Working, Mama’s little business, Midas move, Dr appointments

Working from home does have its advantages. We are saving on fuel since I do not make the round trip daily. We are saving whatever money would have been spent on eating out. Even though that is only about twenty dollars per month for me. We are saving time. I no longer have to get up over an hour early. I can get up later and still start work on time. Plus, I do not have the time of the drive to and from the office. Whether or not I am as productive is questionable, but for at least another month, we will enjoy the benefits of working for a company that allows us to do so remotely. Praise the Lord! So many are out of work and out of money. I am truly thankful for this job. As disappointed as I may have gotten at times, God knew what He was doing when He put me here.

Mama is making progress in bits and dabs in her nail business. She is struggling to figure out Facebook and the internet, but she is definitely making progress. Every day she spends a couple hours on the business, and I am of the opinion that something you spend several hours per day learning, you will eventually master. What I need to do is get her off the iPhone and onto an iPad or computer. Things will be so much more visible to her in that format, but she cannot use a computer as she reclines on the couch. Her comfy spot. Eventually, that leap in technology will come but it has not happened yet. Partly because we do not have a constant internet connection. One must be created via our phones. That connection is not always a good one. It is something I struggle with as I work remotely. Every step added to the process is a burden - for the moment. I am confident all that advancement will come in time. As it does, the business will grow accordingly.

Last night, Victoria helped us move Midas to the paddock with the nanny goats. He was not necessarily excited to be handled in the move, but once he saw where he was headed, he practically ran in the direction of the mature females. Victoria and I had a struggle initially getting him wrangled out of his home paddock, but as he tested the leash we had on him, he pulled us in the right direction, so we just kept him aimed properly. When he was released into the paddock with the ladies, he went loco with excitement. There will be a couple days of challenging each other, but I believe the ladies were glad to see a male in their midst. If all goes well, we should have little ones as early as mid-September or early October. November births are possible, but they would be on the late side of the cycle. We are hoping all the nanny goats are trim enough to breed easily. Mama’s animal charges are rarely on the trim side, so we had to institute strict feeding practices leading up to this breeding encounter. If that worked, we will follow that practice in the future. For the moment, we are very hopeful. Champ, who was moved from the paddock with the nanny’s back into the paddock with the little boys, we decidedly unhappy about being relocated. He spent several hours loudly voicing his displeasure.


With all my doctor’s appointments lately, I have had to take bits of time off from work. Even thought there would be no way to follow up the hours since we are all working remotely, I want to be sure my managers know I am trying to be honest in all things. This afternoon, I have a stress test that will take a couple hours. So far, I have used only comp time. Hours accumulated by traveling after normal working hours or on a Saturday. I accumulated over 16 hours that way. Again, a benefit provided by our management. This should be the last appointment for a while. Other than a teleconference with the heart doctor and a quick follow up with my primary care physician. Neither doctor is rushing to add to the two medications I am currently taking. For which I am thankful because the blood pressure meds are keeping my blood pressure below 120/80. My resting BP is 115/65. Which causes me some dizziness at times. Other than that, I am feeling much better. Breathing much better.

So far so good.

Fishing with Mama, swarm traps, Sadie, Sunday online

Friday evening after we fed the animals, I went to the quarry lake to fish. I was very successful again. Mama was supposed to go with me, but she was not feeling up to it by the time we got the feeding done. I spent some time looking over a couple spots that I could take Mama when she did come and was able to catch fish in all those spots, but I went to the place I have had so much success lately and fished there for about an hour. I caught eight crappie, two large bass and two large sunfish. When I was pulling into the drive, Mama was out front weeding a little flowerbed we have around a tree near the driveway. I told her that I had found a place to take her that was easy access. She wanted to go. So, we went.  Again, we spent about an hour. Mama caught nothing, but she got some strong bites. I caught two small sunfish, a very small bass and another large crappie. Mama had a very peaceful, fun time. I am sure we will go again.

Saturday, we watched the boys and Savanna while Krystal did some shopping. I spent the entire morning building swarm traps. I had brought a large box from the goat barn that we used as a play item for the goats. It was made of ¾” plywood. It was dirty but I cleaned it up and cut it according to the dimensions of the instructions I had printed out for making the traps. I had some ½” plywood leftover from making the screened beehive bases. All together I was able to cut out enough pieces to make three swarm traps. It took a lot of creative measuring to get all the pieces needed, but the Lord gave me the patience and wisdom to cut each scrap piece to maximize the outcome. All I lack is the flashing to cover the tops to make them ready to set out. It was a fun project, but my back was worn out by the time I got them assembled. That was early afternoon.

After we had lunch, I laid down. Since the house was full of kids, I laid on the bed. I slept very hard for a couple hours. When I was waking up, Mama told me that we had to pick up a calf. A heifer twin, born to a local rancher. The rancher had two sets of the boy/girl twins born last Thursday and he did not want to bottle feed any extras. Somehow our name came up on the register for the local stock sale. Praise the Lord. Mama had already told the rancher that we would take the calf, so I loaded the racks onto the truck, and we set out. The rancher and his wife were waiting on us as we arrived. Their place was only a couple miles out of Decatur. As Mama and I pulled into the lot where the rancher had the calf captured, the wife quickly backed away from us. “We need to keep our distance.” She announced. I was taken aback, but we complied. The calf was quickly loaded, and we headed to Tractor Supply to get milk replacer.

Once home, Norman had to get up in the truck bed to get the calf dragged to me, but she was quickly put in the little stall I had started behind the shop. A couple quick retrofits and we had her safely placed where we could manage her for a couple weeks. The calf initially went a little crazy on us and bounced off every side of the stall which is made mostly of cattle panels. It was something to watch. Mama made her a bottle and we tried to get her to nurse unsuccessfully with the nipple we had. I think the nipple was for goats. Not for claves. So, Mama rushed to a local feed store to get the proper nipple while I used some metal roofing sheets to cover the lower sides of the stall.  Partly to block the wind. Partly to keep her from seeing so much open area. The cattle on the adjoining property heard the fearful bawling of the calf and gathered in a large herd at the fence. It was quite a scene. Once we had the correct nipple, the calf, Sadie, tool the entire bottle. We have not fed her four times, so she is getting used to the routine. At five days old, she is a strong calf. A beautiful little black baldie. She will only be good for meat since such twins are infertile. Sad, but we will need the meat by the time she is butchering size. God is good.

