Change of plans, proper questions, settling in

I was scheduled to teach an all-day class today but last night I started to feel a lot of mucus in the back of my throat and this morning I woke up with a sore throat and a troubling cough. I have been struggling with my voice since I taught a class Wednesday, (I had someone else lead the music Wednesday evening.) but the onset of this cough was pretty sudden. I woke this morning a little after 1 am and took some Nyquil to alleviate some of the drainage I was feeling. It helped but not enough to give the strength of voice I would need to talk for seven hours straight teaching a class. Plus, the cough I started nursing this morning is not improving and refraining from talking is one of the things I have to do to minimize the bouts of coughing. So, I let my management know at 5:30 this morning and we were able to get a substitute to present the class on short notice. That was a relief. There are only two in the class this today, but when a client has paid their fee and scheduled the time for the class, we hate to force them to reschedule.

Yesterday evening, I sorted through the remainder of the pallets we have lying about the property just to see how many were still usable after the couple years they have set there. I managed to find eleven that I could use to start the larger duck enclosure. The remaining ten or twelve will be taken apart to recover any usable wood and the refuse from those will be burned. I am left with a couple clean spots where the pallets have rested as they waited to be used. A win-win. Of the fifty or so I started with, having to only discard a few is a pretty good outcome. At least, I think so. It will give me a good start on the enclosure – which I am in no hurry to build at this point, other than the fact that I have most of the materials available and want to assign those materials to the duck area before they get used across the farm in other projects.

Building the larger area will allow me to enclose a larger pond for the ducks to inhabit. I did not build the first enclosure large enough for anything big enough to be decorative. So, getting a second opportunity to build is a good thing. Where we chose to set the large area will not interfere with feeding and caring for the chicken coops. Another benefit to a second attempt.  It will also let me use the cover I set up several years ago for a loafing area for our cows. Something that was rarely used then and serves no purpose now. Putting that to good use will make me feel better about the time, effort, and money I spent getting it built. Repurposing things is a skill I am developing rapidly.  

Moving those pallets about and getting the moldy leaves dusted off the ones lowest in the stack may have contributed to my current cough and postnasal drip, but I was starting to get the itch in the back of my throat earlier in the week. So, it is hard to tell. Every time I stir the accumulated leaves anywhere on the farm I get a tickle in my throat, but it does not always end up as a bronchitis. It looks like this cough will go that route, so I am trying to be preemptive in my treatment, but this will affect my weekend plans. It may keep me out of church Sunday as well. Time will tell. I am not making plans that far in advance.

Mama has been struggling lately getting Grandpa set up properly with Medicare. That is always a challenge. To help with that. I gave her a contact I made last year as I was looking into the process. When I turned sixty-five, I received a plethora of mail soliciting services with a large variety of marketers of the many Medicare plans. I settled on one particular company after having called more than a dozen to check them out. Mama called that company and got some very helpful advice. They have also been diligent in following up on Mama’s progress making the required inquiries.

The problem arises in asking the questions properly. If a question is not worded exactly as needed to be understood by the government representative, chances are that the answer given will not yield the sought-after results. Mama is doing her best and with a little help she will succeed. We are all making this a matter of urgent prayer. So far, Grandpa has paid dearly for the Medicare plan he chose and has not gotten much benefit from that plan. We will see if we can remedy that. We are hoping to do much better for Grandpa, but we must get hold of the right person and then ask the right questions.

I think Grandma and Grandpa are settling in. I see Grandma getting things out of the refrigerator for herself now and even using the washer and dryer on her own. She still does not mind running Mama around doing things she might be able to do on her own, but that is getting better. Grandpa makes few if any requests of us or Grandma. We constantly question him about his needs because he does need the extra help right now. Mostly, he just tells us he is fine.  Mostly, we just assume that he is.

So far, that is working out well enough.

Interesting pattern, Grandpa, visitors, classes, more buildings

Several days ago, Mama and Grandma bought a watermelon, which we finally cut today. Since we were only going to cut up half of the melon, I cut the fat watermelon in half. When the two halves fell apart, I noticed a pattern that immediately caught my eye. Something I had never noticed before. The straight white lines in the red flesh almost perfectly sectioned the watermelon in equal thirds. The swirls coming off each side of those lines are so well matched in size and shape that it was pretty amazing. It is always fun to spot the patterns in nature.

One of the things that is so fascinating about the bees is the pentagonal pattern used on each cell that is built for either storing honey or raising young. So recognizable is the pattern that we refer to it as a honeycomb pattern. The patterns of coloring in flowers, the striation of wood grain unique to each species, and so many other little things show a definite influence on nature by a steadfast, trustworthy, intimately involved Creator. Praise the Lord! Even a watermelon can praise God.

Grandpa seems to be doing better. He is eating two meals per day, most of which are made for him by Mama or Victoria. He has a greater tolerance for a variety of foods, so he has been pretty easy to cook for. Yesterday Victoria made him fish and rice. To satisfy his undiscerning tastes, no special seasonings were used but Grandpa liked it that way and ate a good helping. Grandma on the other hand has proved impossible to cook for. She still prefers to snack, eating little bits of odd things here and there. She is more inclined to eat fruit now but still finds every sweet thing easily available for consumption. All the cups of chocolate pudding I bought to take with my lunches quickly disappeared. Any cookies we leave in Ziplock baggies on the table vanish overnight in most cases. She does not complain about the meals we prepare, she just snacks through the day and through many of our sleeping hours, rarely eating what we would consider real food. All in all, we are getting by and doing well as we watch Grandpa’s recovery.

Seth and Gabriella came over to visit with Grandma and Grandpa, bringing Rosa Lee. Seth has grown out his hair well below his shoulders. Long enough where he can gather it into a manbun on the back of his head. His beard is also long. He looks very different. I am told by Norman, that Gabriella likes the hairdo and Seth is willing to endure the extra work to keep the locks even though his work requires him to wear a hairnet while working. The fact that that work is done around machinery that is run at very high temperatures to melt and extrude plastic is, I am sure, a sweaty discomfort. But we husbands do what we must to make our wives happy. Of course, Grandma is not at all in favor of the long hair or the long beard and mentions it at every visit. Seth just smiles through the matronly lectures. It is amusing to watch the interaction.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow. My third for the week. Things will slow down next week but it has been a busy two weeks that I am finishing up tomorrow. Since I had only a half-day class on Monday I spent the remainder of the day at the office – where I had taught the class. The internet at the HQ house was not operational, so I hurried to the office and presented the class from there. I had to repeat that process Wednesday since the internet issue was not attended to. I will once again teach from the office tomorrow. The frustrating part of presenting the class from the office is that our office is across the street from the railroad tracks. Every locomotive that passes down those tracks causes enough noise that I have to pause speaking as it passes. Every morning, between 7 am and 11 am, we have a train pass along those tracks about every forty minutes. An average of six trains per morning. It is quite a distraction.

