Tea time, burning, building, training

Yesterday evening Mama had visitors at the farm. Their mission was a bit incongruous with the setting. They were there to look over Mama’s collection of tea pots with the intent of having “tea” with the ladies in the very near future. I suppose you can have a proper tea in any setting, but I would think of it being served in a more formal setting than at the farm. I am sure Mama and her friends can pull it off. I just found it humorous that our home and farm would host a proper tea. The O’Conner’s, our visitors, had a good time visiting and looking at the collection of tea pots as well as looking at the house. They are a large family who moved to the area recently. There was very little rental property available to them when they got to Decatur/Bridgeport, so they were forced to take a house that is much smaller than they needed. Seeing our big sprawling house and the land surrounding it reinforced to them how small their living quarters are at the moment. We will definitely have them back over one evening for a leisurely dinner and a walk around the property.

With the ground so dry and the constant winds lately it has been a bit dangerous to burn anything – even in the burn barrel. But I started a fire yesterday so we could get rid of the big opossum I had to shoot Sunday evening. I did not let the fire get too high, but I had to get it sufficiently hot and keep it burning long enough to get the job done. In addition to the opossum, I had to shoot another squirrel we trapped in the chicken coop. I am purposely not going to number the total of rats and their tree-dwelling cousins that have had to be dispatched because they found their way into the coop and began destroying everything they could get their teeth on, building nests in every corner and hording pounds of chicken food. The problem is that once they claim residence there, there is no way to run them off. It’s sad but necessary.

This evening I hope to take the time to put my roof panels back in place above the rollup door. I will have to insert a spacer to allow room for the door when it is opened and fully wound on the roller, but it should not be noticeable once the building trim is in place. I have some small welding projects to do on the fence but I will have to wait until the fire danger lessens before I go making large amounts of sparks. Saturday, we were very careful to keep the sparks minimized. I had a hose ready to dampen any smoldering in the dry grass or leaves in the areas we were welding or grinding. I had to use the hose only twice, but I was glad we had it ready.

There are enough parts left for me to build a small stretch of fence by the large gate I am installing on the south side of the paddock I am creating. It should be enough to make sure the gate and that patch of fence are structurally solid in case we ever have to open it up to cattle in the future. At a minimum, there will be cattle on one side of the fence and gate while the goats are enclosed in the paddock, so a little extra support will be welcome. I realized that mistake on the common fence I have with the cattle on the first paddock we enclosed for goats. I will eventually have to go back and rework that fence to stiffen it sufficiently to discourage the cows from mashing it down when they see something attractive on the other side – like a scrap of alfalfa Mama dropped on her way to throw the residue from the feeder in the goat barn over to the cows. Daisy knows no restraint.

Tomorrow I will be teaching all day. It is a mock training. That is, I am doing a full blown eight-hour class presentation as though it was an actual class setting, but my audience will be my training peers. I am as prepared as I will ever be and anxious to get through it. Thursday, Friday and Saturday Mama and I will be in training all day. The seminar is for Tax Liens/Deeds Training.

Both Mama and I are anxious to get the information we need to get started.

Help, unwelcome visitors

Mama and Victoria helped me get the rollup door in place Friday night. I was confident the three of us could get it done although Mama was less so. When I had it in place I discovered that I was off by about ¼ inch on my height measurements. The door fully would on the drum just barely brushed the underside of the roof panels as it turned. To be able to get the door into the side rails, I had to take the roof panels loose at the front of the shop and raise them slightly. Now that the door is down and properly adjusted, I can screw the roof panels back in place – with only a tiny spacer to ensure I have all the room I need. Mama did not know that I had ordered the door to match the trim. That really excited her. This week I will complete the siding and trim on the front of the shop. Installing the smaller rollup door on the back of the shop should be fairly easy since it is only a four-foot door.

My coworker came over Saturday in the early afternoon. By the time he got there I had already begun cutting the fence loose. I cemented in the posts that had the gate attached to them and had the holes almost complete for the two posts we were moving. The night before I had gone to Harbor Freight and bought a portable band saw to ue on the fence. That turned out to be a real timesaver. I had all the cutting wheels I needed for my grinder, but I did not have the adapter required to use them so before he got there to help I had been using the Sawzall to cut through the welds. It was slower, but it worked. His grinder outfitted with the proper cutting wheels sliced through the welds much quicker than I had been able to with what I had available. Within an hour we were pulling posts to be reset.

