Mama’s travels, leaves, puppies, goats

Mama made it to Brittany’s safely Saturday afternoon. Nate, Cori and the kids were already there. The kids have had a fun time visiting with each other. Savanna, who is two years old, has wanted to hold her baby cousins, who are now seven months old. The dilemma is that each of the twins weigh almost as much as she does. Fortunately, Zoe and Sophia do not mind being passed from person to person and the especially seem to love Savanna. Mykenzie has been a help to Brittany in the short time they have been there, but they will be leaving today to head back south for meetings later in the week. Mama is still debating when she should come home. It will either be tomorrow morning or Tuesday morning. Either way, it will be a sad morning – for her and for Brittany.

As Mama was leaving Saturday morning, I was emptying the garage so I could clean it out. The leaves have been accumulating in it for some time and I have not taken the time to blow them out. It is often a losing battle since Mama insists on leaving the garage door partially open so the rabbit, who resides in our garage, can have some fresh air. With the accumulated leaves just outside the garage, it gets littered with the leaves when the wind blows in just the right direction. I have not taken the time to dispose of the piles of leaves because I was not entirely sure how to go about getting rid of them efficiently. Well, that morning, the Lord gave me an idea. I put the bucket on the tractor and filled it over and over with leaves which I dumped in a spot on the property. Even with the multiple loads of leaves I removed from the accumulated piles, I only got a fraction of them moved. The pile at the garage was the first to go. That was five loads. Then I worked on the pile at the fence between the house and the well house. I still have about two loads of leaves left in that pile – for a total of eight loads of leaves from that pile alone. I will finish next Saturday, but I still have the enormous piles of leaves in the garden area and around my fig tree. Maybe twenty more loads will get it.

The seven pups are doing well. With that few, Kira is able to take care of them easily. The only issue Victoria has had is the ambient temperature. It has been warm. I will not say hot. That is coming, but the afternoon temperatures have been warm enough to make Kira very uncomfortable. She has started digging sizable holes on the sides of the birthing building to lay in attempting to cool down. Grandpa built the building facing south. Not necessarily bad, but it allows the force of the afternoon sun to shine directly into the little building, making it too warm for Kira to stay in there with the pups. Victoria is worried she will take the pups out of the building and nest them in the dirt, but she is more afraid of keeping Kira in the building if it is too warm for her. So, for now, the doors are left open, so she can move in and out freely. The pups are too small to go too far – and they like the warmth.

One of our yearling goats, Lilly, will have her kids any day now. Mama is worried about missing the birthing but so far, that has not been an issue. This morning, Lilly was up when Victoria checked on her, but she looks like she is about to burst. All signs are pointing to her having the kids by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest, but Mama and I are new at this, so we are only guessing for now. As we gain more experience, we will have a better idea how to predict the delivery time more accurately.

All the animals are missing Mama, especially Mocha. And, yes. I miss her too.

Small victories

After Mama had a very frustrating morning with the Nubian goats again, we found them all in their enclosure when we got home after work yesterday evening. It is not a big thing. They are easy to herd back into a familiar area, but, as you all know, it is rarely the big things in this life that give us the most angst. There was some talk of selling the goats, selling the farm, etc., but all that flew away through the remainder of the day. With the panels Mama and I put in place and the metal pieces used to reinforce in areas the panels did not cover, I am just glad it does not look like something we might see back in the hollows of Mama’s home state. For now, we will continue on. After all, Mama just ordered twenty more chicks for us and ten chicks each for Alissa and Kimberlyn respectively. So, by the end of the month I have to be set up to raise 40 baby chicks. Our farm will still have all the normal sounds, the barking of dogs, the bleating of goats, the lowing and bawling of cattle and the clucking of chickens. Soon, I assume we will add a pig – when I have the goats out of that area.

