Smoking with the Pastor, smelly dogs, work repairs, cold next week

After feeding and taking care of a couple little things at the farm, I drove over to our pastor’s house to visit with him while he started smoking briskets for the church dinner we are having this evening. He had just started the briskets (six in total), but he had put on chicken legs as he was getting the smoker up to temperature. Those were about done when I arrived. It was a pleasant evening. A little chilly, but a fire in a small fire pit adjacent to the smoker took the chill off. Only one other man came – though the invitation was extended to everyone. We had a slow, relaxing time chatting about whatever subject came up. It is always relaxing to sit around a fire and just visit. I stayed from about 6 pm to a little after 8 pm. I am glad I went. It is the first time I have done so. Pastor was required to stay up most of the night to get the briskets done. Constantly monitoring the smoker temperature, adding wood to the firebox as needed. I enjoyed my short time there, but I am afraid I slept through the rest. Every year at our Thanksgiving dinner we enjoy the briskets and turkeys that come off the smoker. This year will be no exception.

When I got home, Kobe had been bathed and was sequestered in the sunroom. As I walked into the house the skunk smell was still pretty powerful. Mama and Victoria did not smell it so strongly as I did, but it was certainly unmistakable. When I went through the sunroom to go out and close up the chickens, the smell stung my nose. With sensitive visitors coming for dinner – Grandma in particular and possibly Brittany – we are going to have to be much more aggressive in getting rid of that smell. I have never been bothered by skunk odors, but I understand there are some who are profoundly affected by it. It certainly does not mix well with all the food we will be preparing for our dinner. What to do is the issue. I suggested putting the dogs in the wellhouse, but Mama considers that a form of imprisonment. Severe punishment. Unnecessary isolation. (Sadly, I just see them as dogs.) But the way Kobe smells we cannot keep her in the sunroom during the preparation or the meal. Keeping her in Victoria’s room is out of the question unless we light enough candles to cause our house to glow. It will be raining large portions of the time we have guests so the dogs cannot be put outside. I have not been made privy to the decisions yet, but I am sure we will find a solution acceptable to everyone – at least, minimally acceptable.  

I will spend part of the day repairing tables at the office. They are the Formica covered tables with the legs that collapse under the table to be stored. The Formica has come loose on some of those tables and it is a bit embarrassing to have clients take our eight-hour classes sitting at a table with a bubbled top. I have been commissioned to repair those tops. A simple procedure but the glue required has an overpowering odor. The warning on the can states, “Use only in a well-ventilated area.” That is not a warning to be ignored. We will have to warn everyone in the building before I start and then pray that the smell dissipates quickly. There are two pregnant ladies at the office. I am sure they will smell the glue regardless of how far their offices are from the origin of the smell.

A look ahead. Dinner at the church tonight. Dinner at the farm Thursday. Endure the food induced come Friday and Saturday. Church and rest Sunday. Travel Monday. I wish I could say I had a well thought out plan, but we will simply take things as they come until I start my week of travel Monday. I will be home Friday afternoon. This trip will not be the last one for the year. I will be traveling the week before Christmas as well. Although, that trip will be to Alabama. Not nearly as cold as the trip Monday. The forecast for St. Paul, MN is for temperatures to be in the teens overnight. Mid-twenties during the day. I do not do well in the cold anymore. At least, my bronchials do not do well in the cold. The day after I get home from Denver, CO – the second leg of my travel next week – we will have our dress rehearsal for the Christmas Cantata.

Hopefully my voice will hold up through the cantata on the 8^th.

Dinner with Seth, new twins, who let the dogs out?

Shame on Mama and me for not taking any pictures of Seth and Gabriella’s first big dinner in their new home. Months ago, Seth and Gabriella bought a shipping container and have since turned it into a nice home. They have added a living room/dining room/kitchen area onto the container. Inclosed, sided and finished, it does not even resemble it original design. It is very nice. Large enough for the three of them for now, but plans are in the works to add two bedrooms and an additional bathroom onto the current structure. Gabriella has done a great job of outfitting and decorating the home. They are in the process of adding a deck on the front. Seth and Gabriella have done almost all the work themselves with Grandpa and Normal contributing at critical junctures. I was impressed.

Gabriella’s parents, Ron and Christy, who own the property their little home sits on, were at the dinner – as were Grandma and Grandpa. They were are an interesting couple. This is the second marriage for them. He was a widower. She was a widow when they married over twenty years ago. Gabriella and her twin sister were a surprise to them several years after they married. Mama and Grandma were constantly wincing as Christy handled Seth and Gabriella’s baby. She was quite rough, but the baby is used to being treated roughly and pays no attention to it as she was maneuvered in her grandma’s arms. Ron and Christy’s primary interest is travel and all their money goes to feed that interest. They were quite forthcoming about that. It shows in the house they have occupied for the last two decades. No updates. No unnecessary repairs. No unrequired mowing or yard maintenance. Not even a decent drive to approach the house. That serves to bolster their pride in what Seth and their daughter have accomplished over the past year. Seth has a great job now and he is spending his money to provide a home for his family. A nice home. A debt-free home. An accomplishment he never thought he would achieve. Kudos, Seth.

As Mama and I fed Saturday evening, we noticed Dolly, our last nanny to deliver her kids, was staying away from the other goats. A sure sign she about to kid. She did not deliver overnight but was certainly at the point of kidding by the time we left for church Sunday evening. We could not get her to abandon the spot she had chosen no matter what we tried. So, we left her to her own devices. No rain was in the forecast, so there was not a concern about keeping her and the new arrivals dry. Mama and I did not give it another thought until we were on our way home. It was good that Dolly had chosen a spot near the fence at the road. Mama and I were able to shine the car lights on her and her twins as we parked on the road. We went into the paddock through a small gate I installed there. We rarely use that gate, but the goats have kept it clear for us.

It was immediately apparent to Mama that one of the twins was significantly smaller than the other. The larger, a little girl, had very curly coat but that may flatten out as she is cleaned. She had just been born judging from how wet she still was. The little male, dried and cleaned, was certainly smaller, but he appeared to be healthy. All kids are now accounted for. All safely birthed. Four females and five males. The females we will keep. The males we will sell. Late next May or early June we will put Midas, our young buck, with the nannies and start the process over again. The little ones, new to our farm, will be bred in November of next year. And so the herd grows.

Victoria left church early yesterday evening. She was complaining of a bad headache. When she got home, she let her dogs our as normal. Five minutes later they were gone. I have not checked but I have to assume they dug under the back fence again. They had not returned home by the time we all went to bed. Since I was having trouble sleeping in the bed, I got up and went to my recliner to start my night. When I stirred around about midnight, Kira was looking in the window wanting in. Not! From the skunk smell permeating the air I was pretty sure that smell was attached to Victoria’s dogs. In my opinion, they wanted out so badly, they can stay out. And so they did until this morning when Victoria went out to check them out before she got ready for work. As far as I know, the stinky messes are still outside. Mama does not tolerate skunk odors well.

