Rehoming furniture, a “good” problem

With the counter height table removed from the house, Mama and I ended up with seven chairs that were made for that table height. I moved five away from the bar along with the four we had at the table in the kitchen eating area. All the chairs we had been using were in good or fair condition, but Mama had no interest in keeping the four we had been using at the granite-topped table now sitting in the sunroom. We were loathe to throw them away but had no good options for finding them a good home. So, I suggested taking them to a Goodwill drop box I knew of. However, when we got to the box a sign on the box specifically stated, “No Furniture”. Another placard read, “No items outside the box.” I did not want to be “that person” who causes the volunteers the hassle of dealing with rain-soaked furniture items, so we elected to not set the chairs there. Mama had another idea.

On our way back into town, Mama called Erin and asked if we could set the chairs at the curb in front of her house. Erin quickly agreed so we headed her direction. As we were setting out the chairs, a van slowly rounded the corner and stopped. A Spanish speaking older gentleman approached me and asked if he could take the chairs? We conversed for a minute, and he assured me he and his wife wanted the chairs, but he had to go to his house and get his truck to collect the chairs. The van they were in was full of passengers. To accommodate him, we placed all four chairs inside the fence at Erin and Sam’s house to safeguard them until the family could return with the truck. As we were making the final arrangements and getting assurances that he would be coming back quickly, the wife asked if she could also cut some paddles from the large Napal cactus at the corner of the yard. That suited Erin and Sam just fine. So, our well used chairs found a new home. Mama and I were very pleased.

Grandma has been interesting to deal with lately. She has a wonderful, compassionate desire to witness. She gathers tracts, devotional booklets and whatever else she can lay hands on and has Mama drop her off at Walmart to hand out the materials. The problem is that she has no awareness of the times that she blocks isles as she buttonholes someone to witness to. She has no awareness of a person desperate to find a way to make a hurried exit from her. She has caused enough issues that she was confronted by a worker the other day and told she was not allowed to hand out materials within the store. I am not sure if that is correct, but that is what she was told. She has such a passionate desire to witness that she is almost always irritated to have to leave when Mama returns from her errands to collect Grandma and take her home. We have no idea what she shares with the persons she does talk to and we are reasonably certain that she does not remember either.

Yesterday, Mama did not really want to go out, but found it necessary to do so. Grandma, who insisted on going along, was dropped off at Walmart in Decatur and Mama headed off for her required stops. About forty-five minutes later, when Mama went to get Grandma and head home, Grandma resisted strongly, insisting that Mama leave her there. When Mama urged her to come along, Grandma told Mama she would find her own ride home. That made a bit of a scene until Grandma finally relented. Mama was upset. Grandma was upset. It was a difficult ride home as Mama was chastised for not allowing Grandma more time. Grandma laid a pretty heavy guilt trip on Mama and the effects of that lasted quite a time for Mama even though Grandma forgot about it an hour later. An admirable desire. A poorly executed delivery. We will trust God for the results. He promised His Word would not return to Him void. We are just not sure how to give Grandma enough time so that she feels somewhat satisfied with her effort without giving her so much time that she causes a problem in the location where she shares her witness. 

Last night at dinner, Grandma suddenly blurted out, I’m scared. I’m really, really scared!” We asked, “Scared of what?” Her response, “I have no idea.” That is what Mama deals with every day. At times only a few hours pass between Mama having to repeat to Grandma what they discussed previously. When Grandma tries to tell Mama that the discussion in question never took place, it is frustrating. Sometimes Grandma will relent and ask, “Why don’t I remember that?” As difficult as Grandma can be to deal with at times, she has a good heart and for now, Grandpa is close by to shut her down when she starts to get out of control. I assume it has to be difficult for her, but I know it is very difficult for Mama. Please pray for them both.

Mama has her work cut out for her.

Long weekend

 

Thursday evening Mama, Victoria, and I rearranged the living room with the specific intent of making room for the wardrobe repurposed for her craft supplies to be relocated from Grandma and Grandpa’s bedroom to the living room. It took a couple iterations, but we rearranged the sectional sofa, moved my recliner and managed to enlarge the open area in the living room.

Along the wall where we wanted to set the wardrobe, I moved a shelf that had once held our TV and most recently the incubators under the bar that extends from the kitchen counter into the living room. To do that I had to move out all the barstools that had sat unused at that bar. We placed our recently purchased trestle table in the living room, moved the bar height table out of the house and placed the heavy oak dining room table in the living room for Mama to use as a craft table. It all came out well, but it took a lot of effort.  

Now we will find a dresser for Grandma and Grandpa to use. They have lived out of a laundry basket for the past year and have never complained about the crowded room they live in. All of the furniture in the room they call their own are pieces Mama and I placed in there to years ago to make the room serve as a library for us. Other than the bed they sleep in, all the clutter in the room belongs to Mama and I. The clothes in the closet belong to Victoria. It seemed high time to give them some more space they could call their own. Moving the large wardrobe was the first step. Hopefully, Grandma and Grandpa can set things up to their own liking in the next few weeks – at least in part.

I checked the hives over the weekend and was very pleased with what I found. Both the hives are rapidly filling with honey in the top box while the bottom box of the hive is filled with brood. Those are great indications of the health of the two hives. Since the top box was nearly filled on each hive, I placed a smaller honey super on each hive to give the bees more room to make honey. My expectation is that by mid-July I can harvest the honey the bees will have made by that time. From the look of things, we should be able to get twice as much honey as I was able to extract last year, perhaps twenty-five to thirty pints. I do not plan to harvest again in the Fall, it was too challenging in the cooler temperature, so what we get this summer will be all we gather this year. Hopefully, it will be enough so that we can sell some. I have at least a dozen fellow employees who want to buy some honey from me and Mama and to date I have not had any for sale. They will be very pleased as well if we are successful in this harvest.