Another small victory happened last night as Mama and I were working on our business. Within this business we are setting up two LLCs. A couple weeks ago we were asked to select names for those legal entities. Somewhere along the way those names got overlooked as we progressed toward completing the paperwork for the LLCs. Monday, I got word that we were at the point of confirming the mailing address and the names for the entities, so I got an extra chance to register the names Mama and I had originally selected. When I responded to the email asking for final confirmation I anticipated a response but did not get one over a three-day period. Last night, as we spoke to our liaison with US Tax Lien Association, we let her know we were awaiting a response – and we got one within a few minutes. We got to register the names that we wanted for our two LLCs. That was a blessing. Names, addresses and phone numbers are now being registered. Accounts will be created and funded, and Mama and I can start to do business.

Meanwhile, back ion the farm. All seven pups are healthy and growing quickly. With only seven to nurse, Kira is flooded with milk, so the pups are always full. I should have taken a picture of the litter, but I do not take my phone with me when I am at home or working around the farm. This weekend will be an exception since Mama will be traveling and spending several nights away. Honestly, I have only looked in on the pups once since they were born. That was last night. When I went out to close up the chickens for the night, I also closed the door to the puppy ward because Mama had left it open when she had last tended to Kira and the litter. The night was not going to be overly cold, but it was cooling down too much to let all the colder air into the small building. Grandpa did a good job on the little structure. It is well insulated and stays warm with just a small heater or a heat lamp.

Victoria had not anticipated the cool morning, so she had not turned on the heater last night when she tended to the pups. This morning, when she went out to check on everyone, Kira had moved all the pups under the heat lamp. It was only 45°F, but that was cool enough that the little ones needed a bit of help staying warm. Victoria is off today so she will spend a good portion of the day fussing over the pups. By the end of the day they will have names – and I should have pictures to share.

Puppies, more goat escapes, visiting

We have puppies. The first one was born yesterday at 7:30 am. Mama called in to work so she could stay with Kira. Victoria had to report to work. Try as she might, they would not let her off. Bro. Zach told me at church that Mama was the first person he had call into work for time off to take care of dogs. Mama left for work at noon and I met her a little late for lunch. By that time Kira had five pups. When Mama got home the count was up to seven and it appeared that the birthing was over. However, when Victoria went out very early this morning to check on Kira and the pups, she found two more pups. Sadly, both of them were stillborn. She was agonizing as to whether or not the pups could have been saved if she or Mama had been there at the birthing, but we will never know – and it is not something we should spend a lot of emotional energy on. Seven healthy pups is a good litter.

As I was driving into the driveway at the farm yesterday evening, I saw the Nubian goats in the back yard - again. Mama and I had put us several panels at the back fence to close off their escape route, but we had unintentionally left a small portion of weak fence open for the goats to access the yard. They were enjoying themselves thoroughly. I went straight to work reinforcing the parts of the fence that would give them a path to escape and we put them back into their little area.

When I finished, I went over to the barn to feed the cows and look for some wire pieces for props for work. When I was coming back from the barn the Nubian goats met at the gate into the barn lot from the middle paddock. So, now they were in a much more open area. As much as I preach closing gates behind us, I had not latched the little wire gate we use as access into the middle paddock from the chicken area. It was wide open. It is normally not an issue, but we do not normally have goats that are trying out new areas of our farm. That partially explained how they got into that area. I did not try to gather them because they can easily outrun me – and they had too much room to do so. I walked back into the chicken area to see if I could find how they had gotten out of their enclosure. It was not hard to guess. The gate into their area from the chicken area was also wide open. Either Mama or I had not latched it properly.

Fortunately, goats are like chickens in that they will normally return to their quarters for the night. So, rather than herd them back to their habitat, we left the gates open and allowed them to wander back home. Mama and I went out just before we left for church and shooed them back into the area they are supposed to stay in, closed the gates and left them to their own devices for the night. Whether we have sufficiently reinforced the enclosure to keep them contained will be tested through the day today. What I can say for certain is that they have tasted freedom and they liked it. I will have to work faster at getting the new area ready for them. Or, we will sell them as bred goats and be done with them.

