Worthless emotional state, Mama on the farm, Chase

It amazes me that discouragement can set in on us in the midst of running from running from one blessing to another; but it does. There is no good way to combat such a worthless emotional state but to stop and count our blessings. The song, Count your Blessings, advises us to name then one by one. I had to take a moment yesterday and beginning with Mama I began to name all the blessings I have – all of you were among the enumerated.


At times the responsibility of the farm and the financially accountability associated with its development is overwhelming; attempting to look years out while staying firmly rooted in the present is a challenging mental exercise. The enormous amount of work yet to be done and the expectation of accomplishing it this year collided in on me some time yesterday and crushed me for a moment – only for a moment.

Mama made it in safely yesterday about 6 p.m. and Grandma fussed at us as we were enjoying an embrace. Mama remarked how she had missed me and Grandma had to remind her that she has not seen her husband for almost two weeks now. We just smiled and kissed again.

After we ate a light dinner we unloaded the van and headed to the farm. It was near dark but Mama wanted to see Toi and all the other animals. Since the older horse stays in the far south end of the pasture where we keep her – there is another horse just across the fence – Grandma dropped us off there. As we were walking over to pet Toi I noticed a skunk ambling along toward its burrow near the wet weather pond at that end of the property. Now I know where to hunt it.

We did not get to spend long, but it was an enjoyable few minutes. Riding with Grandma in the Lincoln as she flew down the roads, partly driving but mostly in conversation, was a little frightening, but we made it there and back safely. Mama and Victoria plan on spending the better part of the day there today. I have little idea what they could work on, but at least they will be out.

It is supposed to be beautiful and warm through tomorrow. Temperatures are expected to be in the mid eighties tomorrow; makes me want to take half a day off, but I have too much to do.

Grandpa will probably be leaving West Virginia this Saturday, but I have not gotten the official word on that. He has accumulated quite a load of implements for the farm as well as seed potatoes, apples and hay. It is already more that he can carry in one load so we will have to make arrangements to go back for the rest in the very near future. If it is a quick round trip, Mama and Victoria may go with him. I will not have the time off to help this year.

With Chase’s graduation and Brittany’s wedding, my vacation will be shot and due to the timing, I may not make it to Chase’s graduation; another discouraging thought if I allow it to be. Chase is doing well in school and the Fisher’s are enjoying having him in the house to help. Eric and Ethan are especially enjoying it. Our one disappointment is that Chase has lost his focus on piano – even though he is staying with the best resource we have ever had in that area, Mrs. Fisher.

Mama is supposed to talk to Mrs. Fisher about not letting him waste this opportunity but that conversation has not occurred yet, which is a little frustrating to me. It will be March 1st tomorrow and Chase’s time there is already half over. If we delay much longer, the opportunity will be lost. That would be a sad waste.

Car repairs, music to someone’s ears, taxes

Mama was not able to come to Bowie with me as anticipated. She had to stay in Amarillo waiting on the little van to be repaired. I had replaced the power steering fluid several times to try and stop a groaning sound associated with the pump to no avail. I had her take the car in to be looked at on Thursday of last week. We did not get good news. A very expensive part in the power steering assembly was going out and would have to be replaced to the tune of $900. Several other leaks and associated work will take the bill up to $1400; still cheaper than making payments.


So I came on Sunday night and left Mama waiting. She was moaning about having to be alone – like Maggie – so she got one of the girls from the church to come and spend the night. For her it will be one night. For Maggie it will be another 65 or so. I was about fifteen minutes late for the service in Bowie, but I made it. Everyone was expecting me so it was no surprise to the pastor or the congregation when I came in. Grandma had let everyone know I was on the way.

Mama should be here today. The car is due to be repaired by the afternoon and she will waste no time in getting here. Victoria is off today so the three of them should have a good time when she does get here. Mama was fussing at me for getting to see the older horse before she did, but some time this afternoon we should be even on that score.

It was fun to go to the farm with Victoria early yesterday. The place came to life as soon as we drove up. Every animal on the place started hollering at us – each in their own manner. With the donkeys braying loudly, the dogs barking, the horses neighing, the chickens crowing and the pigs squealing, it was quite a cacophony. None of the various members of the chorus halted their parts until there was feed in front of them. The pigs were the last and almost the loudest.

With the price of hay in this area we are anxiously awaiting Grandpa’s return. It is costing a small fortune to feed Rain. Since she is locked up, she is not able to enjoy the tall green grass just outside her paddock. Hay is the best food we can give her, but it is not necessarily the cheapest. Toi even prefers hay to the grass she has free access to. Both horses and the three donkeys prefer the sweet stock to all other feed and the dogs like them to have it also since it makes their manure so delicious.

I was able, on my day off, to plant one more grape vine, a red raspberry plant and sixteen asparagus crowns. It was a good bit more work to plant the asparagus than I had anticipated. I took a break in between the two bags of eight to plant the red raspberry. All the plants were 50% off at Wal-mart. I found them as I was looking for a nozzle to attach to the hoses we ran yesterday to help Victoria get water to all the animals. I also bought the line to run water from the well to the garden and barn lot, but more work needs to be done to finish that. It will take me and Grandpa working together to complete that. (He is due back this weekend if all goes well.)

While we were still in Amarillo we go all our tax information to our accountant. It was a good news, bad news scenario. We will not be liable to pay taxes on the $41,000 Wells Fargo wrote off on our home in New Jersey, but we will owe a $9500 penalty on the money I pulled out of my 401k to pay that house off. That is on top of the $19000 already withheld form the amount we took out. This tax year should clear the account of all liabilities and we will be able to move on financially – painfully forward.

I may be required to make payments to Uncle Sam if the tax bill exceeds what I have saved to pay it. But that is doable. It may be preferable to emptying all our accounts, but we will have to wait and see how it all pans out.

I will be in training all day today. That should be fun.

Horse problems, sneak attacks, travel

Victoria’s day started out fabulously yesterday. She and Grandma went to see an older couple in Bowie to talk to them about horses. They were hoping to get some more insight about what to look for as Rain nears her delivery date. What they got instead was another horse. Victoria was secretly hoping to get to ride one of the many horses they keep but when the owners learned of her growing interest in horses they gave her an older mare that they had stabled for almost all of its twenty three years. It was a special gift from them. It is another burden for me.


Never the less, the older mare has been ridden for most of her years and Mama and Victoria are hoping to continue that practice for several more years. For no more than we will do with her there, it could work our okay, but Mama and I are wondering what to do with her when she does croak. We looked at saddles yesterday. I am beginning to wish we could eat horses; it would at least make the expense partially redeemable.

