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.

Fun Friday...

 Ok, maybe not FUUUUN.....

But productive.

It started with a nice long chat

with Soni on the phone.

And then we had biscuits and

gravy with scrambled eggs 

for breakfast. 

YUM!!!

(I forgot I made a bunch and froze it!)

Then I got everything ready to finally

process all those watermelon we harvested.

But they were AWFUL.

One was fermented and the rest weren't

even close to ripe.

About that time, Jim stopped by with

Sabrina's Dad, Terry.

We all headed up to the pigs to feed them

a bunch of watermelon, and then they

headed to the pumpkin patch to get more

so Jim can continue selling them to the

good folks of WaKeeney.

And I headed back to the house to visit

with Kyle who stopped by about then.

And then we headed outside to pick up

a bunch of left over wood and stuff from

the house build so Kyle could start bringing

in dirt to create a front yard and then

eventually on the east and west facing sides

to finish insulating the base of the house.

I was teaching, so had to sneak a

picture through the window.

He put in 4 loads across the front

and raised it up so it's not such a drastic

drop off.

He smoothed it out, but by the next break

it was too dark to take a picture.

It's always fun when you look up and

see a piece of heavy machinery heading

right at you..... lol.

Meanwhile, Rod has been working on

finishing the east side - it's all ready for

tar paper and dirt.

But the wind was gusting 35 mph today,

not an ideal day for putting up tar paper.

And in the middle of all that.....

UPS pulled into the yard with a delivery!

Thank you Mom!

It's a beautiful fall bouquet in a 

pretty woven cornucopia.

It looks perfect on my island with a

couple of our little pumpkins.

And now... I'm done for the night.

Gonna go pop a couple hot dogs in

the air fryer and feed Rod "dinner".

Tomorrow we are running into town.

It's our turn to clean the church.

And then the Hurricane Trudy that has been

wreaking havoc on Utah (oh poor Hurricane!)

and Colorado (have you seen the devastation

in Pagosa Springs!) is heading to Kansas.

They are predicting 1-2 inches here on Sunday.

So we have already alerted everyone that we

will NOT be attending on Sunday.

It will likely still be raining on Monday.

But should clear up in the afternoon and

our roads dry fairly quickly, so Rod shouldn't

have any trouble getting to work on Tuesday.

But I'm staying home.

Hahahahahahaha.

Ok,

have a wonderful weekend!