Mama’s worries, Aubrey, sheep update

When I got home yesterday evening, Mama was worried about the sheep. She had not seen them come up to the water trough to drink. Every time she took time to look, they were grazing in the pasture. Never at the barn. Never drinking. So, we carried water to them in the field but as soon as we did the goats came to see what we were doing, and the sheep instinctively moved away. Goats are very curious creatures. Where upon Mama fussed and the goats to shoo them away, which drive the sheep even further from the water we have carried to them. In frustration, Mama called Rick for advice. He admitted to being ignorant concerning sheep. He has only dealt with goats and cattle in all his time raising stock animals. Mama and he talked about us loading up all the goats except Champ – our little wether – and taking them to Rick’s place. There were multiple reasons. Our goats are too fat to allow them to eat all that we put out for the sheep and them. They need to be separated in order to give the sheep time to acclimate. And, Champ needs to be separated from Dolly so he can be weaned.


I suggested and alternative. We will separate the goats to put them on a diet, but we can do it at the farm by putting them in the lot near the pigs. We will block the pigs from the building – which we were going to do anyway – and give that to the goats. That way they will still be easy enough to feed and water and they will be easily in view for Mama to watch over. The only caveat is that that is where we have had some incidents with goats or pigs getting into the back yard. When that has happened in the past, the dogs have killed the intruder. If we can keep the goats in that lot for a few weeks, it will give us time to slim them down, allow the sheep to bear there young and give me the time I need to prepare the other large paddock for whichever group of animals we decide to put over there. If I understood the conversation properly, we will take the nanny goats to Rick in March to get them bred. We should get them back in May. Meanwhile, Champ will run with the sheep. One additional consideration in having the goats near the pigs is that we will need to keep the feeders out of sight of the pigs. They will tear down a barn to get an extra bite of food.


Mama spent the morning with Aubrey yesterday. They went to the library for Story Time which is always followed by assembling a craft. Yesterday’s craft was a bear. I do not know what the story was about, but Aubrey was very pleased with her bear. Mama always has to do the craft portion while Aubrey watches. Aubrey does not like the sticky feel of glue, paste, a glue stick, a post it, etc. She will happily watch but she will not touch the project until all the sticky portion is covered up. I met the two of them for lunch after they were done at the library. Aubrey was full of herself yesterday. Silly faces. Silly dancing. Purposely getting her face messy. Flipping and flopping in the booth at the restaurant. It was both funny and frustrating. So, we focused on the funny aspect and dealt with the frustrating. I know Mama had to launder the shirt she was wearing at lunch as a consequence of the constant interaction with Aubrey. It is fun to watch the interaction of Aubrey with Mama. Aubrey is expressive in action, but she does not talk much. She really does not need to. Everyone does for her whatever she needs or wants. But she is comfortable enough with Mama now to jabber with her and to tell her “No”. Emphatically at times. That is actually good to see. She knows Aubrey understands well enough that Mama can correct and instruct her.


Mama is taking Grandma and Grandpa to one of Grandpa’s medical appointments this morning. She was counting on leaving the farm in time to make the appointment with a few minutes to spare, but Grandma and Grandpa wanted to leave several hours early so they can go “shopping”. I am not sure what that entails but the medical plaza is in a very upscale area, so there are some quaint shops to look through. That does not sound like a Grandma or Grandpa request, so I am curious to see how that foray turns out.


Mama sent me pictures of the sheep at the feeders this morning. She was excited about it. We will still separate the goats to slim them down and wean Champ, but the urgency is not there. Everyone has an opportunity to get fat now.

Our sheep and goats, Mama

After coming into work an hour early yesterday so that I could leave an hour early, when 3 pm rolled around, I forgot about my early dismissal. I ended up leaving work about 3:20. Mama called me on my way home. She had Leo and Nathan with her because Krystal had a lengthy prenatal visit at her doctor’s office. The boys are not allowed to wait in the waiting room without supervision. So, Krystal took Norman with her and Mama kept the younger boys. We were planning on taking them with us to get the sheep, but as it worked out, Krystal was done by the time we were actually leaving Decatur, so we met her and got the boys back to her. They wanted to come but we did not know how late we would be getting home, so we thought it best for them to stay with their mama. Mama and I were not sure what Krystal has in mind for their evenings and bedtimes. It probably would have been okay. Maybe next time.

We ended up getting to the seller just before dark. It was still light enough to get a good look at the ewes. As expected, three of the five looked very good. The other two, thinner and taller with shaggy wool coats, were not as impressive but all were bred. The one we thought about not taking had kidded twice before, producing twins both times. The sellers assured us that she was a good mommy. So, she came home with us as well. None of the ewes are pure blood Dorper, but if all of them give us lambs in the next three to four weeks, we will have done well. Victoria helped us unload, but mostly the ewes jumped out of the bed of the truck on their own. They are not too graceful. The two that got out without my help did faceplants as they landed. They quickly recovered and scampered away. We were offloaded and parked by 8:15. Much earlier than I expected.


Mama and I stood outside and watched for a few minutes to see how the goats and sheep would integrate. It does not appear that it will be a problem. It is far more of an issue to integrate a new goat into this herd. The hours upon hours of head butting required to establish the proper pecking order frustrates Mama. The sheep immediately started grazing. They will find plenty to eat in this paddock. The goats checked out the new arrivals but quickly dismissed them. The only thing the goats were curious about last night was what the sheep were finding to eat. Mama will update me on the integration later this morning. It was too late to get pictures and I did not think about doing so when we got to the seller’s farm. Mama is excited about the prospect of little ones being born on our farm. Now we have to arrange to get our goats bred so they can kid in the fall. Meanwhile, both of our heifers are with a bull now. Hopefully, they will calve in October or November. This could be a productive year. Time will tell.


Tomorrow, Mama and I will work in the garden; working the ground and planting onions, spinach and Brussel sprouts. This weekend, I will work on getting the rolling doors on the goat barn and putting up the rolling door on the back of the shop. That will take two projects off my list. Now that we have both sheep and goats, I will get the second paddock ready. Mama and I talked about putting the goats in that paddock and letting the sheep have the goat barn paddock. The sheep are grazers and there will be plenty of grass in the paddock with the goat barn because our leech bed is in that area. With the goats in that area, Mama had to mow the grass in there every time she mowed the yards. The goats do not eat it down. They only nibble at the tops of the grass. The sheep, however, will eat it to the ground. There are plenty of leaves and briars in the other area. That is what the goats prefer to munch on. Feeding arrangements and shelter will be worked out as I develop the area.


Mama worked at the school yesterday. There was a special day of competition so there were several churches there. Mama was judge, organizer, food service aid and general helper. She spent a lot of time on her feet, so she was hurting that evening. Our drive to get the sheep was less than a two-hour trek so we only stopped once on our way there, but Mama struggled to get out and walk when we did stop. She had lamented about not working at the school because of the loss of her weekly spending money, but yesterday was a clear reminder of just why it is best for her not to be there every day.


Mama will rest a bit today even though she will be taking Aubrey to the library for Story Time.

Sheep, bed enclosure, room

Last week I was looking on Craigslist for several items and came across an ad for dorper sheep. The pictures and the price were enough to attract my attention, so I printed out the information in order to share it with Mama. She was interested also, so we called the number listed and spoke to the young man who was in charge of selling the herd. He had over one hundred for sale and needed to sell off the entire lot. That call was made Thursday afternoon on our way up to Brittany’s. Mama told the seller we would be out of town and would call back Monday to see what he had left. By the time we called yesterday morning, he had sold most the herd, having only five ewes left. That is enough for us. So, he and Mama talked pricing for the last five. He sent pictures to Mama of the ones he has left and she sent the pictures to a friend who raises both sheep and goats. Mama’s friend thought four of the five were good to buy but did not have kind words about the fifth ewe. Mama and I will drive over after I get off work this evening and see for ourselves what he has to offer. We are fully prepared to buy four of the five, but we hate to leave him with one lone sheep to deal with. That may all change when we see the sheep up close. We may come home empty handed. We may take four of the five. We may take all five. We are told that all will kid next month. That would be nice. If not, I can always eat them.

