Kyle the Artiste

 He's been pretty busy lately.

(not that it is unusual....)

but there were a couple of rainy

days where his driveway was SOOO

muddy he couldn't leave.

So he had a little extra time in

the evenings and he pulled out

the art supplies Mom sent for 

his birthday this year.

 Cool, eh?

He LOVES the new colors and

they are so smooth and easy

to blend!

He finds pictures online that he likes

and then puts his own spin on them.

He enjoys doing it,

and I think they look great.

He's back to Dashing again though.

So not much free time these days.

Today Rod was up there, climbing around

under the house, wrapping an electrical

wire around his water pipes so that when

it goes below freezing, it automatically

turns on and keeps them warm and NOT

frozen.

(We have the same under our house...)

He lost water twice last year.

When he was done (and I was teaching)

he took Bear and went down to the pigs

to feed them and the other dogs and the

chickens, and then took Bear back to

the house.

But Bear WILL NOT go back in the

house because he knows he will be

alone until Kyle gets home.

So he sits outside and REFUSES to

go inside.

And he's a little TANK, so hard to lift

and carry up the stairs.

So Rod brought him home with him.

We are now going to put him on a leash

and drive him back up to his house and

attempt to get him in the house,

working together.

(You can just scoop him up with his

front and back legs, but the stairs

are homemade and not actually the

right depth or height and kind of a

challenge to climb while carrying a 

MOOSE of a dog...)

So... wish us luck!

Oops!

 It's been a minute since I last posted.

It's actually NOT because I've been

super super busy.

Actually, I've been kind of taking

a bit of a break!

Well, not really a BREAK,

just, you know, a break.

I taught a class over the weekend.

And I was training a new instructor.

So I had to be on my best...

and my internet was NOT being

on its best... kept getting a message

that my internet connection was

unstable.

Which then caused lags and freezing

and all sorts of tech challenges.

Grrrrrrrrrr.

When I was done, I didn't even do

my required paperwork.

I just left my office and went

into the living room to make dinner.

Kyle came over and we had a yummy

pork chop bake I learned on the

YouTube.

(hahahaha)

It's not particularly healthy.

But DELICIOUS!

1.5 cup of dry rice.

2 C chicken broth.

1 can cream of chicken.

1 can cream of mushroom.

Put all that in a 9x13 and STIR.

I recommend saving a little of

the soup mix to put on the chops.

(hahaha forgot the stir part...

it was a bit crunchy, but still yummy)

Lay pork chops on the top and

season well with salt, pepper,

onion & garlic powder and some

smoked paprika.

Then pour the rest of the soup mix

over the top.

Bake covered at 350 for 30 minutes

and then another 30 uncovered.

Kyle said "I wish we had found

this earlier!"

Anyhow.

I just got back from a long walk with

Beau, Bear & Kyle.

We walked to the back fence,

then along the "top" back to the

pig barn, then split and they went

to their house and Beau and I walked

down the big hills into the garden

valley and then up the hill to our house.

I'm eating a bowl of yogurt with the

last of my granola and some

freeze dried cranberries.

And then we are heading to town to

do the Tuesday shopping.

Yesterday, in between our big long walk

and teaching my night class,

I baked a batch of Mom's

JUMBO Choc Chip Cookies.

(Recipe via Soni...)

I didn't make them jumbo.

And cooked the first batch too long.

But they were GOOD!

I added some cranberries to them too.

YUMMY!

I looked into my camera roll to see if

there was anything else I needed to share.

Friday while I was on the phone with Soni,

the "herd-o-birds" (robins) visited

our house on their trek south.

You have to zoom in,

I took the picture from my back door.

Didn't want to open it and scare them away.

But there were a gazillion of them

all over the back hill and in our trees

outside the bedroom window.

It was fun to watch them!

Mostly I've been taking screenshots.

Like what on EARTH are we going to do

with ALL THESE PUMPKINS??????

Hahahahaha.

(The Sister Sisters shared this on FB and

mentioned if you were looking for any

pumpkins, Jim has a gazillion!)

Anyhow.

Off to Hays.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Talk to you in the morning Mom!

Toasty Warm!

 The Buffaloe men CRUSH it again!

And not a minute too soon...

It's forecast to be 31 degrees tonight.

We rented a super cool machine

that shreds the insulation batts and 

then shoots them through a 100 foot hose

up into the attic.

Kyle headed up there...

Rod and Jim manned the machine.

Stuffing a half batt at a time

into the machine and "helping"

it crush and send it through the hose.

They eventually ended up in masks.

And Kyle opted for goggles as well

since he was in the attic on the

shooting end of the hose.

(Beau and I stayed out of their way...)

Kyle spent about 4 hours up there.

Shooting fiberglass insulation.

Look, it's pink snow!

He got it nice and thick.

Said it was about knee high all over the whole attic.

They put a total of 30 bales up there!

And I could feel it!!!

He started above my bedroom and moved

on from there.

I had my room all closed up and a small

space heater running since I turned off

the furnace (front door and the attic

and a window in the prep room were all

wide open...).

I had to turn off my little heater 

and eventually took off my sweat shirt!

I'm SO EXCITED to have a nice

cozy house.

Warm and toasty in the winter

and efficient A/C in the summer.

Thank you Buffaloe Men!!!

You guys ROCK!

El Nino....... sheesh.

 I don't know if you have seen

any of the stuff going on in Florida.

Thanks to El Nino and the WEIRD 

weather we are having this year...

Malabar (our old place) got 

TWENTY FIVE INCHES of rain

in 24 hours!!!!!

Our Facebook pages are full of pictures

of all our friends and all the water....

Jim's old house is fine, they got

water about 1/2 to 2/3 up the driveway.

But the roads are all flooded.

I expect our old house got a little water inside.

