Seth and Gabriela, Rosalee, trimming, classes

Seth and Gabriela have been struggling with her parents lately. The division and arguing has become so bad that Seth and Gabriela have decided to move. They spent part of the day yesterday at a local bank and part of the day looking at properties. The idea is to move home Seth has built from two shipping containers on the property belonging to her parents onto the property they buy. Otherwise, her parents plan on taking over the home they have built because for decades they have allowed their residence to decay to the point that it is getting close to being unlivable. Let’s pray they can move their home, so they do not have to start from scratch. However, at this point starting over would be preferable to continuing to live in the situation they are in right now.

In looking for property, Seth and Grandpa looked an acre plot that had been for sale some months ago but when they got to the site, it did not look like it was still available. Undeterred, Grandpa approached the owner – who lives near the property – to ask about it. Turns out it is still available.  The small plot has a well and a septic system already in place. It would seem to be a good buy if Seth and Gabriela can work it out with the bank. They should know more by the end of the week. They are excited and apprehensive at the same time.

Because of the day spent out looking and banking, Mama kept Rosalee. She is a good baby and she seems to really love Mama. Me, she is not too keen on – or any grown man for that matter. Mama had her in the car when she picked up Trace at the airport. Rosalee screamed when he got into the vehicle. Mama was getting Trace when I got home to finish out my workday. It was obvious we had a baby in the house. Play items were strewn everywhere, the doors to the bedrooms were closed, and the dogs were struggling to find a place to lay that was free of debris. Plus, their room was closed off to prevent the baby from scavenging around. I opened the bedroom to them as a respite while the baby was out of the house. They immediately retreated there.

Rosalee is not the least bit afraid of the dogs. Which is good. She is walking very well – to the point that she takes the step into the living room like a much older child. Several times I have been alarmed as she raced to the step and safely stepped down into the living room without breaking stride. She has a lot of her daddy in her. At one year old, Seth is teaching her some basic tumbling.

Last night, she laid down without an issue but woke about the time Mama and I were going to bed. Victoria rocked her for a few minutes and when she had settled back down, laid her in the crib. Once down, she slept all night. Overall, she has been a fun baby to keep. How long Mama will have her today remains to be seen. Whether or not Seth and Gabriela will be staying with us for a while remains to be seen. How long it will take for them to get their home moved and restored remains to be seem. Lot’s to pray about.

I went out about 7 pm to do some fence line trimming. It was so much better than working in the late afternoon sun and heat. It was still hot, but not as overwhelming as it was at 5 pm. I got all the way to the end of the property and back on the fence along the roadway. It took all the string I had cut so far to make that distance, but it gave me a good chance to test the trimmer’s capabilities. I did learn that I will have to use a cutter head on the weed eater to clear a lot of the little bushes from the fence line before the trimmer will have maximum effect keeping the growth cut back, but I enjoyed the time out working. After I watered the plants, I went inside to shower. Not necessarily because I was soaked but I needed to wash off the poison ivy that had been slung onto me as I used the trimmer. I felt like I was finally able to accomplish something useful.

I will spend the afternoon in the office getting ready for the classes I have to teach tomorrow and Thursday. This will be a busy week.

Grill fail, grill success, passing sickness, sleep issues

I did very little outside this weekend. Not only was it hot, but I did not feel well all weekend. No reason for feeling poorly, I just did not have any energy. I fasted Thursday through Saturday, but that does not generally cause me any problems – at least not like I was feeling over the weekend. I kept on schedule with the watering every evening. So far it is paying off. At least it keeps the plants alive even though it is hard to tell since the plants are all wilted in the late afternoon. Mama and I did all the feeding and watering of the animals. I fixed a couple little things and gathered some rubbish the dogs and chickens had scattered in several places, but I did not tackle any real work. Mostly I sat or cooked through the day Saturday. I worked on entering receipts into a tracking system we use, which was long overdue, and I fired up the pellet grill to cook a chicken for Sunday dinner and some ribeye steaks for Saturday evening dinner.

I failed with the ribeye’s. I had them on the grill way too long. I had the grill set to smoke, which keeps the grill temperature about 195°. I thought that at that temperature the steaks should take about 90 minutes. I was very wrong on that. I should have taken them off the grill after about 45 minutes. They were still tender, not hard to cut, but they were dry. I will use the two we have left to dice up and put in eggs for breakfast burritos, but Mama and I will not try to eat them for a main course like we had hoped. Oh, well. I learned that lesson. In the future I will not overestimate the time required to cook smaller steaks. Mistakes are powerful teaching events. Don’t waste them. Use them to your advantage.

