Mama’s weekend, other happenings

Mama had a great time at her conference. She got some very practical ideas to work with in growing her business. She made some interesting contacts and caught up with some good friends. She came back fired up and ready to keep moving forward with her Color Street business. Her drive home Saturday night was a harrowing experience for her because she does not see well at night, but she made it home before 9 pm, a bundle of energy and excitement. Tired to the core and excited to the max. It took some time for her to wind down, but once she did, she was instantly exhausted and fell asleep as soon as her head touched her pillow. I am sure I have not heard the last of all her experiences, but from what I have heard, and the discernable outcomes evidenced today, I am very glad she attended the conference.

Mama is out today on a commissioned errand to stock our empty pantry. Actually, the pantry is not really empty, but we are out of many of the staples we like to keep on hand. She has a couple items to return, and a couple predetermined stops to make outside of the grocery line to purchase items we will need for the cold snap we are forecast to have mid-week. With the prediction of several inches of snow and temperatures in the single digits for later this week, Mama is making her shopping run today. Tomorrow she will get feed we need for the coming weeks and meet with Kim Cantrell for a catch-up visit. I do not plan on having her travel after the snow and ice descend upon our roadways. That travel threat will extend into next weekend since the highs for a couple days will not get above freezing. If our electric stays on, the cold should be a minimal inconvenience for us, effecting mainly our ability to get fresh water to our flock and herd.

The very cold temperatures are forecast to last only two days, but the ambient temperatures are predicted to stay at or below freezing overnight for a couple weeks. As long as the days get above freezing, our animals do well enough through the cold. When the temperatures do not get above freezing, it tends to be a little hard on our goats. I will be making some minor changes to their shelters to help them endure the next couple cold weeks but especially for this week’s single digit nights. As for the bees, I am planning on wrapping the hives with insulation to help them cope with the temperatures. I have not done that in the past, but I feel it would be a benefit now – if I can get the materials to wrap the hives.  At least we have today and tomorrow to prepare. Those two days will be in the seventies by the afternoons. I am thankful we have a warning about the coming cold. I cannot imagine what a shock it would be to deal with that change in temperature without some forewarning.

Saturday, I cut a frost-proof spigot into the wellhouse at the house. That project took about as long as I had predicted, but I like the outcome. I tried one more time to work on the well tank to keep the pump from running so often but got no better results than the last time I tried. I have one more idea in mind to see if I can remedy the issue and if that does not work, I will seek outside help. I also cleaned out the goat barn removing five tractor front loader bucket loads from the floor of the barn. I could have done at least two more full loads, but I stopped to avoid injuring my back. Also, the dust that kind of cleanup produces is something I have to limit my exposure to. It was good to get done what I did, but I am glad I limited myself as I did. Even still, I was hurting very badly in my back Sunday. That pain has largely passed now, for which I am thankful.

Today Trace will turn in the keys to the house he and his family rented in Decatur. That ends a month-long project of sorting through, storing or trashing all the contents of the house, cleaning the bathrooms, the refrigerator, the stove, the microwave, etc,, sweeping clean all the floors in the house as well as cleaning up the patio and yard of the house. From the pictures he took, he did a great job. I do not know how many trips he made to the storage units, but I do know we took three trailer loads of junk and trash to the dump and three truckloads of the same over the month it took for him to complete the cleanup project. With that behind him now, we will see what his forward plans will be. There is a lot to consider on his part. Please continue to pray for him.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow. I am looking froward to that.

Aaron update, Mama, Trace

After having spent his time in isolation, Aaron is possibly returning home today. He had to endure only five days in his room, but that was enough for him to miss the entirety of the class he traveled to take. He will need to reschedule that class in the future. As for his travel home, that all depends on the flight he is booked on. Whether or not the flight will actually take off this evening is the million-dollar question. With the amazing number of flights being cancelled recently, it is up in the air – no pun intended – as to whether or not his will actually take off as scheduled. He is now asymptomatic and should have no issue health wise. It is only a question of whether a flight will be available. He is anxious to get home and Maggie and the kids are anxious to have him home.

