Tubing, pig pens, heat

I took Friday off so I could go tubing with Mama and Jake. Mama found a place about an hour away on the Brazos River but she did not really want to make the drive or the tubing trip by herself with Jake. So I elected to take the day so we could do it together and check it out for use in the future.

We got off to a late start because we had to go to an ATM nearby to get cash – the place only takes cash - and we did not take enough with us to cover the cost. We also spent some time getting parked in the correct spot. Not that the RV portion of the business was necessarily booming at the moment but I initially chose a spot they were not thrilled about. But when I went back to the car to move it the key I had removed from the remote – since we were going to be in the water – did not work in the lock. Fortunately Mama had rolled her window down to the point that I could reach in and unlock the passenger door.

Before we took off I asked about the river condition and the length of the trip down the river. The full trip normally takes five to six hours and at low water levels requires a good bit of pulling yourself through the shallow spots – which can be quite a distance. The shorter trip takes about three hours and has the longest parts of deeper water. We chose the shorter trip. And it did take about three hours but we had a great time. There were some areas of quickly moving water and some area where we dragged the bottom but all in all we floated for the better part of the distance. Fortunately none of us got sunburned.

Mama and I had Jake and Victoria to help at RU that night. Victoria had run home about 2 pm because of reports of a fire on County Road 1560 – which is just across Highway 1655 from us, but the fire was far to the west of the farm. Since she was home, Victory elected to stay home so we got her help that night. It was a good night with the kids but they area a challenge to teach. I tried to tell the story of Ruth but got almost no interest from the children there. Maybe I am losing my touch.

Saturday I started on the pig pen. We had the pallets required to make the enclosure so all I had to do was get them lined up and fastened together. It took me about seven hours of labor in the heat but I was able to complete the pen with a shelter for the feeder pigs. The total perimeter took thirty two pallets. It is about 20 by 30 feet with an eight by eight shelter. I have yet to put a roof on the little shelter but I should have that soon.

Mama and I tried to catch the pigs to pit them over into the enclosure but that was upsetting them too much so I detached a pallet from the new pen and loosened a panel in the old pen and we ran them through that opening into the new area since I sat the pens side by side. Now both sets of pigs are happy. The feeder pigs have their own home. The little one is with the two larger ones – hopefully it will still get enough to eat. And the pot belly pigs have their entire space back.

I was pretty worn out after getting done – both from three hours on the river and seven hours arranging pallets, but it was a good weekend.

Worn out Mama, pens, loose birds

Mama and Jake got home a little after I did yesterday afternoon. They had been to the Dallas Zoo for most of the day. It is about an hour away from us in north Dallas so Mama came home with a tension headache – like she always gets when she drives in traffic of any consequence. Jake was charged up because he had slept part of the way. Mama went and lay down for an hour. Since we had church that evening I did not want to get into too much outside so I sat and read while Mama napped.

When Mama did get up she discovered that the a/c was leaking water onto the living room floor again. We began to mop that up and make plans to submit a service request with the Home Warranty company to get it looked at and hopefully further inspected and thereby resolved. All that will be on Mama today as she and Jake rest up to gather the energy to go tubing tomorrow.

I am taking tomorrow off to take Mama and Jake south for the tubing trip at a recreational camp about an hour away. I am not totally enamored with the idea because I see it as a great way to get a sunburn but she and Jake are very excited about the idea so that is how we will start our day tomorrow. We will have to be back in time to go to RU that evening but that will give us several hours on the river before we have to get back home. It will give us a chance to check it out for potential future use when our kids and grandkids visit.

I should be able to spend Saturday working on a hog pen for the feeder pigs. With pallets it is more of assembling prefab pieces than any type of true construction. But I should have sufficient pieces to put together a pretty large, somewhat durable enclosure for this batch of pigs and hopefully for future purchases in the feeder pig line.

I really need to start on the chicken coop. Mama is expecting her chicks to be shipped next week and I am ready for that. By the time they get big enough that they will need more space than the cage we will start them in, we should have Victoria’s coop cleaned and ready for the chickens we currently have at the farm. With the possibility of having thirty chickens at the farm I would really like to keep them contained in a set area. They are very destructive creatures.

Mama feels sorry for them when it is hot so she lets them out of the coop every day so they can tear up the flowerbeds and throw dirk onto the front sidewalks as they scratch through the front yard digging up everything I keep watered, all because she believes that somehow they will be more comfortable in the same heat they would be in if left in the coop and it’s adjoining yard. They do like to roam the farm but I do not think the freedom garners them any greater level of comfort. It is not really that big an issue but the nightly cleanup from the chickens and the dogs makes for a frustrating routine.

