Another Busy Day!!!!!

 This morning (Wednesday)

Rod and Jim headed up to the house

and worked with Kyle getting the

drywall installed in the mechanical 

room (the office closet where the

washer/dryer, hot water heater and

AC unit will be...).

And then they got the AC unit

IN the mechanical room!

It's not hooked up,

but it's inside the right place!!!

That thing is WICKED heavy!

But they got it in.

(And Rod didn't lift anything...

good man!)

Meanwhile, Sabrina and I headed back

into Hays to get a physical required before

she is "officially" hired at her new job!

She said they were all super friendly

and, of course, she passed!

A quick run to WalMart and then we drove

the route she will take into town

to avoid the traffic circles.

(They just don't sound like they would

be fun during the morning rush hour...)

They aren't EVER fun.

Let's be honest.

Hahahaha.

Anyhow.

While I was waiting for her, my boss called

because the company decided to change the 

sign in procedure for Zoom.

And as a result, he can get into his account.

And I can get into my account.

But we can't get into each other's accounts!

And that's a problem, since his account

hosts my weeknight review classes!

(And if we move them to my account,

it will change the meeting code that we have

carefully used over and over for the past

nearly 6 years!)

And heaven forbid something happens to

either of us, NOBODY can get into the accounts.

(Really HQ? Whose idea was this.....)

I think we got it figured out.

I am now able to get into his and he can get

into mine, but ONLY if we don't accidentally

delete the email invitation the system generated today.

No pressure.

When Jim got home, and while I was teaching,

they worked on getting their room a little

"homier" looking.

Put up some pictures, a desk, some tables,

and a TV along with their bed and giant

dog bed for their baby, Charlotte.

I'll take another picture once they get it all

situated. But it's looking good!

I realized I have ZERO pictures of Jim,

so here you go.

MOM!

You remember hair like that!!!

Although I don't know if it was ever as long

and flowing and curly since you were a young girl...

He is definitely YOUR grandson though!

Ok. 

I'm heading to the kitchen to help

Jim make some burgers for dinner.

Rod is in town at Mutual but should 

be heading home soon.

Nite all!

They Are HERE!!!!!

 And did I take any pictures???

Nope.

They arrived about 11pm Sunday evening.

It was a LONG day for everyone!

They decompressed for a little,

Sabrina hopped in the shower,

Jim and Kyle ate a little food,

and then we ALL headed to bed.

(Kyle took Bear and drove to their house

and THEN bed...)

This morning we visited for a bit

and then the guys headed to the

storage unit to unload the Penske truck.

Sabrina and I headed to the farm to

water the garden,

unload all the garden stuff from the

back of my car,

and then went to the storage unit

bearing COLD WATER for the guys.

They were nearly finished already!!!

And now we are home again,

Sabrina is organizing her stuff in

their bedroom,

I'm doing last week's paperwork in preparation

to start class tonight.

And we have some chicken in the

pressure cooker.

I think she's going to take a nap.

Here we go.

We are both tired,

(and wind blown...)

but this is US!

More photos to follow.

But for now I'm going to make a sandwich

and take a quick snooze before class.

And They're OFF!!!!!

 The caravan got underway about

8:45 Florida time.

Jim is in the moving truck.

Kyle is in Jim's pickup.

Sabrina is in the VW.

They are going to try to push through

and make it in 2 days.

We'll see....

Good luck!!!

And we'll see you when you arrive!

My (almost not anymore) Florida Peeps

 My dandelion tea channeled y'all

again this morning!

We've been keeping you in our prayers

as you pack up, make all those big

decisions (keep? donate? toss? bury in the yard?)

Hahahahaha.

It's NOT fun and decision fatigue

is REAL!!!

But you will get through it!

Today is the truck delivery day!

And now it is ON.

The dogs wish they could help.

But they are pretty busy here.

Although Bear prefers to be a lap dog.

"Can I come up???"

NOPE.

(Ok, he did anyway....)

But I HAVE trained him that he does

NOT sleep on the bed.

He's a smart dog.

First night I had to be really forceful

and push him off the bed.

He was VERY offended.

The second night he hopped on and it

only took one big shove to get him off.

Hasn't tried since.

Good boy.

I've been busy too though.

I just pulled the watermelon out of the

freeze dryer.

OH MY GOODNESS!

Reid has GOT to try this.

It's the bomb!

Rod came in while I was packaging

it up (got 4 quart jars and this jar for

in the kitchen, daily snacking...)

and he immediately grabbed a baggie

and filled it to take with his lunch.

I'm not sure how it would have done 

in Florida. By the time I was done

getting it in jars, the dust on the trays

was getting pretty sticky already.

It rained all day yesterday so it's a 

little more humid than usual around here...

So I scooped it all up with my

bench scraper and put it in my 

water jug!

YUM!

Meanwhile, we had a late freeze

and EVERYTHING we started from

seed and planted out in the garden

is dead.

Sigh.

But there is an amazing lady at

Bomgaars (out in the parking lot)

and I was able to replace almost all of

it ... and since it was Senior Discount Day

(Tuesdays) I got 132 plants for $64.57!

Not bad!

I filled the cart all the way up

and then she offered to give me

the black plastic trays they come in too...

and there were a couple empty spots,

so I bought MORE. 

Hahahaha.

When I got home I went through and pulled

all the flowers and buds off the peppers.

WAAAAY too early for that nonsense.

I got a good variety of peppers and tomatoes.

(Even 4 Habanero and 4 Jalapeno for Jim...)

A good mix of cherry and slicer tomatoes

and several kinds of bell peppers.

