Early start for Thanksgiving, Friday spending, Saturday surprise

All of us got an early start to our Thanksgiving. I was up at 2 am, dressed and ready to take Victoria to the airport. I got her up a few minutes after I was ready, and we left the farm at 2:20. The roads were pretty clear that time of day, so we made exceptionally good time in our drive to the airport. Once we parked and offloaded the suitcases, we went into the terminal to find that there was no one at the counter and all the kiosks were inactive. I waited for a short time with Victoria as other passengers began to gather to begin the check-in process, but I left before the kiosks were turned on. Victoria tells me that happened at 3:30. Her flight was to begin boarding at 5 am so she had plenty of time to complete the process, get through security and get to her gate. Even with a three-hour layover in Houston, she arrived in Honduras before we sat down to dinner.

Once I got back home, I fired up the grill and put a huge turkey (24 pounds) on to smoke. That was about 5 am. I tried to lay down and sleep an hour or so but was not able to relax, so I got up and started getting things ready for the day. Mama was up soon after and we spent the entire morning and well into the afternoon baking, cooking and setting up the living room for Thanksgiving dinner. I worried over the turkey some but concentrated on helping Mama get all her backing done. Ultimately, I should have worried over the turkey more because when I took it off the smoker and began to carve it, it was not quite done. It was put in the oven for some high temperature cooking, and we focused on the appetizers, macaroni salad, and tamales. We were all careful to not eat too much because the mashed potatoes, cornbread stuffing, sweet potatoes, corn, cranberries and other thanksgiving staples were being kept warm for the additional hour we cooked the turkey.

An hour in the oven at 350 degrees was all it took to finish the turkey. It turned out quite well – smokey and very tender. We elected to save the ham I was given by my work for a later meal since it was just us and Trace, Krystal and the boys. Mama’s pumpkin pies and a Sam’s pecan pie made up the finishing touches for the meal. Since there were copious amounts of leftovers, we sent the Thomason’s home with a large portion of the total. Mama and I have since eaten our way through the leftovers we kept but I am not wishing for any more right away. Mama tired new recipes for this Thanksgiving for her pumpkin pies and cranberry sauce. Both turned out to be great recipes. Hopefully we will remember them next year, but that is a longshot.

We did participate Black Friday spending but that was somewhat disappointing overall. Most, if not all, of the items we were looking for were not on sale. We did buy some winter clothing at Sam’s and some insulated coveralls at Academy but most of my attention was focused on getting a printer. While Mama looked at Target and Michael’s, I compared printers at Best Buy finally deciding on a mid-level HP Envy 6455e. It had all the features I needed and the cheapest ink. Once we got all our shopping done and got back home, I tried to set up the printer.

For all the effort I put into that chore over the succeeding three hours I was unsuccessful. I struggled to find and clear a persistent error with the printer. Several online tutorials led me to the path of discovery in troubleshooting the error but did not solve the issue. Finally, I began going screen by screen through the printer tutorials and eventually saw that the sensor for the color ink cartridge was not showing the printer that the cartridge had been installed. That was the holdup, and it was not going to be something I could set right. The printer would need to be returned and exchanged. So, after Mama and I met with Red and Joanne to reapply her nail sets for the coming weekend, we headed back to Best Buy to make the exchange, which was surprisingly easy to accomplish. The next attempt to get the printer working was successful. Praise the Lord!

Saturday morning as Mama was getting the coops opened up, she discovered a huge opossum in one of the nesting boxes. I had to improvise a way to extract the brute from the nesting box and dispatch it without the aid of any lethal means to do so, but I quickly got that figured out. Fortunately, as fatal as opossums are to our flock, they are not overly aggressive, but this fat beast did not play dead, baring his teeth and hissing at me the whole time I struggled with it. The methods I used to get rid of the opossum were probably not lethal, but it will not be too quick to approach the coop again. That makes the second opossum I have had to remove from our coop. The first one will never return. The second one is not a sure bet, but I am confident it will stay away for a long time.

We are enjoying a series of services at church right now with Chuck Harding, a missionary to Congress. Sunday services and last night’s service were a great encouragement to me and Mama. A firm reassurance that all things do really work together for good for those who love the Lord. God is still in control. It is reassuring to hear this message from someone who walks the halls of Congress and has remarkable insight to the inner workings of the Lord in that dark place. His take on the recent stolen election is that we may have been saved from a far worse fate than what we are currently enduring and that there is a clear path forward to take back our government in the next election.

We will see how this plays out, but his message is uplifting and confident in the Lord.

Video debut, dinner at church, Thanksgiving morning

In a pleasant interruption to my daily work routine, I was asked to do some short video presentations to be added to the course I teach most often – over 100 times this year. I was scheduled to present three specific topics during the first attempt to capture the videos, so I spent hours pouring over information to ensure I was ready to speak to each specific topic. We tried staging the video shoot is several spots in the office building and finally decided on a spot virtually in the center of the building. Fortunately, there were only a handful of employees in the office. Other than the manageable background noises of onlookers watching the process and listening to the stories I was telling; it was quiet and comfortable. Other than the two new EWN employees capturing the videos, my officemates have heard the stories I was telling multiple times over the years, but they still gathered in the background to hear them again.

Once a train went by on the tracks just across the two-lane road fronting our office building. That noise halted production for a few minutes. In a little over an hour the videographers had captured about forty minutes of video. Two longer segments. One shorter one. No retakes. They were satisfied with my presentations on the first round. We will go back at some point and improve the sessions, but for now they have a “proof of concept” for the time and effort it will take to create all the vignettes I have suggested being added to the class as other instructors begin to present the class. It was fun to do. I do not mind being recorded, especially on something I have spoken about so many times. The videographers were impressed by my stories and the way they were able to capture the video so easily. For my part, I feel I could have done better, but it came off well.

