First Week Was Busy, But Fun

GREAT FIRST WEEK!  HERE ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS

We are actually living outside the town of McFarland, so that is part of our mailing address.  For those of you who watched the movie McFarland, USA, this is the real deal!  If you haven't watched the movie, you probably should.  Then you will see part of the terrain where we live.


We pass through McFarland to go most anywhere.  it hasn't changed much, except now it has a McDonalds and a dollar store.









We spent two whole days touring parts of the farm that Bruce will be working with directly.  It is really big.....about 26,000 acres big!

Bruce's personal mode of transportation, complete with a fancy toolbox in the back.

While on the tour, Elder Fillmore and his co-worker Elder Smith stopped to work on an oven.

 This is a pistachio tree where the nuts grow from the outside to the inside...first the hull, then the shell and finally the nut.  Almonds are the opposite.  They grow the nut first, then the shell, and the last thing is the hull.

Yes...I'm really a whole head shorter than most people around me.

Also, on the tour with Elder and Sister Smith we gleaned some leftover oranges from an earlier harvest, and picked tomatoes, peaches, zucchini and plums.  We picked and enjoyed eating pistachios and almonds right off the trees as well.  (We tried some pomegranates, but they weren't quite ripe.)
By the way, this is our dress uniform for most days.   Notice that we are wearing our tags.

 Once back at home we made a couple of gallons or orange juice, froze some for smoothies and ate as many oranges as we could.  We also made zucchini bread, used some in soups and stews, and still have some left...which always happens with zucchini!  With the tomatoes we made a big pot of tomato soup, and ate as many tomato sandwiches as we could. (Not all in one day, but throughout the week)

This is our days harvest of peaches that were
crying to be picked.  There are many more on the tree that aren't quite as ready, plus others we have in the freezer waiting to be smoothies.

We are also enjoying Asian pears, grapes and free bags of almonds and pistachios that the farm gives us.  This is truly a land of fruits and nuts!

Bruce is helping the neighbor boys flush out moles in their yard.

It hasn't been all play, however. Bruce has been working on sprinklers at various locations, fixed doors, lights, a fridge, as well as various household improvements around here. He also learned how to test the irrigation water for the million-plus trees on the farm. I helped him clear bushes off of 65 feet of fence line, and I have bug bites to prove it!


Speaking of bug bites, Bruce got bitten (despite his long sleeved shirt) by some vermin in the bushes which became infected and a red streak started running up his arm.  After two days the red streak was still growing and getting close to his arm pit so we looked it up on google and it said, "If the infection reaches the heart, you may die, so get it taken care of. "  At that moment we decided to find an Urgent Care, which was in Bakersfield.  The doctor there said that generally they treat this condition by putting you in the hospital overnight with an IV antibiotic.  However, because he wasn't nauseous or running a fever, they gave him a high powered shot instead (with a 3 in needle) and a prescription that we had to fill that night and start him on immediately for 10 days.

Bruce is doing fine now, and we ended the week by going north to Fresno to attend the temple there.  It was a great ending to a busy week.

Stay tuned next time to learn about the humanitarian projects that we are pumping out at the nut farm in Wasco, CA.

Getting There is Half the Fun

We took our time heading toward California to begin our mission.  Our first stop was in St. George to see Rachel, and to catch a show at Tuacahn.

Next stop was the Grand Canyon, which neither of us had seen before.  We stayed safely far away from the edge!  (Sorry the picture is distorted)

 We found a killer deal on a one star motel in Flagstaff for the night ($41).  It was on historic Route 66, and looked like it hadn't been touched since the 50's.  It featured a bare bulb overhead,  rumbling trains across the street throughout the night, threadbare towels, and a cracked sink with no drain plug.

The room was small, with only one plug in the whole room, and it was only 2 prong, so we couldn't re-charge our laptop battery.  The plug was a bit overloaded, so when we plugged in a phone charger, it kicked off the TV.

 The bathroom had a "nice shower", with three kinds of un-matching tiles from several repairs.  The water was warm, with a classic soap and shampoo dispenser hanging on the wall.  Unfortunately the soap dispenser was empty, so shampoo was used to bathe with.

The next day, well rested, we drove to Mesa to visit with Melinda and her family.

We swam, ate a lot and went to a cool park...cool as in awesome, not the temperature. Don't let the picture fool you....the kids were actually glad to see us, but it was hot outside!

 On Saturday we arrived in California and found our new house ready for us, complete with furniture, fluffy towels, roses on the kitchen table, and three cute little boys who live next door.  Their mom fed us dinner after we rode bikes with the boys and had some fun.

On Monday we start working on the farm.  We invite you to watch an 8-minute video about South Valley Farms here.

Stay tuned for next post, featuring a cool truck that Elder Fillmore gets to drive, and much more!

Farewell

Today we had the opportunity to speak in church, which turned out to be a wonderful experience.  Between our friends and family, and the returning missionary from our ward's friends and family, we packed the church and they had to open up the second overflow to fit everyone in.

After church we had a little luncheon in our home, which was a great time to renew relationships and celebrate an awesome day.  Our daughters Jill, Katie and Jan helped facilitate this event by making food and helping with the set-up and serving of the food.

At 5:30 we went to the stake center with family members to be set apart as Agricultural Church Service Missionaries.  It was a special and spiritual event.  When we got home we put on our tags and realized that it was actually going to happen!

New Blog

We heading out on our mission soon, and in order to keep everyone posted we have decided to start a blog.  We hope to post pictures so our grandkids can remember what we look like and keep our friends and relatives apprised of our doings.