Beach ReNourishment

 Hurricanes do a number on our beach.

There is lots of erosion.

Every 3-5 years the County uses a bunch

of their tourist dollars and re-nourishes the beach.

They have been working on it for a bit now

and finally made it north to OUR beach.

That's one of the ships involved.

And a fisherman.

Our beach was unusually crowded yesterday!

The side-by-side you can see in the center of the picture

was a survey crew.

One guy on the beach YELLING to another guy in a 

wet suit with a 12' pole, walking out into the surf so

they could take readings.

He got VERY DEEP.

Like over his head.

Good thing he had a big stick!

LOL.

Lots of people fishing. (or getting ready to start)

There was even a Coast Guard cutter chasing a little boat who

was heading straight for the feed line from the dredge to the beach.

The company ship was blowing his horn,

the Coast Guard was chasing.

There were even TWO Black Hawk helicopters who happened

to be in the area (but I only got one because it's really really

hard to see what you are taking a picture of when it's super

sunny and you aren't wearing glasses... lol)

Such excitement!

Kyle and I decided to leave our chairs and walk south on

the beach (we always walk north because there are WAY

less people that direction, generally...)

and check out the action.

Lots of equipment.

These two guys are pushing the dredged sand out into the surf

to widen the beach.

They just keep going!

All that water, salt and sand!

Can't be good for those machines.

The birds were obviously enthralled.

Eventually we had to walk back to our chairs and his car.

Needed to drop something off for Rod at the airport.

And I needed to get home to teach my evening Zoom.

While leaving the airport, look what dropped in!

An "Osprey"?????

Super cool plane!

Living on the Space Coast is so much fun!

Tired Tuesday... LOL

 Alliteration.

It's a thing.

After teaching until 10 last night, I needed

to wind down a little, 

also I remembered we were out of whites to wear.

I put them in the wash before class

and put them in the dryer after.

Then I just had to wait for it to finish.

While I waited, I watched my latest favorite

YouTuber... FrugalFitMom.

She's an LDS lady (although she never says,

they sometimes wear BYU Idaho t-shirts, 

I'm pretty sure her husband teaches there...

and one Saturday the family went to clean the church.)

Anyhow.

She talks a lot about cooking for a large family

for very little money.

Like none.

She buys lots of stuff on clearance and then 

puts it in her freezer, so every now and again

she will do an entire week of 100% pantry cooking.

NO groceries at all.

She makes lots of things out of ingredients

you might not expect to put together and they

turn out really well.

I think the videos will be really helpful for

some of my Self Reliance people.

They get ingredients from the Bishop's Storehouse,

but they have no idea what to do with them.

If  you've never done anything but open a box

or a carton and stick it in the microwave...

can you really call that cooking?

Anyhow.

(again)

I stayed up for awhile watching her

(she is SUPER prolific - she has like 800 videos!

So you can binge for DAYS and not repeat!)

Then the laundry was done, so I grabbed some

for Rod to wear in the morning and headed to bed.

And realized I forgot to close the chicken coops.

Oh well.

They got to spend the WHOLE day running

around the farm.

Lucky birds.

This morning I went to work at the town and when

I arrived, discovered Denine was out sick.

She usually texts me to let me know... but didn't this time.

Her desk was a MESS.

Her back muscles are spasming (is that a word?) and 

she was in a LOT of pain.

For example, she time stamped a building permit that

came in. She stamped it FEBRUARY 30.

Which doesn't exist...

I spent the day getting everything organized and back

under control. Stayed until about 4:45.

Headed home to feed the animals.

Made a quick fried egg and a left over mini waffle

(I made a bunch for breakfast on Sunday)

and then into the Zoom Room.

After teaching my ONE student (Orientation is

kind of sparse on Tuesdays - I usually have a larger

class on Thursdays...) I typed up a form for Rod,

now I'm doing my blog, and then it's BED.

Oh, and I DID remember to put the birds away tonight.

My dumb ducks didn't want to get in their house.

I chased them around and around and around

until I finally put up a barrier so they couldn't

just make laps and moved their food tray

and they FINALLY went in.

Grrrrrrr.

The garden is coming up!

I'll try to remember to take a picture tomorrow.

I'm not supposed to work at the Town, but might

need to if Denine is still out (or "out"... lol)

Fun Weekend

 We had lots of fun (and work) over the weekend.

The guys went on a couple of possible

job quotes and then they worked on the

new cow scales for a bit.

