Broccoli!

 WHY is Broccoli so DELICIOUS

but so HARD TO GROW

(and hard to SPELL!!!)

It takes FOREVER for this stuff to be

ready to harvest!

Seriously!

Like 3+ months!

We planted these a good three months ago.

We FINALLY have baby brocolli's

but it will still be a couple weeks before they

are anywhere near ready to harvest.

So unless you have a HUGE garden just for

broccoli, what's the point?????

We have 8 or 10 plants.

Which means we might have enough fresh 

to eat for a week, maybe two.

But it took EONS for it to grow!

It's YUMMY when its fresh.

But my goodness!!!!!!!

Kyle and I have decided it's banished.

(Unless we end up with an empty bed.)

Also, they don't need nearly the amount of 

space it said on the packet, so if we DO

plant then again, they are going WAY 

closer together!

Sheesh.

Also, this picture was a couple of days ago.

The peas are growing... slowly... but check out the BEANS!

Top right-ish next to the lack luster tomatoes (which

have since been YANKED from the garden...).

Those green beans are COVERED in flowers and beans!

I'm excited for FRESH GREEN BEANS maybe by Monday?

The seed catalog said these are heavy producers and it

seems they didn't lie!

Yippeeeeeeee!

I didn't take a picture,

but the peas on the trellis are doing really well.

They never get as tall as advertised, but they are

popping out peas now.

Which is good because I'm afraid after this next

cold front (Tues) that might be it for our "winter"

and then its going to be too hot.

OH!

And we pulled two CARROTS! and ate them for

"breakfast" yesterday standing in the garden!

They were so sweet and yummy!

They were only as big as your biggest finger,

but better than the silly little hair-sized things we

were getting!

Winter gardening.

It's a THING!!!!!

Muffins! And other stuff...

 Mom asked for the recipe for the breakfast muffins...

Here it is!

2 C old fashioned rolled oats (ground up in the blender to a fine flour)

1/2 C whole old fashioned rolled oats

1/2 C sugar (I use 1/3 C stevia blend...)

1 heaped T cinnamon

1/4 tsp pink salt

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/3 C liquid egg whites (or just use an egg...)

1 C unsweetened apple sauce

1/2 C unsweetened almond milk 

1 apple (diced)

1/3 C raisins

2 T finely diced pecans or walnuts (optional but yummy)

Glaze (which I never bother with)

1 T unsweetened almond milk

1/3 C sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

1.  Preheat oven to 350 & lightly spray 12 muffin holes.

2.  Mix dry ingredients together in a medium bowl and then add wet ingredients, followed by the diced apple, raisins, and nuts. Mix well.

3.  Scoop mixture into muffin holes and bake for 25 minutes. Once cooked remove from muffin tin and put on a plate. While still hot, spoon the glaze over top of the muffins. This glaze keeps them moist and adds a nice extra hit of sweetness.

SUPER simple and delicious!

This is a Trim Healthy Mama recipe from their latest book, so we use a stevia sweetener and almond milk, egg whites, etc... but you can modify it to fit your standard ingredients. Use regular milk instead of almond and sugar instead of stevia blend...

ENJOY!

I need to make another batch tomorrow.

Meanwhile....

Kyle's latest project!

Under construction in the garage...

He bought himself a new laptop and is teaching himself

to do CAD using an online course.

And since he has a laptop now,

he decided he needed a desk!

So he built one.

It matches nicely the tv stand he built for up at the ranch.

Such a talented guy!

YUM!

 I haven't talked about food in awhile...

Right?

I've been getting to the office about 9 every morning.

But first I have a bunch of things I need to do

around the farm... and...

Remember... I'm   R E T I R E D! Kind of...

This is the yummy grab-and-go breakfast I've been

enjoying lately!

Except it's not so much grab and GO as grab and sit

down with my iPad and do my daily Come Follow Me

scripture study...

Two "Aunty Pearl's Breakfast Muffins" made with

oatmeal, chunks of apple and raisins! 

DELISH! And totally satisfying! In fact this 

morning I could only eat ONE!

And a mug of DELICIOUS hot chocolate.

