Wow.

 What a week!!!!

Monday we messed everything up and went

to Hays. It totally confused my brain

for the rest of the week!

Then on Tuesday we got started

working on the peaches.

Wednesday we took a day trip to Salina

to visit Menard's for the roofing material

for the new shed as well as a Sams Club run.

Salina is about 2.5 hours away.

That's where our Stake Center is...

but we don't go over there very often.

It was a nice trip (Kyle and I took his truck

and pulled the stock trailer.)

We got everything we needed and even

stopped at Braum's for dinner and a milkshake.

SO YUMMY!

I got a sub for my class that night.

Which was nice, but also messed with my

subconscious scheduling.

I'm SO CONFUSED!

What day is it now?????

Thursday was Rod's birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DARLING!

We still had to head out to the farm though.

He worked on building the doors for

the new shed.

Kyle put in his new doggie door upstairs,

and built a bed frame for his new queen mattress.

I worked on the peaches.

This time I made peach salsa and some

REALLY yummy smelling

Peach and Toasted Almond Jam.

(While visiting on the phone with Jim...)

I'm not sure it will gel into jam though.

It was supposed to get to a rolling boil and

then up to 220 degrees. I couldn't get it past

about 207 degrees and it was SPITTING

everywhere (walls, floor, ME, and with all

that sugar it was like napalm!) 

So it might be syrup.

Whatever, it smelled heavenly!

(Sorry Nanc...!)

And the county came by and graded our road.

Which pulls up rocks that were buried in the dirt.

And I ran over one and cut my tire.

So Rod got to change my tire for me.

Happy Birthday Darling!

(Thank you!!!)

Luckily it happened between Kyle's and our place,

so I just pulled in and it was FLAT by the time

I got to the shed.

He put on a donut and we limped home.

We had a lovely steak dinner to celebrate his day.

And then today... Friday?

Right.

Up and out to the farm again.

This time Rod worked on the doors some more,

Kyle installed his dryer vent and got his

washer and dryer all up and running,

then he painted his bathroom cabinets

(I was SO BUSY I didn't even go up to see!)

and then he mowed his yard and up and down

the road and Jim & Sabrina's 5 acre parcel.

(Not the whole thing...)

And I canned more peach jam.

(Regular and no added sugar...)

I still had MORE peaches, so in the final hour I whipped

out another batch of each no sugar and regular.

Then had to borrow Kyle's Golf to drive home in.

(Since I still have a donut on the Escape... we have an

appointment in Hays on Tuesday at 1:00 to get a 

new (free) tire put on, but in the meantime...)

It's ridiculous.

We have THREE vehicles.

And none of them are available right now.

Rod finally got all the parts in for his truck,

so maybe tomorrow after farmers market he

can get that one running.

I think we are still waiting for a part for the Trooper.

Otherwise, maybe he can fix that one instead?

And, of course, the Escape can't go further

than down to the market tomorrow morning.

Thankful Kyle has an extra vehicle we can borrow!

Sheesh!

Anyhow.

Rod gets to do the market solo tomorrow.

It's my Louisiana class weekend, so I'll be

sitting in my office all day Sat & Sun.

I taught tonight and then put everything together

for in the morning so Rod can just pack the

car and head over there.

Tonight, to celebrate his birthday,

he and Kyle are at the BIG races.

They brought in the pro sprint cars!

They said they are super loud and super fast and

super fun to watch!

They are having a good time!

And I'm going to finally eat something and then

probably head off to bed.

Those things are LOUD!

I can hear them in my office

(with the windows closed...)

Tomorrow will be a busy day.

I ended up with 106 registered students.

They won't all show up, but it will be a large class.

Paperwork will be a challenge!

But once class gets going, it's no different

whether I'm teaching 5 or 500.

I just do my part and they either learn it,

or they don't.

Anyhow.

That's my BUSY BUSY BUSY week!

Enjoy YOUR weekend!

Love y'all!

Canning!

 Kyle and I went to Hays on MONDAY...

That messed up our entire week.

Hahahahaha.

But I NEEDED some more jars for

the peaches we need to process.

And some other stuff...

Which meant this morning we headed out

to the farm to Kyle's house to do some

canning of peaches.

I brought the steam canner.

And a bunch of other stuff.

(And forgot some other stuff, so now I have 

a LIST to remember the other stuff.)

We did a batch of low sugar peach jam.

It's a Ball approved recipe that uses

white grape juice instead of pectin.

I only did 3 pints. (It was supposed to do 6

half pints, but I didn't buy any of those...)

And then we did a double batch of regular

jam that used sugar and liquid pectin.

