Home, corrections, neighbors, sickness

Mama made it home safely last night. It was near 9 pm when she got here. By the time we had unloaded the car and placed most items required for the night in their proper places, we were ready for bed. I will find out more about the trip in the days to come, but it is certain that Mama had a wonderful time with Kimberlyn and her kids and grandkids. I am sure the trip will be repeated at some point in the future, but Mama was very happy to be home. This morning, all the animals will be happy to see her also. Mama and I did not take much time to catch up last night, but I did get instructions for today and tonight as well as corrections for appointments later this week. It will be a tight schedule.

Sometime this week we have to get the goats to Rick’s, get the stock trailer to Kenny and Kimberlyn, meet Brittany and the girls, get Victoria to the airport, and go to Chappell Hill for a family reunion. A couple of those specific tasks can be shuffled. Some cannot. If Mama can work it out with Rick, we will take the goats to his farm tonight. They will be there two months. Enough time for me to get the second paddock done. That will also help me out in organizing the pig building to have the pigs ready to take to the processor. If we do not get that done this evening, it will have to wait until next week. We are thinking about getting the stock trailer to Kenny and Kimberlyn Thursday evening. The delivery of the trailer is time sensitive because they have an appointment to have the pigs processed Tuesday of next week. So, that drop off could happen as late as Monday evening of next week, but we would like to get things in place before that if possible. Meeting Brittany is set. That will happen Thursday afternoon. Mama and Brittany will meet somewhere near Oklahoma City and travel back to the farm caravan style. Victoria has a flight out of DFW at 7:30 Friday morning. That means I will be leaving the house with her somewhere around 4:30 that morning. The family reunion is set for Saturday. We will travel down and back the same day. Regardless of how we work things out, it is going to be a busy week.

Yesterday evening, Victoria and I went for a walk down the road and back. She took the dogs with her and the big dogs follow me. On the way we passed a couple working on a patch of ground near us. On a corner of the forty acres that sits across the road from our farm. I had told Victoria that it looked to me like someone was getting ready to build a home, but I did not know for sure. We waved as we were heading down the road, but on the way back, I stopped to introduce myself. I was right. Ricky sold two acres of that field to a family member. Cody; early forties. One daughter about nine years old. A fiancé. They are clearing the ground to lay out a homesite. They seemed like good people. Time will tell. It is not like they are right on top of us. Mama and I will try to be a good witness to them as they go through the construction process and as they settle in as our neighbors.

I will be teaching tomorrow. A coworker and I will be splitting a class of 43 into two smaller classes. It worked so well last time we did this that we are actually looking forward to doing it again. Yesterday, unbeknownst to me, one of the persons I have been trying to get into the office to do a mock class with, came to give that mock to the leadership team. It went well enough. Both of the individuals were here to give the mock but only one room was available for the presentations. At least we are one up in getting these individuals qualified. When I did a walkthrough with these two candidates last week, I cautioned one that he would need to be hurried to meet the time constraints of the class. Turns out I was correct. He was an hour behind at lunchtime. The second instructor candidate will have to be cautioned to slow down. He will present next week. We will see if I am right about him as well.

None of us, me, Mama or Victoria, are completely well. All of us are still snotting and coughing. As this information was related to Savanna Sunday morning, Savanna was undeterred in having her Aunt Tori come to see her in Honduras – sick or not. “It’s okay”, she cheerfully related to Victoria. “You can throw up in our potty when you get here.”

Simple problem. Simple solution.