Completion, offloading/sorting, New Year

Other than some small touches, the hall bathroom is completed. We need to make a small adjustment to a cabinet and get the countertop purchased for it sealed with polyurethane, but everything else is done. It looks very nice. Norman took his time to get things right and it shows in the final outcome. To complete all the final touches, I will make the shoe molding required to seal the floor, but other than that and a few small touches to the paint, the bathroom is set and ready for years of use in its remodeled state. It is wonderful to have it done and come out looking so nice.

Grandma, Grandpa and Norman traveled to Wichita Falls this morning to see if the Apple store there could get him through the required steps to verify his Apple ID. This was the only location that had an available appointment to see if the reset could be accomplished. It could not. Norman set the phone number for the ID to a phone number he got in a temporary situation and cannot remember that number. Without that specific number, his account is fully locked down. Unfortunately, he did not include a backup number for such a consequence as this. That being said, access to certain programs and apps on his current phone will be locked down January 1.

In the outing, they will stop at Sam’s in Wichita Falls and, on the way back to the farm collect another full load of containers from his storage unit in Bowie. He hopes to empty that unit this month. He has been paying for three storage units for many months. One in Florida, one in Texas and one in West Virginia. Taking this one out of use will not only lower his expenses, but it will also help him consolidate his many forgotten items and get a better handle on what all he has in his possession. Much of the totes, boxes and trash bags are filled with items of questionable use. Either being too old to be put into use or too worn out to be put into use. Odds and ends of plumbing and electrical work long since done. Many useless leftover parts not yet discarded. Items thrown haphazardly into totes in too many hurried moves from one living quarter to another. Sorting through all the clutter will certainly reveal some useful keepsakes, tools and generally practical pars for his remodeling business, but it should eliminate those useless items that no longer need to be kept – especially when such retention requires a monthly charge to safeguard them.

One stack of more than fifteen totes, boxes and bags is already sitting at the corner of my shop. That will be augmented by an additional collection being hauled to the farm today. I am almost certain that this will not have emptied his storage unit – not by a long shot – but it will have made a dent into the accumulation of the hoarded containers. In preparation for this eventuality, Grandpa already bought shelves which we placed in our well house so he could separate his things from Norman’s things. That was probably a wise move on Grandpa’s part to ensure that anything important to him remained in his possession. Though I have to admit that much of what Grandma and Grandpa have stored in our well house will never be used by them again. Nevertheless, it is set aside and available to them should they ever find a need to check on it.

With the weather much warmer than just a week ago, life on the farm is once again in a routine that is easy to manage. For the next ten days or so we will be able to leave the hoses hooked up to the hydrants and spigots making it far easier to get water to our animals and birds. Mama has a routine of refreshing the water in the ducks swimming pool every other day. That takes a good bit of both time and water to get done, but the way the ducks celebrate the fresh water in the pool makes it worth the effort. I don’t know if this current weather qualifies as an Indian summer, but it is quite temperate for late December.

To add to the ease of the weather, I have not been required to report to the office this week. That gives me opportunity to split the cores with Mama every morning. It will seem a hardship to go to the office or the HQ house when required after the first of the year, but for the moment, we will enjoy our little break – and our time together.  

Saturday night, New Year’s Eve, we will spend the late evening at the church for a fellowship. We will not stay past 10 pm ourselves but that option will be open to anyone who would like to do so. I have not watched a New Year come in for many years. To me it is merely a change of the calendar, not the new beginning some try to make it out to be. Since we will have regular church services the next morning, it does not make sense to stay up any later than would be polite to our church family. Though my wife and kids enjoy long visiting fellowships, those kinds of game nights are not really my thing.

My endurance will only take me so far, but I will try to enjoy it as much as I can.

Preparations, bathroom remodel, Christmas mostly on Saturday, Travel to Honduras, Maggie and crew

It has been an interesting Christmas break. With the weather becoming brutally cold, I had to take extra precautions to protect against waterlines freezing in the 9° overnight temperatures. Unfortunately, I did not have the barn lot well house sufficiently warm and ended up having to replace two valves in the well house, which left us without water available at the coop for several days. That meant that I had to haul water from the well house at the house to all the animals and birds for those days – twice per day. It was a chore, but we managed. It certainly made us aware f the amount of water required in all the various areas where we have waterers placed.

For two days we put out only small amounts of water because everything not immediately drunk by the animals the container serviced, froze within a couple hours. Most mornings I got by with only twenty gallons – four five-gallon buckets – of water to be hauled. In the evening, there was a little less water required. My shoulders are still aching from the efforts. The two spigots on the front of the house froze even though they were covered with protective wraps. Each had to be carefully thawed to keep them from bursting. On the bright side, we never lost power and we managed to keep a fire going in the fireplace for several days. That added a special warmth to the house as well as providing a nice Christmassy ambience.  

Meanwhile, Norman has been remodeling the hall bath. He chose the absolute coldest day of the year to remove the cabinets – which had to be hauled out of the house via the front door while the cold poured into the house from the 40 mph winds blowing against that side of the house. Even Grandpa had to scoot his chair closer to the fire from the chill those winds brought. As of today, Norman is gaining ground on the remodel. The painting will be done today. The flooring will be laid today. The new toilet will be set today. Perhaps even the vanity and cabinets will be placed today. Everything should be completed tomorrow. Keeping the bathroom minimally usable for Grandma and Grandpa has been a priority – especially for nighttime use, and that was well managed.

Prior to the deep freeze hitting us, I took some time to ensure all the vehicles had sufficient antifreeze in the radiator systems. I found several of the vehicles low on fluid, so it was well worth the effort since I seemed to be behind on my maintenance routines. I was more concerned about the tractor than any of our cars or trucks, but that system was ready for the cold. Just in case, I moved the tractor out of the north winds (which reached 50 mph at times) and parked it behind the well house through the brunt of the storm. Mama’s vehicle, which normally sits inside the garage, had to be parked in the driveway since the garage is being used for staging for the bathroom remodel. Mama is anxious to get her garage back, but the short-term loss is well worth the trade-off.

We celebrated Christmas mostly on Saturday. That is when we had our big Christmas meal anyway. We did not exchange gifts until Sunday afternoon. For the majority of the time we were in Christmas mode, Grandpa was not feeling well. He spent a good amount of those days in bed and when he felt up to some activity, he tended the fire we kept burning for several days. Our gift exchange was brief, but it was fun. We did not buy a lot of gifts for each other. Focusing instead on little meaningful tokens of love and appreciation – favoring practical items that met a need.

Over the holiday break, Mama and I finally got our tickets to Honduras. I spent over an hour on the phone with a representative from American Airlines. We defaulted to that carrier because we had a balance of over $700 each from a cancelled travel in last July. We required help from a representative at American Airlines to apply that balance to our Honduras trip. Fortunately, with most of the cost already on our account, we needed only an additional $200 per ticket to purchase the tickets. So, that is done, and the trip is on the books. I will schedule the time off at work and make all needed arrangements to have classes covered in my absence.

Over the Christmas break Maggie managed to contract pneumonia while Cathryn still battled some type of viral infection – which she had had for a couple weeks prior. I am not sure if Walter had any serious symptoms for Maggie to deal with, but suffice it to say, they have had a challenging Christmas time. Hopefully, they will all recover soon and be back to a healthy, noisy, busy household.

Chase shared videos of Owen and Gailyn opening gifts that we sent to them and Brittany Facetimed with us as the girls opening their gifts. In all the Christmas packages I included a small, very bright flashlight for each of the grandchildren. Turns out those flashlights were a huge hit. I think that in each household where the flashlights were energized, the parents had to take possession of the flashlights in order to get things settled down. As we were assembling the packages, Mama was less than enthusiastic about the inclusion of the tiny flashlights, but it turned out to be a good addition. At least from the grandchildren’s perspective.

All in all, it was a god Christmas.

False hope, goat swaps, more chickens, brutal cold

In one of those “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” moments, we were sent on a wild goose chase Friday night. Mama had spent the previous couple days in text and phone conversations with a potential seller of a very nice RV Victoria had found on Craigslist. It sounded legit based on the conversations Mama had had with the seller, so Mama put a $500 deposit on the purchase to hold the RV for us until we could drive over to do a visual inspection and, if it met our expectations, to pick it up. The trip took well over an hour in heavy traffic. I had some doubts about the purchase, but the seller had a Navy Federal Credit Union account to which Mama was easily able to transfer the cash, so this appeared to be the real deal. It was not until we got to the address provided by the seller that the con was evident.