In preparation for getting the sheep, I spent a couple hours last night building an enclosure in the bed of the pickup. I had plenty of lumber lying about the farm, so I decided to build wooden racks along the sides of the bed with a gate in the back. I wanted the gate – and the back of the enclosure - to fit inside the closed tailgate. That would help to make everything more secure. I debated how nice to make it. Whether or not I should make it in such a way that we could reuse it. We are starting to have a greater need for such a way to haul goats and now sheep, and a stock trailer (which we no longer have) is not always the best way. Whatever it was to turn out to be, I wanted it to at least be straight and square. Not haphazard and crooked. As I worked on it, Mama came out to inspect it and gave her approval. She said she was impressed, but I know she was just being generous.


It was well after dark before I was done, but I was pleased how things turned out. At least the enclosure will not be embarrassing to have in the bed of the truck as I park at work and drive around town at lunch. Hopefully, it will serve us well enough for the sheep tonight. And, while we have it in the truck, Mama is going to call Rick to see if we can either borrow a buck or haul our four doe goats to his farm to be bred. With that in mind, it may be in the back of the truck for longer than I originally anticipated. Even though I was bundled up, I am still suffering a little this morning after working in the cold. Well, sort of cold. The temperature was 36° and the wind was steady at 25 mph, gusting to 40 mph. But with this constant nagging cough, even that is hazardous for me right now.


I came in an hour early this morning so Mama and I could leave earlier than my regular time would have allowed. It is more than an hour to get to the farm where the ewes are being kept. The team of young men that owned the herd were planning on selling after the ewes kidded this year, but they did not want to renew the lease on the land where they had the herd, and the lease ends at the end of January; hence the need to sell off the herd. As for our farm, we are not quite ready, but we are close enough that we can rehome the sheep. For now, they will run with the goats while I get the second paddock ready for the sheep. Other than one dietary distinction between the sheep and the goats, they should do well together until we can permanently separate them. The paddock where we have the goats is more than large enough to accommodate both sets of animals. With their different grazing needs, the grass we have there should support them both well in the short run.


Mama and I will discover ways to sell off the lambs as the need arises, but for now. We are excited to see if we can start herding sheep as well as goats on our little farm.

The twins, the base, the plane

Mama and I drove to Wichita Thursday afternoon. I took a half day of vacation so we could get to Brittany before the twins had to be put to bed. We ended up getting there about dinner time, so Mama and I got to help with that. The girls warmed up to Mama a lot more quickly than to me this time, but by the time the evening was spent, Sophia was on my lap while Zoe monopolized Mama. They were in bed a little later than normal because Brittany was keeping them up so they could see their daddy. Andrew has been working very long hours over the past month planning the ceremony we would get to participate in the following day. He got home a little after 9 pm. The girls played a few minutes more but went to bed shortly afterward. I was thankful for the extra time. Andrew was exhausted Mama and I were pretty tired also. We did not get to visit for long before we all went to bed. Friday was the big day.


Andrew a was gone before any of us got up. That is saying something because I was up at 5:45. That morning we were going to have breakfast with the squadron. The intent was to have the squad, the families and those civilians connected to the arriving aircraft together as they live streamed the jet taking off from the assembly facility in Washington State. There were very loud cheers when that happened about 10 am. Their first bird was on the way. They have been waiting for this delivery for over a year. Five or six promised delivery dates had come and gone so when the KC-46A was airborne, it was a momentous occasion. Mama and I were there to share it. Even if that was all we got to do, I would have been glad we had made the trip to share that with Brittany and Andrew. The area where we had breakfast with the squad was not large, so it was packed. The twins were only two out of the twenty or so little ones there. Mama and I got to put faces with names of individuals Brittany had mentioned. They got to connect us with her and Andrew as well. We got a real sense of family. Of duty. Of service. Of commitment.


We left for home after spending about two hours with the squad and their families. When we left the building, it was snowing hard. No one had forecast the snow, so everyone was caught a little off guard. But the meteorologists on base let everyone know that the snow would be short lived. It did give us a slippery ride back to the house. The outside temperature was 24°, which allowed the snow to accumulate on the roads, get pressed to ice and give those who were driving in it more than a little apprehension. I was not driving. Brittany was driving so that we could drive directly onto the base without having to get a pass for the day. That process would have been lengthy due to the huge influx of visitors for the upcoming ceremony. I was in the back seat of the Sequoia. To get into the backseat I had to enter through the lift gate on the back of the vehicle. With the two large car seats in the middle seats of the Sequoia, I could not get in or out any other way. After the first couple times of rushing to get the babies out of the vehicle – leaving me waiting – Mama and Brittany started letting me out first. It was fun to be in that position because the girls and I were facing each other. We sang. We played. We did animal sounds. They tried to copy my facial expressions. I had a blast with them.


The formal ceremony was in the afternoon. The plane was expected to arrive at the base between 2 and 3 pm and the ceremony was centered around that. Mama, Brittany and I were there by 1 pm fearing that if we did not get there early, there would not be any parking near the hanger where the reception was being held. We did not want Mama to have to walk too far. The plane landed at 2:25. Those who were there to watch the live stream and hear the radio chatter between the plane and the tower were relieved to have the plane finally there, excited by the prospect of commissioning the plane, and proud of the work they had done to make all this happen. At 3 pm, the ceremony started. All rose and saluted the flag as the National anthem was played. It was an unusually patriotic venue. It was wonderful to see the love of country on such open display. Senators, generals and the Secretary of the Air Force spoke in turn. Some speeches were actually good.


As the ceremony concluded, keys were symbolically handed to the base commander, and the hanger doors were rolled up. The plane was sitting just outside the hanger. It is a huge plane. In the picture it is flanked by two of the older refuelers. It was a great moment to share with those to whom it was so important. If we had not been there to witness the event, we probably would not have known it ever happened. There was nothing on any new outlets about it. Maybe that was part of the plan.

That night, Brittany and Andrew went back to the base for a special dinner. Brittany got to walk through the plane with Andrew as her guide. Mama and I kept the girls. It was a win-win.

Travel, less of a good thing

The weather should be great for our trip north. Victoria is not thrilled about Mama and I going. She cannot make the trip with us this time, but she has gone to visit Brittany and the twins recently. Additionally, she will be tasked with the care of all our animals in our absence. It is a chore Victoria does not relish. She gets it done, but it is not at the top of her list of favorite things to do. So, Mama and I are working on a plan to get help tending to the farm as she and I begin travel for our real estate business. During the month of April through the month of September we may be on the road every week for several days at a time each week. It may turn out that our schedule is not that full. It may be every other week until we run out of money to purchase homes at the auctions. But we will definitely be on the road to attend as many auctions as we deem necessary. Following those initial trips will be return visits to oversee or participate in the remodeling of the houses purchased. It is a lot to consider and we do not want to needlessly bother anyone with obligations we have taken on while we are taking on new obligations, but we have not come up with a good resolution yet. As we move forward into this business, we will see what direction we need to head, but for this year we are concentrating on only Arkansas and Oklahoma; specifically, Lawton. We are beginning to wonder if Lawton, of itself, may prove to be enough for us. This year should prove that out.

