Pain, planning around the weather

Yesterday I was in so much pain that it was hard to concentrate. There are odd times that I go through these bouts of severe pain in my lower back, often without any identifiable event that could have caused the increase in pain, but for this pain I can track it back to carrying a bag of feed on my shoulder from the shop to the well house. I did that because there was only one bag to carry, and it seemed the fastest way to get the bag to it destination. Not a wise decision and I paid for it. I am far better this morning, but that little episode of pain was a quick lesson in not challenging my abilities beyond what I am currently able to accomplish – which seems to be diminishing far more quickly than I anticipated. To help mitigate the pain this morning I got out the TENS unit and put the pads on my back. One of the advantages of working from home since I will not wear the unit to work. Surprisingly, the unit is now once again functioning properly. When I last used it, it would not work on the TENS mode but only on the massage mode. The TENS is far better for providing relief to my aching back.

Since Mama had gone to Muenster to get feed yesterday evening, I was not looking forward to moving fifteen or more bags of feed from the back of the truck to the pallet in the shop where we store the feed when she got home with the load, but Mama was thinking ahead. She had the feedstore put the bags on a pallet so that I could use the tractor to move the lot in one trip. It required me swapping implements on the tractor front loader, but that is a simple task. So, I swapped the bucket for the pallet forks, moved the pallet of feed into the shop and then swapped back to the bucket. All that took me about fifteen minutes – and I saved my back a lot of potential strain. Thank you, Mama.

Since the forecast if for a lot of rain beginning tomorrow and continuing through next week, I am planning on looking into the hives today. I would like to check the progress the bees have made in drawing out the comb in the honey supers. In one hive I put frames of Permacomb, a plastic equivalent to drawn out comb. In that honey super the bees can begin immediately to fill the comb with honey. I am hoping to get more than one full honey super out of that hive, but I am not sure if that will happen or not. I printed off a blog about harvesting honey so that Mama and I could study on it before we attempted it and the author, who has only four hives as well, stated that he often gets fifteen gallons of honey from his hives. That would be encouraging. I am looking at getting at least the minimum equipment Mama and I need on hand to collect our first honey. That’s exciting.

This evening we will move Midas back into the paddock with Julian and hopefully get the little does back into the paddock with their mommies. That will simplify the feeding next week and ensure all our livestock have a dry place to stay during the rainy week. We are forecast to get over four inches through the week. That would be a huge blessing since many of our tanks and ponds are very low, but I do not know what effect it will have on the guided fishing trip Pastor and I are supposed to go on next Friday. Sometime through the week, I will contact the guide for an update. Rescheduling should not be a problem since both the Pastor and I are pretty flexible but I do not want to miss the opportunity to see Lake Bridgeport from the perspective of a professional guide. Knowing his go-to places on the Lake will be very helpful. Many people go out and second the day fishing coming home with very little to show for their efforts, our pastor included. A free scouting lesson will be put to god use.

Saturday afternoon is the graduation at Bible Baptist Translators Institute. It is always sad to see our BBTI attendees graduate and move on with their lives, often hitting the deputation trail. We have had three couples and two singe students from BBTI with us in church for the entire year. When they move on, they will be sorely missed, but that is the way of life at BBTI and as much as we know it will happen each year, it is still sad to repeat the process every time we must. That graduation and the lunch following will take a chunk out of our time Saturday, but we always enjoy participating and supporting BBTI.

How heavy the rain is on Saturday will determine what else I can get done that day, but I can always find something to do.

