Brittany and the girls, Somerset Bible Baptist, Trace’s caretaking

We left for DFW airport at 6 am our time and were at the airport early enough to easily make our flight but the remote parking facility where I try to park was closed and I had no good idea how to get to the facility on the other side of the airport. So, in the interest of time and to guarantee we would not be late getting through security, we parked at the terminal. I knew it would be far more expensive, but I did not want to wander about in the complex turns and sudden lane changes required to pass through the airport roadways to find the cheaper parking. Parking cost us almost as much as one of our tickets to fly to New Jersey, but it seemed like the better choice at the time.  

We had no bags to check and passing through security was fairly easy. I guess we were between rushes because the lines were short, and our progress was not hurried by the attendants as it is when things get backed up. During the flight to New Jersey Mama made a Color Street sale to the passenger sitting to my right. I was in the middle so all the passing back and forth, all the demonstration of the appliques, all the sorting through Mama’s available packets of nails took place in my lap as I sat between the participants of the exchange, Mama and a sweet woman named Doria. Mama also gave gift packets to two of the stewardesses. Both of the recipients were very excited to try the nail sets. Hopefully, those contacts will bear fruit for Mama’s business.

Once we had landed, we headed for the exits. All of us needed to visit the restroom but as we walked past the exit door on our way to the nearby restrooms, Mama heard Brittany call out to her from the waiting area. Somehow she had seen us passing in front of the doors as passengers were exiting the terminal. Impressive! She wanted to surprise Mama, so she had brought all the girls to meet us. Zoe and Sophia immediately raced to Mama and Victoria, but Audrey was more reserved. Once I took off my mask and hat, she mouthed “Papi” and reached out for me.

Hugs all around and we exited the building so we could go maskless without the sideways glances and direct dirty looks of nearby occupants. Chatter on the way home was incessant and pleasant as Zoe and Sophia tried to get all the important news squeezed into as little time as possible. Audrey studied us with remarkable intensity but said little. I sat up front with Brittany and we caught up on life in general as we made the hour drive to their home. It was largely through very familiar territory – even driving past the refinery where I had worked in our time in New Jersey.

Friday, we visited the school but most of the student and faculty were at a basketball and volleyball tournament. Nonetheless, Mama and I got to see some of the friends we know and visit with them. Saturday, Brittany and I went to the final game of the volleyball tournament for the school. The girls had made it to the finals. I found out on the way to the tournament that this was the only game Brittany had been able to attend through the entire season. The girls were extremely excited to see her. At the game I got to visit with five or six friends from church as we watched the girls compete. They did not win, but they played well, earning second place overall. Later that day (we did not stay) the boys from Somerset won the tournament in a blowout against a rival team. It was, from what I was able to gather, a very sweet victory. Seeing the young men and ladies Mama and I had taught as four and five year old’s in Children’s Church was a delight.

Sunday I was asked to sing in the choir. I was happy to do so and Sunday evening I was asked to sing a special. Looking out over the familiar faces, now twelve years older, was a pleasure we can cherish for a long time. Mama and I were repeatedly complemented on how good we looked. One of the older women in the church cradled my face and said, “You don’t look like you have aged a single day. What is your secret?” My answer, “Being married to Mama Kim.” It was a very sweet visit, both with our children and grandchildren and with our beloved church family. One young man who we had taught many years ago hugged me, cried on my shoulder and said, “Papa Tim, you have no idea what a profound impact you made on all of us.” To be used of God in that way is more precious than anything this world has to offer.

While we were gone, Trace dug up and fixed the leak at the well house. I was very appreciative of that extra effort on his part. All the animals have been well cared for even though Mama was a little concerned that the watering pans have not been cleaned out in many days. A small thing. Especially since the chickens would rather drink from a mud puddle than a clean dish. All things considered; it was a very good visit all the way around.

Thank you, Brittany.

Solar interview, packing, absence

For some months I have been curious about placing solar panels on the house and to that end I made a couple of contacts to get more information. Last week I agreed to a meeting with one such provider and met with the representative Monday afternoon. He was a delightful follow, about twenty-five years old, a disabled vet, wounded in an IED explosion. As we looked over the house, the electrical panel, and several other little points of interest to him, I was impressed by Victor. He had a very simplified presentation on what his company could do for our electric needs, but we are served by a power company that does not buy back any additional power that could be produced by solar panels so the best I could hope for was a drastic reduction in the electric bill from my current provider.  I went into the sales pitch with that knowledge already in place.

