Tough decisions, lack of opportunity, visiting

Mama has been having trouble sleeping comfortably lately so we went to Wichita Falls to the place where we originally bought our mattress and arranged to exchange it for a new one. We have had our mattress for about a year so the exchange was prorated accordingly but we still ended up getting a new mattress without adding much to the purchase out of pocket. The difficulty was in finding the mattress we both could live with for the foreseeable future. Mama likes soft and I like firm so settling on one mattress has always been a challenge. Since we have an adjustable base the choices are confined within the group of mattresses that will work on the adjustable base. Fortunately, the place we bought from has a good selection to choose from. Unfortunately, those of you who know Mama know how difficult it is for her to make a decision. As we lay facing each other on one test mattress, she said, “I’m going to let you decide.” I just shook my head and we kept going. Finally, after we had almost decided, we tried out one more mattress and we were both impressed. What we ended up doing was getting twin mattress so she could get the softer and I could still have a firm one. We will get them sometime next week so it will be a while before we get to see if we made the right choice. It took us just a little over an hour to get that done. Then we were off to Sam’s.

I did not put anything other than those stops into our trip because I was allowing time to get the mattress decision out of the way. As it turned out, that ended up being the right decision. There is a Home Depot by the Sam’s in Wichita Falls and I wanted to see if they had a fitting I am looking for to hook the pressure tank to the well. Lowes does not carry the one I would like to have. While Mama started shopping at Sam’s I went into Home Depot. When I got to the plumbing isle it was blocked off since the workers were rearranging the top shelf of that isle. They looked intent on getting the work done so I left to catch up to Mama. After we had finished at Sam’s I tried again at Home Depot. The isle was still blocked off and the employees would not allow me to look – even though it was for one item only. I probably will not ever get to know if they have that fitting because I will probably never go back.

Becky, Bridgette and Mike will be here tomorrow. I still have mixed emotions about the life she has gotten tangled up in but she is our daughter and she is wanting to make the trip to see us and let us visit with the grandbaby – whom we have not seen since she was born. It will be nice to see them if they do make it over. They will be staying in a motel because they did not like the rules we live by. They are more than welcome to stay with us while they are here but there are standards we have lived by for all of our lives. Becky is aware of those standards. Since Mike and Becky are not married we told her that Mike would have to sleep on the couch because we would not allow them to sleep in the same bed. No more than if she had a boyfriend spend the night at our house when she lived at home. Mama and I do not want to alienate, but we do not want to vindicate either. It is a difficult road to walk; to love your children and open your life and home to them, yet still stand firm on Biblical standards that were long ago abandoned by them. It has been said that we first change our behavior and then adapt our beliefs to fit those behaviors. That way we are not convicted by the changes we made and now conform to a different standard. What we once stood against, we now proudly do, having fit our faith to our practice; giving ourselves permission to do whatever is right in our own eyes. More often than not, it is a sad decline.

The weather is supposed to be good until late Saturday night so it will be a good time for Mama to show them the farm. We will enjoy the opportunity to visit and share our lives with Becky and company. Hopefully, they will enjoy it as well.

Errant feelings, happy days

Lately I have had a nagging feeling that all is not well. I do not know if there is any particular reason for the feeling, but when those unctions come I put myself on guard and get ready to fast. Who knows, it could be the slice of pizza I ate Monday night at FBI or the increased consumption of beans in our diet lately. Time will tell. For the time being, we will continue to do right and trust the Lord to continue to bless. There is too much that the Lord is doing in our lives to get sidetracked by apprehensive thoughts. There is too much I need to do to get distracted by what may never come. The Lord has protected and blessed Mama and I and the people from our church in so many ways. For instance, we were on the road with the seniors from the church last weekend and all went very well as we traveled to San Angelo and back when at the same time a group from a church very near us was involved in a horrific accident and twelve were killed. That is an overwehlming tragedy for the families of those who are now in Heaven and God spared us from anything like that, but He did not have to. I will not nurse the feelings that are nagging at me, but I will keep my guard up. If it is God, He will let me know what to do. If it is not, I will chalk it up to digestive issues and fast for a season while I let my body rest.