Fairly late in the evening, about an hour before we needed to leave for church the missionary mom who had spent the evening with Mama on Monday came over to look at the books Mama had been reading to her boys that evening. Her boys were so captivated by the stories and Mama’s expressive reading of those stories that she wanted to note the authors and titles. Once I had showered and dressed for church, I began to get the final items ready to be transported to church. As I passed through the kitchen, I looked into the living room and see the mom with her head laid back in one of our recliners, eyes closed listening to Mama read a story to her boys. Mama has a wonderful gift for that. It mesmerizes all who get to fall under the sound of her voice as she reads out loud. It is hard to tell just how many children that gift has touched, but I am sure one day she will get to find out.

We had our church Thanksgiving dinner and mid-week service last night, so there will not be a service tonight. The dinner was attended by about seventy people. I do not know if that was the largest attendance we have had, but it was certainly one of the best attended dinners we have ever had. I was not feeling well. I have struggled with gut pain for several days now, but I enjoyed the evening. I was among the last to get in line to get some food. There was still plenty which was good because all the ladies who were serving the food had not yet eaten either. I did not get much, but I ate all of the little I did get. I got a very small serving of two desserts and made do with that.

We shared our table with the Fields family whose baby delighted Mama throughout the evening. Also, our little adopted Miller boy, Joshua, sat with us and chattered happily to me and Mama. He is six or seven and makes no secret that Mama is his favorite person in the whole church. I told him he had very good taste. Mama was my favorite person as well. He, along with his family, sang a few songs after the meal was concluded and before the sermon was to be delivered. I wish we could have heard better because Joshua did two solo parts on one song. The youngest four boys performed the song in a sort of round joining together on the chorus; “Thank God for the preachers and the Sunday School teachers and a mamma and daddy that prayed…” They did a good job, but the microphones were not picking them up very well. As the evening was concluded, help was given in cleaning up the fellowship hall, Mama worked through her extended goodbyes, we loaded our leftovers into the Sequoia and headed home. That was a little after 9:30. Not too bad.

Tomorrow will start early as I take Victoria to the airport to catch a 5 am flight to Houston to begin her trip to Honduras. If all goes well, she will be in the vehicle with Nate, Cori and the kids before we sit down to eat our dinner.

We live in an amazing world.

The little things, overnight cooking, church dinner

Yesterday passed by uneventfully until later in the afternoon. The wife of one of our visiting missionary families asked if she could come to the farm to do some laundry. The answer was, of course, yes. Laundry is one of those household chores that are difficult to accomplish when you do not have a house to use for those chores. So, as Mama and I were out feeding, the family arrived at the farm. They have four boys ranging from four years old to eight years old and an infant daughter. The four-month-old baby girl is the real attraction to both Mama and Victoria.

The boys ran around outside for a bit but as darkness quickly dimmed the skies they wandered inside and rummaged about in the supply of toys Mama has available. To their delight, they discovered our huge collection of Lego’s. The Lego’s and the matchbox cars provided enough to keep them occupied for the remaining hours of their visit. While their mama washed, dried and folded cloths, they played – mostly peacefully. They are, after all, brothers. Since, in their travels, the family is housed in hotels for the most part, everyone enjoyed the large open space of our living room. The four boys were not abashed about using all the available space for the city they were building.

Meanwhile, in preparation for the Thanksgiving meal and service tonight, our Pastor was firing up a large smoker he has on which he was going to smoke two briskets and four turkeys. Anyone who was interested in spending time with him as he worked was invited to do so. So, the missionary dad and I headed to the Pastor’s house about 6:30 pm. It was well after dark by that time and was much colder than I had anticipated. I wore the insulated vest I had worn when Mama and I were doing the evening feeding, but I was a little colder than comfortable as we exited the truck and met the pastor at the smoker. Fortunately, Pastor had a fire going in a metal fire pit and we stoked it sufficiently to warm us. It was one of those evenings where you spent your time crowding closer to the fire as the night progressed.

We sent a couple hours with the pastor and on my way home, I dropped the missionary off at their hotel in town. Turns out, I should have called Mama to see if the rest of the family was at the hotel or at the farm. I failed to do so and only realized my oversight when I got back to the farm. I got to the house about 9 pm and the boys were still at their Lego structures, the mom was still working on the laundry and the baby was being cuddled by Victoria.

I was pretty worn out, so I laid down on the bed as the activities continued. From the bedroom, I listened to the chatter, to Mama reading books to the youngest boys and to the baby happily babbling to Victoria’s encouragements. It was not until a little before 10 pm that things were gathered up and carried out to the vehicle to head back to the hotel to join their dad. I had fallen asleep during that time and was awakened by Mama to help get the heavier items out to the vehicle. The boys were sorely disappointed to be leaving. That is typically the case when children come to visit Mama.

This morning Mama got a very sweet note from the mom of the clan thanking her for the freedom the boys felt to play, the pleasure they had in hearing her read books to them and for being so hospitable in watching over her children while she caught up on not only laundry but several other little things that needed her attention while she had to opportunity to focus on those things. From Mama’s point of view, it was a pleasure. It is nice to have something to share. So little of our lives get shared with others. Mama and I enjoy every chance we get to add a benefit, an encouragement, a respite to the lives of those we are able to touch in that way. This setting, our farm, our house, our flocks and herds, our isolation, is especially suited to sharing our lives in that way.

Tonight, we will have our Thanksgiving dinner and mid-week service. While I have specific work assignments to complete, Mama will be preparing the dishes and desserts we will be adding to the fares of this evening’s meal. This get together is one of the highlights of our year. Having suffered through the isolation and separation and fear of the past two years of Covid-mongering, it will be nice to spend time together in this type of setting.

Everyone is looking forward to it – me and Mama included.

