Friday Fun Day

It's been another busy day.

I worked out, ate some breakfast,

and then Kyle and I headed out in his

truck to run some errands.

But it was driving a little wonky,

and upon inspection his front passenger

tire had a nice sized bulge in it.

The tires are... 4 years old? 

And he puts a LOT of miles on his truck.

So, change of plans.

Headed to the tire place instead.

They had to get the tires from another 

local store, so we drove back to the house,

and I followed him back in my truck.

Dropped his truck off and headed to Linda's

farm where he moved some dirt that was

possibly in the way and Linda and I

had a nice chat.

Then to Tractor Supply (like 2 blocks from her farm)

to pick up chicken and large animal feed.

Then up the street to Sam's for some

groceries (mostly produce).

Then back home.

As we pulled into our farm, I remembered

the whole reason we were driving a truck was

we were supposed to stop at the local feed

store and get a round roll of hay for the cows!

DUH!

Unloaded all the food (human and animal)

and by that time Rod was home.

So he and Kyle have headed back out to

get the hay and pick up Kyle's truck.

This is what Kyle did ... yesterday?

(Time flies when you are in social distancing... lol)

I included this picture because getting HIM

in one is pretty rare... lol.

This is Linda's new feed shed.

He built her a nice new ramp/stair so she

can easily get in and out.

It's great!

I spent 4+ hours yesterday on webinars
learning how to use Zoom.
Today I FINALLY got my upgraded version license.
Our poor home office people have really been
struggling with getting 200 instructors up and
running in the space of 4 days.
But it works now...

So...
I think we should schedule a Zoom!
It's super easy and all the cool kids are doing it!
Hahahahahahahahaha

Home Front Update

I've been spending lots of time on the computer

lately learning how to use the ZOOM program.

My company picked 5 instructors from Florida

to teach a 3-4 hour review class each week (or so...)

Details are still WAAAAY up in the air.

But I was lucky enough to be one picked.

At this point I still don't have my "license" to

use the upgraded version - they tried again this

morning, but it still shows User Doesn't Exist.

We tried 3 time yesterday...

I'm sure it's frustrating for our home office people!

Anyhow.

Yesterday we were on a training webinar for

an hour and then last night I did a little "meeting"

with Rod and I on the couch using the free version.

It wasn't anything like what they said the

fancy version is like - way less features...

but still kind of cool.

I have another call today at noon, just for the

Florida instructors. We are all friends, so we

will get on there and practice I guess...

Only one of us has a license, so we will share her's

until they get this nonsense figured out.

Then Kyle came home early and we headed

over to the beach for some brain relaxation time.

The ocean was flat as a pancake!

Looked more like a giant lake (or the Gulf)

so most of the people enjoying the beach 

were out in the water.

The water temp is up from 68 to 74 degrees so was quite

pleasant! Of course those of us who are 

pansies, and have phones in our pockets...

chose to just walk in the shore break...

No seaweed or jellies and quite refreshing!

Meanwhile - this morning Kyle packed up and headed

up to the ranch for 2 days.

Gina finally admitted she is in over her head

and is having problems

(cows are getting out on a regular basis...

something that NEVER happened when he was there...)

and yesterday they had a calf die.

So she asked him to come help her.

He is planning to move back up there mid-April 

to get the "dog leg" pasture prepped for planting

so wanted to run up today anyway just to see

where they are on getting ready for that.

(They are notorious for last minute "planning"

which makes him nuts...)

Anyhow.

Hopefully it goes well.

They asked if he wanted to stay in the ranch house

or a motel, he said either was fine since it was just

one night, was the ranch house liveable?

She came back with "Oh yeah, we even stay

over there some nights."

He was LIVID.

If they can stay over there some nights, 

they can just stinkin' move over there!

Hope they get that ironed out.

I'm staying out of it.

Linda and I are working REALLY hard to

keep the ranch issues separate from our friendship.

It's a challenge.

Her daughter / my son.

Sigh.

Better eat my breakfast - its been sitting over

on the side table for 45 minutes.

Hahahaha.

Nothing like cold eggs and okra.

Yum.

Have a wonderful day!

An online friend challenged us all to read

"Saints" before conference.

So I might start that this afternoon.

Oh and there's a launch scheduled for this

afternoon too - better set an alarm or I'll

get busy and forget!

It's not 10 yet and I've fed all the animals,

swept and washed the kitchen floor,

done the dishes from last night (by hand... no reason,

just decided it was silly to run the dishwasher for

90 minutes when I can whip it out in 15),

planted 2 rows of okra 

and a patch of tri-colored carrots in the garden.

Did the banking.

And a blog.

Oh, and made breakfast.

