My (almost not anymore) Florida Peeps

 My dandelion tea channeled y'all

again this morning!

We've been keeping you in our prayers

as you pack up, make all those big

decisions (keep? donate? toss? bury in the yard?)

Hahahahaha.

It's NOT fun and decision fatigue

is REAL!!!

But you will get through it!

Today is the truck delivery day!

And now it is ON.

The dogs wish they could help.

But they are pretty busy here.

Although Bear prefers to be a lap dog.

"Can I come up???"

NOPE.

(Ok, he did anyway....)

But I HAVE trained him that he does

NOT sleep on the bed.

He's a smart dog.

First night I had to be really forceful

and push him off the bed.

He was VERY offended.

The second night he hopped on and it

only took one big shove to get him off.

Hasn't tried since.

Good boy.

I've been busy too though.

I just pulled the watermelon out of the

freeze dryer.

OH MY GOODNESS!

Reid has GOT to try this.

It's the bomb!

Rod came in while I was packaging

it up (got 4 quart jars and this jar for

in the kitchen, daily snacking...)

and he immediately grabbed a baggie

and filled it to take with his lunch.

I'm not sure how it would have done 

in Florida. By the time I was done

getting it in jars, the dust on the trays

was getting pretty sticky already.

It rained all day yesterday so it's a 

little more humid than usual around here...

So I scooped it all up with my

bench scraper and put it in my 

water jug!

YUM!

Meanwhile, we had a late freeze

and EVERYTHING we started from

seed and planted out in the garden

is dead.

Sigh.

But there is an amazing lady at

Bomgaars (out in the parking lot)

and I was able to replace almost all of

it ... and since it was Senior Discount Day

(Tuesdays) I got 132 plants for $64.57!

Not bad!

I filled the cart all the way up

and then she offered to give me

the black plastic trays they come in too...

and there were a couple empty spots,

so I bought MORE. 

Hahahaha.

When I got home I went through and pulled

all the flowers and buds off the peppers.

WAAAAY too early for that nonsense.

I got a good variety of peppers and tomatoes.

(Even 4 Habanero and 4 Jalapeno for Jim...)

A good mix of cherry and slicer tomatoes

and several kinds of bell peppers.

No little rainbow snacking peppers though,

but we ordered more seeds on Friday.

They will be here tomorrow and I'll

get them started again.

They'll be late, but at least we will

get SOME.

There are a couple 4-packs of romas

in there, but I also started 36 more last week

and they are already germinated.

They will be good replacements when

these quit producing.

(Determinate tomatoes like Romas put

all their fruit on at one time and then

they are done, so we will have a second

wave... I'll probably start more in another

week or two for a third wave.)

Anyhow.

We are getting excited!!!

Lots of FUN THINGS coming up

in the next little bit!

I'm going to work on getting the room

ready for Jim and Sabrina.

Rod is working on the pump today.

It's not working the way he wants.

And then it's back to taping and mudding.

The end is in sight!

Well.... THAT Was Intense!

 We spent the day at the farm.

Rod was working on putting up

some new shelves in his shop

and I was watering the two gardens.

About 3:30 I left so I could teach.

And about 45 minutes into class

I got a text from Rod letting me

know he was getting ready to come

home, but there was a storm blowing in.

He was up at the pig barn,

closing everything up, 

when there was a HUGE lightning

and thunder crash and

BAM.

FIRE!!!!!

Went from a lightning strike to THAT in under a minute.

Those are our power poles on our property.

The road is right behind the furthest one.

These pictures are from Kyle's place.

The lightning hit right behind Steve's

house (the owner of the dog, Chester)

west of our property by about half a mile,

and spread FAST.

His house is on the top of the hill so Rod could keep track better.

This is directly across the street

from our new house.

It just kept rolling! The wind was pretty stout.

This progression is in under 5 minutes!

He called 911 to report it

and then sent me a text with a picture.

I sent a text to our neighbor Vincent.

He lives a couple miles away.

He knows EVERYBODY.

A couple minutes later, he texted back

that the brush trucks were on the way

and he was loaded up and heading down

with his disc.

About that time Rod texted the first

brush truck was on scene.

And here came 3 more....

And ALL the neighbors.

We use the term neighbors pretty loosely

around here.

The "Crop Doc" who flies a crop duster

and lives several miles up the highway

came to help.

The guy that delivers shale (and is going

to do our driveways once the build is done)

came to help.

