Happy Monday Y'all!

 Rod spent the morning on the phone

with a million different providers

and FINALLY found the AC unit

we need for the new house!

Whew!

Who knew it could be so hard?

Hopefully installation will be easier...

(The manual is 66 pages...)

Anyhow.

He is heading to the house to take

more measurements to make sure

we order the right length of hoses.

And I'm going to get ready to teach tonight.

I taught over the weekend.

Had some actually fun students for a change!

It was a good class.

And yesterday when Kyle came over for

dinner, we went out back and were

checking on our "chaos" flower garden

that is self-seeding from last year.

We did stick a few bulbs in last fall.

I have 2 hyacinth coming up!

And a volunteer tulip in the corner

next to one of my rhubarb...

These little grape hyacinth are left over

from the previous tenants.

They come up on their own every spring

and boy they smell wonderful!!!

The lilacs are getting leaves and I even

found some tiny blossoms!

These are OLD trees so the flowers aren't

awesome, but at least there are some.

The little lilac sticks (one day trees???)

that Kyle and I bought in March of 2024

and drove back to Florida with us,

and then back to Kansas,

and then back to Florida again

and then back to Kansas to FINALLY

stick in the ground.....

(sheesh)

are NOT dead and are actually 

getting some leaves as well.

I'm going to dig them both up and transplant

them at the new house.

Found a rabbit eating the grass on my

walk to the alley to check on the lilacs.

He didn't even look up when I walked by.

The town rabbits are pretty brave.

(He, or a friend, was in my flower bed

this morning! I chased him away...)

Eat what you want, but stay OUT of the

garden beds!!!

And a peek at my beautiful eggs.

I cracked and stirred up 18 eggs for each of

5 freeze dryer trays last night after school.

Got them in the deep freezer.

I'll probably put them in the freeze dryer

tomorrow morning.

Want to make sure they are REALLY

frozen - they make a mess in your machine

if they aren't good and solid.

OH!

And Saturday after school we used the last

of the Subway Gift Card Rozann and Greg sent

us for Christmas.

We each got a 12" sub.

Ate half for dinner and saved the other

half for lunch on Sunday.

Thanks guys!

We got THREE meals out of that card!

It was a nice treat.

We don't eat out often.

Too easy to cook at home.

And not much choice here in our little town.

(Actually, there are several nice places,

but DANG eating out is pricey!!!)

So we don't bother.

Hard to justify when you have LOTS of

food right there in the fridge/freezer.

But sometimes it is just nice to go for

the convenient option.

WINDY Saturday

Once again we are having

a pretty windy day.

It was really nice yesterday.

A little breezy, but not bad.

But today we have wind and fire

advisories - 27mph which doesn't

sound like much.

Especially for we "hurricane" folks.

But dude!

You get that puppy screaming

across the plains with nothing to

slow it down and it's RIPPING.

So.....

Rod decided not to work on the plumbing.

Sitting under the house

at ground level

you kind of get sand blasted when its windy.

I totally get that.

I taught the Louisiana class today.

We had a good group of students.

Some of them were actually participating!

I got a "chat" message this afternoon.

"I'm 23 weeks pregnant, my baby just starting

kicking like crazy.... I guess he likes your voice!" 

Hahahaha.

Anyhow.

I don't have any pictures for you.

I was going to do the eggs,

but it's too windy to carry a tray of

beaten eggs out to the garage.

I'll wait and do them tomorrow after school.

The wind should be better by then.

But as I look out my office window

there are some teeny tiny buds starting

to pop out on our tree!

Some of the trees in town are flowering.

It's SO PRETTY!

You'll just have to take my word

for it though.

I'm heading to my chair to sit.

(I know, I've been sitting all day...

but this chair is NOT NEARLY

as comfy as my recliner...)

In case you're wondering,

that's dandelion tea.

And a good book.

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh

It Must Be Spring

 It must be spring.

The chickens are laying like crazy.

And we are going to start getting

more and more in the coming days

since the little black stars are just

getting started.

(Yes, we bought a LOT of Vital Farm

eggs over the winter....)

Kyle has been collecting eggs

and today I went and grabbed them all.

Next I'm going to crack 18 into

the food processor and then pour them

onto a freeze dryer tray.

I have 5 trays.

So 8 dozen should work.

(I have another dozen but they

were in an ugly Walmart carton.)

Once they are frozen solid,

they are going into the freeze dryer.

Should take 24 - 36 hours.

And then into mason jars to get

vacuum sealed.

Next winter when the girls aren't

laying much, it will be nice to have

farm fresh eggs available!

Happy Birthday Bean!

 Happy Birthday Bean!

(But he doesn't read my blog...)

Anyhow.

It's another SCORCHER again

today. It's currently 4:42 in the afternoon

and it's 95 degrees outside.

