We have been out now 4 months and in October, we took a picture of the property on the corner across the street from us because they were plowing up the strawberry fields and getting ready to plant a new crop of something.  Here are the pictures of the field plowed (picture was shot a different direction:

And here is the field with the new crop - 2 months later.  It is incredible how fast things grow down here.

 

Yesterday, Saturday, Elder and Sister Truman invited us to join them on a tip up the coast to see the Elephant Seals and their babies.  We picked up Elder and Sister Miles who are doing a member leadership mission and they live in Morrow Bay.  So, the 6 of us went to just below San Simeon to a rookery -  this beach.  This takes place about 6 miles up and down the coast - called the Piedras Blancas.  There are about 20,000 seals that come to this rookery - but not all at the same time.  It was very entertaining to see all the seals on the beach.  Apparently, this has been taking place here since 1990.  The pregnant females begin arriving mid-December and the number peaks towards the end of January.  The female seals will come up to the beach to have their babies.  The male seals arrive in November and December and stake out their territory on the beach. Then the female seals have their babies, feed them for 4 weeks, and then they mate and return to the sea to eat and gain back the weight they lost while on the beach - which was about a ton!  (I lost a weight at one time - but not quite a ton)  They will dive down and eat at the bottom of the sea.  They can stay down in the ocean for 2 hours at a time.  The male seals are about 5000 pounds and they will lose about 2 tons while they are on the beach!  They will leave the beach after mating and swim to Alaska.  What do you think they do in Alaska?

They look dead - but they aren't.  Every once in a while they will flip sand up on them with their flippers - even the babies start doing this.  This keeps them cool and acts as a sun-screen.  Here is my tip to you:  When you are enjoying being on the beach and you run out of sun-screen - just put sand all over your body!

Aren't God's creatures amazing?  While we were watching this someone asked the question who was near by us - how do the baby boy seals know that they need to go to Alaska?  I said, "It is the instinct they were given by God".  They just know what to do.

Here is a different shot along the beach.  You can't imagine how long this goes and how many there are.  I wish the picture had a scratch and sniff so you could smell how horrible it is!  If a mother seal has twins, then one will die, because she doesn't have enough milk to feed both seals.  The babies have to quadruple their weight in a month.

Here are the Trumans, the Miles and myself.  The other gentleman isn't Elder Ruse - this guy was just "photo-bombing".

I must have been telling a wild story!

 

We are forever in the car business at work.  We have 23 new cars that we need to disburse and bring in 23 older cars.  Not all of them will be sold because they don't  have enough mileage.  We are to get them ready by changing the oil, checking the tires and batteries, get them all detailed and then SLC will tell us what they want us to do with them.  Dealing with the cars is an endless job!!  The one thing I like about doing the mail is that once I get my labels on the 150 pieces of mail and take it to the Post Office - that part of my job is done until the next day.