Tough decisions, lack of opportunity, visiting

Mama has been having trouble sleeping comfortably lately so we went to Wichita Falls to the place where we originally bought our mattress and arranged to exchange it for a new one. We have had our mattress for about a year so the exchange was prorated accordingly but we still ended up getting a new mattress without adding much to the purchase out of pocket. The difficulty was in finding the mattress we both could live with for the foreseeable future. Mama likes soft and I like firm so settling on one mattress has always been a challenge. Since we have an adjustable base the choices are confined within the group of mattresses that will work on the adjustable base. Fortunately, the place we bought from has a good selection to choose from. Unfortunately, those of you who know Mama know how difficult it is for her to make a decision. As we lay facing each other on one test mattress, she said, “I’m going to let you decide.” I just shook my head and we kept going. Finally, after we had almost decided, we tried out one more mattress and we were both impressed. What we ended up doing was getting twin mattress so she could get the softer and I could still have a firm one. We will get them sometime next week so it will be a while before we get to see if we made the right choice. It took us just a little over an hour to get that done. Then we were off to Sam’s.

I did not put anything other than those stops into our trip because I was allowing time to get the mattress decision out of the way. As it turned out, that ended up being the right decision. There is a Home Depot by the Sam’s in Wichita Falls and I wanted to see if they had a fitting I am looking for to hook the pressure tank to the well. Lowes does not carry the one I would like to have. While Mama started shopping at Sam’s I went into Home Depot. When I got to the plumbing isle it was blocked off since the workers were rearranging the top shelf of that isle. They looked intent on getting the work done so I left to catch up to Mama. After we had finished at Sam’s I tried again at Home Depot. The isle was still blocked off and the employees would not allow me to look – even though it was for one item only. I probably will not ever get to know if they have that fitting because I will probably never go back.

Becky, Bridgette and Mike will be here tomorrow. I still have mixed emotions about the life she has gotten tangled up in but she is our daughter and she is wanting to make the trip to see us and let us visit with the grandbaby – whom we have not seen since she was born. It will be nice to see them if they do make it over. They will be staying in a motel because they did not like the rules we live by. They are more than welcome to stay with us while they are here but there are standards we have lived by for all of our lives. Becky is aware of those standards. Since Mike and Becky are not married we told her that Mike would have to sleep on the couch because we would not allow them to sleep in the same bed. No more than if she had a boyfriend spend the night at our house when she lived at home. Mama and I do not want to alienate, but we do not want to vindicate either. It is a difficult road to walk; to love your children and open your life and home to them, yet still stand firm on Biblical standards that were long ago abandoned by them. It has been said that we first change our behavior and then adapt our beliefs to fit those behaviors. That way we are not convicted by the changes we made and now conform to a different standard. What we once stood against, we now proudly do, having fit our faith to our practice; giving ourselves permission to do whatever is right in our own eyes. More often than not, it is a sad decline.

The weather is supposed to be good until late Saturday night so it will be a good time for Mama to show them the farm. We will enjoy the opportunity to visit and share our lives with Becky and company. Hopefully, they will enjoy it as well.

Errant feelings, happy days

Lately I have had a nagging feeling that all is not well. I do not know if there is any particular reason for the feeling, but when those unctions come I put myself on guard and get ready to fast. Who knows, it could be the slice of pizza I ate Monday night at FBI or the increased consumption of beans in our diet lately. Time will tell. For the time being, we will continue to do right and trust the Lord to continue to bless. There is too much that the Lord is doing in our lives to get sidetracked by apprehensive thoughts. There is too much I need to do to get distracted by what may never come. The Lord has protected and blessed Mama and I and the people from our church in so many ways. For instance, we were on the road with the seniors from the church last weekend and all went very well as we traveled to San Angelo and back when at the same time a group from a church very near us was involved in a horrific accident and twelve were killed. That is an overwehlming tragedy for the families of those who are now in Heaven and God spared us from anything like that, but He did not have to. I will not nurse the feelings that are nagging at me, but I will keep my guard up. If it is God, He will let me know what to do. If it is not, I will chalk it up to digestive issues and fast for a season while I let my body rest.

On the bright side, I tended to the strawberries in the garden for a few minutes last night and discovered that several of the plants are already loaded with little berries. I will have to get them into a bed that is off the ground if Mama and I do not want to share the fruit with the rats, opossums and raccoons. I also discovered that the portion of a white pumpkin that I planted has sprung up. I counted twenty sprouts. We do not need that much pumpkin but I will let them go and see how many of them make it. Mama and I may be canning a lot of pumpkin this summer. I will plant the remainder of the pumpkin at the pond and see if it will reproduce there also. Again, I am not sure what we will do with them other than decorate for Fall, but we can figure that out later.

Victoria spent the day with Grandpa, Grandma, Norman and Seth looking at campers. For some reason, she has the idea that she should buy a camper, park it at the farm and move into it so she can have “place of her own”. I am not sure how to line that up with the fact that Mama and I have a three bedroom, 2600 square foot house that we are happy to share with her until the Lord brings the man into her life that He has made for her – or until He unveils His plan for her life clearly to her, but it is only talk right now. My in-laws love that kind of frivolous pursuit and happy talk. You don’t ever have to do it, you just have to be willing to talk about doing it. For them the accomplishment is not in execution of a plan. For them the accomplishment is dreaming up a “good” plan. I have always been more of a doer and at many stages in Mama’s and my life together I have spent large amounts of money to start putting together the materials for us to get started building out a grand dream only to watch those materials get used up on other projects or simply to rot away as they sat waiting for the work to be done. Victoria’s house is a case in point. But they are happy with that life so I join in the banter but I do not typically expect a productive outcome.

Back to the camper. They found one that Victoria really liked. It was a 2008 model, so it was not new. The not-new price was $24,500. Looking at the price tag differently, if Victoria wanted to rent an apartment for $700 per month, that would be 35 months of rent. There are those that will tell you that renting is a waste of money. You get nothing in return. I mostly disagree. Renting provides living space that you do not have to maintain, pay taxes or insurance on and do not have to sell or otherwise dispose of when you move. Cori and Nate are reaping the rewards of equity in their home that just sole, but they will tell you that selling it was not a fun and easy process. Also, you are not required to take out a thirty-year mortgage to afford a rented house or other dwelling. For Victoria and her camper, she would still have to use the bathroom in the house. She would still have to use the washer and dryer, etc. So. spending $24,000 for a bedroom of her own seems a bit silly. But that is the kind of idea that always inspires Grandma, Grandpa and Norman.

She had fun while they were out but collapsed into be as soon as she was back home.

Storms, project help

We had a pretty fierce storm roll through overnight. The forecast was for it to be severe and I think they got it right on this one. We only got an inch and a half of rain but we got a lot of lightening and very strong winds. As I left the farm this morning I could not see any signs of damage but Mama will clue me in if there is any. Nearby, there were reports of 60 – 80 mile per hour winds. I am pretty sure we did not get anything that severe. The trees on the farm seem to be frail. That is the best way I can put it. There is some sort of brittleness to them that I am not used to seeing but so far, we have had very little damage done to them by the high winds. So, they might not be as frail as I think they are. Last year I had three trees taken out that were near the house and shop. The year before I had four taken out that were very near the back of the house. I still have five dead trees to remove but only two of them are in areas that give me any concern. All of them escaped damage through this storm, but their days of standing through the buffeting are numbered.