We had church online again Sunday morning and evening. Our pastor does a great job, but we miss the time together with our church family. If we have to do this for another month, some folks are going to get too used to it. Getting up just in time to make it to the couch for the sermon. Not having to dress for church. No Sunday School. No song service. I find it unsatisfying. Mama does as well. Hopefully things will get back to normal – or some new normal - very soon. The devil may keep us from congregating this Easter, but the resurrection has forever defeated him.

There is victory in Jesus!

Work, Mama’s mower, fish fry, Savanna

My morning in the office yesterday moved me ahead on my projects quickly. I do not stay past lunchtime when I go to the office during this company imposed social distancing initiative. For many of my colleagues, it is not as problematic as it is for others, but it is something I could get used to. As long as I can get a few hours per week to use the office internet. For the most part, Mama allows me to sit here at my computer and work. I am still more productive at the office. but I am figuring out how to make this workable. Over the last few days, I have noticed a trend of sadness at my officemates missing the repartee and banter of office chit chat. In other words, we miss each other. In ways, it is like being separated from your family. I predict we will be back together sooner rather than later. As the real numbers of infections, hospitalizations, and sadly, deaths of this epidemic begin to come into clear view, we will all realize that we have been lied to and that lie has driven a wholly unnecessary panic upon us. On the bright side, we, as a culture, will finally adopt proper handwashing techniques. And, someone will invent and market a hand sanitizer that is actually beneficial for the body while being deadly to germs.

Mama got her mower back yesterday evening. She was thrilled. To get to Roger’s to pick up the mower, I had to go first to Walmart, then to Grandma and Grandpa’s. We went to Walmart to drop off nail samples and for Mama to visit with the pharmacy crew about those samples. We went to Grandma’s to drop off some bedding and towels we use for the dogs. Mostly these are used when the dogs get wet and have to stay in the sunroom for a couple hours to dry out. Heaven forbid that they have to lay in the floor of the sunroom. That would be cruel. With the amount of hair these two inside dogs shed, the towels were quite filthy. Grandma offered to take them to the laundromat for cleaning. Mama and Victoria happily agreed. All the items in the load needed a good shaking before getting wet in the washer, but I did not offer to do that. Maybe Grandpa will, but probably not. At least all the items will go through the wash. They may not actually be clean, but they will smell better. Mama mowed the entire yard last night after we ate dinner. Completing the back yard as darkness fell. The growth was so tall that it looks horrible, but it is cut and can be cleaned up over the next few cuttings. Mama loved the hour on her mower. I will be more diligent about maintaining the mower from this point on.

Once we got home with the mower, Mama made dinner for us while unloaded the mower and reparked the trailer. We had some of my recent catch of fish for dinner last night. It was about 7 pm when we ate, which is late for us, but it was amazing. The fresh fish was better than any we have had recently. None of us could tell which of the fillets we were eating were crappie or bass. They all tasted good. Mama and Victoria gave me a charge to go as often as I would like to keep that stock on the freezer. With how last night turned out, I believe we will be eating fish far more often that we have in the past. Especially since the fish come at such a low cost. Mama will go with me to fish sometime soon. I won’t get to fish too much. I will be spending all my time getting fish off Mama’s line. That is always fun.

Savanna yesterday did so well on her lessons that she earned a reward. Her mommy had a list from which she could choose: an Oreo cookie, ten gummies, one TV show, or ten minutes of screen time. Savanna chose the Oreo. Before her daddy would give her the cookie, he teased her for a bit. “Are you sure you want this cookie? How much do you weigh? Why don’t you eat an apple instead?” Undaunted, Savanna went to the master bath, got the scales and brought them to the kitchen – just outside their classroom. She proudly stepped on the scales for her daddy to read her weight. “Thirty-five pounds! You definitely do not need this Oreo.” Playing the game with her daddy, Savanna asked, “How much do you weigh?” So, daddy got on the scales. When Savanna saw the numbers fly up to her daddy’s weight she exclaimed, “No more cake for you until that is gone!” With that she picked up her cookie and calmly sat down to eat it.

For a four-year-old, she has caught on pretty well.

A new pup, working from work

Mama and Victoria have been concerned for some time about Sam’s health. Sam has been with us for seven going on eight years now. He now has serious issues with his hips. It is sad to see him struggle to get up once he has laid down. Especially if he has been down for a while. Mama and Victoria are giving him a daily dose of meds to ease the pain, but we are seeing an end to his active duty as guardian of the farm. He still will lay in the field across the road to guard the farm from the coyotes that have made a den somewhere in the tree line on the far side of that field. Our dogs will not hunt down the coyotes. They as re guardians, not hunters. But his day of such service are numbered. With that sad thought in mind, Mama and Victoria bought a Pyrenees puppy to train up to replace him. A daunting task in some respects.

They have named the little female, Gemma. We were all unsure where to put her last night. Her first night on the farm. We finally decided on the kennel. She was not happy, but it appears she finally settled down. Over the next few months, as she grows larger and stronger, we will allow her more access to the farm. Right now, we are worried she will follow Sam or Sasha on a run after the coyotes and get left behind if she is not able to keep up. I do not know if Sam or Sasha have ever fought with the coyotes, but we would hate to lose Gemma to the varmints we are hoping she can work to keep off the farm in the coming years. A couple years ago, one of Kira’s pups we named Prince was left behind when he got out and followed Sam into the chase. When he did not come home with Sam, we assumed the worst. Happily, Prince was later found hiding in the shop building at the quarry lake.

