Real people, eating healthy, growing babies

It is one of the amazing privileges of our current technology that we can see in real time the antics of grandchildren far removed from us geographically. Were it not for the advent of video capable phones which can then send those videos to us, Mama and I would be pretty disconnected from the rapid rate of growth of our three small grandchildren. Of all the things I dislike about our cell phone dependent culture that is not one of my complaints.

We get to see Savanna, Walter and Bridgett as they grow so quickly that it is hard for me to keep up with. I, being a man, do not have same capacity as Mama to appreciate all the minute details of their faces as they change. I hope that does not make me a bad grandfather. I have never been so gifted as her so seeing the videos is a real help to me to keep up with the changes they are going through…when Mama takes the time to show them to me. I can still remember my father asking my mother when the grandchildren (and later great grandchildren) were there, “Which one does that one belong to?” She always knew. So does Mama.

Mama and Victoria are trying to eat healthy. Victoria more so than Mama. For those of you that know her that will not come as a shock. But the idea is starting to gain traction with Mama. Her weight has been stagnant at a level she is not happy with. Not a weight she is truly unhappy with, that would prompt a change. Anyway, Victoria is trying to influence Mama to eat a healthier diet. It is an uphill battle but lately they have been buying more vegetables and fruits, looking for rice noodles and brown rice pastas, eating sweet potatoes rather than regular potatoes, etc. The problem is that to eat healthy requires more prep time than eating unhealthy. It is very difficult to buy prepackages healthy meals.

Neither of them likes to cook and since I have not been eating for a few days the diet has fallen on hard times. Once again Victoria has raised the standard and is charging forward in the press to delight the tastebuds with culinary recipes fit for a four star restaurant. Her problem is finding the time with her work schedule to prepare the dishes she and Mama agree would be  top picks for their meals. Victoria often gets home so late that cooking her lunch for tomorrow is no at the top of her to-do list right then. If I do not cook it Mama will probably not step in to do so. So they are temporary stalled out - until I start cooking again, or until Mama decides to give it a try.

Over the past couple days I have been sending out emails to the people who responded to an earlier ad but made no further contact - no sale either. Of those emails  I have gotten three responses so far. What I send is a link to the video I made a few weeks ago and ask the recipients to set up an appointment with me to have a five minute conversation. So far I have talked with two people. Tomorrow I have appointments with two more. I am hoping that will generate some sales. 

Time will tell but they have been good conversations so far and I look forward to many more.

Property shopping, small victories, those with loss

Mama spent most of the day today traveling to look at a property with Grandma and Grandpa. Those excursions are always better when I do not go along. By the way Mama described the property - fifteen acres with a mobile home - it was not one they will go back to look at again. Not that it was a particularly bad property but it was far enough out that it would have had to be much better to attract them as a buyer. So the search continues.

Mama had to drive because there is an issue with Grandpa’s truck that kept him from using it instead. It is not a big issue but one that needs attention before it can be taken any distance. And our Sequoia has a working a/c which is a great help to Grandma. There is talk of going to see a property in Dallas tomorrow but I am not sure Mama is up for that one knowing how much she loves the traffic in the metroplex. 

I spent the much of the day working on my little business and with a tiny bit of success this time. I took all the email addresses that had been captured as a result of my recent advertising  and resent a new email to each of those individuals. I did each individually so it was pretty time consuming. If there is a better way than to cut and paste over and over I do not know it. But really, what else do I have that is pressing - or could be lucrative. I got two solid responses for more information that I am already following up on. We will see where that goes over the next couple days.

I did work on the pig area today. I have had to move the shelter I built for the pigs to a different side of the sty. Hopefully it will gather less water in the new location. Where I had originally placed it was at the downhill portion of the enclosure. I did not realize just how much rainwater could gather in such a small area until I already had it built. not that it bothered the pigs at all, but it did make for a muddy mess during our wetter times. With the pigs occupying the area I did not dare move it so the project waited until now. 

At least with this little chore I already had almost all the materials for completion. I just had to arrange them differently. I was able to make a good bit of progress today and will require less than a day to finish - but I will have to buy a couple pieces of plywood to floor the shelter but that should be all. The slightly cooler helped. If you can call it cooler when it is still over ninety degrees.

Mama and I went to a viewing this evening for the ninety five year old mother of a man at our church. We did not spend long there but we were glad we had made an appearance. Then we went to the rehab facility to visit a lady who goes to our church. She is the one that has fallen twice and broken her tailbone significantly enough that it required surgery. Now she is in therapy trying to recover from both the injuries and the surgery.

