The last pup, FBI, Brittany

As I got home yesterday evening Mama told me there was a family on the way to get the last pup. We have been praying about that sale for several weeks now and I was relieved to see the pup go to a good home. It is far more than enough to have the bigger dogs in and out of the house – especially when they shed as badly as they do or when the weather is inclement – but when puppies are added to the mix it is difficult for me to deal with. Mama and Victoria love having the little ones but the chewing, the poop everywhere and the fact that they are constantly underfoot make it all problematic for me. Victoria makes some good income from the sale of the pups but for a once-a-year income, it seems like a lot of work and trouble to me  but at least the dogs are producing something. We missed Kobe’s heat this cycle. She seems to have finished up while we were in Temple with the grandkids. I was not horrible devastated by the pronouncement, but I am sure Mama and Victoria will keep an eye out for the next cycle so they can have her pups also. Oh, joy.

We are in week five of FBI. This coming set of final exams may be the hardest set of tests we have had to take so far. We are studying the books of Judges, Ruth and Samuel 1 & 2, the Epistles and the Psalms. Lots of Scripture to cover in just a few weeks. Lots of potential verses to match and memorize. We just finished the Book of James. The lectures concerning the book were some of the best preaching I have heard on the book. I will never read it the same or have the usual thoughts concerning the verses that are so often quoted from that little book. Galatians is up next in that series.

Mama will be heading to Wichita, KS after she gets off work today. Brittany managed to get on a flight this morning and will be arriving sometime in the early afternoon. Fortunately, she and Andrew have friends at the base so she can get a ride to the hotel where she and Mama will be staying. Tomorrow, possible tonight as well, they will look at a couple of houses Brittany is interested in before they head back here. They will be moving to the area in a few months and Brittany has already been house shopping. I told Mama last night that this will be one of the last times she will be able to travel easily with the twins; she had better enjoy it. I am not sure how much of a hardship it is to fly in the hold of a big cargo plane but the amenities are not overwhelming. She has to carry a heavy coat to cover up with because of the cold, a pillow to rest on if she can actually manage to rest and she has to pack very compactly so she can make the best use of the limited space offered to her. But, it is free and she is willing to do it. And since the twins are still safely tucked inside her womb, she can make the trip with relative ease. At least for now. As the boys grow, it will be more difficult for her. But such is as it should be.

Tomorrow I will be in class all day. It is the last time I will be a participant. Starting next month, I will be teaching the class. In preparation for that, I have been reviewing and updating the instructor’s manual I will be teaching from. I am a little anxious about teaching the class and will probably be so until I get the first one under my belt. By the time summer rolls around it should be little more than a normal assignment. The class is offered here once per month and at various company sites throughout the year – so there will be some travel involved at some point. But, this is the reason they moved me out of Client relation – this and possibly teaching OSHA classes, Master Trainer Class, etc.

It could be fun.

Visiting, traveling

Despite my cough, which persisted through the weekend, we had a great time with Cori, Nate and the kids. They were in a Missions Conference Wednesday through Sunday at a church in Temple, TX. We were only a few minutes from my sister Sarah but we did not get to see her because they were out of town visiting Josef who is in college in Lubbock. Cori and her crew got to spend a few hours visiting on Tuesday evening after they arrived in Temple, but Sarah and Fabian left for Lubbock before we got there. We did very much enjoy the conference. Once we were there the church included us along with the missionary families as thought we were participating in the conference as well. We met up with the group after church Wednesday evening after church at McAlister’s – where they had gone for supper after the service and continued to caravan about with them through the weekend. We had lunch with them Thursday afternoon and went to the service that evening. We went with them to Chipotle after the service and the pastor insisted on paying for our meal as well; then again on Saturday when we stopped at Rudy’s for barbeque on our way to Magnolia Farms in Waco. Mama and I were starting to feel badly but the pastor insisted saying he would visit us some time and we could take him out to dinner.

