Catching Up "Again"

 First off....

So happy to hear all is well in Tucson.

We had a scare with Dad.

And then Mom got sick.

Can't wait to chat with her in 

the morning and make sure she is

all better again!

Whew!

In the meantime,

it has been a BUSY few days here.

Starting with Wednesday.

Kyle started the reconstruction of the

chicken coop by dropping 4 posts in

the ground and then putting posts

ON the ground for the walls to sit on.

Then he picked up the back wall and

put it on its base and secured it in place.

Got the roost bars in place.

Then it was time for the front wall.

Had to do them out of order, 

because that's the order they fell in...

Had to pick it up with the excavator

and get it all hooked up with a chain.

Had to get it spun around so it was

facing the right direction.

It was a pretty windy afternoon,

so it took some talent!

The wind was helping / not helping...

depended on the moment.

But he persevered.

Slid that puppy into place,

like it was no big deal.

The man is a MAESTRO!

Not bad for a day's work.

I had to leave to go teach,

he got the two end walls reconstructed

(they were pretty torn up... but he got

them put back together.)

And called it a day.

The next day he picked up that roof you

see still on the ground and got it all

together so the chickens had someplace

to sleep!

He put it up against the fence in the 

alleyway leading into the pig barn.

Cut a hole and connected the fence

to the coop.

The roof looks a little "ruffled".

(No idea what his hand is doing...

probably holding some screws?)

Got the door all installed.

Meanwhile, a ward member was there

harvesting two of our pigs in the next 

pasture. It was extremely distracting!

There was ONE casualty we couldn't salvage.

Poor little ladder.

But now the coop is on the ground and

we don't NEED the ladder to get in and out

anymore. I'm VERY happy about that!

Friday he hooked up the tiller on the

tractor and we got the rows all prepped

for the next planting.

He added some sand (from the "pond" he dug)

and some coconut coir to the first three rows.

I added some 10-10-10 fertilizer and he

planted 4 rows of carrots in each of the

three 50' rows.

One row of red, one of yellow and one of orange.

We hope to have LOTS of carrots!

Then we put in 3 rows of onion sets!

Fingers crossed!

Saturday morning we headed into town early

to meet up with some other members to 

clean the church. 

Then to the store to get more onions to plant,

and then to WalMart to get some cookies,

and then to Wendy's for lunch.

It was a SCORCHER out there!

Yes.

It's MARCH.

(I talked to Jim, it was 72 in Florida!!!)

Back to the church for a baptism for

the wife of a long time member.

It was a really nice meeting.

I expected maybe 8 or 9 people to attend.

It's 2:00 on a Saturday afternoon.

We had 37 people.

Standing room only in the Relief Society

Room and the little tiny font room.

(I bought 36 cookies..... lol.)

The temperature on the way home.

Yikes!!!!!

We stopped at the house to change clothes

and then ran out to the farm to take some

measurements and drop off some stuff.

 

On the ride home.....

There was a LARGE fire just outside town.

That's our Chief of Police's farmstead.

It came close to his home, but they were

able to get it under control.

Lucky it was Saturday and not Friday!

Friday there were extremely high winds.

As you can see from the picture, on Saturday

there was almost no wind.

The smoke was going straight up.

It still burned a good amount of pasture land.

But his cattle were in another part of the property,

and between the fire trucks, 

a plane borrowed from the state

and lots of local farmers using their

equipment to cut fire breaks around the

burned areas, they were able to 

contain it to only a few hundred acres.

Looked like someone tossed a cigarette

butt out their window. The burned area

started right at the edge of the highway,

and burned a good area.

There were LOTS of people concentrating

on protecting the Chief's place, but

also the OIL WELL right there by the highway.

The police drove up and down the streets

in North WaKeeney letting us know about

the fire (like you couldn't see / smell it)

and asking us to put sprinklers on our yards

and prepare for an evacuation order if the

winds picked up.

After the major fires last week in Nebraska,

everyone was a little extra on edge.

But it turned out well and we were

all thankful for the efforts of those

who worked so quickly and efficiently

to get it put out before anything more than

grass land was lost.

It was nice to have a relatively quiet Sunday.

We went in early so Rod could attend

his 7:30 Bishopric meeting.

Then we both went to the 8:30

Ward Council meeting.

Then church at 10:00.

Relief Society at 11:00.

Meetings until nearly 2:00.

And finally HOME.

Kyle came over for some pork ribs

for dinner and then we were all happy

to head off to bed.

Which is where I'm headed NOW.