Radio Silence

Sorry for the radio silence.

I've been BUSY!

Last weekend I finished up my October class.

It was a good class, started out medium sized

and we lost several students as the days 

went by. But those that remained were

lots of fun, but as the years go by,

I find it more and more tiring to teach.

I still LOVE it though.

And I'm blessed to be able to rest up

during the week between classes,

so it's all good.

Anyhow.

The guys were out of town helping those

in the Panhandle who were so devastated

by the hurricanes. It wasn't the same sort of

devastation they saw in Key West.

The Panhandle is COVERED in trees.

They are saying we lost MILLIONS (plural)

of old growth trees up there.

Most of the jobs the guys were called on

had an average of 20 to 30 trees down.

Massive loss.

You plant pine and then you wait for 40 years

for it to be ready to harvest.

In the meantime, you harvest the pine needles

each year and sell it for garden mulch, etc

and that's what you live on while you wait.

It's all gone now.

We all got back Sunday night, within an hour or

so of each other. And we all were EXHAUSTED

on Monday. Rod had the day off, so we got back

in the truck and headed up to our feed mill.

All the feed barrels were empty.

It always feels good to have 1200 pounds of

feed in the barn.

Tuesday morning I decided it was time to

do something about my lazy chickens.

I still had 50+ and only got EIGHT eggs.

Kyle got out there and we dispatched 36 chickens,

leaving me a dozen or so and 2 roosters.

That's too many roosters, but Fred is an OLD

man we raised from an egg and we just

couldn't kill him. George is a good rooster,

he's young, only a year old, so I will likely keep

him anyway. We'll figure something out.

I sent Brock (next door) a text letting him know

I was getting rid of my chickens that day and

wouldn't be selling eggs anymore. (We have

talked about it for several months - I thought

I could hold out until Thanksgiving when my

new girls would take over, but last week I only

had 8 dozen eggs for the entire week - I remember

when I used to have 30! and at only $3 per dozen

its not worth it...) He has a commercial supplier

that he orders from on Tuesdays, so it wasn't

a problem for him, and a relief for me.

Kyle and I also went to our town's new

Yamaha dealership to look at side-by-sides

to replace the old worn out one at the ranch.

We found a nice one and sent some information

to Linda and her daughter, Gina, to think

about for the future.

Wednesday found us driving Kyle's car up to the ranch

to move the cows, check out a source for

fence posts and just basically check stuff over.

On the way up, Kyle got a text from Gina.

She found another side-by-side up in the

Gainesville area for a good price - we should

go buy it right now.

Hahaha.

But we didn't have the credit card or the check book.

Or the truck.

So we went up. 

We looked at it.

We bought it.

(With a deposit...)

And then we went back to the ranch,

checked the cows, walked through Kyle's house and

made some plans for the future and headed home.

We got home late.

Looking into his new kitchen.

Not a bad looking little kitchen.

And then Thursday morning we got up again,

jumped in Kyle's truck and drove over to Linda's

to pick up our trailer and head back to the ranch again.

We went to the dealership, picked up the new

side-by-side, loaded it up, drove it over

to the ranch and took it for a ride!

It's FUN!

It's fast.

It's NICE.

And it has super comfy seats!

(hahaha)

We drove around and checked all the fences,

visited with the cows,

and then it was time to drive home again.

Kyle is a cow whisperer... they love him!

The babies are growing up and they are curious!

We made it home just 10 minutes before Rod got

back from his High Council meeting.

We were all sound asleep within 30 minutes.

This morning (Friday) Kyle and I slept it.

(Poor Rod)

And then I got up, fed the animals,

caught up on my BoM reading (I was 2 days behind),

baked some yummy little cookie/brownie things

(chocolate / peanut butter... YUM)

showered, changed and headed out to

meet Linda for lunch for her birthday today.

We went to Red Robin for some delicious sandwiches

and a fun conversation. The poor server kept

coming over to get our order and we still hadn't

even looked at the menu. She finally brought over

a basket of french fries so we didn't starve.

LOL.

We ended up ordering two of the exact same thing.

Anyhow.

I'm home now.

I need to make hotel reservations.

We are all going back up to Gainesville on Wednesday

for a cow seminar thing on Thursday.

Hope you are having a wonderful Friday!

I am!