Quick meetings, rain issues, services

I had hoped to have a leisurely morning this morning as I got ready to fly out in the early afternoon, but that did not work out. I had a request from my boss to set a meeting for this morning to go over some items that have taken on an urgency since we took over the scheduling and implementation of all instructor led training. When I was asked to contact our clients concerning an upcoming class, I asked a series of questions about what information was being offered and/or requested concerning that contact? Did we have a checklist for the call? How do we qualify attendees? How do we invoice them? Are we sending our proposals for services to track those invoices? They seemed like fair questions to me and it seemed to stir a conversation that no one has had yet. Hence, my meeting this morning. I decided that since I had to come to work, I should maintain my normal schedule for the morning. I find it easier to do that than to worry about having forgotten something when I deviate from my routine. When I got to work I discovered that my boss is out sick today – so the meeting will be less productive than it could have been, but those are the issues we deal with daily. Once my meeting is over I will go home, get the final packing done and head to the airport.

I hurried home yesterday evening and put the drip edge on the back of the shop. I should have done it much sooner. It only took me about 45 minutes – even with several special cuts to get everything to fit properly. It was as good a timing as I could have hoped for since it rained again last night. When I checked the shop this morning the back of the shop was dry but the rain had blown in from the north and left a large puddle in the middle of the shop because the eight foot opening the large rollup door will fill at some point is wide open. It provided a rather large opening for blowing rain to accumulate in the shop. I have a plan to remedy that temporarily, but I will not get it done until I get back from New Mexico this weekend. I at least have things set in such a way that nothing important got wet.

Nate and Cori and the kids had gotten to the farm just before I got to the farm. He had the camper mostly set up by the time I got there. They had driven through several hours of very heavy rain on their way back from Brittany’s. Other than the stress and aggravation of driving in troubling condition they had no real issues on the road. However, when they made their first stop on the way here they discovered that they had left the little vent in the bathroom open as they had been driving through the torrential rains. It turned out to be a minor issue. Cori had to launder all the towels, rugs and other bathroom items that gathered the influx of water and they lost several rolls of toilet paper. A minor cost for a very important lesson.

Nate went to church with me last night. Mama was not feeling well. Victoria was at work. The grandkids needed an early night and Cori needed to ensure that happened. Some of the students and teachers from BBTI came to the service last night and I let Nate know who they were as I made the rounds. The teachers he recognized. When I told him the name of the visiting students, who are also veteran missionaries to Bolivia, he recognized the name and immediately turned around and started up a conversation. I did not get to participate in that conversation but I got the impression that he knew the son of the visitors. He and Cori have made a lot of contacts over the last year and Nate has a very good memory of such encounters.

He and Cori are still hoping to be ready to start working in Honduras by next summer. At the rate God is answering their prayers, I feel confident they will make it.

Rain and a mess, pigs, rabbits and goats, family

We got rain last night for the first time in about three weeks and it made a mess in the back of the shop. I knew I would have to deal with the roof not overlapping the wall at the back of the shop, but I have put it off because I was toying with different ideas for adding a small room to the back of the shop to house the gas cans and all the implements that use gas; the mover, the chainsaw, the blower, the weed eater, etc. Well, now I am going to have to deal with it. The roof panels rest on top of the back crossbeam of the shop without extending past the support beam on which they rest. When I added my wall panels to the shop, there was no overlap of the roof over the exterior walls so the rain water runs inside the raised portions of the wall panels and into the shop. I have the metal laying at the back of the shop to remedy the situation, but I have not taken the time to install it. Now, I realize I should have put up the drip edge and, if needed, remove it later as I build the flammables room. Oh, well. I will let it dry out and then clean it up after I get the pieces installed to eliminate the issue.

Bro. Schnell from BBTI came by with some help yesterday evening to load the pot belly pigs for use in one of the yearly events called Jungle Camp. During the week of Jungle Camp, the students camp out on the BBTI property and live as though they were actually in the jungle. No running water; cooking over an open fire, no provision from BBTI of camping equipment – they fend for themselves. Unfortunately for the pigs, they will provide the main fare of the meals for the week as they rough it. It was a sad thought for Mama but I am relieved the pigs will be put to good use versus us dreading the possibility of more unwanted litters. Mama would not allow me to have the pigs processed for our use so this was a good compromise – at least in my mind.

