Tubing, pig pens, heat

I took Friday off so I could go tubing with Mama and Jake. Mama found a place about an hour away on the Brazos River but she did not really want to make the drive or the tubing trip by herself with Jake. So I elected to take the day so we could do it together and check it out for use in the future.

We got off to a late start because we had to go to an ATM nearby to get cash – the place only takes cash - and we did not take enough with us to cover the cost. We also spent some time getting parked in the correct spot. Not that the RV portion of the business was necessarily booming at the moment but I initially chose a spot they were not thrilled about. But when I went back to the car to move it the key I had removed from the remote – since we were going to be in the water – did not work in the lock. Fortunately Mama had rolled her window down to the point that I could reach in and unlock the passenger door.

Before we took off I asked about the river condition and the length of the trip down the river. The full trip normally takes five to six hours and at low water levels requires a good bit of pulling yourself through the shallow spots – which can be quite a distance. The shorter trip takes about three hours and has the longest parts of deeper water. We chose the shorter trip. And it did take about three hours but we had a great time. There were some areas of quickly moving water and some area where we dragged the bottom but all in all we floated for the better part of the distance. Fortunately none of us got sunburned.

Mama and I had Jake and Victoria to help at RU that night. Victoria had run home about 2 pm because of reports of a fire on County Road 1560 – which is just across Highway 1655 from us, but the fire was far to the west of the farm. Since she was home, Victory elected to stay home so we got her help that night. It was a good night with the kids but they area a challenge to teach. I tried to tell the story of Ruth but got almost no interest from the children there. Maybe I am losing my touch.

Saturday I started on the pig pen. We had the pallets required to make the enclosure so all I had to do was get them lined up and fastened together. It took me about seven hours of labor in the heat but I was able to complete the pen with a shelter for the feeder pigs. The total perimeter took thirty two pallets. It is about 20 by 30 feet with an eight by eight shelter. I have yet to put a roof on the little shelter but I should have that soon.

Mama and I tried to catch the pigs to pit them over into the enclosure but that was upsetting them too much so I detached a pallet from the new pen and loosened a panel in the old pen and we ran them through that opening into the new area since I sat the pens side by side. Now both sets of pigs are happy. The feeder pigs have their own home. The little one is with the two larger ones – hopefully it will still get enough to eat. And the pot belly pigs have their entire space back.

I was pretty worn out after getting done – both from three hours on the river and seven hours arranging pallets, but it was a good weekend.

Worn out Mama, pens, loose birds

Mama and Jake got home a little after I did yesterday afternoon. They had been to the Dallas Zoo for most of the day. It is about an hour away from us in north Dallas so Mama came home with a tension headache – like she always gets when she drives in traffic of any consequence. Jake was charged up because he had slept part of the way. Mama went and lay down for an hour. Since we had church that evening I did not want to get into too much outside so I sat and read while Mama napped.

When Mama did get up she discovered that the a/c was leaking water onto the living room floor again. We began to mop that up and make plans to submit a service request with the Home Warranty company to get it looked at and hopefully further inspected and thereby resolved. All that will be on Mama today as she and Jake rest up to gather the energy to go tubing tomorrow.

I am taking tomorrow off to take Mama and Jake south for the tubing trip at a recreational camp about an hour away. I am not totally enamored with the idea because I see it as a great way to get a sunburn but she and Jake are very excited about the idea so that is how we will start our day tomorrow. We will have to be back in time to go to RU that evening but that will give us several hours on the river before we have to get back home. It will give us a chance to check it out for potential future use when our kids and grandkids visit.

I should be able to spend Saturday working on a hog pen for the feeder pigs. With pallets it is more of assembling prefab pieces than any type of true construction. But I should have sufficient pieces to put together a pretty large, somewhat durable enclosure for this batch of pigs and hopefully for future purchases in the feeder pig line.

I really need to start on the chicken coop. Mama is expecting her chicks to be shipped next week and I am ready for that. By the time they get big enough that they will need more space than the cage we will start them in, we should have Victoria’s coop cleaned and ready for the chickens we currently have at the farm. With the possibility of having thirty chickens at the farm I would really like to keep them contained in a set area. They are very destructive creatures.

