Forward Ho!!!!!

 The house is ALL PAINTED!

(inside...)

From the mud room hallway looking into

the main living / kitchen.

Kyle didn't paint behind the kitchen cabinets. LOL.

Looking from the sliding glass door into the kitchen

and down the mudroom hallway.

We don't have much drywall left,

but at $12 a sheet... it's worth taking back!

The plan for today was to load up

all the undamaged drywall and

return it to Home Depot for a credit

and then buy the cabinets for the

kitchen and the bathroom.

But it was taking longer than we

expected to get the vents back

into the ceilings and get the AC

running again (and since it hit 100

again today, we were HAPPY to have

that back on again!)

Had to turn it off while painting since

we use a sprayer and it gets

EVERYWHERE...

And then we had to clean up all the

piles of construction stuff that

accumulates during a build and get

it either in the dump truck to go to

the dump or over to Rod's shop

to store until we need it again.

And I had to be home by 4:30 to teach.

So I spent some time in the garden

planting the sweet potato slips I got

from last year's potatoes,

watering those in and also giving some

of the other stuff some water

(it was really windy today so we didn't

turn on the Nelson sprinkler...)

and then up to the house to help out a bit.

When I got home I went online and

ordered all the cabinets and got those

all paid for.

Just got a text, they are ready for us to

pick up tomorrow morning!

Meanwhile.....

Jim got all the switch plates and outlet covers

installed on all the many switches and outlets.

And Rod and Kyle got started on laying the floor!

It looks SO GOOD!!!!!

There is still MUCH to be done,

but we are getting closer!!!!!

PAINT & Farmers Market

 The guys are FINISHED MUDDING!!!!!

Can we all just take a moment

and be so grateful for that...

Yesterday was a rain day.

Like it rained.

All day.

Which means the roads were a mess.

And our driveways are a MESS.

But J Road dries out pretty quickly.

And the driveway was actually pretty

good except for right in front the

the porch.

So we all stayed home yesterday.

(Well, not Kyle.... he rode the 4-wheeler

down to the house and did some stuff...)

And then today...

PAINT!!!

Thank goodness for the sprayer!

It makes a horrible job less horrible.

But it DOES put little particles in the air,

so they each wore a mask to try to help

with not breathing it into their lungs.

They got it 3/4 done and ran out of

flat ceiling paint, so Rod came home and

then headed into Hays to get more.

But tomorrow we will be busy doing

other stuff.

Like Farmers Markets.

Jim and Sabrina will be headed into Hays

to do the same market they did last week.

And Rod and I will head to Hill City

for their first market of the season.

(It's only 2 hours, from 9-11... 

Hays is 7:30 to 11!)

I packaged up some more bags of

peaches, salt water taffy, and

some cherry tomatoes with basil 

that I did last year.

And we have LOTS of zucchini and some

beautiful onions.

So we will divide those up and each take

some to our markets.

We'll see how it goes!

And then,

it is also our

45th Wedding Anniversary!

Can you believe it?

We were such children!

Hahahahaha.

We don't have anything planned.

Just spending the morning together

at the farmer's market,

doing what we love to do.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

(This Sunday is our RS "Blended" class

where we bring EVERYONE from all the

different organizations for a good discussion,

this week is Stephenson's Lost Luggage...

and then we have smoothies... cuz they are blended.)

I'm in charge of the smoothies.

I should probably look in the garage to see

if I can find my blender.

I have 2 coming, but it would be nice 

to have an extra.

I know I've seen it in a box out there.

Somewhere.

Maybe not.

Anyhow.

Byeeeeeeeee

NO MORE MUD!!!!!

 Ok, it's been raining a little every night,

so there is actually LOTS of mud....

but the guys are DONE MUDDING!!!!!

I'm SO excited!

(And so are they!)

Now they have moved on to prep...

Getting those windows and doors

covered with plastic.

They got most everything out of the house.

And what they can't move

(the flooring mostly)

they are also covering in plastic.

And then comes PAINT!!!!!!!!!!

Yippeeeeeee!

We are all so ready to be done with

mudding and taping!

Meanwhile, the garden is starting to produce.

Jim and Sabrina SOLD OUT all the zucchini

and something like 23 onions on Saturday.

And then last night Jim and I sat in the backyard

and washed and skinned all the onions.

From this....

To this.

Looks MUCH MUCH better!

We shouldn't have any trouble selling those!

We are going to separate them by size,

some are "pearl" and some are a fairly decent size.

(Again, they are Texas Yellow NOT WallaWalla,

so they won't ever be HUGE, but they are nice!)

(Most of the big ones are on the bottom...)

He also brought home a nice handful of

some of the spicier peppers.

Those tend to fruit MUCH sooner than the

bell type peppers.

He's in the kitchen now, cooking up

some peppers and onions.

