New animal considerations, ending 2020

Mama and I have started looking at getting alpacas. One of the men in the church approached me a couple weeks ago and forwarded the idea. He had started looking at getting the alpacas for his grandkids because they are more of a pet animal than the mini-Highland cattle the family had recently bought. He wanted to know if I had ever considered raising alpacas. I had. Mama and I looked into it while we were living in West Virginia – almost thirty years ago – but had never done so because of the expense of making the initial purchase. At that time, the animals were just coming into the United Stated and were priced between $8,000 and $12,000. As it turns out, those are still the current price tags per animal. At least the animals coming from certain farms. As I researched, I found packages of four to ten animals for sale at very reasonable prices as well as individual animals for $2,500 - $4,000. That seems more doable, but still expensive. The good part of raising the alpacas is that they require little feed and very little room. You can safely raise up to five per acre with supplemental feed.

Our church brother is currently building the fencing necessary to keep the alpacas he is looking to buy. When he has his in hand, Mama and I will spend some time with them to see if they will work out for us as well. The only issue now is the same as it was thirty years ago – money. Mama and I are praying about that. We are also praying about getting two little females in the mini-Highland cattle line to go with our little bull to raise up a herd. With the Myotonic goats, which have brought us over $3,500 in sales this year and the mini-Highland cattle, a small herd of alpacas would be just right for this little farm. Mama was looking at some expensive specialty bred pigs, but I think we will pass on them for now and just raise a pig or two as needed to fill our freezer.

This is the last workday of 2020. I will have to force myself to begin defaulting to 2021 as of tomorrow. That is always a challenge when the new calendar year starts. It generally takes me a few weeks to make the date habitual, especially since I do not write many checks anymore. About the only checks I write are to the church and those needed to transfer funds from one account to another. Writing a check to make the deposit is faster than making the transfer from account to account electronically. I will have to concentrate when writing those checks over the next several weeks.

Mama and I do not have any plans for celebrating the New Year. We certainly are not going out. The weather is forecast to be miserable. The abundance of rain we are getting today will be changing to snow after dark. That is a good enough reason to stay home. The fact that this is the heaviest drinking night of the calendar year is certainly a cautionary note. Early nightfall, bad weather and drunk drivers are all good reasons to stay home. Not that we needed any additional reasons to do so. We simply like our quiet evenings. So, 2020 will end with a whimper but we made it through.

Mama was encouraged to find an action word for the new year. Just one word. She struggled with that assignment for a couple days. I had already told her days before her getting the challenge that my word for the next year is “Now”. I remember a line from Cinderella with Drew Barrymore when the Leonardo De Vinci character tells another character, “At my age, now is all I have.” That has become more true than I thought it to be at the time I first heard it, but it struck me even then. Mama’s word is “Purpose”. The two action words go together nicely. Like me and Mama. It will be interesting to see if and how those commitments to purpose and doing it now, motivate us over the next year. It certainly cannot hurt to have those kinds of focus in our daily lives – especially in Spiritual matters. Those things that do not seem to produce any tangible benefit – either financially or emotionally – tend to get put off when they can, in actuality, start in motion the chain of events that produce, in time, the very things we have been trying to attain.

But regardless of the outcomes we perceive, it will not be wrong to do what is needing to be done now, on purpose and with purpose.

Rain and more rain, overgrowth, desperate times

The steady rain falling is forecast to continue pretty much unabated for the next several days. I will be heavier at times, but it will be continuous for an accumulated total of about three inches per the forecast. That is unusual for this area, but it is much needed. Thursday night the rain is forecast to change to snow. That would not be typical for our area, but it is not unheard of either. So far, the temperatures have been mild this winter and the precipitation has been a little under the average. Even with the lighter rainfall, I have only had to water the plants and trees once through the cooler weeks. So far, the fig trees I separated from the mother plant are all doing well but I do not know if a severe cold snap will injure them. They have not been tested with any extreme cold so far this winter. That is all the better. They will have time to get a good root system started before they are frozen by some bule-cold overnight temperatures. The temperatures are rarely cold enough for long enough to freeze the shallow roots of the figs. I hope that holds through this winter as well. I would like to harvest figs next summer.

Mama and I are happy that we did not take on bottle feeding the mini-Highlander bull calf we are buying. I have no good place to put the calf in the cold wet conditions other than with the boy goats. Bottle feeding a calf with the boy goats in attendance is not difficult, it is just bothersome. However, we will be picking up the little bull in February and he will probably spend the last of the winter with the goats in order to provide him cover for a few months. But at that time, we will not have to bottle feed him.

There is a good deal of work I need to do to the fence before we take on the little bull. I figure if our heifer -as large as she is – can easily get through the fence, he would have no trouble getting off out property and we do not want him to be unprotected by the dogs that guard all or stock. I am not looking forward to the fence line work because the fence line is heavily wooded with thorn trees and tangled with briars and poison ivy. The adage for flora in Texas is, “If it will burn you, stick you or sting you, it grows in Texas.” The winter months are the perfect time to deal with the fence line as far as the plants are concerned. Not so much so as far as my respiratory issues are concerned.

I am only working a half day tomorrow. I have a few hours of comp time to use up before I lose it. Since tomorrow is the last day of this calendar year, it seems a good time to use those hours. Mama and I have nothing planned for the New Year. We rarely do and with the limitations imposed on us restricting gatherings this year, we will enjoy the calendar change by ourselves. I am hoping all the nonsense concerning the virus will end soon but I still see no path forward out of the lockdowns. People in power like that power a little too much – especially when it does not affect them financially. We are paying them their full salaries week after week to force us into bankruptcy. As they shutter our businesses and wreck our livelihoods, they are living very well off of us. What a deal!

Thankfully, I have been able to continue working fulltime through all the idiocy. Thank you Energy Worldnet! I cannot imagine the desperation of sitting week upon week wondering if I will lose the farm or be able to feed my family, much less be able to buy feed for my animals. How helpless that must be to all those who are actually in that position. A Biden or rather a Harris presidency will only exacerbate that condition for the foreseeable future. Be careful what you wish for those of you who want to see President Trump gone. I prefer having a president focused on our needs as citizens of the United States rather than have much needed funds (money borrowed against our children’s future) sent to Pakistan to study gender equality issues in their armed forces. Is there anything we can we do correct the situation? I have no idea. I will keep looking for a way to be part of the solution.

