Pressing questions

If I was convinced that the Lord was going to call me away from this world in only a few weeks, how would I live out those last few weeks? What would I do differently than I am doing now? Would there be a sense of urgency to my witness and a more expressive concern for the souls of those who know me? The horrible truth of the answer to that question is that I am afraid to make the changes that I certainly should make if I knew my time here was limited to just a few more weeks. Recently, because I expressed an opinion on a family matter involving one of my children, Mama and I was seriously castigated and then shunned by several of our children. It seems that expressing an opinion different from their own warranted a severing of all communication with their father.

How would those relationships be affected if I were convinced that within a period of a few short weeks, their time to ensure their lives were being lived rightly in the eyes of God would be forever ended? All I have ever wanted is to ensure that my children loved and served the Lord so that their homes could be blessed by God and their children would have the opportunity to get saved. Straying far from the Lord brings consequences that are often immediate and painful. But, just as dangerous is pretending that things are right between you and the Lord, when you know that they are not. God’s longsuffering is wonderful. His grace is amazing, and we are losing the coming generation because those of us who call ourselves believers are not practicing the faith that led us to repentance. Our children may be denied the chance to know the statutes of God because we do not live them, much less teach them.

But what if the Lord was coming to call away His bride and all true believers as well as those who are innocent by virtue of their not having reached the age of awareness were to leave this world forever. What a blessing to those of us who know the Lord. What a horror for those who do not. Would I have the courage to ask each of my children one more time if they knew for sure that they were saved? Or would I be too afraid of offending them and being further shunned by those who have not spoken to me or Mama for months? The sad truth is that I am probably more afraid of furthering an offence than of assuring that they and their children would spend Eternity with us.

Mama and I were, and still remain, deeply hurt by the by the children who excommunicated us in their pretended offence to my point of view on that particular situation. I have no desire to deepen or broaden that rift, but what if the Lord really was coming back in just weeks? The Bible records our Lord clearly stating that we cannot know the day of the hour, but the Lord also infers that we can know the season of His return. With that in mind, my Pastor shared a link with me that seems to strongly indicate the imminent rapture, calling away, of the Bride of Christ – those truly saved by faith in Jesus.  

This is the link to that presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw2p06bgyKg

Is the information correct? I cannot know for certain, but a powerful argument is presented. We would do well to heed the warning. As to what I would tell my children, perhaps I am not the one who can communicate the message to them most effectively. I do pray for each of my children and grandchildren on their specific day of the week. They know this. Do those prayers make a difference? They do to me. So, as long as we are in this world, I will continue in that commitment. I only wish the Lord would allow us more time with each of them. A text message, a blog post, a phone call is not enough time to develop a relationship that can affect a life, but we will do our best.

As you read this, are you 100% sure that when you die you will go to Heaven? If not, the most concise way I know to share that Gospel message is to advise you to read the following verses:

Romans 3:23 All of us have sinned and are guilty in the eyes of God.

Romans 6:23 God’s penalty for sin is death (and eternal separation from God in Hell).

Romans 5:8 God offers His love to us in our sinful condition by allowing Christ to take all our sins upon Himself on the cross. He paid in full the penalty required by God for all our sins.

Romans 10:9-10 That if we believe in our hearts that Jesus is the Sin of God who has the power to cover our sins with His blood and confess with our mouth that we have believed in Christ as our Savior, that we are saved from the penalty of sin through Christ’s substitutionary death.

If the Lord comes in the clouds to call His saved people out of this world only a few weeks from today, will you be taken home to Heaven? Will your children be saved and taken to Heaven as well? Even if the Lord does not come to call us way for many years more, will you enter Heaven’s gate when you die or will you be eternally separated from God in Hell? Have you been saved? What about your children? Do they know Jesus as their savior? Have you given them the opportunity to know the Lord, to be saved?

If not, now is the time to open that door to them by getting them under good Gospel teaching and preaching. You know what to do. For their sake, don’t wait any longer.

