I think we bought a car, apartment news, Dodger

Saturday was an interesting day. It was calm, atmospherically speaking, which is very unusual for our area but it was busy in every other way. Victoria has been combing the internet for a car the last week or so. In her quest, Grandpa suggested she look for a Ford 500. On Friday evening she found several in our area. Mama scheduled an appointment to look at one that Grandpa seemed particularly excited about. I think it is an ’07 with fairly low mileage.


My only focus on Saturday was working on the apartment so I started getting set up for that while the farm chores were being done that morning and since the appointment was not until after lunch we were able to get quite a bit done.

Grandpa and I went to Nocona Lumber and get the lumber I was going to need for what I had planned for Saturday along with the pieces required to set up for the shop walls. It cost about 30% more than I anticipated but it was still within the budget I had set. We got that to the farm and parked the loaded trailer on the slab so we would not have to handle it twice. I got right to work. Meanwhile Mama and Victoria went to Bowie and bought the feed we are going to need for this week. Victoria was pretty bouncy through the morning.

They left about 12:45 to see the car – about an hours drive away. I suppose it all ended up okay. We did not have cash to leave with the seller – who is the son of a woman who had recently passed away. We did leave him a check for the total negotiated amount, and the car with the title. Grandma was more than a little worried. What should happen this morning is that he will go to the bank to verify the funds we have promised on the check, meanwhile Mama and Grandpa will drive over to get the car and title while Victoria will be at work.

Mama already has specific instructions on how to get the title signed and how to have it registered for the bank to process the loan for Victoria. Lord, willing we will have all of the paperwork done before noon today. The premise is that we are dealing with an honest individual and both he and I are taking a risk in trusting the other; me, probably more so. Our banker told Mama there is nothing unusual about the transaction so we are hoping it all goes well from here.

While they were buying a car I got a lot of work done on the apartment. I did not put up the tools until it was nearly dark. Mama was very pleased with the progress. I even took the time to cover everything needed with tarps since there is a chance of rail today and tomorrow. With revival at church this week I will not get back to the work until Thursday; that is, providing I get to take the day off as planned. Our plan is to go and get the roofing metal on Thursday and have the apartment and shop roofed by Saturday. It is a bold plan.

Revival meetings at our church kicked off yesterday. The preacher, Dan Miner, preached some fantastic sermons thus far. Mama and I were in Children’s church Sunday morning but we got to hear him during the Sunday School hour and in the evening service. The revival will go through Wednesday night. It is always a rough time for me with the early mornings complicated by late nights, but I will survive.

When we got home last night, Mama was greeting the big dogs when we heard Dodger barking off in the distance. It was one of those “rescue me” barks we thought we were hearing. Victoria confirmed that he was not in the house so we all went out to look. There are only a couple places that he could have been accidently locked up – the shop and the chicken coop. It turned out to be the latter.

We had a bit of trouble getting him free because he was jumping at the door and moving the inside latch on the door into the closed position which kept us from being able to open it from the outside. I finally got the latch moved between jumps and he darted out of his captivity in a cloud of dust. Mama and I checked to see if the chickens had been hurt at all, but they seemed fine. They were huddled together on the corner of the roost; terrified but unharmed.

We probably will not get any eggs today.