I just praise the Lord we are living in Texas while this is going on.

Stillness, late arrivals, closing

After the flurry of activities and the busyness of entertaining over the last couple weeks, it was nice to be still Sunday and Monday. Saturday, I did only minimal work around the farm. I was feeling a little dizzy through the entire day and that carried over into Sunday. It was bad enough that I probably should have stayed home Sunday, but I pushed through and led the singing and even sang a special Sunday morning. Once we were home from church I went straight to bed and slept until it was time to get ready to go back to church. I asked Bro. Zach to lead the singing that night. I just hated to miss. Right now, it seems imperative put forth the effort to do my part in church. It is such a small part of the ministry, but it is my part to do and I feel privileged to participate. Today I am not a lot better as far as the dizziness is concerned, but I am not required to do much as I work at my computer through the days. Probably a good thing.

Yesterday was a very slow day and a very slow evening. I needed that. I had a chiropractor appointment at 4 pm so that took us well into the evening. We did not make it home before dark. It will be the last time I visit the chiropractor for a while. He basically told me there was little he could do for me because I was too tight for him to help me very much. He could not pop my back. He could not pop my neck. I got the impression that it actually hurt him physically to try to do so. I am still dealing with the numbness in my arm and hand from a pinched nerve in my neck, but it is not as bad as it was a couple weeks ago, so I will manage to deal with it as I go. I see little reason to pay someone to not help me. And I certainly do not know any way to make my back relax.

Over the past weekend and even into today we are getting packages that did not make the Christmas deadline. It is a lot like our recent election which was not an event carried out on one day, but rather stretched into an election season. Christmas is still coming to us – one late package at a time. In backtracking my Amazon orders, I can find three that are yet to arrive, and one package Mama has been tracking for Grandma and Grandpa for several weeks came by FedEx this morning. Three weeks in being delivered but we finally got it. That package will be delivered to Grandma and Grandpa this afternoon or this evening. Mama felt that it would be better for it to arrive here versus being delivered to them at their house. I am not sure why, but it probably had to do with avoiding the delivery address change in Amazon. That has not worked out well for us on previous occasions.

I had Mama help me into the bee suit yesterday at lunchtime so I could double check that I had installed the slides that block the bottom of the hive boards. I made screened bottoms for the hives and in the winter, I have to install a slide in those bases to block the air that flows through the screen into the hive. I was pretty sure I had done so sometime earlier this winter, but I did not remember for sure. As an extra precaution, I screwed a block onto the front of the hive base to completely block any airflow up into the hive. Having installed the candy boards on Saturday, I can now leave the bees alone for a few weeks. Depending on the weather, I will look into the hives before we leave for Honduras at the end of January, but I will have no need to open the hives before that. I am anxious to see how long the candy boards last on each of the hives. To check that will not require any more than lifting the top off the hive. It will have minimal effect on the interior of the hive. The candy boards actually help insulate the hive through the winter. Turn out that twenty pounds of solidified sugar is a great heat absorber on our warmer days.

This year is quickly coming to a close. Two more days left of 2020. When we began this calendar year, no one could have foreseen the horrible way this year was mismanaged by out elected officials. That does not seem to be the case for 2021. It looks bleak regardless of the final election settlement. Whether we crown a cheater or reinstall the actual victor, it will be a rough and tumble time. How we deal with this next year will determine just what kind of nation we are.

I pray we are still, “one nation under God”. This year will tell.

Christmas week

Mama’s and my primary focus for early Christmas week was to meet with Chase, Makaila, Owen and Gailyn. Saturday, we had the Wycoffs, the Thomason’s and the Millers over for a Christmas party that had gone very well. Sunday, we rested up a bit and Monday morning we left for Amarillo. We were able to get with Makaila and the grandkids pretty soon after getting to Amarillo – about a five-hour drive – so we got to meet Gailyn right away. She took to us immediately which pleased Mama immensely.

Owen took an hour or so to warm up to us, but he finally did, and we had a great time with him. We had dinner with Makaila’s family Monday evening. That was fun while we got to know each other a little better. They are good people. One of their sons got a guitar for Christmas and the present was opened while we were there. I was able to tune the guitar for them so he could start to experiment with it right away.

When we got to our hotel it was pretty late, but as we were checking in, Mama remarked on the nails of the young lady who was checking us in and got a word in about Color Street. That was all it took. Once the paperwork was taken care of, Mama spent about twenty minutes with the young lady who wanted to see far more of Mama’s nail options. We had had to circle back to the house when we left that morning to get Mama’s nail case, but I thought it was worth the extra time to have it with her. Turned out to be the right move. The young lady bought two sets of nails, but she is going to start a party next week. She told Mama she knows a lot of people in Amarillo, so they are both excited.

On the way to Amarillo, Mama texted back and forth with Erin Echeveria’s boss who wanted to buy one of our goats for a Christmas present for her kids. That went on for a good part of the trip to Amarillo, while we were in Amarillo and on the way home Wednesday. But the outcome was a good one. She and her husband came over late Thursday evening and picked up the little yearling female they had contracted for but while they were there, we showed them the baby goats and they feel in love with one of the little bucklings. He went home with them as well. We provided a bag of food for them to get started caring for the little ones. They were very excited about the two little goats even thought it took us a few minutes to catch the female they were buying. For some reason, she refused to faint but instead gave us a run through the paddock until we were able to grab hold of her and get her to the cage in the back of their pickup.

I was completely worn out by the time we got the goats into the carrier. I had worked all day on the pig pen I was refitting. It had taken me all day to get to the point that all the panels, posts and barbed wire were in place. It was about 5 pm when I opened the access door to the new area and let the pig discover it. She ran into the new area like she was entering a brand new playland. She hopped, spun and squealed in excitement while I closed the door in the building that would keep her limited to that side of the pen. Having her on the new side allows me and Mama to feed her without having to deal with her at our feet the whole time. It will be especially nice when we get the rain that is forecast for Wednesday. Watering her is a challenge because she routinely takes her water pan and drags it into the pen requiring us to fetch it in order to fill it. Other than that, it is nice to have the pig in the larger, separated pen. Later this week, I will take down a portion of the fence for the smaller enclosure so that I can use the tractor to level out the mess she created in that area.

