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.