No more piglets, doctor’s visits, our truck is home, rehomed chicks

The sympathy for the three little piglets did not last long. After Mama discovered them inside the pen with our market pigs, she realized we needed them gone. There was no sense in taking the chance that the little ones would bring some communicable disease from the wild herd to the hogs we were raising for meat. So, I tried my best to dispatch the little ones. 

I was able to get pretty close when I had my rifle in hand, but the sights I put on the .22 rifle are not very functional for a person who wears tri-focal glasses. I did manage to dispatch two of the three and wound the third, but it took nine or ten shots to do so. It was not a pretty sight. I do not enjoy killing one of Mama sick chickens to put it out of its misery, so what I had to do to the piglets was very unpleasant. Mama was agonizing over the lone piglet hiding in the woods, but the next day Norman too care of that little one. Unlike me, he enjoyed the hunt. So, that little situation is over.

Last week I was seen by the ENT and the cardiologist. The ENT visit was uneventful. My voice will continue to improve, possibly to the point of being able to sing again – no guarantees. The cardiologist visit was very informative. The cardiologist, who I met for the first time after he took over the practice of the doctor I had been seeing for several years, was quite helpful. Once again, my issues, in his opinion, are related to medications. So, I am now on a different regimen. I was able to see a difference in my symptoms within the first twelve hours. Quite an improvement. However, my blood pressure seems to be a bit higher now. That is easier to deal with than the symptoms I had been experiencing. Overall, it was good news.

We also got our truck back last week. I am sure Roger, our mechanic, did more work to the truck than he charged me for, but I was not going to argue. It is good to have the truck back at the farm, but I do not know how long we will keep it. Mama and I talked extensively about selling the truck once we got it back, but now that we have the opportunity to sell it, I do not have peace about doing so. 

It is not a problem to keep it, but it will be a while before I trust it as I used to. For now, we are using the truck as needed, but it is not our first choice very often, especially on a longer excursion. That may change over time, but having the vehicle towed to the shop three times in eighteen months tends to limit our trust. Still, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, as the saying goes. I know the full history of this truck. I will not have that information when I sell this vehicle and replace it with another used truck. Because buying new is not a consideration, we will hold where we are until the Lord give direction. 

Mama’s chicks were moved to larger cages in the West side of the coop last night. Mama postponed her Saturday afternoon move because the forecast called for two consecutive nights at or below freezing. The chicks are probably old enough to survive that cold with the heat lamps we provide, but Mama was not taking the chance. Honestly, there was no real urgency other that the crowding the twenty chicks were experiencing in the steel tub we had raised them in. 

Those two nights were hard on the young plants in our garden. Grandpa and Norman covered what they could of the most vulnerable plants but left the potato plants open to the elements. The frost Sunday night punished the plants harshly, but they will recover. Meanwhile, Mama and I have a couple dozen tomato plants growing in the sunroom and have planted peas, zucchini and okra in small starter peat cups as well. I will have to separate the tomato plants next week, but we have not seen any of the other seeds germinate yet. We still have time.

Since the weather has been fickle, we are taking our time putting out the plants we wintered over in the sunroom. Monday morning the temperature was 28 degrees. By Saturday afternoon, the high will be near 100 degrees. That’s quite the temperature shift. 

Typical for North Texas. 

The great mouse chase, fishing before the storm, three little pigs

A couple day ago, as I was sitting at the table in our dining nook, I heard Mama scream from the front porch. It was one of her “There’s a mouse!” scream so I paid little attention to it at first. But the screams continued periodically, followed by laughter from both Mama and Grandpa, who was helping Mama blow leaves and accumulated birdseed off the porch. The laughter was as loud as the screams, so I did not hurry to investigate. When I did join them on the porch, I found out the rest of the story.

In Mama’s blowing out the unreachable nooks and crannies of the porch, she had dislodged a mouse from it’s hiding place. However, the mouse did not merely run around the surface of the porch from one hiding place to another, that would have been bad enough. Instead it scampered up the brick walls of the house surrounding the porch on three sides. It was when the mouse took its vertical route that Mama screamed the loudest. 

To protect Mama from the dangerous rodent, Grandpa had grabbed the broom we leave on the porch and was trying to kill the mouse by knocking it from the wall and stabbing at it with the broom. That sufficed only to encourage the mouse to return to the surface of the porch where it would run in Mama’s direction. Eliciting another round of screaming. This went on for several minutes. 

Mama came into the house to get my help, but I told her there was very little hope of killing the mouse with all the obstacles we had sitting on the porch. She was adamant that I try anyway. By the time I got outside, Grandma had joined in the hunt, but no one had seen where the mouse last had hidden itself. We never saw the mouse again.

One of two things will likely happen. Either the mouse will see the folly of trying to occupy the front porch or it will go and gather several other mice to join it in the game of dodging the broom while a silly human cheers them on. 

Yesterday evening  I went fishing on the quarry lakes. Since I had my truck available, I drove over, which changes my approach to the water. The place I normally fish is quickly accessible by foot when I scamper down a steep incline to the lake. When I drive over, it is a long hike to the same location, so I was fishing from a different spot on the lower lake. 

Since I had no luck catching anything but grass. I packed up and drove to the upper lakes. On my first cast into the smaller of those lakes, I caught a nice bass, but it was too little to keep. Over the course of forty-five minutes, I landed another nine small bass. Nothing worth keeping, but always fun to catch them. By the time I loaded up and drove home, a slight rain was falling.

The storm that did finally come, hours later than predicted, was a severe storm. While we did not get any of the tornados forecast, we did get very high winds and over an inch of rain. The lightning and thunder were mesmerizing. Both continued well into the early morning hours. Every time the lightening woke me, I would count the seconds before the thunder sounded to calculate how far away the lightening had struck. It is better than counting sheep.

The three surviving piglets of the sow Norman shot have adopted our farm and have showed up several times a day around the area where we are raising our pigs. With the over-population of wild hogs, it is senseless to wish them to survive, but that is exactly what is happening. Mama is even talking about scattering some feed for the little ones in the patches of ground where they root for food. It is an exercise in foolishness, because when they get bigger, we will be forced to shoot them. But for now, they have garnered our sympathy. Silly humans!

I had an appointment with my ENT yesterday morning. He was pleased with my progress and suggested that I take voice lessons to not only strengthen my voice, but also to learn to use in more effectively. I will seriously consider his advice, but the price may be prohibitive. The doctor predicts that the surgery to my vocal cords will be able to help me retain my voice for a year or longer. I am praying he is correct. 

Tomorrow afternoon I have an appointment with my cardiologist. I am praying Mama and I will get some answers to the current condition of my heart. Time will tell.

Gardening, Eclipse, budding out, more chicks, more pigs

Mama and I went to Bro. Craig Shaw’s house yesterday before FBI class to see his garden setup. He has two large garden tracts. One is over a third of an acre and the other is about half that size. He has almost the same vegetables planted that we do, but he is about two weeks ahead of us on some of those selections. He has a large selectin of plants in his small greenhouse that will be put in his garden very soon. 

In our garden we have potatoes, onions, and lettuce coming up. Th pepper seeds Grandpa planted have not germinated yet. It is too early to plant sweet potatoes, cucumbers or squash, but those are on Mama’s agenda. I would like to see some pumpkins and watermelon sown somewhere in the garden, but I will have to wait. 

We did set up a couple sprinklers to water the garden. It took several tries to get the reach of the sprinklers set, but once we did, they are doing a great job of wetting the whole garden. Our garden plot, by the way, is considerably smaller than either of Bro. Shaw’s garden areas.

Mama and I were up a little earlier than usual this morning. The forecast for the lunar eclipse, where the earth’s shadow crosses the moon, was set for the 5 am to 6 am hour of the morning. We were there to see the start a little before 5 am. It was beautiful! The sky was clear despite the prediction of heavy cloud cover. Mama and I were able to get several okay pictures of the eclipse, but no camera, especially a phone camera, can do justice to the absolute beauty of such and event. 

Once again, we are in my favorite time of the year. Everything is budding out as Spring approaches. Since we have had an unseasonably warm February, all the plants are getting a head start. My pecan trees are now three years old but still only about four feet tall. Both are looking good as we head into Spring. The blackberries I potted are doing very well after I rescued them from the dry area we tried to plant them in. Both grape vines survived the Winter and are now showing signs of life as well as the roses we have planted in an opening in the back patio. Of course, all the plants we wintered over in the sunroom are doing well. 