On March 25.

Tomorrow is going to be WINDY

with a high in the 80's.

And then it drops back into the 60's.

So we will keep the tomatoes inside

for another week to make sure

they won't freeze.

I think we have 2 more chilly nights.

Random gratuitous picture of two of

two of the guys in our ward.

One holding his little baby girl

and the other holding his grandson.

I just thought it was cute!

(The baptism was standing room only

so they were out in the hall...)

This afternoon I went out to the farm

to check on Rod, pick up some frozen

okra and some chicken quarters,

and check on our little onions.

Rod is working on the PVC

under the house for the half bath.

Kyle is running all the pex waterlines.

Kyle was running the sprinkler

down in the garden.

The onions are looking good,

starting to see some little green sprouts!

However, we lost ALL our peas.

SOOOO SAD!

Tomorrow morning we are running

Beau into the vet in Hays.

He hasn't been eating since Monday.

Today he is drinking LOTS of water

and then going outside and throwing up.

Then he comes in, lays on the floor

for a while, and then starts over.

Poor little guy.

No idea what's wrong with him.

Hopefully they can figure it out.

Catching Up "Again"

 First off....

So happy to hear all is well in Tucson.

We had a scare with Dad.

And then Mom got sick.

Can't wait to chat with her in 

the morning and make sure she is

all better again!

Whew!

In the meantime,

it has been a BUSY few days here.

Starting with Wednesday.

Kyle started the reconstruction of the

chicken coop by dropping 4 posts in

the ground and then putting posts

ON the ground for the walls to sit on.

Then he picked up the back wall and

put it on its base and secured it in place.

Got the roost bars in place.

Then it was time for the front wall.

Had to do them out of order, 

because that's the order they fell in...

Had to pick it up with the excavator

and get it all hooked up with a chain.

Had to get it spun around so it was

facing the right direction.

It was a pretty windy afternoon,

so it took some talent!

The wind was helping / not helping...

depended on the moment.

But he persevered.

Slid that puppy into place,

like it was no big deal.

The man is a MAESTRO!

Not bad for a day's work.

I had to leave to go teach,

he got the two end walls reconstructed

(they were pretty torn up... but he got

them put back together.)

And called it a day.

The next day he picked up that roof you

see still on the ground and got it all

together so the chickens had someplace

to sleep!

He put it up against the fence in the 

alleyway leading into the pig barn.

Cut a hole and connected the fence

to the coop.

The roof looks a little "ruffled".

(No idea what his hand is doing...

probably holding some screws?)

Got the door all installed.

Meanwhile, a ward member was there

harvesting two of our pigs in the next 

pasture. It was extremely distracting!

There was ONE casualty we couldn't salvage.

Poor little ladder.

But now the coop is on the ground and

we don't NEED the ladder to get in and out

anymore. I'm VERY happy about that!

Friday he hooked up the tiller on the

tractor and we got the rows all prepped

for the next planting.

He added some sand (from the "pond" he dug)

and some coconut coir to the first three rows.

I added some 10-10-10 fertilizer and he

planted 4 rows of carrots in each of the

three 50' rows.

One row of red, one of yellow and one of orange.

We hope to have LOTS of carrots!

Then we put in 3 rows of onion sets!

Fingers crossed!

Saturday morning we headed into town early

to meet up with some other members to 

clean the church. 

Then to the store to get more onions to plant,

and then to WalMart to get some cookies,

and then to Wendy's for lunch.

It was a SCORCHER out there!

Yes.

It's MARCH.

(I talked to Jim, it was 72 in Florida!!!)

Back to the church for a baptism for

the wife of a long time member.

It was a really nice meeting.

I expected maybe 8 or 9 people to attend.

It's 2:00 on a Saturday afternoon.

We had 37 people.

Standing room only in the Relief Society

Room and the little tiny font room.

(I bought 36 cookies..... lol.)

The temperature on the way home.

Yikes!!!!!

We stopped at the house to change clothes

and then ran out to the farm to take some

measurements and drop off some stuff.

 

On the ride home.....

There was a LARGE fire just outside town.

That's our Chief of Police's farmstead.

It came close to his home, but they were

able to get it under control.

Lucky it was Saturday and not Friday!

Friday there were extremely high winds.

As you can see from the picture, on Saturday

there was almost no wind.

The smoke was going straight up.

It still burned a good amount of pasture land.

But his cattle were in another part of the property,

and between the fire trucks, 

a plane borrowed from the state

and lots of local farmers using their

equipment to cut fire breaks around the

burned areas, they were able to 

contain it to only a few hundred acres.

Looked like someone tossed a cigarette

butt out their window. The burned area

started right at the edge of the highway,

and burned a good area.