Two other young missionary couples were there as well. One couple is going to Japan and the other is headed to Malaysia. Both were delightful people. It is one of the blessings of deputation for Cori and Nate and the kids. They are already getting to know people with similar callings also out on deputation seeking a permanent work in some other field and anxious to get there and get started. It is very easy to catch a sense of their burden; to ache with them for the people they already know overseas who have friends and family they are burdened for. There was some great preaching, encouraging fellowship, time with the grandkids and time with Cori and Nate. They are headed back towards Pace this morning and will be in the south for a couple more weeks, waiting for their house to sell so they can buy a camper to haul with them as they travel north in March. They will not be back in this area until late in the fall. It was a tearful, difficult goodbye for Mama and Victoria as we headed home Sunday afternoon. It was a very good visit with them – and they are going to thoroughly enjoy the little trailer we hauled over to them. It will allow them to travel much more comfortably.

On the home front, Brittany is headed over to the States tomorrow. The memorial for my dad is next weekend but she had the opportunity to come a bit early. Mama will be headed to Wichita, KS to pick her up tomorrow evening. As I understand it, they will stay in Wichita and look at a couple houses in preparation for her and Andrew’s anticipated move which we are praying will happen in April. That would put her here well before the twins are due in August. There are still no orders to match that prayer but the Lord is stirring the hearts of the commanders to move in that direction. Mama is torn between the thought of having Brittany stateside for the births or having to travel to England for the births to then help Brittany and the babies get here. Somewhere in all the unsettled issues will be God’s answer. We stand ready.

Maggie and Aaron will also be moving south in May this year. Aaron has a new duty station in Wilmington, NC. That will put them so much closer.

Rats, packing, working lists

Mama called me yesterday evening to tell me she had forgotten to tell me that the live trap had another rat ready for termination. This was in the afternoon as I was heading home to get a few things done so I could get the space set up in the garage to set the feed she was on her way to buy in Muenster. We had spent lunch together at the church and had talked briefly later in the afternoon but since I was on the way home she remembered the rat. What was curious to me was that she was excited about the fact that this is the fourth large rat we have caught in the trap. I do not know how many more may be lurking about the farm but I have the feeling that four is not going to affect the overall population dramatically. In fact, as I was finishing getting a bale of hay set out for the cows, Mama arrived with the feed. As we were putting the cattle portion of the feed in the proper storage places in the barn a very large rat ran out from under a pallet we have the feed barrels sitting on. Mama did not see him. Just as well. I may have to employ the other live trap there to see if we have any success. I will eliminate as many as possible as long as I can do so without harming any of our domestic stock.

I stayed home from church last night. I am still fighting a mean cough so I just sat still through the evening and allowed the cough to settle after all the activity of the late afternoon; setting out hay, arranging pallets, clearing space for feed to be stored and moving plants into spaces where they would not freeze last night. Yes, it got below freezing last night. It was good that I had the time to rest because that is all I will get for the remainder of the week. We are headed to Temple this evening after Victoria gets off work, and after we take the Sequoia to Bowie for Roger to replace the rotors, and after we get the trash to the dump, put away some feed, sweep the floors before Grandma comes over to tend to the dogs, etc.

I am glad Mama worked out the opportunity for us to get the Sequoia fixed but she has a habit of crowding our schedule the way she loads a drawer – until it is impossible to get one more item in it. I was telling her the other day as she came home and wanted me to start on the list of items she had thought of that she has to realize that all those items have to be added to the list of items I am currently working on. While she is working off one list, I have to work off of two lists – both of which are only getting longer as Spring approaches. I am not one to sit around reading the paper – if people actually do that anymore – until she finds something for me to do. Generally, I have to be called away from what I am doing to take on what is now urgent to her. But, we always manage to get things done – especially the items on her list.

Anyway, when Mama got back from church I was ready to go to bed but she had packing on her mind so I stirred up what energy I had remaining and started setting aside clothing for her to put in a small suitcase. I picked out a suit because we are going to stay over through Sunday morning so we can go to church with Cori, Nate and the kids before we head back home. By the time I had gotten that done, I was done. Mama was only getting started. I have no idea what time she came to bed.

