Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's birthday!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

He is having a low-key, quiet day.

He has a little leak in his 

irrigation system.

He and Rod are so alike!

He's so cute!

I know... I'm supposed to say handsome.

And he IS.

But his cuteness just shines through!

He loves his technology.

(He was watching funny videos on Mom's phone...)

And he loves his family!

(And we love him back!)

We are blessed to have him as our Patriarch

and our example.

Still Prepping... Kind of...

We still have several days.

And the sort of things we have left to do...

1. Board up the windows

2. Gather up the cows feed bins

3. Fill ALL the water troughs and stall buckets

4. Gather up the lawn chairs

5. Put sand bags at the patio doors.

Have to wait until Sunday.

(All meetings are cancelled.)

The storm has moved a bit south

and slowed down.

Good cuz we have more time.

Bad because it wobbles and strengthens.

Rod took the day off so we can start

putting boards on some of the windows.

Rooms we usually keep the doors closed anyway.

But at High Council last night he got tapped

to help move a lady into our ward.

Actually on the south end of our road!

(It's a LONG road.)

Awesome timing.

This morning when I went out to feed

the animals, I gathered up all the loose

stuff from the barn

(fly spray, ant killer, dog/horse shampoo...)

and the extra buckets

and put them all in the big chicken coop.

We aren't using it anymore for chickens

so it makes a great storage building.

Today is trash day

but we put most of it out on Tuesday.

I have... maybe half a can...

because we bought feed this week

so I had some empty feed bags...

Pre-hurricane sunset.
Gorgeous!

The storm path has dropped to the south

a little bit so instead of a direct hit

we will be on the "dirty side" of the storm.

The direct path is more toward West Palm.

I hope my school is ok.

It's an old two-story brick building that has

weathered many a hurricane.

But the roof isn't great.

I've had major leaks (ok, floods) during class

when there was a GOOD thunderstorm.

So....

we'll see.

I have class scheduled for next weekend.

Since we are on the west side of the storm now

and the path is predicted to hit landfall around

West Palm to Jupiter and then turn north

and run right up the spine, we will STAY on the

dirty side until likely Wednesday.

What does that mean?

Initially steady winds of 90+ with gusts to 110.

10 - 15" of rain.

So mostly we will just stay in our house.

I have a bunch of good books for everybody to read.

We have two generators.

We have lots of food and water.

We have room for Jim and Sabrina if they need.

The dogs will stay in the garage.

The chickens will stay in their condo.

The rest of the animals will have the run of

the back and middle sections of the property.

The humans will watch Twister.

On repeat.

You can follow along!

I'm watching Fox 35 Orlando WOFL 

www.fox35orlando.com/live

We sometimes switch to WFTV Channel 9.

They have good hurricane coverage and its kind

of a tradition to watch them.

It's the only time I watch them.

They are generally too liberal for this conservative family.

But their hurricane coverage is good.

www.wftv.com

Either way, I can only take it for a little while

and then it's too repetitive.

They both do a really good job of staying calm

and keeping their coverage calm 

and reminding folks that little people 

are watching too and mirroring us.

I like that.

Be Prepared.

And then hunker down.

And watch Twister.

Hurricane Prep Continues

Last night we got out all our plywood

and figured out what goes where.

The outside of our property doesn't need much.

I just mowed ALL the property on Tuesday

and there is almost NOTHING loose

that needs to be picked up.

We have been on a "get rid of it" kick

lately (thanks Kyle!)...

Literally, take one kayak down from the

barn ceiling, gather up 7 rubbermaid chairs,

bring in the BBQ and the trash cans.

Oh, and board up the windows.

But we'll wait until Friday/Saturday

to do that.

Kyle will be home.

And it is DEPRESSING to be in a house

with no light. So the longer we can put

that chore off, the better.

We always save the patio doors til last.

Thankfully Rod installed our beautiful new

tack room door over the weekend.

We never cover that window anyway.

This morning I went out and cut down

all the rogue rose bushes from under

Jim's bedroom window.

(They are left from the previous owner...

so they are 15 years old but they just

won't die! Or bloom...)

I imagine one of these days we'll get around

to just digging them out.

But not THIS day.

Anyhow.