My work schedule is starting to fill up. As we fly into 2019, there seems to be a revived interest in the instructor led training courses offered by the company I work for. Some of those courses will be taught at the client location. Requiring travel. Some will be taught here in Decatur. No travel required. My forecast for this year was an increasing amount of travel versus last year with the caveat that the travel requirement would peak next year. (Due to clients wanting classes taught at their sites.) I am predicting ten to twelve travel required classes this year. Classes I am specifically required to teach. Perhaps as many as fifteen to eighteen next year; especially as we add classes to our repertoire. Fortunately, there is an increasing desire among our company staff to be instructors, so the burden can be spread around. I still plan to be fulltime in our personal business by April. No later than July. We will see how that works out as the year progresses, but both Mama and I are getting anxious to get that started. But as long as I am here, I will be faithful to my commitment to this company. I will also ensure that I am properly backfilled before I leave.


Mama is planning to go sugar less (not to be confuses with sugarless) starting in February. I am not sure how that will work out. We have a house stocked with sugary foods from candy to breakfast cereals to cookies and pop tarts to cake mixes and canned fruit – in heavy syrup. She has begun to give away some of the breakfast cereals we have accumulated. She even cleaned out our candy drawer. That was a good thing since many of those items were several years old and desperately needed to be discarded. We are not buying any soft drinks or other high-sugar drinks. She is switching to Maple Syrup in her coffee since it as more of a natural sweetener. It is too expensive for me to do that also so, I will still use raw sugar in my coffee. We are not discarding our jams and jellies yet. We do not consume enough of those to be an issue. At least not at this point. Victoria is on board with the dietary challenge. Mama has done this in the past with a good deal of success. I will support her in this renewed effort as well.


I am moving to a more alkaline diet. It is best for me to avoid meat and dairy at my age. I do not digest either of those food groups efficiently anymore.  Avoiding eggs and grain is more problematic. We have those in abundance in our diet. We need the fiber they provide and many of our preferred meals center on grains. However, I like most of the alkalizing food groups and switching to them will also help Mama and Victoria in their quest to eat more responsibly. Adding avocadoes, broccoli, spinach, all kinds of greens, sweet potatoes, kale, bananas, etc. will be a dietary improvement. Unfortunately, cucumbers and Bell Peppers are also among the top ten alkalizing foods, but I cannot eat those without suffering for house after consuming them. All this seems counterproductive when we are raising our own beef, pork and eggs. Looking back to yesterday when Mama and I met at the Chinese restaurant for lunch – she took Aubrey to the library – I ate only meats from the buffet. Chicken, pork, shrimp and fish. The only vegetables I ate were zucchini and cabbage. No wonder I felt bloated that evening.


I will have to train myself to think vegetables.

Coop additions, taxes, packing

Mama spent part of the day yesterday in Gainesville. She met up with Kim Cantrell to pick up a rooster Kim needed to find a home for. Kim Cantrell needed the outing with her grandkids, so it was mutually refreshing for both of them. Mama got rid of all her roosters a few months ago and instantly regretted it. She was frustrated because the roosters were making her hens look bad. When a rooster breeds a hen, he mounts on her back and pins down her head. His spurs often scratch off the feathers on the back of the hen. His gripping the back of the hen’s neck can pull out feathers there also. But the hens are happier when there is a rooster in the coop. At least, that is what Mama has read from several “experts”. So, to make her hens happy, she found and brought home another rooster. The rooster is a Buff Orpington rooster. As is normal for that heavy breed of chicken, he is large. Maybe not as tall as the largest rooster Mama recently gave away, but he is a good bit taller and heavier than our largest hen and more than twice the size of our Banty hens. That should prove interesting as time goes on. Our Banty hens are feisty and may not submit to his attentions. Mama is already fretting for her tiny hens.


Initially, Mama was worried about introducing the rooster to her flock. Her worry was that the older, more dominant hens would terrorize the newcomer. She need not have worried. As soon as she freed the rooster from the carrier he was in, the hens flocked to him; vying for his attention. He got straight to work doing rooster things. He was strutting about the yard outside the coop when I first got home, but he was not straying too far from the coop building. Next, Mama worried that he would not go to roost in a coop that was unfamiliar to him. (I think our attribution of human qualms to animals has been grossly exaggerated by Disney movies.) Again, she need not have worried. He hoped right up on the roost last night just before dark. I am sure over the next week or so, he will learn his way around the farm when let our birds out of the coop yard. He will also learn Mama’s routine as she cares for her flock. This morning, as I left – an hour before daylight – I could hear him crowing. Happy rooster. Happy hens. Happy Mama. We all win.


Since I am still convalescing and must limit my time out in the cold, I spent the evening working on getting all our tax information together. The documents provided yearly to us for tax purposes are trickling in, so it is time for me to get my portion done. Through last year I saved all our receipts, grouped by month, stored in rubber band bound piles in a desk drawer. I took all those piles of receipts, one by one, and pulled out anything tax related. Farm income and expenses. Business income and expenses. (Counting the farm, Mama and I have three businesses we keep up with.) Medical expenses. Charitable contributions. Miscellaneous tax-deductible expenses. That took a little over an hour. Now I will go back through each group of receipts and qualify whether or not each is relevant for tax purposes. Then I will create a spreadsheet to capture the totals by category and provide that to the tax accountant for her use in calculating our taxes. I am encouraged by what I found and how quickly I was able to get all the receipts grouped. As I began the process, Mama said she would help but I was almost done by the time she felt like she was free to do so. It is not hard to do. It is just not something she enjoys doing.


Today, Mama will be packing us up for a weekend trip to Wichita. The trip was in jeopardy until 6:06 pm last night. That was when I called the number I was given to verify whether or not I was needed for Jury Duty today. Fortunately, the jury being called for today was cancelled. I was thanked for my willingness to serve but released from my call to service. I was not disappointed. Mama was thrilled. I am free to travel. Mama and I will need to have very warm clothing and coats for the ceremony Friday. Much of the initial ceremonial welcome of the new aircraft will – obviously – take place outside. It is supposed to be cold, but not unbearably so. That afternoon is forecast to be in the high thirties. Light winds. Great for my nagging cough. Brittany is excited that we can be there -as much for her as for Andrew. Mama and I will be able to watch the twins while she and Andrew mingle during the reception following the arrival of the plane.


Again, everybody wins.  

The girls, the garden, hedges

Cheyenne spent the night with us Sunday night. Aubrey wanted to come also but that was not going to happen. It may be another year or two before her mommy allows her to sleepover at Mama Kim’s. Cheyenne has done so several times now – so it was old hat for her. Once they were up and had eaten breakfast, Mama went to town to retrieve Yilin and Aubrey. The three played all morning and into the afternoon while Mama dealt with noise levels far above the ambient noise she is used to. They toured he farm, checked out the pigs, petted the chickens and collected eggs, caught our little wether goat and petted him. Mama was worn out and hurting by the time she took them to Wendy’s for lunch late in the afternoon. She had them home by 3:30 pm. They had a good time. There were chalk drawings and tic-tac-toe grids on the patio and the refrigerator magnets had all been rearranged. There were works of crayon art left on the table in various stages of completion. Farm shoes were abandoned in several locations and coats were dropped indiscriminately near the patio doors. All a testament to the active day Mama gave the girls during their visit. She said none of them wanted to get out of the vehicle when she pulled into their driveway. Aubrey started crying. I can sympathize. I don’ t like being away from Mama either. As a consolation, Mama will get Aubrey tomorrow to take her to Story Time at the library.


