Goat shuffle, more travel, catching up

Friday afternoon I took off from work at 3 pm. I had gotten to the office a little after 6 that morning. Since Victoria and I had returned from our trip to the airport when we found out her flight had been cancelled, I had gone into work early as opposed to trying to get an hour nap before reporting at the standard time. Friday proved to be a long day in spite of leaving early. When I got home, I found out that Mama had scheduled with Nancy (Rick’s wife) to get the goats to their farm that evening. I was all in favor of that. Having them with Rick for two to three months will help me and Mam in many ways. With Victoria’s help it did not take long to get all four of the goats loaded into the cages I had put in the back of the truck. We were on our way to Bowie by 4:15. The extra hour made a big difference. We dropped Victoria off at Grandma’ s before we headed to Rick’s.

We chatted with Rick as we always do for almost an hour before we positioned the truck to unload the goats. Unloading the goats proved more difficult than loading them. Mama is neither as strong as nor as flexible as Victoria – and she was not dressed to help; though she insisted on doing so. I appreciated the help, but I was very aware as Mama helped to keep her out of harms way and to ensure I did the bulk of the lifting. Even with that attention, Mama ended up with a significant bruise on her left hand when Millie, our largest goat, fought being taken from the cage and smacked Mama’s had against the tailgate of the truck. Other than that, and some mud on her non-farm shoes, we got the goats out without too much trouble. Next time I will use the trailer to move the goats. Both loading and unloading would be easier. But the trailer was in Gainesville with the Cantrell’s. And I needed the truck to load some file cabinets Rick had given me. The file cabinets turned out to be less than I had hopes, but I will fond a place for three of the four and discard the forth.

Saturday was a long and interesting day. I got up at 2:15 am to take Victoria to the airport to catch a flight to Houston, connecting to Honduras. We got to the airport in plenty of time. I parked a helped Victoria get through the check-in process, get her bags checked and rearrange her carry-on items to go through security. By the time I prayed with her and walked to the car to head home it was 4 am. Once home I napped for about an hour. Through the day Victoria kept Mama updated on her flights. When she landed in Houston. When she rechecked her bags for the flight to Honduras and was at the gate. When she boarded the flight to Honduras. When she landed in Honduras.

All those updates came as we traveled to Chappell Hill. Mama and I were on the road for that five-hour trip at 7 am. It rained on us for most of the trip, often heavy rain. But as we neared Chappell Hill, the rain stopped, and we got a couple hours without any rain for the reunion. Steve and Diane had driven down from Wyoming. Tony and Barbara, who have relocated back to Chappell Hills – a nearby subdivision of Brenham - were there early. Cathy was recuperating from a broken wrist, but Chuck came over by motorcycle later that day. Danny did the grilling; vegetables – including stuffed jalapenos, chicken quarters, venison and pork steaks. Mama brought macaroni salad and I brought a Choco-flan cake. Both were big hit with everyone. Diane made seven-layer dip and Marth and Stephanie (Tony’s daughter) made a Peanut Butter and Key Lime pies. We ate off and on but mostly we visited. Mama and I had to leave by 4 pm to make the drive home, so our visit was pretty short. Everybody appreciated us being there. We had a good time. The trip home took just over four hours under clear skies.

Randy was also there for our gathering also. He has been a good friend for many years. He will also be a valuable resource to me and Mama as we develop this real estate business. He and I took some time to catch up and talk through a couple investment strategies. I always enjoy that. Randy is going to help me with a kitchen remodel as Mama and I move forward on that project. He also gave me a piece of information I was missing for the remodel of the sunroom that Mama and I will tackle sometime later this year.

Mama and I got to talk a lot on the way down ad back. And yes, I drove the distance both ways. That is not unusual in and of itself, but Mama stayed awake talking to me knowing that I had been up since 2 am. One takeaway from the gathering with my siblings was how close some have become to the Lord over the past couple years. That was a very pleasant discovery.

It was not difficult to get to sleep that night.