Trust, travel

Life conspired against me yesterday, as is often the case when we make our plans, and I was not able to service my beehives. I will take the time on my lunch break today to treat the hives as required, but they will be on their own for the next week. That is not typically an issue, but with bees, timing is of the greatest importance. As a beekeeper, I have to meet their timing to ensure the bees have all they need to expand the hive and produce the excess honey we are wanting to harvest. At this time, I do not think a week’s delay will be a bad thing, but I will know for certain when I get back. Although I have been disappointed at times with the progress of the hives – mostly from my lack of expertise – I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the bees. The more I learn about them, the more amazed I am at God’s creative insight when He made all things and pronounced it “very good”.

Mama is beginning to harvest spinach and kale from our raised bed. Onions are close to being ready for harvest and all the vegetables are growing as expected. It is a little frightening to leave the garden for a week when things look so good, but there may be enough rainfall in our absence to water the garden so that Tres will not be overtasked with that chore.  Over the past couple days Mama has made Strawberry Freezer Jam with strawberries purchased from Sam’s. Meanwhile, the strawberry plants I placed in one of the circles in our back patio are starting to produce fruit. Fortunately, all the fruit trees and bushes are several weeks away from having any ripened fruit, so our week away will not short circuit gathering that produce. It is really just a matter of Tres keeping things healthy until we get back. As far as I can tell, we have him set up to do so on a schedule he can fulfill and he is a very conscientious person.

Mama’s other big concern is the incubator and the possibility that one or more of the eggs in that incubator might hatch in during our travels. If that does happen, Mama does not want to burden Tres with caring for hatchlings in addition to all the other chores he will be responsible for. So, she has been seeking someone who could take the incubator home with them to babysit our eggs. Yesterday the Burns’ agreed to do so. Aliza is thrilled at the possibility of watching an egg hatch, so we know it will be closely monitored through the next week. I have been apathetic about the potential hatchlings, but now I am hoping one or two of the eggs do hatch while we are traveling just so Aliza’s expectations can be realized.

So, as of tomorrow morning, all our farm responsibilities will be assumed by others in whom our trust is placed. It will be nice on our part to have a week off, but we love our life here and we love all the busy-ness of the farm, so it is with some little apprehension that we turn those responsibilities over to others. Mama, for her part, has multiple little idiosyncrasies in her routines that are known only to herself. I can get close to emulating those routines, but never match them and when she tries to expound those idiosyncrasies to me it does little good. Her reasoning behind those particular actions is unique to her alone. When Mama tries to explain her normal routine to someone stepping into her role in caring for our farm animals, I often see the bewilderment in their faces as she shares that information with them. All will work out well in our absence, but the animals may be a little confused at how those necessary chores are carried out as it will vary from the routine Mama has adapted them to under her care. The goats and chickens may be confused but they will be adequately cared for…we trust.

As the packing continues and the pile of items required to be packed into the Sequoia grows, I am glad we drive the vehicle we do. Many have asked us recently about the cost of fueling such a large vehicle, but the tradeoff in owning and operating a smaller vehicle is not reasonable for Mama and me. We too often need the extra capacity of the larger vehicle and for that we willingly pay the upcharge in operating expenses. Our lives revolve less around the idea of supplying just our needs, but rather in what we can do to serve others. The larger vehicle allows us to be of greater service to others while still meeting our needs. Plus, our farm life many times prospers because we can do more with the vehicles we have than would be possible if we drove anything much smaller. So far, we are able to maintain what we have even with the high fuel costs. If that should change, we would adapt our lives accordingly. But for now, we enjoy the extra benefits of driving the Sequoia.

Please pray that the Lord will bless us as we travel especially with safety on the road, and that our vehicle will continue to run well through the miles we have to cover in this trip. Pray for Nate and Cori and the kids as well as they make the most of this short stay to the US. They have already covered a thousand miles or more in meeting their obligations to BIMI (the Mission’s Board that coordinates their support in Honduras) while they are here. There is still much they need to accomplish in these few days in addition to a couple days of downtime with us.

God is good and we hope to make the most of these next few days as well.

Improvement, packing, good noise, getting set up

Using the neti pot through the day yesterday made a huge difference in my symptoms. I had clear sinuses through the night and was able to sleep very well. My cough has abated as well. Mama is happy about that. And I still have three more days to recover before we meet our Honduran crew. All is as well as can be expected. I am not fully recovered but am greatly improved. Mama’s prescription going forward is that I use the neti pot to purge my sinuses each time I clean the coop in the future. (That is what she attributes my current sinus infection to.) That is a capital idea!

We are in the process of packing for the trip. Getting together those items that we must not forget and making lists to help us remember the typical travel items is the order of the day. Being in the US facilitates getting to Cori and Nate items that are difficult and expensive to send to them in Honduras. We have accumulated a couple boxes of those items as our address is often used as the stateside postal destination for online orders. Two boxes are less than I expected the amount to be. The list is so that we remember to pack the things we will need for days at the beach, fishing in the surf, and meeting some of the needs that arise from being away from home. Towels, toiletries, tools and tackle boxes that are accessible at home but must be packed along for use away from home are all being added to the lengthening list. It is rare that the vehicle we drive on any trip is not packed completely full by the time we leave the farm. That tradition will probably hold true for this trip as well.

Of the beach items we are taking, the canopy Mama and I bought for her business and three fishing poles to do some surf fishing are the most important to Cori and the kids, respectively. As far as I have been told, the weather will be nice. Some overcast days but mostly sunny with soft breezes. I have no idea about the prospects of catching any fish, but it is always fun to try. I very much miss the fishing I was able to do in the quarry lakes, so maybe a few wet lines in the Gulf will satisfy the itch for a while. Trying not to get too sunburned is my chief goal. Thus, the canopy is important to me as well.