Anyway, the couple insisted on delivering the horse to the farm that day, so they loaded her in a trailer and followed Grandma and Victoria to the farm. That’s when the fun began. When the older mare, named Toi (pronounced, Toy) was put in with Rain the fight began and Toi kicked Rain almost immediately. It should have been expected, but for some reason everybody was caught off guard. Victoria and Grandma began stressing out and the ensuing argument between the gift givers over what to do only added to the stress level.

Toi was then moved in with the donkeys. They had witnessed what had just happened and were having no part of that. The eldest, Esther, immediately jumped the fence and ran off. The two younger cowered in a corner while Toi, who was set in dominator mode, looked for a fight. I think Victoria was more worried about the escaped donkey than anything else.

Toi was eventually put in the open pasture near the calf lot and very late in the day, Esther was once again corralled with her brood. Rain is content to have her lot to herself as the two mares stare at each other through the fences. I suppose Grandma and Victoria will try again tomorrow to figure out a better arrangement. I just hope Victoria got some sleep last night.

To make Victoria’s day even more interesting, the older Barred Rock rooster launched a sneak attack while her back was turned and flogged her pretty good. She was unharmed in the attack but it added to her anger levels. She, like Joshua, is somehow empowered by anger and loves to nourish the sense of rage rather than shake it off or laugh it off. Grandma tried to get her to laugh but that effort fell far short of the mark. Maybe today she can laugh about it.

I am not sure what the Lord is up to in Victoria’s life but I am sure that experiences at the farm will work to soften her. She is a child who wants to laugh and love but feels too vulnerable when she does. Perhaps the hot and cold of fun and then difficult activities on the farm will reduce the swelling in her spirit and allow her to finally recuperate emotionally. Only God knows.

Mama and I will be leaving after church on Sunday. So far Mama has a list of four or five things for me to do when I am off on Monday. The only problem is that each of the items in question is a half day to a full day project. We will not be able to discuss it on the way since I will be driving a company truck over while she drives the van. It makes the trip less fun for both of us but it helps us get some items to the farm that would otherwise be difficult. I will need the truck for travel the first week of March as I go to Odessa for training. Having the truck to use for work leaves the van available to Mama for some of her shopping plans.

We will be out of the house long enough this time that we will have to have someone from the church to stop and look after things. God is good. This time Mama gets two weeks on the farm. It will be interesting if that is enough or too much.

Jake’s call, storage issues, Grandpa shopping, praying friends

As Mama and I were waiting on the cornbread muffins to finish baking, Jake tried to ring through on Skype. Neither Mama nor I wanted to answer at that particular moment because we were in a discussion about taxes and our finances. Later that evening, Jake called and told Mama that he only had a few minutes before bedtime and he wanted to talk to her, so we went to the computer.


When the call was accepted and Mama saw his smile she hollered, “Jake, you lost your teeth!” Indeed he had, both front teeth were missing. He was delighted that she had noticed. Melissa, his mother, was close by so Mama drew her into the conversation and they began talking about flights and school ending dates and how to get Jake to Texas and back. It sounded pretty expensive to me – especially coming off of the discussion Mama and I had just been having.

As far as I was able to follow, it involved getting Mama up to New Jersey, getting her, Jake and Chase back to Amarillo, then getting Jake to Pace, Florida to meet his mommy when she came down to Brittany’s wedding. Only Mama and Melissa could come up with a plan like that.

In preparation for our trip over to the farm, Mama has bought several racks of bread from the bread store near our house. It will be fed to the hogs. At first they did not like the bread, but Victoria thinks they have developed a taste for it now. It was being stored in bags in our attached garage until Mama discovered that a mouse has been helping himself to the supply. I suppose it is to be expected with the house ours is positioned next to. Our neighbor is a hoarder and most of the roaches and mice that infiltrate our house come form the nesting grounds next door.

I told Mama that as I sat reading my Bible on Tuesday morning I thought I saw a mouse run across the floor. It was in my peripheral vision and I do not trust that area of my vision due to the macular degeneration I am experiencing. So, maybe I did actually see it. We are on the hunt now. Traps are going to be set out and bait is going to be hidden in convenient places to try and thwart a full scale invasion. You know how Mama loves mice, or meeces, as Grandpa calls them.

Grandpa has been out every day tracking down leads on equipment. He found a decent trailer right away but put off buying it to have more time to see what else was available. He feels that if he were to buy that particular trailer, even though it is smaller than he wants, he could bring it back here and make more than $1000 in reselling it after he transports all he is able to load on it for the return trip. I trust his judgment, but the idea of buying and reselling has never been appealing to me. That is more bred into Grandpa and Norman than into me.

Still, whatever we can do to make money at this point is worth giving strong consideration. There are too many areas in starting the farm in which we will spend money without the hope of getting a return from it; financially speaking. Improvements to the shop, the land, the houses and out buildings, etc. all serve a purpose and are a necessary expense, but they are still an expense. Grandpa is looking for ways to build back any cash we can and I appreciate the focus.

Several ladies in the Borger office have stopped in my office lately and told me that they are praying for me. It is reassuring to hear. It is humbling to think that the Lord has me on the hearts of family, friends and coworkers.

I thank you all for your prayers.

What’s in a name? Mama’s saving plan, being blessed

As I have shown the pictures of the Jerusalem Donkeys we now have on our farm, I have been asked if they are named. I always respond with the names assigned to them by Victoria and Mama – mostly Victoria. When I am asked which in which, I have to tell the questioner that I have almost no idea. Only Victoria and Mama can actually tell them apart and give the properly assigned names to the individual animal.


Grant, I am told, was really bothered by the fact that his mommy did not know which donkey went with which name and for a child his age that is huge. All life and associated rewards are assigned by name. What is one of the very first questions one socially conscious child will ask another? What is your name? In that assignment of title is an assignment of value, uniqueness and privilege. It is identity. It is personhood. Only children understand this.

It is one of the reasons true scholars of the Bible rejoice to read that our names are written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life. With that inscription go all the associated privileges and rewards of Heaven. In that assignment of title is the blessing of belonging, the promise of permanence. It is an expression of the hope we have in Christ, the surety, the earnest of eternity. So too, is the association of name and person with a child. We tend to forget how simple things are for the little ones around us.

I will learn the proper names of our equine guests next week in order to be properly prepared to give an account to whoever asks.