I was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

A stellar day, a dining experience, the flu, meeting Nate and Cori (and the grandkids)

Saturday was a stellar day for me and Mama. I had an ambitious list – which did not all get accomplished – and Mama added a few things to the day that took us to Denton and back. That was not in my plans but the day worked out in so many little things where God showed up. The timing was perfect. For instance, we went to the eye doctor’s office on our way to Denton so we could pick out frames for our new glasses. We did not have time after our appointment in Friday because we were done very late and did not want to keep the staff any longer. The doctor was not supposed to be in the office but he had just showed up to play a trick on the two girls working there. Since he was there he measured our frame selections for the prescriptions to be applied to the glasses. They are now on order. His showing up unexpectedly saved us having to make another appointment to get the measurements done. The outcomes on all we set to do were better than we would have hoped for and we either got the task accomplished or we got things arranged so we could get it done later. And on top of all that, we were on time to meet Alex, Yilin and Cheyenne. Only when we showed up at the house they were not there. The grandmother could not tell us where they were since she speaks no English so we pulled to the side of the street and Mama texted Alex. Just about the time she was finishing the text they rounded the corner, pulled into the drive and hopped from their vehicle into ours – and off we went.

Alex wanted to take us to a Korean BBQ that had opened in Carrolton. Mama was really excited about it. Victoria was invited to go also but she was feeling too badly to make it. The drive to the restaurant was not bad. It was a little over twenty minutes out of Denton. It was easy to find. The entire complex of stores was devoted to some type of eatery. There was a rotating sushi bar, an Indian restaurant that made the oddest oblong tortilla-like flatbread in an equally odd oven you could see from the window, a Thai bakery, some other type of bakery, and several others that did not register as firmly as we hurried to the Korean restaurant. We had about a half-hour wait to be seated but the wait was worth it. Once we had a vague idea of how things worked we ordered and they lit the little grill in the center of the table. We were allowed to order up to 35 items. Can you imagine? The gentleman who seated us told us we could order as much or as little as we liked but there was a charge for leftovers and there was a two-hour time limit to occupy the table. Again, can you imagine?  It was a great experience for everyone but Yilin. For some reason. she decided she would not enjoy it and nothing Mama tried would convince her otherwise. When we have some extra money, we will definitely go back.

As we walked a short distance to the Chinese market in the complex I started to chill. For the hour or more we were in the store I could not get warm. It just got worse from there. By midnight I was fevered and feeling like I was going to die. That lasted until yesterday about mid-day. I believe, at this point, I am more sore from the time I spent just lying down than from the effects of the flu. But Victoria and I are better thanks to a remedy suggested by Kimberlyn Cantrell. One drop of frankincense and one drop of eucalyptus in a teaspoon of honey. That has been more help than anything else we tried. So, our coughs are finally clearing up and although I still have flare ups of fever, I am better. So far, Mama has not had to deal with any of this. She had her bout with the flu several weeks ago, and it put her in bed for the entire week.

With us traveling to Temple this weekend, it was somewhat imperative that we get better – both to make the trip and to keep from spreading germs to Cori, Nate and the kids when we meet them there. We are hauling a small enclosed trailer to them so they can carry more of their personal items with them as they head north for meetings. It is a very nice trailer. Both Nate and Cori should be pleased with the purchase. This may be the last time we get to spend with them until very late in the summer so we hope to enjoy it.