The ambient temperature here is pleasant enough that Mama and I have the windows opened as long as possible each day. The high temperature yesterday was 67°. Today is forecast to reach the mid-seventies, but the humidity is almost ninety percent. So, as I work from my desk with the windows open, I can hear the chickens announcing the arrival of each newly laid egg and fussing with each other to make way for the next hen to occupy the nesting box. It can be quite a commotion at times, but it makes for some very pleasant background noises. When the younger goats see any movement outside the house, they try through their incessant bleating to convince us how hungry they are. Bird songs and cattle lowing make up the other recurring sounds in the ambient noise. Not many people get this type of natural auditory input through their days, so we do not take it for granted.

I will treat the beehives one last time this evening. Since the winds are light, I will also open the hives to check for brood, for queen activity, and check for swarm cells. That will take about an hour to accomplish but I thoroughly enjoy the time I get to spend on the hives. I learn something new every time and when I come across something I do not understand, I have friends to get help from. That takes a lot of the trepidation out of being on a steep learning curve. The prospect of getting to harvest honey this year is encouraging. We have had the bees for two years now and have not gotten that reward yet. Maybe this will be the year for us and our bees to succeed.

We have set things up the best we are able to help Tres take care of the animals on his schedule – evening feedings only. So, having done all we can, we leave it to the Lord to watch over the farm in our absence. If the forecast holds true, no additional watering will be required while we are gone. We have several days of rain spaced out over the week. The amounts predicted will be sufficient to give the plants, bushes, and trees all the water they need. Mama and I may water tomorrow morning but that should carry our garden into the days of rain that are forecast.

I am not planning on taking a computer with me on this trip. We will be happily occupied every day, so I see no need to complicate the trip trying to keep track of my computer. Besides, for most of the light duty communications required while out of the office, my cell phone will suffice. Since Mama does most of her business on her cell phone there is no need of a computer on her part either.

Mama and I will certainly not need the additional distraction.

 

 

Missing out, homeopathic treatments, busy bees, worries

I elected to not go to the Mission’s Conference service last night. Mama and Tres did get to go to the dinner prior to the service and to the service. Mama spent the service in the nursery tending to a sick toddler, but she was there to support the service. I was coughing in the way I typically do when this type of infection settles into my chest. I tried to watch the service online but failed on each attempt because I do not often get onto Facebook and was not aware of Mama’s username or password for her computer which would have opened the app without difficulty. Nor could I open the app on any other device. Unfortunately, Facebook is the only medium that the church uses to livestream the services. Fortunately, Victoria was home just before the service started and was able to get me logged into Facebook on our aged iPad using her login credentials. As expected, it was a great service, and I was happy to be able to participate at least in the broadcast. As things stand right now, I will not be able to attend tonight either and we will be on vacation next week – including Sunday. So, I will not see our church family until the 12^th of May.

The rain that thoroughly soaked our farm Sunday settled the pollen that has been such an irritant to my sinuses. The winds that have blown relentlessly through our area over the course of the past few weeks have settled down as well, eliminating much of the pollen from the air. That helps, but the infection has begun its course and as in all past such infections, there is little I can do to abate the symptoms. I did get out a neti pot today to see if I could flush out the irritants sufficiently to speed up my recovery. Mama and Victoria had conspired to give the neti pot away since it was not being used but that did not happen yet. My plan is to use the neti pot as instructed every hour through the day. In the very least, t will not cause me any harm and it may do some good. That is the best I can hope for. It is more than I have done in the past to combat the infection or abate the symptoms, so Mama feels very good about that, especially since we are heading to Florida early Saturday morning. We have already begun to hemorrhage money for that trip so I hope I can recover enough to enjoy it.

With the wet, still conditions the bees are far more active right now. They do not venture out in high wind conditions, nor do they fly out into the rain, so they have been hive bound for a couple weeks. Because of the light winds, they are out gathering all the available pollen to make up for lost time. It is fun to stand and watch all the bees coming and going at the entrance on each of the hives. Some are loaded with pollen that shows up as little colored balls tucked onto their back legs. Others are bringing water back to the hive for those bees who never leave hive. I have tried to capture a video of the activity but on the cell phone I cannot record it in way that gives a clear, focused video. Victoria has a digital camera that I can use to get some pictures that would be of better quality than the phone can produce, but it does not do videos and it does not have a Wi-Fi connection to get the images easily to the computer. Additionally, I do not have an easy way to read the digital camera card on my computer, so I have hesitated to use that means of getting the better images. I am sure they will be fascinating when I do figure out a good way to do so.

Mama’s anxiety is already peaked concerning the ongoing care of her chickens and goats in our absence. Tres is our backup, and he has done admirably in the past, but that does not keep Mama from seeing potential issues.  Tomorrow, Brittany is coming over to take the incubator which is keeping warm and gently rocking the eight eggs we paced in it. We have no idea if the eggs are viable, but we will know very shortly. Mama’s thought is that the eggs may hatch in our absence and Tres would be wholly unequipped to deal with the baby chicks. Hence, Brittany’s intervention.

Tres is out of the house very early every weekday morning which makes it a challenge to ensure the chickens are opened up to get to water at the beginning of each day. The alternatives are to leave them cooped up without water until he gets home -which is sometimes after 5 pm – or to leave the coop doors open overnight while keeping the yard gate closed. In the past, we have had raccoons or opossums gain access to the coops overnight if the doors that let the chickens into the coop yard are left open overnight. Snakes are another intruder we try to keep out of the coops overnight but that is a more difficult battle to win. Though the snakes do not require a door to get into the coop, they will certainly take advantage of it being left open.

