Happy Birthday Dad!!!

 Today we celebrate the birth of my Dad!

I generally don't divulge ages.

But this one is a milestone.

He's   NINETY  y'all!

Sondra made him an old fashioned (classic?)

Pineapple Upside Down Cake!

It was DELICIOUS!

We had a birthday dinner for him at Kurt and Michelle's

beautiful new house.

He got a set of drums and enjoys playing with Mom

every morning. Gets the blood going!

While we were out there this past week we got

to put on a concert (HA!) with them!

We were GOOD!

(HA!)

But we sure had fun!!!

My Dad has always known how to have fun.

In his quiet, reserved way.

Aunt Karen sent him a stack of birthday presents.

One for him to open each day of his 

birthday week.

Lucky duck!

They were all fun and thoughtful and he had a blast

opening them and sometimes eating them,

or reading them, or wearing them...

Dad has always had a great love for his family.

Especially his wife.

He is an inspiration.

An example of a life continually well lived.

Of a gentle, iron soul.

Humility, thoughtful compassion and joy

are the three traits that instantly come

to mind when I think of my Dad.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Here's to MANY MANY more!

WE LOVE YOU!

GREAT TRIP!!!

 We had a terrific trip to Tucson!!!

There was LOTS of family together time!

(Lots of it around a table... lol)

I kind of felt bad for the other people in the restaurant

with us - we were having a VERY GOOD TIME!

(Mostly they were in the next room though...)

We were missing Reid!

He and Nancy got a REALLY bad cold/virus/thing

(RSV - NOT Covid) from their grands.

She got over it but he was still having a tough time.

Rod got to come this time!!!

It's been a good long while since he

got to fly away for a vacation.

And I was super happy to have him!

(This is at McDonald's at the Orlando Airport...

we got there early enough for breakfast and

a wander around the place before we hopped

on our plane and headed to Phoenix!)

The plan was to fly into Phoenix, pick up the

rental car, then pick up Sondra and drive to

Pine Top to meet the rest of the family.

But (see above) poor Nancy and Reid were

SO sick, we decided that might not be a

great plan - so we hopped in the car

and headed down to Tucson instead.

There was NO food at the airport (unless you

had gone through security) so we drove to

Casa Grande and Sondra recommended an

In-N-Out burger.

YUM!

It was really delicious!

Then on the rest of the way down to Tucson.

We headed straight to Mom and Dad's where

Mom had a delicious dinner of tacos and

homemade peach cobbler all ready and waiting.

By the time dinner rolled around, those 

burgers were a distant memory so the tacos

VERY welcome!

After a good visit (Rozann came by after she got

off of work) we headed to Nancy's. We were all

going to stay in the casita there.

Soni was in the guest room and Rod and I

were in the master.

What a GREAT casita!

Decorated so tastefully and yet still so comfortable.

You didn't feel like you couldn't kick back.

And of course there was a beautiful platter full

of fruits and breads waiting for us.

Nancy came by (all carefully masked up) and

bid us hello and goodnight.

Poor thing - she had SUCH a bad cough!

Then it was off to BED!

On Our Way!

 I just finished my final class for the week...

and now I'm going to go finish packing...

and then it's off to bed.

So we can get an early start tomorrow!

We are HOPPING ON A PLANE!!!

See you guys sometime in the afternoon!

(After we pick up Sondra... our flight gets in 

about 9 in the morning and she gets in

around noon - so we'll grab our rental Jeep

and once she lands we'll head SOUTH!)

Can't wait to see everybody!

Drop and Give Me 3

 I was listening to the Trim Healthy podcast

this morning while cleaning out the stock trailer.

(We took the last cow up to the butcher yesterday...

he made a MESS in there...)

Anyhow.

She was talking about a really interesting concept.

She and her husband got stuck in the Dallas Airport

for THREE days!

(Ugh, please don't let that happen to us.....)

Anyhow.