On the bright side, I tended to the strawberries in the garden for a few minutes last night and discovered that several of the plants are already loaded with little berries. I will have to get them into a bed that is off the ground if Mama and I do not want to share the fruit with the rats, opossums and raccoons. I also discovered that the portion of a white pumpkin that I planted has sprung up. I counted twenty sprouts. We do not need that much pumpkin but I will let them go and see how many of them make it. Mama and I may be canning a lot of pumpkin this summer. I will plant the remainder of the pumpkin at the pond and see if it will reproduce there also. Again, I am not sure what we will do with them other than decorate for Fall, but we can figure that out later.

Victoria spent the day with Grandpa, Grandma, Norman and Seth looking at campers. For some reason, she has the idea that she should buy a camper, park it at the farm and move into it so she can have “place of her own”. I am not sure how to line that up with the fact that Mama and I have a three bedroom, 2600 square foot house that we are happy to share with her until the Lord brings the man into her life that He has made for her – or until He unveils His plan for her life clearly to her, but it is only talk right now. My in-laws love that kind of frivolous pursuit and happy talk. You don’t ever have to do it, you just have to be willing to talk about doing it. For them the accomplishment is not in execution of a plan. For them the accomplishment is dreaming up a “good” plan. I have always been more of a doer and at many stages in Mama’s and my life together I have spent large amounts of money to start putting together the materials for us to get started building out a grand dream only to watch those materials get used up on other projects or simply to rot away as they sat waiting for the work to be done. Victoria’s house is a case in point. But they are happy with that life so I join in the banter but I do not typically expect a productive outcome.

Back to the camper. They found one that Victoria really liked. It was a 2008 model, so it was not new. The not-new price was $24,500. Looking at the price tag differently, if Victoria wanted to rent an apartment for $700 per month, that would be 35 months of rent. There are those that will tell you that renting is a waste of money. You get nothing in return. I mostly disagree. Renting provides living space that you do not have to maintain, pay taxes or insurance on and do not have to sell or otherwise dispose of when you move. Cori and Nate are reaping the rewards of equity in their home that just sole, but they will tell you that selling it was not a fun and easy process. Also, you are not required to take out a thirty-year mortgage to afford a rented house or other dwelling. For Victoria and her camper, she would still have to use the bathroom in the house. She would still have to use the washer and dryer, etc. So. spending $24,000 for a bedroom of her own seems a bit silly. But that is the kind of idea that always inspires Grandma, Grandpa and Norman.

She had fun while they were out but collapsed into be as soon as she was back home.

Storms, project help

We had a pretty fierce storm roll through overnight. The forecast was for it to be severe and I think they got it right on this one. We only got an inch and a half of rain but we got a lot of lightening and very strong winds. As I left the farm this morning I could not see any signs of damage but Mama will clue me in if there is any. Nearby, there were reports of 60 – 80 mile per hour winds. I am pretty sure we did not get anything that severe. The trees on the farm seem to be frail. That is the best way I can put it. There is some sort of brittleness to them that I am not used to seeing but so far, we have had very little damage done to them by the high winds. So, they might not be as frail as I think they are. Last year I had three trees taken out that were near the house and shop. The year before I had four taken out that were very near the back of the house. I still have five dead trees to remove but only two of them are in areas that give me any concern. All of them escaped damage through this storm, but their days of standing through the buffeting are numbered.

In preparation for the storm, Mama and I battened down the hatches around the property last night. All the animals have places to escape the rain and wind so we had no worries for them. Our goal was to keep as much rain out of the buildings as possible. We were planning on going to Wichita Falls last night but postponed it to Thursday evening because of a tornado watch that had been issued for the area. The brunt of the storm did not roll through until the wee hours of the morning, but we thought it was better to be safe than sorry. Although some areas had very large hail, we did not see any at the farm. Going forward, there are more storms forecast off and on through the weekend. This was the second damaging storm for many. Those who did suffer damage will be more apprehensive about the next round than Mama and I are, but in either case, there is little that can be done other than mitigate the damage as well as possible before the next one hits.