Everyone is happy with it but me.

Tokens, Jake’s culinary choices

In Psalms 86 the psalmist asks God to show him a “token for good”; a sign that He is really involved in the current circumstances and is still fully in charge; that He is far more than just aware of the situation we are in. I prayed that same prayer the other day and have been looking for an answer. Last night we got not one but three little tokens of His grace.

The hiring manager for the Licensing group called me last night and closed the loop on the job offer that has been hanging out there since February of this year. At this time he has all the people he needs to take care of the plant in Louisiana so he cannot offer me a job. That door is closed for good. I was both relieved and disappointed at the same time; a strange combination of emotions. But I had to recognize it for what it was; God’s direction. It is never a bad thing to get clear direction.

The second token came just a few minutes later. Mama and I have been trying to find a way to get enough pallets together to build a pen for the feeder pigs – something more permanent than just half of the current lot that was built specifically for the pot belly pigs. Lowe’s said they did not give away or sell their pallets and Tractor supply had nothing to offer so we were headed to the feed store in Chico to see what they had for sale at $4 each.

On the way we called a man that runs a spray in insulation business from his home – which is about a mile down the road from us. He had several dozen pallets accumulated outside his garage and it did not appear that he was using them for anything. Mama left him a message and he called us back just as we got to the feed store. He normally takes the pallets to Ft Worth and sells them for $2 each to a company there but he did not feel he had enough to mess with. So he told Mama we could have them if we agreed to take them all. We assured him that that was not a problem. I took about a third of them home last night and will finish up on Thursday.

I realized the third token had come as I talked to a young preacher who was having a difficult time knowing how to respond to a needy, recently divorced woman in his small church. I told him what I could as a man and referred him to my pastor for the counsel he needs relevant to his responsibility and authority as a pastor. I would not be able to recite just what I told him but he let me know that it brought to light up a lot of issues he was totally unaware he was dealing with – or contributing to unknowingly. God is good; really good.

While I was on the phone with the young pastor Mama, Victoria and Jake were at Yesterday’s for a late dinner. Jake was completely taken with the restaurant. Mama said he took over thirty pictures of the decorations. The staff was thoroughly taken with Jake as well. So in the spirit of the hour Jake ordered the Hot Fudge Sundae Burger. It is just what it sounds like, a bun, a hamburger patty, ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream and cherry, topped with a bun drizzled with chocolate syrup; all that with a side of fries.

Jake ate the whole thing – after taking several pictures and a video.

Bad financials, babysitting, Jake

Yesterday was an interesting day as far as the stock markets were concerned. After opening almost 1,100 points down it settled at 588 points down. That is not a good sign. ConocoPhillips stock has lost more than half of its value from a high of around $85/share. For those of us who will be forced out of the company soon, that is a very bad financial landscape.

There is little we can do but adapt and make the best of things, but there are those in the company who are desperately worried about their future. Fortunately, my hope is not in this world. It truly is “out of this world”. Today looks much brighter for the markets, but that too will not last long. I will continue to look for my chance to buy back into our company stock at a price I have set for that purchase – we aren’t there yet. I only hope to be here long enough to make that transaction.

Locally, the dry weather continues so I have to water several times per week. It is a pleasant chore. Mama and I really like to watch things grow. As I have stated before we have a much better chance of success here than we ever did on the farm in Bowie. Danny Benson is quickly discovering that although he, like us, takes a long view of things. We will eventually figure out how to make things work in our favor. Until then we will experiment to see which methods are most successful.

Mama had the Echeveria kids at the farm with her when I got home yesterday. The house was not the normally quiet sanctuary I find at the end of the work day. But that is not a bad thing. Erin and the kids are traveling to Chicago this morning – their flight left at 4:30 a.m. – so she needed some time to get things together for that trip. I am not sure how she was able to accomplish that in the absence of her “helpers”.

It did not take long after Mama took the children to meet Erin at the church for us to straighten up the house. Luke, the oldest, tends to make himself very much at home which gives him permission to play with anything that catches his eye and to deposit that item anywhere that suits him. He has very definite ideas about how things should be done. We just have to learn how to work within those parameters.

Before Mama took the kids to the church she wanted to make one more round to water the pigs and check on the cattle. Since she was going to feed the pigs I got the overripe bananas and cantaloupe out of the fridge so Gracie could help her with that chore. When Luke saw the inedible fruit on the kitchen table he immediately threw than in the trash. The fact that we fished them out really disgusted him. I would love to hear how he told his parents about that.

