Monday Musings

 There is stuff to do.

But I don't want to do it.

(grin)

I could say it's because I taught

over the weekend.

Or because it's chilly in the house.

Or I'm a teeeeeny tiny bit burned out

on preparing food.

And all of that would be accurate.

I have cucumbers that need to be

put into the freeze dryer.

And tomatoes that need to come OUT

of the freezer.

And onions that need to be chopped

and put IN the freezer.

And a chest freezer that needs to be emptied,

inventoried, and organized.

And I need to get a big pot of soup on

the stove for dinner after class tonight.

(yum!)

But I don't WANT to do any of that.

Kyle came by and we went for a walk

up our magical path.

It's so pretty after the rain last week.

We got to the fence where we usually

turn around, and instead we headed up

the hill to the hill top tree.

If you squint really hard, you can

just barely make out the garden.

With my glasses on, I could just see

some of the white tops on the t-posts

and a couple of the orange buckets.

It was a lovely walk.

The dogs were tired!

(Bear starts with a trip to the pig yard

where he runs and plays with the big dogs,

and THEN they walk down to our house

and what ever walk we decide, and then

they still have to go back up the hills to

their house...)

So we stopped for a bit at the big stock

tank and Kyle lifted him in so he could

play in the leftover rain water.

Cool off and get a drink.

(I just dipped some water into a bowl

for Beau, he's not as big a fan of

"swimming" as Bear.)

Rod is busy putting another coat on the island.

In between getting the cinder blocks cemented

in under the house.

And Jim just arrived, so he and Kyle are down

harvesting pumpkins for Jim to take into 

town and try to sell now that it's October.

I guess I should get something done.

I blogged....... doesn't that count?

hahahaha.

(I also sat down and played my piano

for a bit - first time since we moved!)

Need to get ready to teach here in 2 hours.

And maybe I can have the guys help

put the freeze dryer on a pallet so we can

get it shipped back to Utah for repairs.

Ok.

Get crackin' girl!

Smallest Class EVER......

 Well.... not EVER.

But since I started teaching Louisiana.

I only had 17 students registered,

so was expecting a tiny class.

And then about 7:58 they started to

dribble on in.

And by the end of the first hour

I had 6. (And then somebody popped

in at 9:03.) 

Seriously?

You're gonna show up an HOUR LATE???

A few hours later she quit.

And then another student who was also

quite late quit.

And another.

And then there were FOUR.

Which doesn't make it very fun to play

Kahoot. Or have any real interaction.

On top of that, zoom decided to do an

update and EVERYTHING is different

and so much more difficult.

Sheesh.

Ain't broke - DON'T FIX IT!

It took me nearly 10 minutes to get

my zoom started. So I wasn't unhappy

that nobody was waiting for me right

at 7:30.

Anyhow.

Here's hoping they all decide to come

back again tomorrow.

It won't be any fun with only 2 or 3 students.

(When that happens in my night review

classes, I have "fake" students....

Stephanie, Michael, Jonathan and Emily.)

And they are GOOD students and get

all the answers right.

But in this class you have to have your 

camera on, so all the students can see you.

And it would be pretty obvious.

Oh well.

Rod is working today until 6 and then

running to the church to conduct a baptism,

so I won't see him until late.

Probably after 9:00.

I'm going to hop on the 4-wheeler and

run up to Kyle's. 

I went for a walk during my 3:00 break

down to the mailbox (where I got a fun

card from Mom, thanks!!!)

and I saw him grab the tractor with the

post hole digger on the back, so I want

to go see what he's up to.

And then I'm going to read a book.

Island Looking GOOD!

 Rod and I dashed into town

(Hill City) this morning and

picked up his paycheck and some

varnish for the island.

Also 2 boxes of brownie mix.

And a loaf of bread.

(grin)

And then he got started on the island!

Doesn't it look good???

It really brings out the grain and

the interest in the beautiful acacia wood.

And I'm happy that it's a little darker

than the floor.

Now it's a statement piece, not just an

extension of the floor colors.

This is after one coat and a light sanding.

We are going to let it dry overnight

(it was dry, but it's pretty chilly in the house

and it was balling up a little on the sander,

so we are going to give it another day...)

I hope to have a class tomorrow, but there

are only 17 students pre-registered... so we'll see.

