New babies, first frost, pruning, the mess

Mama and I spent yesterday evening shopping. We went to Costco and Hobby Lobby in Alliance versus going to Denton. We have not been to Costco for some time and Mama had things on her list that we could only get from that store – or online. So, we made the trip, bought the few items on her list plus a couple other good deals (one being a Christmas present for Victoria), paid our membership dues and headed back to Decatur. We did not stay long in either Hobby lobby, where we were looking for something specific for Cori, or in Costco. I did not want to overspend in either store since the longer you stay in the store the greater is the tendency to do so. Plus, we wanted to get to a feed store in Decatur to buy chicks before they closed at 8 pm. As it turned out, we made it back to Decatur in plenty of time.

Mama and I had discussed getting chicks this winter versus getting them in the Spring. We are supposed to have a mild Winter and we have a place to raise the chicks that we can easily keep warm enough to do so. One of the motivations to purchase the chicks now was that we will not have to deal with snakes in the colder weather. In the Spring, keeping the snakes away from the chicks is a real issue for us here at the farm. Over the winter, we will have to secure them in a way that opossums and raccoons cannot get to them, but that is far easier than keeping snakes at bay. Anyway, we bought twenty to raise. Five Americana, five Buff Orpington, five Rhode Island Red and five Barred Rock. Hopefully, the vast majority of them will be hens – that is what they were sold as – but only time will tell. For some reason we always end up with a rooster or two in every batch we purchase as chicks.

For now, we have the chicks in a tote in the garage – which is quite cold as far as the chicks are concerned – with a heat lamp over them to keep them warm. All twenty are together right now because I did not have two heat lamps available last night to allow us to split them up. Besides the will keep warmer together as they huddle in a mass to conserve body heat. We will not be able to keep all twenty in one tote for more than a week. They will grow very quickly. Our plan is to house them in the garage for at least three weeks and then move them to the little coop. It is well insulated, and we will be able to keep it as warm as needed for the growing chicks. By the time they are grown, they will fill that coop building to capacity – or perhaps overcapacity. So, sometime in the next three weeks we will have to get the seven hens that call the little coop home relocated to one of the larger coop areas. That will be quite a shock for them, but I believe they will make the adjustment successfully.

There was frost on the ground and the windshields of the vehicles this morning. When Mama and I went out to feed the temperature was almost forty degrees, but at some point, it had been much colder. I did not necessarily mind missing those frosty hours of the night. With that first frost, our trees and bushes will hurry to shed their leaves and we will be flooded with the fallout of that for the next several weeks. I like to keep the garage and shop swept and reasonable clear of leaves and debris, but at this time of the year it can be a challenge. A very small price to pay for the privilege of living on the farm.

When all the fruit plants and trees have bared themselves, I will begin the process of pruning them. The fig tree has bushed out too much and needs a severe pruning. I expect to get at least five new trees from cutting away the excess of the tree I want to save as the main tree in the mass that is growing now. The blueberries also have been allowed to grow too wild for them to produce. They will be severely pruned this winter as well. Unfortunately, I will not get any extra plants from that pruning. Neither of those plants produced for us this year and I believe it is because they were too bushy to focus on fruiting. I will know for sure next Spring. When I pruned the peach tree last year, Mama was worried I had overdone it, but the fruit it produced this year was exceptional. We harvested about forty peaches, but we also lost quite a few that had ripened and fallen to the ground before we began picking the peaches. The pruning did indeed cause it to produce more fruit – just like the Bible says.

Hopefully, I will be able to get the panels for the pig pen this weekend. I have two poles to set before I can attach the panels but if I can get them in place, we can move the pig into the larger area and keep Mama and I from having to get into the pen with her every time we feed her.

As you can see from the picture, avoiding that mess would be a blessing.

Class, roosters, the pig, Mama’s business

Class yesterday was a very good one. Lots of participation and interest from the eight participants. That always makes the day and the class go by much more easily. I was chilled all day because the room I was in has very little access to the heat in the rest of the building. I guess the temperature in the room was in the mid sixties for the entire day. My hands and my nose never warmed up. The outside temperature was in the high thirties, so I should not complain, but I was on the edge of uncomfortable through the entire eight-hour class. One of the participants was an employee of a large company and the security settings on his computer would not allow him to access the video camera on his computer, so he participated through the entire day without us being able to see him, which is not a huge issue for me, but it disturbs my company. They are concerned about the security of the class contents. As I expected, his company security protocols would not allow him to open the exam when it was posted to the class. So, as I sent him a test via email, and he completed it while we chatted on Facetime. My management was very unhappy with that route of getting the test to him. I will see what the outcomes of that will be, but I do not expect anything major to happen. At least we will address what the instructor is to do when a participant does not have access to their camera or the ability to open the exam at the end of the class.

Tuesday night, Mama and I plucked three roosters off the roost and put them in the banty house. Yesterday evening, we took them to church with us and delivered them to Brittany Wycoff, who will process them for her family. Mama was anxious to be rid of them because of how they rough up the hens. That is what roosters do, but Mama does not like it. Plus, one of the roosters tried to flog me as I came into the coop area from the barn lot last weekend. We had a little talk and when he recovered, he was wise enough to avoid me from that point on. Brittany Wycoff told us that he had tried to attack her as well, so he definitely needed to go. We still have one small rooster in the coop, and he will remain for the time being. He has caused us no issues and he does not seem to be too hard on the hens because most of them are larger than he is.