Of course, once I pour it in the cold mug and add

a small splash of heavy cream, it's not "hot" but

the perfect temp for taking my pile of morning pills.

Lunch the other day.

(I've been "brown bagging" to the office...)

I think this was Sunday.

Sprouted brown toast with 2 slices of deli turkey,

a slice of cheese and FRESH LETTUCE from the garden!

And a pickle.

Cuz... PICKLES and SANDWICHES ROCK!

Made myself a little posey to go with...

Kyle cleaned out his flower bed this afternoon.

The little orange/yellow flowers were 

TAKING OVER!

He pulled most of them out so he could 

plant more of his beloved zinnias.

So I'm glad I grabbed these when I did!

Hi Point Trailer

 Many many years ago the shop had an

enclosed trailer they took to the races.

When the shop closed, Kyle put tires on it

(they were flat) and brought it to the house

along with a bunch of other stuff Tim said

he wanted to keep.

Fast forward Many Many years.

The trailer is STILL in our back pasture.

And Tim said "Oh yeah, no, thanks anyway..."

This morning Kyle loaded it up on his trailer.

Pretty good sticker job under all that mildew, eh?

It was a good trailer for many many years.

But it got old. 

The floor rotted out.

The back door blew off in a hurricane.

The sun awning rotted away...

The tires did too.

He pulled the few salvageable things out of it.

And headed up to the steel recycle place.

And they said NOPE!

Said he could "try" the dump, but they probably 

wouldn't take it either.

So...

Ever the enterprising young man...

He brought it home.

Took the fiberglass body off.

And is in the process of doing ... something

with the metal frame before he takes it BACK

to the steel recycle place.

And all the fiberglass and nasty wood floor to the dump.

That represents a LOT of hard work right there.

We are lucky to have him!!!!!

SNORING

 Class is over.

I opened the Zoom Room door.

And Beau came roaring in.

Hopped up on "his" bed.

And now he is happy.

Snoring his little head off.

He's going to be sad when I wake him up AGAIN

and make him head out to his crate for the night.

But it's time for ME to go to bed!

I've been working at the town full time this week

while Denine is selling her old house and closing 

on her new house and getting all moved in.

She called tonight while I was teaching.

She is HOMELESS!

Sold her house today and doesn't close on the

new one until tomorrow.

So she, her husband and two dogs are living in

their camper for the night.

An exciting time!

(Sam just went through all that, right? SO COOL!!!)

Anyhow.

I'm subbing tomorrow morning from 9-1 and then

I'll run some errands with Kyle and after that

I need to pop into Town Hall for an hour or so

just to make sure the Building Official has all his

inspection reports ready.

And then it's the WEEKEND!!!

Rod has been home today and again tomorrow.

He's doing his annual certification class for his

Inspector's license.

Its nice to have him here in the morning.

Although I had to leave about 8:45 to head to work.

Have a WONDERFUL evening!

(what's left of it... or Day if it's tomorrow already!)

Numbers

 I was doing a little "house cleaning" on my 

Surface Pro this evening.

There is a file that Zoom created that automatically

saves the "chat" and any drawings I create on the

White Board portion of Zoom.

I decided it was silly to keep those.

So I deleted them.

It came up with an error message and said

it was too big to recycle, did I want to delete

them permanently?

Well, yes. That was sort of the point anyway.

It said, ok, I will delete these 

SIX HUNDRED AND SEVENTY NINE FILES!

WHAT?????

I have taught 679 Zooms since March?????

(That does include a bunch of zooms we had between

we instructors while learning, and also creating content...)

That is RIDICULOUS!

Guess I have actually been busy!

Anyhow.

I thought that was a crazy number and worth

memorializing on my blog.

Nothing else happened today that I want to remember.

Although I DID have a good day at work today.

And the Town Clerk bought everybody lunch.

I had half a yummy veggie stromboli - I'll have the

other half tomorrow for lunch.

So there was THAT...

Happy Wednesday!

Working All Week (Again)

 This week my co-worker, Denine, is moving.

So I'm working all week to cover her.

Like from 8:30 to 5.

(I can hear Rozann snickering from here....)