So, we are packing, we are planning, and we are worrying. Wondering if we have done all in our power to set Tres up for success.

Time will tell.

Allergies, direction

I worked only a half day at the office yesterday. I was constantly blowing my nose, coughing and sneezing, and generally disrupting the atmosphere for everyone. With COVID protocols programmed into our every interaction now, when at 10:30 I asked permission to finish out the day from home, it was quickly granted. I did feel good enough to attend the dinner at church and the service last night but that will not be happening today. I am much worse today and I do not believe I can mask the symptoms sufficiently to attend the service in person this evening. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not. We will have to wait and see.

On my way out of the office one of the managers stopped to chat with me and remarked on the unexpected increase of allergens this year – specifically the oak trees which we are surrounded by. Normal concentrations of their particular pollen in the air this time of year are 1,250 but right now the numbers are closer to 12,500. That could account for some of the symptoms I am experiencing. Mama attributes it to my having cleaned the chicken coops last weekend. I must admit that there was a lot of wind blowing the dust around me as I shoveled up the refuse from the floors of the coop and dumped successive loads into the compost bins. Actually, I was covered in the dirt and dust. I am not sure the root cause of my current condition, the coop or the trees, but I know this too shall pass. Preventing the recurrence is a challenge when so many possible avenues of allergen overload exist. The long-term outcome is that coop cleaning may require a mask mandate. This time, self-imposed.

What may be bad for me in the form of allergens is good for the bees. Many types of the pollen that make me sneeze and have a runny nose provide food for the bees. There is not a direct relation between the two, but I try to remember that pollen is bee food and to grow strong hives and feed the brood that will be hatching very soon, a large amount of pollen is required. The month of May in our area is the month of the Spring nectar flow. That means honey production will be maximized in the next few weeks. Mama and I will be ready for it, Lord willing. When we return from vacation next week, I will put the honey supers on the hives and hope for our first harvest of honey from the hives. It is worth suffering the allergies when I think of what the pollen will do for our bees.

For many months now the Lord has been impressing on me to write, but I have neglected that directive. It turns out that I am quite practiced at ignoring that obligation because I have felt the need to do so for years, but the urgency lately is more intense than in the past. So, I have been praying that the Lord would lead me to the right topic to put down in prose. In preparation for writing, I stumbled across a course on how to write creative non-fiction. A genre that suits me perfectly. It is recounting a real-life story in a way that makes it enjoyable for the reader. No make-believe characters or lands to create and support. Just accurately recounting and somewhat enlivening a real happening in the life of a real person.

Regrettably, life is somewhat boring for the most part; long days of uninteresting routines punctuated with moments of unexpected interactions to be followed by long days of uninteresting routines. Those unexpected interactions can be good or bad, joyous, or sorrowful painful, or full of bliss. Such is the case of our human existence. That thought is what makes living for the Lord such a blessing. Even the boring routines we labor through in our daily activities are precious to Him and He makes every moment lived for Him count to His glory and our benefit. The real joy is in knowing that I matter to God. My life can be glorifying to Almighty God! What an amazing thought. What a happy circumstance!

Anyway, I believe God laid on my heart last night the story I need to tell. I will need to get some permissions and do enough research on the subject to be clear and truthful in the telling of someone else’s story, but I feel a firm sense of direction for the literary exercise before me. The direction came to me in a conversation completely unrelated to the topic of the story in question, but the directive was clear. I know that partly because I have not forgotten it. Many times, over the years, I have had brilliant thoughts that, if not written down, were lost as quickly as they had come. When those epiphanies come to me and I clearly remember them later, I know they are meant to be remembered. In other words, I sense God’s help in capturing the thought so I can act upon it.

I won’t let the cat out of the bag – so to speak – right now, but it is reassuring to be so led.

Saturday, Mission’s Conference

Saturday was a very busy day for me. Not so much for Mama. Mama’s news first. The event she attended was not well coordinated. It was supposed to be a classic car show and local biker rally, but no classic cars showed up and the bikers that did attend were there for only an hour or less. Of the thirty vendors that Mama was told would be there only ten actually came. It was very disappointing for Mama, but she hung in for most of the very dull day and was able to make enough sales to cover the costs of the space she occupied and a little extra. She got one possible good contact for a state-wide biker rally next month as a personal invitation from the organizer of that rally. That may work out well for her.

She also spent time talking to the commercial beekeeper that regularly sells at Trade Days. He manages 700 hives. She got some great tips and useful information from him which she shared with me. Again, the wind was merciless through the day, but Mama was able to pull down the temporary walls of the pavilion and stop most of the direct assault from those winds. All in all, not a complete waste. When she was packing up to leave, the lady that had so poorly organized the event chided Mama for leaving early, but Mama brushed off her rebuke with a wave of her hand towards the mostly empty pavilion.

For my part, I was able to get 17,022 steps Saturday. All that without ever leaving our little farm. All the chores I took care of were minor, but all required multiple trips to and from the shop. Since Tres had told me early that he thought there were squirrels in the attic, I spent a long time looking for possible entries into the attic but could not see anything obvious. So, I started looking for tree branches that could be scraping the roof that might cause the sounds he was hearing. Those I did find and cut all the possible offenders away from the house. He did not hear any sleep-interrupting noises that night.

Next, I set up a fencing trellis for the row of green beans in the garden. It took all the pieces of panels I had available and the last of the t-posts I could scrounge up to do so. It is not my best work, but it should suffice. I spent an hour or more tending to the bees, but I still have not opened the hives to look for swarm cells because of the high winds. I am very anxious to do that as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Both hives appear to be doing well but it would be nice to verify that suspicion.