Most of my energy over the long weekend was spent getting trees trimmed high enough (14’-16’) that the driver of the container we ordered can back through the opening I enlarged from the driveway entrance to the place where we want the container set. The smaller branches I was not able to cut into firewood overfilled the utility trailer which I parked at a brush pile we have accumulated at the pond in the farm lot. I have yet to pick up the pieces of firewood salvaged from the tree limbs I cut away, but I know it will be more than two full bucket loads of firewood. I ran out of energy that would have been required to collect that wood, but I made sure the approach is open for whenever the container arrives. We are praying the driver will not have a problem with the location we have chosen for the container. It is a long approach to back into. I have done what I knew to do, anything else needed for the placement will be dealt with when I find out what I lack in the preparations I was able to make.

Mama and I enjoyed the long weekend, but as usually happens, it was not long enough to get done all the items we put on our list. We did get some important things done, but some of the less important, time-consuming chores will be finished at some point this week or next. Most of the chores were gardening or yardwork items. I almost always put those lower on the list anyway. They still need to get done, but I am not as focused on those types of chores as on others.

We are harvesting a lot of squash, peppers, onions and spinach from our garden. Another of the chores I did not get to start was tilling between the rows of plants in the garden. It certainly needs to be done. Again, I will get that done sometime later this week, but I ran out of energy to do much more than what I did finish over the four-day weekend.

I logged almost 14,000 steps yesterday. By the time Mama and I went to bed last night, I could feel it.

Snakes, Mama’s scare, teaching tomorrow

Over the past few days Mama and I have come across several snakes. All have been non-poisonous. Common Rat snakes. Even though they are beautiful snakes, I have dispatched each of them in turn. Once the snakes have discovered a potential food source – eggs, chicks, rats and mice – they do not abandon that area easily. All the snakes were rather large. One was more than six feet long while the others were about five feet long. Mama is not necessarily scared of the snakes, but she almost always screams in shock at discovering them. This has been a banner year for snakes I suppose because we rarely see them in the coops until later in the Summer. But the influx of snakes could be because this was a good year for the rats and mice that we have as continual residents in the coops. I sighted a very large rat in the duck’s grow out pen a couple evenings ago. Fortunately, Mama did not see it, or I would have been deafened by her scream. Rats and mice still illicit a feral scream from Mama.

On a separate note, Mama had quite a scare while looking for eggs in the duck area. We recently opened up the pig yard to the ducks and they have taken full advantage of the extra space. In that area, I had left a small dig Igloo that had been used for the baby goats that had been weaned using the pig building and yard to separate them from their mamas. I did not give it any thought, but it seems the ducks took notice of the privacy the Igloo offered for them to lay eggs. We had not made the association of lower totals for eggs in the duck pen and the possibility of the ducks using the Igloo as a preferred laying area. However, when Mama did look into the Igloo in her egg hunt something inside hissed at her. She immediately backed away and hollered for me to get a gun and find out what was hiding in the Igloo. When I got to the Igloo, I raised it up placing the entry upright from the ground and letting enough light into the Igloo to see what had taken up residence. It was one of our Khaki Campbell ducks protecting the dozen or so eggs that had been laid inside the Igloo. We both got a good laugh out of it. To keep it from happening again we removed the Igloo from the duck yard. Sadly, the overall egg production is still lower than in the past few weeks. If the hens are laying at another location, we have not found it yet.

Our twenty-four quail hatchlings are doing very well. As tiny as they are, we will be able to keep them in the crate for several weeks but at some point, we will have to move them somewhere more permanent. I need them to be eight to twelve weeks old before I can process them. We could certainly sell some of the tiny ones, but Mama and I have never been successful selling animals or other items, so I expect to process all twenty four for our table. Mama and Victoria are enjoying the chicks. I have to admit, they are fun to watch, and they make the most curious sound. Not a peep, but a warble. It is a big sound coming out a such a small chick – each no larger than the top knuckle of my thumb.

Yesterday, my team from Energy Worldnet met at a restaurant for lunch, spent an hour at a tea shop and then regrouped at the Tandy Leather Company for a team building project. The project, a small, embossed leather tray took a couple hours to complete for the twelve in our party, but I thoroughly enjoyed the project. We used stamps to decorate the leather after cutting the two pieces that would be assembled for the finished project. Once stained and assembled, I was very pleased with the outcome in spite of a couple small mistakes in the cutting and assembly. The project renewed a desire to investigate leather working as a hobby. I have considered it in the past but have not pursued it. Maybe now, as I plan to retire, it would be good to explore the option once again.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow. Hopefully the internet at the HQ house will be in service tomorrow. It was not working properly this morning as we met there for a special project but as our IT team investigated the issue it turned out that the entire area was without internet service. That means that I will have to travel to the HQ house to see if the class can be taught from there or if I will have to resort to the office to present the class.

Not a big deal, but at least I know that there is a possibility of the issue being present.

