Catching up on last week

Had big plans for last week, everything kind of fizzled out.

Taylor went to a concert Sunday afternoon. I drove back to church to pick him up at 10pm. They were 45 minutes late returning, then my car wouldn't start. I finally got it going then went down the street a few blocks before it quit again. A kind police officer stopped, and he and Taylor gave me a push so I could get off the street and down to the laundromat parking lot. Where I called Mark then we waited . . . and waited . . . in the pouring rain . . . for Mark to come get us. (As most know, it's a 60 mile drive from home to church.)

There are lots of projects I enjoy working on with my husband. Towing a vehicle with a chain is not one of them. Fortunately, we've only done it twice. This time was only one block so I made it ok. The gas pedal on the pickup kind of sticks and then jerks, and I can't reach it except with my big toe. Most of the time that's fine, but not when I'm trying to go slow and carefully so I don't rip something off the bottom of the car that I'm pulling.

We made it with no mishaps to the nearest car dealership, then left it on the lot. I was without a car the entire week so that kind of ruined the 3-day trip that Lori and I had planned.

I had already told the boys they could do school on their own (translate very, very little schoolwork) Wednesday thru Friday because I'd be gone.

Since it wasn't technically their fault I couldn't go away (although I think Taylor was somewhat to blame) I went ahead and gave them the time off. Stranded at home, I used the time to work on refinishing my kitchen furniture that is still out in the machine shed. And I got a few school things organized.

Mark's farming buddies came over for breakfast one morning. That was fun. I made biscuits and gravy, and figured out how to make the biscuits flaky! I'll have to experiment on that a little more and see how it works with whole grain flour.

Speaking of farming, I haven't been doing much of it at all this fall. Usually I drive the grain trucks, but I retired after last year. Not enough hours to be farmer and wife and mom and teacher.

Mark and his friend Jim have worked on harvesting both their farms together this year. It's worked great. Jim drives the combine; Mark has been working ground and drilling wheat; Ian, Brian, and Eric drive the trucks and other stuff I'm sure but I don't know what because I'm never out there. My job is to bake and deliver the goodies in the afternoon. Not too bad.

I did notice that Mark had to have four men to replace me.

I also noticed that they're getting done about 5 times faster than we did in the past.