Fruit fast, sale fail, long weekend plans

Somewhere in her online searching Mama found out about a fruit fast. A three-day exercise where you eat nothing but fruit. She seemed excited about it. Victoria seemed excited about it. I told her to go for it. So, Wednesday night after church she and I went to Walmart – the source of all things necessary – and bought about $50 worth of fruit. Mangos, watermelon, cantaloupe, peaches, plums, apples, kiwi, nectarines, cuties, grapes, cherries, bananas, etc. Yesterday we ate only from that mix. Mama packed us a large container of fruit she had cut up and mixed together for our lunch.

She called me before lunch and apologized that she thought she had not brought enough; she was hungry. I was not sure what size container she had filled but I was not worried. I could have gone without eating anything. As it turned out, it was more than enough for the two of us. In fact, we were struggling to finish it so that it would not go to waste. When I got home last night I cut up the watermelon, cantaloupe and the pineapple. We ate on that for dinner. The chickens ate the scraps.

Mama asked me if I thought she would make it three days eating only fruit and I told her the truth. I did not thing she would do it. Not that she could not do it. Just that she probably would not do it. Victoria did not make it through the first day. She made herself eggs and toast for a late breakfast, ate fruit for lunch and then had a bowl of cereal for dinner. Still far less than she would normally eat. Maybe that will inspire Mama to stick with the original plan. Maybe not. For lunch today, I am expecting a fruit medley again. It is substantially more than I take in when I am doing my typical three day fast. I marked my weight and blood pressure before we started. I will see what results from the fast when I get up Sunday morning. Even after one day, I like the results I can see. I weigh myself every morning. I believe the adage, “What gets measured gets managed.”

Our original plans for the day included Mama meeting a buyer this morning. I asked Mama last night to text the buyer and make sure he was still coming. She got a text back pretty quickly that he had purchased a stock trailer closer to him, so he was no longer interested. I am glad Mama double checked. It would have been a very disappointing morning for her to stand around waiting on someone who was not going to show up. So, I will repost the stock trailer in a couple different sites and see what we get. We are still 83 days out from our trip to Honduras, so we still have time to find a buyer. We are planning to use the proceeds from the sale to fund the trip. If that does not happen, we will find another way.

For the long weekend ahead, we have made no real plans other than working on projects at the farm. Victoria is going to visit Brittany, but Mama and I are going to stay put. I will be working on the shop. I did a little last night, but I will have to undo some of the work because of a change of plans for the use of the addition I am putting on the back of the shop. I want to be able to park Mama’s mower in the addition and keep it covered through the winter. Plus, it will be easier to work on if I have it parked at the shop. With a three-day weekend, I should be able to get the addition finished. I my not have materials for the doors, but I can get the structure completed. The caveat is giving her passage into the back yard from the back of the shop. That will take some fencing work, but it should be doable. Moving the mower will devastate Tom. It has become his adopted home. We would have had to do something for this winter anyway – if he hangs around. I am sure he will figure something out. Almost anything outside the house is fine with me.

Hopefully, we will cut down the dead tree by the birthing center this long weekend; providing I can find enough help to satisfy Mama.

Another buyer, garage sale, counting down

Mama has another buyer lined up for the stock trailer. He is supposed to come tomorrow morning. If I remember correctly, he is coming from about three hours away. I hope that he is not wasting his time, but we can only know that when he gets here and actually sees the trailer for himself. That is one of the issues with selling items like the trailers we have advertised. Pictures can only do so much. Until you are standing there looking at the item, you cannot really know for certain that it is what you have been looking for. The buyer is interested enough to make the trip, so we hope he likes what he sees well enough when he gets here. I told Mama last night that if we do not sell the stock trailer there are some improvements I will make to it over the winter months. Things that need to be done but I have had no particular interest in doing because I have little interest in making cosmetic improvements when functionality is adequate. However, it is those cosmetic details that facilitate a sale. Maybe I will luck out and someone else will make those changes.

Victoria is off today. She had talked with Mama about setting up the garage to do an online garage sale. I am not certain what that entails but she should have plenty of room. I know there are items she has been wanting to sell but we are not in a particularly good place geographically for a garage sale. Nor would I want to generally advertise where we are. I like the seclusion of our little farm. I do know this, if Victoria is going to get items out of the last stack of boxes we have in the garage she will have some work ahead of her. It is not a large stack, but it is condensed. I am not entirely sure what is contained in the boxes yet unpacked from our last move – four years ago. If we are going to stay here, it is about time we got around to putting those things where they belong. I am not a huge fan of storing anything long term. If we need it, we should keep it. If we like it, we should find a place to display it or put it to use. If it is cute but has no purpose, we should get rid of it. Very heavy emphasis on the last of those three options. So, I hope Victoria’s approach to getting these things into the hands of anyone else is highly successful.

