Sun blinded, Trace, Tex

Saturday, I spent the entire day working in the shop. Other than about an hour spent with mama cleaning the coop. I really need to finish the outside of the building, but it was far too sunny and hot to work on that. I had to rearrange a lot of items that had been deposited at various places on the floor of the shop so that I could get to the wall I was going to start on. Just consolidating the collection of odds and ends made me feel better about the day. When I opened up the space required to start finishing out the wall, I used the 3/4” plywood I had recovered from the floor of the little metal building we had used for chickens and goats. It was slightly used (three years’ worth of use in catching chicken and goat poop) but not so much that it could not be repurposed. Most of it is going to be covered in one way or another and what is showing looks properly aged.

Mama came out to look things over a couple times through the morning and gave her approval. She was feeling left out. Once I got acclimated to the heat and properly soaked in my own sweat, I did not go back inside the house. Victoria was off Saturday but was watching the Echevarria children. She had taken them to Trade Days. It was some kind of special anniversary there – and they all needed the time out. I probably worked a little too long on the shop because I was hurting very badly that night. Typically, a good night of rest is enough to allow me to recuperate but I had a bit of an upset tummy, so I started out in my recliner. Seven hours later my aching back woke me up and I hobbled to bed. Sunday was uncomfortable, but I do not feel too badly this morning. I am not sure when I will get to continue work on the shop, but at least I got to start making it look like a shop instead of a storage building.

As has become our custom, we went to lunch after church at the Chinese Restaurant. Kenny and Kim Cantrell joined us as did Trace, Krystal and the boys. We had a very good time visiting and enjoying the food that Alex prepared for us. Waiting on Cheyenne and Aubrey to finish always ensures that we are the last to leave if we share our lunchtime with others. When we finally did leave the restaurant and walked outside we were all kind of sun blinded. It was so bright. Mama’s comment was that she could not see in the hot brightness. I am not sure how that thought got put together, but she was definitely heard. Cheyenne was struggling to get into the Sequoia and Victoria was urging her on when she turned around and said, “I can’t see in this hot shade.”  I had Victoria send me a text with Cheyenne’s words, so I would remember to record them. Aubrey is just starting to talk. It should be fun to hear her and Cheyenne converse once she does start.

Mama and I ran the truck out to Trace Saturday evening. He is doing a couple odd jobs for the owners of the property where they are renting. They are in a mobile home at an RV park just outside of Bowie. Within that complex is a common room that was in need of some serious upgrades as far as the sheetrock was concerned. Since drywall is one of Trace’s particular skills, they hired him to do the work. When I dropped him and his family off last night, he took me over to the room to show off his work. He had told me the owners were impressed and very pleased with his work. When I saw the completed project, I could see why. He did an amazing job. He will clear enough on the project to finally get his van out of the shop. He and Krystal are excited about that. They are far more excited to see God working in their lives and finances. The owner offered to set up a website for him. Assuring him that she could get him mall the business he could handle in the DFW area. He politely declined for now but was encouraged by the offer. There are several more jobs they want Trace to do for them, so he will be busy for a few months at least. That will give him and Krystal time to pray for direction and wisdom.

Cori asked for Mama and Victoria to contact her after we got out of church last night. She had some special news. When we did make the connection, she announced that they had gotten a puppy. A Rottweiler. He is a cutie. They are calling him Tex. He will be a good dog for them to have in their current situation.

More about Mama, not so good news

Mama and I sat down last night after she had spent some time on the cooling/compressing device and we let her drive as we opened tabs on the computer related to our business. Working on a single screen is a little more challenging than working at the office on two large screens, but the time gave Mama some confidence in operating the computer. We have not been able to spend much time on our business lately because of my travel, Victoria’s travel, needs at the farm and a heavy workload at the office, but if Mama can take some time every day to work on some lists, we will begin to see a little progress. We are still looking at auctions in Arkansas. The next sale we would like to participate in is on the same day I am required to teach a class here in Decatur. Mama is trying to make arrangements for someone to travel with her to that auction, but she has struck out so far. I am trying to backfill my teaching assignment, but I have also struck out so far. The main reason we would like Mama to get to this auction is that the county is closer to us than any future auctions. It is about a four-hour drive versus a six to seven-hour drive. At the moment, it looks like mid-September is the only sale I will be able to arrange time off to attend. Patience is the key.