Bro, Shaw gave us six tomato plants that he had grown from seeds. The seeds he used are the fifth or sixth generation of the heirloom seeds they have been using in their garden. That does give me a bit of hope since they are able to sell tomatoes at a market stand they set up each summer. Mama and I are also going to plant a few of the seeds he gave us so we can try our hand at tomatoes again. None of the local greenhouse plants we have bought over the past several years produced a single tomato. 

Still, I am not getting my hopes up. I do think that our garden will be better off this year since we have a watering system in place. That was always an issue. That and the soil that needed constant tilling to keep it soft enough to allow water to get to the deeper roots of our plants. I would like to see Grandpa succeed this year. It means a lot to him.

Yesterday, I set up our small incubator. We placed fifteen Banty eggs in it. We have had very consistent success with this incubator. I still do not know why Mama insists on hatching more chicks, but I always go along with her. The seven we hatched out several months ago are never separated from each other. Thick as thieves, they are always in a group, and they are very friendly. In fact, they will come running to us every time we go outside. 

When Mama was entertaining the King children, they had no problem picking up the chickens and carrying them around. The twin girls and the youngest son were quite enamored with the Banty chickens. Unfortunately, six of them are roosters and will soon be sold. Maybe the batch we have in the incubator will be more hens. Time will tell. 

A week ago, Norman shot several wild hogs. One of those eliminated was a sow with several piglets. Yesterday three of those piglets showed up trying to make nice with our domestic pigs. They are tiny, and as such are cute as can be. Sadly, we cannot rescue them. 

They will need to be dispatched but I do not have the heart to do it. 

Oops, more chickens, weather

In our exuberance to combat the overpopulation of wild hogs plaguing us, we almost made a serious mistake yesterday morning. As I was getting ready to leave for the museum, about 7:15, Mama opened the curtains in our bedroom on the window that looks to the West. Normally we see the goats milling about as they wait for us to feed them. Yesterday Mama looked past the goats and saw several big hogs in the field beyond the goat paddock. 

She alerted Norman and both he and I got our rifles. It was only as we got closer that we realized they were our hogs. A quick look at the gate to the pen confirmed that. I am not sure how long the pigs had been out rooting for acorns, but it had been several hours. Possibly before daylight. They had covered a large area but fortunately for us, they had stayed together. As we approached, they were happy to see us. It is easy to recognize their “happy to see you” grunts. It always makes me smile.

It did not take too much effort to get them back into their pen, but it did require setting up some roadblocks on their way back into their enclosure. I did not relish the thought or chasing them around the property. So, Norman and Mama herded them along the fence towards their pen. All in all, it took us about fifteen minutes to get them resettled. The interruption to my preparations to leave put me a bit off track and it was only when I was too far down the road that I realized I had forgotten my wallet. 

It's kind of funny, because as I was driving off, I saw Mama feeding the girl goats and knew she would be walking in front of the house to go feed the boy goats. I backed up and circled the driveway to intercept her so I could get my goodbye kiss. As I headed back to the car after our proper goodbye, Mama asked if I had everything I needed with me but all she listed out was my cellphone, not my wallet. It was not a big deal. The only consequence was that I did not have money to buy anything to eat. So, I fasted for the day. 

I had a good but largely uneventful day at the museum. I got to spend a bit of time looking over the EDS unit that I will have to pack up and ship off soon to have the repairs made. It will be a chore, but nothing insurmountable. Plus, it was requested that I call Vili, the service tech, as I was doing the disconnection and let him double check my work. When the box comes that is needed for packaging up the transmitter unit, I will get the disconnection and packaging done. I guess it will take me four to five hours to complete. 

Also, Tuesday or Wednesday, Norman and Grandpa bought five chicks to add to the fifteen Mama bought a few days earlier. Norman bought a straight run set of five. So, we will not know if we have hens or roosters until they mature. In addition to that, Mama is collecting Banty eggs to put in our incubator. Again, we will not know what we will have until those hatched chicks mature; 21 days from starting the incubator process. As I said in another post, we ended up with six roosters out of the seven that we hatched last time. 

We have potatoes coming up in the garden. I spotted the first sprouts to emerge Tuesday afternoon. When I told Mama and Grandpa they went to look the next morning and could not spot them until Mama told Grandpa that I see the first hints of green before anyone else is able to. So, they both looked a lot harder and eventually saw the sprouts throughout the rows. The onions are doing well for now and Grandpa planted cucumbers and several other vegetables yesterday. Hopefully, we will get the plants well established before the summer heat kills them.

Other than the storm a few weeks ago, the Winter has been mild. It does not look like we have a chance of freezing weather anytime soon but that could change quickly. Other that it being unusually dry, we have survived the worst of the season and very warm days are upon us. Eighty degrees today and tomorrow with the long-range forecast for highs in the upper seventies. 

We don’t know what is in store for us this Summer, but it could be a scorcher. 

Doctor’s appointments, Godly council, vehicle issues

Both Grandma and I had doctor’s appointments yesterday. Mine was a bit earlier than Grandma’s so we had to take separate vehicles. My appointment was a wellness visit. It was quick and uneventful. My bloodwork was, in all areas tested, the same as the results from the last time I was tested. I shared my more recent concerns with my doctor, and we agreed to wait until after I see my cardiologist next month to see if we need any further investigation of my symptoms or to change course in my health maintenance routine.

Grandma’s doctor visit was a complete disaster. The reason for her appointment was to see of the doctor could clear the buildup of wax occluding her right ear. When the attempt was made to soften the glob of wax by softly squirting warm water into Grandma’s ear she screamed in pain. Fussing at both the doctor and Mama for torturing her. The doctor was deeply apologetic even though she knew the infusion of water did not actually cause the pain Grandma was angrily complaining of. It might have been uncomfortable or a bit unusual feeling, but to say it was causing excruciating pain was a hard stretch. Mama was upset because there was no consoling or calming Grandma. 

Mama left the office with a splitting headache and Grandma left the office with a still plugged ear and a very bad attitude. When Mama attempted to take Grandma to lunch to see if she could distract her from the experience, that too was a disaster. Grandma’s burger was replaced three times because the bun was too dark (burnt in Grandma’s eyes), then the burger was not fully cooked, so she says. On the third burger offered to her she took one bite and declared it did not taste right. Mama’s headache was pretty severe by the time she got home. I ate what was left of Grandma’s burger during our FBI class last night. It was delicious!

Prior to our FBI class, Mama dropped me off at church for my meeting with Pastor. We talked about a range of topics for almost an hour. Although the meeting did not reveal any new plan of action to me, Pastor agreed with my overall reasoning concerning the sale of our farm and our plans to relocate Mama to Florida. Mama read me a post this morning that seemed to sum up what Pastor and I agreed upon, to set a course and prayerfully do the next right think required to stay on course. 

God rarely tip His Hand to us. That is always for the better. His plans are so much better than anything we would think up. For me, the most notable part of my consultation with Pastor is confirmation that Mama and I are lined up together with what sems to be God’s direction at this moment in our lives. That helps. I do not want to wander offtrack looking for the next shiny thing. 

After paying another $5000 (three days past) to get his truck out of the shop, Norman called to ask if we could pick him up at the church where he is working so that he could get Seth’s truck to tow his truck either home or back to the mechanic. It appears the transmission has gone out. The mechanic he has been using is not getting rich off Norman, but he is certainly making a good living servicing this truck. It provides a steady stream of income for his garage. 

My truck on the other hand is still sitting in my mechanic’s yard waiting repairs. It has not cost me anything, but it has done me no good to own it for the past 18 months. I’m probably better off, but it is hard to tell. Last time I talked to Roger about my truck, he told me he had to get help moving it out of his front yard. His wife was not happy with it as a yard ornament. I would love to have it back, but I am inclined to sell it as soon as it is functioning properly. I want to avoid Norman’s mistake of holding onto something that has caused me so much trouble. 

Today is cleaning day. In the house and in the coops. There is always so much that needs to be done. 

God is good!

Pigs, chicks, goats, finding my voice

After months of complete silence from the parties who purchased the quarry beside us, Mama made contact last night to see if we could get help with the hog overpopulation we are dealing with. Michael Brennan returned Mama’s call for help and said he would get in touch with the owner of the property today. Please pray that happens. It is so bad that Norman drove through a group of about one hundred hogs (his estimation) Saturday evening as he was coming towards the farm on our county road. We have not seen them since but are constantly discovering the damage they leave in the wake of their foraging on our property. They are more of an inconvenience than a danger to us, but the longer they reproduce unchecked, the more of a danger they pose to us and our animals. 