Goats away, Mrs. Claus’s nails, watching the fire, packing and planning

Friday afternoon, our two goats were picked up and taken to their new home. At the birthday party that evening the little goats were a huge hit with the two-year-old birthday girl and well as with all in attendance. I was going to ask for an update yesterday at church, but I totally forgot. My mind was occupied with other things, but Mama and I are confident that the little goats will ingratiate themselves to their new family in short order. Since the tow will become a breeding pair, there are some challenges to be overcome by their new owners, but that will all sort itself out quickly – otherwise they will have kids in their little goat yard well before they planned to do so.

Later that evening Mama and I met up with Red and Joanna so that Mama could apply the nails Joanne had bought from Mama. The nail sets were chosen to match the theme of each coming weekend’s Santa appearances, so this will be a regular Friday evening occurrence until after Christmas. We met at Dairy Queen in Decatur. Red and Joanna are always pleasant to be around, so we know it would be an enjoyable get together. We had a quick meal before Mama got started. I am not enamored with Dairy Queen food, but we made the best of it. Mama was hoping there would be a general interest in what was happening during the time she applied the nails to Mrs. Claus’s hands, but there was not – at least, there was not at that application. We still have four or five more times to do so. Joanna was certainly willing to be gawked upon for the application. She is a good sport and loves the Color Street appliques.

Saturday evening, we had our second of the two schedules Open House events. Only two ladies and one youngster showed up, but we had a great time. I reflected with Mama after everyone had left that it might have been better that we had limited participation for the two nights so that we could get used to what it took to be prepared and so that we could give individual attention to all involved in the application process. Of course, we were praying for a larger audience, but I am not convinced we were ready for that.  Saturday evening, all the ladies put on the Thanksgiving nails sets and Mama was supposed to get a picture of the completed applications, but she forgot. Likewise on Sunday, we forgot, so the event went undocumented. Mama made some nice sales from the two Open House events, but mostly this was a test and I think we profited from trying the idea out. Where we will go from here is still in question.

I started a fire in the burn pit on the patio just before the Open House started Satu evening and it was burning well by the time our guests arrived. I spent the evening sitting on the patio enjoying the fire. The night was cool, and the fire was warm. A wonderful combination. I am planning on repeating the process Thursday evening after we finish our Thanksgiving celebration. I was thinking we would have a crowd for dinner that day, but all our potential invitees have made other plans. Trace and Krystal and the kids will be with us, so we will have a busy houseful, but it will be more manageable and more intimate than originally planned. It should be a good downtime for everyone. A bonfire is always a good centerpiece to relax around, and the evening is forecast to be cold. A fire will be nice.

Thanksgiving morning, I will be dropping Victoria off at the airport. Her flight is scheduled to leave DFW at 5 am, so she will need to be at the airport by 3 am or very nearly so. Destination Honduras. The packing has been happening in earnest as she tries to stuff all the items shipped to us for the trip into the suitcases she is allowed while not exceeding the weight limit of each. Truly a challenge. Cori uses these visits to Honduras as a means of delivery of needed books, difficult clothing items, unavailable supplies and generally available goods from the US to her family and friends in Honduras. It is a good opportunity to get the goods in short order and we go not mind. However, it can be a chore to get everything to her with limited means to do so. With that as our goal, we are packing, weighing, repacking and reweighing suitcases to meet the requirements. What does not make the trip with Victoria will go with me and Mama when we go in February. Lord willing!

We are still working on getting to New Jersey over Christmas. So, our Honduras trip is on the back burner for the moment. Hopefully, we can get both trips sorted out soon.  

Our first Open House, freeze prep

It took most of the day to do the requisite cleaning to satisfy Mama that the house was ready for entertaining, but with Victoria’s help Mama was pleased with the overall effort by late in the afternoon. I did little things as we progressed in setting up the living room for guests, but largely kept working at my desk in the bedroom. Once I signed out for the day, I worked through the evening feeding while Mama made some dips for our expected guests. We were fairly certain that we were overpreparing but hope springs eternal. Vegetables were sliced and made ready for that tray. Meats and cheeses were sliced and made ready for that tray.  All the prepared food items were repackaged and set in the refrigerator to be set out when, or if, anyone showed up. When the prep was done, we waited.

Alissa and Aliza, true to their word, were the first to arrive. While I busied myself with getting the snack trays set out, Mama began entertaining. A few minutes later two of my coworkers arrived. Claude and Alyse are both employed at Energy Worldnet, Alyse works in the Education department with me and Claude is one of the managers in the Compliance Department. They have two children, Cadence (a teenager), and Bear (nine, maybe ten, years old). Both Alyse and Cadence were very interested in Color Street but neither had ever bought or tried to apply the nail sets. So, last night they got their chance – with Mama’s help. Alissa had also never tried the nail sets, so this was her first time as well to apply the appliques. Alyse and Alissa both bought several sets to take home with them. Cadence was truly excited about the nails. Aliza, at the ripe old age of eight, has been Mama’s little Color Street champion for months but this was her first time to apply the nails by herself. She was mostly pleased with her first effort, but definitely saw some room for improvement.

Claude, Bear and I spent the evening visiting, looking at the improvements made in the shop since Claude helped me relocate the fence on the East side of the shop. That was a couple years ago. He was impressed by the progress and the setup of the shop especially since he is now working on a shop of his own. We talked a variety of subjects, mostly hunting. Bear was a chatterbox. He alone covered a range of topics from dinosaurs and Komodo dragons to spiders and flies, to the feeding habits of coyotes which we heard howling in the distance. He managed to keep both his father and me on our toes for two solid hours as he tested one hypothesis after another. It was fun. It has been a long time since I was around a nine-year-old that was that chatty. It brought back a wealth of good memories.

All in all, I consider the evening a success. It at least proved to me that once a person gets a chance to see the product Color Street offers, there is an immediate recognition of the value, the quality, and the ease of use of this product. The abundance of variety in the color and design of the nail strips is almost too much to take in, but it is obvious that there is something available for everyone who has any desire to have their nails adorned. Now we just have to expose more people to the personal potential for this product to impact their lives. It was a good start.