We have some money coming to us from a bonus at work so I told Mama I was going to set aside a portion of that money to get us some clothing items – mostly undergarments. In preparation for spending the allotted money, which we have not received yet, she went out and practiced yesterday. She quickly proved she was up to the task by spending almost $300. In her mind, she saved almost $300 so I should be happy I broke even. She did get a lot for the money spent, she always does. I just was a little unprepared for a preemptive strike on the money we have not gotten yet.

Last night we gave away a couple of dressers to a family in our church. It really opened up the living room space for us since we had been using them for storage in that area. When we unloaded them at the friend’s home, I was struck by lack of everything in the home. It is being bought through an owner finance deal and the house needs so much work. It is easy to see that even affording the payment is a struggle for this family. It brought home to me how very blessed Mama and I are.

I am almost ready to take all of our tax information to the accountant that we are working with. He did a great job doing our taxes last year and it was a difficult year with the move from one state to another and the finances associated with the move. This year will be more challenging with the accounting required by the money I took from my 401k and the subsequent settling of the loan with Wells Fargo. I am not looking forward to it.

Unlike my children, who are expecting to get refunds, I will have to pay. I do not know how much, but it will be a significant amount for me and Mama.

I suppose that’s a blessing. Rather, a privilege according to the current rhetoric.

Travel news, mean animals, unworkable jobs, entertainment

Grandpa is on the road. He should arrive in Point Pleasant today in the late afternoon – depending on weather conditions. The area he is traveling through is expecting some heavy snow. He left Sunday morning at about 6 a.m. and stopped in Kentucky last night. I have no idea where in Kentucky, but since it sounded close to West Virginia, Grandma and Mama were very excited about his progress. Any future trips to West Virginia will, in large measure, depending on how successful this trip turns out.


Victoria called yesterday with some disturbing news. Our horse, Rain, bit at her several times as Victoria tried to attend to her. Once she even kicked out. I don’t know if she was aiming at Victoria when she did but I have felt the effects of a horses kick and am a little worried about Victoria as she works with a breed of animals with which she is relatively unfamiliar. I know that a friend of mine, when his horses got a little too feisty, cut their feed off for a couple days to tone them down. It seemed to work for him.

Mama and I were talking about it and we will not keep a mean or aggressive animal. But in the case of Rain, it may be that she is closer to giving birth than we are aware. If so, it would be cause for her to keep all unfamiliar persons or animals away to protect herself and the foal. It is difficult to say, but I do not want anyone hurt. It is a wakeup call to Mama and Victoria. It is a memory refresh for me.

I will meet with my boss Wednesday for an end of year review. After getting fussed at and cut out of certain duties, for which I trained quite hard, I am anxious to see him face to face. Several of my peers are feeling suspicious of events unfolding around us but I have the assurance that God is in control. I just need to be submissive to His Will and allow men to do within that Will what is allowed in order to get me to the place I am supposed to be. It will be an interesting moment.

Mama suggested that I take an open position at a church in Bowie as a Youth and Music Minister. I told her that I would gladly take over the music program at the little church but my days of leading a youth group are long behind me. I did suggest that if all the competitions were done from wheel chairs, I would have a chance but that is not the norm. I appreciate her confidence in me, but I do not see that as a strong possibility at the moment.

I am at the point that I need to carefully consider how much income I would need in order to walk away from ConocoPhillips. I am not at the point of doing so, but circumstances greatly influence our decisions so it is better to be ready to make the decision than to be forced to when unprepared. Mama is ready for whatever. Me, not so much.

It would be much easier, or it would seem so, to start the herb shop as a side business while working the job I have. I just need to be there to do so. That is another area where I lack the confidence financially and academically to launch into the unknown, but I will have to at some point. With that in mind, it is better to be prepared than to be caught totally unprepared when the moment comes.

Mama and I switched from DirecTV to Sudden Link for our TV and internet. It will save about $80 per month. It is also contract free. We have to learn a different system of channels and recording formats, but I have every confidence Mama will adapt. We watch so little TV that it makes little sense to pay much for the service. We also set up Roku on the TV to allow us to run some internet broadcasts on the TV; programs like Netflix and Glenn Beck’s GBTV. The only troubling thing to contend with is that Roku came with the Angry Birds game. Now Mama gets frustrated with that - on a really big screen.

Bro. York was reading some one liners yesterday and I actually remember two of them. When a little birdie gets knocked unconscious, what do they see? The other one struck close to our heart. Why do we wait until pigs are dead before we cure them?

Bad weeks, healing, seasons

This has not been a stellar week for me. Without whining over the details there have been some changes made by my boss which, I feel, really diminish my job. On the good side, two of my peers and I were talking late yesterday and both of them are feeling the same sort of quiet dismissal from the operations side of the business. A sort of, “we’ll call you when we need you” placement. That does not give me a warm fuzzy feeling about the future of this position.


God is in control and for some time now I have been preparing to leave this job. I have been in no particular hurry because the things I want to do are not in place in a way that could support me and Mama, much less the farm. But I will now need to be more vigilant, more focused toward those goals. I told Mama last night that I need her to be more like Grandpa and Victoria in her attitude toward money. Raise your hand if you think that change is coming soon.

For the moment, I have a great job and a plate full of directives for the year. There are other job opportunities out there and I have the contacts to tap into them when needed, but I do not feel the need just yet. Remember a while back when I was talking about the possibility of being laid off and how that might be a good thing? We might be back to those thoughts. After all, I am pretty expensive to keep in my current position when it could be filled by someone less tenured than I am. God is in control.

My inner ear infection is abating and I am less unstable in ordinary circumstances. I did notice as we were visiting our pastor who is in the hospital for knee replacement surgery, that quick head movements – looking back and forth between people in conversation – still make me dizzy. The antibiotic does not seem to be helping. I was not planning on continuing past today with it but I will still need to treat the sinus infection with elderberry until it clears up. It is encouraging to know that we have elderberry growing on our farm; fresh berries work so much better than dried.

The rains have finally come back to the area. We are officially out of drought in Montague County. Amarillo is a little different. I was listening to a report yesterday when the meteorologist said that June and July were the months of heaviest rainfall in this area. I found that news shocking until I thought back to my childhood and realized that we had a shower at about 4 p.m. almost every afternoon through the summers. We’ll see how it works out. We will take any and all precipitation.

Speaking of which, it is raining now in Borger and snow is predicted overnight; up to two inches again. It is actually better than rain because of how much it soaks in and saturates this hard ground here. It is like “time-release” rain. Everyone I talk to here is excited about it.