Interestingly enough, Molly and Tilly chose yesterday to get out of their enclosure and roam the farm. Fortunately, they were close enough that Mama was able to call them back with an offering of stale doughnuts. Rather than try to get them back into their sty, we walked them into a corner behind the chicken yard and used a hog panel to trap them while Bro. Schnell backed the trailer into position to open a passage for them to walk onto the trailer. When we tried to catch the little female piglet, things did not work out so well. She got out of their little yard by jumping up into an opening in the hog panel that she was able to wiggle through and ran off at lightning speed. We will have to retrieve her later (when she comes home) and deliver her to BBTI. When the Wycoff’s take the remaining two male piglets, we will be pig-less at the farm; for the first time in about four years.

I will be processing one of the two female rabbits some time very soon. She has gotten very aggressive. She will attack your hand every time you reach into the cage. Mama has a couple scratches to verify the behavior, so it’s time to eat her. Also, our two young Billy goats need to either be sold or taken to the meat market. At least we know we like goat meat. That is another idea that is hard for both mama and Victoria; eating animals you have raised and named. They are two very finely build male goats but there is no market for them other than for meat. Before they turn a year old, I will make the call if they are still on the farm with us.

Nate, Cori and the kids have thoroughly enjoyed their time with Brittany. They will be headed back to the farm today. So much for quiet, boring, uneventful evenings.

Light duty, moving, paint, travel

Since my back was pretty tender and my diverticulitis was still giving a good deal of me pain, I did light duty things this weekend. Blake and I harvested and processed more elderberries; moving our total of reserves up to eight quarts of frozen berriers. There are still so many ripening on the bushes that we are hardly making a dent into the ripening fronds. I also took the time to cut up the special pumpkin Mama grew. It was one of the flat greenish white ones that we have been told make the best pumpkin pies. Last year we let the one we were given rot in the window sill before I took it out to the garden and spread pieces of it out, hoping it would produce. We got miles of vines but only one ripe pumpkin. I canned it up and got three quarts out of it. It made a beautiful orange pumpkin puree. Mama was thrilled with the outcome – as long as it was me that took the time to do it. With the Instant Pot and the Vitamix it did not take very long to process it all.

I did not have much I could do on the shop so I moved a couple shelves and file cabinets full of tools from the garage to the shop. It will help me determine how to lay out the shop as I try to decide what to do to insulate the building. The rolling shelf and the two file cabinets did not take up much room in the shop but their removal from the garage left a noticeable opening. When I am able to move everything to the shop it will not be difficult for Mama to park in the garage. That will be a first for us. In all our married life, the garage has never been available for the vehicles. Of course, my truck will still be parked outside. Only Mama’s and Victoria’s vehicles will fit in the garage. Someday I will be able to park my truck and my tractor under cover…someday.

In the move, I uncovered things that have been either forgotten or neglected for the almost three years the shelves have stored them. I found over twenty containers of paint; all varieties, all colors, all of varying volumes. Many of the paints were not salvageable and I am not sure what we used them for or even when we bought them. I made a shelf out of an old louvered closet door and a couple saw horses and opened all the cans to allow them to dry out the rest of the way so they can be discarded. Just when I thought I was done I went into the well house to get something for Mama and found five more cans of paint. They were added to the shelf of drying paint cans. It will take several weeks for some of the paints to harden but I will be on the road for most of the next three weeks so it seemed like a good time to get started. Now, I just need to keep the grandkids away from that shelf. All in all, I am guessing that the contents of the table represent over $250-300 worth of paint, and I still have three five-gallon containers of paint in the well house. Mama has plans for some of that paint so it is being kept for now.

I will not leave until Wednesday morning for Las Cruces. I am a little more interested in the venue after talking to Harrold, the guy running the mini-dump near the house. He is quite familiar with the area. He told me several stories about his experiences in the area but what struck me was his insistence that I buy a bag of peppers from the local farms. Chili peppers are the premier crop of the area. It is also home to the world’s largest chili pepper – a roadside display. From the way he talked, there will be roasters in every grocery store, gas station and restaurant. The roasted chili peppers are where we get chipotle peppers. I will be sure to get some of the local hot sauces while I am there.

Fall -sort of, Sasha, Mama’s party, more travel

Today is officially the first day of Fall. It will not feel like it for us. The hot temperatures we are experiencing right now are seriously stressing out my plants. Even though I have continued my normal three-times-per-week watering schedule, all the plants look like they are about to whither up by the next evening. The only plant that seems to be thriving is the blackberry plant I put in the bed with the blueberries – and it is doing so well I will have to cut it back to keep it from taking over the entire bed. When I transplanted the puny little branch and the attached root several weeks ago I had no idea it would flourish the way it did. Now I know what to do for the other blackberry and black raspberry bushes I have struggled to keep alive.

