Running... running... running...

 Just keep running............

This has been a week!

I knew it was going to be...

but I'm happy its nearly come to an end.

I worked EVERY NIGHT this week.

(Not done yet - teaching for 4.5 hours tonight

and again tomorrow night...

THEN I'm done for the week...)

Additionally I worked at Town Hall,

had a Stake Primary Presidency meeting

50 miles away,

had a Zoom team meeting,

and spent lots of time with Kyle.

This morning I have been paying bills,

setting up accounts to pay said bills,

(AZ property stuff)

advertising Kyle's new business name

so we can register his business with the state

before we can open a business bank account,

before we can get a business phone,

before we can get business cards.

Whew!

I'm tired.

LOL.

Anyhow.

I'm not dead.

And if you saw his Facebook post or Instagram

you know he is doing really well too!

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

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

KYLE QUIT HIS JOB!!!!!

Gina was happy.

Linda wasn't.

But Kyle was, and that's all that matters.

We spent a couple of hours on the beach

"earthing"... (walking around in the sand...)

getting the next steps firmly in mind.

And then he hit the ground running.

Did a job for a friend of Rod's

and then did the BIG job next door.

And more beach.

Hahahahaha.

And now we are off to look at a lot and give

them an estimate.

So........

I'll try to get on here more regularly.

I'm working at the Town on Monday,

I have an all day Zoom training on Tuesday

*and teaching Tues evening

and then working and teaching again Thursday.

Somewhere in all this we need to get the

peas and carrots planted in the garden.

OOOOOOOOhhhhh,

and a "cold front" came through over night.

It's in the mid 70's.

And all my doors and windows are open.

It's LOVELY!

Gotta RUN!

Kyle's zinnia (etc) bed.

Nearly high tide.

Mom

 I can't believe I didn't do a post for
Mom's Birthday!!!!!

(Thanks Rozann!!!)

How many years have I been doing birthday posts?

It's not that I didn't spend the ENTIRE day

thinking about her and excited to get to see

her on the family call...

I just have gotten really lax about my blog lately.

*fun fact... the last three posts were actually

all written at the same time and set to

publish later during the week... so I haven't

actually even been on my blog in a week.

But STILL!

So,.. Here we go... only a week late.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOTHER!

While we have all been stuck at home

for MONTHS and MONTHS (going on centuries)

she has been brightening everybody's days

and weeks with actual SNAIL MAIL.

I have a wonderful collection of her

printed out cards with pictures from our

childhood and a wonderful note inside.

It makes my day when I make the trek out

to my mailbox and there's an envelope

with Mom's distinctive "Palmer Method"

handwriting on them.

And then, suddenly there started to be 

little packages!

With the most wonderful necklace/bracelet

sets! Luckily I'm back at work over at the

Town so I have someplace to wear them!

(And the ooohs and aaaahs are fun!)

That is my Mom in a nutshell.

She has always been about bringing small

bits of joy to other's lives.

Whether its bringing a plate of cookies 

to a neighbor.

Setting up a neighborhood "get together"

in the middle of the cul de sac,

a "tea party" to bring the folks in her community

together for an opportunity to get to know each other...

She is always thinking of others.

Bringing joy, happiness and meaning to others' lives

is what her life mission has been all about.

And knowing Mom, she won't let a little thing

like a "pandemic" slow HER down!

(Nor the "little procedure" she is having tomorrow...)

We are all praying for and with you Mom!

WE LOVE YOU!

Herbs - how do YOU use 'em?

 Kyle planted some lovely

lemon and cinnamon basil in his

herb bed.

They smell amazing!

But neither of us know what to do with them.

I downloaded a book called

365 ways to use basil

(or something)

but they all call for either sweet or thai basil.

Neither of which we have.

So Kyle just rubs his hands through it.

Until this weekend.

I got in his car to go to the beach with him.

Hahahahahahahaha!

But it smelled WONDERFUL!

