Maggie and Aaron, packing, time together, all in an evening

Aaron and Maggie will be at the farm this afternoon. She called Mama last night to tell her that they were just outside the Texas State line. I am not sure where that puts them on the map north or south because I do not know the route they are taking. Regardless, they should be there when I get home this evening. Grandma and Grandpa are excited about seeing them.


When Maggie called yesterday Mama’s phone was answered by Mykenzie. Maggie told Mykenzie that she and Aaron were on their way to see her. Mykenzie was very excited by the news. Then she explained to Maggie, “I’m at Grammy’s house.” Just in case there was any misdirection. It should all be settled in a few hours.

Maggie did express some dissatisfaction with the way the car got packed yesterday. Since all of my children have traveled extensively – mostly be car – they have been included many times in the exercise of packing a vehicle. For those who have not developed those packing skills, it is hard to impress any of the children that traveled with me and Mama. We had our big van packed so full at times that I told Mama I could only pack something more if it could be laid flat and slid into the van on top of the packed load. I was not kidding. But we always managed to get everything needed in the space allowed.

I suppose that is one of the disappointments Mama had with the little Versa. There was not much room to pack anything. For me it was a necessary tradeoff for the fuel economy it was giving me but you can see what happened to that car – it ended up with Chase - and I am driving a Flex. She blames her dislike of the car on the way the front seats felt to her. I know better.

Speaking of packing, Grant and Blake were playing with my work boots last night. Blake took the customary approach of fitting one boot to one leg. Grant took a completely different approach, using the boot as a monopod. He put both feet in one boot and hopped around the living room. I think Mama got a video of it. It was pretty funny.Cori and Victoria were out last night past the kids – and my – bedtime. I am not sure what they did but they enjoyed the evening together. It is a rare opportunity for both of them to spend some quality sister-to-sister time together. Mama and I had the grandkids for the evening and we enjoyed ourselves also. She had to keep them inside most of the evening since I was cutting sheets of metal - a very loud process – and Grandpa was spraying AgGrand on a couple of patches of ground so we can test the effectiveness of the fertilizer.

Along with a picnic in the front yard and unloading two new baby calves Grandma and Grandpa fetched from Windthorst, I got to put up a few pieces of metal on the east side of the shop last night; five to be exact. It went pretty well after I figured out that the metal sheets were easier to cut from the back side so that the ridges became valleys and I did not have to raise and lower the saw to make the cut over the contour. It was also better because the metal we got is painted and the saw would slightly scratch the surface during the cut.

I have done this before, but it was a long time ago.

Windy conditions, visitation and construction, Maggie and Aaron

The wind was blowing at about thirty miles per hour all day yesterday so despite my best intentions I did not get to work on the siding for the shop. It is nice to have the materials right there. It is frustrating to not be able to assemble the pieces where they belong. I did not get to work on the building Saturday because of rain and the fact that there were nine sheets of materials I do not need for the shop on top of the materials I do need. I bought the metal Grandpa needs to roof a loafing shed he is building and those pieces of metal were banded separately and put on top of the painted pieces I ordered for the sides of the building.


The rain kind of dampened all of our plans for work to be done. Besides it was cold with the rainy conditions. We are not complaining about the rain. We need it too badly, but I do lament the fact that I seem to get set back by one thing or another week after week. I will eventually get done but it may be Labor Day before we get to move in. The grandkids are dealing with the wet conditions pretty well. At least they have the concrete shop floor to run their trucks on while the ground dries out.

Since it was raining I went to bus visitation with some men from the church. It has been far too long since I have gone out witnessing. It is amazing how quickly those skills fade when not in regular use. Mama, Cori and the kids went to Lowe’s to build some crafts that the store has set up for children. I think it happens on a very routine basis because Cori and the kids were very familiar with the program. They built some goofy bird whose jaw would open and close by squeezing the handle of the contraption. I was hoping for something more mundane and useful; like a birdhouse.

Mama told me the real fun was in watching the three of them, Mama, Cori and Victoria, who are not so adept in assembly, aid the little ones who had no clue what they were supposed to do, get the pieces into place and attach the slide that moved the jaw. Two were broken beyond recovering and had to be replaced by the store attendant. Two left the table in working order but did not stay that way for long. One never got finished. I think that one was the one Mama was helping with.

Maggie called Mama yesterday to tell her that the movers had come and that she and Aaron would be able to leave for the farm this morning. At least, I think that is what I understood her to say. Grandma and Grandpa are excited to see her and Aaron. Grandpa has remarked several times that he has not seen them since the wedding. I don’t remember him and Grandma being at the wedding but I have slept since then. Maggie will remember.

The younger Ledford’s will only stay one night at the farm. They are on their way to Juneau, Alaska where Aaron will report for his next assignment. On the way they are going to stay a day or two with Aaron’s parents in California. I am not sure exactly where his father is stationed at the moment but I do know they will see some beautiful country on their way to points north; especially along the coast of California, Oregon and Washington.

I need to get Mama over that way some time.

Deliveries, disappointments, commuting to church

Grandpa and Mama went to Gainesville to get the metal for the shop and apartment on Friday. Everything went pretty smoothly. They took Grant and Blake with them – extra help. The man doing the loading took the time to stop Mama and tell her that he wanted to compliment her on the boy’s behavior. The day before a man had brought his son into the store with him and watched the young child empty the water cooler onto the office floor without ever saying a word to his child. It must have been really irritating. Kudos to the boys.