I put a countdown timer on my phone a couple days ago. Since we suggested to Cori that she put one on a computer or cell phone for the kids to track the time until Mama, Victoria and I visit them in Honduras, I thought it appropriate to do so also. Mama requested I put the same timer on her phone, but I have not done it yet. I seem to only think about it when we are not near an internet connection. I should get that done tonight. My timer says we have only 84 days until we leave. When I look at the calendar it seems farther away than that, but on the calendar, it is more difficult to line out – looking at one month at a time. Google calendar makes it very difficult with the way it definitively separates the months into individual blocks. So, the countdown timer is a help.

It is just moving too quickly.

No sale, evening activities

Mama had a buyer lined up for yesterday afternoon. She had been in contact with him over the weekend and he assured her that he wanted our stock trailer, so she turned away another buyer who was closer. The buyer yesterday lives in Montana. I do not know if he drove down just to pick up the trailer, but he was very anxious that Mama hold onto it for him. He did show up. When he was driving down our road I had a feeling he was not going to buy the trailer. He was driving a very nice Freightliner semi. I immediately thought how our stock trailer would look behind that rig and would have been surprised if he had bought the trailer. He looked it over thoroughly and found enough wrong with it that he offered to pay me $100 for wasting my time. I declined. Mostly, he wanted a trailer with a twenty-four-foot enclosure. That would be a twenty-eight to thirty-foot trailer since trailers are listed in length from the hitch to the tail – not the length of the deck. He also wanted a trailer that was seven-foot-wide inside. It was not what he was looking for. He is used to much, much bigger rigs. Oh, well. It was a little disappointing, but not overly so. Ultimately, Mama and I do not have to sell the trailers, it just would be nice to get the cash out of them since we have limited use for them now.

Mama stayed home yesterday. She was hurting badly enough that she needed to sit still. She did go with Alissa to church last night for a ladies’ meeting – combined with a baby shower. I spent the evening working on a list of songs from a new hymnal bought for the choir to use. It has a lot of newer songs in to as well as many of the old hymns. I have been using it for choir specials for over a year but have not taken the time to make a list of all the songs available for the choir, special groups and the choruses it contains. I sat down last week and made a had written list. Now I am compiling that list in a spreadsheet. That will give me a helpful overview of the entire hymnal, so I do not have to flip through it to find what I am looking for. It also showed me how much I have missed of the songs available to us. I worked on that until very late and still have several more hours to put into the effort. I am trying to consciously use my evenings to do things other than reading or watching something on my phone but I have not gotten the energy yet to practice an instrument or do Ba Gua; but that is probably more of a pride issue than a time issue. Slowly the evenings are getting shorter as darkens settles on us more quickly, so I will have to start adding those activities to my evenings to keep from wasting the time.

I try to take an hour every evening to work on something on the farm. Something outside. Lately, that time has been given to arranging the inside of the shop, but I am at the point of needing materials in order to do more inside. So, over the next couple evenings (tonight excluded) and Saturday I will go back outside to get the addition put on the shop. I have materials for that. Since I had plywood to enclose the wall I will be exposing in the retrofit, the building will still be sealed up when I take off the metal siding I will reuse at the back of that addition. I do not have panels for the roof of the addition yet, but I have all the metal siding I need. The only caveat is that the panels I will install where the used ones are being taken from will be red instead of tan. That is why I am moving the panels. It will keep the outside of the shop all the same color. The three red panels will be on the inside wall of the addition and will not be seen once it is enclosed. I plan on having all the gas-powered equipment in the addition so the shop can smell more like a wood shop…and for safety reasons.

As the shop fills, the garage empties. It’s a win-win.