I will be meeting with our Pastor today or tomorrow to get his council on Mama’s and my plans to sell the farm and relocate. Pray the Lord will give him wisdom. There are times when we are too close to a problem, a trial, a decision. So close that we cannot sort our own calculations, plans, expectations, or personal desires from the Lord’s leading. We can start to read too much into the happenstances related to a difficult decision and move in the wrong direction. We will say to ourselves, “This or that happened, so it must be the Lord directing us in this direction.” Maybe, maybe not. Hence the need for council to evaluate if we are seeing things properly. Plus, I enjoy the Pastor’s company.

Our urge to seek council was strongly reinforced Sunday as our friend Dan Martin, an evangelist, preached on following your heart versus following the leading of the Lord. A timely message for me and Mama. In considering our situation here on the farm, neither Mama nor I have any urgent desire for a certain outcome, but we still must decide what to do. It must be a wise decision, since three families will be directly impacted by that decision – Mama and I, Norman, and Grandma and Grandpa. We only get one shot at it. The great news! The Lord has already prepared the way for us. When we are certain we know that way, we will pursue it. Not until then. For now, we will enjoy the farm…even with the rampaging hogs. 

On Saturday Mama got fifteen chicks, hopefully female chicks. I was not overjoyed but I was not opposed. Plus, she is planning to hatch out another group of Banty chicks as well as allowing a sitting hen to hatch the clutch she is hording. If all those come to fruition, we will have plenty to deal with in the coop for months. If we are moderately successful raising the chicks to maturity, we will have twenty or so new laying hens. Unless the ratio of hens to roosters is like the last batch we hatched. There is only one hen in the lot of seven we are now watching grow up. 

The only apprehensions I have to augmenting our flock is the number of hawks we have circling the sky above our farm and the warming weather coming. Warming weather always portends the return of snakes to our farm. If we can get these chicks to the point that they are too large for the rat snakes to kill them it would be better, but we may have started too late in the Winter to do so. Time will tell.  

Mama is thinking about selling our two male goats. We no longer have need of either of them and it would be nice to see them rehomed. With the approach of kidding time, I would like to refocus our feed expenses away from the males and onto the kids we are expecting soon. We have five nanny goats bred, and all are showing signs of their pregnancies. One or two will be giving us kids in three weeks or so. The remaining three will take a little longer. Perhaps five to six weeks. By then, the weather will be considerably warmer so Mama will not fret too much when the newborns come.

My voice is recovering nicely. It now resembles the voice I used to have, but I am still not able to sing. That is not too bad as far as recovery goes. This Wednesday will be two weeks since the surgery. 

As rough as it was that first week, this one has been much better. 

Sad but necessary, Grandpa, Swap meet, Gracious offer

Last night as we were all going to bed, I decided to step outside and listen. When I did, I clearly heard the hogs in the yard beside the shop. It sounded like several hogs were there and just me being on the patio startled them. Bear in mind that the moon was not up, and no lights were on, yet they knew I was there. I held still for a moment before I turned and went back into the house. Hoping not to scare them away.

I got Norman out of bed. He was still on his phone getting comfortable for the night, so when I told him about the pigs nearby, he quickly got on a pair of shoes and his rifle, and we headed outside. I had a flashlight in hand as we snuck around the front of the house towards the garage. We were halfway there when we realized that a sow and her little ones were only thirty yards away from rooting for acorns in the front yard. 

Norman got off one shot as I held the light on the sow. He resighting for another shot because, clearly confused, the sow was in no hurry to run off. He sighted more carefully, pulled the trigger and realized he was out of ammo. (He brought his Barny Fife rifle to the hog hunt.) We watched as the sow led her eight little ones toward the woods behind our house. I am not sure he hit the sow with his only shot, but he was confident he had, so, we will see if the family quits tearing up our yard. It is a sad necessity to kill the hogs to stop their destruction of our property. Not something I enjoy, but something that must be done. 

I have mentioned lately that I have not been feeling well. More important is that Grandpa has not been feeling well either. He has never been one to complain, but it is easy to see how drastically he has slowed down over the past few weeks. He still spends as much time as possible piddling around the farm and working on the truck he and Norman are trying to resurrect. He enjoys each day as best he can, but he is struggling more and more to do so. He has shared his struggles with Grandma, but she is not understanding his concerns. Her mind is unwilling to allow Grandpa to diminish. He is still her rock. I can understand that.

Grandpa has said some things to me and Mama concerning his increasing struggle to walk. He has not been able to feel his feet for several years, so walking is a concerted effort for him. That has been slowing over the past months, but he still prefers to walk to the barn and opposed to driving there. His biggest concern is losing the use of his legs. He has vivid memories of his father, who died from complications of prostate cancer, being bedridden in his final days because he could no longer use his legs. Please continue to pray for him. Like me, he plans on living until the Lord takes him home. 

There is a swap meet going on in Decatur this weekend. It is a very big deal. Auto enthusiast from all over the United States travel to either sell or buy hard to find parts for the projects they are working on. For the last four or five years our church has set up a booth with parts donated from church members just so they can be there to pass out Bibles and tracts. It is a great soul winning opportunity. I participated for the past several years, but this time, I do not feel up to it. I hate to miss but with the struggle I am having with my voice and the fact that I do not have the energy, I will stay home and pray for those who are able to participate.  

The EDS is the blue unit stabbed into the microscope

I got some very good news earlier this week when I contacted the tech that has done all the maintenance on the Scanning Electron Microscope I operate at the Creation Evidence Museum. One of the additional electronic appendages, an EDS system, stopped working last year and we have not found a )way to get it corrected. However, the tech and the company he works for have developed a way to recondition and repair the unit. They have offered to donate their services for those repairs asking only that we purchase any parts necessary to complete those repairs.  That is huge. Potentially saving the museum tens of thousands of dollars. Please pray that they are able to get the unit functioning properly. 

It will make a huge impact on our research. 

Sharing, blah days, scraping by

Grandpa and Mama spent the day shopping yesterday. They drove to Wichita Falls to do the monthly supply run versus going to Denton. I could have gone along, but if I had volunteered, Grandpa world have let Grandma talk him into staying with her. She certainly tried to do so before Grandpa left with Mama. It was quite the show. But I kept silent and let things sort themselves out. 

From my point of view, Mama does not get enough time alone with her father. He is either working about the property or accompanied by Grandma or Norman. In any of those cases, Grandpa will participate in the conversation happening around him, but he will not initiate the conversation. If Grandma or Norman is around, the conversation centers on themselves and often gets loud. Neither Grandpa not I are inclined to participate.  Rarely do we get to hear his heart. So, it was a good opportunity for Mama to have Grandpa all to herself for a few hours. It is one of only a few opportunities she may get to spend quality time alone with Grandpa. Times that can never be replaced.

While I stayed home, I did not get into anything particular. I have been in the doldrums lately. Not necessarily depressed, but certainly lacking motivation. I forced myself to finish a couple little chores and clean up an area where the hogs had plowed up the ground, but not really accomplishing much. Today I somewhat better. I have been earnestly praying about several important matter in our lives. At least, to me they are important. It has been one of those “faith walking” times. When there is no tangible evidence of God’s intervention in the situations I am praying about. Where I know by faith and by experience that God is, in fact, working His Will in my and Mama’s lives. Almost always, these intervals of waiting on the Lord work out far better than I expect they can. We just keep doing right and wait on the Lord.

Norman got his truck back yesterday. It has been in the shop – again – for over a month. He seemed less excited this time than in the past when he had been absent from it, but I am sure he is relieved to be able to use it for his business. Working out of the trunk of the Ford 500 is not optimal, but he made it happen. In those times where the car would not suffice, he and Daryll used Daryll’s truck to get the tools and materials to the jobsite. Daryll has been helping Norman for over two years now. He’s a friend as well as an employee. That comradery servs them both well.

Now that Norman has his truck back, we will make a feed run. I still have not gotten my truck back form the mechanic. We have been making smaller feed runs since we had to use the two smaller vehicles, getting just enough feed to make it for a couple weeks at a time. Today we will get one month’s worth of feed. The timing is good since I would run out of goat feed this evening. We do not usually cut it that close, but Norman was suppose to have his truck back last Friday, so we scraped by thinking any day now we would be able to get feed. It all worked out.

When Mama and I were in Florida over the Spring of last year, I was given a stalk of a Dragon Fruit plant. It was not much to look at when I brought it home in a jar. At some point I decided to plant the stalk which had rooted and sent out a fresh stalk. Now that has divided and sprouted into over a dozen plants. The shoots were haphazardly snaking their way across the area I set up to winter the plants in the sunroom. It bothered Mama so, something had to be done.