Progress on Mama’s knee is painfully slow – really. Painful and slow. I am not convinced at this point that she will be able to avoid being put under anesthesia to induce the motion she is struggling to achieve right now. That may put all our auction plans on hold as far as the business is concerned, but we will deal with that as it unfolds. Mama comes first. If we can get the second surgery done and begin the recovery process in September versus October, it will put us that much farther ahead on her recovery; which both of us hope to have completed by Thanksgiving. Not that Mama will have her full strength by that time, but that she will be able to travel by that time. The only caveat to her traveling – assuming she is able – is having the finances necessary for planning and executing such a trip. Just because I am out of money does not mean that God is. That plan will also be dealt with as it unfolds. Of course, Honduras is the intended destination. We not only want the see Nate, Coria and the kids. We want to see the work there.

This weekend will be a weekend spent catching up to all that has been left undone over the past few weekends of travel and my two days of travel this week. We have high hopes it will rain this weekend which could affect some of the chores, but it will not rain enough to hinder the chores for too long. It is too late this weekend to make the necessary plans for the Bowie Stock Sale so next weekend we will take the Nigerian Dwarfs and the Myotonic bucks to Bowie. We will not get much out of them but selling them will help stretch out our feed for the goats we are actually making money off of. Also, Daisy and her calf have been taken to the sale because she was not showing any signs of improvement. Grandpa thinks she is too infested with worms to treat – or that that treatment would not give us any financial benefit. As long as Mama can let go, I am fine with selling her and the calf. Again, we will not get much out of the sale, but it will stretch out feed for the cows and the steer we are keeping. None of those sale plans are very encouraging, but we will follow through for the sake of the animals we need to keep. On our limited finances.

Of our fruit trees, only the fig tree is healthy. All the others, the peach trees, the plum trees, the apple tree, and the apricot tree are all either going dormant or dying. We will know which next spring if hey survived. At least we are learning what will do well here. As I traveled south Monday and Tuesday it was interesting to see just how much cooler it was on the coast than here in North Texas. It was more humid but the temperatures there were ten to fifteen degrees lower than in the DFW area. On the drive home Tuesday afternoon and evening we gained a full twenty degrees on the thermometer as we dropped over fifty percent in humidity. It goes against conventional wisdom to get hotter as we traveled north, but we lived through the reality of the experience.

A typical Texas summer.

Mama’s recovery, Victoria’s visit

Pray for Mama. She has had a few bad days as far as the pain in her knee is concerned. She was hesitant to go to church last night because she was hurting so badly. She ended up going in spite of the pain – partly because I offered to take her out for dinner – but mostly because she and I enjoy going to church for the preaching, for the fellowship, for the blessings it brings and for the time to serve and to encourage our church family. I was able to get a medical device working that we used on her last surgeries. It will pump cold water through a sleeve that can be wrapped around her knee. The wrap allows both the front and back of the knee to be simultaneously cooled. That should help with the swelling. Reducing the swelling should help with the movement and increased movement will eventually reduce the pain.

Also, the device has wraps that squeeze the calves of both legs while the knee is cooled. That should help. At first, we were not able to get the sleeve that the cold water is circulated through to fill with water from the reservoir, but I left it hanging while I had the device elevated and last night I discovered it had finally filled so that we can use it on Mama. She is excited. She did finally have a good night of rest last night. She was awake when I got up for work, happy that she had slept uninterrupted for seven hours. For her that is a victory we can celebrate.

Last night Mama played a video for me of Savanna counting to ten in Spanish. I am not sure where Savanna got her West Virginia draw, but it will definitely influence her diction as she progresses in both languages. I will look for a way to capture the videos so that they can be shared, but to date I have not taken the time to discover the pathway to accomplish that. Marco Polo has become the de facto communication app and I enjoy the times I get to see those video chats, but they are not necessarily easily transferred to other media for distribution.

Digressing a few days, I have not written anything about the time Victoria spent in Honduras. Obviously, she had a wonderful time – most of it spent in Cori and Nate’s house with the kids. Victoria was only there for a couple days so it was over far too quickly. Probably the most notable parts of the trip were her surprise arrival and her sudden departure. The exuberance at her arrival was answered by an equally emotional response at her departure. Cori told Mama that for several days after Victoria left, Savanna was very needy, always wanting to be help and cuddled, plying her with constant questions about when Victoria was coming back. The lack of understanding about the cost and the effort involved in Victoria getting there and back is lost one so small. But the visit will continue to play out over the next few weeks and hopefully, Mama and I will be able to make our way down there late in the year and stay long enough to make Savanna understand that we are now far away from her house. That we will not be able to come and see her very often.