Quail hatchlings, Mama’s event in Chico, my slow day, Grandpa’s ills

 

Friday afternoon quail began to hatch out of the eggs we have had in the incubator. In 24 hours twenty-two of the little hatchlings struggled free of their eggs. We followed protocol and left the hatchlings in the incubator for the next twenty-four hours. That gives the wet hatchlings time to dry out sufficiently before being put into another container. To house the little ones, I assembled the crate given to us by the Burns’. I put two large trash bags under the crate and covered those with some puppy pads, placed a heat lamp to give the chicks enough heat to be comfortable and early Saturday morning, placed the chicks into the crate. With the twenty-two hatchlings out of the incubator we were left with sixteen eggs to watch over. Sunday two more hatched out and Mama tells me that two more hatched out overnight last night. With three deaths, we now have a total of twenty-three live chicks to rear. Fourteen more eggs remain in the incubator. I will give them until tomorrow evening and if they do not hatch, they will be discarded. So far, we have a 68% hatch rate. That is excellent!

Also, early Saturday morning, Mama and I got her booth set up at the event in Chico. While we were setting it up, we noticed that there were not very many vendors attending – at least not that early. Mama’s neighbor at the event was a couple we know for our Wise County Bee Club selling their honey and various honey related products. That gave Mama some good company throughout the day as the event progressed. It was a slow day according to Mama until early in the afternoon when two ladies bought a couple hundred dollars of her nail strips. That one sale made her day, but she had to wait through many empty hours to be available to make that sale. I went back to help Mama pack up about 3 pm and by 3:45 we were home and unpacked. It was nice to have the event so close by, especially since I had to make several round trips to get things to Mama that had been forgotten in her haste to prepare for the event. She was struggling to get things together since she and Victoria had just recently gotten home from West Virginia.

Back at the farm, I had a very slow day. I was not feeling well. I seemed to have no energy to do anything, so I focused on tasks that did not require high energy to accomplish. I weeded a flowerbed. At least, I spent all the time my knees would allow me to spend pulling weeds from the bed. I cleaned the shop and straightened up the garage. I disassembled one of the first cages I made for housing chicks. I had taken a rabbit cage we had and built a wooden structure around it to give it legs and a more secure opening, but it was not one of my better products. When I took off the legs to return the cage to its original shape, I reattached the wooden face of the cage leaving the more secure door access to the cage so when we use it in the future, it will be more resistant to any snake seeking entrance. All the cages we had been using that had accumulated under the garden shed were returned to the equipment shed attached to the barn. One side of the coop was cleaned and the growing chicks in the West side of the coop were allowed access to the yard built on to their side of the coop. They are still separated from the adult chickens for now. That integration will happen in a couple weeks.

Mama and I moved the ducklings into the grow out pen and relocated the recent chick hatchlings, cage and all, into the West side of the coop. We made that move after dark so we did not have to contend with the resident chickens dashing wildly about while the door to the coop was opened to bring the cage inside. The little ducks love their temporary home. They will be there for less than a month. Once they are big enough to move into the duck pen, they will become part of that flock. We just have to be sure the young ducks are large enough that they cannot easily get out of the enclosure the mature ducks are in. So, now we have only the tiny quail in the garage. That greatly lowers the flies that had taken up residence in our garage.

For the past few days Grandpa has not been doing well. By his description he has no energy, and because of that low energy, he has little strength and no sense of balance. So, to compensate, he spends the day either sitting in a chair on the front porch or lying in bed. I think he prefers the porch both for the sounds and sights of the outdoors and for the respite of entertaining Grandma as she also lays in bed throughout the day. Grandma is a chatterbox and more often than not now her chatter is hard to follow as she tries to speak a coherent thought. That, and she has music playing loudly on her phone almost continuously. That is not really an issue except when she insists on carrying out a conversation over the music constantly reminding us that we have to speak up because she is hard of hearing.

Last night as we were driving home, Grandma asked why the road we were on was so high up in the air. It was dark, but we were on the same road we have almost always taken home from Decatur. Mama and I were not sure what she was asking, but as we came downhill to a lower part of the route Grandma stated, “Oh, there’s the ground. Now I can see it.”

We just smile.

Home again, potential travel, weekend activity

I was able to meet Mama and Victoria at the airport on time and after driving in moderately heavy traffic and stopping to have a light meal, we were home a little after 6 pm. I do not know who was more excited to see Victoria, Grandma or Kobe and Kira. All of them were whiling and crowding in to get their attention in their own ways. Victoria treated Grandma and Grandpa with hugs and hurried outside with her dogs to spend some time with them. That was when their excitement really showed, and it was entertaining to watch.

Meanwhile, Mama tried to get a word in edgewise as she visited with Grandma while I retrieved the luggage and placed the items in strategic locations to be emptied later. I was equally glad to have Mama home, but we had had over an hour to catch up with each other on our long drive home. After getting things moderately settled with Grandma, Mama and I headed out to take care of the animals. It was easy to tell Mama was happy to be home even though the parting from Brittany and the girls was sad. It always is. Brittany, when she called later yesterday evening, told Mama that the girls seriously missed their Grammy.

Cori called me a couple days ago and asked if I would pray about coming to Honduras in early June to help with translation for a Medical Missions Outreach group that would be setting up services at the clinic. I told her I would certainly pray about that, but I did not feel qualified to translate. I told her I would be a stumbling, fumbling mess in doing so. She assured me that they completely understood the uncertainty, but they were extremely shorthanded and desperate. So, I began to pray, shared the request with Mama and she began to pray as well. For me, I was certain I could get the time off and squeeze out the money for the tickets, but I really wanted a direct unction from the Lord that I should go.

