Love That Excavator!

 And the operator, obviously.... lol.

Using that handy dandy piece of equipment

yesterday (and Wednesday) we got all

of the tomato infrastructure installed!

Four rows with 6 posts in each row took

just under 10 minutes to do.

Imagine using a t-post pounder to do that!!!

(About half way through, Kyle opened the

window and said "And you want to SELL

this machine???")

Yes, yes, I do. 

Ok, I don't, but that was the deal.

(It's running us over $600/month... and we put

$25k down when we bought it. Would be nice

to stop paying that and get that down payment back.)

But on days like this, I question my decision.

It's not going anywhere anytime soon though.

We will need to put in the septic system,

and dig all the trenches for the water from the

well to the house and the garden, and probably

some electricity out to the other well.

And bring in some fill dirt around the

base of the house, and try to fill in the "pond",

and there are probably a gazillion other things

Kyle wants to do with it once his poor

brain can stop thinking about the house build.

Anyhow.

There is a line of arches for the beans.

Then several (4) rows of t-posts

so we can do the infamous Florida Weave

around our gazillion tomato plants.

Also one row with cattle panels like last

year for the cherry tomatoes that take

over our lives....

Yeah, it's not straight.

But I needed a "before" picture,

because hopefully by July it will be

TOTALLY covered in bean plants

(and beans...)

We have a freeze warning tonight,

so the plants (which have been outside

overnight for the last two days and nights)

are coming back inside the house under 

the lights to protect them.

But Monday, this garden will look more

like a garden.

With ACTUAL green stuff in the ground!

(That isn't onions or weeds.... lol.)

Gotta sharpen the stirrup hoes.

Let the 2026 garden season begin!

Goodness Gracious!

 We have been BUSY!!!

Rod got ALL the plumbing done!

YEA!!!

And then he assembled the metal

box that the AC unit will sit on.

He bought the kit and said the

instructions were TERRIBLE.

But he got it figured out.

I guess if you can build a helicopter,

you can build a metal box.

Kyle finished the drywall.

All he has left are the walls in the

bathrooms and the mechanical room

since Rod is still doing stuff in there.

And today Kyle and I put up the cattle

panels for the tomatoes to lean against

and then got about half of the arched

panels we are going to put the pole beans on.

We are going to do a FULL 50 foot row of

arched panels with beans!

I'm so excited!!!

It will be really cool looking!

(And feeling)

They won't be fully grown

until July.

It will be lovely to sit under there!

Anyhow.

(Plus picking beans is AWFUL, so having

them up on a trellis overhead will be so

much better!)

(Remember the rattlesnake beans?

Same idea - but Kentucky Blue beans...)

Anyhow.

We also planted a full 100' of potatoes.

Some red, some purple and some yellow.

We have some leftover from last year

that we didn't harvest.

Didn't think it was worth it.

They were TINY and not very prolific,

so we just left them in the ground

and they are growing!

About half a 50' row.

NONE of the sweet potatoes we left

in the ground came back, but that's ok.

Anyhow.

It was a busy and productive day.

I'll head back out there in the morning

and we will get the rest of the arches up.

And then we want to start getting some

seeds in the ground.

The soil is 50-60 degrees.

It will only be 29 overnight on Friday and Sat

but nothing will be up by then anyway,

so it should be ok.

And we want it IN THE GROUND!

Then next week we will finally

start transplanting the tomatoes and peppers.

Gotta get them in the garden and out

of the spare room.

Scott and Janis are coming for a few

days, probably next week,

and then Jim and Sabrina will be here,

so we need that room cleaned out!

OK.

Just finished teaching,

Rod just got home from Mutual.

I'm going to go figure out something

quick and easy for us to eat 

and then it's time for bed.

Exited? Terrified?

 Kind of equal measure of both?

Hahahahahaha

(kind of)

So, the house build is progressing.

We now have a full ceiling and the

wall going into our bedroom!

About all he has left is the mud room

and the kitchen.

The guy is a machine!!!!!

And it's a good thing, too!

Because THINGS ARE HAPPENING!!!

1. Sabrina gave her notice.

2. Jim rented a moving truck.

3. Jim bought Kyle a plane ticket to Orlando.

For May 1!!!

They get the truck on May 7 until the 14th.

Which gives them a couple days to

load it and a couple days to drive.

(And gives Kyle several days to CHILL

in FLORIDA.)

Expect BEACH pictures.

(Plus he plans to do some door dashing 

while he's there and make some $$$)

Meanwhile, he will be GONE for about

10 days, so we need to be at a place

where we can

a. MOVE

b. Divide and conquer?

One of us might need to stay at Kyle's house

so the animals can be fed, etc.

And one of us might need to stay here because

Beau can't do the stairs at Kyle's house and 

if we don't have the fencing done, Luna and

Bandit also need to stay here.

