Looking a bit deeper, old fogies, sales report

Sometimes it feels as though there are days that are completely uneventful. I have had those. Yesterday may have been one. I got home from work, ate a small dinner and went out to feed. Between getting home from her day at school and going to church, Mama spent most of the time on the couch. She always fusses a bit at me because I want to leave the house so early when we are going to church. After thirty-six years of marriage you would think she knows that I like to arrive early. To arrive early, you must leave early, but that is not how she thinks. Anyway, we got to church almost a half hour early, but we were not the first ones there. Several people were already in the sanctuary and the folks from the nursing home were arriving. As I picked out a mission letter to read, the pastor put on his suit jacket and I said, “I got the memo.” At first, he did not understand but we had on suits so similar that we really looked like twins. Mama was just coming into the sanctuary at that time. She had stayed in the car to put on some makeup. I told her the same thing as she walked past the pastor and I. She understood right away. But insisted that the two brownish suits were not the same color of brownish – and that she did not ike the color of mine that well as she liked the color of the pastor’s suit.

I looked at the pastor and said, “Pastor I need to go home and change.” Everyone around us laughed. Mama scolded me right away. Which made everyone laugh again. I told Mama, “I can’t be up in front of the church in an ugly suit. I already feel self-conscious just standing here.” More laughter. More scolding from Mama. Those kinds of conversations do not happen when we get to church just in time. I will not relate other times of repartee throughout the day, at work and at home, but they are worth remembering because they fill the day meaning – if not purpose. My challenge to you. Look for those times in your day today. I am sure they will be there. Perhaps these “uneventful” days will look less sterile. Mama and I are a boring couple to hang out with, but we have interesting and important moments during each day.

Hopefully, we will become less boring as Mama becomes more mobile again, but for now we will tolerate and maybe even find purpose in our “old fogie” lifestyle. It does give Mama time to keep up with our children and grandchildren as she convalesces. Sadly, if I am not included directly in those conversations, I do not hear about the events relayed to Mama. I have to listen for tidbits of information and mine out the details sometime after the conversation has taken place.  But eventually most of the details are communicated. If not, I get the overview and extrapolate down from there.

We did get the check from selling out three Nigerian Dwarf goats. It was a pleasant surprise to see that the proceeds matched our expectations. That money will be used to buy more feed as we let the farm support itself. Friday, buyers are coming for our two Myotonic bucklings. We already have an established price on them and that money will go into the farm fund as well. As that stands, we have enough money to buy feed and hay for several months; perhaps through the end of the year. November-ish we are going to take two of our cattle herd to be processed. We already have several people interested in quarters and halves. We will have only one heifer left to feed after we make that sale. She should be cheap to keep – comparatively speaking.

In addition to meeting the buyer tomorrow, Mama and I are meeting with fellow investors that evening. At the office, I have an all-day presentation to give, so I will be more busy than usual. Fortunately, Mama is not going to the school tomorrow because of her physical therapy session. That will provide her a larger window of time to make the afternoon buyer appointment. My day will be packed. Hopefully productive. I told Mama we need to go above and beyond if we are going to make this business work, so this meeting is a step out into potential partnerships that will help us broaden our approach and hopefully broaden our opportunities to invest. We cannot do this on our own but need to be careful who we yolk up with. Pray for us old fogies as we seek wisdom in those partnerships.

Take time to enjoy – and hopefully remember – the fun moments you experience today.

School, flare up

Yesterday was Mama’s first day back at school. I am not sure how long she will try to work there but it is certain that after her next knee surgery (coming up on the 18^th of September), she will not be able to sit comfortably at the desk they have for her in the classroom. I am not sure she is able to sit comfortably now, but she is trying. She enjoys the time spent with the kids and she enjoys the classroom atmosphere, the fun facts that she picks up from the kids learning materials, the interaction. But her availability is going to be limited. For now, she is going to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of each week. She still goes to physical therapy on Monday and Friday. I enjoy meeting her for lunch. It makes a good halfway point in both of our workdays - and I get a hot lunch So, we will enjoy it while we can. She has four weeks before her surgery, from which time I expect her to be out through at least November; possible through the end of the year.