But SERIOUSLY!

This morning I had to go in to the lab

for blood work before my Dr appt next week.

So I needed to be there at 7 am in order to get to work.

I had a nice visit with the nurse.

She lives in our little town and her husband

is one of our contractors - I did a building permit

for him last week!

And they have a bobcat eating her chickens.

So we chatted about farm life while she

sucked the life blood out of my arm.

(grin)

And then it was off to the office.

And then home to teach.

But SUNDAY... after an excellent Stake Conference

Rod's cousin Sandy and her husband Marty came

from their place in Mesa. They were in Florida for

the week for a family wedding and then did the rounds.

Out to dinner with Tim and Angie Friday night,

Scott and Janis Saturday night,

and to our house to see the farm on Sunday afternoon.

We grilled 'em up some of our home grown beef.

Bacon Cheese Burgers.

It was DELICIOUS!

(With baked beans, potato chips and green salad.)

With a nasturtium blossom if you want one!

(They are TASTY!) 

And almost smell too good to eat!

We had a lovely visit!

And then they dashed over to the VW dealership

just before closing to say Hi to Jim.

And then to their hotel to get their rental Jeep 

cleaned up and ready to return in the morning.

Yesterday was MLK so the Town Hall was closed, but Rod's shop was open.

Kyle and I drove over and got his hair cut.

Wish he would let me take a picture... but he HATES that.

So, use your imagination.

It looks good.

(grin)

And then we did a nice little harvest.

Peas!

Green peppers!

Banana peppers!

But now I'm TIRED.

I'm going to run take a shower and hit the hay.

Got another full day tomorrow.

And Thursday.

And then Friday morning I Zoom from 9-1 and then

swing by the office to close out the week

And the WEEKEND OFF!

Yippeeeeee!

Have a terrific evening / day...

(Our Town Fire Dept Chief always says 

"Have the kind of day you wanna have")

Popping In

 Just finished my Thursday evening 

Orientation Zoom.

Wow.

This has been a WEEK!

It's nearly over...

not that I'm rushing it.

I've been enjoying being busy.

But I've BEEN BUSY!

That's for sure!

Luckily, Kyle decided to experiment

with Hello Fresh this week and last.

He got a nice big box of food and recipes

on Monday and has been making yummy (smelling)

dinners every night.

(While I'm locked in my Zoom Room... smelling them!)

He bought the "2 serving" program so he can have

one for dinner and the other for lunch the next day.

He's learning to cook some good stuff!

And I don't have to worry about feeding him.

Of course, Rod already has his lunches and

dinners in the freezer, so its just me.

And since I've been teaching every night I've

been keeping it simple.

Eggs and toast?

Eggs and hashbrowns?

Tonight I had the other half of a Subway sub

I ordered at lunch today at work...

Anyhow.

We got treated to a GORGEOUS sunset this evening!

(Luckily on Tues and Thurs I don't start until 6:30

so I get to SEE the sunset!)

As always it's not HALF as beautiful as it was in person.

The reds were the deepest, darkest reds I think

I have ever seen!

It's like the world is in turmoil right now,

so Heavenly Father is treating us to some

spectacular beauty to help calm the storm.

It was LOVELY!

On another note, the garden is doing well still.

We have been eating fresh peas.

(Mostly IN the garden...)

Tonight I came home from work about 4:30,

dashed out to let the chickens out and as I

passed the garden there were 4 RIPE peas 

kind of poking out of the fence, just ASKING

to be harvested.

So I obliged them and stuck them in my pocket.

Then I had to run to WalMart to get some dog food

since we were OUT.

I also bought a hand of bananas for our lunches

but in my haste - left them in my cart.

DARN IT!

On the drive home I remembered my pocket stash!

It was a nice little treat!

Somebody ELSE has been enjoying our garden.

That MONSTER is called a horn worm.

He has a little horn on his tail end.

They glow in the dark, so we usually go out 

after dark with our little black light flashlights

and check for hornworms.

(They can eat an entire tomato plant over night...)

But it's been cold at night lately, so we thought

the danger was over.

WRONG!