Spanish, 76%, three weeks out, potential sales

Nate, Cori and the kids are continuing to learn Spanish – and progressing very rapidly. Cori has had the kids quote Bible verses to me and Mama in Spanish and they are learning choruses and songs to sharpen their hearing. Savanna even sang Jesus Loves Me in Spanish to me and Mama last night: however, there are moments that temper the enthusiasm and realign focus on the needs of the kids in this transition. One such moment happened when they all got home from church and Grant asked his daddy if he could do a lesson in Spanish, so they could understand it. His daddy happily complied. We do not, as adults, see the disconnects our children struggle with so it is nice to have them pointed out. That way they can be properly dealt with. As the children learn the written language as well there is a tendency to superimpose Spanish phonetics onto English words. Cori did not think too much about it until one of the kids pronounced Italian as “it-e-lee’-an.” Mykenzie told her mommy that every time she sees a double “L” she wants to pronounce it as a “Y”. She has some work ahead of her. Savanna seems to be ahead of the game. The other day when Coir was struggling with a question in Spanish, she started with “Como..” and hesitated. Savanna quickly helped her out. “Mommy, do you mean ‘Como se llama?’” (What is your name?) I imagine she gets asked that a lot.

Mama got both good news and bad news from the doctor and the physical therapist yesterday. First the physical therapist news. The bad news. Mama is now only at 76% of the bending motion she needs from the repaired joint. Manipulation under anesthesia is unavoidable. The therapist suggested they wait until after Mama’s upcoming surgery to continue the regimen they have been on in physical therapy. That way he can help Mama after the knee is more pliable. He was not discouraged by the measurement, but he knows it needs to be corrected in a way he cannot do through therapy. Last week Mama was at 74%. This week at 76%. With all the effort the two of them have put into exercising and attempting to flex the knee they only gained 2% in one week. That is progress, but Mama has only a couple weeks of therapy left in the agree upon plan set out by our insurance company. It is assumed that the internal scar tissue is what is causing the pain that is hindering the motion. So, the next surgery is on the schedule for sure. That surgery is only three weeks away.

Now for the potential good news. Based on x-rays taken yesterday at the doctor’s office, the doctor believes he can do a full repair to the right knee and get Mama another seven to ten years of function on that knee – avoiding a total knee replacement for now. That would be a blessing. The recovery time is much shorter with the knee scope than with the replacement. Hospital time is reduced to more of an outpatient basis or overnight at the most. Another blessing. Mama is excited about that possibility. She will have to get another MRI done to confirm his diagnosis. That should happen this week. Regardless, she will have one surgery or the other on the 18^th. That timeframe will allow her enough time to recover fully before we head to Honduras. She will still need to be careful, but the trip will be more pleasant when she is able to sit comfortably on the plane.

The timing of the surgery will still keep me from going to any of the Arkansas sales, but there is always next year. Mama and I are working on post-auction lists in Arkansas as well as Florida. We are also looking at the foreclosure list for Comanche County Oklahoma. If we keep at it, we will find what we are looking for. Also, Mama was talking to Becky last night and she mentioned someone Mike had talked to that wanted to sell his house in town for a price Mama and I might be interested in. The price was about what we would have in a house going through a tax auction. We will see what comes of that. We asked for pictures and a physical address. You never know.

We have a man coming to pick up the stock trailer today and we had a local man come by and look at the flatbed trailer yesterday. Selling those will bring in some money, most of which we have already assigned a purpose. We still have the utility trailer which I use far more than the other two. When we need to move our cattle, I will borrow a stock trailer if Mama and I do not find a smaller one we like. We are not planning on doing anything with the cattle until around Thanksgiving.

That gives us time to look.

Meeting minutes, the tolls of eating out

Friday evening when I got home from work Mama was feeling better than she had when I talked to her in the afternoon, so we headed to our meeting in Ft. Worth. It was an easy drive. Mama and I got a chance to talk on the way – more so than we would have at the house, so the trip was worth the time for just that. Gill and Debbie were already at Panera’s when we got there. They were at the counter starting to order when we walked in. Hugs and hellos were exchanged all around. Orders were put in and we found a table. The place was not too busy, so we took a table set up for six. Both Mama and Debbie are recuperating from surgeries. Mama’s knee replacement surgery is only ten weeks old at this point. Debbie’s foot and leg – injured in an accident – were operated on a little over a year ago. She is able to walk but has a special medical boot on her right foot. Friday evening, she was wearing a boot on both feet. For some reason, she is not healing up. Mama and I can celebrate her recovery by comparison. Anyway, we neede the extra space for Mama and Debbie to stretch out safely.