In preparation for the storm, Mama and I battened down the hatches around the property last night. All the animals have places to escape the rain and wind so we had no worries for them. Our goal was to keep as much rain out of the buildings as possible. We were planning on going to Wichita Falls last night but postponed it to Thursday evening because of a tornado watch that had been issued for the area. The brunt of the storm did not roll through until the wee hours of the morning, but we thought it was better to be safe than sorry. Although some areas had very large hail, we did not see any at the farm. Going forward, there are more storms forecast off and on through the weekend. This was the second damaging storm for many. Those who did suffer damage will be more apprehensive about the next round than Mama and I are, but in either case, there is little that can be done other than mitigate the damage as well as possible before the next one hits.

I made a call to Chester last night to see if he and Chuck would give me an estimate on building and installing rolling doors on the goat barn. Since they have a welding shop it would be much easier for them to do than for me. I have put off building the doors because I could not decide how I wanted to build them; whether to use wood or metal for the frames, whether to hinge them or mount them on rollers. Their estimate will give me more direction. It is also a pretty daunting task to mount the doors regardless of how I make them. Most of the work I do at the farm I do by myself. This is one project I will not be able to do alone. If the price they give me is good enough to turn the construction over to them, it will be one less chore I have on my list. That would be a blessing. Getting the barn finished would also be a blessing.

Since Mama and I have a little bit of money coming in, I plan to complete the well house in the barn lot next. I already have a lot of the materials for the building (metal for the exterior and roof) and the well. The electrical lines and water lines have already been run so the structure is the next step in getting that done. If I can get the materials for the building itself, it should take me about forty hours to complete. Getting those forty hours set aside to do the work is the challenge especially since the max I am normally able to put in is six to eight hours per week; on a very good week. So, it will take me six to eight weeks to get forty hours applied to the project; one hour here, two hours there. A great deal of time spent getting set up to start working – gathering tools, string our extension cords, etc., then making sure I have time to put put everything away after I spend forty minutes actually working.

A little here. A little there. It’s the best I have to offer right now.

Little ones on the farm

The other day, Mama discovered that we have a new family of woodpeckers in a tree in the goat area. She was in there mowing and happened to see several baby woodpeckers hopping through the branches. They are the offspring of the small woodpecker that has been a regular at the farm for the several years we have been there. Fortunately, we do not suffer any damage from the variety that has chosen our trees as home, but as I understand it, they can be quite destructive. So far, it has been a fun opportunity to watch the tiny ones learn to adapt to the life ahead of them. We have not heard them peck on the trees but I expect that will be coming soon. I will let you know if my opinion changes when that becomes a part of our ambient noise.

Very soon we should have more babies on the farm. Three of our cows look very close to ready. The fourth does not look pregnant. It would be a disappointment for her to miss giving us a calf this year but those things happen. For the goats, Millie looks like she could not get much bigger before kidding but we are pretty certain that she has at least three more weeks to go. Mama is praying for twins. We should have at least that but Millie has had triplets for both of the last two pregnancies. Triplet would mean that we would have to bottle feed one of the three. That is the main reason Mama is praying for this to be just twins. It is not that we do not thoroughly enjoy bottle feeding a little goat, it is that we would have to be very consistent in giving that feeding three times per day for six to eight weeks from birth. That consistency is what causes the problem since both of us work. I think filling the little one up in the morning and then again after work would be enough but you know Mama. She would stress out about the little one being hungry through the day and want to make a special trip to the farm at lunchtime to make sure it got its belly full. Maybe I should pray for twins too.

We have five or six hens that want to sit and Mama is constantly having to get the eggs out from underneath them. I do not think it would be a problem to let them hatch out some little ones but Mama seems committed to keeping that from happening. It is not like we do not have plenty of eggs. We are getting twelve to fifteen every day and since sales are down we have plenty of eggs to spare. A couple dozen chicks would add to the fun of having the chickens. But I think Mama has ordered a couple dozen chicks from a local hatchery that she plans to raise in one side of the coop. They will be here sometime late next month. In the meantime, we need to treat the coops and our chickens because some of them are looking pretty pitiful. Maybe it is molting time. Maybe it is mites. We can never be sure. So, we treat for mites.

The recent rain really helped our garden. More rain is predicted for this week so I will have a couple additional free hours in the evenings since I will not have to water the plants. We have potatoes sprouting and I have covered them a second time to give them more depth. We have tomatoes starting on several plants. We have peppers on several plants in the raised bed and we have blooms on the squash that I have struggled to keep alive through the past week or two. We also have blooms on several of the strawberry plants that survived the winter. I have them in a bed in the garden as well but it is on the ground so we have to constantly fight the ants as we tend to those plants. I plan to allow the strawberry plants to repopulate the bed with the runners they send out. By the end of the season we should have a full bed again. We have blueberries, blackberries and black raspberries in various stages of development. It will not be a big harvest on the blackberries and black raspberries, but the three blueberry plants are loaded. We are waiting to see how the figs, plums, nectarines, pears, apples, apricots and peaches will do this year. But, it looks very promising so far.

I like this time of year.

Our trip, the storm

Mama and I traveled with the seniors from the church Friday and Saturday. We went to Sweetwater, TX to the WASP museum. That was something new for both of us. I had never heard of the Women Air Service Pilots. They were a group started in mid-1942 to shuttle planes between based as needed by the Army Air Forces. Since most available men were drafted into fighting service there was a shortage of pilots to get planes from one base to another. The idea to use women in that role came from two pilots named Jacqueline Cochran and Nancy Love. Over one thousand women served in the program, all of whom had their pilots license prior to the time of service. I had no idea women had pilot’s licenses in those days. Thirty-eight of those women who served lost their lives in the service. The sad part of the story is that they had no benefits, no recognition and no notoriety. It was not until 1977 that they were given veteran status. When women were recently given roles as pilots in the Air Force the commander of the first graduates of the program were touted as the “first women to pilot military aircraft”, several of the WASP pilots spoke up rather loudly. Their records had to be recovered from storage, where they had been buried shortly after the war was over, before they were officially recognized for what they had done so many years ago. It was a very educational museum.

At the other end of the spectrum, we visited Fort Concho in San Angelo, TX. It was established in 1867 and served as a forward post for the US Army to protect settlers and trade routes through far west Texas. The fort is very well preserved and has been carefully restored. It was a hike for Mama and some of the other women but we all enjoyed it. There was a bit of a guided tour but it dealt with the armory more than anything else, so the men on the trip were the only ones who listened to a very detailed description of the armaments, the difficulty in relocating those artillery pieces and what the effective range of each piece was in battle. I enjoyed it but it was not a highlight for the women. It gave us an insight to the challenges the men faced in the late 1800’s. The hospital was not a restoration but rather a reconstruction based on hospitals at other forts in Texas. It was very interesting to see how primitive, yet imaginative some of the beds, bathrooms and operating facilities were made. For that time, it was cutting edge. Technology has changed. How we apply that technology to patient care has not changed all that much.

Mama and I visited a jewelry store and a clock repair store while the others went to a large general store. We talked to the owner in the clock shop and got to find out about how to identify the clocks we inherited from my Dad. That way we can research them for insurance purposes, plus have an idea about their origin and age. At the jewelry store we looked specifically at the pearls that are obtained from the muscles that grow in that part of the Concho River. The pearls are purple in color and can be quite beautiful and very expensive. Far more than what Mama and I could afford at this time. There was one necklace setting that was called a “blister pearl”. It was a mother of pearl piece from the shell that had several tiny pearls starting to form on it. I was impressed but if it was not known what you were looking at, it was not very attractive. It was however a $1000 plus setting.