The house at the address was a mansion in a very affluent area of Dallas. There was no RV in sight and no seller to meet as he had promised when we began our trek to meet him at the address. Mama called several times. She texted several times. No answer, so I knocked on the door of the house and was met by a couple young Chinese ladies who were housesitting for the owner. We got taken. It was a bitter pill to swallow, especially for Mama.

Victoria was not overly upset about the loss of the $500, but she was VERY disappointed. No camper for her – and she had had her hopes up that this would be the one. Everything seemed to be lining up perfectly, but it was all a scam. Mama is still devastated. It will take a while before the sting of tis deception wears off. The fact that the scammer kept up the dialogue until we arrived at the address he had given was totally unnecessary. He already had his money. We could not figure out why he carried us along with the scam until after we made the unnecessary drive and waster several hours of our time to pick up an RV he know would not be there. Maybe it was fun for him, but it was not so for us.

On a brighter note, we released the two does that had been with Midas for a couple months. Hopefully they are bred. We will not know for sure for several weeks. The owners were very pleased to get their does back. The mama of the little mariniere, Sarah, really loves her goats and had pined for them in their absence. These goats really are the perfect farm animal for those who like the friendlier sort of animal occupants in their collection. I unadvisedly took the young does through the paddock with the other two males to get them to the tailer brought to haul them home. Both of the bucks, who had been excluded from the breeding process, were anxious to mount the little does as we passed through and we had to fight them off while we got the does through the paddock. At one point, I was actually laid out on top of Julian as he struggled to catch up to the last doe we took through. Holding him back turned out to be a challenge. It was only after the fact that Mama reminded me that we could have taken the does through the shop to get them out to the trailer. Duh! For some reason it just did not dawn on me to do so.

Once that transfer was done, we got the little bucks from the pig building and moved them into the area that we had used for the breeding pen for Midas and the does. Additionally, we got the last two babies from the paddock the does are in to separate them from their mommy. So, all the little does are in the pig building and all the little bucks are in the small enclosure next to the mature bucks. The family picking up the bred does helped with the transfers, so all six of the little ones needing to be relocated were moved in just a few minutes. That saved me a lot of effort since I would have had to do the transfers one by one on my own.

They also brought Mama six relatively young chickens. I had recently asked Mama to refrain from purchasing any more chickens, but that request went unheeded. Not only did we get six young chickens from Sarah, but we went to Bowie to meet with Nancy, the widow of our Myotonic goat mentor, to pick up some Banty hens from her flock. Ostensibly, the chickens were being picked up for a friend at church, but Mama could not resist a couple of the more unusually colored hens.  So, we will be getting a couple of them as well. Fortunately, those hens purchased from Nancy are mature enough to lay. Those purchased from Sarah will not be laying for at least four months. I can not argue too much with the purchase since we have at least ten hens that are getting too old to lay and with the purchases, we are fairly certain to get hens since all the bird are old enough to tell their sex. 

This week we will be getting some brutally cold temperatures for a couple days. The forecast for Thursday is for the low to be 5° F overnight with twenty to thirty mile per hour winds. That will be very challenging to deal with – especially for our goats, chickens, ducks, and outside dogs. I will have all the freeze protections in place as well as I can, but we will have to take what we get and pray to make it through the cold snap without incident. Fortunately, it is only going to be dangerously cold for about 36 hours, warming to above freezing after that. Unfortunately, it only takes a few hours for a severe freeze to cause many problems.

Hopefully, we are prepared to avoid ending up with any freezing pipes or waterlines.  

Mama, camper shopping, cantata, ordinary things

Update on Mama: She is feeling moderately better. Not better enough to go to church yesterday, but enough to take over the morning feeding and care of the animals by herself this morning. Good enough to go to Denton today for a series of stops including general shopping, returning Amazon items, and picking up sundry items at Sam’s. If I am not mistaken, she and Victoria will look at another camper in the Denton area. By the time I get home this evening, she will be convalescing on the couch. She has a persistent cough, not a bad cough, but enough to make people steer clear of her – especially at church. Overall, she still lacks her full energy and tends to wear out quickly. Fortunately, Victoria is off today, so Mama will have some help in her ongoing duties caring for Grandma and Grandpa.

To date, none of us have contracted the flu she has been battling. Her biggest concern was to keep Grandma and Grandpa from catching the illness, but secondarily, keeping me flu free. Her isolation tactics have worked but it has taken about ten days so far. The weather changes have not helped. We have been wet and cool for several days with longer periods of rain. Now, we are anticipating freezing temperatures overnight with cool days. All that with persistently wet conditions. We are not begrudging the weather, but it does lengthen any recovery from all types of respiratory issues.

The current rainfall is a welcome treat for our ducks. They love it! They primp, flap their wings and frolic in the falling rain. It is entertaining to watch. As the chickens and goats hurry to avoid being caught in the rain, the ducks rush out to play. The rain even seems to make the drakes more amorous. I suppose that any of the eggs we would choose to incubate at this point could be successfully hatched. We are not doing so because we have no good place to winter over ducklings. We will start that in February after we return from Honduras.

Saturday was largely a rain day for me. Grandpa discovered a low tire on the Sequoia so I took it to Decatur to have the tire repaired but the tire shop I typically use was not open. So, I have kept the tire inflated as needed over the weekend until it can be taken for repair by Mama today. Because of that wasted trip and a choir practice Saturday afternoon, I did not get much done Saturday. I did manage to get the right chain for the 18” bar on my chainsaw. It was the fourth attempt to get the right fit. I finally discovered a manual to properly select the specific chain saw chain for the specific bar I have on the chainsaw. There are, it turns out, five possible chains offered in the 18” category, but only one fits that bar. Hopefully, my future purchases will not be so problematic.

Sunday afternoon, when I got home from church, we went as a group to look at two campers for Victoria. Both were nearby. One was in poor condition, the other looked little used, clean, and well-kept. The newer one was fairly priced, but it was too small to be practical for Victoria. So, other than an afternoon outing, the trip was a bust. It served to engage both Grandma and Grandpa in the selection process, which is a good thing, but the more we look, the more disappointed we are. So, we took time when we got home, to pray about the search. We are anticipating what the Lord will do as Victoria continues her search.

Sunday evening, we had our Adult Christmas program. I generally call the program a cantata, but as Grandma pointed out, that is not technically correct. The actors in the play did a superb job and the choir sang exceptionally well on all the songs incorporated into the program. Lighting and sound were well enough accomplished, so that the entire program came off looking well-rehearsed and well presented. The message of the play was outstanding in its clear presentation of the message of salvation centering on a young lady that had been raised in church but struggling with her faith because she had never personally accepted the Lord as her Savior. It made Mama and I long for such an awakening among those of our own children currently struggling with their faith.

So, our life is filled with the ordinary things, occasionally punctuated with inspiring moments. Sometimes even energized by events that show just how interested God is on our mundane, ordinary lives. We are occupied at the moment with getting presents packaged for shipment to our children and grandchildren. As ordinary as that seems, we want to make the focus of this Christmas a faith-centered focus. Our hope is that the gifts sent will draw hearts to our Lord rather than just fulfill an expectation of receiving a gift from Grammy and Papi.

Only the Holy Spirit can accomplish that, but that is what we are praying for.

Victoria, Mama

I was interested to see just who was more excited to have Victoria back at the farm Tuesday night. The contest was between Grandma and the dogs. My though was that the dogs, who had been without their mistress for a month would be overwhelmed with excitement. That did not seem to be the case. They were a little startled by her sudden reappearance, but they were not overly expressive in that moment. Grandma on the other hand was effusive in her welcome of Victoria back into our daily lives. Fortunately, Victoria had the day off yesterday to allow Grandma and Grandpa to ply her with questions and shower her with pent up attention. It was fun to watch. Meanwhile, the dogs warmed to the idea that Victoria was staying nearby and after Grandma and Victoria had gone to Walmart in the afternoon, both Kira and Kobe welcomed her home with the excitement I had anticipated the night before.

