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.