The leaves on our little forest of oaks are starting to change and fall but I am not sure if they are just exhausted from the summer heat or if they are on a timetable enforced by something other than the temperature. The days are now about an hour and one half shorter than they were at the peak of the summer, so, maybe that is a driver for the seasonal change. Everyone, plants, animals and humans are ready for cooler weather. It is coming. I predict that by the time it has settled upon us we will be lamenting the cold, wet days and longing for warmth. We are fickle creatures.

Mama took Sasha to the vet yesterday evening. She has a lesion on her skin that looks very angry. It has gotten worse over the course of the past week so the vet visit was inevitable. I was not thrilled about the process because now is not a good time to be spending money on vet visits, but Mama cannot help herself. The vet kept Sasha overnight so they could operate this morning on what he deemed to be a cancerous lesion. The bill will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $200. Not necessarily horrid, but very poorly timed. We should have her home this afternoon. Mama and I discussed last night as we were returning from dropping off the goat innards to Alex and his family, that I do not want to replace either Sam or Sasha if something should happen to them. At least, until we know where we will be in four or five years. Adopting a dog into the home or onto the farm is a fifteen year proposition and we may not have fifteen years of farm life to give. She reluctantly agreed, but I am sure the topic will come up when either of the two Great Pyrenees is no longer with us.

Mama has a party scheduled next Friday. She is getting very anxious about it because of the condition of the house. She and Victoria mostly keep up with the sweeping and cleaning of the bathrooms but everything else is very hit-or-miss: mostly miss. She is conscripting Cori into cleaning windows, dusting furniture, cleaning ceiling fans, etc. in anticipation of having visitors at the house. Nate will be replacing lightbulbs and rearranging furniture. The timing would have been better had she moved it out one week further but that would have put it on the day after we are scheduled to get back from Port Huron. The new windows are scheduled to be installed during the time we are away. Having those in the house would have eliminated the need to clean all the windows we now have that are nearly impossible to get clean. The party is a LuLaRoe clothing something or other sales event in which Mama hopes she, Cori and Victoria can garner some new clothing for free or at a greatly reduced price. I hope it works out for her. On my part, I get a cleaned house. Not a bad deal for jut enduring a hen party.

We have a full weekend ahead of us and a very busy week next week. We are starting a Prophesy conference at church on Sunday. It will go through Wednesday night. I will miss the final night because I will be in Las Cruces, NM to present a class to a group there. I should be back Friday afternoon for a short stay at home before Mama and I head to Michigan for classes I will be doing there.

I am looking forward to the time in Michigan with Mama.

Wipes, birthday, hurting

Our granddaughter Savanna is obsessed with wipes. I am not sure why there is that fascination but if items come in a box packaged like wipes of tissues she feels compelled to find the bottom of the box. She has a fair understanding of the purpose of wipes. A case in point, while everyone but me and Nate and Savanna went to the area in the park where we ate dinner that is designated to be a swimming area -complete with a beach – Savanna got hold of the travel pack of wipes and proceeded to “clean” everything in sight. Dirty or used is a very relative term for her so the wipe can be used for one swipe at cleaning something and them discarded or it can be used until it truly is filthy. I got my hands wiped, my face wiped, my boots wiped, my pants wiped, etc. until the entire package was empty. That lasted a good thirty minutes or more. Cori and Nate consider it inexpensive entertainment for her which has the potential to have a useful and beneficial outcome over the coming years. She does seem tuned in to the need to clean things. I told Mama when we got home I had been wiped down so much that I needed a shower.

Some of the ladies at work really get into decorating a person’s work area for their birthday so I did not know what to expect when my birthday came around. To my pleasant surprise, my desk was untouched. In the Education team, we do not have very exuberant personalities. The entire department is more subdued than the Client Relation’s team I originally hired into. While I was out to lunch yesterday, they got a card and passed it around the office. It was laid on my desk along with a few Starburst candies. More than sufficient for the occasion. Besides, Nate, Cori and the kids, along with Victoria met me and Mama for lunch yesterday. I had to block my side a bit when Blake came running up to be the first to hug me; but it was worth the pain not to suppress the joy of his winning the race.

I cannot remember when it started, but it got to be a daily thing in New Jersey, the kids would compete with each other and with Mama to get the first hug from me when I got home from work. It often turned into a mad jumble to crash through the door to get to me first. It was always great fun. Now Cori has the grandchildren participating in the game.