We had FBI class last night and Jake hung in there with us through the three hour session by watching movies on his phone in the fellowship hall of the church. At the second break, around 8:40 I asked him what he was watching and he could not remember. I teased him about that for the few minutes we were on break. When we packed up to go home he gave me a complete rundown on the movie he had watched – complete with a Rotten Tomato review of the feature film to back up his own analysis.

I suppose I asked for that.

Busy weekend, Jake

Mama and I were out and going pretty early Saturday morning. She had a lead on some feeder pigs so we got the money together and headed to Cottondale; about thirty minutes away. We found the place without too much trouble, which was good since I was hauling a trailer behind the truck. We were looking to get three pigs in the purchase; two for us and one for the Wycoffs.

I debated how to haul the pig because we did not know how big they were. We have a pretty large dog kennel but I did not know if it would be large enough. So Mama came up with the idea of loading the hog trap we have at the farm on the small trailer and using that for the pigs. It only took a few minutes to get it on the trailer and hook it up to the truck – and it turned out to be a good idea.

Two of the pigs we bought were about forty pounds. The third one we only about fifteen pounds – much smaller even that the pot belly pigs we have already at the farm. That turned out to be a problem until we got the idea of letting the littlest one stay in the hog trap so we can feed it separately for a few weeks. We put the two larger pigs in the pen with the pot belly pigs – bad idea. While the new pigs fought with the pot belly pigs we unloaded the trap and got the little one into it.

Later we had to put a panel into the pen to separate the new pigs from the pot belly pigs in order to make sure they would be able to eat and drink. It seems the pot belly pigs were not even willing to share their water dish with the new arrivals, much less let them into the little building we build for them. We should have known there would be trouble but we were still taken by surprise at the intensity of the fighting. Once we got them separated things settled down quickly. After that we were all in need of showers and a little bit of rest because we had to go to the airport to get Jake just a few hours after we finished with the pigs.

We tried a new way to get to Love Field in Dallas and it worked out pretty well. We made one wrong turn but recovered pretty quickly ending up at the airport just before he landed; 4:30 pm. We got through security just as he was getting off the plane so he was waiting for us as we walked to the very far end of the terminal to his gate. He has gotten much taller but he is the same ol’ Jake. So if you need Mama this week you will have to understand that at every turn she has someone talking in her ear with the constant chatter he is famous for.

He was super excited to see the Chico farm. It was almost too much for him to wait as Mama and I went to Costo and Kroger’s on the way home from picking him up. We left the airport at a little after 5 pm and finally got home at 7:30 pm. But he waited pretty patiently through the shopping, chattering the entire time. He was in bed by 9 pm – sound asleep; completely worn out. Considering that his normal bed time has been 1 a.m., he ended up getting way ahead on sleep in just his first night.

 He thoroughly enjoyed yesterday. He has not been to church since the last time he was with us.

Walking with friends, busy weekend ahead

Yesterday evening Mama and I met with the Wycoff family to look at a property that they are interested in. The property is between us and Chico so it is very close by. Larry Mater – the realtor who handled the sale of the farm we now occupy - was the realtor who met us at the property. He remembered Mama right away. Most people do.

The mobile home was not ready for viewing but there was little need. From the outside it looked pretty neglected. The older couple that own and live on the property look like they are years past being able to do anything to maintain the property at all. That and the fact that there were probably ten cats roaming around made the mobile home pretty unappealing. So we walked over the property.

It is twelve acres in total. Not a whole lot bigger than our place but far more overgrown; neglected for many years, but with great potential. As we trudged through the overgrowth to see where the property boundaries were we saw sign of a lot of deer. There was some sign of hogs but not nearly as much as the deer sign. That excited Daniel and James.

We punched through to a small tank that had originally been done with a lot of forethought. It was a large bowl at the very back corner of the property that had been fashioned with a small island in its center. It had some water in it but not much more than the hole that was dug on our property to discard bricks and branches. Some careful groundwork can easily reroute the property runoff back to the tank.

There were several outbuildings which were surprisingly well done. There were small enclosures for pigs or sheep. There was a small chicken coop with a little yard attached to it. There was also a carport that was high enough and large enough to become a good shop at some future point. All in all, a good piece of property to start working on.

There is a lot Mama and I can do to help clean up the property since we have a tractor and several implements that are right for the work. It will add one more property to our routine but all the properties are small and very close. If it works out, it will be nice to get some teamwork involved in our continuing efforts to improve our property and our self-sufficiency; a small group is better than a lone family.

