We go the car and the mobile home, ancillary projects, Joshua

We got a call from the bank yesterday afternoon that we had been approved for a loan on the little car. We are going to meet with the bank today to sign papers and take the car home. Chase’s truck will be put in reassigned parking in back of the house by the detached garage, but it is really a place of honor since I parked my company vehicle there for the short time I had one.


We met yesterday evening with the mobile home people to review that loan. It comes with an exorbitant interest rate and what may turn out to be expensive insurance, but we will have to deal with that as best we can. It is not a large loan, it is not a long term loan but it is difficult financing to arrange so we will accept it and pay it as we look for other options and seek to pay it off early. The payments with insurance and taxes will be about $380 per month. Since the rent Grandma and Grandpa are currently paying is $675 per month, it should be fairly easy for them to keep up with.

While we were out yesterday we found the tubing Grandpa needs to put together the sprayer. He needs about one hundred feet and we were able to find forty six feet at a farm supply store. They are ordering another seventy five foot roll that we will buy when it comes in. Grandpa is getting really excited about his sprayer project. So far it has cost me around $900. I think the final cost will end up at about $1400; for a five hundred gallon sprayer with a thirty foot reach, that’s a bargain.

Mama has a company lined up to do the septic as soon as the trailer is set and Grandpa and I are already planning the electrical and water connections. They plan on paying rent through April so they will have the whole month to make the move. We have tentatively set up the delivery of the mobile home to the farm for the 29th of March. By May Grandma, Grandpa and Victoria should be living on the farm. Hopefully, our turn is coming soon.

Mama spent some time talking to Joshua on Sunday. He is doing quite well after his relocation to Victoria, TX. He is living with Master Joskie’s father who is in his mid eighties. It is a good arrangement for everyone. The father has a sound car which Joshua is free to use and may be given at some future date since the elderly gentleman cannot drive. Joshua has been going through a series of interviews with Sam’s and has a very good chance to get a job there, however, there may be better options.

Somehow he connected with a man who runs a safety company that does oversight for several oil companies in the Victoria area and he was impressed enough with Joshua to offer him a job. From what I know of the oil field, that would be a VERY good job; not only from the standpoint of pay, but also from the standpoint of advancement potential and marketability. It is an aspect of the industry that will not be going away, regardless of economic influences.

As he pursues work, Joshua is making arrangements to complete his Black Belt and take courses that will translate into a private practice of alternative healing; pressure point therapy, massage therapy, magnetic therapy and herbal counseling. I hope he makes it there much sooner that I have been able to.

Meanwhile, back on the farm…The pigs are on the mend. The horse is getting very close to delivery. The trees, vines and bushes are flowering. The onions, peas, beans and corn are poking through the ground in the garden. We should be able to see the potato plants introducing themselves to the north Texas sun when we get there next weekend.

Grandpa will access the hail damage from violent thunderstorms yesterday when he goes to the farm this morning. The heavy rains are predicted to continue through today, minus the severe thunder storms. The plowing is done in the meadow but we will have to wait until things dry out to disk and put the seed in the ground.

We are very close to seeing our vision for the farm become a reality.

More shopping, some spending

Mama and I had a very busy Friday evening and Saturday. I had her looking at new cars on Friday since we were considering buying the 2009 Saturn Versa from relatives of someone we know at Happy State Bank. I wanted to see the difference in both equipment and price before we even looked at the car; which we had scheduled for sometime on Saturday. So I met Mama at the house and we went to the dealer and test drove one of the little cars. It was better than I expected for a little car.


After we saw the dealer we went to 2J Motors to test drive a 2004 Dodge 2500 Diesel Crew Cab. I really liked the way it drove but I noticed later that evening that I had some suet on my boots. The only place I could imagine it to have come from was the diesel truck. On the same lot they had a 2008 Versa with 40k miles on it that they wanted $8950 for. So Mama and I are pretty convinced that the one we are looking at is a good buy. We will talk to the bank today about it.

I have to meet Mama at 4 p.m. today to take her to the mobile home dealer so we can sign the closing paperwork. I have yet to find out the finance charge we have been accessed or how long the term of the note will be. We are told all that will be worked out at closing. It is not a show stopper either way. We plan to pay off the note in only a couple years. I am actually more concerned about pulling together the money for the septic system than anything else.

I have spent very little time wondering if Grandma and Grandpa will like the mobile home. I suppose it is important on some level since they have agreed to make the payments on it, but I keep remembering that the money being spent is for a purchase rather than rent and all the items in the home will be ours. Where they now rent almost all of the furniture belongs to the owner – as well as plates, cups, bowls, pots and pans, etc. We will have to unpack quite a bit of stuff to outfit a home of our own now.

