Fun, Busy, Monday!

 Rod and I started our day with a new habit.

(If you do it once, can you call it a habit??? lol)

We went for a WALK!

Our goal was to walk for an hour.

First we walked through town to the park where

the farmers market is held in the summer.

These little christmas trees are all over town.

This one had a little history and a cool

painting of buffaloes and a teepee.

SOMEBODY is a pretty good artist!

The town smells SO GOOD!

There are bearded iris EVERYWHERE!

Next we headed back "downtown" to the North Pole.

Rod got to be a snowman.

Isn't this a gorgeous home?
It was built in 1906 for $5,000.00

They are renovating it and bringing it back

to it's former historical glory.

No idea what this one is, but it's gorgeous!

People have these beautiful little beds in their front yards.

Lots of iris, lots of peonies, lots of just beautiful flowers.

And everything is SO GREEN!

And we ended up at our cute little house.

If you look REALLY closely in the left corner,

I borrowed Kyle's tin man until his patio / balcony is done.

He's adorable, and looks great with the buffaloe.

The big pot has sweet peas planted in it.

Fingers crossed!

Anyhow.

It was a fun way to start the day, and we DID make it for an hour.

Then Rod headed up to the farm to help Kyle make 

some raised beds to put strawberry plants in.

And I went through my new Louisiana manual and

highlighted and made notes since I teach my first

class this weekend.

And then I taught my night class.

And now it's dinner, bed, and start all over again tomorrow.

Have a GREAT NIGHT and a lovely Tuesday!

(Hope everyone had a wonderful Mothers Day!!!!

More on that tomorrow...)

Night!

Tomatoes, etc

 We planted "several" tomatoes.

(And by "we" I mean Kyle and Rod... lol)

We planted 'em deep.

So they look small.

But they are "indeterminate" so IF they don't get eaten

by deer, rabbits, grasshoppers, etc......

they will grow to the top of the panel and beyond!

And we will have .... a gazillion tomatoes.

There are probably 35 sun gold (yellow) (REALLY yummy)

cherry tomato plants.

We got 35 seeds.

Didn't actually expect all of them to germinate.

So we planted all of them.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Each row is approximately 50' long.

The first row is black cherry. 

(with 6 sun golds at the end.)

The next row is an Amish Paste - like a Roma tomato. 

(with 6 sun golds at the end)

The next row is Super Sweet 100, a VERY prolific cherry 

(with 2 extra sun golds)

and the final row is....... ALL SUN GOLD.

Yeah.

Everybody is getting freeze dried sun gold cherry tomatoes

for Christmas this year.

Hahahahahaha

(They actually make a fun crouton for salads!)

Speaking of which, Sunday is Linger Longer.

The ward, in all its wisdom, decided the theme

should be salad, because that's easy, right?

Just cut up some lettuce.

Or buy a tub of egg salad, tuna salad, potato salad, etc.

Since its also Mothers Day.

I'm bringing a jar of freeze dried cherry tomatoes

from last year's backyard harvest.

(Also I think I got some from Dave & Mary... I don't remember.)

Anyhow.

We are about to be DROWNING in cherry tomatoes.

As long as nothing happens.

See above.

Just finished my LAST morning class!!

Whew!

I'm glad THAT'S over.

And now to do some house chores and get

ready to teach the night class.

I made myself a smoothie before I started,

but it tasted kind of rancid? So I thought maybe

it was the jar I made it in... it had pickles in it before,

so maybe it was still kind of picking up that taste.

So on first break I made another one.

Nope. 

Different jar (and I re-washed it first)

but it still tasted funny.

So either the can of coconut milk I opened

was bad, or .... ???  

Anyhow. 

If I get dead, tell them it was the smoothie.

Hahahaha.

But now I'm STARVING!

So.... better get some food in me and then we need

to move everything BACK the way it was.

Kyle is moving home again.

He has been SOOOO busy, and then he moved,

and we are now just watering for 4 hours a day.

(After he does a bunch of seed planting today...)

He's doing 6 rows of corn, 4 rows of okra,

2? rows of green beans,

and a row or two of squash (zucchini, yellow, spaghetti...)

Then tomorrow we will plant the potatoes.

And the peppers. 

(They go on the opposite side of the cattle panels

from the tomatoes... fingers crossed that's not a dumb idea.)

And nothing else for a month or so.

And he's BORED out there all by himself.

So he's coming back into town...

he'll move again when it gets busier again

(and Jim is out there too, it's LONELY out there!)