Daniel and I talked about offers as we walked about and as we talked to the realtor found out that we were pretty spot -on with the numbers we had agreed should be right for the purchase. Now he has to get the financing together and get prepared to make the offer for real. That should be coming within a week or so.

Mama and I are going to look at piglets tomorrow morning. If we like what we see we will get two for ourselves and one for the Wycoffs. If they get to buy the place in Chico they will have a place for their hog pretty soon. If not, we will feed it out for them.

After that we are going to the airport to get Jake. We have a fun week ahead.

Livestock, Becky, work/life balance

Daisy and Dash are back in their own pasture but I get the distinct impression that neither of them is happy about it. I believe she will settle into the routine Mama will get going for them but they are herd animals and they will miss the friends they made in the pasture with the bull and his harem. The downside is that I will have to buy hay to begin feeding out very soon because there is not enough grass in the four or so acres we have her and Dash on to support them without supplementation.

Mama’s two guineas seem to be doing well for now. The larger one is very confined in the cage where she is housing them but we should be able to change that this weekend. We have a cage set up in the chicken coop but Mama is afraid that the guinea will either get out of that cage or could be eaten by a hungry snake – since the cage is sitting on the ground in the yard area of the coop. I can’t argue with that assessment; especially since we have taken several large snakes out of the coop recently.

Becky called Mama yesterday to announce that she was leaving the man she has been with recently. (I never bothered to learn his name.) But I suppose those of you who see her posts on Facebook already know that; she is not shy about it. The relationship actually lasted longer than I had anticipated. I do not know her future plans nor to where Mama and I will have to travel to meet Becky and her child, nor what last name the child will have. It is not a situation I envisioned for my children as I was raising them.

I continue to show up for work every required day but there is very little happening. No projects in the pipeline, no discussions about taking on future projects, no assignments for anything past maintaining the current state of business. As we draw closer to the layoff announcements it will be even more oppressively silent. September will be a very long month for us – if we make it that long.

The price of our company stock has fallen further in the past several days and that has to be worrying the upper management of this company. All the financial signs point to the inescapable truth that even what they plan to do by the end of this year will not be enough to reverse the dire financial situation we are in corporately. Those who survive this round of layoffs will face the same situation next year and quite possible the year after that.

I was telling Mama last night that it is nearly impossible not to be overcome by the melancholy that hovers over us every day but I know we have more to hope for than what my employer offers. I know in my heart that God will take care of me and Mama but I struggle to get my mind to join in the certainty. But the truth is, I do not have to see the answer to know there is one. I do not have to see the path forward to know God has placed one before me; one that will give Him the glory and produce good in my life.

So I count me blessings; a goods wife, a good home, a place to raise our meat and grow our food, good health and a positive balance in the bank. We are off to a very good start.

Mounting fear, losses, trading and travel

As the days continue to tick by I have to deal with a building dread of the inevitable – that I will not have this job for more than a few more weeks. I know the Lord will take care of me and Mama but it is nearly impossible to detach myself from the worry that comes because of the uncertainties such a life change brings about. It makes it, though, not exactly difficult, less exciting to come to work as I and those around me wait for the official word on each of our respective positions. Some of my coworkers are very discouraged and it is difficult, while sympathizing with them, to avoid crawling into that hole with them.

Yesterday, as promised, Camille brought the guineas to Mama. She had two that were only a few days old and one that was much older – maybe several weeks. Mama took them home and searched the house for a good place to put them, finally selecting the bird cage we have from the parakeets Victoria had once had. It seems to be working out well for now.

The sad part of that news is that after Mama got back from a quick run to the grocery store one of the baby keets was dead. We do not know if the heat of something natural got to it or if it drowned in the water dish Mama was using for them. She found it in the water and was terribly disappointed to have lost one. We are hoping Camille will find some more over the next few days or weeks – but not too many.

Rain and cooler weather are upon us this morning. I drove to work in forty mile per hour winds as the storm approaches. It is rolling down off of the high plains and seems to be carrying a pretty good punch with it. People are already talking about a very hard winter ahead and they could be right, but it seems far too early to get too worked up over. None the less, I have made a mental note to get busy on some prep work I can actually get done right now.

Mama called Wayne Berg yesterday evening. He has been letting Daisy May run with his bull in the large pasture adjacent to us and Mama is interested in getting her back. While she was stewing on that the other day she asked if we should ask to trade our little bull for one of his little heifers. It would be a swap in his favor since the little bulls sell for more money than the same sized heifers but we need to build a herd and right now we do not need a bull.