We also got our check for the calves we took to market. We learned two very hard lessons there. One, our method of taping the calves is seriously flawed. Two, there are two sales we could have taken them to and we picked the wrong one. Because of those two things we ended up not making as much as we were expecting – by about 30%. I never did any research on the issue so I was going on what Grandpa and Mama had told me. The sale we should have taken the calves to was not the “steer” sale even thought they are steers. We should have taken them to the “weaned calf” sale even though they are two months or more past being weaned. It was not a horrific loss, but it was enough to discourage Grandpa.

All in all, we grossed about $4200 on the calves. After all the expenses are taken into account we made about $225 per calf. (Not including the five we buried.) Not bad by my way of thinking but it was discouraging to Grandpa. My goal is to show that the farm is trying to make some money. Whether we actually do or not is not the issue. For tax purposes I have to try to generate some cash income. Grandpa said that it did not even pay for his time. Possibly not, but it did occupy his time - in a healthy, profitable way. It is all a matter of perspective.

I do know that I do not want to do any more than what we did. I have no desire to “go big” in order to generate “big money.” We got about a 40% return on our money. That is good enough for the company I work for to pursue a new project. It ought to be good enough for me. I have to keep my sights on what Mama and I can handle by ourselves if need be. I do not want projects that discourage and impoverish us. I have only so much energy to give to this and I want to spend that energy wisely.

After church last night we stopped at Dairy Queen for a Sunday night snack. It takes quite a bit of time for the kids to eat (if they eat) which is okay since it gives us time to sit and relax. It is amazing to watch the grandkids eat – or pretend to eat. They really are not too interested in food as yet. That will change with time. I suppose the ice cream cones and Blizzards after the chicken tenders and fries were too much for their little systems because it really got them stirred up. They were wired the whole way home.

On the way home Mama and I had the three grandkids with us. We had taken separate cars because I needed to be at church early to practice with a quartet for next Sunday morning. Victoria and Cori took Victoria’s car home and stopped at Wal-Mart on the way. Mama and I mostly enjoy all the chatter of the children; we always have. It is a long ride home for them since it is about forty minutes. They are used to less than ten minutes. So they entertained themselves for the duration.

Grant was in the mood to sing last night. Mykenzie was not. Since the two of them were in the back seat of the Flex, the singing did not sound too loud to me and Mama. Obviously, it did to Mykenzie. While he was belting out “Jesus loves me” she kept saying, “Grant. Grant. Grant.” in a monotone voice about every four beats. Grant endured for most of the whole song. Finally he stopped and said. “Mykenzie quit talking. It’s annoying.”

Chalk up a win up for Mykenzie.

Progress, play, graduation

Yesterday evening, with Cori’s help, I was able to get quite a bit done considering I only worked for about two hours. The wind was blowing hard and steady but it had warmed up from the morning lows and was very comfortable – I was already in long sleeves. I am starting to see the signs of progress. The progress is past some of the construction items that I have been avoiding but now have to get done. The devil, it is said, is in the details.


Mama and Grandpa are going to get the metal today. Last night Grandpa had the trailer hooked to the truck so they could get out pretty early today. It will be nice to have all the metal available to get the sides covered. That, too, will provide some challenges but I think we can work through them. We have to. The problem is that it has been a very long time since I have built anything new, so I have to relearn some of the tricks of construction as I go. That has required reworking something I got wrong on several occasions.

By the time it is all done, no one will be able to tell where I messed up or made the necessary corrections. That is the good part of building. Most of your mistakes you can correct and cover, such is the case in this apartment. It will serve as good practice for the house we are planning to build. I am not so worried about the barns we are planning for the property. I just do not want the house to look like a barn when we are done.

Grandpa’s specialty is sheds, and I do not think Mama would like to live in a shed. My specialty is remodeling, so starting with nothing and putting together a new building is a little out of norm for me. I think the finished product will be functional but I am hoping it will also be well designed and attractive. We are planning on being in the apartment for a couple years or more, so it needs to be nice enough Mama will not dread having people visit; family included.

I continued working past the time Cori and Mama went to Wal-Mart to do some shopping and to pick up Victoria. Both of the boys were out with me. They played with sticks, threw dirt clods, pretended to fight off bad guys while protecting the trailer they were on, etc. Dodger was right there with them every phase of the battle. He had no idea what was going on, but he was a willing participant.

Several times through the evening Grandma asked where Dodger was and if he was outside, she called him in. Finally I asked why. She explained that Dodger was fighting with the big dogs. He always “fights” with them in his constant desire to be the head dog on the farm. It is usually just a quick growl and snap if he thinks he is not being given first place in our attention.

Grandma explained that when she was a child she saw two dogs fighting like they were going to kill each other and it terrified her. She does not want the grandchildren to have the same experience so she is trying to keep Dodger inside and away from Sam and Sasha. It is a good thought, but very impractical plan. In the long run it will cause more stress than letting the dogs continue to be dogs.

Aaron’s graduation is this morning. Maggie said he called her and told her that he was as nervous about the graduation as he was at their wedding. His dad is there with him. I can imagine it to be a proud moment for both of them. Aaron will fly home this evening. That is the part Maggie focused in on as we talked this morning. They will be on their way to Alaska (with stops in Texas and California) sometime early next week. The departure depends on how quickly the movers can pack their things.