When he had looked at the fence last week, he had suggested leaving the smaller rail pieces as long as possible, so we would have less cutting and less welding to do when we reattached them to the relocated posts. That turned out to be a very good idea and saved a good bit of time when we did weld the fence back together. We were done by 4:30pm. It does not look perfect, but it accomplished something I had wanted to get done since we took out the tree the fence had been routed around shortly after we moved onto the farm. It opened a large space in that area of our driveway and makes it possible to access the shop much more easily. It also makes it easier to back out of the driveway from the garage. What a blessing. Now I will gravel or blacktop that extra area to make it look like it belongs to the driveway.

When Mama went out Sunday afternoon to check on the animals she discovered the remains of the two Banty hens that have roosted on the hay feeder we use for the goats. We had tried several times to get them relocated to the coop or the Banty house without success. They always ended up back in the goat barn. We will fight that battle no more. When she saw the feathers in the hay feeder she followed the trail of feathers back to the Igloo dog house we keep in the barn for the goats to discover that one on the two missing birds was half eaten inside the Igloo. By the time she got back into the house to find me, I had already dressed for church. We decided to get the mess cleaned up after church.

That actually worked out to our benefit. By the time we got changed and gathered what we needed for the cleanup we discovered the culprit. When Mama shined the light into the Igloo to show me the half-eaten chicken, she also found the opossum that had done the deed at work on his kill. I headed to the house to get my pistol while Mama fussed at me to hurry. I knew the opossum was not going anywhere. It’s not their nature. A raccoon would have been different. One shot and he was done for. One more unwanted visitor gone but so many more to yet contend with. That one was quick and easy.

But it did reinforce the need to make sure the chickens are closed up every night.

Almost - on several counts

On my way home yesterday evening I was stopped by a serious accident at the intersection of 1810 and 1655. There was no way around. All lanes were blocked, and all traffic was routed out 1655 to Bridgeport. I ended up following the traffic to Bridgeport and back around through Chico to come west on 1810 towards home. As I was making the trip the long way around, I paced through alternate routes I could have taken and the time cost of each route. All were about the same since I do not know the back roads in the area. By the time I got to the intersection I needed, traffic was coming from the direction that had been blocked. Oh, well.

I was supposed to get the front opening of the shop ready by the time Zach could come that evening, but I knew there was no particular hurry since he had a meeting at the school at 6 pm that had to be taken care of before he could meet me at the farm. I worked on taking down the panels I had installed to temporarily close the opening and got all the fasteners in place so we could get right to the task of raising the new rollup door when he was able to help. By the time Mama got home at 7:20 I began to realize he might have been held in the meeting much later than he expected. I had Mama text him at 7:40 and he responded that he had just gotten home and was getting ready to change and come over. We postponed the installation for that night. His children’s bedtimes were rapidly approaching, and I hated to interrupt that contact time. My door is not that important. It is a simple thing I can add to Saturdays activities. I suggested to Mama that she and Victoria and I could do the installation since it is a relatively simple process. It is not something I can do by myself, but it does not require much additional help.

Saturday morning, I will have help getting the fence moved.  My coworker has gotten his welding rig and is planning on being at the farm in the morning to start cutting apart the old fence so we can relocate it. Neither of us was able to get hold of a cutting torch so we are borrowing a gas-powered metal saw from Norman. It is one of those that can be used for cutting metal or concrete depending on what blade is used. It is heavy and awkward, but it beats grinding every weld off the rails we want to preserve for resetting the fence. I am seriously tempted to go to Denton and buy the metal cutting band saw I have been looking at, but I will restrain myself.

