Shop - CHECK!

 Kyle and Rod have been BUSY.

Rod has been installing all the insulation

in the new shop and getting it all

buttoned up.

Kyle came in one evening when it started to rain and he

couldn't work on his pig world.

He put up a shelf for some of Rod's tools.

They drove up to the storage unit and got

all Rod's big tool boxes and moved them in!

It's going to be SO NICE to have all his tools

in one place!

Then he came in the next evening and built

more shelves and work benches on the other wall!

Excellent job you guys!!!

And now..... on to the NEXT project.

Which is getting the pump installed

in Kyle's new well so the man can

FINALLY have real running water!

**************************************************************

In other news, we were so happy and blessed

that Dad's fall didn't result in any major

injuries or difficulties.

It's tough when you tip over!

But so glad it turned out to just be

a scrape on the ol' noggin.

And, of course, we were saddened to hear

of the death of our dear Prophet.

Driving in to church Sunday morning I

tried to imagine his arrival in heaven.

Being greeted with such joy and love

by his dear wife and daughters and

other family members.

I imagine Christ standing off to the side,

patiently waiting to welcome him home

with open arms and a well deserved

"Well done, my good and faithful servant.

Come with me so we can talk."

(And his wife sighing.... another meeting.

And so eternity begins.)

Friday

This morning I got 2 trays of zucchini 

ready to go into the freeze dryer.

I cut it up in chunks and left one plain

and sprinkled the other with 

Everything But the Bagel seasoning.

It's yummy.

And better than potato chips.

(At least that's what I tell myself... lol.)

And then I did a tray of diced colored peppers

from our garden. 

They are so vibrant when they are dried.

And delicious and easy to just dump into 

recipes. (I keep a mason jar of those as

well as a jar of diced dried onions on my

shelf above my stove.....)

AND 2 trays of diced celery.

You buy a bag of celery.

You use one stalk.

The rest turns into a nasty, slimy mess

before you need to go buy another big ol'

bag and use one stalk.

So these go into another mason jar.

SO easy and convenient!

Then I headed out to the farm to finish

tidying up after yesterday,

and do a harvest.

We got 5 zucchini and a couple yellow squash.

I was also able to pick a bucket of

sungold cherry tomatoes.

There were lots of super sweet (red)

but I just didn't feel like it.

I DID get 2 gallon ziplock bags of ripe

Amish Paste tomatoes to put in the freezer.

In a week or two when I have some time,

I'll pull them out.

Once they are frozen, the skins just slip off.

And I'll make a big batch of spaghetti sauce

and can that.

The okra is done.

It's still producing, but not great quality.

And I brought 4 gallon bags and probably 6

quart bags full to put in the big freezer.

(As well as several bags of diced peaches

for smoothies and crumbles etc over the winter...)

Tomorrow "may" be the final farmers market

of the season. I don't remember from last year,

but I feel like once October got here, we were done.

We'll see.....

We plan to go and bring what we have.

And then its the final go-cart race of the season,

so we are going to go to that tomorrow night.

Here's a picture of our FAT and happy piggies.

Their bellies are FULL.

(Kyle and I ran the numbers and we "may" be

overfeeding them a bit... might need to cut back.)

He actually pet one today.

Said it wasn't HAPPY about it, but at least he

got close enough to pet it.

He is nearly finished with the pastures.

When I went over about 2:00 he only had to put

wire on the gates and string the electric wire around

the perimeter. (Keep them in and other critters

out ... right at "snout" level.)

Piggies with a "banana for scale". Its an internet thing. Lol

So... maybe next week we will be able to move

Luna up there (she will be in the adjacent pasture,

so they can see each other, but she can't eat them...

until she gets trained, she will have to keep her distance.)

But having a barking dog will also protect them from

other critters who also like pork.

Ok.

I'm done for the evening!

Have a great weekend!

Aaaaaaaand We're DONE!

 Whew!

That was a JOB!

But we have all of the chickens processed

and safely in the freezer.

That is a little over half of the bags of chicken.

I started being really organized and putting

the breasts on one side and the leg quarters

on the other side, but then I started putting

the big black trash bags full of .... leftover stuff

in the middle and it kind of leaned over onto the

leg quarters side, so... I gave up.