With the last three day of spotty rain, the pig has made an unbelievable mess of her pen. I will go this week to buy the panels I need to enclose the normal pig lot I have been getting the posts in place for so she can be moved into that lot. Doing so will enable Mama and I to have access to the pig building without having to walk through the sloppy mess she has made of her current area. For the pig, the larger pen will give her something larger to destroy. That will be a good thing as she starts to grow. Right now, she weighs about fifty pounds. We expect to get her to around three hundred pounds before we have her processed. That should be around the Fall of next year. Mama and I are a little surprised that this pig has not calmed down at all. She is still as wild as can be. That has been the case with the last couple pigs we have had on the farm and it is a little disappointing. It is never fun to watch an animal you are caring for to thrash about as though it was constantly in mortal fear of you. When she gets up in weight, it will be a bit frightening for us to have to deal with her as she is now acting toward us. We may have to get her to the market earlier than we would have a calmer animal, but it should eventually work out – for us.

Mama has gone through a dry sell in her business, but things are looking up. She has been taking some training online and it is helping her look more closely at what she is doing and how she is doing it. With a few minor tweaks, I think she should be able to turn this little business into something very profitable. This is obvious from the strides she has made over the past few days in implementing the suggested changes and from the more interested responses she has been getting from the persons contacted. She is getting excited about advancing in the ranks of this company and I am excited by extension.

Though we learn more from our failures than we do from our successes, it is always more fun to succeed than to fail.

Lovely weather, class tomorrow

We woke up to a soft rain and a temperature of 33°. Isn’t it wonderful to have central heat at a time like this? Feeding our animals is always a challenge in weather like this. With the ground already softened by the rain we got yesterday it will be quite unpleasant this morning. Especially feeding the pig. I realized when I put up the enclosure we are currently using that we would have to walk through the enclosure to feed and water the pig, but so far it as been dry. Yesterday was the first time the pig had played in a thoroughly soaked pen and she made a horrible mass of it. She spent the day digging as deeply as she could in as many places as she could. The result was a wasteland of deep holes that are all filling with water. Over the past few weeks Mama and I have wet the ground in specific areas so she could create a wallow. Now she has at least ten holes to wallow in and we have no defined path through the swamp she has created. I have been slowly working on a larger area to house the pig but have not completed it yet. Now I have the motivation to do so. When done, Mama and I will not have to traipse through her mess to get to the building to feed her. That will be better, especially heading into the Winter.

The chickens and the calf are largely unaffected by the cold or the rain. The goats on the other hand, do not like the wet any more than they like the cold. So, when it is wet and cold, they huddle in the barn all day long. It makes the barn a bit smelly, but they at least have a place to bed down and conserve their body heat. Yesterday, they crossed the threshold of the barn into the wet weather only to get a drink and then head back to their warmed spot in the barn. The calf has made her a spot in our large barn where she can stay when it gets too cold and the chickens hunker down in the space I left for them under the coop building, so everyone has a dry spot from which to watch the rain. Mama likes that. Meanwhile the pig continues her excavation of her pen regardless of the weather. At least so far, that appears to be the case. We will see if that changes when things get below freezing this Winter. I am going to enjoy watching her deal with frozen ground for the first time.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow. My only class this week. Next week I have three classes to teach. November will be a busy month for us as we try to get all our recent hires through the classes we require them to take after being hired. I am not sure of the format, but the internal classes will be somewhat shorter The internal classes are scheduled from 9 to 3 which will require me to change the pace of the class a little, but I can work with that. For the internal classes we will simulcast the in-person instruction to those who remain remote. I have never done that before so it should be fun to get everyone involved. Interspersed into the eight internal classes we have five client classes to deliver. Those will follow a normal timeline as well as a typical presentation format. Thirteen classes in six weeks. Sounds like fun!

I will need to head to the office for a few hours today to complete some work required in our presentation program. The material for several classes has been updated and now needs to be updated in the presentation program we use for those classes. It will take me several hours to get all the presentations reviewed and uploaded into the system. Something I can only do from the office. Since Grandpa is borrowing our truck, Mama will be stuck at home for the time I am out.

Something she does not necessarily find an issue with considering the weather today. 

The men’s retreat, bee keeping

Thursday a few men – six, including me – traveled from our church to Rose Bud, AR for a men’s retreat. We had a great steak dinner Thursday evening followed by a service featuring two preachers, Randy Dignan and Johnny Pope. It was a warm evening with wonderful fellowship and amazing preaching. Well worth the six-hour drive. I was able to visit with John Bishop, an aged preacher we had in for a youth conference in New Jersey years ago. Bro Bishop survived a bout of meningitis that left him with very little memory of his life and work prior to the sickness. It was inspiring to see him doing do well considering the state of his health when at our conference many years ago. We sat and visited for half an hour before the service Thursday evening. To give an example of his speech, he asked me what I did for work by saying, “What you do?” When I told him about the youth conference and how he inspired us that week, he asked, “Was I blessing?” I assured him he certainly was a blessing.

It was an unforgettable conference that year. The youth of our church had spent countless hours decorating the church to represent a medieval castle for the theme of being knights in service to the King. Mere hours before registration began for the conference the Fire Marshall told us we had to tear down all the decorations because he viewed it as a fire hazard. Very quickly everything was stripped from the walls and ceiling. Our teens were in tears when Bro Bishop arrived. When it was his time to preach, he was helped onto the stage by one of his sons. Looking at the deeply saddened teens of our church he started by saying, “Devil can take lot from you as Christian.” Then he pointed to a knight’s helmet sitting on a shelf by the podium where a speaker would normally have been setting and said, “But he never take the helmet of salvation from you.” The reaction of the crowd in the packed auditorium was a roaring cheer. It was one of the most impactful conferences we had ever had in our church.