While waiting on Zach, I finished the holes for the portion of fence Nate and I took out from behind the shop. Right now I have the front loader of the tractor resting on top of the fence as it stands in place. I was about an inch shy on one hole when I manhandled it into place. I figured I could mash it into place the rest of the way this evening. To do that, I soaked the two holes it is resting in to soften the hard clay in the bottom of the holes. That portion of fence has a five-foot gate built into it. I needed a gate on the driveway side of the fence, so Mama would not have to walk around the shop to tend to the goats we are going to keep in the enclosure. There will be an additional large gate in the back that we can also use, but I did not want that to be the only access for Mama. She is not very adept at climbing fences at this stage of her life. If I have thought it through thoroughly enough, we should be able to get the fence cut and reset in about four hours.

The unknown factor is the time it will take us to make the needed cuts.

Cooking, company news, little setbacks

I did not mention our cooking lesson in yesterday’s blog, but it did happen Tuesday night after I got home from my ill-fated dental appointment. By the time we got the Chinese home in Decatur it was around 6:40. Grandma C already had everything cut up and ready to cook. The rice, which is a distinct variety, had been soaking for about two hours. That has always been the challenge with Asian cooking. The time required to prep the food for cooking is generally much longer that the time it takes to actually cook the dish being prepared. Anyway, the instant we were there we were ushered into the kitchen for our lesson. That is, as soon as we were given house shoes (slippers) to wear since we had kicked off our shoes at the door. (Mine were way too small and Yilin and Cheyenne got a big kick out of watching me try to keep them on my feet.) the pot was put on to start heating and a bit of oil was added. When that was sufficiently hot the shrimp was put in the oil to begin the process. They were allowed to cook for about a minute.

Grandma kept Shulin busy translating her every move as she put the Chinese Cabbage, the fresh ginger and carrots – all cut very small – into the pot with the shrimp. Those cooked for a few minutes before the rice was added. As Grandma was adding the rice she added water heated in a kettle. So, everything was at boiling temperature very quickly. Once the pot began to boil, the heat burner was turned off and the pot was let stand for about twenty minutes on the burner. That twenty-minute wait was the longest part of the whole process. Grandma kept wanting me to taste the porridge and Shulin kept reminding her that my mouth was still numb. All in all, we were in and out in about forty minutes. We went home with a fresh pot of porridge and the information on how to prepare it ourselves. Grandma, through Shulin, told us that she loves to cook and does not get many opportunities to do so, so, if we make the soup and it does not turn out as well as the soups she has made for us, she would be very happy to make the soup for us anytime we want. That is a wonderful backup plan.

My company had a company wide meeting yesterday to announce some changes to the employee handbook. All the changes were good policy changes or updates. All reflect a cultural shift away from a small, mom-and-pop organization towards a more established corporate mindset. One of the changes that resonated with my fellow employees was the more relaxed dress code. We will no longer be required to dress business casual; rather, we will be allowed to wear jeans to work while at the office. There are caveats that I wish were clearer, but overall, that particular item made everyone very happy. Outlining a new bereavement pay policy and moving payroll to an in-house function were also good changes. Though less immediately impactful, they will prove to be very good choices on the part of our leadership. It reflected a huge step forward in our HR oversight.

Mama and I stopped by the office after church last night. We would like to advertise our two little female goats for sale on the Myotonic registration site and that requires more internet power than I have available at the house right now. But we were unable to find out just how to get the advertisement placed on the site. Mama will call today to get a detailed explanation from the ladies that run the site. We know it is possible because Rick – our goat mentor – has used the site often, but we were totally at a loss to discover how and it was too late to call for help.

Our Sequoia has been burning out fuses lately. The one that fails allows power to the dome lights and the clock. It is not noticeable so much during the daylight hours – other than the clock not keeping time – but at night it a bit disconcerting. In the past I have been able to replace the fuse, and all is well. But when I replaced the fuse Tuesday evening, it did not rectify the issue. Tonight, I will spend some time on troubleshooting, but there is a limited amount I can do. Maybe the replacement fuse was bad.

I have several to experiment with but few ideas past that.

