Happy Birthday BLC!

 Sunday was Buffalo Land Clearing's

FIRST BIRTHDAY!

He did his first paying job on the 24th of October

for our neighbors and has gone strong ever since.

There have been up months and UP months and

some down months...

but so far he has met his monthly goal and usually

surpassed it every single month.

His annual goal was to duplicate his previous income.

And he surpassed that by a whopping

FIFTY PERCENT!

So.......

to celebrate (and mostly because it was absolutely

essential...) this morning he took delivery on

a brand new, custom ordered

Ford F450!

Well, he hasn't actually taken delivery.

But it arrived at the dealership this morning.

There is some scheduled service that has to be

done before it is ready for the open road...

but just knowing it's in town is EXCITING!

CONGRATULATIONS KYLE!!!

Here's to many more years of success!

Trip

 I guess I should really finish talking

about our trip TWO WEEKS AGO!

Sheesh.

Let's see.....

When I last left you, I told you we missed

the car rental place by a whopping 15 minutes.

And so we got to do LOTS of walking.

We drove the truck over to the new house

and walked back to the hotel.

Then a bit later we walked BACK to the new house

to make sure they got the keys, etc.

Then walked back to the hotel.

And, of course, some Uber Eats!

And then to SLEEP (and NOT have to get

up at the crack of dawn for more driving!)

Sunday morning dawned crisp and beautiful.

We walked across the street to WalMart and

bought some snacks for our hike and a new

toque and some gloves.

Then Sondra pulled up and we loaded into her

little car and headed up the mountain!

SNOWMAN ROCK!

(without the snow... and men... lol)

It was so much fun building those guys!

The weather was perfect, a little crisp but not

hot and not cold, just right.

And if we stopped under a pine tree,

we got little chunks of icy snow dropped on us!

The hiking buddies!

They had a great time walking and talking and talking and walking...

They were very careful not to leave me in their dust.

And yes, there WAS some snow...

(My walking sticks and my boot...)

We made it to the top, just before you drop down into the

valley where the 2nd lake is.

It was getting late in the afternoon, the clouds were

rolling in, and I wasn't confident I could make it

down into the valley and then back OUT again.

So we called it quits there.

(Same place we quit back in June when it was

totally snowy... the same part of the trail was hard to

walk because this time it was full of slippery wet MUD...)

It was a great hike and a beautiful day!

Took Soni for a half-lap around the bottom lake to show her

the picnic grounds - she wants to bring Greg up there

for their wedding anniversary!

It's really beautiful and peaceful.

Once we made it back to the car,

Sondra drove us back into Logan and took us

out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

YUMMY yeast rolls with cinnamon butter!

(And a pretty darn good steak too... lol.)

Dropped us at the hotel and headed back to Salt Lake.

I wanted us to be off the mountain early enough she could get home

before she was too tired...

So many beautiful fall colors!

Monday was another beautiful day.

We hiked the two miles up to the car rental place

and FINALLY got a car!

And it cost as much for ONE day as it would have

for the whole weekend!

RIDICULOUS.

But we were glad to have one.

Took it and drove to the hotel to check out and then

back up to Tony Grove to walk around

the "bottom" lake.

The wind coming off the lake was pretty chilly!

The trail is so pretty!

We enjoyed it so much....

We did it TWICE!

And then headed back down the mountain

and into Salt Lake to visit with Brian at his shop!

He has quite the set up!

He and Kyle had a good visit, talking business start-up

and advertising and employee relations and and and...

I think they both enjoyed it.

By the time we got out of there (6:30) it had started to rain.

Luckily our hotel was about 2 miles away,

since the windshield wipers on the car were

pretty pathetic!!!

Door Dash this time (in honor of Matt) for a yummy

dinner and then TO BED!

And up EARLY the next morning to drive to the airport.

We weren't sure how long it would take to return the car

so we wanted to get there nice and early.

Our flight was scheduled for 9:40 and we had to return

the car and go through TSA so we got there about 7-ish.

TSA was well organized and only took 30-40 minutes to get 

through and then when we got to our gate to wait for

our flight, we got a text that we didn't have a pilot and our

flight was bumped to 11:30!

Guess we would have had time for breakfast... lol.

But at least we weren't one of the hundreds of SouthWest

flights that were cancelled that weekend leaving people

stranded all over the country.

They found us a pilot, we hopped on the plane and

made it to Denver in time to catch our next flight

(very next gate over) with time to spare - so we grabbed

a couple of Aunt Annie pretzels for the flight!

And then sat on the tarmac for an hour waiting for a

thunderstorm to blow through.

So poor Rod had to sit and wait and wait and wait in the

cellphone parking lot at the Orlando airport until we

FINALLY landed.

