I'm PERFECT!

 Ok.

That's an exaggeration...

BUT

My doctor WAS really pleased with my

numbers yesterday at my annual check-up.

So... there's that.

LOL.

Meanwhile, it has been a crazy day.

Lots of online banking / finance stuff

(new roof, etc)

as well as RS Pres duties...

But as I'm getting ready to start my evening class....

Kyle brightened up my workspace.

(which I admit, is a MESS...)

Thank you Mom for Grandma's vases!

They will be put to good use!!!!!

FORTY ONE!!!!!!!

Can you believe it?

Yeah, me neither!!!

 41 years ago today, we were standing in 

The Little Church of the West

in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Saying "I Do".

And meaning it.

I DO love you.

I DO cherish you.

I DO count you as my best friend.

I DO want to spend my life (and beyond) with you.

And it is all still true.

Gary????? You under there???

I would not trade him for all the tea in China.

We have had a good go.

And we are STILL going!

And expect to go for ETERNITY.

Sometimes it feels like yesterday.

And sometimes it feels like a lifetime.

But it's not something I would change.

So

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY DARLING!!!

Happy Birthday Rozann!!!

 Well, it's official.

All the Stoddard girls are SEASONED CITIZENS.

(hahahahahahaha)

Rozann has joined the ranks.

We got to spend some time together in April this year.

She is a master at NOT getting in photos.

I have lots of pictures of her wonderful husband.

And her house.

And her dogs.

And her nifty kitchen planter.

But ... hmmm ... she and Kyle must be related.

Not a ton of pictures of HER!

Unless she is busy doing something and isn't aware.

And that pretty much describes Rozann in a nutshell.

She is ALWAYS busy doing something.

Generally FOR somebody else.

She sees something that needs to be done and

presto - she has already handled it.

There seems to be no challenge too large 

for her to tackle.

Whether it is remodeling their home,

training their beautiful dogs,

building and expanding their successful business,

keeping her mind and body SHARP,

she is on top of it all.

Energizer Bunny has nothing on Rozann.

But she doesn't just whirl in and do stuff

and then she's gone... (well, not ALWAYS)

she is also an excellent friend, daughter, sister, wife, mom.

And I am proud to call her my little sister!

LOVE YOU ROZANN!

Happy Birthday!

PEACHES!!!!!

 YEA!!!

Peach season has ARRIVED out here in the East.

(Sun rises in the east, so EVERYTHING is earlier here...)

On Saturday the guys and I headed to a local

parking lot where we and a bunch of other

people gathered to pick up our fresh Georgia peaches.

There were a bunch of folks in line.

Including Rod in his bright yellow

Buffalo Land Clearing shirt and

Kyle standing behind him, incognito.

(And some wildly dressed folks!)

That big ol' truck is FULL to the brim with peaches!

As always they were super organized.

Although it was a GAZILLION degrees outside,

the line moved quickly and efficiently.

You walked up to a counter person,

showed them the QR code on your phone,

and they handed you the number of boxes you

had pre-ordered and paid for.

We got FOUR.

(That's 100 pounds of peaches for anybody

who is wondering...)

Once we got home, we spread them out all over the table.

That's 350 peaches right there!

By Sunday morning, the house smelled GLORIOUS!

But they were still a bit hard.

But MONDAY morning, we each had a fresh peach

with our breakfast.

And it was DELICIOUS!

Next up,

slice, dice, freeze and get them

ready to go in the freeze drier.

YUM!!!!!

Kyle's New Job?

It seems Kyle has a new "job".

A couple of weeks ago,

he took on the task of burying the neighbor's

horse in the dark and rain.

Then last week Brock (next door) lost Wilma, 

one of the two pigs he raised from wild piglets.

Kyle was great friends with Fred and Wilma.

Fred is still hanging in there.

They are about 9?

(Brother and Sister...)

So Brock asked if Kyle would handle burying her.

(Brock wasn't at the farm at the time, and his

hired guy isn't very proficient with the tractor...

he's more of a gardener type...)

And then, of course, we lost CJ on Wednesday.

CJ and Buddy in the front yard, the day before he died.

And yesterday a family Rod has Home Taught

for several years called and said they were

having an elderly mare put down and could

he come bury her for them.

This is NOT a job he wants.

