Insurance, shopping, pecking orders, lots of work ahead

The insurance adjuster is coming to the farm today to survey the damage to our roof. I have held off on too many repairs in order to leave the scars from the damage clearly visible but after he looks it over I will seal it up thoroughly in so I do not have to cringe every time it rains. I will replace the damaged panels soon but it will have to wait until I have the money and the time to do so. I am praying that insurance will help with the money part. Chase and Makaila, by the way, made out very well on the car they totaled recently.

We are scheduled to look at another property tonight before RU. I do not think I have looked at this this property listing online but Mama assures me that I have. It is south of Decatur. I really wanted to be north of Decatur but we are not finding anything in the price range we are willing to pay. We are trying to be very careful to let go of what we have only under the right circumstances.

I found a property listed on the website of the lender who holds the note to the farm. It too was south of town a few miles from the farm we will look at tonight. Unfortunately we will not have time to see both because of prior commitments, but I am considering taking my lunch hour to go to see that property. I have not gotten permission from Mama yet.

The realtor we agreed to list the farm with has not gotten back in touch with us for the paperwork he will need to start the listing. I realize it is a challenge to sell a farm these days but that is the role he has chosen; I can only hope he is up to the challenge.

As I went around spraying wasp nests on various structures I noticed the rooster and one of the guineas fighting. I got Mama’s attention and she and I watched as the pair continued to spar. I can only guess that the rooster won the contest because the guineas would not go into the coop last night. It will only be a matter of time now before we lose them because they will have to roost in the trees somewhere nearby.

Mama has mixed emotions about the outcome because she likes having the guineas but they have terrorized that poor rooster for months. Now that he has his spurs eh was able to put them in their place – outside of his coop.

This weekend I will finish the trim in the apartment and begin tile work on the shower. We are doing some deep cleaning of areas we have let go too long. That is one of the reasons I think everyone should move at regular intervals. It motivates us to take a hard look at what things we are accumulating and what areas we are neglecting. If only it did not take a move or the prospect of a move to motivate us to do what has been needed all along.

I finally got some much needed rest last night. I am not sure why I am having trouble sleeping. We have been through the struggles of listing and selling property, packing and moving our belongings, prepping a place for showing to prospective buyers, etc.  It very well could be those things interrupting my rest but it seems like something more.

Time will tell.

Egg hunts, dry runs, more rain

It seems that every day is Easter on our farm. Even though Mama was mostly dressed for church last night she had to go on an egg hunt to gather what had been laid that day. Since we divided the coop in order to allow the little ones to grow to full size in a protected area the mature hens and rooster have been unhappy with the arrangement.

Now the hens are laying in a wheelbarrow in the barn, in a pile of hay in the hog building and in a recess by the equipment in the calf lot. At least those are the places Mama has discovered so far. We have been down on the total count of eggs both because of the discontent of the hens and the way they are laying in so many locations. Even I get confused.

We left Bowie quite early last night so we could look at a house just north of Decatur. It is not quite what we are looking for but the price and the attached acreage were within the range we are considering. When we got a good look at the property we were very disappointed. It is obvious why the house has been on the market for over a year.

The house is nice enough but it is smaller and less finished than many in the area. The acreage is a total bust. It is a very rocky area with very little depth of soil. The bulk of the property that goes with the house is a gully and the only really usable land has a battery of oil tanks with a pump jack sitting on it; not exactly what we have in mind for a home – although it could work in Texas. Not only that, but the realtor stood us up.

It was raining pretty hard this morning when I left the apartment. With half of the porch roof missing and the tears in the damaged part of the roof over the apartment I am not confident that the repairs I made on Monday and Tuesday will hold out all the water but they should keep out the vast majority of the rain. I will know later when I get an update from Mama. Pray that we will hear from the insurance company soon so I know what I have to do to fully repair the storm damage.

We are enjoying the rain otherwise. It is much needed. The recent rainfall has our garden looking very good. Mama and Victoria worked in the garden for several hours yesterday and it looks so much better than the withered, weed infested rows we had a week ago. There is still a lot to be done but we are catching up and maybe getting a little ahead.

