Happy Birthday Dad!!!!

Today is my Dad's birthday.

And this is what he is doing.

(although he's not doing it in the "office" in Tucson... they are back in Canada.)

Working on this very program.

Since April.

He is nothing if not tenacious!

(And brilliant - he's pretty sure he's got it licked!)

These might be my favorite pictures EVER of my Dad.

This is SO HIM!

Quiet.

Gentle.

Thoughtful.

Taking time to cherish the moment.

And possibly the best marshmallow cooker in the world.

(I want a horse exactly that color)

He does, however, also make a KILLER smoothie.

Every morning.

I just know he is whistling.

While he studies the plants and birds.

Dad doesn't look at stuff.

He studies it.

No matter what "it" happens to be.

He was an Engineer, by training.

But he is a studier by birth.

He loves his wife.

(And children...)

He is loyal.

Loving.

Patient.

Kind.

And willing to be silly.

(If he HAS to)

He rides horses.

He roller blades.

He does TRX workout!!!!

None of your business how old he is.

(grin)

But he is the YOUNGEST octogenarian I know.

And I love him.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Slacker

I've been accused of being a slacker,

since there is no new post today.

So here you go.

New post.

LOL

This is TOTALLY Sabrina and me!

Double Yolk

Egg Update:

Here's how many I have "on hand" right now.

The ones on the left that are all shiny?  I had just washed them, prepping to drop into boiling water

for this week's hard boiled.

They are the first of the babies eggs, so they are pretty small.

They don't even fill the little carton cup thingies.

Rod might need 3 each day instead of two.

Notice the HUGE egg over on the right hand side.

Wanna see what's inside?



Not the actual egg, but one of equal size, we get one like that every couple of days...



Double yolks!
Kind of like Twins!
Poor chicken - it really was a BIG egg!

Meanwhile, remember when I said our weather was changed and all the water was soaked in?

Yah.
Spoke too soon.
This was yesterday afternoon.

Pouring rain.
HUGE puddles everywhere.

I didn't take a picture, but this morning,
it's blue skies and dry yard.
Mostly.

LOL
Welcome to Florida in the rainy season.

So glad we aren't in Lousiana - lots of prayers for those folks.

Wait A Minute

You've heard the expression

If you don't like the weather

Wait a Minute...

Well, in our case it took more than a minute.

But still...

This morning we woke to clear blue skies with high, wispy clouds.

The air was "soft".

90% of the puddles are soaked into the ground.

Sadly, it will take another day or two for the MAJOR MUD HOLE

right outside the back barn gate to go away.

But still...

I love Florida.

Hurricane 101

I was talking to Mom on the way home from school yesterday and realized

if you don't live in the hurricane zone

there's a lot of stuff we take for granted

that others just might not know.

So.

I'm going to tell you!

First.

The "cone" I often post doesn't really tell the story.

See?

Here is today's "cone".

We're totally in the clear.

Right?

Then we have today's radar.

Reality is, all the fun stuff is usually found on the northeast side of the storm.

Yah, I'm under the yellow/red stripe right along the coast.

And we will be doing that all day.

And tomorrow.

Probably.

So we won't get a direct hit, but we are getting LOTS of weather.

As evidenced by the dog shed.

Peeled the roof back like a sardine tin.

Did a number on the tarp over the 4-wheelers too.

(Granted, it was on it's last legs already...)

The girls are high and dry though.

This is what it looked like while I was chatting with Mom.

But at least Florida knows what it's doing.

This is not our first rodeo.

All those trucks you see, as far as you CAN see

are Power Trucks.

All the northern counties and even some of the southern states send hundreds of crews and trucks

to the area ahead of the storm.

We were already hearing reports of 2300+ homes in the Miami/Keys areas who were without power.

Hours before the storm was scheduled to hit.

What most people don't know...

If the storm actually HITS (direct hit)

the power company will often turn the power off on purpose.

If they don't, the storm will take out hundreds of transformers.