Mama will be taking off Saturday morning for Brittany’s. She is on Spring Break next week and wanted to take the opportunity to see the twins. As an added bonus, Nate, Cori and the kids will be in Wichita for a conference. So, Grammy will get to celebrate her grandparent status in a big way. She is thrilled. I think Brittany is also but not like Mama is. On Tuesday morning, Mama will have to say goodbye and come home. It is always amazing to me how she will go into a trip like this with the pending goodbyes hanging over her the entire time. Here we are, two days before she even leaves to make the visit, she is dreading the coming of next Tuesday when she will have to say goodbye.

I have never understood her, but I certainly do love her.

Voting, loose goats, puppies

The Texas primary was yesterday. I did not take a lot of time to investigate candidates, but I did enough to get a feel for the right way to vote in the primary. There were sample ballots available online, so I printed one out to have copies for me and Mama as we prepared to vote. Since I had done my little bit of research, the selections I made were used by several other people as they voted. I hope I made the correct choices. Anyway, Mama and I met at the farm and drove to Chico to vote. She had been on the phone ordering chicks for herself and three other people while she waited on me. The Chico library had been conscripted for service as our voting site. As we arrived in the tiny town center of Chico, it was hopping place. I am not sure if there are ever that many cars parked on the square that borders the small parklike area set aside for “downtown” Chico. Zack and Alissa, who now are registered Chico voters, were just leaving as Mama and I got there.

The voting machines used a dial to select a line within the electronic ballot. It reminded me of a part of an activity board we once had for our toddler children. You put your finger in the depression made for that purpose and spin the dial to select the position on the display to highlight a block, then press “enter” to confirm the selection. It took a moment to get the feel of the device but once we saw how it operated, it was pretty easy to use. While we were in line one of the volunteers and Mama started talking about her bad knees. The volunteer provided Mama with the contact information of an acupuncturist in our area. She told Mama that the treatments her husband had gotten were very effective in managing the pain he had had with his knees. We were done and back at the farm in about forty minutes. Mama went out to feed and I started dinner. I tried to boil the dumplings Alex had given us Sunday, but I got them way too done. They were mush when I tried to retrieve them from the hot water. We were able to eat some of them, but certainly not all.

Right after dinner, I got on the computer and began working on emails related to our business. Mama was sitting at the table playing her word game as I worked. I was so engrossed in what I was doing that it took me minute to register why Mama was laughing. The Nubian goats had escaped their enclosure and were in the back yard. They were so excited about their escape that they were jumping about, butting heads and scrambling all over the yard. When we went out to see how they had gotten out we discovered that our earlier discussion about replacing the back fence was more timely than either of us had thought. They had simply run under the fence at an area where it was loose enough to allow them to do so. They went back into their enclosure easily enough, but I had to take the time to put wire panels against the weakened fence to hinder them getting back into the dog’s yard. Fortunately, all the dogs were inside at the time of the escape. We have lost two goats because the dogs did not tolerate the interlopers in their area.

As I was getting up this morning, I noticed a lot of lights on in the house and back yard. By that I knew Victoria was up with Kira and the birthing was near. At first, I thought Mama was up also, but she was unaware of the developing situation. She had gone to bed at a very early hour and was still enjoying her rest. I started my normal morning routine and sure enough Victoria was working with Kira; who was obviously in labor from the nervous way she was acting. Victoria said Kira got her up numerous times last night to go outside to relieve herself. That is how it always begins with her. Kira has herself all cleaned up and ready to begin nursing the pups. So, sometime today we should have puppies.

It is anyone’s guess as to how many.       

Delays and distractions, puppy watch

Before I got to go home yesterday evening I had an eye appointment. Mama had scheduled the appointment for herself but the one she had scheduled for me conflicted with a travel date for work. So, I took her appointment. No big deal except I did not get out of the ophthalmologist’s office until a little after 5 pm and I had to get fuel for the truck before I could head to the farm. I called Mama when I was through because she was fixing some kind of pizza bread for dinner and I wanted to let her know about the time I would get home to eat. I had to leave a message. I almost wish she would have answered and offered to meet me at the office to do our research, but that is not how it turned out. We did end up getting back to the office around 6:15 and worked until about 8 pm. It was embarrassing how much we had forgotten between Thursday night – the last time we did our work – and last night. It took a full twenty minutes to get going; to feel like we were making the right moves. But we got there and eventually found a good deal to record and track.