I did not go to church last night because I was hurting so badly with a diverticulitis flare up that I could barely walk. I almost called in sick to work but the fever I had last night – like the night before – passed by this morning; at least, mostly. I can tell I am still running a little high in temperature because every time I take a sip of coffee I almost break out in sweat. The pain is now manageable and should start to abate as I allow my belly and bowels to empty and rest. For some reason, I felt it was important to be at the office today. Time will tell, but I did not like the idea of sitting at home doing nothing, waiting for the day to pass.

I generally do not so well I those circumstances.

Wet August/Dry September, cookout, birthdays

If I remember correctly, we recorded the wettest August for many years but we are following that with the driest September in many years. As the humidity rises we get closer and closer to rainfall, but we are obviously not there yet. Last night we had a storm blowing through the area with strong winds, lots of lightening and dark skies – but no rain for us. I was going about watering the plants last night when we got home from our evening out and had to give up because my back hurt so badly that I could not finish the chore. Each time I water the plants at the house I disconnect the hose from the camper, hook up the watering attachment and then reconnect it to the camper when I am done. Not a big deal, but last night I was hurting too badly to go through the exercise of dragging the hose to the back yard to wet down the fruit trees, the elderberry plants and the bed where we have blueberries, blackberries and asparagus growing. The front flowerbeds are fairly easy once the back is done but I had to leave it all undone. The poor wilting plants will have to wait until Thursday evening to get the life-giving water they need.

I feel better this morning. I took a muscle relaxer last night and I think it helped. It is hard to tell because I got hit by chills when I got out of the shower last night and they continued until about 2:30 when I woke up soaking wet. The fever – or whatever it was – passed and I slept the rest of my short night without shivering. Little Gracie Echeveria asked her mommy on the eve of her birthday last year, “Can you get sick on your birthday?” Unfortunately, yes. They postponed her birthday for a few days so she could enjoy the festivities that year. Fortunately, we are mostly well for all the birthdays we have in the family this month. I believe there are seven birthdays to celebrate this month. We will celebrate with one birthday bash on Friday – before Nate, Cori and the kids head east to meetings in the Temple area. Sometime in early October they will head north and be on the road until just before Christmas. Mama is already dreading that.

Mama and Cori planned a cookout for yesterday evening. The weather was warm and very windy. We headed to a nearby park that borders a small portion of the north end of Bridgeport Lake as soon as I got home and got changed. It is often a challenge to light a charcoal grill but with the wind we were dealing with, it looked like we would not make it. However, after three attempts to get the fire going, moving the truck to block the wind and rearranging chairs and trashcans to further shield the grill, we got the charcoal burning enough to cook hamburgers, hot dogs and frog legs.  Mama was worried at the outset about the timing of the evening meal but we were all as full as ticks by 5:30. The wind kept the flies at bay – at least partially.

The kids played in the shallow water near the table where we parked the vehicles and the grill. Savanna had to be stripped down to her diaper after only a few minutes in the water. The older kids had to be constantly called back closer to the shoreline in order to keep their baby sister in shallow enough water to make things safe for her. She certainly was not going to allow her older siblings to go anywhere without her. They had a good time and Mama and I know we will go back to the park many times in the future since it is only about ten miles from us.

We need a little getaway by the water – and this one will do nicely.

Travel, repairs. travail

It was good to get home Saturday evening. It was even better to have Monday off to compensate for being on the road all day Saturday. Unfortunately, I did not get a lot of things done either Saturday evening or yesterday because my back was hurting badly. I guess standing is the hardest thing for my back to handle at this time – and I have to do a lot of it when I teach. I am home for the rest of this week but for the next two weeks I will be mostly out of town. Traveling to New Mexico next week and to Michigan the following week. Mama will be going with me when I go to teach two classes in Port Huron, MI. I have been looking for an opportunity to take he on one of the out of town assignments and that one looked like a good candidate to have her travel with me.

I do hope we have better flights than I had Thursday. Actually, the flight itself was not bad. Recovering my checked bag was a pain. I flew into Nashville because the flights into northern Alabama were horrifically overpriced due to the hurricane that just passed through. It was about a two-hour drive to Athens, AL from the airport – not bad. I did not have to check my bag but it was a very full flight and the flight attendants asked if anyone was willing to check their carry-on bag to ensure there would be enough room in the overhead bins. It did not seem like a big deal but when we arrived in Nashville it took almost an hour for the luggage to come through. Renting the car was a breeze and the drive through southern Tennessee was a pleasure. Thanks to the maps app on the phone – and the fact that I had been to the site before - it was pretty easy to get around once I got to my destination.

