The weekend, dinner, transfer, wearing out, new arrival

Friday, I taught a 4-hour class, so I was home by 1:30 pm to take care of the animals more completely than I had been able earlier that morning. I had made sure the prior evening there was adequate water and food, the nesting boxes were open and the coop doors to the yard were open. That allowed all the chickens to exit the coop in the morning and get to the water – our major concern in the mornings. I will follow the same practice tomorrow morning since I have an 8-hour class to instruct. The chickens will spend the day in the coop yard, but they do not mind that too much.

Saturday morning, I completed the repair on the well house door to seal the new threshold I had installed. That will allow us to upgrade the well house to make it our honey house when we get to that point. It looks much better for that little repair. I also put on a pot of beans and two pork roasts for the dinner we were having after the morning service at church Sunday morning. The roasts were smoked to completion. When I pulled them off the smoker, I let them cool and then sliced them for easier serving at our dinner. The dogs got all the bones, the fat, and the extra juice from the roasts. They were very excited about that part.

I worked the hives as well Saturday afternoon. The hives that are making extra honey have not capped off much more of that store, but they are eating through the syrup I have been feeding them. The two hives that have syrup feeders on them go through a gallon of that syrup every week. I could probably feed them more, but I do not take the time through the week to check the feeders. I have found that by the time I refill the feeders on Saturday, any syrup that is left over from the week (which is very little) has become rancid. The bees seem very excited to start off with fresh supplies.

Family Day at church went very well. Good services, great preaching on the family and a wonderful spirit throughout. Dinner was impressive with an abundance of meats, entrees, salads and desserts. The roast I made was largely gone by the time everyone was done eating. I gave what was left to the Burns because it was more than enough for a good meal for them, and I do not need to be eating any pork. I have plenty of beans left. There were at least four other pots of beans and it looked like more of mine had been eaten than any of the others, but I made a lot. I will package some of those up for Ed and Plumley. They will like that. I sat with Ed and Plumley through the dinner. That provided some interesting conversation. With both of them in assisted living, they are fairly cloistered and spoon-fed information, so their view of the present world is stilted the direction of our mass media – much of which I know to be falsely presented. We had to agree to disagree on several current subjects.  

Mama is getting worn out in trying to give care to Grandpa and Norman. There is no real kitchen to cook in, only a single burner on the pretend stove. There is virtually no refrigerator, only the tiny one snuggled into the cabinetry of the camper. So, she is not able to fix any decent meals for the two sick men she is caring for. So, Mama has to find moderately healthy items to eat while purchasing food items for herself and her patients, from very limited venues nearby. Mama got Grandpa to take a shower, but Norman has steadfastly refused to do so. Both are on the road to recovery, getting stronger and more active daily.

We are expecting Grandma to make a full recovery as well, but for now she has been transferred to a larger hospital about 45 minutes away from where Mama is caring for the other two patients. That will add to her travel time as she provides support to Grandma. Bottom line, Mama is getting worn out. She will continue to do what she can, but she is looking forward to getting everyone up and going on their own.

At the farm, I was a little shocked as I went out to feed yesterday evening between services. Jewels had delivered a little boy that afternoon. He was the only kid she delivered and is nearly as large at birth as our little man Splash who is over a month old. He is tall but short of frame. He is going to be a bruiser. Both Mama and I were very surprised at his arrival. We were expecting her to be the last to deliver based on her size through the end of her pregnancy. We are both pleased that she had only one kid in her first kidding.

Raising only one should be no problem for her. 

Illnesses, scheduling

With the large uptick in COVID illnesses lately, it was not a huge surprise that Grandma and Grandpa have come down with COVID. We were not sure until Grandpa worked up the energy to go and get tested. He tested positive. Norman, who is in the small camper with Grandma and Grandpa is also infected and according to Grandpa, is very sick. Prior to them getting sick, Grandma reported that nearly everyone in the RV park in which they are staying has succumbed to COVID. I am not sure how many persons that actually refers to, but it is significant that it is so universal in their little community. We did not hear any reports of hospitalizations or deaths as a result of the sickness. Regardless of the panic we are hearing all about us, this strain of the virus is far less fatal that the original strain released on the world by the Chinese. Since Grandpa and Grandma each have several underlying medical conditions, there is reason for concern. Still, there is no reason for panic. The illness can be treated, and we will do so as best we can – all the while avoiding the hospital for the time being.

