Just For Fun

This week’s class was SMALL.

Saturday I had 4 students.

(I have a minimum requirement of 5

But my boss let me run anyway cuz

he’s a good man)

Sunday the men didn’t show up

so I only had TWO!

Which means my boss had no choice

but to pull the plug for next weekend.

This meme describes it perfectly.

The three of us ladies had a GREAT time

on Sunday and we even talked

about insurance!

(Although we also learned lots about

different cooking methods,

some health tips, horses, cows,

and backyard eggs... etc)

I Can't Help Myself...

I sometimes NEED to get a new gadget.

And this week was no exception.

Laundry Balls

Have you seen these things?

They are all over Facebook.

I read a gazillion reviews and most were

very positive, so I pulled the trigger yesterday.

They arrived today - and I needed to do a load

of wash today, so test away!

Rod's blue jeans he wore in the garden the

other night and got dirt ground into his knees

came out CLEAN!

And I didn't have to use any detergent!

So far... so good!

(His uniform is all black and he works inside

in the air conditioning, so the only "dirt" he gets

on himself is little bits of aviation adhesive

and NOTHING on planet earth gets that off

so it's hard to tell if it is clean, but it smelled fresh...)

Anyhow.

I think I'm happy!

NEXT

(Yes, there IS another one...)

Faucet

This fits on my kitchen faucet.

I'm not wild about the swivel feature.

My faucet is kind of low - I think if I had

a taller faucet it would be better, but its

not terrible...

But let me tell you.

We have a well.

And our water pressure is abysmal.

I can tell if I left the water running in the 

horse's water trough because there is NO

water in the kitchen.

And if somebody is in the shower it is

a coin toss which of us gets any water...

Even when I'm the only one using the water

it takes an eternity to fill the sink for dishes.

Or even to fill a pot to boil for whatever I'm cooking.

And then I installed (ok, Rod had to fix it

because I forgot the gasket...)

and let me tell you!

I actually had to turn the water DOWN

because the pressure was so high I was

blowing it out of the sink!

I filled my entire instant pot inner pot

in less than half the time it usually takes!

So...

Another WIN!

(And no, I didn't do ANY shopping today...)

Next...

I'm all done being a truck driver.

Kyle dug the pond!

And we discovered we have too much dirt.

So I quit loading it up and dumping it around

the property because we ran out of places.

There are plenty of places that need dirt

on these 9+ acres, but if we keep dumping

and then running tractors etc, we are

reducing the amount of grass her cows

have for grazing on.

So... its one pasture at a time.

We finished Pasture #4.

And he left giant piles around the new pond.

He will move them over the next few months.

But anyway... I'm done.

It was FUN!

Yesterday I got my sutures removed.

No pictures.

You're welcome.

I've been putting Bountiful Balm on it

when I think about it (and when it's

not wrapped in vet wrap to keep from

snagging the "loops" on things)

(And from Kyle losing his lunch when he

SEES the "loops"...)

When I got to the doctor's they were VERY

complimentary on how well my incision has

healed - I reminded them I don't use Vaseline

and told them a little about the salve I'm using.

Dr. Porter said - whatever you're doing, keep it up.

This looks beautiful!

(He's wrong, it looks gross, but it's healing well... lol)

Our next ongoing project is the garden.

Last night Rod planted all the little starts Kyle had

purchased that have been languishing on the patio

waiting for SOMEBODY to find the time to plant them.

And then today I finished putting some

cypress mulch around the plants he didn't

get done last night. (The mosquitoes were AWFUL!)

Bell peppers (yellow and red) and 6 tiny little

broccoli plants that a rabbit got to and

nibbled all the leaves off.

You can't see them, but they are there...

Some sage and ... something that starts with a c...

and 2 yellow crookneck squashes.

Three little bitty tomatoes.

Rosemary.

Lavender.

(And a bucket with mint in it...)

We're going to need a bunch more mulch

but we can get as much as we want for free

from the dump - Rod just wanted to put "clean"

mulch directly around the plants.

(You can see the free mulch in the first picture...

Rod got a whole truck load last week and put it

in the first "alley"... it's great mulch!)

And look! We even have three little tomatoes!

Bring on the salad!

Truck Driver

We really got into a nice rhythm yesterday.

I back into the sweet spot,

Kyle loads my bed with 6 scoops

(all the truck can dump... its wet heavy clay/sand)

then I drive through the pasture to a

spot behind Linda's new house and dump it.

(Which requires BACKING to the pile...

I'm learning to back a vehicle using my mirrors! 

Only took 60 years...)

Then drive back to the sweet spot...

make a "tick mark" on my tally sheet

and do it all again.

I did a total of 30 loads yesterday.

Kyle came over with the skid steer and

spread the dirt out after every 10 loads.

Spreading dirt. 

Some of my piles.

And his "cat bird".

This bird followed him, back and forth,

the whole time he was spreading.

Looking for bugs... but no luck since this

is coming from the bottom of the pond.

We moved a LOT of dirt!

 

There's his little friend again!

Silly bird.

I forgot to take another picture...

but it's WAAAAY bigger now.

I left about 5:30 and Rod took my driver's seat

for another hour and then they called it a day.

He/We are taking the weekend off.