We are looking forward to visiting with them as they trek north.

Safe delivery, debit card issues, kids on the farm

I called Mama pretty early yesterday morning to see if Grandpa had gotten the calves to market and to find out if he had any problems. She said Grandpa was gone before she got up. I did not find out the details until much later but he had had no trouble loading the calves, no trouble getting them to the sale barn and no trouble at any point in the round trip to Windthorst. We should hear something from the sale early next week on how much the calves sold for and the expenses incurred in that sale. Mama is anxious to compare weights; tape vs. scale.


I am hoping to hear today that the metal for the shop has arrived at the Metal Mart in Gainesville. I left the debit card for the account with the money in it with Mama to be used for that purchase. It may be tomorrow before the trip can be made to get the metal but in case there was some interest in getting it done today I tried to make sure Mama had the resources at her disposal.

I had to cut up my Happy State debit card yesterday. For the second time in six months I was contacted by the bank and alerted that some transaction may have compromised the security on my card and it would be better to cancel the card and get a new one. It is not a huge problem, but each time I have to go update all the accounts that have recurring charges against that debit card. I know it is better to be safe than to be sorry, but it is still an inconvenience.

I went online yesterday – at work since we are disconnected at the house – and looked to see what “card skimmers” looked like. I had very little idea what a thriving business thievery is. There are suppliers, developers and installers for the illegal devices. There are ‘how to” instructions available for the person who is willing to make the right (or wrong) contacts. It is very a sophisticated market. With the invention of 3D printing, it is becoming more difficult to tell a planted or overlaid skimmer from the real thing. God help us!

The grandkids are really enjoying the freedom of the farm. One of the real blessings of the timing for this visit is that the temperatures and mild and the bugs have not invaded the area yet. That is a blessing because children really, really, really like to talk in the open doorway. I am not sure what it is about having a doorway to stand in while a conversation is going on but that is where they like to conduct their business. There is a rush to communicate every little thing; what the dogs did, what the chickens did, what the sibling did, etc. All three children have to come separately to give their report. All reports require the door be held open for the duration of the update.

We do not have either the heat or the air conditioning going yet so it is not a problem, but it seems to create one for one adult or another in the home. I have not been in the house except in the evening but I know it goes on throughout the day. I can only hope that since the windows are open almost all day that the door being open also does not bring too severe a scolding.

Bottle feeding the calves could be an issue for the grandkids. They stand very nearly face-to-face with the calves. I can envision the calf butting the bottle right into the nose of the child holding that bottle. It would be like getting hit with a bat. Grandpa has great insight into such eventualities so I hope the kids heed his warnings while feeding the calves.

My only fear is that the amount of gravel we have on the driveway will invite a rock throwing incident that will cause us problems. Day one went by without any serious issues – at least none that I have been told about. Day two will begin in less that an hour. We will see how things go as we progress.

I hope we all enjoy it together.

Mama, Victoria, Cori and the grandkids made it in safe last night. It was a little before 11 p.m. Blake and Mykenzie were awake and ready to play. Blake found a tennis ball on top of a box of blocks and was ready to have Dodger fetch it for him. Dodger was ready too, but him mama insisted on his going back to sleep. Today they will wake up on the farm.

Today the larger of the calves, nine of them, will leave the farm for the stock sale in Windthorst, TX. The last thing Grandpa did last night was to pen the group in the calf lot where the trailer was parked at the end of the loading chute. It should be a fairly easy task to get them loaded but I will get the details later today. I am praying all goes well. It is a big step up for the young steers to get into the trailer. We will have to work on that by building some type of adjustable ramp in the chute.

On my way home yesterday evening I drove past the farm to the Montague County Courthouse so I could get the tags for the trailer. It was not too difficult or too expensive and it puts the trailer on the books for a year – plus it gets the paperwork correct in case Grandpa is stopped for any reason. The rest of the evening I spent helping him get the trailer lights working properly. I think we got it all worked out. He was planning to load and leave at first light. We will see if that happens or not. He is not a morning person.

On the way home from Cori’s Mama called me to ask if I wanted to keep the internet provider Victoria had been paying for the last year or go ahead and cancel. That day was the due day for the payment. Why she waited until that moment to make a decision will remain an unanswered question since I have been asking her every week for two months to call and set up another provider. But that is how it got handled. She spent 45 minutes on hold while the current – soon to be terminated – provider set up the team to recover their hardware from the farm.

How soon we can get a replacement provider will be answered this week. I doubt that will happen today; too much going on. In the meantime, Grandma is without a phone and she has been on the phone with various persons all evening long for the past several weeks. It is her lifeline to the world since she is hurting and does not get out much. She and Grandpa did drive over to see Tom (the dairy man) and his wife on Sunday. It is about 45 minutes there from the farm. Church – where we attend – is about 35 minutes from the farm, but too far to drive for them to attend services there. Anyway, she will be without a home phone until internet service is restored; which may be after they are already in West Virginia.

Mama will find out today if they are still planning on going to West Virginia. I know Grandma wants to make the trip but Grandpa is hedging because the weather in Ripley would keep them from doing any of the things he and Norman have been planning. It has been either snowing or raining almost daily for the past several months. We would trade, but God does not offer that as an option. With the expense of the trip, the difficulty for him and Grandma to travel and the work remaining here, I do not think Grandpa is overly excited about the whole idea.

