Working from home, growth, good news

My first day working from home was not unproductive. I could have accomplished  lot more at the office, but that was not allowed. My workgroup communicated through the day via Slack. I had to keep reminding myself to open and look at the program to make sure I was up to date on the discussions. in one of those discussion threads, I got an assignment that I will actually be able to work on from home. However, the assignment required more materials – electronic and digital – than I would be able to access from home. For that reason, I am in the office this morning to gather those materials. I will only be here for half the day. Unless it turns out that I need more time than that. It is nice to have breakfast and lunch with Mama. To be available to help her whenever she needs my help. To steal a kiss frequently. I could get used to that since she I my life’s most pleasant distraction.

While working from home yesterday, I kept up with the mopping. Water trickled in all day. It worstened when we got a rain shower, but eventually slacked off to the point that we had to check about once every thirty minutes or so. When I got up this morning, I expceted to see a small flood, but the floor was completely dry. Praise the Lord! Once I was officially off for the day yesterday, I did a careful check of the exterior wall where it joins to the patio. The crack between the two has grown somewhat, but it would be hard for me to prove since I do not have measurements of the original opening. Sealing the crack will require a lot of caulk. Fortuantely, that is not in short supply. At least, I do not think it is. I plan to check on my way home later this morning.

Cori, Nate and the kids are still housebound in Honduras. It would seem that, as of this morning, so are those living in California. It is hard to see where this will end – as far as the Coronavirus is concerned. Meanwhile, the oil market has been flooded and the short term effect has sent oil prices into the lowest pricepoints seen in decades. In spite of the news, that is what is causing the market to fall so dramatically. When those prices rebound, the market will fly higher at a dizzing rate. Those who have money to invest at that time, will make a fortune. Unfortunately, many are currently losing a fortune. Mama and I currently have all our money in real estate. Look in the bright side, gas is very cheap with oil prices where they are. We will recover from this. And we will recover quickly compared to past recoveries. My hope is that by the end of the summer, we will be well into the recovery. Time will tell. Meanwhile, sit tight. Buy what you need and a little extra. We will have enough to go around. Keep trusting the Lord. He is still in control.

After Mama and I fed the animals yesterday evening, I took the time to put together a simple trellis for the grape vine. It is thriving in the flowerbed with the blueberries and asparagas and has grown to the point that I needed to give it a place to attach its new growth or that new growth would either start falling toward the ground or attaching itself to the nearet blueberry bush. Neither of those options was acceptable but I wanted a trellis that was almost invisible. Using repurposed fencing parts I built a frame and drove some anchor posts into the ground. Once the frame was in place, I attached just enough wire to give the new vines something to hold on to. The result was about as good as I can expect. Mama is okay with it and it will serve the purpose required.

Mama is runnung out of eggs to sell. Since the gorcery stores are sold out of eggs, people have been coming to her. One person we know very well got quite irritated that Mama would not just give the eggs to her since she is a friend of ours. Mama is not charging much for the eggs. Three dollars per dozen. So everyone who heard about the eggs wants two to three dozen. We are currently getting about two dozen per day. We will top out at about three dozen per day. Mama can sell all of that production easily. We will have to take our allotment from that total, but we should be fine. I will be eating less eggs. The only blood test that came up less than perfect was my cholesterol. It was quite high considering I typically run low on both counts of cholerterol. I will change that dietarily. I don’t like cholerterol medication.

It is tough to say what next week will bring, but the announcement of an effective treatment of individuals sick with COVID-19, the publisized recovery of numerous well-known celebreties diagnosed with the virus and the lightening of the panic instilled by false reporting should produce a greater calm than we have seen recently.

We cound all use some of that.