We determined that my average utility bill for the house and farm was about $193 per month. Then he started to show me what I could “gain” from allowing the solar panels to supplement that power need. All things considered, he presented the monthly cost for the solar panels to be installed and based on those monthly figures, my cost would amount to about $45,000 over ten years or $61,000 over twenty-five years. That’s not happening. He was a little shocked that I did the basic math to determine the overall cost versus looking at a monthly payment. I let Victor know that we would pass on the purchase especially since our provider would be billing us for meter rentals ($28.50 each) on two of my electric meters and a monthly rental ($24.50) on a dusk-to-dawn light they service for us. That would amount to about one hundred dollars per month on top of the payment for the panels. In essence, my overall payment for electricity to the farm would go from the $193 average monthly cost to just under $500 per month. Not a good investment. But now I know.  

I was not feeling very well yesterday but I did not like the idea of calling for someone to present the class in my stead, so I muddled through the seven-hour presentation. I did not do a horrible job of the presentation, but it was certainly not my best delivery. I did not say anything to the ten participants until the class was over but by that time it was pretty obvious I was not functioning at one hundred percent. They were very gracious to me and gave me good reviews on the class. I was thankful for that. I found out at the time of my confession that three of the participants were also not feeling well, so they were sympathetic of my limitations. I am feeling some better today, but I have eaten very little and have been extremely careful what I drink. Coffee is a bit challenging for me today since all my trips to the toilet yesterday to empty my stomach contents involved the regurgitation of recently ingested coffee. An unpleasant memory I am slowly overcoming as I try to enjoy the taste of freshly drunk coffee.

Today is going to be occupied with finishing up work related tasks and packing for our flight out tomorrow morning. I believe we are leaving fairly early and should be in New Jersey by noon. Mama is allowing me to pack her overflow of sundries she is unable to fit into a carry on and a personal item. I am not sure how heavy my backpack will be by the time packing is completed, but it should not be too bad. I will not know for sure until we walk out the door tomorrow morning.

The farm will be in good hands with Trace. He has proven to be a great help to me and Mama. He certainly has a good heart and a willing spirit in everything we ask of him. Yesterday he unloaded all the feed and hay Mama retrieved for our animals. Feeling as poorly as I did, that was a blessing. As he has accompanied Mama through numerous feeding training sessions, he has taken the time to learn the names of Mamas’ problematic chickens so the two of them can talk specifically about her flock. Fortunately, the weather should be fairly warm while we are absent from the farm so his limited availability to tend to the animals before leaving for work each day will not be further diminished by frozen waterers every morning. That will make his hurried morning activities related to the chickens and goats more easily accomplished. He will have the afternoon when he gets home from work to make a more thorough round in his caretaking activities. Mama is greatly relieved to have him available to perform those duties in her absence. I am thankful as well.

When we return, our focus will be on the garden. I am looking froward to that.

The Gospel Film

Travel, Oh, no’s, more travel ahead, moment by moment

Our trip over the weekend to Amarillo went without a hitch. Victoria was able to travel with us and Owen and Gailyn thoroughly enjoyed her participation in their activities in those hours we got to spend alone with them, which happened mostly Friday evening between 2 pm and 7 pm. The combined birthday partied took place Saturday at 10 am. They were rescheduled from Sunday to Saturday to allow me and Mama to attend. Mama and I were very appreciative of that. It was not a long visit, but it was a great visit. It was cold, but tolerable since almost all our time was spent indoors. We got a hotel Friday evening which was a disappointment is several ways but having our own beds without Chase and Makaila rearranging their house to accommodate us facilitated the trip.

The hotel was not bad, it was just a little frustrating in a couple areas. Victoria and I made three round trips from our room on the fourth floor to the front desk to get our access card reset because it would not unlock our door. We took the stairs each time which gave us some exercise, but it was frustrating to have to repeat the trip after the second failed programming attempt. Once in the room, a fairly large room, we were comfortable enough with the two queen sized beds and the small sitting area, but I am glad Mama and Victoria did not need to shower Saturday morning. When I used the shower the pull tab on the faucet was broken. Only half the internal stopper was attached to the tab so that when I started the shower only half the water flow came out of the shower head. It was enough water for me, but I do not have an issue getting my hair rinsed when I wash my head. All in all, it was okay. It is a little disappointing to pay as much as is charged by hotels only to find that the accommodations are barely adequate.