Israel, cyberattacks, shopping

For anyone who is a Bible End-Times Prophesy student, the events taking place in Israel now are further proof that the coming of our Lord is nearer than ever. As the United States at the governmental level has largely abandoned Israel to its enemies, Israel has begun on its own to fight back against the rocket attacks launched against it with the force necessary to overcome the threat. As a nation, it is perfectly capable of doing so without help from the outside. This response in self-defense will stir the world to pick a side in the conflict. If we choose Israel, we will do well. If we do not, we will not do well. It has always been so, because God has chosen to bless those who bless Israel; to curse those who curse Israel. Mama and I were talking about this as we drove to church yesterday evening. It is difficult to empathize with those who have had to run to bomb shelters during the onslaught of rocket fire while our lives seem so normal. Yet what is happening half the world away will have a profound impact on our future, quite possibly on our eternity. It makes me wonder if I am making enough of a difference where I can. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, life goes on – mostly uneventfully for us. Other than higher gas prices from the pipeline hacking incident recently, the world does not seem to be shaken much by the conflicts raging around us. Since my whole work life is attached to the oil and gas industry, and thereby the pipeline industry that transports oil and gas, I know that the hacking incident is a big deal. That computer hackers were able to penetrate the firewall of the operator of the pipeline and shut down the operation of the line, speaks volumes of our vulnerability to such cyberattacks. The fact that supply to seventeen states was impacted by the one hack is dangerous on a scale few people recognize. Thankfully, the hackers were not set on causing damage to the pipeline, only on shutting down operation of the line, which the operating company was able to safely accomplish in the middle of the cyberattack. Next time the intent might be more nefarious.

One reporter was gleefully questioning the Whitehouse person in charge of oversight of cybersecurity asking whether the recent successful attack would force the Whitehouse to look at focusing more strongly on alternative energy since the oil and gas industry was so obviously threatened – causing a panic related to gasoline availability. The answer was as silly as the question. Think about it. Hackers got into a company operating system and shut down a pipeline operation. They can just as easily get into the electrical grid and do the same. That type of shutdown would have a far broader impact on the lives of our citizens than causing a shortage of gasoline. The issue is that our computer systems are not safe. The question is, how do we make them safe and what is our response to this threat?

That question was not asked. If our government does not focus there, we are in for a panic the likes of which we have never seen before. Just a few days without power a few weeks ago caused so much damage here in North Texas that we are still repairing systems affected during the power outage. That power outage was due to our government required use of renewable energy sources. Had it not been for the oil and gas fired power plants taking up as much slack as they could, the outage would have been far worse. Thought that was an act of nature versus a cyberattack, it still exposes a vulnerability that should be adequately addressed to ensure we do not repeat the event.

Enough bad news for today. While I am at work today Mama will be on the road. We need feed at the farm so that is on the agenda but to make it a worthwhile day out, Mama is going to Whitesboro to spend some time with Kimberlyn. I think the two of them will spend some time shopping in Sherman, a nearby town that seems to have all the stores Mama needs to visit today clustered together in a small area. That makes things convenient for Mama. Having the company while she does all this shopping makes it a lot more fun for Mama, even though it makes is a bit ore expensive for me. Somehow, Mama tends to spend more when she has a shopping companion. She will pick up feed in Muenster – in the same general area – before she heads home. Were it not for the fact that the feed store closes at 5 pm, I am not sure when Mama would plan on leaving Kimberlyn’s?

She needs the interaction. After all, I am pretty boring to live with.

Squirrels, chickens, produce

I enjoyed the day with Mama yesterday as I worked from home, but today I am back in the office. Fortunately, there is plenty for me to do while I am here. This week I have a break from teaching classes, but only for this week. For the next several weeks I will have classes twice per week – every Tuesday and Thursday. Today I can focus on a couple small incidental projects I have been given. Having the spare time to get those projects done is a treat and I plan on using the time constructively.

While I was home yesterday, I tried to lessen our squirrel population but ultimately was unsuccessful. Mama has as part of her morning routine, tossing out a little scratch grain for the few chickens that manage to get out of the coop yard before we let the entire flock out at the evening feeding time. That scratch grain has a high content of cracked corn in it along with a variety of seeds. The chickens love it. So do the squirrels. We routinely have to chase away the squirrels from the coop because they chew up our containers trying to get to the feed. When Mama puts it out for free, it is too much for them to resist. So, having seen a squirrel in the early morning feasting on the cracked corn tossed in front of the coop, I got my .22 rifle and took a shot at it. I missed.

It was a fairly long shot for a .22, but I thought I knew how to make the shot accurately. Not only did I miss the first time. I missed the second time a squirrel was feeding on the corn and a third time as well. My trying to kill them did not seem to deter the squirrel from coming back. I did not know what I was up against. Even though I saw only one squirrel at a time I was sure there were more than one eating at the corn. I was proven right in the early afternoon when I saw three squirrels eating together at the corn. I just shook my head. I will have to try something different to rid us of the squirrels before they decide to take up residence in the walls of the coop. We have had to deal with that in the past and I was able to rid the coop of the squirrels but not before they had done a lot of damage.

