Barnyard Update

"Little Moab" with Logan

2011-12-17T21:07:00.002-06:00

We (Logan and I) dropped in to "Little Moab" on the West side of Utah Lake this evening. It was the first time either of us had been out there, and it was the first offroad adventure in the "new" (1990) red Wrangler Jeep. It was a great evening for it and though there was some snow on a few spots, we managed to keep the rubber side down and had some good fun. Logan even learned (a bit of) how to drive a stickshift.

What to do with the Specialist?

2011-08-18T12:31:00.004-05:00

This is a Specialist:

I LOVE this bike. I love to ride it and I love the way it rides. I love the tires, I love the story of where we got it, I love the seatpost, everything. There is one tiny problem. It is really a bike that is designed with a razor-sharp focus on dual slalom racing. The problem with that is that when you don't feel like dual slalom racing or at least going down hill (which in my case is quite often) it is not really the right bike to be riding. Since the frame is so very small, the geometry for riding long distances over relatively flatter ground (which I often do) is not right. The result of that is sore knees.

Anyway, I have thought of selling it before, but never could bring myself to do it. I think now I have fogured out the solution. Here she is:

This way, the bike stays in the family and Winter gets a new bike to ride (and I''ll just buy myself a new one too). What do you think?

Recap of RSM / Vacation in Austria

2011-08-08T02:54:00.000-05:00

I’ve not been a big blogger lately.
Thus, I guess I have to run through one of those long recaps of what has been going on over the past 6 months.
Holland is great. We all love the weather. It has been such a great break from the heat of Texas. Spring this year in Holland was unusually warm and sunny and I was almost starting to fear that it was going to be too warm when Holland lived up to its reputation and shifted the weather for the next 3 months or so back to the expected overcast/drizzly. But really, the weather has been pretty much a non-issue for me. I hear my friends at school complaining about it, but it just hasn’t bothered me at all. I have a nice plastic rainsuit that I don when the weather looks bad and it keeps me dry during the 40 minute scooter-ride to school (and back). I still love to see all the Dutch scenery and last week we had our friends from TX come out to visit and we took them to some classic Dutch tourist locations which was great because we haven’t really done a lot of touristy type things since we came this time. It has been great to live so near Jessica’s family and we are really happy that our kids are both having the opportunity to learn their mother’s native tongue and to really get to know the Dutch side of their family. While my own Dutch language ability still lacks quite a bit, the level the kids have achieved in the last 6 months is really amazing. The kids still miss things (family, the farm, friends) from Texas, but they are having great experiences here that I know they will miss when we leave too. We really struggle with the fact that we wish we could roll up all the good things from all the places we have ever lived and bring them together in a single place. Unfortunately, we know that we will soon be leaving Holland and our friends and family here.
In calendar terms, I am just over half finished with school. In reality, I’m mostly done. We just finished the third term so I’ll be starting up the fourth term as soon as we get back from our Austrian vacation. The thing is that while the fourth term is spread out from August to November, the actual time spent in class during those months is nothing like it was for the previous 3 terms. There is a lot of dead time (days off, half days, etc.) built into the schedule and I wonder if the intention isn’t to provide us with more time to be able to attend job interviews and the like as we all prepare to reenter the workforce. Regardless of the intention, I am treating the time as exactly that – time to polish up my resume, apply to jobs and hopefully to land the perfect job. Some very interesting possibilities have already been opened up for us – it is a pretty exciting time for us since we have no idea what we will be doing next year (or where!) But I digress - about school – it has really been great. I don’t think I will ever really be able to put into words how great it has been and what a great learning experience it has been for me. I really do feel like I’ve made some great progress in my ability to work in a team with others and to be more empathetic to others and whatnot. Aside from all that “soft” stuff, the knowledge has been great and I’ve been “awakened” to some new interests (like strategy and consulting). The real challenge for the future will be to balance new learning with continual review of the material I have learned here. For example, when I was taking my Organizational Behavior (OB) class, I thought to myself that it would be great to review my OB notes or read a chapter from the OB book every day to keep fresh on the topic. (That is actually ironic because I remember feeling like my OB class at BYU was a waste of time – I think the lens of experience has changed the color of the subject).
One of the highlights of the program so far was our “Living Management Consultancy Project” where the group I was assigned to received a business case from Eneco (a European energy provider) and we were tasked with generating and presenting a solution to the Eneco executives. We worked (more than) full-time for a week in our group, experienced the whole range of emotions as we struggled to understand the problem, frame it and research it, come up with a innovative solution and figure out how to present it. There were times when we were totally lost as a team and it seemed like we were not going to be able to come up with anything, but we kept at it and eventually came up with a solution that we felt confident about. When we presented it, our hard work was validated and they were very enthusiastic about our solution. We received very positive feedback and it felt really good to have our hard work validated.
We’re right now in Austria on vacation. Wow! As we drove through Germany (stopping at several lovely little towns for the night along the way) things just kept on getting more and more scenic. We are now staying at a beautiful lodge that is perched on one side of a little valley amidst the mountains with views of all the other beautiful “Swiss chalet” style lodges, green meadows, thick forest and mountain peaks on the other side. Last night I sat out on the balcony of our little suite and just enjoyed the mountain air and the view in total relaxation – it has been a while since I have had the luxury of having nothing to do but enjoy the scenery. Today we walked up into the mountains and spent the better part of the day just picking mountain berries and looking for antlers (the kids saw some shed elk antlers at the entrance to the lodge and when they discovered that you could find them just laying around in the mountains, they were all about looking for them – the problem is that they think I am holding out on them and that if I would just tell them what area to look in, they would be able to find some – I imagine there are some out there, but I am not sure we are going to be able to find them this time of year). This is pretty much the first vacation I have had in a long time where I have had the luxury of no cell phone, no internet and no responsibilities. It feels strange (to be honest) but I am hoping that since we are just now at the beginning of the vacation, it will start to feel a bit more normal as we get further into it.

The kids learn Dutch

2011-05-13T12:48:00.002-05:00

This is a letter that we received from the kids school:

Dear parents of Sterling Winter and Ginger A.,
We would like to inform you of the results of the Dutch lessons. Over the past months we have done five modules with the children in which a large number of words were presented.
They have been working hard both at home and at school.
On Monday, May 9, the children took a vocabulary test. This test was about recognizing the pictures when a word was read out loud. The words came from the following modules:
School
Home
Body
Nature
Work and free time
Jobs
Sterling scored 96%
Winter scored 96%
Ginger scored 94%

This is a great result for all the children.
In the next course speaking the Dutch language will be emphasized. We will also be raising the tempo.
I hope you have been sufficiently informed.

Regards,
Mrs. de Bruine

Quite a nice compliment and it goes to show that the kids are doing well (and maybe that they need to increase the pace a bit - which the teacher noted will be done)

Easter Update

2011-04-24T14:47:00.000-05:00

We moved Jessica's father Max a week or so ago. When I first came to Holland, I saw these trailers on the road and fell in love. Max rented one (which he pulled with his Volvo - a very normal thing around here) and it was cool to finally be able to use one.

The girls received a package from Grandma with new Easter dresses and swimsuits. Obviously, it was a big hit:

Ginger has also been insisting that she be allowed to sleep in her new swimsuit...

That night, the kids had a church play that they had been practicing for (Note Ginger in her new pink dress)

Ginger sang in the angels choir:

Winter had a speaking role as one of the main angels

That night Winter went over to her Aunt Marjolien's house for a sleepover. The next morning the remaining kids wanted to go swimming - I said "sure"...this is the canal that is right outside our front windows - within spitting distance of the house almost. Nice that kids have such low standards huh?

While they were swimming, I pulled the foam roof thing out of the car (the fabric had started falling off it). It was an incredible pain in the rear end. Reattaching the existing plastic fabric turned out to be completely not doable (due to shrinkage) but now that I am looking at this photo, I am wondering if there is some sort of rubberized texture I could just spray onto it as is (without trying to re-fabric-ize it) since the surface is so smooth. Might be something to think about...
Later we decided to run over to the local windmill in the neighboring town - it is called "the hare." If you use Google Chrome as your webrowser, you will be given the option to translate the page when you get to the website - this might be helpful to you if you care to learn a bit about the history of this particular mill...

I thought the pictures of Ginger riding down Benthuizen main street on a Holiday Saturday afternoon with virtually no traffic was fun for several reasons:

No cars/traffic
Ginger is an awesome bike rider
Fun views of an "antique" city

Unfortunately, as we got closer to the mill, the pavestones give way to pavement...

We made it! It was a windy day, so this thing was literally humming along at a very fast pace. The sound was really cool/old school.

This is the field where the wind is grown - note the shadows of the "sails" of the mill...

Ginger ascends the "stairs" that are actually more like a ladder up to the top of the mill...they were covered in grain dust :)

Halfway up we stepped out side. The kids are just a few feet away from certain death from those sails. Like I said, they were REALLY moving fast. Ginger checks behind her to make sure she is safe...
We did eventually make it all the way up to the very top where the big wooden gears are that transfer the horizontal rotation of the sails into the vertical rotation that is used for turning the grinding wheels. I was a bit dissapointed to see that they had the gears disengaged and were just running the mill for show (rather than to actually grind anything). I guess it makes sense though since they just have a small gift shop in the bottom and they probably don't really sell that much milled grain - so it probably isn't necessary to run the mill once a week (like they do). Anyway, it was a bummer to see the gears disengaged, so I didn't take any pictures or anything. In retrospect I wish I had - however, it is close enough I can drop by again anytime.