Alex allowed the girls go to church with us Sunday night. Monday was a school holiday. Craig Brian preached both services Sundays. In the evening service he preached about the hedge God puts around us to protect us from the ongoing attacks we face from those who oppose us. Bro. Brian used a passage from the Book of Job; Satan’s argument to God that Job would not serve Him if the hedge God had placed about Job were removed to allow him to attack Job. To illustrate the lesson, he called a teenager up to the front and compassed him with his mom and dad, our pastor and his wife, our youth leader, his grandma and grandpa, his Sunday School teacher, his Christian friends. When all were in place, he tried to get to the teenager and was not able because he was resisted by those standing in the hedge. He pointed out that although the teenager was constantly protected, physically surrounded, he could mentally reject those protections and one by one sent his protectors away voicing the common excuses we use to reject Godly counsel, until only the pastor was left. Leaving him open to attack from almost every angle. It was powerful illustration especial to the young people in the service. Yilin picked up on the concept and began to gasp as his protection was taken away. How quickly we allow ourselves to be offended, to be jealous, to be envious, to become wise in our own eyes. All of which cause us to push away those who would protect us if they could. Ecc. 10:8 says…” whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.” Stay in the hedge. God graciously offers us that protection. We would be wise to stay within its safety. It will not keep us from trials. They are to exercise our faith. But it will keep us from exposing ourselves to unnecessary assault from our adversary.


Yesterday evening Craig Shaw came by the farm to look over our garden spot. Mama and I enlisted his help because he has so much success with his gardens and we have not been successful with ours. The first thing he noticed was that the garden may be too shaded. Especially for the early planting required in this area. He loved the raised bed in our garden, but it will not get a full eight hours of direct sunlight when the oak trees on the east side of the garden are leafed out fully. His argument is that filtered sunlight is not as beneficial to vegetable plants as direct sunlight. I can see the argument and concede its merit. But it is hard to imagine that the brutal sunlight of mid-summer would be required when it so quickly burns up the plants. It is difficult to get enough water to the plants during those extremely hot hours of those days. Mama and I will trim a few branches to allow more morning light on the garden, but I will not be too aggressive. Greenhouses filter sunlight by design, but they are rarely shaded. So, in theory, they get direct sunlight all day. The only place on our little farm that gets sunlight all day is the circle in front of the house and the back yard. Neither of those places would be acceptable to Mama for a garden spot.


Somehow, we will make this work.

Lawton, bum Saturday

Walls to the right and left will be removed

Mama and I got to see our house in Lawton Friday afternoon. I am glad to have seen it emptied of all the trash Glenn and his crew removed. It is still in need of some minor repairs, a lot of paint and several interior changes to remove unnecessary walls in the small living room. Glenn was not able to meet us at the property, but he did a walkthrough with us as we looked at the house from the inside. Enclosing and repurposing the garage will be a huge improvement in the use of that space. Between the kitchen and the old living room we are going to remove the partial wall and open up that area. We will remove the wall between the old living room and the new living room (once the garage). That will put the fireplace in the center of a very large space, making it more functional as well as highlighting it as you walk into the house. The bedrooms are typical – much like those in our house at the farm.

Recovered garage space

There is not much that can be done to improve the bedrooms other than painting and upgrading the closet doors. The bathrooms are passable. They are dated but clean and functional. The kitchen is what it is. There in little we can do to it without incurring a lot of associated costs. It is functional but will take some cleaning up and refacing to make it marketable. Fortunately, most home buyers are more interested in open space than in a large kitchen. New appliances will be purchased and installed, and new countertops will be set before putting the house on the market. One corner of the old garage will be enclosed to provide a large walk-in pantry to offset the smaller kitchen. That was Glenn’s suggestion. The lumber taken from the walls we are tearing out will be reused to make that enclosure. It is a good plan all told but I am not sure if it can be completed by the end of the month. Time will tell. Mama and I are praying to have the house sold by mid-February. If that does not happen, I will have to adjust my timetable for going into our real estate business fulltime. A small matter.

From the street

Saturday was cold and very windy - making it feel very cold. The temperature was 25°. The winds were steady at 20 mph gusting to 40 mph. I did not go outside any more than was absolutely necessary. When I did go out, I was bundled up thoroughly. Even still, it affected my cough almost instantly. I am ready to be well again – but this cough lingers. So, to make the day ay least minimally profitable, I spent the day on the computer setting up files for our business and getting all the accounting for the business completed for last year. I also hooked up my two external hard drives to my computer so I could remind myself what was on them. They are each one terabit hard drives. Each is at least half full. One is more work-related information for its use as a backup to files I used in training the staff in New Jersey. Most of that will need to be deleted in order to fulfill my obligation to guard proprietary information. All of it is training related but it is not mine to keep.


The other hard drive is filled with personal stuff; movies, pictures, personal files. Some of the image folders date back to 2005. Most of the personal folders – kept for tax purposes – date back to 2007. One image folder had more thirty folders within it. In one of those subfolders was a store of 1158 pictures dating back to 2005. I did not open the other twenty-nine folders, but I am sure there will be a lot of work involved in sorting through all those images to cull out the ones we want to save and eventually share. One folder was called Baby Sitting Pictures. It was an accumulation of formal pictures taken of Mama with her charges sometime in the mid-2000’s. Baby Victoria was really Baby Victoria. Nearly fourteen years ago. The next time we go to Honduras, I will take that hard drive with me so Cori can take the pictures she wants from it. From her wedding. Her pregnancies. Hundreds of family photos as the children grew. She will be able to identify the ones she wants. The others will be discarded. Both hard drives are old as far as computing service goes and will have to be replaces this year if I am to safely keep the information they contain. Fortunately, the externals storage devices have come a long way since 2005.


I also took the time Saturday to set up the files for my taxes. We will be going to Amarillo to a tax accountant there. One recommended by our former tax accountant. Perhaps next year we will find someone closer. It just seemed prudent to stay with someone who had all our information from the last six years of taxes. All the required paperwork is starting to come to us, so it was time to get all that in order. Again, this year we should be close to balancing out our taxes owed to taxes paid. We should not have to pay too much to settle up with the IRS.


I expect next year to be drastically different.

Praise, leaves, travel

Good news from Honduras. Cori told Mama that the medical team that worked the clinic earlier this week treated over 3,800 patients. 166 of those made professions for Christ. That is pretty amazing. Mama and I wish we could have been a part of that ministry. Maybe next time. The medical team headed home yesterday so Nate, Cori and the kids should be getting back to normal today. What a good report Matt will have to give to the church on Sunday.


Yesterday evening Mama and I spent about an hour mulching leaves. She mulched leaves in the front yard, the back yard, the coop area and the goat enclosure. I used a large leaf rake to move the leaves away from trees, fences and other obstacles so Mama could reach them with the mower. My eyes are burning this morning from all the dust the mulching/mowing stirred up. It did not take long using the mower to help us recycle the leaves. We left a drift of leaves at the fence on the west side of the house so the big dogs could bed down in them on cold nights. I am not sure they will be able to do so this weekend because we are supposed to get rain before the cold comes. In those instances, they sleep on the front porch – pressed against the door. We still have huge accumulations of leaves in the pasture areas of the farm. Mama and I will have to team up on those areas. Her on the mower. Me on the brush hog. That will take longer than the yards and animal enclosures took. But it does the farm good to have the leaves chopped up so they will decompose faster and more evenly. Our farm ground had been too long neglected when Mama and I took over. It will take a lot of lime, fertilizer and mulching the annual leaf piles to infuse some health into the ground. But those are small improvements done in stages over multiple years. So far, I believe we are gaining but it will be another five years before we know for sure we have reversed the neglect.


For now, the coop is clean, the hog building is clean and the leaves near the house have been shredded. Mama and I are ready to take the afternoon and travel to Lawton. I took only a half-day vacation so I can conserve the time I have this year in case my departure schedule has to be extended. We may need the vacation time to make a couple early auctions in Arkansas – which start April 2^nd. Mama and I may get a better feel to a timeframe as we talk with Glenn this afternoon, but I am not counting on that. There is only so much he can do to help us as we get started. We will have to meet the pace set by the business to make sure I do not get ahead of our money at the beginning.


