Grant, haircuts, coming together

In the past week, Cori and Nate have been given a little more potential insight into the problems Grand has been having with fainting spells. The family that they, by change, got the opportunity to visit with have lost two children to a genetic heart condition that seemed to appear suddenly to claim the lives of their children. The parents were unaware of the condition until the first child died from the condition. As they all discussed the symptoms evidenced prior to the eventual fatal episodes, the symptoms were eerily similar to what Grant has been experiencing for several years. Fortunately, there is a medical test that can be done to diagnose that genetic condition.

Unfortunately, there is no medical facility or doctor that can perform the test in Honduras. There is a doctor available in Costa Rica and Cori has made a online appointment with that doctor to see what can be done – first from a distance, the, if necessary, onsite at the Costa Rican facility. That appointment is set up for the end of February, the first available date. Bear in mind, that we do not know if what Grant has been experiencing is a result of this newly discovered possibility, but it will certainly help continue to diagnose Grant’s condition. Since there has been no other insight offered to help Grant, this lead will be followed through until we get an answer of either “yes” or “no”. Remember that even a “no” on a potential diagnosis is still progress toward a workable solution.  We will be praying for guidance and wisdom for Nate and Cori as they pursue this new information.

Kimberlyn came to the farm today to serve as a beautician. She made quick work of Grandpa’s mop of hair – the envy of all the males in my lineage – and did a great job of it. After a short rest, Mama was next. That haircut took a good bit more time, not because of the amount of hair, but because of the far greater importance of the final outcome to Mama. Grandpa is not hard to please. Mama is much more interested in how her hair looks. All turned out well, and the ladies enjoyed the visit.

Mama is very pleased with her haircut. I was informed that all she needs now is a pedicure and she will be ready for Honduras. I am certain that the home salon today was better for the three of them than a trip to any beauty salon. I am pretty well convinced that the trips women make to the salon is more of a social event than a required beauty exercise. To finish out the visit, Mama and Kimberlyn went to lunch prior to Kimberlyn going home. It was a good visit for both of them and Grandma got to participate in the visit as well.

As for our trip, things are coming together. I spent a little time on the phone this morning talking to a vendor of travel insurance. I could have bought the policy without the conversation, but the helpful agent answered all my questions and even provided some insights I did not know were available to me in the purchase. With the condition of our airline industry at present and the potential interference of poor weather conditions, I feel much more comfortable having the insurance in force. Also, Mama and I have scheduled our COVID tests for next Tuesday morning. Sadly, a negative test result is still required for entry into the country of Honduras. Online pre-entry forms have been filled out and submitted to the Honduran State Department, so we should be ready as far as paperwork is concerned.

Norman will be returning to the farm Monday so Mama will have time to acquaint him with all the little things she does for her flocks and herds twice daily. It is a process I have difficulty following and I get to participate in that process several times per week. My take on secondary care for our livestock is only that they all be sufficiently fed and watered, and that they are reasonably secured in their enclosures each night, not that every little detail is carried out. With almost every night in our absence forecast to be below freezing, providing water will, as always, be the challenge. I have confidence, with Grandpa and Grandma to provide oversight, all will be well.

The morning we are leaving, Wednesday the first, the forecast is for freezing rain overnight and through the day. That means that the trip to the airport that morning, at 2:30 am, will be a potentially hazardous one. Norman, is a very good driver who is familiar with the type of conditions we may be dealing with that morning. Time will tell, but it is a nagging detail as we plan our trip. Nevertheless, we are doing all we can to get packed and ready.

I am definitely looking forward to the trip, especially the time we will spend in Roatan, which for now, is scheduled to be four days. Mama and I have always wanted to visit the island but have not been able to do so in the past. This trip is providing us that unique opportunity. We will do so with Nate, Cori and the kids. That will make the memories created in that time very special. Our island-hopping part of the trip will come after the Get Away Conference01272023 Nate and Cori’s church. We are also looking forward to that three-day conference which is conducted wholly in English. Mama like that.