On the way home from the mill, the kids saw this spot and wanted to go fishing/swimming here - so for the second time in a day....apparently the water is not quite "warm" (judging by the look on Sterling's face)

Tomorrow Winter comes home mid-day, Jessica comes home in the evening and then Tuesday, I go back to school (Monday is some sort of national holiday) and Jessica gets to hang with the kids (they have two weeks off from school).

In the meantime, I need to get all the bike parts and car parts out of the living room so that Jessica doesn't have a heart attack when she arrives...

Dutch Hinges

2011-04-03T17:51:00.003-05:00

Not sure why, but sometimes the Dutch like to have their hinges on the wrong side of the door (ie, the hinges to an entry door are mounted on the outside of the house - creating a situation where a thief could simply pop the pin out of the hinge and remove the door to gain entry). So, with elegant ingenuity, the dutch have created a simple mechanism to prevent such thievery:

Exhibit A

They've simply installed a pin/socket setup on the inside of the hinges. Now, when you pull the pins, you still can't get into the house.

Now here's the part I'm still not sold on...what happens when some prankster pulls the pins and you don't notice? Well, I'm guessing you wake up, open the door to get some fresh air, and are promptly quite surprised to find that the door falls off and smashes your Chihuahua. Not a great way to start the morning.

Rottemeren Fort

2011-04-03T17:14:00.003-05:00

Since I had the week off, and since the kids have a 1/2 day each Wednesday, I took them out to build a fort in the forest between here and Rotterdam.

There were dead branches ALL over the place so it was no problem and with some teamwork, we had this nifty little fort built.

There was some old tarp laying around that we cut a few squares off to get us off the wet ground.

We built a little tiny comfort fire and had some snacks.

Not sure what this pose is all about...

Sterling had packed his marbles along, so we set up a circle and the kids had fun playing for the first time.
This is the lake that is basically the start of the river that Rotterdam was named after. Sterling and Winter were pretty proud of themselves for getting the courage up to cross this gaping chasm of death over a raging whitewater river...
And of course, when they saw this little dam, they had to show off on it too - this time Ginger got involved.

Dutch Sunday

2011-02-13T14:21:00.003-06:00

This is the view from the window of the chapel in the church here. Right now church is held in an office building -they say they are going to break ground for a new building right down the street from our house sometime this summer, but I guess construction moves pretty slowly over here (compared to the rate at which they do things in the US). It is a bit distracting when you can watch the ambulances and police go flying past with their lights blaring during a church meeting...

And here is how we get around - the red "fietzpad" and Ginger is usually on the back of someone's bike. Today, she really wanted to ride on Winter's bike.

New IPhone = Pictures

2011-02-12T03:24:00.004-06:00

A new friend sold me a jailbroken Iphone for 60 Euro (jailbroken means I can just stick a regular prepaid SIM card in it without buying into a contract.) That means I now have a camera!

The cool tunnel I ride through every day (and yes, that is me on my uber-cool moped):

The view from my office on our 3rd floor bedroom overlooking a canal and some "park" type area in front of the next row of houses. There is a fietzpad (bike path) in front of the road and there are (on nice days) tons of bikers, walkers and dog walkers going by - quite scenic.

One more quick note about that photo from the tunnel - Jessica took it when we were riding back from Rotterdam where we attended a Chinese New Years party thrown by some of my school friends. It was raining, and Jessica rode the whole way home on the cargo rack on the back of the moped....CRAZY. Anyway, it was cool to have some company on the ride, but over 20kM with 2 people on a moped made for 1 was a bit on the long side.

Back to School

2011-01-23T15:03:00.002-06:00

It is something like week three of the MBA program and it actually amazes me what a whirlwind it has been. I've been going to class in the morning on my "bromfietz" (a Tomos brand 50cc moped that is supposed to be governed out at a max speed of 45 kph, but which I have actually had up close to 60 kph) which takes around 35-45 minutes each way. Classes are on what appears to be a random schedule, but there are tons of group projects and other things that cause me to come home late (sometimes really late) at night. I haven't been seeing much of my family lately, but we tell ourselves it is OK since it will only be for one year. Skype is nice since it allows me to at least see the kids a few times during the week before they go to bed.

Riding around on a moped in Holland is probably the biggest adventure for me. The first time I tried riding from our house in Zoetermeer to Rotterdam was a major disaster. It was very cold, and the route we had mapped out in Google Maps was not feasible since it covered several roads that were not bromfietz-approved - in other words, I couldn't ride on them. Plus, the roads are horribly marked (in my opinion - coming from TX where every road has a real nice big sign telling you what road it is.) So I was hopelessly lost and it is really a miracle I ever made it to my destination. After an hour and half I finally made it to school, but that night it took as much courage as I could muster to hop back on that horse and head back out into the big city to try to find my way home (which also resulted in an extended ride with severe time wasted in taking wrong turns all over the place.) The good news is that after that first day, I pretty much had my route down and it has been much better since. I feel truly dutch zipping around past cars in traffic jams, onto and off of the designated "fietzpads" (designated bike/bromfietz roads) and cruising around through all the awesome scenery. I think if I had a video camera, I would duct tape it to my helmet and record the whole journey - it is that cool of a ride. I pass swans, ducks, pheasants, rabbits, etc as well as tons of other bikers and motorists, cool houses, interesting businesses, all kinds of canals and lakes, forest, city, etc. It is a really cool ride and it is a nice way to calm the nerves each day since it is about the only time that I am not going 100% on school work.

Last week I ran out of gas coming home right as I hit the city limits of Zoetermeer. I had no cellphone, no idea where the closest gas station would be (or even if it would be open at that late hour) and worst of all, I had not yet discovered that the gas tank on the bromfietz has a reserve tank that is accessible with the simple flip of a switch (yes, I am ashamed I didn't even think to check for that) so I walked all the way home. By the time I arrived (I think it was around midnight) Jessica had just about worked herself into a frenzy and was starting to hit up all my new schoolmate friends on facebook.

In general, school has been absolutely fantastic and I am actually being blown away with the quality and applicability of the information. The class is extremely diverse which is also a big help for me as I can certainly use the practice slowing things down and simplifiying. I've already met some great friends from around the world and am still very excited about this whole thing. My big fear is that it will be over too soon (or that I will die from the huge homework load.)

A brief list of interesting things that have taken place so far:

I am running for the VP, Alumni Relations position in the Student Association. The students are voting and the polls close this week. Keep your fingers crossed. My competitor is a two-person team with a good social network, so I have some stiff competition.
I have already been rejected from several case competitions that I hastily entered. They were probably right not to select me since the field of the competitions was a much better fit for some of the other students and they had much better preparations, but I figured I would cast in my lot. I'd do it again if I had the chance, but I need to do some serious research if I want to be competitive - the question is when?
They placed everyone into 5-6 person groups and we have numerous group assignments that we have to complete. It is rapidly becoming apparent that this will be one of the most challenging aspects of the course. It is much easier to write a paper on a subject when you are the only one writing it then it is to try to collaborate as a team and take in the cultural perspectives, opinions, etc. of a diverse team (Croatia, India, China, Indonesia and USA) and to incorporate it all into a single document.

I'm really looking forward to getting some sort of camera that I can use to document some of the things I see each day. It is tough for me to blog without photos...it's just me...

The Farmer Goes Dutch

2011-01-02T11:52:00.001-06:00

It is now something like 11:30am local time. I just woke up and my body has no idea what is going on. The last 24 hours (or so?) have been a real whirlwind and I really have very little concept of how much time has elapsed since we started out journey to transfer from the enclave of family & friends in Plano, TX to a new group of family (and hopefully soon to be friends too) in Zoetermeer, the Netherlands. We were greeted at the airport by Jessica’s family. Her dad had borrowed a big (by Dutch standards) van which really helped with getting our huge amount of luggage (that’s another story)transported to our new home.

Our new home – wow! What can I say? Jessica and her dad coordinated on getting the rental agreement completed while we were still in TX and then he proceeded to coordinate with the local clan to collect various cast-off bits of furniture and furnishings for it. I figured that we would get here to find flea bitten couches, lumpy mattresses and a TV-table in the kitchen. To the contrary, we walked into a fully furnished, clean and ready to live in apartment furnished with some very nice, gently used furniture. I was literally amazed at the generosity of our friends and family here.

We lugged all the luggage up a couple flights of stairs to dump it in our room for later, crashed for a few hours of sleep and then woke ourselves up to start the new year’s eve festivities. Wow! What a welcome to Holland! Jessica had always complained about how lame our New Year’s celebrations have been in the past, but I don’t think anything in the US compares to the way they do it over here. When we arrived (something like 10am local time,) there was what sounded like sporadic gunfire all around us. I thought they were shooting ducks or something, but it turns out, the explosions were premature revelers lighting off gigantic firecrackers. That was nothing compared to what was to come. Throughout the night (as we hung out at Jessica’s cousin’s house) the general roar (punctuated by alarmingly potent explosions – apparently illegal bombs from Denmark) grew and grew as the hour approached. At midnight, we toasted to a new year in Holland and to friends then stepped outside to light off a few fireworks and enjoy the spectacle. It was like nothing I had ever seen. All around us, revelers were doing the same, but with significantly larger fireworks. It was like being in the center of a hundred fourth of July celebrations. We videotaped the din for probably something like 20 or 30 minutes before my hands were frozen and there was no sign that the fireworks were going to stop. The entire town was literally engulfed with fireworks and we could turn 360 degrees and see them going off in every direction (aside from the ones being set off right next to us that probably were damaging our eardrums.)The walk home was like what I imagine it would be to walk home through a Baghdad firefight and we retired to the sound of fireworks and explosions. By the way, I just have to say something about those Danish fireworks…they had to be HUGE. There were explosions that I literally felt in my chest (even though they were lit at some distance away and out of my range of vision.) These bombs had to have been somewhat similar to real bombs and make the “pop” of the explosions of the biggest US fireworks seem like a needle drop. In fact, I hear that every year, kids end up getting body parts blown off by these things. Wow. Now that is a celebration - and what a welcome to Holland!

