Chicken clocks, traveling today, weekend plans

Every evening when Mama and I go out to feed, the chickens are watching for her. It is her custom to feed them scraps and crumbled bread. They absolutely love bread. Over the past few evenings, we have waited a little late to go out because of the heat, but somehow the chickens know when feeding time is coming. On those nights when Mama and I have delayed going out, they will gather at the door of the sun room and talk to us. I am always curious. How do they know what time it is? On those evenings when we got out at a normal time, they are watching for us and quickly gather around Mama or me. They never miss watching for us at the appointed time. Because the goats cannot see the back door of the house from where they stay, they watch the chickens to gauge when we are coming out to feed. If the chickens suddenly run toward the house – indicating that Mama is on her way out – the younger goats begin to call out to us. When the goats begin to bleat, the calf hurries to her feed trough. It is interesting that they have no way of gauging the time, but they can certainly gauge the time of day. I am always fascinated by that. Morning feeding times are a given, but how they tell when it is time for us to come out in the evening is a mystery.

Maggie, Aaron, Cathryn, Walter, and the cats will be traveling this morning, heading East on their way North. They are caravaning. Maggie driving one vehicle and Aaron driving the other.  I am not sure how excited the kids are about the trip, but Maggie assured Mama that the cats are definitely not excited about being displaced. This will be Day 1 for them. I have been to Upper Michigan several times on training assignments. From the highway I saw some beautiful landscapes but have not spent time exploring the state. Michigan is an interesting place to visit. I hope it is a fun place to live. They will be just on this side of the US border, and there are some fun places to see just across the border. At least they will get to enjoy the last of Summer before Fall sets upon them – and them Winter. I have a feeling that the Winters there will be more severe than they were in Juneau. That can be exciting as well as exhausting. I expect that the locals have all the toys required to enjoy the winter as well as the tools required to keep up with the mess.

Cori, Nate, Mykenzie, Grant, Blake and Savanna will be heading to the airport sometime today. Tex had to stay and guard the house in Honduras. All I know about their itinerary today is that they will be arriving in Chicago about 10 pm. Mama will probably still be up waiting to hear from them. I probably will not. Brittany and Andrew will move to base housing this weekend. It will be interesting to see how the girls react to the new living quarters. For the most part, if they are fed regularly and their toy are available and they have the beds they are familiar with, there is little concern on their part. However, that is not always the case. They will be closing on their house next weekend. Busy times for our children and grandchildren.

I will be teaching classes three days next week. Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Tuesday and Friday will be spent getting all the records for those classes recorded in our system. It will be a busy week for me, but it should go by quickly. The following week, I have only one class on the docket, (an in-person class) but that is subject to change very quickly. My management knows that I have my pre-op work to get done Friday of next week and arrangements have been made to accommodate that.

I do not have a long list of projects for this weekend. I will have a list, but I am not sure if I will be able to get much done from the list. We will see. One thing I need to do is get some trash hauled off so I can rearrange the placement of the electric fence at the back of the yard. No urgency on that front. I am going to try to focus on tractor work for most of tomorrow so that I do not have to do much physical labor. That should increase my productive time outside. Again, we will see. I started work on a French drain to relieve the flooding of our back patio when we have heavy rains. I have not gotten very far on that. This weekend would be a good weekend to try to complete that project since a large part of that can be done by the tractor. If not, it can wait until I either feel better or have sufficient help to get it done.

I am looking forward to getting the heart cath done in the hope that it will at least identify if not improve my current health situation. A vain hope? Time will tell.

Dr visit, classes, and more classes, moving

My doctor’s visit on Tuesday went well. I liked this doctor much better than the one that I had seen in Decatur. Not that there was anything wrong with the doctor in Decatur, other than I did not have confidence in her approach to my overall health. At the time I saw the doctor in Decatur I was not feeling as poorly as I do right now so the symptoms of an ongoing problem are accelerating more rapidly than I had thought they would. The doctor I saw this week has recommended a heart catheterization. I agreed. He did not recommend the procedure based on my EKG or the other heart tests I have recently had. He recommended the procedure based on the symptoms I am having and the fact that those symptoms are getting progressively worse in very short order. Shortness of breath and a debilitating lack of energy are the primary issues. I do have some chest pain, but it is very minor. At least I consider it minor. It is difficult for me to distinguish between inner chest pain exterior chest pain – which comes from the heavy lifting I have to do here at the farm. Not being able to work for more than an hour followed by a thirty-minute rest before I can try again is an issue for me. Almost always, after the second hour, I am done for the evening – or the weekend. The procedure is scheduled for Aug 18^th.

