Angry calves, job openings, work assignments, building

Grandpa is weaning some of the calves. I am not sure what his criterion is for the timing but I trust his judgment. As I got out of the car last night at the house, two of the calves which were not fed their usual evening bottle were bawling pretty loudly. They watched my every move as I got my things out of the car and walked toward the mobile home. When it was obvious to them that I was not headed their direction they really put the volume to their complaints. Mama was feeling sorry for them. Grandpa was telling them to get over it.


I actually got to talk to the manager of the licensing group yesterday morning. I asked about the need for relocation to Houston and was told that that was not a requirement for the job. Every candidate selected would be required to stay in Houston for three to six months to learn the process prior to deployment but each was being allowed to maintain their current home base.

I was also told that the assignments were two weeks on and two weeks off while on assignment. I am not sure if the two weeks off included a trip home or not. That will come up as I explore the job more. I have all year to get it done. I was told the job would remain open all this year as they bring people on board. I will be available in February – or earlier. I will be talking with by boss today or tomorrow.

Meanwhile I am already looking to July and August this year for project completion dates. It is a puzzle I have to work out with the offices we have scattered in the Texas panhandle and it has a hard stop date of August 31. In order to get some of the things done to make it happen, the groundwork has to be set by the end of this month. If it did not have a direct and negatively perceived impact on so many people’s lives, it would be a more interesting project.

As much as I had hoped to get some little things done every evening on the apartment, I have not been able to accomplish that. With my day starting at 5 am and getting home about twelve hours later, I have not had very much energy to work in the evening. In these winter months I have less than an hour of daylight to work after I am home and it takes about twenty minutes to get set up to do the work I need to do. With an additional twenty minutes to put away, it does not leave much time; besides it has been unpleasantly wet and cold outside.

So, everything waits until the weekend – Saturday specifically. I usually get started after the morning feeding and work most of the day. So far that has proved productive. I have gotten past most of the very difficult cutting and fitting for the roof and am moving to the less complicated parts of assembling the structure. When we get the metal for the roof it will take less than a day to attach. At that point, I will feel like I have conquered a giant. There will still be a lot of work to do, but the roof is the key to any forward progress inside the structure.

Since I hurt my back a couple of weeks ago I have not ever gotten past the pain. Some days are more tolerable than others, but the pain is always a restriction to the activity I need to be able to do. I grunt and groan a lot while I am maneuvering around the ladders and scaffolding; partly because I am getting older but mostly because I hurt as I move about – especially bending.

All in all, it is a blessing that I am going slowly because it gives me a chance to catch my mistakes before we get too far along. For example, I let a friend who is doing our rough in plumbing run the water lines for the kitchen sink right where I was planning on putting a window…oops! It is not difficult to redo since we are running PEX. It is just an example of not paying attention. Cutting in the windows will follow getting the roof installed. Most of it is part of my plan. I just have to amend it now and again because I forgot something or Mama makes another request.

I am working by myself for the most part so I am pretty pleased with the overall progress. I am still, at times, a little overwhelmed by the scope of the work yet to be done.