The seasons here are less distinguishable than in West Virginia and New Jersey. Warm winter days hint of Spring long before the season really changes. Last week the temperatures were in the seventies. People were out in shorts and sandals. Today the temperatures drop, the snow comes again and coats will in vogue. It is harder to tell where we are on the seasonal scale. One older gentleman I work with told me he knows when spring has arrived by watching the mesquite. “When it buds”, he told me “winter is really over.” Now we have a gauge for this season.

For this weekend, it is still winter.

The company we keep

As I was listening to a portion of a monologue by Glenn Beck I was impressed by the honesty and humility by which he expressed himself concerning something quite ordinary. He was talking about a moment in his past after he had gotten his life on track. He had met a woman he was interested in and asked if she would consider marrying someone like him. She told him he lacked the spiritual qualities she was looking for in a husband, so her answer was that she would not.


Like most of us, he used every argument to prove her wrong but her main contention was that he was not going to church, not serving the lord in the smallest ways, not expressing his faith in a meaningful way. He told her, "I talk to my kids about God. We're spiritual!" So to prove the point he sat down with his two young daughters and asked them what words expressed what their life was all about. The words like fun, colorful, happy, etc came out in the discussion but he had to lead the conversation pretty directly to elicit any expression of spiritual character. “The next Sunday” he said, “we went to church.”

While I may not totally agree with his faith, I agree with the sentiment of faith having to be taught; actively, consistently, conscientiously, verbally taught. It is not adopted, understood or relevant absent a living practice in our daily lives. I have often told our children that, with reference to things not conducive to faith, what Mama and I do in moderation, our children will do to excess. If we relax our standards in any area, our children will fail to adopt that standard and its intent in ordering life toward a practice of faith.

Mama and I have not been perfect, but we have at least kept our children surrounded by people practicing their faith. We have been able to keep them in churches where a strong expression of living faith was evident in the lives of those we worshiped with. I believe it has made a difference and I commend Nate and Cori for their diligence in doing the same. Aesop was right, we are judged by the company we keep because we are influenced greatly by the company we keep.

Grandpa’s trip to West Virginia is almost official at this point. It has been off again on again for a couple days but I am in favor of the trip for a variety of reasons and realize the cost is not recoverable in the strictest sense of economics. I do think it is justified. I hope it will be profitable. I pray Grandpa will be ready. Mama feels a sense of urgency to be at the farm in Grandpa’s absence but Victoria and Grandma feel otherwise.

We are planning on being there the last week of February so everyone will have to hold the fort for the time Grandpa travels and shops.

High finance, travel, intrusion?

Mama, Grandpa, Victoria and I were concocting a plan to buy a large trailer in West Virginia and haul hay from there to Texas. Norman found a 40 foot gooseneck trailer which would haul 400 bales of quality WVa hay which could be sold at a substantial profit here in Texas. While we considered the idea that trailer sold but another came up for sale. It is 24 feet long; half the capacity. At $1000 per round trip the idea quickly faded away.


Victoria was seeing the money at the end not fully realizing the expense it would take to get there. Even with the large trailer, it was a break even proposition after three round trips. Any less than three trips and there was significant money lost. Bear in mind that we would have had our own store of hay, the trailer and equipment purchased, but at no real financial gain for the wear and tear on Grandpa over the course of 6000 plus miles traveled. Once again, what sounded good in theory did not play out the same way on paper and could have been much worse in practice.

As it turns out, Grandpa is talking about going to WVa this weekend to get some hay and equipment as well as retrieve a lot of items we could use on the farm which are in storage in Point Pleasant. No, the trip will not generate any cash; it will consume it, but we can use the items here and cancel the need for storage there. If Grandpa can find the right sprayer, my plan for him and Victoria to earn money on the side while building our Amsoil business will come to fruition.

There is some urgency to get some good quality, less expensive hay since the vet suggested to Victoria and Mama that the horse – named Sweet Rain – needs about one half bale of hay per day to build her back up; at $12 per bale that equates to $200 per month which is not in our budget at the moment. Such are the pleasure of equine ownership. I do know that on a diet of hay her poop will not be nearly as attractive for the dogs to eat as it is when she is eating sweet feed. Between the two Great Pyrenees and Victoria’s little dog, there is not much manure to clean up.

After some discussion between Nate and Cori, it had been decided that now is not a good time for them to travel over to the farm. Vacations are great but they are a huge expense. I calculated that I have spent between $70,000 and $80,000 on vacations and travel since Mama and I have been married, averaging around $2500 per year (which is a very conservative estimate). That’s a lot of money and the day of being able to afford it may rapidly be coming to an end. I have no regrets. We have great memories of times on the road and to not have made those trips would have been foolish since the money would have been spent elsewhere with less lasting results.

My children are looking forward to tax time this year since they each expect a sizable return. But as it turns out, I am among the rich this year and will be called upon to pay my fair share. I am hoping to get by with less than $14,000 over and above what has been taken out through the year, but that is something our accountant will have to tell us.

For those of you who are going to get most if not all of your federal taxes back this year, consider the fact that someone will have to pay for all the things that are being given away by our government. This year, it will be my turn to help.

Speaking of our benevolent government, I heard a story on the news yesterday of a five year old child who had her lunch confiscated by government officials as she sat to eat it in the school cafeteria; talk about traumatizing! It was deemed to fall short of the USDA guidelines for nutrition. She had a turkey sandwich, a bag of chips, an apple and a banana. Her parents were subsequently sent a bill for the “required intervention”.

Lest you think that that is an isolated case a caller told of a letter he received from the school principal alerting him that chocolate pudding would no longer be acceptable for inclusion in his three year old daughter’s lunch according to USDA guidelines. She is in the Head Start program.

It is one of the many things I am thrilled to be supporting with my tax dollars.

Too busy, off sick, early Valentine’s Day

Friday I left work at about 1 p.m. so I would have some time on the farm for the week. It had been a very busy time in the office and I probably only spent a half hour per day on the farm up to that point. On the way through Bowie I noticed that some of the vendors were setting up for Trade Days which is officially on Saturday. I got Mama up from her nap and she and Victoria and I went to see who was there.


I was especially interested in getting some trees but was worried about leaving them for Grandpa and Victoria to plant on their own since Mama and I had to leave early on Saturday. As it turned out, the tree man was there and we were able to get ten trees fro $18 each. Since I had set aside $200 we also got three thornless blackberries to spend all the money on fruit bearing plants.