Victoria and I talked some on our way home from the airport and I got the sense that she had little more direction for her life than before she left. Although I am seeing some subtle changes in her attention to daily living details once overlooked. She and Grandma kept the dishes washed and the sink clear through the day yesterday as I worked and Mama rested. She made her bed in the morning. Something she was not in the habit of doing before. She vacuumed the hallway and her room several times to keep up with the hair the dogs are constantly shedding. She is starting back to work today; both looking forward to getting back into the groove of things and dreading the routine at the same time.

Mama has been mostly in bed since Tuesday morning. Her symptoms do not seem to be improving. She experiences fever in bursts. It will abate for a few hours, then come beck upon her with a vengeance. That is the most distressing symptom of the flu so far – that and the general malaise. The fact that, after three days, she feels little improved is most disconcerting to her. To me as well. With the cantata happening Sunday night, I have had to keep my distance from Mama which has interrupted our normal smooching encounters through the day. We are both aching from that separation.

For the moment, only Mama is experiencing the illness which is a blessing for Grandma and Grandpa. None of us want to see them fall ill with these symptoms. Many at church last night asked if we get the flu shots. We do not. Of course, I had to hear all the stories of how the shots have kept them from ever getting the flu – but if they did get it, it was a milder case. Good for them. Such logic is impossible to prove when millions of people never get the shots and never get the flu. Likewise, millions get the flu and treat it the same we have for untold generations before us, rest, hot liquids and more rest. Mama will recover soon enough. She is taking some antibiotics to prevent secondary infections as well as a cough suppressant, but mostly she is drinking hot liquids and resting.

A couple days ago, since Mama was sick and I was working, Mama sanctioned Grandma and Grandpa to make a post office and Dollar General run using Victoria’s car. I have disapproved of that in the past because we do not have them covered on our insurance and the consequences of any accident they might be involved in would be financially debilitating. But they made the outing, and it went so well in Grandma’s mind that she is volunteering herself and Grandpa to do every little thing that needs to be done – especially if it requires operating one of our vehicles. She is not pestering Victoria to sell her car to Grandpa so she can get insurance and get out more, which would necessitate Victoria having to purchase a car to replace it this one. Something she is unprepared to do. So far, Grandpa has restrained Grandma’s enthusiasm.

I have been doing the feeding and watering of the animals while trying to keep up with work requests as I work from home. Since I cannot devote the required forty-five minutes or more away from my computer at any one time, I have been doing the chores in three separate outings. First, I open the chickens and ducks, so they have access to water. I do very little of the extra things they are used to Mama doing for them. After spending time answering emails and replying on Slack, I go back out and feed the goats. Then, during my lunch hour, I will go back and give the ducks fresh water in all the containers we set out for them daily. If I miss anything, I catch up in the evening feeding when I have signed out from work. It’s not all bad. Everyone gets minimally cared for and I get more steps in.

Grandma has taken up some of the slack in making sure Grandpa is fed. Mostly it is sandwiches and fruit. Grandma refuses to learn how to use the microwave or toaster oven, so unless she grills a sandwich on the stovetop, it is served cold. They do not respond well to the meals I prepare, even if I warm up leftover beans or soup. Again, everyone’s needs are minimally met as we all wait on Mama to recover.

Everyone is praying that will happen soon!

Zoe and Sophia, Victoria, Grandma, life as we know it

 

After more than a week of hearing any news from Brittany and the girls, we got a call Saturday morning from Brittany. The twins were insistent on calling me and letting me know that dinosaurs are bald, just like Papi. Since I do not mind being bald, it was a fun discussion for the morning, and I am happy the twins feel they can tease me about it. It was more fun just to make that contact. Since Brittany has returned to New Jersey, the girls are back in the church school. That is extremely encouraging. We did not pry into other matters related to the relocation, but the girls seem very happy. Mama’s and my personal belief is that they are now in a much safer environment. Our prayer is that real joy will return to the home that, to this point, remains broken.

Victoria will be coming home tomorrow. She is now seeing the farm as a temporary living arrangement as she aggressively looks for a rental property. So, coming home is a liberal application of her coming back stateside. Thought she has thoroughly enjoyed her time in Honduras, the cares of the world once press upon her the need to get back to work. For now, that work will continue to be at the Walmart pharmacy, but that too may be a temporary situation. As uncomfortable as Victoria is with change, much of her life is now in a state of flux. Where each out these individual circumstances filter out through the haze remains for us to see. Her work. Her living arrangements. Her life moving forward. All is up for consideration and potential change. We will pray the Lord will guide her in all things she is considering, and that she will be sensitive to those leadings. If Victoria will look for that guidance, all will turn out well. Regardless of Mama’s and my opinions.

Grandma had a visit with a pain management doctor last week. Her medication was changed to help her mitigate the pain she seems to be constantly dealing with, but the real outcome was that the doctor suggested a treatment to eliminate much of that pain. He is looking into burning the nerve endings closest to her most annoying pain. His prognosis is that such a treatment should alleviate most of the excruciating pain for up to a year. That would be a blessing. There is some preliminary work required before the procedure, but Grandma is hopeful.

From Mama’s and my observational point of view, Grandma’s pain seems to be somewhat transient. Either that or her medications are only working part time. She will lay in bed moaning with pain for hours, then suddenly get up feeling like she can run a marathon. One day she will barely move about the house and the next day she will be doing the dishes, washing, drying and folding clothes, and picking up and arranging around the house. Those bouts of activity will be followed by a day or more of debilitating pain. We just take each day as it comes and help where we need to – mostly Mama engages in the help. I tend to be an onlooker watching for opportunities to help Mama as she deals with her mom and dad.  

I did get to help Friday evening when Grandma came into the living room almost screaming from pain in her chest. When she continued to complain that she could get no relief, I gave her a nitro glycerin pill. Within thirty seconds of placing the pill under her tongue all her pain had gone. To us that was an indication of a possible heart attack; however, Grandma spent the next several hours trying to convince us that it was not a heart attack. Why she took that position on the episode, I am not sure. She kept asking, “What just happened?” When I tried to explain (repeatedly) that she may have experienced a heart attack, she was dissatisfied with that answer. Finally, Grandpa told her that the pain was probably from indigestion, and that satisfied her. We let it go but Mama took Grandma’s blood pressure (which was very high) several times and made some specific notes about the episode to share with the home health nurse during the next visit.

This is life as we know it. Feeding and caring for our animals. Providing care for Grandma and Grandpa 24/7. Giving Victoria her space as she decides what she wants to do with her life. Wondering why Chase will not return our calls or take a few minutes to talk with Mama. Missing Rebekah and Bridgette this holiday season. Talking daily – or almost so – with Maggie, Cathryn, and Walter. Keeping up with the other children and grandchildren as opportunity is given.

Presents and cards will be going out this week to our children, grandchildren, and our greatgrandchild. That is always part of the fun of the Christmas season. Mama and I were at church almost day or evening last week for special activities, one of which was a live Nativity our church put on. Our adult Sunday School party will be Saturday evening after a final dress rehearsal of the cantata. Our cantata at church is next Sunday evening. It is always a busy time of year, but we love it.

I love the life I get to share with Mama.

Updates, Thanksgiving, skunk encounters, busy week ahead

I have not written in a good while and though I am confident that very few, if anyone noticed, let me provide a few updates on our activities in that absence. During the past weeks I got the duck enclosure expanded making it more accessible to me and Mama and doubling the room the ducks have to create their mess. However, moving the gate and allowing the pen door to be held fully open through the day, makes it less problematic for me and Mama to let the ducks out into their yard daily. I still need to gravel the path from the gate to the entry to the pig building (where we have the weaned kids isolated for the moment) because the ducks keep the pathway – and a far larger area – a constantly slimy with the wetness they love to track through. Mama navigates it well enough, but it would be hazardous for Grandpa when we need his help with the feeding. Plus, it would just look so much better.

Over the past few days, we have had a fire burning continuously in the fireplace. Grandma has taken to lying on the couch through the day so she could enjoy the fire. Fortunately, we have plenty of firewood, but just to make sure, I laid over a tree in the buck goat paddock and cut and split it up over several days. That firewood is seasoning behind the shop as we work our way through the stack amassed from the pieces that have been rotting in various places around the farm. I have four additional trees to fell, cut up and split, so we will have firewood for quite some time once that chore is done. The challenge is finding a place to store all that split wood out of the weather until we need to stoke the fire in our fireplace.