Brittany and Mama were talking last night about a special ceremony Andrew is participating in for the commissioning of the aircraft he has been studying to fly. There will be a big ceremony next Friday at the base in Wichita Falls. Families of the commissioning team are invited. In fact, they are encouraged to attend. Mama kind of invited us to attend. Brittany was thrilled by our interest. It is a very big deal for Andrew, and he has no family that can make the event. I do not know the details of the ceremony or the actual time table for that and the reception following, but Mama seemed excited about going - if only as an excuse to visit the twins. While Brittany and Andrew are close enough for us to get to, we need to take advantage of every opportunity to spend time with the babies. We are planning on heading up either Thursday evening after work or leaving very early Friday morning. Knowing Mama, we will go earlier rather than later.


That is one of the things we will talk about as we travel this afternoon.

Busy Mama, our expense tracker

It’s time to buy feed for the farm animals again. Since Mama insists on going to Muenster to buy that feed – it saves us about fifty dollars a month – she will have to add that to her very busy schedule today. I offered to swap vehicles with her yesterday, but she wanted to wait. She will not use the Sequoia to haul the feed because it smells bad to her when she is enclosed with the feed. So, that chore got added to her agenda today. Victoria does not leave for work today until 11 am. Because of her having a free morning and the fact that Mama promised her Little Smokies and meatballs for dinner last night – which did not happen because Mama forgot to take the meat out of the freezer in time – they will be cooking this morning. Victoria is planning on taking that for lunch today. I assume she will be packing enough for both her and Mama since Mama is meeting her for lunch this afternoon. But before lunch Mama has to pick up the feed and get the oil changed in my truck. We still use Allen’s Texaco in Bowie for our oil changes, so it makes some sense to have it done while she is in Bowie. She has a scheduled stop at Grandma and Grandpa’s on the way home after lunch with Victoria. She should be home about the time I get there.


Mama has a long list of things she needs me to do this evening. She mentioned getting the barn side of the coop cleaned this morning, but I think that will be displaced by the meal preparation Victoria is wanting. It will be easy to add that to my list of evening chores – none of which are difficult or time consuming. Most are clean up chores. Shovel and wheelbarrow required. Farm animals produce a lot of waste, manure being the proper term. All of which is one hundred percent recyclable. Maybe the phrase of the day is “repurposed”. I am never quite sure. If we take the time to collect it and redeposit it in the right places, it is wonderful natural fertilizer. We have a full day today because we will be going to Lawton tomorrow afternoon. I do not expect to be back home before dark. Additionally, Friday there is rain in the forecast. Not much. Less than an inch, but through the weekend the temperatures are supposed to drop into the twenties. That will make what we get done today pretty much what we get done for the rest of the week. Other than normal feeding of our animals. Mama and I are not fond of the cold anymore. I am still coughing, so being out in the cold does me no good.


In preparation to go out on our own I have been working on capturing Mama’s and my expenses. I need a very good framework in order to build a budget going forward. When we are on our own, I need to know what to budget from the company earnings to pay me and Mama so we can continue to meet our weekly, monthly and annual obligations. As I continue to capture those expenses, I am staggered by the amount of money we require. I have often wondered why Mama and I are struggling financially at times. Now I a beginning to see. Having a baseline figure of expenses will let me know how much money Mama and I need to have in reserve to be able to maintain all our expenses when I am solely responsible to provide that money. I want to be able to start with a three-month reserve for our expenses without disrupting our investment pool of cash. That should not be a challenge when we get going, but it looks a bit challenging right now. We are on the verge of selling our first house and buying our second. When we sell our second and are buying our third, I can be reasonably assured we can maintain both our investing and living budgets within the business itself – without employment. When that date will be is still speculative, but it is sooner rather than later.


By summer -definitely. This quarter - possibly. The Lord knows.

Small help, big help

Help can come in many forms but yesterday, Mama had the Thomason boys to help her. We have not yet mulched the accumulation of leaves shed by all the trees near the house. Some of the leaves are piled on drifts so deep the big dogs are able to completely bury themselves in the drifts. Mama and I have talked about leaving one of those drifts for them to be able to continue to burrow in through the remainder of the colder months. For instance, this weekend, after reaching a high of 72° on Friday afternoon, the temperature is forecast to drop to 19° by Sunday morning. On that night, the outside dogs will need the extra insulation the leaves provide.


To get rid of the leaves, we typically use Mama’s zero-turn mower to mulch them, but we have not taken the time to mow the leaves because we are never sure exactly what is beneath them. Our trees regularly shed branches – some small, some large – but there are always branches to be picked up. Enter our help. Krystal had a doctor’s appointment yesterday afternoon. One that was going to take a couple hours. In order for her to be free for all that appointment required, Mama kept the three boys. After a movie and some inside play time, Mama got them organized and they gathered sticks in the front yard, the back yard, the coop area and the circle in front of the house. By the time they were done, we had a large pile of branches in the burn pit on the patio. Once the yard was cleared of obstacles, Mama wasted no time in getting out her mower and chopping up leaves. It was late in the evening by that time so the work with the mower will have to continue today and perhaps tomorrow, but a good portion of the leaves have been shredded.


While she worked with the boys and began mowing, I worked in the barn lot cleaning up the areas where we had fed out hay to the cattle. Mama contacted our neighbor and he is supposed to drop off a bale of hay today. I wanted to make sure we could put it in a clean area. Plus, it helps for me to keep up with the soiled, wet refuse left by the cattle in the spots where we set out the hay. Only one of those places is covered and Mama specifically requested the bale be put in that spot. Even though the work was mostly done by the tractor, I was still coughing because of time out in the cooler air. 


I texted Glenn, our real estate/investor partner, yesterday to see if he would be available to meet with us Friday afternoon. Mama and I have been trying to make the time to go to Lawton to see the house we purchased there and access the work that is being done on that house. Glenn called me later that afternoon to appraise me of a change in scope of the remodel. We had originally talked about installing a garage door in place of a poorly constructed wall that had been built to fill that space when some previous owner remodeled the house and removed the garage door. Once the house was emptied (it had been full of discarded items and trash from front to back), Glenn was able to see that the living room was small for the size of the house. It was not functional as a living room with doors centered in two walls and a window in a third. However, the garage is huge. Far larger than a typical garage. He decided to turn the garage area into a large living room, while making the less functional room into a dining room. The wall he will build to enclose the garage door opening will require a redo of the exterior on that side of the house to eliminate the “enclosed garage” look. We wholeheartedly agreed with the decision. Friday afternoon we will get to see it in person.


I asked about the turn around time to put the house on the market. Glenn expects to have the remodel done and the house staged for listing by the end of the month. That would be wonderful! There are sixteen more foreclosure auctions in Lawton this year. Mama and I plan to be at as many as possible so we can continue purchasing homes offered at these sales. With the oversight Glenn is providing, we feel confident we can avoid some of the typical mistakes new investors make in this market.


He has been a very big help to us.

Recovery, early prayer

Speaking strictly electronically, I was able to recover some of the most important personal items lost when my computer crashed. Those I recovered from a file I had saved on a flash drive I keep in my desk at home. Among those flies were the images I have gathered as I used them on the blog posts. Also, the blog posts for part of 2018 were on that drive. I will have to recreate only a few weeks of the blog history to have it complete in my personal files. I can do that from the web postings themselves. I was very pleased to see every one of those files. I saved them to the Mac I have at home. From there I will keep an updated copy moving forward. Plus, I have the cloud backup when needed. Meanwhile, at work, I had a vague memory of creating a file on our server to back-up my work-related desktop files. I had searched the folders I thought I would have used to house those files but had not discovered the files I was looking for. Multiple searches using names I might have used to title the file were fruitless. No luck with any names I used for those searches. But I woke up last night and realized I just had to choose a word that would be unique to the documents I had personally created. It took three tries, but I found the file. The word that succeeded, “Thaxton”. Mama’s maiden name. I do not remember naming the backup how it was titled o the server. I guess I did not want it to be overly obvious when I stored it on the server, but it did indeed have a complete set of desktop files I needed. Praise the Lord!


