Happy Birthday to MEEEE! (lol)

It was a nice day!

Started EEEEARLY!

We were up at 4:30 (and didn't go to bed

until 1:30 last night...) so we could get

Jim to the Hays airport in time for his

6:30 flight back to Florida.

We SOOOO appreciated all his help!

(And we loved playing games with him!)

It's EARLY, we are still very sleepy.

It was FUN!

And then, back home to take a NAP!

Then Rod jumped up to run fill the

diesel gas cans and take them to the farm

and fill the tank on the telehandler.

It needed to be full when they came to get it.

(It was also COVERED in mud.... ooops.)

And then his truck broke.

Again.

Might have something to do with the

TONS of mud caked up under it!

(The {mechanical terms I don't understand}

broke off the {other mechanical stuff...} and

it wouldn't shift out of drive.)

So he and Kyle laid down in the mud and

investigated and then zip tied some

probably very important parts together

so he could limp back to the house.

Put all his super muddy stuff in the washer

and his body in the shower,

and then took the car into Hays to get the 

very important part.

Meanwhile, I washed and vacuumed all 

the floors and rugs (again) and did the

dishes from last night's dinner.

Had a LOVELY telephone chat with Soni.

And got a BEAUTIFUL pot from Nancy.

(Can't wait to make something in it! Its

GORGEOUS and SUPER HEAVY...)

Rod had some friends of our's custom make

me a sign to celebrate WaKeeney's

75th anniversary of the tree lighting this year!

I LOVE IT!

Mom and Dad sent me a card with a fun

cranberry tart recipe I'm excited to try!

(And a note that a gift is headed this way...)

Rozann sent a fun birthday greeting with

the same note as Mom.

It was a fun day!

OH!

And the repair buy (really nice and SUPER TALL)

showed up and said our fridge is stuck in

defrost mode.

So he had to order a part. 

He will be back next week to fix it.

It's under warranty, so it won't cost 

us anything, but we are without a fridge.

AND he said to keep it propped open.

Yeah, that's convenient.

I'll probably put a box of baking soda in

it and shut the doors.

I have a TINY kitchen.

Having the fridge and freezer doors 

hanging open into the room isn't helping.

And the missionaries are coming for 

dinner tomorrow night.

Sheesh.

Anyhow.

Good news, bad news.

But it will all work out.

Tomorrow is Hays Day.

I'll have to be judicious in what I purchase.

Since the garage fridge is the old fridge

that came with the house and all the

condiment shelves in the door are broken.

So all my condiments are in the main part

of the fridge, which doesn't leave much room

for the FOOD.

Anyhow.

It was a nice birthday.

Thank you everybody for the birthday wishes

and gifts and hugs.

LOVE YOU ALL!

(And now I'm heading to the living room

for some dinner and a Hallmark movie 

and then bed.)

(We had "breakfast" at noon...)

(We each had a hunk of peppermint

rice krispie squares.)

So, yeah.

Dinner.

Sunday Update

Today was Jim's final day

on our house build.

They spent the day building

and installing the

eaves on the north and

south side of the house.

It was quite a bit of work.

Although it didn't rain,

there was still plenty of water

and mud to go around.

They are coming in the morning

to pick up the telehandler.

I don't think they will be super happy.

I'm sure we will have to pay a

cleaning fee....

but, we sure appreciated having it!

He got stuck.

Had to eventually put the forks 

down into the ground and then

use the boom mashed into the

ground and walked himself out.

He's such a talented equipment operator!

Most people would have called for

a tow truck or something.

He said its what comes of working

by yourself and having to 

figure it out.

 

Saturday Update....

 I had to teach Saturday,

so didn't get out to the property.

But progress was made!

My boys are not only great

workers, but also great

photographers!

So although "all" they did

was put the braces on the trusses,

I still received great pictures.

Isn't that a cool picture of the rafters?

Here's another one.

It's good and sturdy!

That's Kyle, the monkey, working.

Notice the bright yellow scaffolding

they are using.