On Friday, a friend from church came over and we filled his truck with branches, split wood and pieces from a tree that has been lying in the buck paddock for many years. He was happy to cut up the deadfall and harvest the pile of branches and small pieces trimmed from the tree I felled. The family recently moved into a house that has a working fireplace and his wife was looking forward to putting that fireplace to use. Some of the wood he took will take a few weeks to dry out sufficiently to give them a good fire, but it will be usable for them in either the fireplace or the burn pit they also have on the property they are renting.

Mama, Grandma, Grandpa, and I had a very quiet and pleasant Thanksgiving. We were on our own because of changes in plans for the family that had originally wanted to spend the day with us, but that was probably for the best. Grandpa still struggles in conversations, so he limits his interactions and having several adults and four children in the house for the day would have been overwhelming for him. Since the holiday weather was wet and chilly, we would have had to keep the kids inside for the day, so it was better to be on our own. Mike Shafer, Rebeka’s husband had checked in with me and Mama to see if he could swing by the farm after he visited a friend in Arlington, but he did not make it this trip. Maybe next time

I smoked a twenty-pound turkey on the pellet grill. It slow roasted on the grill for over ten hours. It was juicy and delicious. Even Grandma pronounced her benediction on it. Grandma made dressing and a pumpkin pie. Mama made sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, and yeast rolls. I grilled asparagus and made some sugar free cranberry sauce as well as a sugar free pumpkin pie. We had plenty to eat and loads of leftovers. I reserved half the bird for later consumption.

Friday night, when Mama and I went out to close up the coop doors and pen up the ducks, there was an overwhelming skunk smell in the back yard. Mama’s biggest fear was that Kobe had engaged the skunk and been sprayed by it, but that seemed a little farfetched since she had not been out of the yard. Kobe did smell a bit of skunk but not so much as to have been directly sprayed by a skunk. However, we had to close her and Kira up in Victoria’s room overnight with plenty of odor eliminating candles burning.

It was not until Saturday morning that Mama discovered a dead skunk in the back yard. Sure enough, Kobe had indeed killed the young skunk. It is fortunate that she had not been directly sprayed by the skunk. It is impossible to understand her delight in finding and killing skunks, but that seems to be her focus. Unfortunately, it causes us a lot of work to overcome the outcomes of those encounters.

Sunday, we started a conference at our church with Chuck Harding. He is a missionary to Capital Hill. His ministry is to engage with lawmakers in both the House and the Senate. He coordinates groups of pastors visiting the halls of Congress, praying with and for those elected officials willing to be prayed for. As you would assume, not all are willing. Bro. Harding is a well-versed historian in our US history and weaves current political events, cultural currents, and history (US history and Biblical events and characters) into his sermons.  He is a delight to talk to. His perspective is insightful and detailed concerning what is going on in our Congress. We will have services tonight and tomorrow night with him.

Those services along with our regular Wednesday night service, a practice session for our drive-through live Nativity Thursday night followed by the actual event Friday night will make for a VERY busy week.

Nothing extra will get done at the farm, but that is common for this time of year.  

Think week, quick freeze, slow learners, holidays

Last week was an interesting week for my work team. We spent the entire week together just bouncing ideas off each other to create a plan to make what we do a sustainable job role for many years to come. After exploring some more obvious ideas over the first two days of the week, we transitioned late Wednesday and early Thursday to a more emotional evaluation. That is, we began to question if what we are doing for our current employer still fits the mission of the company as we can perceive it from our vantage point. Upper management seems, we decided overall, to be drifting away from the original focus of the organization. As a company we seem to be morphing into something different than we were only a year ago, and it is a bit disconcerting to our group. Does what we do still matter in the way it used to matter (producing quality content to the training industry) or are we just producing content to maintain bragging rights? Is our question.

It was a sobering discussion. Although the training we create and maintain is the core revenue generator for the company, are we really focused on making that content the best it can be for our audience or are we just putting out courses to meet the minimum requirements for the industry? If the latter is true, our department will not be a long-term need for the company. They can sub out the work we do. Therefore, the young employees are a bit concerned about the longevity of their employ with this company. It was not a pleasant discussion, but it was a needed one. If we are to solve a problem, the fist step is to identify the problem. The next step is to offer workable solutions to solve the problem. When we present our summary of ideas to management today, we will get to see if we are able to offer up anything helpful in their estimation. I believe we will. I ma not sure how to address the growing uncertainty.

Friday night the weather changed drastically. We moved from days in the low eighties to days in the fifties. Overnight temperatures moved in a twenty-four-hour period from the low sixties to the low thirties. So, Friday night I had to prepare for a freeze. Those measures will stay in place through this week with the nights forecast to be in the mid to upper twenties. That makes watering the birds and goats a challenge, but we do this every winter, so we have secondary methods of getting that water to our animals. It takes more time and physical labor, but it is doable without the water hoses we normally have in place. This is when the farm becomes a labor of love in tangible ways.

For Thanksgiving, an extended family from church is going to spend the day and have dinner with us. With the impressive menu that is being discussed among the women of the families, it will be a meal fit for a king – especially in the dessert category. I will cook a turkey on the smoker grill. A ham will be prepared by another family. I believe there is even a brisket on the menu. Various side dished sound like traditional Thanksgiving fare, but cranberry sauce will be offered in regular and sugar-free concoctions. No desserts will be low carb, so I will not eat any of them, but I can at least eat some cranberry sauce. It may prove a boring Thanksgiving meal for me, but the sacrifice is worth it.

Last night at church, we had a get together after the evening service to celebrate the pastor’s wife’s birthday. There was nothing there that I could eat other than some slices of summer sausage. It was more difficult to resist the cakes the longer I sat there as Mama and Grandma got seconds on several desserts, but I had gotten sufficient encouragement Sunday morning as I stepped on the scales and saw a weight of 186 pounds. A full twenty pounds down from my starting weight a little over three months ago.

Mama and I are slowly learning about our raucous, happy ducks. It was clear from the beginning that they were going to create a mess, but we are learning how to corral that mess. We are going to have to rework the outside area our ducks spend the day in. Right now, we have staged the pool and waterers near the building, close to their overnight area, and are constantly tracking through the muddy area they create. So, I will move our access points into their yard and move the pool to a more remote corner of the yard so our path through the area will possibly be less slimy. It will take some work, but we will have a controllable area for them to foul. On the bright side, they have enjoyed having the wet area and the dry area separated and well designated. They have not a care how difficult it is for us to provide them with those different environments, but they certainly respond to them in noticeable ways.

With the holiday season upon us, Mama is getting nostalgic. She is really missing her children and grandchildren - especially right now. The fact that we will not have any grandchildren with us for Christmas is somewhat depressing for her. We have no way to remedy that shortcoming, as some are too far away to make the trip to the farm for the holiday and those who are closer are not interested in doing so. That is the most disturbing part for Mama.

We will muddle through, but there will be a sad bite to the festivities for Mama.

Breeding, slow starts, cooping

Yesterday evening, the Fox’s brought the two little does they had bought from us about eight months ago to be bred by one of our bucks. Originally, Mama thought that buck would be Julian, but upon further research, we discovered that the buck needed to be Midas, since the two does were Julian’s progeny. Anyway, we got the does into the little enclosure next to the bucks easily. The reaction from the bucks was instantaneous. It was pretty obvious that at least one of the does was in heat by the shoving and grunting that the bucks engaged in. I do not know if Midas got any sleep at all last night as he and Julian fought for mastery of the attention of the dies. In fact, Midas refused to eat this morning because he did not want to interrupt his guardianship of the does just on the other side of the fence.

When Mama and I took the time to move Midas to the paddock with the does, the fight was on. Midas is our most difficult buck to handle. Firstly, because he does not like to be handled so he is hard to catch. Secondly, when he is finally haltered to be moved, he is incredibly strong. He is almost more than I can manage when he refuses to move in the direction I need him to go. Such a struggle is not good for my back, but I endure each time we repeat the process of encouraging a frightened buck to go where we need him to go.

