"Spring" in the MidWest

 We woke up this morning to a light snow shower.

It was only 33 degrees!

A bit chilly.

But we are still celebrating spring around here...

My grape hyacinth is blooming

(and smelling awesome)

on the kitchen windowsill.

(None of the snow stuck, it turned to a light rain shower,

always grateful for any moisture we receive...)

SPRING!!!!!

 It's doesn't actually FEEL much like spring right now.

Today and yesterday it was high 80. (Yesterday hit 90)

Of course, over the weekend it's dropping back

into the 50's and 60's......

But either way it has been lovely.

And not snowing. 

Hahahaha.

But when I look out the front window....

There's popcorn popping on the apricot tree!

(Except it's not an apricot tree... 

but we can pretend, right?)

Isn't that just gorgeous?

There are little green buds on most of the trees.

(Except the big one in our backyard...)

But all the roses are starting to pop leaves.

And the lilacs.

And there are daffodils and tulips starting to

show up in people's front gardens....

It's SO pretty!

We had "spring" in Florida.

But this just feels like... more.

And we are loving it!

Muscle Testing, Etc.

 While I wait for my dandelion tea to cool 

enough to drink.... (HOW do people drink

scalding hot coffee???)

So... the benefits of dandelion tea

(and dandelion in general)

are MANY!

I've been drinking it daily now for a long time.

Maybe a year?

And I have also been taking a milk thistle supplement

for helping detoxing and keeping your liver healthy.

I've muscle tested my milk thistle before and my

body tells me that it is something it needs and

to continue it's use.

But this week when I was making up my supplements

for the week, milk thistle tested NEGATIVE!

Which is good news!

It means my liver no longer needs the extra support.

The tea still tests positive.

(Muscle testing is the COOLEST "voodoo"... lol.)

There are several ways to do it, but I find sway

testing to work well for me.

I start by making sure I'm in a happy frame of mind.

I usually have some feel good music playing

in the house, so I just look out the window at

the beautiful nature and make sure I'm happy.

Then I hold whatever I'm testing in both hands

and rest it against my chest.

Then I ask "Is _______ good for my body?"

I have my eyes closed to reduce distractions.

If I sway forward, it's yes.

Backward is a no.

Occasionally I'll do a baseline.

"My name is Collette". (Forward)

"My name is Beth". (Backward)

Then sometimes for fun I'll ask

"Do I need 1 pill?" (yes)

"Do I need 2 pills?" (neutral)

"Do I need 4 pills?" Almost fall backwards. lol.

So I back down... 3? 2? 1? until I find a good yes.

Yup.

It's voodoo.

But it's also pretty amazing that our bodies 

know what they need.

Anyhow.

I have recently reduced my daily pills from 17

down to 11. That means I'm healing.

(But I'm still fat...)

They say you get healthy to lose weight.

Not lose weight to get healthy.

So there's that.

Also, I eat fruit snacks.

HA!

Anyhow.

Back to dandelions.

We were in town yesterday.

There was a guy with a big tank and a sprayer,

spraying the grass patches around a hotel.

Spraying for dandelions.

Last night when we got back to the farm

to drop off the paint we bought,

we trayed up 3 more trays of seed starts.

LOTS and LOTS of tomatoes.

Some of those really fun lunchbox peppers.

And a full tray of herbs.

Echinacea, lemon balm, lemon grass, mint,

comfrey, something else... (oh yah, nettles),

AND WILD DANDELION!

Hahahahahahaha!

Everybody else is trying to get rid of it.

And we are cultivating it.

We will need to "up pot" some of those seedlings next week.

Good thing we have some extra shelves and more lights coming.

Also, a TERRIBLE picture, but it was from a LONG way away!

Those are DEER!

We were standing on Kyle's porch and there were 10 deer

WAAAAAAAAY at the back of his 40 acres.

And while we were watching them, we heard a coyote

and watched him across the road skimming around

the edges of a herd of cows. Scouting for babies?

Or just on his way to find his nightly rabbit.

Kyle said it was the first time he had SEEN one.

You HEAR them out there, but they aren't usually out in the open.

