Sisters

 It's always so wonderful to come

to Tucson and get to connect with

my sisters!!!

I had a nice chat with Soni on the phone

this morning (YEA for Thursdays!)

And yesterday Rozann and I took her

dogs for their morning walk.

And Tuesday night we went to dinner 

with Mom and Dad, Rozann and Greg.

It was SO GOOD to see him healthy!

I usually come in the spring,

just in time for his annual bout with 

the spring yucks. (POOR GUY!)

Nancy and I have been shopping and visiting,

and cooking, and talking and talking

and "doing" jewelry!

It has been a lovely visit!

This morning I'm sitting on the front porch

of Nancy's casita enjoying the lovely

early morning weather.

I walked down and said good morning to

the horses. Now I'm drinking my water

and doing some computer work.

(Annual Compliance Training for teaching...)

(UGH)

I'm not sure what we have planned for today.

Tomorrow is a full day.

It's Mom's birthday. We had a party for her

last night - that will be in tomorrow's post.

But for now... I'm just enjoying the quiet.

On My Way!

Rod and I left WaKeeney about 11:30

this morning after a CHILLY start!

It was about 36 when we got up. 

But the sun was shining and it quickly

warmed up to the mid 60's.

Hopefully my peas will make it through the

forecasted light frost on Tuesday night.

Headed into Hays to return an Amazon order

and then across the street to Wendys.

And then it was time to hit the highway

and head to Wichita!

I'm teaching from my hotel room tonight.

Fingers crossed. I can't connect to the 

hotel wifi for some reason, so I'm using

my hotspot. Hopefully it has enough juice

to run my zoom!

And then in the morning we will hop across

the street to the Wichita Airport.

He will drop me off and I will wing my

way west to Phoenix and then Tucson!

Meanwhile he's going to the Cat dealer here

in town to look at our new mini excavator

(they are servicing it and it won't be ready

until Wed or Thurs) and then to Salina

to Menards to hopefully order the new shop

we need to get working on building!

So Much Happening right now!!!

More about the machine they are getting

later in the week when they actually get it.

(It's used, so we got a really good deal...)

And the salesman lives just up the road

from us, we visit with him when we go

out to walk the dogs.

So that helped us feel lots more confident.

Anyhow.

Better get ready to teach!

I'll be seeing y'all soon!!!!!

Bye Bye Market

Today was the last farmers market.

But nobody showed up.

Haha.

George said he would be there with

his vegetables.

But no show.

Mary and Dave said they would be

there with their veggies.

But no show.

Norman was there with some tomatoes.

And we were there with our freeze

dried stuff and the last few zucchini,

yellow squash, and a few lemon cucumbers.

The cows are STILL out.

(Troy, the owner, isn't responding to anybody...)

(Hope  he's ok...)

(But I don't know who he actually is, or 

anything about him except his name and

phone number and he doesn't take care

of his fences... grin.)

Anyhow.

They have been picnicking at our farm

every evening. 

They ate all the cucumbers AND the plants.

All the zucchini.

All the spaghetti squash plants and many

of the squash (or they just walked on them...)

The only thing they didn't mess with was

the okra.

I guess they don't like okra.

But that means we are DONE.

Anyhow.

In the first 30 minutes a lady bought

1 cucumber and 1 yellow squash for $1.

And then about an hour later a man

came by and bought 4 yellow squash

and insisted in giving me $3.

And then Wanda came by and bought

a zucchini for $1.

That was it.

So we gave up, packed up and left.

And then Tracy (a customer) came over

and bought 3 bags of peaches, 3 bags of

mango and all my skittles.

(I don't like skittles, so I poured them all

in one bag because I needed the jar they

were in and I sold her the bag for $5.)

So we made a total of $28 for the day.

And then I dumped all the little black bags

into big gallon-sized mylar bags and

put them in crates until I can buy another

tote to keep them in.

I marked the outside of the bag with

what was in it, what weight to use to

fill a little black bag, and the price.

That's all of it, in those two yellow

milk crates. Plus the empty white trays

and the sample jars above.

We will just pull out the sample jars

now and again and eat them as treats.

I'm glad to be done for the year though.

We made just under $1,000.

(We spent a bunch of it, bought some

things from the other vendors, like

apples, tomatoes, peppers, eggs,

and a bird house...)

but I think we did pretty well considering

we started late,

didn't really know what we were doing,

and were mostly just having fun and

getting to know some of the folks in town.

So I'm calling in a WIN.

All Is Well

Wow.

How did the day get away from me???

I had a nice chat with Soni

and then I made some french toast out of the

last of the loaf of raisin bread.

It was more like french biscotte... lol.

Anyhow.

Then Kyle and I sat down and ordered

some bareroot trees to plant at the farm.

We got some blue spruce and some colorado

spruce and some blue hydrangea.

30 years from now they will be beautiful.

Hahaha.

(Like the pines in front of 49)

And then he set up a sprinkler for the

backyard that should water everything

(except the carrots - the peas are too tall...)

And then we brought in the file cabinet that

has been hiding in the garage so I can

FINALLY feel organized around my office.

And then FedEx delivered a bunch of big

ol' boxes from a Sams Club order I made.

We either ate or donated most of our

food storage and I've been feeling

really unsettled without it.

So the other day I took care of some of that.

I'm slowly building it back up with my

freeze dryer, but there was stuff like

Spam, yeast, flour, raisins, rice and

that sort of thing that I needed to stock up on.