So we have a full itinerary if all goes as scheduled and less than a week to wait.

Good fireplace weather, partial packing, struggling voice

Since the temperature is falling towards freezing and the rain is falling softly – giving us the potential for several inches of snow – it seems a good time to have a fire burning in the fireplace. In preparation for the need of a fire, I spent the evening yesterday making sure we had a good store of firewood in the sunroom. The only caveat is that the wood we now have available is not nearly as dry as the several years old firewood we have fed to our recent fires. That made it a little difficult to get the fire started this morning, but thanks to Grandpa’s ministrations and diligence there is a fire burning brightly now. With a good bed of coals forming under the grate, the wood we have available will burn well as we add it to the fire.  Fires in the fireplace eventually warm the room and the house but mostly they warm the heart. It is distractingly peaceful to simply sit and watch the fire. Grandpa and Grandma will spend the majority of the day doing just that.

The softly falling rain is a boon to the ducks. They always enjoy the rain. They seem completely unaffected by the temperature. On mornings that the pool is frozen over, the ducks will climb onto the frozen surface and peck at the ice until they break through and then happily bathe in the nearly freezing water. It will be interesting this afternoon when the rain is forecast to turn to snow. We have never seen how they will react to that type of precipitation. If it gets too bad, they will resort to their enclosure which provides a dry shelter from all storms. The goats, meanwhile, have sequestered themselves inside their respective shelters. The chickens are ambivalent. If the rain is soft, they will forage around as usual. When the rainfall increases, they seek shelter until it lessens. When it snows, they will also congregate in the coops away from the snow.  

When, of if, the snow begins to fall the goats will stay inside their respective shelters even doing without water for the day. They do not like wet ground but they really do not like snow. When we feed this evening, I will carry five-gallon buckets of water to the goats in their shelters so they can drink. Tomorrow morning, if I am allowed to work from home once again, I will have to swap out the frozen five-gallon buckets with buckets of fresh water. By late tomorrow we should be above freezing and the rain is forecast to have ended, so things will thaw and dry out pretty quickly. Nevertheless, the goats will be hesitant to venture out of the dry shelters until the ground firms up. They are funny animals that way.

With our trip only a week from today, Mama and I are getting ready in little steps. We can only pack up so much at a time, but we need to be able to fit all that is going with us into the allotted suitcases. So far, we have only one half of a suitcase packed with many the items we are taking specifically to Honduras for Cori, Nate and the kids and the weight of that suitcase is already thirty-nine pounds. With a fifty pound limit, it will need to be filled with light items – shirts and undergarments – in order to meet that requirement. Since there are more than an equal amount of items yet to be packed and weighed, the challenge remains for us to arrange everything wisely in the small cubit footage of three suitcases – one of which we will have to pay extra for on the trip down. Being partially ready is better than not being ready at all but the days will pass quickly as we add time and energy to the effort.

One of the major challenges to packing the sundry items being stowed specifically for our Honduran children and grandchildren are two particularly oddly shaped pieces of doll furniture we are taking to Savanna. One is a beauty shop chair, and the other is a double stroller. The beauty shop chair is going to be difficult to pack even if I disassemble it, but Mama is determined to get it to Savanna so I will go as far as I can to make that happen. It remains to be seen if we will succeed, especially with that one item.

I was supposed to be teaching a class today but had to pass it off to a colleague. My sinuses flared up in rebellion against the contaminants they were exposed to because of ashes I cleaned out of the fireplace as well as the leaves I raked and mulched. Because of the tickling cough and profusely runny nose, I missed church Sunday, office work on Monday and presenting a class today. Perhaps by Thursday I will be well enough to teach the class I am scheduled for. I hate to pass off too many classes unless it is absolutely necessary. This one today was necessary. Mama is very concerned that I be completely healed by the time we get on our way next Wednesday morning. To do so, I will need to be very careful to avoid irritating my sinuses again.