Rod found this online for under $200!

(Linda's was ... add a zero!)

All they had to do was build a platform for the

cows (and horses, dogs, humans...) to step on.

They set it up in the garage to start.

And then they will move it out into the

mini-facility out back next week when we

are ready to weigh the cows and make a 

decision about butcher dates.

The dogs had a good time getting weighed.

The screen thingie looks simple to use.

(That's not a scratch, its a wrinkle in the shrink wrap)

And then it was the annual Silver Spurs Rodeo!

There was a HUGE crowd!

They advertised there would be limited seating.

HA!

But I think a lot of these people were just looking for

ANYTHING to get them out of the house.

They were the quietest rodeo crowd I've even seen!

At one point, I swear Kyle and I were the only people clapping.

Until barrel racing and bull riding.

And then they came alive a bit more.

But sheesh!

The poor competitors in the Calf Roping and 

Bulldogging - it was like a funeral in there!

And the darn steers in the bulldogging had the game

figured out.

They BLASTED out of the chute, ran like 4 strides,

and STOPPED DEAD.

What a bummer for the cowboys!!!!

The bucking horses were feisty.

It was some good rodeo-ing.

(This is our favorite place to sit... right above the

bulldogging/calf roping pens/chutes...)

And, of course, there was some incredible bull riding.

This was AFTER the rodeo was over and all the people

had gone home.

We always wait because getting out of the parking field

is a nightmare.

Too many people who drank too much beer.

After everybody left, they did a couple of re-rides

and this guy had an amazing ride.

Scored an 87!

And WON THE RODEO!

AFTER EVERYBODY WENT HOME!

Boom.

Stay until the "real" end.

Sunday we did Zoom church.

And then I put on a couple of my favorite CFM

YouTubers for those who wanted to watch

while I cooked some lunch and got dinner going.

Then in the evening I did our Stake Primary 

Annual Training Zoom.

I taught a mini class (like 5 minutes!) on what to do

with the Junior Primary classes.

Basically - make a quick YouTube - tell a story,

show some pictures, whatever and send them an 

email to come watch!

It turned out well - we had 28 people on there.

Pretty good for our little stake!

Long, Busy Days!

 Between teaching in the mornings

and working at the Town

and teaching in the evenings

and doing all the other random stuff....

I've been BUSY!

But we DID manage to catch the latest

rocket launch.

Love me a good launch...

We could see it for a LONG LONG time!

But my camera does a terrible job of catching it.

And its more fun to just watch.

So we did.

Tomorrow's another doozy.

I'm teaching from 8:30 to 1.

And then I have all the back office stuff

that needs to be done.

And then I fire 'er up again and teach the same

class over again from 6-10 that evening.

(One of my instructors needs to attend a funeral

so I'm subbing for her...)

Somewhere in there we need to do a "test"

Zoom run for our Stake Primary Training 

we are doing on Sunday evening.

Then Saturday we are going to the RODEO!

YIPPEEEEE (yee haw?)

I'm looking forward to it!

But for now... I'm looking forward to hitting the hay.

G'Nite Y'all!

STAY WARM!

And Then There Were TWO! (today only)

 Kyle went out on a job this morning.

Helping a local survey company clear

the edges of 4 pieces of property so

they could survey them.

It was SUPER thick.

And their GPS wasn't working.

(He doesn't have GPS in his Cat...)

So they were ... See that tree over there?

Head that way.

And then you head that way and get into

bushes, etc that are higher than your machine

and you can't SEE the tree you are heading for.

And it RAINED hard last night.

So it was muddy.

And then........

He was tipped straight down and sinking.

Water.

Mud.

No bottom!

SCARY!!!!!

He got out, his mulcher head was the only

thing holding the machine up.

But then the arms caught on his door.

So he had to use the emergency latches and

pop the door off so it didn't get ripped off.

And the bolts FELL IN THE MUD HOLE!

So he called me.

He was going to grab Brock's tractor from next

door and have me pull him out of the hole.

(hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha)

I left work and headed home to meet him.

Meanwhile, he had to run to Cat to buy  new

replacement bolts.

FIFTY-THREE DOLLARS!

And while he was there, he decided to just 

rent another skid steer.

Brock's tractor is old.

And not very big.

And not very strong.

And doesn't start without being jumped.

And Brock is out of town right now.

