Banking and buying, clean up crew, weather, news

I have to admit that when the local bank turned down our offer on the Flex I was a little relieved. What we are asking is to buy the Flex as well as a ’97 Ford F150. That way we would have a second vehicle without taking out a second loan. I do not know if it is a good thing or not but our bank in Amarillo is still looking at the numbers to see what they can do. So the deal is not dead yet. Banks are unwilling to finance the older vehicle. Grandma really hopes it goes through because she loved the seats in the Flex.


Mama was just finished cleaning out the calf stalls when I got home yesterday. Grandpa has relegated that job to her so he can work on other things. It is a smelly job, especially when the calves have the scours (diarrhea) and it has to be done on a fairly routine basis. I have not been available to participate so far, but I am sure my time is coming. It does make a huge difference in the looks and the smell of the calf barn. When we went down to feed yesterday evening, Grandma was very thankful.

Yesterday that other thing that Grandpa had to work on was the equipment shed. When we got through with dinner I went out with him and we put the metal on the roof. I did not take the time to put in every screw but we did get every piece of metal up and lined out – minimally attached. He will finish today getting every screw in place and we will be done. It looks good.

As we were working on the roof panels Victoria came outside and announced that severe storms were on the way; damaging wings and seventy mile per hour winds. As I looked at the sky, as far as I could see, there was nothing to indicate any such event was near, but we took the precaution of securing the edges of the roof. Mama came out to confirm the forecast but I was not convinced.

I looked up the local weather on the internet and could not find anything to indicate what they were all convinced was eminent. They were getting their information off of a screen saver I got on ROKU. It broadcasts the local conditions as well as many other weather related items. I am not sure where that information was coming from but it could not have been more wrong. The weather continued as forecast by the internet; 60 degrees for the low temperature and winds, SSE at 4 miles per hour.

I do have some lingering concerns about the equipment shed. I do not think we have taken adequate precautions to make sure the posts supporting the roof are sunk deep enough in the ground. I am sure they are not. The other day I took the time to drive some metal rods into the ground next to each pole and secured the rods to the poles in the hopes of making them less likely to be pulled from the ground in a strong wind.

I learned my lesson when the cover I put over the log package was ripped up, shredded and thrown across the field. I had taken the time to sink those poles as far as the dry, compacted ground would allow at the time. The same wind tore the roofs off of buildings less exposed than the cover I built, so I did not feel the loss was from a lack of attention to detail in the construction, but it still taught me a lesson and I am still just a tiny bit worried.

Mama has not communicated any information from our children and I am sure some of them have called to relate events in their lives; somehow I am left out of that loop. I do know Becky has three pups. She described the color of one of them as blue. I am not sure what that would look like but I have read naptime books that had blue dogs in them.

I am waiting for a picture to confirm my imagination.