Window cut outs, quail

Saturday, I began to cut the window openings in the container. I had the two windows closest to the entry marked for the cuts, so that is where I started. I admit to being a little intimidated by the project. Any mistake would be hard to compensate for once the cutting began. Happily, the first opening I cut fit the frame I had made very well. I have a two-inch margin of error in each direction because I used two-inch angle to make the frames to be welded into each opening. 

In fitting the frame into the first opening, I ended up with pretty small gaps on each side of the frame as I fit it into the cut out. A little trim here and there was required, but not too much. I did not do as well on the second cut out I made. On that one I ended up with a significant gap on each side of the frame, mostly because I widened the cut to make sure the frame would fit without too much trimming after the initial cut.  I can seal it with some carefully cut wood pieces and a generous application of caulk. But I was a little disappointed in how that side turned out. Once the frames were fitted into the opening I had cut, I began to weld them in place. So, at the end of the day, I had both of the frames secured in the container wells and ready to be sealed before the windows are placed in those frames.

Tonight, and tomorrow night, I plan to cut out one more opening per night. When I began to cut the wall for the window openings, it took me a couple of tries to get the right combination of tools needed to make the cuts. I started with a circular saw set up with a metal cutting blade. I had used it to cut the angle iron to make the frames and it had performed remarkably well. It did okay for the first cut but bound up badly as I tried to use it to make additional cuts. It turns out that the walls flex quite a bit when they are cut.  Then I tried the grinder with a diamond tipped cutting wheel in each of the corners to open a slot in each direction so I could make the additional long cuts with a Sawzall, also equipped with a special metal cutting blade. The Sawzall did really well but the blade wore out quickly. By the time I had cut out the two openings, that $20 blade was shot.

That turned out to be a blessing because when I rested for a few minutes after getting the tack welds on the second frame, I realized I was worn out. The sad part of that realization was that it was only 3 pm. I had several hours of daylight left, so I used that time to do more welding to seal the top of the frames in the wall and to paint the frames to keep them from rusting too quickly. We had several colors of spray paint to choose from, but I settled on a dark brown. White, red, or silver seemed too ostentatious. Mama loved the look. All in all, I was pleased with how easy it was to cut in the frames and how good they looked in place. It turned out to be well worth the time and money to make the metal frames.

Mama and I went out Saturday evening to make a series of stops: Tractor Supply, Walmart and Lowe’s. At Lowe’s I bought two more Sawzall blades, a few parts for running the electrical conduit and some specialty bolts for securing the ceiling fans in the container. Mama dropped off eggs to one of her customers and got some medicine for the goats at Tractor Supply. She is concerned about a cough one of our recently purchased nanny goats has. I have not heard the cough, but Mama insists the goat is in need of tending. Mama has a better feel for those things than I do so I always defer to her judgement. Anyway, the purchase of the blades will give me the chance to cut one more opening this evening and tomorrow the last one. Lord willing. When I begin that work, I will get to see just how sore I am from the weekend.

Sunday, I cooked two of the quail I had recently processed. I was not sure how to cook them, but I decided to fry them with some onions and jalapenos. Mama was fixing BLT sandwiches for Grandma and Grandpa, so I took some of that grease to fry the quail. I had cut the little birds into quarters, so the smaller pieces did not take long to fully cook. And they were indeed small pieces. It was almost amusing to eat the miniature leg and breast quarters. The meat tasted a bit gamey, but I like that flavor. It was not unlike the flavor of chicken, but it was just enough different that it was thoroughly enjoyable, albeit time consuming. With the ease of cleaning the quail and the pleasant flavor, we will be continue raising and processing them for our table. Even if I am the only one who will be eating them. Speaking of processing fowls, I still have five roosters and two ducks to process, but there is no urgency in doing that.

As always, there is no lack of chores on the farm.