But he could rent a skid steer and be pretty

sure it would pull him out.

And then he remembered it was Tuesday and

Jim doesn't work on Tuesday.

So Jim and his best friend Tom came over to help!

YEA!

I went back to work.

And they went down, Kyle used his chain saw

and cut through the roots that were holding him under...

hooked the new skid steer to his machine and Jim

hopped in Kyle's while Kyle pulled him out

with the rental.

Slick as a whistle.

A $500 whistle.

Taking a picture of it in the hole wasn't a thought he had.

But notice the mud line on the mulch head!

It was in pretty deep!

(Also notice the mud line above the tracks!)

Might be the only time we have TWO of these 

guys on the property.

About $180,000 worth of equipment right there...

Sure glad they were able to get him rescued though!

And he has a good story to tell and even made a little money.

All in a day's work.

Green Beans!

 Oh how picking green beans takes me back!

I'm a young girl.

Crawling between the rows.

Shivering with the anticipation of a 

DADDY LONG LEG 

being on the beans!!!

YUCK!!!!!

This time I'm not crawling, but sitting

on my little padded garden stool.

And there aren't any daddy long legs

in Florida. 

It's MUCH MUCH worse.

lol.

Fortunately, they seem to avoid my bean patch.

(Although there WAS a dead snake out there

this morning --- no picture - you're welcome!)

The plants look a bit raggedy after the frost.

But they say they are heavy producers.

And they didn't lie!

I picked these Saturday afternoon.

(And left a LOT still on the plants...)

Pretty good haul!

(Doesn't that look like Mom's arm to you???)

You know what else is doing well?????

I harvested all the lettuce before the frost assuming that was it.

But it's growing back!

BETTER!

Who knew!!!

(The ants are doing pretty good too - darn them!)

Even the greens Kyle planted before the frost are thriving!

We have a couple different leaf lettuce,

some mustard and some kale...

Not sure what to DO with it... lol... but it's growing!

We have been out there planting shelling beans,

more of these wonderful "Slenderette" green beans,

and some (LOTS) okra.

Most of the seed houses are SOLD OUT.

But yesterday I found some more black eyed #46

and more Slenderettes.

EXPENSIVE.

But at least I got them...

And we will be vigilant about seed saving this year.

Don't want to have to depend on them again.

Fingers crossed!

When You are Brilliant (Not Me)

 It's planting season again.

Kyle and I have been planting 

"Slenderette" green beans in the garden.

This is the nifty tool we use.

We got it last year on Amazon.

You decide how close you want your plants and

then lay the template on the soil, use the little orange

poker thingie (at the top) to poke your holes

and then if you are lucky, you have an assistant

who comes behind and puts seeds in all your holes.

This morning we were planting more beans and Kyle

had a brilliant idea.

So I went to the store for the weekly groceries

and he went to the garage.

Introducing Kyle's brilliant invention!

He copied the template, but then screwed a bolt

into each hole he wanted to use to plant.

Screwed them in to the correct planting depth.

This is what the bottom looks like.

Then he just pressed it into the dirt!

FINISHED PRODUCT in under 3 minutes!!!

It worked perfectly!!!

Now depending on how close / far apart he wants his

plants, he just repositions the bolts into the correct

holes at the correct depth and BOOM!

Oh to be BRILLIANT!

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

Meanwhile, in other news...

the house well pump started making awful noises.

And since the yard well has a cracked sleeve

and it pulls up more sand than water...

Off to the Water Man store Rod headed.

Lots of dollars and aggravation later...

we have a new pump!!!

THANK YOU!

We are so blessed to have a house full of 

Brilliant People!

A quick peak at PART of my haul...

Only One

 I ran my Orientation class tonight,

but had ONLY ONE student.

Unfortunately, she also attended

on Tuesday evening.

We talked a bit about how she was doing

and then I let her get on with her evening.

Bummer.

Did I show you Kyle's salsa (pre-cooked)?

I've been eating it on stuff lately and it's really yummy!

Tonight I cooked a bunch of chicken breast and used

it as a marinade / sauce / thing.

Rod said it was good.

I had breakfast casserole.

Tomorrow we have to go on a feed run.

Tonight after work I stopped and got a roll

of hay for the cows

and then came home and my new hair color

kit arrived in the mail, so I colored my hair.

Same color.

Tuscan Brown.

I really like it.

And it was getting pretty grey on top!