Blogging & a micro-update

2010-12-11T22:21:00.002-06:00

I haven't been blogging lately. I guess I have been kinda feeling like blogging is too narcissistic (even though deep down inside, there is also a part of me in there thinking about how much I enjoy reading other people's blogs to see what they are up to.) So anyway, I guess I'll just get over it and do a quick update:

We move to Holland in a couple weeks to start on my MBA program at the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University. It is going to be a big change for us (duh) and we are, of course, most concerned with the kids and their transition. I hope we can make it a good experience that they can look back on fondly throughout their lives. For me, I am looking forward to getting back into my studies, but I am nervous about the mathematics portion (a subject in which I am woefully under-trained, and which seems to me to be an impregnable fortress. Just today I was taking some online "review" courses and that almost-forgotten feeling of a tightening chest, frozen-over brain, and desolation of spirit took over once again. I realize it sounds like I am overstating this, but in reality, I find it hard to describe the feelings I get when I am forced to do this math stuff. Anybody ever read JK Rowling's description of a dementor? It is something like that. The good news is that I passed the review course today with an acceptable score, but if there is one thing that frightens me for the upcoming year, it is a return to mathematics.
I took a motorcycle training course and passed the DMV tests to get my motorcycle endorsement on my license. (Getting the endorsement is literally 10X more expensive in Holland.) We plan to purchase a motorcycle for commuting to school - a 30-40 minute drive?
This Monday I start what will be my last week of work for Varsity. I've worked for them since February 1, 2002 and while they certainly could have treated me better as an employee, there is going to be a part of me that misses that job (I'm sure that part of me will go away quickly though)
The kids are growing up fast. At 8, 7 and 5 years old, Winter, Sterling and Ginger have pretty much lost their babiness (Winter and Sterling have actually had pimples already!) and we certainly miss the little ones that they were, but we are enjoying getting to know them as individuals. Winter is a great friend to all and Sterling is always ready to jump in and help out where he can see a need. Ginger is super sweet and loves her toy horses and stuffed animals.

Since we did so much selling/storing of "stuff" when we moved out of our house, it should be pretty easy to move out here and make the transition to Holland. Jessica (as always) has been working steadily away and making behind-the-scene plans and progress to make things easier when the deadline comes. We still have to sell a few vehicles and my tractor, but we are getting there. Another couple weeks of "holding pattern" and we'll be off.

Some Artwork from Winter

2010-12-05T15:18:00.002-06:00

The Creeping Caterpillar

The Alien

....more construction

2010-10-04T15:40:00.002-05:00

Saturday was very productive. We actually took the kitchen from a major construction area back to where it is actually usable as a kitchen and the living room is cleared of all clutter and is usable as a living room. Nice!

Cabinet doors and drawers back from paint, installed and knobs/handles installed:
Starting in with the "gold" paint:

Dad gettin' jiggy with the plumbing on the new kitchen faucet:

Starting to look like the final vision; granite, painted cabinets, gold paint (still needs the tile backsplash started)
New sink is in, new tile backspash started and new faucet installed:

Mom appears to be somewhat excited to be to the point where she was able to start painting (the ceiling) on Saturday night. Also note that the refrigerator is back where it belongs and that also is something to be very happy about:
Skip forward to today and dad is putting all the backsplash tiles in place:

The ugly stages of construction

2010-09-30T09:42:00.004-05:00

These pictures are from the 27th. I am a few days behind (the granite countertops actually went in yesterday)

Luis surveys the texture that is going onto the wall:
Divert your eyes from the disaster in the background and feast your eyes on the new blue.
OOps!
Utter destruction
Dad's back is obviously feeling much better, but he is still taking it easy
The tile removal was so difficult, we just took off the drywall entirely - we're down to the studs
Winter is sawing the drywall flush for the new install - and happy to finally have a job where she can help

The 'Rents

2010-09-26T21:42:00.006-05:00

Had a busy Saturday:

Luis and I set up all the cabinet drawers/doors in the basement of mom's office building in a storage unit and got the primer sprayed.

Back at home, the ladies made a mess of the living room...

...and set up an air curtain around the kitchen to keep the primer fumes out of the house.

When Luis and I finished up with the primer on the doors, we headed back to the house and started spraying the cabinets. (Note the fan system that blows air out of the curtained-off kitchen to create a negative air pressure situation - it worked great and there were NO paint fumes problems in the house....although the neighborhood had a bit of a stink going on)

This is the "second" curtain inside the kitchen to keep the blue paint overspray (from the island) from settling on the freshly painted white cabinets. Yeah, things were getting kinda cramped in there. Maybe we should have painted the blue color first and then just covered the island...
After spraying the house, Luis and I headed back to mom's office building to spray the final coat on the cabinets (the stools and the cabinets for the "island" are getting a steely blue color)

My Beans Runneth Over

2010-09-13T12:35:00.000-05:00

I just sent this email out to the Ashurst family:

Well, we are scheduled to fly out on December 30th. It will (I'm sure) be major fiasco with a huge load of luggage and three unruly kids. Last time we flew, each seat back had it's own entertainment package with video games, movies, TV shows etc. That was much better than the standard "movie" that they used to show. The kids all sat around and watched whatever they wanted and it really helped to keep them off our backs. I hope this flight will be equally equipped - it is a long ride.

I asked my wife about the Der/Die situation and she reports that the country is simply referred to in the singular as "Nederland." So, I guess that solves the controversy. They speak "Dutch" and I have already picked up quite a bit of it, but I have a very long way to go yet. We have "Rosetta Stone" and the kids all work on it regularly. I need to get started. The bad news (if you can call it that) is that I will be attending school in English and virtually everyone there speaks English and prefers to simply speak English than to listen to me bumbling with my poor dutch. What that translates to is that I have a hard time finding people to practice on. I'm sure living there will help though and I expect to improve my skills greatly.

I'll be attending the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University (to get an MBA degree - sorry Jim - I know you hate all those moron MBAs :) and while we have not yet signed a contract on a place to live, it looks like we'll be living in Zoetermeer. That will put me at about 30 minutes commute on bicycle or 1 hour by public transportation to the school. Zoetermeer is where quite a few of Jessica's family live and it is much more "suburban" than Rotterdam so we think it will be better for the family there.

I do not plan to work and I do not have any work lined up. The program I am in is only one year long and due to the short time frame, the curriculum is reported to be extremely rigorous. I don't anticipate having enough time to work at all. Jessica may try to get a job or part time job, but since she is a Dutch citizen, there will be no problem with any paperwork. We'll mostly be living on our savings. Once I graduate, we will be looking for a job wherever that may take us and we may end up staying in Holland; at which point I would have to go through some sort of authorization process. I don't think that it will be too difficult with Jessica being a citizen. On the other hand, if we do want to stay in Holland and work there, I will really need to kick in the afterburners on learning the language because that will (of course) be a crucial skill.

We are very sad to be leaving the ranch. It is actually already sold and we have, as of the last couple of weeks, been imposing ourselves on the hospitality of my parents. They don't really have room for 5 more, but they have been extremely generous in letting us stay with them during the transition phase. This week they were visiting my sister in DC so we "paid a bit of rent" by getting them a new Bosch dishwasher and had it installed for when they arrived last night. We're actually hoping to save a little by living here with them and not paying rent, but at the same time, we do realize that we are a major imposition on them.

As a part of the moving process, we actually sold the vast majority of our possessions and it was surprisingly liberating. A couple of things that did pull on the heart strings though: I sold my truck, gave away my dog and a huge pile of steel stock from my shop and I sold all my cattle. Those are the things that really hurt (for me anyway.) We will, of course miss our place in the country a lot - we had a lot of good times out there - but we are excited to be moving on to the next step. The show must go on.

Honestly, yes, selling the ranch is a bit of a relief as well. There is a lot of work involved in maintaining that place and we didn't really even maintain it all that well. Things have been CRAZY busy over the last couple of months as we have tried to decide what few things to store while we are gone, what will come with us and what to sell. Then, of course, we had to implement those plans. We are just now getting settled down (I sold my truck on Saturday and my utility trailer today.) All that is left is to sell my tractor and one more car and then we should be set for the next few months before the next big transition (to Holland.)

I actually just informed my boss that we would be leaving in three months, so keep your fingers crossed that he doesn't get trigger happy and start filling out that pink slip prematurely. It would not be the end of the world, but it certainly would hurt a bit to lose our paycheck for the last few months.

Anyway, since I want their money, I'd better get back to work.

Bookends

2010-08-31T19:20:00.002-05:00

I never thought I would have been able to say this. In fact, if you told me ten years ago (or even just five) that I would be able to say this, I would have said you were crazy. Yet, here I am and forevermore I can claim that I sold my cattle to help fund my education.

Speaking of real funding though, our house "closed" today. Supposing we wake up tomorrow with some funds in our bank account (as we expect to do) the chapter of our lives entitled Country Life In Texas will have come to an abrupt ending. We're pleased with the sale and we are pleased with the new direction of our lives. We will, however, (and despite the heat, chiggers and poison ivy) forever have fond memories of this place. It has been great. Great for us, and great for the kids.

This new chapter in our lives is called "Terrorizing and otherwise disrupting the peaceful life of my parents in the city." Hopefully they (my parents) can make it through the next few months - it will certainly be a trial for them.