The risks are real but fairly minimal. Death – 1 in 1000. Heart attack or stroke – 1 in 100. Infection – 1 in 100. Other limited risks were discussed, but the reward outweighs the risks. Meanwhile at work, I let my immediate supervisors know that I would not be available to teach the class scheduled for the 19^th of August. I hoped to give them enough time to get a backup scheduled. In the email chain I followed yesterday, that is not going to be an easy replacement. One instructor is retiring Friday, the other instructor in the company will not be available because he is going on vacation the 7^th through the 10^th and will be required to self-quarantine through the 20^th.  I have not been told if a hospital visit will require me to self-quarantine for ten days following the procedure. That would make things interesting. However, I will be required to be tested for COVID-19 on the 14^th as part of my pre-op work. In any case, it brings to light the fact that the entire Instructor Led Training program, which we are aggressively expanding, is supported by only one instructor. A very shaky foundation in the best of times.

Next week I have three classes to teach. All online classes. The third was squeezed into the schedule yesterday. Fortunately, I will have all that behind me when I have to take time off for the heart cath. The week before the procedure there is only one class scheduled. A face-to-face class at the Conference Center here in Decatur. An easy week.

Tomorrow is a big day across the family. Cori, Nate and the kids leave Honduras to begin a furlough in the States that will last a couple months. They will fly through Houston to Chicago where they will meet up with Nate’s family. From there they will begin a very far flung church visiting schedule. Also tomorrow, Maggie and Aaron will begin the trek to Aaron’s new duty stating in Northern Michigan. The mask wearing capital of the United States. They have planned the trip to take four days. It is a good time to travel. I t should be fun for them if they let it be fun. They already have home base set for the new location and their personal belongings are being packed for shipment – if that has not already been completed. Brittany, Andrew and the girls will relocate to the base housing at his current duty station tomorrow. Selling their home at a very good time. Hopefully, that will work out well for them. Mama is set to go up to Brittany’s as they finalize packing and vacating their home in preparation for the closing. Mama will endure the “hardship” of keeping the three girls as Brittany devotes herself to other chores required for the move. Lots of moving in the family. I guess my children inherited the need to move from me and Mama. Hopefully their kids are not counting up the moves they make through their childhood as my children did.

Since the new restaurant opened, Alex and crew have been incredibly busy. So much so that they asked Mama to sit in the restaurant and answer the phone. Just to take orders so they could be free to fill those orders. The food is amazing. And it seems all the locals are excited about the Chinese food as well as the sushi available on the new menu. Right not the restaurant is set up for carry out only but even at that their lunch orders are nearing 300 over the four-hour lunchtime window. That is a lot for only seven people to prepare. Unfortunately, Mama was not able to give them the help they needed. She is mask averse and she is hurting too badly to be able to sit at the counter all day taking orders.

Being that busy is a great problem to have.

Getting my steps, exercise, Bridgette

Yesterday evening I spent some time at the quarry lake. It was almost too hot to go fishing, but I need a break and a low impact way to get my 10k steps in for the day. There was enough of a breeze blowing that the heat was not oppressive, but it was still unquestionably hot – especially since there was nowhere to fish in the shade. I only spent a couple hours at the lakes because I needed to make sure I had time to water the trees and bushes before dark. In that time, I caught four small bass. None were large enough to keep. Since the lake level in the upper lake was down a good bit, I was able to step onto the barge in the lake and fish from there. If I had been looking for brim, I could have brought home dozens of them. They were thick as minnows under the barge. The larger bass were making themselves scarce, however, when I was at the quarry lake I watched as a smaller fish popped out of the water three times trying to escape being eaten by what looked like a very large bass. The hunter bass never broke the surface, but he sure did make a large swirl in the water a he pursued his prey.

