Trust, travel

Life conspired against me yesterday, as is often the case when we make our plans, and I was not able to service my beehives. I will take the time on my lunch break today to treat the hives as required, but they will be on their own for the next week. That is not typically an issue, but with bees, timing is of the greatest importance. As a beekeeper, I have to meet their timing to ensure the bees have all they need to expand the hive and produce the excess honey we are wanting to harvest. At this time, I do not think a week’s delay will be a bad thing, but I will know for certain when I get back. Although I have been disappointed at times with the progress of the hives – mostly from my lack of expertise – I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the bees. The more I learn about them, the more amazed I am at God’s creative insight when He made all things and pronounced it “very good”.

Mama is beginning to harvest spinach and kale from our raised bed. Onions are close to being ready for harvest and all the vegetables are growing as expected. It is a little frightening to leave the garden for a week when things look so good, but there may be enough rainfall in our absence to water the garden so that Tres will not be overtasked with that chore.  Over the past couple days Mama has made Strawberry Freezer Jam with strawberries purchased from Sam’s. Meanwhile, the strawberry plants I placed in one of the circles in our back patio are starting to produce fruit. Fortunately, all the fruit trees and bushes are several weeks away from having any ripened fruit, so our week away will not short circuit gathering that produce. It is really just a matter of Tres keeping things healthy until we get back. As far as I can tell, we have him set up to do so on a schedule he can fulfill and he is a very conscientious person.

Mama’s other big concern is the incubator and the possibility that one or more of the eggs in that incubator might hatch in during our travels. If that does happen, Mama does not want to burden Tres with caring for hatchlings in addition to all the other chores he will be responsible for. So, she has been seeking someone who could take the incubator home with them to babysit our eggs. Yesterday the Burns’ agreed to do so. Aliza is thrilled at the possibility of watching an egg hatch, so we know it will be closely monitored through the next week. I have been apathetic about the potential hatchlings, but now I am hoping one or two of the eggs do hatch while we are traveling just so Aliza’s expectations can be realized.

So, as of tomorrow morning, all our farm responsibilities will be assumed by others in whom our trust is placed. It will be nice on our part to have a week off, but we love our life here and we love all the busy-ness of the farm, so it is with some little apprehension that we turn those responsibilities over to others. Mama, for her part, has multiple little idiosyncrasies in her routines that are known only to herself. I can get close to emulating those routines, but never match them and when she tries to expound those idiosyncrasies to me it does little good. Her reasoning behind those particular actions is unique to her alone. When Mama tries to explain her normal routine to someone stepping into her role in caring for our farm animals, I often see the bewilderment in their faces as she shares that information with them. All will work out well in our absence, but the animals may be a little confused at how those necessary chores are carried out as it will vary from the routine Mama has adapted them to under her care. The goats and chickens may be confused but they will be adequately cared for…we trust.

As the packing continues and the pile of items required to be packed into the Sequoia grows, I am glad we drive the vehicle we do. Many have asked us recently about the cost of fueling such a large vehicle, but the tradeoff in owning and operating a smaller vehicle is not reasonable for Mama and me. We too often need the extra capacity of the larger vehicle and for that we willingly pay the upcharge in operating expenses. Our lives revolve less around the idea of supplying just our needs, but rather in what we can do to serve others. The larger vehicle allows us to be of greater service to others while still meeting our needs. Plus, our farm life many times prospers because we can do more with the vehicles we have than would be possible if we drove anything much smaller. So far, we are able to maintain what we have even with the high fuel costs. If that should change, we would adapt our lives accordingly. But for now, we enjoy the extra benefits of driving the Sequoia.

Please pray that the Lord will bless us as we travel especially with safety on the road, and that our vehicle will continue to run well through the miles we have to cover in this trip. Pray for Nate and Cori and the kids as well as they make the most of this short stay to the US. They have already covered a thousand miles or more in meeting their obligations to BIMI (the Mission’s Board that coordinates their support in Honduras) while they are here. There is still much they need to accomplish in these few days in addition to a couple days of downtime with us.

God is good and we hope to make the most of these next few days as well.

Improvement, packing, good noise, getting set up

Using the neti pot through the day yesterday made a huge difference in my symptoms. I had clear sinuses through the night and was able to sleep very well. My cough has abated as well. Mama is happy about that. And I still have three more days to recover before we meet our Honduran crew. All is as well as can be expected. I am not fully recovered but am greatly improved. Mama’s prescription going forward is that I use the neti pot to purge my sinuses each time I clean the coop in the future. (That is what she attributes my current sinus infection to.) That is a capital idea!