I got that all cut and into the trash can

about 15 minutes before the yard trash

truck came by - whew!

I'm eating my breakfast oatmeal and

then I'm heading to WalMart.

Planning to spend the morning.

I only need a couple of things.

I'd like some apples.

And stuff to make spaghetti.

Otherwise we are set.

We have lots of meat and canned veggies.

And if push comes to shove,

we have a couple cases of MRE's.

Water.

We don't have a 30,000 gallon swimming pool

anymore, but we do have a neighbor with

an artesian well.

So... unlimited water source.

And its sweet water.

So. No problem there.

(Not to mention our own well...)

Rod showed me the BEST meme on Facebook

last night.

Describes it PERFECTLY.

*****************************************************
BREAKING NEWS
*****************************************************
Just as I hit Publish - the Gov came on TV and announced
that we are now predicting a Cat 4.

Waiting for a hurricane is like being

stalked by a turtle.

Hurricane A' Comin'...

Yup, it's hurricane season.

And something we all get to deal with

on a yearly basis.

Us personally.

And you guys vicariously.

Sorry.

(But I still love living in Florida...)

Welcome to Season 2019!

Starting with Hurricane Dorian.

So you guys know where we are located, right?

Look for the FL.

Go east (right)

Look for the "nose"

and look just a smidge below that.

Yeah, right where the red hits the state.

They are NEVER sure what's going to happen

until it actually happens.

But as it stands we are looking at a wind/rain

"event" starting Sunday and likely

progressing to a Cat 2 or Cat 3 hurricane

late Sunday or sometime Monday.

YEA Labor Day!

Yesterday Rod went and filled all our gas cans

and also got a 50 gal drum of diesel.

This morning I went to Sam's and got 2 weeks

worth of dog food and toilet paper. 

Hahahahaha.

(Oh the joys of being LDS and having food storage!)

I was also going to pick up a couple flats

of water bottles.

I keep a flat or two around all the time,

and we just ran out.

So I was going to get them anyway...

but now its a little more important.

When I got there... it looked like Black Friday.

Or the days preceding a hurricane.

And the water section was EMPTY.

(Even with giant signs limiting everybody

to only 2 flats each...)

I happened to be on the phone with Kyle.

He is NOT in the "cone".

So he's going to WalMart tonight anyway,

he's going to grab a couple flats for me

and bring them home this weekend.

Let the fun begin!

(Better find my copy of Twister...)

*movie NOT game

Catastrophe....

Last week I pulled out our old hair dryer

and used it to melt the ice that was building

up around the door of the deep freezers.

I was having trouble closing the upright.

There was quite a bit of ice.

And the chest freezer was building a little as well.

So I got it all fixed.

And was quite proud of myself.

But I wasn't sure why the ice was 

building on the upright,

so I decided to leave the hair dryer

out there in case I needed to use it again.

I left it plugged in and put it up on the top.

So it appears that in doing so,

I ever so slightly moved the plug to

the upright, breaking the connection.

Turning it off.

And then I left town.

And Sunday Rod noticed that it smelled

an awful lot like something had DIED

out in the tack / freezer room.

Yup.

Thankfully the beef is in the chest freezer.

But we still lost all the organ meat.

Heart, liver, tongue

and ALL the rest of my rabbit.

Poor Rod.

He had to bag it all up.

It was thawed and beginning to rot.

There was LOTS of blood.

It was nasty.

And smelly.

And stinky.

And gross.

And he did it.

By the time I got home from school on

Sunday night he had all the meat out,

but was still working on the nasty wet stuff.

We worked together for a couple of hours

and got it as cleaned up as we could.

Then Monday he called out from work

(family emergency - I think this counts...)

and he moved the freezer out to the yard

so he could wash it REALLY well.

Meanwhile...

our back door into the tack / freezer room

has been slowly falling apart.

The weekend before it finally fell off its hinges.

So Rod propped it up and screwed a

2 x 4 over it to hold it in place.

It was his plan this weekend to replace it.

And since we have a hurricane coming,

it still needed to be done.

So on top of fixing the freezer problem,

he also removed the old door,

bought a new one, and installed it.