Between Mama and I we got him into the area with the does but we had to interfere with the continued fight between him and Julian as we singled Midas out for passage through the gate out of their paddock. Keeping Julian from following through at the same time was a challenge. I had to coerce Midas to go forward through the gate while Mama had to discourage Julian from trying to follow through the opened gate. The fact that the bucks had all perfumed themselves with beards full of their smelly urine hindered Mama’s willingness to handle any of the bucks. She danced around the faces of the bucks crowding both of us in what was a hilarious sequence of evasive moves. I had to change pants after the move was completed since I had to keep Midas very close to by body to meet his struggling jumps and jerks as he fought against me.

When Midas got into the small enclosure, he immediately singled out one of the does and did his best to breed her. It was kind of sad because the does was in standing heat, so she welcomed the advance but when Midas mounted her, she was not ready to support his bulk and collapsed under his weight. The next time he tried she was ready and did better so she might be bred already. Sarah Fox will be thrilled. We will keep Midas with the does until late December just to be sure, but he is definitely interested in doing his part in the breeding program. Hopefully, the young does will be able to handle his attention to them.

With both the ducks and quail, we are off to a slow start as far as egg production is concerned. With the ducks, we are at a loss as to how to beneficially promote egg production. We have investigated various feeds, various hours of light exposure, keeping certain areas dry for laying eggs, etc. So far, to no avail. We are getting about six eggs per week from our ten hens. We should be quite a bit more than that. Potentially six eggs per day. We have several customers waiting on us for duck eggs and it would be nice to fill those orders. That, and duck eggs are delicious, so we are looking for a more trustworthy supply as well.

With the quail, we were advised to add a container with dirt/dust so the quail could take a dust bath. It seems, we are told, that they like having dirt under their feet. Mama added that dirt to their habitat in the Banty house so we will see if that makes a difference. I would like to have a shot at raining quail, but we will have a hard with doing so if we cannot get any eggs to hatch. Fortunately, they do not eat much as we wait on them to produce those eggs for us. They are otherwise easy to keep. They have a pleasant cooing chirp but are otherwise very quiet.

There is growing consensus among several of us at church that raise chickens that we need to buy a chicken plucker to share among us. So far, the interest has been circulating among three families but a fourth family added their voices to the mix, so we may be able to split the expense four ways if we decide to coop a purchase. That would be good. I will reserve my enthusiasm until we all eventually get together to discuss the details, but I am encouraged by the team effort under consideration.

Every little bit helps.

Lights, bees, bulls, collaboration

 After many months of delay, I finally got electricity run to the little goat barn on the East side of our property. As I was considering it a few days ago, once again talking myself out of the work, I was given an inspiration to just run the wiring overhead versus underground. So, I bought a length of cable and the connectors required to string and tighten that cable and ran the required length from the back corner of the shop to the front corner of the shelter. I had the cable secured by dark Friday night. I had a couple pieces of conduit to run the wire through so early Saturday morning, I attached the conduit to the cable. Once I was back from helping Mama get set up at her even in Decatur, I fed the wire through the conduit and made the necessary connections at each end to install a light switch/outlet combination at the entry of that shelter.

All in all, it looks pretty good and is high enough to keep it from being a hinderance to getting the tractor into the lot on those rare occasions when that is necessary. The lights Mama and I bought are small LED fixtures so I will not have to replace lightbulbs – which tend to do poorly in the cold times we have over the winter. Those little fixtures are very bright, especially considering we have never before had lights in that dark shelter. The goats were not impressed with the results. They rather enjoy the dark interior.

With an outlet now available, I was able to place a night light at that spot to give Mama some light to easily find the switch when she attends to the bucks on a dark morning or evening. I was pleased with the outcomes. Enough so, that I will now focus on getting lights to the large goat barn, which also tends to be a little gloomy in certain corners. That will take more time and materials because it is a longer run for the wiring and conduit which will have to be run underground, but it is doable, and it will be a great comfort to Mama when we have to be in the barn during the dark hours of the day. We could have used that light a couple months ago when the nanny goats were kidding this year versus one of us holding a flashlight to give the needed illumination.

While I was getting Mama set up at an event at an Elementary School Saturday morning, I ran into one of the go-to guys from our bee club. We talked in general for a few minutes just catching up and then I asked him for advice or guidance on what I had decided to do for our bees to winter them over. All the precautions I had taken were agreeable to James although he and his wife do bees, honey, and bees wax products as a fulltime business. In his case, he would have taken all the produced honey from the hive and fed the bees to supplement. I had left about thirty pounds of honey per hive as well as put candy boards on each of the two hives. That, to him, was not necessary. It was not wrong, just unnecessary. On the bright side, in the Spring, I will be able to harvest most all of the honey left in the hive over the winter, so it is not a loss. Simply a delay.

Almost on the porch

This morning, while I was at work, Mama and Grandpa had to wrangle an ornery young bull out of the front yard. Neither of our neighbors owned the bull, but Wayne was kind enough to get the animal moving down the road away from our property. He told Mama he would put the bull in his corral until the proper owner could be identified, but it caused quite a stir at the home front. We have long, heavy metal gates that can be closed at the access to our property, but only one operates easily. The other takes a lot of strength and effort to close across the driveway. Wayne struggled with that one by himself. It is only because of some remedial repairs I have made to the structure holding the gate that it operates at all, but it is still a challenge. I am struggling with long term remedies, but it is not high on my list.

At work this week, we are doing a Think Week. A weeklong collaboration and brainstorming session. At the conclusion of this week, we will present to management some of the recommendations we have come up with to offer as enhancements to our area of expertise in our company. I did not originally think that I would be a big part of the discussions, but I was able to add a couple ideas. Although I am planning on working my way out of this employment, I want to engage as much as possible while I am still here. At least I can add value from the perspective of someone who has seen many things happen in the workplace over the last forty years to perhaps avoid some unattainable ideas.

We are off to a good start. So far, we have not gotten lost in the weeds. I will reserve judgement as to the outcomes because many of the little thoughts captured through Day 1 are bound to evolve through the days following. This is a bright group of young individuals.

I have high hopes for them.

Pumpkin carving, malfunctions, remodel supplies

Monday at work we observed a tradition that we have not been able to follow for a couple years because of all the COVID nonsense. We carved pumpkins. It is a team competition. All teams are selected at random and each team, once identified, has a week to collaborate on what they are going to do for the contest. My team decided to do a Wizard of Oz theme with our pumpkin being the lion. I dressed up as the scarecrow, one of the ladies was Dorothy and the other the Wicked Witch.

My teammates

I did not get any pictures of myself, but Mama and I collaborated on my costume – a worn farm shirt with raffia added to the cuffs and front to look like hay. A straw had was adorned with some wheat stems and flowers to complete the image. No one had any trouble telling what the simple costume represented as many of the participants decked out – some quite elaborately - for their chosen themes.

Our Creation

I am constantly amazed by the creativity within our company, and it is fully expressed in this particular contest. We have only one hour to complete the carving and presentation of our creation. My team was able to get ours done in about forty-five minutes and were selected to win First Place in the Cutest Pumpkin category. It is the first time I have been on a winning team, so I was pleased even if the theme was quite feminine. Both of the ladies on my team were very particular about the outcomes. I was tasked with the carving while they took on the decorating with a passion. It was a fun morning of team building.

Mama's Favorite

Yesterday when I arrived at the HQ house, the gate that limits access to the property would not operate. I tried all the methods I knew for coaxing the operator to move the gate for me to no avail. Since I was at the gate well before daylight, I did not want to remove the operator arm and open the gate way, so I parked to the side of the driveway at the gate and walked up to the house. The house sits about a quarter mile from the gate, but it was a pleasant morning to be out, and it was not raining. I have made the walk in the rain before, so I was counting my blessings.

I alerted my management of the malfunction, and they got right one it. However, when a delivery of supplies arrived in the early afternoon the secretary that takes care of those things had to interrupt me to get my keys so she could move my truck in order for the truck and trailer to make the approach through the gate. No big deal, but the timing of the malfunction and all that that set in motion provided an interesting dynamic to me day.

