Rough starts, not so black Friday, guard birds

Getting started this week is proving difficult. I could speculate that much of it has to do with the fact that we are getting back from a week at the farm; which is pretty close to a vacation for Mama and me. Some of it may have to do with the fact that I have been having trouble sleeping the past several nights. Being at the end of an extended fast may influence my motivation levels. But I think I would have to admit that most of my less than stellar attitude comes from the fact that we are very limited financially; not that God is not blessing. He is. It is just that our needs are expanding and our wants are at near epic proportions.


Some of that is to be expected with the development of the farm. Much of it is due to the approaching holidays. I think it weighs very heavy on Mama and by default, therefore, on me. I have managed to set aside a little money for each of our children, but it is nowhere near the amount Mama is used to having access to. This coming Black Friday is going to be a little more toward Light Grey.

We are planning on going to Denton the morning after Thanksgiving and see what we can do in preparation for Christmas, but we have no agenda for the money; at least I do not. And the only planning I have heard from Mama does not involve anyone over the age of four. But we will see how things go and we will make the most of the time together.

We are planning on visiting my Mom and Dad later that afternoon, where we will spend the night. Our hope is to make it over to visit Sarah and Fabian on Saturday late morning and stay into the evening. It should only be about three hours to Bowie from their home in Rogers which would put us back there late on Saturday night. We will then return to Amarillo after church, and probably dinner, on Sunday afternoon. It will be a very busy time – much of which I will be on call for work.

I am now officially dog poor. We have two of the pups sleeping at our back door. Victoria is getting worried about the temperatures we are expecting over the next several nights but I would rather not ever bring the dogs into the house. I have to leave through that door every weekday morning at 0430 and I would rather not have to deal with the dogs trying to storm the house when I open the door to leave. I had to deal with that issue with some kittens on our farm in West Virginia. Mama was not happy with the way I dealt with that issue; neither of them will be happy how I deal with the dogs if they create a problem for me.

We also bought, and relocated to the farm, four guineas. We think we have three hens and a male. Someone described them as resembling a bunch of AWOL army helmets, but we are told they will keep tick populations under control, find and kill snakes, and serve as alarm systems for their territory – without the fear of getting sued for a guard dog biting an intruder. We were told to keep them in a coop or cage for about a month. Then let out only one, keeping the others in the coop. After one week let another out and so on until all are free ranging. They will adopt their own territory and keep it under surveillance at all times. They love to roost in high places which gives them a decided advantage for keeping an eye on things.

Along with the dogs and the donkeys, if they come, who needs ADT?

Dog additions, farm updates, Mama

Mama is going back this morning to get one more dog: a little female, cousin to the male we got, to have a pair of the dogs for future use. We decided not to get more than the one since it would tie up too much money to try to sell the four or five we would not be keeping. I certainly do not want to be stuck with more than two of these brutes. I have to keep cautioning Mama and Victoria that these are going to be really large dogs even though it is hard to imagine it right now.


Victoria is getting quite attached to the little male and Mama is already worried that these dogs will not think of her as Mama – the way Rosie does. That will change as we are around them more in the future. For right now, I need for Victoria to be the unquestioned authority in their lives. It really is making her happy to have the little ones to give her attention to. I only hope when her husband finds her that she likes him as much as the dogs.

We are going to have a bonfire at the farm tonight. The ground is moist enough to handle a fire and we have a lot of things to burn, Most of the stuff is remnants of the garage we just tore down. We have salvaged about all that can be reused or repurposed from the building and now it is time to clear the building site so we can repurpose that. I am planning on staying out on the farm well into the night to keep the fire going and, hopefully, to see what animal is trying to dig into the chicken coop. It has been many years since I have done a night watch over chickens. I am looking forward to the assignment. I only wish the dogs were old enough to be there with me since I am not tuned to hear the things they would. I am praying that the burros will come tomorrow or Saturday so we will have some consistent protection over the livestock we are accumulating.

Tomorrow Grandpa and I will put up at least two walls on the pig building and take a load of scrap iron to Bridgeport to be sold. The latter will give us an idea of whether or not we can do any good selling the scrap off of the farm. There are thousands of pounds of junk needing to be hauled off or dumped in a hollow – our preference is to haul it off. Grandpa is hoping to recoup enough money to get a couple pigs and enough feed for several months. We will see if it works out that way.