The HQ house sits about a mile from the train tracks and about half a mile from a heavily traveled road. The ambient noise in the house is very low. A much better place to sit and present a class for the seven hours it takes me to present the class.  Plus, I do not have to compete with anyone for the room I use as my studio versus at the office where I have to commandeer a conference room and everyone who had booked the room for use that day is out of luck. They have to find someplace else to have their meeting. Sorry! Because of that I am interrupted several times per day by my office mates when I squat in a conference room I did not reserve as a backup teaching spot. It’s the little things.

I am not sure what the weekend holds but I may start on a new larger duck enclosure. If and when I get that built, the enclosure we now have will be used as a grow out pen for both chickens and ducks. Since Mama insists on using the little coop for banty hens, we need somewhere to raise our hatchlings or purchased chicks to sufficient size to integrate with the mature birds of either species.

Fortunately, I have the lumber and metal to build the larger enclosure. I am not sure I have the energy, but once I get started, I should be fine.

Bee feeding, birthdays, meals that work, a radical new idea

Over the lunch hour today I took time to replenish the syrup feeders in the beehives. As expected, both feeders were bone dry. If I were more diligent, I suppose I could refill the feeders every five days, but I do so only once per week. Each gallon of syrup requires ten cups of sugar, so I use almost ten pounds of sugar per feeding. I cannot afford to use more than ten pounds of sugar per week for the bees, so they have will have to get by on what Mama and I can afford to do for them. So far that is working out just fine.

Besides the syrup, each hive has a candy board atop the hive with pollen patties and pollen substitute for the bees to munch on through these dry, excessively hot days. These supplements must be working out well enough because both hives are continuing to make honey and raise brood. The bees have taken over one of the water dishes Mama keeps out for the chickens but that is okay with us. It saves the bees a lot of flight time to just scoot over to the coop yard for a drink, especially since there is no pollen to collect from any plants within their flight radius in our area.

Tomorrow is Zoe and Sophia’s birthday. Mama and I were slated to travel next week to Brittany’s and have a late birthday party with the girls, but those plans fell through when Grandpa had his medical issue. We are leaving the credit on our accounts with American Airlines for now, but I may see how to get a refund to ensure we do not lose the money we paid for that flight as well as a flight from Brittany’s to Maggie’s for a short visit prior to coming home. How we use that credit remains to be determined, but for this year as well, we will celebrate birthdays remotely once more. It is kind of interesting that both Brittany’s and Maggie’s children will be attending the Christian schools at their respective churches. Obviously, a good thing, but an interesting development in their respective locations. Brittany and Maggie will each also be employees for those schools. Another good outcome. God is good!

One of the challenges of having Grandma and Grandpa with us is meal preparation. Neither of them has very good eating habits. Their prior diet consisted largely of things that were extracted individually from cellophane wrappers. Mama and I tend to eat meals we prepare. Well, mostly that I prepare. Regardless, we cook every day, and if we do not prepare something fresh, we eat leftovers. Her parents are not necessarily fond of the foods we eat – especially leftovers. We are starting to find some dietary choices where there is overlap with beans (almost any variety), hamburgers, an occasional hot dog (but only with chili and slaw), peanut butter and jelly, and most varieties of soups. We will make things work as long as we can get Grandpa to eat something – he has no appetite – and we can get Grandma to eat something moderately healthy.

On that front, Grandma is a sugar addict, but we have never been able to get her to recognize that fact. However, yesterday afternoon Grandma was scanning through a book Mama had on healthy eating and Grandma read – for herself – that sugar is as addictive as alcohol. That struck a nerve with her. In fact, she was horrified at the thought of being addicted to something. She, in her lifetime, most of which was lived in the hollow of West Virginia has known many alcoholics. When the passage she read from the book compared the desire for sugar to the alcoholic’s desire for alcohol, the words had a huge impact. How she reacted was the interesting part.

When she announced this newfound revelation to Mama, Mama’s response was, “Mom, I’ve been saying that for years.” “Well, how come I’ve NEVER heard you tell me that!” Grandma shot back. So, she called Norman who said virtually the same words to Grandma to which Grandma gave the same exasperated response. She, from her way of remembering, had never heard that idea from anyone ever before. So, before the conversation got too argumentative, Mama simply asked, “well, Mom, what does the book recommend to overcome that addiction?”

Oddly enough the book recommends getting the sugary drinks, foods and snacks out of your diet - and out of the house - and replacing those things with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. What a radical idea? If we follow that advice, only good can come of it. To begin the process Grandma bought some cantaloupe today.

It is a win-win, regardless of how we got there.

Losses, wins, reprieves

So far, the heat has claimed only one of our chickens while those around us that also raise chickens tell us that their losses have been far more. Right now, we are almost twenty degrees cooler at a balmy 93°. If the forecast holds, we will be in the low triple digits for the next week to ten days. That is better than the very hot days we have had. Not related to the heat we lost one of our little ducks last night. It appears that a snake got to it and killed it but was unable to ingest the bird. I did not think a snake would kill above its ability to swallow, but that has happened to us twice now. Once with a young chicken and this time with a young duck. Mama was terribly upset. Along with the loss of one hive of bees and all of our garden, it is saddening to deal with. Mama and I are struggling to keep our trees and berry bushes alive while we watch the aerial parts wither. I reminded Mama this morning that if we fail to keep the roots alive, we will lose the trees and berry bushes altogether. We may win in the long run, but we will only know that next Spring.

As for wins, the past few days with Grandma and Grandpa have been much better. They are set up in the spare bedroom because Victoria’s room is not set up for them to access the bed from both sides. So far, we have not removed any of the bookshelves, the two chests or the cedar wardrobe from the room, because all Grandpa has needed is a place to sleep – and he is doing a lot of that. In his waking times he tries to stay engaged in conversation, but he is distant at times and a little despondent. I cannot help but think he is very discouraged, but we do all we can to help him feel a part of life as he regains his strength. Walking from the bedroom to the recliner typically exhausts the full run of his stamina. He will sit having made it to the chair and let his heart and breathing slow down enough to converse. It hard for him to see it as a win, but we see it so because  two weeks ago he could not stand on his own.