In the afternoon, I cut away the paneling I have in the coop to eliminate the hiding places the rats have been so effectively using. In doing so, I got to see one rat scurry about as I ripped off a piece of the thin OSB I used on the walls inside the coop. I found two nesting areas and about twenty pounds of food that had been carried into the wall by the industrious rodents. Once that was cleaned up, I repositioned the feed barrels and bales of straw to reset everything for Mama. I also put a live trap in place that the rat seemed to be frequenting. For several weeks a rat had been taking a small plastic bottle of medicine Mama uses on the chickens and dragging it away from the container where it is stored. Mama has found the small bottle in various locations near the tray where it normally sets. I set the trap in line with the approach to the bottle – and Sunday morning, the offender was in the livetrap. She was a large rat. Hopefully, that is the last of the rats in the coop…for now.

That chore done; I cleaned the coops. Mama got home just as I was finishing the coop cleaning. Gracie who had spent Friday night with us so that she and Mama could leave early Saturday morning, had to be brought back to the farm on their way home to collect some of the articles she had forgotten to pack in their early departure. Since I was done with most of my tasks, I changed my very wet shirt and went with her so we could stop at Tractor Supply to purchase items she wanted for the chickens. By the time we got home from that outing, it was about 5 pm. It had been a very productive day. At least for me.

Over the day Sunday, we got more than three inches of steady gentle rain. What a blessing! Our Mission’s Conference started Sunday. Sunday School and both services that day were great. We will have preaching services each night through Wednesday night with a dinner before each of those services. That makes for a busy week as we not only have every evening filled, but we have to prepare a dinner for each evening to be shared with our missionaries.

We always enjoy the conference, but it makes for a hurried week and next week we will be in Florida. Oh, the fun.

Play day, costs, rain on the way, rat trapping

Mama and Kimberlyn are meeting at the farm this morning for a shopping trip to Denton. Kimberlyn is bringing feed from Muenster which was picked up on her way here. I am told it is not out of her way since she prefers to make her way to the farm on backroads that bring her within five miles of Muenster. That friendly help in picking up feed saves Mama and I both time and money, so it is very much appreciated. Plus, the two of them get to spend the day together doing the shopping Mama was going to do regardless of the company while Kimberlyn gets access to stores that she would not typically drive to in her routine outings.

With the price of fuel, Mama and I are very aware of the cost involved in the round trip but the play day for the two of them is more important than the fuel that could have been used to travel somewhere other than to the farm. The feed being hauled to the farm should last us well into May when Mama and I will have to make plans for another purchase. As for prices, they are about ten percent higher than last month, and we are being told by the feed store that prices will inflate even further over the next several months. It may become prohibitive at some point in the very near future to maintain the herd and flock we are now tending to, but we are not there yet. If Victoria was not covering the cost of food required for the dogs, it would already be prohibitive to keep all of them. Such as it is, we are managing but the expense to feed all our animals is more challenging to our budget than any time in recent memory.

On the positive side of the recently inflated costs on everything, Mama and I are finding more creative ways to supplement our needs. That is one of the primary reasons Mama is so focused on the garden. She has been faithful to water our plants and trees every morning and it is bearing noticeable results versus past years of questionable returns on our efforts. We have high hopes. In her efforts, to thwart our furry bandits from stripping the fruit trees, Mama has purchased rough ribbons and bubble wrap to loop through the branches of the nectarine and pear trees to hopefully discourage those thieves from stealing the ripening fruits on those two trees. Fake snakes will be added to the trees to complete the defense. It will be interesting to see if that works.

To make our fuel go further we are simply driving less. Right now, it costs about $85 to fill the Sequoia and about $130 to fill the diesel truck. I am not complaining per se. Everyone is subject to the same expense but the only way we can mitigate it is to use less fuel in our daily lives. Staying home more gives us the time see and do more of the chores that sometimes get overlooked in the less sedentary days of our very recent past. That is a blessing on may counts. So, it is not all bad. It never is.

We are currently forecast to get about two inches of rain over the weekend. That would be a huge blessing. However, an all the recent forecasts when such a prediction was made, nothing has come of it. We will wait and see what rain makes it to our little farm and be thankful for whatever we get. I am hoping to treat the beehives again Saturday, but I would happily postpone due to rainy conditions.

In the coop we have had a rat inhabiting the walls for so long that it has learned our routine and will watch from its hiding place while we tend to the chickens mornings and evenings. Mama has even become somewhat accustomed to its scrutiny. I have tried several methods of trapping the rodent, but it has outsmarted me on every occasion. However, when I made the final repairs to the wiring the rat had destroyed, I set a sticky trap in place in case it went back to gnawing the new wiring. Well, this morning, a rat was entrapped in the pad I had anchored in place, and I will be able to dispose of it once and for all. Whether or not it is the lone invader remains to be seen, but I will celebrate at least this moderate success.

Saturday Mama has another marketing event. This one is in Bowie at the Trade Days facility, but the event is a classic car show. Mama will not need my help with the canopy because she will be in the covered pavilion available for vendors. It is forecast to be windy, but the pavilion has tarpaulin walls that can be drawn down to block the wind. Mama is told she will be one of thirty vendors so it could be a good opportunity to sell the nail sets she still has in stock and to advertise her Color Street business. Time will tell. I will spend the day getting the little things done around the farm that need to be attended to in advance of the storms forecast for Sunday.

It will be a busy weekend for both of us.