Well, that unction was provided by Mama. She, Victoria and Cori had a very long conversation as Mama and Victoria waited at the airport in Columbus. In the course of that conversation, Mama became convinced that, if I was willing, I should go. Mama is even willing to stay at the farm to allow me to make the trip alone. Financially, that is an important consideration. As badly as she would like to be with me and spend time with Cori, Nate and the kids in Honduras, she is very concerned that I go. So, the need must be urgent. Pray for me as I look for tickets, request the time off and immerse myself in Spanish to prepare my mind for the task ahead.

Mama has a few urgent items for me to take care of this afternoon. She agrees that the chickens we have reared in the West side of the coop are large enough to let out into the enclosed yard on their side of the coop. However, prior to that release, I am tasked with closing off the area under the coop building so that the young ones will not trap themselves under the coop. In the past we have had a chicken or two that could not figure out how to go to the back of the coop into the open yard to access the coop door and enter the safety of the coop for their overnight roosting places. To keep that from happening, I will put wire over the entire length of that opening and limit the chicks to the yard alone. Then, when Mama is satisfied, we will let the several months-old chicks into the open yard – and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, the chicks that are very young now in a cage in the garage, which must remain in cages, will be moved, cage and all to the West side of the coop to grow out to the point that we can integrate them into the flock of the chicks we will be letting out into the coop yard. We will make the transfer after dark, so we do not have to fight to keep the older chicks in the coop while installing the cage into the coop. The difference in ages between the two groups is three to four weeks. That is significant in chicken ages.

Saturday, Mama is setting up for Color Street in Chico. I will help her get set up early in the morning then return to the farm for a couple hours after which I will be going to BBTI to attend the graduation of this year’s students. I do not plan on getting home before 2 pm, especially since I will drive by the square in Chico to check on Mama before I do return home following the graduation. So, much of the day will be spent on tasks away from the farm. Fortunately, there are no urgent items to take care of at the farm. It is possible that Grandpa and I will try to set some fence posts tomorrow. Recent rains should have the ground softened up, but I do not know if Grandpa will feel up to the chore. We will find out tomorrow.

Checking on the bees, resetting the work beds, a little cleaning up here and there, some light trimming with the weed eater and the day will be over.  It will be time to close up the chickens and ducks and get things set for Sunday morning.

Such is life at the farm.

Final items, chick concerns, teaching tomorrow

Mama and Victoria are in the final hours of their visit with the girls. It is always a challenge to leave when a visit is over and still ensure, even in leaving, that the memories created outweigh the sadness of the departure. It has been a wonderful visit with Zoe, Sophia, Audrey - and Brittany. Now, in the final hours Mama and Victoria are trying to decide how to say goodbye to the girls. They will be heading to the airport in Columbus, Ohio tomorrow after the girls have been dropped off at school and daycare respectively. When everyone gets home from their day, Mama and Victoria will be back at the farm. I am sure they will figure it all out, but the sudden, somewhat unpleasant change back to normal will sit poorly with everyone for a bit. Such is as it must be as we all go back to our routine lives.

In their final hours of appointments in the Ripley area, Mama, the girls and Victoria will be dropping off the stray pup that has attached itself to Brittany and the girls. At least that was the last I heard of the matter.  I am pleased that the rehoming will happen in West Virginia versus the pup ending up with us on the farm. Both Victoria and Mama have been telling me how wonderful the pup is; how smart, how gentle, how quickly it could be trained, etc. As accurate as that may be, we do not need another dog at the farm. Mama and Victoria agree in principle with my assessment, but they will still be talking about the pup for some time to come.

From Mama’s perspective, this has been a great time with Audrey. In the past visits, Mama has not had as much uninterrupted time with Audrey but with Brittany traveling to help a friend – the reason for Mama’s timing for this visit – there have been several days when Mama/Grammy was the principal authority is Audrey’s world. It took a couple days but Mama, being Mama, won the child over fully and they have become fast friends. Their relationship changed in those hours together and now Audrey responds to Grammy the way Zoe and Sophia do.  Mama’s impact will be felt, and I hope, appreciated for a long time to come.

Here on the farm, I have been wrestling with chick concerns. Tuesday morning, I got up at 5 am to tend to the chickens and the baby goats before I left to teach an all-day class. I wanted to make sure the ducks and chickens had been let out to their water containers early to save Grandpa some steps and to not rush him into the day's activities. In letting the chickens out of the little coop, I did not have the time I normally take to let out the adult chickens with the rooster while retaining the hens and their five chicks inside the coop. I had to leave the door open to all who would exit the building that day.

When I got home, all the baby chicks were out scratching in the leaves outside the little coop yard being watched over by their mother hens. The real issue was getting the chicks back into the coop overnight. I did not know last night as I was closing the coop door for the night if the little ones made in into the building or not, but I could not see them below the access door. This morning, as I opened everyone up, I found that three of the chicks had spent the night outside the coop. Only two had made it up the ramp into the building last night. At least they made it through the night hiding them under the coop.

The chicks and ducklings in the garage need to be moved but that will not happen until Mama gets home tomorrow. I am not sure where to put them, but we need to get them out of the garage. The horde of flies they are drawing find their way into the house every time we open the door to the garage and Grandma, Grandpa and I are about done with the intrusion. Anyway, we will find somewhere to put the growing chickens while the ducklings will be placed in the grow out pen for a few weeks. But even that will not fully empty the garage because we are on the verge of hatching out some quail eggs. I have thirty-eight in an incubator. I took out the egg turner this morning with the expectation that the hatchlings will introduce themselves to us through the weekend.  