If the grandkids are up in time there will be two calves to feed bottles to this morning. The good part of the fun is that if they miss the morning feeding we repeat the exercise in the evening. It may be late in April or early in May before we get any more calves, so the four we now have will be all we have for several weeks.

That is probably good news for me and Mama if Grandpa and Grandma do go north for a month.

Panic, more travel, the trailer, the sale

Mama called me in a panic last night because her debit card had been rejected. I had her call the service number on the card to see if there was a hold of some sort. Recently my card was deactivated because the bank suspected fraud. Fortunately we were in Borger at the time of the call, so I went to the bank there and got a new card. Mama would not have been so fortunate.


She was assured that the card was okay by the people at the bank and that turned out to be the case, but it was a little unnerving for her until she was able to prove it was okay by spending $40 at Target – just to make sure. I am not sure how we would have funded the return trip to the farm without her free access to our account via her debit card. I am sure we would have figured something out, but we will save that hassle for another time.

The entire crew should be leaving Florida early this morning. I am not sure the kids are ready for another long car ride, but the different company should keep them in suspense for at least the first part of the trip. I do not expect them to be in before nine or ten o’clock; which is well past my bedtime. Mama may have to wake me up to say hello. I will see the grandkids tomorrow afternoon. We will all know more as they mark their progress along the route home.

I have a feeling that Grandma will be setting up sleeping areas this evening, but I will let her and Mama work out all those arrangements. Unfortunately, the apartment is not ready for occupants yet. I hope to have it there by the end of April. That should be just in time for me to get the call from Licensing. At the moment it is a very long way off, but I am making steady progress.

Grandpa got the lumber to put the floor in the stock trailer early yesterday morning. By the time I got home that afternoon, he was making the last cut to fit the last piece. It looked very good. The great news is that we will be able to haul the calves to market with our own stock trailer. I could have worked with a borrowed one, but Grandpa is not cut from that cloth. I am not sure what drives that pride but we have always managed to work around it.

I tried to get the tags for the stock trailer but it proved a bit more difficult than I had expected. The people at the registration office are looking for a fifteen digit number for their records. The only number on the trailer was a serial number totaling ten digits. I go the long story about how their records needed to match up to the database, blah, blah, blah. I told them I could not manufacture a number for them and asked if there was another way to get it done. About that time people started coming into the small office waiting area and she brushed me off. I will try again today.

I did find out that I had one of the letters wrong on the serial number I copied from the ID plate on the trailer. I am hoping that will make a difference, but I am not getting my hopes up too high.

Tonight Grandpa will pen up the market calves and give them plenty of grain and water. It will be their last meal on the farm. The stock sale is only about and hour away. There are two sale barns closer but the one we will take this bunch to is in the dairy region of this area. The calves will bring a better price there since almost all the lots for sale will be dairy calves. I am not sure what he is going to do without the large herd to oversee, but it will be much better for me and Mama while Grandma and Grandpa are visiting in West Virginia.

At least the farm is producing something.

Travel, our own trailer, windows, tags

Last time I spoke to Mama, she and Victoria were visiting with Maggie. They were only two hours short of their destination. The last time I spoke with Cori, they were half way home from where ever they had been attending the wedding. The best I could figure things from those two pieces of information, both parties of travelers would arrive at Cori and Nate’s home in Pace, FL at about the same time – or very nearly the same time. I am anxious to hear this morning how it worked out. It will be a busy, exciting day in that house.


Saturday morning, pretty early, Grandpa and I took off for Holliday, TX to look at a trailer I had found for sale. It was very cheap partly because it had no floor in it. When Grandpa got there and looked it over we went ahead and bought it. It did need a floor and one of the two axles had no tires on it, although the man selling it to us gave us a new tire on a rim and two empty rims. The lights did not work with Grandpa’s truck, but we took it home to the farm that day.

By the end of the day, both axles were complete, the safety chains were in place and Grandpa was working on the lights. He will go this morning to a saw mill here in Bowie to get the creosoted lumber to put the floor it. We will have some detail work to do when I get home, but I am expecting it to be mostly done. You can always tell if Grandpa likes a purchase by the amount of attention he gives to it when we get it home. He really liked this one.

After we got the trailer home, I started working on cutting the windows into the apartment. When we buildt the apartment walls, I elected not to build the walls with the windows already placed for several reasons. The first is that I did not know for sure how I would place them. (That turned out to be a good decision since we changed the arrangement several times.) The second is that I wanted to get all the materials used to build the walls up and in place because I could not protect them while they were lying on the slab. We covered the wood and OSB with tarps but you would have to spend some time here to realize how futile the winds here make that effort seem.

The time to cut in the windows was right and I started the project with the idea that I would like to get at least two windows placed. I ended up getting four of the five cut in. It was rather amazing how it changed the looks of the apartment. If all goes well, Mama and Grandpa will go and get the metal for the siding on Thursday. My hope is that by Saturday evening we will have most, if not all, of the siding on the shop and apartment.

I could have gotten the last window in but was called away to help Grandpa and Mama tag the calves we will be taking to the market this Wednesday. That was an experience. We are required to put tags in the right ear of any calf to be sold so it can be tracked to our farm should that ever be necessary. We were given enough tags to last us for quite a while. We were given the tool for putting in the tags also. None of us had ever done it but it turned out to be pretty straight forward.

