AND... it's over.

 Basically a non-event for our side of the state.

Which is DEFINITELY a blessing.

When you look at the devastation on the other coast.

I taught in Fort Myers.

It is a lovely little town.

They have been hit hard before,

and they come back bigger and better.

But it's still awful.

Our guys will start going over next weekend

to help with hurricane recovery.

This weekend its still simply too flooded.

Not enough areas we can safely get into.

Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

Meanwhile,

there isn't a cloud in the sky.

And normally it is HOT and HUMID

following a hurricane.

But this has been a very unusual storm.

And it is still CHILLY here!

It's still only 76 and it's nearly 2:00

in the afternoon.

I have all the doors and windows open.

(Well, not ALL, I was teaching this morning

and a neighbor was running his chainsaw,

so I kept my office closed...)

And I wore a blanket.

Because I'm a pansy.

Bring on the Cat 4 Hurricane.

But don't go below 72.

(Or 82, really...)

As hoped, the garden perked back up.

Amazing with a little Florida sun can do.

I'm afraid the bananas will take a little longer.

AND

I saw a little pink peach blossom on one of the

new peach trees this morning when I went out

to let the chickens out!

YEA!!!!

Maybe we will get A peach before we move!

(grin)

We have an older peach tree and the thing is a DUD.

It gave us 2 of the most amazing peaches you ever tasted.

The size of a large grape.

But NOTHING since then.

Sheesh.

I regularly threaten to dig it out.

I just haven't.

(Because what if it DID have some peaches?)

And it still sits there and does nothing.

Day Two of Ian

 The day started like it ended.

With no power.

But that didn't last.

Pretty soon the sun was up,

the power was back,

and we went out for a farm tour.

Kyle's banana tree took a beating!

He had already cut lots of the branches

to make it a little more aerodynamic.

But it still looks rough.

We cut a bunch more off.

And his little cherry bush to the left

lost almost all the blossoms.

He was really sad about that!

Our moringa trees look pretty sad too.

They got all blown over.

I'll wait until the storm is actually over

and then see if I can stand them back up

and maybe tie them to the fence to keep them

upright until the roots grab hold again.

A couple of the privacy panels came down off the fence.

When I went out to check,

Red was happily standing on it.

Sheesh.

It was way too muddy to go out there today and fix it.

Maybe by Saturday it will be better.

The beans took a hit.

Lots of broken stems.

Blown flat.

We are hoping that when the sun comes out

they will perk back up.

Fingers crossed.

Don't know if you can tell, but the tunnels were twisted to the side a bit.

Nothing terrible, but interesting to see.

The cucumbers seem to be ok...

we'll have to wait and see.

There is a LOT of water.

A pine tree on the neighbor's side fell over

and landed on the fence.

Kyle used his big equipment and ground it down

on our side.

Then Rod went over and used his new chainsaw

and cut it off at the bottom to get it off the fence.

Kyle Clean Up

(click to watch him work...)

All-in-all we did really well.

And we figured we were done.

We came inside, sat on the couch, and I actually

took a much needed nap!

And then we got the "back door".

Wind gusts way up over 40mph - the EQ Pres

said he clocked it at 50-60.

It definitely felt like it!

The wind was actually whistling.

And the french doors were trying to blow open.

Luckily just doing the dead-bolt took care of

that issue - and then came the rain.

Sideways.

More power flickers.

It cooled way off!

Once that settled down a little (we are still pretty

breezy, but it's much better) we actually

opened all the doors and windows.

And it actually got REALLY COLD in the house!

The weather station said we were down to 71!

(Brrrrrrrrr)

So, here I sit, on the couch, wrapped in a blanket.

We closed all the windows.

But it has been a nice opportunity to air out the house.

I'm getting ready to cook some dinner.

And then we will try to get an early night.

Rod and Kyle have to go in to the airport

early tomorrow (7) to get all the planes out of

the hangars - they put some in a neighbor's

and they want them OUT.