Gemma is not totally white. An offence to Grandma who recognizes Pyrenees only when they are totally white. She will get over it soon enough. Especially when we do lose Sam. Gemma seems to be a quiet, loving pup. She is quick to follow. She does not seem interested in chasing the chickens but at only eight weeks old, wanted nothing to do with the nanny goats. I will suggest today that Mama put her with the little females we have penned up together. Maybe they can get used to each other since they are more closely matched in size.

I did not check on Gemma this morning as I left for work. All was quiet. I am working only a half day in the office so that I can capitalize on the internet connection here. it is nearly impossible for me to download PowerPoint files remotely with the connection provided using my phone as a hot spot. Trying to upload those files is a waste of time and my allotted gigabytes of data. We were told yesterday that our remote work would be extended through next week. At least we are allowed to work from home. For that I am thankful. Not all employees have that option during this panic.

Right after Mama and I fed I went back over to the quarry lake and fished from the bank for crappie. Pastor and I had found them Tuesday evening and I wanted to get a few for the Chinese families. They wanted whole fish, not fillets. I was able to catch ten crappie – two of which I threw back because they were too small to keep – and two very large bass. I filleted the bass. It was my first time to actually cut fillets, so they were not too pretty. I also filleted two of the crappie. The rest I gave to the Chinese. I will probably go at least once a week to get fresh fish depending on how well Mama and Victoria like them. What I caught last night took less than an hour. I was able to fillet our part of the catch and deliver the Chinese their part of the catch before our church service was broadcast.

I really miss church, but I think this need to broadcast the services has given the pastor insight into the need for such broadcasts. He has been hesitant to do so, but with the shut ins we have who were once faithful to the church, it is a blessing for them to see the services any way we can get it to them. It definitely puts us under the microscope of digital scrutiny when we open our services for all to watch, but I think we can adapt. The church has upgraded the internet to allow live streaming. Once we get comfortable with that, we will look into upgrades to our sound system to make those broadcasts higher quality. I am excited about the project.

Mamas’ little nail business is already starting to produce income. She is thrilled.

Chicken issues, a good evening

Mama contacted the buyer of George to see if everything worked out in adapting him to the new coop. Things, it turns out, were not so good. The buyer has, in addition to chickens, ducks, geese, and guineas. The ducks and geese were not an issue. The guineas were. All seven of the guineas in the coop are males and George had to fight the combined lot of them through the entire day yesterday. As of last night, he was holding his ground against the onslaught. One or two more days of conflict and all should settle down. I am glad he is a big rooster. Guineas are mean and he will have to beat every one of them back. I am confident Mama will not sell Big Daddy (another rooster for sale at our farm) to this buyer if, in fact, George does not make it in his fight to be accepted into the coop. It is one of the ongoing issues Mama has with chickens when we have to integrate them into a coop where the pecking order has been established. If I ever doubted the idea of a pecking order, raising chickens certainly proved its existence in that species.

On the less amusing side, we have lost several chickens lately. Mama counted last night, and we are down to 39 large hens and 8 Banty hens. That means we have lost five hens recently. Two of those five were found dead in the coop. Probably egg bound. The other three and two roosters that went missing, were probably taken by coyotes. That is not horrible, but it is troubling. We have seen the plundering firsthand on only one occasion, but it seems to be an ongoing event. Last night the coyotes were howling nearby. It is an eerie sound that carries over the pastures with a frightening closeness. I am not sure how close the coyotes were last night, but they would have been within sight if we had looked close enough. All of our dogs went crazy defending us and the farm. The cacophony was impressive.

Pastor called me Monday morning to see if I was available to go fishing Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, I was not, but we set a time for when I would get off work at 4 pm yesterday. He was right on time. We loaded the boat and gear in his truck and drove all the way to the quarry lake. Just kidding. It only takes about two minutes to drive to the east side of the lake where we typically put in. We were set up and trolling out withing fifteen minutes. Initially it looked like we were going to get skunked. In over an hour we had caught only one medium sized bass. I caught a black crappie in that first hour, which excited the pastor, but he had caught nothing. After not getting any bites as we fished the perimeter of the lake, even though we had changes lures several times, we headed back to the place where we I had caught the first bass and crappie.

When we got to that spot, we started to really fill the stringer. Pastor and I alternated catching fish. Mostly bass on his part. Mostly crappie on my part. One of those bass was easily a four pounder. Most of the others were between one and two pounds each. The crappie were large. About the size of a dessert plate. It was getting pretty late when we finally headed back to the truck. By that time, we had sixteen fish on the stringer. Most of those caught in the last hour of fishing. About twenty-five pounds of fish altogether. It was fun. The last time we had gone out together we had not had as much time to fish but we had caught five bass. This time, in spite of the muddy conditions, we had much longer to explore the lake and find where the fish were biting. That is likely to change each time we go out. Pastor took all the fish home with him to fillet. Once the fillets are bagged, he will split them between us. I was not opposed to that idea at all. Mama is excited about getting that many fish for our dinners.

The aluminum boat we have been using to fish the quarry lake is stationed at our house. With Pastor’s permission, I am going to retrofit and repair it to make it a bit more serviceable for me. There are a couple repairs that need to be made. All of those are on the upper sides of the boat. I would like to find and add seats to the boat, but not at the cost of easily storing the boat or inhibiting our getting into and out of the boat. Only small challenges are required. Fortunately, I have the shop equipment to pull that off. I am already imagining ways to load and unload the boat by myself. It is about twelve feet long and weighs about eighty pounds. Just a tad large for one person to manage until I figure out how to set things up for me to do by myself. There has to be a simple way to get that done if I study on it.

This could be fun.

Chicks and roosters, hive parts

Saturday, I think it was. Mama and Victoria went to Tractor Supply to get some chicks. They picked carefully using a technique Mama had been shown some time ago. Using this technique, you can determine a hen from a rooster in the chicks. It is not foolproof, but it seems to work fairly well. They bought fourteen chicks. I told Mama she was not thinking big enough. She should have bought at least twenty. When she went back to get the additional six I had suggested, Tractor Supply had sold out. Someone had bought 300 chicks. All they had. Whoever that someone was, they cleaned out every supply of chicks in Decatur, Bowie and Alvord. I applaud the entrepreneurship, but it will be six to eight months before those chickens will lay any eggs. Assuming that is the intent. Long before that time, this response to the current sickness will be over. All the stores will be restocked with chicks by tomorrow and we might have our chance to buy the few more we need.