Over the course of the afternoon, mostly during my lunch break, I took the time to cover and wrap the waterline at the corral. I have several lengths of heat tape to apply to exposed lines to prevent freezing. It just takes a bit of time to get the wrapping done. It did freeze overnight, so the labor was not in vain and while I was working on prepping the line, our neighbor came over to check on the heifers he has on our property. We chatted a bit and I asked how long he was wanting to leave the heifers with us. He had no definite date so we agreed that they would spend the winter on our small pasture. It will be good for them to have the added protection of the barn through the winter. We enjoy having them and they help us ensure we meet the ag exemption requirements. A win-win all around. Our neighbor is also looking for a calf for me and Mama to feed out along with his two heifers. That would be a blessing.

Today is the calm before our next Open House Saturday night. We purposely scheduled two so that there would be more options for those who had interest in coming. We all laed busy lives, so options are a necessity. We already have one family committed to coming Saturday and I hope several more from my office will come as well. Time will tell. At any rate, we are ready - or we will be in short order.

The work in preparing for yesterday evening will ensure we are well prepared for Saturday's soiree.

Freeze prep, Mama’s ornaments, goat sales, measuring failure

This afternoon, along with the preparations for our Open House, I will need to prep our waterlines for an overnight freeze. This will be the first one of the season and is forecast to only be for this one night, so I will not have to make lengthy investments of time. I will need only to remove hoses from the yard hydrants, cover the spigots at the house and wrap the waterline at the corral. The line at the corral is the one I am most concerned about. Because of limited funds when I had to put that line together it is my most vulnerable waterline. It is comprised of all plastic parts – none of which will survive even a relatively light freeze. Fortunately, I have the means of getting that line through this freeze and because we now have the money available to do so, I can replace the plastic line above ground with a yard hydrant that will be far more tolerant of cold weather. It is a disappointment that for the first of our two Open House get togethers it will be that cold. I was hoping to have a fire in the burn pit on the patio, but it may be too cold for that. Saturday night should be great for a fire.

Mama got a text from the young lady who puts together the monthly boxes for her subscribers. In that text  was a picture of the contents of the boxes going out for November. Among the items included in those boxes are the ornaments Mama made for that occasion. Everyone was thrilled with how well the ornaments turned out. Me included, but I have to keep reminding Mama that it is far easier and more profitable to sell Color Street nails than to sell crafts. Mama loves the crafting, and it is more a labor of love than a business venture, but as a practical matter of producing income and being able to share a business with others, Color Street is the way to go. Nonetheless, Mama was well pleased to have been able to participate in the creation of those sixty ornaments.

Speaking of crafting, we were able to clear out all Mama’s craft supplies from the living room over the course of the day yesterday. Everything was packed in totes and staged in various locations around the house, mostly in the garage. I have a strong suspicion that most, if not all, of those items will eventually work their way back out into the open between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but for now we have a usable table in the living room. That will definitely help tonight. Though we do not know how many to expect, we know that several are planning to come. Some of those will be exposed to Color Street for the first time.

Last night at church Mama received a check for the sale of two of our goats to a family that is buying the little ones as a birthday gift for their granddaughter. Last year the same family bought two mini-Highland cows as a birthday gift for the same grandchild. It did not take long to realize that the tiny heifer and bull would not fit in the category of pets long-term. A year later and they are both quite large – especially for a mini breed. So, the family decided that goats might make a more enduring pet for their granddaughter. With that in mind, Mama sold them a little girl and a little buckling to raise and eventually breed to produce their own offspring.

I am certain, they will have more fun out of the goats than the cattle. The two little ones will be picked up tomorrow afternoon and presented to the birthday girl at a party tomorrow night. It will be fun to keep up with the experience over the next years. I am also hoping that they toy with the idea of selling us the Highland cattle in the years to come. Mama and I would love to have some on the farm, but they are far too pricey for us to justify the cost at this time. However, we would happily provide a home to some that were being moved off a property where they were no longer desired.

So, Mama and I have a busy afternoon and hopefully a busy evening. I told Mama last night we will keep trying different ways to communicate the Color Street opportunity to people around us. Obviously, we are destined to more failures than successes, but we will eventually find out what makes sense for us and what connects with those in our area. It is too often true that we give up too quickly on opportunities for growth because failure is difficult to take, but every failure can direct us toward eventual success. Learning what does not work is the way to discover what does work in any given circumstance. So, we will keep trying and use every failure to move this business along. Tonight, we will see if our Open House produces attendees/contacts or not.

One step closer to getting this right.

Respite, business, packing, shopping

Yesterday was the last class I have to teach until after Thanksgiving. It will be good to have a respite in my teaching schedule. As we near the end of this year and look forward to the first quarter of next year we, as a group, are looking back on 2021 to gauge the interest in our class offerings for the coming year. I began this year to record classes that were cancelled or classes in which we had low attendance. Taking those classes off the monthly offering list will lighten my schedule next year and allow for the even spacing of the class I am required to teach most often. That still does not alleviate the need for onboarding an additional trainer to take the load should I retire after next year.

As I was talking with my management Monday, we reflected on the fact that we have been very blessed this year in that I have been healthy – only missing two of my scheduled classes of the almost one hundred I have taught to date. That is a blessing, and I am glad we all realize the significance of it. However, the panic is beginning to build in the conscience of my management that my time with the company is growing short and one year is a limited time in which to train someone to assume my duties in full. Nevertheless, this two-week break will be a benefit to me in allowing me to concentrate my emotional energies on Mama and the Thanksgiving season.

Even with the lighter work schedule, Mama and I will be busy this week. Tomorrow and Saturday evenings we are hosting an Open House for Mama’s Color Street business. I have extended the invitation to all my co-laborers at work and Mama has extended the invitation to all her contacts as well as our church family. We are not sure how many to plan for, but it is going to be set up for a casual come and go sort of event during which Mama will apply and teach others to apply the nail appliques. We will have snacks, drinks, games, and door prizes. I am hoping my manager brings his wife and daughters on one of those evenings. I have certainly made the special invitation to him to do so. His wife is a teacher in a local Middle school and Mama and I have a special interest in getting teachers involved with this great company. With that on the schedule we have a lot of little things to do around the house to be ready for visitors and Mama is in a spin over those preparations.