It would save us the trouble of shopping around for a heifer. We are in no particular hurry to grow the herd and I am in no particular mood to travel across the area in search of a heifer we can afford. He is thinking about the offer and will let us know soon. In the meantime he is going to get Daisy loaded and returned. Mama is a good “horse trader” – West Virginia born and bred – but we will have to wait to see if she pulls this deal off.

Speaking of West Virginia, Grandpa got an all clear report from the doctors he is seeing there. That leaves his current persistent weakness without any clear diagnosis. Neither he nor Grandma is pleased with the brush off. In light of that he is planning to come back down to Chico the middle of next month.

Sooner is far better than later.

FBI, new arrivals, predators, cooler weather

Last night was the first night of FBI for this semester. I think I counted fourteen people there with two regulars missing so this will be a pretty big class. It is a long session – three hours every Monday night – but it is a very rewarding time. The amount of Bible covered in those hours is a little overwhelming at first, but it is a real pleasure to take the time to digest it all through the week.

When we got home Victoria went out to close up the chickens. It has become her custom to let the dogs out just before bedtime while she makes the trek out to the coop. Last night our coop had a visitor so I was called on the remove a snake from the nesting boxes. It was a very large corn snake – quite beautiful. But I had to kill it in order to keep it from returning to the coop; especially since we are getting a fresh batch of chicks in a couple weeks. A snake that size could wipe out all the chicks in one night.

One of the ladies I work with is bringing a couple baby guinea chicks – called keets – to Mama this morning. They are just showing up on her place. Her husband’s grandfather has a large flock of giuneas and I assume they are reproducing but there are none sitting on batches of eggs that they know of so these must be hatching out on their own.

That’s good for me and Mama because we want a few guineas on the farm –as well as a few at Victoria’s. Since we are prepped for the batch of chicks to arrive very shortly we are prepared to house these few guineas also. Mama and I made a place for a larger guinea keet that she has had for about three weeks. So we are getting three very little ones and one larger – almost full grown – one.

In addition to the snakes we have been seeing we are also seeing a mommy raccoon with four little ones regularly. For the past several nights we have seen them scurrying down our road. If Mama had not been with me I would have run over two of them but as it was they escaped unharmed. I will have to kill them sometime later – hopefully before they get into the coop.

I will have to start taking nightly walks to see if I can eliminate the baby hogs and baby coons before they become a menace. The weather may actually be cooperating in that respect. I heard on the radio this morning that we are expecting a couple nights in the sixties by the end of the week. Could summer be over already?

We are also expecting rain with the approaching cool front. That will be a very welcome change. It will not arrive soon enough that I will not have to water tonight but help is on the way. This is the time of year that my plants can gather the energy to prepare for a long winter nap so they can come back with enough strength to put out fruit in the spring.  Warm days and cool nights are the blessing of late summer.

Of course, that only adds to the work I need to do to keep the baby chicks warm through those nights until they get big enough to do without a heat lamp.

Baby dolls and big brothers, weekend updates

Friday night at RU we had a little girl named Ella. I would guess she was about four years old. It was our first time to have her but I think she had been there before since James and Jacob seemed to know her. She did not come in right away but when she did she really enjoyed all the activities we had going on. She was a very pleasant child, very pretty and expressive. She took to Jacob in a big way. Having the three of them made it a very enjoyable evening.

When we went over to the gym after the Ru meeting was over to eat together, as is the regimen of the meeting, we got to meet the mom and older brother. What the older brother said put me in mind of something I imagine our grandson Blake saying in a few years. When Laura David told the older brother who was maybe ten that he was cute he remarked, “if you thing I’m cute you ought to see my little sister. I’m nowhere as cute as her. She’s a real doll baby.” Clearly he was comfortable with that truth.

I slept in on Saturday morning until 8 a.m. It was great. When Mama and I got up we did not get into too awfully much but spent the day cleaning up around the farm and the house. In our absence one of the dogs had been perfumed by a skunk and the smell had gotten ingrained into the pebbled overlay on the front porch. I took everything off the porch and swept thoroughly – getting up an enormous amount of fine dirt left by the dogs as they sleep there. Then I used some bleach and soap and lots of water to clean the area. It looked much better when I was done and I think it smelled better too but time will tell.

While I was out a soaked with sweat I got the tractor out and tried to clean the barn lot. I managed to get a few scoops of manure and dirt out of the confined space but it was so dried and hardened that I had to give up after an hour of wrestling the tractor into the spaces I needed to clean. I put all that I did remove onto the garden. Then I hooked up the brush hog. Boy, was that a chore.