Tired.....

 Whew!

It's been a busy week. 

Do I say that EVERY week?

Lol.

I probably do.

Because every week IS a busy week.

Yesterday while I was loafing around,

(teaching)

the men got the cattle panels in the ground

and the tomatoes planted!

I'm going to head out there in a few to bring

some more things Kyle forgot.

(Like his TOOTH BRUSH!)

In the evening, Kyle took Bear for a walk

down the road, down a BIG hill.

I guess it was a little too far... 

Lol.

I'm tired!

Carry me!

But DON'T PICK ME UP!

Whew!

I have LITTLE legs...

Like my impression of a dead dog?

The tongue peaking out really sells it, I think...

This morning, after a nice phone chat with Soni,

we set up our "new office"...

Rod says "You didn't even let me comb my hair!"

Anyhow.

Variety is the spice of life.

And now, speaking of spice,

I'm going to have some dandelion tea and head to the farm.

MOVED!!!

 Kyle officially MOVED on Monday.

Then yesterday he and I went into town

and spent a gazillion dollars (hahaha) on

all the little things you forget you need when

you move into a new house.

He has a LOT of stuff from when he lived at

Linda's ranch, but he was living a VERY minimalistic

lifestyle then (and continues to do so now) but there

are just some things you need.

Like throw rugs.

And a vegetable peeler.

And a garbage can.

And FOOD.

Hahahahaha.

We also bought him a baby meyer lemon tree.

It already had 3 little lemons on it!

So we got it for him as a house warming gift.

Along with a GIANT pot to put it in.

And a couple of bags of dirt to fill said pot.

(Bear is still pretty small, so that pot is HUGE!)

Speaking of Bear.....

This is the view Kyle wakes up to in the morning.

(Bear sleeps in his crate in the bathroom, but once

everybody is "up" and has used the bathroom,

they all head back to bed. Kyle watches videos

on his phone and Bear watches Kyle.)

(Ok, he sleeps...)

I'm STILL teaching doubles... this might be my last day.

Won't know for sure until tomorrow.

Beth's cruise will be over, but they will be in a hotel

and it will depend on the WiFi (and if she WANTS to teach...)

so I might teach Friday. 

Or not.

Meanwhile, it rained overnight, and for much of the morning,

but it has stopped now, so Kyle is putting up the 

cattle panels in the farm garden so we can transplant

the tomatoes (which are getting really big and NEED to be

in the ground, but need support...)

Rod took his 4-wheel drive truck up there an hour or so ago

so he could help him out with those.

Hopefully it's not too muddy!

Yesterday, Rod got the bathroom all tiled!

I LOVE IT!

It looks a gazillion times better!

I like it even better than the kitchen.

It's so nice to have a retired (and handy) husband!

Happy Tuesday!

 It's a little overcast and looks like we might

get a little rain...

They are forecasting some, but it's always 

hit or miss...

This morning I got the tomatoes and peppers

in the raised bed in the backyard.

Yes, our grass looks sad in that part of the yard.

It's never grown well there.

Last summer we seeded it.

TWICE.

And it still looked like that.

So I kind of gave up.

The rest of the yard isn't too bad.

While chatting with Mom on the phone,

I took a walk down the alley.

Here are the big yellow bearded iris...

just growing wild.

And the neighbor's peony bush LOADED with buds. 

Another neighbor's iris are just getting started.

Our rhubarb bolted, but it turned out to be green rhubarb.

so I don't plan to harvest it anyway.

I'll buy some red ones next year for our new yard.

(The bed behind it is planted in green beans...

just waiting for them to start popping up!)

Our heritage roses behind the garage are also

covered in buds!

These are the BEST smelling roses!

I'm excited to see them come back this spring.

(Our rose I planted out front is dead as a doornail...)

The bush under our bedroom window is going nuts too!

These are pretty, but don't have much smell...

They are all mixed in with another bush but I wasn't

brave enough to prune it back.

So it's just messy, but should be pretty anyway.

Anyhow.

I'm sure enjoying SPRING!

Kyle is heading into town in a bit for our

Tuesday grocery shopping.

(He and Bear had their inaugural sleep there last night...)

We have a LIST of stuff he needs for his house.

(Like a garbage can, throw rugs, and a rice cooker...)

We got an official "no" from the local bank yesterday.

But he said he spoke with the other loan board members

and while it was "our of our wheelhouse", they thought

it was a great project and were very encouraging

that another larger bank would be happy to snap it up.