That is easier said than done during the Winter.

Chicken secrets, fumbling in Spanish, beautiful forecast for little things

For the past few days Mama and I have suspected that the Banty hens in the small coop were finding alternate places to lay their eggs, but we had not been able to find those places. Each evening, Mama and I would explore one potential location or another. Since we cannot think like chickens we had no success – until Wednesday evening. What Mama found was an accumulation of eighteen eggs that had been laid together in a corner of the most recent compost bin I had built. Obviously several days accumulation from multiple birds.

For months now, I have kept the chickens out of the areas under the coops because they were laying eggs in those areas which we could not access rather than in the nesting boxes. Now we get the majority of eggs from the nesting boxes – except in the little coop. So, to resolve that, I am covering the kennel attached to the little coop this weekend, thus keeping those chickens in until late in the afternoon. Hopefully, that will train them to lay in the nesting boxes we have provided. Hopefully. Chickens like to find hard to access places to lay so they can continuously challenge or ability to find their secret stashes of eggs. That is a game we do not always win, so, I try to tilt the odds in our favor.

Last night, I went with twelve others from the church to a Missions Conference in Ft. Worth.  At that conference there was a couple on deputation to go to the field of Romania. The husband is from Peru and the wife is from Argentina. Neither of them speaks English well. I was not sure if the older of their three children speak English with any proficiency because I did not have time to converse with them. So, in their deputation they mainly focus on conferences at Spanish speaking churches. This conference was an exception in their routine because attending the conference were a lot of individuals who were fluent in Spanish. Because of access to multiple, fluent translators, they were able to engage with the attendees and other participating missionaries.

My pastor’s wife was excited that I was going last night so that I could speak to this couple. She had tried to communicate with them but was aware she as not connecting. Almost as soon as we were in the gym/fellowship hall, Joyce steered me over to introduce me to the couple. They were delightful. We spent about a half hour conversing. Mostly them helping me with Spanish and but also me helping them with English. When dinner was announced, we separated into our groups, but not before they encouraged me by telling me that my Spanish was very good, that my pronunciation and diction was better than many Spanish speakers they had spent time with lately, and I should practice more often to get more comfortable speaking.

After the service was over, I connected with the couple once more to let them know I would be praying for them as they continued their deputation. We spent another fifteen minutes together, but before we parted the husband told me that I should consider a ministry with Spanish speakers. There are not many Americans, he told me, that seem to care that the Spanish they speak is spoken in such a way that the hearers not only understand the works being spoken but feel pleased at the way in which those words are being spoken. I was honored because my speech to communication with them (in my opinion) was halting and strained as I struggled to find the right words and phrases. Nevertheless, they heard my heart. That is what matters most.

The weekend forecast is a pleasant one. Days in the high sixties and nights in the in the thirties. Plenty of sunshine with light winds. That should allow me to get a couple small projects done – like putting a roof over the kennel part of the Banty yard. I would also like to get the door put on the West end of the barn loft, but that door is pretty heavy so getting it into place will be a bit of a load for me to accomplish on my own. I have not made a list of chores for this evening and Saturday and I will probably regret not being better prepared but I did not want to shortchange Mama as she requires my participation in general household chores – especially as we prepare for a two week absence.

One of the other little things I need to see to is taking enough boards off the ramp to the nesting box in the duck’s shelter so I can inspect the nest a couple of the smaller ducks have made outside our reach. I thought I had enclosed the area under the deck the nesting box sits on, but the smaller ducks still manage to get into and out of the insufficiently sealed off area. Eventually, I will open it up to the ducks, but I did not want the ducks to get into the habit of laying in that space. If they do, I will have a difficult time fetching eggs from the void under the deck. We will cross that bridge when we get to it.