What should have taken me a half hour took well over an hour because the collar that attaches to the power take off on the tractor was rusted over. In that collar is a ball bearing that acts as a locking latch on the PTO shaft of the tractor. That ball bearing was rusted in place and I had to work it loose from the rust and grit with generous amounts of oil and careful persuasion (translate that beating) with a wrench.

Mama has expressed an interest in continuing the work with the brush hog through the week so I felt it was important to have it convenient to her through this week. I told her when I got to the house after mowing on the property for an hour or so, that I am very thankful that we have such a nice tractor to use – and that it is fully paid for. That will be a great blessing in the months to come.

We called Grandma on the way to church yesterday morning to wish her a happy birthday. Norman’s birthday is today followed by Grandpa’s birthday tomorrow.

Friday my boss told me that I have less than eight weeks in my current role. Time really is short.

Sleeping in, prioritizing, Mama’s red Keurig

As I got up this morning I began to consider how nice it will be to sleep in tomorrow morning. When I sleep in it is usually no later than 7:30 that I get up, but even that has not been possible since we left for Florida. Grant and Blake are normally up between 6:00 and 6:30 a.m. every day and though they try to play quietly in the playroom, it is still difficult to stay asleep with them running through the house. That is not a complaint. It is only an observation. All in all, it is a pretty good way to be waked up.

The past several nights Mama and I have been helping in VBS at our church and following the close of VBS we have stayed around to help with cleanup from that night’s events and set up for the following night’s events. Getting to bed after 10 pm and getting up at 5:30 a.m. has been a challenge; not impossible but definitely challenging. So I am looking forward to sleeping in until at least 7:30 tomorrow.

Having every evening occupied makes it very difficult to keep up with things on the farm but I will have all day Saturday – when I eventually get up – to try to get a few things done. Unfortunately, there is only one of me and all the things that Mama is waiting on me to do – weed eating mainly – are not high on my agenda. They have to be done but I do not consider them urgent in the way she does.

Fortunately, the temperatures have stayed below 100®F for the past few days and the nights are starting to get below the 80®F mark so there is less stress on the plants I am fussing over. But the humidity is now below 35 % which makes my attention to watering even more urgent. I usually hold off until the late evening before I water the plants but that time of day always seems to creep up on me rather quickly.

While we were at Cori and Nate’s Mama and I started to reconsider getting another Keurig. I know at one point I bought three used Keurig while we were in Florida. I believe one went to Brittany – or maybe Maggie – one went to Cori and Nate and one eventually went to Chase. At the time I thought the cost of the pods was too high and Mama and I preferred the percolator brewed coffee; I still do, but it is hard to beat the convenience of the Keurig.

But Mama, being Mama, wanted a red one and neither of us wanted the newer model they recently marketed. We much prefer the older style with the three selector buttons on the top face. So with that in mind Mama searched through Craigslist and found one for sale that she really liked the sound of – especially for the price listed. She called and arranged to meet the lady selling it at a McDonalds a few miles from home. She is now the proud owner of her very own red Keurig 40 – which I have to buy special water for.

With bread machines (yes, plural) and pizza bakers and little pie makers and rice cookers and crockpots and coffee pots and water heating pitchers and deep fryers and blenders and food processors and toaster ovens and toasters and electric skillets and all other sorts of kitchen appliances I consider myself very fortunate to have a room in this house specifically set aside to house all these appliances.

Now all I need to do I build more shelves to hold them all.

Maggie, Cori, Mama, me

While we were in Florida Maggie was going through a pretty rough time in Alaska. She had been having some pretty severe abdominal pain and it had been continuous for the month following her delivery. The end result was that she had to go to the hospital for a D&C to have her uterus cleaned out. She came through the surgery in good shape and is recovering fairly well for now. We are still praying for her to fully recover especially since Aaron is going to be gone for a month for training. By the way, her birthday is today.

Cori continues to send up pictures of Savanna. She is a very photogenic child. (But then, all of her children are.) As with every child, it will be interesting to see her grow and find out her personality and demeanor, her likes and dislikes, her strengths and weaknesses. With her nearest sibling being five years older she will be on the fast track for every learning experience life will require of her. With her sister being eight years older it may be challenging for her to develop some of her own passions rather than simply immolate those of her big sister but time will tell.

Mama and I went to church last night for VBS with the Walker family. Brother Walker, who shares my hair style, is always fast to make me a target for the ventriloquist portion of his performance; ribbing me about too much scalp showing, but it is always enjoyed by the crowd – and me. I happened to be sitting on the front row with a group of rowdy little four and five year old boys so I knew it would be coming. It is always fun.