Since we do not have a lot of running to do this weekend, I may actually accomplish a few things at the farm. I have neglected too many things. For instance, while I was helping Mama water the chickens yesterday evening I looked over at the shed I built as an extension to the barn and noticed that one corner had dropped away from its anchor point to the barn. I will have to repair that before the whole corner of the roof collapses dragging the shed down with it. It may not be a major repair now, but if I let it go, it will turn into one. So, that moved to the top of the agenda for tonight or tomorrow. I may have found a way to get my table saw back in service by swapping the motor from the lathe to the table saw. So, that is on the agenda. I still need to empty the from the trailer the remainder of the wood Norman gave me from his abandoned repairs of a house in Abilene and there is always plenty of weed eating and mowing to do.  

We got a little reprieve from the drought when about three tenths of rain fell Wednesday evening. Granted, it was not much, but it was something. We are still watering almost daily just to keep the roots of our plants alive, but it is nice to see the rain wash the dust off the trees and plants. When we do that with the garden hose, the sun will burn the wet leaves. I am not sure why, but when the rain does the washing and watering, the heat of the sun is somehow abated.

We are still looking at RVs to purchase and move to the farm, but I have asked that things be slowed down a bit as we watch Grandpas progress. I am hesitant to spend a lot of money – between $12,000 and $20,000 – for such a purchase when we may not end up needing to do so. It may be best for Grandpa and Grandma to stay in this house as he recovers in order to limit the efforts required for daily tasks for both of them. Things like preparing daily meals and doing laundry, making appointments and preparing for those appointment, setting up for in home care, to mention a few. There is no need for them to do all this on their own right now since we are available to help. There is no need to add a hundred steps each way to their efforts to interact with us while that interaction is somewhat limited in Grandpa’s current condition. There is no need for Mama to have to hurry back and forth between separate dwellings if there is no urgency in making that separation happen yet.

With the home health care offered to Grandpa Mama has a lifeline to reach out for help and advice when needed. The organization working with Grandpa is called Angel Care. The initial contact with them was very encouraging to Mama. She was encouraged to reach out to them with any questions, updates or requests for help. That will be a blessing to Mama as we do our best in our watch care of Grandma and Grandpa. That contact gives Mama the added confidence to handle the many situations where she just needs a little help and medical insight.

It is a work in progress. Forward progress no matter how small the steps we get to take.  

Muddling through, bad news, home for now

Grandpa has spent the last couple days in the hospital here in Decatur. He suffered a minor stroke, a transient ischemic attack (TIA) after his doctor’s appointment on Monday in which he could not speak or swallow. So, the urgent care nurses sent him via ambulance to the hospital. By the time he got to the hospital, he had recovered control of his search and was feeling fine. CAT scans and MRIs revealed no identifiable reasons for the episode, but he was kept for observation Monday night and because of a slight bleeding issue in the upper leg he was kept under observation last night. We are expecting he will be returned to the rehab facility sometime today, but Grandma just got a call that there is an outbreak of COVID at the rehab facility and they recommend that Grandpa not be brought there at this time. Mama is trying to find out what options we have. As a last resort, we will bring him home and do our best to give him as much physical therapy as we can to help him recover.

He has a great spirit and assures us that he feels fine. He is gaining strength in his right leg and has no observable issues using his right hand, so his recovery looks to be progressing well. Better than expected in fact, outside of the little scare he gave us Monday. In his visit with the cardiologist, he was pronounced in excellent health as far as his heart is concerned. He still has issues with atrial fibrillation but is otherwise as well as can be expected. The cardiologist told Grandpa that he could expect ongoing issues with clotting and possible TIAs as he recovers. He may not be able to avoid a second serious episode like the one that put him in the hospital in the first place. He was advised to do what he felt like he could do and make the most of the time he has been given. We hope to help him with that but for now we are muddling through as best we are able.

I am not sure having him closer has saved us any time on the road. Mama seems to be making several trips per day carrying Grandma back and forth to wherever Grandpa is located, and it is stressing her out that Grandma is constantly stressed out about everything. Again, we are muddling through, but circumstances seem to be thwarting our best efforts. At this moment, we are not set up for Grandma and Grandpa to stay here. We have a space for one at a time, but the spare bedroom is not set up in a way that will allow the two of them to share the bed in that room because there still too much stuff in the room for them to safely navigate around. So, we have our work cut out for us to make that suitable for them as we look for an RV to move onto the property.

NOTE: Mama and Grandma were at the hospital this morning sharing the news they had received from the rehab facility and were able to arrange to bring Grandpa home. He will be getting physical therapy twice weekly at home and we will make up the difference in the daily therapy routine. Praise the Lord! From my point of view, it will help to have Grandpa here because he will mitigate the impact Grandma has on our general emotional wellbeing. Plus, we will not be constantly traveling to satisfy Grandma’s insistence on being with Grandpa every waking hour of the day. Whether or not the emotional strain on Mama will be relieved by this new arrangement remains to be seen.

I checked on the hives today. The plan was to fill the syrup feeders on all three hives and check on how they were doing in this unbelievable heat. Turns out that the smaller hive I split out of one of the stronger hives was full of dead bees. The syrup feeder was empty and there were three frames full of honey and brood, but not a live been in the hive. Sad day. The other two hives are doing well even in this heat, so I filled the syrup feeders, checked on the store of pollen substitute I gave them and made sure the bees were eating the pollen patties in the feeder on top of the hive. Everything seemed to be okay, so I closed up each hive in turn and began the cleanup of the abandoned hive. I put the frames filled with honey and brood in a bucket on top of the other hives to let the bees rob what they can from the frames since I cannot harvest the honey from those frames because they contain brood as well as honey. The bucket will suffice to hold the frames until we get our first rain. I have not planned any further ahead than that.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow, but we can assume that Mama will not have to do any running to keep up with Grandpa. It will be his first full day at home with us, so we will be able to get a feel for how well he is progressing in his recovery.

There are still prescriptions to fill, doctor’s appointments to keep and physical therapy sessions to schedule, but doing those things is one of Mama’s strengths.