It's going faster than we anticipated

(KNOCK WOOD)

so we aren't going to push quite so hard

next week. Although he still has a TON

of work left to do - 40 more dirt piles to move

that he and Rod piled up on Thursday,

and 80+ trees to move, cut up, load up

and haul off to the dump.

So far, so good...

New Job

You remember I showed you Kyle's new machine.

He has it leased for a month.

Linda approved his plan to take down 80

trees (which he did in the first day...)

(he still needs to chop them up and

carry them off to the dump, but they

are all down at least...)

and then dig a pond.

It's 80 x 80 x 8' deep

with an interior measurement of 50x50.

He will spread all that dirt on the

low spots on her farm that are

ALWAYS flooding.

That will really help.

Anyhow - that IS a lot of dirt.

So... he digs and I haul it off!

This was the very first scoop...

Inspecting the hole.

Hey, this is kind of fun!

My new office.

Rod came over last night and took

some pictures, but he didn't send them to me yet.

This morning I took Rod to his eye doctor.

His glaucoma pressure was a bit higher than

she liked, so he had a laser procedure

to release some of that pressure.

But although she said he would be ok

to go back to work in about an hour,

be was still kind of fuzzy and

didn't feel like he should really be

working on an airplane when he can't see

the tiny stuff.

But he CAN see well enough to drive

the dump truck.

And naturally he is WAY better (faster)

than I am... so he went to work with Kyle.

Poor Kyle will really miss him tomorrow

when he's got me back in the driver's seat...

The job should take about 100 hours or so.

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

Meanwhile, my booboo is looking pretty good.

I've been putting Bountiful Balm on it

to help it heal and keeping it wrapped

to keep it clean.

I get the stitches out on Tuesday.

Can't wait!

It's ITCHY!!!

Tuesday

Well... if that isn't a riveting title...

I don't know what is!

Draws you right in, doesn't it?

I continue to amaze myself with

my writing skills...

Hahahahahahahahahaha...

Whatever.

Yesterday Rod had a re-check on his

glaucoma since the last time he was

REALLY tired and actually fell asleep

during the test.

Hey.

They turned the lights off!

What did they expect?

Anyhow.

He stayed awake this time and did

better, but his vision is still non-existent

in the lower left quadrant of his one eye.

They other eye compensates for it

so he sees fine, but when you test each

eye individually, its pretty apparant.

And then his pressure was up in that eye as well.

And was up a little last check as well.

It's been 10 years since his last laser treatment.

So his Dr. suggested we repeat the laser

and get ahead of this rather than chase it later.

So Thursday morning at 8:30 he is going

in for another laser treatment to release

some of the pressure in his eye.

She said since it worked well the first time,

it generally works almost as well the second.

And then the next time it will likely require

surgery - but this should hold that off for awhile.

Years, maybe.

Prayers would be appreciated!

Meanwhile...

"Stubby" greedily ate all his breakfast this morning.

(He dribbles, so I feed him on a paper towel bib...)

(Stubby is a good uni-sex name since we have

no idea of his gender at this point. We are going

with male, just because...)

Bottle Babies

There are actually TWO bottle babies.

Baby #1.

Turns out Rod hasn't been a big fan of

my "Q-tip" but is too sweet to tell me so.

Pearl (of the Trim Healthy Mamas) has waist

length BLACK hair, but now that she is nearing

50, she thought she should go with a softer color.

So she did, and cut a couple of inches off.

I thought it looked gorgeous, and she shared 

the brand of healthy hair color she used,

so I checked them out.

And then I showed it to Rod.

And he TOTALLY encouraged me to go for it.

So.....

Since I'm still not supposed to be using my arm,

I asked HIM (and Kyle in the peanut gallery)

to color my hair for me.

They got creative.

And then it was time to wait.....

I like it!

And more importantly, HE likes it!

Nobody at church even mentioned it.

Whatever.

(grin)

Meanwhile...

Bottle Baby #2.....

On Saturday while the guys were finishing

putting the wire fencing on the new garden

the dogs found a couple of baby rabbits.

One didn't survive.

The other they snatched from the jaws of death

and put into the rabbit hutch.

The plan was to put it back where Mom could

find it that night, but we forgot.

So...

We headed to Tractor Supply for a little bottle

and some kitten milk replacer.

We figure this little guy (gal?) is about 18 days 

old, which is how old they usually are when they

start leaving the nest and exploring...

Ignore my wrinkly face and focus on the cute

little bunny refusing the bottle.

After about 15 minutes he suddenly started

sucking for all he was worth!

And then he immediately fell sound asleep.

I got him out this morning for a repeat performance.

Without most of the struggling and trying to escape.

In fact when I opened the hutch, he ran right

into my hand. I think he might be lonely.

And chilly.

He fought the nipple for about 10 minutes

and then suddenly ate his fill

and back to sleep.

He/She is old enough to start eating solid food

so I'm going to pick up some pellet today

and put it out for him.

Still needs to nurse for a couple more weeks,

but by then he should be super tame.

We are going to keep this one and add some

more for our new breeding program.

We'll just pick up a couple of little ones

next month when Tractor Supply has them

on sale for Easter.

(Unless we can find a local breeder before then...)

Anyhow.

We now have TWO bottle babies!