No Pictures.......... lol

 I know.

I'm a terrible blogger.

But I'm BUSY!!!!!

(hahahaha)

It's been ..... a week.

Tuesday - aborted piggy trip. (And 2 new tires.)

Wednesday, 2 more new tires and teach.

Thursday - SUCCESSFUL (10 hour) piggy trip.

They are ADORABLE (and no, I can't put a

banana for scale - they're PIGS, they'd eat it!)

(And they are SUPER skittish so they just run away.)

Friday - teach a double.

Saturday - teach the Louisiana class AND go to the

season ender stock car races.

It was a BLAST.

Sunday - teach the Louisiana class.

Monday - teach my LAST DOUBLE (yea!!!!!)

I had planned to run to the farm between classes,

but Rod had to take the car into Hays for a church

member's funeral... and I didn't feel like driving

the Trooper. So I didn't.

(hahahahaha)

Oh hey! A picture!

Do you remember LAST September, when I 

was doing ridiculous amounts of dill pickles?

(26 quarts....)

They've been sitting on the shelf in my office.

I look at them EVERY DAY.

They're no good.

They "false" sealed.

Probably 50% of them.

Kyle opened a jar one day and the lid didn't

give that nice satisfying pop,

and they were mushy and kind of cloudy....

so I looked them over and....

today I dumped the juice down the sink and

the pickles in the trash.

And then I washed all the jars.

It's a bummer, but it's just pickles.

Not like its a big loss...

(And I just picked a bunch more cucumbers,

so I might try again, I bought WAAAAAAY 

better lids this year... I've had 100% success

with the seals this time.)

Anyhow.

Then a lady came by to get some freeze dried

corn and carrots and okra as a snack to munch

on for her trip to Colorado this weekend.

(She was sad we didn't go to the farmer's

market on Saturday --- see above.)

And then,

I taught again tonight.

WHEW!

Tomorrow I WAS going to run to Hays with Kyle

in the morning to do the weekly shopping and

then head to the farm to try to process half the chickens

we have left to butcher.

But it's going to be raining.

And SIXTY SIX DEGREES!!!!

Nope.

(It's going back to the 80's on Wed.)

So I'll butcher on Wed and maybe Thursday.

We have the missionaries coming for dinner

Thursday night.

But I don't want to be butchering in the mud.

And the cold.

(And it's MESSY, I don't want to get blood et al

on my winter stuff...)

So yeah.

It's been busy.

But I promise I'll get you updated pictures of the

pastures Kyle and Rod have been finishing.

And the adorable piglets.

(Kyle said I can't name them.

HA! Watch me!)

(We don't have any issues eating things with names.)

ie: Sirloin. Moon Pie. Charlie & Jake

(named after a BBQ place in Melbourne... lol.)

And, of course, my rabbits, Bob, his main squeeze Ethel

and Gertrude and Mabel, his "girls on the side" and their

many many many offspring.

Farming.

Ok.

Dinner is ready.

Have a great night!

(Just re-read this... wow. That was random.

Guess my brain is tired.)

Still Alive........

 Our resident expert on all things pig,

(Lynette at Frontier Ag)

said 5 hours is a LONG haul for littles

and we should stop now and again

and check on them.

(And do.... what?)

So, we were a little worried.

But they did the drive like champs.

They were TIRED and HUNGRY

and THIRSTY but they were fine last night.

See?

This morning I had to teach the AM class.

But Kyle sent me a text...

Healthy and happy and doing what babies do best.

Sleeping.

Aren't they cute?????

One day down.

Success!

 We had a nice, uneventful drive 5 hours to

just south of Kansas City, MO.

We left at 9:00 and got there just moments

before our 2:00 appointment.

She had the piglets all gathered up in a crate,

all we had to do was transfer them to our crate

in the back of our truck and pay her.

We were gone in about 15 minutes.

They are awfully cute!

And pretty shy.

They all have adorably curly little tails.

Another uneventful drive back.

We stopped at a Taco Bell just off the highway

and got some fuel for us and the truck.

We had to park by the front door since it was

the only place where we could keep them in the shade.

And EVERYBODY who came in wanted to 

stop and take their picture.

They were VERY tired after all the excitement.

They were happy to take a little snooze.

But then we had to drive for another 2.5 hours.

