Hays Days

 Rod is STILL trying to get his truck fixed.

It turns over, but won't catch.

He changed out the fuel filter.

The fuel pump is working.

He's doing other mechanical stuff...

and watching LOTS of YouTube University

videos to help him.

But it's still broken.

Meanwhile, Kyle and I headed out to town

to do the shopping...

First stop, Ollies to get some carpet

to put on his landing for his stairs.

We also got him some shorts and I got

more trays for our stuff at the farmers market.

Then to Bomgaars to get a new nest box for

the girls coop since they keep eating eggs!

We found one we can hang on the back of

the coop and they go in, lay, and the egg

rolls away into a little compartment they can't

(hopefully) reach and they can't eat them.

Plus they don't step on them with their dirty feet

so the egg stays nice and clean.

Also a new bigger waterer for when we move the

broilers into their new coop.

And some spent coffee grounds to help with the

smell in their brooder because DUDE.

(Remember, they eat and POOP a LOT...)

Then to Walmart for the usual grocery run.

Back to the house to trade vehicles.

Rod needed to head into town to meet with the 

Bishop to go do some member visits.

And we needed to go to the farm to take care

of the chickens.

And put the new onions Kyle just harvested

on those hanging racks in his shed.

And then we went down to the garden to see if

there were any tomatoes or okra to harvest.

No tomatoes.

SOMETHING is doing a number on them.

Probably the grasshoppers.

We bought a seed spreader and some grasshopper

bait to spread out there. Kyle's going to do that today.

They eat it, and then they are carnivores, so their

buddies eat them, and EVERYBODY DIES.

YEA!

Takes about 2 weeks to see a drastic drop in the

population, but I'm all for it.

Meanwhile, we are picking the tomatoes as soon

as they start to blush, then we will let them ripen

on the counter. Otherwise, the bugs get them all.

NOPE.

Kyle did some mowing on Monday.

He mowed some of the top of the hill above the garden,

so we climbed up there to get a bird's eye view.

That's corn there at the front.

And it goes all the way to his car.

Corn, okra, the cattle panels you can see have cucumbers,

cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon and sweet potatoes slowly

covering the arch.

Then the tall, really dark green is the 4 rows of tomatoes.

The plants are SUPER healthy and COVERED in little

green fruit, we just need to get it FIRST.

Then we have a row of cabbage (we harvested the first 3 

last night... they were TINY - personal cabbages, 

but I chopped them up and sautéed in butter and seasoning

and they were YUMMY!)

Then onions, beans, 2 random brussels sprouts, for about

4 or 5 more rows.

We are taking most of that out this week when the seeds

get here and putting in about 2000 carrots.

We want a good fall harvest.

I thought you might enjoy a glimpse of the backyard garden as well.

Our volunteer sunflowers are doing really well!

That's our home tomatoes and peppers to the right.

And the red potatoes, sweet potatoes (starting to climb the panel)

and some tomatoes (Roma) and peppers (no heat jalapeno

and a fun little pepper IF they actually produce) along

with some nice healthy nasturtiums. 

Then my crazy flower bed.

And finally a bed with green beans (nearly done) 

and all my cucumbers.

We are doing well with everything except the peppers.

We just aren't great pepper growers.

We picked a couple last night but the skins are

SO THICK. They smell great, but aren't a pleasure to eat.

But we'll keep trying.

Ok.

Time to get something in the freeze dryer for this week.

I pulled the cucumbers out last night.

They turned out well.

And I'm teaching again tonight.....

Have a great Wednesday!

Dodge City, Kansas

 Unfortunately, on Sunday morning when

Rod went out to drive his truck to church

EARLY (for Bishopric Meeting) it was dead.

(The batteries, not the whole truck...)

So we jumped in the Escape and headed into town.

After church he looked and looked in the

garage for the battery charger.

And Kyle and I checked out the storage.

But none of us could find it.

But... diesel truck batteries usually are fine

until they are dead. And then they are DEAD.

So..... this morning he got on the phone and

called to a gazillion Interstate Battery stores

because his are still under warranty.