And I have to teach another "double",

both tomorrow and Saturday.

My friend in Tampa ended up with less

damage than originally thought, but she has

no internet with no real end in sight.

ALL the towers were destroyed.

Verizon is bringing in temp towers,

but that only gives you cell / hotspot.

It's risky to try to do a 4-hour zoom on a hotspot.

I've done it, from my hotel room, and it was

definitely not optimal.

So I'll be covering for her for the next week or

so until she's back up and running.

And then I'll probably let her teach my classes

so she can get a paycheck.

We'll see what the next few weeks look like.

But anyhow.

That's where we are.

Blessed, as always, to have a new roof,

a safe house,

minimal damage,

and the opportunity coming up to go and

provide service to others in the state

who didn't fare as well.

They are already trying to organize

teams to go to the west coast this weekend.

So,

thanks for praying for us.

We are always grateful.

And yes, we still love living in Florida.

Until we move to Kansas.

Day One of Ian

 We started the day with some strong

feeder bands of rain.

Some wind.

Not much.

Rod and Kyle got all the new shutters up.

They are SO MUCH BETTER!

You can still kind of see outside.

But mostly the light can come in!

You don't feel like you're in a cave.

It really does help.

You can always tell when there's a hurricane.

Our middle yard looks like a Ford dealership.

Hahahaha.

Kyle's F250 to the left.

Kyle's F450 down by the barn.

My Isuzu Trooper (odd man out)

Our black F250

Rod's grey Ranger.

(And around the corner is Kyle's VW Gulf)

We move them to the center because the neighbors on both sides

have large pine trees that historically don't do well.

If something is coming down, its the pines.

So far, so good.

Highest gust 23 mph so far.

That's nothing.

We've had quite a bit of rain lately,

so this morning there was a bit of flooding in the front yard.

And over where we usually park the vehicles.

But they are only predicting about 3" of rain here.

So it won't likely get too much worse.

Nowhere near the house at any point.

We are in a lull.

For probably a couple of hours still.

My friend who lives in Tampa is getting hammered.

They already have a tree on their roof.

The yard is flooded.

There is water pouring in her back door.

They haven't had power for several hours.

I taught her class for her this morning and I will

likely cover for her Friday and Saturday as well.

I'm also scheduled to teach the evening classes this week

so it will be a week of "double dips".

Anything I can do to help.

In the meantime, the spreadsheet we created is

doing ... ok...  if only we could get people to

actually USE it.

Lots of texting back and forth where just updating

the sheet would accomplish the same thing

and then everybody would have equal information.

But its a start.

Kyle and Rod went and helped a family put up

their shutters this morning.

Lots of that going on in the ward.

Good to see everybody helping out.

Looks like we will be doing lots of hurricane

rescue / recovery over on the west coast for a 

few weeks in the near future.

We'll have to wait for the flood water to recede first.

They have a TON of water over where I used to teach.

Bonita Springs / Ft. Myers if you are following Jim Cantore.

The "Windy" app says it will be leaving the state over north Cocoa

up where Rod's brother Tim lives, sometime late on Thursday night.

So we will likely get the worst weather late tonight and through

tomorrow. But still it will likely only be Cat 1 or even just a

tropical storm.

We are safe.

We are dry.

We have a LOT of food and water.

Nothing to worry about here.

The guys are off work.

The airport is closed.

All the airplanes are piled in the hangar.

So they couldn't work even if they wanted to.

So we are sitting around.

Eating.

Isn't that what you do in a hurricane?

Lol.

Actually, I'm going to take a short nap

and then get ready to teach another round tonight.

Love to you all!

Hurricane Ian

 WEEEEEEEE!

So.

Good news / bad news.

We have a hurricane a'comin'.

Likely to hit the west coast.

The west side is the best side.

And we will be to the east side of the eye.

It's likely to grow to a Cat 3 or 4.

The good news is Jim is getting his FIRST

deployment as a licensed insurance adjuster!