Rain and hail passed through the area last night. We escaped the brutality that the storm wrecked on some nearby areas but we got about a half inch of rain because of it. As Mama and I sat at church last night knowing the storm was very intense we could not help but wonder what was happening at the farm. We knew all the animals had shelter available. I was more concerned about the garden and the fruit trees – all of which are at critical stages of growth and setting fruit.

All was well. Praise the Lord.

Brittany’s girls, Mama’s dreams, surprise deposits

Brittany called yesterday or the day before to tell me that two doctors have now told her that the twins she is carrying are girls. I still think it is a little too early to tell with absolute certainty but I can appreciate their expertise in the matter. I am thrilled for her and Andrew either way. I continue to pray for a healthy pregnancy for the sake of Brittany and the babies. She and Andrew will be going through a lot of changes in the next several weeks and the stress will mount at times. Part of that stress is the move they are making. As far as the twins are concerned, now is the best time to be making the move back to the US because the little ones are far easier to transport in utero than in two separate carriers. If all goes as planned they should all be here as a family by the end of April. The only downside as far as Mama is concerned is that she did not get to go to England and traipse around Europe with Brittany before they relocated. In our current financial situation, that would have been difficult, but it does not stop Mama from dreaming about it. In ways Mama is a little like George Bailey, the main character on “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Always dreaming of traveling but never quite making it.

I upset her a little the other day by telling her that the days of walking tours of exotic places are passed for her. We missed that boat some years back. With the constant pain she has in both of her knees, successive trips from the house to the barn wear her out and bring a pain that requires her to sit down long enough to let it pass enough so she can continue with chores. There are alternatives but for the moment, wheelchair accessible tours are not high on her list of spectacular venues for vacationing activities. If we continue as we have been, Mama has only to look at her mom to see the future of her personal mobility. There is hope for better mobility, but to make that hope a reality requires a lot of work to either lose weight and allow the tissue to rebuild through natural curative measures or do total knee replacements. It is a toss-up as to where that will fall out but she and Victoria are embarking on a new diet plan to help them both regain their health and reduce their weigh. I am generally supportive of any effort in that direction.

As I walked down the hall from the bedroom this morning I felt my foot hit something that should not have been on the Persian rug that covers a portion of the hall. I suspected what it was but turned on the hall light to verify. Sure enough, Rosie had pooped on the rug and I stepped in it. Fortunately for me I had my boots on. Unfortunately for the rug, I had my boots on. Cleaning ground-in poop from a rug was not how I wanted to start my morning, but that was how it began none-the-less. Just to make sure, I turned on more lights in the living room before I began my devotions and found another deposit on the floor there also. Right in the walkway. I would have had a “twofer” today. Oh, what fun. Mama is thrilled to have a dog live in her care as long as Rosie has. I am beginning to appreciate the alternative.

Mama and I are planning on traveling with the seniors tomorrow but the plans have not been finalized. The trip was originally planned for Nacogdoches, TX but that fell through when one of the main activities was abandoned. Mrs. Horton talked with Mama at length yesterday and they bounced several ideas off of each other but I was not privy to the final decision on our destination. I am not sure Mama was either. I told Mama I was okay if we did not make the trip, but that did not seem like a suitable option.

If we do not go, I will work and save my vacation. If we do go, I will enjoy the break.

Scheduling, chickens, water

My schedule is filling up at work. The supervisor over the compliance department resigned and she was one of the team who spent time at the many and various conferences related to the work we are doing. In her absence, I have been assigned a couple of those conferences. I am not sure about the training in Chile but I have not removed it from my calendar and we are crowding close to the time I will be taking a couple week-long OSHA Trainer classes. Some of the assignments will obviously require travel but none of them will be lengthy assignments so time away from the farm will not be overburdening to Mama, I hope.

I took the time last night to get the roost supports built and installed. Since I had the miter saw in the garden shed because of the work I was doing on the raised bed, I was able to quickly cut and assemble the pieces. Since I was using 2x2 pieces I salvaged from the old roosts I used a nail gun to put them together. Screws of sufficient size to make them sturdy would have split the wood and caused a lot more frustration than just taking the time to set up to use the pneumatic nail gun. I am not sure the chickens will be able to tell the difference, but Mama likes them better than the metal brackets 0 which were left in place last night for the sake of time. All the chickens were outside the coop area while I was working on that project. Mama lets them out several evenings per week – and they love the freedom. They really liked being able to distance themselves from the framing nail gun as I used it inside the coop. It is quite loud. Even Sasha ran to hid in the garage thinking someone was shooting a rifle.

Normally the chickens get back into the coop with little trouble but last night was an exception. I remembered that they had not been closed up as I was getting ready to take a shower. So, I went out to shut them up and had to physically place five of them that had bedded down on the front porch into the coop. Then I had to herd another four into the open gate to get them back inside their area. Two of those I had to finally catch and deposit on the proper side of the fence. It took a bit longer than usual but it was a pleasant night to be outside. It was only after I had laid down in bed that I remembered that the gate on the west side is the one Mama typically opens to let them out – and I had not closed it. That was another trip outside to bed down the chickens. The night did not seem so pleasant at that point.

I spent the last hour of the evening watering the plants around the house and in the garden. It is easier to water in the garden but it is also filling up with plants that need watering. The benefits of the hose being there for use is that I can be very generous with the amount of water given to each plant. When I was hauling the water in buckets I was not able to be so free with the water I had available. Now it is only a matter of time, not a matter of volume. I am sure the trees I was watering that way like the new method much better. The cattle are still without fresh water due to the shortage of one hose but we will take care of that by the end of the week. I am not in a hurry to get the troughs filled because we have pulled three drowned squirrels from them recently.

Tonight is a short night for outside work because of church and this weekend Mama and I will be traveling with the seniors of the church. In times like that, I just get done what I can; usually it all works out.

It’s hot, birds

For March, the temperatures have been very hot through the past week. As a result of that the vegetable plants we put into pots and the raised bed have been struggling to get started. Once they develop a larger root system they will be fine in the heat but for now the look wilted and near death every evening. I have been going out in the evenings and watering the plants carefully to give them a fighting chance but, for now, it is touch and go. It has been a great benefit to have the hose set up as we do now. We can easily reach everything in the garden area without the work of hauling water from the spigot at the front of the well house. Mama and I have talked about building a greenhouse over our garden area, and she is all for it. I don’t know if I am up for it. It would work well since all the trees we have are either miniature or dwarf trees. The challenge is not the ambient temperature. The challenge is keeping the direct sun off the plants; especially in the evenings. It tends to cook the plants from about 2 pm to 6 pm. With that in mind I put out some sun blocks and moved the tomato plants into the shade of the raised bed. Time will tell if that is enough.

On the flip side, we are expecting some severe storm systems to pass through the area this weekend. If they bring rain it will be a benefit, but they usually bring hail and damaging winds with little rain this time of year. It would be a setback to have a hail storm flatten the plants we have out and strip the trees of the infant fruit we see in the branches, but what can you do except pray. If we were to worry about every potential (or actual) setback we would not have time to enjoy the farm. Right now, the birds are singing, the bees and wasps are pollinating the plants and all is well – hot, but well.

