A short update

For weeks we have been waiting and watching our nanny goats expecting them to kid very soon. Well, Lilly, one of our older nannies, had her three babies early this morning. We were expecting Lilly to kid yesterday, so Mama was not surprised to see the three little ones this morning. She had asked me last night if there was a way we could separate Lilly from the others in the paddock, but there is no good way to do so without a lot of work. There are eleven total in the paddock right now, which makes it quite crowded at feeding times. Three of the goats in that paddock are very young – our bottle babies which have never been exposed to a kidding nanny goat. Four are approaching one year old and four are pregnant nanny goats. Dolly, another of our older nanny goats should be kidding in a few days. Most likely this week.

Mama is horribly stressed about the new kids being born and reared into that crowded environment. Lilly is batting and butting the other goats away from her recent offspring, especially the overly curious bottle babies we raised. I may need to find a way to isolate Lilly from the other residents of the paddock to assure the survival of the newbies, but we will know if that is necessary over the next few days. So, three little ones were introduced to Mama this morning, two little girls and one little boy, with the expectation that we will have more coming in the next few days followed by two other nanny goats kidding within the next couple weeks. Additionally, the four pregnant nanny goats we rescued are getting large as their pregnancies advance. I expect to see those kidding within the next four weeks. Certainly, by the end of September. In total, we should have up to twenty little ones born on our farm this year. A moderate success.

One thing after another has delayed the completion of our craft container. Mostly it is a matter of excessive heat, but also my lack of time and energy to work very long on the projects in the evenings. But this weekend I was able to get the entrance framed in so we can apply the foam - perhaps next weekend. That is the next big, expensive thing to be done. As the weather cools, I should be able to do more each available evening to add the little finishes required to spur us toward completion. Mama is anxious to get moved into the craft shop, but she is not pushing me too hard. I too am anxious to get the craft items moved out of the house. At this point, I am about forty hours and $3,000 short of that completion.

Tonight, I will refill the five-gallon bee feeder. I know it will only last the bees about three days, but I plan to refill the feeder no more than once per week. I cannot. Since it takes twenty-five pounds of sugar for each filling, the cost of which is about sixteen dollars, I cannot afford to keep them filled up. Even at once per week, I will be spending over five hundred dollars to cover this dearth and get the hives fed sufficiently to prepare the bees for winter. It is worth the cost and effort on my part, but it is still an added expense for us to deal with.

Attracting attention, Grandma’s birthday, diminishing strength

 After doing all I could to allow the bees to pull the majority of the syrup they could reach in the five-gallon bucket feeder, I took it, after dark last night, and refilled it with fresh sugar water. There was very little left in the bucket when I rinsed it out to clear away the older syrup and the ants that had gotten into the bucket. It was a sticky mess. I dumped a twenty-five-pound bag of sugar into the empty bucket and added enough water to begin mixing the contents. It took several minutes to get the solution completely mixed and once in solution, I added more water to fill the bucket. I did not want any of the sugar to fall out the mix, so I let the contents settle several times, mixing it thoroughly after each pause. When I was finally satisfied with the mix, I sealed the bucket and carried it to the site where I had retrieved it from and flipped it over to allow the hollows in the bucket ridge to fill with syrup.

I was anxious to see if the bees were interested, even though I knew they would be, so, early this morning I wandered over to check the activity at the feeder. The bees were certainly interested. In fact, they would not allow me to get close to the feeder. When I was within twenty feet, the bees came out to see who I was. I did not venture closer. I do not know how long it will take the bees to empty the contents, but I anticipate I will have to refill the bucket before the week is out. Mama is buying several more large bags of sugar today. I believe we have found a way to keep our bees alive and happy through this dearth. I am pleased with that.

Today is Grandma’s birthday. Several cards, several phone calls, and a visit by Norman have been among the celebration activities. Grandma has reveled in the attention. Since yesterday was payday for Grandma and Grandpa, they are being ferried about by Mama to take care of the monthly financial activities needed to meet their limited obligations. Among the stops will be Sam’s, WinCo, and the bank. Mama and I talked about getting some cupcakes for the three birthday’s this month versus a large cake. I am not sure how that will play out. Norman’s birthday is tomorrow. Grandpa’s is Thursday. From Grandma’s perspective, it will be a three-day celebration of her birthday. Nothing wrong with that.

Oddly enough, each of the birthdays this month required Grandma, Grandpa, and Norman to renew their driver’s license. All three lapsed on this birthday. Norman’s was fairly easy. It took a couple of tries to complete the online application for renewing the license, but we got it done. I was able to renew Grandma’s license as well because the cutoff age at which a person can renew a license online is 79. Grandma turns 78 today. For Grandpa who turns 81, it has proved a challenge to get his renewal done. His requires an appointment to be created through an online portal that is fairly difficult to use. No action can be taken without the appointment – even if you dare to show up in person without the appointment. After two conversations with DPS employees, I was finally able to schedule an appointment at a date less than two months out. It has been frustrating to say the least, but the appointment has been set for Grandpa and the other two licenses have been applied for and accepted by the DPS. This is the last time we will need to do so for Grandma and Grandpa.

