Choices, livestock sales, money equals materials, Victoria

It almost always seems that when a decision is eminent the waters get muddied by complications that, although neither unpleasant nor unexpected, are poorly timed. Case in point, after interviewing for the Licensing job and talking myself into fully considering a relocation to Australia, the Training Coordinator job is about to be posted. Included in that are all the incidentals I requested be appropriated for that position.


There are pros and cons to each one and pray as I might, there is no clear direction either way. One is God’s perfect will. The other is His permissive will. The choice I make will have profound effects on the next five years of our lives. Looking down the road “as though through a glass darkly” I cannot see that any of those effects are bad. They are, however, very different pathways. Please pray I will choose wisely. For a Christian, the most difficult decisions are between better and best.

Mama must have been in the hay too much lately because her allergies are really flaring up. At her current rate of use she will go through a box of tissues in a couple of days. Grandma and I have been going behind her and collecting the spent, wadded up tissues from every flat surface where she has tried to make herself comfortable. Today she and Grandpa are supposed to go to a hog sale in Munster, TX. I hope she is feeling better for the festivities – and that she carried a trash bag with her. I will be a little bit surprised if we have hogs at the farm this evening, but not shocked.

Wednesday they (Grandpa and Mama) went to a cattle sale in Gainesville, TX to see how the sale was conducted and to get a better idea of how much we can expect to get for the calves we will take to that sale next month. Grandpa was pleased with what he saw. They talked with the marketers, the buyers, the owners and the state health inspectors.

Grandpa was given a box of one hundred ear tags that we must use to identify the calves we take to market. The inspector also gave him the tool required to put those tags in the ears of our calves. When asked if he owed the man anything for the tags and the tool, the man said, “Nah, don’t worry about it. Obama’s got plenty of money.” That’s a little scary, but at the moment it was helpful. What we have will probably last us for several years.

Next week we start spending the money I received in a bonus from my company. It will allow us to purchase the metal for the roof – long overdue – and the siding for the apartment and shop. I plan to pay off all our credit card debt and hope to have enough money left over to buy Mama some cloths. If not with this money, it will relieve enough of the constraints that have kept our money so tight for the last several months that I should be able to meet some of our more basic needs in the very near future; one of those being clothes for Mama.

Victoria has completed all the requisite paperwork to begin her Pharmacy Technician training with Wal-Mart. It looks like a very good opportunity for her. She is well liked by the group there in the Bowie Wal-Mart pharmacy and it is a transferable skill set.

I get all the indications that this is a good career choice.