And a bunch of fire fighters.

(Probably volunteers / farmers)

Anyhow.

They were able to get it out really quickly.

The first text was 6:15 and at 6:39

he was saying it was moving North East

(away from us...)

But it was fast moving and burned

a good bit of ground.

Thankfully no buildings were burned.

By 7:19 it was out and they were

just mopping up the hot spots.

We are grateful for good neighbors

and quick responders.

Fire is a THING.

Especially when we haven't had any

appreciable precipitation since December.

We had one light snow... but it was

really dry and didn't have any moisture 

in it when it melted.

Meanwhile, I was teaching.

So I put a picture on the screen and 

apologized for being a little scattered

and eventually just took an 

unscheduled extra break.

But all is well.

Rod got home at 9:00 just as I was closing

down the class.

The firefighters stayed until Vincent

got all the dirt disced where the hot spots

were.

And now, we are sitting down to

eat some Hawaiian Pizza and give

thanks for Heavenly Father looking 

out for our family.

AGAIN.

We are so grateful.

Monday Morning

 We had a good weekend.

I taught on Saturday.

Rod spent the day at the farm.

Where a "mystery man" came

and installed the weathervane

on the top of his shop.

It looks really good.

And I'll probably forgive him (eventually)

for getting on a ladder.

But he better not do it again!!!

(That was a house warming gift from

Tim and Angie before we moved...)

He's been in charge of feeding the

dogs, pigs and chickens while Kyle is

in Florida helping Jim & Sabrina move.

They are still puppies and LOVE to

rough house with each other.

Pebbles is the LAZIEST eater in the world.

She only eats laying next to her bowl.

Silly girl.

He has also done a BUNCH of work in

his shop, took down the little half wall

and moved the big freezer up against

the wall so he can get his giant lawn mower

and the 4-wheeler in there.

We need to do a little more re-arranging

so we can bring the 2nd freezer down from

the storage building to make room for

all of Jim and Sabrina's belongings.

They have to store pretty much

EVERYTHING until we move out of the

WaKeeney house and hand it over to them.

It will be tight in the storage building.

But we will make it work.

Today Rod is going to put more shelves

up on the wall above the freezer

so he can move more stuff off the floor

and make more space.

Meanwhile, this morning I cut up

a "super sized" watermelon we got

at our little local grocery store on

Saturday evening.

It's in the freezer now and heading

to the freeze dryer tomorrow.

That sounded like fun.

It's not the sweetest watermelon,

but it's also NOT watermelon season.

It was 25 pounds for $10.99,

so even if it's not perfect, it was

a really good deal.

We'll either eat it in little cubes

or maybe I'll just powder it all in

my food processor and we can add

it to lemonade, etc.

It smelled awesome though!

Now I'm heading to the farm to start

watering everything and feed all the

watermelon rinds to the pigs and chickens.

And then I teach again this evening.

Have a wonderful Monday!

They Did It!

 Those men are amazing.

This is the LONG line of pipe

running the length of the garden.

It's going to be wonderful to have

a frost free hydrant at both ends

of the garden.

Waaaaaaaaaay less hose dragging.

And now the excavator magician

is filling the trenches.

And we have water!

Both to the garden,

and to the house, once we are ready.

Eventually they will build a

pump house to protect the well

and the pressure tank and pipes.

But for now....

WE HAVE WATER!

Getting Closer to WATER

 The guys got most of the pipe

laid yesterday and then

discovered this morning that the

connectors weren't designed for

high pressure (like water....).

So, I jumped in the car and did

a quick trip to Home Depot to buy

some more connectors.

(Luckily they hadn't glued ALL of

the wrong ones in so we will be 

able to return them...)

Anyhow.

I also got 10 dozen eggs prepped for

the freeze dryer.

And then the adult son of a local friend

called and said he had just returned

from Missouri where he picked a 

bunch of morel mushrooms from a

"crick" bottom.

He has purchased lots of fun

freeze dried things from me at

the farmer's market and wondered

if I would be interested in trying

to freeze dry some of these...

I'm always up for a challenge!

So he brought them over and we

put them all spread out on the trays

and popped them into the machine.

Usually I pre-freeze everything, but they are

already pretty "dry" so they didn't

need to be pre-frozen.

(Even the Harvest Right App says

they only need a few hours of pre-freeze

and it's just as easy to do it in the machine.)

Anyhow.