While I took Kyle to the chiropractor and

back to the E.R. to get his work comp 

paperwork completed.

(Waste of time - they "don't do that"...)

Anyhow.

The room still smells a little,

but it is 80% better than it was.

And we have a beautiful new door!

I looked through ALL my pictures to find

a before picture.

Apparently I  don't ever take pictures 

of the back of my house.

But here is the NEW door.

Its a beautiful door.

We are kind of thinking of getting another

one to replace the front door too.

End of an Era

This morning United Launch Alliance

shot off the very last Delta IV rocket ever.

I have a cool app for my iPad that keeps

track of every launch everywhere on the planet.

There are a LOT!

But when our local Cape Canaveral  Space Center

shoots something off I try to watch it live.

*And then switch to the app to watch the

rest of the liftoff.

It's fun to watch the on-board cameras.

Compared to the shuttles of days gone by

And SpaceX's Falcon IX and Falcon Heavy...

This guy was TINY.

But beautiful none the less.

Thanks for being a little work pony for many years.

Bye Bye Delta!

Fancy Hotel Food

Saturday night after teaching school

I decided to just order food from the restaurant

in the lobby of my hotel.

But there was literally NO ONE in the restaurant.

And I didn't want to be the one, weird, 

lonely old woman

sitting alone down there.

So I ordered it to go and ate in my room.

(Which I prefer anyway...)

I ordered Street Tacos with pulled pork

and a flour free chocolate torte for desert.

I got to my room and opened my

standard white styrofoam to go boxes.

They say you eat with your eyes first.

And this LOOKED delicious!

No surprise, it WAS delicious!

I could have only eaten 2.

But it was so yummy!

Then, time for desert.

I don't know if the chef was bored...

or if this is the quality they always

send out of their kitchen

but this was AMAZING.

And pretty!

So yummy.

So NOT on plan.

But so yummy!

And really reasonable.

Including a drink and tip, the total was only $20!

(I often spend closer to $28 eating dinner and I don't

ever get anything "fancy"... restaurant steak just

doesn't hold a candle to our own beef and besides,

have you ever tried to cut a steak with those stupid

little plastic knives?)

Sunday night it was back to my old standby Chili's.

There was one a couple of blocks away.

And curb-side is my jam.

While I was eating my Caribbean salad, I was

enjoying it, but remembering my yummy food from

the night before...

Monday Monday

Except it's Tuesday.

LOL.

Yesterday was a travel day.

So it kind of faded into the background.

I've thought it was Monday

ALL. DAY. LONG.

Anyhow.

Speaking of travel....

as I was driving across the beautiful farm land

of South Central Florida,

it started to POUR rain.

While the sun was shining.

(We call it liquid sunshine.)

It's one of my favorite things about Florida.

So here I was,

driving through my favorite kind of land,

in my favorite kind of weather,

with "Nearer My God To Thee"

by the Piano Guys playing on my car radio.

(Yup, my favorite kind of music...) 

I really do enjoy driving.

As long as it's not rush hour on Friday evening.

These long, open stretches of road

where I'm nearly the only vehicle on the road...

LOVE IT!

Change of Plan

I drove down to my West Palm Beach school

earlier on Friday than I usually do.

I had an appointment at 1:30 with the

"tech guy" to install my projector on the ceiling.

I've been asking for them to do that for....

about 4 years.

And we FINALLY got it figured out.

So down I headed.

It took 3 people and much humming and hawwing

but they finally got my projector hung

and connecting successfully to my iPad.

However, the surround sound disconnected

itself every time I tried to use it.

So it was back to the drawing board.

Meanwhile.....

It was HOT in the school room.

You guessed it.

The A/C broke.

AGAIN!

This is the third time.

It's frustrating for everyone.

And I feel badly, because it seems to only

break on my school weekends.

The gentleman I teach for down there (Bob)

is the nicest man imaginable.

The landlord is the worst.

Anyhow.

I called my boss.

And his solution was to reschedule my class.

I have 57 people pre-registered!

But, what else are we supposed to do?

So I sent a quick URGENT email to all the folks

letting them know about the change.

And then I hung signs on all the doors

for those folks who don't read my emails.

I put my boss' phone number on it,

cuz I'm not talking to these people!