Mama got to her destination easily and had a lot of fun with the ladies that were in attendance for the conference last night. They played some type of game of chance with their two-sies as the chance items to be gained or lost. Mama really enjoyed the game and may use it for a live party. She is fairly idle through the day today with events happening largely in the evening, but there is plenty of company to enjoy until this evening. I am happy she elected to go. It is always an encouragement to be around like-minded people. It is a benefit for Mama to get their ideas, their contact strategies, and their marketing or recruiting ideas. How she applies that information once back on her own will be up to her, but she has been putting into practice many of the ideas that have been shared with her lately - with noticeable results.

Mama took with her some gifts for her upline and some crafts she has recently made to be given out as she determines through the weekend. She had some cute items in her basket. Most were small and a large portion were wood burned crafts. Encouraging sayings, funny expressions and clever puns adorned many of the plaques. She is getting quite creative with her crafting. Mostly, her creations are simple, homey, and tasteful but she has done some elaborate little placards as well. One specific gift was for a Canadian friend whose last name is Hello. Mama found a wooden cutout of that word and did a makeover of the cutout to be given specifically to her new friend. It is fun to see her achieving a balance between Color Street – where I am encouraging her to focus – and her craft enterprise. Between the two, she is filling her days productively even as the house bulges with the materials for making her craft items.

We are on our third vacuum cleaner is as many weeks with the arrival yesterday of the newest purchase. It is still not the one I was looking for, but Mama and Victoria seem well pleased with this model, so we will probably keep it for a while. One of our errant purchases has been returned and the second will be returned early next week so I have not lost money on the experiment. It is just a bit frustrating to me to repeat the purchasing and returning cycle. Fortunately, Mama and Victoria are not as bother by making the required returns. I think Mama sees it as earning the money back, but in most cases, it is a break-even proposition for me because the reimbursement is generally spent right away on something else. More often that not, something more expensive than the amount received in the refund.

As for Trace, he will have the rental house completely emptied by Saturday evening. It has been a huge task to sort through a houseful of items and decide what warranted keeping and what needed to be junked. He has made three trips to the local dump to empty a trailer load of discarded items in each trip. His car is being repaired after being towed to a shop late Wednesday night. That part of the upset in his life will be completed soon. A renewed focus on the future will take the forefront of his attention as he moves past what has been an enormous challenge in getting the rental house ready for surrender to the landlord in a clean, vacant state. If you could have seen the condition of the property before he stared, you would be as impressed as I am with the amount of work he has put into this chore.

For the weekend, I will be stabbing a frost-proof spigot into the wellhouse at the house. The yard hydrant we have been using at that location is leaking so badly at the faucet packing that I am loathe to use it and we will need access to water in a big way in the coming months as we plant and tend to our garden. That single chore will take several hours, and I will make repairs to the well tank in the process. Assuming I am successful, I will dig up and remove the hydrant in the Spring. Other than that, normal cores will occupy most of my time.

We love living on our little constantly-in-need-of-attention farm.

 

Altering plans, adapting, planning

Mama is now having to debate the travel she had planned for the remainder of this week. The conference she wants to attend is already in progress, but she was planning on attending tomorrow through Saturday. Those plans are now on hold because she has been unable to shake the lingering effects of this virus. Most noticeable is a persistent cough. I am not sure if she is infectious, but it is difficult to disguise the cough from those around her. Another lingering effect of her illness is the lack of energy it engenders. Last night we were getting ready to go to Lowe’s and Tractor Supply for a few needed items but when Mama had finished her shower and dressed for the outing, she was completely spent. We abandoned the excursion. Nothing we were planning to purchase was urgent and we have limited our outings due to the symptoms we have been dealing with, but at some point, we need to start reengaging society. Mama, however, may not be ready just yet.

These conferences are good for Mama. They are very encouraging to her personally. They keep her well informed, well connected within Color Street, and well-motivated to keep moving forward in developing her business. Recently Color Street changed their compensation structure so that stylists could more easily advance in rank and more easily maintain the rank earned from month to month. I remain convinced that this is one of the most thoughtful multi-level marketing companies I have ever dealt with – and Mama and I have experience with a few other such companies. My hope and prayer is that she will be able to go and enjoy the conference, but I will leave that decision entirely to her.