Grandma’s tests, another scare from Grandpa, early drop-off, distractions

Grandma did well on her full day of testing. One particular test requiring an MRI following a dye injection was perhaps the most difficult for Grandma for two reasons. First, because she was required to have her arms above her head throughout the rather long test, which is a very uncomfortable position to maintain, but secondly, because she was required to stay still and quiet. In each medical contact, Mama told me that Grandma was far more concerned about witnessing to the attendants than in finding out if there was anything to be discovered through each of the tests. I have to give Grandma credit for her absolute determination to share the Gospel with everyone she comes in contact with. Grandma’s only regret for the day was that she was not able to get any sign of connection or understanding from an Asian Indian woman who helped her in one test. I am confident that the Word will never return to the Lord void, He promised it would not, but it is impossible to know what Grandma said as she shared that Word. Sometimes the threads of her thoughts as she speaks them out loud do not connect well. Sometimes even she does not know what she is trying to say. But she does love the Lord and wants to share that thought with everyone.

Other than that, Grandma did well on all the tests. In fact, when Mama, Grandma and Grandpa got home, Grandma seemed energized. She was more loquacious than normal. Much of what she was reciting to simply fill the air with words, were stories we had heard many times before, but she was happy to just be talking and once in the groove, it is better to allow her to keep going. Grandpa spent the afternoon napping and Mama took a short nap, but not Grandma. When no one was available to hear her talking, she contacted someone by phone. She has a wealth of close contacts, family and friends, that are willing to allow her to spill out long tales all of them already know, but do not mind hearing again. Several times she called my phone thinking she was calling her brother Timmy. I did not notice the missed calls until an hour or more later. Eventually she wore out and laid down. I did not see Grandma until the next evening since I taught a class the day following her tests. It may be a few more days before we get the results, but nothing seems urgent at the moment.

Tuesday, we had another scare from Grandpa. In the afternoon he began to shiver even though the temperature in the house was about 77 degrees. Since the in-home nurse had just seen Grandpa that morning, Mama called the service to see if the nurse could come back over to check Grandpa out. It was more than an hour before someone came. All vitals were good, but Grandpa’s temperature was a bit elevated. Nothing serious, but definitely noticeable. Within a few hours, the chills had passed but the general weakness remained and is still troubling Grandpa today. It is obvious that there is a latent issue we are dealing with but so far, we are uncertain. What we suspect is that there is an iron deficiency. How to meet or overcome that deficiency is still in question. Wednesday morning a nurse came by to draw blood for lab work. We will know those results fairly soon. Our primary concern is his kidney function, but there is little we can do to change that outcome of his slowly failing kidneys. Mama and I are struggling to find ways to engage Grandpa in everyday life, but the heat makes any outside labor dangerous for him. We will enjoy him and Grandma while we can.

Mama, Victoria and I were up at about 4 am this morning. Victoria’s flight to Honduras was scheduled for 7 am. I am not sure what time she will arrive in Honduras, but we got her to the airport on time to begin the hops through airports that would take her there. DFW is an easy airport to navigate, especially at that time of day. That does not make the very early morning more pleasant, but light traffic in the very early morning is a benefit to having that early drop-off time. Mama and I were back home in time for me to sign in to work with time to spare.

This evening after work, I plan to process the seven male quail we have in the small Banty house. They are bearing the daily brunt of the heat. We have the Banty house under a large oak tree by the duck pen, but the males in that house are not necessarily completely shaded throughout the day. There are times the house is partly exposed to the glaring sun and the quail are panting badly through the late morning into the early afternoon. The Banty house is not necessarily made to promote air circulation. So, it gets pretty hot. It is time to get them out of that house and do something different with them. I suppose, eating them is as favorable an outcome for us as I can provide.

In preparation for processing the quail, I looked online to see how to get that done and it seems pretty easy. It was a bit more difficult to skin the ducks than the online videos showed, but not by much. Hopefully, skinning the quail will turn out to be as easy as the videos have shown. I will know soon enough.

On the downside, every one of these little things takes time away from work I need to get done on the container. It bothers me a bit, but there is not much I can do about the many distracting chores we have to deal with at the farm that keep me from focusing on things I want to spend time working on. Honestly though, it is probably better to wait until Saturday to pick back up on the work I need to do inside the container because it is hotter inside the enclosure than it is outside. Lately there has been a breeze stirring the air, making it more tolerable, but only by a small degree. That breeze does not move the air inside the box. Oh, well.