Hahahaha.

Talked to him Saturday morning and

he said he didn't get any calls.

It will be interesting to see if I get any

students next week.

Meanwhile...

the instructor in the Ft. Myers (west coast)

had a family emergency and while Dan (my boss)

was trying to think about my A/C issue, he was also

madly trying to find another instructor to take her class.

Presto.

Cancel my class.

Run me across the state to Ft Myers to teach her's.

Done.

She had 27 registered.

Only 6 showed up.

But it was a nice, small, intimate group.

They were really nice and super complimentary.

Sunday afternoon, Dan "dropped by" to check

on me and make sure I was ok.

We had a good visit.

AND (bonus) he wrote it up as an official 

"audit" since I'm scheduled for one this year anyway.

(And I hate it when HQ audits...)

Anyhow.

It was a LONG weekend.

I left the house at 11:30 Friday morning.

I didn't get to my Ft. Myers hotel until 8:30 that night.

Taught for 10 hours each on Sat & Sun

and then this morning I drove back across the state.

My trip took me through the little cow town of 

Okeechobee - where they make the BEST cow feed.

So I pulled off the highway for a minute and 

had them load me up with 250# of feed.

Win.

Win.

Win!

I just got home. (It's 3:00)

I'm going to chill out on the couch for a bit.

And then I have a list as long as my arm

of things I need to get done.

But for right now...

aaaaaahhhhh.

I'm just going to sit here.

Farm Fixes

Poor Rod didn't get to have the best of

all birthdays yesterday.

We had a pipe break in the barn.

Kyle dug it up to find the leak

over the weekend, but didn't have

the parts to fix it.

Rod picked them up after work the

other day and decided to fix it last night.

(After we took all the old AT&T/DirecTV stuff

to the UPS store to return them...)

One of the pipes was an odd size so his first

fix didn't work. He worked on it over and over

and finally got it all fixed and glued back together.

But it took until after dark.

And by then the mosquitoes were awful!

We left the giant trench open so I could

test the pipes in the morning and make sure

there were no leaks.

I had thawed a couple T-Bone steaks

and was planning to cook them on the grill.

But I didn't want the mosquitoes to carry them away.

So, plan B.

I put some butter and olive oil in a fry pan

on the stove and seared them up in there.

One at a time.

I got the first one all done, pulled it out of the pan

and dropped the 2nd one in.

"Dropped" being the operative word.

It slipped out of my tongs and DROPPED

into the screaming hot oil.

Splashing it up onto my index and middle fingers.

OUCH!

Cold running water (well, Florida's version

of cold tap water, anyway...)

and tried to finish cooking the steak at the

same time.

I put some Bountiful Balm on my fingers

because it has herbs in it that are really good

for healing burns. They kept it from blistering.

But there is also peppermint in it and it seriously

felt like they were still in the pan!

My darling husband cut my meat up for me,

plated up my steak and steamed broccoli,

and then brought me a nice bowl of ice cream.

(I had to eat with my left hand, but the ice cream

made the spoon cold so it actually felt good

to my poor little fingers...)

At bed time I remembered that Reid told Mom

(YEARS ago in my Provo apartment when she burned

her hand while frying up taco shells) that hemorrhoid

cream was really good for burns.

So I dug around and found a tube.

That expired 2/18.

Hahahaha.

I tried it anyway.

It didn't help at all.

(No surprise!)

And yes, I threw it away.

I headed back to bed to suffer.

And then I remembered my CBD cream.

Kyle and Rod both use it regularly for their

various sore body parts.

I've always thought of it for deep muscle pain

sort of stuff.

But hey - my hand was on FIRE.

I was willing to try anything.

Literally within 15 seconds of putting it on,

there was ZERO pain.

After about 15 or 20 minutes the worst burn

on the side of my index finger started to feel

a little tender, but just a light pain - maybe a 2?

Didn't keep me awake!

It's still a little sore today.

But no blisters.

So I'm a happy woman.

Meanwhile.....

my amazing husband got up early

(4:00) like he always does.

But instead of doing whatever it is he

usually does in the morning before work,

he went out to the barn,

tested the pipe,

refilled the trench,

and put all the tools away!