I repotted about eight new stalks this morning. I should have probably thrown them out when I cut them off the mother plant but could not being myself to do so. It will probably take three or more years for the plants to mature enough to bear fruit, so I have a while to wait. They will produce the Red Dragon fruit variety when ready. 

The good part about the plant is that it is nearly impossible to kill. 

Choosing Wisely, Please Vote, Anniversary

I have maintained throughout my Christian life that the most difficult decisions are not the ones between right and wrong, but between better and best. It is fairly easy to choose properly if we consider one of the two choices we could make clearly leaning to a sinful outcome. We often know what is wrong and thankfully avoid, by God’s grace, choosing that wrong. 

What challenges us as believers is when, of the choices we are considering, none of them are clearly sinful in and of themselves. Choosing what to eat or drink, where to shop for our basic needs, what route to take when driving to a particular location. That sounds over simplified, but it is not. Depending on the circumstances or the timing, those decisions can be affected in either a positive or a negative way. So, we make as informed a decision as best we can. (And we can certainly pray for guidance in each of those choices.)

More subtle choices that have a profound effect on our lives are choosing the right friends to connect our lives to, or choosing a church to attend with our family, or the schooling we will provide for our children. These are important decisions where we need the guidance of the Holy Spirit to choose wisely. (Do we pray about those decisions or just let things evolve on their own hoping the Spirit is guiding us?)

Less in focus is choosing our elected officials. It may not seem connected to our lives in any direct way, but the choices we are about to make in the coming Texas primary are fundamental to the government we will have for several years to come. I bring this up because I have been trying to parse through the noise to help identify the candidates we will pick during this primary runoff. Mama, Grandma, and Grandpa are looking to me for that guidance. I appreciate their trust, and I certainly do not want to violate that trust. 

So, the choice comes down to taking what is available and known about each candidate and making the best choice, especially when there is not really a good choice among the candidates vying for the respective offices. Early voting begins today for the primary election here in Texas. I do not know how the general audience feels about early voting, but we will vote early because it is available to us, and it makes it convenient for us to get Grandma and Grandpa to get to the polls. 

They want to vote, so we make it as easy as possible for them to do so. When we are relegated to one day, in-person voting we will comply. With early voting, the polling station is almost always empty. Rarely have we encountered a crowd. We generally walk into the polling station, present our ID, get our ballot and the code needed to register our vote and go to the voting booth. That is important for Grandma. Anyway, if there is a primary in your area, please vote. Do the best you can to choose wisely, but please go vote. 

Along the same line of thought of choosing wisely, I am really struggling at the moment. In order for Mama and me to keep the farm, I must draw from our saving every month to make up the shortfall in income. I have tried several avenues of earning the required shortfall, but none have proven the right course of action. I have not chosen wisely in any of these attempts to bring in the extra income. Don’t get me wrong, Mama and I are not in danger of losing our farm, but I feel I have less than a year to make some kind of drastic adjustment to our lifestyle to stay financially solvent. Please pray with me about that.

Mama and I are both at the point where selling the farm would be an option. I am physically challenged to do the work by myself so having Grandpa and Norman to do a large portion of the upkeep has been a blessing, but that cannot continue too much longer. Plus, Mama and I would like to downsize and perhaps relocate to Florida, and I would love to provide that for her sooner rather than later. While we both have the health to enjoy such a life. I am finding myself longing for a simpler, less obligated life. I am longing to have Mama to myself for a while, if we can ever work that out. Such an endeavor will be a series of better versus best choices. Pray that Mama and I will be very sensitive to the Holy Spirit in each decision - whenever that time comes. God’s way always produces the best outcomes. Proverbs 10:22 “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.” That’s what I’m looking for.

Today is Grandma and Grandpa’s 64th Anniversary. Kudo’s to them.

Fires, close calls, FBI

Over the past couple weeks Maggie and Brittany have separately shared similar events. In the recent past, Maggie’s oven caught on fire. As I understand from Mama’s story, it was an actual fire that had to be put out. I am not sure of the details, but the situation was corrected without further incident. In Maggie’s apartment living environment, that sort of fire could have been devastating to a lot more families than just hers. 

In a similar incident, Brittany called me on a Sunday morning to ask advice about a burning plastic smell in her house early that morning. She told me she heard a pop and then smelled the unmistakable scent of hot, if not burning, plastic. The furnace seemed to be the culprit so all that was shut down until it could be inspected. There was little she could do but wait. 

It was several days later before I followed up with her, and by that time the furnace had been replaced. The breaker had overheated – the pop she heard – and allowed some of the wiring to also overheat to the point of catching on fire briefly. It self-extinguished so there was no threat to the house, but the overnight temperature following the loss of heating in the house was 5 degrees above zero. Fortunately, her house was above freezing Monday morning, but just barely. It just struck me as a bit odd that both Brittany and Maggie would have experienced those similar events in a short span of time. 

As I stated in past notes, we have been seeing the return of the hogs to our area. They have given us a three- or four-month reprieve, but last night they were back. When Mama and I went out to feed this morning I found that one lone hog had traipsed through the garden to root under a tree at the East end of the garden. The rows of potatoes and onions had been spared. It was a close call.  However, the leaf-covered area just outside of the garden towards the barn lot had been thoroughly searched by a large group of hogs. It looked like Grandpa had plowed it up. In the long run, it is a benefit to us, but we praised the Lord that He steared the hogs away from the garden itself. I put in the posts required for the fence Friday afternoon but was not sure what fencing Norman and Grandpa wanted to attach to those posts. We will erect some kind of fence today. No sense tempting the goodness of God.

Mama and I thoroughly enjoyed church yesterday. I had at least enough voice that people could hear me, but it is not a pleasant voice to listen to at the moment. I have a true pirates voice. Deep, hoarse and gravelly. Most unpleasant. I am under doctors’ orders to try and talk with a normal volume as I speak, but I found out that I still have to force the volume a bit to get enough sound out that I do not have to constantly repeat myself. By the time Mama and I retired for the night, my vocal cords were sore, and my voice was very raspy. I do not think I am much better this morning, but I am a poor judge of that. 

Mama has not complained. She can at least hear me now. It is a bit disheartening to sound the way I do, but I am told it is part of the process.  I just try to bear in mind times in the past when a sore throat or some respiratory ailment changed my voice temporarily. It always returned to normal at some point. I am a bit overanxious to be able to sing again. Right not I cannot even sing softly. Or make any king of musically related sound. Maybe soon.

Mama and I have FBI class tonight (Faith Bible Institute). It is our second time through the classes, but the amount of information covered in the classes is still almost too much to take in, even in our second iteration. Both Mama and I have enjoyed the teaching as we are going through the book of James. What a humbling spiritually and intellectually challenging training it has been so far. We will complete our study in James in our class tonight. I find myself wanting to go back and replay all the hours we have completed and see what more I can get out of the presentations. Galatians is next on our course list, and I am certain it will be just as interesting to do an in-depth study of that Epistle as well, but studying James has blessed us both. Now, if we can just remember even a little of that information. 

We are experiencing a very warm February with nights in the mid-forties and days in the mid-seventies. I am not complaining, it is most pleasant. My concern is that this Spring will be short leading to a long, very hot Summer. No one knows for sure if that will happen, but it looks likely. For the moment, we will enjoy the weather we have been given. 

Hope, Hogs, Visiting, Staying

It seems that after ten or more consecutive years of failed gardening attempts here at the farm, hope springs eternal. Grandpa and Normal once again planted potatoes and onions in the old garden spot just west of the wellhouse. Fifty pounds of potatoes were planted along with about one hundred onion sprigs. I am not sure how this garden will turn out but based on past experience, I do not have high expectations. 

Every year the potatoes and onions have gone into the prepared ground and have looked like they were actually going to thrive and produce a crop for us. And every year the early summer heat, the hogs, the rabbits, the raccoons, the birds, or the bugs have destroyed the plants before any fruit could be realized. But once again, last week, Sunday to be exact, Grandpa and Norman, plowed, tilled and planted the cut potatoes and onion sets. 

Today I will work on setting a fence in place to keep most of the ground critters out of the garden. To facilitate starting the garden Mama is keeping the chickens confined to their respective enclosures through the better part of the day. Letting them out only an hour or so in the evening to forage for a short time before they go back into the coop to roost for the night. At some point, Mama and I will clip the wings on the chickens to keep them from being able to fly over the fence into the garden. Then they can be allowed to roam more freely through the growing season.

All this labor could be for naught, but it keeps Grandpa puttering about. 

There is some urgency to getting the fence in place because we are starting to see signs of the feral hogs on the property once again. Several months ago, Norman and I shot and wounded several on the large hogs. We did not shoot to kill because we wanted them to run off into the woods to die. That seemed to discourage them from foraging on our little property for a while. Now, it would appear, they are back to including our farm in their circuit. 