The rain did not come soon enough to save the blueberry plants I had in the little orchard. I am not sure there is any life left in them but I will water and care for them for another month to see if they will survive. If not, I will give their place to some other plant this fall.

It is an ongoing struggle to get trees started.

Hurting, cleaning, travel plans

The fall and the cleanup efforts of Monday morning have left me very stiff and sore. It is disappointing to be in this shape with so much still needing to be done. I wanted nothing more than to sit still yesterday evening when I got home but I could not. Knowing that we will be listing the farm motivated me to do some cleaning, discarding and rearranging of the shop and the area around it.

I told Mama we need to look with a very critical eye at what we have and where we have it. In order to have the pictures of the farm look half way decent we need to do a major cleaning of the property and buildings – beginning with our living quarters and working our way outward.

With that in mind I started in the shop last night. I only worked a couple hours but I nearly filled the dumpster with things that should have been discarded long ago. My rule of thumb was that if I did not want to pack it up to be moved it should probably be thrown out. It is amazing how much stuff Mama and I have just left lying around; gallon jugs, coffee cans, empty boxes, etc.

It was when I rearranged the shop that Mama really saw what I was getting done. I do not think she made a single trip to the dumpster but she did allow me more latitude than normal to put things into the dumpster. If we are not able to sell the farm, or are not offered enough to make it worthwhile to make the transition, we will at least have a much neater place to develop.

Tonight is church so we have arranged with a realtor to look at a property just outside of Decatur on the way to Denton. This is the ultimate shopping for Mama. Victoria is off today so she will be able to go with us for the initial viewing. She is more ambivalent toward the sale of the farm and resulting relocation. The way I am hurting today makes the idea seem a little more practical.

Mama is working through a travel agent in Victoria, TX to get the tickets we need to fly to Alaska to visit Maggie, Aaron and the baby. I have transferred the money so we should have the tickets in hand this week. The trip is set for some time around the 12^th of September. We are planning a day layover in Seattle, Washington so I can show Mama the northeast coast.

I traveled there with my family many years ago but Mama has never been. With the cost of the flights to AK it will not be a trip we will take very often so we are hoping to capitalize on the time in that part of the United States. We have not set an itinerary for the time either in Alaska or on the stop in Seattle, but we are looking forward to the trip.

On a more immediate note, I have to be in Houston next week for work. I hope to see Grandma and Grandpa Kline while I am down there. Mama may not go with me depending on what needs to be done on the farm to get it ready for pictures but for the moment we are planning on both of us making the trip; leaving Victoria to cover the farm chores.

One day we’ll settle down…maybe.

Rain, ruin and rejoicing

We have finally gotten rain. If I were to guess I would say that we got three inches at the farm yesterday. The only caveat to really enjoying the rain is that when the storm started a microburst tore off part of the porch roof on the apartment and in doing so ripped open a portion of the roof over the apartment.

Mama woke me about 3:30 a.m. Monday morning because there was a two by four knocking against the glass door on the front of our apartment. I had to go outside in the driving rain and bend the bracket holding it to the apartment wall back and forth until it broke free. I was thoroughly soaked in the process – and I nearly broke one toe on my left foot when I tripped and fell in the sloppy mud outside our front door. I was really disturbed by the roof panel that the porch roof had pealed back on the roof over the apartment. It was too dark to tell how bad the damage was but I knew it could be really bad.

I got out of my sopping pajamas and started mopping up the water now coming into the apartment through the ceiling and began to pray that the Lord would ease up the rain so we could hopefully minimize the damage to the apartment. It was a little less than an hour later that the rain let up. By that time Mama and I had wrung our twelve to fifteen gallons of water off the floor of the apartment – one soaked dishtowel at a time.

When it was light enough I finally got to look at the damage to the roof and it was not as bad as I had originally thought. Only one roofing panel had been torn back. About ten feet up on the damaged panel one screw had held the panel from ripping further. Oddly enough, only one screw held the porch roof – which was flipped upside down on the apartment roof - to the damaged roofing panel; one screw.