BOY oh BOY counting out

FIFTEEN cups of sugar was intense!

(So was stirring it while we waited for it

to come to a boil...)

But ALL of the jars sealed!

That is SUCH a satisfying sound!

Aren't they pretty?

The yellow-ish ones on the right are the low sugar.

Tomorrow we are going to make a run to 

Salina to Menards to pick up the roofing for

the new shed. And the pole thingies for the house.

And maybe make a Sams run.

I got a sub for my class tomorrow night.

It's a Louisiana weekend this weekend, so

taking a day off isn't a terrible idea.

When I checked last night I had 102 students

pre-registered for this weekend!

(Only a fraction will actually attend, but boy howdy!)

Quick Monday Morning

 Just a quick update this busy Monday morning.

I got up and did my scripture study,

then did a T-Tapp workout.

Then breakfast (a yummy, ripe peach)

and then outside to do a little gardening.

Got a couple cucumbers.

The lemon cucumbers take FOREVER to start,

but once they get going, they are pretty prolific.

I think I have 6 on right now.

Picked this monster this morning!

Kyle has been busy getting his house ready 

to move back in this week.

Repainted the uppers and added

hardware to all the cabinets and drawers.

Trimmed the stem on his flowers so they

sit correctly in the vase.

We need more little gold marbles though.

That was a Dollar General purchase so next

time I'm over there I'll take a look.

Saturday he installed the railing and cattle

panels on his upper balcony.

Still needs to do the two ends.

And then he will cut a dog door into the door

up there so Bear can come and go as he pleases.

He has a special "rug" that looks like grass

for all his "potty needs".

That way he doesn't need to wake Kyle in the

middle of the night.

And he's WAAAAAAAAAAY up in the air so

no worries about predators getting him,

OR getting in!

But now, we are making a quick run to Walmart

(etc) today instead of tomorrow because all those peaches?

They are RIPE and ready to be processed.

I need some supplies, like jars.

And green apples.

And pectin.

So, yeah.

I'll be elbow deep in peaches tomorrow.

Happy Monday y'all!

OH! And FUN picture of Mom and Dad in their

hometown newsletter!

That was a fun surprise in the mailbox!

Love you guys!

TOO HOT!

 We got a late start yesterday.

Slept in and then slow start.

They got a LOT done on Wednesday,

so we decided to not work on the shed.

(Plus the forecast was for triple digits...)

Rod did some inside stuff.

Kyle and I headed to his house.

First he put the knobs on some of his cabinets.

He'll finish them up one evening.

Doesn't that look good????

I ordered them from Amazon while we were 

still in Florida! (Wanted to put them on the

cabinets there because I didn't like them without

pulls and thought it might help sell.... but we didn't do it...)

Anyhow.

I love how it looks!

Next he installed a sliding barn-door style

door to the top of his stair.

With the AC unit right there, all the cold

air just rushes down the stairs and it stays

pretty toasty up there.

Closing that off made a HUGE difference.

He will likely stain it.

But later.

Then we cut and pasted a bunch of carpet squares

to the landing between his stairs.

BOY OH BOY that spray adhesive stinks!!!

So we headed down to the garden to harvest.

We got a nice haul!

We will take it to the farmers market tomorrow

and anything that doesn't sell, I'll process for this winter.

Got a TON of okra too!

(I cut and froze 3 gallon bags of okra on Wed...)

Oh yeah!

And on our way out of town, we stopped by the

local Catholic church and picked up our peaches.

(The box of pears comes August 21...)

So we will have fresh pears while Jim and Sabrina are here.

(She is allergic, but Jim might like to have one...)

They weren't fully ripe yet, so I spread them out on

Kyle's TV stand upstairs.

(About the only flat surface!)

That's what 160 peaches look like.

Some of them are HUGE!

Like softball sized!

Hope they are delicious!

Everybody in town raves about them...

so I'll be going out there daily to process them,

probably starting Monday.

Then we came home and I made some pork chops

in the pressure cooker.

(1 can of whole berry cranberry sauce, 1/2 jar of

apricot jam, 1 package of Lipton onion soup mix,

set it for 5 minutes {they were thin} and then 

take the meat out and stir in a corn starch slurry...

served over rice with a side salad. YUM!)

And then... TV and Bed.

This morning I had to teach the morning class.

Beth is teaching her Tampa class this weekend.

The guys left early to head to the shed.

Rod stopped in Hill City to order internet for

Kyle's house so he can move out there.

And now they are finishing the roof and

making the main doors and installing the

window and man door on the side.

And then they need to make the ramp to

get INTO the shed so Kyle can finally get our

giant lawn mower OUT of his shed!

