Sink Hole

Oh my goodness!

Kyle just video called me.

He just drove his tractor into a

sink hole!

He's out tilling one of the pastures

and all of a sudden the ground

just opened up and the back

end of his tractor fell in!

It's probably 4 feet deep.

Both of his rear tires are suspended in

the air about 2 feet above the bottom

of the hole.

The only thing holding his tractor out

is the bottom plough he was pulling.

I'm worried it's going to break that off.

Or at the very least break the PTO

on the back of the tractor.

Or fall in more.

Or fall over on Kyle.

Or.....

So I had him hang up and video call 

his Dad. Rod and Scott are both at

F.I.T. together tonight and between

those three, hopefully they will

be able to come up with a plan.

Good grief!

The hole goes the entire width of the tractor but is deeper on this side.

The only thing keeping it up is the plough.
The tines are 12 inches into the dirt.

He originally thought he drove over a gopher tortoise hole with the front tire. 

But then the back end fell in and he was pretty sure
he was going over sideways!

Anyhow.

Never a dull moment around here.

UPDATE:
He couldn't get Rod on the phone so he called me back.
I suggested he go get his "tank" and push some
of the loose dirt he's just ploughed into the hole
to give his tires something to grip.

So he did that.

Then he called me again and we video chatted,
because I wanted to WATCH him drive it out.
On the off-chance it fell over and squished him.
SOMEBODY needed to know he needed help.

He used the front bucket to try to pull himself
out, but as he tried to drive forward it tipped more,
so he reversed it and backed out of the hole.
The bucket was on the ground and pulled a
bunch of dirt back into the hole.

Whew!
So his tractor is safe,
his heart is back to beating normally,
and all is right with the world.

For now.

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

In other news, Rod gave me a blessing last night.

I woke up about 4:15 this morning with an

elephant sitting on my chest, pretty sure

I have full blown bronchitis,

but as the day goes by,

I'm feeling really good.

Can take a full lung of air without coughing.

My voice is still a bit rough,

and squealing at your son on the phone

wasn't the best choice... (lol)

but I'm sucking on a lozenge and

feeling like I've got this under control.

Thankfully.

Because our doctor is out sick.

*(Pretty sure she caught it from Rod.. LOL!)

Minnie Mouse

I taught over the weekend.

And meanwhile I caught Rod's cold.

I feel fine.

But I have laryngitis.

That was fun!

I had a really good group of students.

They got together and got me a

cute little container full of 

mini Snickers

and a giant Kiss candy.

(I guess they missed that part where

I mentioned I'd been sugar free

for about 5 years...

lol)

It was really nice of them, though.

They also all wrote nice things

in a card for me.

And they were very patient and understanding

about our "guest instructor".

(Minnie Mouse)

I ended up testing 16 people and 

12 of them passed!

That was GREAT!

While I was out of town,

Rod and Kyle went to the annual

tree sale in town.

We now have a loquat,

a peach,

an orange

and a lemon!

I'm excited!

They all look like healthy little trees.

(The peach was one they got 2 years

ago at the same sale - we nearly lost it

in a hurricane, but it's coming back...)

Beau helped dig the holes.

Today I'm just lazing around on the couch.

Resting my voice and my body.

And answering a gazillion texts from

students and instructors.

There's hope my voice will be back soon.

But it is quiet around here in the meantime.

Ranch

I spent the day up at the ranch with Kyle yesterday.

I was hoping to leave out of here about

7:30 in the morning, but that didn't work out.

I finally was all fueled up and on the

road about 8:20.

When I got to the ranch, Kyle and I headed

out so he could show me all the work

he has been doing on the property.

And we also picked a couple of early

BLACKBERRIES!

He is going to have a bumper crop

in just a couple of weeks.

But one bush, hiding under an oak tree

already had some ripe.

And then it was out to the back

to gather up his cows.

They were feeling very cooperative!

We opened the gate and they just

sort of headed on in!

It was all very nice, quiet, non-stressful!

We got them all into the holding pen

and then slowly shooshed them into

the alley in small groups.

As big as 7 or 8 and as small as 2 or 3.

Once they were in the alley,

Kyle walked along the cat walk and

sprayed each one on the back for flies.

Then we opened the slide gate and

they walked onto the scales.

I recorded their ear tag number and weight

and we opened the door and let them out.

Some of the groups had babies in it.

Kyle was able to get in there quietly

and sort the babies off into the small

calf pen off to the side.

Then we worked a group of about 6 babies.

They are so small, they can turn around 

in the alley, so it was a challenge to get

them headed the right way and into the scales.

But everybody was pretty cooperative.

Until the last two.

A little male/female pair who are 

VERY bonded.

They tried to get in together.

But we needed them one at a time.

Split off the little girl and got her in there.

And she FREAKED OUT!

Turned around and was desperately trying

to get back to her little friend.

Stuck her head between the bars of the

slider gate... and got STUCK!

She was REALLY stuck!

Pulling back, bawling, I thought she was

going to pull her ears off. Or pop an eye ball out.

Or something...

I went around to the other side and tried to

push her so she was lined up straight.

She fought against that.

She was really pulling hard!

Kyle finally got in the alley in front

of her head and pulled up on her jaw

until she finally got the right angle

and popped her head back out.

Whew!

We were really stumped!

A quick weight and out she went.

We saved "Tex" a Texas Longhorn for last.
She had her new little guy with her and we
were afraid it would get squished in the alley
if he was in there with the other mamas.
Once the mamas and babies were all back
in their pasture, we tried to figure out
how to move the 4 extra heifers from a
front pasture to the facility.
They are being kept separate since 1 is going
down to the Melbourne farm, 2 are sold
for grass-fed beef once they come up to weight,
and one is a Melbourne farm reject.
There is no "alley" connecting the front pasture
with the facility yet, so we hoped we could
either lead or drive them.