I got out in the rain and managed to get the lone screw free from the panel and kicked the porch roof off of the apartment roof and onto the ground. I was able to get the panel back in place and fastened down in order to minimize the overall impact to the apartment. All this happened before 6 a.m.

When I knew the roof was sealed as well as possible I pulled the wet insulation out of the ceiling to allow the sheetrock to dry. Mama and I bagged it up and put the six bags in the dumpster. Later this week I will access the sheetrock and see if it needs to be replaced. That is my biggest concern – mainly because I am not good at those types of repairs. For now it looks like the damage was far less than it could have been. We can rejoice in that.

Completely unrelated to what we have been through the past twenty four hours, Mama and I are once again looking to sell the farm and move closer to the church. We found one home on twelve acres that might actually be worth sacrificing the farm for. The one drawback to finding anything we like right now is that it may be challenging – if not impossible – to sell the farm. But we will try and see how much God is in it.

As in times past when we have seriously considered moving we will continue to work on the projects we have laid out at the farm until the Lord really opens the door for us to do otherwise. Either way we are content.

Transport, confusion and blessing

When I got home yesterday afternoon Mama had already separated Daisy from the steers so we could load her for transport to the farm in Decatur so I hooked up the gooseneck stock trailer and moved it into position. I have never used a gooseneck trailer before and it took me three or four tries to get it lined up – but I did finally get it into place. Since we had everything ready we went ahead and got some grain and Daisy walked right into the front of the trailer where I wanted her.

She was not happy about the arrangement. She began to stomp and thrash around. Between temper tantrums she took a bite of the grain Mama had left for her. Her playmates were not at all happy to see her moving away and began bawling and walking along the fence line closest to the apartment. Mama and I were a little worried that they would tear up the fence trying to get to her. I am convinced that they were only interested in the grain she had been given. While she waited in the trailer we ate dinner.

Driving with a gooseneck is different than having a bumper pull trailer and I was a little worried about cutting a corner too close and tearing something up – but that did not happen. We made the trip to Decatur without any mishaps and pulled into the driveway at our destination in record time. Craig Shaw met us there and waved us through a gate into the pasture where the young bull was running with his herd. We opened the gates in the trailer and Daisy May walked right out.

The bull started bellowing and pawing the ground as if he was going to charge and Mama got a little concerned. Bro. Shaw told her not to worry it was just his way of showing off a little – trying to impress the new arrival. He then pranced over to Daisy and began to check her out. She was not nearly as interested as he was so the chase began.

Daisy ran over to the fence where Mama was standing as if to beg for a rescue as the persistent bull followed her around. Bro. Shaw told us that that would go for a couple days as the herd reassessed the pecking order – and as the bull encouraged Daisy into heat. We got back home and I parked the trailer as though I had driven it for years. God really blessed us!

I have no idea what state the steers will be in this morning without their leader but I will get an update later from Mama. They still seemed a little lost when we got home but that too should work itself out over the next couple days. They are creatures of habit and do not react well to any changes in routine. They even are confused by the new posts I have put in one of the fences. They smell them every time they come into that part of the pasture. It is pretty comical.

Mama and I have RU tonight and tomorrow I will be going to soul winning/bus visitation before going to Lee’s house for some music training. He wants to learn the violin and I want to learn the guitar so we are going to coach each other as we pick up new skills. I am not sure how long we will meet together but it should be fun and productive.

The hard part is giving up a Saturday.

Home again, visitors, breeding program, farm news

It was good to get home last night. I had fully expected to be in offsite meetings today but was excused from the portion of the proceedings this morning. I left after our “team-building” exercise; which is just another way to say we played a round of golf as a group. I did not play but rather rode around with my boss and two of my peers as they frustrated themselves. It was a very picturesque place to spend the morning – albeit I have no interest in the sport supporting that venue.

When I got home Mama had a group of three little ones laid down for a nap. They are the children of a younger couple at our church. The wife plays the piano and the husband runs the Master’s Club program. The oldest – about five years old – is mildly autistic so he can be a handful at times. Yesterday was not one of those times. The only drawback to yesterday’s visit to the farm is that the temperature was near one hundred degrees.

