Victoria, pumpkin carving, crafting

Victoria will be flying home today. Mama and I will be heading to the airport to get her later this evening. I believe her flight is scheduled to land around 7 pm. Victoria has had a great time in Honduras. Slowly recovering from her back injury, but able to enjoy large parts of the activities she got to participate in. She is coming home to a mess at work. As she left, still incapacitated by her back pain, she was required to take a leave of absence from work to cover the missed days prior to leaving for Honduras. The doctor that was supposed to fax the paperwork to her HR department has not done so still yet. Leaving her time off up in the air and placing her perilously close to being fired for excessive absences.

Mama is going to track down the paperwork and bring it to me so I can fax it in. All this should have been completed two weeks ago. We will have to see how this turns out, but Victoria is not looking forward to walking back into the drama when she does return to work. She was supposed to be on the schedule to work tomorrow. That did not happen. She has only been able to communicate with her supervisor via text while in Honduras, so we are not sure why her supervisor did not schedule her, but the responses Victoria has gotten to her recent texts have been a bit snarky. I would pray that she could find another pharmacy tech job, but she is not at all enamored with the idea of change. Sometimes the bad situation you are used to dealing with is better than the unknown. Plus, not all her days are bad days.

I plan to go with Mama to fetch Victoria if I do not go pick up a top bar hive. It is too cheap to pass up if it is still available. The issue is that the seller is about two hours away. Mama will call this morning to see if the hive is still available. We first called on it on Saturday, but the seller was going to be traveling this week. Returning home on Wednesday. When we are able to determine availability, we can then decide if it is worth the trip. I recently ordered a book on building hives. A top bar hive is one of the projects covered in the book. Right now, with what we learned last Saturday at the workshop, I have enough pieces to set up four hives by adding two honey supers to the lot. I can build the required bases and caps to complete the full assembly. Smaller, more compact hives should be better for the bees long term. We will start off with only two hives and perhaps the top bar hive – which we will have to buy bees for. We do not have the finances to set up all four at this time. So, I have time to outfit the other pieces to make fully assembled hives. It will be a fun Winter project.

Today at work we are doing our annual pumpkin carving contest. Some are dressing up in costume, but most are not. It will be a fun day, but there will be little work actually getting done. I am anxious to see the creativity expressed within our company once again. I amazed every year by the way simple pumpkins are turned into works of art. Our team will not accomplish such a feat, but we have a great idea for a simple creation that will not embarrass us once it is carved and completed. The entire activity is taking place inside due to the weather. It is 28° outside. A bit cold to spend an hour carving a pumpkin – or doing anything for that matter. Mama will have a fun time feeding this morning.

Kimberlyn is supposed to come to the farm today. She and Mama have not been able to get together for a variety of reasons, but they are planning on working together today and tomorrow to make up some time. On a recent trip to the farm, Kimberlyn brought back to us an antique ironing board we gave her more than a year ago. On it she has painted one of my all-time favorite verses in the Bible, Job 23:10. “But He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” Mama and I hung it over the couch so that it is constantly on display.

My Mom and Dad would have loved it.