The flight back was a mirror image of the flight over but I had never flown into Terminal C in DFW. It is set up completely differently than all the other terminals with individual baggage claim carrousels spaced separately throughout the terminal. It took me a few minutes to find the right person to tell me where I needed to be to get my bag. Once again, it took about 45 minutes. Oh, well.

I spent a couple hours yesterday working on rabbit cages – after I went to the meat market to pick up our goat meat. We needed to get a cage repaired so we could separate a couple of maturing females. They tend to fight when they get to a certain age and it was evident that they had reached that age. I was planning on processing the largest of the females because Mama does not like her. She is very mean, but I promised to wait until the boys were through with school work before I began getting her ready for the freezer. I could have simply moved one young female into the vacated cage but it seemed a good idea to take the time to make the repairs I had been putting off. Mama and I had bought the specialized clips I needed to make the repairs when we were in Kansas with Brittany but I had not taken the time to use them for the repairs until yesterday. I think Mama will like what she has now. I should find out today. She came home early from school yesterday and headed straight for bed to rest up for the FBI class we had last night.

Mama came in Saturday evening to welcome me home with a terrible grimace on her face. She is dealing with some pretty intense female pain at the moment. It did not abate much through the weekend. Her body seems resistant to the change it must go through based on age. Pray for her that that pain would ease.

Rooster free zone, already full, elderberries

Mama and Brittany Wycoff bought thirty roosters to raise for meat but the roosters they ended up getting turned out to be some type of fancy breed that would never have grown to the point that they produced any meat to speak of. The last time the Wycoff’s were at the farm they took five of the ten we had and dispatched them at their place – Mama and Victoria did not have to witness the deed. I wanted to see if they would eventually gain any weight but it was fruitless effort. After several months, they weighed less than two pounds each – live weight. Rather than feed them any more I decided that last night – since we had done our FBI DVD Saturday evening – would be a good time to get them culled from the flock. The problem is that I did not have a prayer of catching them by myself, so I enlisted the aid of both Mama and Victoria. With their help, we soon caught the birds and put them in a small cage I could easily get them out of. I waited until Mama and Victoria had run to the house before I started dispatching the birds. It is not something I enjoy doing but when it has to be done I can do it. For now, we are rooster free; at least until we find out which of the Bantams are roosters.

As I run electric through the shop I am kind of making it up as I go. I did not have a grand plan at the outset and as I picture all the things I will be putting in the building I am starting to realize I will easily occupy all the space it has to offer. It is only 21x24 so I have about 500 square feet in total. Not a small space, but certainly not a huge shop. It may take several iterations to get everything placed so it is usable as positioned – at least, that is the goal. At this point I am wishing I had not volunteered to put the two freezers in the shop, but I have already run dedicated circuits for both appliances. Oh, well. No sense getting greedy.

Mama and Victoria will be making their second trip to the Cantrell’s this evening. They took Kobe to meet Leo Saturday afternoon but it was not yet time for her. They hope she will be in standing heat today. She was bought with the idea of getting puppies from her. If the puppies have a mix of her and Leo’s personalities, they will be great dogs. I have maintained the shelter for housing the pups and their mama once that moment comes, so I feel like we are set up for the breeding. We have at least three families that want pups if Victoria lets Kira have another litter, but I think these pups – if the breeding is successful – will be as good as or better than Kira’s offspring. Time will tell. That litter will end up being a big part of our winter activities.

Mama picked another batch of elderberries from our little patch. She filled the colander I normally use to catch the harvested fronds of berries to overflowing and still could have picked many more. When I was done watering, I stripped the seeds from the fronds and we filled two quart freezer bags. If I remember right, that makes eight quart size bags of ripe berries we have put up so far this year. With the way the plants are producing, we are less than half way through what we will have access to by the first frost. I will probably make our first batch of elderberry syrup this weekend. With the nights in the fifties and the days in the nineties, we will need the cold remedy earlier this year than any previous year.

We should be able to make plenty; which is good because I have a feeling we will be needing it.

Last Minute cancellation, Tampa, Danny

Just after I got home from church Sunday afternoon, about a half hour before I was going to leave for the airport, I got word that the workshop in Alabama had been cancelled. The track of the now weakening hurricane Irma was headed directly over Athens, Al. They are under a tropical storm warning expecting heavy rain and strong winds for today and tomorrow. It was a good, albeit belated, decision on the part of the organizers. One of the previous emails sent out by the same group was a warning to check our hotel reservations to ensure our rooms were still available. Due to the influx of people evacuating the Florida peninsula, hotels were filled up and some attendees and vendors had reported not having a room when they arrived late Saturday evening. Fortunately, our rooms can now be given out to those who are in need of them. Mama was not unhappy that I will be staying home for the week.