Most of the work involves packing up and finding places to store the enormous amount of crafting supplies she has accumulated. The cedar wardrobe I outfitted to help is completely full. The chest we moved into the spare bedroom is completely full. Twelve totes are completely full and yet still more storage space is needed. A lot more. It would not be presumptuous to assume we have amassed over $1000 of items that were purchased for less than $5 each. Now we have to hide all of them. Such is life with Mama.

Fortunately, we have the open house scheduled for the evening so, it will be dark before anyone arrives. That limits the amount of effort we are required to put into fixing up the outside of the house and the farm for visitors. I am sure some will want to see the goats and look into the back yard, but we will not need to beautify things too awfully much for those kinds of remote inspections. Sidewalks will be swept and the driveway will be blown clear of the leaves that are quickly accumulation on that surface. Most of the activity will happen inside the house and we can have it presentable in short order. At least that is my expectation.

Amid all that preparation, I need to spend some time shopping for a printer to replace our now defunct unit. The issue is that there are not very many models available in the price range I have set that are compatible with the MacBook I typically print from. The MacBook has the most recent operating system available from Apple and that operating system is not compatible with very many printers. So, I have to read through the list of compatible systems for each printer I look at for purchase and if that operating system is not specifically listed, I have to assume it is not going to work with my MacBook. It has become a frustrating challenge to overcome especially since I have limited time to spend in that shopping endeavor – either online or in store. We will prevail, but it may take more time than I had anticipated.

Somewhere along the line Mama and I will rest a bit, but that will not happen this week. 

Mama’s weekend, my weekend, praising Him

Mama left Friday morning with one of her fellow Color Street marketers. The two of them were to pick up an additional passenger in Ft Worth, but that stylist had to cancel at the last minute. So, Melinda and Mama traveled to Austin in a pleasant, non-hurried fashion. They took the Sequoia because the expectation was that a larger vehicle would be needed to transport the team from the hotel to the conference. That was certainly the case since there were seven in the group attending together. It all worked out well Friday and Saturday as they listened together, ate together, and spent long evenings together.

Sunday was the exception. On Sunday morning I got a frantic call from Mama that something was wrong with the Sequoia. When she demonstrated the issue for me, I could see why she was so frantic. When the vehicle was started, it let off a loud bang, like a small explosion and then continued to rumble loudly – very loudly. After searching among her companions and their friends, a mechanic was found who easily diagnosed the problem. Over Saturday night, someone had stolen the catalytic converter from the Sequoia. As it turns out, Toyota’s and Honda’s have been targeted for such theft. The tow truck driver originally responding to Mama’s call to Triple A, told Mama that it was the fifth call he had had in one week for the same cause. There was much discussion and eventually the mechanic who diagnosed the problem gave Mama a solution and a price to repair the Sequoia and it was towed to his shop.

Meanwhile, Mama and her traveling companion – who is incidentally her upline in Color Street – spent an additional night in Austin. Fortunately, one in the team members above both of them in rank had planned for an extra night stay and invited the two to share her very large room in that hotel. This morning, the mechanic let Mama know that repair was more problematic than he had first thought. Not only did the thieves take the catalytic converter, but they also took the two oxygen sensors that are in the piping with the converter. Thought the mechanic was confident he could get a generic catalytic converter; he is less confident of finding the O2 sensors. We await the answer while Mama and Melinda, who refused to leave Mama on her own, spend still more time stranded in Austin. Please pray for her as the Lord works out this inconvenient situation. That this is the result of thievery leaves a very sour taste in our mouths. Although, the frustrating situation is made a bit sweeter by the comfort and companionship of friends as well as the multitude of prayer support Mama is receiving. I will say again, Color Street and the individuals who are building this network are marvelous individuals and Mama is part of a great team in Color Street.  

My weekend was far less interesting. I did go to the auction that Mama was interested in, but it was a bust. As I looked over the diverse items to be auctioned off, there were only a few I was really interested in. Fortunately, those items were among the first to be sold. Unfortunately, all of them sold for far more than I was willing to pay. Oddly enough, not everything sold high. Some things were practically given away but none of those interested me in any way. I stayed only about an hour but watched as five or more of the things for sale were passed over by the entire crowd of about sixty bidders. The house and three acres sold for about ninety thousand dollars than I would have been willing to pay, but I am not sure if it was too high for the market in our area. It certainly gave me reason to hope that the appraisal done on our property will come out somewhat higher than Mama and I have anticipated, but things do not seem to work out that way for us. Nevertheless, God is always good to us.

I worked the hives, cleaned up in the garage and the shop, cleaned out the console in the truck and generally stayed busy through the late morning and early afternoon. About 2:30 the Wycoff clan came over with two trailers to load up firewood. I thought they might be disappointed with what I had to offer but they took everything down to the three-year-old firewood laying in the pile. They virtually cleaned up the entire stack of wood. I was very pleased.

Mama was concerned that we have some firewood available to us, but I have a large stack of firewood in the barn lot that we can pull from as needed. Plus, we have three dead trees that must be cut down this winter, so we will have plenty of firewood should we be able to get our fireplace restored to service.

So, that is a short summary of our eventful and expensive weekend. I am curious to see how all this works out for our good so that we can glorify our Lord in it. He promised that it would in Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” He is always looking for our good and we are always looking for His Glory.

Time will well, but we will continue to praise Him through it all.