I got fussed at Christmas morning because I had already bought in the course of days leading up to Christmas all the items Mama and Victoria tried to buy for me as Christmas presents. Oops! But Victoria and I got Mama an apple watch – which she loves. Setting up that watch frustrated her but we finally got through it. Mama and I had bought Victoria some presents while we were at Christopher and Banks in Amarillo along with some stocking stuffers. It was a fun morning. Maggie called. Brittany called. Cori called. Becky called. So, we got to witness some of the activities of Christmas morning remotely. Mid-morning, I started the pellet grill to smoke a ham and warm up the half turkey we saved from the one we smoked for our Thanksgiving dinner with Andrew, Brittany and the girls. That afternoon we had the Echeveria’s over for dinner. We had a good time. It was relaxed, unhurried and very pleasant. We enjoyed each other’s company far past the time Luke was ready to go home.

Saturday I finally got the candy boards placed on the hives. Mama and I had to buy some more sugar to fill the third candy board. Each of them easily holds twenty pounds of sugar as well as a third pound of pollen. I was able to install them on the hives in the warm afternoon we had Saturday. Now we can relax a bit in our worries for the bees.

It was a full week.

New tires, our visit, Azle, next up

Kimberlyn came over yesterday to help Mama get some things done for Mama’s planned attendance of the market day in Azle, TX. Part of Mama’s day included a trip to the post office to get a number of packages mailed out. It was on the way home from the post office that Mama and Kimberlyn heard a sound that frightened them both. The sound seemed to be coming from a tire but none of the tires were flat. They stopped twice to investigate but could find nothing. Mama finally decided to drive the vehicle home but at a very slow speed. Still the wound was continuous and loud. When they got home, we investigated and found that the tread on one of the rear tires had begun to shred. As the tread peeled off the tire, it would slap the inside of the wheel well causing a very loud banging – especially when Mama was going sixty miles per hour.

It was nearly lunchtime when they got back to the farm, so I put the spare on the Sequoia and headed to Discount Tires to have them evaluate the tire. I did not remember when Mama had bought the tires, but I was reasonably certain that we had gotten a good amount of mileage out of them. That turned out to be correct. The tires were rated for forty thousand miles and we had driven almost sixty thousand miles on them. We had certainly gotten our money’s worth. The longevity impressed the young man who tended to me at the store. The front tires still had some good tread on them, but I bought a set of four tires. These are rated for sixty thousand miles. They will hopefully last longer than we intend to own the vehicle.

Mama was a little worried that I would be upset by the requirement to replace the tires, but I told her I had been praying that the Lord would make evident anything we needed to have worked on in the Sequoia before we took it to Amarillo next week. That was an answer to prayer. Better that the tire lost its tread a few miles from home than to have that happen as we shot down the highway at seventy-five miles an hour on some lonely stretch of road a couple hundred miles from home. There would be ways to deal with that occurrence if it had happened, but it is always better to deal with something like that in a more relaxed set of circumstances. Praise the Lord for His perfect timing!

Around 6 pm, we headed to visit with Red and Joanna. We had a bit of trouble finding their house but finally got to the right driveway. I drove the truck in case Red wanted to load the wire roll he was needing to get rid of, but it was after dark and it was cold outside, and it was much more comfortable to just take the time to catch up with each other. So, we talked for a while before Mama and Joanna moved to a table where Mama could apply the nails she had given Joanna. All in all, we spent a couple hours just enjoying each other’s company in a familiar, friendly, comfortable way. It was a very pleasant evening and Joanna really liked the nails Mama applied for her. Red was impressed as well. HE especially liked the price and convenience.

Mama loaded up this morning to head to Azle, TX to check out the little market they have there. I am not sure what she will find but what we have heard about the market sounds good. It is much smaller than Trade Days in Bowie so there will be less competition for sales and less competition in getting noticed. Hopefully it will work out, but we do not know. Sometimes you just have to test the waters and see how things work out. This will serve as our first test of that venue. I am praying it goes well. I am glad Mama is willing to give it a try.

Next up on our agenda is our Christmas party here at the house tomorrow evening. The potential attendance has grown from about ten to probably closer to twenty, but we will have a good time. After all, the get together revolves around eating and exchanging gifts. Mama will be stressed out over the cleaning needing to be done to the house, but I am sure we can get it all done in a satisfactory manner by the time we start to entertain. If not, we will just go with it. I am going to put a small ham and a couple dozen sausage links on the smoker but that is the extent to which I will be required to prepare food for the meal. I should have plenty of time to help Mama cook and clean.

In between cooking and cleaning, I will put up the panels for the pen in the hopes of getting the pig into that pen before Grandpa has to take over the feeding next week. It will be a lot more pleasant for him if I can get him out of the mud – but I am not entirely sure I will have the time to get the pen secured to my satisfaction in only one day.

We shall see.

Class, materials pickup, shopping all day, a visit with Santa

Class yesterday was another good one, but I felt like I was a touch distracted through the entire class. Like my mind was not clear and I was not making the connections I normally would between the class and the content. I hope I did not come across that way, but it was a more of a struggle on my part than I usually have to deal with. I had eight participants and most of them engaged very well in the class, so it moved along at a good pace broken by very good question and multiple short discussions. Everyone did well on the test, and everyone told me they enjoyed the class. Perhaps I did not review enough as I normally do the day before the class because I was caught up in getting the speeches ready for the Christmas program Mama and I are participating in Sunday evening. The class is done now, and it was done well. I just do not ever want to waste anyone’s time and money when I am the instructor for a class, and I have the nagging suspicion that I could have done better. I have all next year to improve my performance.