(Unlike in Tucson! lol.)

Anyhow.

We got LOTS accomplished.

Although we didn't get his drivers license.

You need a birth certificate. I forgot.

Oh well... we'll do it next time.

We did go to Hays Greenhouse and got Kyle a

lavender plant (SUPER $$$ but whatever...)

it was offset by SUPER cheap seed potatoes.

($0.85 a pound!!!)

So we got 12.5 pounds of yukon gold

as well as 2 bunches of Walla Walla and 2

bunches of Videlia onion sets.

Kyle tilled the garden on Monday.

We will be ready to start putting stuff in the ground

in two weeks. We have another possible snow event

coming this weekend. Nothing like the last one...

but still in the forecast, so we'll see.

It's Official. I'm Old.

 Yup.

You'd think I was officially old when I turned 65.

Nope.

It didn't happen until today.

When I got my FIRST

Social Security Retirement check.

Yesterday we set up the shelves and lights

in Kyle's shed.

Everything looks a little dusty right now.

They were in his house while he was drywall sanding.

But a few day getting daily water spritz will take care of that...

The broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage are nearly ready for up-potting.

Another couple of days.

The stuff under the domes is coming along.

I think we are supposed to plant tomatoes this week.

Guess I should check.

Kyle started working on filling in the pond yesterday.

But I think today he's going to start tilling where 

we plan to put the garden.

Meanwhile Rod is building a stand for the new well pump.

(Actually our OLD well pump from the other house...)

And then we need to get started on running water to the garden.

I'm SOOOOO EXCITED!

This is going to be such a game changer!

And Then it was SPRING!

 WEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Spring has Sprung!

Most of the snow is all melted, there are a few stubborn

spots (mostly in the shade) but yesterday it was 60.

And today should be in the mid 60's.

Tomorrow... 75.

It only went down to 40 last night.

My new little rhubarb is growing about an inch a day.

I planted one last year, its peaking out of the ground,

but it's a green variety and Soni said those are slimy.

EEEEUUUWWWW.

This one is a red variety.

I'm excited!

Isn't he cute?

He's in the house for now, but will be moving outside soon.

Rod took some good pictures of our snowball fight,

but I forgot to get them from him and they are gone for the day.

I'm home today, it's a "double" day.

Just finished teaching the morning class.

Now I need to do some tidying around the house

and get ready for tonight's class.

Yesterday Rod and I had a Town Date.

Went into town to Home Depot and Ace Hardware.

And then to Taco Bell.

It was fun!

(We are so fancy! hahahaha.)

Next week we are going out for a steak dinner

at the High Plains Farm Credit customer appreciation gala.

So there's that.

But for now, I'm going to go eat something.

I have to start teaching at 7:30 and I don't usually

get up that early, so I had a piece of toast.

But now I'm hungry!

(Been drinking lots of dandelion tea in my fancy cup though...)

Thanks Rozann!

(You gotta wear bright red lipstick when you zoom

or you look like you don't have a mouth... its weird.)

 

And Then There Was SNOW!

 Overnight the forecasted blizzard hit.

It's not THAT cold out there, about 30.

But with the windchill it feels like 14.

(So the guys tell me... I am inside...

just climbed out of my nice warm bed to

give y'all an update...)

It's still snowing and quite windy.

The crews have been out on the roads already though.

There is less snow under the trees... the wind is blowing from

the north so where there's nothing to stop it,

the snow is just sweeping away.

What car?

In the little cave between the houses, there's no wind and it's really piling up.

However, in our backyard where we have privacy fence,

the wind is less severe and EVERYTHING is buried.

Notice the chair and A/C unit up against the house.

The chickens have an IGLOO!

Kyle moved them yesterday to a more protected spot.

Hopefully the girls are ok.

No sign of them yet this morning.

(As usual though, LUNA is LOVING it!)

(Beau peed in the house.)

Kyle and his snow shovel to the rescue!

Rod couldn't even get the back door open this morning.

He said there was 4-5" of snow piled in front of it.

We are snuggly warm inside though.

There are approximately 6600 people without power,

many of them in Hays.