Yesterday Shaelyn, a niece to Grandma and Grandpa who lives about an hour away, spent the day with our sick in-laws. She was able to provide some needed comfort and conduct some urgent cleaning and sanitizing of the camper. She got Grandma to drink some electrolyte solution. Grandma was able to keep the drink down. Shaelyn was not successful in getting Grandpa or Norman to keep the liquid down. Hydration is the prime goal of our initial care. When Mama and I were sick recently, we did not struggle with nausea on the level that it seems to be affecting them, but it seems to be the case for the three of them. In any event, Shaeyn will go back today and do some follow up in her caregiving. I have not had an update this morning of the ongoing condition of our ill folk, but I am not expecting anything less than an improvement in their condition over time, followed by a full recovery. We will know more when Mama is on the scene. Please continue to pray for a quick recovery and a special strength for Mama.

Mama will be traveling out very early tomorrow morning to help in their recovery. I am a little concerned for her making the trip. I am not at all worried about COVID. I am worried about where she will sleep. With her arrival, there will be four persons in that small camper, three of whom are largely confined to the limited sleeping stations available. Grandpa and Norman are somewhat mobile but I am not at all sure if there is enough bedding for Mama to have clean linens when she needs to share one of those sleeping areas. Grandma is not mobile at all according to Grandpa. I am sure it will all work out, but I am concerned for Mama none-the-less. After I drop Mama off at the airport – somewhere around 5 am – I will have to get back to the HQ house to get set up to present a class that morning. It will be a long day for both me and Mama. Hers will be significantly more difficult than mine.

So today, in addition to my work requirements, we will be packing and planning. Planning for the ongoing list of cores that must be done regardless of which one of us is absent from the farm. Fortunately, I have only two classes next week, so I will be working from home the other three weekdays. That helps get the majority of the important daily cores done in an appropriate manner. Mama will be back on Monday the 5^th. At least that is the plan. We will judge that return date based on the expected improvement of our recovering patients.

As stated, I will be teaching again tomorrow. It is a half-day class, so I should be back to the farm between 1 and 2 pm. At that time, I will need to ensure waterers for the chickens are full and feeders have been checked. I will feed our very hungry goats at that time. A little late for the morning feeding. A little early for the evening feeding. They will not be very pleased, but they will survive. All the animals will have to get by on the single feeding tomorrow. That will also be the case on the days I teach while Mama is absent from the farm.  

Sunday, we have a family day at church with dinner following the service. So, Saturday I will be preparing for that as well as getting all the other little things done as I am able – cleaning coops, cleaning barns, servicing the hives, catching upon the weed eating and trimming, etc.

Busy times ahead.

Life’s surprises, divine appointments

Since I taught a class yesterday and will repeat that process on both Wednesday and Friday, I elected to not go to the office this morning, my scheduled day to work from the office. It was a wise decision. Late yesterday evening management decided to close the office to all non-essential personnel. I would have gotten up early to get to the office on time only to be sent home. The current surge in people testing positive for COVID was the impetus for closing the office. I laud their safety focus, especially since we have proven our ability to work from home with almost equal efficiency, but I am tired of our focus on eliminating exposure versus implementing effective treatments for the illness. It is here to stay, and we need proven methods of dealing with it other than hiding from each other. The office shutdown put a damper on the invitation I was going to send out this morning for the open house Mama was putting on for Color Street. I would now be inappropriate to extend such an invitation to my fellow employees. But, as it turns out, that may be a moot point.

Mama was talking to Grandpa this morning and was not receiving any good news. All three of our temporary Floridians are sick. We have to assume they are sick with COVID, but Grandpa is heading to the doctor this morning to see if our suspicions are correct. He is the only mobile member of the group. Grandma cannot get out of bed and is running a pretty high fever. Grandpa told Mama that he does not have the strength to mover her without her help and at the moment, she is not able to offer any help. Nor is Norman able to offer any help with Grandpa’s incapacity. Norman has only stirred from the couch for brief periods of time. According to Grandpa’s update, Norman is somewhat better today than he was yesterday and is able to drink a little water now and again (which is a significant improvement), but he is still quite sick. All of them are relegated to the tiny space the RV offers, so recovery is going to be complicated by the confines of that limited space and its lack of good ventilation. Sometime soon, doors will have to be opened to allow an influx of fresh, less contaminated air for them to breathe.