When I got into the house after watering the plants, I had 9978 steps recorded for the day. I crossed the 10k mark easily from there and was showing 11,622 by the time we went to bed. I used to poo-poo the whole counting steps thing, but I have changed my mind, realizing that it is helpful to have some constant measure of activity. When we got Mama a Fit Bit, I was amazed at how many steps it recorded for her in a normal day. She averages about 10k steps per day. Pretty amazing considering she spends hours per day reclined on the couch tending to her business via smart phone. With my days spent on the computer, I average only about 7,500 steps per day. To get to the 10k mark, I have to work in the extra steps on purpose. But at least I can measure that activity.

I felt better yesterday evening than I have in a long time. It may be in part to getting out the exercise straps I have not used in a while. The straps are for passive resistance exercises. When I replaced the laundry room door, I attached the board to the door that I can attach the straps to, but I never put them back in service. Mama did not like them hanging over the door as it faced the kitchen, so I left them bundled up on the backside of that door. Wednesday I got them restrung over the door so I could start exercising again. I only spend about fifteen minutes doing the exercises, but it really seems to help me feel better. Especially doing the deep knee bends. That has minimized the leg cramps I have every night when I lay down in bed. When I was at my last doctor’s appointment, she asked how I was sleeping. I told her it was hit and miss, but I was generally able to get seven to eight hours of sleeper night. That seemed to satisfy her. What else she may have been looking for I do not know.

Bridgette is going to the dentist this morning to get some work done. I am under the impression that she will be anesthetized for the procedure, but I am not sure. Becky let us know so we could be praying for her and Bridgette.

We do not have a lot on our list for this weekend. We are planning on selling three of our little boy goats at an auction in Bowie. We will keep our smallest boy out of the group and give him time to grow a bit. That will leave us with Midas, Julian and the little one in the boy’s paddock. That will help with feed over the next few months and it will give us a little income. We are not expecting to get a lot out of the boys, but at least we will get something out of them. As sad as it is to see them go, we need to move them along so we can limit our herd size. Having Julian and Midas will give us two breeder males. That will be enough for us for a couple years. On the female side of the farm, we have four nanny goats and four little girls. The nanny goats are all bred. Due to kid in September and October. The little ones will be bred in March or April. Or we may breed all eight in May or June. We have not decided yet, but there is time to pray about that.

Other than making it to the auction, we will be busy around the farm with our normal weekend activities. I will be teaching classes Monday and Wednesday next week…the last week of July. Wow. That came quickly!

Mama’s business, routine, health issues, schedule issues

We had to be at church early last night so Mama could meet with Brittany and Leah Wycoff. The two of them are wanting to sign up in Mama’s Color Street business. They will sign up under Mama and be moved to Victoria so she can expand her business. Not only that but an old friend from Victoria. TX, now living in North Carolina, is signing up as well. Mama and I have been praying for more people to sign up. Not that she would get rich from this business, but that it would keep growing month by month until it becomes a real busines versus another hobby. It is encouraging to Mama and her upline.

I will research today how much money I have put into the business as well as Mama’s other expenses so we can get a true sense of whether or not she is making money – or just spending enough to look like she is making money. Having Mama try to keep track is a less than promising proposition, but I intend to get her started on that so she can really know where her money is going as her Color Street business continues to grow. She ranks now as a Team Leader and her stats within the organization show that she can reach the Director status before the end of August. Pretty impressive. For those of you who know Mama it is VERY impressive.

As I was out helping Mama feed this morning, I thought about growing up in a house in the city, how often we were bored. Those were days in which television was not a 24/7/365 occurrence. Shows were broadcast in the evenings only and all broadcasts shut down at mid-night. There were no video games, no internet, no iTunes, Netflix, etc. Often, we played baseball in the cul-de-sac in front of our house, but that was not a constant activity. As we got older, I set up large aquariums in the garage and eventually started raising snakes and the rodents I fed the snakes. But, more often than not, we had little to do other than play on the playground equipment dad setup in the back yard. I say all that to say that even the “routine” activities Mama and I deal with here at the farm are far more interesting than I had available in my childhood. So, I try not to think of our life here on the farm as boring, but it can get to be routine. Working from home allows me to participate to a greater extent in that routine – which I enjoy thoroughly. I will miss it when we are required to go back to the office. Fortunately, I have another two months to enjoy working mostly from home. I plan to do so as much as possible.

