or call them by a different name.  It might be your back porch, deck, garage, or even an area of your backyard.

This blog is to address all areas, food, parties, campfires, games, maintainance, furniture, lights, bugs ……………

Well you get the idea.

Come back often and check out our new features, stories, hints, blog entries