Mama, in her need to offer some nurturing to her ailing parents, will soon join them in that crowded space. We are not sure at this moment when, or even if, she will go, but her heart is set on helping them out with whatever care she can offer. Victoria has offered to pay for the ticket to get Mama to Florida, but we are waiting on a follow up report from Grandpa to make sure sending Mama into that situation is the correct thing to do. We have a very limited time to pray about it, but God is not constrained by our timeframe, so we are actively seeking His guidance for us and how we can best involve ourselves in the situation and His healing for them. We should know this morning what plans to make.

On a brighter note, while we were eating at the restaurant Sunday a couple sat in the table next to us and Mama started talking with the young mother about her baby. In the course of the conversation, Mama discovered that they were transplants from Canada. Since Mama has been seeking a way to enter the Canadian market with Color Street, she opened the conversation about Color Street with the young lady. The young lady was very receptive to the idea of getting Mama in contact with multiples of persons in Canada to begin organizing a marketing leg in that country. I have been praying for divine appointments and this was a conspicuous answer to one of those prayers. Mama has since followed up and the contacts are now in progress. It will be fun to see how all that works out.

Also, speaking of divine appointments, I have been praying that we would cross paths with the persons leasing the property next to us and as it happened, Mama got to talk at length to a young man who was working the wells on that property. Mama discovered in their lengthy conversation that he has had knee work done by the doctor Mama is considering for that operation and that he knows the person leasing the property. According to that contact, the well worker Mama talked to feels certain that his buddy would not mind at all if we fished in the lake on that property. The main interest of the lease is to hunt hogs. That should be an easily achieved outcome on the 600 acres. So, once I have confirmed his willingness to allow us to fish, I will resume those activities. God is Good!

Our pastor is going to be thrilled!

Moving parts

During my lunch break in the class I was teaching yesterday I called Mama to check in on her. It is a standard contact we make daily. She was with one of her stylists and her mentor as the two of them were getting some valuable one-on-one instruction. We chatted for a couple minutes as Mama tried to think of something she needed to tell me. She remembered just as we were saying goodbye. She had promised our evening to Red and Joanna Shaw. Red, a former coworker and long time Santa Clause, had been trying to get together with us for dinner for a few weeks and we had not been able to work out the timing. So, as Mama and Joanna talked, they settled on that evening. Mama figured that it was easier to just go ahead and make the dinner date for that day so we would be sure to make it. So, we did. We met at Yesterday’s in Bridgeport and had a delightful time together.

Red and I both had liver for dinner and Joanna threatened to not kiss him for several days because she hated the smell of liver. Whether she followed through on that or not I do not know, but Mama and I got a good laugh out of it. The liver was very good. I will not hesitate to have it again should Mama and I go back to the restaurant. Red and I kept commenting to each other through the meal just how good it was, and Joanna kept telling us to change the subject. We also talked through a range of topics, mostly social and religious. Red, who did a tour of duty in Vietnam years ago was deeply affected by the fiasco in Afghanistan. The comparisons being drawn by the media between the two hasty, disastrous retreats was enough to stir a lot of long buried memories in Red. He mentioned that the VA is seeing a noticeable resurgence in requests for counseling and treatment because of the renewing of those memories in older veterans. A sad, unnoticed consequence of deadly debacle now in progress.  Not only in the country of Afghanistan, but in our government’s response to the danger many American lives are now exposed to. So, Mama and I had a busy, although pleasant evening.