He does it well, but his equipment really is

not the right equipment for digging

deep holes.

He really needs a backhoe or an excavator.

And much as he would LOVE to own those,

he doesn't have the quarter of a million dollars

to be able to invest in the ones he would want.

So... Nope.

But he is always willing to help a neighbor.

However, he is looking forward to this "season" ending!

Number 50!

 Our 1st quarter contest just ended.
We have 335 instructors in the US.

This time the contest was all of us competing 

against each other based on how many

scheduled their state exam, how many

used the simulator exam program,

how many completed the course,

and of course, how many actually got a license.

And I came in....

drumroll...

#2 for the state of Florida.

And #50!!! for the US!

I'm out of the running for $$$.

They paid through #45.

(Florida's #1, my friend Lillian Nowak, came in #40!)

But still.

It's pretty nifty.

Not shabby for someone who only teaches Zoom Reviews.

(Lillian teaches several LIVE classes each month.)

Anyhow.

Not bad!

Still Alive...

 Last week was brutal!

SO many things happening, 

all at one time.

We got news that our homeowners insurance

was being cancelled.

They cancelled 67,000 homeowners in the

state of Florida in the month of June.

With only a few week's notice.

And nobody else will insure our house

because our roof is 17 years old.

Despite paying for a 4-point inspection

that certifies our roof is still good for a 

minimum of 13 more years.

So....

We met with a roofing company I've done

lots of permits for at the town and everyone

seems to be happy with their work.

They brought in a quote that was higher 

than I wanted, but less than I expected.

Got all the paperwork pushed through

and finally got an issued permit on Friday morning.

Once we had that in hand, I started working on

getting quotes for insurance.

The HORRIBLE state (last resort) came in at $2500/yr.

The one recommended by my mortgage company

came in at $9,346/yr! YIKES!

I had heard good things about a company that 

does a lot of insurance in California and Florida

called Kin.com.

So gave them a try.

They issued a policy in just about 2 hours!

And it came in at $2,484 for the year!

Several of the people at the town hall 

use them are really like them,

their online reviews were good...

so we went with them.

Unfortunately they won't accept a professionally

done 4-point inspection (although they did give

us a nice discount for our wind mitigation report

he did at the same time...) so Rod had to do a

"owner inspection" yesterday.

Walked around and took a bunch of pictures

and submitted them.

Anyhow.

The roof won't be done for a few more weeks.

All the roofers are SWAMPED.

But at least we have insurance before the

hurricane season really hits.

And then, of course, CJ passed.

And we are doing some more home financing stuff.

And Kyle and I re-seeded the pasture we just seeded

since it rained and the seeds didn't get a good start.

We did that on his BIRTHDAY.

(He's not a big birthday celebrator... so we just

did up some steaks and corn on the cob when

Rod got home...)

Jim was in Springfield Missouri all week at a

certification course and is now a fully licensed

and certified insurance adjuster!

Congrats!!!

AND 

I did my first food order last week (did the self reliance

plan and had her fill out the food order form but she

asked that we sit on it for a week because she was going

to be out of town helping another family member...)

My entire presidency went out of town.

1st - Idaho.

2nd - Dominican Republic.

Secty - no idea - didn't know she was going... lol.

So yesterday was the Sister Buffaloe show.

The day started with Ward Council at 9.

Then church at 10:30.

Relief Society at 11:30.

A stake training meeting at 12:30

and a meeting with the Stake RS counselor

and the other ward's recently released RS Pres

to help me walk through and place the food order.

I got home about 3:30.

Then of course all the texts and emails to follow

up with all the previous meetings and 

assignments that went with them.

The new member sister we chose in the stake training to

focus on - I found out her visa just expired and she

went back to China!

So... there's that.

I was supposed to teach the evening classes this week

but the other night instructor had an out of town

trip pop up, so we traded. I'm not teaching at all

this week, but that means I will be double dipping

next week. (sigh)

So today Kyle and I are all loaded up and heading

up north to the feed mill.

Fingers crossed. It jumped about $200 last month.

Who knows what it will be this time.

But the sun is shining, I'm eating a yummy

breakfast of eggs and okra.

We finished about 15 pounds of home grown

onions in the freeze dryer yesterday and put

in the other 15 pounds last night.

They should be done tomorrow probably.

(Lots of water in onions...)