 

Rats, Zack’s house, time management

We had another rat in the well house yesterday. This time Victoria found it. It was another big one and it was caught in the livetrap. I wish there was a different way to dispose of them but all I know to do is use my .22 to dispatch them. In parts of Africa, rats are roasted and eaten. In fact, they are put on little spits and sold like we would sell hotdogs. I don’t foresee that happening at my farm. This one was far more active than the last one and had taken the trap – which is not small – and moved it several feet away from the door. I am guessing it was pretty active the morning Victoria found it because Mama said she heard her scream when she realized what it was that was caught. I think she was more surprised to realize it was still alive. The fact that it was trapped was not a big comfort to her. The kids in school got to hear Mama scream yesterday because when she opened the microwave, there was a bug inside. I was in the bathroom down the hall and I clearly heard her. A couple of the boys were still holding their hands over their hearts when I got back to the kitchen. We were able to revive the two students that were on the kitchen floor…not. I am imagining Victoria’s scream to be along those same lines. So, getting the rat taken care of was the first order of business when I got home. Otherwise, the poor goats would starve to death because the feed we give them is kept in the well house. It is in a rat-proof container but it has to be kept in the well house because if we put it in the goat barn the squirrels would eventually chew through the lid. Besides, it is probably good for us to go into the well house every day.

At lunch yesterday, I agreed to meet Zack at his house to look at the floor joists and sill he had exposed. He did not contact me until a little after 5 pm but there was still enough ambient light that we did not have to do everything by flashlight. I was surprised to find most of the timbers in really good shape. There were a few places that will need to be reinforced but those will be accessible from the opening he has created with his current demo. As far as leveling the floors, that will be a challenge. It will require him digging out enough depth below the joists to set the small hydraulic jacks he has bought specifically for that. It will also require two persons to get the job done in order for Zack to not have to move back and forth so much. I explained to him that you have to be aggressive enough to get the wall and roof raised – which is how the floor comes to level, but not so aggressive that you disrupt the structure. “How will I know how much to raise it when I start actually jacking it up?” He asked. My answer. “The house will tell you?” It is hard to explain but the house will creak and pop when the levelers are put to it. You want to do enough to get it where you need but you want to keep the structure intact. A little here. A little there and so on down the wall and back until you have what you need or all you can safely get. With this house, it will tolerate a good bit of force so I am not overly worried about the process and I told him so. The only way to find out is to start raising the floor and see what happens.

Mama and I have a full weekend ahead of us. I am not sure we will get everything on the list done, but it will be worth a try. None of the projects are large but all of them take time. Squeezing all of them into one afternoon is challenging but I am learning to break projects up into small pieces so I can move forward on several at a time. Now, if I could get the time in the evenings to work a couple hours on any one of them, I could really get ahead.

Soon – maybe.

Puppies, Zack’s house, weekend work

We had to leave church as quickly as possible last night so Mama and Victoria could be at the house when a group was arriving to pick up one of the puppies. The lady heading the excursion from somewhere in Dallas has a pup from the last litter. She calls him, Boone. He must be a pretty impressive dog because her friends have bought two of Kira’s pups based on the temperament of Boone. I hope the family that came last night loves this pup, Angel, as much as this woman loves Boone. At least they will have her to guide them I training the pup. An additional outcome of the meeting last night was that Victoria agreed to let Kobe be bred by Boone. That would put the pups back up to ¾ Akita. Based on the personality and temperament of the two dogs, they would probably be very good pups. That breeding may take place this month since Kobe is starting her cycle now and should be in standing heat in a week. It will require some travel to get the dogs together but I know Mama is excited about it. I am ambivalent since we now have the place for the birthing and rearing to take place – outside of the house. I do know that this is some good income for Victoria – short-term anyway.

Yesterday at lunch, Zack and I talked a bit about the remodel on the house. He is taking up flooring where needed to replace bad joists and level the floors. He has hit a snag in one area and wanted me to come by to look at what he had uncovered so I could tell him exactly what he was looking at. He was not sure what was supporting what in that corner and did not want to disturb the structure until he was sure he knew what to do with it. I will be meeting him this evening to see if I can help him figure it out. I have wanted to see the house and the progress he has made so far, so this will be a chance to see what he has accomplished in the short time he has owned the property as well as an opportunity to hear his vision for the project as well. He has really thrown himself into the work. Being younger has its definite advantages, but seeing this as his future home is the driving force behind urgency. It is good to see our past project being taken over by someone with the energy and finances – mostly the energy – to get it done.