Appointments, living spaces, Tres and Norman, hot times

Grandpa’s move to the rehab facility did not happen until late Saturday afternoon, but it did happen. The original facility we were looking at was not able to take Grandpa due to an outbreak of COVID, so he was placed in the rehab facility in Bridgeport. It is the same facility that Mr. Plumley lives in – on the assisted living side. We were relieved and excited to get to see Grandpa about 5 pm Saturday evening. Mama is very relieved to have him this close to us and because of the proximity, Grandma is able to spend much more time with him without it costing us as much as the trips to the hospital had in both time and gas.

In a God ordained timing of events, Mama was able to schedule an appointment for Grandpa with a cardiologist who is typically booked up months in advance. When Mama thought Grandpa would be transferred Wednesday of last week she went ahead and made the appointment, but we began to worry about being able to keep the appointment when that transfer was delayed. However, it has all worked out and Mama took Grandpa to his first doctor’s appointment this morning – with many more appointments to come. Grandma will go along as is expected.

Hopefully, the three of them will feel up to stopping at Sam’s to buy the sugar I need for the bees, but that remains to be seen since this will be Grandpa’s first outing since his blood clot induced stroke. I can get the sugar at Walmart if they are not up the extra stop. This outing will give Mama a much clearer idea of where Grandpa is in his recovery. Grandma will get to see firsthand as well which will help set some reasonable expectations of Grandpas strength and ability in the days to come. He is recovering well, but he is still weak and struggles to use his right leg effectively.  

The nurse at the rehab facility is confident that Grandpa will not be in the facility long, which puts the onus on me and Mama to provide a space for Grandma and Grandpa. Mama gets the impression that Grandpa is resigned to occupying the spare bedroom we have available, but it would be far better to have them in a place of their own. As long as we can reasonably do so. To that end, Victoria, Norman and Mama are searching for a camper that would suit them which we would place nearby. So, everything related to Grandma and Grandpa is a work in progress at the moment. We are praying for wisdom and unity as we reorder things to accommodate them.

Norman and Tres headed to Florida today. With the two of them to make the drive, they will be able to make the trip pretty easily. It is still a twenty-hour trip but having two drivers who are used to long hours on the road will take the sting off the hours required to cover those miles. Tres, for his part, is not thrilled about going back to Florida but that is the choice that was left to him. There were many opportunities for Tres to take a variety of jobs in other areas over the past many months he has lived with us, but he was not very aggressive about pursuing those opportunities.  So, Florida was the default outcome for him and all the reasons he sought to relocate to Texas in leaving Florida are still left for him to deal with when he returns. We are praying that everything works out for him. It will take a great deal of effort on Tres’ part. God is able.

As for Norman, he will spend a few days in Florida finishing up some jobs he took on and once that is complete, he will go to West Virginia. There is a job opportunity waiting on him once he gets back to West Virginia, but it is not an urgency for him to get there to start. As is true with Tres, Norman has contacts that will give him a wide selection of possible income sources. In the near future, he will split his time between Texas and West Virginia. I do not remember what drew him to Florida, but it seems that that attraction is no longer an issue.  

We are forecast to get to 106° today. Wednesday the forecast is for 110°. To help our chickens and ducks get through the very high temperatures, Mama has been changing the waterers out several times per day. Mama does not like drinking one-hundred-degree water, so she assumes that they do not either. I cannot disagree with that assessment.  However, when she is gone through the day – as is happening today – she seeks to have me do those refreshing exchanges of water in those waterers. I am not as compassionate as Mama, but because it is important to her, I typically take the time to do those things that make her feel better about her husbandry of her flock. She insists on getting cool water from the well rather than setting water aside to be poured into the dirtied warm water. She wants to give the birds cool, clean water which they will then dirty up. They are definitely interested in the water when it is provided. If they do not get a drink right as the water is changed out, they will be drinking hot water in an hour. So, they are generally quick to the waterers once refreshed. It is an interesting interplay of simple communication between Mama and her flock.

Being an animal on Mama’s farm is about the best it can get.

Grandpa update, Grandma update

For those of you who may not already be in the know, Grandpa is still in the hospital under the watchful eye of a urologist. Recent lab work shows his potassium levels to be critically elevated. Although potassium is required by the body for nerve and muscle function, too much potassium can interrupt the function of the heart by stopping its muscle function. High potassium levels in the blood can literally stop the heart. Since Grandpa’s levels have remained over the high limits for multiple days now, the doctor is keeping him under observation even as Grandpa recovers from his recent stroke.

The issue causing the high levels in potassium have to do with kidney function. In a healthy individual, potassium is flushed from the body through the kidneys. Although Grandpa is drinking sufficient water and is able to urinate without difficulty, the levels of potassium in the blood are still a serious concern. In reality, we need for someone to be paying careful attention to those readings because without lab tests to reveal those concentrations, there is no way to know of the pending danger those unusual and dangerously high concentrations may cause to Grandpa’s heart. A heart attack caused by high levels of potassium would be irreversible. So, he is still in Ft Worth under a doctor’s care, and we are taking this one day at a time. There is no way to plan in advance the continuing care for Grandpa. We have laid the foundation for getting him closer to us, but for now, we wait.

News Flash: As I am writing this blog, the hospital called to tell us that Grandpa is being transported to rehab today. Praise the Lord! That will be a great relief to all of us – especially Grandma.

As for Grandma, it is still a mixed bag of emotions in dealing with her. Mostly good with a smattering of outbursts that defy explanation. Little inconsequential things seem to bother her most. For instance, When the bathroom door was closed yesterday evening and no one was in the bathroom, she went on and on about how the bathroom door should only be closed when someone is inside the bathroom. Otherwise, to her way of thinking, she has no way of knowing if the bathroom is occupied or not. When we suggest that a soft knock on the closed door would answer that question, she took great offence to the idea.

That discussion went on for thirty minutes when Tres finally admitted that he had used the bathroom and the smell was awful enough that he had turned on the vent fan and closed the door to contain the odor inside the bathroom. Somehow, that confession shut down Grandma’s complaining. Maybe she accepted the closed door as an act of kindness, which was Tres’ intent. We will never know. Those are the kind of little peeves that are driving us all crazy. They are not unbearable, but they are sudden, infantile, and upsetting in their proposed importance and urgency. The lengthy harangue that accompanies those complaint session is what is most difficult to handle. But we are managing, and Grandma is trying to get along. Her mind just takes sudden turns to the dark side.