Everywhere around them were people who were

falling apart. Terrible language, sniping at each other,

yelling at the poor customer service people

who totally didn't deserve it...

Every time she felt herself wanting to get grumpy,

frustrated, snippy, etc...

she told herself...

DROP and GIVE ME THREE!

(things to be GRATEFUL for...)

I thought that was a terrific concept.

A good opportunity to look around and say,

Yup, things aren't going great right now,

but there are still at least THREE things I

can be grateful for in this very minute.

So, I HOPE I don't get a chance to test it out

this week while we do lots of flying...

but there are everyday little frustrations I am

going to give it a try on.

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

Bye Little Red!

We loaded him up Sunday morning for his final ride.

It was time!

Saturday he broke a board on the pasture fence and

let himself out into the "alley" between us and

Brock's pasture next door.

He can't get off the property, but he CAN get into the

new sunn hemp pasture!

Luckily there was lots of fresh green grass to tempt him

and he never made it back into the back back.

Beau was "helping" me round him up and put

him back where he belongs.

Also luckily the three little guys who usually stick

to him like glue stayed on their side of the fence

so I didn't have to round them ALL up.

Sunday morning they gave us some minor trouble

getting into the trailer - little Spot wanted to go

into the alleyway in the facility (which leads to the TRAILER)

and would NOT get out of the way so we could load Red.

Eventually Kyle got it all sorted out, Red loaded up

and we were on our way.

He was all alone in the pen at Braddock's.

There were hogs in the next two pens and a couple

of steers in the furthest away pen.

They moooed at each other for a bit.

We brought him a big ol' pile of hay so I'm

sure he eventually went over to eat it.

Kyle showed him how to get water from the

automatic water spigot thingie...

On the way home we stopped at a GIANT dealership in Daytona

to see about buying Kyle a new truck.

The website said they had a large selection.

When we got there, they didn't actually have ANY!

This one was already sold.

Waiting for the salesman.

No go.

Bummer!

He really needs a new truck.

His has around 400,000 miles give or take a couple.

He really needs something bigger, stronger, newer...

Guess he'll have to wait a little bit longer.

The guys are out doing THREE jobs today.

And I spent the day running errands.

Returns mostly.

Counting down the minutes!!!!!!!!!!

MEAT!!!

 So Much Meat!

(All loaded up in the UHaul we rented for the trip...)

We drove up to our meat processor.

(sounds better than slaughter house...)

They are SUCH nice people.

An old family business.

The lady who ran the business passed away.

The one who took over for her and who we 

worked with for the past couple of years

just retired in June.

The son (66) who has stepped into the

position of chief butcher hired his wife

to take over the back office.

She is REALLY organized.

And really nice.

They had it all nicely boxed and identified.

All we did was unload it into the kitchen,

weigh the boxes (so we knew we were giving

everybody the # we had promised... never

want to under deliver!)

And then wait for folks to come and get it!

(We had already dropped one share off on

the way back home, so if you add the 130 pounds

on that one, that's 1007 pounds of fresh,

backyard, homegrown, grain fed beef.

YUM!

This was mid-delivery.

Our's is in our chest freezer,

and we have 2 more quarters in our spare

freezers in the tack room waiting for

their people to come get them tomorrow.

Sunday we get to start the process all over again.

We are running our final steer up to "freezer camp"

and will go back to pick up the boxes in a couple

of weeks.

And then it's just... watch the little guys grow!

Eat up guys!

Pasture Update

Remember the back back pasture Kyle tilled?

Here you go. 

A little visual reminder.

Here is what it is looking like these days.

(Kyle had to build a road because his equipment

barn is off to the left...)

(That's our OLD red Ford pickup way in the back...)

What's a farmer's field without an old truck???

The sunn hemp is doing GREAT!

Speaking of doing great...

check out all the sweet potatoes!

We just grew them for the pretty green vines 

on the tunnel.

But look at the potatoes popping up!