Kyle found this one in the morning so that night

we were armed with our lights (and hats and scarves)

and found TWO MORE giant ones.

Sheesh.

I guess we have to keep checking.

Anyhow.

Just wanted to pop in for a jiff.

I still need to send emails etc tonight...

so... 

that's all the news that's fit to print!

NITE!

Whew!

 I make NO promises this week!

Yesterday was a busy day with running errands

all over town... Aldi for freeze dried strawberries,

Sam's for Kyle's chocolate milk, Rod's 5-hr energies,

and 4 giant bottle of lemon juice (he drinks his own

lemonade and goes through LOTS - it's SUPER healthy!)

Tractor Supply for feed...

And then home to put the groceries away,

toss a piece of Tilapia into the air fryer for a

quick tilapia and quinoa salad with raspberry vineagrette.

It was DELICIOUS!

And quick.

Cuz I needed to log into the ZoomRoom!

Logged in at 5:30 and started teaching at 6.

I had TWENTY-EIGHT students!!!

That was a LOT!

But it went well and we were all done at 10:10.

Then it was "sit on the couch and read a book 

to wind down" time for a bit, until honestly I

fell asleep. LOL. (And forgot to go outside

and close the chicken coops... oops!)

This morning I woke up and looked at the clock.

It was only 6:46. A bit early. I closed my eyes and then

looked again. It was 7:55! What????

So I got up, got my oatmeal cooking on the stove

and headed outside to feed the animals.

Came back in and sat on the couch to eat my

breakfast and do my morning CFM reading.

And looked at the clock - it was 9:45!!!!

WHAT????

I was still in my jammies!

(And I'm supposed to be at work at 10! HA!)

I NEVER get there on time.

I'm generally pulling through our gate at 10.

Luckily Town Hall is only 3 minutes away.

So, yeah, I was late. Again.

But that's ok. I kind of do whatever I want.

Anyhow...

I got started on a project (they have me do all

the "annual reports" they keep forgetting to do...

I guess it's my niche!) when we all remembered

we were supposed to have a Staff Meeting.

That's kind of a laugh - since "staff" is only 5 people.

(And one is out sick this week...)

But hey.

We work in opposite ends of the building,

so it's nice to get together every other week

(the morning after Town Council) and talk about

what happened in the meeting and what that means

to us and our work load.

And then it was lunch.

(a can of Progresso Chicken Noodle soup and 

a mandarin orange... yum)

And then the Building Department went NUTS!

The phone rang, people kept coming in,

lots of people standing in our tiny little office,

talking, laughing, asking questions,

meanwhile I was on the phone getting payments

for building permits and trying not to freeze

to death. (It cooled WAY down this afternoon

and our building is OLD...)

I'm supposed to get off at 3.

HA!

I generally stay until 3:10 to make up for being late.

But today I didn't get out of there until 5!

And only then because I HAD to leave!

Ran home to feed the animals and back into the Zoom Room.

Started my zoom at 6:30 and then heated up a couple

of left-over blueberry waffles for dinner while

I waited for my students to start arriving.

I had 8 students this evening for Orientation. 

That's about normal these days...

Finished up at 9:10 and then had to update

the attendance roster for both tonight and last night

and also send emails to all of them.

Finished at 10:15.

And figured I'd better check in on my blog.

Tomorrow morning Kyle and I are driving up to

Samsula to get the BIG batch of feed.

(1300 pounds of cow / horse)

And then I have to be on the Zoom at 5:30 again

for another 4 hour review.

And then its back to the Town on Thursday

and a 2.5 hour Orientation on Zoom in the evening,

then back to the Town on Friday (the Building Dept

Manager is selling her house and buying a new one

next week, so she's taking the week off and I'm 

covering, so I need to go in and make sure I'm up

to speed on everything...)

then back on Zoom for a 4.5 hour review starting at 5:30.

And then Saturday is my final (for the week) zoom

again at 5:30 for another 4.5 hours.

It's Stake Conference this weekend, so I "could" drive

down to Vero Beach for the "adult" session - stake

leaders are invited, but Rod and Kyle probably have

jobs lined up and Rod isn't in the stake leadership 

anymore and I don't really want to go alone...

so I'll probably just watch online.