This morning I woke to a very trouble stomach. Chase had called to warn us that all four of them had only recently recovered from a stomach bug. It appears that there was enough infectious potential left in the family to affect me. Time will tell, but on the bright side, it was only a 24-hour bug for all of them. It is unpleasant but endurable. It is what the Apostle Paul refers to as a “light affliction.” All things being equal, I should be better tomorrow. Since I have to teach an 8-hour class, it would be better for me to be better by then. That class will be my only class this week since Mama, Victoria and I are traveling again starting Thursday morning.

This coming trip is to visit with Brittany and Andrew and celebrate birthday parties for the girls. In our absence this last weekend, Trace managed the feeding and watering schedule for our flocks and herds. The same will apply for the coming weekend. We will arrive in New Jersey Thursday morning and get back home Monday afternoon. Another quick trip. We are planning on traveling light in the hope of not having to deal with checked luggage. That will avoid the delay in arrival and will enable Brittany to fit us and our luggage into her vehicle when she comes to meet us at the airport. It is my first return trip to New Jersey since we left in late 2010. Going on twelve years now. Mama visited a couple times during the move Brittany and Andrew made a year or so ago, but this will be a first for me and Victoria. I am looking froward to seeing friends and family we have there from the ten years we spent in our church home there.

Meanwhile in Honduras, Cori and Nate continue to struggle to fully comprehend Blake’s insulin needs. We are praying that the newly updated passports get to them this week so that they can schedule a visit to an endocrinologist here in the States. They are wrestling through the administration of life-giving medication with far too many unknowns. For instance, the medical guidance they are currently following limits the administration of insulin to once every three hours, but Blake’s blood sugar ran high all day yesterday. His bedtime reading, which was less than three hours from the last injection of insulin, was over 400. What do you do? No one they currently have access to seems to feel qualified to give an answer. Therefore, it is imperative that they get some help from someone who understands juvenile diabetes and can help them tailor a program, a regimen, specifically suited to Blakes needs using what is available to them in Honduras. A very tall order. Thankfully, we serve a very big God.

Services yesterday were phenomenal. Caleb Garraway preached both services for us. He is a dynamic speaker. For a young man, only in his mid-thirties, he has had a prolific career so far. He has written seven or eight books on scripture, several children’s novels, produced dozens of music and educational CDs aimed at both children and adults. His latest project is called The Gospel Film. A video presenting the Gospel in a very clear way. The project will have the video produced in fifty-five languages in the first phase. Complete with text on the screen and voiceover for each of those languages. So far the video has gone out to over 40 million people in fourteen language groups. It is worth checking out and sharing. You can follow the link or look it up at saved@thegospelfilm.org.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbVqFVujkUE  

Walter, Blake, chimney repairs, Senior’s dinner, still Winter

As far as health updates are concerned, Walter is now fully recovered from the illness that had him in the hospital for a couple days. Maggie, on the other hand, is quite ill with ear infections and the accompanying pain and general malaises that accompanies those infections. I am sure she will recover but for the moment she is feeling very poorly. Walter is still required to have an echocardiogram some days from now, so he is not cleared fully by the doctors, but he is feeling mostly normal.

Blake, along with Cori and Nate, are continuing to adapt to the life-changing condition of Blake’s diabetes. Checking blood sugar, giving injections (shots) of insulin several times per day – at least at each meal – and ferreting out the information required to predetermine, when possible, the dose of insulin based on the carbs ingested at each meal or snack. All are in good spirits so far, but we are only in the very early phase of treatment that will affect every hour of Blake’s life for the foreseeable future. Every bite of food, every drink of beverages (except water), will require the course correction of adding - by injection - the required dose of insulin to compensate for those ingested nutrients. It is not like they can just avoid the “bad” food choices. Every bite of any food must be summed up for the carb content and an appropriate dose of insulin must be put into Blake’s body to control his blood sugar. The constant vigilance of that scope can be overwhelming, so we need to continue to keep them in our prayers as they adapt.

Plans are in the works to get Cori and Blake to an endocrinologist in the United States in the very near future so that they will be able to get prescriptions for some of the more advanced diabetic aids unavailable in Honduras. Better insulin choices and far better equipment for administering the multiple daily doses of insulin required.  Better devices for checking blood sugar. How to arrange that extra trip stateside has not been determined yet, but there is, at least for the present, no urgency. They can keep up the required regimen with what is readily available. It is costly to do so. Potentially several hundred dollars per month, but budget adjustments will be made, and all the family will participate in the ongoing treatment protocols willingly. What else can you do? When needed, God will give the increase and supply the need. A life lived for the Lord has proven that truth to me and Mama.