Back to last weekend, Randy Dignan is a dynamo of a preacher and he preached several messages to us men. Very pointed, very direct messages about being a man in a culture that is trying to ridicule men in general and Christian men specifically. Johnny Pope is a clever, humorous and insightful preacher who is able to extract from scripture truths that are so profound they challenge a believer to search the scriptures more deeply. There is so much truth in those scriptures that has not yet been revealed to us in our personal studies and we tend to only discover that when we are instructed by a learned, consecrated man of God. That is why preaching is so fundamental to Christian growth. You cannot, even by revelation of the Holy Spirit, discover it all on your own. If you are to grow in the Lord, you must sit under good Biblical peaching – digging into the Word of God ever more deeply. Our pastor from West Virginia, Mike Norris preached the first sermon Friday evening as we sat shivering in our chairs.

We did man things at the conference like shoot skeet, compete with .22 rifles and blast potatoes from potato cannons to see who could shoot a potato the farthest. The winner sent a spud over 600 yards away. One of the men in our church placed second in one of the .22 competition categories, of which there were four. But he did not get a prize. Prizes were awarded to first place, tenth place and twentieth place. Just to mix things up. There was a corn hole tournament which did not finish up until after midnight Friday night. By that time the temperature was about 40° with a north wind blowing at more than 20 mph. We had sat through the entire service Friday evening – about 90 minutes for both preachers – in that cold wind in the open-air tabernacle. Very few men had prepared for that type of cold. Me included. I was chilled to the bone by the time I got back inside out cabin. The Saturday morning service was about the same temperature and condition, but we endured. We made it home about 5:30 Saturday evening. Because of the exposure to the cold I was struggling with my voice Sunday morning as I led the singing and it seemed that all the songs I had picked were very high. My bad.

Sunday afternoon a fellow beekeeper came over to help me with the bees. We opened all three hives and did a thorough inspection of each. On the one with the honey super he advised that we leave the honey super on the hive through the winter and allow the bees to eat the honey they had stored there. The honey super was less than half full so Mama and I would not have gotten much out of it. Plus, next Spring they will be further along with the frames that have honey in them now already filled with comb. The other two hives had not progressed much beyond where they were six weeks ago. I was disappointed in that, but they are on their way to getting the boxes filled. Next year we should be able to see a lot of progress. We treated for mites in each hive before closing the hive. I had to go back a couple hours later and insert a price of cardboard into a slot in the base that will block most of the cold air from entering through the screened hive bottom.

Cool weather, afternoon visitors, teaching and traveling

I had to spend most of the day in the office yesterday. I helped Mama feed in the morning and then left for the office to meet Red. He and his wife were shooting a Christmas card with his recent retirement as a theme. With that thought guiding us, Red assembled those present at the office to have us run out the door of the office building with a list in hand looking like we were trying to catch Santa before he left the office for the last time. I am not sure how the images came out, but Red was please with that he saw on the camera when the shot was over. I asked for an image to put into this blog but have not received it yet. Santa is starting to get quite busy, you know.

Yesterday morning was cool with a heavy mist in the air. We did not get any real precipitation out of the overcast sky, but the temperatures stayed steady in the high 50’s through the entire day. That prohibited us getting into the hives yesterday evening. The hives are kept at 98° F by the bees. The bees use their bodies to raise and lower the temperature as needed. When it is too hot, they use their wings to fan the hive to cool it. When the temperature is too low, they raise their body temperature through exercising their wings to bring heat to the hive. Right now, with the difference in temperature between the hive and the ambient temperature, it was too great to allow that much heat to escape the hive – or let that much cool air into the hive. Whichever way you want to look at the issue. Some of the brood now incubating in the hive would have been destroyed by cooling the hive excessively. Perhaps this afternoon will be significantly warmer, and we can safely work the hives.

When I did get home yesterday Mama was entertaining Sarah Rogencamp and her four boys, ages seven and under. The Rogencamps are missionaries to Mexico. They have ministries – churches and schools - in two towns in Southern Mexico. That keep Bro. Rogencamp very busy. The fact that he is my age with the four very young boys also keeps him and his wife very busy. They spent the afternoon and evening at the farm with us. The boys are busy and energetic, like they should be. They played while their mom poured over Mama’s Color Street nails purchasing gifts for family and friends. She ended up getting more than a few sets of nails from Mama’s stash as well as ordering a few sets online to be delivered to persons across the United States. Mama was pleased. The boys thoroughly enjoyed their time of freedom, and I had a good time fixing dinner for all of us. Sarah and the boys will head back to Mexico mid-week, so the timing was really good for her to do this kind of shopping.

Tomorrow I will be teaching. My usual Wednesday fare. Thursday and Friday, I will be on a trip with a few men of the church to a men’s retreat in Rosebud, AR., just north of Becky, Mike and Bridgette. I may have to amend the times at which I update this blog through the next few weeks. Since I have traditionally done so in the mornings, I will see how effective it is to do so in the evening. Obviously, I will not be available for the rest of the week in the mornings. Next week is a pretty standard week for me but starting the first week in November, I will be teaching or in class assisting three to four days per week: excluding Thanksgiving week. That schedule will flow into the first week of December. It looks like I will be ending the year with a bang. Which is okay.

I am looking forward to the men’s retreat and the time off. It will leave Mama on her own for the rest of this week as far as taking care of the farm and our animals, but she is well able to carry on without me. On my part, I need the extra time of fellowship and preaching. Plus, our former pastor Mike Norris is one of the speakers at the conference. Mama and I are familiar with the other two speakers as well. In fact, we are somewhat known to all three, but I am not sure if Johnny Pope or Randy Dignan will remember me. Mama is much more memorable. Our pastor is looking froward to the fellowship, the preaching and the food – which I have been assured is quite good and very plentiful. That is enough to appeal to most guys.