Grandma recorded the tags by calf since Mama insisted we be able to relate the market weight to the particular calf. While we had each one penned for tagging Grandpa used a tape to measure the calves. The tape is designed to give an estimated weight based on the girth of the calf. We will see if it is as close as we have been told.

We also sold seven smaller calves to some people at our church. They were very pleased with the little ones…and I got some money to reimburse me for the stock trailer.

It was a busy weekend.

Large purchases, cattle sales, travel

I happened to stumble across a stock trailer yesterday when I got a brief chance to look at Craig’s List. It is only an hour south of us. I showed the pictures to Grandpa and Mama last night when I got home so Mama called on it. Grandpa was interested enough to make the trip to look it over and since good deals do not last very long, I started trying to figure out a way to get the cash in hand. The asking price is $2000.


Our main bank is Happy State Bank. The nearest branch right now is in Amarillo. That was not going to work. Happy State is connected with the ATM’s in Wal-Mart so Mama and I went there to see how much we could get out. It only allowed us to get $300 per transaction – and we were charged $1.50 for that transaction. So we took that. When we tried to run another transaction, we got denied. So, we went and got the few items we had come to get and rang them up one at a time, getting $100 in cash with every purchase.

The cashier was very helpful. She and Mama made a game out of it. Since we made a total of fourteen separate purchases, it was helpful that both of them thought it was fun. The good part is that she had fourteen one hundred dollar bills in her drawer. The remaining $300 we will either get out of the Wal-Mart ATM this morning or I will get it from our account at Wells Fargo. The good news is that they will go prepared to buy – if it works out that way. If they do by the trailer, we will be able to haul our ten head to the sale on Wednesday next week in our own trailer. That will make Grandpa feel better.

Mama and I really like doing business with Happy State Bank and I am very reluctant to move to another bank in the area. They are opening a branch in Dallas next week, so we will have one an hour away. It is still a long haul to get to a bank but it beats five hours. In situations other than needing a large cash withdrawal, it will continue to work well for us. If I had planned ahead, I could have transferred the money to a local account and withdrawn it this morning, but my timing was off for that. I will eventually learn how to get prepared for this type of need.

Jerry Brooks, a friend of ours from church is supposed to come to the farm on Saturday and buy a couple of our three hundred pound steers. I think Mama told me that he was getting two for himself and two for his brother Phillip. Phillip came to the farm earlier this week to look over what we had to offer and he was very impressed but the little steers. That money will reimburse me for the trailer and it will not affect the ten head we will haul to the market next week.

All we will have to care for at that point will be the two bottle calves, the remainder of the smaller lot of calves, I think there will be six, and the ones we are keeping for butchering and breeding. I think there are four in that group. So we will still have ten head on the farm; pending the purchase of any more bottle calves. This year’s taxes ought to be great fun to calculate.

Mama and Victoria head for Pace, Florida Sunday morning. They are feeling a mixture of excitement and dread. Probably a lot like Maggie at this point.

Maggie’s breakdown, Cori, Nate and the kids

Maggie called me yesterday evening as we were getting ready for church. She was taking a friend to the base for a class the friend was either taking or teaching; I am not clear on that. On the way her vehicle started to make a very loud, very horrible sound so Maggie pulled over and shut it down. At the time of the breakdown, they were either on the base or very neat it. As Maggie tells the story, there was an older gentleman working in a field nearby who heard the death throws of the engine and came over to help.


The very impressive part of the story is that Maggie knew what had caused the noise. When the man asked her about it she was able to tell him that a spark plug had “come loose”. I have never had that happen so I have no idea what noise that is, but it got the mans attention. He explained that he was mechanic and might be able to help. Maggie was already in tears by this time.

She popped the hood, restarted the engine long enough for the mechanic to get his bearings and see what needed to be done, and then shut the engine off. Aaron keeps tools in the vehicle at all times so the man went right to work. It was fixed in about ten minutes and they were back on the road – late for class but not absent. You know and I know that the engine parts the man had to work with were very hot at that point, but by God’s grace he was able to make the repair. Maggie was very relieved; so was her friend. Whoever that older gentleman was, I hope God blesses him in a special way. He was a special blessing to our daughter.

Maggie also told me that she has not received the papers she is required to have in order to travel to Alaska with Aaron. I am not completely sure what is lacking but it is enough to delay their departure and complicate the transition to his new duty station. It is another point of frustration for her. You know the routine; the car only breaks down while her husband is away, the papers don’t come because her husband is away, etc. But the Lord has provided help to her at every turn, when she takes time to look.

The man God put on location to fix her car is proof enough that the Lord is carefully looking out for her…and each of us. She was praising the Lord for His goodness to her. Every now and then God names his blessing to us pretty hard to miss. That was one.

Mama and Victoria are heading to Florida Sunday morning. The plan is to get Cori and the kids and head back on Tuesday. Cori is in need of a break. I was not in favor of the rescue until after I talked it over with Nate, but the timing seems to be good all the way around. They well arrive at the farm a few days before Grandma and Grandpa leave for West Virginia so the visit will have an extended impact within the family. I am still not sure if it is a good plan but it is the one we are going with.

Cori and Nate are arriving this morning somewhere in Indiana or Ohio. I do not remember which. I am not sure if those choices are the correct destination but they are attending a wedding for one of Nate’s siblings. Again, I am not sure who is getting married, but they left last night to make the trip. They will return home late Sunday night – more like early Monday morning. Mama and Victoria will be there to greet them. Monday will be repacking and resting. Tuesday will be traveling to Bowie, TX. Getting to the farm has been a priority for Grant for several months.