I had wondered if there was something dangerous in her house that had caused the falls but that is not the case. Though she describes her house as cluttered, the falls were caused by her passing out. I am sure treatment for that is in the recuperation regimen also. It is always a little discouraging to see someone - especially someone so active - in that state. But hopefully she will recover quickly.

I f you ever want to find a true appreciation for what you have while going through some difficult circumstance in your life, go visit someone in a nursing home or rehab facility. It will short circuit your pity party.

Sick, bigger than expected, less than expected

Mama and Victoria both missed the Sunday morning service with Victoria’s absence stretching though last night also. That meant that I had to pick up Yilin and Cheyenne by myself on Sunday morning. I believe that is the first time that his happened since we started getting them for church. It was disappointing for them not to have Mama or Victoria there but they chattered as normal on the way too and from church.

On the way home Cheyenne was in a particularly happy mood while Yilin was a little dour. They were both concerned that once I dropped them off that I would be by myself so to cheer me up Cheyenne said, “That’s okay. I’m gonna marry Papa Tim.” I thanked her and said that was very nice of her. Yilin was not having it. “Cheyenne, by the time you are old enough to marry Papa Tim he will be very old.” “That’s okay. I will marry him anyway!” “Oh, Cheyenne. You don’t know what you are talking about!” That’s okay,”, I reassured them both. “That just means that Cheyenne loves me.” That seemed to satisfy them both. Mama was so sorry she had missed that conversation. I love those times when someone as grown up as six years old has to explain the world to a so much younger three year old.

Victoria was still sick through Sunday night. She had worked with Grandpa on her house she gets the same respiratory infection ever time she does that. There was a lot of dust and dirt accumulating in the nooks and crannies over the decades the house sat set idle and none of the irritants help her any. But the work has to be done to make the improvements. I have not seen what has been done but I do know there is a lot of work remaining. Even through the steady progress Grandma is claiming has been made, Victoria is still overwhelmed by the scope of what remains. But like all such projects, if we can afford to keep making progress it will eventually get done.

My fear is that Grandpa is being overwhelmed by the scope of the project and the fact that he and Victoria cannot fund it as heavily as they once believed they could. That and the health issues he has been recovering from, Norman and Seth’s inability to come down and help jumpstart the project, the rapidly approaching end of their lease in Bowie, all add together to weigh down the two of them. Grandpa’s original hope was that the house would be inhabited this month. In reality it may be another year. That’s difficult to adapt to. That’s life.

Though I had no great ambitions about quick completion dates for the projects I am working on, I have had to back away for the moment - at lest on purchasing and more materials. Without any money coming in it is difficult to justify spending on things that do not directly affect out living expenses. Mama and I are going to have to pass on buying the heifers from my sister in order to pay for repairs on the truck. We are also going to start selling some of our heifers and calves to bring in some money. It is not urgent yet but we are approaching that time very quickly. Still no job offers out there. God rarely moves on our timetable but He is always working on our behalf. I have to admit that all this is far less than what I had expected and hoped for when I started this internet marketing business and yet there are still avenues Mama and I can pursue to get on with our lives.

That too, is life.

All grown us, my little spill, ready for the rain, not many comets

This afternoon I fed Boomer his last bottle. Of course, he is not fully aware of that fact yet but he will quickly figure it out over the next couple of days. It’s kind of sad. The bottle babies are the ones that are the easiest to handle since they are used to being close to us and being touched by us. On the other hand, they can be the most obnoxious because they have no reservation about constantly being under foot. For now, having two bottle fed goats helps the other goats to trust us more easily - even if I have to dodge around them as I bring the feed into the barn. I tease Mama that there is no way to walk in a straight line with these goats.

As I was working on the goat barn today I had a little spill. By step ladder was not well set and teetered over with me causing me to land badly on my right leg. I did not think too much about it and went on working until I had finished getting up tarps to close off the openings that will eventually be covered by doors. (It started raining a few hours after I got things finished.) Now I am having a considerable amount of pain from the twist it put on my knee and ankle. Like most of these events, it was not how far I fell but the way I landed. This too shall pass, but I have to count this as my minor injury for the month of August. I promised Mama only one per month.

