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!

Cooling Off A Bit

 It is starting to cool off a bit

around here.

The nights are in the 40's

and the days are in the 60s - 70s.

Kyle's flower garden is SO HAPPY.

Next year we will be able to put in some

little gardens around our house.

We are still moving dirt around here,

so raised beds would just be in the way.

This morning Rod headed off to the hardware

store to cover a guy who is deer hunting this week.

I made myself a couple peices of

toast with crunchy peanut butter

and bananas and a mug of

hot chocolate.

YUM!

Rod just walked in the door...

the store was slow today and there

were 2 other guys there today so

they sent him home.

He's eating his lunch and then

we are going to work on getting

the new coat hooks installed in the

front door hallway.

And then he's going to run up and

feed and dogs, pigs and chickens and

then run into Hays to check out the

machine we need to put the blow-in

insulation in the attic next week,

and then attend mutual.

Kyle and I ended up going to Hays on

Monday to get chicken & dog food, so I

don't need to do a WalMart order.

(I've been ordering our groceries for the

week and having him pick them up

after Mutual on Wednesdays.)

Convenient, and keeps me from

"impulse" buying.....

WHAT???

 Hahahahahaha.

Sorry to leave you hanging yesterday.

I was typing up my post and I

got interupted.

Usually I go back and edit what

I wrote, make sure I didn't spell

something wrong or use the same

word twice in a paragraph.

That sort of thing.

(Or forget to elaborate on something...)

But I needed to get off the computer,

so I just hit publish.

And didn't go back and EXPLAIN the 

"bird".

This is the floor in front of the stove.

I guess while I was cooking or 

cleaning after cooking,

I dripped some water on the floor.

And then I sat down at the island

and glancing over, noticed it

gleaming in the sunshine.

It looked like a bird to me,

so I snapped a picture.

And then I went and wiped it up.

It is NOT anything gross,

just water.

And sunshine.

And my weird "where's waldo" brain.

Made ya' look!

Halloween Party

 We didn't go.

But it looked like it was going

to be fun.

(And reports after said it was....)

Primary is in charge of Truck or Treat.

We have a new President and she has

some fun ideas.

She and the Chorister put it all together.

They started with a fall festival with 

activities for the kids at 5:00.

Then a chili cook-off / dinner at 6:00.

And then traditional truck or treat at 7:00.

Folks that went said it was fun.

We had to go into town to clean the church

that morning and I just can't justify TWO

110 mile trips in one day.

(And another the next day for church...)

We didn't get the rain we expected.

It started raining about 1:45 and we got

just under .2 inches, so no big deal.

Which means we got to attend church.

Sometimes I just take random pictures of stuff...

See the bird?

I was sitting at my island and

glanced over at the floor

and there he was,

shining in the sunlight.

Hahahaha.