We had to go home and get Grandpa and the truck so we could load them up and get them to the farm. The weather was pretty chilly that afternoon but it was supposed to get into the twenties overnight so we went ahead and planted all the trees and blackberries as soon as we got to the farm. That ground is so easy to work we were done pretty quickly. It was a real “Praise the Lord” moment.

I slept all the way to 7:30 on Saturday morning. When I checked the temperature, the thermometer read 22 degrees. Even though all the trees were in the ground and safe from danger, we had not prepared the well house for temperatures that low. It was Sunday afternoon before Grandpa got it thawed out. Thankfully no lines were broken and the temperatures are not supposed to be that cold again for quite a while. Of course, that is subject to change.

We had kept Grandpa so busy looking at equipment and picking up the horse that Saturday afternoon was the first time he really looked over the pigs that had been delivered earlier in the week. (He had to stay in to rest his head and eyes after retrieving the horse.) He is certain we will do alright with the pigs for butchering purposes and they have calmed down with the proper feed. Now we just need to fatten them up for the intended purpose. We will talk about breeder pigs much later in the year.

Sunday morning I woke up with a headache and as soon as I moved my head the room started spinning. Unlike Saturday morning, it took over a minute for the sensation to go away. I got up unsteadily and quickly lay back down. It took most of the day to get my equilibrium back. Mama and I missed church for both services that day. It has been a long time since that happened. Since we were out of town last Sunday, it seems like a really long time since we have been to our church.

I took off work on Monday to see the doctor. I really hate missing work, but I am tethered to my job by a smart phone so I did not get too far behind on emails. I just did not answer too many of them. Today I will have to catch up. The doctor did not tell me anything out of the ordinary. In an otherwise healthy person, dizziness is generally the result of an inner ear problem. The sinus issues I have been battling for several weeks probably caused the issue so I got some antibiotics to clear it up.

I am guessing that the time I spent planting trees, bent over using a short spade shovel to dig and clean out the holes probably pushed the congestion issue to the point of requiring more attention on my part. Staying on the verge of sleep depravity does not help the healing process, but such is the life we lead.

Even though I was not feeling well yesterday, I got to spend the day with Mama. It was our Valentine’s Day. Today she goes to the dentist so we had lunch together yesterday rather than today.

I’m pretty sure she knows she is my Valentine.

Yes, a horse, and pigs, too. Planting for the future

Yes, we did it. Well, Grandpa, Mama and Victoria did it. Mama got a call yesterday from the lady with the horse. She had gotten so many calls that she needed to see some action. Friday was not going to do. So Mama, Grandpa and Victoria went yesterday to get the horse. It really worked out better for Victoria who has to work today and would not have been able to make the trip had it not been yesterday.


They borrowed a trailer from a friend of a friend but Grandpa had to buy a magnetic trailer light kit to adapt it to the truck. It was definitely rigged up West Virginia style but it worked and it took far less time than some other retrofits would have taken. Mama said the horse, who my grandkids named Rain after a similar looking horse on the Disney movie “Spirit”, loaded easily. She was not so quick to get off of the trailer in the dark when they arrived at the farm. We did get her off and she immediately found the hay that had been set out for her. My surprise is that she was larger than I had envisioned. She is a pretty good looking horse but she will need some care to overcome the neglect she has suffered; for $275, it was probably a good deal.

While the trio was out getting the horse, the pigs were delivered. They are wild as a buck, vicious toward each other and generally not much fun yet. Grandpa thinks they have been getting the wrong type of feed and our first order of business is to get them on a proper diet. Hopefully, that will calm them down. They are not frightening or dangerous, just very skittish. They are very nice looking pig and will fill our freezer nicely come summer. There is a third on the way. We may sell him to pay for the butchering costs of the other two. We’ll see.

The three burrows watched all the events of yesterday with a sort of distant curiosity while the Pyrenees pups nearly beat apart the enclosure we have them in. They are not used to being left out of the mix nor are they used to any activity after dark. Now with all the grunts, barks, brays, neighs, clucks and crowing, we have a noisy farm. I do not know why anyone called farm living a quiet or a simple life. It is turning out to be neither. It is however, quite fulfilling. Growing plants and seeing baby animals born, perpetuating life is rewarding at a primal level.

Hopefully, tomorrow we will be able to buy some fruit trees to plant on the farm. There is a vendor at Trade Days that sells acclimated fruit and nut trees for only $21 each. I have set aside enough money to buy ten to start our orchard and pecan grove. I have a five year plan for its development and eventual harvest. So far all of the plants we have put out – blueberries, blackberries and grapes – are doing very will.

All the native blackberries are going to be thinned out and transplanted to facilitate their harvest in a few months. Since there are ten to twelve thick stands of the native plants, it will require some work. I will, unfortunately, not be able to participate in very much of it. So far I have provided all of the money and most of the vision while Grandpa had fleshed out the vision and provided most of the work. With Victoria added to the mix, the pace will pick up considerably even if she does have a part time job.

Cori, Nate and the kids are talking about coming over at the end of the month (another month gone). By that time I hope we can have the kids plant some seeds or seedlings in the garden. I hope to buy some more trees while they are here so they can help plant them also. Then, every year they visit, they can check on the progress of their tree. Once a season we can take them a box or bag of produce from their tree. Maybe it will root them in our little farm.

Mama and I will have to head home early tomorrow in order to make it to a dinner I am supposed to attend for ConocoPhillips. We will get to take the bookcase back with us and set it up in the house there. That will be a great addition to our permanent furniture. I am thinking about taking the desk we were given also, but I have not tried to get it into the little van. That may happen tonight.

I did not get to build the cover I wanted over the log kit we have sitting on the farm. The tarps that covered them have been tattered by the fierce winds we have here. It is nearly impossible to keep the sun and weather off of them; hence the shelter. There are not enough hours in the day to do it all. All an all, it has been a great week.

A horse? Having a job

Yesterday as I was quickly looking through the ads on Craig’s List I came across one for a horse that caught my eye. It advertized a 4 year old mare that was due to foal within the next sixty days. The package deal was for $275. The mare was said to be gentle but not much more than halter trained. I emailed the ad to myself so I could show it to Mama and Victoria. That turned out to be a real hit.


I actually got to tell Grandpa and Grandma first since Mama, Victoria and both house dogs were stretched out sleeping as though they had been up all night – or had actually done something that morning. Grandpa was pretty excited about the idea. Grandma was ecstatic and as soon as either Victoria or Mama walked in the bedroom where she too was laying down, she told them what little she knew of the news.