I have no idea how many of the eggs will hatch but my intention is to raise the hatchlings solely to process the birds for eating. If this works, we will try again with the quail, but this is our first concerted attempt to hatch any out. I will have Mama call one of her contacts and see if she knows anyone who would like some hatchling quail right now, but barring that, we will have some of them for dinner in a few weeks.

I will be up again very early tomorrow to repeat the process I followed Tuesday morning. Grandpa can probably handle to chore, but I never know if he will be feeling up to the challenge when the next morning arrives, so I try to take on the larger portion on the task to ensure that the birds at least get to water before I get home. It would all probably work out without me doing the work so early in the morning, but I don’t want to be wondering all day as I teach a class.

Tomorrow, I will not get home until after I pick up Mama and Victoria at the airport. My class is only a four-hour class, so the timing works out to meet Mama a couple hours after the class has concluded. A busy, fun day, especially since I get Mama back.

Mother’s Day, update on Mama, rain, snakes

A belated Happy Mother’s Day to all of our mothers. As we went through our service yesterday, I was struck by the theme of the service, which was of course mothers, and that our celebration of our mother’s is a bit tool little too late for many. We do our best to make much of our mothers and fathers in those once-per-year services, but the honor we give to them day by day is far more meaningful than a bouquet of flowers, a special meal, a small gift from our church. It is more important that we do all the little things week by week, the phone contacts (whether we agree with our mothers or not on some issue), a special video of the grandkids, a request for counsel on a decision – whether that advice is needed or not. What we do with our life to include our mothers is how we honor them.

I can see that happen daily in my own house right now. As Mama provides the daily care required by Grandma, I get to see a daughter honoring her mother. Do they always agree? Certainly not! Do they get into heated discussions? Absolutely! Is Grandma always I her right mind? Rarely. But she is always treated with gentle, insightful respect by Mama. Mama is often hurt by unkind remarks and at her wits end to know how to deal with some of the issues that crop up out of nowhere, but her ministrations toward Grandma and Grandpa continue unabated. My advice to those children out there that are nursing a grudge against their mother for whatever reason: reach out once more. You don’t have to agree, you don’t have to argue, you don’t have to seek or ask forgiveness, but you do need to make the most of the influence a Godly mother can have on your life and the lives of your children. My mom is gone and for too long I froze her out of our lives. That was a mistake that I was able to rectify before the Lord took her home. I will be forever grateful to my Lord for that opportunity. Don’t waste the opportunity you have right now. You have no promise of tomorrow so today is probably the right time to reach out and just say “Hey Mom, I was thinking about and wanted to see how you are doing.”

As for Mama, she had an unusual Mother’s Day yesterday. She was at Ripley Baptist Temple among our many friends there. Brittany and the girls were with her as well as Kris. The church is about thirty minutes from where Brittany is living, but they made the trip for Mama. As is customary in such services, gifts were handed out to certain mothers based on some contrived criterion for awarding that gift. Mama won one of those gifts for being the mother that had traveled the furthest that morning. She tried to refuse the gift and have it awarded to someone who was a current member, but Pastor Perine told her she as still an honorary member of the congregation, so she was stuck with the win.

A fellowship followed the evening service and Mama had time to spend with those friends there over the food and fellowship. Some of the friends we have in the congregation are in their latter stages of life but are still faithful and dependable. Mama and several of those old-timers reasoned out last night that it has been twenty-seven years since we left West Virginia. It is safe to say we have all aged since then, but it is reassuring and encouraging to see the persistent faithfulness of those who will soon enough meet in Eternity. Time is short. That is a fact more meaningful to those of us who have walked through decades of service to the Lord, but time is short for all of us. Don’t assume you or your loved one has tomorrow promised to them so you will be encouraged to make the most of today. Because of that, Mama and Victoria are going to visit Grandma’s family, Mama’ aunts and uncles in the Charleston area tomorrow. She is looking froward to seeing all of them that can make themselves available for a visit. Mama is enjoying traveling old familiar roads as she makes her rounds in our once upon a time home.

Over the weekend we got two- and one-half inches of rain collectively. Some around us got more. Some less. It was more than I had expected and most of the rain happened during the overnight hours. The only way to determine that some of that rainfall had been hard at times was to look at the washed-out places that had been cut into the yard, chicken coop yard and the garden by the periods of heavier runoff. It was a blessing to have any rain. More than two inches was a real blessing. With the softer ground resulting from those rains, Grandpa and I will try to begin setting fence posts tonight or tomorrow evening. In preparation, Grandpa is planning to take the tractor and mow a couple widths of the brush hog around the entire fence line where we will be setting those posts. That will be a great help in giving us a clean working and staging area and in being able to avoid any snakes that may have taken up residence in that tall grass.

As I was filling the duck’s water containers last night, I saw a small snake slither through the mud the ducks make as they spread water on the ground in their pen. Unsure if the snake was poisonous – I did not think it was – I indexed the flashlight on my phone to put some light on the intruder. It was a young rat snake. Not a problem yet, but it made me think of the time of year we are entering and just how many snakes we have around the farm at this time of year. I am not scared of snakes. Most of you know that. However, I am not sure at this age if I could tolerate a bite from a poisonous snake as well as I did several decades ago.

Better safe than sorry.