Speaking of birds, we are starting to see some beautiful birds pass through. The colors range from vibrant blues and bright yellows to a mix of browns, grays and blacks. We counted three sixes of sparrows the other night. The smallest was about the size of a hummingbird. Last night we had starlings and crows in the yard. Mama likes neither but short of taking the feeder down for a couple days there is little we can do to curb their visits. Next week Mama will start to hang out her hummingbird feeders. They normally do not come up until mid-April but I have a feeling things might get off to an early start this spring.

Mama and I are having more trouble with our domestic birds than with any wild ones. We have a chicken that loves to come to the front of the house and scratch up our flowerbed – especially after we have watered. Last night was particularly disturbing. There was dirt all over the sidewalk and one of the plants Mama has been nurturing in that bed was ripped out by the roots. She was not pleased. The chicken has not been dissuaded by any of the barriers we have put out and it refuses to stay in the chicken yard. So, tonight Mama and I are going to catch it on the roost and clip its wings so it cannot fly, put it into the coop and make sure it stays there. As for the bantams that have been digging in the roots of my peach and apricot trees in the back yard, I replaced the fencing we had around those two trees to keep them out. So far that has been effective. Before I was content to just kick the dirt back over the base of the tree but when they exposed the roots of the peach tree I had to take further action. Last summer, the peach tree produced the best peaches we have had in years and based on the blossoms it has now, this looks like it could be a banner year for it. Mama wants me to go out of my way to ensure its health.

It could be a long vigil.

The raise bed, the hidden hose

I was up early-ish on Saturday to work on the raised bed before Mama and I went on bus calling. In those two hours, I got enough done that I had a high confidence that I could finish the bed that day. When we got home I took a few minutes to get the old freezer from the barn lot – the one the coon got into – and disposed of it at the dump. Then I got back to the raised bed. Within an hour, I was hauling dirt to fill it so Mama could plant the vegetables she and Victoria had bought last week. The dirt was from a pile of manure I had removed from the barn last year. It had decomposed into some very rich soil over the months it sat in the open. Mama was very pleased with the way it worked up. Hopefully her vegetables will like it as well. She planted them as soon as I pronounced it ready. I meant to take some pictures but I worked until after dark getting everything done that I had listed for the weekend chores. On Sunday, I just forgot to go back out with my phone.

 As I was getting done with transferring the dirt to the bed I decided to run the brush hog over some leaves in the middle paddock on my way to the fuel tank to put fuel in the tractor. I should have remembered that we had a hose buried under those leaves but I did not – until the brush hog caught it. By the time I had kicked the PTO out on the tractor, the hose had been pulled from the barn into the blades and the part that ran back to the well house was pulled taunt. There was no way I was going to get it unwound as it sat. In fact, as I explored the extent of the damage I got into an ant bed and was quickly covered by the tiniest ants I have ever seen. I had to get Mama to help get them off my back. Fortunately, they were not the biting kind we often run into.

I disconnected the hose at the nearest coupling, wound it up and put it on the brush hog. Then I wound up the portion of hose that had come from the barn and headed to the house to get it all unwound. I had to drop the brush hog off the tractor, lift it onto its side with the tractor bucked in order to  get started on the chore of getting it all pulled free. It took about an hour to get all the hose off of the shaft. Since I was dealing with two one hundred foot hoses it required some serious reverse weaving to get the loops big enough to loosen their grip on the shaft but the blades had cut the hose in enough places that I was able to use those shorter ends to undo the puzzle. When it was all said and done, I ended up with one undamaged one hundred foot hose and one damaged sixty to seventy foot one that I repaired and put in the garden. I still have to replace the one, but only the one. We need the length to get to the barn until I get the well in the barn lot operational. That is the next task I have to complete; getting the well house built and the well in service.

Now Mama is able to water the garden by herself. That is a big deal since to this point I have been filling five gallon buckets and carrying them to the garden to watering the plants and trees. It was taking me three trips with two buckets of water per trip. Stretching a hose out is much more efficient. Since I accidently cut down the longer hose it worked out perfectly for use in that service. With the raised bed, Mama can plant to her hearts content without being bent over. She long ago quit kneeling down due to the pain she has in her knees. So, this was the best option to keep her gardening passion alive with the orthopedic limitations she is now experiencing.  And it looks decent – even if I do say so myself.

I will take a couple pictures tonight and update this post tomorrow.

Escapees, burn ban, Irish themes

Mama spent some time getting the Sequoia serviced yesterday and since I had her take it to a garage in Bowie she visited with Grandma and the Thaxton clan there. When she got home she found that the big pig was out of the pen. The pig did not seem interested is going anywhere, but we never have confidence that that is a permanent mindset. Case in point: since Mama left a gate open to the back yard Wednesday afternoon, when she and Grandpa worked on the yard, both Kira and Kobe decided to spend the night in the wild. I do not know if they were home before a fight broke out between Kobe and Sasha, but that was about 6:20 on Thursday morning. They were a mess and Kobe had made friends with a skunk sometime during the night. Anyway, back to the pig. Mama discovered that one of the pallets that makes up the enclosure had been forcefully lifted out of place by the pig and she was having a good time walking in and out of the pen at her leisure. Mama moved the palled back into its place – sort of – and the pig moved it back out. I anchored it again with screws once I was home but since the pig knows there is a big beautiful world out there fill of acorns and sun-warmed patches of grass covered ground she may not be satisfied with her little patch of fenced in dirt for very long.

After I fixed things back in place at the pen I gathered up all the trash bags full of old plastic feed sacks we had gathered in the barn and took them to the dump. I do not like to burn them because of the plastic residue it leaved behind; which then has to be bagged and taken to the dump. It was while I was talking to the guy that mans the little dump station that I found out that the burn ban issued several weeks ago, is now in effect until June.  There is a fine of $500 for the Class C misdemeanor for any type of burning outdoors during the ban. Mama had been after me to burn the trash we have in the burn barrel because one of the rats I recently dispatched was flavoring the aroma of the barrel. I had not obliged her to this point because I did not know it the bad had been lifted. It is a good thing I did not light it up. Harrold told me there were 180 citations issued since the bad was put into effect. Thankfully, I was not one of those. So, I accumulated all the trash we had set aside to burn, bagged it up and took it to the dump. It was an additional four bags worth of trash. The $1/bag charge was so much easier to pay than a $500 fine.

Mama will have visitors today. The families of the men working on the church are coming to the farm to see the animals. She always enjoys those kinds of visits. Both families have very young children so that will be the focus of Mama’s attention. After that we have been invited to Erin and Sam’s for a traditional Irish meal. Erin, whose maiden name is O’Conner (I think), has deep Irish roots. She wants to share a memory of her heritage with us. I am not sure what will be served but I am pretty confident that it will be at least corned beef and potatoes. When I suggested cabbage, her immediate facial expression gave a definite negative answer. I did not need the verbal confirmation that followed but the expressed disgust was funny on both counts. So, Mama, Victoria and I will spend the evening at their house. Mama is not overly thrilled (she does not like corned beef), but Luke, Gracie and Joseph are.

I got lucky today without even knowing it. I was told by the first person I saw at work that they could not pinch me because I was wearing something green.