Mama feels sorry for them when it is hot so she lets them out of the coop every day so they can tear up the flowerbeds and throw dirk onto the front sidewalks as they scratch through the front yard digging up everything I keep watered, all because she believes that somehow they will be more comfortable in the same heat they would be in if left in the coop and it’s adjoining yard. They do like to roam the farm but I do not think the freedom garners them any greater level of comfort. It is not really that big an issue but the nightly cleanup from the chickens and the dogs makes for a frustrating routine.

Everyone is happy with it but me.

Tokens, Jake’s culinary choices

In Psalms 86 the psalmist asks God to show him a “token for good”; a sign that He is really involved in the current circumstances and is still fully in charge; that He is far more than just aware of the situation we are in. I prayed that same prayer the other day and have been looking for an answer. Last night we got not one but three little tokens of His grace.

The hiring manager for the Licensing group called me last night and closed the loop on the job offer that has been hanging out there since February of this year. At this time he has all the people he needs to take care of the plant in Louisiana so he cannot offer me a job. That door is closed for good. I was both relieved and disappointed at the same time; a strange combination of emotions. But I had to recognize it for what it was; God’s direction. It is never a bad thing to get clear direction.

The second token came just a few minutes later. Mama and I have been trying to find a way to get enough pallets together to build a pen for the feeder pigs – something more permanent than just half of the current lot that was built specifically for the pot belly pigs. Lowe’s said they did not give away or sell their pallets and Tractor supply had nothing to offer so we were headed to the feed store in Chico to see what they had for sale at $4 each.

On the way we called a man that runs a spray in insulation business from his home – which is about a mile down the road from us. He had several dozen pallets accumulated outside his garage and it did not appear that he was using them for anything. Mama left him a message and he called us back just as we got to the feed store. He normally takes the pallets to Ft Worth and sells them for $2 each to a company there but he did not feel he had enough to mess with. So he told Mama we could have them if we agreed to take them all. We assured him that that was not a problem. I took about a third of them home last night and will finish up on Thursday.

I realized the third token had come as I talked to a young preacher who was having a difficult time knowing how to respond to a needy, recently divorced woman in his small church. I told him what I could as a man and referred him to my pastor for the counsel he needs relevant to his responsibility and authority as a pastor. I would not be able to recite just what I told him but he let me know that it brought to light up a lot of issues he was totally unaware he was dealing with – or contributing to unknowingly. God is good; really good.

While I was on the phone with the young pastor Mama, Victoria and Jake were at Yesterday’s for a late dinner. Jake was completely taken with the restaurant. Mama said he took over thirty pictures of the decorations. The staff was thoroughly taken with Jake as well. So in the spirit of the hour Jake ordered the Hot Fudge Sundae Burger. It is just what it sounds like, a bun, a hamburger patty, ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream and cherry, topped with a bun drizzled with chocolate syrup; all that with a side of fries.

Jake ate the whole thing – after taking several pictures and a video.

Bad financials, babysitting, Jake

Yesterday was an interesting day as far as the stock markets were concerned. After opening almost 1,100 points down it settled at 588 points down. That is not a good sign. ConocoPhillips stock has lost more than half of its value from a high of around $85/share. For those of us who will be forced out of the company soon, that is a very bad financial landscape.

There is little we can do but adapt and make the best of things, but there are those in the company who are desperately worried about their future. Fortunately, my hope is not in this world. It truly is “out of this world”. Today looks much brighter for the markets, but that too will not last long. I will continue to look for my chance to buy back into our company stock at a price I have set for that purchase – we aren’t there yet. I only hope to be here long enough to make that transaction.

Locally, the dry weather continues so I have to water several times per week. It is a pleasant chore. Mama and I really like to watch things grow. As I have stated before we have a much better chance of success here than we ever did on the farm in Bowie. Danny Benson is quickly discovering that although he, like us, takes a long view of things. We will eventually figure out how to make things work in our favor. Until then we will experiment to see which methods are most successful.