As far as her recovery is concerned, she is talking about spending a few days in rehab after the next surgery – if insurance will pay for it. Since we are already $14,000 in the hole for this surgery, I am not looking forward to adding that much more to the financial load. But, what can you do? Mama and I have heard stories about how much a few days of rehab promoted the recovery after knee replacement surgery. We want to avoid having the knee manipulated several weeks post-op. Like we are having to do with this one. We have only a short 27-day period to get all this lined up and hopefully sorted out. Since the next knee is her right knee, her ability to drive herself around will be far more limited than she has experienced with the left knee rebuild. It will take a great deal more networking to get her where she needs to be after the surgery and the therapy offered at rehab could speed the recovery process.

I admit to being stressed out about it. It is not a conscious awareness of the stress, but it is there none-the-less. Emotions running the gambit from “God is bigger than our need” to being so overwhelmed that I feel like I am being crushed. From “Thank you Lord for being so near to me” to “Why do I feel like I am all alone in this?” There are so many we are praying for that are going through so much more than the small trial Mama and I are fighting through, I am often ashamed at my lack of faith. Faith always wins out. Even when I do not see the answer, I know God will glorify Himself though our situation if I continue in faith. Eventually though, the stress catches up to me and I have to deal with it. “Oh, ye of little faith.”

Case in point. Yesterday evening was not a good time for me. After I spent some time getting feed barrels filled up and making sure all the animals had water, I sat at the kitchen table to cool off for a few minutes before getting our laptop out. I had planned on Mama and I working our business for a couple hours. Mama and I have not spent much time on it since we got internet at the house –about six weeks ago. We have given an hour here and there, but we need to get more involved in it. Even though the auctions we have been preparing for are out of reach for now, there is still a lot we can do. Sadly, that did not happen last night because my plans were fouled by technical difficulties.

When I tried to log into my Mac, it would not recognize my password. I have purposely not changed it since I bought the computer, so I am not sure what happened, but it would not let me in. My emotions were pretty raw to begin with, but that really irritated me. (One of those times when the stress caught up to me.) I slammed the computer closed and went outside to work until the anger abated. That took about two hours. By that time, I was a sweaty mess and it was too late to do any research. So, I took a shower and go the laptop back out to see if I had been locked out for a specified time after too many failed attempts. Fortunately, Apple has a backdoor for access to their devices when a password is forgotten – or has been changed by some unknown force. The prompts finally popped up onscreen and I was able to reset the password through iCloud. That process took about thirty minutes in total; after which I had to rebuild the desktop so the files we need to access were obvious – in case Mama ever tries to work at this on her own.

So far that has not happened, but it might soon.

An ear for languages

As Nate, Cori and the kids immerse themselves in the language of their field, it is interesting to see which of them has an ear for language. Having an ear for languages is more than amassing vocabulary words and conjugating verbs. It is the innate ability to imitate diction and inflection of the native speakers. It is an ability to connect root words to other root words and hear the flow of thoughts not through the words that are spoken but rather by how those words are spoken. Cori and Nate both seem to have that ability. For Nate, this is a third language, so his ear had been tuned to those subtilities long ago. Cori likes to dig into things and see the overlap of ideas and expressions. She, like Nate, loves to communicate. Both of them have been exposed to cultures and foreign mission fields throughout their lives. For the children, this is a first.

From what I am able to pick up so far, here is what I am seeing. Mykenzie loves to communicate but she is quiet and studious by nature so her path to mastering the language will probably be memorization – at least until she is moderately comfortable speaking. She may lack confidence for a while, but she will get it by working at it. I have not heard Grant speak and Spanish, but my thoughts are that he is a born communicator, a leader, a friend maker. He is probably more open to trial and error than his older sister and will learn by doing – mistakes and all. Blake, I imagine will be dragged along for some time, doggedly resistant until there is a real reason for him personally to learn the language. When that need is expressed in his life, he will master the language quickly. He is already immersed in it, so his mind is acclimating without him being aware of it. I can picture him authoring in both languages. Savanna, will be interesting to watch.

Savanna seems to have that intuitive ability to hear the language meaningfully. She is young and will use the same listening, imitating and verbalizing skills that all little ones use to communicate and build language. She is far ahead of most of her English speaking 3-year-old peers because she understands concepts – both through generalization and abstraction. For instance, Cori shared a text about the use of the Spanish expression (or word) verdad. In simple equivalent English, the word means “true”, but – as in English also - it is used to convey an expression of total agreement So true), of “I can go along with that thought but listen to this side of the argument” (true, but), of questioning the statement, just made (Is that true?), etc., depending on the inflection. What Savanna found in the word was the root word equivalent to her English knowledge base – dad. Everyone thought it was so funny when they would say “Verdad” Savanna would say “vermama”. She cannot read, so the spelling does not influence her cognition. She heard that. It made perfect sense to her to make the connection. I find that impressive. It will be interesting to see how she does with learning to read and write the language, but I will not be surprised if she is coaching Blake at some point in the future.