He has to work at the hardware store and

then head straight into Hays for the baptism.

So there won't be time to do another coat.

So we will probably do one on Sunday between

conference sessions.

We'll see.

Anyhow.

I'm excited with how it is looking!!!

More Food Preserving

 We got a little more rain this morning.

About a quarter of an inch.

We ended with just over 3 inches

yesterday by the time we headed

off to bed.

But it's still pretty muddy out there.

Kyle was BORED after sitting

at his house with nothing to do

for 2 days.

He's not good at just sitting around.

So he and Bear walked down here.

And then he washed a bunch of

the red potatoes we harvested

a couple of months ago.

Then sliced them up and headed

into the kitchen to blanch them.

But first they had to soak for 

about half an hour to get some

of the starch out of them.

So while they were soaking,

we peeled, sliced, and seasoned a

bunch more cucumbers and got them

onto trays for the freeze dryer.

Ran down to the garden and picked another

milk crate full of cucumbers.

Jim will take them with him to the market

and see if he can sell them.

I'm out of seasoning, or I would put them

on trays for the freeze dryer too.

The onions FINALLY got done!

(They were pretty juicy...)

so I got them out of the freeze dryer

and into 2 big mylar bags and 3

quart jars for daily use.

I covered each of the trays with some cheap

white bread to help absorb some of the odor.

It worked really well!

I couldn't smell them at all while they were

in the machine and when I took them out

there was just the faintest onion smell.

And then I ran all the dried bread through

the food processor and made them into

really fine crumb to add to meatloaf.

They smelled delicious!

I got 2 quarts and most of 1 pint of crumbs.

That should last for awhile...

The potatoes are all sliced, blanched,

cooled and now they are on a bath towel

on the counter drying a bit before we

bag them up and put them in the freezer.

I can hear Kyle in the prep room going through the

big bucket of potatoes and sorting them.

We have a few more reds,

a couple purples (he took most of them up

to his house a few weeks ago) and lots of

yukon golds.

We got one basket of yellows.

A small tote of reds, and another small tote

of purples hiding in the background.

They are tiny, but they had a gazillion of them

on each plant and Kyle says they are tasty!

We ended up with 4 quart bags of sliced reds

to put in the freezer for this winter!

They will be delicious in the air fryer!

Meanwhile...

The road should be dry enough by tomorrow for

Rod to run into Hill City and pick up his paycheck

and a can of satin finish varnish.

Then he can finish working on the island.

I'm teaching this weekend,

and he's working at the hardware store

on Saturday from 10-6 and then needs to

run into Hays for a new member baptism

at 7:30. I need to send some cookies or 

something, but I used all my chocolate chips,

so I might just have him buy a bag at the

grocery store.

He won't have enough time to go to

WalMart to get any before the baptism.

Or maybe I'll have him pick up a box of

brownie mix tomorrow and I'll bake up a

batch of brownies to take.

We'll see....

You don't need to frost brownies, right?

Glug Glug Glug

 It's a little wet here...

It has been raining pretty steady all day.

And then about 4:00 it broke

and the sun actually came out for 

a few minutes.

Then, just about 15 minutes ago,

it opened up again for another deluge.

The time is wrong, it's 9:05 not 7:05...

We are now at 3.01 inches for 

this 24 hour period!

Kyle walked down during the break

so he and Bear could get out of the

house. He said it was pretty muddy.

So we are all just staying in

for the next day or so.

Rod spent the morning sanding the

top of the big island.

And then an hour or so CLEANING

all the fine dust off everything

in the house.

(hahahahaha)

It created a nice fine mess,

but it sure looks and feels nice!

If we are ever able to get out

of the property again,

he's going to run to his hardware

store and get some varnish and

we will coat it so it will be protected.

I don't want to spend forever saying

"Ack! Don't put that on the island!!!"

We want to be able to LIVE here.

I'm excited to see how pretty it will

turn out with a nice clear satin finish.

It's such beautiful wood!

Anyhow.

I just finished class.

Rod just cooked us a nice big pot

of spaghetti (with our home grown

and home canned sauce!) 

so I'm going to go eat.

Stay warm and dry everybody!

(Most of us were in the path of 

this one.... it says it will stop

raining here sometime overnight.

And then the cold front comes in

so we have a high in the 60s and lows

in the 40's but then it jumps right

back to perfect fall weather again.)