Over the weekend Mama decided to allow the larger chicks we have in the nursery coop to have access to the yard attached to that building. It took a couple days for them to figure out the process of getting out of the building into the yard and make the return trip into the building to roost, but they finally got it down. But, on the first night I went out to shut them in the building, I must have missed one that had stayed in the yard. We found it dead the next morning and as is typically the case, it was one of Mama’s favorites. So, with the twenty we started off with as chicks, we are down to eighteen.

At the same time, we opened the yard to the older chicks, we moved the baby chicks into the Banty house. I had to install a light in the Banty house to provide some warmth for the overnight hours, but other than that we had very little extra work to get the chicks transferred. As I was making a return trip to the garage where we had been raising the chicks in two large totes, I discovered that Mama had left one of the baby chicks in one of those totes. Mama was not sure how that happened. The chick was not making any noises so if I had not looked it may have been some time before we discovered it. I think we have thirteen baby chicks in that group, having lost two since we got them. Overall, Mama has a very good survival rate with baby chicks.

Mama went out with me last night as I shut up the chickens to ensure none had been left out in the yard of the nursery coop and that all her baby chicks were in the upper portion of the Banty house with the light to warm them. It was a cool night last night. As we were out there, Mama took time to count all the chickens. As of last night, we have 42 large chickens, 18 large chicks, and 13 baby chicks. A total of 73 chickens, only four of which are roosters. Right now, we are getting about two dozen eggs per day. When they all start laying that will go up by at least another dozen per day on average. That would be nice.

By the middle of next week, we should be able to pick zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers. We will start picking blackberries by the end of the month. All of those produce items are on our current diet, so we should be able to eat up what we pick as the garden produces it. Spaghetti squash is also ripening quickly, and it is on our diet as well. I am amazed at how the Lord worked it out that all the produce from our garden this year is part of the diet Mama and I are holding to for the next couple months.

The peaches and nectarines will ripen after we are done with the strictest part of the diet. God’s timing is always perfect.

Picking up sticks, Mother’s Day

I spent the morning Saturday picking up sticks – literally. In the boy goat paddock, there was so much deadfall that it was looking like a wasteland. So, I fired up the tractor and filled the bucked over and over, piling the sticks I collected in two piles which I pressed down with the front loader. I used a long-handled pitchfork to load up most of the sticks, picking up only the ones that were too large to handle with the pitchfork.  After about three hours of clean up I was able to get the mower and mow the paddock. Once the piles were flattened, they did not look like too much, but I know the work required to get all the pieces into that pile. My back was worn out by that time and I had to rest for a bit, but I like the way the paddock looks now – like someone cares.

Mama spent the entire day with Mr. Plumley. They went to a festival in Bridgeport and to Trade Days in Bowie. They spent about three hours at Trade days with the Wycoff girls. All the men of the family were working on a roof that needed to be replaced. I did not envy either group because it was a brutally windy day. Having Mama helped the girls with the booth at Trade Days coordinating bathroom breaks and lunch. Mama and Plumley showed up at the farm about 3 pm. Just in time to help me get into my bee suit so I could service the hive started a couple wees ago. I have Mama help me because it is difficult for me to get the zippers and Velcro panels properly placed once I have the gloves on and I have to put the gloves on under the suit. Otherwise, they will not fit over my arms. I need help with the Velcro closures to ensure the bees do not discover any gap to get into the suit. That happened once and it was very unpleasant. After dealing with the bees my day was spent grilling meats for visitors that were ultimately not able to show up Saturday evening (they were helping with the Wycoff roof) and for Sunday lunch. This evening, I will grill hamburgers for Sam and Erin Echeveria and the kids. They are just returning from Sam’s mother’s funeral.

Sunday was Mother’s Day. We did not necessarily have a different service, but pastor did preach on the mother’s role in the family, society at large and in the rearing of children to love the Lord. As is typical, the church gave out some gift cards. What was different was that Pastor picked names out of a plate to award the girt cards so mother’s that would not typically have won got the prizes yesterday. Everyone seemed pleased with that. Sunday night we had a young lady’s vocal group from a local Christian College, Lone Star Bible College. They did a great job and Dr Bachman, the school chancellor, preached a very moving sermon. He talked about Hezekiah when he had been told by Isaiah that he was going to die. Hezekiah prayed and wept over the pronouncement and God responded by saying “I have heard thy prayers and I have seen thy tears…” His question to the congregation was, how long has it been since God has seen you shed a tear for the lost, for the sins of our nation, for the sins in our own lives? Good question.