I set up a stereo in the shop over the weekend. I have had this stereo for a lot of years. If I remember correctly I bought it before Mama and I were married and have boxed it up for every move we have made. I have not had it in service for a couple decades, but I wanted to find it a home. In tuning the radio, I stumbled across multiple Spanish radio stations finally picking one to listen to while I am in the shop working. It is not the best way to immerse myself in the language, but it will get my ear acclimated to hearing the language in practice. As I worked for a few minutes last night I was able to understand most of the repartee between the DJs although I struggled to understand the lyrics to the songs. But I struggle with that in English.

It would be nice to have my ear tuned to the language before we go to visit Nate, Cori and the kids.

The shop, selling goats, birthdays

Although there were other chores or projects I could have focused on Friday night, I decided to start setting up the shop. I had already put up three pieces of plywood reclaimed from the little metal building on the east wall of the shop - it was only in one small area – but I had not taken time to move items from the garage to the shop in order to actually set up a work space. So, Friday evening and into the night, I focused primarily on that. I had purchased some metal pegboard panels almost a year ago but had obviously never installed them. That was first. It took me three iterations before I got them where I wanted them with the workbench and desk. Once those were in place, I moved the desk we have carried with us from the shop we set up in Bowie out of the garage and into place in the shop. There is about 60 feet of wall space to work with in the entire shop and I have set up about twelve feet of that total, so I still have a long way to go. But it is a start. I worked until well after dark and by the time I came inside and showered, my eyes were burning from the sweat that had been constantly pouring into them. That sting is still with me this morning.

In addition to getting the shop looking like a shop, I got cages out and cleaned them up so that we could load up goats Saturday morning. Bowie has a sheep and goat sale every Saturday morning and we had decided it was time to let the Nigerian goats go. Along with them, we were also planning on taking the two little bucks to the sale. Mama, however, found a different home for them. She called the lady who had bought Kia and Yukie to see if she was interested in buying one of the little males. She quickly agreed to our price on one but called back a little while later and told Mama she wanted both bucks. (She is enamored with the personality of the Myotonic goat breed.) So, selling these five goats will bring as much money to the farm as selling Daisy. Cattel are selling very low right now and Daisy was not a particularly desirable cow. I am slowly convincing Mama that we need to do more with goats and less with cattle. She is starting to see the potential is doing that. The hay we have to buy and feed out right now is getting expensive for the three bovine we currently ow. Fortunately, two of the three will be going to the market in October or November.

Anyway, Saturday morning, Victoria and I loaded the three Nigerian nanny goats into cages and we headed to Bowie - later than I had wanted. Mama and I had talked about getting the goats to the sale early, eating breakfast at the Longhorn Café and getting back to the farm in time for me to go bus calling. Somehow, between the time I went to bed Friday night and got the goats loaded Saturday morning, the part about getting me back in time to go bus calling had been forgotten. Now the plan was to visit Grandpa after we ate breakfast. Saturday was his birthday. He is 76 years old. Grandpa and Grandma appreciated the visit. Obviously, I was not back in time to go on visitation, but Mama and Victoria felt like we had accomplished everything they needed to get done. So much so that they both laid down for a nap as soon as we were home. I went back to work on the shop.

When I looked back at what I had accomplished, it was a little disappointing that it had taken so much time to get just that little bit done, but I was also dispatching chickens, cutting branches off the dead tree was are going to take down, taking trash to the dump and cleaning up little piles of debris around the coop and birthing center. So, not all my time was spent in that little area, but a lot of it was.

Mama is happy to see things moved from the garage to the shop – especially since she can now park in the garage.