Kyle's Knives

 You remember Kyle got new Knives for his mulcher.

He loaded up and met Rod at work on Friday

evening and they worked HARD to get the

old hammers off and the new knives on.

There they are! 

All on and balanced.

Those puppies should be able to really RIP through stuff!

Saturday he spun it up.

It was quiet, no wobble, smooooooth.

He was really happy.

So he and Rod walked next door to talk to the neighbors

about doing the rest of their back woods.

It you look REALLY carefully (I took the picture

through the kitchen window/screen)

the three dogs are sitting by the gate 

waiting for their guys to come home.

Hahaha.

(Beau is inside with me... he doesn't let me

out of his sight too often...)

Surprise!

 I went out to feed the animals this morning.

And guess what I found!!

New baby eggs!!!

I didn't expect the new girls to start laying until

late November or early December!

So I don't even have a nest box for them.

Guess I'd better build one!

At least one of the Americana's is laying as well because

there is a tiny blue/green egg Waaaaaay back in the far

corner of the duck enclosure (where the chickens are until

I let them out every morning...)

And another one Waaaaaaay in the front corner.

Not exactly sure how I'm going to get either of them...

Bring out a pool cue and roll them towards

the door? Maybe?

Hahahahahaha

Anyhow!

It's exciting news!

Especially since the majority of my layers are 

in the middle of their fall molt and I'm getting

an average of 2 dozen eggs a WEEK out of 8 chickens.

Sheesh.

I should probably also think about a nest box for Ethel.

The weather has cooled off a bit here and she

and Bob are living together...

So we should be seeing baby rabbits one of these days.

Weekly Wrap Up

 We had lots to do today.

Starting with working out.

And then feeding the animals.

And then running over town to pick up

35 new "knives" for Kyle's mulcher.

It came with "hammer" heads, (quite old and

worn out ones...) but they aren't really effective

for the kind of mulching he plans to do.

They recommended a guy who sells 

what he was looking for, so we popped

over and picked them up today.

And then it was back home where I cleaned

the kitchen floor (I had a case of the wobbly

hands this morning and spilled EVERYTHING!

From my chocolate banana smoothie to

the apple cidar vinegar for my drink! Sheesh!)

Anyhow, I needed to sweep and mop anyway...

And then I headed outside to finish the mowing

Kyle had started last night.

About half way through, the guy came to do the

final inspection on my Jetta - my lease is up

on Halloween. I had my oil changed and the

radio replaced earlier... all I had to do was get

all my "stuff" out of it.

While he was inspecting, I went back and finished

mowing the front yard.

We both finished about the same time.

When he came over to the shed where I was

putting the lawn mower away, he said he had

a really hard time with the inspection.

The car was in SUCH good shape, he didn't think

they would believe him.

He had to go over it twice to find a tiny little

scratch on the rear bumper so he could

say there was SOMETHING.

I DID take pretty good care of it.

Anyhow.

Once he left, Kyle and I headed to the BEACH!

But about 3:45 we needed to come home so he

could load up his Cat and new head onto his trailer

and run over to Rod's work so they could use

a tool over there to remove the old hammers

and replace them with the new knives.

Whoever put the hammers on put them on TIGHT!

And Kyle couldn't get them off with any of the

tools / cheats we have here.

While they are doing that, I have been in the

Zoom Room doing my 3 hours of emailing.

And suddenly realized it was NEARLY DARK!

So took a short break and ran outside to feed

all the animals.

There was a SPECTACULAR sunset!

I was glad I was out there to see it!

Camera phones just don't catch the grandeur.

But they try...

Dishwasher Yes or No?

 I've been hand washing my dishes.

It was kind of driving me crazy that I could

wash a sink full of dishes in 20 minutes

or let my dishwasher run for over an hour.

But all of a sudden a week or so ago...

I decided I was done hand washing dishes.

Hahahahahahaha.

And now I'm totally fine with the machine

taking over an hour!