On the way home Friday night I let Mama look at a furniture store she really likes and we found a sofa she liked in the clearance corner. After we agreed to pay the $350 for it we discovered it was also a double recliner; an added bonus. We also found the corner piece of a sectional in the same fabric, same color, for $33. With the lack of furniture in Grandma and Grandpa’s possession we bought it to go in the trailer. To it we will add the two recliners we have in Amarillo so they will have some living room furniture when they move in.

When I got up Saturday morning my back was pretty sore so we contracted help to get the furniture rearranged. The tan love seat which is a double recliner was given to the De La Garzas in exchange for the sofa being moved into the house. As it turned out, it matched the sofa they had been given earlier. It displaced Rosie for a moment but she found a new spot to nest on the new sofa.

Mama is happy for the moment. Rosie is happy. It makes very little difference to me. I am pleased to have the cash to make it happen. Since we will have to make payment on the taxes we owe, I elected to use some of the money I had set aside to pay taxes to make the purchases.

I hope it will be money wisely spent.

The funeral, the farm, crazy schedules, Chase

The funeral yesterday was pleasant and unremarkable. It was officiated by a female pastor of a local church who was so afraid of offending that she spoke in vague platitudes and veiled religious comments; nothing of substance. Nothing of Christ – whom the woman obviously knew personally from the testimony of her heirs. Her prayers were so short, so aloof and so unfamiliar with God that I left wondering if she knew him.


I am glad I attended the event. The woman who works for me was very glad to see me there. I sat with her friend and another employee of mine through the service and learned the family and extended family’s names and associations to the deceased. That made it a little more personal. It reminded me that we all leave a heritage, whether good or evil, we all leave a heritage. Hers seemed to be a good one. The Lord knows.

I put one of Victoria’s pictures of our overflowing pond on my computer as a desktop background. I am starting to wonder if that was a good idea. All the time I am working on my computer it is peeking around the open program, reminding me of where I would much rather be. I do not think it is a bad thing, but it may end up being distracting. Fortunately, the background is easily changed – the heart is not so quick.

Mama and I will be headed that way in only a couple of weeks. This time I have scheduled vacation for a week. The only caveat is that my brother Steve and his wife, Diane, will be visiting my mom and dad during that week so I should take the time – two days – and drive down to see all of them. I really do not want to give up two days on the farm but it is a rare opportunity. The added benefit is that we could stop by Discount Trees in Brenham and get several pecan trees on our way back to the farm – if any are available.

It will be especially difficult to get away if the mobile home is delivered during the week I have off. We did get approved, by the way. No surprise there. Mama and I go on Monday to sign the papers and arrange for delivery. If we are able to get the septic system done quickly, we should be able to move Grandma, Grandpa and Victoria by the middle of April. The end of the month would be very doable. That would thrill all of them and it wouldn’t upset me either.

One of the problems I am having is maintaining the proper focus on all of the very large projects I have going – at work, at home and at the farm. Graduations, weddings, planting, setting up a home at the farm, construction projects, equipment purchases, vacations and travel planning all tend to mount the pressure. Although I think of myself as a fiscal conservative, it has not reflected in my financial dealings of late. We will get through all this and probably continue to run from one series of crisis to another. Such is life when there are multiple families involved. The fact that I have not gone completely broke amazes me…only by His Grace.

Mama told me Chase was none too pleased about being gone a majority of the month of June. He is anxious to get back to work so his checking account balance does not go to zero. I admire the drive to earn money, but it may be sidetracked by the family plans, from which he is too young to escape. We will be in Florida during the latter half on the month of June and I plan on being in Bowie for the first week of July. That puts us back in Amarillo the second week of July. With college starting soon after he is already feeling the heat.

College is something we still need to spend quite a bit of time talking about.

Confidence; sort of, our new lake, updates

Mama got multiple calls yesterday concerning items on our credit report as the finance company looks it over. Robert Kiyosaki says our Credit Report is the only report card we have as adults and it tells the bank if we are a genius or a moron. I am somewhere squarely in the middle. I am expecting word either late today or tomorrow. I do not foresee a problem, but I always leave room for one so that I do not become overconfident. Since we were allowed to finance the farm for considerably more, I don’t think the small amount we are asking for will create an issue, but we will know for sure soon.

Victoria sent some pictures of the tank we have been watching closely. It is now a lake. I am guessing it to be over twenty five feet deep now. To think I walked last week on ground that is now under ten feet of water is impressive. The brush Grandpa piled at the edges of the fingers of the gullies that the water now fills has been converted from rabbit sets to fish habitat. I am tempted to get a hatchery to deliver a load of fish next month. At least at this point it would be easy access.