Mama and I will be going home late Saturday. I am looking forward to being in my bed again. We are sharing a double or full size bed now; a far cry from a king size bed. I am not sure why it is called a double size since a king is the size of two twin mattresses. Pastor Miller once told me that the full or double designation comes from being the size of two crib mattresses. If so, it must never have been intended for two adults to share. Thank God someone thought of queen and king size mattresses.

Mama is getting better slowly. Evenings are tough for her. The sinus infection has her pretty worn out by then. Nights are tough for us both since she has real trouble breathing. She has been taking Nyquil in its recommended doses so she is able to sleep most of the night; not so much for me, but it is getting better. I will be off tomorrow so I will not be as concerned about the hours of sleep gotten or not gotten.

Saturday morning Grandpa and I are going to an auction to see what things sell for. Neither of us has any money to spend so it will be for information only – at least that is the plan. There are several items of interest to us, but I need an idea of relative worth in order to know if the price in an add is a good price or not. Grandpa is often a big help in that area; at least in the times his price structure is current rather than a decade or more out of date, which we often laugh about.

Chase is enjoying having the truck even though, with the transmission problem it has, he drove almost the entire way home in first gear – at 25 miles per hour. My teenager, tearin’ up the roads.

Mama, Chase, more dogs, the outhouse, chickens

Mama and I went to the doctor yesterday since she was feeling so badly in the morning. We went to a clinic in Bowie and after the initial visit I think we will be going there from now on. Mama has been fighting a very severe sinus infection. The doctor we spoke to said it has been making its rounds across north Texas and there is nothing modern medicine can provide to make it go away. He offered a steroid shot which we declined and suggested some over the counter medications which Mama was already taking.

She almost did not go since she was feeling better by the time I got to her. I left the office early so I could be there with her at the doctor’s office and she called me on the way to tell me she was better and was thinking about not going. We went anyway. I think we were both glad we did; more to meet the doctor than to solve the mystery concerning her ailment. Our biggest concern was that she had strep throat and since she did not we will keep doing what we are doing even though it is short changing her on her time here at the farm. She really does not like being sick.

Every time she is sick she tells people it has been several years since she was last sick – even though it has only been about six months. I corrected her this time when she was talking to Grandma and Grandpa and she was really surprised that I could think of a recent sickness. I told her I would check my blog entries for verification, but I probably won’t.

Chase and Victoria got home fine and in plenty of time for him to get to work. He is like someone else I know that likes to show up early. The truck did fine and the stormy weather they left in here in Bowie dissipated before they got to Wichita Fall. They thought the trip was an easy one also -as Mama and I have often said to each other. Victoria wanted to come back right away. They took both of the dogs with them even though Victoria was worried about leaving the pup for long periods of time after his relocation to Amarillo, but we were more concerned with Mama feeling badly that it would be too much for her to take care of the remainder of this week.

Since the man that is selling the pups has about a dozen left and he mentioned having trouble getting rid of them and since the pet shop near our Jennie house seemed very interested in the pup, I offered a suggestion. We could ask the man if he would extend his offer of selling a pup to us for $75 to selling us five pups at that price. We would then take them to Amarillo, clean them up and sell them for $200 each. Victoria and Mama want a pair and that wound give us four to sell – doubling our money. Mama and Victoria like the idea, we are waiting on the seller.

Grandpa and I put the finishing touches on the outhouse he built on the farm. It is pretty cute. It was put to immediate use last night – as soon as toilet paper was made available. We even provided a little shelving unit and a magazine rack for future occupants. I would like to have a sign like Victoria saw on a bathroom door in one of the homes she stayed in for Heather’s wedding. It read, “Reading limited to short stories and poems.” Grandma found a plaque of “Outhouse Rules” that was pretty cute, but I don’t remember them. I will have to update that tomorrow.

I took the rifles to the farm last night to see if I was even close on the job I did of sighting in the scope: turned out that I was pretty close. At one hundred yards, I put the first shot on the target when I shot from a standing position. The second shot, from a kneeling position was very hear the first. Then I compensated and shot again from a kneeling position and hit the bull’s-eye. I was happy enough with that. To really adjust the scope I will have to set up a bench to take out the wobble and jerk in my shooting, but what I have is close enough to start.