I hope it still meets his expectations.

Midnight cowboys

I did get to do some work in the apartment last night. It was not much but it allowed a little progress. Mama was supposed to help me but that did not seem to work out. I am not sure what distracted her. Later, when she was available, she told me she needed to get off of her feet for a while. Grandpa was available and he and I got the cabinets off of the truck. Working with him to unload the cabinets was a much more pleasant experience than loading them.


It was after I had gotten dressed for bed that all the excitement came. Grandma had not been feeling well all day and was continuing her supine vigil of the southern view of the farm from her bedroom window. I still this morning do not completely understand where the urgency came from but it appeared that one of the neighbors cows had gotten out and was walking the road and our fence line toward the mobile home.

Our young, freshly weaned calves were congregating on our side of the fence trying to poke their heads through the barbed wire far enough to get in on the new milk delivery that was just out of their reach. It is the first time the calves had been in that particular pasture. They were getting pretty excited about the fringe benefits.

Grandma was in high gear, scolding, encouraging, barking orders, worried over our calves – which are, by nature, incredibly stupid. They needed to be brought closer to the calf lot under the watch of the big dogs. She had a good point; good enough that Mama, Victoria and I went back out to round up the calves and herd the errant cow back home. Mama headed for the barn to get some grain in a bucket and Victoria and I went to the roadway to separate the young calves and the older cow. She headed up the road without any coaxing; the young calves were a different matter. They have not been trained to come on command and they were distracted by the mama cow racing away from them to her herd – taking all of that fresh, warm milk with her..

We have a set of older calves that Grandpa has trained to come by simply calling them. “Woo cow. Woo cow.” He will call from the calf lot and they will come running; boy do they come running. Sometimes it scares Grandpa a little. They know it is time to get the fed the sweet stock they all love so much. I do not know if the last one there is a rotten egg, but the last one definitely gets less to eat.

The younger set of calves is not trained to that call yet but Mama tried it anyway. “Woo cow. Woo cow.” She called while she was beating the bucket. A few of the younger set came out of curiosity and because they recognized her as the bottle bearer from their early calf-hood memories. Victoria herded the rest while I closed gaps and eventually all of them came into the area we needed them in.

The problem was that all the older calves congregated also expecting to get fed - again. They were carrying on in an awful way as Mama neared the calf lot. They carried on so much that all the younger calves hurried over to them to see what they were missing. They are separated into a different pasture (and a different feed lot) in order to keep the feeding fair because the bigger calves would not care if the smaller ones starved to death while they beat them out of the available grass and feed. With all the little ones safe in the smaller lot and the chickens put up for the night, we went back inside. The bigger calves spent the next hour protesting their empty feeders.

I love this life!

More travel, lots more work

I took the day off yesterday to drive to Rogers, TX to pick up some cabinets I ordered several months ago. They have been in a warehouse near where my sister Sarah lives but neither she nor I have had the opportunity until now to retrieve them. It was a full pickup. Two of the cabinets are oven cabinets and they weighed a couple hundred pounds. My back is hurting today because of the way I was forced to help load them. The young man helping me was not a good communicator and he was far stronger that I am. I ended up being yanked about a bit in the loading process.


The real unfortunate part is that the hardware – drawer slides and hinges required to assemble the cabinets - was not with them. That will hopefully be sent separately. It had mistakenly been given to someone else. I am pretty confident that I got my entire order but if not the remainder of the cabinets that the warehouse had been trying to sell were donated to Habitat for Humanity in Austin. I may be able to get some matching cabinets from them if needed. Otherwise we will make do.

Mama and I got home pretty late. It was a full twelve hour day because we made other stops both on the way down and on the way back. On the way down we stopped to pick up some AgGrand and Amsoil from the warehouse in Dallas. That added about an hour to the trip. On the way back we stopped for kolaches in West, TX and again at the outlet malls on Hillsborough, TX. The stop at the outlet malls was mostly to delay our arrival in Fort Worth until after the rush hour traffic had dissipated. It proved to be a good decision. It was a productive trip.

Now the work on the apartment begins in earnest. I am hoping that with the time change (leaving me two hours of light after work) and the warmer evenings I will have the energy to do at least a little every evening. I have found that if all the work waits until Saturday it becomes frustratingly slow, but that is what I have been consigned to this point. Maybe things will start to move faster now. I will order the metal today or tomorrow for the exterior walls for both the apartment and the shop. The garage doors will be on hold for the moment.

We have someone from church coming today to look at the two most recent calves we have on the farm. They are also interested in raising several little ones. He asked for the name of our contact at the dairy and Mama would not give it; telling him instead, if you want them you can buy them from us. This man’s brother will be coming this weekend to look at some of the 300 pound steers we have for sale. He is interested in as many as five. We will see how that plays out.

Maggie and Aaron will be coming through next weekend on their way to Alaska. We are looking forward to that visit. I am pretty sure it will be Maggie’s first visit to the farm. The next week Grandpa and Grandma will be leaving for West Virginia. I keep asking Mama if she is ready to “man” the farm by herself and she assures me she is. By the time we get to that point we will have sold most of our larger calves and be down to less than six on the pasture. I am not sure how many we will be bottle feeding. We are currently waiting on more to arrive.