I made a call to Chester last night to see if he and Chuck would give me an estimate on building and installing rolling doors on the goat barn. Since they have a welding shop it would be much easier for them to do than for me. I have put off building the doors because I could not decide how I wanted to build them; whether to use wood or metal for the frames, whether to hinge them or mount them on rollers. Their estimate will give me more direction. It is also a pretty daunting task to mount the doors regardless of how I make them. Most of the work I do at the farm I do by myself. This is one project I will not be able to do alone. If the price they give me is good enough to turn the construction over to them, it will be one less chore I have on my list. That would be a blessing. Getting the barn finished would also be a blessing.

Since Mama and I have a little bit of money coming in, I plan to complete the well house in the barn lot next. I already have a lot of the materials for the building (metal for the exterior and roof) and the well. The electrical lines and water lines have already been run so the structure is the next step in getting that done. If I can get the materials for the building itself, it should take me about forty hours to complete. Getting those forty hours set aside to do the work is the challenge especially since the max I am normally able to put in is six to eight hours per week; on a very good week. So, it will take me six to eight weeks to get forty hours applied to the project; one hour here, two hours there. A great deal of time spent getting set up to start working – gathering tools, string our extension cords, etc., then making sure I have time to put put everything away after I spend forty minutes actually working.

A little here. A little there. It’s the best I have to offer right now.

Little ones on the farm

The other day, Mama discovered that we have a new family of woodpeckers in a tree in the goat area. She was in there mowing and happened to see several baby woodpeckers hopping through the branches. They are the offspring of the small woodpecker that has been a regular at the farm for the several years we have been there. Fortunately, we do not suffer any damage from the variety that has chosen our trees as home, but as I understand it, they can be quite destructive. So far, it has been a fun opportunity to watch the tiny ones learn to adapt to the life ahead of them. We have not heard them peck on the trees but I expect that will be coming soon. I will let you know if my opinion changes when that becomes a part of our ambient noise.

Very soon we should have more babies on the farm. Three of our cows look very close to ready. The fourth does not look pregnant. It would be a disappointment for her to miss giving us a calf this year but those things happen. For the goats, Millie looks like she could not get much bigger before kidding but we are pretty certain that she has at least three more weeks to go. Mama is praying for twins. We should have at least that but Millie has had triplets for both of the last two pregnancies. Triplet would mean that we would have to bottle feed one of the three. That is the main reason Mama is praying for this to be just twins. It is not that we do not thoroughly enjoy bottle feeding a little goat, it is that we would have to be very consistent in giving that feeding three times per day for six to eight weeks from birth. That consistency is what causes the problem since both of us work. I think filling the little one up in the morning and then again after work would be enough but you know Mama. She would stress out about the little one being hungry through the day and want to make a special trip to the farm at lunchtime to make sure it got its belly full. Maybe I should pray for twins too.

We have five or six hens that want to sit and Mama is constantly having to get the eggs out from underneath them. I do not think it would be a problem to let them hatch out some little ones but Mama seems committed to keeping that from happening. It is not like we do not have plenty of eggs. We are getting twelve to fifteen every day and since sales are down we have plenty of eggs to spare. A couple dozen chicks would add to the fun of having the chickens. But I think Mama has ordered a couple dozen chicks from a local hatchery that she plans to raise in one side of the coop. They will be here sometime late next month. In the meantime, we need to treat the coops and our chickens because some of them are looking pretty pitiful. Maybe it is molting time. Maybe it is mites. We can never be sure. So, we treat for mites.

The recent rain really helped our garden. More rain is predicted for this week so I will have a couple additional free hours in the evenings since I will not have to water the plants. We have potatoes sprouting and I have covered them a second time to give them more depth. We have tomatoes starting on several plants. We have peppers on several plants in the raised bed and we have blooms on the squash that I have struggled to keep alive through the past week or two. We also have blooms on several of the strawberry plants that survived the winter. I have them in a bed in the garden as well but it is on the ground so we have to constantly fight the ants as we tend to those plants. I plan to allow the strawberry plants to repopulate the bed with the runners they send out. By the end of the season we should have a full bed again. We have blueberries, blackberries and black raspberries in various stages of development. It will not be a big harvest on the blackberries and black raspberries, but the three blueberry plants are loaded. We are waiting to see how the figs, plums, nectarines, pears, apples, apricots and peaches will do this year. But, it looks very promising so far.

I like this time of year.