He went to Revelation 22 where the Bible says that God will wipe away all tears and pointed out that that verse follows the White Throne judgement where the lost will be judged and cast into the lake of fire. We will be observers at this judgement. Among the billions of lost persons will be some that we know.  Perhaps some very dear to us in this life, but it will be eternally too late. A sobering thought. A very sad thought. My mind immediately goes to Steve Whidden, a dear friend to our family who refuses to consider the Lord. Our mission is to reach out to those whom we know and tell them the Gospel news while there is still time for them to repent and believe. We are not tasked to save them. That is the Holy Spirit’s wok. We are tasked to tell them. We are tasked to pray for them earnestly, knowing the certainty of their fate should they die without believing on the Lord.

For Mama’s Mother’s Day I conspired with the Wycoff girls to put together a basket of Magnolia craft items, chalk and ink paints and stencils. They delivered it to church Sunday morning. Victoria got Mama a wind chime made from a glass bottle with string and wooden beads. It has a very nice sound when the wind catches the streamers. Those were good gifts, but the most important gift was that all of her six children not at home with us called and talked to her through the course of the day. Over the years I have learned that it does not take much to make Mama happy but by far and away, her happiest moments are those shared with her children and grandchildren, even if it is a simple conversation over the phone.

After all, I am pretty boring after a while.

Class, beekeeper’s meeting, diet

Class yesterday was an okay class. It was one of those classes where I could not get anyone to participate. At several points in the class, I pose questions for the class to answer or have a slide that I have someone from the class read. On the first of those slides I waited for a full 90 seconds before someone volunteered and read the slide. It was a long pause. An somewhat uncomfortable pause even though everyone in the class was smiling as they waited for someone else to take on the challenge. But it did not seem to open the class up to any of the points I would have liked to have a discussion on through the day. So, we pushed through the material with me doing all the talking for the six and a half hours of the class. That is tiring. But we made it through once again and the timeframe of the class was acceptable – ending only about twenty minutes ahead of the schedule I try to maintain for total class time.

I was at the HQ house for the presentation. That is going to be a good location for these class presentations. It is very quiet, and the company has set up the room I use in a way that makes it very comfortable to present the classes. During the lunch break I ate my lunch by the pool. Yes, the HQ house has a very nice pool complete with a fountain that spills back into the pool. The house itself sits in the middle of the 41 acres of property it sits on, far enough from the train tracks and the highway that the noises from either are muted to almost silent. Most of the time I have the house to myself. My company is pretty careful to give me whatever space is needed to conduct these classes because they have proved to be a huge revenue stream. For the most part, nothing is scheduled at the HQ house when I have a class scheduled. When I was asked by my boss if I was bothered by the isolation, I responded that I did not crave interaction at the level that most people do. I am fine with periods by myself as long as I get to spend the evenings with my wife.

Mama and I had a beekeeper’s meeting to go to last night. On the way she insisted on stopping at Dollar Tree to pick up some things for a craft she is doing, so we arrived at the meeting a minute of two after it had started. We have been meeting in a large patio room at a Dos Chiles restaurant, which is nice both for the room we get to meet in and the meal we get to eat as the meeting is ongoing. There were a number of topics covered during the meeting and the winners of the recent raffle we conducted were announced. I, who never win everything, was the winner of a guided fishing trip on Lake Bridgeport. The prize also included a one-night stay in an Air B&B on the lake called Henson Hollow. Those who know the place tell me it is very nice. One of the other raffle prizes was a custom horizontal hive. I was very interested in that prize and the person who won the hive does not want it, so I volunteered to put it to use. We will see how that turns out. Next week, I will call the person who offered the fishing trip to schedule a time. I am going to see if I can take the pastor with me on that trip. Maybe we can learn some of the best spots to fish on Lake Bridgeport. That would be fun. Later, Mama and I will schedule an overnight stay at Henson Hollow. Free is always good!