But those are decisions for another day.

My anxiety levels just can't handle it today.

Meanwhile I've been on the phone with

MULTIPLE different "service" people at

Citibank trying to close an IRA.

I've been trying to close this account for

TWO MONTHS.

Sheesh. It's $3000.

How hard should it be???

I finally got someone who actually seemed

to know what they were doing and who

CARED about the person on the other

end of the phone.

We'll see.... I'm not counting my chickens

just yet...

But there are 8 dozen eggs in the freeze dryer.

And clothes in the clothes dryer.

And I'm getting ready to run to the farm to

pick up some eggs (since we ate the last 2

this morning...) and also check the soil temperature

in the garden to see if we should go ahead

and plant???

We are expecting one more cold weekend.

in the low 30's Friday and Saturday nights.

But if the SOIL is warm enough, the air temp

doesn't matter that much as long as there is

no frost, and hello Kansas wind.... 

frost is pretty rare here.

Anyhow.

We are SOOOOOO excited!

(And SUPER anxious.)

This is a BIG leap of faith for these guys.

Fingers crossed.

Having family close together

(even if we starve... lol)

trumps everything else.

We will make it work.

We always do.

But.... woooooo.

The heart palpitations are REAL.

Chilly Friday

 Looking at the forecast,

this might be the final chilly day.

Which is good, because I have GOT

to get these tomato and pepper plants

into the dirt!

Some of my cherry tomatoes are already

about 3+ feet tall and have flowers!

Yikes.

But spring is definitely here,

so probably on Monday I'll start

getting them in the garden.

(Tomorrow we have a farewell for

the Bishopric 1st Counselor and his

family, I served with his wife in

the YW Presidency and of course 

Rod is serving with him...)

Last night Rod and I had to run into

Hays to get some.... stuff.

Construction adhesive to install the shower?

Anyhow.

When Kyle and I were there on Tuesday,

they were out of the drywall we use.

Yesterday he installed the final piece so

we needed more and they had just gotten

a shipment, so I paid for another 78 sheets.

They said we could pick them up today.

So... about 11:30 Kyle showed up with his

truck and big trailer and we headed back

into town again to get the drywall.

Which means we then had to UNLOAD and

stack another 78 sheets of drywall.

He said he counted and is pretty sure he only

needs 68, but I already paid for it.

And then the guy running the forklift,

after he had it all loaded, said he messed

up a couple of pieces with his forks, so

he added an extra 6 pieces to our pile.

So we probably have 16 more than we need.

But, maybe we will need them.

If we don't, we'll load them back up and

return them.

Along with all the extra pvc we ended up

not actually needing.

(We also have to return a BUNCH of insulation...)

But that goes back to Menards in Salina

so that will wait until we go to get the

counter tops. We'll use that in-store credit

to pay for all the faucets for the kitchen and

2 bathrooms.

WEEEEE!

Anyhow.

This is the closet and bathroom doors

in our master bedroom.

The other side off the master...

(we have a LOT of windows in this house!)

Pretty sure that is one of the windows in the office.

The plumbing is looking good!

A few more days and it should be ready

to connect to the septic tank!

Meanwhile, after we got all the drywall

unloaded, we had to run up to Kyle's house.

All the peach jam is in the cupboard in his

island (since I made it at his house....)

and we needed another jar.

And also I wanted to pick up all the 

eggs he collected this week and get

them ready for the freeze dryer.

We replaced the ball valve on the side

and it is working MUCH better now.

The first batch of eggs took about 48 hours.

These are already done and it was just

under 24 hours. (I need to get done here

and go get them into sealed mason jars...)

Kyle's raspberry plants are SPREADING all over 

his strawberry raised bed.

The strawberries in this bed are struggling

a little bit, partly because the rabbits keep eating them.

But the little gnomes are doing their best to

guard and protect them...

They were originally black, but you couldn't

see them against the dirt, so Kyle painted them!

Aren't they cute!

Ok.

Gotta go do the eggs!

Nite all!

Cute Umbrellas!

Yesterday Kyle and I did our weekly

run into Hays.

We stopped at Home Depot to buy

some drywall mud and tape.

And.... we "had" to go out to

the garden center.

Because..... plants.

We each got another little

Hyacinth plant.

Mine fell off the shelf and

all the dirt fell out and it was

VERY unhappy about it all.

And Kyle is always happy to

have more flowers...

Then we went to WalMart to get

our weekly groceries.

And Kyle bought a little mint plant

and a little rosemary.

They are each $3.

Then, when we got home, I found an

envelope in the mailbox from Mom.

And.... the little umbrellas were

PERFECT!!!

The little yellow unbrella matches my

little mini yellow daffodils

(that are on their last legs).

And the little blue and pink umbrella

goes perfectly with my new

pink hyacinth!