Meanwhile, this panic has brought more buyers to Mama than she can supply. We are getting about 30 eggs per day. We have buyers for all that production and much more. Even these twenty new chicks – if they are all hens – will not meet the demand once they start to produce. That is a good problem. So, whoever is starting a chicken farm, I am pretty sure they will have a market for those eggs when their hens grow up and start laying. With the coop I built, Mama and I are limited to about eighty hens. We will allow only three or four roosters in that population of hens. Mama does not like to see how rough the roosters are with the hens.

So much so, that I have killed two roosters this year and Mama has given away or sold two. One of those sales happened last night. She recently advertised three roosters and George, her beautiful Barred Rock rooster, was sold off. She regretted it from the moment the buyer made contact. She really liked George. I have told her that if she does not want to sell a particular animal, those pictures should not be included in the posts of animals she is willing to sell. The gentleman, a young man from Brazil, came with his two young sons to pick up George yesterday evening about 6 pm.

Mama and I have not been letting the chickens out of the coop yard until later in the afternoon because of the threat of coyotes getting them as they scratch around the property. The earlier we let them out the farther they stray from the protection of the coop. Sunday morning two weeks ago, Mama watched that very thing happen as a coyote came within a few yards of the house, grabbed a chicken – one of Mama’s favorites – and ran back to the woods. All before Sam and Sasha could respond. It was very upsetting to Mama. Anyway, we caught George before we let the chickens out for the evening. I put him in a cage we use for that purpose and set George and the cage in front of the house. The buyer was coming by in a couple hours.

To my great surprise, as I was walking up to the cage from the goat barn a little bit later, George got out of the cage. Turns out Mama had wanted to give him a treat and had not closed the latch on the cage properly when she did so. Since he was in the front of the house, he headed to the fence at the back yard and from there to the well house. I was able to recapture him when I got him trapped at the corner of the garden fence and the goat lot fence. I had to throw a plastic chair to fully corner him, but it worked, The legs of the chair trapped him enough that I was able to pounce – such as I am able at my age – and grab hold of him. When I had him back in the cage, I fixed the latch so that it would close more securely. Our buyer was very happy with the rooster.

After I got off work yesterday evening, I worked on the bases I have been assembling for the beehives. The screen bottomed bases will allow us greater flexibility in helping the bees keep the temperature of the hive steady. In colder months, I will be able to insert a panel in the base that will block cold air flow into the hive. In the hot months the screen bottom will allow greater airflow into the hive to prevent overheating the hive. The bees like a temperature of 106° F. I completed four bases because I am working to outfit four hives. That plus out top bar hive should get us started. We might be struggling financially, but we are not shutdown.

God is so good

Home church, home-work, home bound, stress test

This last weekend was not necessarily a great weekend. Mama and I sent the morning running. Delivering eggs. Delivering homemade biscuits to Mr. Plumley. Filling the gas and diesel cans while the price is so low. Meeting Alex to pick up some rice. We are still not able to find any rice on the store shelves, so we called Alex to see if had extra since the restaurant is closed right now. He did and we now have a full supply of rice in our pantry. That saved us a trip to the Asian Market – which is not close to us. Then stopping by Lowe’s to get a piece of plywood and some screen to finish the beehive bases I am building. We were back home by 12:30. I told Mama that I did not feel well. I did not feel sick, I just did not feel well. I think it is the blood pressure meds that at causing me to feel this way, but I will keep going until I eliminate everything else.

Saturday, I cooked one of the Rock Cornish hens we had raised here on the farm. The person who told Mama they were the most tender chickens you would ever eat was telling the truth. We cooked it in the pressure cooker but on the crockpot setting. It only took about three hours to cook. Much faster than I had expected. On Sunday we took that chicken and shredded it to make chicken quesadillas. Mama made tortillas for the first time. I told her they were more like gorditas than tortillas, but they had a good flavor. I had brought home from work some salsa from a local restaurant left over from a recent lunch at work. We had a great lunch. I put on some beans to make charro beans, but they were not ready at lunchtime. When they did get fully cooked, they were very good.

Our church services yesterday were broadcast via Facebook. That was a first for our pastor but fortunately, we have a few teenagers in the church who are very tech savvy. They were able to help the pastor pull off both services without a hitch. There were several people in church with the pastor so that he did not have to preach to an empty auditorium, but we did not go. I still feel that we are grossly overreacting to this contagion, but I do not want to offend those who have been scared into believing that this is a fatal infection. The way it is being portrayed in the media paints this iteration of the coronavirus as 100% fatal. It clearly is not. Still, we made the most of our day of confinement. Because of the time difference, we were able to watch Somerset Bible Baptist services as well. One of those times when technology works to our advantage.  

I will continue to work from home this week. It is not too disruptive, but I do lack the resources – especially the internet resources – that I can access from work. I am working on a project that will stretch one of our classes into a two-day class for those who wish to take a hands-on training associated with that class. Once it is available for marketing, we will have to rename and reformat the current class we are teaching, but it will meet a need that has long gone unmet in the industry. Whether my vision for this class will meet the expectations of my company remains to be seem. I seem to have a different focus on these types of needs than my management does, but I will do my best to get a class organized that would be both helpful and fun to take. Time will tell.

We do not have it so bad here in the US even though there is such fear mongering on the airwaves. Nate, Cori and the kids are homebound. By government edict they are not allowed out of their homes. Stores are closed to the public. The country is locked down. There is some mechanism for groceries to be delivered, but no one is allowed to shop in the stores until next week. Sunday, I believe the sequester is lifted, but I am not entirely sure. I know Cori and the kids are going stir crazy. It is not like they can risk an outing just to see what life is like in Honduras while everyone else is forced to stay home. After all, there are armed guards at the entrance to their neighborhood. I am not sure they would be turned back from the gate, but it is not worth the risk to challenge the government mandate.

