Watermelon

 Happy Memorial Day!

This post would make more sense if I did it right.

But I didn't.

But whatever.... lol.

I found a neat graphic online on how

to pick a good watermellon.

So today at the grocery store,

I bought one.

(Since they were $4.48 instead of $6.52!)

However, the guys were upstate doing a 

job all day and then by the time they

got home I was teaching.

So I haven't cut it open.

So I don't know if I did well.

But I tried.

Yet ANOTHER Tool!

 I guess if we are going to be serious

about this farming thing, we are

going to need the correct tools.

In the past we have borrowed the neighbor's,

but never a borrower nor a lender be.....

So.....

Last week Kyle and I took his big truck 

over to a town called Lake Wales in the center

of the state to my favorite farm store.

It's called Rural King and beats the socks 

off of our local (or any) Tractor Supply.

Anyhow.

We went to pick up a new tiller!

He will hook it up behind the tractor and

we will be able to till up the pastures and

re-seed them with... whatever.

The back back pasture is already re-seeded in

a good grass seed - but it will take a year for it

to be ready for grazing.

Kyle did a couple of his pastures at the ranch

and they looked awful.

Until the next season when there was grass

up to your knees!!!

Finger crossed!

So that pasture is closed until then.

OH! and on that trip his odometer turned over to 5000 miles!

It's really hard to get a picture of that when you

are driving on country highways.

Anyhow...

The middle back pasture right now is just some

nasty grass and weeds.

Once our new seed order arrives, we will be tilling

it and putting it in sunn hemp.

That was such a fun crop and it grows SO FAST!

It's high protein, so we will grow it for 5-6 weeks,

put the cows on it for a few hours every day for

a couple of weeks, and then mulch and till it back 

under and do the whole process over again.

It also does a great job of reconditioning the soil.

Always a good idea.

Fingers crossed!!!

I'm also thinking about tilling the little section

next to the duck pen, fencing it off (with coral

panels so it is moveable) and planting it

in moringa trees. A little orchard.

The cows LOVE it and it is also a high

protein, fast growing plant.

It froze back in February, grew as tall

as the fence by the end of march but then

kind of stopped growing.

Until I realized the cows were reaching over

the top of the fence and EATING IT!

(which is why it never got taller than the fence!)

We put a panel up so they couldn't get to it

and in the next month it grew nearly 4 more feet!

I "think" I still have a bunch of seeds,

but if I don't I can order some.

Moringa is a "superfood" so we might also

dry some of the leaves and grind them up

for us - but we'll see. Right now I'm buying

a supplement that has a bunch of stuff including

moringa - but maybe one day when I have 

some extra time.

HA!

Bye Bye Bear

 Unfortunately, Bear didn't make the cut.

She is a sweet dog, but spent all her time

looking AWAY from the humans.

(And chasing the chickens and ducks... a NO NO!)

She was sweet as could be,

but just wasn't interested in humans unless

there was seriously NOTHING else going on.

We were absolutely LAST on her list.

And the idea was for her to be a companion dog

for Kyle and for him to be able to take her

on walks out in the woods, hopefully off leash.

That was NEVER going to happen.

She just didn't really like people all that much

and would kind of prefer you didn't pet her.

She was happy to be with you.

Her favorite place to lay was under your chair

or on your feet.

But if she wasn't laying down, then don't bug her.

Don't touch her, don't expect anything from her

and certainly don't get in her way if she

was after something.

She ran over the other dogs on a regular basis

and knocked Kyle right on his behind when she

was chasing a chicken.

Didn't even register he was standing there.

Anyhow.

When you adopt from the pound, you have only

30 days trial period.

After that, there's nothing you can do.

They do NOT take animals any more since they

are a no-kill shelter.

Once (if) there is an opening then there is a wait

list for pets that people want to give up.

But the wait list is longer than your pet's life.

And we were coming up on the 30 day limit.

So this morning we made the hard decision

to give her back and hope she could find another

family she would fit better with.

I wrote a long email telling them all the ways she had

improved in the time we had her and all the ways

she might be an asset to another family

and exactly why she didn't fit our's.

They didn't ask when we turned her in - they came,

got her paperwork and said, so what's wrong... I said

we have to turn her back because she can't stop chasing

the chickens, the lady said ok and walked away.

I assumed she would come back for us to complete some

paperwork and tell her exactly what the situation was

but we never saw her again.