As soon as the class was over I headed to Tractor Supply to get the panels I need for the pig enclosure. I had towed the trailer to work with me so I could get the panels while the store still had them. The last time I tried to get the panels all the supply stores in the area had been sold out, so I did not want to miss the opportunity to get what I needed. Although the temptation was there to buy more than what I needed, I did not. I spent only what was necessary to get this project moving. Mama and I need to get the pig into the other lot so we do not have to walk through her mess in order to tend to her feeding. Once I do get her into the larger lot, I will have to take down a fence to gain tractor access to the area she had plowed and rooted up to level it for me and Mama so that the ground has a chance to dry out. I may plant some seed in the freshly rooted ground, but I have not decided. I will reset the fence once the ground is properly worked. We need the lot from time to time and I need to be able to keep the cows out of that area. It is a lot of extra work, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Mama spent all day shopping with Grandma and Grandpa. They are still without a vehicle. I am told that Norman has bought one for them, but it will not be brought to them until early January. Norman will then take the truck they have here back to West Virginia and sell it to recoup some of the money spent on the replacement vehicle. Without a vehicle, they feel trapped at home and that is not a comfortable feeling for them or for me and Mama. Until their replacement transportation comes, we will share the truck with them, so they are not without transportation.

Anyway, Mama took them to Wichita Falls to peruse a variety of stores in order to allow them to get the things they needed for the month; from groceries to reading material. These shopping trips are done on a monthly basis as Grandpa gets paid. Mama enjoys the trips for the most part, but it is a slow-moving day for them all. Nothing happens quickly with Grandma and Grandpa. Besides, Mama was able to get the remaining items we forgot in our last trip to Sam’s. These days spent with Grandma and Grandpa are a blessing to us and to them. There is little they will allow us to do for them. This is one service we can give them freely without any feeling of indebtedness on their part.

Mama and I are going to Red and Joanna’s this evening. Red is our official Wise County Santa, but he has this evening off from his many Santa duties. Mama promised to help Joanna apply the nail set she gave to her a week or so ago – and I do not think they have many visitors. Red and I will load up some fencing he has been wanting to get to me, but that was too heavy for him to handle by himself. But the overall intent of the visit is just to visit. I think Mama and I need that contact as well. Mama and I have been busy every evening so far this week and that will not end tonight. We will be busy each night this week through the weekend and into next week as we travel to see Chase and Makaila. We should be able to slow down a touch after Christmas. Just in time for my schedule to accelerate at work.

So, Mama and I will enjoy the time between Christmas and the New Year when our schedule is not so crowded. Hopefully, I will be able to steal the time to catch up on a couple projects at the farm and in the house. Time will tell. That is the time we typically take down and return to storage all the decorations set up for Christmas. A chore I do not necessarily look forward to.

Quick run to Sam’s, Grandpa’s truck, bonus, teaching tomorrow

Yesterday the chiropractor cracked my upper back and neck back into place – it sounded horrible. He did some decompression on my neck as well. I felt better for a few hours, but the pain in my neck is not abated much. I woke this morning with much of the discomfort still intact and the index finger on my right hand was numb again, as it has been for over a month. It was recommended that I go back on Wednesday and Friday, but I am teaching tomorrow, so Friday it is. I do feel some relief in my upper back from the adjustment. I wish I felt the same in my neck. He had to try three times to get my back to crack back into place. That is about normal for me.

Mama and I made a “quick run” to Sam’s yesterday evening. That venture also included going to the bread store for more chicken treats, any bread will do for that, and a stop at WinCo. We had only a handful of items to get at WinCo, but those items took almost an hour to gather once we were in the store. I believe Mama and I were the only persons in the store that were not wearing masks, but it did not bother either of us and no one made a comment directly to us. It would have been interesting should they have decided to confront us. I do not have a planned response, but I am sure we would have come up with something. Most of the items we needed from WinCo were in the bulk bins. Those allow Mama to purchase only what she needs for the baking she is planning to do. I like that approach. It is much cheaper at the front end of the purchase and much cheaper at the back end when the unused portion of a large bag is discarded because it had aged beyond use. Buy it. Use it. Don’t keep overages to throw away later. I like that plan.

At Sam’s we were once again the only patrons in the store unmasked. It is almost frightening to think that everyone could actually see our faces! Not. We had a lot of small discussions while in Sam’s concerning what to buy for our party on Saturday. I was leaning toward ham and scalloped potatoes. Mama was in agreement but did not remember if we had more than one ham in the freezer. She wants that ham for Christmas dinner. So, we bought a small ham to fix for the party along with some sausages I can fix on the grill. Everyone else will be coordinating a potluck dinner to add to our offerings. I bought a “guy” gift for the exchange while we waited in line to check out. SO, I believe we are ready for the party – food item wise. The entire excursion took almost four hours. I am just glad it was a quick trip. I would hate to have spent the entire evening at it.

Grandpa is giving up on trying to repair his truck. Despite his best efforts, he has been unable to get the transmission working properly and both he and Norman feel it is best to find him a replacement. When that replacement is to arrive is up in the air so Mama and I will have to share a vehicle with them in the interim. For now, Mama and I are retrieving my truck one night this week because we will need to make a run to the feed store before the end of the year. But since Grandma and Grandpa will be staying at the farm to watch over out animals early next week while Mama and I travel to Amarillo to visit with Chase and Makaila, they will have access to the truck as needed. I do not get involved in the wheeling and dealings of Norman, but those seem to mostly work out in the short run for that side of the family. They never seem to work out in the long run, but they manage to get by.

I got a very nice Christmas bonus from my employer that was paid out today. I was expecting a bonus, but this was a generous one, much more than I had expected. It is always a pleasant financial bump at a time that one always seems needed. As I participated last week in a review of the company’s performance through this shutdown, I was amazed at how well we did – extremely well in fact. We have grown in income, sales and personnel. It has been a great year for us in almost every way – other than missing out on the personal interactions that made us a more family-oriented workplace. Perhaps that will return sometime next year. Perhaps not. Time will tell.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow. My last for the year. I will have two weeks to rest up before I am set into a schedule that will be quite busy through the first quarter of next year.

I am mostly looking forward to it.

