Movement, rain, teaching tomorrow

It is always a wonder to me to see God move in our lives. Since we were led in a different direction on the houses in Lawton the Lord has been moving to make that happen. While we sat for months languishing without much progress, now we are seeing what we had longed for months on end coming to fruition – only with a different focus. I anticipate we will have renters in our houses within the next month. July at the latest. That will be a blessing. Mama and I have run the preliminary numbers, and this should work out well for our real estate business. It should allow us to invest in properties in Arkansas like we have planned for the past two years while earning income on which we will owe very little taxes from the two rentals. When all the paperwork is evaluated and the bank offers are made, we will know for sure, but things are looking promising. We should know in a few days.

With our goats, Mama and I have been concerned that we have not seen Midas breed any of the nanny goats. But as I looked them over carefully yesterday, I began to question if two of the four have been bred already. They are showing signs of pregnancy. their utters are starting to swell as it does only when they are bred. No wonder they are so hungry. Mama and I will have to keep a close eye on them to verify my suspicions, but that would be exciting to have our own breeding program succeed. If they are bred, we will not increase their feed too much in order to limit the number of offspring. We would like to keep the births smaller, twins versus triplets, to have stronger babies and easier nursing for the nannies. Feed makes the difference in the number of babies the nanny will produce. Limiting feed therefore limits birth count. Simple…sort of. We will know for certain in the next couple weeks. I will have Mama work with me to look over the goats carefully this evening to see if she agrees with my assessment. It takes both of us to handle the goats successfully. Regardless, we will know for certain in a week or so.

We finally got some rain last night. Plenty of lightening to go with it. It was not much rain but with what is expected through the day today, it will make a difference. We are forecast to have several days of rain through this week. We will take it. All in all, I could probably water the plants and accomplish about the same effect on the ones we specifically care for, but to have the Lord do it is always better. Plus, lightening releases nitrogen into the atmosphere making the plants greener and healthier. A win-win.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow. It will be a face-to-face class. This first one since mid-February. Class size is limited to six to maintain our social distancing, but at least we are offering a class in person.  (Next week I will do another online class for about the same number of participants.) I was told that we would be checking temperatures of each participant as they arrive. We will be offering gloves and face masks as well but will not require them to be worn. Soon enough we will discover that this “social distancing” experiment was a colossal failure, but we are not there yet.

The class will be an all-day class as it typically is when it is presented in person. I am looking forward to it. Along with my online class next Wednesday, my colleague will teach another face-to-face class the last week of May. I can only assume we will follow that pattern for some weeks to come. At least until we are back in the office full time and the economy has reopened fully. Right now, there are no other venues to offer the class to a larger audience even if travel were not restricted. That should change soon enough, but we are adapting as required.

I spent an hour in the office this morning to get the classroom set up for tomorrow. While in the office I sent the initial paperwork to the bank so they can begin the process of evaluating both us and the properties for the requests we are making. I do not see a problem, but time will tell. There were only two persons in the office when I got there this morning. My two bosses. We spent a few minutes planning for tomorrow and the safety precautions we will be using. We are still obligated to do so by State law. Even though I see it as a pretense only., I will follow my company’s direction.

I cannot wait for this to be over and yet, I like working from home – as long as my company is satisfied by my output.