Instead a grumpy young man came into the room,

said nothing, just took off her leash and collar,

put a rope around her neck, tossed a "have a nice day"

in our general direction and left with the dog.

So THAT was part of why I sent the email.

Pretty much unacceptable... you would think they would

want to know more about the dog to help them

place her with the right forever family going forward.

Or maybe not.

Anyhow.

She was a nice dog.

But she's gone.

(Notice the trailer in the background?)

Bottom right corner.....

We made that sticker!!!

(And a hundred billion just like it...)

Those little dust puffs are a pain in the neck!

(grin)

Sweet Things

 This morning for breakfast I made Rod

some scrambled eggs and some 

hamburger bun toast with some of the

yummy raw honey Mom sent for Christmas.

And yesterday morning when Kyle and I went out

to the garden to harvest the onions,

look what we found???

Baby bunnies!

Kyle caught one and we relocated it to

the front yard under the bougainvillea.

But I didn't have my phone in my pocket.

Then we headed back out there and low and

behold, there were TWO MORE!

So we each caught one.

They were also relocated to the front yard.

There is quite a colony of bunnies out there,

so hopefully they will be happy.

But let it be known.

Farmer McGregor does NOT welcome Peter or

any of his brothers or sisters in his garden!!!

New Faucet

 On Saturday my darling husband bought us a

new kitchen faucet and installed it while

I was "double dipping". (teaching both

the morning and evening classes...)

It's BEAUTIFUL!

And now I have a fancy faucet like my sisters!

And my goodness, the water pressure is awesome!

He had it half installed when he discovered

one of the parts was broken,

so he had to take it back and get another 

one, so it ended up being a much bigger project

than he had originally planned,

but isn't that always the way?

I am so grateful he takes such good care of me!

Thank you dear!

I love it.

And I love YOU!

Chicken Pot Pie

 In between all the other stuff I'm doing these days

I made a (from scratch!) chicken pot pie.

Well, not the pie crust - I used a Pillsbury one...

But still.

(Before it was baked)

And I also cleaned the freeze dryer 

(the last load had raw eggs so its a good

idea to clean it with some rubbing alcohol)

and then re-loaded it with 5 trays of

mixed veggies.

(They are SO yummy! The corn and

carrots are really sweet like candy!)

(Quite yummy!)

And then I cooked up 5 pounds of ground 

beef (in the pressure cooker to get as much

of the fat off as I could...) and some chicken

and that went into the freezer for 24 hours

and then it will be the next load.

Plus I taught BOTH the morning and evening 

classes (5 hours each with admin time)

and worked on an admin problem with the other

zoom instructors

and washed the sheets on the bed.

I think that's enough.

And now?

BED!

Eggs, Blood and Busy-Ness.

 Well, we have LOTS of eggs.

We are taking a break from making our

own dog food - they are taking a break

from eating it!

So we bought a bag of dry.

But, since we aren't making our own

AND its spring, a time when the chickens

are in FULL production,

we have a LOT of eggs.

We took 2 dozen over to a member's house

yesterday - they invited us over for dinner

along with another family and a gazillion

young men. (They have 6 kids, 1 away at

college, 3 teens and a couple younger ones.)

(And I'm pretty sure it was also the entire

Priest's quorum as well...)

Anyhow.

I figure they eat a LOT of eggs and

I have a LOT of eggs... so... voila!

Then we also put 3 dozen into the freeze dryer.

Along with a couple of trays of apple sauce.

I want to do 5 trays of already cooked chicken,

but I didn't have enough to fill 5 trays

so I did the other instead.

We are doing a "pantry challenge" this week.

Eating out of the pantry / fridge / freezer.

I made Rhodes rolls (from the freezer),

salad (from the fridge)

cheesecake with blueberry topping

(from the fridge and freezer) 

to take to dinner last night.

It was very satisfying!

Meanwhile...

The new girls are loving their new coop.

I just pulled 2 eggs out.

There are only 4 girls in there right now

because that was all we could catch

the other evening before the roosters

got all riled up and I was worried about

getting attacked.

It doesn't take much to make me bleed.

 

This is a "scratch" from Kyle's new dog, Bear.

I've been putting Bountiful Balm on it

and it was looking really good yesterday.

But it was getting itchy as it was healing

and I guess while I wasn't paying attention,

I rubbed it.

And broke it open.

More salve and it was looking really good

this morning.