None of us have any idea how long the water level will remain this high, but we can now be sure the enclosure can handle it. It lends an air of confidence to the planting we hope to do since we have gone from extreme drought to overflowing tanks. If nothing else, water should be available through the summer and well into the fall. Grandpa and I both have confidence in the overflow system built into this tank. I only regret we did not build some hiding places for small fish while the level was lower.

Mama and I are planning on attending a garage sale this weekend being held in the Civic Center. I have heard how big this thing is but it will be fun to see it first hand. It will be much more pleasant than cruising different neighborhoods in the fierce winds we are expecting Friday and Saturday. We have no real needs but, who knows, we might find some things we did not realize we needed as we look around.

I do know one thing I would like to have more of is canning jars. We are seriously short on supplies for that activity and it will be upon us all too soon as the garden, fruit trees, grape vines and berry bushes start to produce. Sadly, we were not able to buy any pecan trees. The drought limited production to the point that there were none for sale in this area. It will put me a year behind on the plan I am rolling out, but we will survive.

Maggie is almost half way through the seventy day absence of Aaron’s most recent tour of duty. She is encouraged that the countdown fell below forty. She is looking for a job in the area and has met with little success so we have to continue to pray for her.

Victoria is vacillating between liking her job because it gives her something to do that she gets paid for and not liking her job because the “something to do” comes at times when she does not want to be doing something, or would rather be doing something else. Such is life.

Today I am planning to attend the funeral of a family member of one of the ladies who works for me. Her mother passes away last Sunday. I have no idea if her mother was saved. I have no idea if she is saved. I do want to express my condolences and support her in her loss. I am saddened by the thought that her mother’s eternity could be an eternity without God.

Reality

As soon as I stepped in the door yesterday evening Mama blindsided me with the “need” to spend $1000 on plane tickets to get her, Chase and Jake from New Jersey and to get her to New Jersey so they could make the trip back together. I thought I had come home to get her so we could go test drive a truck – little did I know. It took me a good half hour to get my head wrapped around that as reality set in.


I will put $3500 down to purchase the trailer we are buying. I will have to spend $3500 on a septic system to make the trailer livable. I will need about $3500 to put a metal roof and concrete floor in the shop so it will be ready for hay. To finish the hay I will need a baler which will cost about $3500. Added to all of that, the trip to and from Brittany’s wedding as well as my part in it financially will be somewhere close to…you guessed it, $3500. It will be interesting to see how this all works out but reality is such a wet blanket.

If you have not guessed we are going to have to pass on the truck and it is probably a good thing. The more I thought about it the more I saw it as an accident waiting to happen. Besides, I explained to Mama that it would be very unwise to make payments on a used vehicle that would ultimately raise our fuel consumption by $150 to $200 per month on top of the loan payments.

All in all, I feel good about that decision. I am not nearly so thrilled about the air fare costs – especially since I am not able to go. It is something that Mama needs to do for Chase, especially since I am not able to afford to go. It is his graduation, after all.

When we get back from Brittany and Andrew’s wedding I will have time to lick my financial wounds and see how to survive the remainder of the year. We are half way through March, thinking about June and July and planning for the last half of 2012.

No wonder it goes by so fast.

Shopping

Mama came to Borger to get me yesterday since I had to return the truck I had been driving for a couple weeks. I do enjoy driving the loaner that I have available to me at work – especially since the company pays for the gas. I suppose that is why my boss is so aggressively pursuing the mandate from his boss to get rid of all trucks not being used for company business. Many of these vehicles are being used as nothing more than commuter vehicles and have no work related purpose. I am starting to gather the information on costs (about $38,000 per month for fuel) so I understand the drive.


Anyway, Mama and I went to a used car dealership to look at one particular truck to see if we could get it at a cheap price. When we got the keys for the truck we had come to see I gave them to Mama and asked her to start it as I popped the hood. She stretched over from the passenger seat, put the key in the ignition and turned it. When the truck started she screamed and scared the salesman to death. Turns out the exhaust from the header back had been removed so it was pretty loud. I am guessing the catalytic convertor had been sold prior to taking the truck to auction. Nothing worked well on it and all “improvements” the previous owner had done were yet to be completed.

It was not a difficult decision to walk away from that one. It was not worth near the money they were asking for it, but we did find a Dodge diesel that we are interested in. It was so low on fuel that I was hesitant to drive it. We will go back tonight to test it out and see of we can negotiate a reasonable price. When I gave the particulars to Grandpa, he was very interested.