He is SOOOO excited!

The bad news is that means there will be 

damage and destruction in its path.

But the good news is that if they have insurance

(which is required in Florida...)

they are going to get "new" stuff.

So there's that....

Hurricanes happen.

You prepare.

You plan.

You buy insurance.

And you look for the bright side.

Business for the construction people.

Business for the insurance people.

Business for the big box / little box stores.

New stuff!

Not generally loss of life. 

Unless it spawns a tornado.

Or a freak accident - but those happen 

without a hurricane.

Anyhow.

I don't dislike hurricane season.

Bring on being a Relief Society President

AND married to the emergency prep guy.

Whole new ball game.

Our ward council turned into an emergency prep

meeting yesterday morning.

We opened with "Master the Tempest is Raging"

and went from there.

The men in the room were all "who has a chainsaw"

and "how do people know who to report to".

We broke the ward into 4 quadrants and have assigned

zone leaders in each quadrant, but had not yet

assigned members to each zone.

Enter the women.

The YW Pres and I were sitting together

listening to the guys.

We looked at each other and said 

"this needs a woman's touch...". Lol.

So we volunteered to do the paperwork.

(She is a techno wizzz. She does all of Kyle's

advertising on social media - if you haven't seen

his Instagram account - check it out - she's good!)

BuffaloLandClearing on Instagram and Facebook.

Anyhow.

After church Rod and I hooked up my 2 screens

and his 1 laptop and away we went.

We got all the people assigned into 3 of the zones

and Treesa took the busiest, most compact zone.

We tried to set them up geographically so the

leader is within blocks (if possible) of all the members

in their particular zone.

Our neck of the woods is more spread out.

But there's nothing you can do about that.

Anyhow.

We got it all finished about 9:30 last night.

This morning (or after I quit at 9:30) 

Treesa put the finishing touches on it and made

it pretty.

This morning I added another column

(Leaving - yes/no;  Need Pre-storm assistance - yes/no;

Can you assist after the storm? - yes/no HOW; 

Post storm damage?)

and some colors to the leaders names to make them

easier to locate quickly.

Now we send them to the leaders and HOPE they 

follow through and contact each of their 6-10 

families in their zone.

MANY of the members are lost sheep.

Inactive, possibly moved, whatever.

That's another benefit of a hurricane.

We reach out to EVERY member on the list.

We find lost sheep.

And "most" of them are happy we did.

(And some aren't.)

Anyhow.

It was a BIG job.

I split the master list into smaller ones so

each quadrant leader has his own sheet.

(That way it is less complicated for them, 

but also they have less chance of screwing the

whole thing up! Oh me of little faith... lol)

So it will be my job to daily (at least)

update the master based on the info they are 

gathering and putting on their sheets.

But I'm sitting in front of my computer all the time

anyhow...

We never evacuate.

So.

That's done.

Now I have to make food for my family for

their lunches this week.

And I have to make dinner for the missionaries

this evening.

And I have to teach tonight.

So any other chores need to get done this morning.

I'll keep everybody posted.

But we are pretty sure this one is

basically a "dry" run.

With a LOT of rain.

The wind over on this side won't be more

than a good afternoon thunderstorm.

(probably)

Farm Life

 We have been getting a LOT of rain.

But there was a little break.

So we broke out the tractor and tiller

and re-seeded the middle pasture

with sunn hemp and brown top millet

again on Tuesday.

I love the look of a freshly tilled and planted pasture.

And since the ground isn't powder dry,

its a nice, rich dark color.

The garden is also LOVING all this rain.

We actually saw our first baby bean

yesterday when we were out checking.

So give it a few more days and we should

be in bean heaven!

The first two beds on the left are

zucchini and yellow squash.

Yes, we are trying again.

Hahahaha.

Then a couple of beds of okra.

Might be too late for those,

but we had some extra beds,

so thought why not.

And the rest of the garden is beans.

Well, except for one tunnel.