Right now, however, it is difficult to enjoy the routine. It is so hot in the afternoon and evenings that Mama and I are soaked through even with the light duty feeding we do every evening. I have not been working in the shop in the evenings because of the heat – and because there is nothing pressing other than keeping the plants and trees alive through this drought. It is not unexpected. It happens every year and we are set up to deal with it, but it still very uncomfortable to be out in the heat. More so with the health issues I am dealing with. Mama is going to set up an appointment for me with the cardiologist Grandpa is seeing. I need to have a full evaluation of heart function, but I do not like the cardiologist I saw here in Decatur. Nothing personal, we just did not hit it off. She had way too many answers and not enough questions. I got the feeling that she wanted to rush me into the operating room to satisfy her curiosity about my present heart condition. I am not feeling so badly that I need immediate attention, but I can tell something is not right with my health. While I have good insurance, I should do something to get the issue resolved. I jut hate to give up the time and money required to do so.

That evaluation, which requires some time in the hospital, may be difficult for me to arrange with work. They have me on a very packed schedule. As I spoke briefly with my immediate boss yesterday, she alluded to the tight schedule I have going forward and her worries in maintaining that schedule. I am presenting at least one class per week. Many weeks I have two classes scheduled. That does not allow for any vacation or – at the worst – sick time. As long as my boss realizes that, I am okay going forward as planned. But at some point, we will have to get someone else on board to handle the volume of classes we are offering. It is manageable only because it does not require any travel on my part. Once travel is required, it will be a very difficult schedule to maintain.

But, again, we have through the end of September to address that.

Dr apt, teaching tomorrow

My appointment with the doctor was anticlimactic. I am doing well enough to just keep doing what I am currently doing with the additional assignment that I get at least 10k steps per day. My average is about 8k per day. The underlying reason for the increase in overall activity is to lose weight. My weight has held constant for the better part of a year and it is certainly a good idea to lower my weight. As I age, the need to practice better eating habits is not only a good idea, it is a life-extending idea. The fact that I have held onto about thirty extra pounds for several years does not indicate any real desire on my part to get my weight under control. Perhaps it is time. I have noticed that flavor is starting to disappear form most foods. Those things that do have flavor cause me such horrific heartburn that I avoid them. I suppose that is to be expected, but it is disappointing.  

Because I am experiencing difficulty dealing with the heat, I was given a prescription for a low dose nitro glycerin pill in case I feel the need, but I do not know that I will use any of the pills. The fact that I have spent so little time out in the heat and have, therefore not acclimated to the heat is most likely the reason I wear out so quickly. At this point, the extreme heat will be over before I have a chance to acclimate this year. So, I will just endure and do as much as much as I can in the evenings. If it turns out that the fatigue is more than a lack of ability to tolerate the heat, we will deal with that at some point in the future. My blood pressure is good. Hy heart rate is outstanding. It is breathing I struggle with. That can relate to heart problems, but correlation is not causation. In a month, if I am still having issues, I will go and see Grandma’s cardiologist to see it I need a heart catheterization to fully evaluate my heart condition.

Tomorrow, I was not scheduled to teach. Another of my colleagues was scheduled to teach the class, but he had to bow out. I am happy to teach the class, especially since it is a 4-hour class. I think my management was trying to give me a break since the full burden of instructing will fall on me alone starting August 1^st. Red Shaw will retire on July 31. He is the only other person at my company that is listed primarily as an instructor. Going forward, I will have at least two classes per week through the month of August. Mostly online classes with some in person classes. It should be a very busy schedule while we promote our online class offerings. I have no idea what the pressure on me will be when travel is allowed again, and I will be required to be onsite for a client class while still maintaining the online class teaching schedule. What fun?