Since there was nothing more urgent to do yesterday evening, I installed two of the windows in the container. I had figured out a way to hold the windows in place while I centered them in the frame and put a few screws in each to secure them in place. They look good. I had planned on installing all four windows but was interrupted when Sarah and JD came over to get the feed Mama had picked up at the store for both our families. When they had extracted their portion from the pile in the back of my truck, I had to unload the rest into the shop. All told, I had to unload and stack twenty bags of feed. I had already taken four from the truck to feed the goats earlier in the afternoon. After all that was done, I was too worn out to install the final two windows. Perhaps, that will get installed tomorrow evening. Tonight, is church.  

 

Tomorrow, I have an all-day class to teach and at some point in the next couple evenings, Mama and I have another thirty bales of hay to pick up. All this lifting and stacking is taking a toll on me. I have to balance out these more strenuous activities so that I do not hurt too badly over the following days. So far, I have managed, but I get a sense that my days of being able to continue in this labor are diminishing.

Time will tell, but we are planning to do so for as long as possible.

Some success, losses, Chase, traveling issues

 After making five gallons of sugar water for the bees last week, I thought I had failed in the attempt to feed the bees. They did not seem interested in the syrup I had made for them. At least, that was the case for a full two days. On Wednesday evening when I checked the feeder, the bees were all over it. Praise the Lord! Since Mama and I were gone over the weekend, I was interested in seeing how soon I would have to mix another five gallons for the bees. I hoped the five gallons would last a week or more, but I  was wrong. I was a bit shocked to find that the feeder had been drained as far down as the syrup could flow out of the feeder as it sat level on the block holding it. So, I tilted the five-gallon bucket to allow the last of the syrup to flow into the hollows encircling the top of the bucket. I further tilted the bucket today and will plan on mixing another five gallons tomorrow afternoon when I get home from my half-day class.

The heat is still taking a toll on our flock. We have lost a few more chickens and one more quail. We are doing all we can to help the chickens and quail to make it through the heat, but there is actually very little we can do. I am not sure if the dry conditions are beneficial or harmful, but it is what it is. So, we are giving plenty of water in the morning, Mama refreshes the water containers in the afternoon, and we redo all the water dishes and the duck pool every night. We wet the ground for the birds and try to keep little hollows in the ground behind the coop full of water – Mama-made mud holes. The ducks require a lot of water, but chickens like to get their feet wet too.

Today and tomorrow, we will get a respite from the heat with the temperatures remaining under one hundred degrees. It is difficult to imagine that those ten degrees make a difference, but they do. We hope that the temperatures will start to drift lower over the next couple weeks, but as always, we will take what we get. Meanwhile, we will do all we can to help our flocks and herds cope with the heat.

One the bright side, we have eight nanny goats getting larger and larger as the babies grow inside them. The goats love the heat. Several are looking very close to kidding. By our calculations, we ought to have the first few kids introducing themselves to us within two weeks. Right now, our feed bills is so much higher than we are used to that I am finding it difficult to buy enough feed to last us a month, which is our normal buying cycle. At the moment, we have only enough feed for one more morning feeding. Yesterday and today, we eliminated the afternoon feeding so we could at least feed in the mornings. Tomorrow, we will be buying more feed – some of which must be ordered – but we will have emptied all of our feed containers as we waited to make the trip to the feed store. That is the first time we have run so low because I did not anticipate how much feed we needed between purchases. Hopefully, we will buy enough feed to last for the entire month this time. The timing of the feed purchase is a matter of money, rather than a certain elapsed time.

Mama and I got to Amarillo a little after 5 pm Friday evening and met Chase, Makaila, Owen and Gailynn at a Thai restaurant a little after 5:30. We had a great visit with them even though our time was limited by their very busy schedule. Owen had some memories of us, so he warmed up to us quickly. Gailynn does not require any introductions to a stranger. She may have had some very vague recollections, but it did not matter. She is extremely outgoing. Makaila told Mama and I as we were greeting inside the restaurant Friday night that Gailynn, who is just now connecting titles/names to individuals reassured herself as to the purpose of this gathering that we were indeed meeting her daddy’s “father and mother”. A bit formal but totally correct. We quickly became Papi and Grammy to both children. We spent some time at a park Saturday morning as Chase taught a class at their gym followed by a short time at their home, but Chase and Makaila had some work that was time constrained, so we said our goodbyes about noon. Mama and I did a little shopping and headed out.