I'm really enjoying having flowers in the house!

Today I went out back and

"chaos" planted all the raised beds

with a bunch of flower seeds.

Some of them are ones I saved from

last year's garden.

(4-oclocks, nasturtiums, zinnias)

and a couple packs of assorted

flowers I picked up from the store.

I also planted 16 little snap dragons

across the front of the bed closest

to the house (with zinnias etc behind them)

and some watermelons in the bed

closest to the neighbor's garage

and some cantaloupes in the bed

closest to our garage.

But also lots of flowers in all the beds.

We'll see what ACTUALLY comes up.

But in the meantime, I'm looking

forward to having some flowers here.

It seems like they took FOREVER to 

have flowers, which is why I bought

the little snapdragons.

Anyhow.

Just finished teaching.

Rod just got home from Mutual.

We are reheating some fried chicken

and some sweet potato fries for dinner.

And probably watching a Hallmark movie.

And then.... bed.

He's NEARLY done with the plumbing!

Yea!!!

And, of course, Kyle is banging out

all the drywall.

He's a beast.

WOOT!!!

 It's been a BUSY Monday.

(Following an amazing Easter / Conference 

weekend.... I had to teach but caught several

of the talks during breaks and lunch...)

Anyhow.

This morning Rod headed to the farm

to continue working on the plumbing.

This is where he's been spending his days

for the last several weeks.

He's anxious to get finished.

So is his back.

I stayed home and did our taxes.

UGH.

I don't want to talk about it.

Kyle has been hard at work.

(no surprise there....)

It's a little hard to tell... but he

fabricated the trunk line for

the a/c ducts!

And then he started working on the drywall.

He got the office all done.

And now he's working on our

prep room!

It's SOOOOO exciting to see it all

starting to really come together.

Then, right after I left to go home

to teach tonight's class...

The delivery guy showed up with a

BUNCH of boxes!

The A/C unit is here!!!

It's gettin' real here folks!

(Got a text from Jim, he and Sabrina

started PACKING over the weekend!)

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Meanwhile,

my flower garden is looking so pretty.

The bulbs are all flowering.

I'm not sure what the others are.

They are volunteers.

Yesterday was the final COLD 

overnight temps, so I'm going to get out

there in the morning and plant

some seeds in the rest of the bed.

I have a couple volunteer potatoes in

the bed they were in last year...

but I need to grab the seed potatoes we

bought and get them prepped and ready

to go in the ground at the farm.

And decide what / if I'm going to put anything

in the rest of my raised beds or wait

and let Jim and Sabrina plant whatever

they want to out there.

Anyhow.

I'm off to go watch a little TV

with Rod and then time for bed.

Happy Monday!

Good morning!

 Good morning!!!

Happy Holy Week!

I'm so enjoying reading all about

this week and what was happening.

And, of course, it's SPRING!

Hard to not be happy and cheerful

on a day like this one.

It was a little cloudy and drizzly

yesterday, kind of cold and not beautiful.

But April Showers!!!

I swear my flower bed grew 2 inches overnight.

There's something about rain.

Even if it's just a little...

Our Gala apple tree (still in a bucket until we move

and transplant it to its permanent home) is covered

in blossoms.

Unfortunately I don't know if we will get any fruit.

The Honeycrisp is just now popping leaves.

No blossoms yet.

The Gala is supposed to pollenate it.

But by the time it finally gets flowers

those galas will likely be gone.

Sigh.

Come on Mother Nature.... 

check your calendar!

However a walk out to the back alley

revealed some ALMOST there lilacs!

And, of course my kitchen table is

bursting with fun.

I brought in my rhubarb for the cold

nights coming.

Then the silk sunflowers that bring a smile

every day of the year.

And Tuesday I bought a mini daffodil for $4.

It's enjoying the morning sunshine

next to the basil and apple mint I managed

to not kill over the winter....

lol.

I can't WAIT for the entire town to be

full of flowers.

Everybody (except me) has giant flowerbeds

in their front yards and there are gorgeous

blooms everywhere.

It's so much fun to walk around and enjoy

them all!

Another couple weeks and we'll be there!

In the meantime, I'm enjoying my little

guys on my table.

(I also got a hyacinth for my kitchen

window... it smells up the entire house!)

But I forgot to take a picture of it and

I don't want to walk "all the way" to 

the kitchen.

(I'm avoiding the kitchen this morning...

Ward Council is doing a Fast today for

ideas to foster Ward Unity...)

I think Kyle and I are going into town

today to buy some DRY WALL!

We want to at least get some up in the

office since there's nothing else that

needs to go up in those walls.

We might do the master bedroom and

closet too...... we'll see.

It will be so much fun to see it start

to take shape!

If we get anything done today, I'll be sure

to put some pictures on tomorrow's blog.

But for now... I'm going to go take

a shower and get ready for the day.

