Christmas Town

 One of the first things that drew me to this

little town was it's "Hallmark Town" feel.

We call ourselves the 

Christmas City of the High Plains.

Yesterday we got the flier in the mail...

They do it up RIGHT.

On the Saturday following Thanksgiving every year

(for the past 73 years... this is #74.)

Next year is going to be spectacular!

There is an all day Christmas Bazaar

at the fairgrounds.

A Frosty Winter Wonderland scavenger hunt

at the local historical museum (in

the parking lot of the fairgrounds...)

At the library they have a free puppet

show "Good King Wenceslas".

Then the local meat market is aying for

an hour of free Santa tickets.

The downtown Santa's Workshop

from 4:30 to 8:30 is free horse and

wagon rides, they have a couple fun little

trains pulled by yard tractors that they use

on Sidewalk Saturday - those will be running.

Kids games and goodies at the various

downtown shopping venues...

Soup Supper tot he VFW.

(They have fun activities every other

Friday night - usually involving food and beer...)

Starting at 5:30 in our main street square

they will have live music with the tree lighting

ceremony starting at 6 and SANTA arriving to

pull the handle and light the tree at 6:30.

Just like in a real hallmark movie!

Hahahaha.

And then Santa goes back to our little

North Pole to visit with the kids.

It's a big event!

Follow along on Facebook at the GetWakeeney page

or www.WaKeeney.org.

There will be MANY MANY people there, so we 

won't do ALL the stuff, but we HAVE to be there

for the tree lighting.

I'm excited already!

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

Speaking of excited, look what showed up

in our mail delivery yesterday!

Thanks Mom and Dad!

We will wear them with pride (and for luck)

to the event on the 20th.

(I'm wearing mine again today because they are warm)

Yesterday was a sort of miserable day.

It was cloudy, drizzling, and chilly.

Only made it into the 50's.

Felt like February in Florida.

But this morning it is the same temp,

but the sun is shining and that makes ALL

the difference in the world!

HAPPY DAY!

It's DRY Here!

 I mean, yeah.

I've lived here for 5 months now,

and it's DRY.

(And actually, today {well, all week, really}

it's raining - just a nice sprinkle...)

Anyhow.

It's dry.

But when it's HOT and dry it feels really good.

When it's chilly and dry, it just feels dry.

So the other day I bought us a good old

fashioned VAPORIZER!

(There's even a little spot to put Vicks if you want!)

Ok, they said to put essential oils there,

but hey. When you don't feel good, Vicks to the rescue!

(We are all healthy now though, thankfully...)

Anyhow.

Rod was noticing a dry raspy voice this morning,

so I pulled it out, filled it with water,

brought in one of Kyle's little tables,

and presto!

Nice, humid, warm air.

(I was doing my yoga in the living room

and had to turn it off...)

We'll see if that helps.

However, about the time I got it set up,

he left to drive to Hays to pick up the

rebar etc for the foundation.

Since the forecast is calling for rain

EVERY DAY except tomorrow,

today he is getting supplies,

tomorrow they will work on the forms

and getting the rebar in, and then

the project goes back on hold for a few

until they can get dry weather again.

Next week looks just right.

Oh, By The Way.........

for you Arizona people who don't play the

daylight savings time game,

yesterday was the day to "fall back".

So now we are only ONE hour behind Florida

and only ONE hour ahead of Utah and Arizona!

YEA!

(It's fun to be in the middle!)

The oven just beeped, time to go turn the

bacon over and add the okra.

Have a great morning!

We Have Power!!! (Sort of...)

 Yesterday the power company came and

dropped two poles on the property!

They had to replace the pole out by the road,

since it was probably original to the 1950's.

And then they brought in a BIG pole to

our house location.

Next they went up the hill to Kyle's

and dropped a pole for him as well.

We are going to get our electrician out there, hopefully soon,

and he will fix it up so we can actually USE it.

It will be so nice to be able to plug stuff in and

quit using generators for everything we are trying to do.

We also FINALLY got the pump issue figured out.

A really nice woman spent quite a bit of time

on the phone with Rod and they finally

got it all so it WORKS!

Houston, we have WATER!

The foundation is all ready now for rebar.

There are tiny orange strings that you can't

really see in this picture, but they are

there, all square, and ready for the next step.

We won't have an official "basement" but our

crawl space is nearly 5 feet deep...

is that a half basement? Or just a tall crawl?

I don't know.

But since I'm only about 5'5" these days,

I'm excited to be able to get down there and

use it as a cold room and be able to move around

without getting down on my hands and knees.

So, we are moving forward!

Happy Halloween

 Happy Halloween!

(Yesterday...)

Our little town has a HUGE Truck or Treat

event "downtown" in front of the

City Hall and Library.

This was a TINY fraction of the people there.

We got lots of little kids come to our neighborhood

after the event, but most didn't come to our house,

despite the orange lights and a lighted pumpkin

on the front porch.

Rod thought it might be because I unscrewed the

bright white light.