We are in the process of packing for the trip. Getting together those items that we must not forget and making lists to help us remember the typical travel items is the order of the day. Being in the US facilitates getting to Cori and Nate items that are difficult and expensive to send to them in Honduras. We have accumulated a couple boxes of those items as our address is often used as the stateside postal destination for online orders. Two boxes are less than I expected the amount to be. The list is so that we remember to pack the things we will need for days at the beach, fishing in the surf, and meeting some of the needs that arise from being away from home. Towels, toiletries, tools and tackle boxes that are accessible at home but must be packed along for use away from home are all being added to the lengthening list. It is rare that the vehicle we drive on any trip is not packed completely full by the time we leave the farm. That tradition will probably hold true for this trip as well.

Of the beach items we are taking, the canopy Mama and I bought for her business and three fishing poles to do some surf fishing are the most important to Cori and the kids, respectively. As far as I have been told, the weather will be nice. Some overcast days but mostly sunny with soft breezes. I have no idea about the prospects of catching any fish, but it is always fun to try. I very much miss the fishing I was able to do in the quarry lakes, so maybe a few wet lines in the Gulf will satisfy the itch for a while. Trying not to get too sunburned is my chief goal. Thus, the canopy is important to me as well.

The ambient temperature here is pleasant enough that Mama and I have the windows opened as long as possible each day. The high temperature yesterday was 67°. Today is forecast to reach the mid-seventies, but the humidity is almost ninety percent. So, as I work from my desk with the windows open, I can hear the chickens announcing the arrival of each newly laid egg and fussing with each other to make way for the next hen to occupy the nesting box. It can be quite a commotion at times, but it makes for some very pleasant background noises. When the younger goats see any movement outside the house, they try through their incessant bleating to convince us how hungry they are. Bird songs and cattle lowing make up the other recurring sounds in the ambient noise. Not many people get this type of natural auditory input through their days, so we do not take it for granted.

I will treat the beehives one last time this evening. Since the winds are light, I will also open the hives to check for brood, for queen activity, and check for swarm cells. That will take about an hour to accomplish but I thoroughly enjoy the time I get to spend on the hives. I learn something new every time and when I come across something I do not understand, I have friends to get help from. That takes a lot of the trepidation out of being on a steep learning curve. The prospect of getting to harvest honey this year is encouraging. We have had the bees for two years now and have not gotten that reward yet. Maybe this will be the year for us and our bees to succeed.

We have set things up the best we are able to help Tres take care of the animals on his schedule – evening feedings only. So, having done all we can, we leave it to the Lord to watch over the farm in our absence. If the forecast holds true, no additional watering will be required while we are gone. We have several days of rain spaced out over the week. The amounts predicted will be sufficient to give the plants, bushes, and trees all the water they need. Mama and I may water tomorrow morning but that should carry our garden into the days of rain that are forecast.

I am not planning on taking a computer with me on this trip. We will be happily occupied every day, so I see no need to complicate the trip trying to keep track of my computer. Besides, for most of the light duty communications required while out of the office, my cell phone will suffice. Since Mama does most of her business on her cell phone there is no need of a computer on her part either.

Mama and I will certainly not need the additional distraction.

 

 

Missing out, homeopathic treatments, busy bees, worries

I elected to not go to the Mission’s Conference service last night. Mama and Tres did get to go to the dinner prior to the service and to the service. Mama spent the service in the nursery tending to a sick toddler, but she was there to support the service. I was coughing in the way I typically do when this type of infection settles into my chest. I tried to watch the service online but failed on each attempt because I do not often get onto Facebook and was not aware of Mama’s username or password for her computer which would have opened the app without difficulty. Nor could I open the app on any other device. Unfortunately, Facebook is the only medium that the church uses to livestream the services. Fortunately, Victoria was home just before the service started and was able to get me logged into Facebook on our aged iPad using her login credentials. As expected, it was a great service, and I was happy to be able to participate at least in the broadcast. As things stand right now, I will not be able to attend tonight either and we will be on vacation next week – including Sunday. So, I will not see our church family until the 12^th of May.