So Jim and I will be carpet bombing all the Kansas

banks this week with our proposal.

SOMEBODY is going to see the potential.

I have faith.

(And lots of prayers.)

Time for breakfast.

Happy Tuesday!

Cutest Puppy

 Although Rozann and Greg might disagree...

But Bear is pretty darn cute.

His eyes are red because he WAS asleep...

Can you stop taking my picture???

I'm SLEEPY!

FINALLY!

He actually does more than just sleep,

but he is FAST and hard to capture.

So we take snaps when he takes naps.

Easier that way...

Update on the plants,

they are looking lush!

Yesterday, after church, Kyle and I took them all outside and sat them

out in the dirt for an hour of sunshine.

It's call "hardening off". So they don't get a sunburn when 

they get planted out for real.

They need an hour or so on day 1 and then an extra hour

added on for each subsequent day.

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain, so we won't be planting...

but we hope to get the majority of these in the ground

by the end of the week.

It's NOT EASY moving these guys.

There are over 400 of them.

(The wind was blowing about a gazillion miles an hour as well...)

While he went and refilled his water trailer,

I took the 4-wheeler for a ride around the property.

Man, we have some beautiful land!

I brought some plants home for the home garden on Saturday.

They are outside now sunbathing.

I also plan to bring a couple home for the sisters that

I minister to here in town.

And then we will have lots to plant.

If they all grow (and the deer / cows etc don't eat them..)

we should have a pretty good harvest!

We are cautiously optimistic.

(The story of our lives right now........)

Still teaching doubles this week.

Meanwhile, Kyle is loading up the stock trailer with

all his worldly goods and will be heading

out to the farm!

Life moves on.

Still Looking for $

 I met with the loan officer yesterday.

He has been out of the bank in meetings

and conferences all week, so glanced at

our proposal but hadn't had the opportunity to

really LOOK at it.

So we discussed some of the finer points.

He didn't seem enthusiastic.

Well, enthusiastic, but not optomistic.

They are simply too small.

They've never done anything like this and want

some ridiculous things up front.

He's going to really review it and then talk to

an associate on the loan board and get back

with me, probably Monday.

But in the meantime, we are pursuing other options.

So.

All is not lost.

But we don't have a YES quite yet.

Still going forward though.

Of course.

In the meantime...

Kyle got all done!

Doesn't that look great?

We need to get him a shower curtain and rod.

But he can't use it for 4 days anyway.

Yesterday morning we got up at the crack of dawn.

4:00 to be exact.

Bear peed in his crate and was crying.

So Rod got up and gave him a bath.

Then I got up at 5 and took a shower, grabbed all

the stuff (already organized and ready to go)

and we headed into town.

Got there 15 minutes early, but the RS Pres showed

up about 5 minutes later to open the building.

We had french toast sticks, syrup, and a 

charcuterie board with grapes, strawberries and blueberries.

(Thanks for all the inspiration Nanc!)

(Mine wasn't as pretty, but hey... lol.)

They loved it!

We sat around their big round table and chatted.

Got some good insight into their lives.

Talked about what they are planning going forward.

(One is graduating, two are moving with their family to

Hawaii for a military assignment for 3 years right after

YW camp in June, another is hoping to get his 

mission call in the next 2 weeks. And one [still a secret]

just got called as the new YW Class President.)

They are really good kids.

They are all on their high school swim team.

And also are either in choir or band or both.

Anyhow. It was a fun hour.

Then we headed to......... Home Depot.

Hahahaha.

Rod needed a tool so he can work on the bathroom floor.

But then we came home and he mowed the yards and

discovered the lawnmower won't go into reverse,

so he spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning out the

garage so we can park it inside from now on,

and then working on the mechanics of it.

Still needs to finish fixing it today.

We took the puppies for a walk when Kyle got home.

And I made a meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner.

The dogs are "besties" now.

Kyle is considering taking Beau with him when he moves.

We'll see. 

I'm ok with either decision.

He won't be home much, so Bear will be unhappy.

If he blocks off the stairs, they could be loose in his house

together, keep each other company, and have a buddy

to play with.

(Luna, the rottweiler, has to stay outside...)

Anyhow.

We ordered him a new grey couch for his living room.

So I think all he has left is to go to the storage and get

his stuff for his kitchen, toaster oven, silverware, etc...

and then we will move his furniture next week!

Weeeeeeeeee!

(Sob.)

I'm excited for him..

Really.

But I'm not.

hahahahahahahahaha