Work night, training, yardwork

Mama and I worked hard Tuesday night. She was fairly adamant that we clean out the old freezer we have in the barn since the coon soiled it and the sacks of feed we had stored in it. I thought that was a good idea even though it was not on my list for the evening. It took us a bit longer than I thought it would but we got the whole area rearranged, the feed allotted to different storage and the freezer pulled out of the barn. I will take it to the dump tonight along with several trash bags filled with old plastic feed bags and some sundry items we cleaned out of that area. Mama and I have committed to getting things cleaned up. I am not a lover of clutter or of saving things indefinitely. It is far past time to discard some of the items gathering dust and providing homes for rats and mice in the barn. I had Mama ask Grandpa if he would like to go through the items on the shelves in the barn and he declined. He told Mama they have so much stuff in the large workshop on the property they are renting that he cannot walk through the building. I just have a lot of stuff getting really dirty, serving no purpose. I am not sure how most of the things even got there, but I know where I need to take them.

I worked in the garden and got a lot done to the raised bed. It is starting to take shape, which is a good thing since Mama has plants ready to bed down in it. I hope my design works out – it is set on center posts almost like trestle table – but if not, I can easily amend it by putting in some corner braces. Either way, it should have dirt in it this weekend and I can move on to the next project. Meanwhile, the trees and plants survived the last light frost without any noticeable adverse effect. Mama was very happy about that since she had tried to convince me to cover them with sheets that night. My thinking was that a sheet buffeted by the strong winds we were having had the potential to do more damage than the light frost would. I don’t know that I was right but the vision I had of what that would do kept me hesitant. It was good to have the extra hour of daylight. We used that and then some.

I taught all day yesterday. The class is an eight-hour class and we use every minute of that eight hours. By the time the class was done and I was cleaning up the room, my voice was worn out. I told Mama that I did not know if I had the voice to lead the song service at church but went prepared anyway. Fortunately, Kaylen and Brianna came last night and I asked him to fill in for me. It was very last minute but he did a great job. It is nice to have people who are willing to help – even in a pinch. We had a missionary last night. He is a Canadian going back to Canada. He and his wife came out of the Mennonite faith and are going to a predominantly Mennonite town in northern Saskatchewan to evangelize there. He preached on obedience. It was a great message.

Grandpa came over yesterday and scraped and leveled the back yard. He could not get all of the rough spots but he got the vast majority of them. It was a huge improvement – which will help Mama in mowing this spring and summer. Many of the holes filled in were the result of Kobe’s digging tor moles. Somehow, I would like to get that stopped but we have not happened onto a way to do that since she is not under constant supervision. Grandpa suggested that he could come back in the fall and we could make the changes to the yard to redirect rainwater away from the patio.

That is a project I am looking forward to.

The raccoon, Mama’s week off, teaching tomorrow

One of the things I tried to get done Saturday afternoon was to return the stock trailer to the barn lot so it was not sitting in the front yard over the weekend. I ran into problems with that after I unhitched the truck, picked it up with the tractor, and drove it over to the gate I needed to enter. All the cows were there waiting on me. I do not know if they were expecting to see the calves again or if it was just coincidence but there was no way I was going to get through the gate without them getting out. I parked the tractor and trailer in the road and walked to the barn to get some feed for the cattle to keep them out of my way as I accessed the lot. We do it all the time and the cows are used to the idea of getting fed special things that only come out of the barn so they followed happily.

When I opened the freezer where we have been storing the feed, I did not immediately recognize what I was looking at. It was easy to tell something had been in the freezer because several bags had been torn open and were wet with urine. There was a lot of poop throughout the freezer and something large was snoring in the corner near the only small opening to the fresh air outside. When I finally processed that it was a raccoon, I had to decide what to do about it. I poked it. No response. I squeezed it near the tail. No response. It continued to snore. So, I picked it up by its back, being careful to avoid the teeth at the other end and began to move it out of the freezer. It was only when it uncurled that it began to wake and I woke up quickly. It grabbed hold of the corral fence, twisted free of my grip and scampered away. It looked back several times as if to say, “What was that?” Mama was very glad I was the one who found it. With the bags of feed all soiled by the coon Mama was hesitant to use it but I told her the cattle will not mind – and so far, they have not.

Mama did not really enjoy her first day off, but she made the best of it. She and Victoria are both off today but I do not have high expectations for a high success rate on getting her list of tasks taken care of. She is going to Denton this morning – if she feels like it when she gets up – to get bagels at Panera’s. She will make several other stops but that is the main focus of her trip. I wonder at the efficiency of driving thirty miles to buy bagels but they are half priced today. We were talking about a couple at our church and their focus on saving and thriftiness. Mama is unimpressed by their attitudes toward money. Today reflects that. Using a quarter tank of gas to spend money on overpriced bagels because they are half priced is not saving money – except in Mama’s eyes. The fact that Victoria is encouraging her to go only fuels her determination to reap the “savings” offered today only.

I will be teaching tomorrow. The class is an eight hour class and it will be my first time to teach it. I have been through the class twice now so I am looking forward to being the presenter.  My company has at least allowed me sufficient time to prepare so I feel as ready as I think I am able to be at this point. It has been a while since I was required to talk for six or seven hours straight but I have done it in the past and if all goes well, will do it many more times in the future.

Cori, Nate and the kids made it safely to their destination in New York enough ahead of the storm that they will get to hunker down through the brunt of it. They had a few issues traveling through New York City, with its exorbitant tolls on vehicles towing trailers, but they did make it.

Mama breathed a sigh of relief.

The calves, the garden, sprinkling

First thing Saturday morning I took the calves to the stock sale. Mama and I loaded them Friday evening and I moved the trailer over to the house so Mama and I could hook it up to the truck. I did not want it sitting on the stand all night because those two had a good bit of weight to them. Parking the trailer at the house may not have been the best move since the calves lowed throughout the evening and into the night. At some point, well after dark, they quieted down but picked up where they had left off at first light. It was a little sad to hear the mamas and the calves bellowing back and forth to each other, but today they will find new homes and Mama and I will have made our first sale from the farm’s livestock.

After bus calling, while Mama and Victoria shopped, I worked in the garden. I have the posts in and set to hold the raised bed and have begun working on the crossbeams for the bed structure. At this point, Mama can make out the shape for the bed but it will be this weekend at the earliest that I will be ready for dirt. Until then we will have to keep the plants alive that she and Victoria bought at Trade Days. I have been watching the rows of potatoes we planted and have yet to see a sprig of green popping out. I never quite remember the lag time between planting and seeing the plants emerge but it is normally longer than I expect. The fact that it has been so dry has not helped. Mama and I decided not to water Thursday evening because there was a high probability of rain on Friday evening into Saturday. None of that came to pass. I did get run inside Saturday afternoon by a blowing light rain but it was not enough to really even wet the ground thoroughly. Today or tomorrow we will have to water and keep it up every other day until we get a good soaking rain.

Sunday after church we had dinner with the missionary builders who are working on the back entry of the church. One couple has six children and the other couple has two. With Yilin and Cheyenne and several church kids we had quite a group playing in the gym as we finished our meal. A couple of them found a tennis racket and a couple balls. I thought to myself, this might not turn out well. Little did I know that it would be me who caught the brunt of it. As Mama and I encouraged Cheyenne, who only liked the corn from the spread of food set out for the meal, to finish up her food before she could go join in the play, the cup of water she had been drinking exploded in front of me covering me with the contents.

A tennis ball had hit the cup so perfectly that it literally blew the side out of the cup and doused me. Of course, I had on light pants so the soaking was obvious. What can you do? It was only water – thankfully. Where it ended up soaking into my pants from the chair I was sitting in was probably the worst part for those who watched me dry out, but I couldn’t see it so it was no consequence to me. The child who had caused the accident ran off and hid for a while but eventually came to me and apologized. I told him it was a perfect shot and that he had blown the cup to pieces. He smiled and hugged me and ran back off to play. I told Mama that now I have been baptized and sprinkled. It was just a heavier sprinkling than usual – maybe the Lord thought I needed it.