I'll organize it all nicely in milk crates. 

Later.

It felt good to get it all finished!

The hens were smaller and fit in the

"hugging" cone easier.

But they were MUCH feistier!

Harder to catch, and actually

a little harder to process.

The roosters were HUGE!!!

The size of a hen turkey!

Too big to fit in the cone.

So after we got all the hens done,

and I took an hour break up at Kyle's

house to do our RS Presidency zoom,

we did the final 3 roosters.

Thankfully Rod was there today to help me.

We had to do it the good old fashioned

way, like Grandma did back in the day.

But it was effective and we got it done.

Just in time to run to the house and 

quickly put a double batch of Cowboy Grub

into the pressure cooker for the

missionaries who were coming for dinner.

We had cowboy grub, corn muffins,

and ceasar salad with cookies for desert.

Those young men can EAT!

There was one deli container of leftovers.

Enough for us for dinner tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Kyle and Rod got all of

Rod's giant toolboxes moved from the

storage building into his new shop!

I forgot to take a picture.

But I will...

And now, he is in my office doing a

Bishopric meeting.

And I'm reading a book.

But probably going to nod off.

I just could NOT get to sleep last night.

Tossed and turned until after 1:00.

Up again at 4.

And then got up about 7.

Had a nice visit with Soni.

Tomorrow is the LAST morning class,

so I'll probably pop in and say Hi to

Coach Beth.

And then I need to go to the farm.

We have a BUNCH of ripe

Amish Paste tomatoes that I need to pick

and get into bags in the freezer.

And I need to pick the okra.

And there are probably some zucchini

and yellow squash that need attention.

I also saw a pumpkin when I was down

there earlier this week.

I also need to get a load of zucchini slices

and some okra and maybe some bell peppers

into the freeze dryer.

I love harvest season, but it is BUSY!

Oh!

And I turned over to 11,000 miles on the

new car this morning!

I got to the top of the hill just before our turn-off.

I tapped the brakes to disconnect the cruise

and to start slowing for the turn.

Glanced down and couldn't figure out why

I was still doing 64 mph.

And then realized it was the temperature outside.

Hahahahaha.

It was a lovely cool morning!

Perfect for chicken processing.

Next I need to clean out the hen house.

Maybe Monday.

We'll see.

More Chickens.....

 Today I spent the morning processing chickens.

I got.... 7? done? 

It went well until the last one....

it was kind of a fiasco.

So I quit a little earlier than I planned.

Needed to come home and shower and

wash my hair and still be ready to teach.

(yes, whatever you are imaging is probably

exactly what happened.... ugh)

I also called the hatchery and changed my order 

for baby chicks coming in October.

Instead of 120 I dropped the order down to 30.

We have decided driving to Wichita every week

doesn't sound like fun.

We are likely going to take the pigs to the local

sale barn in Colby and sell them there instead.

But our plans are always fluid.

Either way, I don't want to have to try to sell that

many eggs, and if you are selling them yourself

that's a LOT of eggs without a LOT of profit.

30 is plenty.

And shouldn't be a problem to sell and still make

enough $ to make it worth while.

Anyhow.

Life is always changing around here.

The internet folks came by just as I was leaving and

did more work on getting our internet installed and

up and running. I would LOVE it if they got it up

already, but I doubt it's working yet.

I have to do a Presidency zoom tomorrow. It would

be awesome if I didn't have to stop what I was

doing and go up to Kyle's house to zoom.

I could just sit there in the shop and have the

meeting and then get back to work.

We also have the missionaries coming for dinner.

So I need to leave about 4:00 anyway.

But I only have 9 more left to do.

And then I think we are going to pressure wash

the egg house and then bring our 7 chickens from

our backyard up to the farm and put them in 

there and out on the pasture with the pigs.

Get them out of our backyard.

But.... fluid. (See above...)

Ok.

Rod just got home from his Wed night meetings

at the church, and I just finished teaching,

so I'm going to run make us some quick dinner

and we are off to bed.

Busy day again tomorrow.

NITE ALL!

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!