Truck Driver

We really got into a nice rhythm yesterday.

I back into the sweet spot,

Kyle loads my bed with 6 scoops

(all the truck can dump... its wet heavy clay/sand)

then I drive through the pasture to a

spot behind Linda's new house and dump it.

(Which requires BACKING to the pile...

I'm learning to back a vehicle using my mirrors! 

Only took 60 years...)

Then drive back to the sweet spot...

make a "tick mark" on my tally sheet

and do it all again.

I did a total of 30 loads yesterday.

Kyle came over with the skid steer and

spread the dirt out after every 10 loads.

Spreading dirt. 

Some of my piles.

And his "cat bird".

This bird followed him, back and forth,

the whole time he was spreading.

Looking for bugs... but no luck since this

is coming from the bottom of the pond.

We moved a LOT of dirt!

 

There's his little friend again!

Silly bird.

I forgot to take another picture...

but it's WAAAAY bigger now.

I left about 5:30 and Rod took my driver's seat

for another hour and then they called it a day.

He/We are taking the weekend off.

It's going faster than we anticipated

(KNOCK WOOD)

so we aren't going to push quite so hard

next week. Although he still has a TON

of work left to do - 40 more dirt piles to move

that he and Rod piled up on Thursday,

and 80+ trees to move, cut up, load up

and haul off to the dump.

So far, so good...

New Job

You remember I showed you Kyle's new machine.

He has it leased for a month.

Linda approved his plan to take down 80

trees (which he did in the first day...)

(he still needs to chop them up and

carry them off to the dump, but they

are all down at least...)

and then dig a pond.

It's 80 x 80 x 8' deep

with an interior measurement of 50x50.

He will spread all that dirt on the

low spots on her farm that are

ALWAYS flooding.

That will really help.

Anyhow - that IS a lot of dirt.

So... he digs and I haul it off!

This was the very first scoop...

Inspecting the hole.

Hey, this is kind of fun!

My new office.

Rod came over last night and took

some pictures, but he didn't send them to me yet.

This morning I took Rod to his eye doctor.

His glaucoma pressure was a bit higher than

she liked, so he had a laser procedure

to release some of that pressure.

But although she said he would be ok

to go back to work in about an hour,

be was still kind of fuzzy and

didn't feel like he should really be

working on an airplane when he can't see

the tiny stuff.

But he CAN see well enough to drive

the dump truck.

And naturally he is WAY better (faster)

than I am... so he went to work with Kyle.

Poor Kyle will really miss him tomorrow

when he's got me back in the driver's seat...

The job should take about 100 hours or so.

******************************

Meanwhile, my booboo is looking pretty good.

I've been putting Bountiful Balm on it

to help it heal and keeping it wrapped

to keep it clean.

I get the stitches out on Tuesday.

Can't wait!

It's ITCHY!!!

Tuesday

Well... if that isn't a riveting title...

I don't know what is!

Draws you right in, doesn't it?

I continue to amaze myself with

my writing skills...

Hahahahahahahahahaha...

Whatever.

Yesterday Rod had a re-check on his

glaucoma since the last time he was

REALLY tired and actually fell asleep

during the test.

Hey.

They turned the lights off!

What did they expect?

Anyhow.

He stayed awake this time and did

better, but his vision is still non-existent

in the lower left quadrant of his one eye.

They other eye compensates for it

so he sees fine, but when you test each

eye individually, its pretty apparant.

And then his pressure was up in that eye as well.

And was up a little last check as well.

It's been 10 years since his last laser treatment.

So his Dr. suggested we repeat the laser

and get ahead of this rather than chase it later.

So Thursday morning at 8:30 he is going

in for another laser treatment to release

some of the pressure in his eye.

She said since it worked well the first time,

it generally works almost as well the second.

And then the next time it will likely require

surgery - but this should hold that off for awhile.

Years, maybe.

Prayers would be appreciated!

Meanwhile...

"Stubby" greedily ate all his breakfast this morning.

(He dribbles, so I feed him on a paper towel bib...)

(Stubby is a good uni-sex name since we have

no idea of his gender at this point. We are going

with male, just because...)

Bottle Babies

There are actually TWO bottle babies.

Baby #1.

Turns out Rod hasn't been a big fan of

my "Q-tip" but is too sweet to tell me so.

Pearl (of the Trim Healthy Mamas) has waist

length BLACK hair, but now that she is nearing

50, she thought she should go with a softer color.

So she did, and cut a couple of inches off.