El Gato Prieto

2010-08-25T21:02:00.004-05:00

Summer left suddenly and I did not mourn it today. This morning 10 yards of dirt/sand mix were delivered by a friend of mine to back fill around our foundation (a lender-required repair) and Luis and I spent hour after hour hauling wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of dirt. It was hot and sweaty, but at 80 or 90 degrees, it was so very much more pleasant than the work we were doing out there in the 107 degree heat just a few days earlier.

The second best part of the day (aside from the cooler weather) was that the guy who sold/delivered the dirt was interested in all our garage sale leftovers so I offered them all to him (along with the trampoline.) In return, he offered to bring over his "gato prieto" for me to use for a few hours. Behold the gato prieto in all its glory!

And...the glory shot!

So anyway, check one off the bucket list. I have now operated a bobcat (or as Luis calls it, the black cat or the gato prieto.)

The bad news is that there is still a yard or two of dirt in the front yard, the bobcat is gone, the job is done, and now I have a problem.

Mystery Cat

2010-08-24T19:48:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks ago upon our return from a trip to San Antonio, we noticed that our black/white cat was missing. It wasn't unexpected since we seem to go through cats fairly regularly around here. What was interesting though was that the disappearance of the cat seemed to coincide with an atrocious smell emanating from the general area of the chicken coop. We searched all around the chicken coop to no avail and I had pretty much decided that whatever was dead and decaying must have been under it.

While working out there today to replace some siding on the coop (as required by the bank?) we found the source of the odiferocity (yes, I realize that is not a real word.) But before we go there, let's take a step back.

I love Ginger. She is 4 years old now and is a real precious little angel. She loves to go out and play with the animals on the back porch, search around the bushes for eggs, catch crickets, watch spiders, etc. Here's a few of her other endearing traits/habits:

Whenever she is playing around me, she uses her highly sophisticated play voice and calls me "Joe"
She dances to church music (in church) and pretty much to any other music available
She loves her "widow wanky" (translation: little blanky) more than life itself. In fact, she often refers to it as an individual (imagine her searching through the house calling out, "where are you widow wanky?) Still though, she loves me so much, she offers, "do you want to smell my widow wanky." (apparently, this is a great honor and privilege)
She almost always just says, "ouch" and shakes it off - even when she really gets hurt
She went through a phase where she was always talking about her "vampire eyes" and affirmed to all her ability to use them to see in the dark.
She used to sit next to me in my office with a "computer" (made from a piece of paper), an old mouse, and an old cellphone to imitate me while I worked - some of the conversations she had on that phone were priceless
Overall, she is super soft and affectionate (more than any of our other kids have been) yyet she is as tough as a hardened criminal. I think that's a good combination

So I mentioned how Ginger likes to play with the animals (mostly the cats) on the back porch. I've seen her put them in cages, tie ropes around their necks for leashes, etc. Normally the cats are pretty cool with it and it seems like they enjoy the arrangement. Well, I guess one day (right before we went to San Antonio) she must have tied a rope onto that black/white cat and for some reason, she left it on him. Cause today we found that cat out about 10' away from the chicken coop with the rope caught in the bushes. I guess he probably died of thirst. Poor little kitty. I probably won't ever tell Ginger what she has done.

Finito

2010-08-23T21:39:00.003-05:00

Back when we were certifying as foster parents, our "qualification" paperwork required a lot of responses regarding any "losses" that we may have felt over the years. The concept of a "loss" was new to me at the time and though I feel a bit lame saying it, I really had to stretch to think of any loss that I had experienced in my life that had left sufficient impression to warrant documentation (I guess I am lucky.) In fact, thinking back at what I must have listed, the only item I can actually recall at this particular moment is the passing of two of my grandparents.

I feel compelled to return from an inadvertent blog hiatus today to record an old and atrophied, seldom-used and mostly forgotten feeling that has gradually settled on me in the way a silent cloud of ash first dusts, then coats, then covers. It is loss.

A faithful friend of 3 years is gone. Gone forever I'd guess. Justin, the livestock guard dog and the best dog we've ever had (by a long shot) went today to a new home with some lady who promised him a good home in the country East of Dallas. Now, I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is. At least that is what they say. What do I say? I loved that dog. Today, this ranch/house is no longer our home. That's all I have to say about that.

In other news, I have to give props to Jessica. As I walk around this house (which is rapidly becoming more and more empty as each and every day progresses) I realize how much work this woman has been doing. I mean, this move (which was feared by me to be the worst of any move thus far in our short lives) is rapidly becoming a 2-3 hour job. Over the last month or so, she has worked tirelessly to sell/donate/clean/organize/consolidate and pack our things to a uber-condensed version of our former clutter. It really is amazing - this girl is a worker, and I do love her - even more than the dog....like a lot more...it's hard to describe....I am gonna stop now.

Ford 601 Workmaster

2010-06-07T22:38:00.003-05:00

I sometimes tell folks (with respect to my tractor) that owning this particular old tractor involves an hour or so in the shop spent tinkering with it for every hour spent in the field operating it. In all honesty, I haven't really tracked anything like that, but it sure seems like it - especially these days. As of today, the tractor is in my shop with the following parts laying around in various stages of restoration:

all sheetmetal (I actually haven't had the sheetmetal on it in a year or so....)
The head (it's actually at the machine shop being resurfaced)
Exhaust/intake manifold (that's right - it is a single piece!)
the gas tank (with the fuel level sender removed for rehab)
The water pump and fan
Carburetor
All the gauges
A partially fabricated battery hold-down bracket (to replace the existing baling wire solution that came with the tractor when I obtained it)

I placed an internet order the other day for about $150 in new parts/pieces/gaskets and as soon as that stuff arrives, and as soon as I get the head back from the shop, I'll go about the process of putting it all back together again, crossing my fingers that it works right. The added bonus here is that all of this is taking place in 100+degree weather with a liberal smattering of humidity. Actually, they say we might see mid-90s this weekend, so that is something to look forward to.

In the meantime, in case you are looking for some additional reading on this tractor project and some insight into how one learns to work on a tractor with no manual and no experience, here are a few links to some threads I have been running on a tractor-enthusiast's forum with various pictures of various aspects of my tractor problems:

- Q&A on replacing a head gasket

- How to troubleshoot gauges

One thing I have to say about all this - it sure is nice to have a shop to do this in (rather than doing it out in the wind, rain (if it were to rain anyway), dirt and sun. I do thank my lucky stars.

Redneck Investing

2010-05-18T09:05:00.004-05:00

I was talking to my cousin the other day and bragging to him about how I own part of Tata Motors so I decided to check in on my investments...

...steel yourself against the shock you are bound to experience after witnessing the magnitude of this portfolio!

Sorry about the small image - the original is legible, but Blogger seems to have "adjusted" this one for me : (

Turns out those two shares of Tata have done quite well. Tomorrow marks the period of one year of ownership of the Indian Auto Manufacturer and they've done quite well in that time. Even more impressive, that fraction of a share of Magna has really been a cash cow. If only I would have invested some more in these guys back then. I suspected it was a low-point in the market and my suspicions have been confirmed by a 75% increase in value over a one-year period.

The lowly farmer is now accepting offers to become a wealth manager. Send in your requests (and money) fast - space is going quickly. I charge only 5% per year.

Texas Blackberries

2010-05-12T20:51:00.004-05:00

What a surprise! I was out cleaning up the fenceline in the pastures with Ginger and Winter this evening and saw a bit of red down in the grass. At first I thought they were wild raspberries. Then I saw the black ones and the memories came flooding back of picking bucket-full after bucket-full of wild Washington blackberries with the family and eating blackberry jam sandwiches until blackberry was more of a drudgery than a delight (what a shame! And what an ungrateful kid was I to fail to recognize that blessing!)

Anyway, this pitiful little bowl was the full extent of the 'ripe' ones that we could find before it got dark (of course we had to eat some straight off the vine too, so there were actually a few more than this.) The good news is that there were quite a few more red ones on the bushes, so we should be able to go back and get some more in a few days. Strange that I have never seen these on our property before...maybe the wet spring weather of the previous few years has affected the growing season?

Farmer Joe's B-day Recommendation of the Day

2010-04-27T01:59:00.002-05:00

OK, this is a limited-time offer folks. You have until the end of today only to buy this:

For the princely sum of $2.99 you get a

Digital Blue Disney Mix Micro Blue Chrome MP3 Player

At that price, wouldn't the 8 year old girl in your family have a very merry christmas and a happy birthday? Buy one here today only: www.woot.com

One caveat: You must buy your own SD card and load your own MP3 files on it

The good news? I can send you free MP3 files of my kids singing original compositions consisting of scriptures sung by kids and relatives and recorded in a completely unprofessional manner - all completely free of charge!

Random Photos

2010-03-22T22:51:00.003-05:00

A friend and I went out pig-hunting tonight. We were stymied when we discovered the land was already being hunted when we arrived, but we stuck around till after dark anyway. Despite my better judgement, Sterling trapped me into coming with us when he actually sat still in a corner for 5 minutes (a feat I didn't think he could accomplish) This photo documents the success of the hunt. Somebodies daddy cares enough about him to bring him a sleeping bag...

A rabbit came up to within about 5 feet from Sterling and that was the highlight of the hunt. As you can see below - he was very excited about that.
We stopped in to visit unkigiash on the way home from Florida. Ginger refused to pose with him. Dapper haircut though huh? He's livin' large right on the bayou in a cozy little 3 bedroom home.
We actually ran into the Allreds on the way home from FL. They had to stop for a potty-break as William demonstrates below. :)

Bonfire

2010-02-22T20:31:00.004-06:00

Tonight we combined one of Jessica's chores (getting rid of some boxes) with a bit of fun for the kids. A "cold front" is moving through, so Saturday's 60 degree weather is gone and it is downright cold outside. This mini-bonfire warmed us up a bit.