In the morning Kyle and I will hook up the

trailer and head up to Samsula to our feed mill

and get 5 barrels of horse/cow feed and 

probably 100# of chicken feed.

Then maybe when we get home I'll go in and

get my hair cut.

It's getting a bit long and scraggly.

We'll see.

I am teaching the weekend wrap-up class Saturday

evening from 6-10.

And then the following week I'm teaching the 

M,W,F morning classes.

It will be a busy week.

But for now?

Bed!

What is THAT????

 So I was washing Rod's lunch stuff.

I glanced up and .... WHAT?

I thought it was a baby sugar glider!

?????

Or Yoda!

???

Ok. No.

It's just a moth.

But I DID think it looked like a sugar glider!

Just the world's smallest one.

Kyle thought it looked like a grasshopper.

WHAT?

No imagination, that one.

In other news....

We went to the beach this morning and walked 

THREE miles.

The bottoms of my feet can tell you all about it.

Also we got a little burned.

But look what we saw!

On a beach cruise after the Super Bowl over in Tampa.

Hello Good Year Blimp!

Also...

I made a bunch of bone broth in my pressure cooker.

We pulled out a box of beef bones the butcher

gave us for the dogs, but one of them was COVERED

in meat (well several were, but this one was HUGE!)

So into the pot it went.

It's to pour on the dog's food.

No, they aren't spoiled.

It's just the only way they will eat.

Hahahahahaha.

Ok, a little spoiled.

I also hard boiled all the duck eggs (20) that

I collected this week.

Nobody wants them.

So those go for the dogs too.

I forgot about them so they sat on "keep warm"

for WAAAAY too long.

They got a bit over done.

Kind of discolored.

But they are dogs.

They'll be fine.

Or I'll toss the eggs.

Whatever.

They were free and I'll get MORE every day.

UPDATE

 IT WAS DELICIOUS!

💓💓💓💓

Salsa

 Kyle's tomatoes took a hit in the frost last week.

So he looked it up and got a good (fingers crossed)

recipe for a salsa using mostly green tomatoes.

He got started while I was in the Zoom Room

doing my work for the day.

And then he got called away to the neighbor's

to help out with something.

But BOY HOWDY it smells good already

and he hasn't even started cooking it!

Lots of tomatoes, poblano peppers, onions

and probably other stuff... but YUM!

Can't wait til it's DONE!

BEACH!!!!!

 Oh how I MISSED you!!! 

However, not enough to take a picture it seems...

It was a beautiful day.

The sun was shining, there was a nice breeze.

The ocean was FLAT like the Gulf of Mexico.

The water was COLD!

We plopped down in our chairs and while sitting

there my boss called about another minor project.

And then I had a Zoom call with the Stake Primary Presidency.

And then we went for a walk.

I forgot to set my walking program thingie until

we turned around to head back.

It's a free app called

"Map My Walk" 

by Under Armour.

It was .75 miles from the green dot back to our

chairs and then we made a sharp turn and

headed to our car.

Kyle got a kick out of it showing

we walked the whole way in the ocean.

It was too COLD!

Although we did walk through a couple waves.

The elevation count looks like we climbed a mountain.

Or better, a cave...

But really it was just the undulations in the sand.

Cracked me up when it said the total elevation change

was 49 feet.

Maybe 49 INCHES.

We are only at 6' above sea level!

Looks impressive though... LOL.

Sondra said she walked SEVENTY MILES last month!

So I'm taking that as a challenge.

At this rate though... she's going to beat us into the ground.

Gotta start somewhere!

Gratuitous photo from LAST February.

It was flatter today.

And fewer clouds.

But the water was just as cold.

But it is always relaxing.

Just what we needed!

Florida Winter

 It was COLD this morning.

Perhaps you saw Rod's facebook post....

This was his morning message on the fridge.

I LOVE this new little weather station!

At 8:30 it had "warmed up" to a whopping 37.

But since the wind speed was ZERO...

we got some frost.

First time in a couple of years!

Looks cold, doesn't it?

There was frost on the sheets we covered the most tender plants with.

The peas got chilly!

But this afternoon they look fine.

"Cold hardy" is a thing!

However, the tomatoes are DEAD.

Poor things.

Kyle pulled them all out this afternoon.

And the Nasturtium looks super sad.

But apparently winter is over.

For now anyway.

The Super Bowl people are happy.

And so are we!!!

Maybe we'll go to the beach tomorrow?????