There is always plenty to do.

Broken window, dry conditions

A couple weeks ago, Mama and Norman bought the windows we are cutting into the container; however, when they arrived at the farm with the four windows, one of the panes on one side of one of those windows was broken. Norman did not seem to think it was a difficult repair to have done, but today Mama and I discovered that that may not be the case. I called a window shop here in Decatur to ask about affecting that replacement/repair. The receptionist was very confident that they could get that done so Mama and I drove to the shop to drop off the broken window.

After waiting for the receptionist to complete her discussion with a regional salesman, she very quickly made out a work order to have the pane replaced. When I asked for an estimate on that repair, I was told it would be in the range of $150-175. I was shocked. Needless to say, I did not leave the window there. I explained to the receptionist that the original window – the entire window, of which this was only one pane on one side of the window – cost us $250. I will buy another entire window to complete the installation in the container before I pay $175 for a single piece of glass to be replaced in that pane. As is the case too often I life, I may have to take back those words, but for now, that is where I stand on the issue.

Yesterday evening, I laid out the cut pattern for two of the frames that will hold the windows. I almost started to cut one of those openings but was talked out that by Mama. I will have to set aside the time to get the work done for making those cuts, but with the very hot outside temperatures, I cannot work for long periods of time inside the container. It is a sweatbox right now. I am also hesitant to get started on the cutouts since I do not know if I have the right equipment to make those cuts successfully. At a very minimum I need to buy a good face shield to protect me from the sparks created in using either a circular saw or a grinder. Those two cutting tools are what I have access to right now. I have watched a Sawzall used to make the cuts, but I do not know for sure what blade to purchase to use for that purpose. I looked at what Lowe’s had to offer and there were only twenty or so to choose from. All of those choices were expensive.

Plus, with the extremely dry conditions now, any of the sparks caused by making the cuts could potentially start a fire that could quickly get out of control. I have a hose I can set in place to spray any fires that are started by the sparks I will generate, but I cannot be on both sides of the container at the same time. That requires someone to be with me at all times as I make those cuts. That person is not going to be Mama. She does not like the ambient heat, or the noise created by the cutting tools. Grandpa is not a good candidate because of his recent issues with the heat. I am sure he would like to help, but his body cannot tolerate the heat. That leaves me on my own trying to figure out how to get this done safely. Again, it will all work out, but it will take some time to understand how it needs to be done.

Plus, chores on the farm have taken many of the evenings I have available. Tonight, we are going to spend the evening picking up some bales of hay – if the hay is still available. Since we have no grass growing due to the drought, we are feeding hay out at a very fast rate. To compensate, we are buying hay at a much higher rate than we did last year. No, I do not believe in the current climate alarm. Weather is simply weather. Sometimes it is hot. Sometimes it is cold. Sometimes it is wet. Sometimes it is dry. We are not all going to die from weather changes, but we are buying more hay this year.

Anyway, I am enjoying the heat at a certain level. It allows me to endure a free sweat every evening. I have noticed that I can take in more calories/carbs every day without the fear of putting on weight. I still have to be thoughtful about what I eat, but I have had a little more freedom in my diet due to the oppressive heat. Of course, it helps that I do not mind being soaked with sweat.

As had become her custom in this heat, Mama goes out every afternoon to refresh the water in the containers in the duck area. It is probably a good idea since the water, if it is only as hot as the air around it, will be well over 100 degrees. What sits in the full sun, will be much hotter. That is a bit warm not only to drink, but also to play and preen in. The cool water is a welcome treat to the ducks and the chickens. Almost every afternoon Mama does go out, she finds the water container in one of the quail cages turned on its side, empty. When we do not have the opportunity to refill that container, the quail in that cage are extremely thirsty when we tend to them in the evening. That makes Mama feel terrible, but it is a small matter, completely out of our control. They survive and are probably better cared for than their cousins in the wild, but Mama still feels bad every time she feels they are neglected.

Even in the dry heat, Mama’s animals are well cared for.