We stopped at Tractor Supply in Hays to get them

a feed tray and some shavings for their barn.

And they took another little nap.

Then it was the home stretch!

They seemed VERY happy to get out of their crate.

Have a bite to eat and a drink of water.

And as soon as we left them alone,

they were konked out.

Kyle installed a motion sensor, solar powered light

on the barn, so they should be happy tonight.

The coyotes don't like the light.

And tomorrow we will probably move Luna

out there to protect them.

But for now, we are pretty sure they are secure.

They sure are cute!

And skittish.

Kyle will win them over though.

He said I can't name them.

But I probably will.

They are adorable as little piglets.

They aren't nearly as cute once they are 600 pounds.

I won't have any trouble sending them

to freezer camp when the time comes.

But for now, I'm going to enjoy them!

More Adventures!

 Seems like Kyle and I often have,

what we like to call, 

ADVENTURES.

(I feel like Sam Gamgee... lol.)

Anyhow.

The day started out lovely.

The sun was shining with a few

fluffy clouds.

We hopped in Kyle's truck.

The two large dog crates were safely

in the bed of his truck,

all ready for our little piglets.

We drove for about 3 hours.

(The farm is nearly 5 hours away, just

south of Kansas City!)

The roads were pretty bumpy.

But seemed to be getting even bumpier.

I noticed that my seatbelt was tight.

(And my back was SUPER itchy and I 

really wanted to scratch it...)

But I had difficulty taking off my seatbelt,

because it had locked down.

When I got it off, I couldn't get it back on

because it had locked itself.

So I asked Kyle to watch for the next

rest area so we could pull off and I could

get it fixed.

We drove for a few miles, the road seemed a

little better, although still bumpy,

and I was able to get my belt back on.

(Kyle said it probably locked because of

all the jarring and bouncing from the road...

Between the itchy back and the locked belt,

I know Heavenly Father was trying to get our attention.)

But when we got to the rest area, 

Kyle pulled in anyway.

I told him my belt was fine,

but he said he just wanted to check the tires.

It "felt" like the road, but, it also kind of

felt like he might have a tire going down.

And it's always better to check.

Sure enough, his front right tire was bulging.

So....

we took it off and put on the spare.

Which was dry rotted and also FLAT.

So we put the bad tire back on.

And googled tire places near us.

As always on our adventures,

Heavenly Father was looking out for us.

We were only one exit and a few miles

away from a Firestone tire store in 

the lovely college city of Manhattan, KS.

We carefully made our way over there.

(I was quite nervous, prayed anxiously,

and then Rod called with a PayPal issue,

which changed my focus and by the time 

it was all fixed, I was all better... and 

able to enjoy the beautiful scenery!)

The Firestone guy was really helpful,

but didn't have the tires we needed in stock.

However, directly across the street is a

WalMart - and if they can sell us the tires

and install them, we can come back and he

will do an alignment on them.

And, WalMart had the tires and the time to

install them, AND they were better tires

and much less expensive.

(Although, during the over-an-hour wait,

we managed to buy enough stuff to off-set

the price difference.... lol.)

(Things I was going to buy anyway, they were

already in my WalMart cart for delivery since

our little Hays Wally World doesn't carry them

in the store all the time... plus... a few things.)

Once the tires were installed and inflated to

Kyle's preferred PSI, we drove across the

street to Firestone.

It was about 4:00-ish by that time.

There was already a car on the rack, but he

would get us in next.

So we walked next door to Taco Bell,

where we could eat and keep an eye on the truck.

They FINALLY took it in to work on at 5:30!

And it took them over an hour to do the alignment!

But it was finally done and we were on our way

out of town by 6:45.

We had been in touch with the pig people throughout

the morning and eventually switched our delivery

to Thursday by 2:00 instead.

We pulled into the house 12 hours after leaving.

Without  any pigs.

But with 2 really nice, well aligned, brand new

front tires.

Of course, the back tires aren't great either.

So Kyle took our car home and I kept his truck.

This morning Rod is driving his truck

(OH!!! In all this, he was able to finally

FIX HIS TRUCK!!!!!)

Another major blessing!!!

Anyhow. He is driving his truck out to the farm

and they are going to work on the fencing,

while I take Kyle's truck into Hays to get the

other two tires mounted and installed.

And get groceries.

And more chicken feed, because I'm not going to

be able to finish harvesting them until next week.