I will have to get my electric fence back from the family that borrowed it and reinstall it. It is highly effective in keeping the dogs in the yard. The last time I used it, Kobe was stung by it and would not even get off the patio for several days.

Shopping, spending

Mama and I went out last night to look at pellet grills. One of the stores in our area has them on sale until Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, they did not have any at the price we were looking for specifically. Maybe that is not to unfortunate. As much as we would use one, we are not really in need of one and the money we would use on that could probably be spent in more useful ways. We did look at oil less turkey fryers. They are much cheaper than a pellet grill, but less functional in the long run. Plus, I do not want to add another countertop appliance to the large collection we already have at the house. So, we went home empty handed. Technically, not a bad thing. As far as being able to do all the cooking – especially of the turkeys – for this Thanksgiving, we have enough appliances to handle the load without any additional purchases this year. Yet still, Mama is researching a air fryer, which is basically the same thing as the oil less fryer we looked at, to see if it would be useful to us long term. so, it is still on the prospective purchase list.

It is probably a good thing we did not spend any money we did not need to spend. I got a text from our realtor this morning that he will need an additional $5,000 from us to cover material and labor costs for the work in progress on our houses. I called to confirm and to ask how far we are away from completing and marketing the houses and he let me know that we are within days of getting all the trim up and the painting done. I am not sure when the houses will be listed, but we are that close. The unfortunate part of the picture is that I will be required to ask the bank for more money to make all that happen. I am not thrilled about that, but if the bank will work with me, we should be done very soon. if the bank balks, I may have a problem. In addition to all the expenses and costs of completing the houses, I checked our business mailbox this morning. Among the items in the mailbox were 2019 tax bills for the two houses. Total - about $2000. Time to take a deep breath, pray earnestly and watch the Lord work it all out. Mama and I will probably go to Lawton to see the progress on the houses this coming Monday afternoon. That remains to be seen, but that is the plan right now.

For his weekend, I have not made any plans as far as projects around the farm are concerned. We have to go to Seth and Gabriella’s house for a mid-day meal Saturday. That will take up most of the afternoon hours of daylight, so I have only a few hours in the morning to do anything outside. Mama has let me know we need an additional space for the baby goats as they are weaned. That will require me to speed up the work on the pig area. We can repurpose that yard and building for the little ones to use. It is the only shelter I have to offer right now, but for that to work, I have to finish the attached yard. I think I still have a few weeks to complete the project before it is needed which will allow me to work on it over the Thanksgiving holiday. Weather permitting. It would be nice to have it completed before I begin traveling following week.

I will have to wait and see how all that works out as the weekend and the following week progresses. on the very bright side, I work only Monday and part of Wednesday nest week. I am looking forward to the short work week with a lengthened holiday celebration.

Catching kids, Lilly’s three, news from Lawton, lunch at work

By the time I got home yesterday at lunchtime, all the kids had been caught and were waiting transport to the vet. Yay! The Thomason boys were more than happy to recount the adventures of capturing the little ones. it appears that all went smoothly. Much as Mama had expected. We sat around and visited as I ate lunch in the abbreviated time I had left – considering the drive to the farm and the return trip to work. Mama was leaving for the vet at the same time I left for work; or so I thought. Obviously, she had not left the farm yet because she called me just as I got to work to tell me Lilly was having her babies. One kid had been delivered and the second was on the way. As she was getting in the truck to leave, she heard the cries of distress as Lilly was having her second kid.

Mama was concerned that there was a problem with the birthing. She found Lilly on the ground with the birth sac protruding from her backside. It looked awful to her. Like something was wrong. She was asking me to come home and intervene. With that in focus I headed to the truck and started home until Mama called me a second time to tell me that the second delivery was successful. She was headed to the vet and Krystal and the boys were headed back to the farm to monitor the birth of the third little one. They arrived in plenty of time to watch the birth. The boys were thoroughly disgusted by the birthing. Especially when Lilly began licking up the fluids that came out with the third kid. A memory they will not soon forget. But, in the end, all three (two males and one female) were born healthy and active…just before the rain started.

As Mama and I left for church rain began to fall and Lilly and her triplets were still outside the barn. Mama wanted to get redressed in her farm clothes and try to herd the family into the barn, but I discouraged her from doing so. My reasoning was that it was warm enough that the rain would not bother the new arrivals. It would work to help clean the babies off. Lilly clearly knows where the barn is and if she was not willing to get under the roof provided for her, there may be a good reason for her not doing so. At least not at that moment. We agreed that we would go out to check as soon as we got home from church. Which we did. By that time, Lilly and her three were safely camped out in a dry spot inside the barn. Mama slept better knowing they were safe – and dry.

Just before we left for church, our realtor sent us some pictures of the new fence that was just installed at one of our houses in Lawton. Progress. It was encouraging to see. I still do not know what is happening with the interior remodel, but we assume the works is continuing since the majority of the materials have been bought and delivered. I am tempted to go up this week, but it would have to be tomorrow night. That is the only night I have available, other than next Monday night, for the next couple weeks. Saturday, we go to Seth’s for dinner. Tuesday, we have our church dinner. Wednesday, Joshua and Brittany and their families are coming to the farm in preparation for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving takes up the following four days. The Monday following Thanksgiving, I leave for Minnesota and Colorado to teach classes. I will be gone all week. The week of the 16^th of December, I will be gone most of the week as well. Christmas is the week following that absence. Not much spare time to do an inspection. Mama and I trust the Lord to work on our behalf through Glenn and his crews. Praise the Lord!

Today we will have a potluck lunch at the office. Our annual Thanksgiving lunch. It is always a big deal. today will be no exception.

Suitcase bed, walking in the dark, wrangling kids

Part of the fun of being married to Mama is pretty much knowing what to expect and yet finding what you expect to be a little unexpected as it unfolds. Last night we watched Savannah and her brothers. Less Leo, who went with his mama, Krystal, on her venture to a moms-night-out with the home school group they belong to. They made cranberry jelly – which we got to taste later. Sometime after dinner, Savannah needed to nap for a bit, but we had no safe place to lay her during that nap. For some reason we no longer have a pack-and-play which we would typically use. Instead, Mama asked me to get a large suitcase out and set it on the spare bed. We put a pillow in the bottom of the suitcase, covered that with a soft blanket and placed the baby in the repurposed “bed”. It worked really well. Mama told me later that she got the idea from my Mom, who when Joshua was little took a dresser drawer out of the dresser and used in in the same way as we had used the suitcase. A perfect baby bed for temporary use.