Nite all!

ONIONS & Hurricanes

 I've been promising myself I would

process the onions.

But I keep putting it off......

So today I pulled the mango out

and set the machine to defrost,

and started on the onions.

I made a nice dent in the basket.

There are still a LOT left...

but most of them are still nice

and firm and juicy.

Kyle said the internet told him these

are NOT storing onions and are

only good for 3-4 months after harvest.

But its already been 3 months and

they are storing just fine.

I'll probably put the basket under

the shelf next to the squash and leave

them until later.

We have PLENTY.

Kyle processed a WHOLE BUNCH and

froze them in his chest freezer in his shed.

And I did 5 trays for the freeze dryer.

I read on the internet that if you put

bread slices on the top of them,

it helps to keep the smell down

AND (bonus) when you are done,

you have onion flavored croutons!

We'll see.

All I can tell you is every time we open

the freezer.... HOLY ONION BATMAN!

I'm in my office and Rod needs to open

the freezer to get some ice (I put it in

a tub with a LID, hopefully it doesn't taste

like onion...) and then he needed to

get the pizza for tonight's dinner.

And I'm in here with my eyes BLEEDING!

(hahahahahaha)

Anyhow.

I'll probably have to change the oil

after this run.

But I need to get them OUT of my

freezer.

So I'll start the batch in the morning.

Meanwhile,

Rod and Kyle have been working on

getting the bottom of the house

all closed in for the winter.

Looking good!

It's 1/4 of the way done.

But now that they have finished this section,

it always goes faster on the next runs,

since you know what you are doing.

So hopefully they will be able to finish.

However, the hurricane is a'comin'.

Who knew we would still be thinking

about hurricanes after moving to Kansas!

They are predicting between 3 and 5 inches

of rain over the next 3 days.

We have a flood warning until Thursday.

So, probably no work on the house.

And Kyle will not be going into town.

(He won't be able to get his car out

of his driveway... it gets REALLLY thick

with sticky, slippery mud.)

I plan to can some more spaghetti

sauce and run the freeze dryer some more.

I think the rest of us are all getting rain

this week too, right?

I know Utah and Arizona are both in

the path... so get out your snorkles!

Good luck everybody!

Random Weekend Stuff

 I taught this weekend,

so Rod did the farmers market

by himself.

And he had a pretty good day,

considering it was the last one

of the season.

(Last week we did $15 total... hahaha!)

This week he caught a GENEROUS

Dad and daughter, so he made $66!

Kind of glad the season is done.

We have OTHER stuff to do!

We got the packing material on Friday,

so tomorrow we will watch the

tutorial video and then pack up the

freeze dryer and get it on its way back

to the factory.

They say 4-6 weeks to repair.

In the meantime,

it was a BEAUTIFUL moon last night!

We put christmas lights around the back

section so Beau can go outside at night

and not worry that he might get eaten.

He gets a little nervous out there.

But the lights have helped!

Yesterday was a lovely day,

the high was in the 80's.

And then today it cooled off again.

So for lunch I opened a can of

cream of mushroom soup,

mixed it with a can of milk and

ATE THE WHOLE THING.

I haven't had a can of soup in 

FOREVER.

And it was really good.

The weather is cooling off now that

fall is officially here,

so I might be adding more soups to

the weekly menu.

Potato,

Nancy's corn,

broc cheddar,

and anything else I find

that might be YUMMY.

But for now,

I just finished teaching and doing

all the necessary paperwork,

so I'm going to go sit in

the living room with Rod.

Well, first I'm going to whip up

a meatloaf and get it in the oven,

and then do some potatoes to mash...

The freeze dryer just switched into

"extra dry mode" for the next 24 hours

on the mangos I put in there on Friday.

So I'll process them on Monday.

And then I need to get working on the

potatoes and the onions that are

taking up a ton of space in the prep room.

(Also, there are always MORE cucumbers

that I could also get into the machine

and do more dill pickle flavored chips...)

Always something to do.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

We did!

(During my 15 minute break this afternoon,

I hopped on the 4-wheeler and buzzed up

to the 40 acres behind Kyle's house where

he is on the tractor and mowing where

he plans to put his garden next year...)

It was FUN!

(And I made it back with 46 seconds to spare!)

Whew!