 

 

Artificial sunburn, more hot weather, Grandma

Even though the temperature was a little over 104 degrees Friday evening, I set about in the shop to create a jig of sorts to lay out the angle iron so it could be welded properly. A jig is made to ensure the angle iron pieces to be welded are accurately squared to each other – or however the final product is to be assembled together. Creating a jig/layout tool allowed me to ensure the corners were squared properly prior to welding them together and to be able to repeat the process several times to weld the frames needed for each of the four windows. I finished one frame Friday night just before dark, but I had my layout form made. The last thing I did before quitting for the night was to test the frame I had made to make sure the window fit easily into it. The windows will fit into the frame with a space on each side to squeeze in some foam to seal it. Success.

Saturday was even hotter than Friday, but I set about as early as possible to get all the metal pieces cut for the frames and then assemble them one by one. I was interrupted several times by other farm needs, but by about 2 pm, I had welded together all the window frames successfully. The last thing I needed to weld was a frame for the little a/c unit we are going to use in the container. I did not make a jig for it so once I was done cutting the metal and had tacked it together, I tested it to make sure the a/c would fit into the frame. Not! I had to cut apart one of the corners and reweld the frame. It was a bit too tight in the original placement of the pieces for the a/c unit to pass into the frame without scraping against it significantly. It was a fairly easy correction to make and complete. So, all the frames are welded and ready to be installed.

What I did not realize as I was making all the required welds was that in using the auto darkening glasses in the process, I was exposing my face to the burning light of each and every weld. The Spanish term for a welder (a person using the welding machine) is “solador” which means in a general sense, “sun maker”. By the time I finished the sixteen welds per frame, I was pretty red on the parts of my face that the glasses had not covered and in the bend of my left arm where I had steadied myself as I welded every seem. I could feel the skin tightening on my face here I had been burned. After I showered, I applied some salve to ease the burning and by Sunday morning, the sunburn did not look too noticeable. No one at church seemed to notice anyway. A sunburn right now is not uncommon. I picked the glasses over my welding hood because I was sweating profusely, and the glasses made the welding less cumbersome by not requiring my whole head to be covered by a hot welding helmet. I ultimately paid the price for the momentary comfort.

I am entertaining the idea of cutting at least one of the window openings this evening, but the temperature is climbing to over 108 and tomorrow will be 110 degrees or better. Inside the container it will be a bit hotter, so Mama may put her foot down and disallow any such work, especially since Grandpa recently gave us a scare when he suffered a mild case of heat stress. Grandpa has since avoided being outside in this heat, but I have managed a few hours at a time as I try to continue the container retrofit projects in spite of the ambient temperatures. Although I am making progress, I will not have the retrofit done by the end of this month. I can only work so long in this kind of heat.

Mama is spending the entire day out with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma had a series of medical tests today that will take most of the day to complete. She was required to be at the doctor’s office at 7:30 this morning for fasting blood work. Following that there was to be a stress test and some other type of heart test. Then a couple hours later she was to eat a fatty meal and have further blood work done. Last of all she is scheduled for a final heart diagnostic test to begin about 2:30. I am not expecting them home before 4 pm. By that time, they will have put in a full workday. That is unusual for Mama. It is exhausting for Grandma and Grandpa who spend most of their waking time either sitting in a chair or lying in bed. During Grandma’s last medical test Mama plans to do some final shopping at WinCo for items Victoria will take to Honduras when she leaves Thursday morning. None of the participants in today’s medical testing endurance contest are used to putting in that many continuous hours of activity in a given day. It was probably wise on the doctor’s part to get all the testing done in one day, but I am not sure the schedulers realized what the test candidate and supporters had to endure to make that happen. The last test, Mama was told, will potentially leave Grandma nauseated. That is why they saved it for last. We will soon see.

Nevertheless, it will be mission accomplished when they do get home. At least I hope so.