Dinner and Color Street, Mama’s travel, the weekend

Mama and I spent the evening with Red and Joanne yesterday. Red is a former colleague, now retired. He and his wife are delightful people. Red is a professional Santa Clause. A part for which he is certainly type-cast. He has the beard, the belly, and the laugh to be very convincing. Anyway, we were invited to dinner partly to just visit and catch up, but also so that Mama could apply one of the new Christmas nail sets from Color Street to Joanna’s nails. Since she will be accompanying Red to a couple Santa gigs this weekend as Mrs. Clause, she wanted to look the part down to the manicure. Mama even donated a pair of Christmas earrings to the cause. Both of them enjoy the Santa moments in various homes through this season, but Red enjoys it significantly more than Joanne. While she enjoys Christmas, he enjoys the performance. So much so that he stays in character all year long. He even has business cards that he passes out to little ones who stare at him with that wonder of recognition. The card has a picture of Santa Clause and simply says, “Yes, I am.” to answer their unspoken question. We had a fun, relaxing evening and Mama made a great sale to Joanne. Hopefully, we will get some follow-up as Joanne wears the appliques to the appointments Santa has over the weekend.  

We squeezed the evening into a very busy schedule for me and Mama. Busy for Mama more so than for me. Mama is meeting up with several of her upline in Color Street this morning to travel as a group to Austin. Mama’s second consecutive weekend in Austin. They will be attending a marketing seminar. I believe all but two of her Color Street team will be attending as a group. Some of the ladies are traveling from Idaho and Colorado as well as Michigan to meet each other face-to-face and participate together in the motivational session. It will not be cheap, but the costs are being shared among the team, so we are getting off pretty easy on this weekend-long training.

Mama will be driving the North Texas part of the team down in our vehicle, so we had to take the time before our evening with Red and Joanne to get the Sequoia washed and vacuumed. Mama has been softly complaining about the state of the exterior of the vehicle for a few days now, so she was greatly relieved to have a clean vehicle to provide to her group, several of whom are millionaires from their individual Color Street businesses. Obviously, Mama is a little intimidated to cruise around with her wealthy upline, but they all love Mama, and this will be a great chance to adsorb the strength and confidence these ladies have to share as they converse and interact through the weekend. I am curious to know how much they live out their business without thinking about the way they interact with people around them. How they create interest. How they collect contact information. How they sell themselves as well as Color Street.

I am prayerfully confident that this is a business in which Mama can succeed. I am convinced of the worth of pursuing a successful business with Color Street. The operating philosophy, the largely Christian focus and the attentiveness to the stylists actually working the frontline for the company are all indicators of a great company. They routinely give to worthy causes (several million dollars this year alone) and have a heart for those in need. I am impressed by the leadership in Color Street and want to help Mama succeed. At present, she is beginning to see her part in making that success happen and the Lord is blessing her continued efforts to help others make money through Color Street. Presenting this company, this product, and this opportunity to others so they can join in the success is the foundational principle of the overall business model offered. An innovative product in a virtually untapped market. Now is the time to get busy and grow with this young company.

I have some chores lined out for tomorrow, not the least of which is to attend an estate auction in Bridgeport. I am not sure why, but Mama is very concerned that I attend. There are some items I could identify from the pictures posted on Facebook that would be of interest to me, but we do not really have the money to buy “stuff” that I mostly already have. But I will go as promised and see if anything grabs my attention and is bid below the price I set for the item. Other than that, I will continue to work through a small projects list I have for the farm. Since the little bucklings are going to be in the pig building for a time, I will place the glass door we have over the walkthrough entry and put up a wind block over the animal passage into the building in the hope of limiting the wind blowing through the small enclosure.

Working the hives and cleaning the goat areas will round out the remaining hours of daylight I have available tomorrow. I do love this life., especially sharing it with Mama.

Repairs, sales, animals

After several long delays, the repairman showed up yesterday morning to complete the repair on our upright freezer. He was able to complete the repairs in about thirty minutes. The bill for that repair was $170. Most of that charge resulted from an $80 charge for labor and a $25 charge to drive to our house from ten miles away. That follows up a $90 service charge to diagnose the needed repairs. I was floored by the expense. Mama and I will not use this particular repairman again, but we had no choice but pay the bill. At any rate, the freezer is fixed, and we will be able to refill it with items dumped into our chest freezer. That will happen today because we will be getting some beef from the Wycoff’s which will need to be put into the chest freezer. Because the 45 minutes spent in repairing the freezer cost us $250, Mama told me I was in the wrong profession. Maybe, but I doubt it.

On our way home from church Sunday morning, Mama and I stopped at an Estate Sale that has been going on for several weekends now. As we looked over the leftovers remaining in the rambling house, we stumbled across a cedar chest of drawers. It was beautiful. All marked prices were 75% off tat day so we got the dresser for $50. Mama bought a few items for crafting, but her purchases did not total ten dollars. We got off cheap. At this particular home Mama and I have looked longingly at a greenhouse on the property near the house. When Mama asked about purchasing the greenhouse, we were told the price was $1000.

Not a bad price but there was a caveat. The structure had to be removed from the property withing two weeks. That would not be a huge task, but perhaps more than I could handle if I had the money to make the purchase. However, an additional limitation was placed on the removal. There was no access into the area other than a walk-through gate, so the use of a tractor to handle larger pieces of the dismantled structure would not be an option. That would require a complete dismantling of the structure so it would be carried by hand through the small gate in the fence. That was a definite no-go. IT was a sad but practical decision to pass on the purchase. Now, Mama and I will continue to drive by the property on every trip to town and know that we had to pass up on our only opportunity to have that greenhouse on our property. Nevertheless, I plan on building a greenhouse in our garden at some point – but I will have to start from scratch.

Mama took Mr. Plumley to Bowie to gather pecans from a tree on the property owned by the couple who got us started in the myotonic goats. Rick, the real force behind the success of that line of goats died about a year ago. Nancy, his wife, is now selling the property. It is understandable that the property is too much for her to manage. She has some health issues that limit her physical activity so the goats, the horses and all other livestock have been sold. The property will be closed on after Thanksgiving and she will vacate the property within 30 days. The one animal population that still inhabit the farm with her is her Banty chicken flock. She really loves her chickens.