Look at all those jars of pickles!!! I'm so proud of those!

So my little office is looking more like

a food storage room.

But I'm MUCH happier!

After the market on Saturday I'm going to

take all the freeze dried stuff out of those

little white display trays and repackage

them in mylar bags 

(I have more coming today, I ran out)

and then we can stack the white trays.

The mylar bags will go in the big

blue totes. (I need to get a couple more...)

That will help with some of the clutter.

I'll just write the net weight of each little

black bag on the front of the mylar

so if someone wants some I'll just

quickly bag it up for them.

But those cute little black bags

aren't meant for long term storage.

They aren't air tight after awhile.

It will be nice to be done with market

for the year.

And I guess it's a good thing we are done.

The neighbor's cows got out AGAIN.

(4th time!!!!!)

(They are STILL out - just got a call from

a neighbor out there...)

Anyhow.

They "visited" our garden again and

wiped us out.

I was going to do more pickles, but they not

only ate the cucumbers (both lemon and pickling)

but they also ate the plants.

And stomped on my spaghetti squash.

And ate the last of the zucchini.

Kyle didn't mention the okra.

We were leaving it on the plants to dry for seed.

Anyhow.

He was disgusted.

We called and left and message and also

sent a text, but no response. He's not 

calling Gale back either, and they've been

neighbors and friends for years.

So I'm concerned maybe there's a reason?

Hopefully he's ok.

But either way.

The garden is done.

Of course next year it will all be behind

the fence on our side of the property.

But for this year....

Grrrrrrrr.

(It's your job to upkeep your fences and

keep your livestock IN, not my job to 

fence my property to keep your livestock OUT.)

Oh the joys of country living.

Having the dogs out there will also help

with the cows and the deer (and the coyotes...)

Anyhow.

Still lots of things on our "to do" list.

So I'd best get on it!

Jim & Sabrina Update

They are all prepared for the storm..

They got their windows all boarded up.

Graffiti from a previous storm.....

He went down to the beach to

take a peak.

She's a little rowdy.

But beautiful as always.

UPDATE Hurricane Milton

We chatted with Jim last night.

They are saying it will still be a Cat 1

by the time it gets to the east coast

where they are... sustained winds around 80 mph.

But the biggest concern is flooding.

The news this morning (from Orlando)

said they are expecting a round of extremely

heavy rain for about 3 hours in the early

morning hours tomorrow and are watching

for flash flooding.

Again, though, Jim and Sabrina are in a

"high and dry" spot. (Not that ANYTHING

is "high" in Palm Bay) but relatively speaking...

so flooding is of only minor concern.

And the prediction dropped from the 6-8"

now to 4-6".

They are also predicting tornadoes, which is

always something that comes along with a

hurricane, but if you watch the predicted patterns,

it seems to skip the Melbourne/Palm Bay area.

However.

It is currently 50 degrees this morning in Kansas

and we have a zero percent chance of rain for

the next week at least.

It will be getting down to the mid 30's overnight

next week so Kyle will be keeping a close eye

out for frost. We put up some wood stakes on the

ends of the raised beds here in our kitchen garden

so we can easily throw a frost blanket over the garden,

so we should be fine. 

The tomatoes won't survive, 

but the beans, peas and carrots should be ok.

(I hope.... I REALLY want peas!)

Of course, I will be in Tucson!!!!!

Yippeeeeeeee!

Anyhow.

Just wanted to pop in and say good morning

and give a quick update.

And now I'm going to go make breakfast.

And get a couple trays of mashed potatoes

into the freeze dryer.

Yum!

Hurricane Milton

 So...

we moved.

But that doesn't mean we don't still keep

an eye on the hurricanes.

Because..... JIM AND SABRINA!!!!

So, yeah.

He looks like a big one.

Currently running at a Cat 3.

But anticipated to hit 4 or possibly 5 by

the time it hits Tampa.

Should lower a little by the time it

hops across the state, but will still

be a rain maker.

See the little orange dot on the east side of the state?

They are between the word Orlando and the dot.

So... 6-8 inches is what is forecast.

Luckily they are inland a little so they don't

need to worry about the river water rising.

(We were about a mile from the river, the river

was a mile wide, and then another mile barrier

island to the ocean. So we were generally safe from

storm surge as well, they are another mile-ish inland 

from where we were...)

They will be fine.

But prayers are always appreciated.

And, on the upside, Jim is a licensed insurance adjuster,

so he may be BUSY going forward, which is 

really good financially for them.

AND we have a little 5 acre spot all picked

out for them here!!!!  (hint hint!)

Meanwhile,

I subbed the morning class this morning because

Beth lives in Tampa - ground zero.

She left last night and drove to her friend's in Georgia.

So I taught for her this morning.

She will teach the rest of her classes this week.

I'll do my regular night classes.

And then NEXT WEEK,

Rod and I are driving to Wichita and staying

in a hotel Monday night (where I will teach my class...

always fun using hotel wifi)

and then early Tuesday morning I am hopping on

an airplane and HEADING TO TUCSON!!!

I can't believe it's next week already!

So excited to get to celebrate Mom's birthday with her

and all the family (well, lots of the family...)

Anyhow.

That's what's happening in our neck of the woods today.

But as usual, I have a gazillion things I need to do

and only a short time to do it in before I

need to start up another class.

Enjoy your day and keep the entire East Coast

in your prayers. Especially those who were

already hit so hard by Helene and now Milton

is just going to add to the water that is already there.