We talked a gambit of things while we were eating and long after. It was a good meeting for all of us. We gained a lot of insights into each other’s lives and ambitions as well as sharing investment strategies. Gill shared some very helpful tax lien auction information. Mama and I needed those practical observations. As we talked, Mama and I became more settled on the idea of investing in foreclosure properties. It will take a great deal more capital to do so. That will require some aggressive strategies to be implemented to get the money we have in various areas into an investment account – which I already have set up. We are praying about that right now but have set a soft deadline for the end of the week to make the decision on those financial transactions. We would appreciate your help in those prayers. When we left the restaurant, we made plans to meet again. I believe it is a plan we will follow through on. It was fun and informative. It is always encouraging to spend time with like minded people. When we left I found it funny that our vehicles were parked side by side in the handicapped parking area. Everyone in the restaurant seemed to be young enough or mobile enough that the spaces had not been needed by anyone else during our meeting. Perhaps the next time we meet we can use the regular parking spaces.

That was not the only time Mama and I ate out this weekend. We met the seniors from church at Catfish O’Harley’s for lunch Saturday afternoon. It is a moderately expensive restaurant. They have a very limited menu but pretty good food. The problem for me is that almost everything they offer is fried. I stuck with the salad bar and ordered a baked potato with that. Mama got catfish and crab cakes. I had to give the potato back to the server because it was cold. Not even the least bit warm. When she told me that it would be at least twenty minutes before she could bring me a fresh one, I told her I would pass. Mama gave me one of her catfish strips and the salad bar had some pretty good items on it, so I had plenty to eat. One of our friends got the fried oysters – nine of them. When she offered me one, I gladly accepted. It was only after I cut it in half that I realized the oyster did not come from the sea. It came from an animal. It wasn’t terrible, but I passed on the next offer. We had a good time eating and visiting, but that evening I did not feel good. I was nauseated, and my stomach felt bloated. Very uncomfortable.

Sunday morning, I still did not feel good but went to church anyway. I almost had Mama take me home after Sunday School, but stuck it out. I am glad I did. We had a great service. As is out custom now, we ate at the Chinese restaurant after church. I do not eat too much. I was afraid to put anything more on my stomach. But by late Sunday afternoon, I was feeling pretty badly. Mama was feeling the same. All of us stayed home from church that night. I hate to miss but it seemed best. The nausea stayed with me through the entire night and into this morning.

Mama has a busy day today. I will be meeting her for lunch at the school; not that I will eat much, but I will spend the time with Mama regardless. She will go to the school after her physical therapy appointment and stay for an hour or so after lunch. She has a doctor’s appointment this afternoon and did not feel like it was a good idea to drive home and back between our lunch and that appointment. There is plenty for her to do at the school while she is waiting to go to the doctor. Things that will be less taxing on her than shopping. Things that will be less costly for me than for her to go shopping.

It’s a win-win.

Meetings, sales and more meetings

I started out the day in a day-long meeting but that rapidly shortened to only a half-day. The last half to be rescheduled for later next week. This mornings meeting was a boon to me because I needed the time to go through the presentation I will be giving next month in Alabama. Since the project was shelved last year I have not had the chance to walk through the slides and book in an audience participatory format since I wrote the presentation. It always comes out differently when people are listening to my presentation than when I practice it in my head. I admit to the whole thing being pretty rough. It was not as polished or as proficient as I need it to be, but now I can get there. It gave me a chance to see just how much more work I must do to get ready and where that effort will be better spent. At least I know what I am going to focus on for the next several weeks.

Meanwhile, Mama stayed home today. She texted me to say she was not going to her PT appointment this morning because she did not feel well. As soon as I got a break, I called to see what was hurting enough to keep her home, so I could get some context. It turns out that she overdid it yesterday evening. She mowed last night. All the time she spent on the mower went without incident. Mama enjoyed the time on her zero turn; she always does. However, when she was getting off the mower after she parked it she stepped off the mower like she had not had knee replacement surgery. Her knee bent sufficiently to get her off the mower without falling to the ground, but she did stress the joint itself. I was seed eating around the house, so I did not see her misjudgment. Because of that misstep, she spent the night in considerable pain. She whined a little to me and Victoria. “How long would it have taken for you guys to see that I had fallen down? Would you guys even think to check on me? And a couple other such statement. She was trying to sound casual and humorous, but I think she was more serious than she wanted to let on. I would not have looked for her until I finished what I was doing. Victoria perhaps longer than that. Fortunately, it was not an issue.