I am debating going to church this evening. I am relatively asymptomatic at this point although I am still dealing with a persistent cough as well. It is not a bad cough, but it is still there. When I begin talking, the cough becomes evident. If I sit quietly, as I do for the work I do, I can almost forget that the cough is still simmering just below the surface. I am afraid that even that extent of symptomatic display will be enough to trouble many at church, so I am leaning toward watching from home again this evening. Perhaps by Sunday both Mama and I will be well enough to present ourselves in person for the services. I am praying to be well enough to lead the singing by Sunday. That remains to be seen.

We are currently in that part of our normal Winter cycle where the nights are below freezing but the days warm up significantly. Some of our afternoons are warming into the seventies but typically the highs are in the forties. Not bad, but it is still cold enough to affect my respiratory system. Therefore, I have to take precautions to protect myself from what to us seems cold. That cool air has enabled the cough to persist and the tickle in my chest to continue. Soon enough we will be past this. Meanwhile, we dress warmly, we drink plenty of hot liquids, and we deal with whatever we must to adapt to ambient conditions while being truly thankful that we have it relatively easy as far as cold weather is concerned. Mama is certainly not ready to relocate to Honduras, for example. At least, not yet. While we are in the forties, Cori and her crew are in the high eighties. We will mirror those temperatures soon enough, but I have noticed that as Mama and I age we enjoy the warmth far more than the cold – at least to a point. Neither of us like to sweat and in Honduras, that is a given.

My isolation from work will end next Monday. I will be able to teach the two classes scheduled for that week from the remote office location. The two classes for this week have been taught by my peers in order to give me time to recover my voice. I am very thankful to my management and my peers for the recovery time, but I am ready to get back to doing my real job. There is a huge urgency on the part of my management to get as much information out of me as possible as I work through this last year or full-time employment. That is being accomplished in part by having me do the videos that have been recorded over the past few months. I sat for a few minutes yesterday and did two short videos, but I was not at all satisfied with one of the two. It will need to be redone at some point.

The videos yesterday were done via Zoom so I am not at all sure how they will turn out. We have a person who is very gifted in the production of such content, so I am looking froward to seeing the final product. I am planning on continuing with the videos Friday. There is one part of the course – a certain application of practices - that I feel needs to be presented in a very particular way and having me cover that content is the best way to accomplish that. I would do that tomorrow, but I will be watching the class presentation tomorrow to back up our newer instructor. Hopefully, we still have plenty of time to get all this information recorded and produced.

That is the plan. We will see how that works out.

Good outcomes take time, Victoria, Mama’s conference

A couple months ago, I got billing statements from our primary care doctor that were exorbitant. Mine reflected a balance of over $1500. Mama’s statement was a bit lower at $1350. I had Mama check with the doctor’s office, and we were sent to the company compiling the statements. A couple weeks later I got drastically reduced summaries for both me and Mama, but the combined total was still over $1500. Yesterday I called the company sending out the statements to see if what I had in my hands was the final amount I needed to pay our doctor. The last thing I want is to have the bill referred out for collection.

As I conversed with the accountant at that office, I found out that the issue – as is typically the case – had to do more with the billing practices of the doctor’s office than with the accounting agency compiling the bill.  As it turned out, the accountant was in the final stage of accruing the payments from insurance, tallying the markdowns that insurance required for certain procedures, and the final amounts were to be forthcoming. So, after a few minutes of manipulating the numbers, I will owe the doctor $25 for my portion of the bill that spans the entire calendar year 2021. Mama has no balance due for last year. That was great news even though it was a long time in coming.

I suppose the longer look ahead is a practice we have used in many areas here on our little farm. Calculating breeding times based on five to six months delay in the outcomes of those contacts. Setting up for Winter in the Fall and starting seeds growing in the sunroom mid-Winter that will grow into plants to be transplanted into the garden a couple months from now. Pruning the fruit trees in the Winter to promote higher yields of fruit many months later. Feeding the bees in the late Winter to ensure they have the energy and supplied foods to encourage laying eggs as early in the Spring as possible with the hope that that will give us a good honey crop in the early Summer. Months away from the anticipated outcomes we lay plans to enhance those outcomes. I like that way of living, of thinking ahead, of anticipating as much as possible how to enhance those outcomes we can manipulate albeit ever so slightly. God is in charge of the results, but He has given us wisdom to do our part to amplify those results within the course He has set in place:

Summer and winter and Springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon, and stars in their course above,

Join with all Nature in manifold witness,

To Thy great Faithfulness, Mercy and Love.