I thought it looked gorgeous, and she shared 

the brand of healthy hair color she used,

so I checked them out.

And then I showed it to Rod.

And he TOTALLY encouraged me to go for it.

So.....

Since I'm still not supposed to be using my arm,

I asked HIM (and Kyle in the peanut gallery)

to color my hair for me.

They got creative.

And then it was time to wait.....

I like it!

And more importantly, HE likes it!

Nobody at church even mentioned it.

Whatever.

(grin)

Meanwhile...

Bottle Baby #2.....

On Saturday while the guys were finishing

putting the wire fencing on the new garden

the dogs found a couple of baby rabbits.

One didn't survive.

The other they snatched from the jaws of death

and put into the rabbit hutch.

The plan was to put it back where Mom could

find it that night, but we forgot.

So...

We headed to Tractor Supply for a little bottle

and some kitten milk replacer.

We figure this little guy (gal?) is about 18 days 

old, which is how old they usually are when they

start leaving the nest and exploring...

Ignore my wrinkly face and focus on the cute

little bunny refusing the bottle.

After about 15 minutes he suddenly started

sucking for all he was worth!

And then he immediately fell sound asleep.

I got him out this morning for a repeat performance.

Without most of the struggling and trying to escape.

In fact when I opened the hutch, he ran right

into my hand. I think he might be lonely.

And chilly.

He fought the nipple for about 10 minutes

and then suddenly ate his fill

and back to sleep.

He/She is old enough to start eating solid food

so I'm going to pick up some pellet today

and put it out for him.

Still needs to nurse for a couple more weeks,

but by then he should be super tame.

We are going to keep this one and add some

more for our new breeding program.

We'll just pick up a couple of little ones

next month when Tractor Supply has them

on sale for Easter.

(Unless we can find a local breeder before then...)

Anyhow.

We now have TWO bottle babies!

Rodeo

We had so much fun last Friday

at the rodeo, we decided to

GO AGAIN!

We very nearly froze to death.

Well... the Florida version of

froze to death.

But it was COLD!

Even the animals were feeling it.

The horses were feisty.

The bulls were RANK.

The calves were skittish.

And the cowboys ... they were just cold.

So the animals won this one.

There were only TWO scored rides

on the bulls, one of the first guys

out rode and scored a 59 with the option

of a re-ride.

So he took the re-ride and bucked off

at about 2.5 seconds.

Turns out he would have come in SECOND

if he had kept his 59!

What a bummer!!!

We like to sit on the end above the stock chutes.

We like to watch the cowboys handling the

calves and laugh at how its like herding cats.

(And know that we've been there and will

probably be there again...)

Bareback was awesome. Lots of good rides.

They were the most successful of the evening.

Even the barrel racers were off their game.

Nearly ever rider had a barrel down.

One even knocked all 3.

Poor lady.

But although many cowboys went home

without a paycheck, it was still a fun

evening with lots of great action.

This picture was before the rodeo started.

It was sold out, but this early there wasn't anybody there.

These were the children of the Quadrille Team,

just getting started in "horseback square dancing".

They did a great job.

And then the senior team performed later

in the evening and we got to see 

"how it's REALLY done..."

A fun evening all around.

And Rod's car has a great heater

(and heated seats)

so we thawed out and all was well.

Kyle's New "Toy"

Linda has been working with a guy

who has been taking down some

trees on her city farm.

He sort of did it half way

and then he vanished.

So finally they decided that Kyle

should do it instead.

But that means he needed to

lease a giant piece of equipment.

They delivered it to the farm this morning.

But he can't drive it yet.

Because he needs a $1,000,000 insurance policy.

And those are a little harder to come by

than you might think.

We HOPE we have it sewed up.

But we are waiting on that all important phone call.

He's excited to get started!

I Got a Boo Boo

Several months ago I went to the Dermatologist.

I had a dot that I wondered about.

He said it was nothing.

But there was ANOTHER dot next to it

that he was a little suspicious of.

And yup, the biopsy came back

squamous cell carcinoma.

But Derms out here in the Sunshine State

are rare as hen's teeth so they are BUSY.

The soonest I could get back in was Feb 18.

And yesterday that day finally came.

But it's just a DOT.

So I wasn't nervous or anything.

Yeah, whatever.

After like 25 injections to numb a huge

area on my arm, they moved me to

the surgical suite.

And then after more prep we got down

to business.