Mama and I had to put up several rain blocks to keep the chicks that are in cages under the garden shed from too much blowing rain. It is not pretty but it will be effective, I hope. Mama talked about putting them several other places around the farm but none of those choices appealed to me; too much work involved for a temporary cover. She loves her animals and will not allow them to suffer any difficult circumstances she can keep them from. Common thought is that chickens do not like to get wet, but I think it might have been good for them.

Last night was a little disappointing. It was still quite hot outside even after dark and the bugs are always on the hunt for fresh blood. They really like Mama’s. So it was not comfortable to stay out for too long and there was not much happening in our sky. I saw one shooting star and tracked several satellites as they passed overhead. I even waved - just in case someone was watching. But the one lonely comet was all I saw. I toyed wth the idea of getting back out in the early morning. I even woke up at 2 a.m. but I could not convince myself to get out of bed to go look again. If the show got better I will never know.

Tomorrow is bus calling, a wedding in the afternoon and very little else with the rain - and the pain I am in. But Victoria and Grandma and Grandpa are going to look at a ten acre property that might interest Norman. We will see how that turns out. Most of the ten acre properties are subdivided larger tracts that offer dozens of ten acre “country living” sites set one right on top of another. They are not at all like the one we have in Chico, But it could be good. You can only find out by going to have a look. Grandma and Grandpa are very excited because their lease in their current place ends in December and I think they are getting worried Victoria’s house will not be ready for them to live in by then.

I am concerned any good property - one that requires less work than Victoria’s house - will provide a good excuse to let her house sit idle. Time will tell.

Mama’s massage, extreme heat, comets

Mama received a gift card for a massage some time ago and just got around to setting the appointment this month. It was set for 10 a.m and was about an hour away. We left pretty early so I could stop at a metal shop to get more screws for the red metal siding I am putting on the goat barn. I ran out yesterday. I did not really need to go with Mama but you know how that is. I needed the break and we made a morning and early afternoon of it. The place where the massage studio - I hesitate to call it a parlor - was set up was in a very develpoed shopping area. There were probably one hundred stores and restaurants around it.

As it happened there was a store called the Leather Sofa Company right next door to where Mama was going so I started off there killing the hour I had to wait. It was the most interesting furniture store I have ever been in. I spoke at length with the owner, a very pleasant fellow who really knew his business - and loved what he was doing. The interesting part was that the handmade leather furniture, built right here in Texas, was not much more than the factory assembled furniture we see at the big name stores. The quality was so superior it cannot be compared. We will keep his business card.

After lunch at Chipotle’s and a quick stop at Costco, we headed home; arriving home about 1:30. The temperature was 104 F. I had big ambitions of getting some work done on the goat barn but only lasted about two hours. I came in soaking wet at about 4 pm and dried out as I worked on the computer. I have to be careful where I sit when I come in like that because even though I hang my dripping shirt in the garage, I am usually soaked though my pants down to my knees. Once I sat in the rolling chair Mama likes to use at the table and she did not appreciate the dampness I left for her to sit in. I only did that once.

Forecasts are for cooler temperature and rain starting Saturday so I only have to keep the things I am watering alive for a few more hours before I get some relief - and my plants and trees do also. Unfortunately, the goats do not like wet weather; either cold or hot. And the dampness tends to bring out the worms, which can cause problems  with their health if the infestation gets too bad. Mama and I will have to keep an eye on them.

Almost every day our cattle, which are running with the neighbors bulls, come to the back fence of the property to call out to Mama. They know it is worth the effort because she almost always responds to their pitiful pleas for grain and range cubes. Lately the bulls have been with them, so they get fed also. I only hope we can get out ladies back without having to chase off those big beautiful bulls. They are not showing any signs of being stressed by the heat yet but we are thankful to be able to see them daily so we can monitor their health.

As the sky darkens tonight I am hoping it cools enough that we can spend some time outside watching for meteors without getting dripping wet with sweat in the process. Reports are circulating that it is going to be quite a show. We have the perfect clear sky for it and the moon is only half way into its waxing phase so it will not brighten the sky too much. 

It should be fun. 

Minor disappointments, limited options, hopeful outlooks

I try not to write when I am down (disheartened, disappointed) but life has a way of giving you those days also. So every now and then I have to remind myself that it’s not about me. It is not about meeting my expectations or ambitions; however, I still do need to find the money somewhere to keep us here at the farm - which is one area of our lives that God is really blessing - and keep all the bills paid up. 