I guess we need to read up on what

to do with them.

I know when you harvest them you have

to lay them out to dry.

Wonder where/how we are supposed to do that.

It's been raining each afternoon.

I guess we could lay them out in the tack room...

(If we put them in the garage the dogs will

assume they are TOYS!)

Anyhow.

Looking good out there!

New Tools!

 SEVERAL years ago, I "retired".

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Ok, now that we got THAT out of the way...

My wonderful Arizona family gave

me a terrific retirement gift.

And I have USED it.

To death.

Literally.

This week my beloved Surface Pro has been throwing an 

"insufficient power" (or something) error.

"We recommend you close some of your apps."

(Except the only app open was my Zoom.)

These error messages showed up in the middle of my zooms.

(multiple times...)

(And sometimes I would glance over to my iPad

to see my face frozen... cute!)

I have been crossing my fingers, toes, eyes,

that it didn't die in the middle of a zoom.

In the busiest week EVER.

Thursday night I hopped online and found 

a great price on a replacement.

And because I have LOVED my Surface Pro,

I got another one!

Just like it!

Only new.

My keyboard and pen work with it,

so I just needed a new tablet.

I spent the morning (after Zoom church - we

are back to masking, etc... and with the trip 

coming up in the next couple of weeks I decided 

to stay home and watch from here...)

I moved everything from the old tablet over

to the new tablet.

And backed it all up on a flash drive just for fun.

It looks like I'm launching the space shuttle!

Hahahaha.

(With super cute astronauts...)

I'll keep the old tablet.

I'll bring it with me on vacation so I can still blog.

And workout. (hahahaha)

But for the most part it will be retired.

(HA! We all know how THAT works out!)

Anyhow.

I have been SO thankful for my gift.

And was equally gratefully it didn't suffer an

untimely death.

And the new one came in time.

And I could figure out how to move everything.

And now?

LUNCH!

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

COUNTDOWN

10 "SLEEPS" UNTIL THE BIG VACATION!

Friday Fun

 Rod is off every Friday until the end of September.

So today he and Kyle went to do the job 

they quoted on Wed.

A beautiful piece of property!

You might remember Kyle got tangled with some ground wasps.

Unfortunately, today they were still angry.

And ROD got to meet them up close and personal.

So I came, I saw, I took a couple pictures

and I got OUTTA there!

(grin)

I took Rod with me so we could stop and get

some Cortisone cream and some lunch

since he had to work at FIT this evening.

And then, it started to POUR rain.

Which meant that as soon as I started my evening

Zoom class, the power went out and I lost my

internet connection.

Took a couple of minutes, but luckily, although

it continued to rain, we didn't lose power any more.

That was good.

I was JUST telling my students that my lights

were flickering and if I lose power, hang in and

I'd be back in a ...... BLACK.

Luckily they all hung around and we had a good class.

I have ONE MORE class with this group.

Tomorrow night is a "wrap up" where they get to

just ask me about anything they still need help with.

And I also have a list of 100 multiple choice questions

we can go over so I can not only review the information

but also go over successful testing skills.

How to figure out the right answer

even when you don't know what they are talking about.

And then I'm DONE!

*until Monday night

The guys quoted a job this morning before they went

to their big job.

So they are doing that tomorrow.

And yes, it IS Rod's birthday.

He is working during the day

and I am working during the evening.

Sigh.

Such is life when you are an adult.

But I'll be sure to wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

(I bought him a new toothbrush today....)

(hahahahahaha)

(It's tough when you get old and don't need anything...)

Ha!

Let me tell you next week about all the stuff

we HAD to buy this week.

Sheesh.

But with that little cliff hanger... I'm outta here.

Kyle is BUSY and a Garden Tour

 Here is a peak at some of the stuff he did

on Tuesday to keep himself occupied.

Why, yes, that IS a lot of fuel cans.

But it's hurricane season.

And he runs lots of equipment and often

has need of fuel.