Mama was petting the chickens last night. Grandpa has the Rhode Island Red’s so tame that he has to be diligent about keeping the coop door shut of they will follow him out. It is anyone’s guess if we could get them back into the coop. We were looking at nesting boxes on our way home from the doctor yesterday. We were not impressed with the price but Grandpa seemed to be. We will not need it until some time around March. The question is whether or not it will still be available then.

Patience.

Chase and Victoria, Texas green, not the pup I expected, counting

Chase and Victoria head back this morning with the little truck. Chase was wanting to leave the topper here and reveal the pickup look for his use in Amarillo but it will be taken off there and stored somewhere close to the house. The idea as they spoke last night was to leave around 7 a.m. and get home well in advance of his starting time at 2 p.m; enough that he could get his work uniform ready in plenty of time. Mama wanted to start them off in the morning so the early departure was not setting well with her. I will find out later how all of that went. Meanwhile I will pray that they make it safely. The little pickup has a couple of minor mechanical issues that are annoying but do not greatly limit its use. I will probably worry more about them than Chase will.


Green grass really does grow in Texas. For the first time since we first saw the property it is more green than brown. The ground is soft under foot and the smell is more of life than the dormant dead, dusty smell it had when we first walked over it. I told Grandpa that if it has looked like this when we first found it, we would not have been able to get it for the price we paid. It really is beautiful. Grandma is able to pick buckets full of grass to feed the chickens and not even notice the place where it was pulled from. In West Virginia this was always the case, it is a new and almost inspiring experience to do that here. God really is blessing this little farm.

Mama did get a pup yesterday; a little male. He was very dirty and very flea infested but she saw what she liked and he came home with them. Victoria gave it a bath last night and he did look much better. He is solid white and fluffy – at least after his bath. Mama told me they were looking for the “badger faced” pups but none of that litter impressed her so the one we have does not have that quality.

He was protesting very loudly this morning when I got up. Although he is very quiet when he is free, he does not like the kennel. I let him out to go potty and he quieted down right away. As soon as I put him away the protests began in earnest. I will be surprised if it did not disturb someone in the house. I left earlier than I would have liked to because I felt like my moving around the house was only adding to the whining and there was no place for me to sit while I was waiting on 5 a.m.

With Chase on the couch in Grandma’s living room and Victoria in her bedroom, I have had to do my Bible reading sitting on the side of the tub. It is not too uncomfortable but it does keep me focused as I read. My routine will change back tomorrow to what I have been doing every other week Mama and I have spent here, but it is really a small sacrifice to be here. No one is in the office when I get there in the morning anyway so it does not really matter how early I arrive.

I plan to take Friday off so I can spend the day out on the farm. Grandpa is at the point on a couple of projects that he needs a little help and I hope to provide that. My back has not been good lately so I have to be careful no matter what I do, but I think us two old men can figure out some way to make things work in our favor. What Grandpa has been able to do on his own is impressive. I am probably the only one who can see it clearly – besides Grandma who has watched him do most of it – but I am constantly surprised by the progress.

Pastor was telling the story of a child asking his father how high he had ever counted. A little caught off guard the father could not come up with a number but instead asked, “How high have you counted?” Without even thinking the son responded, “7352” A little surprised the father asked, “Why did you stop counting at 7352?” The son responded matter-of factly, “The sermon was over.”

Road trip for Chase, Mama sick, Answers to prayer

As we drove over to Bowie last night, Victoria let Chase drive most of the distance. He did well on the open road. It was only after we hit rain in the dark that he started to slow down drastically. By that time we were within fifteen miles or so of Bowie. Overall he did a good job with the Lincoln on the highway. We stopped to fill up the Lincoln on the way and ended up overfilling the tank. Part of the spill got on Chase’s shirt sleeve. He put the shirt in a plastic bag from the convenience store and they endured the residual smell for the remainder of the trip – about two hours. The two of them had Rosie with them. I think she suffered the most.