Since the track of the storm was headed to Tampa, Mama and I were concerned about the children in the Hope Children’s Home. We visited the facility before we drove down to Sanibel Island – which I expect was heavily impacted by the storm. After initially setting up to ride out the storm in their school building, which is a substantial structure, the decision was made to evacuate the home. Staff and children were taken to a location in Tennessee that Bro. Mike knew could house all of them safely. I do not know what they will go back to, but they will all go back to it together. Mama has not heard from Jake but we trust the they made it through the storm safely. All of Mama’s kinfolk – uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. – are accounted for. Now, like in Houston, the long process of cleaning up and getting lives back on track begins. Hopefully, we are done with hurricanes for the season – as Jose sputters out in the Atlantic -  but only time will tell.

Danny and Kim came in Friday evening and stayed the night with us. We had a very pleasant visit. They are headed to Yellowstone Park. She has never been and it has been many years since Danny and I went there as children. Our brother Steve and his wife Diane live in the area so the vacation will include a visit there as well. Mama and I were pleased at the visit and the time we had to share with them. They both really liked the farm. Danny even offered to come over and help me butcher the two pot belly pigs we are trying to get rid of. Mama passed on that offer. They left about 10:30 Saturday morning. Danny took several of Mama’s biscuits with him for a snack later.

I was able to put in several hours on the shop an got all the metal siding up Saturday morning and afternoon. Right out of the gate I cut my left thumb all the way to the bone on a piece of the metal siding I had to take down and recut. The cut edge on this siding has a razor-sharp raised line and the leather gloves I had been using are full of holes so I got a thinner pair of gloves to handle the piece as I put it on the saw horses to make the needed adjustments. Not a good decision. It took about an hour for the wound to quit bleeding. After that I used the mangled leather gloves for the rest of the day. It looks more like a shop now. I also got power to all of the outlets I have wired into the walls on the north, east and west sides of the shop. I have to do some work on the roof to wall seal on the south side before I install those outlets and switches. I had thought that would wait until I got back, but I may get that done tonight.

In preparation for being gone a week, I picked up all my tools a put everything away so the grandkids would have less temptation to use the plyers, hammers, etc. when they got back on Thursday of this week. It should not take me long to get everything set up again.

Better safe than sorry.

Garden cleanup, visitors, progress

As soon as I got home yesterday evening I got the weed eater and cleaned up the garden for Mama. I am not sure how the garden gets away from us every year but it does. I take heart in the fact that most gardens look like ours by the end of the summer. It was to the point that the pastures looked better than the garden and it was starting to frustrate Mama. Weed eating the garden never takes very long to do, but that activity is one of the most painful ones I attempt in keeping up with the farm. I should have worn a dust mask because this morning my nose is plugged up. Hopefully that will clear up by Monday morning when I start my week of teaching. This morning I am drinking hot liquids and sometime this weekend I will make a fresh batch of elderberry syrup. From the way the elderberries are producing this year, I have a hunch we will need a good supply of the natural cold remedy by the time Spring come next year. I am expecting a cold and wet winter in our area.

The garden looks better. Now we can see what is left and can tend to it properly until all growth has stopped and I till everything under in preparation for next year. Overall, the garden was a bit disappointing this year even though the raised bed I built worked out very well. I do not think there were many who had good tomato crops. We did not either. Peas produced nothing and the rabbits got all our sweet potato plants. The potatoes we planted looked good from the ground up but put out only a few little potatoes. Peppers, squash and pumpkins did the best. Fortunately, we did not the produce to survive. If we had, Mama and I would have gotten a lot thinner over the summer.

My brother Danny is supposed to come by the farm this evening for a visit. I am not sure what brings him into the area but I was pleasantly surprised that he wanted to stop by while he was in the area. We have never had a good relationship because we have divergent spiritual values but Mama and I have prayed for him for many years. Mama is going to a ladies meeting in Denton this evening and tomorrow morning. She will be riding up with the ladies from the church; leaving before school gets out this afternoon. So, I will get to host by brother and his girlfriend by myself. Not a problem. Just an interesting set of circumstances – which reflects our life in general.