There are still mountains of leaves to deal with before the Spring but I have never had a good way to handle that immense accumulation, so I work on it in batches, never more than an hour of raking or shredding at a time. I am always careful to mask myself because there is nothing that disturbs by bronchial more than the dust and mold in leaves. Hopefully, this weekend will allow me to keep my lungs clear as I mulch a bit more of the leaves. That chore is something Mama and Grandma can and do help with, so in a couple weekends we should be able to clear the ground quickly.

Time will tell.

Soup day, bad practice, payday

Yesterday was National Soup Day, so my company had anyone who was willing to do so prepare their favorite soup to share at a luncheon for all who were in the office. There were eleven soups on the table, and I am sure all of them were delicious, but I was not able to sample each one. I did manage to sample six of the offerings and enjoyed each one I did taste. It was a potluck lunch that was right down my alley. I love soups. I sampled chicken chili, minestrone, broccoli and cheese soup, tomato soup, seaweed soup, and of course, I tasted the soup I had taken to make sure it was okay.

I made the chicken and dumpling soup that Mama and I enjoy. I was pleased when I went to get my crock pot at the end of the day and found it completely empty. I was told a few minutes later that three ladies had had a spirited discussion about who would get to take what was left of the soup home for dinner. I do not know who won the argument, but it was made easy to collect because I used a crock pot protector bag when I put the soup into the crock pot after I had prepared it in another pot on the stovetop. To get the remaining contents to take home, the lucky winner simply gathered the plastic liner like a bag and knotted it. Mama was hoping for leftovers of the soup but that did not happen.

Twice now, Grandma has witnessed the outside dogs chasing cows in the field across the road. I do not doubt what she has seen but I had not, to date, witnessed it myself. However, this afternoon at lunch I saw the cows coming into the far corner of the field where there had been chased by the dogs and the dogs, Gemma first, began to bark and move toward the field. I yelled to the both of them and thankfully they stopped immediately. Dolly came to me in a very submissive way so I fussed at her and fussed over her for a few minutes. A few minutes later, a truck towing a field feeder came down the road to spread cubes out for the cows in the quarry area. Again, I stopped Gemma and Dolly from responding and waited outside as the bull – last in line of the cattle returning across the field – lumbered up to and then followed the truck back onto the larger property. I do not know if I made any difference in the dogs newly discovered game of cow running, but I tried.

It is not allowable for dogs to run cows for fun. So far, the two of them have been tolerated by the landowner and the lease holders, but chasing cows will be so poorly viewed that we might lose both of the dogs if Mama and I cannot stop them from continuing to do so. I myself have shot dogs that were running cattle on my own property back in West Virginia so I would not have protested if one of my own dogs was shot when engaged in the same bad practice. I hope we can win this little skirmish with our dogs, but I am not overly confident.

Mama had to take Grandma and Grandpa out for their monthly ritual of getting money orders to pay bills as well as doing some banking that is carried out every month after payday, the third Wednesday of every month. It is the one-time Grandpa has to be stern with Grandma. They have only one check coming per month and they have many little bills to cover with that fixed amount, so even though there is money in the bank, there is not enough to blow on little shiny things that catch Grandma’s eyes. Most of Grandma’s trinkets are things that can be given to others – cards, knick-knacks, mementos. The challenge is that there is not the required money to cover all of her requests as well as the postage needed to send those items to their recipients, so they work out how much they can do this month and leave the rest undone until next month. It is amusing to watch the interactions each month when the two of them are dealing with their limited money income.

I am continuously surprised by how much Grandpa is able to do with that little income.

Private goat rodeo, Sunday, welding school

Friday evening, I put the racks on the truck so we could haul a goat to the sale early Saturday morning. Once the truck was ready, I had Norman wait on the outside of the paddock as I got the collar on the goat. That generally happens inside the shelter as I offer feed to attract the goat to the trough. What I do is put the dog collar around the neck of the goat to be moved and wrap the leash under the front legs to allow me to grab both the collar and leash on top of the goats’ shoulders like a halter. That enables us to hang onto the goat as we steer it to the proper destination. With the youngest of our bucks, I assumed there would be no real problem, I was wrong.