Whew!

It's only Tuesday and I'm already beat!

And if you read all that... you might be too!

Sorry... No pictures today.

BORING!!!!!

But, as I mentioned at the beginning of this novel,

I make NO promises as to whether you will see me

again at all this week...

So, read slow.

HA!

Business Cards

 It was a busy weekend for Kyle!

Rod put his service on Facebook's Marketplace

and immediately got a couple of hits!

They drove over to the first one to give a quote

and the man said if he could do the work that

afternoon, he would pay him a bonus!

So they loaded up the machine and headed back

over again!

Here's his 9 minute video from the job he did.

The first 2+ minutes are at real time speed

and then he did the rest using time-lapse.

Came home and we did some editing to put all the little

clips together, stuck some music on it

and published it to YouTube.

We are getting so professional!

(Not)

He also ordered business cards, and they

arrived on Friday.

We liked them, so just went online and ordered

them in a 4x6 postcard format so we can

use them as Thank You cards to clients.

Pretty cool, eh?

He and Rod went on another run this afternoon

to quote a second job a bit north of us.

Hoping we get that one too.

Oh, and a guy sat and watched him work on 

Saturday and then asked for a quote!

This is kind of fun!

Thursday Musings

 It's chilly outside.

I just came in from watching the SpaceX 

Falcon 9 rocket launch.

Unfortunately it was cloudy,

so we only saw little peaks as it slipped

through the clouds on the way to

set some Turkish satellites in orbit.

I taught a Zoom class tonight and told 

my students that when the rocket was going

off at 8:28 we were going to take a short

break and watch it!

(We should have - it was clear out then!)

However, it wasn't clear at the Cape,

so they held it for 45 minutes or so.

But it's up.

So that's good.

Guess what else is up?

The broccoli and kohlrabi!

(And a bed of new peas coming up behind...)

Isn't he cute?????

They take SOOOOOOO long.

Also 

PEAS!!!!!

I've taken to nabbing one or two on my

walk between the barn and the duck yard.

They are growing on that fence and it's 

super easy to sneak my hand through... lol.

PERFECT breakfast!

The sunflowers continue to brighten 

everyone's day!

(Notice another bed FULL of baby peas to the right!)

Kyle planted another 900+ peas the other day!

Also the volunteer marigolds on the ground...

Not too shabby for January, eh?

Notice the RED tomatoes to the left!

Not nearly as many as we hoped for...

but at least they are there!

(If you look REALLY closely at the top left

part of the picture you can see Kyle on the 

ladder - pressure washing the side of the house.)

We are still in the learning stages of this

whole gardening thing.

Hoping for a better harvest on the 

next go-round.

This is the "winter" garden.

Then there will be a "spring" garden...

and then summer.

(Okra and black eyed peas...)

So... fingers crossed that it just gets

better and better!

(I ate a lettuce leaf tonight - it was yummy!)

And I had a nice visit with Soni on the phone

this morning - she was freezing.

It's fun to compare.

We were both freezing - but she was ACTUALLY freezing.

I was just a pansy.

Time to call it a night.

Happy Thursday y'all!

Hello Fresh

 Kyle gets tired of chicken and rice and broccoli.

(He teases me that's all I ever cook...)

(He's wrong. Sometimes I do green beans.)

I got a coupon for 9 free meals over 5 weekly boxes

from Hello Fresh with something else I ordered...

so he decided to give it a try.

His first box arrived yesterday.

Notice the pretty bowl with oranges in it!

It came with lots and lots of food.

(He bought the "feeds 2" box...)

He decided to try an Apricot Chicken dish.

He spent about 35 - 40 minutes cooking.

And ended up with a beautiful plate!

He said the rice with almonds was a little bland.

The carrots were nice and spicy

and he LOVED the apricot chicken.

Enough that we are going to try to 

replicate the apricot sauce.

He ate a plate for dinner and saved

the rest for lunch today.

Said it was still yummy as a leftover.

Meanwhile.

I made myself an egg salad sandwich with

half an apple and some cheddar cheese

and a piece of fudge for desert.

It was yummy!