Who said farming was a slow paced life?

Medical needs, work delays, Mama’s girls

Maggie has been going through some difficult times lately. Most of the problems are due to mild to severe dehydration. With the baby growing in the womb and the body constantly seeking to increase the amount of amniotic fluid – from water intake – she has not learned to drink water enough for the new needs. A pregnant woman does not necessarily need to eat for two, but in the first couple trimesters she should be drinking enough water for two.


Mama showed me a little video taken while Maggie was getting an ultrasound yesterday. The miracle of pregnancy and birth still rank among the highest of God’s everyday miracles; most of which we take completely for granted. In the video you could clearly see the very tiny infant moving around. What a wonder!

Becky, too has been going through some rough times medically speaking. She has been experiencing some severe back pain lately. A general physician told her yesterday that she has two tumors on her spine. The growths are suspected at this point to be fatty tumors but she will go for more conclusive testing soon. We will be praying for a good outcome but the prognosis is that surgery will be required. I am not sure what can be done herbally but I am looking into it. Meanwhile, remember her I your prayers.

Mama and Grandma are going to take a loaf of the Friendship bread to the man and his son who advocated for us with the drilling company. It was because of their diligence that the company made the decision to use another access to the new drilling site as opposed to driving past our farm. We know it was God’s doing, but it is right to thank the people He used to accomplish that purpose. It will be a good opportunity to witness to them. The relief to Grandma and Grandpa cannot be measured.

Both Grandpa and I were too tired to finish the septic line last night. I would have forced myself if he was up to it and probably vive versa. Both of us were happy to put off the work. We are planning on getting it done this evening. With the prediction of rain for Saturday and Sunday we would both like to get the ditch filled in and graveled over before it gets too wet. I am hoping to have the time Saturday morning before the rain to put on the ridge cap. It may not work out that way, but I am planning for it. It is one of those things that take up quite a bit of time but are important final details.

If Mama does not drag me off to the outlet Malls on Saturday (because of rain stopping our construction work) I will get at least one window cut it and get the outlet boxes nailed in place so Grandpa and I can run the electric to the apartment. The insulation and sheetrock are waiting on me at the Nocona Building center. All I have to do is go and get it. Praise the Lord, I am almost ready.

Mama is becoming somewhat of a chicken whisperer. She has figured out that the hens lay better when the feed is fresh and when they are allowed out of the coop. When their confinement is long we only get three or four eggs. When they are free to get out and play we get seven or more. Emptying their feed trough and filling it with fresh feed also brings better laying results. I am not sure if they are missing something in their diet that going out in the grass allows them to find or if they are a bunch of moody females.

Either way getting out pleases them. Very much like Mama.

Home again, answers to prayer

My time in the Borger office from Monday afternoon to Wednesday morning was more profitable than I had hoped. I spent the majority of the time in one-on-one meetings with the people in that office. I think I left them feeling better about the near future than I could have done via phone conversations and emails. It put me behind on a special assignment for my boss but I should be able to get that done this morning and stay within his timeframe for delivery.


I got a chance to talk with the person who is in the queue ahead of me for one of the Licensing jobs. I had thought he had gotten his physical taken already but I found out he will not go for the physical until the 21st of March. With very little extrapolation I can see that my call may not come until very late in April. I got the impression that they do not like to take on too many new people at once so the possibility of doubling us up for training on their processes is unlikely.

Mama and I got out of the panhandle too late to get back in time for church. Her real disappointment with the trip was the list of tasks she had to get done in one day. It kept her from having the time to go and see Mrs. Patrick. That was the biggest disappointment, but between doctor visits and other interruptions to Mrs. Patrick’s schedule, there was not a time they could stop long enough to spend time together unless it was very late in the evening. That is difficult for Mama.

While we were away, Grandpa got the septic line dug and we will put it in place tonight or tomorrow. He also put up the forms to pour the concrete in the front part of the shop. He tells me there is no hurry to get it done, but I am pretty sure he wants to see it completed as much as I do. I know Victoria and Mama want to see it done since the trench bisects the driveway. They both line taking the circle around the shop and facing the vehicles out toward the road. I don’t know if they feel they can make a quick get away of they just do not like backing up.

Grandpa had his truck parked on the slab behind the tractor when we got home last night. He told us he had spent several hours washing and waxing it. Even in the fading light we could tell it was cleaned up. He said it is like a dream to have that nice a place to work on equipment. Prior to this the only slab he had to work on is when they rented a building near Point Pleasant after leaving the farm.

One bit of good news, very good news actually, is that the gas well company which is drilling a well not too far from us is not going to use the road in front of the farm – and our mobile home. It was proved to us that the road is actually a county road but it will not suit the purpose for the company doing the drilling because it really is like a private drive – a narrow, single lane road with no place to allow someone to pass.

That was a huge answer to prayer and a huge relief to all of us.

Too short a trip

Mama and I will be heading back to Bowie this afternoon. She is a little disappointed in the trip this time because so much of her time was spent getting business activities done. She spent over two hours in the bank yesterday morning and spent an additional two hours getting the oil changed in the car. Both the banking and the car dealer experiences were good ones, they just took up most of the time she had set aside for shopping. Since I need to be back in the Decatur office tomorrow I do not have the option to extend our stay here by a day.