Mama and I have taken precious time off in the last few months. Other than our few days in Houston and Galveston, we have been here at the farm. It has not been bad. In fact, it has been quite good. We have gotten a lot done and we have saved money that would have been spent on travel. We have come to understand that we do not need much time away from the farm. We are quite content here. We have constant contact with most of our children and we have our church family which we interact with on a weekly basis if not more. None-the-less, I am looking forward to the travel ahead, a time to power up in the Lord and a time to deepen fellowship with my brothers in the Lord.

I will try to take lots of notes so that I can share the highlights with Mama when I get back Saturday afternoon.

Cleanup, delayed hive work, pipe cutting, casting a line, fuzzy headed

Saturday morning, I went to the feed store to replenish our feed supply as soon as Mama and I had finished our Bible reading. I left the feeding to Mama because I was supposed to meet with James – a bee keeping expert – to work on the hives in the early afternoon. The round trip to get feed generally takes about 90 minutes and I did not want to delay the trip any longer than needed. Once I got back, I got the feed placed in the shop where we store the 50 pound bags and also distributed the feed as needed to the various areas where Mama and I keep feed it strategically located in barrels to be given to the animals; goats, chickens, the pig and the calf. It is not the most efficient system, but it works for us.

Since I did not have much time to get into anything too big going among the many projects I am working on, I started cleaning up in the sunroom. We have had several large containers in the sunroom growing a variety of plants than have mostly now died. I emptied each of those containers into a wheelbarrow and took the accumulated dirt and potting soil to a flowerbed in front of the house. Grandpa had some time ago arranged some flat stone Norman had given to us into a border for the flowerbed. We filled that bed and Mama planted some mums she had gotten at Lowe’s. They were deeply discounted but they looked healthy. The rest of the containers of dirt I put in the compost bin. After a while, the containers get sour and it is difficult to grow anything in them. In the compost bin they will air out and mix with the other contents giving us some decent soil to use in the garden next Spring. Right now, the compost bin I have been using is so full that I will need to make a companion bin in order to keep recycling the manure and other items we let age naturally for future use.

James called about noon to let me know he was not going to be able to make our appointment. We rescheduled for this evening or tomorrow evening and since I had the free time I got all the tools together and went onto the lake property to cut some pipe for the pig area I am laying out. The property owner had thousands of feet of pipe recovered from drilling rigs – much of it badly bent – and he gave me permission to cut the few pieces I needed from that pile. It did not take long to get the seven pieces of pipe I needed but since I was near the lake while doing the cutting, I took a couple rods with me just to test the fishing once I was done with the pipe work.

I only fished for about twenty minutes, but I caught two nice bass. That was a little surprising because it was very windy, and I was casting right into the wind. I did not take anything home. It was a catch and release day for the fish, but it started to wake the desire to get back into fishing regularly. The Lord has certainly given me all the equipment to do so. I would like a smaller or lighter boat to use in the lake. The one loaned to me by the Pastor is very nice when there are two people to handle it. It is a bit heavy and very awkward to get from the truck into the water on my own. Something smaller or lighter would be nice when it is just me going out. But I will figure out a way to use what I have been given and make the most of it while I have the strength to do so because it so much more productive to fish the lake from the small boat. Once I got the pipe unloaded, Mama and took a short nap and then got out to do the evening feeding. We enjoyed the breezy pleasant evening.

Church services were great Sunday although I felt like I was having trouble concentrating as I was leading the singing. I was not necessarily dizzy, but I was not feeling like I had a clear mind or a clear focus and while leading the songs it is a very uncomfortable feeling to be dealing with. I got through both services, but Mama told be after the evening service that I had a very stern look on my face through the three songs. I will have to watch that. I do not want to look like an angry song leader. I will also have to monitor my blood pressure more closely again to make sure it is not too low. Either that or I will have to get some strong coffee in me before the service, so I have the breath to sing the songs without getting mildly dizzy in doing so.

I will know Monday evening as I lead the songs in that service.

Classes this week, so many more, losing chickens, the weekend, weather report

I had three eight our classes this week. Red, my now retired-back-on-contract coworker, taught the in-person class on Wednesday, but I attended and supplied support where applicable. All the classes went well. We are getting better and better prepared for the online classes. I am discovering little errors that no one but me would notice but I am having a difficult time keeping up with the updates in the online presentation program we use. As new classes are created, I have to ensure each class is updated with the most current material. So far, it has worked out well, but I have been the only one presenting the online classes. The real test will be when someone other than me delivers one of these classes.

Yesterday, while I was teaching a class, I was trying to keep up with a Slack thread that involved the addition of twelve classes in late October and throughout November. Those are in addition to classes I have already been scheduled to present. That will be a real challenge. I have made myself a goal to have all the presentations corrected and updated in our online presentation format by Wednesday of next week. That will be a huge undertaking, but I need to have it done so that as future classes are created, they will be replicated with the correct content. In the event that someone has to take over a class for which I become unavailable it will be ready to go when they open the program. Many of the classes being added through the end of November are internal classes that will introduce our new employees to not only our instructional content but also to our instructional philosophy. It will enable us to keep everyone on the same page as they promote and sell our programs. It will acquaint them with the overarching mission of our company as we support Operator Qualification programs in the oil and gas industry. I am looking froward to those classes even though that puts me up to seventeen classes in the month of November.

