Happy Birthday Dad!!!!

Today is my Dad's birthday.

And this is what he is doing.

(although he's not doing it in the "office" in Tucson... they are back in Canada.)

Working on this very program.

Since April.

He is nothing if not tenacious!

(And brilliant - he's pretty sure he's got it licked!)

These might be my favorite pictures EVER of my Dad.

This is SO HIM!

Quiet.

Gentle.

Thoughtful.

Taking time to cherish the moment.

And possibly the best marshmallow cooker in the world.

(I want a horse exactly that color)

He does, however, also make a KILLER smoothie.

Every morning.

I just know he is whistling.

While he studies the plants and birds.

Dad doesn't look at stuff.

He studies it.

No matter what "it" happens to be.

He was an Engineer, by training.

But he is a studier by birth.

He loves his wife.

(And children...)

He is loyal.

Loving.

Patient.

Kind.

And willing to be silly.

(If he HAS to)

He rides horses.

He roller blades.

He does TRX workout!!!!

None of your business how old he is.

(grin)

But he is the YOUNGEST octogenarian I know.

And I love him.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Slacker

I've been accused of being a slacker,

since there is no new post today.

So here you go.

New post.

LOL

This is TOTALLY Sabrina and me!

Double Yolk

Egg Update:

Here's how many I have "on hand" right now.

The ones on the left that are all shiny?  I had just washed them, prepping to drop into boiling water

for this week's hard boiled.

They are the first of the babies eggs, so they are pretty small.

They don't even fill the little carton cup thingies.

Rod might need 3 each day instead of two.

Notice the HUGE egg over on the right hand side.

Wanna see what's inside?



Not the actual egg, but one of equal size, we get one like that every couple of days...



Double yolks!
Kind of like Twins!
Poor chicken - it really was a BIG egg!

Meanwhile, remember when I said our weather was changed and all the water was soaked in?

Yah.
Spoke too soon.
This was yesterday afternoon.

Pouring rain.
HUGE puddles everywhere.

I didn't take a picture, but this morning,
it's blue skies and dry yard.
Mostly.

LOL
Welcome to Florida in the rainy season.

So glad we aren't in Lousiana - lots of prayers for those folks.

Wait A Minute

You've heard the expression

If you don't like the weather

Wait a Minute...

Well, in our case it took more than a minute.

But still...

This morning we woke to clear blue skies with high, wispy clouds.

The air was "soft".

90% of the puddles are soaked into the ground.

Sadly, it will take another day or two for the MAJOR MUD HOLE

right outside the back barn gate to go away.

But still...

I love Florida.

Hurricane 101

I was talking to Mom on the way home from school yesterday and realized

if you don't live in the hurricane zone

there's a lot of stuff we take for granted

that others just might not know.

So.

I'm going to tell you!

First.

The "cone" I often post doesn't really tell the story.

See?

Here is today's "cone".

We're totally in the clear.

Right?

Then we have today's radar.

Reality is, all the fun stuff is usually found on the northeast side of the storm.

Yah, I'm under the yellow/red stripe right along the coast.

And we will be doing that all day.

And tomorrow.

Probably.

So we won't get a direct hit, but we are getting LOTS of weather.

As evidenced by the dog shed.

Peeled the roof back like a sardine tin.

Did a number on the tarp over the 4-wheelers too.

(Granted, it was on it's last legs already...)

The girls are high and dry though.

This is what it looked like while I was chatting with Mom.

But at least Florida knows what it's doing.

This is not our first rodeo.

All those trucks you see, as far as you CAN see

are Power Trucks.

All the northern counties and even some of the southern states send hundreds of crews and trucks

to the area ahead of the storm.

We were already hearing reports of 2300+ homes in the Miami/Keys areas who were without power.

Hours before the storm was scheduled to hit.

What most people don't know...

If the storm actually HITS (direct hit)

the power company will often turn the power off on purpose.

If they don't, the storm will take out hundreds of transformers.

It's pretty dramatic watching those blow.

But then you have to replace all of them.

It's expensive and time consuming.

And we outlying areas take forever to get power again.

(Our house was without power for nearly a month in 2004.  Luckily we were still in the other house...)

By turning the power off, when the storm is over, they just throw the switch and then

fix the ones that actually blew down or whatever.

But we are prepared.

We have 2 really good Yamaha generators.

We have some solar panels (thanks Kyle!)

We have a mud pump to take care of flooding.

We have supplies.

In fact, one day Kyle and I were talking about being prepared for whatever comes.

Specifically EMF attacks.

And how everyone would be devastated if the grid suddenly went down.

He mentioned that at least we have horses.

I said,

Yes, we could eat them.

He said,

Well... yes, but I was thinking more about hitching them to a wagon for transportation.

LOL

Don't tell Andy.

Yum

Yesterday I headed out to Aldi's to get some groceries.

The night before I bought a little bit of nothing at WalMart for $45.

This is what I got at Aldi's...



9 pounds of frozen chicken thighs.

3 pounds of REALLY good steak

(we cooked one package last night.  YUM!)

6 Roma tomatoes

2 green peppers

3 avacadoes

2 packages of button mushrooms

1 head of cauliflower

4 onions

1 cantelope

1 bag fresh oranges

1 bag fresh lemons

3 cucumbers

fresh spinach

fresh romaine lettuce

greek yogurt

2 bags frozen green beans

BBQ sauce

dried basil

(shhh) Ice Cream Drumsticks (for Kyle)

I paid $66.

I need to go more often, but it's not on the way home. 

It took me 25 minutes to drive there.  And then another 20 to do my shopping and check out.

I think there might be one closer to my office though, and then I can bounce onto the highway.

Might give that a try next week.

Meanwhile, looks like Isaac might be targetting Mobile, Alabama.

Sorry for them.

But good for us.

As long as it doesn't hit South Florida on Sunday.

I'll be down there teaching.

(just got an email from the school director saying it's up to us whether to cancel or teach.

I'm planning to teach, but will make the final call when it gets closer.)

(My school is down there on the coast, by the "eyeball" - Lake Okeechobee)

Isaac?

So.

Isaac.

Where you headed Isaac?

West coast?

East coast?

Or catch a wave and into the Gulf and off to Texas?

The waiting and watching begins.

Luckily, this place doesn't have too much to do to prepare.

Well, except we'll need to move Rocky into the barn.

Her cage will fly, for sure.

But the girl's coop weighs roughly eleventy-two thousand pounds.

It isn't going anywhere.