In the area of physical recovery, I am progressing toward health, but I certainly have not arrived. It took only a few minutes outside yesterday evening for me to start coughing badly. Fortunately, the cough settles down when I do. But the cough persists. It is not as bad as it once was, and it is a productive cough for the most part. Not the deep, dry cough I normally have when I get a respiratory infection. That is both good and bad. The good is that the cough I now have is not the loud, disruptive cough that gives Mama a headache. The bad is that I do not know for sure how to treat this illness. Elderberry seems to help only a little. Herbs have not been very effective. Antibiotics are not at all effective. Rest seems to be the best remedy – along with maintaining the homeopathic treatments. I do final sleep when I go to bed, but just lying down causes the drainage to reposition itself in my sinuses along with the gagging and coughing that brings. Somehow all that finds some sort of equilibrium as I sleep. It seems a long, slow road to recovery. But there are signs of progress toward recovery. In her recovery Victoria is struggling more than I am. But she shares her bedroom with her dogs and spends her working hours around sick people (at the pharmacy) so, a slow recovery may be what we should expect for her.


Mama wakes enough each morning for me to pray briefly with her. We have had a tradition of me kissing her goodbye every morning on my way out of the house headed to work, but a couple months ago she asked me to spend a moment praying with her before I leave the house. I have always been careful to never miss that morning kiss, but also to not disturb her enough to cause her to lose any sleep. So, with this new routine, I never take long to pray for fear of waking her to the point of her not getting back to sleep, but it is nice to get those few early moments together before I go out on my own. I believe there is power in those few moments of prayer with the one person in the world who knows me well and yet loves me deeply. Mama and I pray together at other times, but those morning moments have become something special; especially to Mama. I highly recommend it for those of you who have not taken the opportunity to start your day as we have begun to do.


Marriage is an every-single-day way to live. Live it together from the moment you get out of bed.

Victoria’s Birthday

I am still not over the cough that I have been battling for three weeks now, but I am being told by many that the duration is about typical for those that have had the same symptoms. There is nothing that can be done for it, so I try to protect myself from getting worse as my body heals. With that in mind, I did not go soul winning Saturday. Instead, Mama and I went to the church and prayed. I prayed at the altar while Mama prayed in her classroom. We were there about forty-five minutes. It was a way to help while I still convalesced. Some shopping at Walmart and we were home by early afternoon. She and I both rested as we waited for Victoria to get off work. We had planned a birthday outing for her. The caveat was that Victoria has not been feeling well either. She is struggling with the same persistent cough that I have as well as a stomach issue that will not go away. Mama and I did not know if she would feel up to the outing. 


When she got home about 3:30, she was energetic enough to let us take her out for the evening. We headed to Southlake so we would eventually end up near the Apple store. I wanted Mama and Victoria to see the store so they would be able to see the various sizes of Apple watches. We have talked for a few months about getting one for Mama. She has seen Apple watches that several people have but I wanted her to see the two sizes and the assortment of bands available. So, we headed that way without a definite destination for dinner. As we drove, Victoria and Mama looked up restaurants in that area. There was a dizzying array of eateries available to us, but nothing “sounded good” to Mama and Victoria. As we got near to the hospital where Mama had her surgery, I suggested the little restaurant Mama and I had gone to after her first manipulation. It is called Breadwinner’s Café. We were almost to the point of passing the exit as they agreed to go there for dinner.


When we got to the restaurant, the parking lot was empty. Victoria and Mama were debating if the place was open, but that is the same thing Mama and I saw when we went there the first time for a late breakfast. Now we were there for an early dinner. We were welcomed in and sat ourselves – away from the door. It was cold and very windy outside. We had a great dinner. Victoria got the meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Go figure. The portions were laager than we could eat at one sitting, so we took home a lot of leftovers. The food was very good. It turned out to be a good choice. The waitress even sent several pieces of sweet bread home with us. That would have been enough but Mama and Victoria passed the bakery case on their way too and from the restroom, so they stopped to get a couple additional items. When Mama explained that we were there for Victoria’s birthday, we were given the pastries for free. That thrilled both Mama and Victoria.


The Apple store is in a quaint, upscale shopping area only a few miles from where we ate. All the stores are stand alone and the area is landscaped and decorated to give it an air of openness. Welcoming sitting areas. Fountains and benches. Vine covered trellises. It would be more fun in the warmer months, but we rarely shop in that area. Where we parked was a couple blocks from the store and Mama began to question if I knew where I was going as we walked in the cold and wind. Once at the store she was overwhelmed. There were probably one hundred people in the store. Twenty-five or so were employees. But the store was large enough that it did not feel crowded. We spent a lot of time looking at and trying on watches. Swapping bands. Experimenting with the two sizes as Mama sized up how the larger watch would look on her wrist. She determined that she needs the bigger on to be able to operate it efficiently. Victoria liked the smaller one. Mama discovered the Apple Pencil. She loved it. When she showed it to Victoria, the response she got was, “It’s a stylus”. Yep. But Mama loves a stylus.


We stopped by the Cheesecake Factory to spend a gift card we were given for Christmas. It was enough to buy three pieces of cheesecake…almost. That place is expensive! It is a good thing we decided not to eat there. There were fifty to sixty people waiting to be seated when we go there to buy an extra dessert. Good thing we are limiting the sweets in our diet.


Victoria needed to stop at a bathroom twice before we got home, but she enjoyed the evening none-the-less.

Dinner with Belle, our steer, the pigs

When I got home yesterday evening Mama and Victoria had made White Lightening Chicken Chili. I fed the animals while Victoria made a cheesy cornbread to go with it. I was pretty hungry after eating only a sandwich for lunch, so I was ready for dinner when I got back in. By that time, Victoria had started a movie. Last week she bought a DVD/VCR player because the one I had brought home from a discard bin at my old job had finally quit working – and we have a lot of movies in VCR format. Most of those, we do not have in DVD format, so they have been unwatched for quite a time. So, last night she put on Beauty and the Beast. Mama was relaxed on the sofa, so I suggested we eat dinner while we watched the movie. Both Mama and Victoria quickly agreed.

It did not take long for Victoria and I get things in place to start our special dinner and a show. Those of you who know Mama know that when there is a movie playing, she is totally engrossed in the movie. She may lose focus while doing a host of other things but not during a movie she wants to watch. Last night was no exception. In fairness to Mama, Beauty and the Beast (the older version) is a delightful movie and it has been a very long time since we have seen it. I am certain we will not make a habit of doing watching a movie through dinner, but it made for a fun dinner last night. It was the first dinner we have had together since Grandpa went into the hospital last Friday.

On Wednesday night I put our steer in the corral at our barn. Mama had scheduled him to be taken to the meat processor Thursday morning. We sold our stock trailer last summer to fund our trip to Honduras, so we needed help to get the steer to the market. Fortunately, Norman was available to make the drop off. He has a smaller stock trailer which maneuvers easily lining up to the loading chute at the barn. It is a trailer the size Mama and I would like to eventually buy. Since I had separated the steer, Norman had no trouble getting him into the trailer and was off and gone by 8 am. We have two families waiting on the meat from this steer. We will keep half and sell half. In doing so we should make out well financially. Better than we would have selling him at the stock market. The meat market gave Norman the steer’s weight when it was run into the plant, 817 pounds. That is just about perfect for what we needed. If the cut weight matches our expectations, we should make as much money selling halves as we would have selling the steer outright and we will have two hundred pounds of fresh beef to boot. A good move for me and Mama – and the farm.