The rain that thoroughly soaked our farm Sunday settled the pollen that has been such an irritant to my sinuses. The winds that have blown relentlessly through our area over the course of the past few weeks have settled down as well, eliminating much of the pollen from the air. That helps, but the infection has begun its course and as in all past such infections, there is little I can do to abate the symptoms. I did get out a neti pot today to see if I could flush out the irritants sufficiently to speed up my recovery. Mama and Victoria had conspired to give the neti pot away since it was not being used but that did not happen yet. My plan is to use the neti pot as instructed every hour through the day. In the very least, t will not cause me any harm and it may do some good. That is the best I can hope for. It is more than I have done in the past to combat the infection or abate the symptoms, so Mama feels very good about that, especially since we are heading to Florida early Saturday morning. We have already begun to hemorrhage money for that trip so I hope I can recover enough to enjoy it.

With the wet, still conditions the bees are far more active right now. They do not venture out in high wind conditions, nor do they fly out into the rain, so they have been hive bound for a couple weeks. Because of the light winds, they are out gathering all the available pollen to make up for lost time. It is fun to stand and watch all the bees coming and going at the entrance on each of the hives. Some are loaded with pollen that shows up as little colored balls tucked onto their back legs. Others are bringing water back to the hive for those bees who never leave hive. I have tried to capture a video of the activity but on the cell phone I cannot record it in way that gives a clear, focused video. Victoria has a digital camera that I can use to get some pictures that would be of better quality than the phone can produce, but it does not do videos and it does not have a Wi-Fi connection to get the images easily to the computer. Additionally, I do not have an easy way to read the digital camera card on my computer, so I have hesitated to use that means of getting the better images. I am sure they will be fascinating when I do figure out a good way to do so.

Mama’s anxiety is already peaked concerning the ongoing care of her chickens and goats in our absence. Tres is our backup, and he has done admirably in the past, but that does not keep Mama from seeing potential issues.  Tomorrow, Brittany is coming over to take the incubator which is keeping warm and gently rocking the eight eggs we paced in it. We have no idea if the eggs are viable, but we will know very shortly. Mama’s thought is that the eggs may hatch in our absence and Tres would be wholly unequipped to deal with the baby chicks. Hence, Brittany’s intervention.

Tres is out of the house very early every weekday morning which makes it a challenge to ensure the chickens are opened up to get to water at the beginning of each day. The alternatives are to leave them cooped up without water until he gets home -which is sometimes after 5 pm – or to leave the coop doors open overnight while keeping the yard gate closed. In the past, we have had raccoons or opossums gain access to the coops overnight if the doors that let the chickens into the coop yard are left open overnight. Snakes are another intruder we try to keep out of the coops overnight but that is a more difficult battle to win. Though the snakes do not require a door to get into the coop, they will certainly take advantage of it being left open.

So, we are packing, we are planning, and we are worrying. Wondering if we have done all in our power to set Tres up for success.

Time will tell.

Allergies, direction

I worked only a half day at the office yesterday. I was constantly blowing my nose, coughing and sneezing, and generally disrupting the atmosphere for everyone. With COVID protocols programmed into our every interaction now, when at 10:30 I asked permission to finish out the day from home, it was quickly granted. I did feel good enough to attend the dinner at church and the service last night but that will not be happening today. I am much worse today and I do not believe I can mask the symptoms sufficiently to attend the service in person this evening. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not. We will have to wait and see.

On my way out of the office one of the managers stopped to chat with me and remarked on the unexpected increase of allergens this year – specifically the oak trees which we are surrounded by. Normal concentrations of their particular pollen in the air this time of year are 1,250 but right now the numbers are closer to 12,500. That could account for some of the symptoms I am experiencing. Mama attributes it to my having cleaned the chicken coops last weekend. I must admit that there was a lot of wind blowing the dust around me as I shoveled up the refuse from the floors of the coop and dumped successive loads into the compost bins. Actually, I was covered in the dirt and dust. I am not sure the root cause of my current condition, the coop or the trees, but I know this too shall pass. Preventing the recurrence is a challenge when so many possible avenues of allergen overload exist. The long-term outcome is that coop cleaning may require a mask mandate. This time, self-imposed.