Plus we have some chicken nuggets we are

cooking and putting in wraps with some

ceasar salad.

Nice and fresh and perfect for a warm evening.

Hope you had a wonderful Wednesday!

OH.....

Rod and I stayed home today,

he slipped off the bumper of the dump truck

the other day and skinned up his shin pretty badly.

It is all nicely scabbed over, but his leg

keeps swelling and is pretty uncomfortable,

so today we decided to go to the little

walk-in clinic at our town hospital and get

a quick x-ray to make sure it's ok.

We should hear back tomorrow.

(No Radiologist on staff today...)

I'll be sure to update when I hear.

I'm sure he's fine, but we want to be sure.

We all know he has TOUGH BONES.

But......

Ok, off to dinner!

Happy Birthday Rozann!

 Today is the Birth day of my little sister!

So Happy Birth Day to Rozann!

(And to Mom!)

It's been a few years since she was born.

But they have been full of fun

and love

and adventure.

She has been a constant example to me of

just putting one foot in front of the other

and taking the good times

with the disappointments.

(Thank goodness for Facebook photos!!!)

I'm so excited for the new adventures that are

on her horizon.

There are lots of fun and exciting things

yet to come!

I wish we were closer and could spend

more time together,

but when we do, it is like no time passed at all.

(I wonder if she still scratches her pillow

at night - drove me to distraction!)

Or calls baseball games in her sleep.

Oh the joys of sharing a room with 

someone who was so filled with LIFE!

Happy Birthday Frozie Rozie!

I LOVE YOU!

Holy Onions Batman!

 We planted 3 and a half, 50 foot rows of onions,

with 4 rows of onions in each row.

That's a LOT of onions.

Some of them have flopped over,

which is the sign they are ready for harvest.

So...

today we harvested SOME.

(It didn't make a dent...)

There are a dozen or more zucchini in the 

bottom of the yellow milk crate.

Otherwise, it's alllllll onions.

When I got ready to leave to come 

home to teach tonight's class,

I hopped in my car 

and...

Oh my burning eyes!

Jim put them in the back of MY CAR!

(instead of the bed of his truck...)

Hahahahahahahaha!

I had to drive home with the back

windows open because WOW!

That is a lot of onions.

They are "Texas Yellow". 

So a pretty good size for a regular

yellow onion.

I did pick a few red onions, but

we didn't plant a gazillion of those

and they weren't ready yet.

We kept expecting them to be HUGE,

but last year we planted Walla Walla and

they get to be monsters.

These are much more reasonable sized.

(Most people don't need / want a HUGE onion.)

Anyhow.

Jim and Sabrina are all ready to head into

Hays to the farmers market in the morning.

But tonight there is a drive-in movie!

(A group has been working on building a

drive-in for about 2 years now, tonight they

are showing Smokey and the Bandit

as a fund raiser to get more of the 

infrastructure built.)

Sounded like fun!

So they went to the movie.

I'll put the finishing touches on the stuff

they need for the market tomorrow.

Wish I could go, but I'm teaching this weekend.

Meanwhile, on the way home I glanced

down at my odometer.

Cool, eh?

And the new holly hock is finally in bloom.

The flowers are stark white!

So beautiful!

Ok, need to finish my paperwork for tomorrow's

class and then get the rest of the stuff 

gathered and organized for the market.

NITE ALL!

First Harvest!!!

 Since none of our peas even germinated...

well, that's not true.

We found a random pea plant hiding today

in the middle of the carrots.

Like 5 rows away from where we planted them...

there were 3 ripe pods on there!

They were DELICIOUS!!!!!

But that's hardly a harvest.

As usual,

zucchini wins the race!

We counted 18 zucchini ready or nearly ready

for harvest!

Jim picked as many as would fit in his shirt.

Looking good!!!

I left one at Kyle's place for him to eat tonight

and we are cooking one up here for us.

We should also be able to harvest a bunch of

the onions by Friday.

They are starting to flop over, which is

the sign they are ready.

And I'm going to go through my freeze dried

stuff from last year and package some up.

I think Jim and Sabrina may take what we have

over to the Farmers Market in Hays and see

how they do.

(I have to work this weekend...)

And so it begins.....

Finally Flowers!

One of my favorite things last year

was my flower garden.

 

This year it is FINALLY starting to be pretty!

These are my little tiny pansies.

I didn't think they would survive,

but they seem really happy down in the

shade under the buttons.

The buttons are all volunteers from last year.

And the holly hocks overwintered!

The zinnias are from seeds I saved from 

last years garden.

They are finally starting to open up.

Same with the marigolds.

The little tomato next to the flower

is a volunteer from last year too.

There are lots of flowers and

even a couple baby tomatoes.

It's starting to look pretty out there!

And then I need to start over at the

new house...

but it will be FUN!