And then Kyle and I went to Tractor Supply

and got 100# of Buddy's feed and 40# of

rice bran to help him with gaining weight.

While dumping one of the bags into the 

garbage can, I must have popped it open again.

Sheesh.

Anyhow.

I'll clean it up (again) and cover it in salve (again)

and it will look really good tomorrow.

Maybe a bandaid would be in order????

grin

Anyhow.

I now have an officially called Secretary.

That's all.

I have submitted names for Counselors

and teachers but no final word on them yet.

And this week I am "double dipping".

Both of my instructors needed this week off,

so I'm teaching both the morning AND the evening

zoom classes this week.

Plus working at the town on Tues & Thurs.

Plus I'll probably teach the RS lesson this week

since I don't know who all has been called to

do what this week and don't want to rock that boat...

So... long story short (ish) there may NOT be

a ton of blog posts this week.

OH!

And I need to run over to the eye glasses place

and have them do something about my new glasses.

I have to squint to see out of them.

They are better than nothing, but not $235 worth of better.

Everything is still blurry and out of focus.

So... tweaking is necessary.

Anyhow.

Hope you are having a good week!

We went out on the patio last night and

watched the lunar eclipse until the mosquitoes

discovered we were out there and tried

to drink my (readily available) blood.

It was really pretty!

New Coop

 With all the things going on these days

we are a little worried about 

being able to source chicken at an

affordable price in the future.

So.... Kyle and I were thinking about

getting some cornish cross chicks

and raising our own meat chickens.

We did it once before, years ago,

but I was working 2 jobs and just

didn't have enough time for

that particular project again.

We have been considering putting

the chickens in a "tractor"

basically a moveable coop that

you put out in the pasture and

move every day.

Brock had his chickens in tractors

for a couple of years when Kyle

worked over there and you could

really SEE the difference in his

pastures. Where the coop was

recently, the grass was bright green

and vibrant.

So.....

Kyle built us a new coop!

We had a lot of metal roof material

the neighbor gave us a couple of

years ago - its just been sitting in

the back pasture.

Glad to finally find a use for it!

The top part is the nest box and perches

so the girls can be up off the ground at

night and when it rains.

The front has a lid that lifts so we can

put the feed and water in each day.

It has big rings on the front so we

can hook up a chain and drag it with

the 4-wheeler.

We have enough material to build 2.

I think we will put some of our hens

out there to start and make sure we like

it and tweak anything that needs tweaking.

And then we will order some chicks!

Because we don't have enough going on.

Happy Mothers Day

 It was a nice day!

Started out with our first Sunday in

the brand new Palm Bay 3rd Ward.

Church started a little late because they

didn't have enough cups for the water.

But that issue was resolved and everything

went forward well from there.

I snuck out for a minute while the Primary kids

sang their annual Mothers Day song.

The RS room was already set up from the other ward,

so all I had to do was move the table in the front.

(I don't like standing behind the podium...)

And then I put a little card on each chair.

It had a spot for their name and a big open heart.

I also put a pen or pencil on there.

Before we separated for class I slipped out again

and made sure I was in the room first.

Turned on some Pandora LDS Hymns on my phone 

and set up a little speaker so we had prelude music.

As the sisters entered they all took seats and we got started.

I had 44 chairs and most of them were filled.

Earlier in the day I had taken the raw ward list I got

from the stake and from that created a roster.

LDS Tools is still empty - it does show we exist as a ward,

but there are no members populated.

And the only calling filled is that of Bishop.

Everything else is still blank.

Anyhow.

We started with prayer.

And then I passed the roll.

Spent a minute or two introducing myself,

and then we went around the room and had each

sister stand, introduce herself, where she was from

ORIGINALLY (not previous ward) and then

if they woke up one morning and had NOTHING

they needed to do that day, how would they choose

to fill their day.

It was fun and enlightening.

Lots of sisters found out they were from the same area.

We even have a sister who grew up in Calgary!

In the Parkdale? Parkland? Ward.

(I remember WAY less than I had hoped... it was

kind of a blur for me...)

And lots of sisters discovered kindred spirits.

Beach, sewing, reading, stay in bed with CARBS...

After we finished that, I had them imagine they

just got a text from the Bishop asking to meet

so he could extend a new calling.

As soon as you got that text, where did your heart go?

"PLEASE Primary, PLEASE Primary!"

or

"NOT PRIMARY! PLEASE NOT PRIMARY!"