Mama and I went out last night to look over her flock. She has lost several chickens lately. Two seem to have died of natural causes, one was killed by the pig, and two disappeared during the day as they foraged on the property. We are now left with 42 hens total. We have four roosters as well, but Mama does not count them in the totals. I am not sure if loss that is a huge issue, but we do not want to lose any more because it will start to affect our egg count - which is finally up to about twenty per day. I am assuming we will keep up with the count to ensure the coyotes are not winning the game of feeding off our little flock. If we decide to keep the chickens cooped up, I will have to make a few changes to the fencing, because there are several hens that have figured out that they can fly up to the top of the inner gate, and from there get onto the roof of the coop. They will then cross the roof and fly down onto the open ground. Eliminating that route of escape will require a bit of work on my part. I have not eliminated the roof-route escape because I do not want the coop yard to look like a maximum-security prison.

Mama and I do not have a lot of plans for the weekend. I will need to go for more hog feed, and I have a couple small welding jobs on the docket. Other than that, I will open the hives to look over our bees’ progress within their hives. I am planning on getting ready to remove the honey super on the one hive. Hopefully, they filled a significant portion of the frames and Mama and I will get to harvest honey this year. While I am working the hives, I will put the feeder tops on the hives so we can begin feeding the bees. There is almost nothing for them to eat right now so they will need supplementation through the Winter and into the Spring.

Meanwhile, Mama is working on getting off of Facebook and onto Rumble – an alternative, conservative social media platform. Although it is more of a YouTube equivalent I am encouraging her to be the first Color Street stylist on that platform. She is making her first videos today and we hope to have them approved and uploaded today – or tomorrow at the latest. With the current illegal activities Facebook is engaging in, it is time to move away from them and my online resources have identified and provided Rumble as an alternative. Just FYI, the conservative alternative to Twitter is a program called Parler. Check them out.

Maggie told Mama this morning that Aaron had called her from the boat and alerted her to the fact that he was seeing snow from his offshore perspective. Maggie asked Walter to look out the window to see if it was snowing. His report was that “there is no white stuff falling from the sky.”

I suppose that is about as specific as he could get.

Our new-looking driveway, Trade Days, saying goodbye, three days of training

After having missed their appointment with us on Thursday, the blacktop company showed up Friday afternoon. Mama and I had pretty much given up on them when she received word that they should be at the farm shortly. That was about 3 pm. They made short work of coating and sealing the driveway, but they took no time to fill cracks like we were promised when we agreed to the work. At any rate, they did a very good job applying the sealant. The guy doing the work took time to overlap the sealant to ensure heavy coverage over the entire area of our large driveway. He applied two coats at the point where the driveway meets the shop entrance and the concrete of the garage area. That is the most disturbed area of the driveway since we use that area to turn into the garage or to turn to park in the concrete portion on the driveway. It was the area most in need of attention. We did not drive on the new sealant until late Saturday afternoon – as we were directed to do. Mama was assured that the sealant would last for up to seven years. We will see, but it sure looks good right now. (After image will be added later.)

Before 

Not being able to drive on the new sealant made loading up for Trade Days a bit of a challenge. There were a lot of items in the shop that I had to load into the tractor bucket and take around the long way via the barn lot to the vehicles that had been parked on the county road to leave the driveway open for the workers to apply the sealant. It took me about an hour to get the truck and the Sequoia loaded for the trip to Trade Days, but we left about the time Mama had planned for that to happen. When we got to Bowie and began to set up, Mama discovered a couple items she had not included in the original list, so those items were assigned to Victoria to bring later when she came to help Mama.

Kimberlyn met Mama early but she had to leave early. They had a very pleasant morning together. Even though Victoria was keeping Rosalee, she stayed with Mama for several hours helping Mama with the sale of her Color Street inventory. All in all, Mama did pretty well. She was very encouraged. I did explain to her that she did not technically make any money. She merely recouped some of the money she had spent on the inventory she had on hand. Either way, she moved her inventory and that counts toward her business success. She will take the money she made and reinvest it in product to sell next month at the Weatherford equivalent of Trade Days. In addition to getting some of her money back, she made 13 new contacts while there. Those she will follow up on this week. Hopefully, those who bought from her in person will now order from her online.

This morning we will be going to the funeral for Jerry Brooks. He died of COVID related pneumonia last Thursday. The other gentleman from our church was taken off the ventilator last night while we were in the service. I have not heard about the outcome of that, but it is not often a good one – as far as this life is concerned. The funeral today will be at our church and we are expecting a packed house. In preparation for that many people to attend, the Pastor hired a company to sanitize the auditorium. That will not eliminate the potential for exposure to the virus, but it will eliminate the church building as a potential source. It is sad that we have to take those expensive precautions this day and age, but such is the world we are living in. I was telling Mama last night that it is a shame that as we are emerging from this pandemic, we will bury two of the members of our church who have succumbed to pneumonia associated with the virus. Such is the frailty of life in this world.

I will be in training for the next three days. Teaching Tuesday and Thursday. Participating on the class on Wednesday. It is a full week. I do not have too many of those, so it is nice to be busy enough to be seen as busy. With the remote working arrangement, it is too often out of sight out of mind.

I need a week like this one to help ensure my management that I am earning my keep.  

No show, a big bill for completion, keeping short accounts

Although I waited all morning, the paving company did not show up. Mama called me about 11:30 (she was in Decatur with Aubrey) to tell me that she had been contacted and was told that they were being held up by a machinery issue. It was much later that she texted the company and was told – very apologetically – that they would try to make it to our house sometime today. We will see if that happens. On the off chance that they do make it to the farm today, I went to town last night to download some files that will allow me to stay home today and still get ready for the three classes I have to teach next week. Actually, I will be teaching two and auditing one, but I will be in class Tuesday through Thursday.

