Happy Birthday to ME

 Happy Birthday to ME!

Hahahahahaha

Rod and Kyle are out on a job for a church.

(Rod has the rest of the week off....

the benefits of working for the university! YEA!)

I taught a class this morning for 4 hours.

But now I'm off until Friday morning.

Last week Kyle has been working HARD

on a birthday present I have been requesting

for YEARS.

Ever since he made one for himself.

I've been JEALOUS!

It was  TON of work.

He distressed the wood,

then stained it an "aging" stain,

then sanded it off,

then stained it Walnut, then

sanded and clear coated EACH piece.

Plus the top is all put together with dove joints.

The screws are sunk and capped.

It is an amazing piece of furniture.

And replaces the ugly black glass TV stand

I bought for him a billion years ago.

That thing gets dusty AS you are dusting it.

I'm SO excited to get this in

and get the TV on it,

but I'm not brave enough to move it on my own.

So I'll wait for the guys to get back.

I made myself a cheesecake in the pressure cooker

yesterday, so I'm going to make a chicken/cheese quesadilla

and then have a yummy (fingers crossed) piece of 

cheesecake and read a book!

Hope you are having a wonderful day prepping

for the Thanksgiving festivities tomorrow.

Jim and Sabrina are going to come over.

And we MIGHT go get a tree tonight and

decorate it tomorrow.

We'll see.

I have to teach Friday and Saturday mornings

so I'd like to get it done.

Beau and I are SO excited!

Baking

I had a little time on ... Saturday?

After my morning class and before my evening class.

(One of my instructors has the flu so I covered

for her on Fri and Sat evenings).

 I decided to make some food.

Since Rod quit working 24/7

I quit making so much food!

Poor man!

He's used to there being lots of pre-made

food in the freezer for his lunches.

And the theory is I would cook dinner

and he would take the leftover for his lunch.

But like many theories - it didn't work.

So this week I'll be filling the freezer again.

Probably.

Once I get all the Thanksgiving food out of the way.

(He's only working today and tomorrow...)

Anyhow.

I baked bread.

In the PRESSURE COOKER!

(takes WAAAAY longer, but they say it's a lighter,

fluffier result - I'm going to try again in the

regular oven and see if its true...)

But anyhow.

It was a flourless (almond flour) and cheese/chive bread.

So I got some fresh chives from the garden

and got to work.

It was SUPER simple.

I baked it in the springform pan I usually use

for cheesecakes. (which reminds me, I want to

make a cheesecake to take to work tomorrow...)

And then when it was done I put my crisp lid on,

added some more cheese and browned it up a bit.

 It looked really nice!

I could have browned it a little longer, but was

afraid of burning the cheese. (white cheese)

It had nice "crumb" - it looks a bit wet,

but that's just the lighting.

It was actually really yummy.

As evidenced by the fact that Rod eats a piece

with every dinner since...

And, while that was cooking in the pressure cooker

I put a "Guilt Gone Cranberry Pie" in

the toaster oven.

It got a little brown, but it's DELICIOUS!

(You can tell its fall cuz the stores start selling

fresh cranberries and I start making this pie/cake/thing...)

I just finished today's class.

So now it's laundry, etc etc etc...

Have a great Monday!

Tractor Fun

 Yesterday after class Kyle and I headed out 

to the back pasture to seed the grass.

We have to hand seed, we have one of those

little whirly gig jobbies that you pour the

seed into and then walk up and down the

pasture and turn the little crank and seed

spits out in a big arc in front of you.

Which is awesome because you are walking

forward, INTO the stream of seed.

So it gets in your shirt.

But walking backwards looses its appeal

pretty quickly.

Anyhow.

We took turns spreading the seed and then

Kyle hooked the drag to the tractor

and 

I DROVE IT!

It was fun!

Kyle took a picture of me, but with the sun behind

me its hard to see...

And if you look closely, you can see

I had a little stow-away.

He was standing on my accelerator foot.

Made it awesome.

Should have taken a "before"

because then you can recognize the awesomeness of the "after".

Hahahahahahaha

Now we are just waiting for the promised 70% rain.

(It's 3 in the afternoon and nothing yet.....)

Rod says I'm a "real" farmer now.

Since I can drive the tractor.

Kyle says he's pretty sure butchering my own 

rabbits and chickens and keeping the horses,

and steers etc alive and thriving makes me a 

"real" farmer...

but hey... I'll take either or both!

~Real Farmer

HAIR CUT!

 I'm not excited at all....

I decided to get my hair cut today.

After I finish teaching.

So when I hopped on the app,

it said my last cut was...

SEVEN MONTHS AGO!

Sheesh.

So... no pictures yet.

But... depending on how it looks,

AND whether I can get a decent

picture... I'll update the post later.

Here's my before in my zoom room

in my zoom shirt

with my scraggly, thin, long hair.....

Try to forget THAT picture... lol.

AND................

Here we are with it up...

And down...

She cut it dry so it's STRAIGHT and kind of staw-ish...

I'll wet it tomorrow before class and see how it

looks down with some natural curl in it.

It's a REALLY blunt cut and I like it,

but "up" might still have to be the way it goes.

And either way... its my hair for the next six months.

There's always a ponytail.

Or, you know, a hat.

Monday Afternoon

 This week I am teaching the morning classes.

I just finished today's... I had 4 students.