I got to work a couple hours on the shop after I got through with the garden and was able to get the back of the building almost completed before I was called away to watch the FBI class videos we brought home to make up for not having class on Labor Day. We got through that by about 9 pm and will watch one more Saturday evening to make up for the class I will miss next week when I am in Alabama. Still, I was very pleased to get all the siding up that I did. Now I have five more cut pieces to attach and all the building will be fully covered – less doors. Since I already have most of the wiring run, it should only take me a few evenings to complete that. Sealing in the roof to the walls and covering the corners will complete the project – less the doors. I know what I want for the doors but I do not have the money to get them yet.

Patience.

Hurricanes and our family, Victoria, TX, working on shells

Joshua was in the path of hurricane Harvey and it looks like Maggie will be in the path if hurricane Irma. If the stories I heard on the radio on the way to work are even half true, it looks like Irma will cause a huge problem if evacuations are made. One story reported that people were walking along the Florida Turnpike, passed the jammed traffic, to get to the rest stop so they could use the bathroom. One guest suggested that people not go too far, just to go far enough to get to higher, safer ground – a hotel, a friend’s house, etc.; not necessarily to go so far that you risk running out of gas or getting stuck in miles of stopped traffic with the storm looming so close. I do know that Sanibel Island, where Mama and I just spent a couple days, would not be someplace I would want to ride out a hurricane and many places in Florida are situated as vulnerably as that island is. Even a glancing blow from such a large, powerful storm will be a huge problem for many homes and businesses. I cannot imagine what will happen in the Keys. As for Maggie, we would love for her and the kids to come to us, but that is not a short trip.

The farm looked empty when I got home yesterday. The camper that has been a part of the landscape there since Cori and Nate arrived was gone. It left a pretty big hole. They will be back next week but it was an interesting sensation to see the spot so open. Mama wanted to meet them in Victoria, TX while they are there for the Mission’s Conference at Western Hills but we cannot afford the additional expense of the travel for her to go so soon after our trip to Sanibel. She is disappointed. One of our friends in the church offered a place to stay while she was in Victoria, but getting her there and back is the issue. At least we got to see our friends there a year ago when I went to Victoria for work and took Mama along. Every opportunity to see old friends is a blessing. That will be one of the amazing experiences of Heaven, to see all our friends again and have plenty of time to catchup on how good God has been to us.

Mama is still working through the shells she and I gathered when we were at Sanibel. Thankfully we have had good weather so the table on which she has the shells still being processed can sit just outside the garage while she tries to figure out where the bad smell is coming from. It is far less that when we packaged the shells to come home. She and the grandkids have found multiple small snails in the collection but there must still be one or two – or some portion of remains in one or two of them. We are still working through that issue. Overall, we got some great shells during our trips to the beach. Other than the lingering smell, Mama is quite pleased. After church last night, she and four-year-old Aliza Burns looked through a small portion Mama had brought to the school to share with the kids there. One of my coworkers had asked me about our time shelling and I told him about some of the more unusual shells we brought home. He had never heard of an Angel Wing shell. He looked it up and was amazed by it.

So are we – and I found a very large one on the Caya Costa beach.

More travel, bye to Kai, an addition

This week is the final week I have to get prepared for the classes I will be teaching next week in Alabama. I have had the presentations ready for review for more than a month but they finally got reviewed last week. The changes my boss made to one of the presentations was significant – so much so, that I will have to spend a good deal of time getting ready to use it in the class coming up on Monday. The biggest problem is that the book I will be teaching from will not be handed to me until the morning of the class. I am trying to figure out a way to have the material ready without the actual manual. Surprise, surprise. One of the reasons for the major change to the presentation, which now is void of talking points with only graphics displayed, was that last year the presenter read the slides verbatim and it caused some embarrassment to our company. What I have now is what I will be stuck with for the class so I will have to make it work, but it is not the way I had envisioned it. Although, I am finding out that that is the way things are done in my department.

I will be leaving for Alabama Sunday afternoon; not returning until Saturday afternoon. Neither Mama nor I are looking forward to it. I have three classes to teach starting on Monday morning. One class is the one I have presented about a dozen times and the third is one that I have reformatted and updated for this set of classes. I will be able to review all the changes to that presentation on Tuesday, so I am not as concerned about that class. Nate, Cori and the kids will be leaving for Victoria, TX today and not returning until Saturday. That leaves Mama without the help in the morning and evening feedings that she has been getting used to. It could be a long week for her.