This weekend, Mama and I will start on a special diet that will limit the sugar in our diet. We each completed a questionnaire that allowed us to determine the level of symptoms we are suffering from a Candida overgrowth. I scored significantly higher than Mama on the quiz. That surprised me. The diet will be a good healthy change no matter what the outcomes we see as far as battling the Candida overgrowth. I have been talking to Mama for some weeks about making such a change, but neither of us were motivated enough to do so. Perhaps now that has changed. I do know that going on with the eating habits we have been giving in to for the past years will not produce the health or weight outcomes we are looking for.

Thought both of us have lost weight over the past several months, neither of us feel good. My energy levels are often very low. That is discouraging because there are lots of projects I still need to do. Both of us wrestle with constant heartburn, ongoing digestive issues and I still deal with painful bouts of diverticulitis. It is time to change what we are feeding ourselves. So, I am looking froward to the change. My only challenge is that is do not do well with a high meat diet – especially beef. Mama’s blood type is beef eater. Mine is chicken and turkey. So, there will have to be some meals I do not eat what she is eating, but that is a minor issue. Since I do most of the cooking, it is an easy requirement to meet. We will see how this turns out, but I have high expectations.

The real challenge is continuing this diet as strictly as possible for two months.

Back in the office, bee work, diet

Yesterday was the first day our group was to be back in the office on our, now routine, Tuesday and Thursday report-to-the-office schedule. The other three days of the work week are still to be done from home. I had a class yesterday morning from the HQ house, so I was not in the office in the morning. When I finished with the half-day class, I lingered at the house for while eating my lunch, then I reported to the office. It was nice to see everyone interacting in person. It was obvious that all those who were in the office yesterday were glad to be back together. There are very few assigned desks in the new office layout, but most everyone reported to the area in which they had been grouped in the past – just with very different workspaces. I finished out the day from the office making it possible for me to get all the administrative work done for the follow up of the class I had just taught, while visiting with various coworkers whom I had not seen in person for over a year. All in all, the new arrangement worked out well enough. We will see how things go after the excitement wears off.

When I got home, I helped Mama feed and we ate a quick dinner. It was a little weird getting home at the old normal time – when we worked in the office until 4 pm every day. After dinner I got all the honey supers, the queen excluders and other tools moved to the apiary before I got my bee suit on. Once dressed for it, I started working on the hives. I opened each hive in turn, checking progress in the comb being drawn out in the new brood boxes I had added to three of the hives over a week ago. I was amazed by how far the colonies have come in less than two weeks. On one hive, I had added a honey super last year and had been advised to leave it over the winter – which I did.

I had to pull out each frame in the honey super to make sure the queen was not in the box before I put on the queen excluder below it and replaced that super – half full of honey already – back on the hive. The queen excluder is a panel that has hundreds of slits in the panel. The slits are sized so that the queen cannot fit through the openings. That way she cannot lay any eggs in the boxes above the excluder. It will be used for honey only. All the work inspecting and outfitting the honey supers on the hives that got them, took less than an hour. On the hive we started a few weeks ago, I did not add a honey super. It has a way to go before that colony is strong enough to produce excess honey for us. Saturday I will open that hive and take out the syrup feeder, replacing the two frames taken out to provide room for the feeder. I plan on having Mama with me for that inspection so she can see the hives up close. I will wear the cheap bee suit and give her the good one for the time. Once that is done, I will monitor the progress in the first brood box to determine whether I need to add another brood box or try a honey super on that hive. The bees will let me know what action is most appropriate.

I am in the office this morning to work with a coworker as he does a mock presentation of a class that will be taught next week. It is one of the two classes that I do not teach because there are a lot of other candidates to present that class. If my coworker does well presenting the class to me, he will teach the class next week and enter the rotation for teaching the class on a monthly basis. Meanwhile, I am onboarding two other candidates for the class I am teaching twice per week. It will be nice to expand that training pool, but I am not overly concerned about backup at the moment, since Mama and I have no vacation or other time off planned for this year. I can squeeze a day or two into the schedule while maintaining availability for the training schedule set for the year. Providing my health is not affected in any extreme way in the near future.