If we do not fence the garden, they could easily destroy it one night. The hogs travel in groups of twenty or more. Mamas with six to eight babies each are not uncommon. And they grow so fast. At six months the piglets are ready to start reproducing, so keeping the population in check has often been a challenge. Since I do not enjoy shooting the hogs for sport, I have to force myself to kill them out of a sense of preserving our home and property. 

It has been fun having Victoria visit. She, of all our children, interacts with Grandma and Grandpa best. It is her willingness to play along with them in their banter. I tend to get lost in the game, but Victoria seems tuned into the repartee and can make the conversation fun for them, especially Grandpa. As far as conversation goes, Grandpa tends to be reserved. Not so with Victoria. So, her visit has been especially good for him. But also was an encouragement to all our friends and family at church. She, Grandma, and Mama went to the Wednesday night service. I stayed home still recuperating from my surgery. But I got several texts from church family about how good it was to see Victoria once again. 

Victoria will be flying home tomorrow morning. At least that is the plan. Thunderstorms are forecast for our area in the morning, but we will just have to see if that affects her return flight. Her flight is a direct flight, so it is not like a delay would interrupt her travel plans too much. It will be sad to see her go, but we have had a great visit.

Norman was talking about leaving for Florida next week and staying there for a couple months, but those plans seem to have fallen through. I believe it is for the best. Grandpa depends on Norman to keep him involved in the variety of ongoing projects he accumulates. Right now, Grandpa is focused on helping Norman repairing a truck he traded some labor for. It turned out to be a bigger project than either of them realized. As is the case with most of Norman’s projects.

It will be well worth the effort should he and Grandpa succeed on resurrecting the truck, but I am not holding my breath.

Surgery, Traveling, Bible Reading

After having slowly lost my voice over the past year, I finally went back to the ENT to see if there was a remedy. Turns out there is. All I needed was a new doctor to look at my vocal cords. I had the required minor surgery yesterday morning. I am told everything went well, but it is hard to tell based on how my voice now sounds. The doctor reiterated several times to me and Mama that we must “trust the process.” Full recovery may not happen for several more weeks, which is a little disconcerting since we were also told that the gel inserted directly into my vocal cords may be absorbed by the body in only a few months. Six at the most.

The pain from the injection is not at all difficult to bear, but the pain of talking is worse for the moment. I have explicit instructions to speak in a normal voice – no whispering and no shouting. The second of those two admonitions will not be difficult to abide by. The first, speaking in a normal voice, is proving a bit more difficult.

Once I found out that surgery was required, I had originally prayed that I would get the surgery prior to leaving for Honduras. My thinking was that I could spend the time there with a stronger voice as I recovered. I am glad that did not happen. I did just fine whispering to everyone in English and Spanish. Savanna was extremely attentive when she did not have earphones on. 

Mama and I had a wonderful time with Cori, Nate and the kids. We went to the beach in Tela the first day we were there and stayed fairly busy throughout our stay. Mama and Savanna gathered about ten pounds of small rocks from the huge piles on the beach. All of them were taken away from her as we went through security. We were disappointed but not shocked when one of the four agents insisted that we could not take any of the rocks or glassware Mama had in our borrowed checked bag. She was the only one who had an issue with the items, but she persisted until everything had been confiscated. 

Come Away was great. It seems to get better each year. The weather was mild, towards cool. Most of the Hondurans were dressed very warmly. Pleasant morning walks in their neighborhood were one of the daily highlights of their new home. Back on the farm, the weather was extremely cold. 

The ice that kept Norman, Grandma and Grandpa housebound for five days accumulated to the point that the roof of equipment shed attached to the barn collapsed. Norman estimated that there was over five inches of ice sitting on top of the roof. I did not build that roof with that kind of burden in mind. The repair will be difficult but not overly so. That is the only damage we suffered on the farm. Praise the Lord!

Mama and I got back to Texas about 1:30 Friday morning. We were in bed about an hour later and up at six a.m. to take care of our animals. Mama was anxious to see her recently hatched chicks. Needless to say, we took a long nap that afternoon. Saturday was catchup to all the farm and household needs. Sunday was church. Monday was shopping for essentials and a pre-op appointment with our ENT. Tuesday morning, we picked Victoria up at the airport. I have to say, “Thank the Lord” for the online flight apps. Victoria’s flight was delayed twice, and the arrival gate was changed three times before we met her. Those updates got us to the right place at the right time, otherwise I am not sure how things would have worked out.

Yesterday was my surgery. We had to be at the Denton Surgical Center by 6 a.m. and so we were up at 3:45 for me to get cleaned up, showered and shaved before we headed to the surgery center. I slept for several hours after we got home letting the anesthetic ware off and fought severe dizziness for most of the evening. The dizziness was the residual effect of a narcotic based pain medicine I was given before I was told what it was. All in all, it has been a good experience. Though I do not look forward to repeating the surgery on a semiannual basis, if this does restore my voice, I will have to plan accordingly. 

For the first time in our married lives, Mama and I are using the same Bible reading program to read through the Bible this year. It is nice to share ideas and questions with each other as we read the same passages in our Bibles each morning. I highly recommend it. I am not exactly sure why we have not done so before except that I did not like the program Mama used in the past. We had each been using our respective printouts for years. At least since we lived in Amarillo twelve or thirteen years ago. But as we looked over a Bible reading program put out by Victory Baptist Church in Milton, we both were attracted to it and have been using it since the start of the year. 

Good times.

Planning, Norman, Victoria

Mama and I spent about an hour at a friend’s house last night looking at her set up for her freeze dryer and it really augmented our desire to get one. The long discussion with Jan built in Mama’s and my mind an application for a freeze dryer that would allow us to justify the expense. I made the commitment to the Lord, however that I would not buy a freeze dryer until we had the cash set aside for that particular expense. At this moment, we do not have that money in hand, but there is no urgency either. We will continue to pray and see what God will do. It’s exciting to see God work in our lives and to see our prayers answered. We have had a freeze dryer on our prayer list for a while, so maybe we are close to getting one. After last night, it seems far more practical than over the past few weeks. 

One of the issues I have been wrestling with is where we could fit the large appliance. It is not necessarily a quiet appliance to operate and the cycle of freeze drying can be as long as 24 hours. The vacuum pump for the freeze dryer can also generate a good bit of heat, so the placement of the unit needs to take into account that additional temperature in the room where it is placed. 

So, when we got home, Mama and I began to look for a place. I believe we settled on removing a set of upper cabinets from the west wall of the chef’s pantry and setting the freeze dryer on the counter on that wall. That would allow us to run a dedicated circuit to the plug on that wall. That solves two of our problems. Now we need to settle on what size unit we need and focus our prayers on that. 

Today I spent most of the morning finishing up what I had started last night on a course review project for Energy Worldnet. But this morning, Word messed up on me so badly I lost everything I had done the night before. As I reworked the document, Word messed up on me again. I thought I had lost, for a second time, everything I had done. I finally got the bug worked out and got the document review completed and sent off for updating by the author, but that rework took me almost 3 hours to get done. This one revision will open the door for me to do many more projects of this nature for Energy Worldnet. The money that I earn doing this sort of review is not insignificant. It actually pays pretty well just to do course revisions as a subject matter expert. I’m not sure how many courses might be available for me to help with, but at least the door is open. 

Friday afternoon, the Lord began to open up doors for Norman to find enough work to stay here. As of today, that opportunity seems to have expanded quite a bit. As always, with Norman it’s difficult to tell what the outcome may potentially be, but for the moment it looks like there may be enough ongoing work for him to do his renovation, remodeling, landscaping, and handyman work, and earn enough money to more than meet his needs in our general area. If things work out that way, that will be a great relief to Grandpa. And admittedly, it’s a relief to Mama and me as well. It is not what Norman said he wanted, but that seems to be what he has gotten.

Victoria let us know today that she has an interview with Florida Health System for an opening as a pharmacy tech. That is a wonderful answer to prayer. It is only an initial interview, but it is a great opportunity. The interview is set for Thursday next week at 9:30. Please be praying for that to go well. What she is doing now does not suit her physically. It is a huge strain on her knees, back and wrists, but she is doing her best to apply herself to the scope of work she agreed to do for Walmart. She is obviously younger than me but walking over twenty miles per day pulling grocery orders in not an easy daily routine to meet. Then she will go home and take Kira and Kobe for a long walk…at a much more leisurely pace. 

Again, please pray for Victoria. 