The chicken was a success. It was a whole chicken. One of the Rock hens we had raised. I took it off the grill after about five hours. It was not completely done. I knew it was not done because of the temperature probe I used to monitor the cooking process, but I wanted it done enough that a couple hours in the crockpot while we were at church would not only heat it through, but finish it off. That seemed to work out really well because when we got home from church I changed the cooker to a fast cook mode so it would boil the chicken for a few minutes while Mama and I put on some vegetables to be added to our meal. The chicken was tender and very moist. Unlike the steaks I ruined. Mama, Victoria and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We are getting used to having Sunday dinner at home since the restaurant has been closed for several months. Alex I hopeful to open his new Japanese restaurant late this week. Mama and I are ready for some good Asian cooking.

Saturday night I had problems sleeping. My hips, upper legs and my back hurt so badly that I could not get comfortable. It took me hours to get to sleep. Once I finally did fall asleep, I woke suddenly, cold and shivering. I got out of bed and got an extra blanket to cover up with, but it seemed to do little good. I lay under those covers shivering for a long time before finally fell back asleep only to wake up and throw the covers off less than an hour later. I was smothering. When I finally got a few hours actual sleep, I was feeling horrible. It was one of those Sunday mornings that I debated going to church. Fortunately, Mama and I were up very early so I had time to recover and stir around before getting ready for church.  One of those “fake it ‘til you make it” days.

Last night was not much better as far as the pain was concerned. I struggled to find a place to sleep where I could get comfortable. After I had laid in bed for about 45 minutes, I tried the recliner, the couch, the bed in the spare bedroom. (I tried lying on my stomach to see if that would give me any relief.) Nothing worked. I finally ended up back on the couch until about 3 am which is about normal when I cannot get comfortable in bed. I rarely spend all night away from our bed. I had the alarm set this morning because I needed to go to the office to prep for the classes I will be teaching this week. I’m not sure what is going on with my sleep problems, but I am praying the Lord will give me the insight to find a way to get the relief I need. Maybe I just don’t need that much sleep.

If that’s the case, I need to re-think my nighttime schedule.

Stocking up, shopping online, oppressive heat

Mama went to the doctor yesterday morning for a wellness visit and while she was out, she decided to do some shopping. She spent a good bit of time in Walmart getting glared at by those in masks because she did not have one on, but she was not asked to put one on while she was there. She cannot wear one without breathing issues. With my current health conditions, I find it very difficult to breathe through a mask, but that is not my only reason for avoiding their use. We needed a variety of items for the work I have planned this weekend as well as a variety of items to restock our chef’s pantry. Mostly canned goods for the pantry. Paper goods for the household items which are now readily available as those who hoarded those paper goods work through the stock they accumulated in the initial panic were also restocked in Mama’s outing. Fortunately, we do not have to buy much meat. We have plenty of beef and pork in the freezer. Chicken is generally on our shopping list as well as lunch meats. Other than that, we are pretty well set. So, Mama did not have to spend too much money to get the items she felt like we needed, but it was worth the trip.

Since shopping in person is an emotional draining event right now, we have turned to online shopping where practical. People who prefer face diapers are alarmed by those who do not choose to wear them. My questions to those who are offended by my not being masked is, “Isn’t your mask protecting you?” Sadly, the angst is not about being masked. It is about being compliant. Anyway, there is so much available online it is very tempting to avoid the crowds altogether. I just do not prefer shopping online. I like to shop where I can compare items visually. Too many times I have received an online order and been disappointed by the product I bought versus the product I thought I bought. Since I am not one to make the effort to send those items back, I have accumulated quite a few disappointing, less than useful items I have no idea what to do with and no intention of using. So, I tend to buy online only what I am very familiar with. Even that is unproductive at times. Victoria is more ambitious than Mama and I but she has the tenacity to return items she is not satisfied with. Mama makes regular visits to Pac N Mail to send out those returns.

Every evening, I struggle to get up the gumption to go outside. (Spoiled baby that I am.) The animals depend on us making the trip out to feed them and ensure they have sufficient water, but just knowing that in a few minutes outside I will be soaked with sweat makes the evening feeding a chore. Mama and I do it anyway, and more often than not, I just stay outside and find things to work on. Why not? I am already soaked through and there is always something to do. This weekend we are forecast to have temperatures in the triple digits. I am not looking forward to that, but it is not unexpected. I suppose I will need to find things to do inside the house if it gets too oppressive outside. Mama has plenty of inside chores for me. They are usually held for those times when I cannot work outside – when it is too cold, too hot, or too wet. The fact that we are hoping to have a big party this September is putting a little pressure on Mama to make sure I get those chores done soon. This weekend may provide a good opportunity for inside that work.