Via email, I got the invoice I expect every month from Glenn for the work done to our houses the previous month. The invoice for last month as he finished the house to make it available for rent this month was about $7,500. Ouch! And Praise the Lord! I was not expecting that large an expense, but it is not totally unexpected. Mama and I are financially able to pay that invoice (I will do so today) but it puts into question whether or not we should spend the $3000 from the same account to seal the driveway. Because the sealing of the drive is not a critical task, we need to explore whether or not we should do it right now.

Since we will now have renters in the house, I contacted an insurance agent recommended by Glenn. We have to apply for insurance in the state where the dwelling is located. That estimate came back at about $2,600 for the year for both houses. Ouch again! Mama and I have the money available to make that happen, but it will leave the business account in Lawton low enough that we may have to scramble to keep up with the invoices going forward with the final remodel requirements for the second property we own there. The bright side of all the expenses related to the rental properties is that they are all deductible. As I am reading, or listening to, Robert Kiyosaki’s Unfair Advantage, I see the financial wisdom in having these properties. Even if they are just now providing a little bit of cash flow, they are providing significant tax breaks for me and Mama. The cash flow will come soon. With a renter in the one property, we will net about $100 per month. Not a great gain, but it is a net positive. The tax advantages have already provided us a net positive. Hopefully, the large expenses for remodeling are coming to an end and we can watch the account grow from the rent money deposited to it each month.

The gentleman from our church that had been put on a ventilator passed away yesterday afternoon. He is home now. It is a sad loss for our church and his family. I have always maintained that for a believer, death in this life is the ultimate healing. We lose our earthly contacts, but we gain a new body, a new home, and a new life. No more sickness. No more pain. No more death. A perfect body. A perfect mind. A perfect home. That is the ultimate recovery from any sickness and death in this world. Nevertheless, it is a loss to those of us who remain in this world and we will grieve accordingly. Please pray for the family who will be grieving this loss that their pain will abate quickly, and they will see the blessing of knowing that we will not be separated forever.

This sudden loss needs to serve as a reminder to us that we are not guaranteed tomorrow. We need to keep our accounts short in this live. Take the extra time to call someone and tell them they are important to you. Hug your spouse and your children and tell them you love them. Jerry and Barbara did not get the chance to say any final goodbyes before he drew his last breath. Nor did Jerry get to say goodbye to his children or grandchildren. Do not let those things go unsaid to those you love. Keep short accounts.

It makes me think of Chase and Makaila who have not even taken a quick moment to reply to Mama’ s phone calls or texts. If something were to happen to me or Mama, those moments of potential contact would be lost. Maybe our passing would be a relief to them, we do not know. They have not taken the time to tell us. It bothers Mama especially that we are not a part of our grandchildren’s lives in any way as far as Chase and Makaila are concerned. It is sad to think of the moments Jerry’s family lost in this sudden illness and death. I had hoped to avoid such isolation from our children’s lives, but I have no control over it. So, Mama and will stay as involved as we are allowed in the loves of the children who are willing to include us. We will happily be Grammy and Papi to their children. Or Papo in the case of Joshua’s children. But one day soon we will be gone, and those opportunities missed will never be recovered. Take and extra moment today to make sure those you love are reassured of that love. It may be the last opportunity you have to do so.

Only God knows.

Losing a friend, driveway sealing, Mama’s craft

Unless by a miracle of God’s healing grace one of our church friends recovers, we will lose one of our him to COVID related complications today. Jerry, the husband of our organ player went to the hospital with pneumonia Saturday a week ago and his condition steadily worsened. Tuesday, they put him on a ventilator and yesterday started dialysis because his kidneys were failing. His heart is failing as well so it is only a matter of time until he finished his journey home. He will be missed. Our church family has one other of our older men, also in his mid-sixties, in the hospital. He is doing somewhat better but is still in grave danger of succumbing to the side effects of COVID related pneumonia. It is during times like these that the unsaved world wonders at our profound hope in the Lord. This world is not our home. We are just passing through. It will not be too long until we see Jerry again, but his loss to us in this life is a sad loss. It is certainly a sad loss to his wife, his children, and his grandchildren.

A couple days ago Mama and I were talking again about sealing the driveway. It has been on her mind – her priority list – for many months. Not so much for me due to the expense and high labor requirement. So, to avoid having to do the work myself, I looked up a company in Weatherford and Mama called them to get an estimate. The man making the bid to do the service to the driveway and apply the sealant gave Mama a price that I thought was fair: not cheap, but fair, so I agreed to have the work done. I am not overly thrilled about spending the money in this way, but in the long run I will come around to Mama’s way of thinking.

we did spend a fair amount of money having the driveway blacktopped several years ago, it makes sense to take care of our investment. We have a very large driveway, several hundred feet in length with a twelve-foot width in front of the house that is about seventy feet in length. It is a lot of area to cover. Therefore, the price is fairly high. Mama was told that the work they are doing today should last us five to seven years. Versus doing all that work myself, (at about half the cost) it is probably worth the price of both their labor and the upgraded materials they have access to to get the job professionally done.

I was a little intrigued by the quick over-the-phone estimate Mama was given for the work. So, I asked her if the man giving the quote understood the amount of area they were going to have to cover. Mama assured me that he did. He looked up our property on Google Maps and was able to determine from that the extent of the blacktop he was going to have to cover. Interestingly enough, about a year ago we got a drive-by quote – for much less – from a man that wanted to do the sealing of the driveway. For those of you who know where we live, he had to be very deliberate to do his drive-by estimate. At the time we did not have the money available. He had also found us on Google Maps. I suppose there really is nowhere to hide these days.