I know, silly eh?

But suddenly it just doesn't bother me!

Meanwhile...

And yes, the dishwasher IS running... 

This is one of my weekly quick chores.

The pill bottles on the left are mine, 

the ones on the right are for Rod.

We mostly take the same things, but when Rod

gets up and eats breakfast (at o-dark:30...)

he needs quick and easy.

So I divvy out our pills each week.

And here they are, all ready for the week!

Wanna see how fast the pole beans tendrils grow?

This is 9:00 in the morning.

This is 7:00 that same evening!

Now if everything ELSE in this garden would

grow this fast!

Not that we are impatient or anything..... Hahaha.

Monday, Monday

 Whew!

Again with the busy!

Kyle was home all weekend.

I had planned to do a bunch of stuff on Friday,

but first I needed to take my car in for a

30,000 mile service.

I didn't make an appointment.

Oops.

It took 4 hours.

So we had a nice long visit with Jim...

but got NOTHING else accomplished.

Saturday I went on a job with Kyle, so

there went the morning and then it rained

HARD all afternoon.

Sunday we had our first "face-to-face" church.

Except with masks and social distancing and

no singing and no visiting.

And I'm not going to do that again.

Until they come to their senses, it's home church for me.

They released Rod, so we went for that.

This morning I worked out,

fed the animals,

made breakfast while talking to Kyle on the phone

for an hour while he TRIED to start a fire on

a pile of green, wet trees he took down last week.

He tried to explain that you can't burn green, wet wood.

But Gina was insistent.

So he wasted several gallons of diesel fuel.

But no avail.

So he moved on to doing something else.

(Probably taking down MORE green trees to 

add to the pile... hahahahaha.)

I headed into the Zoom Room to do my emailing.

Spent 3 hours sending emails and watching various

YouTube channels (mostly gardening with a little

Trim Healthy Mama thrown in...)

And now I'm going to put in a load on laundry

and run to the store to get dog food and

spanish rice.

(There's a combination!)

And then I need to make breakfast food for

Rod for this coming week.

So.....

Exciting, eh?

LOL

The pole beans are FINALLY sending tendrils!

Well, two of them are...

This one will A L M O S T reach the bottom bar.

We'll see how much it grows today.

(The other one grew over an inch in about 8 hours!)

Okra Forest

 I harvested from the "okra forest" this morning.

It's more than I've BEEN getting, but not

as many as I WANT...

I'm on an oatmeal for breakfast kick right now,

so I've been cutting it up and flash freezing it.

My gallon bag is probably 2/3 full...

(I don't freeze it everyday... sometimes I EAT it!)

Kyle's wild child (flower bed) survived the heavy pruning.

It looks really good this evening!

Monday we did a thing.

We put in stakes and strings for the tomatoes.

They are "indeterminate" which means they can keep

growing as tall as you support them...

We are hoping they get MUCH taller (and fuller).

This is how I like to see our farm.

Pretty chickens in the green grass

(and a couple of naughty ones on the fence!)

And the other animals all eating their dinner.

(With a chicken audience to catch the "drips"...)

Bad/Good News

Friday Kyle picked up his new Fecon mulcher head.

You may remember it has the wrong fittings and

won't connect to his skidsteer.

This morning he talked to his "guy" over at Cat

and he said to bring it on over and they would

take care of it.

But then he got a phone call from his 

partner/mentor Travis who said he just got a

Stop Work order on the house he is building

because he doesn't have a culvert under the 

driveway - the house actually doesn't need one...

but the inspector said he needs one... so...

Kyle was already loaded up, so he drove over,

met Travis' wife and put in a temporary

"place holder" culvert - in the POURING rain.

Then he headed over to Cat.

And they said his machine was DIRTY

and he either needed to take it home and wash it,

or they would do it for him, but charge for it...

so back to the house...

Took him an hour to unload it, wash it, and

reload it on his trailer.

They said he had to leave it there since there

were 4 other guys in line ahead of him.