A few weeks ago, Nate shared a letter with us. It is a letter written by a missionary wife about the emotional struggles of moving to the mission field – especially as related to her children. In that letter she touches on the idea that as family does make their way to the field to visit those serving on a foreign field– generally one at a time – the time they are able to spend with each other during those visits provides a unique context for personal interaction; unlike anything normally experienced when they were geographically close. What she worried about in relocating so far from family was that the connection to family would be lost. However, she has discovered that those connections are only made stronger as, one by one, family members come to spend time at with them at their place of service. It is a bonding that works both ways – on those serving far away and on those visiting those serving in those faraway places.

Victoria found that to be true.

Anniversary #36, travel, Mama

At 2 pm this afternoon Mama and I will have been married thirty-six years. I had wanted to do something special, but Mama is not capable of too much right now. We will celebrate somehow, but it won’t be a big thing. We have talked about going to Roatan while we are in Honduras this Fall as our anniversary present to each other, but that is still only in the discussion stages. Based on how things are progressing financially right now, it is a potential prospect, but not a sure thing. As the medical bills continue to come in, something like that loos discouragingly far away. On the bright side, what is it like to be married thirty-six years? It is impossible to put into words all the trials and victories, all the conversations and times of prayer and answers to those prayers, all the miles we have traveled together and all the sights we have seen, all the private jokes we have between us – the silent knowing and secret language spoken between two separate individuals who share a lifetime commitment to each other.

I love her more deeply now than when we married one Sunday afternoon thirty-six years ago. Our lives are wrapped up so profoundly in each other that we do not think of ourselves individually. It is a unity that is impossible to describe. We live for the dual purpose of honoring God and maintaining that unity. We will not leave a big mark on this world, but we want the mark we leave to recognizable as one of commitment and cherishing. We have not always been in agreement, nor have we always avoided argument, but we have always struggled through to the point where the offender asked forgiveness and the offended forgave. As the song so appropriately says, “we’ve had more gains than losses and we’ve known more joy than hurt, as His grace rolled down upon us undeserved. God’s been good.”

I was on the road with one of our salesmen from work Monday and Tuesday. We visited clients and potential clients in South Texas so much of the time was spent getting there and getting back, but we did have really good sales calls. Two of the three were follow up calls. The third was a first meeting with the potential client. On all three meetings I was able to contribute – “add some color” as the salesman I was traveling with put it – but I am not completely convinced it was a good use of my time. If he feels that it was, then I am good with that. There was some discussion around making this a part of my responsibility within the company. Using me as a subject matter expert to help in sales where such insights would benefit the client contact, but I do not know where that will go. It would require far more travel and my current supervisor has been careful to let me stay at the office in deference to Mama’s recovery. That has been nice.

Especially since, getting back yesterday evening about 8 pm, I felt like it put a little too much on Mama while I was away. I will have to spend the rest of the evenings this week catching up to farm related items that are too much for her to do on her own. Most of the tasks are not difficult, but each requires a certain amount of time on her feet to accomplish. She has a very limited ability to offer much in that just yet. I am concerned about the next surgery which will fall near the time I am scheduled to spend a week at a workshop in Alabama. I should be more excited about the workshop than I am. Instead, I am concerned with the timing and how it could potentially overlap Mama’s surgery. There is no one at the company who can effectively teach the classes at that workshop besides me – which exposes a concerning lack of depth in our ability to support our instructor led training. But I may not be here long enough to correct that issue. Time will tell.

For now, our primary focus is on Mama and getting her back to full mobility.

Multitasking, sorting things out, travel

After feeding the animals and getting the garden trees watered, I got the tiny peaches we got this year and put them in pots on the stove to start cooking down so we could hopefully make jam our of them. Maybe it would be better to call the mash that resulted from the cooking effort preserves rather that jam since I was not able to separate the skins from the pulp or the juice There was not any juice at all in the tiny fruit. We burned a little bit of the peach mash in one pot because I was distracted by other thanks I took on while cooking the preserves. I started replacing the toilet as the mash – seeds and all – began to cook down. That all started about 5:15. I was washing the pots used in the process at 10 pm. I am not sure that the final product will be edible, but we gave it a shot. I ended up with two quarts and four half pints as well as a small plastic container of the preserves. If the whole batch is not worth keeping, I at least made an effort to re-coop some of our produce.