But we are fine.

Can't see out any of our windows though.

And........ tomorrow's high is in the 60's.

So this won't last.

It's a HEAVY, WET snow, which is going to be good

for the fields and our new garden we are planting in 2 weeks.

Grateful for the moisture.

And the adventure.

And praying for all the first responders and others

who have no choice but to venture out.

We retirees are staying put.

(And I'm going to bake chocolate chip cookies.

Because.)

Let's Talk CRAZY!

Is it summer?

Is it winter?

Is it spring?

Yes.

Hahahahahahahaha

Today it hit a high of 82 degrees.

It was LOVELY!

Tonight around 11:30 it's going to start raining.

And then about 2:00 in the morning it's going to switch

over to snow.

They are predicting between 3 and 5 inches of snow

between 2 am and around noon.

And then, on Thursday it's going to be 70.

So.... we haven't actually picked a season yet.

But in the meantime,

Our broccoli and cauliflower starts are looking good!

(There are TINY little snapdragons and some early peppers 

under the domes...)

Yesterday Kyle up-potted the cabbage into little dirt pots.

And we went into Hays and lost control of ourselves.

Two raspberry plants.

Two blueberry bushes.

And a gooseberry!

(Plus a red rhubarb that we took to the WaKeeney house.)

And our lilac hedge on the back of our yard is starting

to have little tiny leaves!

Hope the blizzard they are predicting tonight doesn't hurt them.

We were at Ace Hardware this afternoon and decided to

drive by the hospital where I'm scheduled for a mammogram

tomorrow morning. When I put it into my GPS it said

"Your route may be affected by the predicted blizzard."

Except the hospital was 5 minutes away, and the blizzard is 

about 24 hours away (at the time).

So... thanks Google for keeping us safe!

Hahahaha.

When we got there, I asked if I could reschedule 

because I didn't think I was going to want to drive in a blizzard,

having just recently moved from Florida.

She said she understood, and they actually had an opening

RIGHT NOW.

So... I got it done today.

And THEN we went to Home Depot and bought plants.

And stuff for Kyle's house, like drywall mud and paint.

OH! And a new lawnmower ($125 OFF) to keep the

aisles between the rows in the garden trimmed up.

All in all, a productive Tuesday.

And now we are going to hunker down and enjoy

THE BLIZZARD.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

 Happy St. Patty's Day!

YEARS ago, when we first moved to

Indialantic, I worked for Peat Marwick Mitchell,

a stock brokerage.

Our Office Manager was named Patrick O'Harrow.

His birthday was today.

He was VERY Irish.

(Except he didn't have an accent and he smoked

like a chimney...)

But he was a nice guy.

Anyhow.

I always think of him on St. Pat's Day.

I had to make a run into town to get some stuff.

(An orbital sander for Kyle and some groceries...)

Of course, I was all duded up with my green 

necklace and earrings compliments of Mom.

In other news,

I had / got to speak in Church yesterday.

It went well. I replayed the talk I gave in 2021.

Am I Good Enough.

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

In other, other news...

Rozann and Greg's beautiful dog Zoe unexpectedly

passed away today.

She was an amazing companion.

She will be missed by everyone who loved her.

RIP Zoe.

My heart goes out to you Rozann.

Smile!

 I had a nice visit with Soni on the phone this morning.

And then I went into the kitchen to make me some

avocado toast and dandelion tea.

It kind of smiled at me... lol.

We added a second grow light to our little set up.

And then we lowered them a little... don't want everybody 

getting too leggy...

We got about 95% germination on the broccoli!

Aren't they cute? 

Still nothing from the peppers,

but we have some new cabbages coming up in the dirt cells.

Kyle got the rest of his shed insulated and drywalled

so we should be able to move them out there.

I'll be heading out to the farm later today so we can

measure where we want to put the garden and put in

the water lines from the well.

It will be SO NICE to have on-demand water!

Not that it wasn't an adventure to truck water to

the garden everyday... but the upgrade will be awesome!

The guys have been BUSY this past week.

They got the septic system in for Kyle's house.