Mama was amazed that I wore the pants to church again that night. After all, it was just water.

Changes of plans

Mama and I have been feeding out a pregnant heifer for several weeks now and the extra effort is paying off. The original idea was to take her to the sale barn this weekend but we had to amend that plan. I got a market report from Wichita Livestock Market yesterday and neither Mama nor I liked what we saw. It jibed with what we had been told by the owner of the Decatur Livestock Market, who goes to church with us, and that was that a bred heifer is not is demand so the prices are very depressed. However, the price for calves is still good – less for heifers than for steers, but still fair. We would make about 75 to 80% of the price of the bred heifer off one calf. So, with that in mind we got all the cattle into the corral at the barn last night and slowly separated out the calves from the cows. It took Mama and I both about an hour to do but we eventually got it done. Thank God, we only have four cows and two calves to deal with. Tonight, Lord willing, we will load them into the stock trailer and deliver them to the sale barn tomorrow morning.

Hopefully, it will be easier to load the calves than it would have been to load our wild cow. She produces good calves and is an excellent milk producer – last year she nursed two calves because Daisy’s calf nursed her also – but she is wild as a buck. It is difficult to work her compared to the others and sometimes it is a bit frightening. We will sell her later this year with a calf by her side and see how much we can get out of her then. We are not building a herd at this point so selling the young heifers will be a good way to make the money to buy feed through the summer. By November we will be down to two head of cows and I am thinking about getting them artificially inseminated rather than put them over with the bull. We will see how much cost is involved. Putting them with the bull next door lets the ground rest for a few months but it is an imposition on the neighbor. I will have Mama feel out that situation while we check on the artificial insemination path.

I got a few minutes to work in the garden and got two more supports up for the raised bed. I have one more to finish digging and getting set in concrete before I can begin assembling the bed. We are expecting storms Saturday so I am not sure if I will be able to work on the project that afternoon or not. If not, I have several other projects that are in covered areas that need tending to. Either way, I am hoping to spend some time working this Saturday afternoon – after I take the calves to market and go bus calling and before men’s prayer time that night. It will be a Spring Forward night but I do not think that will help gain me any time.

Mama is planning on shopping all day Saturday. She is talking about starting at Trade Days in Bowie – taking Mr. Plumley along because he thoroughly enjoys that – and continuing in Denton with Victoria. I know she is talking about going back to Denton Tuesday for some reason so I am never sure if I have her plans outlined correctly. With the storms we are predicted to have through the weekend, she may balk on driving anywhere Saturday.

Sunday, we are planning a dinner at the church for the two missionary families who are here working to update the back portion of the church. It has not been touched since 1976 and it looks like it. It is not awful, but it is very dated. This team specializes in doing such work specifically for churches. Their requested weekly fee was so low that we are probably going to pay three or four times the rate – and still not be anywhere close to rate for skilled labor. The changes they have been able to make since Tuesday are pretty amazing.

There is talk of Becky coming over next weekend. Mixed emotions due the life she has chosen but it will be good to see our granddaughter. I don’t think we have seen Bridgette since we were there for the birth. It will be good to see Becky too. We are thankful for the continued contact.

Work, home, time change

For the past several days several departments in our company have managed with only a skeleton crew. My old department, Customer Relations, was the hardest hit. There was only one person within that department that was able to come to work. In order to get the calls answered and get the email responses out, every other department (with their limited staff) has picked up the phones and sent email responses – except the Education Department, which is where I work. Hopefully that need will abate today as at least one more Customer Relation’s employee is expected to make it back to work. Tomorrow, one employee that has been on assignment in West Virginia will be back. From one to possibly three – an enormous scale up. Everyone will breathe a sigh of relief. I expect there will be some sort of appreciation recognition given to Client Relations because of the renewed understanding of how indispensable they are; and the fact that no one else wants to be tied to the phones for the entire day. Such recognition would not only be appreciated, it is a bit overdue.

I was swamped in my own way. This afternoon, ready or not, I will have to surrender what I have of the presentation I am creating. I will be close. Near the 85% completion requested. I have only one section to create and proof to have the presentation ready for submission. There is a rather lengthy section that was given to me with the presentation and if I have time I will edit that also, but in large part, it will be done – for now. I am told the trip to Chile is not altogether out of the question, but it is by no means confirmed. There are other commitments being worked on here in the US and in Mexico, but those have not been scheduled yet. It is getting busy for me; which is not a bad thing. For my department, the workload is spooling up as well and we will be hiring two writers to help get through it. That too, is not a bad thing. It is actually a very good thing. I am told that the two new writers will have a three-year work load planned out. That is impressive and a little staggering to think we are that much in need.

The increased demand at work is starting to affect the setbacks on the work demands at home. I expect that having the longer evenings to work at home and on the farm will help a lot. I will get to find out next week. In church last night while we were giving prayer requests someone reminded the pastor and the congregation that time change is this weekend. Pastor was completely unaware so it is a good thing it was said. At least the Wednesday night crowd will be fully informed. Mama and I have been looking forward to it. The evenings will get longer without the time change, but this gives us a head start. I do not remember looking forward to switching the clocks in the past but right now I need the extended evening daylight. I will forgo my complaining about it for this year.

Next week is Spring Break for Mama. She is looking forward to that. Her list is growing if the things she wasn’t s to get done during her week off. I do not know if she is up to the task she has outlined for herself but there does seem to be a mixing of inside and outside work to balance her time and energy. I do not worry about her stamina. I worry about her back and knees lasting through the challenge. The fact that it happens in the time change week is both an added blessing and an added concern of Mama overdoing it. We will deal with that as the need arises.

Maybe she will understand why I have always told people that I had to go back to work to rest up.

Work, farm, watering

Yesterday at work one of the managers (our CEO) came into our area to do a head count. We were unaware but ours was the only department in the building that was fully staffed. In the entire rest of the building there were only eight people at their desk. Of the thirty or so people that would normally be in the office, only about fifteen of us showed up for work. I ended up staying a little late in order to help in the Client Relations department because there was only one person – out of five – that was working. I was unaware but all day every person in the rest of the building was answering calls for Client Relations; and there were a lot of calls yesterday. I only answered one call in the thirty minutes I covered the phones, but that alone gave them a small break so they could catch their breath as the day was ending.

I may not be going to Chile after all. The company that was requesting the training was not inspired by the price at which it was being offered – at least the two-week offering. My company regrouped and sent my resume to the client so they could have an idea of who they were getting as an instructor. What may happen is that we will develop the training and someone within their company will deliver it to their staff.  It is a little disappointing but not unexpected. When I worked for Licensing for Union Carbide/Dow, there were numerous instances of hurrying to get ready to travel only to be told the deal was off – then to be told it was back on, and so forth. An opportunity will eventually come through and we will be ready. For the moment, there is still a sense of urgency in getting the presentation completed. That is a good thing. When it is needed, we will be prepared. And eventually it will be needed.

Mama and I hurried a little last night to put away the feed she had gone to Muenster to pick up. We are spending about $200 per month buying bagged feed for all the animals. That is not too bad, considering the menagerie of animals Mama tends to, but it does not include the hay bales we buy for the cattle. Those are running about $45 per week. When we sell #75 we will, hopefully, get enough to pay for the feed for the whole farm for six to eight months. If we can manage to get her wild calf into the stock trainer to take to the sale barn this weekend we will clear enough to ensure we have feed money for the remainder of this year and on through the winter into next year. That will be a big help. It is the way a farm was meant to work – and it only took us two and one half years to get there. Mama and I are a little slow but we eventually get it all done.