Late in the evening, I went for a walk. I am trying to do the mile walk three or more times per week. With darkness coming so early, those walks now have to be taken after dark. Last night as I started down the road, I heard a commotion in the trees off to the north. It sounded like two cats fighting. But we do not have a lot of cats in the remote area where we live. It was a horrific commotion. I almost turned around to head back to the house but decided to continue. Whatever was happening, it quieted down by the time I walked to the end of the road and back. I will have to start taking my pistol with me as I take those walks in the dark. I doubt that I could use the pistol effectively in the dark, but it would make me feel less at risk in the event of an encounter with a predator. Although, I am more likely to cross paths with a skunk, a raccoon or an opossum, the coyotes are getting more numerous lately. We are seeing them more often. Hearing them every night. Last night was a little odd in that Sam and Sasha did not go with me on the walk. Maybe because it was fully dark, and they were already on duty at the farm.

I will have to go home at lunchtime today. Mama has the Thomason’s coming back over at lunchtime to help us catch the kids. Three of the four will need to be debudded. Two of the three will only need an application of a solution to will inhibit the growth of their horns. Julian, however, will need to have his horns surgically removed. Horned Myotonic goats do not sell well. Plus, the horned goats are a nuisance. As we are continuing to discover with Scamper. I had to stop what I was doing yesterday evening to put more wire on the part of the fence he was trying to pull down. He loves hooking his horns in the wire and pulling back as far as he can. Before I reinforced the fence, he was able to pull back a good way. After I added the wire ties to the fence, he was completely frustrated that he could not repeat his triumph. It is frustrating for me given the fact that Mama has been planning to sell him for two months now. That sale will eventually be made, or he will be taken to the market. One way or the other, I plan to permanently interrupt his destructive tendencies.

Catching the kids this afternoon is another of those times that make living with Mama a continuous adventure. I will try to video some of the process, but I may be too involved in the activity to document any portion of it. That is usually the way these things work out. I have the crates ready for transport – loaded in the back of the truck. The vet appointment is set, so all we need is to get the patients into those crates. Tada! Simple, right?
Only in Mama’s eyes.

Escapees, the holiday season, a passive generation

Kobe and Kira got out of the yard yesterday. Mama was perplexed because none of the gates had been left open. Every time the dogs do escape the yard, they eventually return, but not being in the confines of the yard puts them in danger of traffic, hunters and ranchers in the area – especially if they are bothering cattle in their liberated escapades. They always come back filthy. By the time Victoria was home, the dogs who had been out twice, were in the yard once again. A bathing line was set up and both dogs were washed, rinsed and severely scolded. I thought the cleanup was premature because we had not determined where the dogs had gotten out. So, after feeding – because Mama was helping with the bathing – I started to walk the fence to see where the escape had taken place. Once that was found, I reinforced the fence, hoping that would be enough. I did not want to pile rocks, logs or cinder blocks along the fence. That is too noticeable. Too ugly. Instead, I used some old top bar from the fence in the pig area I am redoing to attach to the bottom of the fence that needs to be replaced. it does not look so obvious. hopefully, that will be all that is needed. Time will tell.

Tis the season for overeating. Not that it is the only time of year when we can eat far more than we need. But it is harder, it seems to me, to avoid overeating during the holiday season. I have always found that a challenge. Thursday of this week we have our annual Thanksgiving lunch. Saturday we will be having an early Thanksgiving dinner with Seth and Gabriella. Tuesday of next week we will have our annual Thanksgiving dinner at church and Thursday of next week is Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday. But as I have gotten older, I have found that I have to participate very carefully. It does not take away from the fun of the celebration, the feasting and the fellowship if I eat conscientiously. Not much anyway. The real fun for me is the cooking and preparation of the meals. That part is still non-fattening.

Mama will be shopping this week to get all the food items for the four meals stated above. It will be a more expensive grocery month than typical, but we have planned for it. Hopefully, well enough. Anyway, I will have to coordinate preparing a turkey and ham for our Chinese family as well as the turkey and ham I will be preparing for our family on Thanksgiving Day. Mama has purchased four turkeys so far this season. The ham is being given to us by the company I work for. That is a blessing. One or two of the turkeys will be kept for later. we have plenty of room in our freezers right now and Mama and I always enjoy turkey – even in the off season. It is one of the few dishes Mama will eat out of season.

In researching the generation of young people coming into the workforce, I stumbled across a one-word definition that really struck me. The professor speaking to Sebastian Gorka about the coming generation in our culture described them an “passive”. Along for the ride. Things have been given to them. Things have been done for them. Things have been thought out for them. They are mostly content with the way things are and are not looking for any discontinuance of that arrangement. I have struggled to come up with a concise definition for the prevailing attitude of the generation entering the workforce and that one word seems to capture the sentiment I am seeing. Not in every one of the young people, but generally across the culture. Perhaps that is why there is a growing appeal of socialism within our culture. I don’t know for sure, but the dots seem to connect.

Mama is going to Kimberlyn’s today. Picking up feed on the way home. If I am not mistaken, this will be the only time this month that the two of them will get together. The current focus is on making Christmas presents. That should be fun. I am obviously in favor of hand-crafted Christmas presents versus buying things. so many useless things change hands in the Christmas season. It would be nice to personalize Christmas this year.

We will have to wait and see how that works out.

Shelter completion, picking pecans, the canoe, the Marksmen

I focused all day Saturday on completing the siding on the goat shelter. When I gathered and cut to size the metal siding from the shed I had taken apart, I had just enough to complete siding the shelter. All I have left from the original shed is a few very small scraps and the angled tops that fit each end of the shed. It not only enclosed the shelter, it cleaned up another pile of scrap I had lying about. The shelter will be painted in the Spring to unify the two colors of metal used to cover it, but for now, it does not look bad. At least all the lines match and the colors are compatible – other than the rust spots. A few more little holes in the roof to patch and the shelter will be as complete as I intend it to be.  

Friday evening, I took three pallets to make a play area for the kids. I disassembled one pallet and cut the recovered boards in half lengthwise. I used those thinner strips to fill the gaps between the boards on the other two pallets. Then I attached legs to one of the pallets. Those pallets were carried into the goat paddock Saturday morning and set up to provide two levels of play area. One pallet was set on cinder blocks which will help delay the decay that will come naturally. The pallet with legs abuts the one on blocks. The little ones figured out right away what to do with the bilevel deck. As we were pulling into the drive on our way home from picking pecans, the four kids were playing king of the mountain, knocking each other off in turns. I was quite the spectacle. It will be fun to watch as all the kids grow more accustomed to the playground. Mama can see it from our bedroom window. We are still waiting on Dolly and Lilly to kid, but that should happen this week or next.

Mama talked me out of starting another project about 2 pm Saturday. She and Victoria had been shopping and were getting ready to head to Bowie to have some soup at Grandma’s. From there they planned to go to Rick and Nancy’s (our goat mentors) to pick up pecans. Having gotten to a good place to stop, I went along. I could not eat much soup because Grandma uses V-8 juice as the base. As much as I love the taste, I do not so well with that. Once we had eaten and visited a while, we went see what pecans we could gather. Between the three of us, me, Mama and Victoria, we picked up about forrty pounds of pecans in about an hour.