When I tried to get the collar over the head of the buck, he reacted very decisively and almost managed to get his head free of the collar before I could get the leash behind his front legs. He was struggling against me so fiercely that I lost my balance and was dragged on top of the buck out of the shelter and almost all the way around the shelter before Norman caught up to the two of us and lended his weight and strength to mine in corralling the buck. Once we had the buck under control, we headed for the gate out of the paddock. As we were heading out of the paddock, Julian, one of the larger bucks repeatedly tried to mount the smaller buck so Norman and I had to fight off the older, larger buck as we continued to keep the smaller buck headed to the gate. It was a real clown show. We did eventually get the buck into the truck but nor without a lot of effort and a bit of comedy. I was exhausted and hurting for the remainder of the evening.

I was expecting to get only $120 for the buck from the stock sale but to our very pleasant surprise, I was offered $197. The market where we took the buck changed their practice and instead of doing a head-by-head auction through the day simply buys the livestock themselves at a fair market price from 7am until noon then separates the livestock per buyers requests and offers the stock for buyers to purchase after 2 pm the same day. With that set up, I walked away from the market with a check in hand for the goat we sold. I liked that arrangement really well. The one sale will net us enough to buy feed for the farm animals for one month. That is a great tradeoff.

Saturday evening, I went with Norman, Mama, and Victoria to look at a couple RV’s. I was shocked that Victoria was even considering any of the RV’s Mama and Grandpa had looked over because the one they were most interested in Victoria considering was being listed at $42,000. Granted, it was a very nice, very large and very well-equipped RV, but it was still a travel trailer. I cannot imagine going into that much debt for temporary housing. Something that is not built for constant occupancy – to be parked and lived in for months or years. These are built for weekend use. Not for permanent dwellings. I was staggered by the price and fortunately, so was Victoria. Grandma and Norman were all in on the purchase and I tried to bite my tongue until Victoria asked me to offer any advice. She did not need to. She was able to make what I felt was the right decision on her own – much to the disappointment of some.  

Sunday was unusual this week because our Pastor from Amarillo, Bro. Chadwick came to our church to preach. It was good to see him and his wife after almost nine years. Mama and I moved from Amarillo to Bowie in 2013. I loved the teaching style Bro. Chadwick had in pastoring the church we attended in Amarillo, so it was good to hear him once more. Because of our connection to the Chadwick’s, Mama and I were invited to have lunch with them and our pastor and his wife Sunday afternoon. That gave us even more time to catch up and visit. Both Pastor Chadwick and his wife are entering into their eighties but still going strong. They are a great example of loving the Lord, loving each other and loving life together after more than sixty years of marriage.

This morning, part of my work team got together to watch one of our peers do some welding. It was a fun way to spend the morning. Claude, our experienced welder, gave us a chance to not only watch him do some welding the company had requested him to do, but he used the morning to give us tips on welding as well as a chance to take some photos and videos of the project. Many of those images will eventually find their way into our training courses. I ended up in several of the images and am sharing a couple of those. Several small things I learned this morning will serve me very well as I continue to weld on fences, braces, and equipment repairs around the farm.

When everyone in our group had left but me, Claude and Russel, my compatriot instructors, I was asked about retiring in June. I had to answer honestly that I am not sure. I would like to, but I do not feel peace about it yet. They would just as soon I did not retire, so it is good to know that there is still a spot for me to continue as we have been in sharing the responsibility of instructing classes.

There is no urgency, but mid-year will be here very quickly and at some point in the very near future, I will need to say yea or nay.

Grandpa, Victoria, packing

For those of you that have not heard, Grandpa got a relatively poor prognosis in his appointment with the kidney specialist yesterday. The finding of the doctor was that Grandpa was showing no more than 30% kidney function. That, in and of itself is not an immediate threat; however, when that function falls to 15% or less, his body will shut down quickly. No one can predict how rapidly the degradation will happen. Grandpa, because of his ongoing heart issues, is not eligible for dialysis – which would be a remedy to someone in better health.