Friday dinner, Solar blaster, chicken sales, duck dispatch

Friday evening, Mama and I went out to dinner with Red and JoAnn Shaw. We met at Casa Torres in Decatur. It is by far the best Mexican food in Decatur. We were late to the meeting by about twenty minutes because Mama had gone to get feed late in the afternoon. That, in and of itself, would not have been an issue; however, Grandma and Grandpa, who went along for the ride, had Mama stop at the Post Office and Dollar General on the way home, so that lengthened the trip significantly. Mama was reticent to tell Grandma and Grandpa “no” to the additional stops because they get out so infrequently – especially Grandpa. It all worked out. JoAnn and Red held a table for us until we got there, and we had a wonderful, relaxed dinner together. It was a pleasant reprieve for all of us just to sit and visit.

As we outfit the shipping container for service as a workshop, I have been studying devices available for that sort of retrofit. In doing so, I stumbled across a passive solar light that could be mounted atop the container to provide light to the end of the container that I am going to reserve for storage. In that last ten feet inside the container, I am not planning on running any electrical service, but I needed some sort of additional light. Enter the Solar Blaster. It was exactly what I was looking for, but it was fairly expensive. However, when purchasing windows, even at the wholesale price, the Solar blaster unit did not seem so costly. So, after Mama and I discussed the purchase, I ordered one.

The unit was not due to arrive until Wednesday of this week, but it was delivered about 5 pm Saturday. By that time, I was pretty worn out. I set the box inside the container with the intent of cutting it into the container sometime this week. But, after I cooled off and ate a small dinner, I felt like I could get the installation done before dark. In making the cut into the top of the container, I wore out three batteries very quickly as I attempted to cut the opening with my DeWalt grinder and Sawzall. Neither were up to the task, and I had to resort to a corded grinder to complete the cut. Once that was done, I installed the Solar Blaster. Even in the low light of evening, I was impressed by how well the unit functioned. When I saw the effect inside the container the next afternoon, I was certain we had made a good choice.

Now, with the windows at the farm – Mama and Norman purchased them on Thursday – we can start that installation. One of the panes on one window broke on the ride home, so it will need to be repaired at some point, but the other three are ready to go. To facilitate the placing of the windows in the container, I went to a local wholesaler and bought the angle iron needed to frame the windows in the sides of the container. I will spend an evening this week – when I have time available – building those frames. Once the frames are built, I will cut the walls to accommodate the frames which will be welded into the sides of the container, then I will install the windows in the frames. That will probably have to wait until Thursday or Friday because tonight is going to be spent fetching hay. Tuesday will be spent processing 4 ducks and 6 chickens. Wednesday is church. I am not in a particular hurry, but Mama is. So, these delays are starting to bother her a little. I will eventually get this done, but I am not setting any records for speed in accomplishing the retrofit.

The next steps will be to complete the wiring inside the container then have the inside of the container sprayed with foam insulation. Then the floor will be redone, and a sliding glass door installed, and we will be ready to move into what I am now calling our “crafting shop”. Can I get all this done by the end of the month? I do not know, but I am going to try. Painting the outside of the container will come at some future point. That will not be a requirement for occupancy, and I am not sure if it actually needs to be done. I suppose Mama has not decided yet because she likes the look of the container as it is, and she does not want to delay any of the other upgrades needed to get her crafting items relocated to the shop once the inside is complete.

Mama has been trying to sell some of her chickens for months now and was finally able to complete a sale of one of her Lavender roosters Saturday afternoon. It was not a huge sale, but she was encouraged to finally have money exchange hands in such a sale. We are applying for a flock registration permit so we can sell our chickens and ducks at Trade Days. Such a registration is required for such sales. All the paperwork is done, but the final requirement of the registration is to have our entire flock tested for some bird disease before the permit is issued. Mama has that scheduled for the first week of August. I wish we could have taken the ten drakes we have to sell at Trade Days, but until we have the registration, we are not permitted to do so. They would have sold quickly. They are beautiful birds. Instead, they will be processed to be eaten. Not a bad thing if anyone besides me decides they like duck meat.

Otherwise, I will be eating a lot of duck.