On our way back into Amarillo we stopped at a mobile home dealer to see if they had something we would be interested in for the farm. We have decided to get a used mobile home to set on the farm to house us until we get one of the two houses livable. We did find a single wide trailer that we were interested enough in to put a deposit on it to hold it until we investigate financing. It is both exciting and frightening.

Mama and I need a dependable second vehicle and we need to buy one that will meet our long term needs. Since we can only do this once we have to be careful to choose wisely. Grandma and Grandpa need to lower their expenses. Moving onto the farm is the option of choice but there is no habitable dwelling. Buying a used mobile home is a good stopgap; rent becomes a purchase and that at one third the price.

But there is a scary little four letter word associated with all of this: debt. I do not have sufficient cash in hand so I have to leverage the purchase with debt. It stretches out our cash, but it does make us a slave to the lender – even if it is short term. Grandma and Grandpa would happily make the payments on the mobile home and when the little house is ready we can sell the mobile home so they will recoup a large portion of the cost. Sounds like a pretty good plan. We’ll see how it plays out.

As for the vehicle purchase, things are not nearly so clear cut. Buying any vehicle, new or used, truck or car, it is always an expense. Such a purchase should never be made with the thought toward recouping expenses. Some consideration can be given to resale value but that is always iffy. If you dwell on that you will not really enjoy the vehicle because you will tend to limit the miles driven, limit the activities it is used for, and frustrate yourself with every little splotch, stain or scratch. You will resent the purchase and so will everyone else in your life.

I buy vehicles to be used up. I have to look at this purchase through that same prism. With that thought in mind, the truck we will hopefully test drive this evening is the same size as the one I owned in New Jersey. I liked the truck, but Mama would not drive it – ever. If that is what will happen with this truck it would be a terrible waste of money. So I have to find out if she would really drive it, otherwise we pass on it and anything like it.

So many decisions.

Full to overflowing, church vs. life, work issues

Grandpa reported yesterday afternoon that the big tank is almost full to overflowing. There is a very well engineered overflow and I am anxious to see it in service. The creek that was dammed up across the road is now flowing from the overflow of that tank and in only a couple days we should be seeing the full promise I received of the Lord in the height of the drought. He promised He would fill the tanks to overflowing when the level of this particular tank was about twenty feet lower than it is now. Maybe this summer we will stock the tank and be able to fish from it late in the fall.


All this wet weather has given Grandpa a chance to see where our fields hold water and he is devising a plan to ensure better drainage. With the way all the collection areas are laid out we should have water where we want for a couple months. We will have to work on the areas where we do not want water to stand. It will be interesting to see if we have to deal with mosquitoes in the smaller collection pools. Right now we are elated to have an abundance of water knowing full well it will not last long.

Mama and I will go back late this month and I will take vacation the first week of April after which I will stay in Bowie and work from the Decatur office through the following week. That will put us in the church in Bowie for Easter Sunday. We will miss seeing the little ones in their Easter clothing at our church here in Amarillo. I spoke to the pastor last night to tell him we would be out quite a bit through the months of April, May and June. He was not pleased but Mama and I are obligated to many other family events through that time and there is little way to get it done from Amarillo. We will probably be replaced in our Children’s Church functions for that time.

Mama and I have always placed a high value on church attendance and we do hate to miss. We will be in church during every one of the services we will miss at our primary church, but we will be missed at Central Baptist Church in Amarillo. It is very often not Mama and I who suffer the loss but the congregation we normally worship with feels the empty place we leave behind. Our little ones in the Children’s church will miss Mama Kim.

I have been given several more unpleasant details to manage at work. The least palatable is to offer to my boss a more streamlined (read that smaller) organization. I have been asked, along with two of my peers, to take my group from twelve people to eight while they shrink their groups also. It is starting as a paper exercise, but it will not stop there. Our boss feels compelled to get rid of any contract employees in order to absorb a financial cut he sees coming. Sounds prudent - but painful.

Before I forget, the pigs have been given shots to fight a serious worm and parasite infestation. Grandpa is very unhappy about it. That kind of infestation can easily spread around the farm. Victoria took the lead on cornering the pigs one at a time so Mama could play nurse. Grandpa was very impressed with them both. Next week we will have the vet look at specimens again to see if further medication is needed. He told Mama it was one of the worst infestations he had ever seen, leading us to believe we may have more work on our hands. My one worry is that the dogs tend to lick around on all excrement – the infected poop was no exception.

Sasha is now fixed. She is almost fully recuperated and was returned to the farm from her hospice care in Grandma’s house. Both Sasha and Grandma are relieved.