While the kids were getting warmed up, I gassed up the tractor, mounted my new bale spike and went and moved a big round bale out to the cows. Wow! It was much easier than rolling it to them by hand! I think I like this new system.

General Farm Work Saturday

2010-02-20T18:30:00.005-06:00

Fantastic T-shirt weather and I was able to get a lot done.

Planted another 50 lbs of rye grass seed (I planted 50 lbs the other day right before the snow storm) out in the pasture.
Finished the wood floor trim in our family room
Installed the wheel on the tractor
Removed the tainted oil from the tractor (the gas tank had used gravity to empty itself into the oil - see the results below)
Installed a manual fuel shut-off valve on the gas line (to prevent a recurrence of number 4 above)
Welded up the hay-ring where the cattle had broken and then bent it up - then I hauled it up to the cattle and put it over a round bale
Finished my homemade 3-pt round bale mover thingymabobber

This is the "oil" that came out of my engine today. Yikes. I am hoping the grey color is not my cylinder walls and bearings ground into a fine powder...

This is the grey schmeg dripping out where the oil filter was

See the farm jack that is holding up the tractor? Not the jackstand under the rear axle, the farm jack just to the front of the rear axle. As I jacked it up, the jack went into the ground more than the tractor went up. By the time I got it to stop sinking, it had gone under ground.

Ginger found the hole from the jack and was very intrigued by it. Here she samples the depth.

The Girls Bowl

2010-02-05T20:16:00.002-06:00

Wii Bowling - It's not about winning the game, it is about:

1. Cool poses on one leg

2. Hip shades and coordinated outfits

Ice-Road Truckin'

2010-01-30T11:47:00.003-06:00

My dad likes to watch this show where the truck out supplies to oil rigs in big semi-trucks over the frozen sea-ice. I decided to try some of my own ice-road trucking this morning with disastrous results:

You see, with the overnight temperatures at something like 26 degrees, the top of the ground (which is completely saturated from recent major rains) was frozen. I figured, I could haul some round bales up to the upper pasture where the cattle are at by driving OVER the frozen ground. I hitched up to the trailer (see below) and immediately hit a snag - the trailer was totally frozen into the ground.

Those bales are somewhere around 1,200 to 1,500 pounds each

(by the way, how do you like my new trailer?)

I guess it should have served as fair warning, but I rocked it back and forth for a few minutes until it popped loose and I was able to pull it all the way up to the upper pasture. As we went, I could tell trouble was coming...

You see, the gate was closed, so I was going to have to stop and park to get out and open it before trying to get going again. Sure enough, after I opened the gate, I couldn't get going again. So I backed up a bit and tried again, nope. Backed up a bit more, nope. Again and again until I was really stuck with no more room to back up.

I called Jessica and asked her to bring out the suburban (assuring her that it would not get stuck.) Unfortunately, the Suburban is (or should I say was?) in an extremely rare state of having just been washed. Unfortunately, the temperature was climbing and things were melting. Unfortunately, she got stuck.

Long story short, I pushed her out (then stood helplessly as she showered me with a roostertail of mud as she drove off), then unhooked the trailer where it sat and spent another 30 minutes getting my truck unstuck before heading inside in cold muddy dejection, having failed miserably in my attempt to get the hay unloaded. Will someone please slap me the next time I try to buy a 2WD truck?

Longhorns

2010-01-29T22:01:00.002-06:00

Just a photographical update on the longhorn situation with an emphasis on the new bull:

Pre-Bid Meeting

2010-01-29T21:49:00.002-06:00

Ever wonder what a pre-bid meeting for the City of Arlington Janitorial Services bid looks like? Behold!The funny thing was there was a very large man of african american heritage sitting in the back who kept falling asleep. OK, that part wasn't really so funny, but when he would start snoring loud enough that everyone turned around to look at him...yep...that was pretty funny.

For today's bonus round: If all the contract terms are clearly spelled out in writing, and any verbally disseminated information is non-binding, what is the point of a pre-bid meeting where they read through the bid documents? I would think, that if a vendor can't figure out how to read the specs in a bid, the city would be glad to know it and would promptly DQ them. Am I too much of a cynic?

My Dad

2010-01-23T00:42:00.002-06:00

Dad & I just came in from a wrench-o-thon in the shop (involving the removal of the transmission & engine from our 'parts' car) and I feel great. It is so cool to work on stuff like this with family. I really wish all of us (brothers & father) could get together a little more often. Maybe some day....
Tomorrow a guy is coming to pick up the engine and now I can get the transmission installed in our other metro, and get the parts carcass removed from my shop (where it has been sitting for months).

A compliment

2010-01-22T10:29:00.002-06:00

Received today from my (former) boss in the course of discussion about my personal growth:

"The rough edges get ground off as we tumble through life. Then you reach my age and they all pop out again."

The News (Hey!!!)

2010-01-12T23:13:00.007-06:00

I arranged with a guy from Craigslist to deliver four of the big round bales of hay to our house this past Friday. He later called to report his tractor would be broken and that he would have to deliver them on Sunday. At that time, we were nearly out of hay, so I said that would be fine and to call me when he was ready to come out. Well, he called my while I was in church to tell me he was in Leonard and ready to deliver the hay. What that meant is that I had to tell him to just drop them in the field (as opposed to showing him exactly where I wanted them placed.)

In other news...

...I have no way to move these round bales (which weigh over 1,000 lbs each dry) so last night I finally decided to do a backlogged project and weld up a hay spike that would fit the three point hitch/lift on the back of my tractor. I started welding and hit a point where I really needed the use of a cutting torch to finish it (which I don't have) so I quit that project (temporarily) and decided to try to see if I could just use straps to strap a bale to the front-end-loader on the tractor to see if I could move one that way. I aired up the tires, (one of the tires is so trashed from UV rays it is literally falling apart, but it will hold air for an hour or so) and jump-charged the battery (the alternator is strong enough to keep the tractor running, but too weak to keep the battery charged) and it ran for a few seconds before shutting off. I couldn't get it restarted and on a whim, I checked the fuel level (it had at least 4 gallons of gas in it the last time I parked it) and discovered it was empty. What that means is that the gas has drained down into the oil pan (again) and that the tractor is completely unusable at this time. I wrote the night off as a total loss and went to bed.

In other news...

I woke up at 4:00am this morning and drove to Tulsa, Oklahoma to check on my employee there, deliver some tools to him, etc. On the way, I decided to check the Tulsa craigslist to see what the hay situation looked like. Bingo! They had lots of hay up there for cheap, so I called a guy and we set up a tentative meeting for this afternoon to get some hay. Here's the thought; if the bales are in my truck, I can push them out by hand right in the spot where I want them. So, you see, a round bale (or two) in the truck is worth 4 on the ground - at least when you don't have any way of moving them... After work, I drove over to this dude's place and he loaded two bales (I guess they are rolls really...) in the back of my truck with his front-end-loader.

Exhibit A - One dirty, beatup old pickup with 2 roundbales in the back

Note how the bales (which are 5 foot in diameter and 4 feet long are loaded that the rolling side is NOT positioned to roll out the tailgate for easy unloading. It was a compromise we had to make in order to get them to both fit in the 8 foot bed of the truck.

Can I just take a moment to say that for all the problems my truck has, there is certainly a very satisfying feeling to be able to load it down like this and then proceed to drive something like 300 miles with it and have it act like it was made for carrying this sort of load (which it was.) I was cruising up fairly significant Oklahoma hills at 70 mph on cruise control and this truck didn't even downshift or lose any speed. It just plain handles it. There's the best argument for diesel I guess.

In other news...I made it home tonight at 9:30pm and proceeded to spend about an hour going through the following process (which has apparently become my official modus operandi for round bale logistics:)

Get truck stuck in mud
Say some quick prayers and then sling a lot of mud getting unstuck while tearing up the pasture and increasing dramatically the chances for getting stuck again in the future
Spend 5 minutes repositioning truck for the optimal angle and location so that when the round bales come out, they are in the right place.
Spend 5 minutes positioning straps to various stationary objects in a vain attempt to pull the bales out.
Resort to brute strength and back-injury risk level 10 and push them out by hand in a brutal battle for progress that comes inch by inch (or less) with each herniating push

Like I said, it took about an hour, but in the end, one of the bales is strategically located and is locked away behind bars to prevent the cattle from spoiling it prematurely, while the other is successfully placed in the cattle pen in a round bale ring (it prevents the cattle from pulling the bale all to pieces and trampling/spoiling it.)

In other news...it is now nearly midnight and though I have been going strong for approximately 20 hours non-stop, I am now typing this for your viewing pleasure because the "medication" I took to keep me awake and safe during the drive home has not worn off yet. Tomorrow is going to come at me with a vengeance - I can feel it.

In other news...the cattle are all stoked to be grubbin' on some tasty new hay (all of them except for the little longhorn bull calf who was smart enough to be standing under one of the round bales when it came out of the back of the truck and proceeded to roll over him - he got up quick and seemed to be fine, but I imagine he'll be feeling that one in the morning.)