He FINALLY found two at the store in Dodge City.

Whew!

So...

ROAD TRIP!!!!

He and I loaded up in the Escape

(after I prepped some cucumbers for the freeze 

dryer and put in a load of marshmallows...)

It was a nice drive. Takes about 90 minutes.

But it's all directly south of us and we

drove through some really beautiful farm land.

As you approach the city they have a very

unique welcome sign.

More than life sized.

(We stopped on the way out of town and Rod

took a picture for us...)

We were able to get the batteries with no trouble.

And they recommended we go to

Miss Kitty's Cafe for lunch.

It was just up the street on the way back out of town.

Naturally it's on Wyatt Earp Blvd.

We all remember Miss Kitty, right?

Rod had a yummy chimichanga.

And I had some hot beef on an open face sandwich

and some REALLY good mashed potatoes.

And then we were back on the road.

On the way out of town Rod tried to get a picture

of the BIG beef stock yard.

And this was only a fraction of it.

That's a LOT of beef!

Reminded me a little of Fort Worth TX.

Anyhow.

We had a nice drive home.

Stopped at a service station in a little

town about 30 minutes out and Rod ran into

a man who was driving an original Willy Jeep.

The kind they built for the military.

(Like the one the General was driving in 

White Christmas...)

He had a nice visit with the gentleman.

His Grandfather bought 2 of them and he

has lots of fun driving this one around town.

It was a productive day.

But it kind of looks like the batteries died

because of a bad alternator.

Or something mechanical I didn't understand....

I had to teach.

The marshmallows... sort of worked?

I wasn't super impressed.

They might go to Linger Longer instead of

the Farmer's Market.

And now the cucumber slices are in there.

Hopefully they are good.

I did some last year and they were pretty popular

so they are back by special request.

And now?

I'm off to see about dinner and then bed.

Tomorrow is Hays Day.

Always SOMETHING Going On.....

 I think Kyle might be tired of having the

baby chicks in his shed.

They stink.

Hahahaha.

So today he built their "broiler coop".

Of course he painted it the same cheerful blue.

This particular breed of broilers only live for 8 weeks

before we send them to "freezer camp".

During that time they eat, poop, and grow.

They never learn to roost.

So they can stay in a very short coop.

This will be moved to fresh ground daily.

Because... see above.

They eat.

A LOT.

And they poop.

A LOT.

We have an electric net fence that is 50' on each side

so they have a LARGE area that is fenced in and

protected from predators. We will move them

inside that area and then we will move the fence

to another area.

We will also be bringing Luna out to live in that

fenced section with them to discourage animals

that want to dig under or jump over.

The chickens will stay INSIDE the coop.

But eventually (next spring) we will be adding

the layers in their egg mobile, and they will be

outside during the day. So the fence will keep

them in and predators out... but it will still be 

Luna's job to patrol and protect. 

She might have to be outside of their fence in her

own little enclosure though... she dearly LOVES

to chase chickens. (A day or two of training

will likely take care of that though, she's a 

very smart dog, and Rottweilers were bred

originally as livestock guardian dogs...)

Anyhow.

As usual, Kyle continues to amaze with his ability

to "see" a project and then get it done.

Meanwhile... Rod spent a good portion of the

day weeding the okra patches - those poor things

are buried in weeds! It's quite a job. Some of those

rows were never weeded. (Others just require some

maintenance, but even that is a job...)

And then he came home to keep working on

painting the house.

I taught a double.

And in between got the stuff ready for 

the market tomorrow morning.

I also made a giant broccoli / bacon salad for

the Ward picnic tomorrow at the WaKeeney

swimming pool / park.

But then I changed my mind.

I'm not sure I want to bring something with a

mayonnaise sauce... it's going to be in the 90's.

So on the way home from the market I'll

stop at Dollar General and buy a couple bags

of potato chips to go with the hotdogs and

watermelon the ward is providing.

Oh, and the Elders stopped by for a minute

to share a scripture and spiritual thought.