Mama, Grandpa, appreciation

Mama and Victoria flew to Columbus, Ohio yesterday afternoon arriving at about 5:15 local time. Although the airport is about two hours away from Brittany and the girls, it is the airport of choice. They ended up waiting for about an hour for Brittany to pick them up due to unforeseen traffic issues, but it all worked out. As soon as Mama and Victoria saw the girls, everything but that reunion was forgotten. I pray this will be a good visit. It is the first in person visit under Brittany’s new life circumstances. One of the primary reasons for the timing was that Brittany was requested to help a friend of hers who is getting married either this weekend or early next week. So, Mama and Victoria will be providing backup for Brittany in her absence. I believe Brittany has a pretty busy schedule set for Mama, but Mama will not mind as long as she is spending time her granddaughters.

While Mama is in West Virginia she may look at a few properties for sale. We have been studying the real estate market in West Virginia lately and have tentatively investigated a couple properties – as potential rentals – that have sparked our interest. I assured Mama that that is not a high priority, but I did want her to get a feel for the area since we have been away from there so long. It has been over twenty years since we left the farm there and relocated to Texas. The real estate markets in all the other states where we have lived (New Jersey and Texas primarily) are far too expensive to be considered. We are not considering leaving the farm right now, but at some point, it is going to require more work that we are able to physically support. If, or when, that time comes, we would like to have a foothold in an area where we could retire in some comfort. A place where the income we will have at that time will support us without too much strain. Since I will be 67 years old this year and am considering retiring, it is something we need to consider.

Though the circumstances that motivated us to leave West Virginia twenty years ago were relevant at that time, it is the one move I chose to make that causes me a modicum of regret. We cannot go back and relive any of the moments in our lives. We cannot undo the consequences of the decision we make along the way, but I often wonder what our lives might have been like had we stayed. West Virginia is the place I have missed the most over the years. I am grateful for the Lord’s continuous blessings on me and Mama, the places we have lived, the friends we have made, the church families we have across the states and across years and the companies He has allowed me to work for, but when I reminisce about all the places Mama and I have made a home, all the places we have raised our children, I have very fond memories of what the Lord did in our lives while we lived in West Virginia. That is where He brought the rest of our children into our lives. That is where my children got saved and baptized. That is where we fostered Disuke, and Alfredo for their year in the United States. Plenty of very good memories in every locale we called home over the years, but some monumental moments on our farm in the hollow.

Meanwhile, back at the Chico farm, Grandpa has been at war with the squirrel population for the past several weeks. He has two BB guns to take pot shots at the intruders, but those have proven largely ineffective. So, yesterday I got out the .22 and a box of birdshot shells manufactured for that caliber. Even though the shells are so lightly loaded that they cannot index the bolt, essentially making the rifle a single shot rifle, Grandpa has had a good deal more success. Mortally wounding one yesterday and frightening off three others. At issue is the squirrel’s persistence in raiding our bird feeder – something Grandpa is seriously protestive over. Between the blackbirds and the squirrels invading our farm, the birds we like to see feeding at the two feeders have been scared off. That is an untenable situation that requires serious intervention. Grandpa has been delighted with his recent successes. His poor eyesight, slow and strained movements and shaking hands make the birdshot a perfect remedy to allow him to offer what limited potential he has to succeed in eliminating the intruders.

In my substituting for Mama in caring for Grandma and Grandpa, there has been a realization that perhaps too much has been asked of Mama in providing that care. Both Grandma and Grandpa are more guarded in seeking my help to provide that care than they – especially Grandma – have been in their expectation for Mama to do so. Last night I warmed some soup for Grandma and fried a hamburger for Grandpa. They were very grateful. However, this morning, I did not set up their coffee pot as Mama typically does thus requiring them to do so for themselves. On my part, I did not want to mess up their morning coffee by making it improperly. When I apologized for not having preset the coffee pot, Grandma said that she should be doing more for her and Grandpa and taking some of the burden off Mama.

Don’t get me wrong, Mama loves caring for them, but it nice to be appreciated.

Honduras update, recovering, doctor visits, packing, computer repairs

Cori, Nate and the kids are still without power at their home in Honduras. They are not alone in dealing with the issue, but that makes it no less frustrating. In recent interactions with the power company, they have become convinced that there is little impetus to more very aggressively in making needed repairs, meanwhile four other houses on their street are suffering through the powerless state with the ambient temperatures in the high nineties. Fortunately, Cori and her crew have relocated to the Rierick property and have remained there waiting out the issue. All appliances at their house have been unplugged, cleaned, and are awaiting full power before they will be used again. There is a chance that those appliances will be damaged by the continuous low power fluctuations. So, they live away from home and wait. 

The main issue is still the undersized transformer that is set up to supply their block with electricity that was damaged in a recent storm. Replacing that lone transformer is not on the high priority list for the power company, so we need to pray that the Lord will move the urgency up on the part of the power company and get the required work done quickly. Additionally, the pump for the water tower that supplies water to the neighborhood has now failed because of inconsistent power issues. The loss of water is perhaps more of a health issue than the loss of power and that effects everyone in their neighborhood. That has brought the limited power outage to the forefront in everyone’s mind. That is a good thing. Cori left us a message this morning stating that as inconvenient as the circumstances may be they are not life altering. Like COVID, sometime in the future the problem will be remembered as an afterthought. Something else they had to deal with. Something else we got through.  