Our banker invited Mama to make reservations to eat in the new executive dining room at the main office of Happy State Bank in Amarillo next time we are in town. She just needs to let Shelly know a few days ahead of time in order to get the space confirmed. Shelly said we could all come, Mama, me, Grandma and Grandpa, Chase, etc. She just needs a headcount for the group. I have no idea if we will ever take her up on the offer.

While at the dealer waiting for the oil to be changed, Mama met a family in the waiting room that was also having some work done to their car. The eldest son of the travelers was a 29 year old mildly retarded boy. He took to Mama right away. He was garrulous; talking to everyone who came into the waiting area. Since we have a young man in our church who is about the same age and same mental level, Mama was geared up to handle the interaction.

When one person – an obvious ranch hand – came in, the young man asked, “Are you a cowboy? A real cowboy?” The ranch hand answered that he was. “Do you ride bulls?” He asked. ”No”, the hand replied, “Bulls are for making babies, not for riding.” Mama was impressed by the answer and the manner in which it was delivered. The young man was also quite amused with the conversation.

Later that evening, Mama and I were at Burlington Coat Factory. The young man and his family were there. As Mama and I went to check out Mama called out to him. I think his name was Robert. He looked up, smiled and called out to her, “Hey ornery.” I was introduced and hugged. When his daddy called out to him he waved him off and said, “I’ll come in a minute. I’m talking to my friends right now.” Mama does make an impression on people.

I think she is going to go and spend a little time with Mrs. Patrick this morning. The days were too busy to this point to get that squeezed in. It may be several months before Mama will be coming back with me so I know she would hate to leave Amarillo without having taken the time for even a brief visit. She needs to leave Amarillo at about 11 a.m. to pick me up in Borger. Last time we worked it out this way, I got picked up at about 2 p.m. We’ll see how it goes today.

We saw Chase briefly a couple times. Mama had a late lunch with him yesterday. Last night he brought Makaila by so Mama could put some of the Nikken cream on her neck. She has had a sore throat and a stiff neck for several days now and Chase has tried to get her to go to the doctor but she will not. I suggested a clinic. Since she has no insurance, it will be cheaper than an office visit or an Emergency Room visit.

I hope Mama ministrations helped.

Updates

It has been a few days since I have written so I need to back up and give some updates. I took off Thursday and Friday of last week to so I could work on the apartment and shop. On Thursday I was able to fully complete all the tasks to allow us to attach the metal roof to the existing metal of the shop structure. It was a lot of little things that took all day to complete. We also went to purchase the metal which required a trip to Gainesville.


On Friday I got up pretty early and worked a piece of sixteen foot metal onto the roof and did the measuring to see how the metal was going to fit the structure. I had done some pretty close measuring so I was fairly confident everything would work out but setting the first piece is the most important step in a metal roof. As it turned out, I do not think I could have been more pleased.

I got thirteen pieces each of sixteen, fourteen and twelve foot pieces. That would allow coverage for thirty nine running feet. The apartment measures thirty nine feet almost exactly. So I knew I would be very close. When we started on the north end I did not want to allow too much overlap since I worried about coming up short on the far end. We came out almost perfectly in coverage as well in lining up with the walls and roof. I had to make one small cut to get around one of the metal uprights – that’s it. It made Grandpa think I really knew what I was doing.

Having taken all day Friday to get the sixteen foot pieces over the apartment portion – just Grandpa and me – we had to wait for help on Saturday. While we were waiting Grandpa and I dug the septic line from the apartment to the existing septic line. Digging trenches is not my favorite thing to do but it had to be done. We were near completing the line when Kaylen Cryer showed up. In fact we were taking a lunch break.

After lunch we got up on the roof and started on the fourteen foot panels. Those panels took the roof from the inside edge of the apartment to the ridge of the shop. Kaylen is one of the young men in our church; he is a good young man. He is not much for heights, but he worked the ridge and I worked the other three attachment points and we were done pretty quickly. He had time to stay and help with the twelve foot pieces that covered the east half of the roof. Within four hours we were done with the metal. The roof was covered. Grandpa was a little taken aback at the size of the building that was now more clearly defined. It was a major accomplishment for all of us.

Mama and I drove to Borger yesterday morning and I did not get into the office until after 1 p.m. For some reason it is a longer trip when Mama comes with me (we get off to a later start and make more stops along the way) but it is always a more enjoyable one. I told Mama yesterday evening that I did not even get my computer hooked up until after 3 p.m. because of people stopping me to converse. That is the reason I came, just to be available to talk to the people here, so it was mission accomplished as far as I was concerned.

My boss and I had a little discussion about the need for this trip and I asked him to trust me. His concern is that I do not have anyone here that reports to me. In his mind that means I have neither authority nor responsibility for the Borger office personnel. I assured him I do not need any authority. The people here are my friends. I felt it was very needful to take the time and show my face in Borger so that the staff here did not feel forgotten. My instincts were right. I have already talked with most of the people on this floor. It is a good thing that I came.

Mama has a very busy day today. She is meeting with our banker to get the paperwork started for Victoria’s car. She is going to get the car to the Ford dealer here to have the oil changed; we have been putting that off for several weeks now. She is meeting with Mrs. Patrick – just to visit; and for lunch. And this evening we are going to see if we can get together with a person that has done a lot of concrete staining and sealing to get some advice for the floor in the apartment. Several shopping stops after that and a short visit with Chase we will get to bed pretty late again tonight; which for me is after 9 p.m.

We will rest when we get back home.