How Many Licks Does It Really Take To Get To The Center Of A Tootsie Pop?

 Any of you over the age of 60 know the answer to this question. Which of course is 3. For those of you who don't know what I speak of you can watch it here. 

Believe it or not, many studies have been done to determine the actual number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. 678 is the real answer, on average that is. I have not had a tootsie pop in years, but I do enjoy my Charm's Blow Pops which comes in at 638 licks. 

What in the world made me think of this useless piece of information? I was brushing my teeth the other day (something Dino should try once in a while) and I wondered... How often should one get a new toothbrush? Once a month? Once a year? I don't think I have ever bought a new toothbrush, one just magically appears in my drawer several times throughout the year. No idea how it gets there, much like my socks and underwear appearing in my dresser drawer every week. 

Curious, I had to look it up. Every 3-4 months according to most experts, unless you get sick. That, my friends, is your public service announcement for the day. 

My first full week back from the farm was a busy one! So many projects so little time. Of course, we were anxious to carry on with the garage, but we needed Kevin's help to get the trusses up before we went any further and he was not going to be available for 7 days, so we focused on other things to work on. 

The first project was to work on the grout on the stone outside. Those of you who have been reading our blog for a while, getting this grout done has been an ongoing saga for more than a year. Well, Dan to the rescue when he volunteered to come over and help for a few hours. Just the motivation we needed to get moving on this project again! 

We put a colored dye into the mortar to bring a little more depth to the stone. Together, we got about 30' done, 45 feet remaining and we can put this project behind us!

 I also got to play, I mean get to work with the 3D printer and start the garage organization project. The first step was to clear out a section of the garage wall, if your garage is anything like mine, it is pretty much stuff hanging every couple of feet on the wall; shovels, tools, basically stuff there is no room for anywhere else. I needed 12' of clear space so that meant a lot of removing of stuff. 

Once that was accomplished, I went about scouring the available 3D print files to find the files needed. I printed out about 25 holders averaging about 2 hours per print and this is what I came up with.....

Now, if I can just keep the tools there and not scattered around between the house and shed. I see this photo is already missing the circular saw and an impact from their holders!

A spur of the moment project occurred when Barb and I went to Rapid City and I bought 3 apple trees. I have been wanting some for years, but we are always gone in the summer and new trees need care, but this year we were going to be around! I should have probably thought this out a little more as I struggled to get the three trees in the back of the jeep. But one just not just buy trees, dig a hole and put them in the ground. The deer and rabbits would have them eaten down to nubs within a week. 

Thankfully Cheryl had some left over 7' fencing from her garden and soon enough I had them in the ground and protected from the critters. Now I just need to get something over the top to protect them from the hail. Time will tell.

The coolest and cutest moment of the week occurred when I was rotating the bales of hay in the shed. These bales are about 700 pounds each and as I removed the last bale with the tractor, Barb noticed some sort of nest on the ground behind the bale. Upon further inspection she found 4 tiny little bunnies!

After taking a quick picture and showing them to Lily, we set them back next to the pallet, replaced the bale and hoped momma bunny would return. We will not know until I go to move that bale next winter,

Speaking of Lily, did I mention that she joined the track team in Hot Springs? Forrest went down there and talked to the school administration and track coach, and they apparently allow home schooled kids to join their teams. Lily was apprehensive at first as she did not know a single soul, but after the 3rd or 4th practice, she was making friends and was looking forward to it. They practiced Monday through Thursday each week, Forrest, Somer or Barb would drive her down and hang out while they practiced (I was at the farm). She had a half a dozen or do track meets in a 2-hour radius of Hot Springs. She would have to be at the school as early as 5:30am on meet days, jump on the bus, travel to the location, compete and ride the bus back to the school, usually arriving home after 10pm. Talk about long days! But she had fun and did well, placing in several events. 

She also made several friends and has been going to their houses each week for a few hours. 

This past Saturday was a big day as Kevin had time to come over the help with the trusses. There were 4 of us total; Kevin, Forrest, Barb and me. Forrest and I were each on a ladder placing and hammering the trusses, Kevin operated the skid steer with the boom and also braced the top of each of the trusses. Barb was on the ground on the rope making sure they did not swing wildly while on the boom. Start to finish, it was a little over 4 hours. So happy to have that done. Next up, purlins, extend the tails and steel!

We also received some good news from the farm. They got rain! Lots of rain, a nice soaking rain and then some more rain. Would you believe that they don't want any more rain for a bit? Are farmers ever happy? We all know the answer to that, but it is good news! We got some rain here as well, over an inch with another inch forecasted today and tomorrow. So, it looks like inside work for us the next few days, I wonder what kind of trouble we can find. Maybe work on that camper a little bit!

I will leave you with this video of our local turkey flock, doing what turkeys do. If you watch closely, you will see that they are all chasing one bird. I wonder what it did to earn the wrath of the rest of the flock?!?!