I Feel Like Bugs Bunny!!!!

 Today, Kyle and I harvested

CARROTS!!!!!

Is that not a thing of beauty???

(It's a stripe of sunshine, NOT

an actual stripe...)

His patio is SO perfect for 

cleaning up the harvest.

We filled TWO milk crates

with carrots and then took

them up to his house,

sat in the shade (and lovely breeze)

and washed them all.

Tomorrow (hopefully) we will

run then through our chopper and

turn them into nickels and blanch

and freeze for this winter.

We were SO excited to see them

as they came out of the garden!

We have tried and tried and tried!

FINALLY some that look

(and taste) great!

This is maybe 2/3 of them.

We left 2 smaller rows still in the ground

because we aren't sure if we might

pull them Friday, leave the tops on,

and take them to the market.

But I'm teaching this weekend,

so we'll have to see...

Meanwhile.....

Rod and Jim were super busy!

There is now a toilet and vanity

in the half bath!

A new shower head AND curtain rod

in the master bath.

AND a toilet with a LOT of room 

next to it for a trash can and

a laundry hamper!

Also Jim got the hot water heater

all installed and ready to fill with 

water.

Also ALL the lights are now wired 

up. When I went up to say bye,

all the lights were on in the house

and it looked AWESOME!

Tomorrow for Hays Day we are

dragging the stock trailer and

picking up the carpets for the

master, office & closet.

Rod and I have to drive south 2 hours

on Wednesday to Garden City

for his glaucoma checkup.

While we are gone, hopefully

Jim and Kyle will be able to work

on the carpet........

And then Thursday Kyle and I will

run to Salina to pick up the fridge.

Kitchen

 Here's a peak at our new kitchen.

Not DONE, but getting close!

A view from the mud room hallway

as you enter the house proper.

Today I'll be painting the rest

of the cabinets under the

island.

Kyle will build the support

the the top, it's thinner than

we thought it was.

Needs a big ol' hunk of

plywood under there.

Also it's time to harvest and process

the carrots.

I plan to pick them and then take

them up to Kyle's house where

he has a chopper to slice them

in nice nickels and then

they get blanched, ice bathed,

and bagged up for the freezer.

And then we clean up their bed and

plant MORE for our fall harvest.

Meanwhile, the guys are 

going to work on plumbing today.

Hooking up sinks, toilets, etc.

Cabinets AND Bread Baking!

 Yesterday was a big day........

Rod and I got up "early" and

headed into Hays to Home Depot

to pickup the LAST cabinet!

(We also went to Bomgaars and looked

at the carpet and make sure he is

ok with the color/texture/price.)

Then straight up to the farm to

paint the final cabinets!

And get them installed!!!!

The layout for the master bath.

Without paint.

Part of what the island will look like.

A close up of the Acacia wood we are

using for the island counter top.

It has shrink wrap on it, so it is hard

to see the actual color.

But trust me,

it's GORGEOUS!

Once it was all painted,

Rod set up his handy laser

and they got to work!

How many Buffaloes does it take

to hang a cabinet?

(all of them....

1 to hold it

1 to screw it to the wall

1 to supervise and run the laser

and 1 to photo document!)

The laser made it much easier!

Just needed to locate the stud

and screw it in place!

(It was still heavy though...)

Then, this morning, Rod, Jim and I

drove Rod's truck 

***** which, I forgot to mention,

now has ICE COLD AIR CONDITIONING!

It went out last year and poor Rod

suffered through much of the summer

without any AC and one window that 

would go down but not back up.......

Anyhow.

Yesterday he took the bull by the horns

and went to get a part to fix it.

And come to find out the part was

still under warranty for

ONE MORE WEEK.

So he got the whole assembly

FOR FREE!

(He bought another warranty, so

I marked in my phone when the

warranty is due to expire so he

won't forget if it breaks again...)

Anyhow.

We drove the nicely cold truck

back into Hays to pickup some of the

VERY LAST STUFF.

(as if)

We got the 2 toilets and all the

hoses, etc to install those as well

as the hoses to install the sinks and

the hot water heater.

And the chord for the new stove.

(Because WHY would they want to

include such a silly thing?)

Also the carpet tape we need to

install the new carpet in the bedroom,

office and master closet.

And then on to Walmart for things like

a shower curtain rod,

toilet paper holder,

hooks for towels....

that sort of thing.

It's getting SOOOO close!

When we got home, Sabrina was 

just getting off work (half days on

Fridays, yea!) and we all went to the

County Fair and watched the FFA

(Future Farmers of America)

kids show and auction their animals.