 

Party time at the farm, a smelly oversight

The 4^th was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. I spent most of the late morning and all afternoon cooking. I smoked two chickens and a small brisket by about 1:30. Then I fired up the charcoal grill and used it and the pellet grill to cook over fifty hamburgers and about sixty hotdogs. With twenty-two adults and ten children in attendance, a good portion of the meat was eaten. We also had macaroni salad, potato salad, baked beans and all the fixings for the burgers and hotdogs – chili, slaw, cheese (six different kinds), as well as multiple desserts available. Mama dessert was mostly focused on brownies and ice cream. Sarah Fox baked sourdough hamburger buns, decadent cinnamon rolls and peanut butter blossom cookies. Brenda Fox made a chocolate fudge cake. Norman brought a lemon cake. So, we had plenty.

To give the kids something fun to do, Norman set up squirt wands and water buckets in the circle in front of the house. All ten of the single pump squirt wands were all in use during multiple battles. There were, over the course of the day, almost three hundred balloons filled with water to be burst on a variety of persons and targets. The temperature was near one hundred degrees at the height of the day but there was a steady, soft breeze stirring the hot air so everyone that ended up getting thoroughly soaked was quickly able to dry off. Only to go back into the water fight and get soaked once more.

Meanwhile, the adults visited in smaller groups moving about through the groups to visit with a different batch of guests. Some outside. Some inside. We all had a great time getting to know each other and just passing the time in casual conversation, hearing delightful stories from each of our pasts. The young mothers in those groups were constantly herding their little ones back outdoors when they came running inside, soaking wet, to report some bit of urgent news from the water battle raging in front of the house. Norman and Seth made a batch of smaller water balloons that could be easily managed by their tiny hands – and they were eager to join in the fun. Our front circle was a mess of refuse from the burst balloons, but everyone pitched in and cleaned up the mess before anyone headed home.

I continued to clean up inside through the day, so what needed to be washed was minimal once the leftovers had been packaged and put away. We will be eating those leftovers for many days. I predict we will tire of the macaroni and potato salad before we are able to consume them fully. The leftover meats will be finished off more quickly. Hotdogs, stuffed burgers, smoked chicken, and brisket all lend themselves to multiple dinner applications. Needless to say, I did not manage to follow my low carbohydrate diet, but I did attempt to keep the carbs to a manageable amount by limiting the dessert portions. The most difficult part was getting up the next morning to teach a class.

Mama, Norman, and Grandpa are in Gainesville for a doctor’s appointment for Grandpa scheduled for later today. So, while they are in that area, they will also pick up a few things we need for the container retrofit. Mama is also going to look at windows we need to cut into the container, but I do not know if she is planning on purchasing the windows or just looking at what is available and at what price in the surplus store in that area. Regardless, we are slowly gathering the required materials for installing the electric service, the windows, and the sliding glass door.

We are also studying/researching the best ways to install the windows into the sides of the container. That has been a fun study watching YouTube videos made by those who have done what we are considering doing. So many ways to get the job done and so many different looks as the final outcomes are achieved. I think we have decided to weld frames into the side of the container, then use those frames to house those windows. It seems to be the best way to seal the window into the container without the window sticking too far past the exterior of the container sides. If all things work out, I am planning to have the container finished and ready for Mama to fill by the end of the month. It will be very nice to have a dedicated workspace.

On the farm, we have been dealing with very large rat snakes. Over the past few days, I have had to kill four of the snakes that were each over five feet long and very thick of body. These were mature snakes. We have not seen such large, mature snakes at the farm during the ten years we have lived here. Mama is concerned but there is little we can do about it other than catch and kill the snakes as we encounter them. In a humorous turn of events, I had one dead snake in the back of the truck to be thrown in the creek on my way to work Wednesday morning, but I forgot to do that. So, the snake spent the day in the bed of the truck through the day Wednesday as I taught the class. The temperature was a little over one hundred degrees that day. The truck was parked in full sun. By the time I got done with class I was startled by the stink near the truck as I loaded up to head home. I thought, “Woah. Something is dead.” It was only when I got back home that I discovered my oversight. Boy, did that snake stink.