Meanwhile, our realtor has really gotten in gear and has negotiated the sale of our second property in Lawton. We signed papers on Wednesday and got them back to him. The buyer signed the contract Thursday and we have now received that contract from him as well. Glenn got the contact to the title company yesterday so we should be able to close on the sale by the end of next week. That will be a financial and emotional load off our plate. We will not make any profit off the sale. It is a more-or-less a transfer of title, but the proceeds will cover the mortgage on the house and allow us to dump the property at cost. Tax wise it is a very good solution for us. We lose nothing but we make nothing. Mama and I could have elected to renovate the property, but we did not want to get caught in another year-long remodeling project to make the slim profit we would have realized in the sale of the property when that work was completed. Hopefully, the buyer has the time and money to remodel, market and sell the house. Hopefully, the market is still up for that sale. We elected to take or losses and move on.

At the same time, Mama is dealing with a huge uptick in her business. She has been invited to a fair that is going on for the next ten days. A stylist several levels above her in Color Street is a regular attendee of the fair but she is not able to find other stylists to help her at the fair this year. This is the type of direct contact that will allow Mama to sell from her physical inventory and recoup some of the money that is tied up in that inventory. It will cost Mama a small fee as she helps pay for the booth she will be helping in, but the hope is that the volume of sales will more than compensate for that cost. Fortunately, the fair takes place only in the evening during the week; however, tomorrow is an all-day affair. Mama will be at the booth for about six hours of the day tomorrow so we will get to see how well this works out for her and her upline. Obviously, it is a good opportunity because her upline sets up at this fair every year.

Along with all that, a friend of ours is working on designs for the mini-houses Mama and I have been looking at building and setting up as rental properties. That is the foundation of getting into that market. Having a set design allows us to calculate the cost of labor and materials as well as the timeframe for completion of each unit. Those are the numbers I will need to present to the bank for financing the project.

We have a lot going on right now and it is fun to see small glimpses of progress.

Our turn, house news, sales, training

The forecast for yesterday predicted nothing out of the ordinary, hot and dry with a slight chance of rain. So, when it started to rain, we were thrilled. I was at the office as a downpour began so I called Mama to see if it was raining at the farm. For the past few storms that have passed through our area we had been largely skipped over. While friends around us got one to three inches, we had gotten only a quarter inch of rain. Yesterday was an exception. We got well over six inches of rain. Most of that fell in just over two hours with the remainder accumulating throughout the day. Lots of flooding accompanied the storm, particularly on our road. When I got home yesterday, I had to clear a huge among of debris from our little county road in order to have all of the road passable. Mama had cancelled her appointment in Denton because of the flooding and the continuous downpour.

We were expecting more rain overnight but not a large amount. So far, the gauge has registered a half inch of rain. We are anticipating more than an inch will be added to that as the day goes on. We are certainly thankful for the rain and happy it was our turn to get some of the unusually abundant precipitation we have been blessed with lately. The showers this morning are steady and gently. The thunderheads seem to have passed to the East so perhaps the strength of the storm is diminishing. The lightning and thunder that woke us has been muted by virtue of the storms distance from us; however, the dogs have happily taken up residence in the garage until the atmosphere calms down.

On the real estate front, we got a call from our realtor last night. He found a cash buyer for the house in Lawton that we want to sell and was asking our permission to proceed with the offer. I gave that permission.  While the other realtor has dragged out the process for almost three months, Glenn feels we could have the sale concluded by the end of the month with far less out of pocket than the other process required. I feel a little guilty at dropping the other realtor, but he has not been very communicative about the work he is supposedly doing to lure a buyer to the table, and we are tired of waiting. I have been contacting him for updates weekly and hear nothing outside of his very brief responses to those requests. Since there has been no contract signed, we are under no obligation to continue waiting on that realtor. Hopefully, this will be a done deal very soon. That will allow me and Mama to determine where we are financially and what our path forward will be in real estate investing. Both of us are fairly certain that we will not be investing any further in the Lawton area, but that is still a matter of prayer.