(There are two 55 gallon drums full

in the barn as well - he loads them on the

trailer if he is doing an all day job with the Cat.)

(And of course when they go off for hurricane clean-up.)

This looks a GAZILLION times better than it did!

We call this the pump room.

It's kind of like a little garage but without the door.

The pool stuff was in there, until we got rid

of the big pool.

The water heater and softeners are in there.

And a bunch of other stuff.

But now it's all neat and tidy on shelves.

YEA!

Speaking of looking good,

the garden is looking lovely.

My latest batch of okra are blooming daily.

Even if I didn't love okra, I would plant these.

They are so beautiful!

It cracks me up these are sweet potato vines

from some sweet potatoes I bought at the grocery

store and didn't cook soon enough.

The sunn hemp is coming along nice and hopefully

doing the job it was planted for.

(get rid of the nematodes and add nitrogen to the soil...)

It's WAAAY too hot for tomatoes in August.

But this yellow tomato is still doing its best to

provide us with yummy fruit.

No pictures today of the new steers...

but maybe I'll try to snap one in the morning

before class.

Tomorrow is my last day of teaching BOTH

morning and evening sessions.

There you have it. After spending the day at Town Hall and then

teaching a class this evening, I'm DONE for the day.

Heading off to bed.

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

UPDATE:

Kyle's wasp stings are ITCHING like crazy.

So I guess that means they are healing?

We watched carefully for signs of allergic

reaction and/or cellulitis but he looks clear

for both... now he just wishes they weren't

exactly where the hem of his shorts rubs.

SO ITCHY!

The ones on his ankle are still a bit swollen, but getting better.

My Goodness!

 There is SO much going on!

And I don't have pictures of ANY of it....

I'm just busy working.

I'm teaching BOTH the morning AND the evening

Zooms this week.

So 9-1 and then 6-10.

Monday between classes Kyle and I went to

the beach and walked 2 miles.

After my class I spent an hour or so

re-vamping my Orientation presentation because

they changed the website, so I updated my Zoom

and some of it needed tweaking.

Tuesday I worked at the town and then

Kyle and I hopped in the pool for a bit

and then it was back in the Zoom Room

from 7-9 for an Orientation.

And then I stayed in the Zoom Room and added

40 more questions to the practice question 

section of my power point.

Today was back in the Zoom Room again

(I NEED a softer chair!!!)

for the morning and evening classes.

In between I tackled the MESS that is

the other office - I opened the file cabinet.

HORRORS!

There was stuff in there from 2005!

1999!

Stuff from back when I sold insurance.

And the EARLY days of teaching.

And nearly EVERY paper had somebody's

Social Security Number on it!!!

So I now have 4 garbage bags full

of shredded documents.

And I still have another drawer to go!

But I found the paper I was looking for.

It was LITERALLY the 2nd to last paper

in all those piles.

Sheesh.

Tomorrow it's back to the town and then

I've GOT to get to the grocery store.

We've eaten all the "fast and easy" food around

here. I haven't had time to make anything else...

so it's been frozen burritos and banana bread.

NOT super healthy... but at least its food.

Rod is nearly out of food though.

So somewhere in there I've gotta cook.

Meanwhile Kyle has done a couple of jobs,

mowed the yard, dug out the front ditch in

anticipation of hurricane season.

(The Town came by with their big GradeAll

and dug out one side of the driveway to the property line,

but not the other side?!? So Kyle had to do it...)

He cleaned the pump room and built a new

shelf for all the stuff to get stored on.

Looks a TON better!

(I'll try to remember pictures...)

And tonight he and Rod went on a quote and he

stepped in a wasp nest and got STUNG.

Like 8 times!

One (or more) got down inside his boot

and got him GOOD.

And of course, one got him on his ... uh ... posterior.

He's a bit uncomfortable tonight!

And now... I have to send a couple of emails

and then I'm heading off to bed.