Once home, Mama and I did our routine feeding and watched the ducks for a few minutes. They are very entertaining. Then we went to Lowe’s to get the first of the supplies we will need to remodel the hall bathroom. Flooring was on sale - a snap together waterproof laminate that Mama really liked – and we did not want to wait too long to get what we needed. I already bought a new fixture for the bathroom and Mama has her eye on a vanity she would like us to retrieve to replace the cabinets in the bathroom right now. Grandpa volunteered to buy a toilet to replace the one I put in service about eight years ago but we have not made that purchase yet. Norman has volunteered his time – sometime in early December – to do the bulk of the work. Grandma and Grandpa requested that the shower, which is a bit unusual, be left as is. That will save us a mayor expense in the remodel, so I was in favor of that decision.

While we were spending the money, I also bought some of the more costly items I will need to run electricity to the goat barns as well as complete several projects I have procrastinated on for several years now. The total cost was a little alarming to me and what we got is only a portion of the supplies we will need to finish up those several projects, but it will be money well spent in the long run.

At least we will be able to see the tangible outcomes of the purchases made.  

Powering through, packing and repacking, voting, duck weather finally

Some days it seems like a major accomplishment to just power through without experiencing any upsets in the household. Not that things are always troublesome in our interpersonal interactions, but day to day fluctuations in emotions are challenging. With the change in weather – it is getting colder – Grandma and Grandpa are more likely to spend the entire day in the house versus enjoying some outdoor time on the porch. Because of Grandma’s need to have background noise incessantly, usually Christian music – which makes it tolerable and even enjoyable if it did not take our focus away - it is often impossible to think clearly. Though it may not seem too bad to have music constantly playing on her phone, it is a distraction to Mama and me as we are trying to work. Grandma’s continuous commentary on songs that actually catch her attention add to the disruption as we work. Mama on her business and me at my job. I can close the bedroom door if it gets to be too much. Mama does not have that option, so the struggle to get through her requisite tasks is a bit more difficult. We will make it, but some days are harder than others.

Besides the music as white noise in the house, when Grandma gets a phone call, she does not ever put the phone to her ear. Each call is put on the speaker at full volume and Grandma’s part of the conversation follows that same volume requirement. Hence, we all get to participate in her conversations – every one of them. When it does not satisfy Grandma that we can all hear the entire conversation for almost anywhere in the house, if we walk through the room where she is taking the call, Grandma will prompt those who enter the room to include themselves in the conversation. She will say. “Janie, say hello to Kim.” as Mama passes by. Janie, Grandma’s older sister will play along with the request and wish whomever well. Mama, thus distracted, will often forget why she entered the room and have to start her quest over.

Grandpa will often exit the bedroom when Grandma takes a call there. If the conversation seems way too loud when Grandma is sitting in our living room with both her voice and the phone at full volume, I cannot imagine how loud it is when that process is carried out in the small bedroom they occupy. Mama always answers the phone in speaker mode as well, but she is more aware of those around her and tends to keep both her voice and the phone volume turned down. None-the-less, Grandma will try her best to participate in every conversation Mama has on the phone if she is within earshot. Thus, Mama tends to be careful when she takes a call from me. I do not necessarily enjoy three-way conversations.

With her trip to Honduras coming up next week, Victoria is packing and repacking her suitcases. She is taking most of the items she will need for the month long stay but must also include in those suitcases many things Cori has had delivered to the farm recently. Once done, all the bags have to meet the weight limit imposed for travel. It is a daunting chore. I am sure she will be able to meet the expectation before she heads to the airport, but it will take a couple tries to get it right. She has done so before but not when she needed to be gone for a whole month. On the Honduran side, Cori and the kids are excited about her coming. On the Chico Farm side, Grandma is already lamenting Victoria’s absence. Although Grandma and Grandpa insist they have no favorites, If they did, Victoria would have the honor.

Monday evening Mama, Victoria, and I voted. Early voting opened up here on Monday the 24^th so we took advantage of the opportunity to get our vote in. There have been times that circumstances in past years made it impossible to get to the voting booth on election day, so we try to get to the polls early if we can. Mama took Grandma and Grandpa to vote yesterday. Since they have Bowie addresses on their licenses, they could not vote with Mama and I, but they made sure to cast their votes. Grandpa feels that this is perhaps the last election he will get to participate in. He may be right. Only God knows for sure, but Grandpa wanted to ensure he and Grandma did not miss this one.

It is duck weather here today – finally. Storms began to roll through our area at 4 am and the rain they brought continued through most of the morning and afternoon. A light rain most of the time with occasional heavier rainfall. As far as the ducks are concerned, that is perfect weather, and they have all spent the day out of their covered pen letting the rain wash them clean. Well, at least their tops are clean. They are filthy on their undersides because they like to use their bills to “drill” holes in the mud and then preen their chests with their filthy bills. But it makes them happy.

It makes up happy as well. The ducks are almost as fun as the goats.

The Men’s Retreat, ducks, rain

We left the church at about 8 am Thursday morning to make the seven-hour drive to Rose Bud, AR in our church bus. We refer to it as a “people mover” and it had a lot of extra room for the eight of us who rode in the bus, but it was a rough ride even though there have been improvements made to the suspension. So, we bounced and shook for the entire stretch of road we covered, but we had a great time just visiting – spending a relaxing time just anticipating the retreat. The wide-ranging conversation among the riders with me on the bus was amusing as the hours were filled with general conversation, outlandish and humorous stories and any jokes that could be remembered, but current events were the primary focus of our hours of sharing concerns, plans and faith in the Lord’s providence.

There were, of the thirteen total going to the retreat, only six of us that had been the Triple S Campground for the yearly event. We knew the other seven were in for a very pleasant surprise. It is an atmosphere of relaxed competition in various challenges and no-holds-barred preaching. Skeet shooting competition, .22 caliber shooting competition, a 3-D archery competition, ax throwing, a team golf challenge, a potato gun competition, and a corn hole tournament. All of those take place on Friday, which makes it a full day when breakfast, lunch, and dinner are part of the day as well as morning, afternoon and evening preaching services added into complete the schedule. The evening service featured two preachers.

The weather was perfect other than being a little cold Thursday night and most of us were thoroughly chilled by the time we headed to our cabins. The preaching was great. Our old pastor, Mike Norris was there as well as two other preachers who split up the preaching duties. The messages were aimed at us men – without any apology as to the content of those messages. It was what we often refer to as “hard” preaching. Something we do not get of often today and it was well received by all in attendance. It was not accusatory. It was honest, brutally honest. A reminder of what we have been missing in living out the convictions of our faith as boldly as is now necessary in our present world.

In those messages, I received the answer to a prayer Mama and I have been praying for several weeks now. We have been challenging ourselves to reflect on our time raising our children to see if God would reveal to us what we did wrong in guiding the spiritual lives of our children. Over those years, we were very careful to have our family is good churches, under good preachers, surrounded by good friends and yet several of our children are no longer interested in seeking to please God with their own lives nor in the raising of their children to be lovers of the Lord. It will take me a couple days to put the information into words, but I am confident that we have an answer. Now, it is my responsibility to act upon that insight.

Yesterday, in the evening service, many of the men gave a testimony of their experience. Two of those that got up in front of the church to give that testimony was, in itself, a proof of the impact the preaching had had on those men that attended. Those normally reserved men would never have stood in the pulpit in front of the congregation to speak even a few words, but there they were, and it was wonderful to hear how the Lord had touched their hearts during the past three days. All of us who spoke met on the same theme of leading our children and grandchildren by walking in and witnessing of our faith more boldly.

When I got back to the farm, somewhere around 5 pm Saturday evening, I immediately started feeding our animals. Mama had been all day at an event about an hour away, so Grandpa had made a circuit around the coops and paddocks to ensure waterers were refreshed – per Mama’s instructions – but feeding still needed to be done and I needed the activity, having sat for the past seven hours in transit home. That took about an hour but once accomplished, I reworked an outlet/switch I added in the coop to give light to the quail we have caged in that alcove.

Since we purchased the quail, they have not been laying. I believe it is too dark where we have them. Mama was concerned that they were too crowded in the single cage. So, for my part, I got the outlet working and plugged in a night light to give a bit of light for now. I will rework the switch to power the light fixture I placed in the alcove. Additionally, yesterday, Mama and I split the quail into two groups of five and four. We will know in a few days if those new arrangements have benefited the birds. We will know it worked if they begin laying again.