(grin)

And then I had them take a minute and write on their

little heart - what would be YOUR dream calling

if you could pick.

We talked about how we have be taught

"I will GO, I will DO the thing the Lord commands..."

but Heavenly Father knew how to light

the brother of Jared's boat, but still required

that he provide insight and input.

So no copping out and saying I'll do anything...

(grin)

Sent around a basket and collected their cards

while I opened the floor to discussion about

things they would like to see in RS and even

things they maybe wish to never see again in RS.

(grin)

I tried to keep everything light.

We had some good discussion, I started by letting

them know that MUSIC is an important way to

worship and I would be calling a pianist and chorister

and we would be bringing back an opening prayer and 

hymn at the start of the meetings.

I understand why we did away with that - in the interest

of having enough time for a meaningful lesson.

But I'm pretty sure we can spare a few minutes

to invite the Spirit to join us and worship a little

through a meaningful hymn.

There was LOTS of comments agreeing.

And another sister commented on how she would like

us to be less inward focused and more community

focused when it comes to service.

And then segued to a meeting Tuesday night

with a local community outreach where they will

be discussing paying it forward in the community.

And then we had a closing prayer and dismissed.

I think it went well!

And then I spent some of the afternoon organizing

the little cards and putting everyone's response

on a spreadsheet to share with the Bishop

but also to give me some insight into who to call

to where / what.

And then Kyle made a delicious dinner.

EVERYTHING on the plate came from our farm!!!

T-bone steak,

cherry tomatoes,

purple potatoes,

onions and orange peppers,

and of course, green beans!

It was delicious!

And exciting!

Even the little green chives in the purple

potatoes were from his herb garden!

I had the first of this season's okra for

breakfast - fresh beats frozen every time!

Other New Stuff

It really HAS been a busy week!

I also got new glasses!

I went from cheater / readers from WalMart

to bi-focals! (Well, progressives...)

I almost think a regular bi-focal would

have been better.

I'm having a hard time getting used

to the 5 different levels in focus.

NONE of them seem to be what my

eyes / brain can accomodate.

But I got them on Tuesday and I am

dutifully wearing them each day to

see if I can get used to them.

(No picture, but they look almost

exactly like my old glasses...)

Kyle built me a new planter box for my

stevia plant!

I LOVE IT!

It's really pretty!

It sits out in the corner next to the roses.

Isn't it pretty?

He had fun building it.

I'm thinking I might like a couple

more to put by the front door and

put some plants in.

Although it gets pretty hot out there

in the mornings... but still.

I think they would be pretty!

Wow.

 Sheesh!

My life has been turned upside down!

And I can't seem to get a minute...

Friday Kyle and I went to the flea market

to see if that was an option for selling

our freeze dried stuff.

NOPE!

It's dark, dirty, busy, noisy...

It might sell a LOT, but

neither one of us could stand to

be there more than about an hour.

However we DID find a really cool

10x12 shed out in the parking lot.

And then we went up the street to the pound

to see if they had another feral cat

since Pig seems to have moved on.

They didn't.

But they did have a really sweet little puppy.

Kyle has been missing his dog, Shadow.

And was feeling like now was the right time

to replace her.

Introducing "Bear".

(Yes, Kyle named her...)

She is sweet.

Kind.

Stubborn.

And completely ignores me.

(And Kyle, and Rod...)

She is enamored of the chickens

and finds great joy in chasing them.

She hasn't succeeded in catching one yet.

(Beau caught and killed TWO of them before

I was able to train him to not do that...)

Mostly we keep them in while she is out

and once we let the chickens out, she has

to stay inside. Or on a leash.

She too, will learn.

But it appears she has had ZERO training to this point.

She is 13 months old...

kind of a long time to have NO discipline,

but she is learning.

She now goes into her crate when we tell her to.

And only cries for a minute.

Anyhow.

That was Friday.

Then, of course, on Saturday I was called

as the new ward's Relief Society President.

And it's been a roller coaster ever since!

The good news is it is a brand new ward,

so I have no shoes to fill,

no previous expectations,

and a clean slate.

The challenging news is it is a brand new ward,

I have no shoes to follow,

no previous experience 

and I have to fill a gazillion jobs.

I just got the list of people actually IN

the ward this afternoon.

So...

I'll be spending lots of time trying to figure

out who should do what.

Meanwhile,

Sunday is Mother's Day

so all the women in the ward will be

attending Relief Society.

I have some ideas.

Stay tuned.