Victoria raced to her room, looked it up on her computer and saw the pictures posted with the ad, ran to get Mama who immediately called the number. Before she got off the phone with the lady selling the mare she had arranged for a Friday pickup of the animal. After Mama confirmed with Grandpa that he would make the target date she called Cori to tell her the news. So Cori opened my email account and showed the pictures to Mykenzie and Grant. So it’s a done deal now. I’ll be the worst Papi in the world if I do not go through with this. I guess I started it so I might as well finish it.

Grandma has been after Victoria to quit her job so she can work full time with Grandpa. Mind you, Grandpa does need some help but he has no money, nor by virtue of that does Grandma, with which to pay Victoria as she insists she can. Her idea is that Grandpa and Victoria buy a sprayer and spray AgGrand products on fields for hire. They have no leads, no contracts for work, no sprayer and no AgGrand products to use for the proposed business. Great idea. Poor timing.

I interrupted the lecture and told Victoria that it is rarely a good idea to quit a job without the certainty of having another job to go to. I reminded Grandma that Victoria has obligations (Faith Promise) and bills that she still has to pay and to the best of my knowledge, earning money through hours worked is the most reasonable path to meeting those obligations for the moment.

The argument did not garner total buy in from Grandma but it did take some of the intensity of the discussion off of Victoria. I am fairly certain that Grandpa, who was not in the room at the time, would agree with me. Working for a living is still the number one way to meet financial obligations. I did not say it was the best way, but it is the most certain for Victoria at this point in her life. Until the farm and any side business is producing enough income to provide more income than hours worked for a company, I would recommend for her to continue reporting for her scheduled hours.

She, like me, will miss the trip to get the horse transported to her new home. However, she, unlike me, will probably be there for the birth of the foal in April. Almost no thought is given to the fact that I get to spend very little time in the enterprise I am funding, I am pretty certain no one would encourage me to walk away from the job I have to spend more time on the farm. Mama keeps telling me that it is harder and harder to return to Amarillo after a week in Bowie and I am sure it is, but I have not had the chance to form the attachments that she is forming or invest myself emotionally as she has.

My four or five hours a week on the farm has not allowed me that attachment yet. I am still occupied with the day to day operation of the venture while working fifty to sixty hours per week at my day job. My turn will come, but it may be several years away and even then I will have to work some type of full time job to meet all the financial needs we will still have.

My hope is that by that time our full time focus will be our herb shop.

Farm noises, fishing expedition, co-oping

When I did get to spend a couple hours one evening on the farm I was amazed about how much noise it generates. We have roosters in two locations in addition to the older rooster we have with the hens. There was a sort of competition going on between at least five roosters that evening. They were crowing and answering each other in longer and longer responses. I thought eventually they would all resign themselves to assign a winner, but the competition lasted until dark.


The donkeys we are now caring for also added to the mix of noises. They do not yet feel at home but they are beginning to express themselves none the less. Since there are three of them I expect the volume to go up as they acclimate, but for the moment it is a quiet, “I’m here too,” sort of braying. We are hoping to breed them because we think we may have a market open for them in West Virginia. Here, I was told last night by a friend, they just shoot the offspring because they cannot give them away.

Finally, the four dogs added to the mix. There are dogs at almost every house and farm nearby so ours were not the only ones in that mix. They all seemed to be stirred up by the approaching night and the sounds of the coyotes nearby. Although skunks do not make much noise, they certainly added their unique flavor to the evening. Tomorrow we will add pigs to the mix. That should round out the choir for the near term.

With the large tank filling up and the turtle population being thinned out we are anxious to see if there are any remaining fish in the tank. Last night after we met with some friends to look at equipment he had that we can borrow, Mama and I stopped at Wal-Mart to get a few things and I picked up some catfish bait. I am hoping Grandpa and Victoria will drop a baited line in the water and see if anything responds. I am still planning on stocking the tanks, but having mature fish there will change how I prepare for the introduction of small fish.

Catfish in probably not the best fish to have populating the waters on our farm, but in tough times they are edible and they can survive and reproduce on almost nothing. That is one reason they have been a Southern staple for generations. I suppose we could eat the turtle and gophers if times got really bad, but we will start with the more traditional fare and work our way down the food chain as the need arises.

Finding equipment is becoming problematic so I have asked around about the possibility of borrowing what we may need for once a year or once in a couple years use. One of the ladies that reports to me directed me to her husband. He has some equipment that is in surprisingly good shape for the use it has seen over the years. Some of it would come in really handy in very specific situations if Grandpa would agree to borrow it when needed. It would save us from having to buy items that would sit for months if not years after their initial use. I am hoping that works out for us. He seems genuinely sincere about allowing us to use it as needed.

I got the sense that Grandpa really liked the couple. Grandma made no bones about it. She really liked them. They are good people and I hope will be good friends over the years. I get the impression that they do not have anyone to help them when things get tight even though they both have family in the area. But I know how Grandpa dislikes borrowing things, so we sill have to see how it all works out.

I think we would do fine, but I tend to be optimistic.

Mama and the tractor, hunting, bon fires

I took off from work as soon as I could yesterday. I will not have that opportunity for the next several days due to late afternoon meetings. I had to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to pick up Mama since Grandpa had dropped her off at lunchtime so she could take a nap. He was still out working on the farm. Her excuse, “I’m just not used to this much hard work.” My reply, “a-waaah, a-waaah.” Wait until the real work comes!


When we got to the farm Grandpa was brush hogging the dam area around the large tank. Mama and I took the dogs over and she swapped out with him. He had outlined several areas below the dam to be cut and Mama went to work. It was about 4:30 p.m. I headed back to the car to get the .22 rifle I had brought. I had attached a laser sight on the rifle and I was anxious to try it out. We have a lot of turtles in the tanks and I am trying to kill as many as possible before we introduce some fish later this year. Turns out the sight works very well in low light. Mama kept mowing until almost dark even though she was freezing. I had asked her to take her coat with her as we walked from the cars over to where Grandpa was working, but she did not feel she needed it. I suppose we are getting acclimated to the south since we are “freezing” when the ambient temperature is only 52 degrees. Last night it got all the way down to 40 degrees; fortunately there was very little wind. Mama refused to stop until the portion she had started was complete. Fortunately it was a small area so it only took about an hour and one half. I shot turtles in the tank while she continued her assignment. I am pretty sure I killed four. I shot at two others but I am not so sure I hit them. Something I found interesting is that Dodger, who darts away at the slightest movement and sound, stayed right with me as I shot turtles. He really seemed to like hunting. Stange, since the other dogs cleared out at the first shot. I’ll have to see how he reacts when I use a shotgun.