Which is about average for the morning.

Most people have stuff to do.

Anyhow.

Yesterday was the big day.

We (and by we I mean Kyle)

mulched the sun hemp!

It's gotten really leggy.

We should have done it earlier, but he has been busy.

You know... buying a new truck and all that.

Anyhow.

Even standing on a pile of bricks I only got glimpses of him.

(That's a low spot)

Mostly it was... I'm sure he's in there.. but WHERE?

It didn't take long!

It chewed it right up and spit it right out.

(along with a little dirt when there is a hidden hill...)

Oh look!

There are the truck and jeep! 

Haven's seen them in a long time!

And then it was time to hook up the neighbor's tiller

and turn it all in.

Work all that "green manure" into the soil.

It's like instant gratification!

Kyle did those two passes and then let

Rod take over the driver's seat.

He did the rest.

And I went inside to start dinner.

And Kyle built a small fire in the wash tub

and cooked himself a couple of marshmallows.

I didn't get a picture when it was all done because

Rod finished up after dark using the headlights.

And this morning I've been in the Zoom Room.

Kyle went out to smooth it out and seed it with

some winter rye seed I bought,

but it's still kind of rough and he's having trouble

with his neck, so he's going to have Rod drag

it tomorrow.

And then we'll seed it.

I'll be working at the Town.

So again with the "royal" we.... lol.

But it's looking good!

The steers were VERY interested.

(And tried really hard to stretch under the fence

and grab up the bits they could reach...)

When he first started they RAN all over the pasture and back and forth

up to the barn and back to the back and up to the barn...

but then settled down and decided to just stand there and watch.

They are getting bigger.... slowly.

Speaking of bigger...

Kyle's little strawberry plants that only had about 3

leaves on them when he bought them are getting

bigger and one even has a couple of flowers!

If these two do well, he wants to get a bunch more.

Fall seems to be the time to grow them!

It's been much cooler!

(I'm wearing a long sleeved shirt and PANTS to teach

today - and when I'm done here I'm going to grab

a bite to eat and then we're going to take the dog

for a walk in the woods. My computer says is 69 outside.

BRRRRRRR!)

Have a wonderful day!

Hope the trip home from Pine Top was uneventful

and the dr visits go well this week.

Love you guys!!!!

IBotta Thanksgiving

 Have you ever heard of the app "ibotta"?

It's an app you can put on your phone

or computer or iPad or whatever....

and then it gives you cash back when you

buy specific groceries.

I've used Fetch for a long time.

It's another app that gives you points

when you scan ANY receipt.

And then the points can be traded for

gift cards (YEA AMAZON!)

A regular receipt (gas, groceries, fast food)

will get you 25 points and then sometimes

if you buy something they are promoting

you get bonus points.

But since I RARELY buy name brand,

I rarely get the extra points.

And that's also why I don't use ibotta.

You have to buy the specific brand.

However.

ibotta is running a special right now.

FREE THANKSGIVING MEAL.

So I took the time to go through the app

and then took the extra time at the store

to buy the specific stuff.

It would have been easier if I was alone

and if I was more familiar with the app

and had planned correctly.

I spent a lot of time running back and forth

between aisles (since our WalMart just 

re-organized AGAIN! SHEESH!)

Kyle was with me and its harder to

bounce around the store with another person.

Anyhow.....

here's how we did!

I forgot to put the Dreamfields pasta in the picture,

but I got a good discount on that as well,

and since I use it all the time I was happy to see that!

They had one free can of cranberry sauce too,

but by the time I got to the store, it had expired.

So I bought some, but didn't get it free.

So...

Turkey - FREE (up to $15 and that guy was $14.56)

Marie Calendar pie - FREE (I don't like pie and never buy it,

but hey, FREE!)

FREE french fried onions and cream of mushroom soup

(forgot to put that can in the picture too!)

FREE instant mashed potatoes.

FREE frozen veggies. 

FREE brown gravy mix. (Kyle prefers that over turkey...)

And good discounts (like $1 back) on all the rest including

the toothpaste.

As I shopped, I scanned the barcode on each of

the products on the app to make sure it was what

they specifically required. It's easy - it either says

Barcode Matched or NO match.

And it takes it off your list.

So when I was all done I could have just scanned

the barcode on my receipt, but because I linked

ibotta with my WalMart account it did it automatically.

And returned .... wait for it!!!!!

$35.33 back into my bank account!

So... it is a little extra work both before shopping

and at the store, but if you are going to buy

name brand groceries (and with the discounts

it ends up cheaper than the store brand)

it was worth it.

I might not do it all the time....

but it was fun for this trip!

Samsula

 We have a "busy week" planned.

So this morning Kyle and I headed

north to our feed mill.

It was a BEAUTIFUL cloudless day.

We had a "cold front" come through over

the weekend and it has been pretty chilly.

(Florida version...)

But the humidity is low so it's wonderful!

It's a cute little place.

Old as dirt.

Been in the family for many years.

But the brothers are friendly (well, one is... the

other can be grouchy, but he warms up eventually...)

and there are a GAZILLION dogs running around

who are always happy for a pet or an ear scratch.

We enjoy our monthly jaunts up.

And our animals enjoy the excellent,

FRESH feed.

(They grind it right into our barrels!)

GOOD STUFF!

And now we have plenty of feed for the month!