More rain, more flooding, medical needs, church

Last night, after Mama and I got home from church, our area was under a tornado warning until about 11 pm. When I stood outside on the front porch, I thought I could actually hear a tornado nearby. There was a constant roar I could hear over the nearly constant thunder. Lightening was everywhere. The kind of lightening you see going from cloud to cloud in a stormy sky. I have not been out yet today to see if the tornado came anywhere near us, but some friends who live in Bridgeport got photos of the tornado during the lightening flashes. At one point, I called Mama to come outside to listen to the storm and the roar that I was hearing. Just after she joined me on the porch lightening hit the building near the quarry lake by our property. The sound of the thunder was deafening. Mama did not stay outside past that event. She and Victoria hunkered down in the hall bathroom. The only safe room in our house in such times of storm. We were without power until about 12:30 am. I know that because when the lights came back on, it woke me. I had fallen asleep in the recliner in the living room.

I did not need to get up early this morning. I do not have to report to the office for the rest of the month. I was hoping to work from the office in spite of the mandate that everyone who could, should work from home. But yesterday, right after lunch, they sent all of us home with the directive to not return until notified to do so. They understand that what I can do from home is limited due to lack of internet service, but they insisted on emptying the office of personnel due to the infectious scare we are under. I appreciate their leadership. They even cancelled a class that was due to be taught today. Thankfully, I got one of the two classes in for the company Tuesday. They were desperate to get the training in before April. We got to meet half that need.

I did not mind getting up early this morning. I knew there would be water to mop up in the living room. I did not realize just how much water would be on the floor. For the past couple days, we have had water in the corner of the living room only. This morning the flooding extended all the way behind the couch to the area where I have my desk set up. I mopped up as best I could with Mama and Victoria still sleeping. I will need their help moving the couch so we can dab up the water that ooze onto the floor along that wall. I filled our large mop bucket once. I am planning on filling it once more. The disappointing part for me is that we got only a half inch of rain last night. I was expecting to see several inches of rain based on the amount of water on the floor. That was not the case. That means that the flooding is getting worse and is not necessarily dependent on the amount of rain we get. Truly discouraging. On the bright side, I will be home to help mop up the influx.

I have a doctor’s appointment this morning. It is a follow up after the consult with the cardiologist. I am interested to find out if the blood pressure regimen I am on will be continued. I have definitely felt better on the prescribed medication. With the confirmation of an anomaly in the electrical system of my heart, I do not know what more will be required as far as testing is concerned, but I will know soon. As far as the expense of the testing, that is problematic. I have already declined one test due to a very high copay. Whether or not the doctor agrees with that decision will be addressed this morning.

After services last night, there was some discussion as to whether or not we would have church services Sunday. I believe the pastor is leaning toward cancelling services, but he is not eager to do so. I have planned the music for those services, but did I not contact anyone to sing specials in those services. When I know more, I will make those arrangements. Neither of the soloists I have listed on the music sheet was at church last night. Fortunately, there is time to finalize those preparations.

For now, we adapt in all areas of our lives.

Social distancing, no longer in stock, rain, leaks, overstocking

I was in teaching a class yesterday in Grand Prairie, TX. About an hour commute from home. It was one of those classes where the entire class was in their fourth or fifth cycle through the class. Those are often difficult classes to teach because the information is mostly familiar. The upside is that we only require the class to be repeated every three years. Anyway, with the current “epidemic” in play, we set up the classroom a little differently. We put only one person to a table – six persons in total. It was not too awkward. Everyone adapted quickly. All in all, it was a good class. Especially considering it was the fifth time for five of the six participants. We started early, worked through lunch and ended early. A clear bonus for all of us. Since they offered, I took home the leftover Papa John’s pizza to Mama and Victoria. 

On the way home, I took a route that would allow me to pass right by our Sam’s Club in Denton. Mama had been in touch with Krystal yesterday morning and had been told that Sam’s was restocking the shelves with paper goods. Including toilet paper. Mama had also been told that only twenty persons were being allowed into the store at a time. Krystal was in a long line as she called. Mama declined to make the run that morning for fear of having to stand in a long line just to get into the store. It was not a guarantee that the two items she was wanting – rice and toilet paper – would be available when she did manage to gain access to the store. We are not desperate for either item.