With that diagnosis, we are left with waiting for the kidneys to wear out. The doctor told Mama that for someone with this condition, the vast majority of patients that die of kidney failure simply fall asleep one day and do not wake up from that final rest. It is not an unpleasant way to go home, but there are few indicators that that moment is at hand. So, we strive to enjoy Grandpa’s good days and hope we have many more of them.

Grandpa shared with Mama a few mornings ago that he feels like he is dying. Translating Grandpa is difficult but what we are hearing is that he has the underlying sense that his life will be ending soon. Recently, he has about two to three low days in a row followed by one good day. On the good day, he will walk, do some little thing outside and sit up most of the day. On the low days, much of his time is spent lying in bed. Yesterday, following his and Grandma’s normal breakfast routine (coffee and pecan rolls) he left the bed only to make trips to the bathroom. He endured the ride to and from the doctor’s office, but he did not feel well.

He is mostly satisfied with his life. He is ready to go home. How much longer he will allow himself to live at 30% capacity is difficult to predict, but his work passion and his active spirit will not be satisfied to do so too much longer. If you have something to say to Grandpa, now is the time. If you feel the need to spend a few hours visiting with him, now is the time. All are welcome. Mama and I will do our best to accommodate anyone who comes. For calls, mornings are the best times to connect with Grandpa.

Last night was cold, so I started a fire in the fireplace and it has been kept going through the night and into today. We have a Windsor chair facing the fireplace which is Grandpa’s favorite place to sit while enjoying the fire. He typically takes on the responsibility of tending to the fire – getting the wood from the piles stacked in the sunroom, arranging the logs on the grate and making sure the fire keeps going. It is not much but it gives him something to do that he can do. Plus, we all enjoy the fire, especially Grandma and Grandpa.

The only challenge in maintaining the fire is that, in Grandma’s mind, if there is not a significant flame, she does not consider it to be an actual fire. A glowing bed of coals, though they generate significant heat, is not a fire to Grandma. Grandpa therefore is constantly urged to put another log on the fire, stir up the fire, rearrange the logs on the fire, or some other effort to get the flames to burn more fully. When Grandma is dissatisfied with the outcomes of Grandpa’s efforts, she will try her hand at getting the flame to dance a little higher. Mama and I let the two of them work it out. It is a fun dynamic to watch.

Victoria’s appointment, as I mentioned before, left her with the option to have the lumps removed from her breasts or monitor them on a six-month recurring basis. After doing an analysis of the cost/benefit of the two follow-up pathways and having found out that the surgery is affordable, quick and fairly easy to recover from, she has tentatively decided to have the surgery. Several of our lady friends have advised Victoria that since there is a real danger that the lumps have the capacity to become cancerous, it is best to eliminate that risk completely if possible. So, that is being mapped into our future scheduling of activities, which for now revolves around the trip to Honduras. That will be happening in just a couple weeks.

As I look over the stack of boxes and loose items Mama and I are taking to Honduras, I am thinking that we will need to take an extra suitcase or tote to ensure we have room for our personal items as well as the gifts and purchases that we have accumulated to be included for transport. It is not a big deal, but it is something we need to plan carefully for. Some of the most difficult items to pack are ones that Mama and I have bought. Cori and Nate tend to be far more thoughtful about packages that have to be fit into suitcases, considering both the dimensions of the purchases and the weight of each item. Mama, not so much. I tend to do what I can to accommodate Mama in those decisions. Sometimes it works out easily. Sometimes not.  Fortunately, Victoria just made a trip to Honduras, so the stack we are following up with is considerable smaller than it might have been.

Hopefully, Mama and I can figure it all out.