Home study, sales and purchases, chickens vs eggs

With internet available at the house, I have spent time every evening doing research for our business. Since Mama’s surgery is scheduled for the same day as the last auction in Arkansas, we will obviously not be going to that auction. It was my last hope of getting a house in Arkansas, but Mama comes first. So, with that option off the table I have begun to explore the possibility of doing online purchases. Those are almost exclusively for tax liens, but it would keep Mama and I in the business through the end of this year and the beginning of next year. Since our focus has been on tax deeds, I have a whole lot of review to do in order to reacquaint myself with the process for purchasing liens. Fortunately, the couple we helped get a house in Oklahoma spent their entire ten-week training session with their coach working on tax liens – all purchased online. That is the direction Mama and I need to head. So, we called that couple for help. We will be meeting them next Friday evening to get some coaching on the process they were taught and to show them what our coach gave to us to help us buy over-the-counter liens.

Saturday morning, before I do anything else, I will load the Nigerian Dwarf goats into cages and carry them to the auction happening in Bowie. Mama is calling Rick this morning to see if we can trade the two bucks we have for a buck that would be able to breed out goats. A buck he might have that is unrelated to the nanny goats we have. Somehow, he is able to keep the bloodlines in his head, so he would know if he has what we are needing. If he does that would be great. If not, he has always been willing to let our nanny goats get bred on his farm. Mama does not necessarily want to house a buck, but it may work out in our favor to see if we can make the trade.

We could possibly make more off the goats at another sale farther away, but I am not available for too much travel this weekend. Besides, the Bowie Market is the nearest place for us to offload the goats. We just got the check for Daisy and the calf that were sold there last week, and it was not overly disappointing. We will take our chances using what is available to us close by. We are trying to trim back our little farm operation so we can maximize our feed. Perhaps we can make enough off the sale of the goats to pay for a month or two of feed for the animals that are left on the farm. Right now, the hay we have to purchase is the most expensive part of the monthly feed bill and letting Daisy go will help conserve that part of our feed purchases. Mama bought feed yesterday and I will have to buy hay early next week, so it will be next month before we see the benefit, but we definitely will see a benefit.

The thirty hens Mama has in the coop are eating a lot of feed without producing many eggs. Of that thirty, fifteen or sixteen are just now at the point of starting to lay. We are getting some small eggs from those hens that will eventually produce much bigger eggs. Those smaller eggs, along with the Banty eggs, are what Mama allows Victoria and I to eat occasionally. All of the other eggs go to the Chinese and a couple regular customers Victoria has at work. Mama is very particular about taking care of her customers. I do not count among that group. But then again, I do not eat eggs very often. Victoria on the other hand makes some sort of egg requiring meal several times per week. It all works out, but it troubles Mama for too many eggs to be consumed at home. Perhaps when all the hens are laying regularly it will cause her less stress. We’ll see.

Along with the hens we ended up with eleven or twelve roosters. The little Bantam hen that hatched out eleven eggs gave us seven roosters. Four came to us through purchases Mama made at Tractor Supply and one was a hatchery mistake among some very expensive hens Mama purchased. The Roosters that are not Bantam are large. Much larger than any of our hens. They are all beautiful, but Mama does not want to keep any of them. I have had to cull the excess Bantam roosters. I will take the large roosters and dress them out for our use if Mama cannot sell them. We have decided on next week – if Mama can put up with the rough time those roosters are giving our hens that much longer.

They are just doing what roosters do but Mama is very protective of her hens.

Dead trees, on the road

During the storms last week, we had some branches fall out of a dead tree that is standing right beside the little building we use as a puppy birthing center. The first branch fell onto the kennel beside the building and shredded the tarp we had covering the kennel. The second and much larger branch fell onto the path we walk to go from the house to the coop area. Since that ended up in her way, Mama called to see if Grandpa could come over and help me take down the rest of the tree. There is still a lot of the tree standing, so asking for help is a wise move. The fact that it leans toward the building and the kennel, makes the request for help even more responsible. However, Grandma somehow took the request to mean that Grandpa and Victoria were going to take on the project alone since the intent is to protect the building he built for her. I am not sure how that all came about, but as Mama tried to clarify and scrape more help together, Grandma took offence and the whole thing got blown out of proportion. So, even though I would appreciate the help, I may end up doing the tree removal on my own. Time will tell.