What may be bad for me in the form of allergens is good for the bees. Many types of the pollen that make me sneeze and have a runny nose provide food for the bees. There is not a direct relation between the two, but I try to remember that pollen is bee food and to grow strong hives and feed the brood that will be hatching very soon, a large amount of pollen is required. The month of May in our area is the month of the Spring nectar flow. That means honey production will be maximized in the next few weeks. Mama and I will be ready for it, Lord willing. When we return from vacation next week, I will put the honey supers on the hives and hope for our first harvest of honey from the hives. It is worth suffering the allergies when I think of what the pollen will do for our bees.

For many months now the Lord has been impressing on me to write, but I have neglected that directive. It turns out that I am quite practiced at ignoring that obligation because I have felt the need to do so for years, but the urgency lately is more intense than in the past. So, I have been praying that the Lord would lead me to the right topic to put down in prose. In preparation for writing, I stumbled across a course on how to write creative non-fiction. A genre that suits me perfectly. It is recounting a real-life story in a way that makes it enjoyable for the reader. No make-believe characters or lands to create and support. Just accurately recounting and somewhat enlivening a real happening in the life of a real person.

Regrettably, life is somewhat boring for the most part; long days of uninteresting routines punctuated with moments of unexpected interactions to be followed by long days of uninteresting routines. Those unexpected interactions can be good or bad, joyous, or sorrowful painful, or full of bliss. Such is the case of our human existence. That thought is what makes living for the Lord such a blessing. Even the boring routines we labor through in our daily activities are precious to Him and He makes every moment lived for Him count to His glory and our benefit. The real joy is in knowing that I matter to God. My life can be glorifying to Almighty God! What an amazing thought. What a happy circumstance!

Anyway, I believe God laid on my heart last night the story I need to tell. I will need to get some permissions and do enough research on the subject to be clear and truthful in the telling of someone else’s story, but I feel a firm sense of direction for the literary exercise before me. The direction came to me in a conversation completely unrelated to the topic of the story in question, but the directive was clear. I know that partly because I have not forgotten it. Many times, over the years, I have had brilliant thoughts that, if not written down, were lost as quickly as they had come. When those epiphanies come to me and I clearly remember them later, I know they are meant to be remembered. In other words, I sense God’s help in capturing the thought so I can act upon it.

I won’t let the cat out of the bag – so to speak – right now, but it is reassuring to be so led.

Saturday, Mission’s Conference

Saturday was a very busy day for me. Not so much for Mama. Mama’s news first. The event she attended was not well coordinated. It was supposed to be a classic car show and local biker rally, but no classic cars showed up and the bikers that did attend were there for only an hour or less. Of the thirty vendors that Mama was told would be there only ten actually came. It was very disappointing for Mama, but she hung in for most of the very dull day and was able to make enough sales to cover the costs of the space she occupied and a little extra. She got one possible good contact for a state-wide biker rally next month as a personal invitation from the organizer of that rally. That may work out well for her.

She also spent time talking to the commercial beekeeper that regularly sells at Trade Days. He manages 700 hives. She got some great tips and useful information from him which she shared with me. Again, the wind was merciless through the day, but Mama was able to pull down the temporary walls of the pavilion and stop most of the direct assault from those winds. All in all, not a complete waste. When she was packing up to leave, the lady that had so poorly organized the event chided Mama for leaving early, but Mama brushed off her rebuke with a wave of her hand towards the mostly empty pavilion.

For my part, I was able to get 17,022 steps Saturday. All that without ever leaving our little farm. All the chores I took care of were minor, but all required multiple trips to and from the shop. Since Tres had told me early that he thought there were squirrels in the attic, I spent a long time looking for possible entries into the attic but could not see anything obvious. So, I started looking for tree branches that could be scraping the roof that might cause the sounds he was hearing. Those I did find and cut all the possible offenders away from the house. He did not hear any sleep-interrupting noises that night.

Next, I set up a fencing trellis for the row of green beans in the garden. It took all the pieces of panels I had available and the last of the t-posts I could scrounge up to do so. It is not my best work, but it should suffice. I spent an hour or more tending to the bees, but I still have not opened the hives to look for swarm cells because of the high winds. I am very anxious to do that as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Both hives appear to be doing well but it would be nice to verify that suspicion.