While we were in San Diego doing our training, we had been encouraged by Frank to look into properties in Texas but after some investigation, I believe we will put that on hold until we have more experience and more money. Right now, one deal would tie up our money and focus for six months to two years and we are not in a position to allow that long of a timeframe before some type of closure on a deal. We will concentrate on a state where we can immediately take possession of the property and move forward to the sale. At least, that is how I am seeing things right now.

I brought my MacBook to the office with me last night, so I could use the internet there to download Office onto the Mac. I did not bring the power cord, so the computer kept shutting down and interrupting the download. I will have to remedy that situation the next time Mama and I come back to the office to continue our research. Poor planning on my part. I ordered the program, so I could use familiar products on the Mac. I have had difficulty using Numbers with the same proficiency as I am able to use Excel. Plus, I want to be able to teach Mama to use the programs we need for our business. Having that consistency will be priceless as we go through that learning curve.

Mama and I may have to take the night off tonight to answer some of the needs at the farm. We need to get hay and alfalfa for the goats. We normally get those two items from Rick, but Mama has called several times without getting a call back. We were planning on making the trip this evening but may have to postpone. It is too far to drive without knowing if we will be able to get the bales of feed we need. Also, at some point in the very near future, Mama will have to go to Muenster for feed. We may be able to put in a couple hours on that evening, but it will be a stretch. It would be nice to do this business from home but for the time being, that is not a workable solution. I suspect there are more internet providers developing the system we need to get good internet service at the farm, but I have not found one that I am willing to try – or to meet their price for installation and service.

Kira is due to have her pups any day now. Mama and Victoria are praying for less than ten puppies and based on the size of her belly, they may very well get their prayer answered. I think Victoria needs at least six pups to meet her financial expectations. She has already spent a couple pups worth of money on her new iPhone X.

Between her tax refund and the sale of the pups, she should be able to more than cover that expenditure.

Skirts, taxes, Owen Daniel

Thursday was a blur. Both Mama and I were still recovering from the San Diego trip on Tuesday and Wednesday, so Thursday was the first day we felt like we had a clear enough mind to attack the accumulation of tasks that needed to be done before we could leave Friday morning to see Owen. The shop needed to be dried out and cleaned up. The chicken coop had to be cleaned. Feed had to be distributed. Everything needed to be rearranged and dried out because of the rain we continued to get. So, as soon as I got home from work, I changed I went out the door to get started. Before we left for San Diego, I had rescued the one woodworking table from the flooded area of the shop but I had left the mess sitting in the water that had accumulated on the shop floor because of the hard rain we had had over the time I was in Michigan. It took two trash bags to contain the mess of cardboard and Styrofoam used to pack the table for shipment. Fortunately, the table was largely unharmed by the water.

On my way home, I had stopped by the Chinese restaurant to get the cages we had left with Lin and Alex. I did not remember that we had also loaned them dog crates so they could go get baby goats at Trade Days. All in all, there were four cages they had been waiting for me to pick up from them. No wonder they were anxious to get them out of their little storage building. I unloaded those by the shop and started my cleanup before Mama got home. She had some LuLa Roe business to attend to on her way home. Once I got the trash accumulated, I headed to the dump – three minutes before it closed for the day. Then we got started on the feed, the feeders and the coop. While we were tending to the Nubian goats Mama decided we needed to put Skirts down. She had never recovered from the time she was caught by her horns in the fence, but it would have to wait until we had taken the time to do our business research once we were free to go to the office to do so. We only had about an hour and one half, but we made the most of it and once we got back home, I handled Skirts for the last time. Sad.

We needed to be up early Friday morning because I had scheduled an appointment with our tax accountant in Amarillo. The only slot he had available for Friday was at noon. Mama and I needed to leave by 6 am to make the appointment. We made it to that appointment in plenty of time and took our time once we got together with our accountant. It all worked out because Owen and Makaila did not get released from the hospital until after 1 pm. So, we ate a leisurely lunch and stopped by Texas Tea on our way to visit with our newest grandson. Chase and Makaila had moved from the last place we visited them to an apartment on the south side of Amarillo, so we had to track them down. It was not too hard. Makaila told us as we were snuggling with Owen that this was the seventh move she and Chase had made – all of them within Amarillo.