It is always fun.

(But I forgot to take pictures.)

The auctioneer knows and works with

them all, so he bantered back and forth

with the kids to help them with nerves

and did a really good job getting

lots of money for their efforts.

(The guy sitting next to us bought a cake.

For $320.00)

For real.

Anyhow.

After that we headed back to the house.

Jim and Sabrina went to the courthouse

to get the final license plates for their vehicle.

Rod went to Hoxie (45 minutes west) to

get new blades and belts for the 

big zero-turn lawnmower.

And I went through and got the stuff

organized for the farmers markets tomorrow.

And then.......

Sabrina and Jim started BAKING!

(While Rod and Kyle headed to the

stockcar races... I'm sitting in my office

with the windows closed and I can 

HEAR them racing!)

Hard at work making bread!

LOTS of bread!

It's her happy place.

Where's Waldo (Pig Version)

 I drove from Kyle's house,

down to the farm,

and as I passed by Pig World,

I glanced over and couldn't find Fred!

Can you?

Little silly!

He LOVES his mud wallow.

We got LOTS accomplished yesterday.

First we went to the farm and did some

more weeding (getting the rows ready for more okra)

and harvested the rest of the onions.

We started processing them in Kyle's shed

since there's air conditioning...

but that many onions in a closed space

was PAINFUL!

So we moved the operation out to his porch.

Jim and I chose to wear gloves, because... ONION!

Kyle said "Now THIS is Homesteading.

Family all sitting on the porch together,

processing the harvest."

We cut the green tops off the onions,

as well as the root beards,

and put them in the wagon.

We FILLED the wagon,

2 milk crates AND a 5 gallon bucket!

It was shady and a nice breeze.

Actually REALLY nice!

Next job is to wash and clean them up.

We will probably sell some of them,

but most of them will get preserved.

We don't have a cold room,

so they will either get chopped or sliced and

frozen in vacuum sealed bags,

or some will get freeze dried.

And some will get caramelized and then either

freeze dried or canned.

We probably will not need to grow onions

next year. (Except a few for fresh eating...)

And then we headed into town.

Found some carpet for the office, bedroom and closet.

(Didn't buy it yet, not ready...)

Picked up some more kitchen and bathroom cabinets.

There is still ONE missing, I'm hoping they have it

tomorrow in the store (they didn't yesterday, but there

was a truck in the loading bay, so ... maybe???)

And some stuff to try to get a handle on the

squash bugs that would really like to eat

the zucchini, delicata, spaghetti and honey baby

squash we have growing.

And we went to Taco Bell.

And then grocery shopping.

We also bought a gazillion hoses and some of

those birdie type sprinkler heads that go

around and around in a circle.

This morning Kyle got them set up in the

"upper" garden where we are "growing" corn

and just planted more pumpkins.

It worked MOSTLY great!!!

We will need to make a few modifications,

but for the most part, it was a WIN!

He and I finished weeding one of the onion rows

getting ready to plant our fall carrots.

And then up to the house where Jim got the

rest of the ceiling fans (minus one still missing)

in the kitchen, bedroom and prep room,

installing the light in the master bathroom

and working on getting all the light switches

hooked up.

(Rod has been on forced REST,

he's doing too much and his back has

been hurting lately, so I made him stay home

for a few days to try to give it a break...

He did head into town tonight for Mutual though.)

About 3:00 we needed to leave so I could

get ready to teach tonight.

And Jim washed all the red onions.

There's only about half a bucket.

But they sure are pretty!

And now....

dinner, an episode or 2 of House on Prime TV

and then bed.

Mostly Gardening Today

 We were SO focused on the house

that we fell a little behind on the garden.

Had to rectify that.

I spent the morning weeding the okra

bed that I TOTALLY let go.

(After 2 hours I went up to the house

to check on Rod and Kyle finished it up.)

Meanwhile, Kyle and Jim re-tilled the

rows for the cucumbers and got 

those all planted.

I think they are trying 5 or 6 new types

this year. Well, that includes the

Marketmores that we grow every year.

But there were some new ones too.

Some slicers and some picklers.

We'll see how they do!

Jim also picked 20 zucchini!

They look really nice!

We should be ready to replant the okra

in the newly weeded bed tomorrow.

The orange okra suddenly took off

and are looking pretty good.

Hopefully they will produce well

and be tasty!

I headed into town to teach,

and Rod and Jim worked in the house

for a little longer.

When I started teaching, I got a text

from Kyle.

He harvested the onions.

Actually this is NOT all of them.

It's just all that his wagon would hold.