It has wheels.

so instead of locking the wheels

and climbing off and moving it,

they just pulled themselves along

using the rafters and rolled the scaffold

under them.

Unless it got away from them and

zoomed across the floor.

Or hit a little rock and stopped dead.

It was an adventure.....

But through it all, they were smiling and

laughing and having a great Brother time.

After dinner we introduced another

family member to the game!!

And he added a diabolical twist.

When you roll, you can EITHER flip

your tabs up.

OR you can flip an opponent's 

tabs DOWN!!!!

I finally had to call a stop to it,

because it was turning into a marathon.

And we were all tired!!!!

Jim won that final game!

We enjoyed a fun dinner at our local

watering hole

The Brazen Bull.

Good burgers and excellent

fried okra and corn nuggets to start.

It was yummy.

Today Rod went to church.

I'm teaching.

Hopefully the guys got ...

something I forgot what it was...

built.

And then are working on getting

FIFTY-TWO sheets of plywood

onto the roof and at least tacked down.

The telehandler is definitely leaving tomorrow.

But more importantly, so is Jim!

We are going to miss him!!!

Ok, lunch break is over,

gotta get back to teaching.

Happy Sunday!

Progress???

 I feel TERRIBLE.

The guys are out there working.

At least it was SUNNY and in the

sixties today!

SOOOO much better than yesterday.

But I'm sitting here in my office,

teaching my Louisiana class.

I don't know how they have done today,

because they are BUSY and don't

have time to stop and send me pictures.

But they will be coming into town for

a night out at a local eatery.

In the meantime, here's a quick 

photo dump of the misery from yesterday.

It was a "little" wet.

And since there is a HILL to the west of the house,

all the water ran DOWN the hill and into our job site.

The plan is to build a SWALE to stop that situation,

but we haven't finalized its location.

So, yeah.

MUD FEST!

And we have the weirdest mud.

It's slippery and sticky all at the same time.

It builds up on the bottom of your boots,

but also it's a LOT like Bambi learning to skate.

We are BUFFALOES.

We don't let a little rain and mud stop us!

The show MUST go on!

So they did.

Putting the FINAL end piece on!!!

(Look at how low the machine is sunk in the mud.... UGH!)

Even the INSIDE of the house is full of water.

And mud.....

I am SO PROUD of these men.

Anybody else might have just shrugged their shoulders

and said... oh well. We'll work on it another day.

But they muscled through.

Wet.

COLD.

Wet.

Tired.

SORE!

And yet.... they prevailed!

I'm just so proud and GRATEFUL!

For all of them.

But especially Jim - I so appreciate him

flying in for a week and spending it,

not only working, but working like THIS.

Ugh.

They are all such amazing men

and I LOVE THEM more than they can know.

Ok.

Enough gushing.

The sun is sinking in the west.

I need to bring the dogs in and get ready

for everybody to go out to eat.

I suspect they will want a nice hot shower

and clean clothes first.

We WERE going to have Thanksgiving tomorrow,

but since the fridge in the house died,

and the repairmen aren't coming until TUESDAY,

and they "might be able to fix it, or we might

need to take it back to the shop to work on..."

I don't have any room in the fridge for MORE food.

So we will have a yummy "steak dianne" made in

the crockpot and served over yummy mashed

potatoes instead.

I already have all that food...

Oh yeah.

The missionaries are coming for dinner on Tuesday.

This should be fun.

Hahahaha.

(It's not that we don't HAVE food, it's just

outside. In the garage. But there is PLENTY of it...)

I just didn't have room to get a turkey and store/thaw

it while we wait for Sunday to arrive.

Or room for all the fruit for the traditional

fruit salad.

Life is an ADVENTURE.

That's for sure!

Ok, I'll update when I get some pictures.

These Guys ROCK!!!

 I'm not going to the farm today.

It's raining.

The road is slippery.

They all have MUD TIRES.

(And Rod has 4-wheel drive...)

My car IS all-wheel-drive,

but I have street tires.