What a fabulous man!

(He said he didn't want me messing with it

while having a hurt finger!

What a guy!)

So instead of messing with the pipes,

I mowed the grass.

Which doesn't take much "finger" work.

And I actually got to finish BEFORE the daily

rain began! (I've mowed in the rain 3 weeks 

in a row now...)

Happy Birthday to My Sweetheart

My darling husband was born today

64 years ago.

He loves being out on his horse.

But not as much as he loves 

doing things with his family.

Unfortunately,

I'm terrible about taking pictures when

we are all together.

I'm busy being together!

We are getting a little grey.

Like my Dad, he is a hard worker.

(They say a woman looks for her Dad

in a life long mate... I found him!)

And like my Dad, he passed that trait

on to his sons.

He is always doing something, whether

it is working at his job(s), or at his

calling(s), or around the house or farm.

Which means when he FINALLY gets

to sit down, his eyes just seem to close.

I love my Buffaloe man.

Happy Birthday Darling!

New Building - Almost...

Last week Kyle finally drove over

to the offices of the builders

and sat until somebody showed up

and asked "WHAT THE HECK?"

He spoke with the Dad who is kind

of the "silent partner".

It's his son's gig.

But he said honestly they were totally

on track (back in MAY)

until the concrete guys came in and messed

up the entire schedule.

So they moved on to other projects and

since Linda and Gina aren't very vocal,

his job kept getting pushed back.

He PROMISED they would finish the building

they were working on that day or the next and

then they were going to bring their entire crew

and all their equipment and not leave until 

they were completely done.

It took them longer than anticipated to get there...

but they HAVE been working hard for the

past few days.

It almost looks like a building!

The 16' door is laying on the floor.

He's a little sad about that one, lonely, tiny window.

But realistically, when you open the doors

you don't really need a window.

I guess.

That's another 16 footer.

It is also laying on the floor.

So at least they are THERE.

Which is more than you could say last week.

He is using a wide angle lens so it looks bigger

than it really is... but it's not bad! 

While he was out there he was pleased that it

wasn't as HOT as he thought it might be.

There have been heat warnings all week...

"Feels Like" 115+.

Which is normal for you Arizona people,

but unusual for we Florida folks.

(And he REALLY misses his ocean breeze!)

He's excited for them to get finished for real so he can

start loading it up with all the equipment

that has been outside.

They still need to find and hire an electrician

to run the power, but Kyle wants to have Rod

come up and walk through with him and help

him decide where are the best places to

put in the different power sources.

But it's getting closer!

YEA!

Welcome Back Spectrum!

It's pouring rain.

And I'm watching TV.

And my internet speeds aren't abysmal.

And the bill is $20 more per month.

And I'm happy.

So happy I decided to make some

BANGIN' Ice Cream.

(Not it's actual name...)

Doesn't that look delicious?

It's my usual vanilla and then I added

some frozen blueberries and raspberries

into the blender.

I tasted it before I put it in the machine

and it was a bit sweet but 

SO GOOD.

I need to eat some lunch so I can

have a bowl for desert.

(grin)

3...2...1...

There was a rock launch scheduled for 5:44

this morning. I slept through it.

When I woke at 6, I turned on the TV to the news

(because that usually puts me back to sleep)

and they said the launch was pushed back a bit

because of a minor glitch but should go off soon.

They went on to other stories.

And then they said... we're going live to the launch

and I heard 5...4...3... as I dashed down the hall

from my bedroom to the back door.

"Live" means it's already in the air.

They don't go live anymore.

Learned their lesson with the Challenger.

Anyhow.

By the time I got to the yard it was up over the trees

and I got to watch it streak up into the sky,

hit the rising sunlight and the humidity.

Those are the most beautiful launches.

When it was done I ran back inside to grab

my phone to catch a couple of pictures.

I like the smoke trail almost as much as the rocket.

It's almost a rainbow with the sun hitting it.

Beautiful, isn't it?

Reminds me of the cover art of one of 

Mom's old books I used to look at in the basement.

This is NOT my photo, but beautiful.

I wish I could figure out how to share the

video from Tampa on here.

Amazing how clearly they saw it, all the way

over on the other side of the state!