There were LOTS of people concentrating

on protecting the Chief's place, but

also the OIL WELL right there by the highway.

The police drove up and down the streets

in North WaKeeney letting us know about

the fire (like you couldn't see / smell it)

and asking us to put sprinklers on our yards

and prepare for an evacuation order if the

winds picked up.

After the major fires last week in Nebraska,

everyone was a little extra on edge.

But it turned out well and we were

all thankful for the efforts of those

who worked so quickly and efficiently

to get it put out before anything more than

grass land was lost.

It was nice to have a relatively quiet Sunday.

We went in early so Rod could attend

his 7:30 Bishopric meeting.

Then we both went to the 8:30

Ward Council meeting.

Then church at 10:00.

Relief Society at 11:00.

Meetings until nearly 2:00.

And finally HOME.

Kyle came over for some pork ribs

for dinner and then we were all happy

to head off to bed.

Which is where I'm headed NOW.

Waiting for Warm Ground

 We are just waiting for the ground

in the farm garden to warm up to

50 degrees so we can transplant

our tomatoes.

It's going to be 94 on Saturday.

But it was 8 on Monday.

So.... yeah.

Looks like the night time temps

will be in the high 30s and low 40s

with daytime temps in the low 70s

now for the next 15 days.

It might not be long now...

but in the meantime, they needed to move.

Yesterday after our Hays trip,

Kyle helped me rearrange the

"greenhouse".

(hahahaha)

We moved all the tomato plants

to the floor (with plastic trash bags

under them to catch any drips...)

Hardwood floors are beautiful,

but kind of a pain in the neck.

On the top shelf on the left are our chives.

They will get transplanted around the tomatoes.

The next row are peppers.

And the bottom shelf are 2 more trays of

72 more pepper starts and a tray of

roma tomatoes (you can't see them in this picture).

The tomatoes are SUPER leggy, but we will

"plant 'em DEEP" and get some good

root growth on them.

I pulled flowers off all the SunGold cherries

yesterday. Too early guys!

These are the peppers we were pretty

sure I had killed by overwatering.

They are looking pretty healthy now though.

(The baggie covered pot in the back are some

okra seeds from last year's crop... just checking

to see if they are viable. If they are, I have to

rake them all up before Kyle tills that area...)

Keep growing little guy!

And the little romas are going to get

up potted probably Thursday.

Or maybe I'll wait until we transplant the 

others into the garden. 

There are 72 of these guys and not that

much room on the floor for them!

We are hoping to have tomatoes 

coming out of our ears this summer.

Fingers crossed!!!!!

We need to get the cattle panels up

for the peas that have finally germinated

as well as for the tomatoes.

They are moving to where we just pulled

all the okra out.

Meanwhile, Rod is working on the

plumbing under the house for the

half bathroom yesterday and today.

I think he got the kitchen and prep room

sink plumbing (pipes to the septic)

all finished.

Then he'll work on the master bath.

Next comes the water lines (pex).

We bought all those lines and fittings

when we were in town yesterday.

Kyle will likely have to install those

since they are going in the attic instead

of under the house.

(Less chance of freezing in the winter...)

And, of course, Rod isn't allowed to 

go on ladders and into the ceiling.

(Or on the roof.)

Once all the waterlines are done,

we can start putting up drywall and

closing up those walls and ceilings!

And THEN it will start looking like

an actual house!

Nope.

Not excited AT ALL.

Silly BamBam!

 Kyle called me last night.

We decided it was too windy

for him to come into town for dinner.

He got the trailer popped back

onto its tires, but there is going

to be LOTS of work to get the

coop functional again.

Good news though, it didn't mess

up the door.

He really likes that door!

It's an actual door, not something

he built from scrap wood like

the doors on the pig barn...

Unfortunately the brand new

solar light we bought and he installed

on Tuesday didn't survive though.

and.....

possibly when the coop fell over and

made a big racket (we imagine, he was

in town at church when it happened)

Bam (the male puppy) got out.

No evidence of going UNDER any of the

fences or gates. (And if he had squirted

under, Pebbles would have followed,

she's his little shadow.)

So he probably jumped the 4' fence.

While we were talking, Kyle could hear

Bam barking and Winston barking back.

He was pretty sure he could see him

across the road, but it was about 18 degrees

outside, the wind was still roaring,

and he was just barely thawing out from

feeding the pigs.

So... good luck Bam.

This morning he saw him about .5 mile 

away across the road, 

He went over and got him and

brought him back and put him in 

with the other dogs where he belongs.

Dufus!

It was a bit brisk when I got up.

We were planning to go to the farm

around noon, but it was still

below freezing.

So no.

Instead I'm reading a book

and kind of watching You Tube.

Waiting til 4:30 to start today's class.

Tomorrow the forecast is sunny and 74.

That will feel good!