Duck Hunting

2010-01-09T06:25:00.004-06:00

It is 6:25am and I am sitting here waiting on some duck hunters to show up so I can collect their contract/liability waivers and then show them out to the hunting area. These guys are a little late and were plannng on getting here around 6:00am. Just a few thoughts:

These guys are hard core! They are coming out in the middle of what will likely go down as the coldest weather of the year and they said they are planning to bring a sledgehammer to break through the ice (if needed) so they can sit around in the cold and shoot a few skinny little mud ducks.
I am cool getting up at 6:00am to wait for them because 'early to be early to rise' fits in nicely with my "new years resolution(s)"

It is now 6:42am and I just came in from collecting contracts and $$ and showing them where to go. It is COLD out there! The cattle have frost on their hides and my fingers are having a hard time typing this even though I was wearing gloves and I was only out there for a few minutes.

I give the hunters a guarantee that if they don't shoot at any ducks, they don't have to pay. It is a fun guarantee to give because they are always asking about it when they first come out to hunt, but I have NEVER had to refund anyone their money. The fact is that the ducks come in to this lake every morning and if a hunter is dedicated enough to come out here and set up before first light, it would be hard to find a way to not end up shooting at some duck.

This year there has been about half the quantity of ducks there was last year, but from what the hunters are telling me, having any ducks at all this year is really something extraordinary. It may be the pricing (I only charge $50 per hunter per day) or it may be that the guys who belong to the high-dollar hunting clubs aren't getting the chance to shoot any duck at their club lakes, but I only posted one craigslist ad and from it: I booked out the entire season, developed a large list of backup hunters, and keep getting requests for next year to lease the place out "for the season."

In summary, it is real nice to make a couple hundred dollars before 9:00am (which is when they usually head out of here) and it is also kind of fun for me to meet all these different hunters and watch how differently they all operate. Last week the guys that came out didn't bring a retrieval dog and they were using our boat to retrieve their ducks and decoys. The problem was that there was a stiff wind and they looked like they were performing a comedy routine out there trying to get that boat to go against the wind. They finally gave up and used a lead line to manually pull the boat all the way around the lake. This week the hunters actually came out with a portable blind made of hay and I think these guys (or at least one of them) must know what they are doing. They were talking about the direction of the wind and ice-breaking like they do this all the time. I have a feeling the ducks are going to be in trouble this morning.

It is now 6:51am and if today is anything like the last few weeks, we should be hearing the first gunshot(s) within 10-15 minutes.

It is 7:07am and they just took their first shots. Good times!

The Saga of the Master Bath

2009-12-31T16:51:00.003-06:00

Our home is an ongoing saga of transformation. Unfortunately, that transformation has been hard-earned and has not been quick in arrival. A case in point is the master bathroom which started its transformation shortly after we moved in several years ago when Jessica started tearing off the floral wallpaper. It sat in that state for some time, then in August of this year, we finally got all the drywall modifications completed and the texture sprayed. Since then, I hinted about the next phase in a post on this blog in September, and posted this picture:

This was the beginning of the process of installing granite countertops in the same master bath. Ironically, the hardest part of the whole project turned out to be finding the right drill bit (it is a diamond bit 1 1/4" hole saw bit - pictured below on the drill) and then drilling the two holes for the sinks through the granite tile. Here's a picture from that project that documents the little clay dams I used to retain a little pool of cooling water around the drill site while I patiently (for like an hour per hole) drilled away without exerting too much pressure. The little notched piece of wood was the "template" I used to steady the drill bit as I started the holes (to keep the bit from walking.)

In the end, I think it all turned out worthwhile and we are happy with the final product (even though it took two years plus to accomplish.) Here is the finished product:

With the sink mocked up with the new faucet on the freshly grouted tile:

And finally, with the new Ikea mirrors installed, and a matching towel bar:

By the way, stay tuned to Jessica's blog - surely she will soon get this place all decorated up and post some before/after pictures which really are quite dramatic (I think.)

Oreo The Bull

2009-12-28T20:45:00.002-06:00

The bull in the post below is now an official resident of our little ranch. He was delivered earlier today and we decided to call him "Oreo." The other cattle were VERY excited to have a new friend and they have been chasing each other around all day long. He is still a rather small bull, and it looks like he hasn't had a lot of good grass down where he is at, but you can see that he has the potential to be a really nice looking bull.

A lot of Bull

2009-12-22T21:48:00.004-06:00

In the ongoing saga of how to get my virgin cattle impregnated (our only bulls are too young and we are wasting precious time by not getting these cattle bred) I have made the decision that my neighbor who promised me that we could bring our heifers over to his place in August for insemination via his borrowed bull is never going to get around to letting me do that. I mean...it's actually really frustrating. It was late spring when I abandoned my aritificial insemination plans in order to wait for the free August breeding from this bull and here it is almost into January and these cattle aren't bred yet! For pete's sake we should have calves on the ground about now and we have nothing!

So, since it looks like the neighbor is falling through, I have decided to hit Jessica up with plan C. Here are the basics of plan C:

Buy a $500 (or less depending on my haggling skills) registered bull off craigslist that is at least 14 months old (and hopefully proven fertile)
Turn him out with "the ladies"
Once he has a chance to do his thing with both the heifers (virgin cows) and the mama cow and possibly after a summer getting fat on our grass and growing additional horn length, sell him for $500 (or more depending on my haggling skills)
By the time the cows drop their calves and are ready for rebreeding, Boots (our little longhorn calf) will be ready to step up into the role of herdsire and the whole saga of being short of bull will be forever over.

At this point, the plan seems flawless to me. Of course, I'm sure Jessica will have some input into this, but really, I'm thinking this could work. By the way, here's the $500 bull I'm currently looking at to fill the role of interim herd sire

Hello bacon!

2009-12-17T18:24:00.002-06:00

Piggy Smalls was a good pig. However, he has been getting teste lately and we discovered why. While we had been informed by his previous owners that he "used to be" a boar, we found today during the butchering process that he was still half a boar. Apparently one of his testes had not dropped down and was not removed during his neutering procedure. That may account for his boarish appearance and nasty temperament.

Piggy Smalls last moments:

Getting prepped for butchery:

The kids came home in time for a quick anatomy lesson with specific attention to the inner workings of the heart.

Thanks a ton to my dad who came out to help with the slaughter/butchering. It is a big job and would have been very difficult without his help. The meat is now "aging" in ice water in preparation of Christmas Eve feasting.

An Offer I Can't Refuse

2009-12-16T12:27:00.006-06:00

Autotrader is currently running ads promoting a new program where they will make you a guaranteed offer to purchase your vehicle sight-unseen over the internet. Since liquidating my pickup truck is part of our "scaling back" plan I figured I would give them a shot. Since the truck is a "work truck" with minor damage all over (inside and out) I knew I wasn't going to be getting a huge offer from these guys, but give me a break! This is an actual screen-shot of their offer:

One hundred and nineteen dollars!?!? I could (literally) sell this truck to the scrap yard for the weight of the steel and get two or three times as much as this! What a joke! And it took me half an hour to fill out their stupid forms too.

I now am officially offering to match autotrader's offer on any vehicle because their prices are officially moronic.

Reminiscing about Christmas Dinner

2009-12-13T19:34:00.001-06:00

Here's a shot we all love from last spring:

It's 43 degrees outside and...

2009-12-11T21:08:00.002-06:00

...this is where Sterling and Ginger asked me if they could spend the night:

All they have for covers is their jackets. I would have let them except for they would have had to walk past the cattle at night in the dark when they figured out it was a bad idea.

Update: Dog, Cattle, Suburban

2009-12-09T21:05:00.003-06:00

Some of you may be aware that our livestock guard dog Justin got his world ROCKED the other day. It all started with a girl...
Our friends have another livestock guard dog (female) and wanted her to be bred by Justin. She is in heat, so they brought her over to our place for a visit. Justin has been very happy with that arrangement, but she has a powerful attractive quality and is bringing in big dogs from all over the county. I didn't even know we had so many dogs around here. Anyway, the other day when we came home from partying with the Allreds I found Justin half dead and freezing out in the mud. I brought him in and set up a pen in the garage with a heater, washed him up, treated him with some 1st aid supplies and gave him warm milk to drink. He was NOT looking good that night and it broke my heart but I was expecting to be burying him the next morning.

These pictures are from the first night. Notice the two teeth marks on the opposite side of his leg from the big gash? I could see his tendons in his leg and he is lucky it is just the skin that was ripped. The next day, we saw a big pit-bull-looking dog that I think was the perpetrator. Those ones on his leg make the cut under his eye look like nothing at all.

Anyway, as of today, he is doing great and is limping around tripod style. We really like this dog. This was his first night spent indoors and he actually held his bodily functions until we let him out of the garage for a potty break - no training and he is housebroke!

I thought this was a fun picture of Winter and Sterling playing in the hay while we fed the cattle and goats.
About our Suburban - the other day while we were hauling Jessica's harp around between performances, the Suburban made some funny sounds and was acting like the E-brake was on and grinding while driving. I thought I could hear noises when I put it in gear too, so I figured the transmission must be full of loose pinball machine parts and ready for the junkyard. We parked it (which, in turn led to the damage to Jessica's harp which you can read about here: Harp Tragedy) and had a auto shop come pick it up. The good news is that they couldn't get the problem to replicate. I asked them to go ahead and drop the pan off the transmission to change the fluid and look for loose/broken parts and it came back with a clean bill of health! At this point, I am thinking a rock or something got stuck in a brake caliper or something and that we are in the clear! Hooray! We were feeling blessed that a $1,500 transmission repair bill wouldn't throw us into bankruptcy, but now we feel even more blessed to be able to apply that $1,500 to something more effective for our family plan.

Fun w/ my truck

2009-12-06T02:10:00.003-06:00

I wrote this post at 2:00am on the 5th - I was just finally able to get my reports that were due to Corporate. Something about my VPN not hooking up....