Nope.

They ended up in the main alley by accident,
and ran all the way to the very back corner
of the property, and then we got them turned around
and pushed them back up to the facility.

It took 45 minutes!

And 5 minutes to run them through,
weigh and spray
and then when we let them back out,
they headed straight to their pasture!

We were done in about 10 minutes!

These are the miscreants.

Molly is the red one up front.
The two black ones are the grass-feds.
And the one in the middle with the little dot
on her head is Sunny - heading to Melbourne
one of these days.

We used two gates and a buggy to make a
make-shift alley to get the heifers from the
pasture into the facility.
It worked when they got OUT.
But not much for going IN.

Before I got there, Kyle made a trip into town
and bought himself a new crockpot
and a pork roast "kit" including the veggies and seasonings.
It smelled heavenly!

But I didn't get to stay.
I still had to run into Ocala and pick up some
feed for our farm and then get home.

On my way out, Kyle picked me some flowers!

I enjoyed them on my drive home.

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

I got up this morning to a colic-y horse.
Andy didn't feel well.

He curled up in the shade for about an hour.
And then he got up, got a drink of water,
and went back to grazing.

Silly boy.
Glad he's feeling better.

Happy Monday!

I had a nice busy weekend!

I tried running a school over Easter weekend.

There were 65 students registered... but many

of the folks who get registered don't have any

intention of ever following through.

Whatever.

I ended up with a surprising 22 students!

They were a really good bunch.

We had a lot of fun,

they were very complimentary

and learned a lot.

Meanwhile,

back at the farm,

its been a LONG time...

but we FINALLY have some ripe

tomatoes on our little topsy turvy thingie.

Beautiful, aren't they?

Rod took the picture.

I told him to go ahead and eat them,

but they didn't.

So this morning I picked my very first tomatoe.

It was perfect!

And DELICIOUS!!!!!

I'm eating a late brunch.
Okra and eggs.

Did a different workout this morning.
It's called LadyBugs.
It's still T-Tapp, just one I haven't
done in awhile.
And then out to feed the horses,
let the dogs out,
feed them,
visit with Kyle for a few minutes
while I cleaned up the kitchen
and ran the dishwasher.
Went out front with Kyle to trim
the palm trees on the corner of our
driveway, since they block his view
when he is driving his truck.
(I can see under them in my little car,
but he can't see anything up in his truck...)

He loaded up and headed to the ranch,
I came back in, let the dogs out,
took out the weekend trash,
cooked my breakfast,
texted a bunch of people,
did my expense report for last weekend,
and now I've got to get on the road.

I need to run up to Cocoa and deliver some
decals Rod made over the weekend
for our last remaining client.
(We closed Buffalo Graffics about 5 years
ago, but Rod keeps doing Frank's decals,
until the computer finally dies and we're done...
Our computer guru said it's beyond it's
last legs and he can't even scrounge parts
anymore... so the next time it dies...
it's dead.)

Anyhow.

That's MY day...
how is YOUR'S?

Quiche

Yesterday I made a quiche!

I usually make frittata (crustless quiche)

but this recipe said the crust

was really good.

So I gave it a try.

The recipe said salt to taste

and I under-salted.

Next time (there WILL be

a next time)

I will put in a teaspoon.

I will also cut back a bit on

the heavy cream because my

quiche was too big for my

pie plate.

I should really buy a deep

dish pie plate,

but... nah.

Anyhow.

It came out really nice.

It has broccoli and bacon.

I used turkey bacon to cut down

on the greasy feeling you get

from regular pork bacon.

(and it's what I have this week...)

It turned out pretty well!

Because of the salt issue, it

was a little flat tasting,

so I added a couple of

shakes of a good hot sauce

(Texas Pete's)

and that was all it needed!

Rod had a slice for breakfast

and said it was yummy.

Speaking of Rod, he has a cold.

That's what happens when he works

as hard as he has been working lately.

But I'm pulling out all the stops

on my voodoo stuff and

hopefully he will be feeling better

SOON!

My Fridge

The Trim Healthy podcast this morning

was all about grocery shopping.

This is Part 3.

And it has been really enlightening.

As part of the podcast, Pearl (one of the

author/sisters) took a picture of the

inside of her fridge and posted

it on their facebook page.

And challenged each of us to do the same.

However, I can't figure out how to post

a picture to THAT page.

I can only get it on my personal page.

And I don't want to do that.

So instead... here it is...

in all it's messy glory!

I don't always have TWO things of heavy cream,

but I'm going to make a broccoli bacon quiche

today and it calls for heavy cream.

On Sunday I popped a chuck roast in my 

Instant Pot with a cup of water and some

salt and pepper for 90 minutes.

I let it "natural pressure release"

(which just means I forgot about it)

for about 30 minutes once it was done.

It turned out SOOOO tender and delicious!

Yesterday I had a big green salad with

sliced roast, cherry tomatoes and

goat cheese and a Skinny Girl raspberry

vinaigrette on the top.

It was so yummy! 

I think I'm going to send my extra

pressure cooker up to Bronson with Kyle.

He could do up a roast and eat on it

for all week.

He's getting a little tired of 

chicken, rice and mixed veggies.

Hahahaha.

Cammo

I was sitting out in my chair this morning.

Enjoying a little morning sunshine.

And I realized I picked the perfect color.

You can hardly see me!