Dentist, more information, Hope

I got to the dental office in Bridgeport a few minutes early yesterday evening and they were not overly busy, so I got in right away. That was 4:15. The dentist that tended to me was not the same one that had recommended the treatment I was there for but that was not a problem. This dentist I could actually understand when he spoke to me. Those of you who know me know that I rarely have a problem understanding anyone who speaks to me – regardless of their background. Anyway, he was pretty short with the dental hygienist tending to me. I had already agreed with her that the two fillings identified on the left side of my mouth (they were doing one side at a time – upper and lower) could be done since I would already be numb for the treatment. The dentist let her know rather sharply that he would not be doing any fillings. He wanted to do a buildup on some tooth but was not specific. He said it in such a way that I got the feeling that he did not want to say it in front of me. I got that impression even more strongly when both of them left the room to discuss it further.

After the shots in my upper and lower jaw I sat there for over an hour. Longer than required for me to get fully numb. They had left the TV on above me, so I was counting the time by the programming. At a little before 6 pm the hygienist came back to let me know that the dentist was doing a root canal on a patient that had been scheduled for the same appointment time as me. When I asked how much longer it could be before they started on me, she said there was no way to tell. Having had several root canal procedures done myself, I could relate to what she was telling me. Some of the root canal procedures took an hour. Some took three hours. When she came back I told her that the numbing was starting to wear off in by front lower jaw. It was decided that I would go home and reschedule the appointment for a later date…NOT. When I called Mama to let her know what had happened, she was not happy. The numbness in my upper jaw had not worn off by the time I went to bed and this morning my jaw is hurting from the series of shots I received. All in all, it was not the worst dental experience I have ever had, but it will make the top ten list. I still need to have my teeth cleaned but we will not be going back to that office.

Mama and I spent an hour on the computer last night listening to a webinar about tax deeds. It reinforced the opportunity once again and added a few missing pieces of information to the mix. Mama will spend the next few days looking over the material we were originally given when we attended a presentation in Ft Worth. She has slack time while she is performing her classroom monitoring duties and assures me that she will be able to extract the information we need to get county contacts and lists to begin researching liens and deeds. I am anxious to get started. Mama is starting to see the plan come together – especially as she is questioned by others about what we are going to do. We are being careful to understand the process fully because we will soon be teaching it to several other people.

I got word from Hope Children’s Home this morning. I applied for a position there but there are no openings at this time. However, the director wanted to keep my application and resume for consideration later in the year. Right now, they have no housing to offer and staff is required to live on campus. He mentioned that there would be an opening sometime this year but was not specific as to when that would happen. There is no urgency. Mama and I are happy where we are living and serving. Just not so much where we are working. If the opportunity comes, we will happily go.

I still have plenty to do on the farm.

Success – mostly, dental appointment and cooking lessons, study

Yesterday evening I was finally able to install the water line to the frost proof faucet at the wellhouse. It took all of twenty minutes to make the final connection once I had all the parts in hand. It will be very handy in the future. As I was working one of the calves noticed the “something new” on the outside wall of the wellhouse and crowded himself into the opening between the fence I have there and the wellhouse. To keep him out I leaned a pallet against the wellhouse to mostly block the opening. As the trough was filling I walked back to the garage and got a faucet cover to use at the wellhouse. When I got back with the cover I put it on the pallet rung – the bottom of the pallet was facing outward – and went inside the wellhouse to check for leaks. It was brutally windy yesterday, but I did not think about that as I both stood the pallet in place and put the foam faucet cover on the leaning pallet. Wouldn’t you know, the wind blew the pallet over and crushed the faucet cover. I berated myself for not being a bit more careful. It was the last cover I had available to use on the faucet. It probably was not needed but I wanted to take the precaution since the temperature was supposed to be in the twenties. It was just one of those times that I had unknowingly set myself up for failure. I was able to use the very broken cover on the faucet and place the pallet in a slightly more stable manner. I will go back this evening to check for leaks once more and set a more thought out temporary blocking mechanism to keep the curious steer away from the faucet.

Tonight, we are once again slated to spend the evening with our Chinese Grandma. She is going to show me and Mama how to prepare the porridge that she has been making for me. It will be nice to have another Chinese dish in our cooking repertoire. More than likely, I will not be able to eat any of what we prepare because I will be coming from a dental appointment to the cooking class. I am scheduled to have a “deep cleaning” done on my teeth. That requires a full numbing of the entire mouth. It would be unreasonable to expect that the feeling would have returned by the time we are supposed to meet Grandma for our lesson. I cannot express just how excitedly I am looking forward to this appointment. I thank God for dentists. I just do not like to visit them. They always seem to have bad news to report.

