Pray for Grandpa, good ground, unwanted assignments

Speculation is that Grandpa will be leaving West Virginia this morning. Be in prayer for him as he travels especially since the area he will be traveling through is forecast to have some very severe weather. I heard reports this morning of tornado warnings and watches for Tennessee and Virginia. Even in the early a.m. storms are developing that could spawn the “super cells” that commonly breed tornados.


Mama and I were on the property late yesterday evening and it was wonderful. The temperature was about 80 degrees and the winds were moderate ~ 20 mph. She had dinner for the two of us – braunschweiger sandwiches and tortilla chips. It may not sound like much but it was a very pleasant dinner after we got situated so the pups would not be licking at our food. It is hard to call them pups since, at six months, they are the size of the largest dogs we have ever owned.

Mama fed and watered while I was working on lining out some posts to build a cover for the logs that we are planning to build into our home. I do not know if we will be able to do it this year but I need to get the logs covered in a way that is more wind resistant. For the moment we are using tarps – now pretty well shredded – and tin roofing panels being help in place by discarded tires. Neither of the combined methods will suffice long term and since it is a considerable investment, I would like to do a better job of protecting it.

We did manage to get the holes laid out but I did not have the keys to the shop where the posthole diggers were stored so I used a regular shovel to begin the work which I hope to complete this evening. The ground on the farm is wonderful – easy to dig loamy soil with a fair amount of clay. It is more than I could have hoped for. I told Grandpa as we were planting trees several weeks ago, my mother would have done about anything for ground like this instead of the black clay she has wrestled with over the years.

We are seeing buds on all of the fruit trees, grape vines, berry bushes and various other plants we have put in the ground. Last night I looked at the native blackberry plants and they are opening to the coming spring also. I have several stands of elder berry around the farm that I will check on next month, but I am excited to have them. Victoria could really use some elder berry syrup right now. She will be in to see the doctor today at 10 a.m., by the way.

Even though I may go back to Amarillo in the middle of next week, Mama is insisting on staying so she can go to trade days next Saturday. I do not have to hurry back, but there is no urgency in my being here either and it is a slight interruption in the work I can do to have to sit in borrowed quarters. But my boss sees no particular downside to my being here. I will see today what I can schedule for next week to see if the extra time here would be justifiable – even if marginally.

In a meeting with my boss yesterday I was given two pretty big assignments as well as three monthly reports to fill. The monthly reports are on the budget for the entire asset and the responsibility to track the vehicle use within the asset. In our staff meeting yesterday, my boss announced that all personally assigned trucks not being used according to policy will be taken away and be set up as “pool” vehicles. That means about fifteen people lose their company vehicles immediately and as I track the usage, perhaps fifteen to twenty more will have their trucks taken away.

It is great to be assigned such important tasks.

Not!