Mama is headed to Kimberlyn’s today. The two of them are making little boxes of goodies to sell at Trade Days this weekend. The boxes will contain a small candle, a lip balm, some sugar scrub and several other sundry items. They should do well with that type of marketing. I am not sure what else they are taking to sell, but the weather will be great. Warm, but not too hot. I am not sure how much the little boxes will cost but I am praying that they sell out quickly.

Since I am working from home, I will be staying here to oversee the driveway work and write the check. We will not be able to drive on the new sealant until Friday evening. It is a rubberized coating that will take some time to cure. Having to find places to park other than in the driveway will not be an issue for us. Keeping the dogs off the new sealant will be a huge issue for us. We have no place to keep our free-range dogs that would not drive both them an us crazy for the requested timeframe. Hopefully, that will not interfere with the work being done.

A few paw prints should not affect the overall quality of the work.

Good news on many fronts, travel plans

To start off our good news, Cori did indeed receive a negative test for COVID. That should have meant that they could get their tickets and fly back home as soon as this week. Unfortunately, there are no flights with enough seats available for the family of six until mid-October. That is not a horrible situation, but it is less desirable than Nate and Cori had hoped. They all will need repeated negative tests before being allowed to go home, but that is within reach now. At least as soon as they can get the reservations made.

Secondly, Mama made a very nice bonus through her Color Street business because one of her stylists qualified within the program for a bonus in her level of the business. The level Mama has attained allows her to receive a bonus when her downline qualifies in their advancement bonuses. It is an amazing company for her to be involved with. Mama is learning a lot about growing a business, networking and especially follow up. All of those are new areas of life Mama is new to, but she is growing in all of those areas. It is more of a James Dobson, three steps forward, two steps back application of growth, but there is definitely forward progress.

Thirdly, we received news that one of our houses in Lawton is now being rented – finally. Although the rent is a little lower than what our realtor initially told us, it will cover the mortgage and the fees associated with the property management plus leave us a little bit extra. That will be a blessing. Our second house is very nearly complete and should be rented in the next couple months. It has been long in coming, but we may finally be there. It is another of those “inching slowly forward” areas of our life together. We had much bigger plans than are realized in the realities we are dealing with, but it will all work to our financial benefit in the longer run.

Additionally, concerning our real estate business, Mama and I are going to a local auction this morning here in Decatur. We went and looked at houses on the auction list yesterday evening. One of the three we found was a strong possibility. It is near Lake Bridgeport – within walking distance of the lake. The little property is very overgrown. To the point that the house is inaccessible. That fact has probable kept the house from being vandalized during what looks like a very extended vacancy. It is in a fairly nice area with most of the houses around it having mowed lawns and neat looking front yards. We probably will not bid on it this morning, but we are curious to see how much it goes for if it sells. If it is left after the auction, that is, no one bids on the property, we will make an offer following the auction. That is not a strong possibility, but it could happen. Only the Lord knows.

Fourthly, about six months ago, maybe longer, I applied to take my Social Security benefits early. On my initial request, I was denied. Not surprising. However, yesterday we got a letter from the Social Security Administration that I am now eligible to do so. I guess my recent birthday made the difference. Those payments will begin this month with the caveat that the payments occur in the month following the authorization of those payments. That is, the October payment will be made in mid-November. The money will not affect our lifestyle, but it will cover our Faith Promise to missions. It will also have a major impact on our savings.  

Right now, Mama and I are watching ticket prices online for flights to Honduras. We are planning our yearly trip to Honduras. I probably should not refer to this as a yearly event since we have only been twice, and we missed this year totally. But that is our overall plan – to go yearly. Victoria will be flying to Honduras next month. Hopefully, Nate, Cori and the kids will be well settled back into their routine before Victoria arrives to interrupt everything. Mama and I will not go until next February. That way we can attend the conference their church host yearly for the missionaries serving in Honduras and nearby countries in Central America. We thoroughly enjoyed the conference when we went in 2019. But we are still several months out from making those arrangements and Honduras is still somewhat difficult to enter at this time.

Hopefully all this COVID hype will be OVER by the end of the year and not even be a consideration for us next year

Our weekend

I met Mama about 4:40 in front of the building where I was teaching. She and Crystal, who had attended to the class with me, talked for a spell about Color Street and we went off to get me some dinner. They had served pizza for lunch, but I ate only one small slice. I do not like to eat while I am teaching. It interrupts my breathing if I have food in my belly. So, by the time Mama and I got together, I was hungry enough to eat. Mama had had a very successful day shopping. She was excited about all the great deals and wonderful finds of the day – which she presented to me with some flair. We decided to leave our trip to Galveston for Sunday, because by the time we had shared my dinner, it was going on 6:20 pm and it would be dark by the time we got to Galveston. Instead we had a “fun” evening watching HGTV.

Mama and I left the farm Friday morning to head towards Houston. It was a fabulous day. In fact, the weather was great all weekend. We could have gotten a lot done at the farm, but that was not to be. We did not hurry on the drive, but we still made it to Houston in time for me to meet with the client so I could see the room where we would be presenting the class. I am always a bit anxious to see the training site because the variety of venues over the years has been wide and memorable. This was one of the more memorable ones.

The “classroom” was a large upper room that had been used for general storage. Something akin to an attic. In anticipation of the class the room was being repainted so all the furniture and sundry items in storage had been moved to the center of the room to clear the walls for the painters. It was a mess. It was dirty. There were no tables, only some aged chairs. When I looked the place over, I asked about tables, the functionality of the projector, how many we were planning for in the class, etc. I left the training site a bit apprehensive, but these things have a way of working out.