These were the large, long, paper shelled pecans. Premium quality. We will go back this week to gather more and to see if the other three pecan trees have ripened to the point of gathering those pecans as well. The other three trees have smaller, more round pecans. Good quality as well, just not as big as the ones we picked up Saturday. Mama may take Bro Plumley back early this week. He wants to get a stash of pecans to sell and he really liked those big ones. We looked at the pecan grove next to the church at the end of our road, but most of those pecans were very small. Mama had hoped she could take Bro Plumley there to get his pecans, but that may not work.

Late Saturday evening a man called to see if I still had the canoe. Mama took the call and gave him all the particulars. He really wanted it, so we agreed to be available Sunday afternoon for him to pick it up. He was later than he had told us, but he kept us abreast of his expected arrival time. He finally got to the farm about 3:30 pm. He was loaded and gone by 3:50. A man on a mission. He was very excited about getting the canoe. We are excited about selling it so that I can upgrade to a boat Mama and I can share with less worries. That was a timely answer to prayer.

Sunday evening, we had the Marksmen Quartet at church. It was a very enjoyable evening.

Update on Grandma, what to do this weekend, a little help

Mama took Grandma and Grandpa to the doctor yesterday. Grandma is seeing a gastroenterologist for her continuous bowel discomforts. He once again reassured her that her diverticulosis is a common ailment in our American culture– often remaining undiagnosed in as much as 50% of our population over 50 years old. He reaffirmed that diet can make a huge difference. Advising Grandma to increase her dietary fiber intake. He also said that the recent scan they did on Grandma showed a small fibroid mass on the top of her uterus. It may be the cause of some of the pain Grandma is experiencing. He is not overly concerned, but he is advising Grandma to get a colonoscopy to ensure there is noting internal that is also contributing to her pain. I know this information because Mama insisted – against Grandma’s initial objections – that she sit in on the consultation with the doctor. Grandma tends to either not remember or to remember wrongly most of what she hears. Especially critical pieces of information. This information was too important to let Grandma be the only one who heard the report.

Grandma has not been successful in the past taking the required fluids to evacuate her bowels to have a successful colonoscopy. She is not usually ably to keep the fluids down long enough to cause her bowls to move sufficiently to completely empty her colon. If that is even possible. Grandma is always constipated. Having only one bowel movement per week – if that often. I cannot imagine the shape her colon is in after years of that kind of irregularity. Anyway, she is going to try again. When I did my only colonoscopy, several years ago, I remember the fluids I was required to drink were unpleasant, but not overly so. Whatever nausea came, passed quickly. But even still, the doctor performing the test told me my bowels were still not quite as cleaned out as they would have liked. From the time I spent on the pot, I found that hard to believe. So, pray for Grandma that she would be able to do all that is required for the test to be successful, thereby allowing the doctors to accurately diagnose any ongoing, treatable issues. Her body would greatly benefit from having the colon emptied. Even if it lasts only a short while.

This weekend is supposed to be really nice – weather wise. I have a very long list of things that need to get done. Some are urgent and will probably get priority. Some are fun. Those will be a distraction from the urgent projects. Several are tedious and/or unpleasant but need to get done none-the-less. Those will probably get worked on in small starts. None of the tasks on that list are urgent. I can always stay busy through the limited hours of daylight available regardless of what percolates to the top of the list. That is my focus. To stay busy. To get as much done as is possible. I do not know what Mama’s focus is for the weekend other than cleaning and organizing in preparation for guests. But her focus often sets or upsets the agenda I meditated on.

I have not gotten a call from the guy in our beekeeping club to formalize going with him to gather bees from the inhabited smoker in Gross, TX. If he calls, I will go. If not, I have plenty to fill my time. I did receive the cheap bee keeping suit I ordered. As far as the suit itself is concerned, it fts well and should be adequate. Time will tell. However, neither Mama nor I could figure out how to attach the hood and veil to the suit. So, I looked up a video on how to get that done. There is almost always a video to do any task you could search. When I watched the very short video, I had to chuckle at myself for now seeing the operation without help. But it is like most new actions. Once you see how to do it, it seems simple. Without that little bit if help, it seems impossible – as if things you are trying to figure out were not manufactured correctly. I didn’t feel stupid, but I probably should have.

Thank you, technology, for that little bit of help. And for the gracious nature of the man in the video presenting what he obviously thought was an overly simple task.

Teaching day, good news from Lawton, eating right

Yesterday’s class was a good one. Once again Red Shaw and I split the thirty-eight people between the two of us. That gave us two reasonable sized classes. I have done classes of over forty people, but it is not the best approach, so our company has agreed to let us split the classes in order to get keep a small group feel to the day of instruction. Even still, my voice was worn out by the end of the class. I had folks from California, Montana, Pennsylvania and Colorado in the class yesterday. As well as a few from Texas and our Southern neighbors. It was a diverse class, mostly quiet folks, with a few exceptions, but the material generated a lot of discussion, a lot of interaction. Everyone seemed like old friends by the end of the day. It is one part of my current job assignments that I really enjoy.

During the early part of the class I had to ignore a call from our realtor. He later texted to let me know that all the materials had been bought for both of our houses in Lawton and work was beginning with one crew in each house. He also let me know that there is a renter in the neighborhood who seems interested in the larger house – our Dover property. Good news on both counts. I believe, the expressed interest of a buyer will motivate our realtor to push ahead with the long-delayed remodel. I am encouraged by any increase in that motivation, whether this buyer comes through or not. I am praying that we have the finances to complete the work all the way to the closing on each house. God is good!

While I was teaching my class, Mama spent the morning reading through several books trying to coordinate diet suggestions in order to see if she could begin to set some new dietary standards for us. I think in the end she may have hit upon a strategy, but when she explained it to me, I was not enamored with the idea. What she was suggesting would certainly work short-term, but I am not looking for some austere short-term dietary punishment routine to kickstart a weight loss program. We may still follow the diet suggestions, but I would like a more simple, straight-forward, long-term program. We are not getting any younger and Mama and I need to start feeding our aging bodies in a way that is more conducive to general good health. Whatever that may be. But it certainly includes elimination of heavily processed foods and a severe reduction in refined sugar – in all forms. With today’s typical diet for us, those two actions will require a serious rethinking of our traditional grocery shopping, our normal eating out selections and the snacks we keep on hand.

Diet is one of those areas in our lives where we know what is right. We know what to do to eat right. To eat in a healthy manner. We just do not want to spend the emotional energy to do so. The older we get, the more of a challenge it is because, to put it simply, eating is one of the few activities we can enjoy together with relatively little physical discomfort. It’s easy. It’s fun. It’s necessary and normal. It just does not have to promote weight gain if we do it correctly. But that is so much less fun. One of the seniors at our church told me recently, eating is one of the only “guilty” pleasures left to us as we get older. That and gossip. Which is anathema to me. So, Mama and I must decide if we can still enjoy meals, enjoy eating even if we align our diet to match our physical and physiological requirements. Sacrificing our emotional requirements. An ongoing dilemma.