I am fasting this morning. I do not believe I have to fast necessarily, but I am not allowed to drink anything with caffeine in it, so coffee is out this morning. I have an echo cardiogram scheduled for 9:30. I do not think there will be anything noteworthy come of the test, but I cannot know for sure until I complete the test. I recently balked at a breathing test when I found out that the copay was excessive, but this test has a reasonable copay.

That is the only reason I agreed to it.

Working from home, growth, good news

My first day working from home was not unproductive. I could have accomplished  lot more at the office, but that was not allowed. My workgroup communicated through the day via Slack. I had to keep reminding myself to open and look at the program to make sure I was up to date on the discussions. in one of those discussion threads, I got an assignment that I will actually be able to work on from home. However, the assignment required more materials – electronic and digital – than I would be able to access from home. For that reason, I am in the office this morning to gather those materials. I will only be here for half the day. Unless it turns out that I need more time than that. It is nice to have breakfast and lunch with Mama. To be available to help her whenever she needs my help. To steal a kiss frequently. I could get used to that since she I my life’s most pleasant distraction.

While working from home yesterday, I kept up with the mopping. Water trickled in all day. It worstened when we got a rain shower, but eventually slacked off to the point that we had to check about once every thirty minutes or so. When I got up this morning, I expceted to see a small flood, but the floor was completely dry. Praise the Lord! Once I was officially off for the day yesterday, I did a careful check of the exterior wall where it joins to the patio. The crack between the two has grown somewhat, but it would be hard for me to prove since I do not have measurements of the original opening. Sealing the crack will require a lot of caulk. Fortuantely, that is not in short supply. At least, I do not think it is. I plan to check on my way home later this morning.

Cori, Nate and the kids are still housebound in Honduras. It would seem that, as of this morning, so are those living in California. It is hard to see where this will end – as far as the Coronavirus is concerned. Meanwhile, the oil market has been flooded and the short term effect has sent oil prices into the lowest pricepoints seen in decades. In spite of the news, that is what is causing the market to fall so dramatically. When those prices rebound, the market will fly higher at a dizzing rate. Those who have money to invest at that time, will make a fortune. Unfortunately, many are currently losing a fortune. Mama and I currently have all our money in real estate. Look in the bright side, gas is very cheap with oil prices where they are. We will recover from this. And we will recover quickly compared to past recoveries. My hope is that by the end of the summer, we will be well into the recovery. Time will tell. Meanwhile, sit tight. Buy what you need and a little extra. We will have enough to go around. Keep trusting the Lord. He is still in control.

After Mama and I fed the animals yesterday evening, I took the time to put together a simple trellis for the grape vine. It is thriving in the flowerbed with the blueberries and asparagas and has grown to the point that I needed to give it a place to attach its new growth or that new growth would either start falling toward the ground or attaching itself to the nearet blueberry bush. Neither of those options was acceptable but I wanted a trellis that was almost invisible. Using repurposed fencing parts I built a frame and drove some anchor posts into the ground. Once the frame was in place, I attached just enough wire to give the new vines something to hold on to. The result was about as good as I can expect. Mama is okay with it and it will serve the purpose required.

Mama is runnung out of eggs to sell. Since the gorcery stores are sold out of eggs, people have been coming to her. One person we know very well got quite irritated that Mama would not just give the eggs to her since she is a friend of ours. Mama is not charging much for the eggs. Three dollars per dozen. So everyone who heard about the eggs wants two to three dozen. We are currently getting about two dozen per day. We will top out at about three dozen per day. Mama can sell all of that production easily. We will have to take our allotment from that total, but we should be fine. I will be eating less eggs. The only blood test that came up less than perfect was my cholesterol. It was quite high considering I typically run low on both counts of cholerterol. I will change that dietarily. I don’t like cholerterol medication.

It is tough to say what next week will bring, but the announcement of an effective treatment of individuals sick with COVID-19, the publisized recovery of numerous well-known celebreties diagnosed with the virus and the lightening of the panic instilled by false reporting should produce a greater calm than we have seen recently.

We cound all use some of that.

More rain, more flooding, medical needs, church

Last night, after Mama and I got home from church, our area was under a tornado warning until about 11 pm. When I stood outside on the front porch, I thought I could actually hear a tornado nearby. There was a constant roar I could hear over the nearly constant thunder. Lightening was everywhere. The kind of lightening you see going from cloud to cloud in a stormy sky. I have not been out yet today to see if the tornado came anywhere near us, but some friends who live in Bridgeport got photos of the tornado during the lightening flashes. At one point, I called Mama to come outside to listen to the storm and the roar that I was hearing. Just after she joined me on the porch lightening hit the building near the quarry lake by our property. The sound of the thunder was deafening. Mama did not stay outside past that event. She and Victoria hunkered down in the hall bathroom. The only safe room in our house in such times of storm. We were without power until about 12:30 am. I know that because when the lights came back on, it woke me. I had fallen asleep in the recliner in the living room.

I did not need to get up early this morning. I do not have to report to the office for the rest of the month. I was hoping to work from the office in spite of the mandate that everyone who could, should work from home. But yesterday, right after lunch, they sent all of us home with the directive to not return until notified to do so. They understand that what I can do from home is limited due to lack of internet service, but they insisted on emptying the office of personnel due to the infectious scare we are under. I appreciate their leadership. They even cancelled a class that was due to be taught today. Thankfully, I got one of the two classes in for the company Tuesday. They were desperate to get the training in before April. We got to meet half that need.