Wednesday, when everyone waited all day for the hospital to call and tells us that Grandpa was being moved to the care facility nearby, only to find out a 5 pm that that was not happening, caused a serious emotional breakdown on Grandma’s part. So, Mama and Grandma left as soon as they knew to visit Grandpa in the hospital. The visit would have waited until the following morning in normal situations. This is not a normal situation. In traffic, it took Mama more than ninety minutes to get to the hospital, so they were only able to visit for about forty-five minutes before they were asked to leave. Visiting hours are from 7 am to 7 pm. But the brief visit seemed to satisfy Grandma, so for everyone’s peace of mind, it was worth the trip. Now, we will not be required to make those trips.

Among the planning we can control, Mama and I have cancelled the trip we had planned to New Jersey and Virginia because of the uncertainty of caring for Grandma and Grandpa. Sad day. Both of us were looking forward to that trip, especially since it was coordinated with our 40^th anniversary. What we can foresee from this vantage point is that Grandma and Grandpa will need Mama’s fulltime attention through the next several months. We will evaluate Grandpa’s ability to care for himself as he recovers, but there is no reasonable way to conclude that he will be able to care for Grandma as he has done until recently. Grandma is desperate to get back to that arrangement, but I do not see it happening – at all. They will need constant oversight and immediate access to help for many months to come. Mama, who is ready and willing to provide that help is the only person available to do so.  

Here at the farm, Norman has cleaned out the camper that served as a home for Grandma and Grandpa for the past year and advertised to for sale as of yesterday. He has seen a lot of activity on that ad. In fact, he has two interested parties coming to look the camper – which is parked in our front yard - today. When it sells, we will have a better ability to calculate a path froward to providing a place for Grandma and Grandpa to live.

Thank you for your prayers.

Relocating Grandpa, friction, cautious moves forward, bee news, a new doctor

News from the hospital is that Grandpa will be relocated to a facility here in Decatur sometime tomorrow. The extended care/rehab facility comes highly recommended by friends and church family, so we are excited by the possibility of having him closer. Today Grandpa walked the hallway of the hospital with the assistance of a walker, but he was, according to Norman, doing very well with his step control on his right side. If he can get the care and physical therapy needed, he could recover almost completely. Hallelujah! Of course, Grandma is ecstatic about the recovery, but she superimposes far too much expectation that this will all be over in a few days and she and Grandpa can get on with their lives as they used to do. That is that Grandpa will be able to take care of her and they can be somewhere all on their own. Perhaps. Perhaps not. Time will tell. My expectation is we can clearly see a path forward by late September or early October.  

For now, Mama is doing her best in dealing with Grandma’s drastic mood swings. Grandma will move from loving and deeply appreciative of all the help she is getting to hatefully and angrily telling us that no one really cares about her and what she needs. It is definitely challenging. Sunday evening, we seemed to have all agreed on buying a bumper pull camper, placing it on the property here and moving Grandma and Grandpa into that RV. However, as soon as Grandma took the slightest offence to something said or done, she proclaimed that Grandpa would not be happy living here on the property with us. Whether or not that is true, I cannot know, but I am thankful we did not rush to spend $8,000 to buy the camper she was excited about just a few days ago, but now discounts entirely.

When she was complaining yesterday evening that Mama did not do something Grandma expected her to do - even though she gave no indication of what needed to be done – Grandma got very snippy. I gently advised Grandma that we were including her into our lives as best we can and providing the best we have to offer of everything we have available to us. Her response was, “Well. I didn’t ask for any of this!” My reply was “Grandpa did not ask to have a stroke. Yet, here we are, and we can still make the most of this and help each other out.” I truly believe that is why they are here versus stranded in Florida with very little help available to them. There is always the potential for friction in these situations, but with Mama’s family, the friction is pretty much a guarantee. Don’t get me wrong. I have a problem rolling over and playing dead, so I contribute my share to the friction, but if we try, I believe we can make it through this and still love each other.

For the next few weeks, we will hold where we are and see how best to provide for Grandma and Grandpa without bankrupting ourselves in the process. My goal in these arrangements is not to spend money unnecessarily. That is to say, I want to avoid spending thousands of dollars to duplicate what we can already offer them here.  When they finally decide what they would prefer as far as living space, I will do my best to help them accomplish that goal, but I will jealously guard against wasteful spending or unnecessary debt. I know if we make this situation a matter of prayer, the Lord will give us not only the wisdom to meet their needs but also the unique opportunities needed to do so.

Over my lunch hour today, I filled the syrup feeders in all three hives – they were bone dry – and I replaced three of the four frames into the hive from which they were taken so the bees could clean up and salvage any honey and wax from the frames. Even with the extractor, I know I did not get all the honey removed from the frames, so the bees will be able to recover all the residue on the cells of each frame. Perhaps, this will give them a head start on honey that I will try to harvest in the Fall. The good news is that all the hives are doing well. There are several things I need to do still in maintaining the hives, but those upgrades will wait until Saturday.

I will be teaching classes tomorrow and Thursday. Thursday is a half day class. It is one of the courses I do not get to teach often. It is also one of the courses I created, so it is fun to teach. That and the fact that there is no test associated with the course makes it enjoyable to present.

I met my new Primary Care Physician yesterday evening. I believe I will enjoy working with him on some of the ongoing issues I have. His specialty is diabetic care, but he also takes on general patients. We spent over and hour chatting as he updated and annotated my brief record. Since I am a new patient, I will be tested on a few items of concern to him initially, but the list of required lab work was brief. All my records from my previous PCP will hopefully be forwarded to his office this week and he will be able to catch up on my history.

We will see how things turn out in the longer term, but for now I am pleased with the change. So much so that Mama, Grandma and Grandpa are all scheduling appointments with him in the very near future based solely on my assessment of this doctor.

I certainly hope they all share my assessment when they meet him.

Grandpa update, other preparations, repurposing

Yesterday afternoon, Mama, Victoria, and Grandma had a very good visit with Grandpa. Grandpa was in good spirits and was teasing everyone in the room while they were there for their daily visit. It is our hope that he will be transferred to a local rehab facility either today or tomorrow. There are no rooms available for Grandpa to be transferred within the hospital, so they need to move Grandpa out the neural ICU. Having him closer would be a great benefit to us. Making the round trip daily has been taking a toll on Mama. Rather than making those daily excursions with Mama ad Grandma, I have been holding back at the farm to handle the watering of the animals which must be done more frequently while the temperatures are in the triple digits. Maybe today will be their last such trip.

