Moving day, Midas, shipping out, mowers

Today is moving day at work. It is a sad culmination to Think Week. So, as the day progresses, I will have to help get in order the new spot I will occupy. All of my current group is staying in the same room. We are adding a new boss who is going to be given a bigger desk than the rest of us. That is why my desk has to move. The only place to put the larger desk is where my desk is now positioned. If allowed, I will orient my new desk to keep me from having my back to the room. If not, I will adapt to the setting. I know from experience that it is temporary. All this will change again sooner rather than later. Plus, lurking in the background of our circumstances is the potential to be working for my own company. That is not as strong a potential as I would like for it to be at this point, but God is in control. Mama and I are anxious to be doing this fulltime, but we are playing it safe. Being patient. Waiting on the Lord.

At the farm, Mama and I may have to back away on integrating Midas in with his cousins. He is younger and smaller than all the goats in that area, so he is consistently being beat out of the feed. Last night I took a lot of time giving him special access to feed, but I cannot do it routinely. We will probably put him back in the kennel on his own until he is better able to fight his way into the feed trough. Possibly until we have taken the sheep to the market. Coal is a normal sheep. Skittish, paranoid. He is constantly jumping and running. Startling the goats every time he reacts that way – especially Midas. And Scamp is an aggressive little buck. Unwilling to share the trough or much of the paddock. The fact that Scamp is horned makes it more dangerous when he is aggressive to Midas. Besides, we do not want a scared, timid buck when it comes his time to breed our herd. Several of our nannies are standoffish and defensive. When they are in standing heat, he will be able to dominate them. When they are not, he needs to be able to exert his dominance over them. Starting him off on the timid side will not be to his advantage.

We do not have anything planned for this weekend, but I am hoping to put the canoe in the water tonight or tomorrow night. I have hesitated because I do not have life jackets. Since I no longer have the pride of youth to convince me that I am immune to accident or incident, I will not go out in the canoe without some type of flotation device. I have one on order that should come in today or tomorrow. When that comes, I will put the canoe into the lake just below our property. I will have to determine the best way to get it to the lake (which is a filled gravel pit) and then determine the safest way to launch it into the lake. In preparation for that I have been laying out wood to be made into fishing reel holders, paddle rests and trolling motor mounts. When I looked online for design ideas, all the afore mentioned projects looked fairly straightforward. As I discover more innovations that can be added and removed easily, I will work on getting those made as well.

Also, this weekend, Mama and I will begin shopping for a mower. The motor on the Bad Boy we have had for the last seven years is getting worn out. The issue I have with replacing the mower is that everything on the Bad Boy is still in excellent condition. Mama and I talked about replacing the motor and keeping it for use in the rougher grass areas. So, I looked up what a replacement motor would cost. That cost is $1600. We paid nearly $6,000 for the mower so replacing the motor for $2000 (labor included) would put us ahead in the long run, but we can neither buy a new mower nor replace the motor in the used one at the moment. Planning is the key to making the most of our money…when we have some.

Right now, we can plan to our hearts content – and use the mower until it will no longer run.