As long as any newfound conviction or adopted practice does not spill over into sharing those convictions with everyone we meet, I am okay with making any changes we deem necessary. Too often I have watched people take on a diet and when they meet with moderate success, preaching the benefits to everyone who talks to them. Then only to find a year later that person has gained double the weight lost after their initial success. That thought alone scares Mama away from every diet plan that might provide a solution.

For now, we are still talking it over.

Cold, Lawton homes, teaching

For once the forecasts were accurate. The temperature did drop to 22° overnight. I happened to be stirring about at 2 am. The temperature reading on the clock on the mantle, where we look for our temperature measurements, was 27°. The final drop in temperature was between 2 am and 6 am. The temperature reading in the truck this morning was 19°. That matched the official temperature reading at our local weather station. It will be interesting to find out if that was one of the many record cold readings for this time of year. Fortunately, we were ready for it. I got a little worried as I went to bed that I had not taken good enough care of the wellhead for the well that services the house. So, I got up, dressed for the cold and found the things I needed to put a single light bulb under the tote we have over the wellhead. That, I wrapped with a blanket to help insulate the cover. I felt fairly confident that it would be enough to get us through the night. After that was done, I slept pretty well. Other than my early morning check of the temperature.  

The forecast is for temperatures to get to almost 50° today. That will thaw things out nicely through the day. Nighttime temperatures are still going to be at or below freezing for the next three nights, but none will be as cold as last night. So, if our last-minute preparations got us safely through the deep cold, we should be fine for the rest of the week. Of course, Mama will have to carry water to her animals every morning, but we are set up to accommodate that as well. Oh well, it is to be expected this time of year.

We are hoping Lilly and Dolly have their babies in one of the warmer interludes, but we have no control over that. We are not providing any extra warmth for the goats. They all have places to bed down out of the wind – which has been fierce as this cold front moved through. The only heat we are offering is to the younger chickens – in the coop, in the garage and in the birthing center; which will not be needed for puppies any more since Mama and Victoria missed Kobe’s heat again. that was to be their last attempt to get Kobe or Kira bred. There are going to be some very disappointed people who have been on a waiting list for puppies from Kobe.

Last weekend there was a flurry of activity on our houses in Lawton. We have a friend who has a couple properties in Lawton as well. He goes up every weekend to work on his houses. Friday evening Mama called his wife to ask if he would mind swinging by our houses and check to see if anything had been done. As it turned out the realtor texted me early Saturday morning to let me know he was buying materials for the houses. He wanted to know how I was going to cover the costs of the materials being purchased. From his estimate, I transferred money to him through a local bank. It was still nice to have eyes on the project from our friend who confirmed that a lot of materials had been placed in the houses – doors, toilets and tubs, sheetrock, paint, etc. Lord willing, in spite of the colder temperatures, we will see some significant progress on the houses this month. If the Lord is using this to reinforce His teaching us patience, it is certainly working. I am praying for wisdom to rightly handle the money generated by the eventual sale of these two properties. I will need it. Thought we may still be months away from that eventuality, it is not too early to begin praying. Right now, I am praying about how to make sure I have the funds necessary to finish the properties. I am weighed down quite a bit by that…until we complete our first sale.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow. It will be a nice change of pace.

Busy weekend, brutal cold

Mama and Kimberlyn set up shop at Trade Day’s Saturday morning. It turned out to be a very nice day weather wise. They had some customers who actually bought some of the items they had for sale, but all in all it was a slow day. When the final tabulations were made, they netted $65. At least they made some money. With all the clothing they had – some of it quite nice – they had a lot of lookers, but very few buyers. The majority of their profits came from the sale of one of the three-foot tall scarecrow/snowmen Kimberlyn had painted. And of course, my Christmas donkey sold right away. The rest of the profits came from the sale of lip balms and earrings. On the bright side, people at the bee keeping club and church are excited about the lip balms. Those items will sell very well over time. Mama and Kimberlyn are already planning another batch. They are also rattling around ideas for more painted crafts. Kimberlyn’s artistic flare is impressive in that area. Mama’s ideas add well to the scope of the work they do with those plaques.

Victoria was off Saturday. Sort of. She tagged along with Mama and Kimberlyn and helped them get set up in their spot. Then she was sent back to the farm to pick up a couple items Mama had forgotten to bring. Both of those items sold, so I suppose it was a wise use of Victoria’s time and gas. After that was done, Victoria had to report to the pharmacy to rearrange the shelving to create an area for newly classified drugs. She was only supposed to work for a couple hours but the work was far more involved than originally thought. She ended up working about six hours on the project since it had to be completed to keep the pharmacy operating efficiently. She was worn out when she finally got home.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, I worked all day getting more things rearranged and cleaned up. I took apart the pallets we were forced to attach to the pig enclosure. They had served their usefulness and were looking ugly. I had been wanting to get them taken down for some time, so it was nice to finally get started on removing them. I did not get them hauled away because my tractor was having issues. A clogged fuel filter I believe. I also started outlining the new pig enclosure. I hope to make it a little less unsightly when we have pigs on the farm again. While I have the old enclosure torn down, I will get the tractor and refill and relevel the area the last pigs we had tore up so badly. In between picking up items that had been cast about in various places in the coop area and putting a creep feeder in the goat barn, I worked on getting the well house cleaned up.

Mama and I want to make the well house our honey house. To that end I moved the newly built hives from the shop to the well house. That will give Mama and Kimberlyn more space to lay out their crafts as they are assembled. It will also help us keep in mind the purpose of the building. I will eliminate all the items that should have long ago gone to the shop or the garage. Especially paints and other chemicals we do not want around the honey or the honey processing equipment. As Mama and I talked about the cost of honey supers and hive parts, we decided that I will build all we need in the future. It will become another ongoing project at the farm. Praise the Lord, I have a shop and the tools required to do that work.

Brutal cold coming today. I was shown and app called MyRadar a few months ago and I have used it consistently since downloading it to my phone. On that app, you can track the line of the cold front as it plunges south. We are only a few hours from the cold overwhelming us. As soon as I get home, I will have to take up hoses, turn on heat lamps, set up heaters and draft reducers and double and triple check the well houses. The forecast is for the morning temperature to be 22°. I will not be shocked if we are in the teens when I leave for work tomorrow morning. The uncertain part of the forecast is the rain that is expected to come as the temperatures drop. According to the current forecast, we will be at freezing by noon and well below that by the time we get off work this evening.

Welcome to Winter.

Pups, chickens and kids, bees

Mama and Victoria are watching the Echeveria kids this morning while Erin goes to the doctor. This is one of the longer visits, so it is not practical for Erin to have the kids with her. It should be interesting since Mama is in the middle of finalizing all the crafts that are being priced and packed to be taken to Bowie tomorrow. Things are still scattered about; on the dining room table and floor, in the garage and in the shop. At least Victoria is there to help. Not that the children are difficult to manage, just that Mama still needs to get a lot done before tomorrow morning and the house is filled with extra items that Mama does not want to lose rack of.