(We call it the West Coast - not to be confused

with California... lol)

*******************************************************

Meanwhile.

Speaking of humidity.

And rain.

And EVERYTHING wet...

I turned the horses out into the front yard.

I always do on Thursdays.

That's the day all the city people come next

door to pick up their groceries.

And I don't want them messing with my horses.

(Sometimes they try to feed them stuff

over the fence... no thanks!)

Anyhow.

This is what I saw on my fence!

They are probably poison.

But they are fun to look at.

And they'll be gone soon.

But they were fun to see.

Wednesday Stuff

It was a beautiful, sunny morning

when I got up this morning.

The horses were happy to get 

their breakfast.

The cows are getting a little

less suspicious of me, but

they still stand back a little

until I've poured their feed into

their manger and walked away.

(Walking away is a challenge since

we've had a LOT of rain lately and

even under their feed shelter

it's pretty muddy!)

Because of all the rain,

our backyard (and pastures) are

ANT HILL CENTRAL!

They are everywhere!

You have to be careful where you walk

because fire ants are called that

for a reason!

They hurt!

Anyhow.

Last night we had the Elders over for dinner.

I whipped up a batch of Cheeseburger Pie.

Just basically browned hamburger mixed with

a mayo/egg/heavy cream mixture.

Then I covered it all with some shredded cheese

and popped it in the oven for 30 minutes til

it was all melty and yummy.

Meanwhile, we put out all the possible

cheeseburger toppings on the table in

little individual bowls.

We had:

onions,

lettuce,

tomatoes,

ketchup, 

yellow & brown mustard,

bacon bits and

pickles (bread & butter and dill).

The green salad I bought was NASTY (slimy)

so I steamed up some broccoli 

for a veggie.

The night before I baked a Trimtastic Chocolate Cake

and added about a half can of 

sugar free cherry pie filling

to mimic Sondra's chocolate cherry cake.

That stayed in the fridge overnight to 

get rid of the stevia after taste.

(If you let it sit, you can't even tell its not sugar)

Then while the pie was baking I tossed

some delicious vanilla ice cream stuff

into the ice cream maker.

The little bottle is vegetable glycerine - keeps the ice cream from freezing SOLID
when you put it in the deep freeze! I add about a tablespoon.

It was a delicious dinner!

And I didn't take any pictures.

The ice cream is SO easy!

But the machine is a bit loud so we

plugged it in in Kyle's bedroom.

LoL.

Anyhow...

What with all the rain and the ants, we

had an ant invasion at the back

french doors last night.

Which meant a quick trip into town

to the WalMarts to get some spray.

We had some out in the shed,

but its old and didn't poison them so

much as drown them.

This morning after I fed all the critters

but before I let Beau into the house,

I swept and damp mopped all the floors.

Especially around the french door.

Got that all cleaned up.

And then I made a big bowl of yummy

oatmeal with frozen raspberries for breakfast.

Stripped the sheets off the bed and

ran them through the wash.

Unloaded the dishwasher from last

night's feast, and finished cleaning

up the kitchen.

Listened to my weekly Trim Healthy podcast

while doing some school paperwork and emailing

and then it was time for lunch.

I really MISSED my daily okra and eggs,

so that's what I made for lunch.

Hahaha

I love okra in the air fryer.

(And Pioneer Woman on the TV in the background.)

Pulled out a London Broil for dinner.

And put some fresh eggs in the Instant pot

to hard boil.

They go in a little mesh bowl I have and I

set the IP for 4 minutes. When it beeps I 

let it sit for another 4 minutes and then release

the pressure and put the whole mesh bowl into

my mix master bowl with ice water in the sink.

Rod really likes having egg salad made up

in the fridge. So I'll peel (it literally falls off)

drop them in the food processor with some mayo

and whir it up. 

Done.

Meanwhile, I just got another alert on my phone.

We are the little blue dot east of Palm Bay.

Oh goody.

More rain.

Yup. 

It's raining.

In case you don't have a window to look out,

here's confirmation that its raining.

I am SO switching from satellite TV to cable.

Super annoying.

Anyhow.

Better go make the egg salad

and get the sheets back on the bed.

Happy Wednesday!