Had a lovely phone chat with Soni.

Rod left for the house to do the plumbing

in the master bath.

Enjoy your Thursday!

April Fools!!!

 I know.

We are adults.

We don't DO April Fools.....

but I TOTALLY spaced and didn't

call Mom yesterday.

(We were trying to get the stupid bank

to let us buy our new AC unit....

but the limit on our card is $5000 per day

and it costs $5443. GEEZ. It's my money.

CASH even.)

Anyhow.

The "other" bank (the local, in town one)

said, sure! Let me make a call.

Whew!

And then I did a T-Tapp and before I

got cleaned up, Kyle showed up.

EARLY.

(He usually gets to our place around noon

on Tuesdays, but the Circles app started going

nuts about 7:30 because that's when everybody

got the news about the new Sunday School schedule.)

(He's in the Sunday School Presidency)

Anyhow.

Since he was awake, he got up, fed, and headed

into town.

So.......... long excuse.

I called Mom and said HAPPY TUESDAY!

She said... it's NOT Tuesday.

I said, yeah, April Fools.

Lame, I know.

We had a nice visit.

And meanwhile, Rod headed to the house

to do more plumbing.

Got everything all hooked up for

behind the washing machine.

I think all that's left is the master bath!

Yippeeeeeeee!

He'll be SO happy to be done with plumbing.

He also was digging around in the garage and

found the box that has the weather vane

Tim and Angie gave us as a moving gift.

Cool, eh?

Since Rod is NOT ALLOWED on any roof anymore....

Kyle will have to put it on the shop roof

one of these days when he has a minute.

It probably should go on the house roof,

but then we can't see it,

and what's the point of having a weather vane

if you can't look out the window and figure

out what direction the wind is blowing?

Anyhow.

I started teaching and then the students and I

took a quick 5 minute break while we all

watched Artimis II take off and take 4

astronauts to a fly-by of the moon!!!

SOOOO EXCITING!

(Jim and Sabrina watched from their

front porch...)

Rod watched with me on YouTube and then

he headed into town to Mutual and then to

Home Depot for, you guessed it,

more PVC plumbing fittings.

He should be home in a few, so I'm going

to head into the kitchen to reheat the

burger patties I made last night so we

can eat some dinner.

Hope you have a fun day!!!!!

Happy Monday Y'all!

 Rod spent the morning on the phone

with a million different providers

and FINALLY found the AC unit

we need for the new house!

Whew!

Who knew it could be so hard?

Hopefully installation will be easier...

(The manual is 66 pages...)

Anyhow.

He is heading to the house to take

more measurements to make sure

we order the right length of hoses.

And I'm going to get ready to teach tonight.

I taught over the weekend.

Had some actually fun students for a change!

It was a good class.

And yesterday when Kyle came over for

dinner, we went out back and were

checking on our "chaos" flower garden

that is self-seeding from last year.

We did stick a few bulbs in last fall.

I have 2 hyacinth coming up!

And a volunteer tulip in the corner

next to one of my rhubarb...

These little grape hyacinth are left over

from the previous tenants.

They come up on their own every spring

and boy they smell wonderful!!!

The lilacs are getting leaves and I even

found some tiny blossoms!

These are OLD trees so the flowers aren't

awesome, but at least there are some.

The little lilac sticks (one day trees???)

that Kyle and I bought in March of 2024

and drove back to Florida with us,

and then back to Kansas,

and then back to Florida again

and then back to Kansas to FINALLY

stick in the ground.....

(sheesh)

are NOT dead and are actually 

getting some leaves as well.

I'm going to dig them both up and transplant

them at the new house.

Found a rabbit eating the grass on my

walk to the alley to check on the lilacs.

He didn't even look up when I walked by.

The town rabbits are pretty brave.

(He, or a friend, was in my flower bed

this morning! I chased him away...)

Eat what you want, but stay OUT of the

garden beds!!!

And a peek at my beautiful eggs.

I cracked and stirred up 18 eggs for each of

5 freeze dryer trays last night after school.

Got them in the deep freezer.

I'll probably put them in the freeze dryer

tomorrow morning.

Want to make sure they are REALLY

frozen - they make a mess in your machine

if they aren't good and solid.

OH!

And Saturday after school we used the last

of the Subway Gift Card Rozann and Greg sent

us for Christmas.

We each got a 12" sub.

Ate half for dinner and saved the other

half for lunch on Sunday.

Thanks guys!

We got THREE meals out of that card!

It was a nice treat.

We don't eat out often.

Too easy to cook at home.

And not much choice here in our little town.

(Actually, there are several nice places,

but DANG eating out is pricey!!!)

So we don't bother.

Hard to justify when you have LOTS of

food right there in the fridge/freezer.

But sometimes it is just nice to go for

the convenient option.