Mama and I are planning on going to Trade Days Saturday even though it will be very hot. If we go early in the morning, we should be able to look for what we are needing and get out of the heat before it gets too hot. I am always a little bothered when I have to forego outside tasks for whatever reason. I feel like I have wasted the day. Sadly, this may be one of those weekends when I do not get to work outside much. But we will find something for me to do.

Mama will make sure I do not waste the weekend.

Slow day, unexpected rain, church

Though I had plenty to do yesterday, the day seemed to drag on forever. I interrupted work several times to do things at the house – wash dished, put cloths away, replace a turn signal bub in the Sequoia – in an attempt to keep my mind clear enough get some actual work projects done. Through the morning, I was on standby for Red who was teaching a 4-hour online class. At the very last minute before the class was to start, I had to rescue him by giving him my sign in access to the program we use for those classes in order for him to connect to the class. Mama had to do the morning feeding because I was waiting to make sure Red got off to a good start. It was a problematic start but we got through it. There were only three in the class, so it was easy to move along once the proper connection was made. I was able to complete a project that came up as I presented a new class to some of my peers. I sent those updates off for review and reformatting this morning. By the time 4 pm rolled around I was ready to move on to something farm related.

As Mama and I were getting ready to go out to feed, I started to hear thunder in the distance. I called up a weather app on my phone and it showed a small storm just to our west – moving our direction. I did not think much of it because these storms seem to bypass our little farm, but it was nice to do the evening feeding in the shadow of the storm clouds. Mama and I had not been in the house too long before the storm broke over us. In about fifteen minutes we got about 1/3” of rain. The first rain we have gotten in a couple weeks. It was enough to get everything wet but not necessarily soaked. It was enough that I did not need to water when we got home from church. As Mama and I headed to church we could see where the rain had cut off as it moved away from us. It stopped about a mile from the farm. One of those local, scattered thunderstorms Chase seemed to love so much as a small child.

Speaking of Chase, we seem to have lost touch with him and Makaila. Our phone calls go unanswered and our texts are not responded to. Maybe they got new phones and we were not made aware of it. Maybe we offended them somehow. In today’s fractured society, that is easy to do. All you have to do is hold a differing opinion from someone and suddenly you are anathema to them. It is sad that we as a civilization have no more emotional fortitude than that. I do not know if that is the case with our youngest son, but I have seen relationships fractured recently for the slightest perceived offence. Mending those relationships can be emotionally draining because it requires humility instead of rage, so very few take the time or expend the energy to do so. Rage, anger is so much more fulfilling to the human psyche. That is especially sad. Hopefully, they will reach out to us soon and Mama’s motherly wounding can be salved. Time will tell.

Church was great last night although quite a few were missing. Several families are lying out for fear of the virus. Others are self-quarantining because of travel with possible exposure. Still others are self-quarantining due to known exposure to someone infected with the virus. At least we now can offer the services online. I hope we get past all this hype soon. We have had to suspend our bus ministry, our children’s Sunday School, our Toddler’s Class and our Nursery. Without the ability to have their smaller children in care during the service some families with young children as choosing not to come to church. In their opinion, it is not worth the effort to get everyone ready only to have to run herd over their children during an adult service. Pastor wants to get back to normal but there are still those who are terrified of this virus. So, we do the best we can until the facts actually matter and the truth gets out.

For our part, we thoroughly enjoyed church last night and are happy we have the chance to attend in person.

God is good!

Growth, banding, watering

As I was cleaning the well house and burning the feed sacks we had allowed to accumulate in the well house, I sat on the porch of the little coop as the fire in the trash barrel raged and began looking through my pictures to find a particular image of my Bible reading schedule. I had been catching up on my Old Testament reading as I worked (Listening to it on my phone) and I needed to know if I had reached the point of being caught up. I did I not have the image I needed to confirm my progress, but I stumbled across a picture of the grape vine when I relocated it to the flower bed beside the garage. The before and after images capture the growth over a five-month period.