I had hurried home because Mama had trapped another large snake in one of the quail cages and I was to kill it after Sarah Fox got to the farm to watch how I accomplished that task. Once that was done, I put that recently dead snake with the very stinky snake and pitched both of them out for the varmints to eat.

One of those deposits was long overdue.

 

 

Half gone, fireworks, the 4th

 

2023 is now officially half gone. I am sure it took about 182 days, but it seems to have gone much faster than that. With my background in working 12-hour rotating shift, I developed the worldview of separating time into large slices versus looking at hours or half hours or quarter-hours segments, I look at life in much large chunks of time. Perhaps because of that approach to marking time’s passage, it seems to move very rapidly for me. Perhaps I am simply getting old enough that the days seem to evaporate as I try to give the most I can to each of those days. Never-the-less, there are only a few months left before we prepare for Thanksgiving and then Christmas.

One of the disappointments in this mid-year timeframe is that at the end of last year I had planned on retiring at this point in time. However, as I considered things from a financial point of view, it just made more sense to work through the end of this year. The Lord just would not give me peace about retiring in my set time. I lament, somewhat, not retiring, but I am certain that the delay will prove well worth the extra time on the payroll. Obedience to the Lord always produces wonderful outcomes and as fast as this year is fleeing away from me, my retirement will be very soon in coming.

After church last night we went out to eat at Braum’s before we met up with a few people from church to watch the fireworks from a vantage point we have used for the past several years. Betty Lemon has a condo on a hilltop just west of town that offers a spectacular view of the fireworks display put on by the City of Decatur. Kenny and Kimberlyn and their grandkids ate with us at Braum’s before following us to the overlook at Betty’s house. By the time we arrived there were already about a dozen of our church friends set up with their lawn chairs and coolers, waiting for the show to begin. By the time we arrived, we had only to wait about thirty minutes or so, and it was well worth the wait.

Cheyenne and Aubrey went to church with us so they could go with us to see the fireworks – and to Braum’s. It was 9:30 before we got them home after which, Mama and I went to Walmart to pick up some additional items for our 4^th of July party at the farm. I have found over the years that it is always possible to buy a few additional items at Walmart, no matter how trivial the need. Sunday night after church is the perfect time to shop.

The guest list for our party started at twelve but swelled to thirty. I will start the smoker early tomorrow morning with two chickens and a brisket. All that meat came from the farm. Then I will be grilling hamburgers and hotdogs near lunchtime. Some of that meat we produced on the farm. Some, we did not. All of our guests are bringing something. Sarah Fox is making homemade hotdog buns. Mama will be making macaroni salad, potato salad and a butterscotch lush. That along with what we already have on hand and what others are bringing, we should have plenty of food. The biggest challenge is finding places for everyone to sit.

Norman is getting some outdoor activities planned to entertain the kids, eight that are big enough to play games, and three that are too young to join in but will have a great time watching. Nineteen adults will be there to supervise and participate if desired.  I will be watching. Norman has Frisbees and water guns. Mama bought one hundred balloons for a water balloon fight. These are friends we have gotten together with on occasion in the past and have always had a great time together. The weather is forecast to be hot and dry, so some water activities are in order.

With all the meat we have to cook, we will fire up the charcoal grill I have not used in many months. I have switched over to the pellet grill exclusively, but with Norman to help, we can man the two grills effectively and speed up the process of cooking forty hamburgers and several dozen hotdogs. I was thinking about grilling some ears of corn, but we did not plan for that, so I will have to wait for another opportunity to do that.

So, all day tomorrow will be dedicated to feeding a crowd versus working on the container. But I was able Friday evening to get one outlet wired into the container, so we have power there. Unfortunately, VBS Monday through Thursday last week left me with only Friday night to get that little upgrade accomplished. Then, Saturday, Mama and I drove to Ana, TX to pick up our rescue goats – about a five hour round trip – and it was raining when we got back to the farm. That rain continued softly for the entire afternoon, so I did not do any more work on the container Saturday. Tonight will be spent getting the house ready for entertaining guests we have coming tomorrow. Wednesday I will be presenting an eight-hour class.

Staring off July with a flourish.