 

Focus, choices, beekeeping, updates

I am finding it a challenge right now to maintain a proper focus. Not necessarily on required work activities or needed chores at the house or farm, but it the area of planning ahead – setting up processes for meeting our future needs. Mama and I had a long talk earlier about our finances. We are actually in pretty good shape overall, but I do not feel I am ready to meet our current needs with the reduced income we will have available when I retire. I am especially concerned about providing for the costs of ongoing or upcoming medical needs. With the current pressures everyone is feeling due rampant inflation, especially with the rising price of gas and diesel we must purchase to operate our vehicles to keep our lives going, there is no way to avoid the troubling aspect of attempting to predict our financial needs one to two years in advance, i.e., setting up a workable, sufficient budget.  

Two years ago, I would have told Mama I had the numbers worked out. Now, not so much. Fortunately, there is no urgency. I can probably work as long as I desire with my current employer, but that completely aborts the timeline I had fixed just eighteen months ago. Hence, the issue with maintaining a proper, wholesome, Godly focus on our required activities, our planned travel, and those spontaneous moments when Mama and I tend to splurge in order to express our love for each other. So, to capture that expression of devotion for each other we feed our animals, we water our garden, we do our daily puzzles, we steal kisses through the day and evening, we go to church, we connect with our children and grandchildren, etc. to ensure that that love is communicated. Not a bad deal for either of us. Those are the moments when I feel I have a proper focus on life so I have become more focused on those moments.

One of the choices Mama and I must make is choosing between attending the National Conference for Color Street in August or traveling to Honduras later this year. Since we can only spend the money once, it is best to do so in the most productive way possible. Either trip will cost very nearly the same amount of money but trying to choose which of the two excursions would produce the best long-term outcomes is the challenge. One, the conference, is a complete unknown as to the foreseeable outcomes but comes highly recommended by those in the hierarchy of Mama’s team in Color Street. She has been assured that attending the event is “life changing”. But Mama and I do not drink, dance, or party as many of the attendees will, and we do not spend money to be seen spending money. In those types of settings, we appear to be cheap and stuffy. Plus, the general appeal of that sort of gathering does not appeal at all to me, but I will go if it is important to Mama. So, that choice is hers to make. It will be interesting to determine whether we will elect either trip. Perhaps, neither, but definitely not both.

Among the routines we keep in order to maintain the farm, I have redoubled my efforts to tend to our beehives. I began a series of treatments that must be repeated every five days for five consecutive treatments. The second of those treatments was done yesterday evening. It does not take long, but I have to be as specific as possible in the timing. I will fall short of the timing for the last of the five recommended treatments because of travel plans to meet our Honduran family in Florida. So far I have not seen a beneficial outcome to the treatments, but I will continue and test the results after the treatments are done.

As for next week, I cancelled the vacation I had requested. The lab setup at the museum in Glen Rose has not been competed so the simulator development I was to participate in will not happen – at least in the original timeframe. I have tentative permission to take the time off in the future, but I do not know when that opportunity will present itself.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow using presentations that were changed Monday. The changes are not huge, but they are significant in their specific focus of the information the changes cover. Monday of this week, I spent the day at the office participating on ensuring all those required changes were filtered into all the required files, spreadsheets and presentation formats mandated to ensure we track and communicate those updates to anyone that may be affected by those changes. It was a team effort with six of us competing the rework. Yesterday I got to present one of the new presentations and found three mistakes which I have since corrected. Tomorrow, I will present a second of the two updated presentations and will be able to see any needed corrections to our most recent rework.  Friday, I will communicate those changes and we should be up to date for a year or so.

Hopefully.

The weekend, another change of plans

Friday was a holiday, so I got to spend the entire day occupied around the farm. Mama and I did a lot of little things, but the most important thing I got done was to treat the bees for Varroa mites. Since Mama and I attended our beekeepers meeting a week ago, I have been more and more certain that I needed to treat the hives, so I ordered the Oxalic Acid to do those required treatments. The power is put into a tool that heats the acid to boiling thus vaporizing the acid and allowing it to circulate through the hive. The acid is harmless to the bees and the honey but deadly to the mites. Oxalic acid is an organic, naturally occurring element found in nuts, vegetables, cocoa and many types of seeds. So, I feel safe using it to treat the hives. To do a full treatment regimen, I will have to repeat the treatment every five days for five consecutive treatments. My next treatment will be done tomorrow evening.

I will need to get some oversight on one of the two hives. The brood boxes are full, so I have to decide whether to split the hive – if a new queen cell is being tended to in that hive – or add an additional brood box to the hive to give the bees more room to expand. Either way, I am good with the outcome. I just need to know which avenue to take for the hive. It has been so windy that I have hesitated to open the hives to check for queen cells that would indicate a swarm is planned. Feeling the wind in the open hive really alarms the bees and I have wanted to avoid that upset.

I spent Saturday with Mama at an event in downtown Decatur. It was interesting to see how the business works in person and to watch Mama interact with passersby. We set up next to a person Mama knew from previous years so there was a good bit of camaraderie through the day and plenty of help setting up and tearing down the display. We discovered early in the day that the lady we posted next to is the mother of one of the ladies I work with. That made the connection even more interesting. We did fairly well in sales, but I do not get the impression that the event was very well attended.

Mama sold about $350 of her stock of nails so it was mostly a recouping of money spent on inventory versus gaining sales for Mama’s advancement in rank, but between this weekend and last weekend, Mama has sold over $600 worth of her stock – which she will now replenish. She has another event this coming weekend which I will not attend with her. I will be needed for set up and breakdown if the canopy is required, but I will not have to stay all day. As for the canopy we purchased, it was exactly what Mama needs for this type of event. It did surprisingly well in the relentless wind through the day. Much better than canopies used by some of the other vendors. The only issue with the canopy is that it is heavy when folded up and packaged. The weight is just about all Mama can handle by herself to load or unload and drag the canopy to the sight to set it up, so when I am available, I will help her getting it put up and taken down.