I know the yard was FULL.

There was always a lake in front of the

barn after every tropical storm / hurricane

and we never got that many inches.

Kris (our old neighbor) had a picture of her

walking her dog down the middle of our road.

The ditches were FULL and even with the road,

but the road itself was clear, so maybe....

(Her house is MUCH higher than our's though,

so all her water would run into our yard.)

The road that runs parallel to our woods

was totally destroyed, including a car

that looked like it flipped into a sink hole.

It's a MESS.

Meanwhile, we did get quite a bit of rain

here, but it is already mostly dry.

There are still some muddy spots.

But Rod was able to drive into work yesterday

and even Kyle was able to get out of his

driveway and head into Hays tonight.

(He always gets wetter than we do.... weird.)

Anyhow.

Rod and Jim went into town this afternoon

and picked up the insulation and machine

so tomorrow the guys can blow it into the attic.

YEA!!!!!!!

I'm SO EXCITED!

It's a LOT of insulation.

(Plus 4 bags of top soil so we can

plant our garlic for this year...)

Meanwhile,

Kyle sent me THIS while I was teaching.

Just a random BEAVER standing

in the road in Hays.

I've never actually seen a beaver 

not in a zoo!

(Seen lots of beaver dams.... but never

the actual critter.)

While Rod and Jim were in town,

Kyle and I went into WaKeeney to grab

some groceries and then came home and

I hopped on the big lawnmower and mowed

a section up top by the pig barn.

He came behind with a grass catcher and

scooped it all up so we could put it in

the chicken coop, the pig barn, and

the dog houses.

It's going to be chilly tonight and

COLD tomorrow night so we wanted

to fluff up their flooring situations.

Yesterday we got the garden all

"put to bed" for the winter.

Pulled all the rest of the dead stuff

and pitched it into the "lake".

Kyle ran the big mower over the pumpkin patch.

(That's not all of it, there are actually still

quite a few pumpkins we didn't even harvest...)

But it is all looking good for next season.

I even ran the mower over one of our trails

to make it easier to walk in the mornings.

And then he headed into Hays to work.

I headed into the office to teach.

And Rod came home with all his insulation

in the trailer, ready for a big day tomorrow.

Hope everybody had a good Wednesday!

I tried to call Mom a couple of times today

but got no answer.

I'll try again tomorrow.

Bench & Early Birthday!

 Rod has been a busy bee!

He worked 3 days last week,

but in the between times

he finished our front hallway!

Doesn't that look good???

We have the perfect bench, 

just the right height for sitting

and putting on / taking off shoes/boots!

He is still going to glue the top

down and stain it so it is protected

and matches the island.

And I think he might paint the legs

the same blue as the island,

but maybe not. 

I kind of like it natural...

And this morning the mail carrier (Kathy)

stopped in to drop off a package.

FIVE awesome kangaroo pouch

aprons for next year's harvest!!!

(One for everybody!!!)

I tried this one on and it was PERFECT!

I wish I had something to harvest!

I want to try it out.....

Kyle was pretty excited too!

Next year's harvest is going to be

HUGE (and MUCH easier thanks to 

these handy aprons!)

THANK YOU ROZANN & GREG!

It was the perfect birthday present!

Speaking of the garden.

It's SUPER windy today and the

trees are losing all their leaves.

Which means I can stand in my

office, look out the window, and

SEE some of the garden!

You gotta squint and know what

you are looking at...

but trust me, 

it's down there.

And in a few minutes, I will be too.

It's WINDY, but it's also 74 degrees.

So I'm going to take advantage of the

lovely weather and head down there

with my scissors and gloves and cut

all the strings holding up the tomato

plants and then pull the plants and

pitch then in the "lake".

Gotta get the garden put to bed for the winter.

Thank you again Rozann!!!

Happy Halloween!

 Small town living is so fun!

Even when you don't actually

LIVE in town.....

Rod was at work at the hardware

store today (covering for the hunter...)

When this happened...

Suddenly there was a "parade" of all

the kids from the elementary school.

Separated by class with a teacher in front

and an aid at the back.

The vendors (Alice - the owner) handed out

candy to all the kids.

Rod said it was fun watching them all go by!

Obviously we don't get trick-or-treaters

here on our looooong dirt road.

And we didn't attend the ward truck-or-treat

last week.

WaKeeney had their city party tonight

and actual door-to-door will be tomorrow night.

Such fun!

I Got Nuthin....

Thanks Rozann for the cute hat picture!

So I'll share Jim & Sabrina's

stuff....

lol.

When you have a million pumpkins

I gues you should use them,

right?

So they had a fun evening.

Carving and lighting jack-o-lanterns.

They are VERY talented!

WaKeeney can't decide if the kids

should trick-or-treat on Friday or Saturday.

So they are doing BOTH.

(If your light is on, you are participating...)

We bought BAGS of candy last year

and ate bags of candy.

Hahahahahaha

Sabrina's Dad, Terry, gifted them with a new smoker!

They christened it with a brisket.

It turned out BEAUTIFUL!

We have a couple of really nice

(big) pork butts that he is going to

smoke for us to share.

It should make some lovely pulled pork!

Otherwise, we had a quiet day today.

Rod has been working everyday except

today, so we puttered around here and

got some stuff done.

I made a big pot of Panera Copy Cat

brocolli cheddar soup and some

chocolate chip cookies.

He's going to take a thermos full of soup

tomorrow for his lunch.

It was overcast and misty all day today.

Looked kind of a mix between fog and

possibly a wintery almost snowy day.

Except it was in the 50's.

I just finished my RS Pres zoom.

8:30 to 9:30 pm is late for a meeting,

but the others have families and work

and stuff, so we fit it in when we can.

And now..... bed.

Have a good night!