All of us here at the farm are recovering slowly. I took a sick day yesterday and spent a lot of the day sleeping. I must have gotten sufficient rest because I was up at 3:30 this morning wide awake. I am off all medicinal aids to treat the cough and congestion as well as all meds to treat the bronchitis. I still have a bit of a cough, but the congestion is more like an allergic reaction to whatever is blooming around us right now. Only Victoria is still manifesting the symptoms that set all of us back for the past few days. Grandpa is also mentioning (he never complains) that he is not feeling well but he manages to keep himself busy. I am again convinced that being here on the farm is keeping Grandpa motivated and Mama and I are pleased to offer him the distractions and busy work that keeps him active. 

Meanwhile, Grandma saw the doctor yesterday and was referred to a gastroenterologist for her digestive issues – many of which I have been unable to understand other than a general lack of interest in eating anything that is not soft and sweet. However, an opening in the schedule of a recommended specialist gave Grandma the opportunity to see him today. I am not looking for any earthshattering news to come out of that visit. Any suggestions from the doctor will be taken only if Grandma agrees with them, otherwise, things will go on as they have. I wish I had higher expectations, but we have been down this road before and as Grandpa had instructed us to let Grandma do as she pleases in her food choices. We go along to get along. 

Eventually Mama and Victoria are going to have to take the time to pack for their trip Thursday. Even though Victoria is still struggling with a cough, she is set on flying to West Virginia with Mama. They will get to spend a week with Brittany and the girls. Zoe, Sophia and Audrey are looking very much forward to the visit. So is Brittany, but the girls are really looking forward to Grammy and Victoria coming. Brittany called last night, however, to tell Mama that she and Zoe have strep throat. Nevertheless, the trip is on. Mama has told me that as she is packing, she is going to clear items out of her closet that she no longer wears. I will be delighted to see that happen but am not holding my breath. It is hard for Mama to part with things if there is even the hint of purpose in retaining those items. Occasionally that has worked to our advantage, but all of us are tiring of the clutter in the house, the garage and the well house. 

During my sick day yesterday, Mama and I made a trip to Decatur to drop off my computer to a repair shop. My MacBook Air, now almot ten years old, had begun to swell. Literally. It was rounding to the point that it was getting difficult to use because it would not sit flat on my desk. As I expected, the issue was the battery. The replacement/repair will cost me about $180. Not too bad, especially since I cannot afford to replace the laptop. I certainly cannot replace it with a new model of MacBook, so less than $200 is affordable. In the absence of my laptop, I initiated some updates to Mama’s computer. I have to admit, I like Mama’s newer laptop better than my own, but it will be nice to have mine back in a few days. The repair technician assured me that the laptop has a lot of light left in it. That is good news.

Right now, we need some good news. 

Sick house, moving, no plans

By the time I got home from work Wednesday afternoon, I had a painfully sore throat. I could barely talk without causing sever pain. Needless to say, I stayed home from church that night. What I found out only a few minutes after I got home was that Victoria had left work early due to a sore throat identical to my condition. Grandma and Grandpa had each been nursing a cold for several days, fever, lots of drainage and a slight cough. What Victoria and I were showing symptoms of was different but no more concerning. I took some Nyquil that night and went to bed early. That meant Mama had to close up the chickens Wednesday night and she had a few issues in doing so. Since the chickens are used to her coming to tend to them in the morning – and she always has a treat for them – when she showed up just before dark, they started to come out of the coop to see what Mama was doing. It took several minutes to get them to stick with their nightly routine of getting up on the roost. Of course, I did not find that out until I got up Thursday morning.  

Prior to getting out of bed for the day Thursday morning, I got up about 2 a.m. and took another dose of Nyquil to help me to help me rest but I felt no better when I did get up, so I began taking Ivermectin. I took three doses on Thursday and began to feel better as the day progressed. I was scheduled to present a class yesterday, but I was glad to have passed that obligation off to someone else just before I left the office. That is how fast this sickness hit me. Last night I had a rough night due to the constant drainage, but my throat is not hurting me, and my cough has stilled a bit.  When Victoria saw my improvement, she began taking the Ivermectin as well and today she is much improved.

Meanwhile, Grandpa saw the doctor but was told that what he was experiencing seemed to be allergies versus something more serious. We will run with that for now as he seems to be doing better. Grandma is not showing signs of improving. Her cough is not terrible even though her sinus drainage requires a full box of tissues per day to deal with. Grandma’s appointment with the doctor yesterday afternoon was canceled due to a water main break in Decatur. That break shut down most of the medical complex in Decatur and our doctor is in that complex. Mama, so far, has been unaffected by any of our illnesses. Praise the Lord! She just has to deal with all these sick people.

Brittany and Maggie are dealing with recurring sicknesses in their homes as well. For Brittany, it is a little more of an issue since she is on her own, but for both of them such sicknesses interfere with work schedules and incomes. Fortunately for me and Victoria, we can substitute a paid day off for a sick day when needed, but yesterday and today, I worked from home to maintain my schedule. So, for me, it is a pretty easy workaround. Not so much for my daughters.

Late last night Mama and I relocated the four ducks we have been raising in the grow out pen. As we placed them with the mature ducks, it was evident that we had waited long enough. The four were all as large as or larger than the smaller mature ducks. The young Jumbo Pekin duck was as large as the larger of the mature ducks while still being a little bit smaller than the mature Jumbo Pekins. The four were mostly feathered out with only a few patches of their baby down exposed. All four new ducks have some type of top knot. One is very pronounced. Mama calls it a crested duck. I think of it differently. There was a little snapping at the four newbies from the occupants of the enclosure, but it was minimal – as is typical with the ducks we have integrated in the past.