Later today Mama and Victoria will be taking Kobe to the Cantrell’s to see I Leo and Kobe will breed. Victoria has vacillated on the issue of Kobe having more pups before getting her fixed. Kobe is difficult when it comes to breeding. She keeps herself so clean that it is nearly impossible to tell when it is the right time to take her to Leo and she is quite aggressive with Leo unless the circumstances are just right. Kobe can be very fierce. None-the-less, they are scheduled to try today. If they are successful, I will have to clean and sanitize the birthing center which is now being used to finish out our Cornish Rock hens.

Speaking of the Cornish Rocks, Mama and I are a little disappointed that they are not as heavy as we were assured they would be by this time. I think the largest of the six we have left weighs about five pounds. Dressed out, that will be about a three-pound chicken. The rest will be smaller. I am disappointed. Raising them has been an additional expense and workload. To see that work and expense yield poor increases is not encouraging, but we will follow through with the experiment and see if we were told correctly about the quality of the meat the chickens yield. We will probably not do this again, but we bought the chicks for fifty cents apiece at the end of the season. Not a huge loss. But not much of a gain either.

Lilly and Dolly have not kidded yet. Mama is a little worried because of the very cold temperatures we have forecast for early next week. Three nights in the twenties. Days in the low forties. I suppose the babies will do fine. There is little we can do to change the situation or offer warmth to the newborns should they come during the next five or six days. Next year, Mama and I will be careful to move up our breeding program by a month so that all the kids are born no later than October. The other kids, now two weeks or more old, are doing very well. They are a delight to watch.

Just before Thanksgiving we will have to take three of them to be de-budded; have their horn buds seared off to keep them from growing. Horned Myotonic goats are not a hot item. Plus, the one horned male we have is a Myotonic wreck-em- Ralph. He is constantly hooking his horns into everything he can and then pulling with all his might. Fortunately, he is not big. If he was, we would have real issues. As it stands, it is simply irritating. He gives Mama fits every time she feeds the boys, trying to hook her clothing, butting her, pushing against her. He likes his horns and is quite proud to show them off at every opportunity. She talks about getting rid of him, but he is still with us…for now.

At our bee keeping meeting last night I volunteered to go with one of the other members to do a bee removal about two hours away. Probably next Saturday. His friend sent a picture of a bar-b-que grill filled with bees. The owners of the camp where the grill sits wants them gone. Hunting season is coming very soon. How it is going to be managed is a mystery, but I would like to tag along to help. I ordered a suit – a very cheap one – last week so it should arrive in time. I ordered it so that Mama and I can fit ourselves before we order a more expensive suit. A more professional suit. I ordered an extra large. But for the coming excursion, if I get to go, the cheap one will have to do.

Mama and I are in the queue to get two hives set up in the Spring of next year. We are excited about that.

Mixed up days, lots of rain, personal pain, patience

When I got home yesterday evening, I realized I had gotten my days mixed up. Or rather, Mama’s days mixed up. She and Kimberlyn spent the day at the farm yesterday making lip balm in five different flavors, hand and foot sugar scrubs and some all-natural hand sanitizer. All the lip balm was made from bees wax and mango butter along with some essential oils. It was quite a day for the two of them. I got to help in the cleanup when I got home. Fortunately, bees wax was easy to melt off the pans, double boilers and graders used to process the lip balm concoctions. Mama had me try the lip balm by putting in on her lips and then kissing me. That is the only way I apply lip balm. She had me try the hand sanitizer right away. Later I had to try the hand scrub. I liked it. She wanted to try the foot scrub on me, but I passed. I am not bothered by someone scrubbing my feet since I grew up in a denomination where foot washing was a church ordinance, but it is not something I like having done to me. I may eventually yield, but I did not do so last night.

This morning, Mama is taking Grandma and Grandpa to the doctor’s appointment in Denton. It will be a yucky morning to rush out and feed the animals. It rained heavily last night with light rain continuing this morning. We started getting thunder and lightning just before we went to bed, but the rain did not come until well after midnight. When it did come it must have come in buckets. I can only guess since I slept through it. The rain gauge showed over three inches of rain this morning. About three times what was forecast. We’ll take it. Along with the cooler weather, that might be enough to close up the deep cracks in the ground. We are about a month late getting these rains, but we are finally getting the fall rains we need to fill stock tanks and creeks and ponds for the winter and into the Spring.

I will have to check the goat shelter this evening to see if my roof work helped seal enough of the leaks to keep the building drier. I could not tell last night when I went out to feed because it was not raining heavy enough to really test the roof. I imagine, though I will not know until tonight, that with three inches of rain having fallen, there was some runoff into the shelter. Our farm sits at the lower end of a long gentle slope that runs towards us for almost a mile. That is a lot of terrain to accumulate and channel the runoff in our direction. Sealing against that runoff into the south facing opening in the shelter is one of my next projects for that little building. It is almost fun to have to keep plucking away at all these little projects – almost.

Mama and I did not go to church last night. She was hurting badly after being on her feet all day. I had a painful sore throat with an accompanying tooth ache. It felt miserable. I am a little relieved this morning, but still have the scratchy throat and my tooth still hurts. I found some leftover antibiotics in the cabinet last night and began taking them immediately. That should help over time, but the immediate relief from clove and Tea Tree oil in warm water was a real blessing. I managed to sleep well in spite of the tooth pain. I am praying the antibiotic will take care of the tooth infection, if I do indeed have one. I have known, suspected rather, for some time that I am developing some serious issues in my mouth, but I have held off getting anything done for lack of funds. I am waiting on one of the houses to sell to help finance the dental work needed. That has not happened yet. Soon, I hope. Until then, I will hold out as long as possible; until I cannot tolerate the discomfort any longer.

Mama and I have our monthly beekeepers meeting tonight. We will be putting a deposit on two nucs we are purchasing from the club president. We will not take delivery until next Spring, but we need to get the nucs reserved. A nuc is a partial hive, complete with a queen, her devoted bees and several – at least four – drawn out frames of honey and brood. A jump start on a hive. We are using ten frame hives for our apiary, so having two 40% of the way done at the very beginning is a good investment. We are looking forward to starting at least two hives in this manner. We may start a third by buying bees and a queen from a supplier. We are debating that at this point. So far, I have found many hives for sale on Craigslist, but we have held off buying any because we are not really ready to set up active hives. Plus, the active hives for sale are fairly expensive. Money we do not have to spend in that way. Patience is the order for our bee keeping, honey making business.

I am just a bit weary of being patient, but it always pays off in the long run.