That's a HUGE tank for a little one-bathroom house...

should NEVER need to be cleaned out though.

Rod got the shower all finished with the concrete board.

Next Kyle will need to tile it.

(He has to go with tile since he put a window in the 

middle of his shower... no fiberglass surrounds for him...

but MY house will have fiberglass. I had tile in our FL house

and I was NOT a fan...)

Yesterday Rod built the ramps so he can run the

wheelbarrow full of mud around the crawlspace 

so he can get started on the cinderblock foundation walls.

Plus in the future I'll have a pathway to walk on...

Things are coming along!

Gardening!!!

I'm so excited to be gardening again!!!

On Sunday, after church, Kyle and I got some seeds

started in the seed trays Rod & I bought the other day.

We started a TON of peppers (red, yellow, orange...),

more cabbage to go with the ones we started in

cotton balls (we aren't sure how those are going to do...)

and some broccoli and cauliflower. 

We set them up on the top of Beau's crate in the

living room with a grow light, but it was pretty

unstable. We had one end stuck in the book shelf

and the other end taped to the top of the spray bottle.

Hahahahahahahaha.

Last night we had the missionaries over for dinner.

And we needed to tidy up, and move the crate so

we could set up a table.

So I moved them to my office.

Still not an ideal setup... they are sitting on my freeze dryer totesl

And there are cans holding the light.

But they seem to be ok with it.

This morning we have 14 new little baby broccoli starts!

Nothing else yet, but peppers take a long time.

And the cabbages in cotton seem to be doing well under the lights.

They are a little "leggy", but we will fix that by lowering the light.

Kyle spent yesterday working on getting his shed ready 

for us to turn it into a grow room.

He insulated and drywalled 90% of it. Still has to do

above the workbench and the ceiling.

Pretty good for one day though!

So we should be able to move them out there soon.

Anyhow.

I'm EXCITED!!!!

In other news, I got a couple of fun packages from Mom!

Ugh. I just got out of the shower... lol.

And GOODNESS I'm WHITE!

Sheesh.

Anyhow.

I wore these darling earrings last night to dinner.

They are SO CUTE!

And the girls are going to love the little kites.

I'm going to make up a bunch of them.

Thank you!!!!!

Google

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours watching

a tutorial and then experimenting with

Google Docs.

Yes, I'm old.

I've never really used docs before!

But now that I know how..... watch out!

I put an agenda up and even was able to link to

the minutes from the prior week's meeting as well

as a link to the girl's presidency meeting minutes.

Just got off of today's presidency zoom meeting.

(Thank goodness for Zoom... with our ward spread

out over nearly 60 square miles, and we are all in

the 4 corners...)

But I needed to find a better background.

I sit in front of a white wall... and I have my 

work background...

Which is fine for business meetings... but kind of ugly.

So I just found something I think I'll use for my other meetings.

Who knows, I might even use it to teach sometimes.

I have a bunch of Christmas and Halloween backgrounds,

but I wanted something a little more spring-ish.

And then I saw this one and decided I liked it.

Anyhow.

I'm also wondering what on earth I was thinking...

I signed us up to feed the missionaries on Tuesday.

But we will have to stand in the backyard.

HA!

We don't have a table.

Or enough chairs.

I mean, we can probably scrape together enough

including our desk chairs... and I have 4 TV trays...

but..... hahahaha.

I might have to bring in the white table we use for

the farmer's market and set it up in the living room.

I guess it also depends on who comes. We have 4 Elders.

I don't think I can put 7 people in my house.

Sheesh.

First world problems.

But for now, I need to get ready to start tonight's class

in a bit. I'm hoping while I was in the meeting the

mailman came, I am expecting a package and it's WINDY

out there, so I want to catch it before it blows away.

HA! Just heard the UPS guy, he opens the screen door

and puts my package between the doors. He's a good guy.

I ordered a new long t-shirt dress.

Hope I like it.

Ok. Enough rambling.

Happy FRIDAY!

(Oh, I talked to the builder and the "guts" guys yesterday and

they are both working on new, updated proposals for us... so

I'll be watching my email for those as well!)

We Love WaKeeney!