It was a good thing that I finally took the time to stay with Mama for one of her Color Street events. It gave me a lot of insight into the approaches that work and do not work on the crowd in attendance. It also gave me a better awareness into the limited exposure Color Street yet has within the available market. That reinforces my opinion of just how much growth opportunity this young company still has – and Mama can grow with it if we persist. Being there to help Mama made me realize that each time she does this type of sales event it requires two people. It is far more than she can do by herself. It is not like one person at a time shows up at her booth. They tended to come in groups, which can be a little overwhelming.

I cancelled my vacation for next week. I was invited to participate in the development of a simulator for the Creation Science Museum in Glen Rose, TX, but they are not ready for that to happen. In lieu of the simulator development, I was invited to participate in an archeological dig that is ongoing, but I am not physically able to do that, so I had to back away from the week off entirely. I am a little disappointed, but not overly so. I still am taking off the first week of May to travel with Mama to meet Nate, Cori, and the grandchildren in Pensacola. Hopefully that will happen as planned. As for the week in Glen Rose, I would have had to commute – two hours each way – or stay in a hotel about an hour away. Neither of those options was optimal so it is perhaps better that things worked out as they have. Plus, next week is our Mission’s Conference at church and that travel would have kept me from participating at all in the conference. When I told Pastor about the aborted plans, I think he was relieved to know I would be here for Mission’s Conference.

Maybe I am a little relieved as well.

Varmints, gardening

For the past year or more Mama and I have been dealing with mice and rats both in the house and in the coop. It is understandable to see the rodents in the coop, but the number we have been seeing in the house is concerning. Heretofore, I have been unable to rid the house of the infestation, but a couple months ago Victoria bought some rat sticky pads. They are huge. About the size of a half sheet of paper. I was not impressed by the idea, but since they were available, I gave them a try. They have proved to be extremely effective. When I began setting them out, I immediately began to catch mice on the pads. My first success was in the shop when I placed the pads below the sacks of feed. Each pad catches multiple mice. On one pad, I had seven mice entrapped in the goo. With that success, I have replaced the traps under the feed sacks to make sure a trap in place at all times.

Well, the other day I set out some of the pads in the house, specifically in the small closet in the hall bathroom where the hot water tank sits. We selected that location because Victoria had seen a mouse dart out from underneath the door one evening. So far, I have gotten four mice on that one pad in two days. When the first one became trapped, I left the trap in place with the expectation that other mice would be drawn to the trap. That seems to be a winning solution on my part. Not so much for our little furry invaders.

So, we are having some success in the house and shop, but the rat in the coop still eludes all my attempts to dislodge it from the walls of the coop. My next move is to remove the plywood on the interior wall to eliminate its hiding places. Unfortunately, that will remove some of the barrier to the cold that the chickens have enjoyed for the last several years. It is kind of funny, but every time I clear out the accumulated refuse the rat piles up to barricade his entries, he will poke his head out to see what is going on. So, we often get to make eye contact. That is not comfortable for Mama, but I find it amusing – mostly.

I have also set out traps to catch whatever varmints are stripping our fruit trees in the garden. So far, I have no takers of the bait I was told to use, but I am not giving up. I would really like to get the fruit from our nectarine and pear trees but for three years we have been denied that produce by some bandit or group of bandits that strip the fruit from the trees before it has a chance to mature. My assumption is that the thieves are raccoons or squirrels, possibly opossums, but I very much hope to catch the culprits this season. I considered moving the nectarine tree to the back yard where I have some control over access to wild animals, but that is a very big task. Certainly, too much for me to tackle on my own. Maybe this winter I can solicit help, but it is way too late to make that transplant now. Our only chance to pick fruit from the tree is to trap the varmints that are stealing that fruit. I do not have a strong expectation of winning that battle, but I will try.

After a very long conversation with a friend from church Mama got some guidance on issues we are having with our garden. The person Mama talked to has a truck garden. She and her husband have about an acre of vegetables they raise and sell every year. So, they are quite successful. One of the pointers she gave Mama was to water the garden in the morning versus doing that watering in the evening. Evening waterings have been our practice because that is when I am available. Mama has been watering in the morning ever since that conversation. We will see if it makes the difference. I have high hopes that it will. In the hourlong conversation there were other suggestions for specific vegetables as to how much water they need versus what we have been doing. The short version is that we have been watering some too much and others not enough. It was by far the most helpful conversation we have had about gardening since moved to the farm.

Since we clipped the wins of our chickens, none have gotten into the garden. That is a blessing. Unfortunately, the fence that keeps the chickens out does not exclude the other furry critters living in the woods around us. But we do what we can to try and balance our needs and expectations of harvesting the fruits of our labors against the survival of the wildlife close by. I do not like to kill those critters unnecessarily, but at times it is unavoidable. I even let most of the snakes we catch in the coop live. I just relocate them and hope they do not come back. Not so with opossum and raccoon that invade us.

Maybe this year those sneaky thieves will find elsewhere to feed themselves…maybe.

Chicken clipping, hummingbird moth, bee oversight, instructor, Grant

Mama and I took the time to clip the wings of our chickens last night. It is not a difficult task, and it causes no discomfort to the chicken, but that did not stop Mama wincing as I repeated the process on each and every hen. Of our sixty or so hens, we clipped wings on about thirty-five. Some are too heavy to fly, and some are not at all predisposed to get into the garden. However, the ten or so that seem to find a way into the garden have caused noticeable damage to several rows of our sprouting plants. Hopefully, the inability to fly over the fence will discourage them from aiming their attention that direction.