Once we turned that back on, we got more...

but we still have a LOT of candy left.

(Hidden away...)

Anyhow.

I went out to the farm to check on progress.

The hole is dug.

The forms are formed.

The bottom is compacted.

(We rented a compactor for the day...)

Next? 

Rebar.

So I went for a walk.

Our valley is still green.

Doesn't look like it in this picture.

But it is. 

Hahahahaha.

My camera washes out ALL THE COLORS!

(Well, except the brilliant blue sky...)

This is the trail Kyle cut for us.

It's green.

You can't really tell, but it's UP a hill.

I am standing next to a tree.

The trail goes DOWN the hill into the valley

and then UP again to the forest,

and our house will be on the other side.

Anyhow.

I guess you'll just have to come visit to

see what it REALLY looks like.

The chicks are doing great.

Starting to get little tiny pin feathers

on their wings.

They won't be tiny, cute, fluff balls for long.

Darn it.

It would be nice if they went from cute

little chicks to laying hens in days.

But it takes 6 months to get to the layer stage.

And you have to do the dinosaur stages in the middle.

Oh well.

They will get there.

The Eagle (OK Chicks) Have Landed

Today is Day 1 for this year's

chicken flock.

We have 9 little Green Queen 

Green Egg Easter Eggers.

A very large name for 9 little tiny chicks.

They came in the mail this morning.

Took them 2 days to arrive.

(It's an overnight thing when they come

to the farm in Florida, but as always,

things move a little slower here.)

They are all set up with food,

water, and a heat lamp, out in the garage.

Up on a table, out of the reach of the dogs.

We have a cold front coming through today,

so I was glad we got it all nice and warm.

(It is currently 49 outside, and that might be

the high for the day... It might get into

the low 50's, and tonight it might frost.)

They won't start laying until April.

So we have about 6 months of just

feeding them.

Rod is nearly finished building their 

outdoor coop, but since they have to

stay inside for about a month,

his focus has moved to the house.

They are working on moving the dirt

for the foundation.

I'll head out there later today and take

some pictures.

A Bit Breezy

 It's a wee bit breezy today.

There's a cold front coming through.

Right now it's 82.

Enjoy it..... cuz I'm pretty sure this is

the last of the indian summer weather.

Today the wind is blowing 20-40 with some

significant gusts... some are saying 60 mph.

I don't know, but it was pretty windy in the

Tractor Supply parking lot.

(I needed to get chicken feed and a metal 

garbage can to store it in... so I also stopped

at WalMart and got some extra milk and 

meat since we now have a garage fridge! YEA!)

Last night there was an amazing sunset!

I didn't get to see it.

My office window looks to the east.

But you could tell it was epic, because it was

REFLECTING off the garage and clouds!

(PS - the cows didn't get ALL the spaghetti squash...

I'm excited to cook one up! Most aren't quite ripe

yet, but I think there is one that's ready...)

Here's a better picture to leave you with.

This morning I was in a hurry and didn't

bother with makeup or anything...

So here's Sunday afternoon.

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzz

I got to substitute teach this morning.

But with daylight saving time,

the sun doesn't come up until 7:58 am.

Which means it was still DARK when I

started class at 7:30 Kansas time.

So I got to watch the sunrise out my office window.

It was beautiful!

(Yes, I'm retired... I don't often SEE the sunrise these days... lol.)

Anyhow.

It was pretty.

So are the trees!!!

Yesterday after church (and lunch) we headed

out to the farm to do a "final" measurement and

put the markers on the pad for the house.

(Little tiny men standing on the pad...)

The new machine is looking a little dirty... 

This is what the pad looked like on Sunday.

But I'll bet it doesn't look like that NOW.

Kyle needs to dig OUT about 3 feet of all the

dirt he brought in because we have decided

to go with a crawlspace under the house.

But the trees are pretty!

Hahahahaha.

There is a natural little opening right there at the

corner of the pad / house where you can go

into the forest and it leads to a beautiful

little clearing. In the summer it will be shady,

cool and lovely because it's under the trees.

In the fall it's lovely because it's all carpeted

with yellow leaves and you are surrounded by

the rustling of dry leaves still on the trees.

The breeze is much softer down there.

And it was actually on the verge of "hot".

And in the winter, it will be lovely because with

all the leaves gone, the sun will shine, the breeze

is reduced (it's on the backside of the hill heading

down to the valley) and is sheltered by lots

of junipers, but the overhead sun can still shine

in there... perfect spot for a chair!

Year Round!

(Kyle was here last March when it snowed a 

little and he said it was SO magical!)

Anyhow.

I'm excited.

And now the adventure begins for REAL.

PS - thanks for all the positive comments about

the new chicken stuff ... we still don't have many

details, but we will certainly keep everybody posted

once we figure it out. Jim is flying out the weekend

before the big meeting and driving over with us.

We want to make sure everybody gets their questions

and concerns answered. (Rod will have to stay here

to keep the home fire burning and the animals alive...

but I'll have him on speaker phone so he can listen in.)