After we got the tractor put away and got Mama warmed up, Grandpa and I had to go to a nearby store to get matches. We had plenty of wood, some gas for an accelerant, but nothing to start the fire. Mama stayed with the dogs while we went. We started the fire as soon as we got back. It was well past dark by then.

The cool evening, the warm fire, the peaceful sounds of the country all added up to a very relaxing evening. Victoria was scheduled to get off at 7:30 p.m. and she and Grandma were going to come out to enjoy the fire once she got home. I think I passed them as they were getting off Highway 59 to make the turn to go to the farm. I did not have the energy to stay late this early in the week.

There will be plenty of scrap wood to burn for the next several years as we clear the fences and repair the little house. With the lumber scrapped from the little house, burning it is the very best way to get rid of it. It always amazes me how little is left when it is burned. We started with a sizable pile of wood and scrap trash and what was left will barely fill a trash bag. The rest disappears into thin air – literally.

As we watched, we saw so many colors in the fire. One which particularly caught our eye was a purple hue we suppose came from the old garden hoses we had put in the pile. The reds, oranges and blues are also beautiful, but that purple was unusual.

I think of all the wood we are getting and will continue to get out of the little house. One day not to long ago, it was beautiful flooring and the best wall material the builder could afford. Now neglect and decay has turned much of it into useless scrap whose only redeeming value is for us to sit back and watch it burn.

I hope we can salvage some of it. The rest we will enjoy in our bon fires.

Freebies, fruits of labors

Mama and I traveled to Bowie Friday evening after I got off work. We ended up getting there after 9 p.m. due to getting out of Amarillo a little later than I had hoped. With my work schedule it is difficult to get my hours set in the evening. Most of my peers work a schedule that takes then until 5 p.m. or later to finish. I can be finished as early as 3 p.m. but I do not always leave after eight and one half hours. It is more like ten or eleven hour per day most days.


Anyway, Friday night was a short night even though we got to sleep in until about 7 a.m. We left for Sarah and Fabians at 9 a.m. and arrived in Rogers at a little after noon. Sarah gave us some pretty nice pieces of furniture – my favorite being a set of antique bookshelves. I have always wanted a set like we were given so it was worth the trip for that alone. She also gave us a nice oak hall tree and an old wooden desk. It pretty much filled up the back of the truck.

Mama and I were worn out Saturday night when we got home. On the way back through Fort Worth we stopped at Cabela’s so Mama could find a replacement for the nerf cannon we bought for Grant for Christmas, which broke that afternoon. We have been unsuccessful to date but on Saturday night she actually got one. She was pleased.

Yesterday continued the blessings. We had a great service at church and were scheduled to meet some friends to help unload three burros at the farm at about 2 p.m. When we got to the farm they were already in their new home – and they are beautiful. The three are pure bred Jerusalem Donkeys. They are healthy looking jennies. Victoria named them right away. Of course, she is the only one who is certain which one goes with which name, but at least one of us is sure. They have not been in human company for some time but I am sure Victoria will have little trouble calming them down. Between her and Grandpa they will be pets in a couple months. I am now in search of a jack to run with them.

Soon after we saw the donkeys we went to the farm of the people who had delivered them to us and looked at several pigs he had offered for sale. We ended up buying three pigs for $25 each. We will get them to the farm on Thursday with plans to feed them out and butcher them in May or June; two for us, one for sale. He has a new litter of Hamp piglets that we will be able to buy from some time in July or August. We would prefer to raise them ourselves, but he needs them for show pigs for his grandkids. So until his granddaughter takes her pick from the litter, he will not sell any of them. We will have our hands full with the three we bought.

The large tank on the farm is quickly filling up and a small flock of Mallard ducks has taken up residence there. It is a beautiful sight to see them take flight as we walk over to the tank. It is a pity to scare them off every time we go to check the tank, but they always come back and settle in. In the fall we are going to stock the tank with catfish and brim. We have a lot of turtles to kill before that happens.

Grandpa has begun cutting off the sixty or so trees from the very large dam that defines the tanks boundaries and we are going to lay a couple over into the water for some habitat for smaller fish. It will give them shelter from predators as they multiple – hopefully. In the next couple years we should get some good fishing out of the efforts.

Once the dam is cleared we are going to plant it in wild flowers. We have been saving the seeds for about a year and soon it will be time to sow them. All of the plants we have planted on the farm are doing well – blueberries, blackberries, and grapes. None of the infant plants will produce this year. But we expect great harvests in the next couple years. We are going to buy some fruit trees this weekend at Trade Days in Bowie – apples, peaches and pecans to start the orchards.

It’s all pretty exciting.

Annie Oakley, visiting

Mama and Grandma have not been interested in firearms in all the years I have known them, but with the unique situations we may experience on the farm I have been trying to spark enough of an interest to at least know how to properly operate the 22 caliber rifle and the 410 shotgun. Every time I bring up the subject grandma reverts back to a very often repeated story of when they lived on the farm in West Virginia and some drunks were looting a small building they had near the house.


She saw what was happening and went to get the only the only rifle she knew of in the house. When she was getting ready to open the door she prayed and then walked through the front door into the open where the men could see her. Of course, they high tailed it out of there when she showed up with a weapon. As she tells it, the rifle was not loaded but they could not have known that and she says, for all they knew, she was Annie Oakley.”

Well, Mama and I watched a documentary on Annie Oakley several nights ago and it did finally spark Mama’s interest in learning to shoot properly. I would feel much better having rifles and pistols in the house if Mama and Victoria knew how to use them properly and safely. Maybe this coming week on the farm we will get a chance to start the process. I have to credit Nate with helping me reason through the choice of a 22 caliber rifle and pistol. As he puts it, a person will only shoot what they are comfortable with and they will only be comfortable as they practice. If ammo is prohibitively expensive, a person will not practice, ergo, they will not be comfortable with that particular firearm; with the price of 22 caliber ammo where it is, it makes sense.

My thanks to the real Annie Oakley.

We will be heading to Bowie this afternoon with a car full of stuff. It seems every trip we make in that direction we have a full load. Most of the load is for the farm. Some is for Victoria. Very little is for me and Mama. But that is the story of our life – and it is a good story.