Speaking of health, Mama called Ruben Yoder yesterday. He is our primary herbal contact since his father Jonas, got us involved in herbs many years ago. Based on his assessment, Mama and I are going to try a two-month special eating regimen to curtail the effects that an overgrowth of Candida in our bodies is causing for each of us – Mama more so than me. It is not an onerous diet, but it will require some discipline and a strict adherence to the diet. I am told that something that you force yourself to do for a month or more can become a habit. That would not be a bad outcome and if we can abate the symptoms of this “infection”. So much the better. We have needed to change our eating habits for a long time, especially as we age. It will be a good change with a healthy outcome for us both. Long overdue.

I will be teaching an all-day class tomorrow. Hopefully, working from home Friday.

An other’s focused weekend

Rain this weekend made things too wet and too soft for Mama and I to do much outside, so we potted some of the plants Mama has bought over the last couple of weeks. I repotted the hydrangea three times because I kept finding bigger pots to put it in.

We bought a couple pots that look like coal buckets and potted our lavender plants in those. We spent a long time cleaning the coops. It was not that the coops were dirtier than any other time we have cleaned them, but we took a good bit more time getting the floors and roosts scraped clean of any accumulated, hardened poop. That added some time to each side of the big coop. We always put down lime and a little Seven Dust on the roosts and floors of the big coop before we put down the pine chips that will catch most of the poop they produce when they roost. We also cleaned the nursery coop. That took a fair amount of time as well. Mama had to move slowly as she cleaned the floors and the young chickens in eh coop huddles in frightened masses in whatever corner was free of her cleaning actions. They also protested a good bit.

Late Saturday afternoon we went to a wedding reception at the church. A young couple that met at Bible Baptist Translator’s Institute (BBTI) in Bowie had been married at her home church in Arkansas, but we wanted to give them a reception as well. Daniel plays the guitar as well as any concert guitarist I have ever met and often accompanies soloists and vocal ensemble for special music at our church. Libby sang in the choir and in several vocal ensembles as she attended BBTI last year. We have grown to love them both. They are living on the Institute property being groomed to take over representation and fundraising for the ministry. The couple that has had this role are getting up in years and have been praying for a couple that could backfill for them when they are no longer able to travel and preach as required to carry on that role. It looks like they have been shown the answer to those prayers.

Seeing this newlywed couple together reminded me of a song that John Denver recorded with Placido Domingo way back in 1981, the year Mama and I met. I could not remember all the words, so I looked it up and found this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toYfeN0ACDw It is worth a look. It brought back some really good memories for me and Mama.

On a sadder note, we got a text Saturday morning via the prayer chain at church, that Sam Echeveria’s mother died suddenly Friday night from a heart attack. It was not something the family had anticipated. So, Sam and Erin and the kids needed to get to his father in the Chicago area as soon as they could. Mama and I asked how we could help and were asked to keep Bella while they traveled. When we got there, they were trying to pack and get the kids moving. It was still early. They were telling us about renting a vehicle because they did not trust theirs to get them there and back. They had spent a several hours trying to track down a vehicle to rent and had finally found one available at Love Field in Dallas, but as we prayed with them, I got a text from the pastor asking if I would agree to allowing them to use one of the church’s vans for the trip. All the deacons agreed to the proposal, so they were able to take that vehicle instead of driving to Dallas to pick up a rental. That alone saved them over a thousand dollars.

We got to pick up our Chinese girls for church yesterday morning. It has been a long time since Yilin has come to church with us. It was really good to have her too. On the way home, the girls insisted on eating at the restaurant, but Mama and I were not sure. We drove over to the restaurant and checked with Alex and he gave the go ahead. So, we unloaded and ate there. It was a fun meal, lots of conversation with Alex and Yuan as we ate. In one of those conversations, Mama asked if Alex would like a couple of her older chickens. They prefer the older birds for some reason. Lin has told us in the past that the old chickens make the best soup. Maybe in China no chickens live to be old chickens, so it is a delicacy they do not get to enjoy there. Anyway, Alex is stopping by today to pick up the three hens Mama and I caught last night and put in the Banty house. Monday is their only day off in the week and all the running for the restaurant has to get done on that one day so I was surprised when he offered to come to the farm and pick up the chickens, but we can certainly accommodate that. We invited Alex to come to the farm and fish. They enjoyed the time they were able to fish last year but their time off it too short to squeeze that in now that the restaurant is fully operational.

I will place the honey supers on the hives this evening. I am looking forward to getting that done.