Mama’s appointment, ongoing challenges

Tuesday Mama and I left for Denton early so we could shop at Sam’s prior to her dental surgery. We ended up spending a lot more than I had anticipated but the goal was to get ahead on several household goods as well as pick up some needed items. In the process of scrounging through the store I found some meats that were marked down for sale at reasonable prices. We got about $50 worth of beef in three packages that will make twice that many meals for us. I was exasperated by the malfunction of my debit card at checkout and the dismissal of the person who should have been able to get the ink cartridges Mama and I turned in a purchase ticket for, but other than that it was a relaxed and worthwhile trip. On the bright side, the person who brought the wrong ink cartridges to us and then was too busy to go back and get the correct ones, saved us more than thirty dollars on that purchase because I was able to get the ink cartridges online for about that much less.

We got all we could done prior to the dental office because Mama was concerned that the difficult extraction for which she was to be anesthetized would result in her being out of commission for the remainder of the day. When she was duly checked in for the procedure, I went to Kroger’s to get a brand of tea we only seem to be able to get there and was back at the office in less than thirty minutes. Only a few minutes after I parked and got comfortable in the vehicle, the dental office called to let me know Mama was almost ready to come out. When I met them at the patient pickup door, Mama seemed very alert. Once in the vehicle we made one more stop in Denton and headed home. After all, we had a lot of groceries in cooler bags waiting to be properly refrigerated. Mama was numb for most of the afternoon so any pain she would have had was muted by the lingering affect of the shots she had gotten after being put to sleep. As that effect wore off, she was pleased to have very little discomfort from the extraction. A little swelling, but no aches. That continues true today. So, that moment of angst is passed, and we are on to planning her event this weekend and packing for travel to Alabama via Pensacola Monday morning.

Once home Tuesday, I spent about five hours trying to figure the electrical issue in the coop but after all the rework I put into the effort, I am still at an impasse. Electrical issues are not that complicated, but I have yet to stumble onto the root cause and get everything to work as expected. I have power to the outlets on both sides of the coop but cannot get power to the light fixtures – three of them – in the coop. So, I have spent time researching the wiring requirements again and may have come to see a solution. I will test my hypothesis this evening to find out if I am on the right track. It cannot be that difficult, but so far, I have been losing the battle to get power to flow where needed.

The little doe we have been babysitting for a friend will be picked up today and with a little planning, Mama, Trace, and I should be able to get the older does and nanny goats parsed out into the paddocks and group them with the proper bucks to get our breeding plans implemented for this year. I am looking froward to having kids on the farm again. They are great entertainment. If the girls are bred in April, we can expect them to kid Mid-August through September of this year. As far as the ambient temperatures go, that is just about perfect timing to miss the brutal heat of Summer and give little ones time to grow a bit before the cooler temperatures of Winter begin. At least, that is the plan.

We had a young missionary in church last night. He and his wife are in the last stretch of deputation as they prepare to go to the dessert of North Africa. I will not put the specific destination in print for their protection. What was obvious was his heart for a lost people who have a form of religion but no hope of salvation. To put statistics in plain terms, he stated that the people of that region have a greater chance of being struck by lightning than to hear one clear presentation of the Gospel in their entire lifetime. That truth is staggering.

O that I could do more!