When I returned Saturday morning, the tables and chairs had been dragged into the room and the floor had been hurriedly swept. Fifteen chairs in various stages of disrepair had been added to the table arrangement. I quickly get the tables and chairs positioned the way I wanted and started to set up for the class. Still there was dust on everything – the tables and chairs especially. I cleaned my area with what was available and the attendees dealt with the dusty tables and chairs as they were accustomed to doing. The floor was far dirtier after the class since the dirt from the workers mud-caked boots sluffed off under the tables as the day wore on. That is probably the reason we were not set up in the nicer conference room on the same floor of the building.

I did not find out until test time that seven of the fifteen who attended the class were very limited in their ability to understand English until the test was taken. Those seven men, a person proficient enough to translate the test and I went into the separate nicer conference room and struggled to translate the very formal English of the test into the informal Spanish vernacular familiar to those who were listening to the translation. It took over forty minutes to get the twenty-one questions and the corresponding answers into workable Spanish. Eventually, all but one passed the test. The one person who failed was quite happy with his lack of success. He did not want the responsibility that would have come with a passing score. All in all, it was a very good class. Even though I had only two English as a first language participants.

We took our time Sunday morning. We got to the seawall in Galveston around 9:20 am. That left us an hour to walk the beach before we listened to Sunday School and the morning service via Facebook. We both missed being in church that morning, but it was nice to be able to participate virtually while we had the cool ocean breeze blowing on us. While we were listening to the service, we relocated to the restaurant we had chosen from a list of those recommended to us and finished the service there with very a nice view of the harbor.

We had a great meal at Katie’s Seafood House right on the harbor in Galveston and headed home from there. Several Buckee’s stops later, we got home about 7:40 pm. It was a memorable weekend for both of us.

Class yesterday, church, Aaron’s promotion, travel tomorrow, failing test

The online class I taught yesterday was a good class, but a very quiet one. I had some very long, very awkward pauses as I waited for someone to answer a question or offer a response, but someone eventually would. It was a little surprising to me because all the attendees were from the South. There is only one southern state that I have always had trouble engaging a class and that state was not represented yesterday. I made a few changes to the presentation I give in these online sessions to lengthen the morning session just a little. I need to add an extra thirty to forty minutes in order to balance the class between morning and afternoon sessions. I was able to make up that time yesterday without doing anything extreme. I was pleased with that and will continue to practice that routine in the future.

Mama and I were able to go to church last night. It was the first time in two weeks – maybe three. I have lost track. It was good to be back. Erin and her family were back last night as well. They have been out for about six weeks as they dealt with sickness. Some of it COVID related and some not. But it was very good to have her back at the piano last night. She has been sorely missed. Mama and I will unfortunately not be in services this coming Sunday because of the class I have to teach in Houston on Saturday. We will be traveling back from that class Sunday afternoon after I take Mama to the beach in Galveston following the church service Sunday morning.  

Barbara was not at church last night. Her husband, Jerry, is in the ICU at our local hospital with COVID related pneumonia. Twice in the past several days the doctors have talked about putting Jerry on a ventilator to help him breathe, but for now he is holding his own and his blood O2 levels have been acceptable. Another gentleman at our church is also in the hospital with COVID related pneumonia. His wife is at home with a lesser case of the virus. Obviously, these two men are a grave concern to the church. We have not lost anyone from our congregation to a virus-related illness so far and we are praying these two gentlemen recover as well, but at the moment, they are both in dire condition. Following the preaching, instead of an altar call, Pastor asked all the men of the church to come to the altar and pray, for our sick folks, for our president, for our country. All of which are in desperate need of prayer.

Maggie called this morning to tell us that Aaron had been promoted. He and she both were very pleased with the advancement. I am not sure of the rank he has achieved, but the next rank for which he could strive is that of Chief. Yeah, Aaron! Keep up the great work.

Mama and I will be traveling tomorrow. Headed to Houston. I am hoping that we will have time to go to the beach tomorrow late afternoon, but that remains to be seen. We are looking forward to the time away. It has been many months since we have traveled together to any destination not related to the farm. Galveston is not Navarre or Pensacola, but it is the Gulf and Mama and I both have been itching to get to the coast – somewhere. My immediate supervisor will be in the class with me Saturday. Neither of us are sure why. My thought is that the company wanted to offer her the chance to get out for a day. At any rate, she will do an audit of the class as I teach it. That is something we are required to do annually. She has family in the Houston area, so it is a good get away for her as well. Whether or not she is bringing her family with her I am not sure, but it would b a great opportunity to do so. At her recommendation, I changed hotels and put me and Mama in a Hampton Inn. That hotel is in the immediate area of a large mall in Houston. That will offer Mama plenty to do while I teach.

The only drawback to Mama and I traveling is the care and maintenance of the animals at the farm. Victoria will be on her own for Friday evening through Sunday evening. I am not sure what time we will be back on Sunday, but we will probably be listening to the evening service as we travel home. Neither of us will be in any great hurry to head home. It is possible that Britany Wycoff will come and spend the weekend with Victoria to help her with the feeding and watering of the animals. That would be a great help to us.

Cori is being retested for COVID this morning. Please pray she fails the test; that is, she gets a very sure negative. With that, Nate will schedule the flight home for next week. Before which all of them will be retested for the virus. All will be required to be negative before they are allowed to enter the country. It is a matter of earnest prayer.

They are anxious to get home We want to help pray them home.