There was no line when I got there. There was also no stock of paper goods of any kind and no rice. I am not sure if Mama would have fared better. We will never know. I was slightly encouraged as I entered the store and saw a man with a package of toilet paper in his cart, but he must have gotten the very last package. We have a small supply at home, but with this panic, it would be nice to have some extra. It will be interesting to see how oversupplies stores and warehouses become when this panic subsides and people who are now overstocked with a year’s supply of toilet paper do not buy that item for nine to twelve months. We have plenty of toilet paper in the United States. It is just sitting in private locations across the nation. Those that are laughing at us latecomers in line will not be so impressed with themselves when this quickly blows over and they have $200 worth of toilet paper taking up a corner of their living room.

If I read the rain gauge correctly this morning, we had almost three inches of rain last night. With the ground already soaked, we had a lot of runoff. Some of that excess ended up in our living room. Over the past several days, we have had some water show up on the floor where my recliner sits. This morning it was a lot of water. I ended up going to the wellhouse for the industrial mop and bucket to clean up the flood. That was after I had spent about fifteen minutes using a towel to soak up the water and wringing that towel into a bucket. That was working – albeit slowly. It was wearing out my knees. The mop made quick work of the water and allowed me to soak it up and remove it quickly enough to see where the water was seeping into the house. I am not sure that determining that access point will help me eliminate the leak, but it gives me a starting point to work from.

I believe there are only five or six people in the office today. All others are working from home. I am enjoying the quiet.

Travel, confusion, cancellation

For the second week in a row, I spent the week on the road teaching. Leaving on Tuesday and flying home Friday. For the second Friday in a row, I was on a very early flight home. After getting to the airport in Richmond, VA at 5 am Eastern time, 4 am Texas time, I got into DFW at about 9:30 local time. This time I drove home before going to the office. I had to use one of the suitcases I carried with me on this trip to put my clothes into since I was required to check two bags to carry the books and class materials for the two classes I taught last week. On the travel over to Richmond, I loaded the two suitcases to forty-nine pounds each. Even with that, I had to put some of the class materials in my computer bag as well as load about fifteen pounds worth into a backpack. I was much lighter coming home, but I did not want to unload my personal items at work. Hence, the trip home before work. After eating a quick lunch with Mama, I decided to text my boss to see if I actually need to go to the office. By that time, it was 2 pm. I was quickly given permission to stay home. I was happy to do so.

Becky Mike and Bridgette drove over Friday night. We had a great visit with them. After breakfast, Mama and Becky went to Bridgeport to a meeting for Mama’s new business, Color Street. Becky was very interested, so she and Mama had a really good time at that meeting. From the follow up discussions when they got home, I assume the meeting dealt mostly with the business model versus the product offered. Becky won a door prize. That thrilled her. Mike and I stayed at the farm and watched Bridgette play. They were slated to visit Grandma and Grandpa but Norman scared Grandma and Grandpa by telling them that Arkansas – where Becky and Mile traveled from – was seriously infected with Coronavirus. Not true, but the seed was planted, and Grandma and Grandpa declined to have them over. So, we spent the time at the farm. Bridgette spent the night with us. Becky and Mike met us at church Sunday morning. It was a good visit in spite of the extremely wet conditions. They left after lunch Sunday afternoon. Becky and Mike made the most of being in Texas since the stores and restaurants in Hot Springs are closed due to the virus scare.