Victoria’s birthday, Norman, Grandpa, pig inspection

For Victoria’s special birthday present today, she got to go to an appointment with a surgeon to get a prognosis on the lumps in her breast. What a unique gift for the person who is very difficult to buy for. The outcome of that visit is that the lumps are not problematic as long as they are not causing her any discomfort. They are non-cancerous, but can he removed if Victoria would like to do so. I think she will not. Anyway, she can finally rest easy with a definitive diagnosis and a clear prognosis of the issue. I believe both she and Mama are relieved. Getting someone in the medical community to commit to a prognosis as a challenge.

Since the appointment was in Denton, Mama and Victoria have scheduled several shopping stops with the appointment. Mama’s operating philosophy is to make the most of every trip she takes off the farm, especially to an area that has ample shopping opportunities. Today will be no exception. Shoe shopping. Sam’s shopping. The Bread Day Old Store and Panera’s. At least one meal at Chick-fil-A. Whatever else can be reasonable added into the circuit they will take through the city – while avoiding I-35. Hopefully, it will be a good day for both of them. Something pleasant and memorable for Victoria’s birthday.

Norman was able to complete a repair and remodel job he started Sunday in Bowie so he will be gathering up all his tools and personal items and heading to Florida for some small jobs there. His original plan to return to Wet Virginia was postponed because of the inclement weather they are having there. There are far more work opportunities right now in Florida. He will probably wait until Sunday to leave but he has not made and hard plans yet. The hope is that he will return to the farm the last week of January to hold down things here while Mama and I are in Honduras. Mama and I are not completely convinced that that will happen, but we would love that arrangement if Norman is able to follow through.

I have to give Norman credit for the amount of time he has spent just talking with Grandpa. All of us are aware that he could be gone very quickly. Now is the only time he has to share with us and if we do not take advantage of that it will be an opportunity lost. Grandma is not overlooked in those chats, it is more that she spends a lot of time in bed listening to music played on her phone. She is thus less available to spend time with. Plus, Grandpa is easier to visit with especially for those of us that do not mind long pauses in the conversation. Something Grandma is not good at dealing with.

Grandpa did take the tractor this morning and work an hour cleaning a corner of the barn lot. That is the first time he has done so in many weeks. Sometimes he just laid around because of weather but mostly he did so because he as felt too weak to work. Today he cleaned a small section of fence, picked up some limbs that had been recently shed by the tree guarding that corner and brush hogged a portion of pasture once the deadfall had been cleared away. I am always very appreciative of him doing the little things he sees that need to be done. He cannot do much at once, but little by little, his efforts make a noticeable difference on the farm as well as providing something to do that gives him a sense of pride in the doing of it.

Grandpa goes to see a kidney specialist Thursday afternoon. We are concerned about the continued swelling he is experiencing. Primarily in his left foot and hand but to a lesser extent in all his appendages. Partial swelling we are told is indicative of a heart issue while equal swelling overall is more indicative of a kidney issue. The doctor’s appointment in a couple days should point us to a prognosis that can then be treated. A further follow up with the cardiologist will fine tune that prognosis but that appointment is not until sometime in mid-February. Soon after Mama and I get back from Honduras.

Mama and I went to the Foxx’s house last night to look at a pig they were assuming was close to delivering a litter of piglets. Upon inspecting the sow, we all agreed that the due date was still some weeks out. With pigs is can be difficult to tell, but in her case, based on the possible breeding date and how she looks right now, we have to assume she is still a good ways out from dropping her litter. She was a delightfully calm sow and Mama rekindled her love of pigs. We will probably buy two of the litter when and if she does successfully deliver them. Sarah will be on pins and needles until they come so we know the sow will be carefully tended to.

In looking over the setup the Foxx’s have for their goats, chickens, pigs and ducks, Mama once more thanked me for the shelters I have built to house her animals. Most of the chickens and ducks are barely sheltered from the wind or rain but they are thriving nonetheless. Perhaps over time they will build more enclosed structures, but I am glad we started off with ours more akin to houses and barns.

I know Mama likes it that way – and so do I.