Both the Lincoln and the van were loaded up with the items we are relocating to Bowie to have available to the kids when each of them have the opportunity to come over and collect them. I did not take all the seats out of the van for this trip so we were not able to get all the stored items in this trip, but we got a large portion of them. Every little bit helps clear out the garage. That is the goal I am striving for. In this trip the Lincoln will stay here and the little Ranger will go back to Amarillo so Chase can drive it – even though it will only be for a few weeks. He is excited about it.

Mama and Victoria are both a little sick today. Both have a sore throat and a little bit of a fever. I do not think Mama slept well again last night but it is hard for me to gauge until she tells me when we talk in the morning. She and Victoria are going to go to look at some pups this morning and I have a strong suspicion they will be able to agree on at least one to bring home. We are looking to Victoria to raise the pup to be a farm guard dog – to our little livestock. I am told that that is the nature of the Great Pyrenees. Time will tell, but at least they will get to see the dogs in their current farm attending situation. That, in and of itself, should be worth the trip.

Grandpa handed me a letter last night after church addressed to me at the farm address. It was from the tax assessor’s office and I almost did not open it. I have the first letter taped to the prayer rail (actually it is just the window sill) in my office in Borger so I thought I knew what was. Turned out I was wrong. It was a corrected tax statement for the amount we would owe if the farm had been properly registered for the Ag exemption. It was for $790 instead of $2400 as we were originally told. I am not sure what happened, but I know the Lord is behind it. Encouragement like that makes you want to keep praying.

I will not see the farm until after work today but Grandpa tells me the grass is over twelve inches tall and the tanks are quickly filling up. It will be such a change from the image I have in my mind of the dry fields and the parched ground. I was only beginning to see some hopeful signs of growth the last time we were here. Since then it has rained almost every week. Today the rain is supposed to continue through the day into the early evening so Mama and the kids were planning on cleaning the up stairs portion of the farmhouse. I have a feeling that will be put on hold as badly as she was feeling last night, but she surprises me with her enthusiasm every time we are over here.

We made it to the church here about ten minutes late but it all worked out well since when we got there Grandma was giving a testimony and it took up all the time we needed to get to the bathroom and get the proper footwear on for services. They are a pleasant group of people and they are doing a great work in the community but I think we will miss our very active, prayerful church when we make the move over here permanently. The important thing for now is that Grandma and Grandpa are happy in this church. It is their church, not ours and for some reason that is important to Grandma.

Pray for Victoria. The press will be on to make her choose to move to Bowie soon. I am not in favor of it at this point and will freely say so, because it is too soon for her to leave the church we are in right now. It will happen soon, but now does not impress me as being the right time and those of you who know Grandma can imagine what I am talking about.

New plans, dogs, money and life

Somehow, in my absence yesterday, plans changed for the coming weekend. It looks like Chase is going with us to get the Ranger pickup that is in Bowie. The plans – which have not been coordinated with his work schedule – are for him and Victoria to drive the Lincoln over to Bowie and drive the truck back. He is pretty excited about the prospect of driving the pickup versus the Lincoln. It will work out better in many areas of our lives at the moment to have access to the truck.


We have called on multiple dogs we have seen advertized trying to zero in on one for Victoria to raise, but there have no responses that I have heard about. I realize I am going to bed pretty early compared to the rest of the house, and I am writing this hours before they get up, but as of my bedtime last night there was no word. I am not overly concerned other than the fact that I will have to trip over another four legged poop machine.

Mama was particularly interested in one add I came across. It was for a Basenji. The one characteristic of that dog that caught my attention is that they do not bark. I have no idea what they do to make up for that lack, in other words, where that expressive energy will manifest, but I could do without the bark; especially when raising the dog with Rosie, who is quite expressive in that area.

Mama and Victoria are still planning on going to see the Great Pyrenees pups and I cannot see any way to avoid bringing one home, unless the conditions are so bad that we walk away. If we do eventually get the Jerusalem donkeys and have one of the large dogs I think there will be enough security on the farm to allay most of our fears of natural predators. Grandma is still excited about the possibility of selling one of the donkeys but I so not see it happening the way she envisions it.

Cleanup is progressing on the little farm house but all the other projects are slowing down for lack of materials. Grandpa outfitted another chicken coop and has the hog house near completion. He is waiting on materials for the floor of the hog building. It may continue to wait until later in November. I am praying for finances for these projects but I do not think they rate as high in God’s hierarchy as they do in mine so we are falling back to patience, persistence and planning.