I have had this grape vine for about seven years, and I has never been so full and lush. It was originally planted at the farm in Bowie, but I dug it up and relocated it at the back fence of our yard when we bought this house. It never did well in that location. Now that has changed. I believe I has found a place it likes. I am constantly pruning new growth from the shots to keep it contained to the trellis, but that is a good problem.

Mama and I took time last night to put colored bands on the legs of the younger chickens in the large coop. We have hesitated to let them out for fear they would get mingled with the older hens and we would lose track of which age group they belonged to. With the bands, we are able to quickly identify the different age groups of chickens Mama has. Now, when Mama feels they are ready, she will open their coop gate and allow them to wander with the older chickens. If they do not all end up back on “their side” of the coop, at least we will know which group they belong to. This weekend we will band the youngest group of chickens and all our flock will be identified for future reference.

Over the past few days, we have had opportunity for rain but have not gotten a drop. It has rained all around us, but not at the farm. It is to be expected this time of year, but it is disappointing to see the dark clouds and hear the thunder but not get a drop of rain. At least, I can water where needed to keep things alive. It takes me less than an hour to get everything important wet enough to survive the heat for another day. Unlike West Virginia, where I was chided for watering in the evening, here we have to water in the evening for the watering to do any good. It is a relaxing chore. Something I do not mind doing before I settle in for the evening. Right now, I am watering every evening I am available, and it is paying off. Our sunflowers are blooming, zucchini is still producing, we still are getting cucumbers, and the okra is starting to produce. Our butternut squash is staring to produce – at least the one remaining plant is trying to reproduce itself.

Blueberries, blackberries, and peaches are picked and processed. Figs are starting to grow on the fig tree, but there are not many so far. They usually ripen in late august. Now I just need to keep the trees and bushes healthy through the next seven or eight months so they can produce again next year.

Lord willing. 

Work, lazy evening, DFW trip, Walter’s 5th birthday, Makaila’s birthday

Work has actually kept me busy over the last few weeks. As this isolation of healthy individuals is extended over and over, my company had capitalized on that isolation and imposed travel restrictions by offering more online classes. I will be teaching a class per week for the next several months. As I gave a presentation last week for a new class we are offering, I suggested that we limit the online classes to no more than 6. When we get above that number, we get less participation than when everyone is on the front row – so to speak. I will have two live classes next week here in Decatur, but that will be it for the month as far as face-to-face classes are concerned. All others will be inline. It is good to be busy since the company has extended our work-from-home through September 30^th. I am not sure how much money the company is saving by having everyone work from home, but I know it is not insignificant. Overall, it is a win for the company for sure. For us, the benefits are debatable, but we will survive.

I did not feel right all day yesterday. I was not sick, just feeling off. Out of energy. When I got through with work and Mama and I did the evening feeding, I sat in my recliner and scrolled through the news feeds to see if there was anything interesting. There were a few articles worth my time, but I exhausted that pretty quickly. I did not tackle anything outside. Partly because the heat I worked in over the weekend had worn me out and partly because I was tired of being soaked with sweat. I should have gone out to water the plants, but I did not even do that. I will have to rectify that oversight tonight. What I did do was work on a burned out turn signal light on the Sequoia. I was able to remove the headlight assembly and remove the bad bulb, but I did not have a replacement on hand. I will finish that little chore this evening.

Mama is headed to the airport this morning. Trace is flying out to see his family. They have been in Florida for a couple weeks now and things are a little slow for Trace’s work right now. With jobs on hold waiting for permits in several separate locations – county business offices are closed again in several states – Trace asked for some time off. I know he will have a great time there. His flight is around 1 pm, so Mama has to have him at the airport by 11 am. He is flying Spirit Air, so the price was hard to pass on, but Mama and I have had nothing but bad experiences with that airline. I hope he has a far better experience than ours. It is not a difficult trip. It takes an hour or less each way depending on the traffic, and the airport is easy to navigate, so we do not mind the trip. He will come back next Monday, so the trip will be repeated then.

Walter’s birthday is today. He is five-years-old today. He and Grammy spoke very briefly on the phone this morning. Walter was too distracted to spend much time in conversation even though the call was expected. Walter had specifically requested it. I assume there will be more calls through the day as he includes Mama in the activities of the day – but I could be wrong. Walter is somewhat attached to his Grammy, but the distance makes it hard for the two of them to connect well. It is a good thing that we got to have Walter and Cathryn at the farm for some long periods of time  in the past couple years. They each have great memories of the last time they were with us. At that age, connections require a lot of time spent together in person, but we will take what we get. So far, the connection is maintained through Maggie’s continued efforts to share her children’s lives with us. I hope that continues – especially as they move much farther away this summer.