Unfortunately they showed up just a short

EIGHT minutes before I needed to start class.

So... another busy, productive day.

OH!

And we had another visitor.....

Isn't he beautiful?

I love my little flower garden.

We also have this random patch we let grow in

the middle of the yard.

It's volunteer sunflowers and zucchini and I think

a spaghetti squash from seeds from the chickens.

It totally cracks me up.

I harvested our first zucchini from it though!

Happy weekend!!!!!

So Fun!

 The birds have been getting into our tomatoes.

We are having TERRIBLE luck with our

Amish Paste tomatoes.

They just aren't setting fruit.

And then they FINALLY set a couple.

And they were blushing.

And the birds pecked them.

They are also pecking the cherry toms.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

So......

while we were in town on Tuesday,

we bought a bunch of pinwheels.

And this morning while we were all up 

at the farm, Kyle installed them on

our cattle panels to try to discourage them.

Aren't they so cheerful?

They just totally crack me up.

(And right after I took these pictures, Kyle

mowed all the alleys so it looks MUCH better...)

Rod and I went to the farm to drop off the

new electric net fencing we bought for the

chicken pens we are building.

And then we harvested half the potatoes.

These are some I brought home to have for

dinner tonight. I'm making creamed peas 

and new potatoes, because.... why not?

We got nearly two 5-gallon pails full.

They are small, but the grasshoppers did a

number on them. All the leaves are gone.

So they aren't going to get any bigger.

I have to teach a double tomorrow.

Rod might go down and dig the rest

on his own in the morning. We'll see.

Otherwise, we'll get them on Monday.

We also harvested a bunch of okra.

And I think Kyle is going to pull the

rest of the onions.

Same problem.

They are looking good, could still get

bigger, but the grasshoppers ate all

the tops off.

So we need to get those out of the ground.

The view out Kyle's front door

because it's SOOOO GREEN!

It's so beautiful out there right now.

We've been getting a thunderstorm

nearly every night this week so everything

just looks so green and beautiful.

Rod dropped me at the house and went into

Hays to get some wood at Home Depot.

And I took a nap.

I was SOOOOO tired.

Teaching the weekend class really takes

it out of me. And I have to do a double.

So I decided I'd better rest up a little.

Saturday morning is farmers market.

And Saturday evening is the ward picnic

at our WaKeeney park / swimming pool.

And then Sunday it's the 4th Sunday so I

get to attend Ward Council for Temple and

Family History, and then we are doing a

blended RS for ALL the sisters in the ward.

And I think I have some ministering 

interviews after church.

So it will be a busy day.

And then next week Beth is out of town again.

So I'll be doing doubles.

I just put 4 trays of bananas and 1 tray of

banana peels into the freeze dryer.

I don't know if they will be ready for Saturday.

I hope so.......

(The peels are just going into the food processer

and getting turned into powder for 

garden fertilizer. I'm not selling it.)

So....

that's Thursday!

(I started the RS Pres Mtg zoom at 7, but

nobody logged in. They were all planning to

"try" to attend, but there was a gazillion

things going on in their lives this week...)

So, now I'm going to go start dinner.

Not that we will be ready to eat it yet.

Kyle comes home when it's dark.

That's 2 hours away.

But I can get the chicken out and start it

thawing, at least.

And Rod should be home in a few.

Have a lovely evening!

Oh yeah, HAPPY PIONEER DAY!

(Poor Soni, navigating downtown today was

IMPOSSIBLE! All the streets were closed

for the various festivities......)

Egads!

 I got a phone call this morning from a

disgruntled reader.

An "official complaint".

As it were.

Anyhow.

I admit I'm a terrible blogger.

But... in my defense, I'm BUSY!!!!

Lol.

(Like y'all aren't... I appreciate you dropping

in regularly to make sure we are still

alive out here in the wild wild west...)

Ok.

First of all, I've done a terrible job of taking pictures.

This is all I've got.

Bear brought his pillow into his bed to sleep with him.

Cute!

Ok, when I last left you, I was gearing up for class.