I made Kyle drive my car out 

to the highway last night.

Rod drove his truck.

He was fine.

Jim drove Kyle's truck.

He was being cautious and got

stuck going up a hill.

We turned around and Kyle

drove him out of it.

(IT WAS TERRIFYING TO WATCH!)

And Kyle was giggling uncontrollably 

when he got back in my car.

"THAT WAS SOOOO FUN!!!"

Yeah, his truck is paid for.

(grin)

It was probably less scary than it

looked in headlights.

But still.........

Then, because Kyle didn't want to 

try to turn around, we BACKED up the

hill, and down the next until he got to

a spot to turn around.

I closed my eyes.

So, yeah. 

I'm staying home today.

(Kyle asked what I was going to do

once I moved out there. 

"STAY HOME!"

Hahahahaha.)

Yup, I'm a wimp.

Anyhow.

The guys were heading into town to 

pick up some rain gear to wear since

it's supposed to have light rain 

ALL. DANG. DAY. today.

But they can't take the day off because

the telehandler goes back tonight.

Unless, maybe, the road is too slippery

for the guy to come pick it up!

There is that!

Anyhow.

They also picked up some scaffolding

that will come in VERY handy for the

next couple of tasks.

They saw it at the store on Wed night,

but didn't think I would go for it.

It's $100 off right now.

BUY IT!

Anyhow.

On to today's photo dump.

Moving a rafter from over by the shop.

(Right after that, I moved Rod's truck out of the way.)

The white tube thing is covering the

well pipe so it doesn't accidentally get knocked into.

Admiring rafter #1.

Only 17 to go.

As always, the first one requires MUCH looking,

and thinking, and discussing.

But they got the system all figured out

and rafter #2 went smoother.

Easier without the truck in the way.

Kyle lifts it with the telehandler.

There is a little purple rope tied to one end.

Jim is holding the rafter and the little rope.

They carefully move it into position.

Then Jim goes into the house and up a ladder

to catch it as it comes over and guides it

towards Rod who is on the other end of the house

on another ladder, to secure his end.

Check out that concentration!

He is driving, lifting, and guiding all at once.

So glad we went with a ONE STOREY!

It's tall enough!

Jim catching his end.

And Rod catching his end.

They secure them, and then Kyle

(the monkey) climbs on a tall ladder in the center

and temporarily screws a 2x6 between the rafters

to hold them upright and steady.

And then he climbs ON THE RAFTER

and disconnects the chain they used to lift it.

Need it for the next rafter.

We are hoping today, they are able to

get all the rest of the rafters and the other 

end rafter with zip board in place, secured,

and get the plywood screwed on.

A tall order.

But they at least need to get the rafters on and

the plywood pile up there using the telehandler.

The skid steer can't reach that high.

So..... prayer warriors.

We need you again!

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny.

But we might not have the machine anymore.

So they need to get lots done today.

I made a big pot of chili and sent it with some

cheese bread and a jar of instant mashed potatoes.

This morning while it wasn't raining for a minute

I ran outside to the freeze dryer and got

the five trays of mashed potatoes from in there.

I got 5 quarts and 5 pints.

(Sent one with Rod for lunch...)

They took 63 hours, but I let them

run an extra 20 hours.

Partly because one of the trays was

REALLY thick, and partly because

it was raining and too hard to get

them from the garage to the house

without them getting ruined.

CAN NOT WAIT to have an inside

prep room and have my stuff all 

in the house!!!

Rod called and got an appointment

with the fridge guys to come look at

the fridge on Monday.

Meanwhile, I am shopping from outside.

(Speaking of shopping, I need to run

to the local store and get some eggs...)

I HATE not having chickens!!!

(Not that they are laying anyway...)

I have some freeze dried eggs, but 

I don't like scrambled eggs.

Rod will eat them happily though.

And they are great for baking.

Wish I had thought of that YESTERDAY

when I used 3 of the expensive

Vital Farms eggs for the banana bread.

Oh well.

I was stressed.