I did not mind getting up early this morning. I knew there would be water to mop up in the living room. I did not realize just how much water would be on the floor. For the past couple days, we have had water in the corner of the living room only. This morning the flooding extended all the way behind the couch to the area where I have my desk set up. I mopped up as best I could with Mama and Victoria still sleeping. I will need their help moving the couch so we can dab up the water that ooze onto the floor along that wall. I filled our large mop bucket once. I am planning on filling it once more. The disappointing part for me is that we got only a half inch of rain last night. I was expecting to see several inches of rain based on the amount of water on the floor. That was not the case. That means that the flooding is getting worse and is not necessarily dependent on the amount of rain we get. Truly discouraging. On the bright side, I will be home to help mop up the influx.

I have a doctor’s appointment this morning. It is a follow up after the consult with the cardiologist. I am interested to find out if the blood pressure regimen I am on will be continued. I have definitely felt better on the prescribed medication. With the confirmation of an anomaly in the electrical system of my heart, I do not know what more will be required as far as testing is concerned, but I will know soon. As far as the expense of the testing, that is problematic. I have already declined one test due to a very high copay. Whether or not the doctor agrees with that decision will be addressed this morning.

After services last night, there was some discussion as to whether or not we would have church services Sunday. I believe the pastor is leaning toward cancelling services, but he is not eager to do so. I have planned the music for those services, but did I not contact anyone to sing specials in those services. When I know more, I will make those arrangements. Neither of the soloists I have listed on the music sheet was at church last night. Fortunately, there is time to finalize those preparations.

For now, we adapt in all areas of our lives.

Social distancing, no longer in stock, rain, leaks, overstocking

I was in teaching a class yesterday in Grand Prairie, TX. About an hour commute from home. It was one of those classes where the entire class was in their fourth or fifth cycle through the class. Those are often difficult classes to teach because the information is mostly familiar. The upside is that we only require the class to be repeated every three years. Anyway, with the current “epidemic” in play, we set up the classroom a little differently. We put only one person to a table – six persons in total. It was not too awkward. Everyone adapted quickly. All in all, it was a good class. Especially considering it was the fifth time for five of the six participants. We started early, worked through lunch and ended early. A clear bonus for all of us. Since they offered, I took home the leftover Papa John’s pizza to Mama and Victoria. 

On the way home, I took a route that would allow me to pass right by our Sam’s Club in Denton. Mama had been in touch with Krystal yesterday morning and had been told that Sam’s was restocking the shelves with paper goods. Including toilet paper. Mama had also been told that only twenty persons were being allowed into the store at a time. Krystal was in a long line as she called. Mama declined to make the run that morning for fear of having to stand in a long line just to get into the store. It was not a guarantee that the two items she was wanting – rice and toilet paper – would be available when she did manage to gain access to the store. We are not desperate for either item.

There was no line when I got there. There was also no stock of paper goods of any kind and no rice. I am not sure if Mama would have fared better. We will never know. I was slightly encouraged as I entered the store and saw a man with a package of toilet paper in his cart, but he must have gotten the very last package. We have a small supply at home, but with this panic, it would be nice to have some extra. It will be interesting to see how oversupplies stores and warehouses become when this panic subsides and people who are now overstocked with a year’s supply of toilet paper do not buy that item for nine to twelve months. We have plenty of toilet paper in the United States. It is just sitting in private locations across the nation. Those that are laughing at us latecomers in line will not be so impressed with themselves when this quickly blows over and they have $200 worth of toilet paper taking up a corner of their living room.

If I read the rain gauge correctly this morning, we had almost three inches of rain last night. With the ground already soaked, we had a lot of runoff. Some of that excess ended up in our living room. Over the past several days, we have had some water show up on the floor where my recliner sits. This morning it was a lot of water. I ended up going to the wellhouse for the industrial mop and bucket to clean up the flood. That was after I had spent about fifteen minutes using a towel to soak up the water and wringing that towel into a bucket. That was working – albeit slowly. It was wearing out my knees. The mop made quick work of the water and allowed me to soak it up and remove it quickly enough to see where the water was seeping into the house. I am not sure that determining that access point will help me eliminate the leak, but it gives me a starting point to work from.

I believe there are only five or six people in the office today. All others are working from home. I am enjoying the quiet.

Travel, confusion, cancellation

For the second week in a row, I spent the week on the road teaching. Leaving on Tuesday and flying home Friday. For the second Friday in a row, I was on a very early flight home. After getting to the airport in Richmond, VA at 5 am Eastern time, 4 am Texas time, I got into DFW at about 9:30 local time. This time I drove home before going to the office. I had to use one of the suitcases I carried with me on this trip to put my clothes into since I was required to check two bags to carry the books and class materials for the two classes I taught last week. On the travel over to Richmond, I loaded the two suitcases to forty-nine pounds each. Even with that, I had to put some of the class materials in my computer bag as well as load about fifteen pounds worth into a backpack. I was much lighter coming home, but I did not want to unload my personal items at work. Hence, the trip home before work. After eating a quick lunch with Mama, I decided to text my boss to see if I actually need to go to the office. By that time, it was 2 pm. I was quickly given permission to stay home. I was happy to do so.

Becky Mike and Bridgette drove over Friday night. We had a great visit with them. After breakfast, Mama and Becky went to Bridgeport to a meeting for Mama’s new business, Color Street. Becky was very interested, so she and Mama had a really good time at that meeting. From the follow up discussions when they got home, I assume the meeting dealt mostly with the business model versus the product offered. Becky won a door prize. That thrilled her. Mike and I stayed at the farm and watched Bridgette play. They were slated to visit Grandma and Grandpa but Norman scared Grandma and Grandpa by telling them that Arkansas – where Becky and Mile traveled from – was seriously infected with Coronavirus. Not true, but the seed was planted, and Grandma and Grandpa declined to have them over. So, we spent the time at the farm. Bridgette spent the night with us. Becky and Mike met us at church Sunday morning. It was a good visit in spite of the extremely wet conditions. They left after lunch Sunday afternoon. Becky and Mike made the most of being in Texas since the stores and restaurants in Hot Springs are closed due to the virus scare.