He got home, and was HUNGRY!

However, I was out and about (WalMart and Lowes)

and I already stopped at Sonic for a breakfast burrito.

So he jumped in his car and went to Chick Fil A.

Got home, sat in his chair, ate his fries, and

Cat called and said his machine was ready.

Hahahahaha.

(He NEVER gets to eat his Chick Fil A sandwich,

he ALWAYS gets called to do work...)

Anyhow.

So the bad news was he had to take today off

in order to deal with this little glitch.

But when he went to pick it up, Jerry (his guy)

said that upon looking at the serial number on the 

mulcher, its not the one he thought it was.

He thought it was a 3 month old machine.

But turns out its closer to a year old.

The warranty runs out in February.

So... they knocked another $1,000 off!

And changed his fittings for free!

So that's the good news.

(He will probably buy a different one in

January... depending on how much he has

used it and how many hours he has on it...)

Anyhow...

Good news prevails!

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

Also in the good news / bad news department.

Our Stake President dropped by to visit with us

Sunday morning before Conference.

After almost 5 years, he extended a release to Rod

from his calling on the High Council.

He was the very last "original" council member,

so we knew it was coming, but still comes with a 

little sadness - end of an era.

He has learned and grown from this opportunity.

But on the other hand, what with working 2 jobs right now,

traveling 50 miles (one way) for bi-weekly HC meetings

was going to be difficult.

They are going back to "live" meetings this week,

so they invited him to attend as his last meeting.

In between conference sessions, Kyle pulled a bunch of the

"wildness" out of his flower bed.

His marigolds and nasturtiums are looking good.

He actually planted 5 nasturtiums in some of 

the other beds... 

And we are getting zinnias!

(And FINALLY a purple rose...)

Kyle is Doing MORE New Stuff!

 Today Kyle added a new piece of equipment

to his ever growing inventory!

He is now the proud owner of his very own

mulcher head!

Which means he can do mulching jobs without needing

to RENT one first!

However, when he and Rod tried to hook it up to his

Cat, the fittings aren't the right ones.

So luckily he doesn't have any jobs lined up

for this weekend...

They are closed on the weekends but he has an

appointment to have his guy look at it

first thing Monday morning.

Exciting!!!!

(And EXPENSIVE!)

Busy Thursday

 This morning I was sitting out on the back patio,
eating my bowl of oatmeal and fresh peach,

waiting for the SpaceX Falcon 9 to lift off.

At 29 seconds to go, they decided the 

weather was too dicey.

(It was clear at my house, but the radar

said it was looking a lot like a thunderstorm

was in the works up there - 30 miles north of me...)

Meanwhile, Soni called!

We had a nice visit while she drove to

her Thursday appointment and I sat on

my patio.

Then it was off to work.

I can't wait for Denine to get better and come

back to work! She got sick about the time

we left for Utah and hasn't been back yet.

So she calls me, I put in my ear bud / microphone

and it's "like" she's there... but she's NOT.

We also got our new Town Manager today.

She is SUPER nice.

I think I'll enjoy working with her.

Anyhow...

I put out a bunch of fires.

started some more (grin),

put those out,

and generally got lots accomplished.

And now I'm relaxing, having a snack,

gearing up for my 6:30 Zoom class.

My new half bed of Jambalaya okra is coming in!

So are the Navy Beans and Black Eyed Peas!

And behind the bush beans are brand new little

cranberry shelling beans as well as light and dark

kidney beans...

(And on the other side of the wire are pole beans...)

The garden is looking alive!

Peppers directly in front, tomatoes to the left,

squash and beans to the right...

A wild flower mess and Waaaay up in the top left

corner are Kyle's roses.

Looking BEAUTIFUL!

My okra forest is giving me some okra daily now!

And with Rod and I working silly hours these days,

we don't see as much of each other as we were,

but it's ALWAYS nice to wake up to a 

Love Note on the fridge!