With the declaration of a pandemic, confusion has taken hold of our nation. Even though this virus is far less infectious and far less fatal than the Swing Flu (H1N1) that hit the US in 2009, the political nature of the coverage of the virus, makes it difficult to know exactly what to do. Are we acting appropriately? Are we overreacting? The hyped-up message being presented only adds to the confusion. I do know that we do not need to horde supplies. We will have enough to go around. Those who bought out stocks in store with the express purpose of selling those supplies at a much higher price will be hindered from doing so as well as risk prosecution. Get what you need plus a little extra. Everyone who goes beyond that will eventually feel foolish. They will have wasted their money. We will get through this. Though it is hard to tell, we have actually seen far worse pandemics but never has anything been so thoroughly misrepresented. In 2009, the Swine Flu infested 60 million, hospitalized 300,000 and killed 13,000 in the US. Don’t remember that? The media made very light if it at the time to protect the Obama administration. As of this morning, the US death toll is at 69. Only 3,800 confirmed cases of infection nationwide. Are we overreacting? Probably.

Case in point. Ben Muldoon spent the night with us last night so that I could take him to the airport this morning. He had a very early flight scheduled. Late in the evening he got work that Honduras, his destination, had closed its borders. Since he had not gotten confirmation that his flight was cancelled, we planned to get up at the necessary time (3:45 am) to take him to the airport and see if the flight was still leaving. Sadly, the flight was cancelled. Honduras has limited resources to deal with a major illness of any kind. I am not sure how many cases of the current virus they have encountered, but they cannot take any chances which would allow them to suffer the near certain fatality of those who in our medical system would easily recover. The fact that the City of El Progresso (where Cori and Nate live) shut down the power grid yesterday, is a testament to their resolve to limit gatherings to curb the potential of infection among their populous.  Are they wrong in their response? We will never really know, but kudos to the leadership for assessing and delivering a response.

This too shall pass. Don’t be foolish, but do not fall prey to the panic being promoted.

Mama’s home, more travel, adapting

Mama got home yesterday afternoon about 2:30. She made good time on the trip home, but she did not have much time to relax. Without completely changing, she went out with me to feed the chickens and gather eggs – just to make sure all things were still as required to meet her expectations. Mama has been gone since Sunday afternoon last week. I was gone Tuesday through Friday. I think everyone was much happier to see Mama than they were me when I arrived back at the farm Friday evening. That is as it should be. Victoria, Grandma and Grandpa can all relax a bit now. Mama is back on duty.

Mama had a wonderful visit with Brittany, Andrew and the girls. Audrey is adorable. She seems to be a very mild baby. Mama loves holding a caring for newborns. Newborns have always been more her pace. Zoe and Sophia are whirlwinds of excitement and energy. Hilarious. Clever. Entertaining. Exhausting for Mama. Don’t get me wrong. Mama loves that energy too. She is just more suited to the newborn activity levels. The picture of Mama, Brittany, Zoe, Sophia and Aubrey was taken Saturday afternoon. It was hard for Mama to leave. We have yet to see Gailyn but are tentatively planning a trip to Amarillo later this month. It will be a short trip. I do not have vacation time for more than a day visit with Chase, Makaila, Owen and Gailyn but we hope to make the most of the visit when we do get to go.

I will be traveling again tomorrow. Gone Tuesday through Friday again. This time I will be in Richmond, VA teaching back to back classes for a client there. This will be a tougher trip starting out because I have to carry a lot of materials with me. About seventy pounds of books and class related materials. Throwing around those fifty-pound suitcase is a little more demanding for me than it once was. After last week’s travel and classes, it was nice to have the weekend break. Both to rest my voice and my back. It was nicer still to see Mama before I had to head out again.

Saturday was a very fast day for me. I went to Muenster to get feed early in the morning. Once I got back to the farm, I got all of that feed put in the shop other than what was needed in the various feed stations around the farm. Other than that, I did a lot of cleanup around the farm. When I had gone out to feed Saturday morning, I killed a rooster that Mama was unhappy with and set the carcass in the burn barrel. The wind was blowing too strongly for me to start a fire right then, but I did get to that later in the afternoon. all the trees are blooming. The blackberries, the blueberries and the grape vine are all coming alive. Warm afternoons are coaxing life into everything around us. My favorite time of the year.