We just have a better view of that constancy here at our little farm than is available to most of our friends or family.

 

Victoria, though she is not much better, is going to work today. She was given several days off with pay due to her positive COVID test result, but that time has expired. She squeezed one more day out of the absence but is required to be at work today. Just pray she is able to quiet her cough and that she will have the strength to make it through the day. Over the past several days she has not been out of her bed very much so this will be a true test of her progress in the recovery process.

Mama is planning on attending a conference for Color Street Thursday through Saturday. It is fairly local but far enough afield for her to stay over at a hotel near the conference center. Her Color Street management team will be in attendance with her. She has been looking forward to this get together for months and feels she is strong enough, recovered enough to attend. She will be driving herself to the conference so that she does not have to stay over through Sunday afternoon. At this conference the new compensation plan will be explained so that that information can be shared downline to all stylists. I am very hopeful that this will be a game changer for some of Mama’s prospects that have been enamored by seemingly larger payouts by other multi-level marketers. I still am very impressed with Color Street. I am impressed with the leader of the company setting up all operations, and all suppliers within the United States.

The other online sales companies competing with Mama’s prospects cannot offer made-in-America products. That counts for something with me and Mama.

 

Aaron, ending poorly, some better

One of the reasons I am avoiding travel out of the country this year is the because of the fluke of testing for COVID. There have been so many multiples of stories of testing disparities that I am very hesitant to trust the arbitrary outcomes of testing to determine my status for travel. Not that it would be a hardship to be stuck in Honduras for an additional two weeks should that happen, but it would be extremely inconvenient. One story of testing disparity I know personally is of a gentleman in our church, who recently lost his wife to COVID. When I asked him at the funeral if he had been able to say goodbye to his wife he answered me through teary eyes. He told me that he had avoided contact with her prior to her death because he had tested positive for the virus while she had tested negative. (Thought she was clearly sick with something.) That seemed a proper decision, however, the very next day after his self-imposed isolation, his wife was taken to the hospital where she died alone. Because a more specific test for the virus had come back positive, he was not allowed to be with her as she quickly faded and died. That false negative kept him from getting to say goodbye to his wife of over sixty years. A regret he still aches from.

Just so is the case the with Aaron. Because the test he took for COVID prior to traveling to a class he had been assigned – a class that required his reporting to a site away from home – he made the trip to the testing location. He had received a negative result for that test. Once onsite, he was tested again, and the test came back positive for the virus. Because of that test he is now quarantined in a hotel room, under orders not to leave the room for any reason. It makes me very curious to test a hypothesis. If he were tested again, today, what is the chance the test would come back negative. After all, a negative test can be repeated because we are not sure of the truth of the results, but a positive test is treated as unquestionable. The isolation is imposed without recourse.

What would happen, I wonder, if he were allowed to repeat the test? Would a negative result release him from isolation? I think not. One positive test is enough to sentence a person to a set of penalties whether it can be trusted or not.  In Aaron’s case, he does have some of the symptoms of a viral infection, so it is a moot point. But it shows just how untrustworthy a negative test really is since Aaron could have been negative at the moment of the test and been exposed to the virus while he was being tested. Assuming the negative results was indeed accurate. Talk about magnifying insecurity. This whole COVID mentality is really messed up.

On the bright side, some elected officials are starting to smell a rat. Great Britain has ended all COVID restrictions. No isolation. No required vaccine updates. No vaccine passport required. A full stop. Everyone must go back to work like before the pandemonium. Just like that the “pandemic” is over. France and Ireland will follow suit with other European countries training along. Meanwhile, here in the United Stated, the definition of “fully vaccinated” has been changed to “up to date” to allow for the imposition of mandates for booster shots. There is speculation of a fourth shot in the works and serious talk of a yearly shot – just like so many do for the flu. Imagine that. Treating COVID like the flu. Who could have seen that coming?