I had THIRTY THREE devoted students!

They all did great.

Kept their cameras on (for the most part) and

most of them got all their hours.

Now let's see if they pass their exam.

That took ALL the wind out of my sails.

Depleted my battery.

(Oh, and after class on Saturday I met with

my ministering sister and we spent an hour

at the Sister Sisters visiting with them...)

Sunday I finished teaching and did all my paperwork.

Whew.

Monday morning I woke up and did MORE

paperwork (forgot to do the stuff for the 

regular weekly zoom) and did some paperwork

for the bank.

Then I harvested out in the garden,

organized all the farmers market stuff and

got it put away for the week.

Rod had a successful market there by himself.

(He bought a new, smaller canopy that helped!)

Our table was full of yummy stuff!

He sold ALL the zucchini and yellow squash,

all the red cherry tomatoes and nearly all the

yellows cherry tomatoes.

And lots of the different kinds of freeze dried stuff.

So Monday I worked on getting more cherry

tomatoes sliced and covered with basil leaves

and into the freezer.

I also did a tray of sliced (skinny) radishes for

chips, and a tray of celery slices, as well

as a tray of okra (we sold out!).

The neighbor brought over a BIG zucchini,

so I split it, deseeded and grated it and did

a tray of that and I'll take it over to his wife

when it's done. She has Parkinsons.

She likes to grate her zucchini and put it in baggies

in the freezer for zucchini bread during the

winter, so I'll take her some she doesn't need

to defrost before she uses it.

Once that was in, I headed out to the farm

with Kyle to harvest and do a little weeding.

He headed into town to pick up the load of

wood we ordered for a new shed we are going

to build, as well as the new broiler chicken

coop we need by next week when the newest

chicks are ready to get out of his shed...

And when he got into town he called and said

he lost a belt on his engine and it took out the

line for the transmission fluid.

So Rod hopped in his truck and they got that

all fixed then got his trailer loaded and headed

home. Meanwhile, while I was teaching a

big thunder, lighting, hail storm blew through.

No damage, thankfully, but it was LOUD!

(And they drove through it on the way home...)

But they made it safe and sound.

Tuesday morning while I visited with Mom 

on the phone and then did more paperwork,

Kyle went out and dropped off the wood at

the farm. Then back into town so we could 

drive into Hays and do our weekly shopping.

We picked up some fun pinwheels to attach

to the cattle panels above the tomatoes because

they are getting attacked by the birds.

We'll see if that helps.

We also bought the paint for his kitchen and

bathroom cabinets. I'm excited, it will

be really nice looking when he's done.

And, of course, groceries.

We stopped at Wendy's for a minute for some

fries and frosties since our feet were tired

from all the shopping, and then since we

were full, we didn't buy a bunch of extra

stuff at the grocery store. 

Hahahaha.

Home late (didn't get back until nearly 8!)

and then I baked a pizza for Rod (we were

still full) and we sat outside for a bit and enjoyed

the weather and Luna's new toy we bought.

When the fireflies came out we headed in.

Watched a little TV and headed to bed.

But the BIG NEWS is.....

Jim and Sabrina are coming out for a visit!

They are arriving August 22 and staying until the 25th!

We are SO EXCITED!

They wanted to come for Rod's birthday on the

14th, but I have to teach the Louisiana class that

weekend so that wouldn't leave us any time to

visit and see the sights.

So they are putting it off til the next weekend.

We will celebrate Rod turning SEVENTY!!!

(I'm still 43 though.)

Anyhow.

After my disgruntled reader, (we had a lovely chat)

I headed into the kitchen to peal, cut and put

a bunch of bananas on trays (Rod helped spread

them on the trays, thanks!!!!) and got those into

the freezer so they will be ready when this

load comes out.

And now I'm heading out to the farm.

We are going to process all the carrots we harvested

from the garden - they need to be sliced, blanched

and put into freezer bags for this winter.

If I'm going to freeze dry them, I dice them,

but we like them frozen. We just thaw, put some

butter and brown sugar and eat them for dinner.