He opened my arm (no pain, but you CAN feel

EVERYTHING... and since I butcher my own

animals I had a very vivid picture in my mind

of what was going on...) and then he said

"Hmmm, this is a BIG cancer..."

Well, thanks!

You could have kept that comment 

to yourself...

Anyhow.

An hour later I was finally done.

The incision is about 4 inches, vertically on my arm.

Yesterday the only thing that bothered me was

the vet wrap. It is pretty stiff and was pinching

my elbow and kind of making me crazy.

But I faithfully sat on my couch with my little

lunch box ice pack and a tea towel

(held together with a chip clip... hahahaha)

and it never hurt.

This morning I (carefully) fed the animals

and then got dressed to go into the Town Hall.

By the time I got there, it was kind of achy.

And since I'm not allowed to bend over,

workout, or lift anything for 2 weeks,

there wasn't much I could do there today.

I could type, but honestly, that didn't sound

like something my arm wanted to do.

So I visited for a bit and then came home again.

I'm counting the hours (48) until I can

take the wrap off.

And then I'll probably put another one on, but

I'll pad it with some gauze first... (grin)

I have some pretty RED vet wrap.

And maybe some green, and yellow...

I have a bunch of rolls out in the barn.

I'm gonna rock all the colors!

New Garden

Kyle has really missed our garden.

We had one, and then turned it into the

chicken yard.

And then we took down the fence and

opened it up for cow pasture.

But he still misses the garden.

So last week he tore up the back yard

with his Cat, then rented a tiller

for a day and did a bunch of work.

Getting the posts started.

Can't decide if our yard is a parking lot

or a construction zone...

The men are working hard!

Luckily there is a nice breeze and its only

in the mid 70's today.

Not too hot to fence.

A couple of hours later and the posts are nearly all in the ground.

These guys KNOW how to fence!

It's a pretty big garden.

But we won't have any trouble filling it up.

There are only 4 raised rows...

They are putting field fence and then maybe a

row of chicken wire to keep the wild rabbits out.

We'll see...

Meanwhile...

The orange tree is in bloom

and smells AWESOME!

There were a bunch of bees out doing their job.

It's just a little guy,

but give it a couple of years...

The peach tree has peaches!

Even the loquat has a hand full of loquats!

There would be a couple more, but I let

the cows in the yard a couple of weeks

ago and they thought it looked tasty.

They have been banished.

MIA

Kyle is home and the weather is BEAUTIFUL!

I was anticipating days and days at the beach.

But then he reminded me that I am

working at the Town every day this week.

(The receptionist had surgery Tuesday...)

So....

I've been extremely busy.

Trying to get everything done in the

mornings before I head into the office.

And then exhausted in the evening.

Working is hard work!

(Hahahahaha)

But we HAVE made two trips to the beach.

Just in the late afternoon...

It's always windy...

We were both feeling good and walked and walked and walked.

We made it 3.48 miles! (round trip)

So I took a picture of the distinct tree to mark

our new record.

My hips were SORE the next day!

I met him down there again last night after work.

The beach was COVERED with baby

Man-o-War jellyfish.

They are pretty, but you had to keep your

eyes open so you didn't step on one.

We only stayed for about 45 minutes

but got in a nice walk and chat.

And now...

I've got to quickly eat my breakfast

and get ready to head to the Town.

But I needed to check in.....

HI!!!

Kyle's Home

Kyle is home.

Along with all his stuff.

Luckily he isn't much of a collector

of stuff... because even this minimal

amount is quite a bit...

His couch and TV shelf are out in the tack room.

We will find places for all of it

until it moves to his next adventure.

But I'm not in a hurry.

(grin)

Toasty Toes

I had a good class this weekend.

We ended up with 12 students,

which is a good size.

But I was TIRED by the time 

yesterday was finished.

This morning I actually slept until

8:30! Which is unusual in a hotel bed...

and then it was up,

pack,

walk across the parking lot to my

favorite little Mel's Diner for some

breakfast and then drive to

Rural King to pick up my feed order.

They still didn't have any beet pulp pellets.

Darn it.

Maybe next week.....

And then it was, turn on the Kindle to

read the last of the Harry Potter books

to me as I drove across the state.

When I got home, I unloaded the feed

that I DID get into their barrels out

in the barn and then went inside to

open the mail.

And SURPRISE!

I got a present from Mom!!!!

It's chilly in my house tonight,

so I'm VERY EXCITED to have 

some brand new Toasty Toes!

Thanks Mom!!!!!