With the declaration of a pandemic, confusion has taken hold of our nation. Even though this virus is far less infectious and far less fatal than the Swing Flu (H1N1) that hit the US in 2009, the political nature of the coverage of the virus, makes it difficult to know exactly what to do. Are we acting appropriately? Are we overreacting? The hyped-up message being presented only adds to the confusion. I do know that we do not need to horde supplies. We will have enough to go around. Those who bought out stocks in store with the express purpose of selling those supplies at a much higher price will be hindered from doing so as well as risk prosecution. Get what you need plus a little extra. Everyone who goes beyond that will eventually feel foolish. They will have wasted their money. We will get through this. Though it is hard to tell, we have actually seen far worse pandemics but never has anything been so thoroughly misrepresented. In 2009, the Swine Flu infested 60 million, hospitalized 300,000 and killed 13,000 in the US. Don’t remember that? The media made very light if it at the time to protect the Obama administration. As of this morning, the US death toll is at 69. Only 3,800 confirmed cases of infection nationwide. Are we overreacting? Probably.

Case in point. Ben Muldoon spent the night with us last night so that I could take him to the airport this morning. He had a very early flight scheduled. Late in the evening he got work that Honduras, his destination, had closed its borders. Since he had not gotten confirmation that his flight was cancelled, we planned to get up at the necessary time (3:45 am) to take him to the airport and see if the flight was still leaving. Sadly, the flight was cancelled. Honduras has limited resources to deal with a major illness of any kind. I am not sure how many cases of the current virus they have encountered, but they cannot take any chances which would allow them to suffer the near certain fatality of those who in our medical system would easily recover. The fact that the City of El Progresso (where Cori and Nate live) shut down the power grid yesterday, is a testament to their resolve to limit gatherings to curb the potential of infection among their populous.  Are they wrong in their response? We will never really know, but kudos to the leadership for assessing and delivering a response.

This too shall pass. Don’t be foolish, but do not fall prey to the panic being promoted.

Mama’s home, more travel, adapting

Mama got home yesterday afternoon about 2:30. She made good time on the trip home, but she did not have much time to relax. Without completely changing, she went out with me to feed the chickens and gather eggs – just to make sure all things were still as required to meet her expectations. Mama has been gone since Sunday afternoon last week. I was gone Tuesday through Friday. I think everyone was much happier to see Mama than they were me when I arrived back at the farm Friday evening. That is as it should be. Victoria, Grandma and Grandpa can all relax a bit now. Mama is back on duty.

Mama had a wonderful visit with Brittany, Andrew and the girls. Audrey is adorable. She seems to be a very mild baby. Mama loves holding a caring for newborns. Newborns have always been more her pace. Zoe and Sophia are whirlwinds of excitement and energy. Hilarious. Clever. Entertaining. Exhausting for Mama. Don’t get me wrong. Mama loves that energy too. She is just more suited to the newborn activity levels. The picture of Mama, Brittany, Zoe, Sophia and Aubrey was taken Saturday afternoon. It was hard for Mama to leave. We have yet to see Gailyn but are tentatively planning a trip to Amarillo later this month. It will be a short trip. I do not have vacation time for more than a day visit with Chase, Makaila, Owen and Gailyn but we hope to make the most of the visit when we do get to go.

I will be traveling again tomorrow. Gone Tuesday through Friday again. This time I will be in Richmond, VA teaching back to back classes for a client there. This will be a tougher trip starting out because I have to carry a lot of materials with me. About seventy pounds of books and class related materials. Throwing around those fifty-pound suitcase is a little more demanding for me than it once was. After last week’s travel and classes, it was nice to have the weekend break. Both to rest my voice and my back. It was nicer still to see Mama before I had to head out again.

Saturday was a very fast day for me. I went to Muenster to get feed early in the morning. Once I got back to the farm, I got all of that feed put in the shop other than what was needed in the various feed stations around the farm. Other than that, I did a lot of cleanup around the farm. When I had gone out to feed Saturday morning, I killed a rooster that Mama was unhappy with and set the carcass in the burn barrel. The wind was blowing too strongly for me to start a fire right then, but I did get to that later in the afternoon. all the trees are blooming. The blackberries, the blueberries and the grape vine are all coming alive. Warm afternoons are coaxing life into everything around us. My favorite time of the year.

In spite of time change, services were great yesterday. We had to recruit someone to play the piano. Our regular pianist is still out with her newborn. Our substitute pianist was home tending to sick kids and a sick husband. One of the BBTI students filled in as best she could. She played so softly that even I could barely hear her. But she played. I had to let her pick the songs we would sing that morning and I had to recruit someone else to play for me as I sang the special. Before Sunday school I let the pastor know the situation with the musicians and that it might not be possible for us to have a special. When I told him that I had taken the special for that morning – the person supposed to sing was not there that morning – and what I planned to sing, he quickly recruited a familiar visitor to play the song for me. I was very thankful because she was able to lower the song to a comfortable key for me. I sang, “His Eye is on the Sparrow”. I learned as Pastor got up to preach, that that is one of his favorite songs. It also served to emphasize the sermon he planned to preach that morning. It all worked out.  Obviously, we recruited our honored guest to play for the service last night.

Being flexible helps when life throws a curveball at you.

Traveling

Mama and I are both traveling today. She got to Wichita about 3 pm yesterday afternoon. Once in the drive over, Mama had to follow all the traffic as it was routed off the interstate. The detour was not marked so Mama followed the flow of traffic on a two-lane road for an hour before getting back onto the interstate. She called me when I was at lunch and I was able to verify that she was on the right track. Even with that delay, she made good time. We were a little concerned about her ability to make the drive because of the pain she was having Saturday evening and Sunday morning, but that seemed to pass through the day Sunday. The draw of meeting a newborn baby is a powerful stimulant to Mama.

Mama got to meet Gailyn yesterday evening. Gailyn is beautiful. Chubby cheeks. A full head of black, curly hair. I was not told who she looks like and will not presume to make a guess based on the limited pictures I have seen. I am anxious to have my turn meeting the baby, but that will not happen for several weeks. It is enough that Mama gets her time with the newborn – and the twins. Gailyn and Brittany will come home this morning. Now the work begins. So that it is specifically stated, Mama is thankful to Brittany and Andrew for allowing her to be a part of the homecoming.