Meanwhile, Norman brought the camper from the RV park to the farm so it could be set up for Grandma and Grandpa to live in as was their custom for the past year. However, it remains to be seen whether or not Grandpa can access that camper. Because it is a fifth wheel type of RV, it sits high and requires three steps to get into the camper. As additional two steps have to be navigated to get into the bed which sits over the tongue of the camper. There is a step down into the bathroom as well. Right now steps are not their friend. Living again in the camper is a possibility, just not the best solution.

With that in mind, there was a lengthy discussion Saturday night about how to provide Grandma and Grandpa a private living space. Building a small home, buying, and moving onto our property a shell that we could finish out (like those sold at Lowe’s), buying a tiny home, and setting it on our property, etc., were all discussed and eventually discounted. I think what we have settled upon is buying a used bumper pull RV and setting it near our house to meet the current need. I am mostly opposed to building a separate house of any kind because of the expense of doing so, so a more accessible RV may be a good stopgap for us. We are not looking for a permanent solution at this point.

In fact, while we were talking the ideas through, Victoria located such a camper for sale very near us. I am told we will be looking at that RV this evening. It could be quickly purchased and moved so it would be ready when Grandpa does come home. Norman could then take the current camper to West Virginia with him or sell it for what he could get out of it. I would rather not have two RV’s sitting next to the house, but we will see how those things play out. For the moment, Grandma has taken over Victoria’s room and Victoria has moved into the spare bedroom that Tres was using.  Norman is sleeping on the couch in the living room. Tres will be moving out this week after seven months with us. Mama and I got to keep our bedroom for ourselves, but that was touch and go for a short while.

I did not get to work in the hives over the weekend. I honestly got too hot to keep going in the 107° heat. I am planning on working the hives over my lunchbreak tomorrow – my one day working from home this week. It is surprising how quickly I get thoroughly soaked when I am out in the heat for a short length of time, but in less than an hour I will be wringing wet all the way down to my socks. Fun times.

The little ducks have been enjoying the nesting box built into the duck enclosure and with the built in draining for their water play, the area is far less messy. We did have a scare Saturday morning when I went out to feed – Mama was tending to Grandma. When I opened the lid to the nesting box, which we had closed to protect the little ones overnight, and the ducklings were not inside the box. I looked carefully but could not find them anywhere inside the enclosure. I did not see them outside the enclosure. They were just gone.

When Mama and I began to go through the normal morning feeding routine, we discovered the ducks under the little coop. Just kind of hanging out since the chickens had not been let out yet. To get the ducklings to come back through the fencing under to coop so we could get them back into their area, we let the chickens out. Once they duckling saw the chickens coming into the space under the coop building, they exited quickly, and Mama and I were able to get them back into their home area. It took me some time to figure our how they had gotten out of the box and enclosure, but I did figure it out and sealed of that escape route.

I also tested the water trough I had built into the enclosure. Once it was about half full, I found a significant leak in the trough very near the bottom of the trough. So, I will have to abandon that idea and probably go with something smaller. It will be too expensive to replace it in kind.  The leaking trough will not be wasted because Mama and I will use the large trough as a planter. Such a repurposing is very common in our area and will provide us with a good way to increase our vegetable production for plants that do not seem to do well when planted into our ground. We are trying to use everything we can before looking at buying anything new.

So far that has been mostly working for us.

Honey update, Grandpa update, duck update

Yesterday evening, Mama and I transferred the honey we had collected into as many jars as it took to empty as much as we could get out of that bucket. In all, we got just over 9 pints of honey out of those four frames. Mama has decided that we will keep all this honey for our own personal use. My hope is that I will be able in October to collect a couple more frames of honey and be able to sell it to our interested buyers. That remains to be seen, but at least we have a supply of or own honey. That has been exciting and encouraging to me and Mama. Right now, we need that encouragement.

Tomorrow, time permitting, I will go back into the hives and reposition the emptied frames in the hive so they can be cleaned, rebuilt and refilled in the hope of giving the bees a head start on making more honey. I will not be able to put all four frames back in the hive because I put a syrup feeder in the hive to help the bees through this dearth and that takes the place of two frames of the ten required to fill the hive box.

Grandpa continues to improve. His muscle strength is increasing, and the nurses are delighted with him. As he comes back into his own, they will begin to discover how funny and charming Grandpa can be. Some lingering disability still hinders the use of his right leg, but he does appear to be gaining use of the right arm and hand. His speech is steadily improving, and his cognitive interactions are getting more and more spontaneous. In other words, it does not look like he has to expend extra effort to get his thoughts together and verbalize responses to questions. He is engaging more in ongoing conversations and adding his thoughts to those conversations – and we are only on day two of his recovery.

The cost in money, time and emotional energy is very high as we make the repeated trips to the hospital to make sure Grandma and Grandpa have their time together. We are more than willing to sustain that effort as Grandpa receives the care he needs, but it is taking a toll on Mama. Grandma was asking that Mama would drop her off at the hospital and leave her with Grandpa, not realizing what she was asking. In her mind, it would save Mama the time spent waiting at the hospital and give her and Grandpa time alone – as they have grown accustomed to having.

But Grandma is unable on her own to get herself to the bathroom when needed (there is no bathroom in Grandpa’s room) or get herself something to eat when needed (she has no ability to find her way through the hospital on her own), or to get herself out of the way when Grandpa is being taken for one procedure or another when needed (which happens several times per day). Someone is required to help her in every one of those situations and if she was wheeled out of the room, she would not be able to find her way back to Grandpa’s room.

If she is not left in the room, it is doubtful that Grandma would be able to tell a willing worker where she wanted to be taken if they did not already know where to take her. Mama does all that for her without Grandma knowing it is being done for her – and Mama is glad for the opportunity to do so. Plus, we are not going to make two round trips per day to a hospital an hour away unless it is absolutely necessary. Right now, about three hours in a wheelchair is about all Grandma can handle. So, we will keep things as they are for now.

Please pray for Mama to have the strength necessary both emotionally and physically to keep up with the ongoing needs. Please pray for Grandma to respond with a receptive heart to the many decisions that will be made outside of her control. We are slowly learning our way through this maze of decisions that must be made as we try to minimally impact the lives of Grandma and Grandpa all the time being responsible to provide for their every need as we try to continue living our lives. It’s complicated.