Mama got to show pictures of her newest grandchild to some ladies but last night was far too busy to get much time to share any news. That will come on Sunday evening, but Mama is loaded with pictures and intimate details for the occasion – locked and loaded in that female way. It was good to be back in our church last night especially with the excitement of VBS.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, Mama discovered yesterday that we are missing several chickens. We are not sure if an animal is getting them or the heat, but we are down three that she knows for sure. If we are losing them to an animal we will have to be on guard because when a raccoon or fox discovers a weakness in our defenses, that animal will exploit it until the last chicken is eaten; one of the challenges of country living.

Mama’s hummingbirds are still coming to the feeders at the house. That is encouraging because it means they have nests in the woods nearby. If that is the case, they will come back year after year. That would thrill Mama. I imagine that by next summer she will have named each of them, in fact, I am surprised that it has not already happened.

With VBS and Ru on each of the next two nights it will be Saturday before is get back to watering the plants. I did not even take the time to see if the water I gave them Tuesday helped in a visible way because of VBS last night. I took a short nap when I got home knowing that I would be out late last night – and I helped tremendously.

Right now I am praying for direction as I consider the financial turmoil I will be dealing with in the next several weeks. There are so many things running through my mind that I am being pulled in too many directions at once. I need that stillness that only comes from knowing that the Lord is directing the decisions I have to make.

I am not there yet.

Many memories, home again

It has been some days since I have updated this blog and it would be difficult to give any type of full accounting of those days. I have often wondered at life in general and the fact that each of us has twenty four hours per day, seven days per week and so on, yet we remember so little of the variety of events from any one of those particular days. So many people go through the whole of their lives without any record of the trials, the triumphs or the tedium that fill those hours; millions of moments, tens of thousands of days, perhaps only hundreds of memories.

I said all that to say that the hours were filled with swimming at the river, swimming at the beach, swimming in the neighbors pool, cooing at the faces made by a several days old baby girl, cuddling that same infant, coaching her siblings on how to hold her and eagerly waiting for our next turn to do so. Hours upon hours of funny faces, funny tidbits said by our grandkids, card games, movies, games played on iPhones and the associated squabbling about who got to do what longer than someone else, laughter at meals together, hugs and kisses at nighttime; too much to record, too precious to forget.

One of the more memorable quotes of the trip happened as we were eating dinner at La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant in Milton. It was the very first time Cori had gone out with newborn Savanna. She had her car seat/carrier perched on a tray table next to her chair with a blanket covering her and the car seat. The baby was very quiet through the entire meal so Blake got very suspicious.

He hopped off his chair and ran to the carrier and carefully lifted the cover to peek at his new sister. Cori allowed the inspection but kept a close eye on the littlest big brother. “Is everything okay?” She asked. To which he responded, I was just make suring.”

Yesterday night as the kids tried to go to bed in our recent absence, Blake remarked at how empty the house felt. As I had hugged Cori goodbye Monday evening I remarked that we were leaving her house empty but not necessarily less noisy. I do not think Blake overheard so it was an interesting observation. Cori said that it was nice to have family visiting in your home. Blake remarked that it was “kind of like Heaven.” How sweet is that?

Mama, Victoria and I drove over on Monday night. Since Victoria and I had done the drive to Cori and Nate’s through the night we sort of knew what to expect, but it was new for Mama. It all went well and the timing could not have been better. We hit Dallas at 4:30 a.m. Traffic was very light and we ended up pulling into our driveway at about 5:30. It was a good trip; sad but good.

Mama and I did not sleep too long Tuesday morning; even though I had only slept for about thirty minutes on the trip home. I was anxious to check things out; to see what we had lost or were close to losing tree wise. It turned out that Brittany Wycoff had done a very good job of maintaining things in our absence but I still spent a good portion of the day watering and tending to the trees.

Brittany was a little disappointed that we were back since she was really enjoying her time at the farm.

Savanna is here

Monday morning we were at the beach – we left pretty early since the afternoons are usually taken up by thunderstorms - just getting settled in when Cori called to tell us the doctor had called her and asked her to get to the hospital to be induced. She was ecstatic. So were we, but with the timeframe of such events we stayed at the beach for several hours before we packed up and headed to the house.

We got cleaned up and waited – and waited. As it turned out this was not an easy delivery for Cori. She was in labor for many hours as Savanna tried to get into position to be delivered. The baby was face up and slightly sideways as mommy was able to give the final pushes to bring her through the birth canal. It was a strain on both of them. What had started about noon on Monday resulted in a successful birth at 4 a.m. Tuesday morning.