Owen is one of those little boy babies that looks like a little boy. He was only two days old when Mama first held him Friday morning, but he seems like a very mellow baby. Like his daddy, he is content to sleep, eat a little and sleep some more. He barely made a sound as we passed him among us. Mama especially enjoyed holding him and Chase and Makaila were happy to watch. Happy to share him with us.

It still gives me a bit of a pause t think of Chase as a daddy, but he is stepping into the role happily. They have a large extended family in Amarillo, so they will have plenty of help when they need it. Owen has two little boy cousins only a few months older than him. If they stay there, he will have playmates built into the family unit. Mama and I will be content to watch from wherever we are, visit as often as we are able and hold them up in prayer.

That is a grandparent’s life.

Owen Daniel, Cori and Nate, getting behind

I do not remember what time Makaila and Chase got to the hospital, but I know that Mama was texting the two of them through lunch yesterday afternoon. They were both very gracious keeping Mama posted on every development of effacing, dilating, and contracting. Through the quiet periods between these events Mama remained anxious to know the next bit of information. That continued through the evening, and then through church. It was only at the end of the church service that things went very quiet. We assumed that the phones had been set aside as the baby made his introduction to his parents. Right after we got home those assumptions were confirmed. Owen Daniel was born. Our youngest son now had a baby son to hold. The baby is healthy. Mommy is healthy. Chase is adjusting – and excited to be doing so. Owen was 7 pounds 11 ounces, 21 inches long. The next phase of the birthing celebration has begun with the initial pictures being sent. I still maintain that conception is the greatest miracle of creation we get to witness on a regular basis as a child is born to us. We take so much of it for granted.

Mama and I will be headed to Amarillo tomorrow morning. In addition to meeting our newest grandson, I have a meeting set up with our tax accountant for Friday afternoon. Mama and I make the trip every year about this time however, this is a very special trip having added Owen to the mix. I am always curious to see how our taxes turn out. I am fairly confident that this is the last year we will be in a position to get a refund on taxes paid. Starting in 2018 and continuing for the foreseeable future, we will be paying taxes over what has been collected through the year – which is not a bad thing. It just means we will be earning money rather than breaking even each year.

Cori and Nate let Mama know yesterday that they have purchased tickets to Honduras for early April – around the Easter timeframe. They are going down to look for housing. Whether they will purchase or rent remains to be seen, but the goal is to secure a dwelling so that when they do relocate to Honduras on the 10^th of May, they will have a place to unpack and set up a home. Meanwhile, the kids will be staying with Grammy – and Papi (only by extension.) Grammy is excited. It will be our last hurrah with that set of grandchildren before they head to Central America.

The Lord had blessed Nate and Cori throughout deputation. Nate has been very wise with the love offerings given and with the support raised. They have been able to accomplish in about eighteen months what takes many missionary families three years or more. When Mama announced their pending move as a praise during the time we were taking prayer requests last night, out pastor was quite pleased to hear they would be moving to their field in May. His remark, “They did that quickly.” Yes, they did.

Mama and I are falling behind on the work that needs to be done at the farm. I made a list of projects and related costs so we could set some financial goals to get the projects completed, however, that list has not had anything checked off for some time. As Mama and I have given priority to our new business, evenings have been relegated to that pursuit versus getting things done at the farm. None of the things we lack interfere with our care for the animals or maintenance of the house but all of them still need to be done. For instance, I am not sure if Mama and I will plant a garden this year. We are not to late to do so, but we are rapidly approaching that deadline for this area. Mama has big flowerbed ideas, but I have not even looked at the scope of that project. I want to do a lot of cleanup on the property and have not found the time to get that done. Doors need to be installed. Fences need to be built. Shelters need to be erected and all kinds of little repairs need to be made around the property.

Hopefully, by October of this year we will have the free time we are looking for. We just have to make due until we get there.