Watering the landscape plants, the garden and the orchard is taking over an hour each time. I will have to see if there is a way to simplify or streamline the process. There is not a good way to break it up over each night of the week because Monday and Wednesday nights are already taken – with little lag time at home before we have to get to church. I have established the routine of watering on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings. Eventually I will set the sprinkler up in the garden but there will still be some manual watering to be done there. I have thought about moving the berry bushes I have along the back fence to a more convenient location but I am not sure where to put them yet. Like the rose bushes we have along the driveway at the garage, we have not settled on where they belong. I may just dig them up and pot them until we decide. It is not an urgent matter and I hate to add anything to my already long list of little projects.

Daylight Saving’s Time starts this weekend. At least that will give us more hours of light in the evening so we are not so rushed.

Work, FBI, dry conditions, water

My week just got full at work. We are preparing for a training to be given onsite in Chile next month. I have been tasked with rewriting the program we have on file to fit the audience in Chile. It will be a challenge to get it done as requested and I am not sure how well it will turn out but it should not take long to discover the scope of the rewrite and how much new material I will have to come up with to get it finished by Thursday in order to get it to the translation team by Friday. That is a little overwhelming, but doable. While I have that in the works I have four other courses that I have written to a certain point that need to be finished as well as three more assigned that need to be started. It is better to be busy than idle and I will not be idle.

FBI was amazing last night; especially the study we are doing in Galatians. He spent the greatest amount of time in that last night. I told Mama before we left that I need a few hours of preaching - and I got it. We have only one more semester left to complete the three-year program and as much of an inconvenience as it can be at times, it is one of the best Bible programs that I have ever been through. I spent three years in Seminary in Kansas City, MO and did not get the insight that I have gotten through this training; and those years of education cost me a whole lot more than I am paying for Mama, Victoria and I combined. We are at week eight of seventeen so we still have a way to go this semester but we are enjoying it. Everyone was especially tired last night when we started but by the time you are preached to for an hour by John Yates you begin to revive and really get into the lectures.

I was hoping for rain last night but it passed us by. It was interesting to watch the percentages of predicted rain diminish on the forecast as the night progressed. We stared out with an 80% chance of thunderstorms and rain. That rapidly sank to less than 40% by the time we left the church – about 9:30 pm. This morning the ground was dry and the skies were mostly clear. It would have been a help to me and Mama because we have had to start watering the garden and landscape plants three times a week. As happens in low rain situations, the ground becomes almost powder in certain areas; especially in the barn lot and in the garden where I disked up the ground. With the high winds blowing through right now, it can get a little dusty just going over to feed and water the cattle. It is a small matter and we are equipped to deal with it with a little bit of added effort. This too shall pass; maybe.

Some of the plants actually like the dry conditions and we have thought about switching over to those types of plants but I know that by the time we have set out our drought tolerant plants and converted our landscape we will get weeks of soaking rains. My well house project will make the watering of plants and animals easier, but I have not taken the time to get that project done. The hydrants and lines are in place waiting to be connected to the well – soon, maybe. However, with the work schedule I see ahead of me it may not be as soon as I would like. Next week when Mama is off I will spend my lunch hour at Lowe’s getting prices and material lists together for the well I need to get going in the well house. That will at least get me headed in the right direction and let me know the overall cost and the required time to complete the project. Having the water available at the hydrants will be a great help to Mama in her daily feedings. It will be a great help to me keeping the garden well-watered.

Soon, maybe.

Winds, meetings, gifts

Mama and I traveled through the late afternoon and evening on Friday on our way to Amarillo and got there about 6:30 pm. It was late enough that we just grabbed something small to eat, checked into our hotel and then went to do some shopping. As for the hotel, Mama was very disappointed with the layout. She does not like hotels where the rooms open onto an exterior walkway; and thereby, the parking lot, the street or the pool area. We had a very bad experience once and she has never gotten past it. It ended up working out okay because the room we stayed in was at the back of the complex on the second floor. It opened toward the pool but there was no activity there. I do know that the price was right and we ended up getting a fair night’s sleep. Mama was a little upset because she had specifically asked if the rooms opened onto a walkway or to an interior hall. She had been told that they did not open to an outside walkway. How the girl that made our reservation came up with that answer is beyond me.

The wind buffeted us the entire way there, the entire time we were there and the entire way home. It has not slacked up as of this morning. One of the benefits of living on the farm is that it is situated in such a way that we do not get the fierce winds we experienced in Bowie. It is often a surprise when we head out to find that the winds are blowing so strongly. That is a blessing for us and the animals on the farm. We get enough of the winds that things are not still but unless it blows out of the north, we do not usually get the full force. It was actually cooler at the farm than in Amarillo but it was hard to tell as we walked from one store to another while we were there. The cold temperatures and the strong winds limited the outdoor activities at the hotel so it was not all bad.

My meeting with Tim went well. It was probably the shortest meeting I have had with him in several years. I thought it would be more complicated than it turned out to be and Tim was ready for the information, plugging it into his spreadsheet as we went. We were done in twenty minutes. Mama had left me there to go make a store run thinking, like I did, that we might be a while. She was a little taken aback when I called her so soon but was back to get me a few minutes after I called. We spent the rest of the morning shopping, ate lunch and then went to see Mrs. Patrick.

We spent an hour or so with Mrs. Patrick just catching up as best we could. Her memory is fading and her mind tends to wander but we had a good visit. She seemed connected and engaged. She shared stories of her time in Korea, of her childhood and some of more recent events she could remember well enough to communicate. She sat on the couch with her very aged cat who requires constant care from her. The cat will stretch out her paw indicating that she needs a drink of water or a bite of food and Mrs. Patrick will lovingly bring the desired dish within reach so the cat can drink or eat as requested. Not something I would do but she loves her cat and it gives her purpose; she is needed, even if it a need I would not respond to, it keeps her going.

We left after our visit with Mrs. Patrick but not before she had given Mama a beautiful silk portrait of some Koi fish. The silk-work portrait is about twelve inches by thirty-six inches. It is beautiful. It was purchased in Korea and brought back to her home from there. The colors are bright and vibrant. I will be hanging it in our bathroom to blend with the beach theme of the decor.

Mama is thrilled to have it.

Planting and projects, more travel, health considerations

Mama and I hurriedly planted a second row of potatoes last night. I bought the seed potatoes at the same time I had bought the ones we planted two weeks ago, but we did not have the time them to get them in the ground. So, while I put out a bale of hay for the cows and took an extra few minutes to clean up the dregs from the last few bales they have eaten down, Mama cut the potatoes for planting. Right now, I have a very large pile of dirty, moldy hay mixed with their manure rotting in the barn lot by the tank. In a couple years, it will be some very rich compost. Presently, it is just sitting waiting on some rain to help it start to really degrade. I am hoping it will supply some large worms the next time the grandkids are here for a visit. Moving around those accumulated, dusty, molded hay remains sets me to coughing every time I have to do it. You would think that by now I would remember to take at least a dust mask with me, but I did not.