Until this month that had been a fairly easy task since Mama and I had a fairly large reserve to draw from. But, as is true with any supply, when you withdraw continuously and do not make any deposits, you are going to run out. So I sit here today pondering the sale of the Sequoia. It was bought for such a time as this but I really did not think it would come to this. Perhaps it hasn’t but I still need to work the numbers just to be prepared.

My online marketing business still looks very promising but has yet to generate any cash. That is a difficult issue to address. I am getting lots of help but am languishing financially. So, as always when we reach these crossroads, it is time to bear down in prayer. I have not seen God move yet.I firmly believe He started me on this path so I will keep moving forward until another avenue opens up - and trust the Lord.

Mama and I are planning on selling one of our cows with her calf - and hopefully bred back - when we get her back onto the property late this month. We need to get rid of her anyway because she is too wild to handle and the timing is really good financially speaking. That will put us down to a reasonable number to feed out through the winter and into the Spring as we wait for the other three bred cows to calve.

The part I ordered for the fridge came in this afternoon and I thought I could tell by looking at it that it was not what I needed but I took apart the cover for the control assembly. It required removing a large back panel inside the fridge and was disappointed to discover that my initial assessment was correct. It was not the part I needed. So everything is back together without any repairs being made while I try to figure out what to do next. Hopefully, we can get this problem solved before Mama gets too attached to the second refrigerator in her kitchen.

Victoria, Grandpa and Grandma had a workday at Victoria’s house this morning. It was more like a work morning but it was an encouragement to Victoria. Nothing has gotten done for many months since Grandpa has been in  and out of hospitals. Since I am not allowed to participate it has all been riding on his recovery. It is good to see him feeling better enough to get the whole project started again.

Right now he is beginning to run the electric so power can be run to the house. He is also having Mama and Victoria get estimates on the installation of a septic system. If you remember back, the electric is what I got in trouble for a couple months back and all I did was call the power company to see what we needed to get the hookups ready at the house. Someone had told Grandpa something about needing a special type of wire to be run - something I had never heard or - and that pretty much shut him down. So I called fro clarification and to meet the lineman at the one morning just to be sure we had not missed anything. We had not. 

So the project can now move forward…just without me.

Goat trim, signing, visiting

I finally got the time to get the trim in place on the goat barn loft. It was exactly what I needed to seal the upper wall to the lower roof. So tomorrow the north and south sides will be complete - and hopefully, sealed against the rain. I still have to finish the other two sides but that will require building barn doors for the lower ends and loft doors for the upper ends. Maybe by the end of the month I can have that all done. For now, we are in good enough shape to buy some square bales of hay to store in the barn loft. I will use tarps to seal the upper ends for now.

I had to stop working on the barn about 11 a.m. because I was getting seriously overheated. Besides, I needed to cool down and get cleaned up to meet our estate lawyer to sign the final documents of our estate plan. We still owe a balance on the work he has done for us and I asked to postpone the signing because we did not have the amount due right now. I am having to keep cash aside to pay repairs on the truck - when it is complete.

Instead, he asked us to go ahead and get the plan signed and in force and take whatever time we needed to pay the balance. To him it was more important to get the protection in place than to get him paid. Mama and I both very much appreciated that; especially that he trusts us to get him paid as quickly as possible.

After we got that done we went to the rehab facility next to the hospital in Decatur to look up a friend who is there recovering from a fall; her second in two months. This fall required surgery to correct some broken bones. We were disappointed that we were not able to locate her. She is probably between checking out of the hospital and checking into the rehab facility; no one was sure. Patient confidentiality would not let them disclose any of that information. (What a joke.)

But we did bump into a gentleman from our church that we did not realize was still in the rehab facility. We had a good visit with him. It really made his day. It is the third or fourth time I have visited him there but he should be going home this weekend. He told Mama that he had no idea just how much visits from friends would mean when he was laid up. He teared up as he recounted a newfound appreciation for such attention. It does not take long to say “I am thinking about you” but it means all the world for it to be said face to face.

Mama and I have always enjoyed visiting in hospitals and nursing homes and lately it seems we are called upon more and more to do just that. With my Dad in the care unit he is in I am not only grateful for the times Mama and I can make the trip to spend time with him, I am very grateful for those around him who take the time to give him their attention and love as well. It seems to keep him connected; as much as is possible right now. Visiting those who need us here is like paying it forward.

After that Mama and met a woman selling some children’s dress boots. Mama was thrilled with the purchase. I suppose Cori will be also since the boots will eventually fit Grant.

They are both funny about their affinity for footwear.