As scheduled, the repairs on the chimney were completed last Friday. Those repairs included placing a seal on the top of the chimney and adding an external damper to the flue (chimney pipe) so the unusable damper at the top of the firebox in the house could be cut out. That done, Mama and I are going to paint the firebox in the fireplace just to beautify is a bit.

To make the fireplace serviceable, Mama and I bought a pan to put in the fireplace to ease cleaning the ashes out when we do have a fire and we bought a grate to hold the logs as they are added to the fire once we start one. Our first fire was lit today, and Mama is enjoying it thoroughly. Most of what we have available to burn is poor quality logs, but we will exhaust that supply before I harvest more firewood from the properties dead trees and fallen limbs. It is nice to have a fire in our fireplace.  

Saturday was the warmest day of 2022 thus far. Temperatures reached the low eighties. It did not last long, but it gave me time to do some cleaning in anticipation of the cold weather that we knew was approaching. I did not tackle too much because Mama and I were attending a Senior’s dinner at the church in the late afternoon that day. That dinner provided a very relaxing and fun evening. There was so much food brought that the thirty-five or forty attendees could not possible have eaten it all, in fact we barely made dent in the sum total of the offerings. On the dessert side, the same was true. We ate slowly, some played cornhole and then dominoes, but most of us participated vicariously while we maintained long conversations in varying groupings of talkers. Mama and I had a great time. We lingered in conversations with friends. We helped clean up, said some prolonged goodbyes, and we were still home before 9 pm. My kind of party. Clearly, we are not as young as we used to be, but we can learn to enjoy the life we are now able to live.

Monday continued warm but by Tuesday evening the temperatures were below freezing and will continue to stay there until late Thursday. Just a reminder that it is still Winter. Fortunately, overnight Monday night into Tuesday we got almost two inches of rain.

That was a great blessing!

Control, frailty, simple things

After a brief overnight shower, things are drying up quickly thanks to a steady thirty mile-per-hour wind. The high for today has already passed and the temperature is falling in an impressive manner. To think that all these temperatures and high winds are caused by air movement from one area to another to try to find a balance in pressure. That movement is caused in large part by the constant, predictable spinning of our earth in space during the cycle of its annual loop through space as we circumvent the sun. I am constantly amazed by the faithfully executed cycles of our planet within the solar system wherein God placed us. Year after year we know the cycle and we adapt our lives to it as we are completely unaware of the forces that keep that cycle going though those cycles affect every aspect of our lives. Summer and Winter and Springtime and Harvest will always be until God tells them to stop.

Yet in spite of the unalterable dependability of the forces that govern our yearly cycles here on Earth, our individual lives are far less predictable and far less certain. We generally tend to think of our lives as a constant, but such is not the case. Our frailties as human beings become apparent in so many ways, none of which are welcome in the situation that emphasizes one of those frailties. Such was the case with Walter over the past few days. He has been suffering from an inner ear infection which finally expressed itself in a disgusting discharge from the ear. Several trips to the doctor and eventually the Emergency Room were required to properly diagnose and treat the infection and until the discharge began there was some consternation as to the cause of Walter’s discomfort.

Thankfully, in this age of medicine, there are remedies to battle both the infection and the pain that the infection is causing. Hopefully, it will be cured soon, and life will return to the normalcy that allows us to consider ourselves masters of what we survey. Champions of outcomes over which we have precious little impact. It just makes us feel better to consider ourselves masters of our own destinies, yet even a minor illness can interrupt that confidence. Which is why we have suffered for two years in fear of a disease we could have easily treated at is inception. Nevertheless, God is still fully in control, and He always seeks our good and His Glory in every circumstance of our lives. Romans 8:28. So, hang in there, help is already on the way.

Mama and I have been treating the goats lately for what appears to be lice. We have not done any scrapings on the heads of the bucks– where there is the evidence of continuous rubbing (presumably because the skin itches) to verify that assumption, but we will know if we are on the right track very soon. Again, one of those situations a little beyond our ken for which we do the best we can using what knowledge we have gained over the past few years – limited though it may be. Plus, with the cold overnight temperatures we are limited to what we can apply, since it is in liquid form, to relieve the itching the goats seem to be dealing with. No sense chilling them in treating them. Warm days are ahead soon enough.

I will be teaching a half-day class tomorrow and off for President’s Day this coming Monday. It has been a while since we had a long weekend, and I am looking forward to it especially because of the very warm temperatures forecast for those days. Monday, the 21^st is supposed to reach eighty degrees! That will only last a day and will be followed by some very cold temperatures, but we can make the most of that day since we have advance warning. Sometimes the forecast is actually helpful to us.