In the afternoon, I cut away the paneling I have in the coop to eliminate the hiding places the rats have been so effectively using. In doing so, I got to see one rat scurry about as I ripped off a piece of the thin OSB I used on the walls inside the coop. I found two nesting areas and about twenty pounds of food that had been carried into the wall by the industrious rodents. Once that was cleaned up, I repositioned the feed barrels and bales of straw to reset everything for Mama. I also put a live trap in place that the rat seemed to be frequenting. For several weeks a rat had been taking a small plastic bottle of medicine Mama uses on the chickens and dragging it away from the container where it is stored. Mama has found the small bottle in various locations near the tray where it normally sets. I set the trap in line with the approach to the bottle – and Sunday morning, the offender was in the livetrap. She was a large rat. Hopefully, that is the last of the rats in the coop…for now.

That chore done; I cleaned the coops. Mama got home just as I was finishing the coop cleaning. Gracie who had spent Friday night with us so that she and Mama could leave early Saturday morning, had to be brought back to the farm on their way home to collect some of the articles she had forgotten to pack in their early departure. Since I was done with most of my tasks, I changed my very wet shirt and went with her so we could stop at Tractor Supply to purchase items she wanted for the chickens. By the time we got home from that outing, it was about 5 pm. It had been a very productive day. At least for me.

Over the day Sunday, we got more than three inches of steady gentle rain. What a blessing! Our Mission’s Conference started Sunday. Sunday School and both services that day were great. We will have preaching services each night through Wednesday night with a dinner before each of those services. That makes for a busy week as we not only have every evening filled, but we have to prepare a dinner for each evening to be shared with our missionaries.

We always enjoy the conference, but it makes for a hurried week and next week we will be in Florida. Oh, the fun.

Play day, costs, rain on the way, rat trapping

Mama and Kimberlyn are meeting at the farm this morning for a shopping trip to Denton. Kimberlyn is bringing feed from Muenster which was picked up on her way here. I am told it is not out of her way since she prefers to make her way to the farm on backroads that bring her within five miles of Muenster. That friendly help in picking up feed saves Mama and I both time and money, so it is very much appreciated. Plus, the two of them get to spend the day together doing the shopping Mama was going to do regardless of the company while Kimberlyn gets access to stores that she would not typically drive to in her routine outings.

With the price of fuel, Mama and I are very aware of the cost involved in the round trip but the play day for the two of them is more important than the fuel that could have been used to travel somewhere other than to the farm. The feed being hauled to the farm should last us well into May when Mama and I will have to make plans for another purchase. As for prices, they are about ten percent higher than last month, and we are being told by the feed store that prices will inflate even further over the next several months. It may become prohibitive at some point in the very near future to maintain the herd and flock we are now tending to, but we are not there yet. If Victoria was not covering the cost of food required for the dogs, it would already be prohibitive to keep all of them. Such as it is, we are managing but the expense to feed all our animals is more challenging to our budget than any time in recent memory.

On the positive side of the recently inflated costs on everything, Mama and I are finding more creative ways to supplement our needs. That is one of the primary reasons Mama is so focused on the garden. She has been faithful to water our plants and trees every morning and it is bearing noticeable results versus past years of questionable returns on our efforts. We have high hopes. In her efforts, to thwart our furry bandits from stripping the fruit trees, Mama has purchased rough ribbons and bubble wrap to loop through the branches of the nectarine and pear trees to hopefully discourage those thieves from stealing the ripening fruits on those two trees. Fake snakes will be added to the trees to complete the defense. It will be interesting to see if that works.

To make our fuel go further we are simply driving less. Right now, it costs about $85 to fill the Sequoia and about $130 to fill the diesel truck. I am not complaining per se. Everyone is subject to the same expense but the only way we can mitigate it is to use less fuel in our daily lives. Staying home more gives us the time see and do more of the chores that sometimes get overlooked in the less sedentary days of our very recent past. That is a blessing on may counts. So, it is not all bad. It never is.

We are currently forecast to get about two inches of rain over the weekend. That would be a huge blessing. However, an all the recent forecasts when such a prediction was made, nothing has come of it. We will wait and see what rain makes it to our little farm and be thankful for whatever we get. I am hoping to treat the beehives again Saturday, but I would happily postpone due to rainy conditions.

In the coop we have had a rat inhabiting the walls for so long that it has learned our routine and will watch from its hiding place while we tend to the chickens mornings and evenings. Mama has even become somewhat accustomed to its scrutiny. I have tried several methods of trapping the rodent, but it has outsmarted me on every occasion. However, when I made the final repairs to the wiring the rat had destroyed, I set a sticky trap in place in case it went back to gnawing the new wiring. Well, this morning, a rat was entrapped in the pad I had anchored in place, and I will be able to dispose of it once and for all. Whether or not it is the lone invader remains to be seen, but I will celebrate at least this moderate success.