Pain in the neck, the week ahead, struggling to celebrate

I have a chiropractic appointment this morning. I have been suffering with a pain in the neck for several weeks now and I need it resolved if possible. When I move my head in a certain way, the pain shoots down from my neck through my collar bone, then down my right arm all the way to the elbow. Keeping my head out of that position is a struggle since the movement is that of looking slightly upward, like sitting in the pew looking up at the Pastor as he preached yesterday. Getting into a position that does not activate that pain as I sleep is very challenging, so I spend a lot more time than normal adjusting myself as I lay down or as I reposition through the night – many of which start in the recliner. No medication like muscle relaxers or nerve pain inhibitors has helped. Applying external pain creams to relieve the pain and massages of the neck have not provided any relief either, so I am going to see if the chiropractor can pop my neck bones back into position and relieve the constant pinch. I am not overly hopeful, but it is worth a try since nothing else has helped. My greatest obstacle in any endeavor as always been me, but I have never been such a pain in the neck to myself.

I believe Mama has something planned for every day of this week – through Saturday evening with a Christmas party being hosted at our house. Since those in the church are generally too frightened to get together in such a way, we are going to take the opportunity to have our traditional Christmas party here. With us being limited to only one vehicle at the moment coordinating all the activities we need to engage in will take some effort and planning, but we will work it out somehow. At least we will feel like we are doing something Christmas-y. So far, it has been difficult for me to feel like it really is the Holiday season.

As is customary, Mama has been doing most of the buying, packaging and sending of presents to our grandchildren, so I do not often participate in that directly. I have not wrapped any presents other than those given at the small company party we had at my manager’s house. Plus, I have been distracted and deeply offended by the goings on in the political world. It would be nice to feel like Christmas was a kinder, gentler time, but it is not. Not this year. So, we will find ways to celebrate the birth of our Lord in private ways and enjoy the company of those we cherish within the boundaries we can safely establish and give up all pretense of this being a happy holiday season.

Nevertheless, there is joy in the Lord. Peace in knowing that no matter what depths wickedness seems to be revealing itself in this world, the Lord is fully, totally and completely in control of all the affairs of this world. I cannot see what the Lord does. I cannot affect the outcomes. But I am wholly convinced that He loves us and for those of this world who are His, all things will work together for good.  There is however an urgency to share the Gospel with this world. The judgement of God will not be restrained much longer. As we exalt those who wantonly kill the unborn and newly born for the sake of convenience to those seeking that service and the profit of those providing that service, we have become no better than Baal worshipers who would burn their infants as a sacrifice on his altar. That heartbreak overshadows this season for me, and I am struggling to celebrate Christmas because of it. Regardless, life still goes on for now.

Yesterday I fixed a lamb roast for our Sunday dinner. It was very good. At least, I thought so. Mama and Victoria are extremely put off by fat and the roast, being from a lamb, was fatty. That is the nature of that meat. But Mama trimmed away enough of the offending fat and found the meat she selected to be soft and flavorful. She was not overly impressed, but she did enjoy it a little. That aversion on Mama’s part is why I insisted the lamb we recently processed be turned into ground meat exclusively. When the fat is hidden in the ground meat, Mama is not so discerning. I made lamb burgers on the grill Saturday for dinner after she and Victoria got home from Trade Days. Those, she really enjoyed.

I am not sure going to Trade Days is a good marketing style for us. When all the receipts were counted and expenses subtracted, I believe Mama cleared less than twenty dollars for the effort she put into the day and all the hours of preparation it took to get ready for that day. Mama and Gracie enjoyed their time trying to sell their items, but I do not consider it a worthy avenue to promoter her business. On the bright side, it is only one day in a month and she did make some sales and a couple new contacts, so maybe I am not seeing the greater picture.

I am glad I was left home to work on a couple urgent projects.

Rain, welding, cleanup projects

We woke to rain this morning. It was forecast to rain so that was not necessarily a surprise. The surprise is that it is more than the forecast called for. Mama and I were praying that we would get a larger amount than was predicted because we desperately need a good soaking while the weather is warm enough for it to make a difference. The temperatures will be below freezing by Sunday night, but right now we are seeing temperatures in the 70’s. These warmer winter temperatures are not unusual for our area, but they are certainly enjoyable when we get them. The only downside is that some of the fruiting plants and trees see the warmer weather and start to bud out too soon. That delicate balancing act happens every year in the Spring, but for the weather to stay this warm through December is really confusing to our plants. On the bright side, we enjoy it and it certainly helps our bees to winter over.  Plus, with Mama spending the day in the open at Trade Days tomorrow, the warmer weather will be a real blessing. The rain will be over with early this morning according to the forecast. It sure makes our pig happy to have that much of her pen soaked and all the holes she has dug to be filled with water.

A week or more ago, I ordered an inexpensive auto darkening welding helmet. I got it a few days ago but because of the special services at church and more urgent items at the farm, I had not been able to get it out and look it over – much less test it out. Last night I was able to test it. I love it!. It will make my welding projects so much easier to accomplish. The welding helmet and goggles I have used over the years were giving me fits when I used them. Some would not stay in place on my head when I wore them. Some would fall down too far on my head as I was welding, blocking my view. Some were just too dark for me to see wat I was doing when I was using the wire welder.

I have not tried the helmet with the stick welder, but it works very well with the wire welder. I was able to easily see what I was doing with the wire welder. The auto darkening feature is pretty amazing. It cycles from normal to darkening is a fraction of a second and vice versa. When the flash of the welder stops it instantly reverts to a non-darkened view so I can quickly reorient and begin the weld again. It will be a big help to me. I need a helmet for the welding I do because of the glasses I have to wear in order to see clearly. The older helmets were not very accommodating to my glasses and the goggles I often used were less accommodating that the helmets. This one easily adapts to my glasses. That is a blessing.

Before I got to work in the shop, I worked with Mama getting an area in the garage cleaned up. For some reason we allow a mess to accumulate in certain areas and it only gets cleaned up and reorganized when I get tired of it. Not that I am not part of the problem. I adapt to the accumulation as well as Victoria and Mama, it just tends to bother me first. Anyway, several months ago a table had been set up in the garage to accumulate the craft items Mama and Kimberlyn were working on. I have moved the table twice to limit the clutter, but I had not emptied it of its contents. I did not want to interfere with their projects, but it turns out that Mama needs the table for her set up at Trade Days tomorrow, so she and Kimberlyn unloaded the table yesterday before Kimberly headed home.

