Dad, busy weekend, hay deliveries

I got some bad news on my Dad last night from my sister Martha. Dad needed help getting from the chair he frequents in the common area of the home back to his room. It took both Martha and another person to get him that distance – and, according to Martha, they almost did not make it. She then had to help him get his legs into the bed. Not a good thing, but not totally unexpected. Dad is having some other problems. None serious, but cumulatively, they do not present a good prognosis. He told me the last time we actually had a good visit that he was tired and ready to go home. I believe him. Mom has been gone since February and he has been in the mental care unit since July. 

For a man of his past intellectual prowess and determined independence the exclusion from the life he knew with Mom (60+ years’ worth of life) have taken a toll on his psyche and ego – fragmented though those memories are to him now. If he makes it to the end of the month he will be 92 years old. I would be tired too. I wrestled with the idea of going down to see Dad after the news but refrained. Mama is expecting Cori, Nate and the kids to be here next week and I think Cori would like the chance to see her Grandpa Kline one more time – providing he is still with us. Victoria is also wanting to make the trip if she can get free on a Saturday. So, I will wait to go. I have already said my goodbyes to Dad but I will take every opportunity I get to see him. 

This weekend is going to be a cooking marathon for Mama and me. One of the reasons for not going to Brenham. Tomorrow we have a Christian Quartet at the church and to get more participation our pastor invited several area churches to come for the concert. And, since so many people would be there about supper time we are going to have a chili cookoff – complete with all the extras. It will be a Rolaids weekend for me. In addition to that, we are going to Wichita Falls Sunday morning to have a belated Thanksgiving dinner for the National Guard Troop there. For that event, we have to prepare two turkeys. I am not sure what else we have to fix but just that will be a challenge to get done – and not get overdone – along with a pot of chili and a pot potato soup. Mama is fixing the potato soup for those who cannot eat the chili – regardless of how spicy it is.

Last night Mama and Grandpa went to a local farmer and got six round bales of hay. It was last year’s hay but it was still very good quality; and it was only $20 per bale. They were just pulling into the barn paddock when I got the tractor started. It has been sitting in the equipment shed I built behind the barn. It was good, although unexpected, timing. Mama was quite pleased that I was there but it took some of the exuberance out of the moment when I told her I was there to get a pallet so I could get the bales of hay out of the bed of the truck – not in anticipation of her being there. Regardless, I unloaded the round bales and put one out so the cows would not feel obliged to start eating them from the trailer. I knew they would be hungry because there is not much to eat on our little ten-acre farm. I had originally wanted to get the hay no later than Monday or Tuesday so I was already several days behind what I knew they needed. They have been back on the farm since Friday evening. They think we had them on a diet so I was happy to prove to them that I intend to feed them – and fill them up.

(My dad always said when we were still hungry after dinner, “My contract was to feed you, not to fill you up.”)

I expect them to eat the first bale entirely by Sunday evening.