Anyway, earlier that day, I snapped a couple of fun shots:

This is what is left of a ton of decomposed granite that will be serving as the underlayment for our new granite paver patio. Notice that it the outer 4" or so is frozen - it was a real pain getting that part broken to get the stuff unloaded.

This is what filled the truck as soon as the granite was out of it. All those branches are the results of my newest hobby - trimming trees! I don't know what it is, but I really have to say that I love to cut branches off trees (no surprise there) to sculpt them into new and better looking versions of their old selves (the surprising part.) Anyway, if you are going to be around on new Years Eve, come on by because this stuff will all be flaming high.

Is this a Jed Clampett load or what?

An Original Thought?

2009-12-03T23:25:00.004-06:00

Believe it or not, we are pert near (that's Texas slang for "just about") ten years into this brand new century. Time really flies, and it is amazing how fast technology, too, has changed in those few short years. What I want to know, however (aside from the reason why not a single politician nor environmentalist has proposed synchronized traffic lights to cut greenhouse gases, reduce dependency on foreign oil, reduce the need for add'l road construction, etc) is why it is, in this brand spankin' new century of rapidly advancing technology, that we can't figure out a way to harness that technology to communicate better with our politicians. Bear with me here as a simple farmer lays a communication brainstorm into "the cloud."

What if there was a website....you know....like usa.gov or something... where any regular Joe from anywhere, USA could post a suggestion for viewing by the entire world. Then....any John Doe and any of his friends could view said suggestion and give it a thumbs up, or thumbs down (or rate it according to some other system.) Suggestions with the highest ratings would be automatically sorted into a summary page with the most highly favored suggestions for the country. Politicians could make their own assessments of the suggestions and go from there. What have we got to lose? How insignificant would the costs of such a program be? How great are the potential benefits? Let's harness the power of the masses in such a way as was never imagined by the founders of this great country - let's take advantage of Al Gore's invention here!

Heck, my cousin Bill could prolly have the code for a basic version of this website written and published to the "ennernet" (as the locals call it) within an hour or two. All he lacks is the official URL and Obama's blessing in a national speech.

Here are my basic plans for the site:

There would really need to be some sort of login system - something as simple as Ebay's or Craigslist's would be fine I think...but if you really wanted to go nuts, it could incorporate some sort of requirement for a social security number matching the name you submit or something
There could be different categorizations for each suggestion (like environmental reform suggestions, health care reform suggestions, legal reform suggestions, etc) On top of the categorized suggestions, there could be a category for "most popular suggestions" or something similar to aggregate the best of the best of all categories.
People could "lobby" for their suggestions on popular TV shows, advertisements, Twitter, etc.
There would have to be a moderator of course to weed out non-productive suggestions, but there would have to be some accountability on that (like publishing the deleted suggestions on a separate list)

Wouldn't it be great to throw something like this out there and just see what our collective wisdom allows to rise to the top? The only reason (I think) a system like this doesn't already exist is that there is no money in it. We have the capability, why not use it?

Disclaimer: My motives for desiring such a system are selfish and stem from a prideful suspicion that I myself, a lowly farmer actually may have a suggestion or two that this country could benefit from, but which are lost in the volume of mail that my representatives receive and is likely never even viewed by them.

Driving Back From Abilene

2009-12-02T15:47:00.002-06:00

Here's the view from Abilene this morning:

Luckily it wasn't affecting the road and there was no ice - I am safe and sound at home now.

Newsflash: Farmer Ridicules CNN

2009-11-25T10:32:00.003-06:00

In a surprising turn of events, a local farmer from rural Leonard, TX is heaping ridicule on the mighty CNN for a seemingly insignificant oversight. After reading this article on some out-of-place icebergs, the barely literate farmer claims, "I guess CNN could use some farmers in *they're* editing room."

What set this farmer off were such seemingly simple sentences as these:

"The currents that have taken the icebergs so far north mean that their now doomed to melt in warmer waters. NIWA estimate that the bigger icebergs will last between six and eight weeks depending on where they go." (bold text added by the editor)

In other news, Piggy Smalls is scheduled for an afternoon flight at 2:00 EST to celebrate his pre-Christmas roasting.

The cows & goats & kids (same ol, same ol)

2009-11-21T17:30:00.004-06:00

The other day at Dairy Queen, the kids were super excited to see pictures on the wall of all their friends and of their T-ball team from the year before. The local DQ is the team sponsor.
Today, while Jessica entertained a whole gaggle of women for a baby shower in the house, we spent most of the day outside pruning trees. Once we were done, we called the cows/goats over for a snack on the leaves from the removed branches.
The goats (especially) seemed very appreciative of the snack.
Later, we headed up and gave the cows a bale of hay and the kids took the opportunity to get a real close look at the cattle. I don't think they have ever been this brave about it before. In the picture below, you can tell Sterling is not quite comfortable with that cow right behind him, but he makes a genuine effort at a smile.

This little guy is not eating hay yet, but he wanted to see what is going on in the hay ring.

A Video Worth Watching

2009-11-19T17:10:00.002-06:00

Wow!

Random Photo Updates

2009-11-12T21:05:00.004-06:00

I haven't really been inspired with any insights to share, so here are some random photos from my cell phone that I have taken over the last week or so...

The little bull formerly known as "socks" is now officially "boots" (thanks Nancy). Here he is hanging with mama and the little bottle calf Sammy. Note that even though Sammy is probably something like 6 months older, it is evident (from their comparable sizes) that the milk straight out of mama is mo' betta for calf growth.

Sammy = black calf born in mid-May

Boots = white calf with brown boots born in mid-Sept

In this shot (destined for the classics file) unkigiash introduces his girlfriend and his dog to his steer.

Yes...Jack is excited to see Justin....but no, it is all good clean fun - no funky business. The interaction between the two dogs could be compared to an 80 year old man with a 2 year old kid crawling all over him and pulling on his nose hair. He took it well, but seemed dumbfounded by the impetuousness of the young whipper snapper while simultaneously enduring it and yearning for some peace and quiet.

Jack = Unkigiashes dog

Justin = Our livestock guard dog

A view of southwest TX or S. NM or something....somewhere between Dallas and Phoenix. Unfortunately, out of the whole trip, this is the most scenic portion. I came to the conclusion during the drive that the USA should just give that entire portion of the country back to Mexico.

What is there to say about this? We were headed out (on a 45 minute trip to G-ma's house) and Ginger refused to leave her worms...

Unkigiash Visits!

2009-11-07T09:58:00.004-06:00

He is here in TX, and hath brunged baggage!

Observe!

This is his friend Kristen or Christin or something. They are here to party for the weekend and they brought their dog too.

A little something for those with debt and Netflix

2009-11-06T09:25:00.003-06:00

Disclaimer - this is something I stumbled upon in my files which I obviously copied from somewhere probably here:

Then think about this fact. If you cancel a $20 monthly bill and instead apply that $20 to your credit card bill (that has a balance of $5,000, a 12% interest rate, and a $100 minimum payment), you’d turn 302 payments of $100 a pop into 55 payments of $120 a pop (I used the minimum payment calculator to get this number). Your credit card balance would disappear in about four and a half years instead of twenty five years, just by getting rid of that Netflix account.

WOW! Gives you a new appreciation for keeping those little monthly recurring expenses low doesn't it. This applies to more than just CC debt (think about car loans, home loans, student debt, etc - although these tyopes of loans typically have lower interest rates and thereby would demonstrate a less drastic effect) and Netflix isn't the only culprit in the game of little monthly recurring expenses (think about cell phones, extra bandwidth for your internet service, cable TV, etc.)

Anyway - just some food for thought.

Fiscal Policy

2009-10-10T21:27:00.003-05:00

While going through some old paperwork today, I was surprised to be reminded of the full extent of the foolishness of my former ways. I had forgotten both the quantity and the gravity of stupid financial decisions I used to make. As I went through old statements and receipts, I found too many over-the-limit fees, finance charges, late fees, etc. It really was surprising because Jessica and I have basically been running without any of that sort of thing for so long. We do use credit cards, but we pay them off every month. I am a regular follower of the folks over at the "Get Rich Slowly" blog and the author there is always talking about avoiding those types of stupid charges and I don't really ever give it much thought, so it was kind of interesting to look back at the old statements and see that I too used to be a victim of poor financial management.

Looking back, I can't really recall any sort of magical moment that changed me other than getting married to Jessica. She was absolutely mortified at the debt she "inherited" when we were married. I had racked up about 10 or 14 thousand dollars (pathetic that I can't even remember how much it was) in student loans. I can't think of anything else that might have triggered the change. My wife was my financial salvation. Until today, I have taken that for granted with an attitude that "we" have had good luck with maintaining our finances. Turns out, I just have a good leader to follow and she does a great job of keeping on top of all the bills. She is a fantastic money-manager.

Thanks Jessica!

For those of you who don't have a handy Jessica around to whip you into shape, the Get Rich Slowly blog has all the info & techniques you'll need to get started on your own. Not to steal GRS's thunder, but I summarize their formula as follows:

Retreat from "consumerism"
Eliminate debt
Develop and follow a budget
Save up a rainy-day fund
Save up for big purchases (rather than going into debt to buy)

We're still working on getting a real solid handle on a some of these so I am not trying to hold us up as the shining example or anything (we still have debt, we still have an addiction to consumerism (although it is a bit easier to fight since we live so far from the centers of it,) our rainy day fund is currently anemic, etc.) but I can see the logic in the techniques and aspire to someday have complete control over our finances.