Last night we went to visit a lady in our church whose husband does not come with her. She has been after me and Mama for some time to come over and meet her husband. We had a wonderful time over the two or so hours we spent in their home and I think Mama has found a friend if nothing else. She one of the daughters of a retired missionary couple who spent their life in Korea. We did not get to meet the father. He died just a week after we moved to Amarillo and started attending Central Baptist, but we dearly love the mother, who is now in her mid eighties. The daughter, it turns out, is also a delight to be around. Her husband, although stiff, was very hospitable.

Those types of visits are not common anymore but I have a strong suspicion they will make a comeback over the next decade. We have substituted such time with friends with TV, movies at home, and eating out. We as a culture prefer the comfort of private evenings and wasted hours watching our favorite shows. It is never fully comfortable to be in someone else’s house, nor to have people visit in our homes, but once the effort is made, there always seems to be a sense of having spent an evening wisely; of having done something useful and rewarding.

We really need more of that.

Prospering

Last night our pastor finished a sermon he had begun on Sunday night about putting the pieces together to prosper scripturally; not prosper in the sense of becoming wealthy, but rather to have enough to meet all your needs with some left over. I like that definition. Most of us are not going to be wealthy, but to have all our needs met with some left over would lead to a pretty good life.


Some points were; live according to the Bible, pay your tithe (10% of the gross income), give more than your tithe ( to missions) and be generous – especially to the poor among us. He clarified that the poor are those who still lack after their best efforts, not those who are lazy, or who have thrown their lives away to addictive habits.

So I can safely say that Mama and I are prospering. All the left over after our tithe and faith promise is given is being spent on the farm, on the children, on the grandchildren, etc. but if we were not prospering we could not do what we are able to do. I would say we have a good life; not struggle free, but a good live.

Heavy rain is forecast for today and tomorrow in Bowie, so all deliveries to the farm have been postponed until either Saturday or next week. Personally, I vote for next week since we are planning on being there and it would be great fun for Mama to participate in. I, of course, will be working. Somebody has to work.

Saturday would be okay, but Mama and I are going to Rogers, TX to get some things from my sister, Sarah. We are hoping to take Grandpa along with us but any delivery of animals will necessitate his staying behind. If Sarah’s in-laws show an interest, we will be buying some guineas from them. Hopefully, the more mature guineas will fare better on the farm. Our survival rate for that particular breed of fowl is not good: Farm 0, Predators 4.

No one is complaining about the rain. We are still several dozen inches behind from the three or four previous years. With the creeks flowing again and the tanks overflowing, there is a tenuous hope for an end to the shortages we have been enduring in Texas – of water, crops and livestock. Grandpa is getting ready to broadcast some grass seed in one of the upper meadows once the nights begin to stay above 40 degrees. The ground is wet enough to make the idea practical. The prospect of even more moisture coming adds to that practicality. There are no guarantees, but it is a good bet.

Capitalizing on that idea, Grandpa and Victoria are starting some seeds in the back room of the little farm house. We hope to put the plants in the ground in early April, after the last threat of frost. With the weather as it is, it is difficult to tell if normal weather patterns will prevail, but it is the best information we have to go on at this point. We have a big garden planned.

I asked Mama to keep an eye out for canning supplies. If we can produce the vegetables and fruits we are hoping to produce we will need several hundred jars and another freezer. I have not given that number to Grandma and Mama yet for fear they will faint before we get started. If we bite it off in little batches, we can do quite a lot. We will count the total this fall and see how close I was in my prediction.

I guess we should consider that prospering.

Cell phones, itchy eyes, water needs

Those of you who know me know that I am not a lover of cell phones. I am less inclined to fawn over the outrageous contracts that accompany their use. I realize my children, who are not teenagers anymore (except for Chase), probable do not even remember a world without cell phones. A world in which people talked to each other face to face, or on home phones. A world where we wrote letters to each other – on paper.


Now we text and IM. We email. We post our lives on Facebook. We get aggravated when someone does not respond in a timely manner; generally less than an hour. Now we are at a stage in this present world that Mama and I cannot even get a land line activated to the farm house in Bowie. No matter who we call, there is no service available so we are stuck with cell phones and the inherent lack of privacy they bring to our lives.

If you have ever watched the show, “Person of Interest”, you will know what I am referring to. It is more fact than fiction. In an episode of GBTV that I recently watched, Glenn Beck asked his audience if anyone had a regular cell phone, one on which the battery could be pulled out. Out of thirty or so in attendance on the set, only one person did. All the rest had iPhones. The point being, the only way to truly shut down a cell phone – and the ability to track a person as well as listen in on conversations even when turned off – is to pull the battery out of the device. Can you remove the battery from your iPhone?

That does not alarm me. It annoys me that I am trapped in the system; forced to go along. A case in point; Last night we were trying to cancel out some of the cell phone lines I have been paying for months. One line is being used by either Grandma or Grandpa. The other line they have is on a contract that Victoria and Brittany pay separately. In trying to reduce my expenses as much as possible, cancelling the lines made sense to me. The fuss we ran into surrounded the fact that the line we are keeping active is with us in Amarillo which – horror of horrors – will leave Grandma, Grandpa and Victoria sharing only one cell phone until Friday evening. They will even have to drive four miles to the home of the person who is delivering the donkeys and pigs to inform him of the disruption of service to the number they gave him to call them on when he is on the way to the farm.

Cut off from the world, their civil liberties violated, they will have to drive down the road, knock on a door and talk to someone face to face. Can you imagine the embarrassment? Shame on me for being so stingy. The one who fussed at Mama the most when she called to tell them what we were doing: Victoria.

Mama has been suffering with severely itchy, inflamed eyes for the past day or so. It looks to be more like allergies than anything else, but we are watching carefully to make sure it is not pink eye. She seems to feel it is because of the dust from the chicken coop getting in her eyes last weekend, but I really do not know.

My eyes were itching for a couple days after disturbing the termite treated dirt under the floors of the little farm house; at least, that’s what I attribute it to. Living where the normal wind speed exceeds fifteen miles per hour, it makes such diagnosis difficult to assign with any surety.

Mama is quickly filling up the little van with purchases for the farm. With the influx of livestock, the needs have changed quite a bit and the need for water has dramatically increased. Having the well operating was a great first step. Now we need to get the water to the animals – the pig building and the calf lot particularly. Grandpa is planning on housing the donkeys in the calf lot until he can acclimate them and water will need to be delivered to them. I am making the purchases and the plans to do so since filling a 50 gallon tank with gallon jugs seems impractical and inefficient.

Once the donkeys are allowed to roam freely, they will have access to several tanks of water. But for now, we would like to get to know them and vice versa.