We're Raising the Roof Here on the Farm

The men are making great progress on the garages.  Here are a few pictures which are self explanatory.

 Walls went up first.  Bruce is still pretty agile for a Senior Missionary!

When the trusses first arrived they were 8 feet too short due to a manufacturing error.  It was fixed later that same day.

In other news, last week we had our first Semi-annual Zone Conference with the Smith's and our Directors from Salt Lake.  We were well fed, enlightened by the Spirit, and enjoyed showing off our projects.  Our 5-minute presentations were centered around the Articles of Faith.  We each had to pick one and talk about how our life has been influenced by it.  Our focus of study for the next 6 months is on the Articles of Faith, which will be fun to study.    One funny part was that at the beginning and the end of the conference we sang all the verses of two hymns...acapella.  Well, with only 7 people there (our Farm Manager joined us but didn't sing), the songs sounded somewhat lame because the range was way too high for everyone, and none of us come near Tabernacle Choir quality.  At the end of the conference our Director was praising our efforts and giving us instruction but added, "I know I'm just preaching to the choir....".  After his third reference to this I piped up...."It's pretty obvious that we ain't no choir!"

Happy Missionaries standing in front of a Farm tractor.  Pretty scenic, huh?

Over the weekend we took a little overnight get-away to Monterey to visit the Aquarium and see the sights.  It was wonderful!  After spending hours in the aquarium we ate at Fisherman's Wharf, played at Dennis the Menace Playground, ate some fried artichokes, then spent the night at the Smith's son's house with his family.  Very fun!  The funny incident was that at night I was brushing my teeth so I stuck my hand in my travel bag, but pulled out the cortizone cream instead of the toothpaste.  It is REALLY NASTY.  Five days later I can still taste residue of the cortizone cream on my toothbrush.  The good part is that my teeth don't itch as a result. :)  

Aquarium pictures are below.

                                         This is a giant artichoke, but not the one we ate. The picture below is at Fisherman's Wharf where we ate clam chowder and garlic bread.

 We trust you will all have a Happy Halloween!  We'd like to thank our daughter Jill for sending us our Halloween decoration.  That's about as good as it gets out here.

Here At The Farm It's SUN DAY Every Day!

Did I happen to mention that we live in a gated community?  Did I also mention that we have a number of prisons in our immediate area, one of which houses Charles Manson.  (For those not familiar with Manson, he was a high-profile murderer in the 1970's.  He is now 80, and not going anywhere.)

This big guy lives near the farm at an eating place called The Idle Spur.  It's a folksy place but the food is good.

So we stopped at a thrift store so Bruce could buy a couple of work shirts, and he found a really nice Abercrombie and Fitch shirt that looked like new.  When he got it home he tried it on and found out it had long gorilla sleeves.  So during the week, I unpicked one cuff and shortened it 3 inches, but left the other one long.....I wanted to see if he would notice the difference.   He did.  I haven't fixed the other sleeve yet, but it is on my list of things to do.











This week our gleaning in the fields included walnuts, almonds, tomatoes, pears and grapes.  The grapes are REALLY BIG.  "How big are they", you ask?  They are soooo big that one fills your whole mouth.  They are sooo big a robin would mistake it for her egg.  They are sooo big you would choke if you swallowed it whole.  And they are crisp and explode with flavor in your mouth.

Here is Elder Fillmore and Elder Smith cracking walnuts on a crank walnut cracker that is amazingly easy, and you can crack many at the same time.  Unfortunately, they don't sell them anymore....at least we couldn't find any online or from any of the old hardware stores that used to carry them.

This is Bruce with the ditch witch making more trenches to bury water lines.  Yes, they did cut more existing pipes that had to be repaired.  The shop behind him was without water for about three days until they could locate where the line hooked into the system.








Other happenings:  Bruce did a variety of jobs including some concrete patching, a little welding and some woodworking.  The lumber was delivered yesterday for the two garages, so next time you will see the progress as it takes shape and form.
We hosted another birthday party for the October birthdays....remember the pies last month?  This month we made pumpkin rolls and it was another hit.

They don't call me "Miss-Understood" for nothing.  Here are some examples:

Ann:  The radio said the Pope was addressing congress and he arrived with his wife Rose.  I didn't know he had a wife.

Bruce:  The announcer said he arrived with his WHITE ROBES, and no, he isn't married.

Bruce has started feeding the cat that keeps our house mouse free, and asked me to look for some cat food. 

Ann: (to clerk)  Can you tell me where the cat food is?

Clerk: (points to trays of cantalope and watermelon)

Ann:  Is that cat food?

Clerk:  Oh, I thought you were asking for CUT FRUIT.

Ann: (chuckling...it must be my Utah accent)

Sister Smith called me while Bruce and I were cracking walnuts at a friends house. (There was a chain saw buzzing in the background)

Sister Smith:  When you stop by here, can you pick up some chairs for your neighbor boys?

Ann:  Sure.  (Why would the little boys need chairs from the Smith's?)

Later we stopped by the Smith's and found Elder Smith at home.

Ann:  Your wife asked me to pick up some chairs to take home.

Kay:  Chairs?  I don't know anything about any chairs.

Ann:  Well she said to take some chairs home for the neighbor boys.

Kay:  Oh, you are supposed to take them some PEARS!  Here is the bag.

On a more spiritual note, Conference was great and we were uplifted and edified by the talks.  We have also been enjoying our couple study time each evening where we are reading Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage.  It is sometimes the highlight of our day.