I made double and took the other one

for lunch at work today.

Tonight he is having? Not sure...

but I'll have him take a picture when he decides.

I'm supposed to be Zooming at 6:30

so I'll make something before then.

Breakfast this morning was half a banana 

and a big mug of DELICIOUS hot chocolate

made with some Cacao powder, vanilla paste,

heavy cream and almond milk.

YUM!

I'll probably make Rod and I each a mug 

when I come out of the Zoom Room tonight

before we head off to bed.

There's a "cool" front here this week.

Perfect Hot Chocolate weather!

New Year, New Stuff

 It's the first Monday of the New Year!

I'm happy to report I'm sticking with

my "goals" (new habits?) so far...

This year my "word" is Accountability.

To that end, I got a new little book,

just like the little book I bought when I was

in Boulder with Nancy.

Except this one has a black cover.

I found it really helpful to leave on the

end table next to my chair so I could write

my To Do list for each day and check

things off as I completed them.

I didn't do it EVERY day...

but it seemed to work better than any other

system I've used since I retired.

(I used a small calendar that I kept in my

desk at work and that worked really well...

but now I don't have the same "routine" I did

when I was sitting at my desk for 8 hours every day...)

Anyhow.

So far I've exercised and done my CFM study

every day (except I take Sunday off of exercising).

Also, starting this morning, I am back to sitting

in my Zoom Room for a couple of hours,

reaching out to past / future students.

This time I'm both texting and emailing them.

I'm "supposed" to be phoning each one...

but in my experience, NOBODY answers the phone

if its a unknown number (me included) so I 

decided this would be more effective.

It takes more brain power than when I did it last.

I have a list of students who are using the

online course - some of them have no 

state exam date.

Some of them have an exam date in the future.

And some of them have an exam date that has passed.

So I have several different messages.

Which means I have to actually THINK about which

email / text to send them.

It's going slowly.

But it's going.

And they are paying me.

(grin)

I have a YouTube playing on my other screen

so I don't get TOO bored.

We are having a slight "cool" front this week.

It was in the 80's over the weekend,

but this week the forecasted high is in the 60's.

That's better for our cool weather crops.

Mostly the peas!

But I'm such a wimp, it's a bit chilly for me!

However, Rozann and Greg sent me some

yummy Bomba merino wool socks that I'm

wearing inside my boots this morning.

So my feet are nice and toasty warm!

As long as my feet are warm, the rest of me

seems to be warmer too!

(I've gotten spoiled now that I'm not sitting in my

FREEZING cold office every day!)

Instead I'm in my home office,

You Tube playing off to the side

and Beau SNORING across the room.

(And Kyle sitting in the gold chair on his phone...)

BACK TO WORK!

Happy Birthday Sondra!

 Today my big sister Sondra is celebrating her 

(none of your business) birthday!

(However, she did the math wrong and was

happy to hear she is younger than she thought...)

You're welcome!

Unbelievably (well, not really if you know me at all...)

I traveled to Utah, her home state, TWICE this year.

And I took a total of ZERO pictures of her!

(I blame social distancing...)

Sigh.

She looks REALLY good though!

I love her silver hair!

So we have to go with this one!

Which is one I love anyway...

She calls me nearly EVERY Thursday morning.

I so look forward to her calls!

Sometimes we chat about our lives.

And sometimes we talk about our boy's lives.

And sometimes we talk about food.

And sometimes we talk about memories.

And we ALWAYS talk about the weather.

(It's fun to compare opposite sides of the country!)

I love to get her insight into things.

Big and small.

This year we exchanged VANILLA for Christmas!

Fluke!

She sent me some lovely vanilla beans!

And I send her some vanilla paste.

I guess we were on the same wavelength.

Or we both love vanilla.

Maybe 2021 will see us traveling again

in a more normal manner 

(ie: WITHOUT masks and social distancing)

and we will actually remember to take a couple

of pictures!

Taking pictures of each other.... lol.

(We are easily amused...)

A beautiful photo bomb!

And hey! I forgot I was going to look

into this product!

Anyhow.

Happy Birthday Soni!

I LOVE YOU!