Medical issues, Trade Days

Mama is taking Grandma and Grandpa to Denton this morning for Grandpa’s doctor’s appointment. I remember one of the older ladies at church telling me a few weeks ago that the only time she got out was for church and for doctor’s appointments. She is 84 years old. I thought that was humorous, because I see it playing out in Grandma in Grandpa’s life. Grandma will not allow Grandpa to go to a doctor’s appointment without her – with rare exception. She says it is because she thinks Grandpa will not do what the doctor asks him to do so she needs to hear the instructions as well. I do not believe that is as true as it may once have been. Grandpa likes his current cardiologist, so he is faithful to the advice he is given. Grandma likes to get out. She likes to hear what the doctor says to Grandpa even though she gets it all jumbled up later. Mama often has to intervene and clarify a discussion by retelling what she heard the doctor say. It’s kind of funny to watch all that play out. So far, the reports from the doctor on Grandpa’s health, his heart, have been very good. They ask Mama to take them partly because Grandpa does not like to drive anymore and partly to keep Mama occupied in their lives. The appointment is early. Before the rain begins in earnest. Mama should be able to get home by early afternoon. Much better than she was originally thinking. Perhaps much drier than she was originally thinking.

Grandma went to the doctor the other day because of severe abdominal pain. She was diagnosed with diverticulosis. A version of colon pain that I suffer from as well. Hers is more advanced, more indicative of deeper damage. She asked the doctor to put her in the hospital, to operate on her, to do something, anything, to relieve her discomfort. He advised her to begin to eat better. That was not what Grandma wanted to hear. Her diet consists primarily of McDonald’s chicken nuggets and breakfast cereal. Diet is the only remedy for what we have. She was thoroughly disappointed with the visit. She was sincerely hoping to have some type of surgery to eliminate her pain. I can wholeheartedly sympathize. Alas, the pain continues – for both of us. Cori, who gets the propensity for the same condition from which she also suffers, now has medical evidence that she gets it from both sides of the family. Sorry, Cori.

On the bright side, my blood pressure – as measured by my H Band – is spot on. 120/80 or below on most readings. I have been checking it regularly for the past three weeks and have not had any readings anywhere near what I have had in the past. That, especially for me, is great news. Believe it or not, that has actually relieved some of the stress in my life. I have always dreaded getting my blood pressure taken. One doctor in New Jersey diagnosed me with “white coat syndrome”. He was being facetious. He was also quite accurate. Mama, even though she is on blood pressure meds, has run some higher readings, but nothing high enough to cause concern.

Pastor actually spoke Sunday morning about how many times our hearts beat per year on average. I could not find the calculation, so I used the number of seconds per year to estimate the total since our resting heartrate is close to one beat per second. 31,536,000. Using that as a baseline, my heart has beat at least 1,986,768,000 times. Probably more than two billion heart beats so far in my lifetime. What an amazing organ. Truly, we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Mama and Kimberlyn are gearing up for Saturday; Trade Days. I am not planning on going with them to Trade Days, but that could change. I certainly am not planning on spending all day. They have amassed a fair amount of stuff. Both homemade crafts and garage sale items. I offered up a small .22 caliber pistol for them to sell. It may draw more people to their table. I do not use it. I do not particularly like it and have replaced it with a much better pistol. It is the only item that I know I contributed. they desperately want to add to the income of each household. I believe they are on the right track to do so. They are praying to do well.

I can join them in that prayer.

Roofing mess, crafts, holidays

Rain over the next three days will test the coating I applied to the roof of the goat shelter yesterday evening. It took me all the time I had between getting off work and the quickly approaching nightfall to get the roof coating applied. It will make the roof look uniform. It will protect the roof for many years to come and it will seal some of the holes the rain was dripping through. A few of the holes will need further attention, but for the most part, I was able to coat over most of them. I put on some older farm cloths to work in because applying this type of coating makes a mess regardless of how careful I could have been. I ended up not getting much on me, but I was thankful what I did get on me was not on my better clothing. It is something that will never come out. I have had the roofing material for a few weeks but have never taken the time to get the chore done. Now it is done. Check that one off my list.

My biggest challenge during the process was keeping Scamp away from the ladder. He is our only horned goat and he is well aware of his advantage over all the other goats. He likes to get his horns hooked into the fencing and pull with all his might against the fence. I have had to reinforce the fence in the areas he likes to attack the most. For him, it would have been better if I had used cattle panels for the enclosure, but it was too expensive at the time. Mama has talked about getting rid of him but has taken no action yet to do so. Anyway, he would not leave the ladder alone. Even when I was on it. He would hook his horns on a rung and pull back against the ladder. I have no idea what he hoped to accomplish but my weight on the ladder held it in position when I was on it. Every time I got off the ladder, he renewed his efforts to topple it. It made for an interesting contest during the time I was working on the roof. Shooing off the goat. Containing the mess. Trying to keep my roller brush out of the tree limbs.  But I was able to finish just before dark – which comes now at about 6:30. Heavy rain is forecast for tomorrow and possibly Wednesday. That will tell me how much more work I have left to fully seal the roof. As a fallback the bucks still have the igloo doghouse to retreat into if needed.

Mama is driving to Kimberly’s today. They are at the point of finishing up a lot of items they will try to sell this Saturday at Trade Days. I brought a few items to work to set on my desk to see if I could drive any interest among my coworkers. So far that has not been overly successful, but Mama and Kimberlyn are hopeful the flea markets will be kind to them. There are a few things they have made that are unique. Among my favorites is the Christmas donkey.

They also have one of a wolf done in an American Indian theme that is going to sell quickly once it is displayed. On one side it reads, “Feed the good wolf”. Mama and Kimberlyn are both excited and scared to market the items. It will be fun to see how this venture of theirs turns out. For their first time at Trade Days they will have a lot more than just their crafts. They will have garage sale items as well. I do not know if that will be an attractant or a deterrent, but that is the plan they have put together. I am praying they do well.

Mama and I are looking forward to the holidays. Thanksgiving is now only three weeks away. We have a few things to get done in the house and at the farm to be ready for all who will be with us that week. I have scheduled some time off that week to accommodate those plans – and to give me more time to visit. We always have a big organizational and cleanup task when we prepare for guests. Mama and Victoria tend to leave things out after they have used them – especially Mama’s craft items. That produces a lot of clutter on surfaces all around the house. Tabletops. Countertops. Every corner in the house is filled with stuff. Fortunately, all the items that we accumulated for Cori and the kids were taken to Honduras already, so the spare bed is usable now. Still, we have a lot to do to ready the house for the holidays. I am still of the opinion that we should have people over at least every month just so that the house gets a thorough cleaning on a timely schedule.

But at the very least, reorganizing and decluttering will make things easier as Mama gets help decorating the house for Christmas – after Thanksgiving.