Mixed blessings and total blessings

After months of praying for Norman to find a job he could be happy with, our prayers seem to have been answered today. It is not wholly confirmed, but it looks like Norman will be reporting to a crew tasked with building fences around some government facilities. Firstly, in Ft Lauderdale, FL. The pay is good and the per diem is excellent. As I am told today, he will be needed on the job by the first of May. This project is slated to last nine months. That is a mixed blessing because he has been a huge help to us here. We will be sad to see him go, but thrilled that he has this opportunity. 

Grandpa will miss Norman’s constant movement here at the farm. Norman’s drive to keep Grandpa stirred up has had a profound effect on Grandpa health – for the better. It encourages Grandpa and motivates him to be on the move doing what he can to support Norman’s endless schemes to earn a dollar. Grandpa’s finances have taken a bigger hit in supporting Norman than ours have, but everyone is still doing relatively well, other than Norman. He really needs this job.

Mama is concerned that she and Grandpa will not be able to keep up with the garden, but I know otherwise. Mama and Grandpa will do fine with the garden. We will all need help with the harvest when it comes, but the daily tending will give Grandpa something to do. My biggest loss in Norman’s leaving is all the help he has provided with the maintenance and repair of our vehicles. Neither Grandpa nor I can do what he does in that regard. My prayer is that all the required repairs have been accomplished. 

We still have two weeks to get help with trimming and felling trees about the property, loading the trailer with Victoria’s stuff and getting all those items to her when she closes on her house. Two weeks to square away the barn that has been filled with Norman’s stuff and sell off the many extra items he has accumulated. Two weeks to complete the repairs on our backyard fence. Two weeks to set the steel pipe for the shed we are adding to the shop. We will see what we can actually get done, but we have a pretty tight list. 

Honestly, I consider myself six to eight months ahead of where I thought I would be at this time as related to projects that have been finished on the farm. Other than the short list above, Grandpa and I can pick away at the other projects we have planned. Norman’s help has allowed me to rest a bit easier as I spend two days per week at the museum in Glen Rose. 

At the museum today, I was able to define some structures in a couple bone slides that had been used for the polarizing microscopes. I was a little disappointed that the images I was able to capture were not as clear as I would have liked, but I am hoping to learn some techniques to do better on image capture. The folks in the lab are ecstatic with the progress I have made in the past two days. I am pleased, but not a willing to celebrate just yet.  

Our last pregnant doe gave birth as I was driving home today. Mama called me as I was turning onto our road to tell me that she had needed to pull the little girl out of her mommy because the mommy was not able kid without a little help. Mama had been able to get a firm hold on the hooves of the front legs that had showed along with the nose of the kid and pull pretty firmly on the kid. Once that movement starts, it is not difficult for the nanny goat to finish the kidding. I have had to help several times, but this was Mama’s first. Happily, both the nanny goat and her kid are doing well. 

Since Mama had misgendered one of our little ones before she got a good look at the kid, we moved the total count a bit. We now have seven little girls and three little boys. Five of the little ones, three does and two bucklings, are blue. What a blessing.

Tomorrow is our first unencumbered Saturday in three weeks. We have so much to get done. As always, we will do all we can and let the undone things wait until next week. Since I am not teaching any more classes until late in the month, I will have the early part of next week to pick up what is left from tomorrow. 

Retirement is mostly good. God is always good.

Successes

I spent the day in the lab at the Creation Evidence Museum today. During the hours there I was able to get the help I needed. I talked through the issue I have been having with the SEM and it turned out to be a minor mechanical adjustment was needed to realign the beam through the gun. Once that was accomplished the tech had me go through a series of complicated steps to reset the beam alignment on the microscope. The tech was in California but was sitting in front of an identical model of SEM as he guided me through the calibrations. Since we made the adjustments several times in the last hour we talked, I was mostly certain I could reproduce the adjustments when needed.

When I got off the phone with the tech, I placed a bone fragment from a Amargasauras into the sample port and took a look. It turned out that I needed to repeat the adjustments to get the image to display. But I did get an image! None of us looking at the image had a clear idea of what we were seeing in the bone, but it was a magnification of 2,500 times whatever we were looking at. That was exciting. Tomorrow we will make a better sample to look over and really begin exploring. For today, I feel like we made huge progress. 

Taking a step back, it turned out that the problem I was having was a simple fix to something that should not have needed adjustment. The adjustment I had to fumble through was minuscule, but the outcome was grand. No one is sure how the misalignment happened, but it is corrected now. Fortunately, the tech knew what to do to eliminate potential issues one by one until he had the problem isolated. In so doing, I learned a lot. It was a good day.

Meanwhile, Mama and Grandpa went to the cardiologists today and Grandpa got a fair report. He still has an irregular heartbeat but is compensating well enough. So, the treatment he is under will continue as normal. There is not much more we can ask at this time. Grandma, seems to have had a major medical turnaround today. For two days she has confined herself to bed, getting up only for very brief spells which required someone help her make it back to the bed. Today, she is up, laughing and joking and having a great time. We are not sure what happened that made the difference, but I suppose we are glad for it?

On the farm, another of our nanny goats gave birth this evening. Mama has been watching her all day expecting the kidding, but we did not see the little ones until we were headed to Decatur for a visitation for our Pastor’s brother who died Sunday night. When we did spot the new little ones in the goat barn, Mama and I turned around to get a better look before we left the farm. Once again, they are Little Boy Blue offspring. Both of the little ones this time are boys, but that is okay since they will fetch a really good price in the Myotonic market. We have one more nanny yet to kid, but that will happen by this weekend. So far, we have four little girls and four little boys. One of the little girls we were nursing along died Tuesday night.

Our realtor In Lawton has been helping us replace the roof on our property there. I tried for several weeks to contact the insurance agency to get the roof inspected, but the agent that had been helping us, and the only contact I had available, died of cancer. Sad. So, our realtor made the contacts we needed got the roof inspected. The roof was totaled, and we should be receiving a check shortly to cover the expense of that roof repair. Our contractor, who’s become a friend of ours, told us that he would make sure everything fit well within the budget of the roof replacement so we should at least break even on that and end up with the brand-new roof on our property. 

One of the things that he told us specifically about the rental property, one of those praise the Lord moments, was that he was very impressed by the renters, he said the house was immaculate inside and out. That the renters are taking exceptional care of the property, which he rarely sees in his rental properties. So, he was extremely impressed, and we were very pleased, because we’re hoping to sell that house later this year.

God is good!

Reasons for praise

I apologize to anyone who may be following along on this humble blog, but for a while, I just could not drum up the emotional energy to take the time at the end of the day to sit down and write out the events of the day. And that is really a big shame-on-me, because the Lord has been doing so much in our lives here, recently, that it’s irresponsible of me not to take time to praise Him for all the little things that are happening around us. 

As we have helped Victoria pray through buying a house in Florida over the past six or eight weeks, she has finally found one that she would like to pursue and has been approved to do so. We will see how that works out in the weeks to come, but the prospective closing should be the end of this month. So, by the first week of May, we may be making a trip to Florida to help Victoria move into her home. That’s a huge praise the Lord. 

Also, I have been able to work for my old employer, Energy Worldnet, and do some classroom training for them. That has worked out extremely well. They have been very gracious in getting me set up with the computer and programming I need to make that happen and paying me a very fair rate to do so. I’m not sure how long this will last but I will take it as far as they’ll let me and will hopefully put some money in the bank based on that. 

We have now had our third kidding on the farm. All of the kids (baby goats) that have been born to the three nannies on our farm in the past two weeks have been the progeny of Little Boy Blue. His coloring is coming through in phenomenal ways on those little kids that he fathered. Two of our goats that kidded first were two that we had bought as rescue animals and we have had them for a year, but finally were able successfully to get them bred. We did not know that Blue Boy was the father of those offspring because he was only with them for a couple of days. The rest of the time they were in the presence of one of our male goats they were with Midas, but he never got to do his work on them because Blue Boy beat him to it. Blue Boy, we are finding out, is an extremely amorous little Billy goat. The person who sold him to us, told us that she was having trouble keeping weight on Blue Boy, because he had nothing on his mind, but getting in with the feamles and creating offspring. He has done so extremely well for us. 

It’s hard for me to remember since the last time I wrote in the blog a lot of the little things that God has done in our lives that just worked out miraculously, but one of those things that I do not want to take for granted is the fact that in every project we have begun lately, I have not had to buy any material for any of those projects. I had all the materials required for those projects just laying around the farm. The metal that I needed to redo the duck pen roof and sides. The fencing that I needed for the redo of the yard with that duck pen. The metal that I will now need for the new pen that I have built for Midas and his two ladies to stay in for a couple of months. Even the siding for the little shelter that I am building for them. All of those are materials we have laying around the farm or have been brought here by Norman. 