Mama had the Echeveria kids at the farm with her when I got home yesterday. The house was not the normally quiet sanctuary I find at the end of the work day. But that is not a bad thing. Erin and the kids are traveling to Chicago this morning – their flight left at 4:30 a.m. – so she needed some time to get things together for that trip. I am not sure how she was able to accomplish that in the absence of her “helpers”.

It did not take long after Mama took the children to meet Erin at the church for us to straighten up the house. Luke, the oldest, tends to make himself very much at home which gives him permission to play with anything that catches his eye and to deposit that item anywhere that suits him. He has very definite ideas about how things should be done. We just have to learn how to work within those parameters.

Before Mama took the kids to the church she wanted to make one more round to water the pigs and check on the cattle. Since she was going to feed the pigs I got the overripe bananas and cantaloupe out of the fridge so Gracie could help her with that chore. When Luke saw the inedible fruit on the kitchen table he immediately threw than in the trash. The fact that we fished them out really disgusted him. I would love to hear how he told his parents about that.

We had FBI class last night and Jake hung in there with us through the three hour session by watching movies on his phone in the fellowship hall of the church. At the second break, around 8:40 I asked him what he was watching and he could not remember. I teased him about that for the few minutes we were on break. When we packed up to go home he gave me a complete rundown on the movie he had watched – complete with a Rotten Tomato review of the feature film to back up his own analysis.

I suppose I asked for that.

Busy weekend, Jake

Mama and I were out and going pretty early Saturday morning. She had a lead on some feeder pigs so we got the money together and headed to Cottondale; about thirty minutes away. We found the place without too much trouble, which was good since I was hauling a trailer behind the truck. We were looking to get three pigs in the purchase; two for us and one for the Wycoffs.

I debated how to haul the pig because we did not know how big they were. We have a pretty large dog kennel but I did not know if it would be large enough. So Mama came up with the idea of loading the hog trap we have at the farm on the small trailer and using that for the pigs. It only took a few minutes to get it on the trailer and hook it up to the truck – and it turned out to be a good idea.

Two of the pigs we bought were about forty pounds. The third one we only about fifteen pounds – much smaller even that the pot belly pigs we have already at the farm. That turned out to be a problem until we got the idea of letting the littlest one stay in the hog trap so we can feed it separately for a few weeks. We put the two larger pigs in the pen with the pot belly pigs – bad idea. While the new pigs fought with the pot belly pigs we unloaded the trap and got the little one into it.

Later we had to put a panel into the pen to separate the new pigs from the pot belly pigs in order to make sure they would be able to eat and drink. It seems the pot belly pigs were not even willing to share their water dish with the new arrivals, much less let them into the little building we build for them. We should have known there would be trouble but we were still taken by surprise at the intensity of the fighting. Once we got them separated things settled down quickly. After that we were all in need of showers and a little bit of rest because we had to go to the airport to get Jake just a few hours after we finished with the pigs.

We tried a new way to get to Love Field in Dallas and it worked out pretty well. We made one wrong turn but recovered pretty quickly ending up at the airport just before he landed; 4:30 pm. We got through security just as he was getting off the plane so he was waiting for us as we walked to the very far end of the terminal to his gate. He has gotten much taller but he is the same ol’ Jake. So if you need Mama this week you will have to understand that at every turn she has someone talking in her ear with the constant chatter he is famous for.

He was super excited to see the Chico farm. It was almost too much for him to wait as Mama and I went to Costo and Kroger’s on the way home from picking him up. We left the airport at a little after 5 pm and finally got home at 7:30 pm. But he waited pretty patiently through the shopping, chattering the entire time. He was in bed by 9 pm – sound asleep; completely worn out. Considering that his normal bed time has been 1 a.m., he ended up getting way ahead on sleep in just his first night.

 He thoroughly enjoyed yesterday. He has not been to church since the last time he was with us.

Walking with friends, busy weekend ahead

Yesterday evening Mama and I met with the Wycoff family to look at a property that they are interested in. The property is between us and Chico so it is very close by. Larry Mater – the realtor who handled the sale of the farm we now occupy - was the realtor who met us at the property. He remembered Mama right away. Most people do.