The net result is that Cori and Nate have another beautiful baby girl; seven pounds, five ounces, eighteen inches long. She is quite a tiny package compared to Walter who came out several pounds heftier. Mama was remarking to other visiting mothers that the problematic births were startling similar between Walter and Savanna. Now, just to add to the saga, it appears that Becky is going to have similar issues with her first - due sometime next month.

Since I am remote I do not have pictures to upload but there are multiple postings on Facebook for Cori, Victoria, Mama and a slew of others who visited Cori and Savanna in the hospital yesterday. It was really rough on Cori since the birth had been difficult but she trudged on as family after family shuffled through the room taking pictures of their children holding Cori’s newborn child. I think the hospital staff had to fill the hand sanitizer dispenser several times that day.

Mother and baby are not expected home until sometime tomorrow. I know mommy and daddy are eagerly anticipating homecoming – if only so they can really rest fully. No one gets to rest in a hospital for more than thirty minutes at a stretch. Grammy is very anxious to have the newborn home also since her time to get to enjoy the tiny one will be limited.

We are headed back around lunchtime today so we can take Nate out for a real meal. The hospital food is necessarily bland – incredibly unappetizing. We took dinner from home to Cori and Nate last night. We packed sandwiches for us and the kids but made burrito bowls for the two of them. Savanna has her own food to eat as Cori’s milk is coming in well now.

As these things go, we were there to celebrate Savanna’s first bowel movement. It was interestingly gross. Grammy, who will not abide certain things in her field of view – spiders, roaches, etc. – was completely nonplussed but the revolting black runny mass that filled the diaper. I would venture to say she was excited to do the first diaper change. (Nothing particularly exciting there for me.) But it was kind of a celebratory moment for the progression required to get the baby diagnosed as healthy.

I cannot understand the joviality of getting to change a diaper but it is a happy thought God puts into a mother’s heart in the bonding that happens with a mother and child. Feeding I get; changing a diaper, not so much.

I would rather gut a deer. Somehow that just seems less gross.

Travel updates

Victoria and I left Chico at about 8:30 pm Thursday night and got into Pace, FL about 9:15 Friday morning. We knew Cori was in the hospital and Nate was with her but our real intent was to surprise Mama. As it turned out the surprise was almost on us. Mama and the kids were leaving the house just as we were arriving.

If the Lord had not held Mama up in her intended departure she and the grandkids would have been long gone on their way to the beach. But, as it turned out, we passed them as they were leaving the neighborhood – they did not see us, but we saw them. So Victoria called Mama and asked where they were going. It only took a moment for Mama to realize that we had to have seen them so she asked where we were. We were right behind them.

Mama pulled over and everybody got out – right in the middle of a driveway to a high priced apartment complex. Fortunately we only irritated three drivers who were trying to get into the complex. We all turned around, went to Cori’s house and unloaded, then headed to Pensacola to surprise Cori and Nate. The kids could barely contain themselves. We were not exactly the most quiet group as we wound our way through the hospital corridors with Nate guiding us to Cori’s room.

As it turned out, Cori was sent home that evening so we are still waiting on Savanah but that did not spoil the surprise. The doctor on call did not want to induce Cori’s labor at what he considered too early a date based on her original due date. They did determine that the baby weighs very close to eight pounds and based on Cori’s very pregnant belly, it will happen any day, but only as the Lord determines.

We went with Mama and the kids to the beach that late morning – after visiting the hospital. The beach was crowded and very, very hot. Mama did not bring any shade device so I tried sitting in a chair mostly covered while they enjoyed the water but eventually returned to the little van, opened the doors and slept in the shade provided there. The breeze through the open doors was enough to keep me from being completely drenched with sweat. Having been up all night traveling made Friday a blur but at least we were with Mama, safe in Florida.

Traveling through the night had its issues but all in all I think it was better as far as traffic, temperature and the number of times we were required to stop. Limited stops resulted in limited spending as well. We made the trip in just over twelve hours including three stops for gas and one for the bathroom only. We spent less than fifteen dollars on food items.

Victoria drove for about two hours – between 2 and 4 a.m. Those are always my most difficult hours. I slept that entire time. I drove the remainder of the time and was very pleasantly surprised (and thankful) that the Lord kept me alert and engaged.

Saturday was a catchup day for since the rain kept us from the beach. We swam in the neighbor’s pool for about an hour and took a very long nap. Sunday was good, but we missed our church.

Today, I think we are going back to the beach to roast some more.