Shelter work, Victoria, Ben and Marie

It was a beautiful weekend. Saturday, I worked outside from sunup to sundown. Always in a light jacket or a Carhart vest. The weather was beautiful. The sky was clear. The temperature was perfect. There were several times I wanted to take a break from putting siding on the goat shelter and go fishing for a few minutes, but I stuck with the more important project until I literally ran out of screws to attach the metal siding. To put up the last piece I had for the lower portion of the walls, I scrounged in every nook and cranny of the shop to get what I needed. Even at that, realizing I was short on screws, I put only a few in each panel trying to make them go further while still getting as much siding as I could attached. I also built a small deck inside the shelter so the bucks could have a resting place off the ground. They started using it right away. Mama was happy enough with the outcome. Even though the metal sheets were used they match in color and style. At some point we will paint the metal to match or at least compliment the shop. For now, the bucks are protected from most of the wind and rain. This evening, I will get the roof painted and sealed to limit the drips into the shelter from holes in the metal from its previous uses. Yes, I have used this metal on several projects. But I think it has now found a permanent home. Mostly.

Victoria was able to get everything settled at work. Her leave of absence was approved and her time off was accepted without the absences being counted against her. She did not get paid for the personal time off she requested during her stay in Honduras, but that is a favorable trade off to have the absences dismissed. So, she is back at work as normal. That was a relief to her – and to me and Mama as well. She is still very tender in her back. Every wrong move or every sudden jerk - while playing with the dogs, for instance - reminds her that she is still not completely recovered. She is slowly mending, but it takes a very long time to heal from such an injury. Something I am very familiar with.

Victoria and Mama were at the table the last several evenings looking at the pictures Victoria got while in Honduras. She and Nate, Cori and the kids went to the ruins of Copan. An extensive archeological site in central Honduras. It has been largely restored and reconstructed. The architecture of the ruins is very impressive especially considering the time when it was built. But what the kids loved more than the ruins was Macaw Mountain. It is a rehabilitation facility near Copan. The vivid colors on the birds is beyond description. It is also beyond explanation as far as evolutionary theory is concerned. Such variety, such beauty, is wholly unnecessary for life. It is there simply given for us to marvel; to enjoy the pleasure of color and form. Mama wants to go there if we are not able to afford a trip to Roatan when we visit Nate, Cori and the kids early next year. We will evaluate that as we get nearer the date of our visit. I would like to do something with them that they would not do on their own. We will see.

Ben Muldoon had lunch with us at the restaurant Sunday. He is an impressive young man. He is a delight to be around. Careful, thoughtful, but quick witted with a great sense of humor. A gifted listener. Fluent in sign language. Always looking for a way to serve the Lord. All the kids in church respond well to him. The adults love his as well. He grew up in a very remote mission station in Papua New Guinea. His parents continue in that mission work. Ben and Nate-and-Cori’s-Marie are engaged to be married in June next year. Marie, also fluent in sign language is currently serving as the on-staff nurse at the Children’ s Home in Honduras. She is the antithesis to Ben’s studious, analytical, disciplined application to all areas of his life. Marie is scattered, busy, distracted yet connected. Taking on everything in a mad rush. Like a hummingbird marrying an owl. A raging rapid cascading into a large, calm pool. They are in for a fun life together.

It has been a funny, strange sort of long-distance dating and engagement for the two of them. I assume they have met in person, but I am not sure that is true. Regardless, October was the month the two of them were praying for guidance as far as whether they should get married. Mama and I were praying with them as they sought God’s direction. I have to assume the answer was affirmative based on the setting of a wedding date. But at the outset Marie was not sure hers would be a yes answer to his proposal of marriage. She flat out told Ben that she did not like his voice. He does not have a manly voice. It is not as feminine as any of the males in one family in our church, but it is definitely pitched in a less masculine way than you would expect to look at Ben. I suppose love conquers all.

It will be a lot of fun to see this all get worked out.

Pumpkin Carving Results, Victoria, hive purchase

Yesterday was our 5^th Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest. I have participated in the last three. It is fun, but here’s hoping this one will be my last. Not that I mind the competition. I just hope to be working for my own company this time next year. Anyway, the contest always starts with each designated team selecting from the pumpkins purchased by the company. For some teams the shape is not particularly important, but for my team yesterday we needed a distinctive stem on our pumpkin. One of our members selected the one she thought would serve us best and I was in place to claim it as ours at the appointed time. That time is carefully controlled in order to give each team a shot at the pumpkin they want for the contest.

Next, the time is set for opening and gutting the pumpkin. Only one member is allowed to do this part. That person has to ensure that what they do does not interfere with the carving that will follow. The entire team is encouraged to help with the carving. One hour is allotted to complete the work. We can only use the tools provided by the company to actually carve the pumpkin. Those tools are the store-bought pumpkin carving sets sold at Walmart. They are not precision tools. I did all the carving for our entry. When we were selecting a theme for our pumpkin, I suggested to the team that we go about the work to have fun, produce something we could be pleased with, and enjoy the morning. That is exactly what we did.

We carved a witch with a very ugly stem nose, buggy eyes and missing teeth. It turned out pretty good. We were very pleased with the final product. Some of the other pumpkins were extremely clever.

A barbeque grill complete with dry ice smoke. The house from the movie “UP” complete with balloons coming out of the chimney. An ice cream cone with cherries on top. Oscar the Grouch, in a trash can brimming with trash. I work in a very creative group – and it shows. The barbeque grill won first place. Our witch won second place. I do not remember which pumpkin won third place. It was fun.
One member of our group was ecstatic about placing in the contest. She has competed all five years and never placed. Each member of each winning team got a gift card for one of the eateries in town. I took the Subway card from the four randomly selected by one member of our group. The entire morning off and a Subway gift card as a reward for taking the morning off. Not a bad deal.

Mama and I went to get Victoria at the airport last night. She got in around 7:45. Mama and I left early enough to kill some time at Costco as we waited on her flight to land. DFW is an easy airport to navigate. We were in and out in thirty minutes. We got home a little after 9 pm. Hopefully, Victoria can clear up any residual work issues today. She did not get her paycheck yesterday as she should have. So, something is messed up with her leave of absence. Being there in person should expedite fixing whatever is wrong. With that is mind, she is going to work this morning hoping she can get all the miscommunications resolved. We are certainly praying so.

Kimberlyn spent the day at our farm yesterday. She and Mama got a lot done. I was impressed. Today, Mama is going to her house to complete more projects. I brought a few pieces to work to see if I can generate any interest in their crafts. Some of the prices they have painted are quite clever.

Tonight, Mama and I are driving to Greenville, TX to purchase a top bar hive. The seller is asking only $50 for the hive. I cannot build it for that. The cost of bees to put in the hive will be about $130. Total cost of less than $200 to set up a hive is cheap. the primary product of a top bar hive is honeycomb. We will get honey out of that hive as well, but the way the hive works, it is best for harvesting comb. That will allow me and Mama to extract honey from our other hives and retain the comb in them for next year’s honey production. It saves the bees a lot of time when they do not have to produce the wax for the comb.

It will be another evening of travel for us, but it should be worth it in the long run.