When I went out to feed yesterday evening, I had to spend a few extra minutes with the pigs. They have been rooting around a lot in their pen but last night took the prize. I had spilled some food the night before as I fed them scraps – which they love. Where I spilled the food, they dug a pit eighteen inches deep, four feet long and two feed wide. I dropped a large cinder block in the hole and covered it with some of the rooted-out dirt. I will need to get a shovel and hoe to move the rest of the dirt back into place. Hopefully the cinder block will keep them from enlarging that hole. It is too close to the edge of their enclosure. The other pits in their pen will fill with water today. We are forecast to get up to an inch of rain. That will make a mess. But they seem to love it and I have a tractor to straighten in out with when we take them to be processed next summer. The reward of having a farm.

I blocked the pig from entering their building for the last five or six days. Mama and I wanted them to select a place outside of the building to make their bathroom. Neither of us are particularly happy with their selection; it is right in the spot where we keep their water trough. That ought to be wonderful when the weather warms up. But it is not in the building. Wednesday evening, I took the time to open the building back up to them. They reclaimed it immediately; making happy pig noises as they did so. The forecast of rain necessitated the building being reoccupied. Mama likes her charges to have proper shelter. As of last night, they had not used the building for a bathroom.

Whether or not Mama and I won that battle remains to be seem, but we tried.

Working – sort of, Victoria, almost

I came in to the office today. I am not feeling much better, but it is more convenient to work from the office than from home. As I was working from the house over the last two days, I had a thought to backup the laptop I was using to one of the two external hard drives I have at the house, but I did not do so. It turns out that I should have taken the time to do so – even if it infringes very slightly on company information. When I tried to log into my laptop this morning, it flashed a message that it would start after updates were installed. I had postponed those updates at the house. Not wanting to use the internet at the house if I could wait until I got to work. After the updates were done, the computer restarted and the hard drive on my laptop gave up the electronic ghost. It would flash eight times, stop for two seconds and flash eight times. Over and over.

The technician at work as able to thwart the repeated flashing and do a diagnostic which let him know for certain that my hard drive was finished. I will not be able to recover any of the information I stored there. It can all eventually be replaced – with a lot of effort. Some of that information will be lost forever. I have no backups for it. Not that I know of. Oh, well. I was given a temporary computer to work from until I can get my repaired laptop back. The problem is that all the websites, all the saved passwords, all the images, all the documents I kept there for personal reference will not be replaced. And now, I have to go to each website and remember my login information. No small feat.

Mama and Victoria are working at the house today. It is Victoria’s birthday. By either a fluke or a deliberate assignment from her boss, she has the day off. They started to put together a meal plan for the week. I have always been in favor of doing so. The issue is that Mama is not necessarily imaginative when it comes to meal prep. She knows some meals very well. The kind of meals we do not eat very often. When it comes to long-term goals of planning meals, we have erred towards the “what sounds good to you” type of preparation. That, in and of itself, is not conducive to purchasing groceries in advance. When a meal plan is made, and groceries are purchased, it by necessity, limits the types of meals than can be prepared. We will see how the plan works this time, but I am secretly not enthusiastically celebrating the effort. On my lunch break I met Mama and Victoria at Walmart to help them shop. I have not gotten to spend much time with Mama in the past several days. So, I enjoyed the half hour shopping.

Cori contacted me this morning. She texted an image of a screenshot of a plane ticked purchase page. The ticket was for a flight to Honduras next week. Cori asked if I would be willing to come down next week to help translate for the large number of individuals (they are calling it a medical brigade) coming to set up the clinic next week. Oh, how I would love to. But I cannot. It is a little too spontaneous for me and Mama. I do not see how I should make the trip without Mama and even though Cori offered to help with the ticket price, I cannot afford for the two of us to go. I certainly considered it for a few minutes. It is something I have always wanted to do. I am just not available yet. Mama and I are hoping that will soon change.

I called Mama to confirm that she was in on the conversation Cori and I were having. I assumed Mama and Cori had finished discussing it before I was contacted. That proved true. Even still it was a great thought.

We may actually be able to follow through on it at some point in the near future.

Home

Grandpa called last night. It shocked Mama and Grandma. He wanted to update them on the three doctor visits he had since they had left the hospital. The infectious disease doctor, the cardiologist and the gastroenterologist had all visited with him that evening. All the doctors let Grandpa know that they were satisfied with his test results. The cardiologist requested one more test. His last scheduled test is set for noon today. The cardiac care doctor wants to get a look at Grandpa’s heart to make sure everything is as it should be. If that test does not reveal any abnormalities, Grandpa will be released today. Mama and Grandma are worn out. Grandma went to bed at 8 pm. Mama was in bed by 8:30. All three of them, Mama, Grandma and Grandpa, will be relieved when this is over and they can get back to some semblance of normal.

I am not sure if in all the testing the doctors discovered the reason for Grandpa’s bleeding issues, but they uncovered several underlying medical issues that can be addressed in non-invasive ways. The blockage in the spleen still presents an issue. The test this morning is somehow relevant to the blood clot issue Grandpa is apparently having. The doctor’s reason that someone on blood thinners for a length of time ought not have issues with blood clots. However, the clots are forming somewhere in Grandpa’s body. Mama could not remember the name or the argument for the formation of something clot-like that the doctors are looking for in the test this morning, but, if they can see what they suspect, they will know how to treat the problem. Please pray for that wisdom...and for Grandpa. He is good spirits but he is ready to leave the hospital. Ready to go home.

Mama and Grandma will not get to the hospital until near the time Grandpa’s test is to begin. Mama has her third shot of whatever her doctor is putting in her right knee to pad the joint. I am not sure the shots are helping. It is hard to tell with Mama. She still has good days and bad days with both knees. Since she has abandoned all exercises on her left knee, the replaced knee, she is not having too much pain. However, she does not have any more range of motion either. She tries not to complain about it. She knows what my response will be. But it is frustrating to see her more limited after the surgery than before – especially considering the hopes we had of the surgery bringing her far more benefit than it has. Time will tell is the herbal regimen will help with the scar tissue inhibitine that motion, but it is something we can monitor over the next few months. I have at least moderate hope we will see some improvement.

I am working from home again today. It is better than taking sick time. It is a benefit I am thankful this employer will extend. Yesterday working from home worked out well because I had the house to myself through the entire day. Today I will at least have the afternoon to myself. At some point I probably should see a doctor, but the treatment is so common that it is frustrating to pay the admission to have someone tell me what I already know. The caveat is that I cannot prescribe the antibiotics I need to help my body beat back this infection. You would think I would enjoy the company of doctors having grown up among them, but there are non-related health issues I know need to be addressed and I am not willing to succumb to those treatment regimens. Not the least of which is my blood pressure. When I go to the doctor my blood pressure is always high. When I take it at home it is only slightly elevated in the systolic numbers. I can address that with diet and weight loss – neither of which I have had the emotional energy and discipline to do lately. Chalk the resistance to being treated up to my “toxic masculinity”. Regardless, I need help with this current malaise and cough.

I will go see the doctor…maybe tomorrow.

Grandpa

The final test that was keeping Grandpa in the hospital was almost abandoned when he was unable to keep down the vile chemical drinks required to empty the gut for a colonoscopy. The only thing that allowed the doctors to go through with the test was that Grandpa had only one meal – Saturday night – in the past four days. The assumption was that his bowel would be empty enough for a successful colonoscopy. When the test was complete, the doctors reported that his colon was clear – which was good – but they discovered a large hiatal hernia during the exam. That is where a portion of the stomach pushes up or bulges through the diaphragm. It can be painful. It can be dangerous because of the potential for inflammation and infection, but the doctors told Grandpa that it can be treated with medications. So, going forward, Grandpa will have to see the hematologist, the cardiologist and his general care doctor over the coming weeks. The blockage in the spleen is still an issue. It simply cannot be dealt with effectively at this time. Hopefully, the delay will not cause issues for Grandpa in the very near future.