No little rainbow snacking peppers though,

but we ordered more seeds on Friday.

They will be here tomorrow and I'll

get them started again.

They'll be late, but at least we will

get SOME.

There are a couple 4-packs of romas

in there, but I also started 36 more last week

and they are already germinated.

They will be good replacements when

these quit producing.

(Determinate tomatoes like Romas put

all their fruit on at one time and then

they are done, so we will have a second

wave... I'll probably start more in another

week or two for a third wave.)

Anyhow.

We are getting excited!!!

Lots of FUN THINGS coming up

in the next little bit!

I'm going to work on getting the room

ready for Jim and Sabrina.

Rod is working on the pump today.

It's not working the way he wants.

And then it's back to taping and mudding.

The end is in sight!

Well.... THAT Was Intense!

 We spent the day at the farm.

Rod was working on putting up

some new shelves in his shop

and I was watering the two gardens.

About 3:30 I left so I could teach.

And about 45 minutes into class

I got a text from Rod letting me

know he was getting ready to come

home, but there was a storm blowing in.

He was up at the pig barn,

closing everything up, 

when there was a HUGE lightning

and thunder crash and

BAM.

FIRE!!!!!

Went from a lightning strike to THAT in under a minute.

Those are our power poles on our property.

The road is right behind the furthest one.

These pictures are from Kyle's place.

The lightning hit right behind Steve's

house (the owner of the dog, Chester)

west of our property by about half a mile,

and spread FAST.

His house is on the top of the hill so Rod could keep track better.

This is directly across the street

from our new house.

It just kept rolling! The wind was pretty stout.

This progression is in under 5 minutes!

He called 911 to report it

and then sent me a text with a picture.

I sent a text to our neighbor Vincent.

He lives a couple miles away.

He knows EVERYBODY.

A couple minutes later, he texted back

that the brush trucks were on the way

and he was loaded up and heading down

with his disc.

About that time Rod texted the first

brush truck was on scene.

And here came 3 more....

And ALL the neighbors.

We use the term neighbors pretty loosely

around here.

The "Crop Doc" who flies a crop duster

and lives several miles up the highway

came to help.

The guy that delivers shale (and is going

to do our driveways once the build is done)

came to help.

And a bunch of fire fighters.

(Probably volunteers / farmers)

Anyhow.

They were able to get it out really quickly.

The first text was 6:15 and at 6:39

he was saying it was moving North East

(away from us...)

But it was fast moving and burned

a good bit of ground.

Thankfully no buildings were burned.

By 7:19 it was out and they were

just mopping up the hot spots.

We are grateful for good neighbors

and quick responders.

Fire is a THING.

Especially when we haven't had any

appreciable precipitation since December.

We had one light snow... but it was

really dry and didn't have any moisture 

in it when it melted.

Meanwhile, I was teaching.

So I put a picture on the screen and 

apologized for being a little scattered

and eventually just took an 

unscheduled extra break.

But all is well.

Rod got home at 9:00 just as I was closing

down the class.

The firefighters stayed until Vincent

got all the dirt disced where the hot spots

were.

And now, we are sitting down to

eat some Hawaiian Pizza and give

thanks for Heavenly Father looking 

out for our family.

AGAIN.

We are so grateful.

Monday Morning

 We had a good weekend.

I taught on Saturday.

Rod spent the day at the farm.

Where a "mystery man" came

and installed the weathervane

on the top of his shop.

It looks really good.

And I'll probably forgive him (eventually)

for getting on a ladder.

But he better not do it again!!!

(That was a house warming gift from

Tim and Angie before we moved...)

He's been in charge of feeding the

dogs, pigs and chickens while Kyle is

in Florida helping Jim & Sabrina move.

They are still puppies and LOVE to

rough house with each other.

Pebbles is the LAZIEST eater in the world.

She only eats laying next to her bowl.

Silly girl.

He has also done a BUNCH of work in

his shop, took down the little half wall

and moved the big freezer up against

the wall so he can get his giant lawn mower

and the 4-wheeler in there.

We need to do a little more re-arranging

so we can bring the 2nd freezer down from

the storage building to make room for

all of Jim and Sabrina's belongings.

They have to store pretty much

EVERYTHING until we move out of the

WaKeeney house and hand it over to them.

It will be tight in the storage building.

But we will make it work.

Today Rod is going to put more shelves

up on the wall above the freezer

so he can move more stuff off the floor

and make more space.

Meanwhile, this morning I cut up

a "super sized" watermelon we got

at our little local grocery store on

Saturday evening.

It's in the freezer now and heading

to the freeze dryer tomorrow.

That sounded like fun.

It's not the sweetest watermelon,

but it's also NOT watermelon season.

It was 25 pounds for $10.99,

so even if it's not perfect, it was

a really good deal.

We'll either eat it in little cubes

or maybe I'll just powder it all in

my food processor and we can add

it to lemonade, etc.

It smelled awesome though!

Now I'm heading to the farm to start

watering everything and feed all the

watermelon rinds to the pigs and chickens.

And then I teach again this evening.

Have a wonderful Monday!

They Did It!

 Those men are amazing.

This is the LONG line of pipe

running the length of the garden.

It's going to be wonderful to have

a frost free hydrant at both ends

of the garden.

Waaaaaaaaaay less hose dragging.

And now the excavator magician

is filling the trenches.

And we have water!

Both to the garden,

and to the house, once we are ready.

Eventually they will build a

pump house to protect the well

and the pressure tank and pipes.

But for now....

WE HAVE WATER!