In spite of time change, services were great yesterday. We had to recruit someone to play the piano. Our regular pianist is still out with her newborn. Our substitute pianist was home tending to sick kids and a sick husband. One of the BBTI students filled in as best she could. She played so softly that even I could barely hear her. But she played. I had to let her pick the songs we would sing that morning and I had to recruit someone else to play for me as I sang the special. Before Sunday school I let the pastor know the situation with the musicians and that it might not be possible for us to have a special. When I told him that I had taken the special for that morning – the person supposed to sing was not there that morning – and what I planned to sing, he quickly recruited a familiar visitor to play the song for me. I was very thankful because she was able to lower the song to a comfortable key for me. I sang, “His Eye is on the Sparrow”. I learned as Pastor got up to preach, that that is one of his favorite songs. It also served to emphasize the sermon he planned to preach that morning. It all worked out.  Obviously, we recruited our honored guest to play for the service last night.

Being flexible helps when life throws a curveball at you.

Traveling

Mama and I are both traveling today. She got to Wichita about 3 pm yesterday afternoon. Once in the drive over, Mama had to follow all the traffic as it was routed off the interstate. The detour was not marked so Mama followed the flow of traffic on a two-lane road for an hour before getting back onto the interstate. She called me when I was at lunch and I was able to verify that she was on the right track. Even with that delay, she made good time. We were a little concerned about her ability to make the drive because of the pain she was having Saturday evening and Sunday morning, but that seemed to pass through the day Sunday. The draw of meeting a newborn baby is a powerful stimulant to Mama.

Mama got to meet Gailyn yesterday evening. Gailyn is beautiful. Chubby cheeks. A full head of black, curly hair. I was not told who she looks like and will not presume to make a guess based on the limited pictures I have seen. I am anxious to have my turn meeting the baby, but that will not happen for several weeks. It is enough that Mama gets her time with the newborn – and the twins. Gailyn and Brittany will come home this morning. Now the work begins. So that it is specifically stated, Mama is thankful to Brittany and Andrew for allowing her to be a part of the homecoming.

Young couples are avoiding that extended family contact early in the homecoming. It makes little difference as far as bonding of or with the baby is concerned. But it can have a huge impact where the health of the newborn is concerned. Especially as we deal with this new strain of the coronavirus. My advice. Do what is comfortable for you within the circle of family you deal with. Lord willing, there will be years of caregiving ahead of you. Get the most you can out of those first few months. As the child quickly grows, the interest of relatives and friends will diminish rapidly as an inverse function of the age of the child. I am not being cruel. It is simply the way of life.

I will be traveling later today. Victoria and I went to revival services at church last night getting home about 8:45. I had not taken time to pack Sunday, so all the packing had to be done last night after church. Not that it takes me that long to pack, it just compressed the time allotted to get it all done. I have the most important things with me, I hope. Fortunately, anything I might have forgotten can be easily replaced if it is urgent. I will be home Friday. My flight is early enough that I will need to work a half day in the office Friday after lunch. We are not sure yet when Mama will come home. Perhaps this Saturday or next Monday. I am encouraging her to make the most of her opportunity to spend time with Gailyn, Zoe and Sophia.

After feeding yesterday evening, I took a few minutes to apply the second coat of varnish to the beehive I started working on late Saturday. It did not take long. Only about thirty minutes, but since Victoria and I were going to church that evening, it made me hurry a bit to get ready to leave on time. It will be worth it this weekend when I have that hive finished and can start on the second one.

Victoria is on her own for a few days. She does not mind the solitude. She is not enamored with the chores left to her in our absence, but she gets them done. This time Mama and I will only be out for a few days and Victoria has lined up help from Grandma and Grandpa as well as Krystal and the boys. If you remember, Norman was trained a few days ago and will easily move through the assigned tasks. Like I have told Mama, the animals will be fed and watered. As long as the gates are closed properly, they should be fine. As Mama was talking with a friend of Rick and Nancy’s over the weekend, she learned that Rick and Nancy have lost twenty goats to coyotes over the past two months. Whatever inconvenience Sam and Sasha cause us, they have not allowed a single goat to be harmed by the many coyotes we have around us. Praise the Lord!