Mama and I then took all the remaining accumulation and either bagged it up to be taken to the dump or found a spot in the corner of the garage where we have certain boxed items that we actually intend to keep there and fit the items requiring storage into that space. The result was remarkable. We gained a huge patch of floor that had been poorly used in housing the mess we eliminated. Even Mama was impressed. With the rearranging and cleaning I had done in the garage a couple weeks ago, the garage looks good. Neat and organized, lots of space to get in and out of the vehicle, versus looking like a dump. I was happy with the time spent but I told Mama I would have rather done the cleanup by myself because she seems to be forever in the spot I need access to. We worked through that, but I spent a good deal of time waiting for her to move as we shared that limited workspace.

Tomorrow I will be on my own at the farm. Grandpa has the truck so he can make parts runs as he works to get his truck operational and Mama will be at Trade Days. I will have plenty to do and no one in my way.

That is the fun of having our little farm.

Class, meetings, prep for the weekend, listing, Alexa

Class yesterday was a really good one. There was timely and helpful participation, lots of interest and just the right pacing of the material through the day. My voice lasted for the class, but I began to fade around 2:30 and had to struggle through the last hour. It did not affect the presentation too much. I try to time the class to end around 3:15 to 3:30 each time I present the eight hour class and the way the class flowed  out yesterday worked out more smoothly than in the past several presentations. Questions from the participants helped to spur discussions and let me know how to emphasize the most useful information throughout the presentation. I have one more class next week and then I will be finished teaching for the year. I should probably look up how many classes I have taught this year just for fun, but I have not looked at that yet.

Most of my morning – just about all of it – was taken up by a series of meetings and a group game that served as our 4^th quarter get together as a company. It was fun, but it took far too long. We spent about two hours on a murder mystery put on by a company that does those sorts of online activities. I do not mind participating especially since I now have the internet capacity available to get involved. It was a pleasant distraction and we got to visit together as a company which is still spread over the entire United Stated.

Kimberlyn came over this morning to work with Mama to get things made and organized for Trade Days this coming weekend. Mama has conscripted Gracie to go to Trade days with her. I will probably be called upon to help Mama get set up, but I will not spend all day with her. Hence, Gracie going to keep Mama company and to help her sell her Color Street Nails. I am praying that they have a good day. Mama needs a good day in her business. I am also praying they have a good day for the things Mama and Kimberlyn are making. They have narrowed their focus and are concentrating on a few hygiene items, mask spray, lip balms, bath salts, etc. They also need a good day of sales of those items. I think the mask spray is a great idea.

I have spent a little time over the past few days making a list of all the projects I need to get done in the house and around the farm. It is a very long list and some of the projects are large – not expensive – but large. I have not made a list in a long time. I am not sure why. It just did not seem needed. Now I guess it is needed so that I can keep every long dark evening on track and not waste too much time doing things that take time and are entertaining but produce nothing worthwhile. Plus I get sidetracked too easily and I need a prompt to get busy on the things that need to get done.

A few days ago, I was looking for something we had misplaced – I do not even remember what that item was – and stumbled across an Echo Dot I had packaged in a Ziplock baggie and set aside. After we got our internet installed, I looked again for the Echo Dot, but I could not remember exactly where it had been as I had located it while looking the other lost item – I do not remember if we found that item or not. But I did find the Dot and attempted to setting it up on the new internet service. We are set up on that service with a line-of-sight signal, so we are not charged for usage but rather for the speed at which the service delivers the internet to us. Since it would not matter how much data Alexa requires to operate, I worked several hours at setting it up unsuccessfully.

I finally came across a document that gave me the necessary insights and instructions to get the Dot to connect to our router. Mama especially loves using Alexa. She has almost no one to boss around now and Alexa is willing to follow her bidding instantly. For the moment, it is playing music suggestions as Mama gives them. I suspect that when she discovers we can have plugs installed to operate lighting in the house but commanding Alexa, we will try that out as well. So far, she has not had Alexa answer the phone for her, but that will be happening soon. She has her phone on speaker the entire time it is in use anyway. Why not use a really good speaker to take the call for her? Especially when she figures out, she does not have to get up to retrieve her phone to answer the call. It is not a fool proof system for getting calls but it will have some functionality she can use.

I spent my lunch hour getting hay from the goat barn to the calf, the girl goats and the boy goats. It was time well spent since Mama and I have to go vote in a special runoff election this evening.

Enjoying the mundane, class tomorrow

Victoria is picking up Gemma this morning. Mama made the trip with Gemma to the vet without incident yesterday morning, the surgery was completed easily and not Gemma is released to come home. She will be in some discomfort for a couple days and may have a shield around her neck to keep her from licking the wound, but she should be back to full activity by the weekend. Dogs rarely take long to heal, and she is a very active dog. In her absence through the day and overnight, I believe she was missed by Sam and Sasha.  We are putting her in the back yard for the day to limit her activities. We will see how that works out.

Since Mama has been relieved of the obligation of getting Gemma, she is heading to Muenster to pick up the lambs we had processed. One will be placed in our freezer. The other will go to Alex and his family. I do not know if the meat is for them or another family, but they are anxious to get the meat. We had our lamb processed into ground lamb. Nothing else. I did have the processor save all the bones for us so we could use them for broths and to share with our Chinese friends. Mama and I will probably use the same process in the future of buying grown lambs, keeping them for a few weeks, then taking them to be processed. It worked out well this time and it saved us getting attached to the animals.

Over my lunch hour I will install a small panel under the little coop that will prevent the young chickens from getting into that area when Mama allows them access to the “yard” attached to the small coop. That yard is the 10 x 10 kennel we kept with the building when I repurposed it as a coop for us to raise our chicks in. That repurposing has worked out very, very well. We have twenty chicks in the coop right now and they are almost completely feathered out. Covered enough that Mama feels comfortable letting them explore outside the building they have been raised in. It will be fun to see their reaction when I open the little door that will give them access to the outside. It may be less fun getting them to reenter the building after they have had their time outside. Getting them into that routine will take a few days but once they acclimate to it, they will go through their exit and entry without any outside help.