It's pretty dramatic watching those blow.

But then you have to replace all of them.

It's expensive and time consuming.

And we outlying areas take forever to get power again.

(Our house was without power for nearly a month in 2004.  Luckily we were still in the other house...)

By turning the power off, when the storm is over, they just throw the switch and then

fix the ones that actually blew down or whatever.

But we are prepared.

We have 2 really good Yamaha generators.

We have some solar panels (thanks Kyle!)

We have a mud pump to take care of flooding.

We have supplies.

In fact, one day Kyle and I were talking about being prepared for whatever comes.

Specifically EMF attacks.

And how everyone would be devastated if the grid suddenly went down.

He mentioned that at least we have horses.

I said,

Yes, we could eat them.

He said,

Well... yes, but I was thinking more about hitching them to a wagon for transportation.

LOL

Don't tell Andy.

Yum

Yesterday I headed out to Aldi's to get some groceries.

The night before I bought a little bit of nothing at WalMart for $45.

This is what I got at Aldi's...



9 pounds of frozen chicken thighs.

3 pounds of REALLY good steak

(we cooked one package last night.  YUM!)

6 Roma tomatoes

2 green peppers

3 avacadoes

2 packages of button mushrooms

1 head of cauliflower

4 onions

1 cantelope

1 bag fresh oranges

1 bag fresh lemons

3 cucumbers

fresh spinach

fresh romaine lettuce

greek yogurt

2 bags frozen green beans

BBQ sauce

dried basil

(shhh) Ice Cream Drumsticks (for Kyle)

I paid $66.

I need to go more often, but it's not on the way home. 

It took me 25 minutes to drive there.  And then another 20 to do my shopping and check out.

I think there might be one closer to my office though, and then I can bounce onto the highway.

Might give that a try next week.

Meanwhile, looks like Isaac might be targetting Mobile, Alabama.

Sorry for them.

But good for us.

As long as it doesn't hit South Florida on Sunday.

I'll be down there teaching.

(just got an email from the school director saying it's up to us whether to cancel or teach.

I'm planning to teach, but will make the final call when it gets closer.)

(My school is down there on the coast, by the "eyeball" - Lake Okeechobee)

Isaac?

So.

Isaac.

Where you headed Isaac?

West coast?

East coast?

Or catch a wave and into the Gulf and off to Texas?

The waiting and watching begins.

Luckily, this place doesn't have too much to do to prepare.

Well, except we'll need to move Rocky into the barn.

Her cage will fly, for sure.

But the girl's coop weighs roughly eleventy-two thousand pounds.

It isn't going anywhere.

Wednesday

Welcome to my world.

It's Wednesday.

The day that I usually "sleep in" and then go riding with Kyle.

But it rained last night and the woods are super wet.

And Rod didn't get home until 5:00 this morning.

So... this is what I did today...

Didn’t get out of bed until a student sent a text at 7:30, then outside to feed the chickens and horses and let the dogs out.  Cleaned out the fridge and took the nasty stuff out for the garbage man.  Filled the dishwasher and started it.  Tossed some chicken in a pan to cook for Rod’s lunches this week.  Went into the other room to workout (and TOTALLY forgot about the chicken… luckily I remembered before it was cremated…), emptied the dishwasher, took a shower, fed the dogs, let the horses out into the middle yard, gathered the day’s first egg, chatted with Kyle for a couple of minutes, took some "old" corn on the cob out to Andy and the girls, and FINALLY headed to work.  (Kyle works 12-7 on Wednesdays…)

Now I’m working on my regular stuff, plus trying to track down why the system we use to pay for students to get their fingerprints done seems to be broken.  Sheesh.  Always something…  lol.

If I had stayed home and gone riding, I would have hung around and done the monthly RS potluck lunch over at the church at 11:30.  But I didn’t want to just sit around for 2 hours waiting for a luncheon.  Maybe next month…

Anyhow – that’s what’s going on around here!