Hahahaha.

LOVE YOU!

Garden Update

Rod and I drove up to the dump

(now THAT is social distancing - NOBODY

goes to the dump! Hahahah)

He added some wooden sides to the little

trailer so we could load it up.

Got a big load of FREE mulch.

The guy at the gate said it was the last

of the "golden mulch".

(Said it was the best / cleanest they've got.)

We tarped it and and headed home.

(By way of Tractor Supply for animal feed.)

I forgot to take a picture of the load.

Then we unloaded it into the garden.

Kyle was the official unloader.

I pushed the wheelbarrow and dumped it.

And Rod spread it in the garden.

We only put it in the alleyways.

Then Kyle went back and hand did around

his little herbs and rose bushes.

The garden looks a LOT better.

My busy, hard working man.

All that is left of the load.

The rows still have a LOT of grass in them, but now that

the plants are coming up, I'm going to get one of 

those little hand tools with the fingers

so I can sit out there and weed it a bit at a time.

And then we'll be able to see the bare spots and

replant those. For some reason the peas didn't 

come up very well.

But the squash and beans look GREAT!

Our Patio These Days

This is what our patio looks like these days.

Kyle's (Linda's) dump trump is going to

live on our patio for .... awhile.

Yesterday the rear end broke.

Kyle wasn't sure if it was the rear axle

or the differential

or...

all he knew was it was making

TERRIBLE clunking noises.

Which is a bummer because he is

in the final week of his big project

and the dump truck plays a HUGE role

in this phase.

They are coming to get the excavator today

or tomorrow.

Rod went over last night after work and Kyle

let him hop in and dig a hole for him.

He did a good job - but its much harder than it looks!

And then they headed home.

Kyle driving (slowly) the dump truck

and Rod following in his car.

They got half way.

Then Rod came home and got our black truck

(Kyle's truck is still at Linda's)

and a tow rope

and me.

He pulled the dump truck and I followed

to make sure if the rear end fell out

it didn't take out some innocent driver.

Man.

People out there are CRAZY!

The truck is making these terrible noises.

They zoom up, pull next to them,

and then STAY THERE.

Seriously?????

Get out of the way!

If it blows, it's going to hit YOU...

Sheesh.

Poor Kyle was leaning out the window

waving people on... like GET OUT OF THE WAY!

Hahaha

Anyhow.

We made it safely.

*With much prayer! And thanksgiving!

And this is what our patio is going to look like

for the next foreseeable future.

Happy Last Day of Winter!

(Sorry all you people getting snow today...)

Beach Day

Sunday afternoon, Kyle and I went to the beach.

So did ALL THESE PEOPLE!

I guess they didn't get the 

"Social Distancing" memo.

We found a hunk of beach that was NOT

covered in people.

Aaaaahhh.

That's more like it!

Home Church

It was an interesting experience to have 

"Home Church"

this morning at our house.

Unlike when we watch General Conference,

our Stake President required that we wear

Sunday dress to take the sacrament.

We sang an opening song

"Come, Come Ye Saints"

which I chose because it felt appropriate...

had an opening prayer

a Sacrament hymn and then the

blessing and passing of the Sacrament.

Then I cast my favorite podcast (YouTube) on the

big screen TV for us to watch 

our Gospel Doctrine class.

I often don't get to attend church,

this is a good substitute.

If you are looking for a good Sunday School

class to attend, I recommend it!

Teach With Power

It is geared towards other teachers

but I really enjoy it.

Now Rod is off with another Brother

administering the sacrament to some

of the elderly single Sisters in our ward.

Beach Walk

Kyle has been doing flat out.

And he's getting tired.

Yesterday about 5:00 I got a single line text.

"Beach?"

So by 5:45 we were sitting on the beach.

It was a little cool since the ocean is

only 68 degrees and there was a nice breeze.

We sat for a couple of minutes

and then headed south for our walk.

There is a High off the east coast

which means the temps are going

to be higher for the next week or so

and there will be no rain,

but also there are "long waves" 

which means they come from alllll the

way out there (not quite Africa... lol)

and there is a serious rip current situation.

Those long waves also bring...

I'm not sure which kind these are

but this guy was BIG!

With LOTS and LOTS of stinging tendrils.

See the babies?

There were hundreds of teeny tiny little baby jellies.

I'll bet they hurt if you step on them!

(I was VEEERRRRYY careful... lol)

It was a nice, relaxing 1.72 mile walk.

(My phone keeps track)

Kyle Update

The water is clearing up in the pond.

It will never be pretty blue, but at least

there isn't a bunch of foam on the top.

However there ARE a gazillion mosquito larvae 

swimming in there!