I went with the utility trailer to buy panels to complete the pig enclosure and the feed store was out of all the various types of panels. They had nothing I could substitute to make the enclosure so I started using pallets to make the walls that would line the pig pen I would like to get this pig into. I need to get her into an enclosure that will allow Mama and I to feed and water her without getting slimed by her as she is able to do right now since we have to enter the pen with her to care for her. It is not a big deal. It would just be more convenient to have the larger pen in use and the smaller area open to us for other uses. I would prefer to avoid the mud in the pen while caring for the pig. Mama would like that as well.

I am getting some upgrades done to the fencing along the back of our property so that we have a greater defense against the easy incursion of coyotes from that fence line. In February Mama and I are picking up our mini-Highlander bull from a breeder in Plano. We are looking froward to raising the small animals. Our long-term plan is to have three cows and this bull. There are two other families at church who are doing the same thing with the mini-Highlander cattle so we will eventually be able to swap out bulls in our breeding program. That will be a help as we raise the individual herds. For two of the families, these will be yard ornaments. For us they will be both property decorations and meat. We should be able to process one in a couple years. That will be good timing for us since we will be processing the calf we are now raising late next year. Such is our mundane life here on the farm.

I will be teaching tomorrow. It has become a regular Wednesday event, which is reflected in the class schedule for the first quarter of next year. My company is thrilled with the schedule since each class brings in a significant amount of revenue. We have found a niche market and are capitalizing on it. It will not be long before our competitors squeeze into this online market for instructor led classes, but for now, we are able to get there first. Plus, it meets the needs of our clients in a very direct way. If we keep the classes to one per week on average, I can manage. When I end up with back-to-back eight our classes my voice is seriously strained. I do not talk loudly through the classes, but just having to do all the talking for seven hours is a stretch for my voice.

Next week I have classes on Wednesday and Friday. That will be a challenge, but I have done it successfully before. Those will be my last classes for the year. The week after that, Christmas week, I will be on vacation.

I am looking froward to that.

 

Internet, a small Christmas party, special services, Gemma

Last Thursday we had a representative from the internet company come to the farm. After doing a long inspection of the property and house, he made the suggestion that we place the antenna in the front yard versus on the roof. If we elected to place the antenna on the roof, we would need a twenty-foot tower to extend above the treetops around the house. If we placed the antenna in the front yard, we could get a perfect signal from the tower by sighting between the top of the fence and the lowest limbs of the trees in the direction of the tower. I elected for the lower point of view. With that in mind the technician suggested he come back Saturday morning to complete the install with the understanding that I have a trench ready for the cable to run to the house and the pole set in concrete at the determined site in the front yard.

I taught a class on Friday and rushed home to dig the trench to the house. I had already decided to hook up the potato plow to the tractor to get the ditch dug – and that idea saved me hours of digging. The plow was able to cut the dozens of roots that would have hindered my manual digging of the trench required. I used the posthole diggers to get down about 24 inches and then the post driver to get the post the antenna would be mounted on over 36 inches deep into the ground. I had to take a piece of pipe and drive it through the ground under the sidewalk to give us access under obstacle that to the house, but I got all that done before it got fully dark Friday evening.

Saturday morning the install went without a hitch. Aaron, the technician was a pleasure to work with. He was at the farm at 8:30 and got straight to work on the install. Hanging the antenna, running the cable, punching through the wall into the house and dressing up the entry of the cable through the wall on both sides of the hole. He took time to eat some biscuits and gravy with me and Mama. Who can pass up on biscuits and gravy? I took time to witness to him and invite him to church making sure he knew the website were he and his wife could watch online if they wanted. We were up and running by a little after 11 am. I had Aaron reset the password to something familiar to me and Mama as he set up the service. That made it easier to get all our device online. It is helpful to have the internet at the farm, especially for work and Mama’s business, but I still have mixed emptions about the connectivity. I really did not mind being without it, but it seemed the right time to get this done. Especially since work had determined to keep the office closed until the end of March 2021.

Saturday evening Mama and I attended a small Christmas party with my coworkers. There were only about ten of us there, but we had a great time. A small gift exchange to start the party, some great food catered from a local Mexican restaurant and a relaxing evening of rambling conversation like you have when friends get together. Mama and I enjoyed ourselves. It may be the only Christmas party we attend this year. Not that I mind that, but if we only ha one opportunity, it was encouraging to have such a good time.

We started special services at church yesterday. Church Harding, an evangelist/missionary to Washington, DC is preaching the services. He has been a great wealth of information as well as great Biblical truths relevant to our nation and its founding. He is a constitutional expert whose ministry is to the members of Congress, praying with them, encouraging them, challenging them. He attends a weekly Bible study with our Vice President and meets on a regular basis with many members of the House and Senate. He coordinates weekly tours in the halls of Congress and has a vision of having pastors from each state meet with their representatives in a designated week of 2021. He has reinforced many of the things I have been learning from Mark Levin and Dan Bongino over the past several years, emphasizing the need to pray fervently by name for our leaders and to actively get involved in our local, state and national governments. The services have been great. The education irreplaceable. The weblink fro his ministry is https://www.missiontoamerica.us/ There is a wealth of information available on his website.

Mama got stressed this morning because she had to take Gemma to the vet to be fixed, and just before she was required to leave Sam and Gemma took off after some phantom noise in the woods behind our house. I went out to feed as she tried to get Gemma to return.

She must have been successful because when I got through with the feeding she and Gemma were gone.

Class, powerless, decorating

Class yesterday went well. I had eight participants but none of them were overly active in the class. Most sat through the class passively. I do know that a couple were not feeling well, either in the throws of an illness or recovering from one. It is sad to say, but it is nice to hear someone referring to an illness as the root of their malaise as something other than COVID. I have a class tomorrow, but I believe there are only a few – maybe four- participants in that class. We could finish early with that one. Time will tell, but I will enter the class with the expectation that it will be stretched out over the allotted time fairly closely to the six plus hours we set aside for the class. Tomorrows class is a participant driven class, so their engagement is what determines, to a large part, the length of the class. The good part is that it is the one class that I really enjoy teaching. When that class is done, I will have only two classes to teach to finish out the year. That is coming quickly.