The visit was far too short of necessity. Mama and I headed home from Amarillo about 2 pm. Our drive home was far more eventful than the trip over. We drove through some very high winds blowing thick clouds of dust across the road and troubling all the large vehicles and trucks on the road. Just outside of Electra, TX all traffic was diverted off the highway onto a narrow backroad. The closing of the highway was due to grassfires being blown by the howling winds we had been driving through for the past hour. The smell of smoke was thick on the wind. We followed those secondary and tertiary routes for about twenty-five miles and got back on the highway in Iowa Park, TX. The detour added about forty-five minutes to our trip home.

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No complaints on my part. That kept us far East of the fires.

Too hot to handle, shift in attention, meds

As I got into the truck to head home from teaching a class yesterday afternoon, I could not touch the steering wheel because it was so hot to handle. The outside temperature displayed on the readout in the truck showed 114 degrees. I looked up on the internet to see how hot the steering wheel had to be for it to cause the pain I felt when I tried to grip it and the range of temperature suggested was between 125 and 140 degrees. I had no way to gauge the actual temperature of the steering wheel, but it remained too hot for me to grip as I normally would have for the entire drive home. I had to use the heel of my hand on the center of the steering wheel to maneuver the truck. Even that was uncomfortably hot. It was bearable, but uncomfortable. The overheated steering wheel was my fault because I did a bit of hopscotch before starting the class yesterday and when I finally ended up at the office, I did not put up the sunshades inside the truck. That is a mistake I will try very hard not to repeat.

For the remainder of this week and next week, the high temperatures are forecast to be between 105 and 112 each day. There is no chance of rain on that forecast, so things here are not just dry, the landscape is burned up. To be fair, this is not the first time we have seen this, but it has been many years since we have endured such a long spate of such hot, dry weather. Because of the continued dry conditions, Grandpa is a little concerned about our water wells here at the farm. I do not know if there is cause for concern, but it is worth being vigilant and careful in our water use. Meanwhile, all the birds are suffering in this heat, and we have lost about seven of our chickens and quail in the past two weeks. As expected, only the goats seem unaffected. They love the heat. Since we have four pregnant nanny goats, it is good that they do so well in this kind of heat.

As for me, I have found it difficult to work in this heat. I have to limit my time outside. I am afraid I have become more delicate in my older years. There is much I need to do, but I cannot risk my health for those things that are, honestly, unimportant. Prior to the excessive heat, I was able to get the electrical conduit finalized and the plugs in the outlets installed. I was able to get the frames for the windows installed as well, but I have made it not further. I did clean out the container so we could be ready for the foam to be applied, but I am not sure we can do so in this heat. Fortunately, there is no hurry. It gives me time to think through what remains to be done and how to get those things done.

I have to admit that listening to and researching the video about the prophecy of Daniel has given me a lot to think about. What was mentioned in the timeline proposed is worth considering, it’s worth the hour to listen to. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw2p06bgyKg) That in addition to the information I am gathering in review of Chinese aggression towards Taiwan, especially from Dan Bongino, is a powerful argument in support of the very short timeframe we may be in. At the very least, Mama and I have become more conscientious about handing out tracts and talking to people about the Lord. I have committed to spending each Saturday morning soulwinning/bus calling. If the Lord does tarry, and for the sake of many who do not know Him, I hope He does, changing my behavior to focus on those things that I know please the Lord will only be a benefit. I want to be found faithfully working for the Lord regardless of how much time we have ahead of us.

Speaking of time remaining, I had a very good visit with my doctor Monday afternoon. I was curious to see the results of the lab work that had been done prior to that appointment. My primary concern was with my cholesterol levels. In preparation for those blood tests, I had restricted my cholesterol intake for ten or eleven weeks. Those results clearly proved that I do not benefit from taking the Statin drugs. Those drugs cause me so much discomfort that I do best to afford them even though they are strongly recommended. I shared with my doctor that I recently found a study that showed the overall benefit in reducing cholesterol to extremely low levels does not translate into a reduced risk of heart attack. I shared that study with him. He agreed with the changes in medication I wanted to make. We have implemented those changes and will visit again in a few weeks to see if the changes have produced the desired results. It is nice to work with a doctor that looks for the patients input into their care.

One of the surest signs that Mama and I are getting older is the plethora of medications in the cabinet we use to house those prescription bottles. For many years, that cabinet was filled with herbal combinations and over-the-counter medications. Now, that is not the case. Mama is much less medicated than I am, but she has not yet suffered the heart issues I have. As much as I detest taking prescription drugs, I cannot avoid them if I want to keep my heart rate and blood pressure down. Our hearts have only a finite number of beats left to give each one of us, and mine has far less left to make that some. That is what the cardiologist told me, and I have a feeling she is right.

Praise the Lord there is help available for me. I am glad my life I in His hands.