I met my boss at the office very early this morning. I needed to talk with her, so it was a good thing she was there – that is not usually the case. We talked briefly about the class I am scheduled to teach tomorrow. I am worried that I will not have enough voice for that class and the class the following day. The class tomorrow is a class of twenty-six attendees. To project enough to get my voice to those in the back of the large room is an effort on a good day. With the problems I am having right now, it would be very difficult without a lot of coughing during that effort. It would cost me my voice for the rest of the week. We decided that we would get a substitute for tomorrow and I would save my voice for the class on Thursday. I plan to struggle through the class regardless of the cost to my voice. Additionally, she told me to work from home today. I thought that was a good suggestion. I knew that I would have the house to myself for the day so working from home was in fact possible. I was home before Grandma and Mama left for the hospital.

Grandma and Mama had to head to the hospital early this morning. The nurses had told Mama that the infectious disease doctor, the last doctor attending to Grandpa, wanted to consult with all of them together at 9 this morning. I do not know if they made the meeting on time. Mama was still getting ready at 8 am. Grandma was getting antsy, but I am pretty sure the 9 am time was a reference point rather than a definite meeting time. We will see. The hope is that Grandpa will get to come home today. What time he will be released remains to be seen, but Grandma is getting to the point that she cannot endure a full day waiting in the hospital. Mama may have to take her home and go back for Grandpa when a release time is finally set. The round trip is a little over two hours. That is a lot of running but is what may be required. Mama is still holding up well, but she is getting tired. She is worried about falling behind on things she normally gets done at home. Things that have gone unattended in the days she has spent at the hospital. On the bright side, Grandma and Grandpa have been largely independent over the past few years. That may change soon, but for now, as ling as Grandpa is able to drive, they will maintain that independence. We do not mind the brief sacrifices

I will be in class tomorrow and Thursday. By Friday, I will be ready for a day at the office.

Sick, Grandpa, et.al.

I called in sick Friday. I was feeling badly enough that I did not want to sit at my desk at work, but not badly enough that I thought I should go to a doctor. I ended up sleeping away the entire morning. I did not go back to bed. I simply laid back in my recliner. Mama kissed me about 8:30 as she left to go do some errands in Decatur. I was barely aware. Turns out I should have paid more attention because I would not see her again until almost midnight. I was almost awake at 10:30 when she called to tell me that she had been asked by Grandpa to take him to the Emergency Room. She called back at 11:00 to tell me she was taking him to a heart hospital in Denton instead. If Grandpa was feeling badly enough to ask for a ride to the hospital, he had to be in pretty rough shape. I rested most of the day. Slept through a lot of it, only really getting out of my stupor in the early afternoon. Saturday, I felt better. Sunday, I felt rotten. Today, I am passable. I am striving to reach the point that I will be able to teach the two classes scheduled this week. Wednesday and Thursday. I have a couple days to get better. Whether or not that happens remains to be seen.

Back to Grandpa. Mama and Grandma took Grandpa to the Emergency Room at one of the heart hospitals in Denton. They got there some time in the late morning. After a lot of discussions and delays and a battery of tests during which the technicians had a very difficult time drawing blood, they finally reached the conclusion that Grandpa would be admitted for observation and possible surgery. The tests seemed to point to a blockage – an infarction – in his spleen. The heart hospital was not equipped with the surgeons to handle the proposed surgery, so a sister hospital was contacted. Arrangements were made to transfer Grandpa to their care – more tests, more discussions, more analysis.

Mama and Grandma left Grandpa in the hospital without knowing his room assignment at the next hospital. The staff had the presence of mind to give Mama all the contact information she needed to track Grandpa down.  It was almost midnight when they got to the farm. Grandma spent the night with us to facilitate returning to the hospital the following day – Saturday. Mama called early to get Grandpa’s room number. She called Grandpa for an update. Found out that nothing had been decided. Headed to the hospital to see when was happening and spent the entire day waiting on doctors, waiting on lab results, waiting on a prognosis, waiting on someone to make a decision. By late Saturday afternoon, the decision had been made to hold off on surgery. Since Grandpa had been on blood thinners for several years now, the fact that his spleen was occluded by a clot gave the doctors sufficient pause to hold off on a surgery that would result in more clots being produced. So, he was given a meal for the first time in 30 hours. However, on Sunday morning, he was put back on liquids only.

The doctors wanted to do a colonoscopy to make sure the blood he regularly sees in his stools is not coming from a ruptured polyp in the colon. Those results will be forthcoming. For follow-up when he is finally released, Grandpa has seen a hematologist who is doing some cultures that require seven to ten days to finalize. He wants to see Grandpa within two weeks to discuss the results with him. That is where the process to treatment will begin. Grandpa’s blood count was very low. He has been on blood thinners yet still suffers from blood clots. Without those two issues being successfully addresses there is too much danger in operating to relieve the blockage in the spleen. So, we wait.

Grandma and Mama will be at the hospital today waiting on Grandpa to be discharged following the battery of tests required to pinpoint a diagnosis and thereby a final treatment plan. There is some speculation as to whether he will be released today or tomorrow, that decision will be made by late today. Mama has been running a lot over the past three day and is ready to settle back down. As are Grandma and Grandpa. But she has held up remarkably well in spite of uncomfortable chairs in the hospital rooms she has been forced to occupy for multiple hours every day. Grandma is not doing so well since she is more used to lounging or laying to reliever her constant pain.

All of them will be relieved when Grandpa is released and there is a plan forward for his recovery.

Weather woes, late start, back to normal

2019 started off with a true taste of winter. Fortunately, here in North Texas, regardless of how cold it gets we can be reasonably assured it will not last long. That is the case this week. We have had temperatures at or near freezing with steady drizzle for several days now. It is the kind of soaking rain that makes all the ground at the farm soft. Squishy. Unpleasant. It is not predicted to dry out much before more rain comes, but temperatures are forecast to be near 70° starting tomorrow – and through the weekend. That should help. It will definitely help me with the projects I have going since Mama will not restrict my outdoor activity in the warmer, drier weather. I told our children as they were growing up in Texas, “If you don’t like the weather, stick around. There is bound to be something you like in a day or two.”  I grew up hearing that, seeing it in practice. It remains true today. Although I don’t respond to the cold as well as I remember being able to do a few years back. What a difference forty years can make.

The rain was freezing on the vehicles yesterday afternoon, but the roads remained clear for the most part. Everyone was able to travel to and from work safely. We were dismissed early so we could get home before dark. Victoria did not have any trouble getting home even though her car was iced over when she left work at 8:30. The rain continued through the night, a steady, soft rain, but temperatures did not get quite as cold as predicted so, things were just wet rather than icy this morning. Still, we were on a two-hour delay at work. That allowed ne to sleep late and have a leisurely morning. I had the option to work from home, but I elected not to. The internet at home is sufficient for our business research, but not so much for what I need to do my current wok-related tasks remotely. I waited to leave until it was light outside, just in case there were bad patched on the roads. It was a wet drive in, nothing more. I assume many offices were on a delayed start time based on the very light traffic this morning.

Mama and I did not go to church last night. She was hurting from shots she had gotten in her right knee – the non-surgically altered knee. She was having trouble getting around as well as trouble finding a comfortable way to sit. Church pews would have been painful for her. I still have nasty cough. It comes in bursts rather than being a steady cough. But when it comes, it lasts for several minutes. My coughing, I am told, is very loud. Not necessarily good for sitting and listening to a sermon. I texted our organist to let her know we would not be there and she responded that she and her husband would not be there either because they were both sick. Mama and I always hate it when we miss. Last night was no exception. We were able to go online and listen to Somerset Bible Baptist’s service. It was good to hear Pastor Miller preach. I miss him and that congregation. It was not the same as being with our family at our church.

Tomorrow should be a “normal” day for us. After a season of dinners, parties and other special events, it will be nice to be back to normal.