Mama and I are finally getting a budget working and the difference is noticeable. There are a lot less purchases of cute, unnecessary items and more of durable necessary things. One thing I have noticed is that she is buying less cereal. Some of that is because our household is dwindling; the rest is due to the high prices of cereal. I have heard that peanut butter went up 40% yesterday, but I have not conferred with Mama to verify that. If it is indeed true, Seth will either have to get a big raise or have a significant change in diet to survive.

Like all things within the free market system, when the price gets too high people will quit buying. When people quit buying, supplies stack up and the price is dropped until people eventually start buying again. We were warned about the coming price increase, but I did not see the prudence in spending what little money we had stocking up on peanut butter when we needed milk, bread and eggs on a more regular basis; as healthy as it may be, it is no substitute for good nutrition.

It may however, have been wiser to buy peanut butter with the money we have spent on dogs lately. Though they are used as a source of meat in the Philippines, the idea is not immediately appealing to Mama and Victoria. Since I cannot eat the donkeys either, I suppose the farm will have to maintain animals that I cannot eat although that was my original purpose.

I only hope they do not get too attached to the edible animals. If that happens, I will just convert the farm to a petting zoo.

Joke, our Harvest Party, Chase alone, Prison Revival

As we began leadership meeting yesterday the pastor read a joke he had come across. At a political rally two very proud liberal parents brought their eight year old up to be introduced to the visiting politician. Seeing the obviously proud parents, he asked “What would you do if you were president?” Without hesitation the little girl responded, “I would make sure every homeless person had a place to live and food to eat.” Her parents just beamed. “You don’t have to wait until you are president to do something”, the politician explained, “Come over to my house and mow the grass, wash my car and weed the flower bed and I will give you $50. Then I can take you to where the homeless people stay and you can pick out a homeless man to give the money to so he can buy some food and pay for a place to sleep.” The little girl thought for a moment then asked, “Why don’t we just get the homeless man to mow your yard, wash your car and weed the flower bed? Then we can give the money to him for the work?” Whereupon the politician extended his hand and said ‘Welcome to the Republican party.”


The pastor also gave a report of the Harvest Party we had done last Friday night. Though we did not take an official head count, there were over one hundred children along with many parents. We had a houseful. There were 39 professions of faith – mostly from the children. We will be doing follow up for months to come. I personally shared the Gospel with three young boys and all three prayed to receive Christ. One youngster is a favorite of Mama and Victoria so we will hopefully be doing that particular visit. The pastor made a very valid point of instruction to all of us. If we do not win the parents many of these young believers will fall away because there will be no one to hold them close to the Lord; a sad, but true thought.

Both Victoria and Chase have long days today. Mama and Chase are going to practice driving the Lincoln later today or tomorrow so Chase can use it to shuttle himself to church and to work while Mama and I are in Bowie. The very fact that he is willing to drive an ‘87 Lincoln shows his desperation for independence. On Sunday evening he will be totally alone since Victoria will be going over with us through Tuesday evening. I am a little concerned, not because Chase has given us any reason to be worried, but because he is a teenager – a teenager with a girlfriend. That is the most dangerous teenager of all.

I am going to have Mama let the young lady’s parents know that Chase will be home alone until Tuesday evening so they are aware of the possibility of deception. It is always better to set up some accountability because we can never be certain what temptations will be tried in the absence of the normal deterrents. I hope Chase will not take too much offence to it. I do the same thing for myself. For instance, I do not get on the computer when I am alone in the house – too many temptations. If I am so affected by temptation after serving the Lord for over forty years and after 29 years of marriage, I know it affects my teenage son.

Today begins a revival at one of the prison units here in Amarillo. I will get to participate on Saturday, but the actual revival begins today. I am a little more fearful than usual about going to the prison to do soul winning. We were given some pretty stern warnings about how to deal with the men in the prison and I know that I am very gullible – a weakness they can easily spot and prey upon. Knowing that, I am praying for a very strong partner to spend that time with me.

An old saying is that God protects idiots and fools; I am or have been guilty in both categories.