We are trying again tomorrow to get the pigs.

Then I have to teach a double on Friday.

Then I teach the all day Louisiana class on Saturday.

(And we get to go to the season ender at the

speedway) and then I teach another all-day

class on Sunday and then another double on Monday.

Whew! (Plus a ward funeral at noon on Monday...

I teach until noon, so if they need me I'll run 

over and help with just the lunch after the service.)

But that is my VERY LAST morning class!

YEA!!!!!!!

I also bought our plane tickets to Tucson!

We fly out of here on Thursday, October 23.

We are driving to Denver and leaving the car there

in their parking garage.

We will arrive in Tucson at 3:45 Thursday afternoon.

We leave there again Tuesday morning at 10:00

and get back here about noon.

It's a 2 hour flight from Denver to Tucson!

Not even enough time to eat our snacks!

Anyhow.

We are back home.

Rod's truck is fixed.

We have half the new tires we need.

All is well with the world.

(And I got a new toaster oven, I'm giving the

old one to Kyle to replace what he refers to

as his "easy back oven" toaster oven.)

Hahahaha.

More Homesteading Stuff

 We had a productive Saturday.

I only processed 4 roosters.

But with each one I got better...

Kyle got all the water pipe glued together

and into the trench and the trench filled.

Rod got more insulation and wiring done

in the shop.

Then we had a lovely, restful Sunday.

(Well, not Kyle... he did fencing...)

Relief Society was excellent.

Sacrament Meeting was full of really

good talks.

I made a big pot of potato soup for

the Linger Longer, but we didn't stay.

(Kyle needed to get back to the farm.)

And then I took a nice, long, nap.

Woke to a weird yellow sky

and a bit of a hail storm.

Not big enough to do damage.

This morning I saw a post on our local page with

a video of a funnel cloud over our end of town.

Probably what the weird light was about.

But again, no damage.

Just interesting fall weather.

Today, I'm doing some laundry and then

we will head back to the farm for more

chicken processing.

I have a zoom meeting with my boss

and other teammates at 1:00.

I'll have to go up to Kyle's for that.

We still don't have internet, and Kyle's 

bedroom is the only spot with decent signal.

And then I'll be teaching tonight.

Tomorrow, we head out early to get out piglets!

Oink oink!

Pigs!

 I don't remember if I mentioned this.....

but we were hoping to buy some "weaners"

(piglets who have been weaned...)

but they were sold out for this round.

So they put us on the wait list for the November batch.

And then they called Kyle and said somebody

backed out and they have five weaners who are

ready if we would like to have them.

Cue Kyle doing what he does best.....

Building a quick 12 x 12 barn that will include

a small feed room and an L shaped run-in for the

pigs to eat and shelter from the weather.

Also fencing. So they have four 1/4 acre pastures

to rotate through.

(We will move them regularly and follow them up with

the hen house so the chickens can clean up after them,

keeping the fly population down...)

Also a trench to run water and electricity to the barn.

Thank goodness for the excavator!

That's LONG trench - 4 feet deep to avoid the frost line.

He was putting up plywood on the walls when I left.

(But it was SUPER windy today, so hopefully it went well...)

Tomorrow morning we are running into Hays to check

out the farmers markets in town.

WaKeeney's market isn't doing great.

And Hill City has switched to their fall schedule of

Wednesday from 3:30 to 5:30 (right after school since

the park they set up in is practically next door...)

Today Rod and I did butcher day Part 1.

(Which means set up...)

Got the restraining cone hooked up to the pole outside.

Got buckets set up.

Got cardboard on the floor under the table.

(But we might move the process outside, depends...)

It was nearly 100 outside today, so if I can butcher

inside that would be nice......

Anyhow.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to process 5 roosters.

More would be nice, but 5 is my goal. We have 11.

We'll see.

The guys are DEFINITELY ready.

The hens could go another week or so.

They are always a little smaller.

So.........

that's what this weekend is looking like!

Hope yours is fun.

(And as productive, but possibly less... icky.)

Still Harvesting

 Yesterday I went to the farm,

fully intending to tear out the tomatoes.

They are done.

But I forgot my clippers at the house.

So I just went down to check on everything.

I got FIVE good sized zucchini.

And a couple of nice yellow squash.

And an ENTIRE bucket of JUST sungold 

cherry tomatoes.