And they are in jars in the front coat

closet, out of sight, out of mind.

I DID remember to use some of our

freeze dried carrots in the soup yesterday.

(It was yummy)

And I put some FD zucchini powder

in the chili today to give the guys some

added veggies.

Ok.

I need to go clean my kitchen before

I can do anything else.

Wait. 

Maybe I'll go shopping while it's

not raining.

Ok.

Have a great Friday.

And any prayers you could head this

way would be greatly appreciated.

I can't go out tomorrow either.

I'll be teaching.

So relying on the guys to take LOTS

of pictures!

It's dark by the time I get done.

Whew!

 What a morning!

The PLAN (hahahahahahahaha)

was to make some bread and

potato soup to take to the guys.

I opened my freezer to get my

yeast and noticed some

WET brown liquid INSIDE the freezer.

WHAT???

So, I have 9 bananas in the door,

for when the itch for banana

bread strikes.

They were thawed.

And dripping.

And so was EVERYTHING ELSE

in the freezer.

ARGH!

So, luckily we have a bunch

of those white trays we use at the

farmer's market.

I loaded those up with everything

in the freezer and out to the garage

freezers it all went.

About that time Rod got home from

ANOTHER Home Depot run,

so he helped me clean everything out

of the fridge as well.

And out to the garage fridge.

The compressor is not running.

And it's a NEW fridge!

Also empty.

And dirty.

Then BACK to the original plan.

Except when you need to grab

something out of the fridge,

that means a trip to the garage.

(My tracker ways 1500 steps so far...)

Anyhow.

I got all the bacon cooked and crumbled.

The onions cooked in the bacon grease.

The potatoes cubed and in water in

deli tubs so they don't brown.

The carrots are freeze dried so just had

to grab the jar for that one.

Mixed up a little tub with all the dry 

seasonings and flour etc...

Meanwhile, I did a triple batch of

banana bread and got that in the oven.

I have LARGE pans, so just cooked it as two loaves.

Got a loaf each of cheddar cheese bread

and another with cranberries, pecans and

orange zest (Soni's idea...)

Hope they are yummy.

I'll bake them when I get to Kyle's house.

I'm just going to make a big pot of

soup and then I leave it on warm on

his stove so they can come eat it

whenever they are ready.

It's supposed to start raining around

4:00-ish so they can't stop. 

But once they DO stop, they'll be

ready for a good, hot meal.

So.

That's my day.

(Oh, also a phone call with Dan.)

E GADS!!! I nearly forgot I have

a zoom call with the RS Presidency

in 30 minutes.

GRRRRRRRR.

I'll start it on my phone and then

hopefully I won't drop the call

when I get to the farm road.

Ok.

Gotta dash.

Look Who's Here!

He got here!!!!!

And yes, he has a LOT of hair.

Lol.

He was here almost EXACTLY one year ago.

And he said he hasn't cut his hair since.

It looks good!

Who knew he had curls!

(Yup Grandma, it's still RED!)

We picked him up just after 11:00 last night

and drove through some really bizarre fog

on the way home. Sometimes we drove

through it, and sometimes we drove

UNDER it! It was neat...

Anyhow.

We were all tired, so off to bed.

And then they got right on it this morning.

(I jumped in the car and did a 2 hour run 

to Garden City Menard's for some roofing

stuff they are going to need later...)

Wall Number 1!

The telehandler makes it SO much easier!

(This is the wall in our office...)

Getting the long (40') walls up first.

The wall with no windows is the prep room.

Where the freeze dryers, etc will live.

And then the short walls (36') 

on the North and South of the house.

I headed out to drop off the stuff I bought...

Came over the hill and...

There was a HOUSE!

They are cruising along!

Hopefully the weather will cooperate

for the rest of the week.

They need to fill the gaps,

put up the rafters and the roof,

and install the windows and doors.

We have 4 days left, but there 

MAY be some rain tomorrow afternoon,

and likely some on Friday.

PRAYER WARRIORS UNITE!!!

Ok, back to teaching.........