Saturday Mama has another marketing event. This one is in Bowie at the Trade Days facility, but the event is a classic car show. Mama will not need my help with the canopy because she will be in the covered pavilion available for vendors. It is forecast to be windy, but the pavilion has tarpaulin walls that can be drawn down to block the wind. Mama is told she will be one of thirty vendors so it could be a good opportunity to sell the nail sets she still has in stock and to advertise her Color Street business. Time will tell. I will spend the day getting the little things done around the farm that need to be attended to in advance of the storms forecast for Sunday.

It will be a busy weekend for both of us.

 

Focus, choices, beekeeping, updates

I am finding it a challenge right now to maintain a proper focus. Not necessarily on required work activities or needed chores at the house or farm, but it the area of planning ahead – setting up processes for meeting our future needs. Mama and I had a long talk earlier about our finances. We are actually in pretty good shape overall, but I do not feel I am ready to meet our current needs with the reduced income we will have available when I retire. I am especially concerned about providing for the costs of ongoing or upcoming medical needs. With the current pressures everyone is feeling due rampant inflation, especially with the rising price of gas and diesel we must purchase to operate our vehicles to keep our lives going, there is no way to avoid the troubling aspect of attempting to predict our financial needs one to two years in advance, i.e., setting up a workable, sufficient budget.  

Two years ago, I would have told Mama I had the numbers worked out. Now, not so much. Fortunately, there is no urgency. I can probably work as long as I desire with my current employer, but that completely aborts the timeline I had fixed just eighteen months ago. Hence, the issue with maintaining a proper, wholesome, Godly focus on our required activities, our planned travel, and those spontaneous moments when Mama and I tend to splurge in order to express our love for each other. So, to capture that expression of devotion for each other we feed our animals, we water our garden, we do our daily puzzles, we steal kisses through the day and evening, we go to church, we connect with our children and grandchildren, etc. to ensure that that love is communicated. Not a bad deal for either of us. Those are the moments when I feel I have a proper focus on life so I have become more focused on those moments.

One of the choices Mama and I must make is choosing between attending the National Conference for Color Street in August or traveling to Honduras later this year. Since we can only spend the money once, it is best to do so in the most productive way possible. Either trip will cost very nearly the same amount of money but trying to choose which of the two excursions would produce the best long-term outcomes is the challenge. One, the conference, is a complete unknown as to the foreseeable outcomes but comes highly recommended by those in the hierarchy of Mama’s team in Color Street. She has been assured that attending the event is “life changing”. But Mama and I do not drink, dance, or party as many of the attendees will, and we do not spend money to be seen spending money. In those types of settings, we appear to be cheap and stuffy. Plus, the general appeal of that sort of gathering does not appeal at all to me, but I will go if it is important to Mama. So, that choice is hers to make. It will be interesting to determine whether we will elect either trip. Perhaps, neither, but definitely not both.

Among the routines we keep in order to maintain the farm, I have redoubled my efforts to tend to our beehives. I began a series of treatments that must be repeated every five days for five consecutive treatments. The second of those treatments was done yesterday evening. It does not take long, but I have to be as specific as possible in the timing. I will fall short of the timing for the last of the five recommended treatments because of travel plans to meet our Honduran family in Florida. So far I have not seen a beneficial outcome to the treatments, but I will continue and test the results after the treatments are done.

As for next week, I cancelled the vacation I had requested. The lab setup at the museum in Glen Rose has not been competed so the simulator development I was to participate in will not happen – at least in the original timeframe. I have tentative permission to take the time off in the future, but I do not know when that opportunity will present itself.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow using presentations that were changed Monday. The changes are not huge, but they are significant in their specific focus of the information the changes cover. Monday of this week, I spent the day at the office participating on ensuring all those required changes were filtered into all the required files, spreadsheets and presentation formats mandated to ensure we track and communicate those updates to anyone that may be affected by those changes. It was a team effort with six of us competing the rework. Yesterday I got to present one of the new presentations and found three mistakes which I have since corrected. Tomorrow, I will present a second of the two updated presentations and will be able to see any needed corrections to our most recent rework.  Friday, I will communicate those changes and we should be up to date for a year or so.

Hopefully.