Tonight, I will take three Jumbo Pekin drakes to the restaurant to process them. Mama will be happy to see them gone and I will be happy to see them prepped to eat. I do not know if Alex will take two of the ducks or only the one, but we have three that need to go, so I am looking forward to getting them ready for the table. For Alex’s part, he is very excited to get the duck meat. He has told us repeatedly that his family really likes duck and fresh is best. Maybe, I can get some recipes for cooking the fowl.

It began raining this morning and has continued to do so off and on all day. We have needed this rail desperately. So, despite the inconvenience, we are elated.

Honey harvest, poor egg production, overnight freeze, Men’s retreat

Monday evening, I tried to extract the honey from the frames taken from the hives Saturday, but that did not turn out well. When the Echeveria’s showed up to see the extractions process, we rapidly discovered that the coolness of the building made the honey far too thick to be spun from the cells on the frames. Mama and I were able to cut some of the honeycomb from a frame and get it into a small jar, but even though the frames were absolutely full of honey it would not flow freely enough to collect by spinning in the extractor. Apologizing to the family for the less than successful demonstration, I put coverings on the extractor with the two frames in it, covering the bucket with the other two frames in it as well, and started the heater we have in the well house to warm it us as much as possible overnight and through the class I was teaching yesterday.

When I tried again yesterday evening, I had a little more success, but even then, in the warmed-up atmosphere of the well house, it was still a slow process to coax the honey from the frames. I gave up after two hours but in that time, I had been able to get about twelve pounds of honey into the bucket I use to transfer the honey into jars. I should have been able to get double that amount. Perhaps if I had been able to warm the well house to ninety degrees, but that did not seem practical. The special five-gallon bucket I catch the spun honey into was placed in the house on the table hoping the temperature in the house would be enough to warm the honey to the point it could be drained easily into the accumulated jars, but that was not to be.

When I tried to work with the honey over my lunch break, the honey in the bucket seemed stiff, almost congealed. So, I put the bucket into our bathroom and set the heater to high. It will be hours before the entire mass is warmed enough to work with – maybe after church tonight. Otherwise, it will be late Saturday night before we can put the honey in jars for final storage and I am sure Mama will not allow the bathroom to stay hot for the next three days and nights.

We did not experience this problem with the honey we took from the hives in the Spring. Whether it was the hotter weather or the natural viscosity of the honey that had been produced at that time, it flowed very freely. In fact, it seemed too runny to be good honey. It tasted very good, so we worked with what we had, which turned out to be much easier than what I am currently trying to extract and move into jars. Next week I will place the frames back into the respective hives so the bees will have a head start on their Spring honey as well as use the honey I had to abandon efforts to get out of the frames. With what I left in the hives initially and what I will be placing back into the hives, my bees will be well fed through the Winter.

Over the past few weeks Mama and I have tried everything we know to increase the egg production from all our laying birds - chickens, ducks, and quail - without success. So, after doing some research, Mama and I have decided to feed the flocks fermented feed. The process of fermenting the feed is straightforward. We only have to put a set amount of feed in a bucket, put enough water in the bucket to cover the feed with water to about an inch above the feed and allow the feed to sit for a couple days. The feed, we are told will naturally ferment. We can only do a couple days’ worth of feed at a time because the fermented feed must be eaten within a couple days or it will spoil. Small batches are the key – so the instructions say. We will try. We have plenty of feed to experiment with at the moment.

Yesterday evening, in addition to getting the honey extracted, I spent a lot of steps getting faucets covered in preparation for an expected overnight freeze. The freeze did not materialize, but I prepared, nonetheless. All that work will have to be undone today to allow us to properly water the flocks and herds. We did get close to freezing but did not reach that temperature. However, we will be back in the nineties within a couple days. Thankfully, that will give more time to properly prepare things for the cold weather we know we have coming. It was a good practice run, but it made for a very hectic evening.

Tomorrow morning, I will be leaving for a Men’s Retreat in Rose Bud, Arkansas. I am looking forward it. I did not get to go to the retreat last year but the year before I thoroughly enjoyed the days we spent at the retreat and in the travel to and from. The church has fifteen or so men going to the retreat, so I anticipate that we will have a great time together. The weather is supposed to warmer than it was some years ago but should be pleasant. Cool and dry.

We are all looking forward to it.

Mama’s event, a lot of little things, harvesting more honey

Early Saturday morning I got Mama set up at the square in Chico. We were there in the company of a pretty large group of other vendors also setting up for the day. Neither me nor Mama had huge expectations for the day since there were several other similar events in many of the localities near us, so the competition for buyers to travel to little Chico was going to be fierce. That turned out not to be an issue. Mama did better at that venue than she has done setting up anywhere in the past. She was very excited about the sales she had made as well as the numerous contacts collected from those who had bought from her. She will be at another event this Saturday for which she has much higher expectations. Supposedly the clientele for the coming venue is a little bit more well off than the Chico shoppers. Time will tell how that plays out, but her efforts Saturday paid off well enough to truly encourage Mama.

I am not sure if Grandma’s presence at her booth helped or not, but Grandma spent the entire day with her. It was a very long day out for Grandma and seemed to wear her out thoroughly, so she spent the entire day in bed yesterday. I know Grandma enjoyed the day of catching the attention of total strangers and slowing them down for a minute or two while she regaled them with some words of wisdom or a humorous comment – at least, humorous in her way of thinking.

Many times, I miss Grandma’s humor, so she has to tell me what she said was supposed to be funny. But, yesterday, Mama enjoyed Grandma’s company and the moments of actual help with manning the booth. They were ready to come home about 3:30, so Victoria and I went to Chico to take down the shelter and load up tables and wares. Grandma was ready to get home even thought it took her several stops to leave the area as she said her goodbyes to those who she had met that day.

Saturday, I got almost 18,000 steps. I got a lot of little things done – from cleaning up in the garage to adding a timed light switch for the duck area, to relocating the quail, to harvesting honey and moving some panels Norman had placed at the fence beside the tractor into the garden shed. It was a good day. Most of the chores I finished were not overly important, but they were all useful items to cross off my list. The ducks, Mama had learned, needed about sixteen hours of light to make an egg. Since our days are significantly shorter that that, we have to supplement the light to encourage egg development. The quail were relocated to a larger cage in a larger area within the coop, albeit a darker area. I did not finish getting their light hooked up, so we are leaving the coop exterior entry door open for now. Since that door is normally closed, the chickens are enjoying the extra area to explore.

I have held off working in the hives for a while now, but I used Saturday afternoon to make a thorough inspection. I added beetle traps to both boxes in each of the two hives and I did a frame-by-frame inspection of each hive box to gauge the amount of honey the bees had produced over the summer. What I found in one of the two hives were eight frames of honey, each weighing about twelve pounds. I harvested three frames from that hive, leaving those bees five frames of honey as food for the coming winter.

In the second hive, I found six- and one-half frames of honey. I harvested only one of those frames in order to leave those bees sufficient winter stores. Mama and I have enough for ourselves with a little extra so I did not want to take everything. Some beekeepers take all the honey and feed the bees through the winter with substitute foods, as I could have, but I did not want to rob the hives this year. Maybe next year when we try to sell the honey I will take more of their stores, but we did not need it so I left it for the bees.

Just those four frames of honey weigh about fifty pounds. We will collect the honey from those frames this evening. I waited until this evening so that Joseph Echeverria will be able to observe the process. He expressed a lot of interest to Mama and his mother to see how that part of the harvest is done. Mama and I try to take every opportunity we have to teach anyone interested in what little we know. I do not know how much we will get from the frames, but it will be a good bit. Additionally, Mama wants to collect some comb from the frames as well as spinning out the honey. That will be a first and I am not entirely certain how to do that, but we will muddle through somehow.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow and at a Men’s Retreat in Rosebud, AR Thursday through Saturday. I am looking forward to the retreat; far much more than Mama who will be on her own with the feeding chores for those days. It is always better when we are able to share those responsibilities, but she does not begrudge me the break.

At least, I do not think so.