I have not made progress on any of the projects I have started. Last month was one of those months that we spent a lot of time either traveling or feeling poorly - or both. I have high hopes that this month I will be able to complete the raised beds in the garden and reinforce the roosts I put up I did not take enough time to make right in the coops. They are functional but when sixty pounds worth of chickens started to gather on them the first night the brackets I used started to bend under the load. I have the materials. I just need the time. The same is almost true of the raised bed. I have most of the material but I am struggling with getting the post holes deep enough to ensure it will carry the weight of the dirt, plants and water that will be required. I am only about a quarter of the way into that project.

This afternoon we will head to Amarillo. I do not think Chase and Makaila will be home this weekend so visiting them will not be a part of the trip. Mostly we are going to meet with our tax account but secondarily – or maybe secondly primary – we are going so Mama can do some shopping. She has a list and I know the few items I need to take care of are on that list. I have no clue what else is on there but I have a high level of confidence that we will not be able to get it all done in the relatively short time frame we have to work in. We will certainly try. The issue is sticking to the list. There is so much Mama wants to do that if we add an item we have to take something else off. Both of us are looking forward to the time away; even if it is a business-related outing. Neither of us seem bothered by the ten-hour round trip. We have done it so often that it is not an issue.

Victoria was home sick again yesterday. I asked Mama to schedule us for a doctor exam. In light of the time that both Victoria and I have been fighting respiratory issues it would be prudent to find out if there is an underlying condition that we can begin to treat and rectify. I asked Mama to see if I could be scheduled for a full physical. It has been at least eight years since my last one and I do not think I have had as stressful a year as last year in a very long time. With the layoff and all the financial decisions associated with that, losing both Mom and Dad in a twelve-month period, starting a new job – twice over, a month long bronchial infection – twice over, and so many other little things. Looking back, it is humbling to see how the Lord provided, protected and sustained me and Mama through it all. This year is shaping up to be a full calendar type of year. I just need to find out if there are any changes I need to make to ensure continued health through it and possible many years more.

Besides, we need to find a good local doctor.

Changing, frost, more travel

Mama and I were talking the other day about how many times she changes in an average day. It is typically twice in the morning and three times in the evening. Most of those wardrobe changes are for her to get properly dressed for feeding our animals. I have adopted that cycle of changing in the evenings. When I get home from work most evenings I am dressed for the office – business casual – which is not necessarily the way I want to go out to feed the cows or the pig. So, I change every evening in order to get out to help Mama. I don’t typically mind, but I have to admit that on Monday night when we have FBI to go to it bothers me to change for a fifteen minute chore. Last night I did not think I would have to change because Mama was close to being done when I got home so I went out to the coop to greet her in my office attire. Little did I know that she was waiting on me to carry feed to the coop to fill the feed container for the male goats, walk over to check the hay, feed the cow we have in the corral, and fill water troughs. I went back to the house and changed especially after she admonished me by greeting me with, “Why did you come out dressed that way?”

We had frost last night. It was not predicted to get that cold. It is a little troubling since all the fruit trees are blooming right now. Some are further along than others. My main concern is the peach trees – which are loaded with blooms. If all those blooms actually make it to the point to set fruit, we will have a really good harvest. If this frost killed them back, we will lose more than half of our potential fruit harvest. Time will tell. The older pear trees in the garden should fare well especially since I pruned them heavily last year. The plum trees are past the flowering stage and are setting fruit. I do not know how this will affect them at that stage. The apple, the apricots and the fig trees have not started to bud out yet so they should be good. The dwarf grapefruit was moved into the garage last night in anticipation of this cold snap. It is loaded with blooms. I am curious to see how many of those produce fruit. If they all set fruit I will selectively pinch off most of them and allow only one fruit per branch – if it gets that far. The blueberries, the black raspberries and the blackberries are all getting ready to bloom so they should make it through this in good shape. Again, time will tell but I expected this to be one of those years that we would have to deal with late freezes. This may not be the last one.

This evening will be busy since it is the only open evening we have to spend on the farm chores. We will be traveling again this weekend; heading to Amarillo to visit with our tax accountant. Next year I will find someone local but I am hesitant to do so for 2016 taxes. Because of the layoff severance package, withdraws from our 401k and selling some of the farm equipment, 2016 was a complicated tax year and I do not want to take the chance of missing something important by starting with a new accountant. It will be one of the things I will discuss with my accountant as we go through the documentation I have collected for him to file from. I expect to pay this year but I want to keep that amount as low as legally and ethically possible.

Work assignment are starting to accumulate and it looks like there will be some travel involved. I know my management will be careful to limit the amount of time I have to be away from home but we have not set that limit yet. Most of the travel will be in the US but right now there is one potential international trip in the planning. If that goes well it will not be the only trip out of the country this year.

And here I was thinking things would start to slow down.

Brittany, the Stock Show, homework

I only get the barest of information from Mama this morning but I gathered from that that Britany made it home safely. Mama said she was texting something about a mailman and Lucy. Anyway, she and Andrew put an offer on a house in Wichita. It is not the one she originally sought to buy. That one was already under contract. This one is also a large house but it has a pool along with a large floorplan. I am not sure that is a good thing but Brittany, Andrew and the twins will find out pretty quickly if they like the additional effort and expense. For many people, it works out very well. For me and Mama it was not a good option, especially with me working fifty to sixty hours per week; and through most weekends.

I met Mama at the Wise County Stock Show yesterday evening. It was a pretty small affair compared to what we have seen in other states, but it was fun to see the kids show their animals. What I got there in time to see was the pig show. There were only a few contestants per class (four to five at most) so they went through the process pretty quickly. I was amazed to see how squat all the show pigs were. Mama and I used to pigs with a little more height. Maybe it was the depth of sand in the show ring. It just looked odd. Most of them were a bit too fat for what we have strived for in our pigs but I guess that is a quality they look for here. One constant was that, regardless of the class, the pig I liked best never placed very high. That is consistent with our past attempts to help the kids select animals to show at the Jackson County Fair in Ripley, WV.

Mr. Plumley was with Mama. She was off yesterday so she went to get him before she went to the stock show. He did not get to go to the Ft. Wroth Stock Show and though this is nothing in comparison, he was still happy for the chance to get out and see some farm animals. He and Mama spent a lot of time before I got there visiting with the people showing goats. Most of the show animals were far larger than the myotonic goats we have. Some were Nubian, which are really large but most were Boer goats. They were all combed out and prettied up for the competition; which was fun to see. They also spent time with the people showing sheep. Almost all of the sheep were black faced sheep. I guess Dorper Sheep are not sought after show animals. Mama offered to take Mr. Plumley home for a bit but he was anxious to get back to the Assisted Living Center because they were having a Mardi Gras Party he did not want to miss. I told him he needed to behave himself and set a good example in case the party got out of hand. He just laughed.

When I got home we hit the ground running. I had a small list of outside chores I wanted to accomplish before dark and I knew it would be a challenge. When I got started watering the plants Mama jumped in to help me or I would not have gotten finished before night fell. With the garden now started – potatoes and asparagus for now – there is a lot more time required to get water to that area. I have also added two plum trees to the little garden orchard; both of which could be loaded with plums based on the amount of blooms they have. Mama likes the animals. I like the plants. It has always been that way. The good part of that arrangement is that when she calls me away from tending to my plants to do something urgent with her animals, I know the plant are not going anywhere.

I am currently working on some raised beds in the garden. When I get those done we will be able to get a lot more vegetables planted. The challenges will be first to get the seeds planted safely after the last frost and second, to stay home through the summer to take care of a garden.