Young couples are avoiding that extended family contact early in the homecoming. It makes little difference as far as bonding of or with the baby is concerned. But it can have a huge impact where the health of the newborn is concerned. Especially as we deal with this new strain of the coronavirus. My advice. Do what is comfortable for you within the circle of family you deal with. Lord willing, there will be years of caregiving ahead of you. Get the most you can out of those first few months. As the child quickly grows, the interest of relatives and friends will diminish rapidly as an inverse function of the age of the child. I am not being cruel. It is simply the way of life.

I will be traveling later today. Victoria and I went to revival services at church last night getting home about 8:45. I had not taken time to pack Sunday, so all the packing had to be done last night after church. Not that it takes me that long to pack, it just compressed the time allotted to get it all done. I have the most important things with me, I hope. Fortunately, anything I might have forgotten can be easily replaced if it is urgent. I will be home Friday. My flight is early enough that I will need to work a half day in the office Friday after lunch. We are not sure yet when Mama will come home. Perhaps this Saturday or next Monday. I am encouraging her to make the most of her opportunity to spend time with Gailyn, Zoe and Sophia.

After feeding yesterday evening, I took a few minutes to apply the second coat of varnish to the beehive I started working on late Saturday. It did not take long. Only about thirty minutes, but since Victoria and I were going to church that evening, it made me hurry a bit to get ready to leave on time. It will be worth it this weekend when I have that hive finished and can start on the second one.

Victoria is on her own for a few days. She does not mind the solitude. She is not enamored with the chores left to her in our absence, but she gets them done. This time Mama and I will only be out for a few days and Victoria has lined up help from Grandma and Grandpa as well as Krystal and the boys. If you remember, Norman was trained a few days ago and will easily move through the assigned tasks. Like I have told Mama, the animals will be fed and watered. As long as the gates are closed properly, they should be fine. As Mama was talking with a friend of Rick and Nancy’s over the weekend, she learned that Rick and Nancy have lost twenty goats to coyotes over the past two months. Whatever inconvenience Sam and Sasha cause us, they have not allowed a single goat to be harmed by the many coyotes we have around us. Praise the Lord!

I am looking forward to the classes I am teaching this week. Having spent time accessing the need of the client, I am confident what I am presenting will be a great help to them. I typically do not enjoy the second of the two classes I am presenting, but this group needs it, so I put a lot of extra effort into revamping the class to meet a specific need they have.

On Thursday I will get to see if that effort pays off.

A great weekend

I spent the majority of the weekend working on the little shelter and the gate for the small lot. Friday evening, I cleaned up at the back of the shop in order to uncover some metal siding I thought I could use for the shelter. In doing so, I moved a lot of scrap wood to the burn pit in the patio. It was just about dark when I called It quits and lit the stack of scrap wood on fire. It made a beautiful fire. It was too chilly to sit outside and enjoy the fire, so Mama and I sat I the sunroom and watched it, talking late into the evening. It was a very pleasant night.

Saturday, I started out by welding pieces together to make a latch for the gate hung at the new lot. Mama and I have been using a bungee to keep the gate closed, but I did not feel like making that a long-term solution. It took me only about an hour to make the latch, but it was an hour well spent. now we can open the latch with one hand versus needing two to use the bungee. And the gate is more secure. It took quite a bit longer to get the siding on the little shelter. I did not finish that until about 2 pm. But other little chores were done as I located the siding needed to cover the shelter.

I took the tractor and removed a useless pear tree from the garden. Hauling it and a lot of other branches to a pile at our little pond. While in that area of the farm I rummaged through a stack of metal siding that has sat there since we moved to the farm – almost six years. In that stack I found the rest of the pieces needed for the shelter. I had to make a few cuts but for the most part, the leftover pieces fit as needed to cover the shelter. In the process, I terrorized the little girl goats all day long with my welding, metal cutting and impact driver attaching the metal to the pallet structure. By the time I quit, they were worn out.

Meanwhile, Mama started a new business Saturday. She is selling the nail coverings. She seems truly excited about getting going. She already has her own website and is working hard to learn to use it. That tells me she is actually excited about doing this. She has avoided anything and everything to do with computers in the past, so this is a first. A long overdue, but a welcome change. By Sunday, her mentor had people registering on her site. The lady who will mentor Mama is excited for Mama.

In preparation for her being gone, Mama and I cleaned the coop late in the day. I also had to move a pile of hay out of the way of the barn doors on the goat barn. I opened those doors with some difficulty Thursday evening and did not want that refuse to get wet with the rain we are anticipating over the next two days. We put a large round bale in the goat barn but a lot of it gets wasted as the goats pick through for the best pieces. That discarded chaff is what had accumulated in the opening covered by the rolling doors. I am not sure if using the large bale of hay is the best idea, but it is cheaper and less trouble for me and Mama. So far, the goats have eaten 2/3 of the bale. I am impressed.

I finally took the time to varnish one of the hives very late Saturday. That chore was long overdue. I will apply a second coat of the marine varnish this evening. A third coat will be applied on Friday evening – if all goes well. That hive will be ready for the bees we are purchasing from Donny in mid-April. I should be able to finish the second hive in stages next week as I am home. Later in March, I will make new hive bottoms and covers so that Mama and I will have four standard hives to fill with a top bar hive on standby. Hopefully, we will fill those extra hives with caught swarms of bees. I have one trap out now. Others will follow.

But the most exciting news of the weekend came Sunday night with the arrival of Audrey. She was born a little after 10 pm. Mama and I knew Brittany was at the birthing center. She had called Mama early in the afternoon. We all decided it as better for Mama to wait until this morning to go to Brittany versus leaving yesterday and driving well into the night. Mama does not do well driving after dark. She is packed and headed out this morning after she finishes the morning feeding. She will be gone all week.

The hardships of grandparenting.