Training, partying, homecoming, outgoing

For the past two full days I have been in training – a refresher for all the trainers at my company. It was good to see the course presented as it was and get a fresh perspective on the material and its application. Definitely an opportunity to see areas where I can improve my presentation of the same class material. They were long days but the participants in both training sessions made the time enjoyable. One group traveled from Minnesota to get the training Wednesday. Both days were caught on video. I am sure I will be in a large portion of the video for Wednesday because I was sitting at the front table right by the speaker. He and I interacted a good bit because it was the first time he had presented the material is a year or so and we had made some updates to the presentation that he was not totally familiar with. We concluded the day with a short review of the class to capture key opportunities for further improvement and to share other observations.

I headed from the class to Pizza Hut where Mama and several others were waiting on Cori and Victoria. Mama and Cori had set up a surprise birthday party for Victoria. Right after Victoria got there – about 5:40 – I headed home to get changed for church. The Echeveria’s, the Wycoff’s, the Burn’s, Norman and Grandma were all there for the party. I think she was surprised, but I did not take time to find out. I know Mama ordered eight pizzas and there were only a few pieces left when the party was over. (I got one piece after church.) On the way home from church, each vehicle had one of the grandkids. Mykenzie rode with Victoria. Grant rode with Mama. Blake rode with me and Savanna rode with Cori and Nate. I think this was the first time we had all four vehicles at church on the same evening.

I was pretty late getting home yesterday but Mama had waited on me to get out and do the feeding. All the grass eaters needed hay, so I had to get the bales down from the loft of the goat barn. I needed to get a large bale for the cows – especially since Daisy and her calf were returned to our farm – but the temperature was dropping quickly, and the wind was howling out of the north. We had some old bales that needed to be fed out anyway, so Mama and I used them to fill up the herd for the evening. The goats were so excited to get the fresh hay and alfalfa that they almost fainted. With the cows, I thought I had a day or two before we needed another round bale, but Daisy cleaned up in one afternoon what was remaining from the bale the calves had been working on for a couple weeks. Although it is nice to have our herd back, I will need to be far more proactive in making hay available through the remainder of the winter. A big shout out to our neighbor for wrangling and delivering our wanderers. Other than keeping Daisy full – if that is possible – her calf is even more skittish than #75 and her calf were. Mama is not thrilled about that.

Nate, Cori and the kids will be finalizing packing today and heading out tomorrow. Lord willing, this will be the final stage of deputation for them. They have firm-ish plans to leave for Honduras in May. Mama is both excited and sad.

Fortunately, they are heading south this weekend.