While I am there, I also needed to look around to see if I could gather some of the old flooring and wall material to use on the raised beds I am building for Mama. The one inch yellow pine will last for many years even in semi-wet service as the support for the base of the raised beds. I have an idea how I want to build them now and hope to get started on the project Saturday. We have enough money set aside for the materials, it is only a matter of setting aside the time. If I can get enough of the old yellow pine to use as supports it will save us at least that amount of material cost – if I can find pieces long enough to use. The challenge then is to fill the beds with soil. That is something I have not figures out yet.

Also included in the weekend plans is loading up our wild cow and her calf so we can get them to the sale barn. The actual sale is not until Monday but we can drop off the cow and calf Saturday and they will be cared for until they are sold. It makes it convenient for us since we do not want to do the drop off on Sunday and neither of us can be free on Monday. It will be glad to be rid of her even though she is not ne that gives us the most problems in normal circumstances. That comes from our “pet” cows since they think they deserve special privileges and are willing to destroy the fences to get the smallest scrap of feed.  Our wild one is, however, very difficult to manage when we need to move the herd from one area to another or doctor them in the Spring and Fall.

It will help me manage the feed better to have two less to feed.

Chicken changes, walking, taxes

After listening to several YouTube videos yesterday I go the strong impression that the major factor contributing to our decreased egg production has to do with the roosts we have provided for the hens. I talked it over with Mama during lunch yesterday and we decided to do something about it. So, I stopped by Lowe’s on my way home and bought some shelf brackets that were wide enough to give me about twelve inches of space away from the wall. I took apart the roost I had built and used those pieces to make the roost a single rail on each of two walls. I also put a small roost outside for the chickens that do not like to go into the coop to roost. All I was able to get done was one side of the coop but I have all the brackets I need to do the other side on Thursday. I went out to check last night well after dark and all the chickens were stretched out on the rail attached to the wall where the original roost had been. Not one was on the rail on the other wall. They are creatures of habit. Fortunately, the one eight-foot roost was ample space for all of them. It may not work out the same on the other side where there are more chickens. It will be interesting to see if that helps make them happy enough that they start laying again, but if not, it will make cleanup even easier for me and Mama.

After eating a bowl of soup Mama had made for a Ladies’ Meeting at church, I worked on the music schedule for next week’s services and then went out to walk for a while. By starting at the front walk and going to the end of our road – as it joins the major county road – I can walk one mile in a round trip. I typically do one mile and call it good but for some reason last night I felt like I should keep going. On my first trip, I shot a skunk that was foraging at the very edge of our property and on the second trip I shot an armadillo. I could hear hogs in the bushes but they did not show themselves and the coyotes I could hear in the distance got very quiet when the first shot was fired. They started up again about an hour after I had gotten back to the house. It is interesting to hear Sam and Sasha howling at them when the pitch of their yapping is too high.

Early into the second trip, I saw Victoria turn onto our road so I stepped off the road and shined my flashlight at my feet so she could see me as she approached. It did not seem to matter because she flew right by me on her way home. That did not surprise me because it would not normally be a good idea to stop to talk to someone walking a dark road – especially when a lady is alone in the car. But, what I found out later was that she did not even see me. She was busy texting a friend as she flew past me. I told her it was a good thing I had stepped off the road. Texting while driving is still one of the things that really scares me about the culture we live in today.

As I waited on Mama to get home I started to lay out the paperwork and receipts for income taxes for last year. Even with the abundance of items I have collected there are still a few things I need in order to complete the spreadsheet I create each year for our tax accountant. My plan is to have all this done in two weeks so Mama and I can take it all to him. We are still using an accountant in Amarillo and at this juncture it does not make sense to try to find someone else; especially with the severance pay given to me by ConocoPhillips and pulling money out of our 401k. I may look for someone closer next year, but not this year.

Besides, it is a good reason to visit Chase and Makaila.