Meanwhile, I assembled the new toilet and removed to old one. It is a fairly simple process to make the exchange but with the back problems I have, that simple process is quite taxing. By the time I got done I was hurting pretty badly. It was not the kind of pain that required anything more than a good night’s sleep and a half a muscle relaxer. When I got everything bolted sown and hooked up, I filled the tank with water. I had one small leak at the base of the tank where it attaches to the bowl, but that was easily corrected. I had not been aggressive enough when tightening the bolts that attached the tank to the bowl. I am always hesitant to get them to tight to avoid cracking the tank during assembly. Now Mama has a toilet set up to accommodate her recovery – and it will service us for regular use as well. I probably should have shopped around more for the toilet, I might have been able to save a few dollars – but it is done now. And I will be able to recover over the next couple days.

Victoria is enjoying her time with her nieces and nephews. That adds to the push, or pull if you wish, to get Mama down to Honduras to visit her grandkids for herself. It will have to be a more carefully planned trip for the two of us, but I think Mama would be ready to go tomorrow if I announced that we could. For their part, Nate, Cori and the kids are ready at just about any time also. But for now, Mama and I are struggling through the morass of bills and insurance notices we are receiving concerning her most recent surgery. It is difficult to tell where it will all settle out but at the moment it looks like we owe between $10K and $12K. Not too overwhelming when the totals started out somewhere over $87K. Those of you who know how insurance works understand that it will be a couple more months before we know the real total. That is about the time we will start getting the bills and insurance notices for the second knee surgery. As I have said before, God has not run out of money and he has given me a good job to get me and Mama through this.

I will be traveling for work Monday and Tuesday. Look for me again Wednesday.

Safe arrival, upgrades, prayer

Victoria arrived safely in Honduras. I am not sure of the time, but I do know that Cori, Nate and the kids waited for over an hour on her flight. By the time Victoria got there the kids were well past ready to be done with the mission to retrieve someone at the airport. They had not been told who they were there to pick up. If I heard correctly, Savana was the first to recognize her Aunt Tori. The others quickly followed. Mama told me there was a video, but I did not see it. I did see a photo of Victoria with the kids, but I do not have an electronic version of that image. I am sure the rest of the day and evening was a madhouse of activity as Victoria, exhausted from a short night and a long flight tried to participate in all the excitement as the kids tried to show her everything that came to their minds. The next four days will pass by too quickly for all of them.

As soon as I got home yesterday evening I went out to feed the animals and having accomplished that I sat in my recliner and took a nap. I had planned on sleeping for only fifteen or twenty minutes but that is not how it worked out. Though I am not entirely sure of what time l laid my head back, I woke up and realized I had only thirty minutes to get ready for church. We made it to church on time. Mainly because Mama, who also napped for the second time that day, had already showered that day and only had to get dressed. It was good to be at our home church. This week we will get a full set of services. I am looking forward to that.

Tonight, when I get through with the animals, I will assemble a toilet I bought for the master bath. It is a chair height toilet (also called a handicap toilet) to replace the little toilet we have in the bathroom now. I had to order the toilet because the outlet in the floor is not a standard distance from the wall. It was not cheap but with Mama’s recovery from this surgery and the pending surgery on her other knee, she needed the extra height. Long term, it will be a good upgrade to the bathroom. I am also going to take out the doors on our tub/shower and replace that with curtains. We will use a bowed rod to hold the shower curtain. I am not sure that is an upgrade, but without the doors it will be easier for Mama to use our shower as she continues to recover.

Last night the pastor preached on prayer; specifically, what hinders our prayers. The root of unanswered prayer is found in Ps 66:18. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Pastor asked, “Which sins put Christ on the cross? The big sins or the little sins? Does God differentiate?”  All of us have a list of prayers that need to be answered – whether written or mental. Some answers will come only in God’s time. Others may be on hold as God waits on us to respond to Him. Too often we know what we need to do but choose not to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Our way seems better for now. More consistent with our understanding; our plans. Yet our prayers wait, unanswered. Either God knows best or He does not. Somewhere along the way we have to choose; His way or our way. If Romans 8:28 is still true (and it is) I believe His way would always be best. The difficulty comes in acting on that belief. Surrender is not natural for any of us.