Mama has moved the baby ducks into the nesting box I built in the duck habitat. The original intent of the box – which is 96x30x30 – was to have a place to close up the ducks at night in case any predators were able to penetrate the outer defenses of the enclosure and to give the females somewhere to lay, but it provides a great starting place for the growing ducklings to be moved out of the tote in the garage. I am not sure how quickly the little ones will mess up the large nesting box, but they have more than quadrupled their living space. This living space has openings in the floor to allow some of their water splashing activities to flow out of the box to be soaked up in the ground below the box. Hopefully, there will be less cleanup on Mama’s part until we get the older ducks purchased and placed in that habitat to help produce a larger mess in the full enclosure.

Things will work out. We just have to learn our part in the working out process.

The timeline, being in the right place, Walter’s birthday

Yesterday afternoon, a little after 1 pm Grandpa suffered what appeared to be a stroke. By the time Grandma had called Mama and communicate the need for help, Grandpa may have been experiencing the symptoms for about an hour since he had been outside the camper while Grandma rested inside. The additional hour it took to get Norman and Mama onsite and able to load Grandpa into the Sequoia (Grandpa was unable to use any of his extremities) allowing Mama to drive him at highly illegal rates of speed to the hospital, the cumulatively time before he received any medical care was about two hours. Extremely dangerous time lags in this type of time sensitive medical crisis. At that point it was about 3 pm.  

Once at the hospital, initial evaluations by the Emergency Room staff were fairly straightforward. An MRI revealed a blood clot in one of the major vessels supplying blood to the front left side of the brain. That had affected the right side of Grandpa’s body, paralyzing his entire right side. Our Pastor, who was at the hospital when I put the prayer request out to our church, met Mama and Grandma there and spent almost the entire time with them as they waited for any word on Grandpa. The decision was made by the local medical staff to call in Life Flight to transport Grandpa to a neuro care facility in Ft Worth. That flight left Decatur at about 5:20 pm. That put Grandpa at the Harris Medical Facility about twenty to twenty-five minutes later. Now the hour is approaching 5:45 pm.

Our understanding is that a neurosurgeon was called and waiting on Grandpa when the helicopter landed, and he was very quickly taken into surgery for the procedure that would attempt to remove the blood clot from the occluded vessel in the brain. What is fascinating is that several weeks ago, during a Training Day my company sponsored for all our employees, the techniques used in that procedure were discussed so I had a ready awareness of what was being done to help Grandpa.

Meanwhile, we gathered those things required for us to wait at the hospital where Grandpa would receive the advanced care, got everybody loaded in the Sequoia and headed to the hospital. That was about 5:30. We arrived a little after 6:20 pm, finally found our way to the correct area of the hospital complex and began our vigil. At 7:40 a nurse came to the waiting area where we had been requested to wait and told us that the doctor would be talking to us shortly. Dr. Fiesta, the attending physician, came to update us on Grandpa’s progress a few minutes later. It was good news overall. Actually, it was as good as we could have expected.

He had been able to remove the major clot from the primary branch it had lodged in as well as multiple other smaller clots that had squeezed themselves further up into the smaller blood vessels in the brain; the secondary branch in the circulatory vessels in the brain. That part of the procedure requires a level of skill that is very advanced even among neurosurgical specialists. The doctor related thought images captured during the process how each clot removal allowed blood flow to be restored to greater and greater areas of that frontal lobe where that blood flow had been blocked. What he did was more ambitious than many other doctors would have done and as a result, Grandpa may be far less affected by the episode. Time will tell.

The doctor gave us an interesting explanation of how the brain responded to the loss in blood flow by rerouting enough blood to the affected area of the brain through corollary circulation to keep the brain tissue alive. We truly are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” He related how most patients in this condition have a corollary response that takes about six seconds to accomplish the redirected flow. Grandpa’s time in the effort was four seconds and because of that the brain tissue may have suffered very little permanent damage. Again, time will tell. The wonderful part of this story is that if this episode had happened while Grandpa and Grandma were still in Florida, there would have been a far different, potentially far worse outcome. At the very least, it would have been far more difficult for Mama and Victoria to have been so far away during this type of traumatic episode. Not to mention how traumatic it would have been on Grandma to try to handle this by herself. God is good!

When we are able to see Grandpa last night, he was obviously heavily medicated, but clearly able to talk to us and answer our questions. He even smiled and joked with us. Greeting us with, “Well, I’m still alive.” That was a great relief to us all, especially Grandma. We left the hospital about 10:40 and were home a little over an hour later.

Mama, Victoria and Grandma will go back to the hospital this afternoon to check up on Grandpa and try to get some update on his near-term care. How long in the hospital? How long in rehab? That type of information. Norman, Tres, Seth and I will work on getting the RV moved to the farm so we can have Grandpa and Grandma close by. For some unknown time, he will not be able to care for Grandma as he has done and he himself will need our help more than has been required at any time in his life. There is a possibility that we could rent a two-acre spot across the road from us that is already set up for an RV, but we do not know for sure. Please help us pray about that. At the very least, we will trim enough trees to allow the camper to get onto our property without any roof damage. Big changes are coming to us all.

By the way, today is Walter’s birthday. He is seven years old today. How did that happen so quickly?

Honey harvest, repairs, completion, Grandma’s scare

I took the time Monday, the 4^th of July, to take the full honey frames out of one hive. I was pleased to find four full frames in that hive while I did not find any frames of honey in the other two hives. The frames were so full, in fact that they were leaking honey into the box I placed them in all the time I was finishing up the work I needed to do on the hive before I could seal it back up. From those four frames we appear to have gotten at least a couple of quarts of honey, and it is very good honey.

The process of extracting the honey was straightforward and fairly easy, albeit messy – especially since I had the equipment required. Even though my timing was off, I was ready nonetheless. I have had the equipment sitting waiting on my bees for over a year now, but Mama, Norman, Tres, and I took our time to get the honey spun out of the frames. I had to let the honey sit in the extractor for a couple hours before so it could run down the sides of the extractor and accumulate in the bottom. Next, I drained the extractor, letting the honey pass through a couple sieves into a special bucket with a valve on the bottom from which we could fill jars. I brought the bucket containing the honey into the house and we filled a couple small jars so we could sample it. It looked beautiful! It tasted wonderful! The whole volume will not be much, but it is our first honey!