Since I had Mama call Nancy to see if we could buy part of that flock because we are down to only a few Bantam hens and we really like the breed as well. That call connected us to Nancy’s current plight. Where she is moving, she will only be able to keep about four hens and she has several dozen. Mama and Nancy worked out a time to get fifteen or twenty of the hens before the farm is left to the buyers. We do not know the price she will charge, if any, but the timing is a win-win.

Mama and I relocated three of the boy goats to the pig building yesterday morning. They are not happy about the new housing, but they will get used to it. In addition to relocating the weanling boys, I will move two young females into the paddock with Julian in the next few days so they can get bred. That will necessitate moving Midas into the shelter I just expanded adjacent to the boy’s paddock. This is the fun part of having goats.

I found an interesting article this morning dealing with the vaccines being coerced upon us and our children. Here is the link if you are interested. https://emeralddb3.substack.com/p/what-is-luciferase

A great trip, meeting Fa Park, technology

Mama and I left the farm Friday morning headed south to Austin. On the way down we made a slight detour into Burleson, TX to drop off the ornaments Mama had made for the gift boxes being sent out this month. We had a wonderful trip down to Austin. It was one of those days that everything seemed to work out exactly as we would have wanted. Good roads. Good traffic. Every stop we made seemed to be perfectly timed by the Lord. We got to our hotel in Pflugerville, TX a little before 3 pm and were told that the room was not ready; however, the hotel was situated right behind a large shopping area. A Target store was immediately across the street from the hotel and a Dollar Tree – two of the stops Mama desperately wanted to make – was very short walk from Target.

Due to the hotel we had chosen, we got to fulfill the two most important shopping excursions before we got checked into the hotel. Mama was able to find almost everything she wanted, and it cost me a reasonable price. The hotel was very reasonable priced and was brand new. They had opened only a week before we made our reservations. It was about a thirty-minute drive to the downtown hotel that was the venue for the conference Mama and I were attending. The several hours we spent in that hotel conference room were at the tail end of a weeklong conference Color Street does in various cities across the USA to meet with, encourage and get face to face feedback from senior level stylists.

We got our picture taken with Fa Park, the designer of Color Street appliques and CEO of the corporation. He was delightful. Very personable. He spoke for more than an hour following the other presentation scheduled that evening. I was thoroughly impressed by the man. His ten-year journey in creating the technology, the machinery and the market for Color Street was inspirational to say the least. He had no training in the needed skills to make the machine to produce his product. He is a trained opera singer by profession. So, he had to learn the engineering, metal working, welding, chemistry, physics, etc., to develop this process and the machinery to mass produce the nail sets. Through untold failures in product creation and rejections for financial support, he made this happen. In fact, there was an offer at one point to buy the technology from him by a well-known make-up company for $14 million. He rejected the offer even though he was very nearly broke. Now Color Street is a billion-dollar company, the fifth largest multi-level marketing company in the world – selling only in the US until this year. It was a very inspiring story to hear from the man who lived it. All that accomplishment and he still serves as the choir director at his church where he has done so for over thirty years.

There were about three hundred people in attendance most of whom were already members of the Color Street Family. There were, however, several who were new to Color Street who were offered a huge incentive to sign up. As far as I know, all those individuals made that purchase and commitment. Mama and I each got a gift of two packets of nails and a necklace for showing up. Fa Park took time to have his picture taken with all who were interested in doing so and signed one of the nail sets as a memento of the occasion. Mama and I had a great evening. I became more convinced than ever how truly great a company this is, and I am committed to helping Mama succeed in this business.

A couple weeks ago I was invited to join in a medical study that would allow me to participate in the development of an app that would be able to determine atrial fibrillation in its early stages. I agreed to participate but I was placed in a group that required an Apple watch. To facilitate that purchase a Series 7 45mm aluminum cased watch was offered for $79. After a couple failed attempts, I was able to complete that purchase. The watch arrived yesterday evening. I am currently a bit overloaded with technology. I am wearing the Apple watch on my right wrist and the Fossil hybrid watch on my left wrist. The medical study requires me to have the Apple watch on as much as possible, but I am loathe to give up my hybrid watch.

To wear the Apple watch I purchased a special band that I felt was more secure than the band provided with the watch, but I am rethinking that choice because the watch is large to begin with and the special band to accommodate the 45 mm watch is larger still. I will continue for a few days as I am now to evaluate what I should do to make sure the Apple watch is worn continuously, but I do not know if wearing two watches is ideal long term.

I certainly will not do so at church.

Rain, farm sounds, travel plans, positive outcomes

Over the late evening yesterday and through the night we had rain. A total of 1 ½ inches fell on our little farm. It was a welcome accumulation of moisture. The soft rain between the sporadic showers will not add to the levels in our stock tanks or creeks because the dry ground absorbed every drop as it connected with the landscape. Since the weather has turned cooler, I have not needed to water as often as I had during the heat of the Summer, but I still try to water once per week to ensure the roots of my berry plants and fruit trees stay hydrated through the colder months. Rain gives me a respite form that evening core. Amid the shorter day and cooler weather, the trees are starting to go to sleep. Leaves are falling in bunches as the sap within the tree recedes into the base and roots. One good frost and a strong wind following, and the trees will be bared as they rest through the Winter.

Between the rain and the cool morning, the sounds around the farm are more subdued. The chickens, who do not mind being out in the soft rain, will run for cover in the downpours. The goats, who do not like to get their feet wet, stay inside the barn long after the rain has ceased. That presents a challenge to me because the more time they spend in the shelter, the more they pee and poop within that shelter. Any enclosure can quickly take on the aroma of those deposits and require more frequent cleaning over the wetter and colder months. I collect and compost all the refuse for use in the garden and around my fruit trees, so nothing goes to waste. It just makes more work for me. Who would have thought that cleaning up urine saturated hay and goat droppings would be a labor of love?