 So, you know our little town bills itself as the

Christmas City of the High Plains.

They take Christmas to a new level.

And now..... even MORE!

June 25, 2025 is LEON Day!

There will be a GAZILLION people there.

(If the crowd for Halloween was any indication...)

Just looks like FUN!

(Fun fact, I used to work for the architects and we had

an electrical engineer named Noel. I always called him Leon.)

(He probably hated it.)

He called the Town of Malabar one day, with a question

about a project he was working on in our town.

I was all like... LEON!!!!!!

Hahaha.

I'm a 12 year old.

Left Ya' Hangin'.... OOPS!

 I called Mom yesterday morning and shared

the NEWS with her...

and Rozann, Nancy and Sondra already knew...

but I forgot to update the rest of y'all!

MY BAD!

(ugh, don't you hate it when people say that???)

Anyhow.

Gotta remedy that now.

Sondra and I are BOTH

FLYING TO TUCSON!

We are arriving on April 4 about 10:30 in the morning.

And we are staying until April 8 and not leaving until

about 4:30 in the afternoon!

(Which means no "middle of the night" flights!)

(THANK YOU REID for taking me!)

Anyhow.

That's just a short month away!

YIPPEEEEEE!

I'm working on getting subs for my classes on Mon & Fri.

I'm SO looking forward to it!

(And Rozann said her casita [my FAVORITE PLACE] is

all spruced up and ready for visitors!)

Nancy and Reid have an amazing casita.

It's like staying in a 5 star resort.

I love it, I feel pampered!

Rozann and Greg have an adorable casita and when

I stay in it I feel like I'm in a playhouse!

I don't know... I just love it. It feels like home to me.

Anyhow.

Besides all that... yesterday I made some beef bone broth

in the pressure cooker. I wasn't super impressed.

When we used to get our steers butchered, we got

BONES. These guys packaged up a hunk of meat with

a little round bone in the center and called it a soup bone.

HA!

We'll need to have a conversation before our next order.

AND,

I put a gallon (almost) of whole milk in the crockpot

and made some fresh yogurt.

It made a full crock of nice, tangy yogurt.

I didn't strain it, Kyle doesn't care for greek yogurt.

(And my yogurt strainer is............?)

Kyle prefers flavored yogurt (he is working on a gut issue from

taking oil of oregano daily for several weeks...)

So we have a small tub of watermelon/limeade,

a large tub of plain, a berry blue and a strawberry.

The watermelon was a "TrueLime" drink mix.

The others are just flavored jello.

We'll see how it works out after it's been in the fridge

for a bit and set up some.

It was a little runny for my preference, but I can always

strain a small amount for me if I want.

Anyhow.

It felt good to get back to making yogurt.

And the SAVINGS!!!

A gallon of whole milk was just about $4.

Each container of yogurt (Walmart brand) is

about $5. So about $18 worth of yogurt for $4.

Not bad!

And it's SOOOOO easy!

*Yes Sabrina, EASY!

In a crockpot (you have one...) dump a gallon of whole milk.

Turn it on LOW and set a timer for 2.5 hours. (This works perfectly

if you do it right as soon as you get home from work...)

When the timer goes off, unplug it and set a timer for 3 hours.

Just before bed (when the timer goes off) stir in a small tub

of store bought, plain yogurt. (I used Chobani this time.)

Wrap the whole thing up in a big bath towel.

In the morning, you have YOGURT!

The longer it sits, the tangier it gets. I started mine 

about 11:30 yesterday morning, so it sat wrapped from 5 last night

until about 8:30 this morning so it's good and tangy.

Anyhow.

We got some pretty good winds yesterday.

And then about noon it started snowing and snowed all day.

We ended up with a light dusting. It will all melt today.

The guys are headed to the farm.

(Kyle's shoulder is feeling better and he has SERIOUS

cabin fever!)

I'm heading into Hays for groceries.

It's Linger Longer this weekend after church and the

theme this month is sandwiches. I signed up for

lettuce, tomatoes and cheese slices.

So I need to pick those up.

And we need salad.

So... Happy Wednesday everybody!