Early this afternoon, Mama and I spent over an hour with a computer technician who runs a repair shop in Decatur. He had worked on Mama’s MacBook to restore functionality after we inadvertently wiped the operating system from the computer in a vain attempt to change the iTunes account on the computer. The $100/hour the consultation cost me was well worth the money and now Mama has a properly functioning computer. A very clean computer in fact since any malware that had attached itself to the computer was wiped out as well in the reboot. Now, I just have to coach Mama on how to navigate on the computer without getting lost – or calling up something she does not want to deal with. But at least we have her computer back. The added bonus in the consultation was that in her conversations with the technician, Mama seems to have gained a little more confidence in working with her computer. We will see if that lasts, but it is a good start.

After teaching a class yesterday I worked as long as I could on the duck enclosure, but I was still not able to complete it. I have the inside complete but lack the wire attached to two sides and the access door hung to make the area complete. I just ran out of energy after only two hours working in the heat. I was completely soaked by the time I stopped my labors on the duck area, but I had no choice. On the bright side, I slept well last night. Since Mama and I are still learning about ducks, I am not willing to take the chance on giving them too much freedom to exit their little yard until we learn a lot more. We are scheduled to pick up the ducks tomorrow evening. We will see if we actually make that appointment.

Just after we got home from our meeting in town to get Mama’s computer, Mama got a frantic call from Grandma saying that she needed help right now because Grandpa was in bad shape and she could not help him, but before Mama could question her any further, Grandma hung up. So, as Mama frantically tried to reconnect with Grandma, we waited to see what was going on. Once connected again it took several minutes more conversation just trying to interpret Grandma’s meaning. She was hysterical and was not speaking in complete thoughts. Mama and I were able to understand that Grandpa could not get up from where he was sitting or lying, and he was virtually nonresponsive.

Fortunately, Norman, who had been working at the farm this morning passed us on our roadway headed back to Grandma and Grandpa as Mama and I were returning to the farm. He was onsite only a couple minutes after Mama that direction. Even still, by the time Grandpa was loaded into the Sequoia and raced to the hospital here in Decatur, almost an hour had elapsed from the time Grandma had discovered Grandpa’s condition. By some unknown superwoman ability, as Mama violated every speed limit in the county in her hurry to the Emergency room, she managed to called 911 to alert the hospital about the incoming patient. Because of that, the staff were able to help get Grandpa into the Emergency Room for diagnosis.

Your prayers would be much appreciated as we walk the path to a proper diagnosis and hopefully a recovery. If the damage from the stroke is permanent, we will have to rearrange everything in our lives and do so in short order in order to provide care for both Grandpa and Grandma.

Time will tell.

Ducks, fireworks, fowl news, holiday plans

Late night Mama and I looked on Craigslist to see if there were ducks available nearby. That was a successful search, in fact, we made several contacts very close by and now have to decide between buying adult ducks, nearly adult ducks or adding to our collection of ducking chicks. If we decide to get ducks that are already laying, or those several months old, I will have to finish the enclosure this weekend for sure. If we get the more chicks, I will have a few more days to get all the work done. Either way, I am good to keep going on the final phase of construction of the enclosure. But with the increased urgency, I will have to buy more materials to have the pen ready within the next couple days. That is not a hinderance, it is simply an expensive hurdle.

Day three updates

Personally, I am leaning toward getting the nearly grown ducks. That would give us time to acclimate them to us and the farm before they start laying. Being several months old will also allow us to tell the sex of the birds so we can meet our goal of having six hens and two drakes. Mama has even been able to track down the variety of ducks she wants to have based on posts about their laying prowess and their gently nature. She is looking specifically at the Campbell duck breed for the above reasons, and we may have a line on several ready for purchase that are multiple weeks old. That would probably be the best way for us to get started. Meanwhile, Wick and Waddle are doing very well but they will not be ready to live in the duck enclosure for another several weeks. Besides, Mama will need more time with them to calm them down if that is even possible.

As for the peafowl, I believe Mama and I have tentatively decided to forego getting the larger birds for now. When, or if we decide to get the birds in the future, we have several contacts locally to buy the birds but for now, the cost of building an enclosure is too high for us to justify – unless I can find some used materials to collect for that purpose. We talked yesterday with the gentleman just down the road from us and they are willing to sell the pair of peafowl – a hen and a peacock now 16 years old – for a giveaway price, but we are nowhere near ready for that. Mama and I could also buy hatchlings as early as next week, but it is too much of an unknown as to what we would end up with since we cannot sex the chicks until they are six months old or older. So, we wait.

Last night, after all the chickens had gone to roost, Mama and I looked over several of the hens that seemed the worst infected by the mites. To our delight, they looked much better. We will wait several weeks and redo the treatments to limit the mite growth in our little flock, but for now, we seem to have made some good headway. I know the hens are relieved to have the infestation abated. Now, if we can just keep up with the required treatments and hinder another infestation, we will feel like we have succeeded.

Either Saturday or Monday, I will begin robbing the hives. I have everything set up and cleaned in order to be able to extract the honey should I still be able to remove the frames I found in my earlier inspections. It almost seems a futile effort to make the required mess to get only a few pints of honey, but I have to start somewhere. When I am in the hives, will also set up syrup feeders in each hive to feed the bees during this dearth. Additionally, I bought some pollen substitute to allow the hives to feed the brood they will not be able to raise with our supplementation. It will take at least weekly feedings to get through the next several months, but if it helps the hives to thrive instead of barely survive, I will get stronger hives going into the winter versus leaving them to fend for themselves. It may seem to be too forward looking to be planning for the winter already, but what we do now will directly impact the outcome of the hives into the winter and spring of next year. Far more work, but hopefully a better outcome.

Mama has reserved a spot for us to watch the fireworks tonight. Not really, it is an open invitation to us. We have a good friend at church that lives in a neighborhood located just East of the town of Decatur and a little above the town proper. From where her condo is situated, we can have a perfect view of the fireworks. So, every year we are able, we join her on her front lawn, chat, sip cold tea and watch the colorful explosions in the sky. Our friend, our host for the fireworks display, Betty, is 83 years old this year, but we expect to spend such evenings with her for years to come – should the Lord tarry His coming.

For the 4^th we are planning a cookout. It will be a small affair. Just us three, but it would be a shame not to carry on our simple traditions. Steaks and chicken, potato salad, macaroni salad, baked beans. Maybe Grandma, Grandpa and Norman will be with us that afternoon.

That remains to be seen.