Mama is out shopping today trying to take advantage of a sale being offered by a local grocery store. We are especially looking to stock up on meats – specifically beef. The store is offering a buy one get one for one cent. Something akin to 50% off. We were alerted to the sale by a friend at church. She told Mama she had instructed her husband to get a few of the meat items while they were on sale. Without that simple statement to sharpen our focus Mama and I pay little attention to the flyers from this particular grocery store. Mama and I agreed that it was a good idea. It is the little things in life that give us the most occasion for celebration. We need to spend more time looking for those little things, like a timely reminder from a friend.

We may be occupants of a vast, unknown universe, but the simplest of pleasures are what make our lives worthwhile. Loving the Lord and looking for his daily benefits in our individual lives provide mast of those simple pleasures.

The God who controls our universe, loves little ol’ me. What a marvelous thought!

Even baby plants are acute, prep for rain, prep for repairs, early voting

Mama and Victoria are always attracted to and enamored by tiny living things. A little child, a puppy, a kitten, a newborn goat, a small chick, anything young and new to the world. Now I have learned that even baby plants are cute. Mama told me so yesterday as she was looking over our newly sprouted potato plants. To my way of thinking, the little ones, plant or animal variety, are the beginning step in a long process. That beginning is one of the encouraging stages in the multifaceted process that will eventually produce fruit, or offspring, as the case may be.

Baby Potato

I see a good start in the tiny sprout and begin immediately to anticipate the blooms that will indicate the potential for fruit to be set by the plant some weeks from now. So, while they are cute to Mama, they are only at the inception of producing the outcomes I look for from each sprout. I guess it as much the biology major in me as it is the male in me that sets those quantitative expectations, but I am trying to see the cuteness of the little plants as well. Mama perspective is so much more fun than mine.

Yesterday, during my lunch break I walked over a mile in laps back and forth through the yard – front and back – spreading the fertilizer that Mama bought a few months ago at Lowe’s. Those very large bags of fertilizer cost her $5 per bag at the time. The store was trying to clear out the leftover bags which normally are priced a $65 per bag so I had Mama get three bags. Those three bags were enough to cover the large areas we have in our back and front yards. I chose yesterday to spread the fertilizer because there is a strong probability of rain in the forecast for today and overnight.

The volume of rain is not much as far as the forecast is predicting, but even a quarter inch will dissolve the tiny pellets and allow the nutrients to soak into the ground. In this case, a soft, gentle rain will be better than a flooding downpour. At least that is my hope. Nonetheless, the task is done, and the timing should be about right for our area since the days are warming up. We will have a hard freeze tomorrow night, but those are fewer now and the temperatures almost always get well above freezing through the days. Yesterday’s high was in the mid-seventies. Today will be the same. Fortunately, the onions we put out can survive those overnight lows and the potatoes planted in the garden are not yet sprouted. So far, so good.

Through the lunch hour today and tomorrow I will prep the fireplace for the repairs scheduled to be done Friday afternoon. The recent inspection of the fireplace provided the path forward to calculating the repairs and Mama and I evaluated the cost of those repairs versus leaving the fireplace in an unusable state. The cost is not as high as I had imagined, and the repairs are slated to take only one afternoon to complete. Our expectation is that by Friday night, we could actually use the fireplace as it was designed to be used. That will be nice. It is the first of the repairs/upgrades Mama and I will be doing to the house over the next few months. It will not be obvious to the unobservant, but it will be a great selling point if Mama and I ever pursue selling the farm. Plus, I do not like for things to not be working as they should, and it will be nice to be able to have a fire in the fireplace – especially when we lose power to the house in the colder months.

Of being bothered by things not working as they should, I am reminded of the father in Mary Poppins. When the neighbor’s cannon was fired and the father ended up sitting on the piano bench as things in the house were moved in the shaking caused by the cannon fire, the father mentioned to the wife as he struck a key on the piano, “And Madam, have someone tune that piano.” The wife’s response was, “But Dear, you don’t play the piano.” “Madam”, he thundered, “That is entirely beside the point!” I can sympathize with that sentiment.

Today Mama and I are going to vote early for the primaries in our state and local elections. This will determine which Republican will face which Democrat in the November general election. It took me a bit of time to decide on the candidate selection, but I have a cheat sheet prepared for us to use. I am very concerned about the general election this year.

I hope you are as well.