BOY were we happy to see him and head HOME!

And THAT... was the saga of the trip.

Not much of a vacation.

But an adventure!

And the LAST time we are going to drive a 

moving van for anybody.

Monday, Monday.....

 My house is quiet!

Kyle is off on a job.

Rod is at HIS job.

And I just finished teaching the morning session.

Beau is in his chair, sleeping, but NOT snoring

for a change.

And I apparently left something in the microwave

because it occasionally beeps.

Hmmmmmmm.

AND (good news) I was doing my paperwork

yesterday for last weeks' DOUBLE DUTY classes

and realized this week I am ONLY teaching

in the morning!

SO HAPPY!!!

It's good $$$,

but last week I worked a total of 50 hours!

I'm pretty sure that doesn't count as 

"being retired".

But it wore me out!

And then on Sunday I had to play the organ in church.

MORE stress!!! (grin)

I tried to nap yesterday afternoon,

but it didn't work.

Slept like the dead last night though!!!

And now?

I was going to go to the beach with Kyle,

but he got a job, so I'm going to make myself

a nice big bowl of salad and sit on the couch

(or maybe on the patio) with my book.

Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh.

Also.

This blog needs a picture.

This is where Kyle and I were two Mondays ago.

Beautiful, eh?

(but a bit chilly!!)

There's snow on those trees up in the left top corner...

What I Learned Today

 I try to learn something new every day.

Getting older makes that easier.

I learn something.

And then maybe later realize I already knew it...

but it was NEW at the time! 

LOL.

Anyhow.

Something I learned today (that I already knew)

is teaching twice a day, every day, is exhausting!

And I'm looking forward to NEXT Saturday

at 10 pm.

I try NOT to wish my life away...

but really!?!

Anyhow.

The other interesting thing I learned today is that

different colors of bell peppers have different

amounts of vitamins in them!

Who knew?????

I found that VERY interesting!

And handy.

Since I bought 6 yellow, orange and red peppers yesterday.

(2 of each)

And now...

YOU know!

No Students

 That's not strictly true...

I had ONE student,

but she just popped in to ask a quick question

and was gone in about 15 minutes.

So here I sit.

I think I'll cancel class.

And run to WalMart with Kyle.

That sounds like more fun...

It has been a busy week,

what with teaching every day as well as

working at the Town.

We had a pizza lunch today with the town staff

including the public works guys.

The head of public works is going in for

rotator cuff surgery on Monday so I guess

it was a "send off".

Kyle has been busy working in the garden

getting it all prepped for the fall garden.

He planted some cucumbers and zucchini and 

yellow crookneck squash (again).

Kind of like Dad's carrots.

NEVER going to do this again.

Until next garden... lol.

He also bought a little cherry tree, 

a gardenia, a couple of strawberries

and... something else I don't remember.

Tomorrow while I'm teaching I think he's

going to get the sugar snap peas in.

And I think we are going to try sweet peas!

I didn't think they would grow down here!

But the website we buy our bulk seeds

from says they will, so... we'll see...

Anyhow.

Not much else happening.

Life is boring when I'm working this much.

(Holding Kyle's hat while he took a selfie... lol)

Surfer!

 Yesterday (and all week as well as next week)

I taught both the morning AND the evening classes

on Zoom.

Between the classes Kyle and I went for a 2 mile

walk on the beach.

A "cold" front has wandered through the state

and it was actually a bit chilly!

And the ocean was SUPER choppy.

But we FINALLY got a good, talented, experienced

surfer who knew what he was doing!

We had a great time watching him ride the 

short choppy waves.

It was another beautiful day.

And he looked like he was enjoying it as well...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

(And a Happy Birthday from several of my students as well!!!)

Happy Birthday Mom!

 Today is my Mom's birthday!

I wish I could be there to spend the day with her.

I'm grateful I got to visit TWICE this year.

Once in April and again in August.

I am so blessed to have her as my Mom.

She is always so happy,

upbeat,

kind,

loving,

thoughtful.

She loves to be around those she loves.

And loves to make those she doesn't know

her good friends.

It's amazing to see the difference in their 

little neighborhood over the 5 years 

they have lived there!

Everybody in the community is now a friend!

They know everybody's name (and most of 

their families and dogs...)

There are cookie exchanges and "tea" parties.

It's gone from a housing development to a neighborhood.

Mom just can't help brightening everybody's day!

Her smile and honest caring is just so infectious!

What a joy and a blessing she is to everyone she meets.

I mean, come on.

Who doesn't LOVE this woman???

Happy Birthday Mom!

I LOVE YOU!

Sweet Potatoes

 We'll get back to the trip later.

But for now...

Remember the sweet potatoes we grew for fun?

We LOVED having that green shade

out in the garden.