And just for fun....



Moving the Coop

Kyle and Rod move the coop for me every week.

It keeps the chickens on fresh green grass.

And gives the old grass a chance to regrow.

They really do a number on the weeds - maybe one day they'll be all gone!

We let the chickens out of the tractor and they wander around, eating the grass and any bugs they can find.

They love to take "dirt baths" in the sand.

They especially love following the horses around.

Silly birds.

Skies over WalMart

Kyle and I headed to WalMart for, what else, Milk...

And looking up, this is what we saw.

My iPod couldn't get a good picture, so this is from Kyle's phone.

Ok, that caption thing didn't really work... LOL

It says there is every color in the palette. 

Green, blue, pink, grey...

Pretty, eh?

Pretty

Aren't they pretty?

 I only WISH I collected these all in one day.

These are a couple days worth...

Some day...

The nifty, dark brown/red torpedo shaped one on top was

yesterday's contribution.  (Along with the teen tiny one right behind it.)

Recognize the basket?

These were the flowers Jimbo sent me for Mother's Day 2011.

The basket has been holding cinnamon pinecones on my fireplace since.

But Kyle accidentally knocked it over yesterday.

Which reminded me it was there!

And I realized it was a PERFECT egg collecting basket!

SCORE!

WE HAVE AN EGG!!!!!!!!!

The long wait is OVER.

ONE of my little girls is laying... don't know which one, but if one is, pretty soon they ALL will!

It's teeny tiny, even smaller than Blondie's, but they'll get bigger when their plumbing gets figured out...

Way to go BABY!

Enjoying some mealy worm snacks...  Eeeeeeuuuuuuwwwww

Which one of you girls can claim the egg?

Happy Birthday Darling!

57 years ago today, a teeny tiny lady gave birth to a 

great big,

breech,

"sunny-side-up"

baby boy.

That baby boy must have gotten out all his orneriness then,

because he grew into a 

wonderful

loyal

loving

hard working

excellent providing

kind

considerate

man.

Who I love.

And who I am lucky loves me.

Happy Birthday Darling!

UPDATE:  We stopped by our little local church so Rod could vote.  I got to go in with him (the joys of voting in a small town....) so I "sort of" voted.

See?

And then we all met at the local hoagie place for lunch.

Yes, it is Florida.

It is August.

It is HOT.

And Sabrina is wearing a sweatshirt.

A woman of my own heart!!!

(She was still thawing out from working in the walk-in freezer this morning...)

Combs and Wattles

The girls are getting older and starting to show signs they might be ready to start laying eggs!

Hint Hint Girls.....

Doesn't she look like a Pterodactyl?  

Don't be messing with my chair!

But at least Blondie and Rocky are still laying.  

Usually.

Although Blondie sometimes takes a day off...

Her eggs are tasty, but dainty!

And then, I leave you with the glorious sunset!

Friday

I took some pictures last night for today's blog.

Then I left my iPod on the kitchen counter.

So today you are left with this.

Lousy quality, but you get the idea.

Rozann - Breakfast?????  LOL

I'm thinking it will make a GREAT LUNCH! 

Lunch Date

The guys and I decided to meet at a local hoagie joint (next door to Jim's dealership) for lunch.

Egg salad on white for me.

The special with spiced ham, salami and provolone on wheat for Rod.

Something fancy for Jim...  lol

We had a nice visit.

Seems like we are so busy these days we don't get to just sit and chat very often.

Yah, not a GREAT picture... LOL

I was trying to hurry cuz he's not a big picture guy.

Although now and again I catch him when he's "on"... LOL 

I just missed him sticking out his tongue.

He's a handsome guy, isn't he?

This morning, after cutting Rod's hair, Bison came to check out the action.

Noticed he had some green "hitch-hikers" stuck to the top of his paw.

So he attacked them vigorously with his mouth.

And, of course, then they stuck to his mouth.

Even HE was laughing at himself!

LOL!!!