So I can do it again tomorrow......

NITE!

Where's the ROAD????

 On our drive home from the ranch

on Sunday with a load of little steers

I looked up at Kyle's new GPS.

It's a commercial trucking GPS.

Not a little rinky dinky car one...

It even has dashcam!

WATCH OUT!

(grin)

I just had to take a picture because

it tickled my (VERY TIRED) funny bone.

Look closely....

In case you were worried.....

(OK, it was funnier then...)

Three's?

 Fun things come in 3's,

right?

So yesterday? Sunday? Saturday?

(It's all a blur)

Rod's key wouldn't come out of

the ignition of his black truck.

We've been having issues for a bit...

but usually a quick squirt of

WD40 does the trick.

But no more.

So he researched and found out how

to fix it himself.

But then decided to take it to 

"our guy" who always takes super

great care of us and our vehicles.

I was supposed to take it in yesterday,

but I had to work from 8:30 until 1 and Kyle

had a job he didn't get home from until

nearly 4:00.

So we took it in this morning.

They said they couldn't work on it until

tomorrow, so I was surprised when I got a

text from Rod that it was done and we could

go pick it up!!!

It's FABULOUS!

The gear shift is tight and accurate.

(used to be pretty sloshy)

The steering wheel seems to be more tight

as well (although it was POURING rain

on the way home so I don't think I really

noticed one way or the other, I was just

trying to keep it in my lane and not

wash anybody else off the road...)

AND

The key came right on out!

Yea for great mechanics!!!!!

(It appears I NEVER take pictures of the black truck...

found this one from January 23, 2019!!!)

And, of course, I was actually taking a picture

of all the dogs.....

LOL

Wow! What a Weekend!

 Saturday Rod and Kyle went and rented the LONG
(75 foot) snake to finally fix (again) the fact that

every time you take a shower, our master bath

toilet "bubbles". And it plugs up ALL. THE. TIME.

Annoying.....

They snaked it before, but our snake isn't long enough.

So it was off to the rental folks for the big guns.

Which didn't work.

So they moved out front to the septic tank

and tried again.

Discovered the tank is FULL.

So called the company and they are booked

until the 11th of the month,

but they CAN send out an emergency truck.

$$$$$$$$$$$

But... you know, you kind of get spoiled

with indoor plumbing.

So $$$$$$$$$$$ it was.

Not a sight I love to see.

(I was inside Rod's office looking out... lol)

Poor Rod had to get up close and personal.

Ugh!

But I'm happy to say we now have toilets that flush

AND you can take a shower without the soap

bubbles rising up around your feet instead

of heading down the drain!

So that's good!

Sunday morning we woke up to find the horses

IN the barn, helping themselves to the two new

bags of (expensive) senior feed we picked up Saturday.

Sigh.

They tore the gate right off the pasture/barn entrance.

So while Kyle and I loaded up the steers and headed

off to "freezer camp" Rod headed to Tractor Supply

and got a new gate.

And put it on.

(No picture - I forgot .. and it looks just like the old one).

(Except not bent.)

(And old.)

So on top of paying for the three cute new 

replacement steers, it was an EXPENSIVE weekend!

Happy out in the shade with "big brother Red".

But things that needed doing got done.

And that's the important part.

 

Thanks Team for getting 'er done!

New Boys!

 Two of the steers went to Braddock's today.

Bye guys!

Thanks for being great steers...

We took "Big" Red and Black Baldy.

And then we went to the ranch (since we were half

of the way there anyhow...)

and picked up the NEW babies.

Welcome to the team!

We have a NEW black baldy,

a red baldy,

and "spot".

He is a nice looking little steer!

Rod took some pictures when we got them home,

but I didn't get them off his phone yet.

I'll take some in the morning once they are settled in.

It was a LONG day.

Kyle and I are tired.

430 miles round trip.

Whew!

We are BOTH glad he isn't doing that weekly

any more!!!