Kyle did two different kinds of cucumbers

on the two sides of the further away tunnel.

But otherwise....? BEANS!

Cat 4 Hurricane Fiona is churning out in the ocean

off our coast - a gazillion miles away,

but she sucked all the clouds away.

And brought HUGE waves!

We only see waves like this when there is a hurricane.

Just glad it wasn't also a full moon!

It was an hour away from high tide and there

was already very little dry beach left.

But we enjoyed an hour sitting and watching

and listening to the power of the ocean

after a busy day at work for both of us.

And now?

Time to get ready for my morning class.

Happy Friday!!!!!

It NEVER Slows Down

 We just haven't STOPPED!

So.... let's see.

I left you in Arkansas.

And then we drove and drove and drove and

FINALLY made it to Hays, Kansas.

The hotel we were planning on staying in was

SOLD OUT!

But there is a little clutch of hotels just off

the highway, so we picked a Sleep Inn.

It was nice, pretty new, clean, and a BED!

Ate some of our freeze dried food for dinner

and dropped off to sleep.

And woke to KANSAS!!

Showered, ate a hotel breakfast and headed out.

First we came to the little town of WaKeeney.

There is a cute little white house Kyle has

been looking at on Zillow. So we peeked in

all the windows. The house is adorable!

The yard is long and SKINNY.

With a privacy fence it wouldn't be bad.

And then on to the ranch.

It was a really bad year everywhere in the country.

Hot, dry, hot....

so it was SUPER brown.

The man who was leasing it looks like he pulled

his cattle off about a month ago.

(judging by the state of the cow pies...)

He has a section fenced off with temp hot wire

and I expect he will come back and hay it.

It's different from what we are used to!

That's for SURE!

But it has its own form of beauty.

Rolling hills, deep(ish) valleys.

Sporadic trees here and there for shade.

A good well with a solar pump and a large stock tank.

The water is actually really clean and clear.

There is some algae on the bottom and a little floating

on the top, but it's about 90% clear.

I pushed the little float down until the pump started.

The water runs cold and clear.

Kyle tasted it - no sulphur. Tastes good.

Not mountain water, but not Florida water either. (UGH!)

I lifted the float back up so it stopped.

Didn't need it to refill the whole tank.

There was even a random piece of "yard art".

An old Emerson plow!

And the old foundation of some sort of small building.

Fun to imagine what used to be there.

And the most wicked trees I have ever seen in my life!

Those are HUGE spikes!

I should have taken a picture with my hand,

but I didn't want to get that close!

It's big, and open, and OURS.

And now I have to get my zoom started.

Fayetteville, AK

 Wow.

What a trip!

We decided to leave early.

So we headed out on Sunday instead of Monday.

We were actually going to leave Saturday

around noon, but then luckily I remembered 

I needed to teach that night!

(sheesh)

So instead we got up and headed out Sunday.

It took us until about 9:00 to get the truck

all loaded up and ready to go.

We drove to Jackson Mississippi 

to stop for the night.

It was a long drive, but not bad.

I drove for a couple of hours, but

as usual, Kyle did the majority.

The GPS took us through a neighborhood

to get to our hotel, which would have been

fine except 3/4 of the way through

the road was closed.

Looked like most everybody was

going through anyway, so we

braved it, but ended up in a 

spot that was nothing but red clay.

The tire tracks headed on through,

but we decided it wasn't a risk we

were willing to take.

Especially that late at night.

So we turned around.

We have stayed at this hotel before.

When we were driving a Pensky truck

to move some friends to Logan.

Up and back on the road the next morning

for a LOOOONG 14 hour drive.

I drove through part of the mountains

and a city - yuck - but we survived.

LOL.

We stopped at a really nice rest area

and made some lunch.

I freeze dried a bunch of food for the trip.

I'll talk about that later in the week.

Got to our hotel in Hays, Kansas about 11:30.

(which is 12:30 our time...)

We were exhausted and glad to get stopped.