Mama and Nate took Kai to the meat market yesterday morning. Blake went along just because. Mama called me that morning to tell me that she was reporting to school as soon as she could make it in because Zach’s parents are in town and he wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. She called so I would know to meet her for lunch at the school – with the caveat that I would bring her something to eat because she would not be taking the time to pack her a lunch. Blake came along. Again, just because. He had a fun school day with the kids at the church school. I am certain he got several special treats in return for his time with Grammy.

As for Kai, our Chinese friends wanted all kinds of parts of the goat that the butcher shop was not allowed by law to give them, but we will still end up with more internal organs than Mama and I would have normally requested. The brain, stomach and intestines were not allowed to be processed for human consumption even though Lin said the stomach would sell for lots of money because the Chinese love stomach soup. The fact that we were talking about parts of the body that make Mama nauseous only added to the fact that we were butchering a pet. Kai was having problems walking so it was best to do something with him rather than watch him suffer and slowly die.

On the cattle side, Mama and the kids found out yesterday that Daisy – our pet cow – had a little heifer calf with her when she came for feed. It was the first time Mama had seen Daisy since we put her over with the bulls. So, we ended up with three calves this year. One bull ( now a steer) and one heifer that I know of. Mama thinks Daisy’s calf is a heifer but I have not seen it and Mama’s track record of sexing cattle is a bit spotty.

The temperature was 57° this morning. What a change.

Spirit, Hope, Sanibel

Last Wednesday morning Mama and I flew to Tampa, FL. We had made vacation preparations to go to Sanibel Island so Mama could go the one of the top three shelling destinations in the world. It was our first time to fly on Spirit Airlines – which was a pretty poor experience. We arrived at DFW a little over two hours before our flight and saw a line of at least 125 people. Two agents were working very slowly to check bags. In the first forty minutes, we moved so little that we were in danger of missing our flight. Finally, a third agent was added and Mama and I got the bag checked and headed to security. It was about twenty-five minutes before our departure time. By the grace of God, we were given pre-check clearance and flew through the security line. Our gate was on the outermost tip of the terminal and we ended up walking – a difficulty for Mama – for about fifteen minutes to make the distance. By the time we got there, they were boarding the last of the passengers that had been in the waiting area. Mama and I had had nothing to eat because we expected to have time at the airport. One poor lady who had been in line with us got to the gate as they were closing it. Fortunately, they let her on the plane. The lines, the baggage weight limits, the fees and several other little things made it a bad experience for us overall.

Once on the flight, things got a little better and we arrived in Tampa on time for the appointment I had set up with the director of Hope Children’s Home. That is the ministry that directs the work at the children’s home in Honduras where Cori, Nate and the kids will be working in the very near future. Mama and I spent about two hours with the director at the Tampa home and discovered it to be an amazing ministry. They have a forty-five-acre campus, which is set up with multiple dormitories for girls, boys and very young children, a school building/rec center – all done in an attentive, meticulous manner. It was impressive, very well organized. Mama and I both left there more willing than ever to pray about becoming a part of that ministry in some capacity in the future.

On the drive to Sanibel Island, Mama passed through some of the cities that were familiar to her from a time in her childhood when they had either visited relatives or lived for a time. It was nostalgic for her in a good way. She even called Grandma and told her we were eating lunch in Bradenton, FL. The drive - a little over two hours - was pleasant and uneventful. We rented a little Chevy Sonic and were very pleased with the car. We got to the hotel/condo where we had reservations about five minutes before the office closed for the day, got our room keys, a short rundown on the local events and a couple suggestions on where to eat before we parked and got our luggage taken to the room. It was a generous room with a large bedroom, a small kitchen and bath and a large living room with an adjoining screened in porch. Much nicer than we had expected. We did not wait too long to change and head to Lighthouse Beach which was very near the hotel. To access the beach, we had to walk an indistinct pathway; so much so that Mama and I felt like we were trespassing as we walked through the back edges of people’s yards. But the path did eventually access the beach and in the first two hours we collected about five pounds of nice, high quality shells. Mama was very excited.

Mama had been told that Lighthouse Beach was not the best beach for shells so we were anxious to try the other four on the island. As it turned out, our first beach worked out to be the best one on the island that week so we went back several times, but on the way back from one of the far end beaches, I had Mama call to schedule us a shelling cruise to an island only accessible by boat. It turned out to be the highlight of our fourteen-hour day Thursday. We took a thirty-minute boat ride across the Pine Island Estuary to Caya Costa Island, shelled for two hours and got some very unusual shells. There were so many that we could be very selective. Even still, we came back home with a carry-on bag full of shells so we struggled to keep our checked bag under the 40-pound limit.

The flight back was much better.