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.