 

More ducks, and now quail, Victoria, learning a language, shopping

Since we purchased more ducks last night as well as four quail, Victoria is accusing us of starting a bird farm and she may have a point. The reason for the duck purchases was to pick up enough older hens to get at least sex or seven eggs per day in the weeks to come. If we are going to sell duck eggs by the dozen, we need to accumulate that number of eggs in as little time as possible. Currently it would take us two weeks to fill a container with the dozen eggs. Meaning that some of the eggs would be two weeks old before they were sold. That is not a plan we thought was marketable. So, to overcome that delay, we are attempting to have enough hens laying to accomplish the accumulation in a more reasonable timeframe. We will see how that works out, but that is the plan. Right now, we have two drakes and eleven hens in the duck area. That will be our flock through the winter.

Also, since the sellers we purchased from over the past two evenings are trying to sell off the majority of their flock, we also bought a couple Jumbo Pekin drakes to process. I believe Mama has me scheduled to meet Alex next Monday evening to dress out a couple ducks. Alex and his family are very excited about the ducks. Turns out that is one fowl they really like but are too expensive to buy at the market. A small duck in the Chinese market will sell for about $35. Some are priced a $50 each. Having access to fresh ducks to process is exciting to him. The drakes we bought were sold to us for $5 each. We will in turn sell them for $25 each. Not a bad deal. We will certainly pay more for future meat ducks, but for this purchase, it seemed like a no brainer. From here, we will raise up from our flock ducks for meat as well as to sell.

In our trip to the seller, we also picked up four quail for ourselves and six for another interested friend who goes to church with us. They were sold to us for $5 each regardless of sex. So, Mama and I bought a male and three females. For our friends, we bought two males and six females. Since that family is interested in rapidly raising a brood of quail, they will be excited that on the way howe to our farm, their little beginner brood laid two eggs which are almost sure to be fertile. Mama and I only bought four because we contracted for a male and four female quail from the young lady that sold us our first ducks. That will enable us to start with two males for seven females – a good ratio.

Victoria learned at a recent doctor’s appointment that the two lumps in her breasts that she has been trying to ignore should be investigated further. We are not sure at this point the if nature of the lumps are of imminent concern but some tests have been set up to see if the doctor can arrive at a prognosis. We are concerned even though Victoria is pretending to not be so. Her most immediate fear is that a bad diagnosis will hinder her sabbatical in Honduras next month, but that should not be an issue. Even if the prognosis is bad, the worst-case scenario being cancer, the remedy will be somewhere out in the future versus happening immediately. Fortunately, Victoria has been granted a paid leave of absence from work so insurance coverage will be uninterrupted, should that become an urgent need. We covet your prayers.

On a humorous note, Cori sent Mama a message relaying a funny event in their lives that happened around dinnertime the other day. Since soup had been the main course for that dinner, Savanna asked, “Mommy! So, I have to drink the bra?” Since all her siblings immediately broke out in uproarious laughter, she knew she had said something wrong. Then to admonish her scoffers, she explained, “Well that’s what it sounds like when you say that word.” Mommy pronounces the word properly, “It’s called broth.” Now properly instructed, she re-asked the question. No, she was not required to drink the broth if she did not want to. Sometimes learning a language from conversation presents its own challenges.

Mama and Victoria are out shopping today. I believe the focus in on shoes. Victoria has been having some foot problems stemming mostly from the shoes she has been wearing. My advice was for the two of them to go to a store where they would be fitted properly by someone trained to make that determination and recommendation. Even if they choose not to buy from that store, they, especially Victoria, would know what they were needing in shoe sizes and styles. Knowing rather than going only by “feel” is a good point of reference when trying to buy shoes.

Over the forty years of our marriage, I cannot begin to count all the times Mama has been horribly disappointed with a shoe purchase. Sometimes the poorly chosen shoes were returned. Sometimes they were stored in her closed for years to come. Never to be worn. Rarely has she been truly pleased long-term with any footwear she has purchased. It happens. Just not very often.

If they do take the time to be fitted, maybe that will change.

Mama’s weekend, my weekend

Friday, I spent the majority of the day at a conference in Denton. It was a fun time. I had been conscripted to give a short presentation – only an hour – to a group of attendees. It turned out that none of the attendees even use the processes that are our special area of expertise, but the thirty in the session with me gave me their full attention as I explained what we at Energy Worldnet do in the realm of qualifications of personnel. Ten of the participants were my colleagues, but the other twenty told me they enjoyed the discussions and the presentation – even though it was information that had no application in their work lives, they were glad to hear there was a process by which workers were qualified to do the work they do on regulated pipelines. After the presentation was over, I visited a few moments with my peers and then did some shopping for Mama before heading home and finishing the day from there.

That evening, Mama and I went to Bowie to see if the vendor who is there every month with his collection of fowls had any ducks for sale, specifically hens - female ducks. He did not. There were a lot of drakes – male ducks – but only one hen. Mama was not interested in that hen, so we left emptyhanded. On the way back home, we stopped by the house of the young lady that had sold us our original ducks and we bought two more hens from her. From that seller, we made contact with another duck seller who has a flock she is needing to disperse before the family relocates later this year. I do not know if we will get a special deal in her need to sell off her flock of ducks, but she has several hens of the breed we are looking for. As long as we can keep our little flock to about eighteen, we should be fine with the space we have set up for our ducks.

While we were at the seller’s house looking over her ducks, we arranged to purchase a few quail to raise in our coop. I have a cage set up for that purpose in the west side of the coop, but since we were picking up ducks in the only cage we had brought, we will have to go back for the quail some evening this week. What our future plan is for the quail is not settled, but those we are buying will be near the age of laying eggs that can be eaten like any other egg. In the spring we will hatch many of those eggs to raise quail we can them process for meals.

Saturday morning, Mama and I were both up early. Her so that she could meet a Color Street partner in Pilot Point, TX, about an hour away. The event turned out to be a good one for Mama and the stylist she shared the booth and the day with. They ended up selling more than Mama had ever had the chance to sell at any one event. We do not know what her percentage of the sales will be, but it was a good day. Mama also learned some additional pointers in the use of her Square. From this point on, she will be far more proficient in getting those credit card sales. During the day, Mama had several unique encounters during the day, one of which was a pair of pet lemurs in the company of their owners. Mama was home a little after 10 pm. Having left the house at 7 am, it turned out to be a long day – especially since the sales receipts showed they had only four sales after 5 pm.

While Mama was at her event, I went to Nocona to pick up the beef from the calf we had processed. As I paid the processing fee, the frozen meat was retrieved and loaded in the back seat of the truck. There were only four boxes, but each one weighted about sixty pounds. From Nocona I went straight home to off load the meat into our chest freezer. It was a tight fit to get all the packaged cuts of meat into the space even after I pulled out a couple items we had placed in the freezer and forgotten about. I kept out two roasts and a package of T-bone steaks. The roasts were for Sunday lunch. The T-bones for dinner tonight.

In the ranging conversation with my fellow employees Friday morning at the conference, I was offered a free goat. One of my peers has a sister who is no longer enamored with the goat she has raised and is desperately looking to rehome the animal. Over the past several weeks I have been praying for an extra animal to take with the goat we have raised for processing. Our little male will only give us about forty pounds of meat so to make the trip worthwhile I wanted a second animal – lamb or goat – to make the trip and expense provide more meat. I just did not want to pay too much for a second animal. Free is a great price, but I am not sure what I will end up with since I have not seen the goat in question. So, sometime late this week or over the weekend I will pick up the animal, or at least inspect the goat, at the farm where he currently resides which is somewhere near Gainesville. Maybe Mama and I can make the trip more enjoyable if we can coordinate a visit with the Cantrell’s.

We had great services Sunday. Grandma went to church with us Sunday night. Mama spent the majority of the service trying to curtail Grandmas comments and vociferous agreements with our pastor as he preached. She enjoyed herself before (we always get to the church an hour early for choir practice), during (as she emphasized her ascent to the message), and after the service (as we pried her away from anyone she could stop to hear her say whatever had come to her mind). She needs that time out to spend her insatiable need to just talk to anyone in earshot and Grandpa need the time of solace whenever we can provide those respites. It is a win-win. Most everyone at church enjoys Grandma’s rambling conversations – mostly about herself – so she is never short of someone to talk to when she goes with us.

It was a good, productive weekend.