I bought him a pack of Dunks yesterday

to take with him today and put in there.

Gotta nip THAT in the bud!

He has cut up the vast majority of the trees

he took down, in preparation for hauling

them off to the dump.

The root balls are so big they fill up

the dump truck too quickly,

so he also dug a giant hole and

filled it with stumps.

He needs to do that again a couple

of times - he has some giant oak

stumps that he wouldn't ever even

be able to lift, assuming they would

fit in the dump truck.

(Which they wouldn't.)

It's looking better and better every day!

Just For Fun

This week’s class was SMALL.

Saturday I had 4 students.

(I have a minimum requirement of 5

But my boss let me run anyway cuz

he’s a good man)

Sunday the men didn’t show up

so I only had TWO!

Which means my boss had no choice

but to pull the plug for next weekend.

This meme describes it perfectly.

The three of us ladies had a GREAT time

on Sunday and we even talked

about insurance!

(Although we also learned lots about

different cooking methods,

some health tips, horses, cows,

and backyard eggs... etc)

I Can't Help Myself...

I sometimes NEED to get a new gadget.

And this week was no exception.

Laundry Balls

Have you seen these things?

They are all over Facebook.

I read a gazillion reviews and most were

very positive, so I pulled the trigger yesterday.

They arrived today - and I needed to do a load

of wash today, so test away!

Rod's blue jeans he wore in the garden the

other night and got dirt ground into his knees

came out CLEAN!

And I didn't have to use any detergent!

So far... so good!

(His uniform is all black and he works inside

in the air conditioning, so the only "dirt" he gets

on himself is little bits of aviation adhesive

and NOTHING on planet earth gets that off

so it's hard to tell if it is clean, but it smelled fresh...)

Anyhow.

I think I'm happy!

NEXT

(Yes, there IS another one...)

Faucet

This fits on my kitchen faucet.

I'm not wild about the swivel feature.

My faucet is kind of low - I think if I had

a taller faucet it would be better, but its

not terrible...

But let me tell you.

We have a well.

And our water pressure is abysmal.

I can tell if I left the water running in the 

horse's water trough because there is NO

water in the kitchen.

And if somebody is in the shower it is

a coin toss which of us gets any water...

Even when I'm the only one using the water

it takes an eternity to fill the sink for dishes.

Or even to fill a pot to boil for whatever I'm cooking.

And then I installed (ok, Rod had to fix it

because I forgot the gasket...)

and let me tell you!

I actually had to turn the water DOWN

because the pressure was so high I was

blowing it out of the sink!

I filled my entire instant pot inner pot

in less than half the time it usually takes!

So...

Another WIN!

(And no, I didn't do ANY shopping today...)

Next...

I'm all done being a truck driver.

Kyle dug the pond!

And we discovered we have too much dirt.

So I quit loading it up and dumping it around

the property because we ran out of places.

There are plenty of places that need dirt

on these 9+ acres, but if we keep dumping

and then running tractors etc, we are

reducing the amount of grass her cows

have for grazing on.

So... its one pasture at a time.

We finished Pasture #4.

And he left giant piles around the new pond.

He will move them over the next few months.

But anyway... I'm done.

It was FUN!

Yesterday I got my sutures removed.

No pictures.

You're welcome.

I've been putting Bountiful Balm on it

when I think about it (and when it's

not wrapped in vet wrap to keep from

snagging the "loops" on things)

(And from Kyle losing his lunch when he

SEES the "loops"...)

When I got to the doctor's they were VERY

complimentary on how well my incision has

healed - I reminded them I don't use Vaseline

and told them a little about the salve I'm using.

Dr. Porter said - whatever you're doing, keep it up.

This looks beautiful!

(He's wrong, it looks gross, but it's healing well... lol)

Our next ongoing project is the garden.

Last night Rod planted all the little starts Kyle had

purchased that have been languishing on the patio

waiting for SOMEBODY to find the time to plant them.

And then today I finished putting some

cypress mulch around the plants he didn't

get done last night. (The mosquitoes were AWFUL!)

Bell peppers (yellow and red) and 6 tiny little

broccoli plants that a rabbit got to and

nibbled all the leaves off.

You can't see them, but they are there...

Some sage and ... something that starts with a c...

and 2 yellow crookneck squashes.

Three little bitty tomatoes.

Rosemary.

Lavender.

(And a bucket with mint in it...)

We're going to need a bunch more mulch

but we can get as much as we want for free

from the dump - Rod just wanted to put "clean"

mulch directly around the plants.

(You can see the free mulch in the first picture...

Rod got a whole truck load last week and put it

in the first "alley"... it's great mulch!)

And look! We even have three little tomatoes!

Bring on the salad!