Then back to the house to teach tonight's class.

Whew!

So... I'll try to remember to get some pictures of

all the stuff we have going on here.

But now... I've got to get going.

(should probably eat some breakfast first though...)

Have a wonderful day!

Lots of Beautiful Flowers!

 It was another busy day.

Rod and I went down to the little

hardware store to get some new

drill bits (he broke his fixing the

paneling on the outside of the garage...)

Then we drove by the Catholic church

to pay for the peaches I ordered.

(It's the youth fund raiser every year and

EVERYONE in town said they are

the BEST peaches... we'll see!)

But they weren't there,

so I went home and got an envelope

and then on the way to the farm

I dropped it in their mailbox.

Hope they got it!

Anyhow.

Kyle and I headed to the farm.

(Separate cars - I had to teach...)

Once we got there, I checked on the chicks,

they are doing great.

Already getting feathers.

They were hatched on Monday.

Then down to the garden to harvest cherry

tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers,

and some okra!

This is going to be a daily activity now for

the rest of the summer.

While there we used some little plastic clips

and secured more of the plants to the

cattle panel trellis. It's SO easy!

We will never go back to trying to tie them.

Then I wandered around the garden and

took pictures of all the pretty flowers.

The grasshoppers are LOVING the sunflowers.

They are munching on their leaves and doing lots of damage.

But the corn right next to it looks GREAT!

We are happy to sacrifice the sunflowers.

(This one doesn't have a sunflower near it...)

Next year we will plant a row of sunflowers next to every row

of corn and see if that works.

(I also have some grasshopper bait coming from

Amazon next week, hopefully that will help!)

They were bad last year, we were hoping it was a

fluke, like a Moses plague or something.

Nope.

After I left, Kyle went back up to his place

and finished painting the trim white on the new

egg wagon. I think he's going to paint the interior

all white as well. Helps to brighten it up on cloudy days,

but also easier to keep clean if it's painted.

Anyhow.

A productive day.

Then I came home and sorted the cherry tomatoes into

yellow, red, and split. The splits are going into the

freeze dryer. (I cut them on the split so nobody knows...)

The rest are going to the market with Rod tomorrow.

And now....... I'm going to go to bed early.

Have to teach the whole day tomorrow

and I'm TIRED!

(I actually was teaching with my eyes closed

tonight and nearly nodded off! 

I was just talking and was "dreaming" about

cleaning the roots on the onions... oops!)

Oh yeah, we also harvested all the beets.

They were only medium sized, but

time to get them out of the ground.

Rod will take them and if they sell, great.

If not, I'll either pickle them or slice and

run them through the freeze dryer and then

powder them. Beet powder is all the rage.

(And EXPENSIVE!)

Ok.

I'm done.

Have a lovely evening and a good weekend.

I'll have nothing to report, since I'm teaching.

(And doing a ministering visit with my companion

at 7 Saturday evening...)

So I'll "see" you Monday!

Prepping

Gratuitous picture of my flower bed.

Because.... it's beautiful and I love it.

It's jam packed with pollinators!

 I pulled the cherry tomatoes out of the

freeze dryer this morning.

They were done last night, but it

was sprinkling and I have to carry them

across the yard from the garage into 

the house.

Wet doesn't go with freeze DRY very well.....

So I put another 10 hours on them.

They were nice and dry this morning.

But the vinegar made them a little sticky.

And the mozzarella pearls were a bust.

They were little rocks.

With almost NO flavor.

So we'll add some water and rehydrate

them a bit and use them on salads.

Meanwhile I bagged up 19 bags of the little

tomatoes for this week's market.

They look pretty and taste good and

with a desiccant in the bag they will

stay nice and crisp.

Then we figured out how to sell some of the

fresh cherry tomatoes. We picked them separate,

so we can sell yellows or reds (and have a couple

that are mixed...)

I have some pint deli tubs.

We will display them in those, but then when you

buy them, we have some paper lunch bags to

dump them into.