He will be SOOOO happy!

So.

That's what today looks like!

Happy Weekend everybody!

Coming Along!

 You know my guys are hard workers...

Of course Tuesday they took off because

it was Hays Day.

We still went out to feed the chickens

and harvest the tomatoes and okra,

but no work was done on the shed.

When they left on Monday evening (I was teaching)

they had the rafters built and hanging upside down

resting on the walls.

And then....

They got them all standing up the right way and secured.

(Meanwhile, I was up at Kyle's house,

sitting at his island, slicing bags and bags of

okra to put in the freezer for this winter.)

It's good freeze dried, but I prefer it frozen

for eating for breakfast.

(In the air fryer with my bacon... YUM!)

I had to leave to come home and teach.

But they just kept muscling on.

We have a roof!

(And an out of focus picture... Rod took it, 

they were both GIVE OUT!)

It was 101 degrees out there.

And likely 110 or more inside the building while

they were trying to install the rafters.

But they wanted to get it done because today

wasn't very windy.

There was a pleasant breeze, but you didn't need

to worry about it blowing you off the roof.

(Unlike yesterday!)

Anyhow.

Kyle dropped Rod at the house and he went

into town to get something at Home Depot.

Rod didn't know what... they were both tired,

so there wasn't much chatter on the way home.

Rod just fixed us a mess of nachos.

We are going to EAT and head to bed.

Happy Wednesday!

New Shed

The guys have been BUSY!

On Friday Kyle got the floor joists all set for our new shed.

(It's a BIG ONE! 16' x 24'!)

Lots of room for all the things.....

And then on Saturday he got the rest of the supports under it

and laid the floor.

Then Rod and I joined him and they got 3 of the walls put up.

Thank goodness for heavy equipment!

It was a job!

But they handled it, no problem.

(I got in there and helped a little too!)

By the time we left, the 3 walls were up, skinned,

and secured. It was LOVELY weather out there today,

Kyle would have loved to have gotten it done,

but... Sabbath...

It was good to rest.

(Although we had to run out and feed and water the

chickens and did a quick harvest in the garden.

Okra waits for no man!)

Anyhow.

I'm working a double tomorrow, so don't know if

I will have anything to post.

So here you go!

It was a nice day today.

Rod got to conduct in Sacrament Meeting.

And we had a really excellent Sunday School lesson.

And then we RESTED.

(And went to the farm...)

And then I had a presidency meeting this evening.

On to the NEXT activity!

(Need to put in a food order...)

Weeeeeeee!

We (Kyle) have strawberries!!!

Just in the one bed.....

but although these are June Bearing, they don't seem to care.

The other bed is focusing on plant growth and sending out

tons of runners, which is also good...

but it's fun to nibble on an occasional strawberry.

And they are AMAZING!!!!!

The broiler chickens are growing FAST.

And have seriously outgrown their little brooder.

The plan was to move them into their broiler coop.

Which would require putting up the electric fence

and having Kyle move out there with Luna. (Rottweiler)

But we aren't ready for that.

(Mostly I AM not ready for that.... lol)

So... I had a brilliant idea yesterday.

We stuck them in the egg mobile!

We didn't have enough shavings for the whole floor...

Kyle is heading into town to get some supplies for

the new shed he's building, and 3 more bales of shavings.

But there is NO WAY anything can get in 

and harm them, so he can stay in town

and Luna can stay here for a bit longer until

he's ready to move out.

We will want to move them into the broiler coop

in the next couple of weeks.

They need to be on the grass.

But at least this was a good temporary option.

He put wire mesh both at the top and at the

bottom for good air circulation.

The layers will be up on the roost bars at night

or up in the nest boxes during the day.

But these little guys are down on the floor

and it was WINDY (and kind of chilly) so we

put a board up to block one side on the floor to

give them some protection.

It was in the 100's all last week,

but this week the high is in the 80's and so far

today it's only 71!

(Rod is outside working in a JACKET!)

Hahahahahaha.

Anyhow.

I'm heading out to the freeze dryer to get the

thin crust pizza I put in there on Wed.

(It was done yesterday but it was late,

so I added some hours...)

I baked them and then cut them into little

cracker-sized squares.

Here's hoping they are good!

There's a brand that sells 3 for $9.

So I bought 6.

One for each tray, and one for lunch.

It was just pepperoni, but it was tasty.

I'm excited to give these a try.

I need to get them bagged up for tomorrow.

And then I'm teaching again tonight.

I might run out to the farm real quick though

just to check on the chicks since Kyle is 

going into Hays.

And I'm curious.

Have a great weekend!!!!