Since she was home, it was fairly easy to meet the couple who had arranged to buy our goats. I have been after Mama to get the paperwork together to send off to have the boys registered, but that has not happened yet. Maybe soon. Those registrations will be a big part of the buyer’s breeding program. But as of this afternoon, the upper goat area is unoccupied. That will simplify the feeding routine and conserve feed. Those two boys ate as much as all our girls put together. This weekend I will do some cleanup of the yard and the pig building to get it ready for pigs. So, the conserving on feed will not last long. I think we are looking at October, but we have not set a specific date. Now that we have the money, I do not believe we will wait that long. Right now, pigs seem to be cheap. If we do buy the pigs, whoever keeps our farm while we are in Honduras will have their hands full.

This evening we are still planning on meeting the couple that we are looking to for some help understanding liens and online auctions. Mama suggested this afternoon when I called to check up on her that she may not feel up to going, but we need to get this done. We need to keep going. At the very least, she can get a meal at Panera’s out of the conversation.

So far, I do not have a long Saturday list, but I am confident I can find things to fill the day…after I sleep in a little later than usual.

Looking a bit deeper, old fogies, sales report

Sometimes it feels as though there are days that are completely uneventful. I have had those. Yesterday may have been one. I got home from work, ate a small dinner and went out to feed. Between getting home from her day at school and going to church, Mama spent most of the time on the couch. She always fusses a bit at me because I want to leave the house so early when we are going to church. After thirty-six years of marriage you would think she knows that I like to arrive early. To arrive early, you must leave early, but that is not how she thinks. Anyway, we got to church almost a half hour early, but we were not the first ones there. Several people were already in the sanctuary and the folks from the nursing home were arriving. As I picked out a mission letter to read, the pastor put on his suit jacket and I said, “I got the memo.” At first, he did not understand but we had on suits so similar that we really looked like twins. Mama was just coming into the sanctuary at that time. She had stayed in the car to put on some makeup. I told her the same thing as she walked past the pastor and I. She understood right away. But insisted that the two brownish suits were not the same color of brownish – and that she did not ike the color of mine that well as she liked the color of the pastor’s suit.

I looked at the pastor and said, “Pastor I need to go home and change.” Everyone around us laughed. Mama scolded me right away. Which made everyone laugh again. I told Mama, “I can’t be up in front of the church in an ugly suit. I already feel self-conscious just standing here.” More laughter. More scolding from Mama. Those kinds of conversations do not happen when we get to church just in time. I will not relate other times of repartee throughout the day, at work and at home, but they are worth remembering because they fill the day meaning – if not purpose. My challenge to you. Look for those times in your day today. I am sure they will be there. Perhaps these “uneventful” days will look less sterile. Mama and I are a boring couple to hang out with, but we have interesting and important moments during each day.

Hopefully, we will become less boring as Mama becomes more mobile again, but for now we will tolerate and maybe even find purpose in our “old fogie” lifestyle. It does give Mama time to keep up with our children and grandchildren as she convalesces. Sadly, if I am not included directly in those conversations, I do not hear about the events relayed to Mama. I have to listen for tidbits of information and mine out the details sometime after the conversation has taken place.  But eventually most of the details are communicated. If not, I get the overview and extrapolate down from there.

We did get the check from selling out three Nigerian Dwarf goats. It was a pleasant surprise to see that the proceeds matched our expectations. That money will be used to buy more feed as we let the farm support itself. Friday, buyers are coming for our two Myotonic bucklings. We already have an established price on them and that money will go into the farm fund as well. As that stands, we have enough money to buy feed and hay for several months; perhaps through the end of the year. November-ish we are going to take two of our cattle herd to be processed. We already have several people interested in quarters and halves. We will have only one heifer left to feed after we make that sale. She should be cheap to keep – comparatively speaking.

In addition to meeting the buyer tomorrow, Mama and I are meeting with fellow investors that evening. At the office, I have an all-day presentation to give, so I will be more busy than usual. Fortunately, Mama is not going to the school tomorrow because of her physical therapy session. That will provide her a larger window of time to make the afternoon buyer appointment. My day will be packed. Hopefully productive. I told Mama we need to go above and beyond if we are going to make this business work, so this meeting is a step out into potential partnerships that will help us broaden our approach and hopefully broaden our opportunities to invest. We cannot do this on our own but need to be careful who we yolk up with. Pray for us old fogies as we seek wisdom in those partnerships.

Take time to enjoy – and hopefully remember – the fun moments you experience today.