We have thirteen freeze dried products now!

So we might need to retire some and just have a

different variety from week to week.

We bought a new 8 foot table and it's FULL.

But it looks nice...

Rod picked up a new 10x10 easy-up canopy

and it comes with a wall, so that will really help.

I'll have him take a picture.

I won't be there, it's my weekend to teach.

Let's see....

then after that we headed to our little town

grocery store and checked the price of their

cherry tomatoes. $4.19/pint.

So we will price ours at $4/pint.

While we were there, we grabbed a frozen

pizza (on sale) and a couple tubs of ice cream

(also on sale) and some stuffed mushrooms.

Never on sale, but AMAZING.

(They make them there in the store and they

are SOOOOO good!)

Home to have some lunch.

Then I pulled all the pea plants and Rod took one

of the cattle panels down. (The other one has

sweet potatoes growing on it) 

And planted 7 Roma tomato plants we had

started up at the farm in Kyle's shed.

Also the no-heat-jalapenos and purple peppers

I started on my windowsill.

We'll see if they do anything in my raised bed.

There's also red potatoes growing in that bed.

They're still too small to harvest.

Then did a bunch of paperwork and reading for

tonight's RS Pres meeting (we just finished)

and played for a few minutes with the new

AI Indexing.

It's FUN!

Just as mindless as playing a game on your phone,

but you are HELPING instead of just killing time.

Anyhow.

Now I'm going to head back outside and check 

on Rod and look for eggs. The girls are waiting

and laying later in the evening when it's cooler.

(But they are also eating eggs most days, so I

have to check regularly all day long...)

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Kyle is at the farm.

Rod drove out there to drop off the trailer and

the two IBC totes he bought yesterday.

(We need one for the water on the new egg wagon,

and I think we are going to cut into the other one

and make a dog house for Luna to stay in out

at the farm... Kyle was going to build her a dog house,

but this is water proof and light weight and easy to move.)

Anyhow.

It's been a mish-mash sort of day.

We were going to head back out this morning and

finish the weeding, but we got a good rainstorm 

overnight so everything was MUDDY.

(And let's be honest, my body HURTS.... lol.)

So.... I guess we'll just weed in the heat.

The high today was 75. Tomorrow will be 99.

Guess the cool snap is over.

Darn.

Oh yeah, I need to harvest beans.

Not bad!

It Must be Summer.... BUSY!!!!!

 The day started early with a call from the post office.

The chicks have arrived!!!

We ordered 26 little cornish cross meat birds.

Just for us. Not to sell.

So after breakfast Kyle and I headed up to the farm

to get them all set up.

They are all nice and cozy in the old water trough.

We locked them up in Kyle's shed for now.

He is building a coop for them, but it's not done.

They have to stay in for 2 weeks anyway.

Then we headed down to the garden to take advantage

of the LOVELY overcast, cool weather!

We have some peppers...

Picked lots of tomatoes and some yellow squash.

More yellow squash and some cucumbers.

The tomatoes are going NUTS!

And we are getting some growth on the various

squash and cucumbers. It's fun to see them

starting to climb the trellis.

We weeded 2 50-foot rows of okra.

Rod showed up after a bit and was a HUGE help!

These two rows haven't ever been weeded so they

needed some serious work.

(My body is VERY sore tonight.... lol)

Then I took Rod up to see Kyle's progress.

He stained the bathroom counter.

And stained and waxed the kitchen counters.

And the island.

And the cutting board he made out off a scrap of butcher block

from putting in the sink.

He stained the stairs, but he'll varnish them instead of wax.

It's looking GOOD!

His garden by the front door is looking so pretty!

LOVE the sunflower!

There's a smaller one in the other bed too.

Oh yeah!

And yesterday I canned my very first pickled beets!

I used my new steam canner.

They all sealed!!!

Here's hoping they taste good!

I was heading outside to get the cherry tomatoes out

of the freeze dryer now that I'm done with class,

but we just got a pop-up thunder storm.

So I'll add 10 hours and do it in the morning.

I'm bushed.