So, in spite of the diversity of materials needed, we have been able to do we have without needing to buy anything to get all of that done. It’s a real blessing when God works things out that way. When I was installing the fencing for a new lot we need for breeding, I was able to use two pieces of fencing that had been cut to section off the goat barn the last time we did this. One of those two pieces fit the length with about six inches to spare. The other section of fence fit with about sixteen inches of overlap. You may now think that is anything special, but it is. When we have exactly what we need when we need it, that is God’s way of showing us He is always supplying our needs ahead of time. We just have to be willing to look carefully at what we already have that can meet the need.

We took two hogs to be butchered and at the same time we lost our upright freezer. So, Mama gave away a good bit of meat and vegetables that we had in different freezers to pare down the contents of the chest freezer we have out in the well house. We recently bought a small upright freezer that has nothing but drawers in it. It is small enough to fit in our chef’s pantry. I wasn’t thrilled about that purchase when Norman and Grandpa brought it home. But it turned out to be an extremely good purchase for us. When Mama picked up the meat from our hogs, everything fit with room to spare. It’s just little things like that that add up to real blessings in our lives. 

Also, in reconnecting with my old employer, it has been neat to see the impact God let me have on my coworkers and other people associated with the company. It is nice to know that my witness for the Lord really had an impact on those around me at work. Nothing we do as we live for the Lord is done in vain. With that thought in mind, we need to be careful to do our very best in all we do so our witness in not tarnished as we are being watched. 

Norman has been struggling for several weeks to find a way to make money. Mama and I have had to cover a couple expenses on his behalf, but he has repaid us in spades for the little bit of money that we spent on him. I say a little bit of money because it has not been a significant amount, but at the same time it does take away from what Mama and I need to do, adding to our overall financial burden. What he has been able to do for us, either in repairing the vehicles that he’s worked on or in fixing up the property that he and Grandpa have worked on has more than compensated for what we have been able to do to help him keep his insurance current, or to help him keep his bank account solvent, or to help him to keep fuel in his truck. We’ve tried to be an encouragement to him without being a source for him. It has made an impact, but he still needs some type of full-time employment so that he can begin to cover all of these expenses on his own. 

Grandpa over the past few days has had some days where he was hurting a little bit more than normal, but he has always forced himself outside onto the tractor, walked around the property, hoed or watered the garden, pulled up weeds, taken care of flowerbeds, etc. Just anything to keep himself moving. Everything he does in that respect is a blessing to me and Mama. So, the fact that Mama and I are supporting three families right now on a fixed income is a little bit challenging, but at the same time we are managing to get a whole lot more done that I had anticipated. 

So, I just wanted to say, praise the Lord!

The Yuk, teaching again, good help is hard to find

Just a quick weekend update. Friday evening both Mama and I started feeling poorly. So, we did not attend any of the activities scheduled at church Saturday. We missed soul winning. We missed the pine car derby and we missed the chili cook-off. I spent the majority of the day lying down. We missed both services Sunday. Only this morning did the effects of our weekend malaise start to abate. We both loathe missing church. It is a big part of our life and not being there leaves us feeling sort of empty. We still listen in on the services via Facebook, but that is not at all the same. 
This morning, I worked on a couple things here at the farm, but mostly I concentrated on cleaning out the small goat barn our Billy goats are in. As the pile of manure and refuse began to accumulate on the other side of the fence, I realized just how long I had let it go. Two hours after I had begun, I had a small mountain piled up. We will move it to a location where we have a compost pile, but for the moment, getting it out of the little barn was the objective. It is hard to tell what I did other than by looking at the pile I left behind. But I know.
Since that chore wore me out, I decided to lay out the extension we have been considering for the now repurposed duck pen. I took some string and laid out the two sides of the enclosure that needs to be fenced. I was thinking that if Norman and Grandpa were interested in working on that fencing tomorrow, I would put my suggestion out there with string and a stake. After I lined that out, I got ready to go to the office.
Tomorrow, for the first time since my retirement, I will be presenting a class for EWN. They are in a bind with the class schedule, and I have been asked to fill in some of the holes in scheduling instructors for classes this week and through April. I met my ex-boss this afternoon at the office and got a computer set up so I could use the company facilities – and internet – to present the class. All told, that took a little over two hours, but my computer should be ready to go. We will see how that goes in the morning.
I am a little nervous about teaching the class even though I have done the same presentation several hundred times. That apprehension is actually a good thing. It keeps me on my toes and keeps me humble. The honest truth is that if I only do fair job of presenting the class, it will meet the immediate need. I want to do better than okay, but I am seriously out of practice, so I hope no one from EWN sees me stumble about tomorrow.
As I was heading home from the office, I was asking the Lord to show me what I could spend the afternoon doing. There are still multiple projects going on at the farm. To my surprise, Grandpa and Norman had already set the fenceposts for the new fencing I had laid out. When I arrived home, they were busy cleaning up the junk that had been set there as it was moved from other cleanup projects. We did not get to the point of stretching out the fence, but everything is in place. Praise the Lord!
Meanwhile, in my time away from the museum, I have been trying in vain to get some technical help with the issues I am having with our electron microscope. In a shot in the dark move, I called the University of Houston to see if I could be put in touch with someone in the Biology department who operates their electron microscope. My first call went nowhere. So, I started searching their website to see if I could find any contacts. I emailed the head of the Imaging department since theirs was the only email listed. 
I was hopeful because the image on the web page was of an electron microscope almost identical to ours. I did get a reply. The PhD Department Head responded that she had never operated an electron microscope so she could not help me. I thanked her for the quick response and asked if she would put me in touch with someone who did operate their electron microscope. Her response was that I should call the manufacturer. 

I will try another approach Wednesday, but definitely with a different person.

Successes, setbacks, and set ups

Wednesday was actually a very good day. After meeting with our tax accountant, I started working on the duck pen we are re-tooling to serve as a weaning area. I redid one part of the structure that I had made a mistake in assembling, and then sealed up a gap that I had here-to-fore left open to let the rain blow in on our ducks. Once that was done, I started lining up the roofing and was able to complete getting the roof on in about an hour and a half. 

One of my serious challenges in putting on roof panels is that when I am standing at the side of the roof panel looking across the roof panel at the two-by that I will be nailing the roof panel to I cannot see straight, so I miss hitting the two-by about a third of the time. I was too lazy to go over the shop and get a straight edge that would have helped me hit more than I missed, but eventually I got everything done. That roof will be tested today because we’re supposed to get about an inch and a half of rain through the late evening and early night hours. I also sealed above the windows on the container (I am calling it Kim’s Craft Cube) and hopefully that spray-on seal will provide the additional seal that I’ve needed to stop the persistent little leaks that we saw during the last rain. I will know by tomorrow at the latest. 

As far as my day at the museum went, it was just a series of setbacks and frustrations. After watching several videos on how to change out the filament on the microscope, I was confident when I started that operation earlier this morning. Sure enough, I was able to get the filament changed out pretty quickly. One of the challenges that I had though was lining up that filament in the holder so that the filament would be lined properly to shoot the electron beam down into the sample. I was pretty happy with how easily it all worked out, but when I started up the microscope, I was still getting the same error. That is, that the filament was not putting out any heat, and therefore was not producing any electrons to scan the sample. 

I tried looking through the software program to see if there was something I was not doing electronically that was required by the computer program. I could not find anything, so I went to looking at mechanical issues. I double checked all of the interlocks and switches that told the microscope that the gun chamber was sealed and ready for service. All of that seemed to check out. By the time I had eliminated all of those it was going on 2 o’clock. 

I would have continued later into the day but forecast for very heavy rain and possibly some strong thunderstorms were saying that those rains and thunderstorms would begin somewhere between four and 6 o’clock. So, I headed home at 2 o’clock hoping to beat the rain and thunderstorms and get in the garage before all that nonsense starts. It’s not that I mind the rain, it’s just kind of a pain to be driving in the rain on these two-lane roads that are the thoroughfares I travel going to, and from, the museum. 

I hope to go back tomorrow and pull the back panel off the electron microscope and start looking at the fusing and the wiring in the back of the electron microscope. It would be easy if all I had to do was replace a fuse. Life isn’t always that easy. But it is the next thing I need to do to troubleshoot the problems that I am having. 