Today is also Makaila’s birthday. Unfortunately, we do not have the same contact with Chase and Makaila as we do with our other children and grandchildren. In fact, they rarely return our calls or respond to our texts. That may change over time, but for now we are a very small part of their lives. Now I know how my Mom must have felt as her children settled their lives in such a variety of locations across the US and her grandchildren grew up without her being a part of their lives.

At least now, we have forms of communication that allow a semblance of face-to-face interaction. Mama/Grammy delights in every such encounter.

The long weekend, grilling, Bro Daniel’s chore, more grilling

Early Friday morning I went to a local shop and had a tire mounted on one of the rims for my utility trailer. The tire I was replacing was dry rotted to the point that I did not trust it to hold up under the weight of the tractor when I transported it to Bro Daniel’s property. While I was at the tire shop, Mama was at Walmart getting a few items for the long weekend. We were getting these things done early so we did not have to comply with the new mandate issued by the governor of Texas that “masks” be work in “public places” - whatever that was meant to mean – beginning at 12:01 Friday the 3^rd. With the multitude of lawsuits filed against the order, it will not stand for long, but Mama and I are not willing to comply except under duress. Besides, we do not own any masks. Having done those chores, we headed home to start working at the farm.

I did a few hours of yard work with both the wheeled trimmer and the weed eater before I had to get out of the heat. When I got cooled off a bit, I got out the sealer and painted that onto the porch of the small coop. The sealant dries in such a way that it cannot be seen. The wood looks the same as before it was applied, but when it rained, the rain beaded up on the porch versus soaking into the wood. So, I suppose it is working. I will apply a second coat when I get more roller brushes. The one I was using Friday afternoon was the last one I had at the farm. While we were at the little coop, Mama insisted on putting a coat of the sealer in the west wall of the large coop. Again, we could not tell that it had been treated, which I suppose is good, but it did repel the rain more efficiently during the brief showers we got over the weekend.

About noon, I started the pellet grill. I put ears of corn on the grill and set it to SMOKE. That keeps the grill at about 195°. I left that on the grill for three hours. It came out perfectly. I cooked hamburgers, chicken breasts, and asparagus. About 3 pm, Seth and Gabriella came over with Rosalee. Trace came over a little later. Mama made macaroni salad and baked beans. We ate a about 4 pm. Visited for a while before going out to feed, then we loaded up the tractor and headed for Bro Daniel’s.

The concrete pillars I moved for him were heavy enough that it was a strain on the tractor to lift them. Two in particular were very heavy. As I tried to get one of the heavy ones into position – working around things that were in the way of any direct move to the new location – I had to turn uphill and swerve around to where I wanted to place the pillar. In doing so, I had the pillar a little too high and it was causing the tractor to bounce.

At one point I had to lower the pillar to the ground quickly to keep the tractor from tipping over. Once I stabilized, I finished the move and got the pillar into place. The fire pit ring we made with the pillars – about 8x16 feet - was squared up nicely when we were done. Daniel was very pleased. I was a sweaty mess by the time we completed the move and reloaded the tractor onto the trailer. Mama and I visited for a while before we headed home. Mama had followed me over as I trailered the tractor in case anything happened in transport. Fortunately, all went very well. We were home enough before dark that I watered the garden and the trees before I went in for the evening.

Saturday, I completed some of the yard items I had left undone, but I quickly ran out of energy in the heat. So, in order to stay busy, I fired up the pellet grill again. We had six more ears of corn to cook, so we wrapped them in tin foil and put them on the grill at low heat about noon. At about 1:30, I put on some beef stew meat and let it smoke before I put it with shrimp, zucchini and onion on ka-bob skewers. Since we had eaten all nine of the burgers I made Friday, we made more Saturday. Sausages and venison links were added to the grill as the corn was getting done. We had our second pellet grill meal that evening and had enough leftovers that we ate that on Sunday as well. Victoria made some mac-and-cheese with the sausage cut up into it to add to our Sunday meal. What is left of the ka-bobs, I will make into stir-fry this evening. I really like my pellet grill.

Church services on Sunday finished out the weekend in a wonderful way. Praise the Lord for the USA. Protestors have the right to disagree with me and loudly voice that dissent precisely because we live in this free country. We cannot take that for granted.

It was a fun weekend.