The huge calves that our neighbor has in our barn lot are faring well. They are gradually eating down the grass that Mama and I left to grow for their benefit. When they are moved out of that area, we will mow the entire four acres so it does not look untended, and I will continue my ongoing project of thinning out the saplings from the mott of trees at the stock tank in the barn lot to give it a more presentable appearance. Years ago, Grandpa mowed and cleaned the acreage and it looked like a park. I would like to get that look back, but I have limited time to commit to that project so it has waited until the Fall and Winter to move up the list.

Mama will be very busy tomorrow as I teach a class. She must first meet a lady in Arlington to deliver the sixty ornaments she made to be included in gift boxes sent out by a mutual friend. One of those subscription deals offered by the lady who ordered the ornaments to be made for inclusion in her November boxes. Once back home, Mama will be meeting with the repairman who now has the part required to put our freezer back in service. Then she will be meeting with a real estate appraiser whose assessment of the property was ordered for some finance paperwork Mama and I require. We are looking forward to all three of these events. Being paid for Mama’s work on the ornaments, getting the freezer back in service and getting a sense of the current value of our farm.

All that presses up against a deadline for activities this week because Mama and I are traveling this weekend. Mama has signed up for a Color Street event in Austin, TX which will happen Friday evening. One of the reasons we are making the quick trip south is to meet the founder of Color Street, Fa Park. This will not be a long trip since we only signed up to attend the event Friday night. We will be heading home Saturday morning. That trip home may be interrupted by several stops enroute, but we are planning to be home Saturday night. Daylight Saving’s Time ends that night so we will gain an hour overnight. Perfect timing for the extra sleep we may need.

More generally, I have to admit that I was happy to see the outcomes of several of the off-year elections, particularly in Virginia and New Jersey. The undeniable statement made was that ordinary folks have had enough of being told we are second-class citizens to an entitled, out of touch elite who see most of us as an obstacle to how they would choose to indoctrinate our children, run the affairs of our country, and spend the hard-earned money we give them in the taxes we are required to pay. Maybe, the recent outcomes will send a clear message to the upper echelons of our elitists dictators that we are not happy with the current course of their conduct and remind then that power in this republic is granted by “we the people.”

Time will tell, but I am moderately hopeful.

Successes, our picnic

 After combining two hives Thursday over my lunch break, I could not resist the temptation to peek in the hive to see if the integration had been successful. So, Friday evening, I lifted the upper brood box to see how much the bees had chewed through the paper I put in between the hive boxes to separate the colonies. From the limited view I had into the hive, it was clear that the bees had made multiple openings in the paper and were busy working in the upper box. I did not see any indication of fighting. I am not sure what I would have seen to indicate a battle, but I am guessing it would have been somewhat obvious. What I did see was that all the bees were busily working on the honey and the brood. That was encouraging to witness.

Since combining the hives I have begun to feed the bees some heavy syrup to stimulate them to finish and cap the honey stores in the hive for the coming cold months. I will only be able to feed syrup for a couple more weeks since the bees will not take the syrup if the syrup is cold. They do everything they can to keep the hive warm for the sake of the brood growing within the hive. Mama and I will not be able to harvest any of the honey for ourselves. It will all go to the bees. I had to treat the hives for Varroa mites with a treatment that makes the honey unsuitable for human consumption. At least, that is the recommendation of the manufacturer. There are other treatments that do not potentially taint the honey, but I did not have that available. Thought it would be nice to get honey of our own, it would be far better to do all we can to ensure the bees can thrive through the winter. We can buy local homey. All in all, the experiment of combining the hives seems to have gone well.

I was feeling so rotten Saturday morning that I did not go Bus Calling as is my usual custom. Instead, I worked slowly on expanding the shelter we have in a small enclosure next to the bucks. The shelter I put up last year to serve as an isolation area was too small to be practical and I had lots of pallets to double its size. So, I swung one side out to lengthen the back of the shelter and added two pallets to the side that was now needed to enclose the shelter. The rework was fairly quick and although I had to use a patchwork of metal siding the cover the exterior of the shelter. I did manage to get all of the outside covered. It looks awful, but it will keep the rain and wind off the goats we house there. To put a roof on the little building I had to buy some material at Lowe’s. It cost me $80 for two sheets of cheap roofing material and four 2 by 4s, but the shelter is complete now and we can use it this month to separate the two bucks to allow Julian to breed, Honey and Sugar. Midas cannot participate since those are his offspring. Lord willing, their babies will be born next April.

There was limited time to work Saturday because Mama and I had committed to taking our Chinese girls with us to the Church picnic that evening. We have the picnic as near to annually as possible, but we had to skip last year for obvious reasons. At the picnic we roast hot dogs over an open fire. The chili is also warned over the fire, so we start the fire around 4:30 pm to allow it to burn down sufficiently to provide us the bed of coals to cook the hotdogs with the intention of eating by 6 pm. It worked out pretty that evening. Hotdogs had all the trimmings available, and our girls loved the food and the festivities. The area we meet in is an open area under several large oak trees on fifty acres owned by members of our church. Several lights are hung in the trees to allow the picnic to continue well after dark. It was a very pleasant day and as darkness fell most of us put on the light jackets or vests we had brought in anticipation of the cool evening.

Mama drew a group of children to her as she always does. This time she was applying Color Street nails to the tiny fingernails of the girls. All the appliques she used were leftovers from nail strips se had used on herself, but the smaller pieces were enough to do the hands of five or six little ones. It is interesting to watch Mama. Wherever we go, she draws the same crowd to her. It has always been so. A couple of the ladies, mothers of the young ones standing in rapt attention around Mama were remarking to the crowd Mama has constantly about her. It is part of our ministry at the church and everywhere else we can apply that calling.

It is fun to see Mama casually, without considering the impact she is having succeed so easily.