In our haste to wrap up the hourlong chore of getting the hens one by one off the roost in the dark and clipping one wing of each, then returning them to the roost, Mama and I did not think about closing the coop doors or the gate to the coop yard. So, you can imagine our surprise as we were making our morning pot of coffee to see hens wandering into the front yard to feast under the bird feeders hanging there. It is a normal trek for the hens but not typically until we open them in the late afternoon. Our bad. At least, the chickens are less likely to get into the garden which would be a problem having given them the entire day to mill about the farm.

As I was watering yesterday evening, a watched a Hummingbird Moth tend to the flowers on our Blueberry plants. I have seen them before but not here at the farm. We ran into a whole group of them in Palo Duro Canyon when we lived in Amarillo. I tried to get out my phone to video the moth, but it moved on very quickly. In all the hubbub of the evening, I forgot to tell Mama about it, so it was interesting this morning when she came to show me a video someone had sent to her of a Hummingbird Moth at one of their flowerbeds. Of course, I got fussed at for not disclosing my encounter the previous evening. But I was quickly forgiven. Maybe I will be better prepared if there is a future opportunity to capture my own record of the large insect.

I spent about half an hour observing the hives yesterday in the late afternoon. There was sufficient activity at each of the hives to assure me that they are doing well. One is far stronger that the other but even the weaker hive has enough bees coming in with loads of pollen to verify they are preparing for the feeding of brood that will soon be hatching. On the more robust hive, I will look for swarm cells in the next couple days. I believe that hive is very crowded, and they might be preparing to make a new queen and take a portion of the bee population out of their current hive to start in a new location.

That is not a bad thing, but it does hinder the bees remaining with the current from having enough bees left in the hive to produce excess honey. Since that excess honey is what we are looking for, we like to circumvent the swarm process and keep our hives full of bees. I am prepared to take a split from the hive should that be needed. That will limit the number of bees taken from the current hive but still provide enough bees for the new hive to get off to a good start.

At the office yesterday, a fellow instructor and I interviewed a potential candidate for an additional instructor role. He was a very pleasant gentleman. Raised on a farm, a degree in Ag Science, ten years as a County Extension Agent, and twenty-eight years as an Ag teacher. We spent more than an hour talking, asking, and answering questions. He seems to be one of those individuals that consider themselves life-long learners. He was a little apprehensive that his background in oil and gas is very limited, but that is the case for most of the employees currently in our organization. Other than myself and one other individual, no one in the company ever worked out in the field for the oil and gas industry. My hunch is that I will begin training him very soon. He is a rare find.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow. This will be an in-person class. A small one, which is fun because everyone knows from the start that they will be required to participate. Another instructor is teaching an all-day class today because I was scheduled to teach a half-day class today. That class was cancelled last week because we did not have anyone register for it. That does not happen very often in most of our class offerings, but with that particular class we have not had a huge success in marketing that content yet. That may change once the abbreviated content is presented at our conference this summer, but for now we are struggling with that one.

Grant is beginning a twenty-four-hour heart monitoring test this morning. Please pray for him and Cori as they deal with this added inconvenience in their lives. It certainly is a necessary diagnostic endeavor, but with everything else Cori is coordinating, it just adds a little more detail to an already overly broad focus on Cori’s part. Thankfully it is only twenty-four hours. For good or for bad, they should have the results later this week. Despite the challenges, God is good.

It is humbling to look back on Mama’s and my experience raising our seven children and realize just how amazingly good God was and has continued be to us.

Mama’s event, repairs, bees, chickens and gardening, schedule changes

Saturday, Mama participated in an event at the local High School. For her it was one of the most productive days she has had so far marketing her Color Street nail sets. That was a great encouragement to her. She sold twenty-five of the set she had on hand. She developed confidence in the card reader she has programmed into her phone to take payments via credit/debit cards. She made dozens of contacts with promises from five or six people to have parties in the near future. Her nail sets generated a lot of excitement. All vendors, including Mama, packed up early because the winds picked up and became too violent to continue. Mama had borrowed a canopy from friends and even with the weights supplied with that canopy, it was impossible to hold down the canopy against the force of those winds. All in all, she felt very good about the event and will have lots of follow-up opportunities to keep her busy for several weeks.

Meanwhile, I worked on some household repairs. Recently one of the drawers we have in the kitchen fell apart. The drawers are enclosed behind double cabinet doors, so they are large. Over the process of living and keeping things close for use, we overloaded that drawer and the support on one side actually came loose within the cabinet allowing the drawer to collapse on that side while the other side remained connected.  I had to replace the support that had broken loose, replace the drawer slide and reinstall that drawer. That took some time trying to match one side of the drawer to the other to make sure the new drawer slides would work properly. Once that was done, I replaced the slides on the remaining three drawers. The three that were still intact were simple to redo, so now Mama has new drawer slides on all her large kitchen drawers. They will all be loaded up to capacity soon, but I am fairly confident the new slides will hold up to the weight of all the pots, pans, mixing bowl, cake pans and casserole dishes they will store for Mama.

I wanted to work in the hives Saturday afternoon, but the winds were too strong for me to do so. The general rule of thumb is that it is best not to go into the hive when the winds are more than six miles per hour. Opening the hive in high winds makes the bees pretty angry, especially as frames are lifted out of the hive to be inspected. So, as much as I felt like I needed to inspect the hives, I held off. Almost every day the winds have been high, and it looks like that trend will continue, so I may be forced to violate the guidance I have been advised to follow. Also, late Friday evening, I set out three swarm traps to see if I can catch one or more swarms. I have high hopes of getting back up to four strong hives this year – if not more. I feel like I have the experience now to handle the eight hives recommended for us to produce enough honey for personal use for a year.