Gotta run!

The back back pasture and the "new" grass we planted in November.

Kyle keeps it mowed to control the weeds.

We won't let any animals on it until this November.

Gotta get it good and established.

Sad News

 This morning we had to say goodbye to Rod's horse.

CJ was the horse I bought him YEARS (21) ago

as a Christmas present.

He was a beautiful horse.

He shared his water trough with Beau.

(And sometimes drank out of our swimming pool!)

He was a TERRIBLE poser for pictures.

Always looking away when you clicked!

We had some great rides together.

After Andy passed, he and Buddy became besties.

We could always count on him as a safe ride with kids.

But he was a good mount for our older friends as well.

(Ward picnic - he and Andy did MANY MANY pony rides at

many many ward picnics over the years...)

He was a good horse for Rod to learn with.

Although it was a little bit of a rocky start.

And CJ never did learn to trot nicely.

*Kind of like riding a sewing machine...

But they spent many happy hours on the trails together.

CJ was the horse Rod earned the title of  cowboy with.

He even helped round up Brock's cows when they got loose.

(And again, looking away from the camera!)

He was a well loved member of our family.

He passed peacefully in his sleep

at 31 years of age.

We will miss you CJ!

Watermelon

 We had HIGH hopes this year.

There are THREE watermelons growing in

the volunteer watermelon patch this season.

This is the largest.

There are 2 smaller ones coming up a little further down.

Thank you to Tropical Storm Alex,

we got a BUNCH of rain on Friday and Saturday.

And the ONLY damage was this poor watermelon.

It split right down the middle.

It was just barely getting a tint of pink.

It smelled AWESOME!

But there was no flavor at all.

So we tossed it over the fence to the horses.

(The cows turned their noses up at it...)

Fingers crossed for the other two!

Mrs. Farmer

 Today I tilled the pasture!

No, seriously.

I did!

Kyle hooked up the new tiller to the tractor

and drove it into the "middle pasture".

Nice looking piece of equipment, eh?

Notice the lousy grass.

In the pasture BEHIND this pasture,

we put down some grass seed earlier this year

and it is coming in nicely.

FIRST PASS!

He has done this before.

SHOW OFF!

(It has cruise control, a comfy seat, A/C and a good sound system...)

Then he got out, I got in.

He got in with me and showed me how to get started

and then he let me run a pass.

Then he moved over and sat under a tree and watched

while I did another pass...

Kyle, supervising from the 4-wheeler under the tree - top right)

And then he headed up to the garage to 

finish building a chicken coop for a 

sister in the ward.

We swapped for a minute while I went to find the

seed spreader and get a drink..

(It has a cup holder, but I forgot mine...)

And then I finished 'er up.

Two passes in each direction.

Looking good!

Next we will put down the sunn hemp seed,

run the tractor with the drag behind it to cover

the seed so the stupid crows don't eat it all...

and then TA DA!

Plan to have it all in the ground and ready

to go before the Tropical Storm hits tomorrow.

Should get a couple of inches of rain.

And that's ALWAYS good on a newly seeded pasture.

(We are also going to till up a small section by

the chicken / duck yard and put in more moringas...)

They are growing like mad and would

be good supplemental feed for the cows.

(Now that we put that extra panel up

so they can't reach over the fence and eat

the tops off! Silly boys!)

Heading Home?

 Mom and Dad have been enjoying a wonderful

stay up in the cool mountains.

But they might be heading south in the morning...

Meanwhile,

Kyle and I went....

TO THE BEACH!

First time in quite awhile.

This is an old picture.

I didn't take one today,

because it was windy, cloudy, and

we even got a little rain.

But we were both desperate for 

a little ocean fix.

It has been a VERY busy couple of days.

And there isn't likely to be much of a

respite in the coming weeks / months...

So...

Beach it was!

We packed up and were heading back up to

the boardwalk when the rain stopped,

so we went back to the sand and sat in

our chairs for another hour.

And it was wonderful.

The temp rose by about 10 degrees,

the wind turned into a lovely breeze.

The sun never came out... but that's ok.

We are both (ok, I AM) pasty white...

so probably that was a good thing.

But boy it felt good.

Just finished teaching my night class.

Heading out to the living room to see

my darling husband.

NIGHT ALL!

Travel safely!