This month is shaping up to be Mama’s biggest month ever in Color Street. I think she is managing three parties right now and has had two requests to sign up as stylists from to participants in those parties. She is still looking for an inroad into Canada, but that has proven a more challenging endeavor than we had anticipated. Since Canada is still in a sort of lockdown and internet sales contacts are limited by law, you have to be invited by the participant you are contacting to start those conversations. Mama is hesitant to insert herself into the conversation and it is wise of her to wait for the right opportunity. Her turn will come at just the right time. We are certain of that, but for now we have to tread lightly and keep praying.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow. As an unusual treat I got to hear the entire class presented by a fellow employee yesterday. I share an office space with Ana, who is the monitor of our online classes. I picked up a few pointers and stories during his presentation and I got to see the class from that presenter’s perspective. That gave me some of the insights I have needed to understand how the class is talked about by those who are seeking to alter the format and presentation of the class as it is now being done. That will be helpful understanding the discussions I get to participate in in the coming months. As I tell my classes, forewarned is forearmed. Now I can begin to see the struggle that is brewing with our Instructor Led Training.

This should be fun.

Leg of lamb, Honduras news, loose teeth, Mama

Saturday afternoon I roasted/smoked a leg of lamb on the grill. Since I knew it would be difficult to tell if the meat was cooked properly because of the large bone in the roast, I used a temperature probe to tell me when the roast had gotten to 165° F – the suggested temperature at which I should have gotten the meat to the medium well stage. It worked out perfectly. There were a couple strips of meat I cut off the bone that were more of a medium rare, but that was fine with me. The meat we got from the roast is so tender we can cut it with a fork and the flavor is delicious. Mama is hesitant to eat the meat because it has a dark color to it, not unlike roast beef, but she has an aversion to “dark” meat for some unexplainable reason and will painstakingly avoid all dark meat on a chicken. I, on the other hand, love dark meat (especially chicken) so I have enjoyed the roast lamb. I have encouraged her to give the meat a try since it is on the beneficials listing for her blood type. It is on my avoids, so I will be judicious in eating it, but I do not want to see it go to waste.

I got the chance to talk to Cori last night and catch up on a few prayer requests. Cori is dealing with some significant flareups of pain in her joints – especially her knees, but her shoulders, wrists and chest as well. Most of the pains are related to heat and stress. Some are related to diet. Being in Honduras limits the resources for mitigating the pain as some remedies we have here are not available there, but she has found enough relief to make it through each day. Praise the Lord!

Nate is spending a lot of time to prepare himself to preach and teach. It is not necessarily a matter of the material development to deliver teaching lessons or sermons, it is more a concern with the delivery of those speaking engagements. All are of necessity presented in Spanish, and that language is not yet as fluid for him as he would like.  He is getting there, but still needs time to practice the delivery to make that delivery smooth and comfortable. All that requires time. The remarkable part is that all the time spent now in practice will produce results that will last a lifetime, so it is time well invested.

As we talked, I found out that Savanna is losing the first of her baby teeth. She and Bridgette seem to be going through the losses at the same time and both our granddaughters have taken it upon themselves to do their own extractions of any and all loose teeth. Savanna told Mama/Grammy that with her last tooth, it hurt to pull the loose tooth but she “yanked the snot out of it” and it came right out. Bridgette, in the other hand, wiggled and twisted her loose tooth until it came loose. Either way works.

I spent the evening yesterday cleaning the wellhouse. Mama, who checked on me several times, was a little surprised by the detail I went to in getting the totes cleaned off and rearranged as well as getting the shelves cleaned and the floor swept. It was long overdue, but the amount of mouse droppings was far less than I had expected, but it was good to get everything at least brushed off and somewhat cleaned. I only got half of the wellhouse cleaned because of the time it took to get one wall done. The other half should be done this evening if time permits. In order to get the most out of the cleaning, I will need to replace the threshold of the entry door. That repair will take some time, but I am planning on having it done this week so that there will be less air blowing under that door into the wellhouse. That way our wellhouse will be sealed up against the winter and somewhat better sealed against the dirt and dust that has been blowing in under the door.

The creep feeder I built for the goats has had less that stellar success. The little ones, which are the only goats that can access the restricted area are very hesitant to go into the space. They are content with the feed they can get as they compete with the older, larger goats during the morning and evening feedings. Our little male, who is half the size of his sisters, is getting no milk from his mother. That was the urgent reason for setting up the creep feeder, but he is not accessing the feed placed in the smaller troughs in the creep feeder. Hopefully, he will figure it out, but for now he is getting enough feed to stay fat and healthy. Albeit smaller.