Our trip, the storm

Mama and I traveled with the seniors from the church Friday and Saturday. We went to Sweetwater, TX to the WASP museum. That was something new for both of us. I had never heard of the Women Air Service Pilots. They were a group started in mid-1942 to shuttle planes between based as needed by the Army Air Forces. Since most available men were drafted into fighting service there was a shortage of pilots to get planes from one base to another. The idea to use women in that role came from two pilots named Jacqueline Cochran and Nancy Love. Over one thousand women served in the program, all of whom had their pilots license prior to the time of service. I had no idea women had pilot’s licenses in those days. Thirty-eight of those women who served lost their lives in the service. The sad part of the story is that they had no benefits, no recognition and no notoriety. It was not until 1977 that they were given veteran status. When women were recently given roles as pilots in the Air Force the commander of the first graduates of the program were touted as the “first women to pilot military aircraft”, several of the WASP pilots spoke up rather loudly. Their records had to be recovered from storage, where they had been buried shortly after the war was over, before they were officially recognized for what they had done so many years ago. It was a very educational museum.

At the other end of the spectrum, we visited Fort Concho in San Angelo, TX. It was established in 1867 and served as a forward post for the US Army to protect settlers and trade routes through far west Texas. The fort is very well preserved and has been carefully restored. It was a hike for Mama and some of the other women but we all enjoyed it. There was a bit of a guided tour but it dealt with the armory more than anything else, so the men on the trip were the only ones who listened to a very detailed description of the armaments, the difficulty in relocating those artillery pieces and what the effective range of each piece was in battle. I enjoyed it but it was not a highlight for the women. It gave us an insight to the challenges the men faced in the late 1800’s. The hospital was not a restoration but rather a reconstruction based on hospitals at other forts in Texas. It was very interesting to see how primitive, yet imaginative some of the beds, bathrooms and operating facilities were made. For that time, it was cutting edge. Technology has changed. How we apply that technology to patient care has not changed all that much.

Mama and I visited a jewelry store and a clock repair store while the others went to a large general store. We talked to the owner in the clock shop and got to find out about how to identify the clocks we inherited from my Dad. That way we can research them for insurance purposes, plus have an idea about their origin and age. At the jewelry store we looked specifically at the pearls that are obtained from the muscles that grow in that part of the Concho River. The pearls are purple in color and can be quite beautiful and very expensive. Far more than what Mama and I could afford at this time. There was one necklace setting that was called a “blister pearl”. It was a mother of pearl piece from the shell that had several tiny pearls starting to form on it. I was impressed but if it was not known what you were looking at, it was not very attractive. It was however a $1000 plus setting.

Rain and hail passed through the area last night. We escaped the brutality that the storm wrecked on some nearby areas but we got about a half inch of rain because of it. As Mama and I sat at church last night knowing the storm was very intense we could not help but wonder what was happening at the farm. We knew all the animals had shelter available. I was more concerned about the garden and the fruit trees – all of which are at critical stages of growth and setting fruit.

All was well. Praise the Lord.

Brittany’s girls, Mama’s dreams, surprise deposits

Brittany called yesterday or the day before to tell me that two doctors have now told her that the twins she is carrying are girls. I still think it is a little too early to tell with absolute certainty but I can appreciate their expertise in the matter. I am thrilled for her and Andrew either way. I continue to pray for a healthy pregnancy for the sake of Brittany and the babies. She and Andrew will be going through a lot of changes in the next several weeks and the stress will mount at times. Part of that stress is the move they are making. As far as the twins are concerned, now is the best time to be making the move back to the US because the little ones are far easier to transport in utero than in two separate carriers. If all goes as planned they should all be here as a family by the end of April. The only downside as far as Mama is concerned is that she did not get to go to England and traipse around Europe with Brittany before they relocated. In our current financial situation, that would have been difficult, but it does not stop Mama from dreaming about it. In ways Mama is a little like George Bailey, the main character on “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Always dreaming of traveling but never quite making it.