The fear mongering and panic will continue for a time. How could it not? We have been told that humanity was on the verge of extinction and now the talking heads are saying, “Never mind. Our bad.” Those who are genuinely afraid are going to be very hesitant to surrender to the new narrative. Those who have profited from the panic will be reluctant to move along as they lose the power to control the masses through the fear they manufactured. Teachers unions will be the last holdouts. They have exposed themselves to the world and their loathing for our children has been laid bare. The outcomes from that attitude will be horrific and long-lasting. I pity those in the teaching profession who genuinely love their job as the backlash against the establishment who claims to “represent” them evidences itself in the sphere of public education.

So much for depressing thoughts. Here at the farm, Mama is feeling significantly better, and I am pretty much recovered. I do not know if I would have had the voice to teach classes tomorrow and Thursday, but I am being backfilled for those classes because of my quarantine period which extends through this week. Victoria is still a bit more symptomatic than either Mama or me. Why she is slower to recover is a question I cannot find an answer for, but she will soon be better as well. Mama and I are not sure if we will be back at church Wednesday night or if we will wait until Sunday just to be sure, but I am leaning to attending the service Wednesday evening.

I have missed enough church these past two weeks.  

Recovery, adapting

As Mama, Victoria, and I recover, we are all a bit lethargic. My symptoms have reduced to an occasional cough, but not the loud, bone shaking cough I have with a bronchial infection. Mama is still feeling flu-ish and seems to have a low-grade fever with the associated body aches, but she is more active and lucid than she was Wednesday. Victoria’s cough has subsided but not disappeared, and her voice is returning to normal. She still keeps to her bed for most of the day, but it is clear she is better. With all three of us in or current stated of recovery the biggest challenge is figuring out what to eat. Nothing particular “sounds good” to Mama and what does spark an interest for either Mama or Victoria is not the healthiest fare available, but at least there is a genuine interest in eating. That is a good sign. The problem is that when either of them starts to eat, they are quickly nauseated – regardless of the fare. So, in meal preparation, I just fix what is available to us from our supplies, try to keep it healthy and hope whatever is prepared will meet their needs. Soups and stir-fry mostly.

Things have been quite busy at work the past few days. I am not sure where the uptick in activity has come from, but my mornings have been engaged in a multitude of little queries that take time to answer as each involves solving a mini mystery. I have fun for the most part getting to the bottom of those searches, even if the outcome shows that I have overlooked or neglected to fulfill something I was assigned to do. When the records for over one thousand people are entered over the year, there are bound to be a few mistakes, but thankfully, those mistakes are easily found, easily corrected, and easily forgiven. In large part, all the issues of late have not been a part of my direct involvement in the entry or processing of records. Mostly we have been challenged by clients not fulfilling their obligation to us, but we always double check to ensure the fault is not on our part. That takes time., but it makes us all feel needed. Not being in proximity to one another adds to the time required for those searches, but it still gets done fairly quickly. Once resolved, we all go back to our mundane tasks and wait for the next crisis.

I am getting reports from different beekeeping sites that are a bit alarming. Most of the beekeepers are reporting that their bees are requiring far more feeding over this Winter that in years past. That is both good news and bad news. Good news in that the colonies are large and thriving. Bad news in that more feed has to be gotten into the hives in spite of the cold ambient temperatures. My concern is in cooling the hive as I tend to my bees, but I have to trust the bees to rewarm the hive after they are given the resources needed to survive the Winter and enter the Spring with enough pollen – supplied in pollen patties – to reproduce. Next month in our region, the queens will start to lay again, and the hives must have sufficient pollen to feed on as they attempt to raise brood. No pollen. No brood. No brood. No honey. Fortunately, I got my recent order of pollen patties yesterday and the afternoon temperature on Sunday is forecast to be 65°. That should give me the opportunity to insert the pollen patties into the sugar boards on the two hives without overly cooling the hives.

The temperature this morning was 16°, so all the water troughs were frozen solid. Because of that, I had to help Mama haul water to the coops and all the goat area to make sure they could have a drink with their breakfast. A very cold drink. I had limited the water in each container last night in anticipation of the hard freeze. Keeping the dishes almost empty overnight gives us more space to add fresh water in the morning. We will get into the forties by late afternoon, so some of the ice in the troughs will thaw, but what is left when I close the coops for the night will be poured out since the overnight temperatures will be in the twenties. This routine will pretty much continue through the middle of March. Not a hardship, just our way of adapting.