He still has 2 more rows to pick!

We will hang some to dry for storage,

clean some to sell,

and freeze some in slices and chunks

for us to use over the winter.

That is a LOT of onions!!!!

Gratuitous fireworks picture.

We drove to a hill outside town

and watched.

There were fireworks across the entire 

town! Just not at the moment I snapped

the picture.

It was fun to watch!

Sabrina stayed home with their dog who

is NOT a fan of fireworks.

Our frenchies didn't care at all.

Ok, just finished teaching and doing all

the paperwork for last week.

I can smell dinner....

I'm OUT!

More Progress.....

Yesterday we made the 2 hour trek to 

Salina to visit Menards.

It was Jim's first visit.

He was appropriately awestruck.

(grin)

It's HUGE!!!!!

We spent SIX HOURS looking,

figuring, loading carts,

changing minds,

unloading carts,

and making FINAL selections.

(And then paying a TON of money!)

Most of the year, they offer an 11%

rebate on EVERYTHING in the store,

so, since we bought our flooring there,

we had a nearly $400 rebate,

so the countertops we purchased were

already paid for!

YEA!

They are the marble things on top of the cupboards

and on the floor. (Those are for the island

and the prep room counters...)

The other are acacia wood for the island!

Aren't they pretty?

(The other side is the same, but more of the

dark and less of the light, we are planning

to have that the side facing up.)

We were concerned about rain on the way home,

so took the time to wrap everything in

shrink wrap plastic.

Oh, we also bought a new stove and ordered

a new fridge that will need to be picked

up in a couple of weeks.

(They will hold it for 30 days...)

We picked out two matching lights

for the two bathrooms.

Jim got the one in the half bath installed,

and then he and Kyle headed down to the

garden because they were forecasting more

rain tonight and they needed to get the

pumpkin seeds in the ground.

That was a project!

They cut a small diameter pvc pipe in half

and walked along sticking it 2 inches into the 

dirt and then you drop a seed down the pipe

and into the hole, lift the pipe and push a

little dirt over the hole with your foot.

Beats the socks off crawling down the line

on your hands and knees!

(They need to plant something like 2400 seeds!)

Jim doesn't do small stuff...

(And the seeds are spaced too far apart

to be able to use the Jang seeder we usually use.)

Anyhow.

Meanwhile, Rod worked on getting the

plumbing ready for the new toilets

(which we didn't buy yet...)

And I worked on the final painting of the

upper cabinets.

Terrible picture, yes my legs are DIRTY!

(I was down in the garden for a bit...)

And yes, there is paint on my toes.

But you can see the creamy color.

I am NOT a fan of painting cabinets.

I MUCH preferred the drawers and

base cabinets.

But... if they can mud and tape, I can paint.

Then I made Rod come home with me

(his back was pretty sore)

we left the truck for Jim to drive home.

And now, I'm done with teaching.

The thunderstorm (including a little hail)

has passed, so Jim and Sabrina might

be heading to the drive-in for 

Captain America.

And dinner at Dairy Queen.

Rod and I will have something to eat

and then off to bed.

Tomorrow is the first WaKeeney Farmers Market

so we will need to be up and out by 7:... something.

It starts at 8 and we need to set up.

I'm not sure how many people will come by,

but it will be fun to reconnect with all the

vendor friends we made.

Enjoy your Independence Day!

Be safe!

(Don't blow anything up!)

Movin' Fast Now!

 Woo.... it's a WHIRL WIND up in there y'all!

I spent the day painting base cabinets.

Side bar... don't you love the view out our bedroom windows?

It reminds me of the color of well

worn blue jeans.

But we actually did a color match

of Kyle's SHIRT!

(While he was wearing it.... lol.)

The guy agreed it was probably the strangest

color match he had been asked to do.

Meanwhile, Jim got the rest of the outlets wired

and covers installed.

And then moved on to installing the pot lights.

And then ceiling fans!!!

No more random holes in the ceiling!

Kyle got the floor all but finished in the

living room / kitchen and moved on

to the prep room.

Rod spent the day helping where folks

needed it and running into town (Hill City

and/or WaKeeney to get stuff we needed.)

I had to leave early since I need to

teach tonight,

so he is taking over and painting all the

uppers a lovely buttery cream color.

I'm SO excited to see how they turn out!

Anyhow.

I just walked in the door.

Gonna make a quick sandwich,

try to scrub the blue paint off my hands,

and get ready to start my zoom.

Have a great night!

Rozann and Greg, hope you are having an

absolute BLAST at your "summer home"!

PICTURES!

We need PICTURES!