Daisy’s confusion, workload, the twins at the office

After getting Daisy and the two calves safely corralled on our property, Mama was having second thoughts about Daisy being with us. Yesterday evening Mama felt Daisy’s udder and it was very full. If she does have a calf in the other pasture, we had kept them apart overnight and through the entire day. We are not completely sure there is a calf because Mama has seen a little one with Daisy only once and she was not sure that was her calf or a tag along. The problem is that the claves in a pasture will tend to hang out together and only find their mamas at feeding time. So, every time we have been able to look in the neighbor’s pasture we can spot Daisy, but there has not been a calf with her. It seems pretty obvious that she is nursing a calf, but we are having trouble determining which one is hers. Yesterday evening, I opened up the gap once again and let her go find her calf; who I imagine was very hungry. The other two calves are locked up in the barn corral until we get them used to the idea that their mamas are not coming back. Mama and I will have to feed and water them every day for the rest of the week, but it is a small thing to keep them on our property. I told Mama last night that this is the most trouble we have ever had figuring out what is going on with our cows.

The two cows taken to the stock sale were sold yesterday so we should be getting that check tomorrow or Thursday. Mama was angry with herself because she did not put a reserve price on the cows. That would have allowed us to refuse the sale if the price was lower than what we needed to get out of them. All we can do at this point is work with what we get and make the best of it. Hopefully, they fetched a good price. They were both good, solid, bred cows. We’re still learning as we go. It’s a good thing the Lord is watching out for us.

I will spend a portion of this week certifying two of our employees to take on instructor responsibilities. It is another just-in-time outcome of waiting far too long to get help. During the month of November, we have seven instructor-led classes to give; Texas (2), Washington state, South Dakota (2) and Connecticut (2).  Slightly more than I could have handled on my own. As it stands right now, I will do the two in Texas and be on standby for one of the two in South Dakota. The year is ending with a flourish and next year will be very, very busy; especially in the area of instructor led training.

Brittany, Andrew and the twins made it home safely yesterday. All in all, I think it was good road trip for the little ones. It made everyone’s day here at the office to have Brittany and Andrew and Mama show off the girls. While they were here, Brittany took time to change the girls and get them fully prepared for the drive back to Wichita. The babies were wonderful and showed off for my office mates, cooing and smiling, staring intently as they were talked to. It was a nice little extra Brittany and Andrew gave us to round out the weekend.

Cori, Nate and the kids should be in Florida today having traveled from Chicago over the past couple days. They have a very full schedule to finish out the year. If things continue to go as they have been on the deputation trail, they should be able to meet their goal of getting to Honduras by the middle of next year.

God has been very good to us.