I should have taken a picture,

but I was hurrying to get the eggs into

the freezer so they will be ready when

the mushrooms come out.

I want them all done before I have to

leave town on Friday.

Don't want Rod to have to deal with them.

Anyhow.

I'll snap a picture when they are done.

I needed to clean out the freezer though,

since I wasn't sure if I was going to

pre-freeze or not,

and there was half a bag of

Rhodes rolls.

Put them in pans and set them to rising.

During my final break I put them in the

oven with instructions for Rod to take

them out when it dinged.

That last hour of teaching was

TORTURE!!!

The rolls smelled so good!!!

I'm going to run make some alfredo

and we'll have nice warm rolls with it.

Anyhow.

The guys got the well pump moved from the

stock tank well over to the house well.

They didn't run any water through it though.

They'll do that tomorrow.

Wanted to make sure all the pipes glue

was fully cured.

So, hopefully tomorrow is the BIG day

for water!

It will be so good to just be able to

turn it on down at the garden and not 

need to mess with the generator anymore.

We've been doing that dance for 2 years.

OK,

I'm off to make some dinner.

Have a GREAT night!

New Project

 Interiors for the house are on hold

for a little bit, because 

WATER is important!

We got a "little" rain yesterday.

But not enough to make a dent.

So having water for the garden

is essential.

This is our third garden at the farm,

and bringing water in by trailer

is NO FUN.

Last year Rod and Kyle bought a pump

for the well (instead of the solar one that

just could NOT put out enough water...)

and that was a HUGE upgrade.

Except we don't have electricity all the

way out there at the well.

In case it's been awhile since you've seen

the property, the well is a LONG way

from the road, and a LONG way

from the garden.

They ran a LOT of pipe from the well

down to the garden, 

but we still have to run a generator

to get any water.

And gas isn't cheap these days.

So...........

Enter Kyle and the Cat Excavator!

Through the trees and down to the garden!

(Waaaaaaaaay up on the top of the hill

if you squint you can see the pig barn.)

Over on the right.

Kind of by the tree.

Only more to the right.

Yeah, there.

They even got some of the pipe run!

(He needs a ladder to get in and out 

of the trench, it's 4 feet deep!

Gotta stay below the frost line...)

It also goes from the well

(inside the Menard's tube...

we stuck that on it so nobody would

accidentally back into / over it!)

to the house.

Gotta have water there too!

Anyhow.

Pretty good for one day's work!

Tomorrow is Hays Day.

And then Wednesday they'll be back at it.

Hopefully we'll have water by Thursday,

because Friday Kyle and I head to

Wichita so he can jump on a plane to Orlando.

($65 one-way ticket... he's a little

worried they are going to strap him

on the WING!)

I'm continually amazed at what these guys

can accomplish when they put 

their minds to it.

Moving the Transplants

 Kyle and I (ok, mostly Kyle)

worked hard yesterday and got

ALL of the tomatoes transplanted

and about half of the peppers.

This is what happens when you start 

your tomatoes WAAAAAAAY

too early.

But the peppers look pretty good!

There were plants on the front seat too.

Anyhow.

I didn't take a picture because by the time we were

done, the wind was blowing about a gazillion

miles an hour, I was SUNBURNED,

and I was TIRED.

(And they are tiny up against their trellis

and you probably couldn't see them anyway.)

We had to stop about 4 so we could

run the sprinklers for 2 hours.

And then after the sprinkler did its thing,

I came behind with a water wand and

hand watered in them all.

It was actually pretty easy and efficient

and didn't take nearly 2 hours.

I might do more of that..... we'll see.

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

In OTHER news, it looks like Jim sold

his car!!!

(An important step in moving...)

Marketing is half the battle!

(And the fact that it's a good car,

low mileage, and he's taken care of it...)

But a good photo doesn't hurt!

One guy wanted to make a trade.

Tempting.

But.... Kansas.

Dirt, farm roads.

And... CASH is King.

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

In OTHER OTHER news,

Sabrina has a couple of virtual

job interviews today.....

FINGERS CROSSED!!!!

They are all going to love her

and there will be a bidding war.

I'm confident.

Things are getting REAL around here!

More planting on tap for today.

We want to get the rest of the peppers

in the ground and also the seeds

for the rest of the garden.

There are a LOT of them.

But we can do it!

They are forecasting rain for tomorrow

and Sunday.

We'll see if it actually happens,

but if it does, it would be a good start

for our new babies.