The mobile home was not ready for viewing but there was little need. From the outside it looked pretty neglected. The older couple that own and live on the property look like they are years past being able to do anything to maintain the property at all. That and the fact that there were probably ten cats roaming around made the mobile home pretty unappealing. So we walked over the property.

It is twelve acres in total. Not a whole lot bigger than our place but far more overgrown; neglected for many years, but with great potential. As we trudged through the overgrowth to see where the property boundaries were we saw sign of a lot of deer. There was some sign of hogs but not nearly as much as the deer sign. That excited Daniel and James.

We punched through to a small tank that had originally been done with a lot of forethought. It was a large bowl at the very back corner of the property that had been fashioned with a small island in its center. It had some water in it but not much more than the hole that was dug on our property to discard bricks and branches. Some careful groundwork can easily reroute the property runoff back to the tank.

There were several outbuildings which were surprisingly well done. There were small enclosures for pigs or sheep. There was a small chicken coop with a little yard attached to it. There was also a carport that was high enough and large enough to become a good shop at some future point. All in all, a good piece of property to start working on.

There is a lot Mama and I can do to help clean up the property since we have a tractor and several implements that are right for the work. It will add one more property to our routine but all the properties are small and very close. If it works out, it will be nice to get some teamwork involved in our continuing efforts to improve our property and our self-sufficiency; a small group is better than a lone family.

Daniel and I talked about offers as we walked about and as we talked to the realtor found out that we were pretty spot -on with the numbers we had agreed should be right for the purchase. Now he has to get the financing together and get prepared to make the offer for real. That should be coming within a week or so.

Mama and I are going to look at piglets tomorrow morning. If we like what we see we will get two for ourselves and one for the Wycoffs. If they get to buy the place in Chico they will have a place for their hog pretty soon. If not, we will feed it out for them.

After that we are going to the airport to get Jake. We have a fun week ahead.

Livestock, Becky, work/life balance

Daisy and Dash are back in their own pasture but I get the distinct impression that neither of them is happy about it. I believe she will settle into the routine Mama will get going for them but they are herd animals and they will miss the friends they made in the pasture with the bull and his harem. The downside is that I will have to buy hay to begin feeding out very soon because there is not enough grass in the four or so acres we have her and Dash on to support them without supplementation.

Mama’s two guineas seem to be doing well for now. The larger one is very confined in the cage where she is housing them but we should be able to change that this weekend. We have a cage set up in the chicken coop but Mama is afraid that the guinea will either get out of that cage or could be eaten by a hungry snake – since the cage is sitting on the ground in the yard area of the coop. I can’t argue with that assessment; especially since we have taken several large snakes out of the coop recently.

Becky called Mama yesterday to announce that she was leaving the man she has been with recently. (I never bothered to learn his name.) But I suppose those of you who see her posts on Facebook already know that; she is not shy about it. The relationship actually lasted longer than I had anticipated. I do not know her future plans nor to where Mama and I will have to travel to meet Becky and her child, nor what last name the child will have. It is not a situation I envisioned for my children as I was raising them.

I continue to show up for work every required day but there is very little happening. No projects in the pipeline, no discussions about taking on future projects, no assignments for anything past maintaining the current state of business. As we draw closer to the layoff announcements it will be even more oppressively silent. September will be a very long month for us – if we make it that long.

The price of our company stock has fallen further in the past several days and that has to be worrying the upper management of this company. All the financial signs point to the inescapable truth that even what they plan to do by the end of this year will not be enough to reverse the dire financial situation we are in corporately. Those who survive this round of layoffs will face the same situation next year and quite possible the year after that.

I was telling Mama last night that it is nearly impossible not to be overcome by the melancholy that hovers over us every day but I know we have more to hope for than what my employer offers. I know in my heart that God will take care of me and Mama but I struggle to get my mind to join in the certainty. But the truth is, I do not have to see the answer to know there is one. I do not have to see the path forward to know God has placed one before me; one that will give Him the glory and produce good in my life.

So I count me blessings; a goods wife, a good home, a place to raise our meat and grow our food, good health and a positive balance in the bank. We are off to a very good start.