In the event that I can find the help, there is one more dead tree that is far larger than the one that threatens our birthing center. It is near the pig building. I have let both trees stand because to this point there has been no evidence that the trees were near falling over, but I may have to be more aggressive in eliminating the threat of both. It is not something I would like to do on my own, but it may end up that way. We are nearing the point of having waited too long – and it is not like I have not been given fair warning that something needs to be done to remove the potential danger. When we lived in New Jersey a branch fell out of an oak tree in our neighbor’s yard and struck her oldest son on the head. She was not home. He ran over to our house for help. Head bleeding and nearly passed out from the blow. We called his mom as Mama and I dealt with the injury. It was far from serious, but he did require twelve staples to close the wound. His mom told us later that he was texting pictures to his classmates throughout the treatment at the hospital. Focusing on the staples in his scalp. All that to say, branches being shed by these types of trees is not uncommon. Dead trees falling apart is another issue.

The class I taught yesterday turned out very well. There were thirty-five participants in the class as well as two observers. The challenge in a class of that size is to engage everyone during the entire class; to speak loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear; to make eye contact with everyone. The room is always set up with round tables. Five people to a table. That spreads the class over a large floorspace. Fortunately, my company had a mic that my coworker was able to get set up for me. It made a real difference for those who chose to sit in the very back of the room. It allowed me to engage those who sat the farthest from me. Everyone seemed to enjoy the class and the activities we had along with the class. Even with the mic, my voice was completely worn out by the end of the class. I had to have Bro. Zach lead the singing in the service last night.

Mama is on the road all day today. She left the house this morning headed to Kim Cantrell’s. From there she is going to Muenster – with Kim – to get feed for the farm animals. On the way they are going out to eat at a Mexican restaurant Kim Cantrell feels is one of the best in the area. After that, she is headed to Grandmas for a birthday party. Grandma, Grandpa and Norman have consecutive birthdays, so I am not sure if today is Grandma’s actual birthdate or if it a convenient day to have the party. Mama made a German Chocolate cake for the occasion. She should be home shortly after I get there. I reminded her that she only has 32 days left to get these sort of things done before her second surgery.

I encouraged her to enjoy it while she can.

Rain, recovery, pregnancies

Of course, our neighbor was right when he told me it would eventually rain. It always does - eventually. It did yesterday. After several seeks of rain passing by us we were happy to get what we got. We got over an inch in long gentle showers and occasional bursts of rain. We are still behind on average totals, but it was a blessing to see the ground soaked. Areas only a few miles from us got several times as much as we did, but that is not something we can change. It is too late for the trees and shrubs that have already given up, but it will be enough to make the grass turn green again. It may be enough to keep the large oak trees we have from dying. Mama may even get to mow a couple times this summer. There is no more rain in the forecast this week, but the temperatures are predicted to stay below 100° F. That will be a nice change. As always, we will take what we get.

Mama went in for her physical therapy yesterday as scheduled. The therapist hinted that she may have healed more quickly than anticipated which could have caused the scar tissue from her surgery to be thicker than he commonly sees. I am not sure what that means exactly other than it may cause her more pain in accomplishing the motion she is striving for. He recommended getting into therapy much more quickly after the next surgery…which he expects will be performed sooner rather than later. Mama and I talked about it quite a bit last night. My thinking is that the sooner we get this done the better, but I am going to be gone the week of the 10^th of September.

With that on my schedule, I am suggesting she get the surgery on Monday the 3^rd. That way I can spend the first week with her. She would rather wait until the 17^th of September. That would be okay, but we have tickets to fly to Honduras Thanksgiving Day. I would rather her be almost twelve weeks into her recovery versus being at nine weeks when we travel. Since we are at the eight-week mark right now with the first surgery, we can infer what range of motion and level of pain she will be in during the security lines, the boarding lines, the painful seating in the waiting areas, and the long flight cramped into a normal seat on a plane. Plus, we will miss several therapy sessions during our travel. My thought is to have her as far into the healing process as possible. Ultimately, the surgical team will decide the date, but we might have a bit of input. We will know more when she sees the doctor on the 28^th, only two weeks from today.

Trace called Mama last night to ask for a ride over to get their van. He got paid for the work he did at the RV park and it is more than enough to start paying off the work done to the van. Mama will also be taking Krystal to a couple places in Decatur to see if she can get the paperwork put in to get emergency pregnancy care. So far, all her searches have been unsuccessful is getting the help she needs. She is over five months pregnant, going on six months. She really does need to get some care from a gynecologist and get set up for this delivery. I know it will all work out, but we are anxious to see the path forward for her and Trace.

Speaking of pregnancies’, Becky called Mama on our way home from church Sunday evening to let Mama know that she is pregnant. Grandchild number 14 on the way.