And the pretty purple flowers were a nice bonus.

Kyle is prepping the garden for our fall crops.

First he had to swath all the hemp.

I forgot to take a picture, but I'll get one

later of the compost pile...

And then it was time to get rid of our sweet potato vines.

He only did the first two beds last night.

(there are two more but they aren't as old...)

SEVENTY-TWO POUNDS!

Not all of them are going to be edible,

some are clearly too old.

But there were a good percentage that are

the quality I would buy from the store!

All from a handful of sweet potatoes I bought

at Sam's and left on the counter too long.

FREE FOOD!!!!!

They are now in the tack room, curing for 2 week.

And then we'll have to figure out what to do with

them next. They say they should be stored in

a cool, dry place.

So... not Florida.

Hahahahaha.

I'm excited to EAT one!

We LOVE sweet potatoes!

(And I just got a yummy recipe for doing them

with chicken in the crockpot...)

What A Trip!!!

 Whew!

This was our "chariot" for the trip to Logan.

Top heavy, SLOW, but the seats were a bit

more comfortable than the last Penske truck

we drove from Logan back to Florida...

So there's that!

We left early Wednesday morning and discovered

this truck had a power governor on it so that it

was significantly under powered.

Kyle said it didn't have enough power to 

get out of it's own way.

We weren't looking forward to the mountains...

Or the bridges.

But the flat roads of Texas should be fine.

It rained pretty hard leaving Florida, but Kyle was prepared

and had put brand new windshield wipers on before

we left. (He also polished out the foggy headlights...)

The truck had brand new tires, so it was kind of

"floaty" on the road until they got scrubbed in.

Once we got out of the rain we did ok.

Driving across the long bridge into Mobile, Alabama.

We listened to the Harry Potter books on Audible.

It really helped the time go by!

We also discovered the long, straight, flat roads in Texas

aren't actually flat! In fact there is a little bit of a 

hill to most of them and our poor truck couldn't manage

more than about 62 mph.

The check engine light came on just as we were pulling

out of Amarillo, TX on Thursday morning and stayed on for a couple of hours

and then turned itself off. 

We were glad to see that!

(Kyle pulled over and checked under the hood...

didn't see anything catastrophic so we just motored on.)

It's good to drive with a competent driver!

The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful.

Just SLOW.

We followed a house down the highway in

Mississippi for a bit.

He was even slower than we were, so we eventually

had to pass him.

HAIR RAISING!

But we made it...

Lots of cotton fields ready for harvest.

We started out early every morning and drove late every evening.

Averaged 14-15 hours each day.

And still took a full extra day!

Lots of beautiful countryside though.

Look!

Finally some elevation!

Not a "mountain", but not flat either!

Drove by Hole in the Rock on Friday.

Drove into the clouds on Saturday.

Snow!!!

And more snow!

A terrible picture of some fall colors.

We FINALLY made it into Logan at 12:15 pm.

I know it was 12:15, because we went straight to

Enterprise Rental to pick up our car and they

were CLOSED!

They closed at noon.

We missed them by 15 minutes!

And of course they didn't have an emergency number.

So...

We took the truck to the hotel and got checked in,

left our bags etc in the room and drove over to the

new house. Dropped off the truck, and walked back

to the hotel.

Logan River.

It was .68 of a mile so not a terrible walk.

And then after a bit we walked back over again to make sure

somebody got the truck and the keys (since nobody was

responding to our text messages...)

The son was there so we visited for a bit, got some

fresh apples and pears off their trees and walked

back to the hotel again.

Thank goodness for Uber Eats!

We had them deliver food to our hotel each night.

Except for Friday night in Price - they don't have

Uber Eats in Price yet.

And EVERYTHING was closed, so we ended up

walking to a gas station and getting some Hot Pockets

that we heated in our room microwave.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story!

It finally gets better!

Getting Ready

We are getting ready to head out on

our latest adventure tomorrow.

Today we did another WalMart run,

got Kyle some new boots,

some chords to plug in all the electronics,

some food for Rod so he doesn't starve

while we are gone....

Oh, and some hair dye.

I'm now sporting my winter

"chocolate cherry".

Yesterday we did some house stuff and

then went to the beach.

Last hurrah before we head west to the

land of cold and possibly snow!

Kyle has been cleaning the truck and

getting it ready. It came with a sticker that

said this truck has been thoroughly cleaned and

sanitized...

HA!

He went through a LOT of rags getting it clean.

There were still bugs on the windshield!

But it's all clean now, with new windshield wipers,

clean headlights and "less" smoker smell inside.

I imagine we'll run with the windows open

for a good part of tomorrow.

All that's left to do is finish the laundry,

pack, and get a good night's sleep.

Utah HO!