(And I didn't finish picking because my

bucket was full and I was hot... lol.)

And I didn't even touch the reds.

They are LOADED.

So I'll be heading out there in a bit.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day.

There are huge clusters of tomatoes everywhere.

And SWEET??? Oh my goodness!

We grew a variety of black cherry that we decided

we aren't going to grow again.

They are SLOW to ripen, and really watery and

just not really very good.

But they had some nice big ones, so I popped

one in my mouth.

Oh my goodness.

A whole different kind of sweet.

But totally yummy!

We may still not grow them again.

They take up a lot of space and are still really slow

to ripen, but I'll enjoy this harvest!

(I picked about a quarter bucket and there are

still more yet to ripen...)

Also got some nice lunchbox peppers and a 

couple nice big yellow bell peppers.

I'll add those to my frozen stash and get 

them in the freeze dryer when there are enough.

And the okra are STILL plugging away.

I got a full bucket of those as well.

I cut and dropped another bucket or two worth.

They were too big and woody.

It's been several busy days since we harvested last.

All in all, the garden is still doing well.

Gotta get out there earlier today than yesterday though.

It got HOT.

(And I have a presidency meeting at 1:30

at the President's house in North Hays...)

Enjoy your Thursday.

And maybe give a thought to the history of this day.

Where were you when the world stopped spinning?

Next Spring

 This garden season is starting to wind down.

And we are already thinking about NEXT spring!

Notice the hyacinths peeking out below.... that's what we bought.

Last week we bought some crocus bulbs!

I don't remember which ones I bought.

But I'm going to probably get more... lol.

We also bought some hyacinth bulbs.

But I forgot to take a picture.

Then this week at the market, Mary had a bunch

of daffodil bulbs she dug up in her yard.

She was selling them for $0.25 each.

So I bought 8.

We will plant them all in Kyle's raised beds this year.

And then NEXT next year when I have my own

flower beds at the new house,

we will put in a bunch of bulbs for beautiful

spring flowers.

It's SO gorgeous here in the spring!

This morning after a nice visit with Mom,

I brought in the onions, peppers and zucchini

from the freeze dryer.

The onions and peppers went into glass jars

to sit on my pantry shelf for using in

daily cooking. I got 1 full jar and one

half jar of each. I'll use the half

jars first. Probably should have put

them in pint jars, but this was what I

had in my hand at the moment.

I ran the zucchini through my food processor

and ground it up into powder and put that in

some mason jars as well.

I'll be adding good veggie nutrition to lots

of meals this winter!

I still have more zucchini in the freezer from last

year and some fresh sitting in my kitchen.

So I'll probably defrost the machine and then

run another batch. I have lots of grated already

put up from last year.

I didn't do as much baking with it as I thought I would.

Probably because it's "new" and not something

I think about doing on a regular basis.

But I'm going to try to make it a habit.

Those peppers and onions are from our gardens this year.

They look much more vibrant in real life.

I'm excited to use them!

Monday Musings

 We have enjoyed our "false fall" for 

the last few days.

And now summer is coming back.

But gently.... (so far)

It's supposed to be mid 80 today,

but right now it's overcast and looks

like it might want to rain.

We had some visitors to our flower patch.

I couldn't decide which picture I liked best.

So I added them all!

These guys are HUGE! Easily an inch long.

Kyle said he pet one while it was dozing.

The last time he pet a bee, it stung him.

He was just a little guy. (Kyle, not the bee... lol.)

It was on the floor in the garage in Palm Bay.

He did a better job this time, I guess...

The guys found a new money pit .... er .... hobby.

We discovered the WaKeeney Mini Speedway!

They race go-carts!

It looks REALLLLLLY FUN!

The classes were small, the biggest was the

Youth Predator (the name of the motor)

and it only had 8 kids.

It's relatively inexpensive to get started, and

the rules say you CAN NOT modify your motor...

so except for upkeep, it's not a constant

"let's add this [$$$] and add that [$$$]".

Plus we can put a track in our field and they

can "practice" whenever they want.

It really does look like fun!

(Plus it was all finished by about 9:00 instead

of 11:00 like the big speedway races...)

VERY family friendly, lots of kid classes.

The best one was the littles.

They totally just were out there, banging into

each other, putt putt-ing around, having a BLAST.