We have waited until tonight for our cooking lesson because Yilin’s mama will be there to translate for us. That will be a big help Grandma C. Yilin can do okay, but she does not have a large Chinese vocabulary. Sunday evening when we were getting the girls for Master’s Club, Grandma C was asking what day we were coming, and Yilin did not know the word for Tuesday, so she told her Grandmother we would be there in three days. Shulin, Yilin’s mother, will be a big help in getting all the chatter translated. It will be nice to visit with Shulin as well. She has been working at a restaurant in Dallas for the past year or more and is only in Decatur in short stays. Not the ideal arrangement to raise a daughter, but at least Yilin has the constant of her extended family here; of which we feel we have become a part.

Mama and I spent about an hour listening to a tax lien investing training CD as the evening wound down. The more we hear about the opportunity the more excited we are to pursue it. There are several people at the church that are eager to know more as Mama and I learn the process. It is our hope that we will be able to partner with two couples as we get more involved in evaluating and purchasing the liens and deeds. Last night, the training covered tax deeds. Mama was hesitant to look into tax deeds before we listened to the explanation of how that process works. Not she is not only receptive of the idea, she is wanting to thoroughly investigate it.

We still have so much to learn – but we are moving steadily forward.

Weekend events

Friday evening, I started to gather the things I would need to install the frost proof spigot in the wellhouse. Along with that I took time to assemble the miter saw table I had ordered a week or two ago. I still have not assembled the woodworking tables I got on Black Friday – but they are probably safer in the boxes while I continue to get the shop set up. Other than that, I did not do too much. Later that evening, Norman came by to help Mama find and order the gas logs for the fireplace. He has slotted some time to do the installation and Mama is pretty excited about getting the fireplace working again. There are some gas logs in the fireplace now but we have no idea how old they are or how they were used so we felt it was better to start new.

While Norman was at the house, we packed up Mocha to go home with him. Mama has nursed her back to health and she and Norman thought it best for her to go back to his home. Mama was missing her as soon as the two of them talked about Mocha leaving. Mama started immediately searching for a small dog to replace Mocha (and Rosie) a week ago when she and Norman began to coordinate Mocha’s relocation. Fortunately, or unfortunately, her stay with Norman did not last long. Sunday afternoon as we were all napping Mama got seven phone calls and Victoria got four. All of the calls were from Grandma except one. That one was from Norman. “You can have Mochie back. She is throwing up and I am too sick to handle it. Come get her. Bye.” Grandma’s voicemails were a little more cryptic but they all pointed the same direction. Grandma dropped Mocha off late Sunday afternoon. So far, she has not thrown up – nor do we expect it.

While Norman was at the farm we talked over a variety of subjects and he was able to guide us to a way to redo the countertops in the kitchen without it costing so much that we would regret redoing the countertops properly when we have the money in hand to replace and upgrade the cabinets. In addition to that, I got enough information from him that I can see the solution to getting the sliding doors installed on the west side of the goat barn. Both of those chores have bee on hold awaiting a better understanding of how to get them accomplished. Now they can move up on the list.

After Mama and I go back from Bus Calling with the pastor Saturday morning I started on the wellhouse. I had carefully accumulated all the items I thought I needed to get the spigot cut into the well, but I still ended up making three trips to the shop for tools I found out I needed as the job progressed. I also made a trip to the hardware store in Chico to buy a part I had not remembered to get. Two hours later I had the spigot stabbed through the wall and secured in place, but I could not cut it into the water lines because I lacked one of two items to make it work. There were two ways I could install the line and with either of those two pathways to success, I lacked one crucial piece to get it done. A fitting for one way and a short piece of ½ inch PEX for the other. Since I was planning on going to the men’s prayer time at the church that evening, I postponed a trip to Lowe’s – but when that was cancelled, I ended up stalled and unfinished. Oh, well. I spent the remainder for the day cleaning up around the farm and getting the larger of the rollup doors ready to be installed.

The door is too heavy and awkward for me to do by myself, but it should not be too difficult to get the help I need to get the door into place.