With Mama and Victoria still displaying obvious symptoms of our current illness, we will not be going to church Sunday. Pastor Horton and I were talking Tuesday and he told me there are at least ten families in the church that are sick with the same virus and knowing the level of fear in some people, Mama, Victoria, and I will limit our contact until we are much better.

Hopefully that will be very soon.

Staying ready, looking for solutions, hanging in there

It’s Winter again here – at least for a few mornings. The changes in temperature are so dramatic at times that it is a constant challenge to keep up with the preparations needed when we get these overnight freezes. So, for the most part, I leave the freeze protections in place and powered up and just let the faucets and well houses get really warm during the days when those protections are not required. That is the only way I can keep up. I do have to keep a close watch on the new hydrant at the barn because it is being used by the neighbors as they fill water containers for the three heifers they are keeping on that part of our property. They are not overly careful about disconnecting the hose from the hydrant when it is not in use. Leaving the hose connected keeps the hydrant from draining properly so I have to monitor that pretty closely. Otherwise, Mama and I pretty much stay the course through the warm days just to ensure we are prepared for the freezing nights. That is especially true right now when I do not have an abundance of extra energy or focus.

Mama was feeling good enough to help with the feeding today. That is a significant improvement over yesterday. But for the most part, the three of us are lazing around coasting through the day in low-energy mode. Mama has taken up residence on the sectional which provides three ample areas to lounge in while Victoria is confining herself to her bed. She has enough of a fever that the living room furniture sparks shivering when she tries to lay there. I am “working” at my desk in the bedroom. Yesterday I spent the day working from the kitchen table while Mama spent the majority of the day in our bed. Trace is still working even though he has felt a little off for the past couple of days. Though he has made some poor decisions in the past, he has a lot of character.

Mama and I are still getting things placed in the living room. I measured and tried to figure out placement of the sectional in a variety of positions in the living room, but finally came to the conclusion that how we have it sitting is the best use of the space. Mama is against blocking the windows to the left of the fireplace and I am in agreement with that. The one thing that bothers me is a small thing, but we have a corner that looks unplanned, vacant, kind of accidental. I would like to find a way to make that small area look purposeful, but I have not stumbled across anything that strikes my interest so far. I want to avoid creating a new hidey hole for the mice we are battling in the house, so whatever I find will need to be off the floor. That creates a challenging limitation to solutions that seem most obvious. Mama and I will come up with something eventually. We like a challenge.

With the placement of the rolltop desk in the living room, I was forced to abandon the extra monitor I had hooked up to the Mac on that desk. I was loathe to put it into service on the desk I use primarily for work – the antique desk I inherited from my father – but after failing to find a place to store the monitor, I started looking at ways to use in in my work-desk setting. It took several iterations to find the right solution, but I now have two monitors for work – which makes far more practical sense in putting the extra screen to use. When I finally got the monitor placed and in service, Mama came into the bedroom to ask me a question and did not even notice the monitor on the desktop. That was exactly what I was hoping for, something inconspicuous but functional. Additionally, I discovered today that the new glasses I have refused to wear because the middle focal section of the trifocals was not useful for a single monitor, works very well for the dual monitors. In fact, it is perfect to see the extra screen clearly. No moving in closer to focus. That seemed like a double bonus for me.

I am not sure if Mama did the swab of her nose properly when we used the home test for COVD. Mama is not much on discomfort, especially causing herself discomfort, so she did not probe too deeply with the swab. Anyway, the test came back negative. Victoria had had the symptoms for several days when she tested herself while Mama has only been symptomatic for a day. Maybe that makes a difference. At any rate, we can tell people that Mama was negative. Though the symptoms and Victoria’s positive may indicate otherwise, we have only the test results to go by. Regardless, I am still quarantined for the rest of the month “out of an abundance of caution.” That’s as it should be. It would not be wise for me to be around anyone with the cough I still have in this current health over-conscience culture.