Victoria, farm life, work site improvements

Today is Victoria’s birthday. Sadly, the day itself will be a non-event since she is working throughout the day. Mama and I hope to make it up to her sometime later this week. We did celebrate a little with a special dinner for her while Nate, Cori and the kids were here, but that was overlapping with a continuing birthday celebration for Grant. So, we need to do better. As one of her birthday presents this year she will be closing on the sale of her house. As I understand it, all the financing is in order and the paperwork has been prepared. All Zack lacks is the insurance policy to cover the property as the restoration/remodel gets completed. That, too, was a hurdle for us when we took on the property. I know Victoria will not miss the insurance payments she has been making and Grandma and Grandpa will not miss making the mortgage payments monthly. By comparison to the ones Mama and I are making for the farm property, both of those payments are relatively small but, small or not, that money can now be reallocated to something more financially prudent; perhaps a project that is far less overwhelming. I have only one stipulation for how the money should be spent – no more dogs!

I commissioned Mama to find us a pig to buy. We are running low on sausage and the best way for us to get more is to have a pig to process. She found one at the same place we bought from the last time. Those turned out to be very good hogs (even Grandpa approved) so we are going back. She and Norman will be going to pick up the pig this afternoon. It is a little over 100 pounds so we should be able to get it to market within six months or so. When we have this one processed we are planning to get sausage, bacon and roasts; nothing else. We tend not to eat the pork chops and pork steaks as much as roasts but we really like the sausage. So why not get the cuts we like? While she has the help, she and Norman are going to get us some hay. We are able to buy some good bales of last year’s hay for only twenty dollars per bale. That is a very good price and the cows seem to really like the hay. They eat the entire bale all the way to the dirt, which is better than what we were getting with the hay we were buying last year – at twice the price. Since the six head are eating a bale per week on average we need to get those bales for the best price we can. The fact that they like the hay is a bonus, not necessarily a requirement.

Today, at work, we got to do a webinar for the very first time. It is one of the projects left over from my Client Relations assignments. When the idea originally came up I suggested that we record it so we could accurately critique the content, improve the delivery and use it for future training purposes. So, we did. It turned out very well. There were a lot of practice runs, script revisions and PowerPoint rewrites leading up to it, but all the effort proved to be well worth it. It went off without a hitch and was well received by the thirty-one clients that joined us today. The next two webinars should be a cakewalk in comparison. The very best part of the exercise is that I came across a chair in the side room we used for the webinar broadcast that will work perfectly for me. It is a proper ergonomic desk chair. Praise the Lord! It will eliminate a lot of the issues I am currently having with my back. To go along with that little answer to prayer came permission to relocate to another desk so I do not have my back to everyone all the time. Hopefully, I can take care of that one evening or over the weekend so I can limit the workroom distractions of the move.

A little here. A little there. But overall it is nice to see Gods work in those little things.