I upset her a little the other day by telling her that the days of walking tours of exotic places are passed for her. We missed that boat some years back. With the constant pain she has in both of her knees, successive trips from the house to the barn wear her out and bring a pain that requires her to sit down long enough to let it pass enough so she can continue with chores. There are alternatives but for the moment, wheelchair accessible tours are not high on her list of spectacular venues for vacationing activities. If we continue as we have been, Mama has only to look at her mom to see the future of her personal mobility. There is hope for better mobility, but to make that hope a reality requires a lot of work to either lose weight and allow the tissue to rebuild through natural curative measures or do total knee replacements. It is a toss-up as to where that will fall out but she and Victoria are embarking on a new diet plan to help them both regain their health and reduce their weigh. I am generally supportive of any effort in that direction.

As I walked down the hall from the bedroom this morning I felt my foot hit something that should not have been on the Persian rug that covers a portion of the hall. I suspected what it was but turned on the hall light to verify. Sure enough, Rosie had pooped on the rug and I stepped in it. Fortunately for me I had my boots on. Unfortunately for the rug, I had my boots on. Cleaning ground-in poop from a rug was not how I wanted to start my morning, but that was how it began none-the-less. Just to make sure, I turned on more lights in the living room before I began my devotions and found another deposit on the floor there also. Right in the walkway. I would have had a “twofer” today. Oh, what fun. Mama is thrilled to have a dog live in her care as long as Rosie has. I am beginning to appreciate the alternative.

Mama and I are planning on traveling with the seniors tomorrow but the plans have not been finalized. The trip was originally planned for Nacogdoches, TX but that fell through when one of the main activities was abandoned. Mrs. Horton talked with Mama at length yesterday and they bounced several ideas off of each other but I was not privy to the final decision on our destination. I am not sure Mama was either. I told Mama I was okay if we did not make the trip, but that did not seem like a suitable option.

If we do not go, I will work and save my vacation. If we do go, I will enjoy the break.

Scheduling, chickens, water

My schedule is filling up at work. The supervisor over the compliance department resigned and she was one of the team who spent time at the many and various conferences related to the work we are doing. In her absence, I have been assigned a couple of those conferences. I am not sure about the training in Chile but I have not removed it from my calendar and we are crowding close to the time I will be taking a couple week-long OSHA Trainer classes. Some of the assignments will obviously require travel but none of them will be lengthy assignments so time away from the farm will not be overburdening to Mama, I hope.

I took the time last night to get the roost supports built and installed. Since I had the miter saw in the garden shed because of the work I was doing on the raised bed, I was able to quickly cut and assemble the pieces. Since I was using 2x2 pieces I salvaged from the old roosts I used a nail gun to put them together. Screws of sufficient size to make them sturdy would have split the wood and caused a lot more frustration than just taking the time to set up to use the pneumatic nail gun. I am not sure the chickens will be able to tell the difference, but Mama likes them better than the metal brackets 0 which were left in place last night for the sake of time. All the chickens were outside the coop area while I was working on that project. Mama lets them out several evenings per week – and they love the freedom. They really liked being able to distance themselves from the framing nail gun as I used it inside the coop. It is quite loud. Even Sasha ran to hid in the garage thinking someone was shooting a rifle.

Normally the chickens get back into the coop with little trouble but last night was an exception. I remembered that they had not been closed up as I was getting ready to take a shower. So, I went out to shut them up and had to physically place five of them that had bedded down on the front porch into the coop. Then I had to herd another four into the open gate to get them back inside their area. Two of those I had to finally catch and deposit on the proper side of the fence. It took a bit longer than usual but it was a pleasant night to be outside. It was only after I had laid down in bed that I remembered that the gate on the west side is the one Mama typically opens to let them out – and I had not closed it. That was another trip outside to bed down the chickens. The night did not seem so pleasant at that point.

I spent the last hour of the evening watering the plants around the house and in the garden. It is easier to water in the garden but it is also filling up with plants that need watering. The benefits of the hose being there for use is that I can be very generous with the amount of water given to each plant. When I was hauling the water in buckets I was not able to be so free with the water I had available. Now it is only a matter of time, not a matter of volume. I am sure the trees I was watering that way like the new method much better. The cattle are still without fresh water due to the shortage of one hose but we will take care of that by the end of the week. I am not in a hurry to get the troughs filled because we have pulled three drowned squirrels from them recently.

Tonight is a short night for outside work because of church and this weekend Mama and I will be traveling with the seniors of the church. In times like that, I just get done what I can; usually it all works out.