While Mama and I were finishing up dinner yesterday evening, the lights in the ceiling fan over the dining room table flickered and dimmed, then went out. One bulb came back on, but the others in the light on the ceiling fan remained dark. Then that bulb flickered and went out. Mama and I were so focused on that fixture that it took us a moment to realize all the lights had gone out. We had lost all power to the farm. Mama called the power company to report the outage, but we did not get power back before we left for church. Mama did not get her shower, but we stumbled in the mostly dark and managed to get ready for church with light from our cell phones and some candles. I do not mind the dark. Mama is a different story.

At church a friend of the church from BBTI’s class that graduated in 2019 presented his work and preached. Nathan Schrock and his wife had been with us through that entire school year and we had eagerly taken them on as missionaries when they graduated. He and his wife went to the Ivory Coast to work alongside her parents in the work they have there for a year to see if the Lord would have them dedicate their lives to that people group as well. Having completed that year of short-term service, they are now on deputation to raise the support to go back and start a new work in Ivory Coast. It was very good to see them again, to be able to spend time with them and hear their heart for the work God has called them to. Mama and I spent a little time with them after the service, but there were many in the church that wanted to grab their ear, so our time was limited.

As we headed home, Mama called Victoria to see if the power had been restored. It had not. So, we called the power company to report to ongoing outage. We were called back right away. Crews got to the farm before 9 pm and began to investigate. It took until a little after 11 pm for them to get us powered up, but they acted pretty quickly considering we were the only ones remaining in the dark in the entire area. I do not know what they had to do to get electricity to us but when power did come back on, it took four or five times of stopping and restarting whatever they were doing for the power to stay on. The lights would come on for a second and then go off. I was wakened by the light, so I got up and turned off switches and lamps that had illuminated between attempts to get full power restored. That process took about fifteen minutes. By 11:30 we were back on the grid. I went out to the small coop to make sure the heat lamps had come on so the chicks would not get too cold overnight. Then I finally laid down and slept. It was a short night sleep wise.

Mama is struggling to decorate for Christmas. Without the help she seems to need to stay on one project and without the drive to get the house ready for children to enjoy, there is a definite flagging in motivation to accomplish the project, but she insists that today is the day she will get it all done. Since I am working from home today, I suspect that I will be called upon to participate at various intervals while I take a break from work. I don’t mind, in fact I very much enjoy being with Mama in whatever capacity lends itself to our doing something together. Christmas decorating, or decorating for any season, is not my forte, but Mama likes it, and it looks nice when she is done.

So, we get it done whether it is what I would choose to do or not.

First freezes, guests, troubled times, a Color Street first

Winter has finally showed up at the farm. We had our first sustained colder weather last weekend. Now, each night the temperature is getting to or below freezing. That trend will end in a few days, but it always places a hardship on me and Mama in getting fresh water to the animals. Fortunately, the days are warming up into the mid-forties so the waterers thaw quickly, but we still have to deal with a yard hydrant at the coop that has always frozen on us in this type of weather. For some reason the stem does not drain so the portion that stands above ground stays full of water. I have insulated is some to guard against the freezing temperatures, but it still freezes over most of our cold nights. So, we have to carry water in the morning from another hydrant or collect enough water in gallon jugs for the morning watering. It is not a huge pain, but when the temperatures do not warm up enough to allow the hydrant to thaw, we have to transport water to the chickens and the pig for each feeding over several days. That presents a challenge.

Yesterday evening we invited the Miller family over. Mama wanted the help getting the young goats to the little lot behind the shop. We are weaning them from their mamas and the only way to do that it to separate them. We had five to carry from their paddock to the small lot and the help was much appreciated. The six Miller boys were a little disappointed because they had anticipated having to chase the goats for a while before catching them. Instead, Mama simply picked them up and handed them out. It was bit anticlimactic, but they all got past that disappointment quickly.

I started a pot of beans yesterday morning with the idea that some of those beans could be made into chili. Mama made baked potatoes in the oven and we combined them with the chili for the evening meal. Mama also bought Frito’s so the younger ones could make Frito pies if they wanted. Everyone found something they liked except the youngest (a four years old) who ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We had cookies and Graham crackers with pumpkin dip for dessert.  Later we split into two groups. The ladies went with Mama to get their nails done and the man and boys congregated in the living room to just talk. That lasted until well into the evening. Mostly me and Bro. Miller talked about the troubled times we are in as a nation.

Whether or not it is an accepted fact, the fact remains that cheating went on in this election. The only unknown is the full extent of the cheating. What has been revealed is appalling. The idea that we are being instructed to “just move along” is presumptuous hubris. I do not know if we can win this battle because those we elected in good faith are not willing to fight for us. Our individual voice is small and our individual reach insignificant, but somehow, together we must speak out against such obvious corruption. Especially as those who should be speaking out for us refuse to do so. I am not sure what our silent representatives gain in their complicity, but it must be something substantial to abandon us in our hour of need. Instead, our president, is left to fight alone against multiple forces set against him.

I was asked if I thought this was God’s judgement. No. Not yet. This is a consequence or our compliance. Our acquiescence. Our complacency. When the judgement of God comes on our nation, it will not be misconstrued as anything else. The position we find ourselves in today is of our own making. We are only now beginning to see the outcomes of our go-along-to-get-along approach to living out our anemic faith in a world that has no use for us or our beliefs. We barely whimpered when prayer was taken out of school. We sighed when abortion was legalized. We did not even complain when homosexual marriage was codified. So many other degrading changes to our societal norms went without anyone speaking out – even from many of our pulpits. And here we are. Reaping the outcomes of our lack of courage. Our lack of faith. Is judgement coming? It certainly must. But this is not it – yet. What can we do to make our voices heard, to fight back against the corruption in our culture? I have not found that answer yet, but I am actively looking.

While we talked, Mama and the ladies applied Color Street nail strips. For the two Miller girls, this was the very first time they had ever had anything done to their nails, so the application took longer than normal, but the results were pretty outstanding. We will see how that time spent affects them. For now, I think they are impressed, whether they wanted to admit it or not. Mama and Victoria had fun and they did a live during part of the application. We will see how that plays out. It was a fun evening.

I will be teaching classes tomorrow and Friday. Two of the four remaining classes I have to teach this year. Wow! 2020 is almost gone.