Mama had been very busy with her Color Street business. She is excited. It is exciting from my viewpoint to see her business grow and prosper. We have made it a matter of much prayer and it is wonderful to see those prayers being answered.

Lost bees, lost chickens, lost time

Mama and I spent Saturday morning traveling to Muenster to pick up meat from the meat market. We had one of our older goats processed and ended up with thirty-two pounds of ground meat from the one-hundred-pound animal. Mama and I were a little disappointed to get so little meat, but that was a better outcome than selling the goat for a few dollars.  Mama was going to make the trip on her own but at the last minute I decided to do the driving so she would be spared the discomfort she suffers when she does drive for more than a short stretch. Since we were in Muenster, we stopped to get feed. We could have waited a few more days but again, Mama would have had to make the return trip to get feed anyway. We took the Sequoia because of the possibility of rain. That turned out to be a good idea because we drove through rain for the majority of the trip to and from Muenster. Meanwhile at the farm, we did not get enough rain to settle the dust. At the feed store I had to step out of the vehicle into an ankle deep stream of water from the runoff careening down the hill and into a storm drain in front of the feed store. We were back home before noon.

Almost as soon as we got home, I prepared some sugar water for the bees and got suited up to refill the feeders. In the first hive, all was well. The bees were making a little progress on the additional brood box I had put on only a couple weeks ago but they had completely emptied the syrup feeder – a whole gallon. On the next hive I was stunned to find no bees at all – not one in the hive. When I looked through the frames of the hive, I found all the cells that should have contained larvae or honey empty. Seven of the ten frames were drawn out with comb, but all the cells on all those frames were clean and empty. I am not at all sure what happened but the best guess I can make is that the bees absconded because of the loss of their queen. Perhaps I could have noticed the change in activity last week when I was in the hive, but I did not. What bees remained after the loss of the queen probably moved into the remaining three hives to live out their short lives. That’s my guess. When I find out a better explanation, I will let you know.

Among some other losses we are experiencing at the farm, Mama and I have had to dispose of several dead chickens recently. Almost all of the deaths have happened in the flock we keep in the little coop. We are not sure what the issue is, but it is concerning. The problem being that nothing obvious is presenting in the dead birds, so we are assuming that the issue is heat related. The larger flock in the coop building does not seem to be affected, only the small coop. So far, we have had four of our young birds die and we have lost an additional four by some means – probably coyotes – by which they simply fail to make it back to the coop after spending the day our foraging. Each year we suffer some losses, but this year has us wondering if something significant is happening in our coops. Determining what that crisis is and dealing effectively with it is the challenge. Mama is going to do some research this week to see if we can stumble onto the solution. There is generally a solution to be found, we just have to seek it out.

Lost time or lost opportunities are one of the losses we face that cannot be recovered. We can try to make up for lost time or recapture lost opportunities, but the outcomes are all too often less than what was missed initially. Lately, I feel like I am losing time. The days march relentlessly onward, consumed hour upon hour by work and life activities and the evenings simply slip away without notice. Simply put, I do not lead a disciplined, orderly life. For that reason alone, I am losing valuable time through each day and certainly through every evening. What is stealing my time? Electronics. Mostly my phone – watching a movie, catching up on the news, cleaning up the latest emails. It may take me three evenings to finish a movie as I watch it is sort segments, but reviewing the news and commentaries consumes an hour or more every evening.

To combat such interferences a list or schedule is mandated. So, over the next several evenings I will make such a list of the things I should be doing, writing, practicing the variety of instruments I am learning, doing some little item to clean up or organize an area in the house or shop, spending time in prayer, walking or otherwise exercising. There are any number of things I can be doing versus the mind dulling things I have been doing simply because those things require no effort on my part. Since I have tackled and abandoned this sort of life change several times, it is time to set things in order to maintain an evening schedule that can produce something with my time rather than letting it go to waste.

Such a schedule takes a good deal of emotional energy and I seem to have that in short supply lately. But I was told many years ago that nothing breeds success like success, so I will struggle through the initial stages of amending my life to a schedule until I begin to see some little successes and hopefully, those will incite the energy to continue to further successes.

Time will tell.