Tonight, Mama and I will clip the wings of our chickens because we have a few hens that are flying into the garden and scratching up the rows of  flowers we have sprouting there. The chickens tend to look for moist areas because those are the areas that attract the bugs they are looking for. The moist areas in the garden are the rows of vegetables and flowers that Mama and I water several times per week. The results are that the chickens are naturally attracted to the rows Mama, and I are tending to – ruining those plants growing in those rows. So, to keep the chickens from being able to fly over the fence around the garden, we will clip the feathers on one wing of each of the hens. With only one wing clipped, the hens will not be able to fly. Maybe we can win this conflict, maybe not, but we will try. Within a few months, the clipped feather will grow back out, so there is no injury to the chickens. Now, if we can beat the rat that has caused us so much damage in the coop, I will feel much better.

Mama taught a class at our church school this morning. One of the teachers asked for Mama’s help so she could make a doctor’s appointment. That teacher has been experiencing some severe pain and has been waiting to get help. Today was her day. We do not know the outcome, but Mama got to play teacher and she enjoyed it. It is not something she would like to do on a daily basis. She likes her time at the farm, but it is a fun, challenging reprieve for her at odd times.

I worked from the office today, per my new schedule. It is certainly much busier when we meet together at the office, but it is nice to quickly and easily make the face-to-face contacts through the day so questions can be broadly addressed and more thoroughly discussed.

Fun times.

Traveling, catching up, class tomorrow

 Mama and I flew to Pensacola Monday and flew back yesterday. Monday, we had to be at the airport a 5 am. Yesterday we were at the airport a 2 pm – much easier to accommodate that time frame. Both flights were good enough. At least everyone was fairly tolerant of the facemask issue. Mama and I did our best to comply so we would not promote a bad witness, but we took every advantage we could to lower or remove our face coverings in the airport and on the flight.

On both flights Mama was able to make several good contacts for Color Street with both passengers and the flight attendants. On the flight to Pensacola, Mama interacted with a group of four or five ladies traveling together. They seemed very interested. One of the ladies even remarked, “One of us needs to start selling this stuff!” We will see what comes of that. Both of the stewardesses were interested in the appliques. On the flight home, Mama shared the information with our row mate and that young lady seemed excited about the business opportunity. And again, both the flight attendants were interested in the Color Street nail strips and graciously received Mama gift bags. Though one of the attendants was male, he took a gift bag of the Color Street items Mama had prepared to share with his mother and grandmother.

Because our flight was so early Monday we were able to spend a short time on Pensacola Beach before driving to Andalusia, Alabama (about 80 miles from Pensacola). Once there I checked in with the company there to let them know I was in town and see how the training area was set up for the class I would present. The host for the company is a gentleman I had met on multiple occasions, so there was a bit of familiarity there. We spent a half hour or more catching up before Mama and I headed to our hotel. The hotel in Andalusia was not the best one we have stayed in, but it was not the worst either. Mama was worried because the hotel room opened up to the parking lot and we were on the ground level. The hotel was not fully booked so the noise levels were not a problem.

Mama dropped me off at the office just before 7 am. That gave me an hour to set things up for the class and ensure the hookup from my computer to the TV was successful. That connection took some intervention from a local IT representative to accomplish, but I was able to start the class on time. I was done with the class by 1 pm. The class was scheduled to end earlier but there was a lot of very pertinent discussion during the class which extended it by a half hour or so. The participants did not mind the extra time spent together, but by the time the class concluded everyone was ready to go, so the classroom emptied very quickly. It was raining heavily when I called Mama to let her know I had finished and as packing up my equipment.

We had been under a tornado watch since early morning but had not been close enough to the storm center to be affected by a tornado – according to my hosts – but the storm over or location was producing some very strong winds and a lot of rain. Mama waited where she was before making the short drive to come and pick me up. Even though the rain had slacked up a bit during those few minutes, both of us got pretty wet getting me and my suitcase into the vehicle. We ate lunch in Andalusia and drove back to Pensacola in the rain. Basically, we shopped our way back to the hotel, hitting the stores Mama had mapped out for inspection while we were in the area.

Wednesday, I worked from the hotel until lunchtime. After spending a little time on the beach, we ate lunch, filled the rental vehicle and headed to the airport. Mama and I were not concerned about getting there too early because the airport is relatively small, however, there were a lot of passengers going through the security area. That process took longer in Pensacola that it had in Dallas and passengers were clearly frustrated by the pace being kept by the TSA workers. Both flights were completely full, but we were on a larger plane coming back so it was more comfortable even though we were three to a row versus just two seats on each side of the aisle. We had a very bumpy, bouncy, wabbly landing in Dallas, but we made it even though Mama was worrying that we would not.

Trace met us at the airport only a few minutes after our bags were spit out onto the baggage claim. Unfortunately, we all missed church due to the timing of our flight. We are happily home again, and all our animals breathed a sigh of relief to hear her greeting as Mama went about doing the morning feeding.

Now Mama and I have to catch up to those things left undone while we traveled. It is not a huge list of chores, just a lot of little, busy ones. Many of which involve our garden and the yard. The remainder are household issues that we will quickly gain the upper hand on in short order. As much as I like to travel, it is good to be home.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow, so I have to make the most of today to get caught up to the administrative follow up for the class I taught Tuesday. The paperwork involved in the in-person classes is a bit more cumbersome than what is required for the online classes, but I do enjoy the face-to-face classes when I have to chance to present them.

Back to the routines of home life.