Had another good night's sleep and then

up to grab some breakfast and head to the ranch.

Our first view of Hays.

We stopped in the town of WaKeeney

on the way and looked at a little house

Kyle had been eyeing on Zillow.

It's adorable, but the yard is terrible.

Reach out your window if you want to

borrow a cup of sugar from your neighbor.

SOOO close together!

Anyhow.

Then on to the ranch.

It has been a VERY dry year this year.

The ranch was very brown.

If you looked closely, there were little

green shoots, but mostly it was brown.

Not nearly as flat as we expected.

Rolling hills, valleys, ravines...

So random trees here and there.

There were some random old foundations.

For a VERY small building of some sort.

And some fun "yard art".

An old plow. I actually saw an intact one in a little town

we were driving through.

Anyhow.

It is beautiful land.

A little different than we were expecting,

but beautiful.

And now I'm laying on a bed in a Hampton Inn

in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

And I'm TIRED.

(Even though Kyle did all the driving today...)

I'll update more later.

I'm going to grab a nap.

Strawberries and Bananas

 Ok, so I promised to show you.....

Here is the strawberry and banana experiment.

We pureed 8 pounds of strawberries

poured them into the trays

and then put a banana slice on each.

I used this cute little slicer to slice the bananas.

It works really well!

And here is what they looked like when they were done.

They are good.

They aren't as good as I was hoping.

But they are good....

Just a little strange.

And we have FIVE trays full.

So we will eat them.

But we won't likely do them again...

We have been having awesome sunsets.

And some rockets.

And some moments on the beach.

But mostly I've been SUPER busy doing Relief Society stuff,

working at the town and teaching,

and prepping for our road trip to Kansas next week.

So... watch for updates on the road.

I'll try.

Saturday

 Saturday is a Special Day!

It's the day we get ready for Sunday.....

You're welcome.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha.

Nope

I'm not at the beach today.

Artimis (rocket) is hopefully going to launch today.

In about an hour (just finished teaching, guess

I should check my app,....)

but there will be a GAGILLION people at the beach.

(Oops, not going until Monday at the earliest)

No thanks.

But Kyle and I DID go last night for an hour.

It was wonderful.

So peaceful.

I started to type quiet, but the beach

and the ocean are NOT quiet.

But it was peaceful.

Relaxing,

Just what the dr ordered.

On top of my usual life stuff,

I also had some freeze drier drama.

Took out the load of chicken and put in

a load of raspberries and strawberries

I found in the freezer.

They were old and a bit (some a LOT)

freezer burned, but I was just going to

throw them away anyhow...

so let's experiment!

Checked the machine before I headed off to bed

and it was DEAD DEAD DEAD.

Black screen.

No power.

DEAD.

That was... Wednesday?

So I put in a service ticket, put the berries

back in the freezer and went to bed.

Thursday after work I got an email with a video with

a suggestion of how to fix it.

So I, (yes, I, not Kyle)

took the back off the machine,

swapped some wires around, 

and plugged it back in.

SUCCESS!!!!!

So I put the berries back in and...

this morning they are DELICIOUS!

Now I am waiting for it to defrost

(it is probably done, but I'm still in my zoom room)

and then I'll put in the mangos that are frozen and

all ready to go. (I prepped them Thursday morning

before work.)

While those are in the FD, I'm going to thaw

the 8 pounds of strawberries I bought last night,

puree them, then slice the 5 hands of bananas

that are nice and ripe on my table,

pour the strawberry puree on the tray

and then put a slice of banana on top.

Then I have some dividers that will cut them 

into bite sized squares.

(I'll take a picture....)

So.......

HOPEFULLY we will end up with a

strawberry banana bite!

SO EXCITING!

Meanwhile, we are trying to think of yummy

meals to freeze dry for our trip on the 12th.

(That gives me a week to process it...)

Anyhow.

Life continues to be BUSY!

Happy.

Productive.

And busy.