Speaking of prayer, I am a little concerned about the next knee surgery. At this point Mama still cannot bend the knee that was operated on sufficiently to put on a sock or shoe by herself. She is not far from being successful at that activity, but if the doctor wants to do the next knee at the beginning of September she has lot of work to do to get the movement required to support her daily needs out of the leg in which she is now trying to regain the full range of motion.

September could be a very difficult month for us.

Victoria’s quick trip, Mama

Mama called me yesterday late morning with a “guess what?”. With that contact I was made aware of the arrangements Victoria and Cori had made to fly Victoria to Honduras. Yes, to fly Victoria to Honduras. The driver for the trip is Savanna’s third birthday this Saturday. None of us want to miss the event but sadly, Mama and I knew we could not go. However, Cori found a fairly cheap ticket to San Pedro Sula and Victoria could not pass up the opportunity since she was already off the rest of the week. With that trip in mind, the entire rest of the day was spent in getting items that Cori and the kids needed – Peanut Butter, Marshmallow Cream, Apple Butter and the like. There were also some pants bought for Grant and other sundry items but making weigh on the checked bag was a limitation to the amount that could be purchased here and carried there. Victoria’s bag barely made weight. Fortunately, the birthday party items Mama and I bought late in the day did weigh much or take up much room.

Victoria left the house at 4:15 am. She met Erin and the kids at 4:30 am and they headed to the airport. I called Victoria to check on her and she told me how charged up the kids were at their “nighttime adventure”. The only complaint was that Luke wanted to get something to eat since he was up and of course they could not stop on the way to the airport. Hopefully, soon after he was fed. Victoria was already through security and waiting on the boarding call when I talked to her. Like me, she gets pretty nervous every time she flies – and remains so until safely through security and at the required gate. I assured her there was nothing she could do about it and now that the angst has largely passed, she can relax a moment before boarding. She should be with Cori and the kids by lunchtime. Perhaps this was not the best way to plan an international trip, but it just might work.

Mama is left to feed the animals by herself this morning. That required me to make a couple changes to feeder positions and feed barrel locations. With the boy goats, one of the two is very annoying when it comes to feeding. At least for me it is and annoyance; for Mama his constant pushing against the legs and having to step around him as you pass through his area would be dangerous. I generally use my knees to push him away as he bangs into me. Mama cannot do so. He is not aggressive, but it has tripped me up on occasion. So, last night I moved the feed out of the building where it is normally kept and moved the boy’s feeder to the fence on the coop side of the yard. That way Mama will not have to go into the enclosure and deal with the potential for injury. Hopefully that will be enough to get her through the next few mornings. Since we have not had, nor are predicted to have rain or dew, setting the container of feed (it has a closed top) in the open will do into harm through the remainder of the week. Victoria will be back Sunday night and able to take back over the morning feedings on Monday – Lord willing.

Mama had another follow up appointment yesterday. There was some good news. The doctor is pleased with how well the knee is healing, but not so pleased with the range of motion. He will see Mama in another month to determine whether or not to anesthetize her to force the knee into a fully bent position. If that proves necessary, she will be scheduled for that treatment the first part of September. At that time, the doctor will do the replacement surgery on the other knee. The only caveat is that during the second week of September I will be in Alabama the entire week. We will see how well Mama progresses in physical therapy over the next four weeks. That will determine the timing of her next surgery. Sooner is probably better since we are making tentative plans to visit Honduras over Thanksgiving. A month earlier for the surgery means a month earlier for the recovery – hopefully. Whether or not our pursuit of this business will allow me to be free of my current employment by that time remains to be seen.

Right now, we are focused on getting the swelling to go down. I am struggling to understand the limit to the range of motion Mama currently has and it seems that swelling is the major contributor to that limitation. So, we are refocusing all our efforts on reducing that to get more bend in the joint. Some of our Nikken wraps have been brought out of storage to hurry the healing process and we are reusing a device Mama was given for her past knee surgeries. We probably have what we need. We just need to use every tool we have accumulated to get through this is the quickest possible way.

I know Mama is ready to get through the healing process…me too.