I do not have a lot planned for this weekend. That is probably good a thing since I am not feeling well. Grandpa and I were planning on setting some Tee posts to strengthen the fence in the barn lot but all the rain we were forecast to get passed us by. The ground we are driving the posts into is much easier to penetrate when it has been soaked, so we will wait a bit longer. Mama was planning to sell some ducks and chickens at Trade Days tomorrow, but to do so requires that we register our flock with the Agricultural Commission of the State of Texas. We have not done so yet, so that sale is off for this month. It is not expensive to do since we have fewer than one hundred chickens. It is just frustrating to have to do in order to make any fowl sales.

In Honduras, Nate, Cori and the kids have been without full power for several days now. A severe storm took out the transformer that supplies power to their block but with a temporary workaround they have had sufficient power to keep the refrigerators functioning most of the time but little else. They were without water for a couple days but that has been restored. With ambient temperatures at 102-105 degrees, it has been miserable. One issue they face that most of us do not is keeping Blake’s insulin properly refrigerated. So, after almost a week in the dark, they relocated to the Reirick Center at the church grounds. I do not know how long they will be able to stay there but at least they have full power and hot water for showers. It has been a challenge for them.

It has been a challenging week for all of us.

Chicks everywhere, goat drop-off

When it comes to chicks – whether chicken or duck – I believe we are maxed out. I have built four cages for Mama to use to house the little ones and a fifth cage that I did not alter sits in the little coop. All are occupied. Two sit in the coop areas housing the first batch of hatchlings only a couple weeks old. The cage in the little coop holds three Banty chicks that are more than a month old. With the two cages in the coop, Mama plans on letting the chicks out of the cages into the West side of the coop to finish growing out. To make that possible, we took the chickens from that side of the coop and placed all of them on the East side of the coop. It was a tight fit. Mama will clean the now unoccupied West side this morning and let out all eighteen of the chicks in the two cages in the coop run free on that side of the coop. They will be isolated inside the coop for a couple more weeks as they continue to grow. We cannot integrate them into the general population until they are considerably larger.

In the little coop, Mama opened the door to the cage housing the three Banty chicks to allow them out of the cage. We will see how that integration goes, but they are now large enough to hold their own with the Banty chickens they have been cooped up with for the last month. Meanwhile, we have two more cages in the garage that have young birds in them. One has four recently hatched ducklings in it while the other has more than a dozen recently purchased chicks. I quizzed Mama as to how we are going to integrate those newest chicks into the flock since they are a month behind all our other younger birds but did not get a clear answer. As for the ducks, the four we last hatched out are now large enough to place with the mature ducks we have which will free up the grow out pen for the most recently hatched ducklings. There are still four duck eggs in our small incubator along with three chicken eggs in various stages of development, so there may be more hatchlings to come.

I combined the remaining unhatched duck eggs with the chicken eggs in our small incubator because I wanted to free up the larger incubator for quail eggs. I have accumulated a lot of quail eggs over the past two weeks and kept them in the refrigerator to halt development. So, Monday, I got those eggs out of the fridge and allowed them to initially warm before putting thirty-eight of them into the incubator. The egg turner would only hold thirty-eight, so I was forced to throw out the remaining accumulated eggs. There must have been about twenty eggs left over after I filled the egg turner. I did not want to boil those eggs right now. We have about three dozen eggs laid by our quail per week, so I did not want to overwhelm us with eggs that were already as much as two weeks old. It still seemed a waste to just put them in the trash. Oh, well. We will see how many of the quail eggs actually hatch, but I plan on raising those hatchlings strictly for processing or replacing our current twelve quail hens.

I took a day of vacation, Monday primarily so that Mama and I could drop off Sugar and Honey, two of our goats, to a farm about two hours away. Leoni, a friend in the goat raining enterprise agreed to let us borrow a buck for the breeding. It was simpler to take our girls to her farm to allow the breeding to take place. While Mama and I were there, I saw one buck I was very interested in borrowing to breed our four younger goats. Those little girls are only about eight months old, so it will be October before we seriously consider putting a male with them, but this male is a great candidate. Also, Mama and I saw one black and white buck we will probably buy from Leoni to further our breeding program. There were two very young “blue” bucks that caught our eye, but they are already spoken for. Blue is more a pale gray, but the coloring is striking. I can only afford to buy one buck, so we will get the black and white buck to keep the traditional coloring of the Tennessee myotonic breed in our herd.

We had a wonderful visit with Leoni along with a tour of her farm. It was not that much different from ours other than the shelters she uses for her more than one hundred goats. She lets her chickens run loose and has to conduct an egg hunt every evening to locate the eggs laid that day. Something that would not work where we live. We spent more than an hour with Leoni then headed down the road for lunch. I told Mama we needed to eat someplace special, not a fast-food meal. We settled on Saltgrass Steakhouse since it was nearby. We had a great meal there and walked to a Popshelf store in the same shopping complex. We needed to walk around a bit after a pretty big meal but eventually headed back home stopping at WinCo, Sam’s and Texas Tea as we traveled through Denton. We finally made it home about 5 pm.

Since we had abandoned Grandma and Grandpa all day, we took time to cook Grandpa a good meal. Boneless pork chops, mashed potatoes, peas and rolls. Grandma ate a little bit of the mashed potatoes, a few peas, and a couple rolls. Neither she nor Grandpa have been feeling well for the past several days. Both have a cough and bad sinus drainage.

So, please keep them in your prayers.