When there was a yellow caution flag, they just

kept going, the flag guy finally had to run into 

the middle of the track and stop them.

And then when the race was over.... they didn't care.

Just kept going!

We laughed and laughed!

Our electrician's father-in-law owns the track.

Our electrician (Jacob) is the President (and flag guy).

His wife is the score keeper.

He used to race all the time and said he has

"several" carts he would be happy to sell us

to get us started.

Anyhow.

We'll see.

We have a LOT on our plate right now.

But everybody needs a hobby.

All work and no play... blah blah blah.

It was a gorgeous evening.

Their concession stand was going to be closed,

so I made some pulled pork sandwiches for us

to eat in the stands.

We brought our comfy bleacher chairs

(and a blanket... it got BRISK when the sun went down...)

Then yesterday on the way home from church

we discovered the Kite .... event.

It had a name. I forgot what it was.

You could see them from the highway!

There were some really fun ones.

The boys loved Clifford the Big Red Dog when they were little!

There were also lots of families out flying ordinary kites.

If it hadn't been Sunday we would have gotten out of

the truck, wandered around, and probably purchased a kite.

As it was, we sat in the truck and enjoyed them for a bit.

And then headed home to change and then a run to the

farm to feed the chickens and let the dog out for a bit.

We took him for a mile walk down the road.

Kyle mowed a one mile path around the perimeter

of his section, but he needs to go over it again with the

finish mower, it's still a little tall for Bear's short little legs.

Then back to WaKeeney for some nachos.

It was a lovely weekend.

Rod got the wiring pretty well finished in the shed.

And today he is working on his truck again.

Gotta figure out what the problem is!

He hopes he has it narrowed down...

Fingers crossed!

I have the Elders (4) coming for dinner on Thursday.

Tomorrow we will do Hays Day.

And we have a HUGE order to place with

Menard's today or tomorrow.

Going to have it delivered...

it's time to GET STARTED on the house!

I'm excited!

We did some drawings yesterday to try to

nail down how we want the interior.

Added a couple of rooms.

(A half bath, a walk-in pantry/prep room,

and a large room for the 

washer/dryer/water heater/furnace...)

I was going to put the washer/dryer in the

walk-in closet in the master bedroom,

but decided it would be better to have it

closer to the mudroom for mud season.

Don't really want folks traipsing through the house.

Ok.

Better get this day started.

(well, I've already been outside and pruned the

tomatoes, pulled out the sunflowers,

and did some other garden tasks...)

But I have more to do.

Better get on it.

HAPPY MONDAY!

We Have WATER!!!!!

 Yesterday, Rod was heading out to the farm

to meet with the Engineer from the internet

company to figure out where we want our

internet and all the logistics of getting it there....

And while he was getting ready, he got a

phone call from the well drilling guy, Lance.

They decided to come drill our wells (2)

that morning!

When I got there, they were nearly finished

drilling our well.

It's going to be between the new shed and the house.

Close(ish) to the electricity.

And outside of the required distance from the septic.

Then they headed up to Kyle's.

Originally it was going to be about 200 yards away from the house.

But then they decided they could move it a bit closer 

(by about half...)

That will save us some $$$ in both electricity wiring

and also piping to the house.

There's a little ridge there (it needs to be higher than

the septic as well as at least 100 yards {feet?} away...)

Whatever.

They got it all drilled!

And then the guy told me they would come back,

probably at the end of next week to clean it out

and drop a submersible pump down and make sure

we have good water at both wells.

Then....

This morning they showed up to do the testing!

We have two, really good wells!

YEA!!!!!

Now all we need to do is order the pumps and

get them wired up and pumping water!

Kyle is VERY excited!

He will finally have internet AND water!

So civilized!

It was a VERY productive week.

Rod got the shed all wired for lights and outlets.

Kyle and I ran into Hays last night to get him

some allergy meds and a new ceiling fan for the shed.

We got WATER.

And I signed the contract today for the internet...

so hopefully in the near future we'll have service!

Oh, and we got our new freezers.

Whew!

What a week!

Tomorrow is Farmers Market and then in

the evening there is a go-cart race (last of the season)

we are going to go to.

The guys think buying go-carts to race sounds like

SO MUCH FUN.

(Our electrician is very involved over there...)

Anyhow.

Have a great weekend!

I'm going to BED.