I am looking forward to the classes I am teaching this week. Having spent time accessing the need of the client, I am confident what I am presenting will be a great help to them. I typically do not enjoy the second of the two classes I am presenting, but this group needs it, so I put a lot of extra effort into revamping the class to meet a specific need they have.

On Thursday I will get to see if that effort pays off.

A great weekend

I spent the majority of the weekend working on the little shelter and the gate for the small lot. Friday evening, I cleaned up at the back of the shop in order to uncover some metal siding I thought I could use for the shelter. In doing so, I moved a lot of scrap wood to the burn pit in the patio. It was just about dark when I called It quits and lit the stack of scrap wood on fire. It made a beautiful fire. It was too chilly to sit outside and enjoy the fire, so Mama and I sat I the sunroom and watched it, talking late into the evening. It was a very pleasant night.

Saturday, I started out by welding pieces together to make a latch for the gate hung at the new lot. Mama and I have been using a bungee to keep the gate closed, but I did not feel like making that a long-term solution. It took me only about an hour to make the latch, but it was an hour well spent. now we can open the latch with one hand versus needing two to use the bungee. And the gate is more secure. It took quite a bit longer to get the siding on the little shelter. I did not finish that until about 2 pm. But other little chores were done as I located the siding needed to cover the shelter.

I took the tractor and removed a useless pear tree from the garden. Hauling it and a lot of other branches to a pile at our little pond. While in that area of the farm I rummaged through a stack of metal siding that has sat there since we moved to the farm – almost six years. In that stack I found the rest of the pieces needed for the shelter. I had to make a few cuts but for the most part, the leftover pieces fit as needed to cover the shelter. In the process, I terrorized the little girl goats all day long with my welding, metal cutting and impact driver attaching the metal to the pallet structure. By the time I quit, they were worn out.

Meanwhile, Mama started a new business Saturday. She is selling the nail coverings. She seems truly excited about getting going. She already has her own website and is working hard to learn to use it. That tells me she is actually excited about doing this. She has avoided anything and everything to do with computers in the past, so this is a first. A long overdue, but a welcome change. By Sunday, her mentor had people registering on her site. The lady who will mentor Mama is excited for Mama.

In preparation for her being gone, Mama and I cleaned the coop late in the day. I also had to move a pile of hay out of the way of the barn doors on the goat barn. I opened those doors with some difficulty Thursday evening and did not want that refuse to get wet with the rain we are anticipating over the next two days. We put a large round bale in the goat barn but a lot of it gets wasted as the goats pick through for the best pieces. That discarded chaff is what had accumulated in the opening covered by the rolling doors. I am not sure if using the large bale of hay is the best idea, but it is cheaper and less trouble for me and Mama. So far, the goats have eaten 2/3 of the bale. I am impressed.

I finally took the time to varnish one of the hives very late Saturday. That chore was long overdue. I will apply a second coat of the marine varnish this evening. A third coat will be applied on Friday evening – if all goes well. That hive will be ready for the bees we are purchasing from Donny in mid-April. I should be able to finish the second hive in stages next week as I am home. Later in March, I will make new hive bottoms and covers so that Mama and I will have four standard hives to fill with a top bar hive on standby. Hopefully, we will fill those extra hives with caught swarms of bees. I have one trap out now. Others will follow.

But the most exciting news of the weekend came Sunday night with the arrival of Audrey. She was born a little after 10 pm. Mama and I knew Brittany was at the birthing center. She had called Mama early in the afternoon. We all decided it as better for Mama to wait until this morning to go to Brittany versus leaving yesterday and driving well into the night. Mama does not do well driving after dark. She is packed and headed out this morning after she finishes the morning feeding. She will be gone all week.

The hardships of grandparenting.