On the way back from the doctor’s office Mama and I shopped at Walmart. Nether of us wore a mask. We were not asked to, so we did not offer. There were some stares. There were some sideways looks, but in general we were treated as we have always been. People greeted us cordially. We engaged in conversation with several other shoppers in fairly normal conversation. It was not a bad experience. I was asked to wear a mask at the doctor’s office, but when I said I did not have one with me and had trouble breathing when I did wear one nothing more was said.

Fortunately, I am not required to wear a mask at the office. If I was, I would comply…grudgingly. I would not be surprised if we are required to mask up before we are all allowed to reoccupy the office, but the work from home date has been extended to September 30^th. So, we have time to wait for this madness to evolve – for the better or for the worse – until that date. Who knows what will happen in the next two months? Sadly, this will all be over on or about November 7^th.

Next week will be the last week of July. How this year has flown by.

Last week, another light weekend, Victoria’s charges

Last week, as I worked my way through classes, I did not take the time to write any updates to this blog. It is not because there was nothing noteworthy, just that time was taken by more pressing issues. I had gotten into some dust Monday evening using the trimmer on a fence line and the effects of that dust stayed with me through the remainder of the week. I had to give my Wednesday class to Red so I could be available for the Thursday class. It is a class only a handful of us can teach. Even with the extra time to rest my voice I was struggling by the end of the class. My voice was recovered by Sunday to the point that I could lead the singing, but only because Mama and I both wore masks as we cleaned the coop buildings. That is a proper use of masks. By the time we were done, those masks were soaked with sweat and dirt. It was an awful sight, but the coops are cleaned for the moment and it saved my voice.

The hour plus spent in the morning heat doing the coop cleaning about wore Mama and me out. I seem to be running on empty lately. I used to be able to go strong all morning, rest a bit in the heat of the day and then work strong through the evening. Not now. I am spent after a couple hours of labor. Really spent.  But in the cleaning of the coops I used the shop vac to thoroughly clean the cobwebs from the wire I have protecting the window openings. Over the years those opening have been covered with webs and the dust those spider webs accumulate. It was long past due to get all that off the openings and allow some freer exchange of air through the building. The effect was immediate. Plus, it just looks better. The chickens roosted completely differently that night because of the increased airflow.

After we got that chore done, I rested a bit before going out to check the hives. I was curious to see if the two hives I have not expanded were ready for honey supers. When I opened one of the two, the bees were very docile. Very few flew out of the hive to challenge me. I was able to check the frames and determine that they were still not ready for the honey supers. I sealed that hive up and went to the second. They were not docile. It looked like the entire hive flew immediately to fend me off. The suit I have is amazing protection against such an onslaught. However, the new gloves I had just purchased were not up to the challenge. I was stung on the back of my right hand through the glove almost as soon as the attack began. Maybe five or six stings total.

The stings were not “deep” stings, but I could still feel them. I took my time to look the frames over and determine that they were even further behind than the hive with the docile bees, so no honey super was added to that hive either. Disappointing. Both that the hives were not much further along and that the gloves did not fully protect me. Last night the itching was miserable, but there was no additional infection with the stings. I talked to Mama about giving up the bees, but I am only getting stung on my hands. I will do some research to see if I can remedy that inexpensively. While l had the bee suit on, I took the string trimmer and cut the weeds around the hives. I quickly found out what a great idea that was from the attention I got from all three hives. Everyone participated in that attack, but I did not get stung again. That seems to happen only when I reach into the hives. Other that those few chores, I did not stay out in the heat much. I go to the doctor tomorrow for a follow up. I am curious to see if she has any suspicions about my current lack of energy.

Victoria watched the three boys of her coworker Saturday and Sunday. The three ranging in age from one year to five years old are a handful. I added myself in where I could, but the burden fell largely to Victoria. Saturday evening, Mama and Victoria were worn out. I am not sure how much their mommy pays for a babysitter, but that person earns her wage. All three are good boys. They are just very busy all the time. The one-year-old is a twenty pounder who does not like living at ground level. He is constantly wanting to be held. He would go to any one of us to be picked up, but he preferred Victoria. Fifteen minutes of carting him around was about all any of us could handle. So, he swapped out often.

Sunday, as always was great. Maybe next Sunday we will get to eat at the new restaurant! We’re looking forward to that.

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.