The kids went outside anyway and they really seemed to enjoy the farm, the animals and the two living areas. I am not sure what was going through their minds as we went back and forth between the apartment and the mobile home but they really seemed to get a kick out of the variety and expanse. We turned them over to their daddy after church and both Mama and Victoria were sad to see them go.

This evening I am planning on loading up our lone heifer and taking her to visit a young bull. One of the families at church has the young bull in a small holding area and offered us his services for Daisy May. Mama is excited to get her bred so we can have babies born on the farm. It is certainly the slowest way possible to build a herd but it will be fun to see our own calves be born at the farm. At least we have a breeding program started.

The little piglets are getting better. They have been to the vet twice now; once for diagnosis and initial treatment and once for a follow-up. They are scheduled for one further appointment next week. It is costing me a small fortune but they are finally on the mend and looking better.

Mama and I spent the evening Monday fixing up her little flower garden. We rooted out all the weeds and put down landscape fabric and mulch. It was a dramatic change. Mama is very pleased with the finished effect. Of course, we came up short on landscape fabric so there is still a small portion to complete, but overall it looks very nice. Maybe it will look that way for a while.

We are struggling to keep the garden watered in this heat and wind but it also looks pretty healthy so far. We are harvesting zucchini and summer squash already. The tomatoes are not doing well in the heat regardless of how we water them. Next year I may put them in a little shelter like I have the peppers and squash in. That seems to be making a big difference for the plants inside the shade and windbreak the shelter provides.

Without some rain I will have to start feeding out hay this week – especially to the horses.

Rough weekend, chores, traveling again

Mama, Victoria and I had a pretty rough weekend. I came home not feeling very well; some type of stomach bud. Mama got it that night and spent the night up and down between trips to the bathroom and trying to rest. We were blessed that we had a pretty small group for RU Friday night – only the twins and baby Fiona. Neither of us was feeling up to too much more than that. Victoria got the bug the following day and spent most of the day Saturday and all day Sunday in bed recuperating. I hope everyone is okay now but it made the weekend pretty disappointing.

We did get a few little things done over the weekend. Mama and I went early to Brad, TX. It is about an hour drive south of Bowie near Possum Kingdom Lake. I had come across and ad for posts and we wanted to check out what the man had. It was well worth the trip. The older couple marketing the posts made the visit and purchase delightful. We came home with forty three inch cedar posts and another twenty stays. The posts will be used to strengthen the fence and the stays will be used to place in areas where the fence is sagging but otherwise not too bad.

I closed off half of the chicken coop so Mama could let her little ones out of the cage they have outgrown. Most of them were happy about the liberation but a couple were very slow to vacate the cage they have called home for a month. I had to set up extra roosts in the open part of the coop but the chickens are slow to adapt to the change. They prefer roosting on the nesting boxes; Mama will have to clean them out much more often until I reopen the other half of the coop.

While Mama and Victoria bathed the pigs I put in two of the posts we had bought earlier that day. Later we worked in the garden for a couple hours. During our vacation to Florida the weeds really took over the garden and we are struggling to take it back. We managed to clean up three rows in the time we were out there and we hope to get the remaining rows freed of weeds through this week. Mama and I have yet to start on the flower garden. It looks pretty pitiful.

On Friday I received a shipment of plants I had ordered last week. I got two cold-hardy avocado trees and a few ever-bearing strawberries. The trees looked pretty good when I opened the box. I cannot say as much for the strawberries. I will probably have to ask for a replacement of those plants.

I am a little anxious about the avocado trees. Mama and I will plant them in pots so they can be brought in during the coldest part of the winter – they are good down to 15®F but last winter we got below zero a couple times. The instructions sent with the plants were quite specific on what will help or hinder the trees so I have a good bit of information to start with. The best part is that I have a one year guarantee replacement.

There is no shortage of things to do in the life we have chosen. Unfortunately, I will be out of town most of this week also. I have meetings in Oklahoma City with the leadership of our division starting tomorrow afternoon through Thursday afternoon. It will be a repeat of last week in the timing away from the farm.

On the positive side, this week will be a lot less stressful since I have a very small part in the meetings we will be having.