Norman and Grandpa picked up freezer today. It is a small upright freezer. I have never seen one like it. It has no open shelves, only drawers. I like it. Mama and I had thought seriously about going with the chest freezer for a couple of reasons. First, they tend to be larger and can accommodate more food items. Secondly, they tend to last longer, and seal better than the upright freezers do. The issue was pricing. The chest freezers we could find that we thought were probably good enough were between $400 and $500. The upright freezers that would certainly be adequate for what we needed were between $150 and $200. So, the upright freezer one out strictly from the Financial setpoint. 

The one that was bought is only two years old. The young couple that was selling it was being relocated by their work, so they couldn’t take the freezer with them. Or it just did not make financial sense for them to pack the freezer up and take it along when they could buy another one when they got into their new housing. That additional purchase will enable us to have adequate freezer space when we take the hogs for processing. Of the hogs we are going to process, the two largest will go to the processing plant tomorrow morning. Mama and Norman have loaded them loaded up already. I am predicting Grandpa will go along on the delivery just to see what the set-up is like at the processor. We’ve had good success with this particular processor. I don’t know if they will take the time, seeing that they’ll have the stock trailer with them, to stop by HEB to do some shopping but they will be close since the processor is in Weatherford. 

My day tomorrow will be spent at the museum. 

His supply

Since I retired, Mama and I have been praying for our finances. Our focus initially was for the little bit of extra we needed month to month just to make our budget, especially with the farm expenses added in. But now, making two round trips a week to Glen Rose has added about $100 a week to our expenses at -when I take the Sequoia. So, there is from month to month the need to bring in a little bit of extra money just to balance out the checking account. And to that end Mama I have been praying.

I believe that to answer that need, God set things in motion at my old employer that would open the door for me to do some contract teaching for them. My old boss, Crystal, contacted me via e-mail last week and asked if she could meet with me to gauge my interest and to find out what I might need in order to take on that responsibility Mama and I had lunch with her today. It was good to see her and good to hear that things are going OK at work. However, the person who replaced me as instructor left the company last week. Since the teaching assignments for the year were divided between him and one other person in the company, his resigning from the company means that more than half of the classes that are scheduled for this year have no instructor available within EWN. I am definitely interested.

I waited till very late in the lunch to mention the price tag associated with that sort of contract work. About two years ago a colleague of ours who also retired from the company did some contract teaching for EWN, and I did not feel that the price that they were paying him met the standard that I would need in order to take on that added workload. So, I asked if that was the going rate or if I could negotiate a higher rate. Crystal asked what rate I would like to suggest, and I told her. My suggestion was higher but not unreasonable. She promised me she would see what she could do. 

When Mama and I both hugged her goodbye, we left with the impression that maybe the old rate was what I would be paid and I'm OK with that but not excited by it. About two hours after the lunch Crystal texted me to tell me that she had negotiated a better rate than what I had suggested. I am not sure how long I will pursue the added responsibility of teaching one class per week, but it looks like it could be a long-term opportunity. And opportunity provided by the Lord at just the right time, for just the right amount of money. It always fascinates me how God is able to do that in our lives.

Meanwhile, here at the farm, I spent the day redoing the structure that will hold the roof on the repurposed duck pen. That is now complete. Tomorrow I will attach the roof panels to that structure and all the repairs will be completed. Just in time. We are supposed to see significant rainfall Thursday. 

Additionally, Mama and I have made upgrades to the craft container. The shelving that I had bought for that craft container, that turned out to be not what I had anticipated, has found places in the garage and in the craft container to which that shelving is perfectly suited. I have held off buying shelves that resemble the ones we have already sitting in the craft container holding totes full of crafting materials, so we are a little bit short on shelving that I had planned to have available. 

However, last week Norman hauled home two enormous file cabinets. The company looking to relocate those enormous file cabinets simply wanted them moved, so Norman hauled them here thinking that he would resell them. The more we looked at it, that seemed problematic simply because the file cabinets are so large. In order to put them to practical use we are going to install them in the craft container beside the shelving in the back of the container. That will give us the additional shelving that I have procrastinated in purchasing. Again, one of those wonderful coincidences that seemed to happen when we pray and lift up our needs to the Lord.

Also, Norman has found several opportunities to earn some money over the past few days. Those opportunities look like they will turn into long term contract work for him. We certainly have been praying that the Lord would supply for him financially, and there was no slacking on his part to try and find opportunities for work, but nothing seemed to pan out until now. Anyway, those little things and the timing of these little things always works out perfectly in God's way. We just have to be prepared to do what it takes on our part to make the most of those opportunities once God opens that door.

The same thing will happen eventually for Victoria as she looks for a permanent residence in the Milton/Pensacola area. Right now, she feels like she's spinning her wheels. We feel that she is being prepared for what God has for her somewhere in the very near future. Staying steadfast in our faith and remaining faithful to what God has given us to do while we are looking for other opportunities is often the most difficult part of living the Christian life because we want to quit and move on before God is ready. But that patient waiting is also the most blessed part living the Christian life. 

When those blessings overtake us, it is absolutely glorious.

Weekend update, a productive day

Saturday was a rainy day, but that allowed me to do a lot of things that I had not taken time to do before. I completed working on our taxes so that we can set an appointment with our accountant to get that done. I worked on several things in the shop and in the house making minor repairs to items I had left in need of repair for longer than necessary. I was able to install some of the parts that I had ordered four different upgrades to tools in the shop and got those in tip top shape. One of those being a battery powered band saw that we will need for the shed we are adding to the shop. That shed will be made largely of metal pipe.

Sunday was a typical Sunday. Our pastor preached exceptionally well. The choir did a phenomenal job on the song that we sang for service Sunday morning and Sunday night there was a great spirit in the church. We are praying for revival, but I sometimes get the feeling that we're too late for a national revival, so I focus on a personal revival. Asking the Lord to change me and make me more of who he needs me to be for him, so that I can do more for him in these last days I have to offer him.

Today was pretty exceptional. I started off in the shop cleaning up behind the shop where I had let things accumulate to my own discredit. Once I got all of the junk that had been placed there moved, I found out I had a lot of room in which to place trim that had been lying on the floor on the floor of the shop, always in my way for months. Late last year as a business was going closing its doors, I bought enough trim to do the base throughout the house. That's a lot of board feet of half round and I had laid it in the shop next to a worktable and had been stepping over it as I went from one side of the shop to the other for way too long. When I emptied the specialized lumber rack I had installed in the back of the shop I was able to put all of the trim on those shelving racks and got it off the floor of my shop. Now my shop is open, the trim is safely stored, and far more easily accessed. I was very pleased with that.

When I finished organizing in the shop, I began making the prepares to the duck pen that had been damaged when a tree fell on it late last year. Fortunately, when the tree collapsed on the roof of the pen, we had already sold the ducks. Because there were no ducks in the pen, and because we did not immediately need the area for anything specific, I had put off making the repairs needed to fix the roof and the structure that held up the roof over half of that duck pin. Once I got the busted-up roof panels off and tore out the structure that had been broken, I started rebuilding everything. At about 3:00 today I had to stop. My back was hurting so badly I just couldn't keep going any longer. Altogether, I'm about 1/3 of the way done with the repair but I lack three boards to finish the structure. We will go to town and purchase those tomorrow.

I have enough metal roofing to completely redo the roof, so once the structure is in place it will only take me an hour to put all of the roof back on, and then the area will be ready for goats to be weaned. Since we have four more nannies who will be kidding in the next three to five weeks, and we have 4 babies already on the ground, I will need multiple areas to separate boys from girls and to separate them according to their size. That way cousins that are a month older will not be able to dominate the smaller third ones when we pull them off their mommies. It is a challenge every time we have a large group of kids born at the farm, but it is a wonderful challenge. 

With the little girl goat that Mama was so worried about, we have seen some major progress. For several days we gave her shots to help her deal with whatever was hurting her. We assumed she had been stepped upon. It was either that or she had a virus that was causing her joint pain. The virus would have been fatal in a few weeks, but that does not seem to be the case. Anyway, Mama took her to the vet and the vet prescribed antibiotics that we have been giving her for several days. Today she is greatly improved. In fact, we were not able to catch her to give her a dose of antibiotics tonight. That's a mixed blessing. She's strong enough that she may not need the antibiotics, but she may still have symptoms that the antibiotic would have helped with. We will know more in a few days but for now she seems to be doing well.

Please pray for Victoria, she's going through some challenges right now that are proving difficult for her. She definitely needs a change in work, but she's willing to do what she has to to make this current assignment work out until she can find something better. To that end she has put in applications at several other jobs that would use her past training to better advantage than what she is doing right now. All in all, she is doing pretty well, but she certainly would appreciate your prayers. 

And so would we.