Betrayal

2009-10-05T21:12:00.004-05:00

It has been a rough day. As I sit here nursing the wounds left over from a stabbing to the back by a long-time employee and friend which may well contribute to costing me my job, I am trying to figure out how to put a positive spin on things. I guess the good news is that a new opportunity seems to have put itself in my way right at the right time. I guess that is the good thing about life - it always seems to find a way to mix things up and keep it interesting.

hmmmm...as I re-read the above, I can see that I have failed miserably at keeping this positive. Here's another attempt. My wonderful family loves me, the weather is real nice these days and I still have my freedom.

Onward and upward.

Snakes

2009-10-01T20:22:00.004-05:00

I have always told folks that we haven't seen a lot of snakes out here...surprisingly few as a matter of fact. I don't know what it is about the last few weeks, but they seem to have come out. We killed a 4-foot long black snake in the lawn last week and found this little garter snake (who bites and throws a fit like he is some sort of pit viper) tonight when we dumped a mosquito-infested stock tank. The kids seem to be having fun with the snakes though.

In other news, I finished modifying this little trailer. It was a free boat trailer (for a Hobie Cat catamaran) I picked up off craigslist. I don't think I have any pictures of the original trailer, but you can imagine: the original had carpet covered boat runners, about five feet of additional tongue length, a winch mounted on the tongue on a big tall mast, no gate, no side rails, no floor, no lights, etc. I was thinking about keeping the trailer until I realized that it is not wide enough to even get our 4-wheeler or our riding lawnmower in. What use is a trailer like that? Anyway, it is going back on Craigslist - this time for sale for a couple o hunert bucks.

A Real Cowgirl

2009-09-26T20:11:00.006-05:00

Charly (unkygiash's jersey steer) was standing around eating so I threw Winter on his back and to my surprise, he could have cared less. Winter was pretty stoked.

Since Charly was so cool about it, we decided to try out the saddle. It was great! It got too dark to take any pictures, but we saddled him up, threw on a halter and walked Winter around the yard a bit. He is still learning to walk on a lead rope, so it was a bit of a tugging match, but he didn't seem to care much at all about the rider on his back and hey, it was his first day under the saddle. Maybe with a bit of work....

"Socks" the Bull

2009-09-22T17:49:00.003-05:00

I figure with coloration like this little guy has, you can't help but call him "socks" right? Or am I wrong? If you have a better (more bullish) name suggestion, let it be known ASAP.

Aspiration: Cattleman

2009-09-22T12:00:00.001-05:00

This may be no secret, but I have long aspired to be a cattleman. As of just a few moments ago, I hit a milestone...
On my way into town, I noticed a tiny brown/white speck in the field. I drove the truck over, and sure enough, it is our first calf! It looks to be a little bull.

Puttin' up hay for the winter

2009-09-21T20:53:00.002-05:00

I found a decent deal for hay today (less than $2/bale) and it was in Leonard! It actually turned out to be pretty decent hay that was baled pretty good. (usually $2/bale hay is loosely baled weeds) Anyway, I bought $65-worth which was enough to fill up the truck pretty good. We probably could have stacked another 10-15 on there without too much trouble, but I only had $65 in cash and what's the point in loading it till you are afraid to go around a corner?

The kids came with (of course) and had a blast running around the guys farm and playing with his kids. Before we left home on this trip, they got a lecture on:

1. Go to the bathroom before leaving home so you don't have to do it at their house

2. No asking/begging for snacks/food

Unfortunately, that lecture was both well needed and even more unfortunately, unheeded. Instead of coming home to the ice cream dessert we had planned, the kids got to come home and go straight to bed. They broke both rules (in style, I might add)

Maybe having to return the chips they were given and losing ice cream privileges on top of that will teach them a lesson, but sadly, I imagine we'll be contending with more of the same the very next time. Man, I can't take these kids anywhere!

The haps

2009-09-12T19:58:00.002-05:00

Where I spent the vast majority of my day:What is this all about? It's top secret - to be revealed at a later date...

Acorn Pancakes

2009-09-11T19:31:00.005-05:00

Sterling brought a big acorn home from school today and somehow we got on the topic of eating it...which led to a Google search on whether or not they are edible or not...which led to gathering additional acorns from the front yard for pancakes.

It didn't take long to gather up this small mess of acorns (fresh off the low-hanging branches of the tree!)

We then cracked and schucked them, and then ran them through our manual garlic press. After running water over them for some time without getting rid of the bitter tannin taste, we relented and ran them through the blender after all. I was horrified when it looked like ALL the acorn was running out through our dishrag sieve, but when all was said and done, it left a very fine "meal" in the dishrag and this quantity of acorns yeilded just over the 1/2 cup called for in the recipe. Not wanting to waste it, we went ahead and used them all anyway.

It was a little disconcerting that the quantity of acorn meal was matched by a similar quantity of plain-jane flour, and then again by another equal measure of corn meal, but we went ahead with the recipe as planned. In retrospect, based on the time we spent preparing the acorns, I am glad we were able to cop out and only use a 1/3 ration of acorns. I should also mention that this recipe made us a total of only 7.5 pancakes. You will certainly want to double it for a family meal, but it was just right for the three of us (Jessica and Ginger are taking care of G-Gma tonight.)

The result was a success - heavy, filling, and delicious - just the way we like em.

Here's the recipe we followed:

ACORN PANCAKES from Sharon Hendricks
Break an egg into a bowl. Add:
1 teaspoon salad oil
1 teaspoon of honey or sugar
1/2 cup of ground and leached acorns
1/2 cup of corn meal
1/2 cup of whole wheat or white flour
2 teaspoons of double action baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of milk
Beat all together. If the batter is too thick to pour, thin it with milk. Pour pancakes into a hot, greased griddle and cook slowly until brown on both sides.
Serve with butter and syrup or wild blackberry jam. Delicious!!

PREPARATION OF GROUND ACORN MEAL
1. Pick up several cupfuls of acorns. All kinds of oaks have edible acorns. Some have more tannin than others, but leaching will remove the tannin from all of them.
2. Shell the acorns with a nutcracker, a hammer, or a rock.
3. Grind them. If you are in the woods, smash them, a few at a time on a hard boulder with a smaller stone, Indian style. Do this until all the acorns are ground into a crumbly paste. If you are at home, it's faster and easier to use your mom's blender. Put the shelled acorns in the blender, fill it up with water, and grind at high speed for a minute or two. You will get a thick, cream-colored goo. It looks yummy, but tastes terrible.
4. Leach (wash) them. Line a big sieve with a dish towel and pour in the ground acorns. Hold the sieve under a faucet and slowly pour water through, stirring with one hand, for about five minutes. A lot of creamy stuff will come out. This is the tannin. When the water runs clear, stop and taste a little. When the meal is not bitter, you have washed it enough.
Or, in camp, tie the meal up in a towel and swish it in several bucketfuls of clean drinking water, until it passes the taste test.
5. Squeeze out as much water as you can, with your hands.
6. Use the ground acorn mash right away, because it turns dark when it is left around. Or store in plastic for freezing if you want to make the pancakes later.

Politics

2009-09-10T08:58:00.004-05:00

I drove back from Tulsa last night. It gave me lots of time to listen to the President's speech (which felt something like a punch to the gut followed immediately by a half hour of cuddling) and the subsequent debate, but it also gave me time to consider the uproar about the journalist who was rescued by NATO while his interpreter was killed. The thing that struck me most was that this situation, which resulted in the death of a NATO commando, 2 civilians, and an interpreter was entirely caused when this reporter disregarded warnings about the area and put his own life/freedom in jeopardy by going there. I felt like the media did us all a disservice by 'glossing over' the fact that this journalist indirectly caused the deaths of 4 innocent people, but it really blew my mind to see this article this morning which puts the blame for the death of the interpreter on the "actions of a NATO commando unit." Are you kidding me? In my view, the blame for any and all deaths lies squarely on the shoulders of the journalist who disregarded warnings about the area and got himself and his interpreter kidnapped. The media has this one all wrong.

Rockin' the T-Town

2009-09-08T21:21:00.005-05:00

En route Americana within Creek Indian Nation boundaries:

Not too exciting, I know, but hey, how often do you drive under a motorgrader in indian territory?

And since (so far) this blog post really stinks, here is a link to my 3rd version of an advertisement for employment. Previous versions seem to be attracting folks that are wanting my salary for a hourly-wage type position: Click here to see the ad

So far, this ad has brought in some decent applicants (including a return missionary)

Staycation

2009-09-07T19:55:00.002-05:00

Since we live so close to my parents, it can be tough to set aside real time to dedicate to spending with them in the same way we would if we were to come down here on a vacation to visit. So this weekend, we spent a good two days down there for a staycation. It was good times:

Saturday - They took us to this crazy place called Amazing Jakes which is essentially a large portion of the mall which is sectioned off and is full of games/rides and all you can eat food. It is not really the kind of place I would normally want to go to, but the kids really did have a great time. About half-way through, they discovered some machines that spit out tickets and from there on out, it was a quest for more tickets (which were later exchanged for awesome trinkets such as "sticky hands" and spider rings.

Sunday - After going to my parents ward for church and then having a HUGE nap, we all packed up and went to the Dallas Arboretum where they had an orchestra playing for about an hour and then an outdoor screening of E.T. The Extra-terrestrial. The kids loved that too and I have to say, for me, the highlight was watching Jessica walk around handing out free watermelon to pretty much the entire crowd.

Monday - We slept in, had homemade pancakes, played a few games and headed home.

It truly was a great time.

After arriving home, I spent the day in true TX fashion fighting fireants, poison ivy and wasps. Hurray! I did get all the hedge trimmings (three nights work worth) shredded up and bagged/piled, the lawn mowed, swimming with the kids and that is it. Seriously, trimming the hedges around here is a major project. They are on all 4 sides of the house, 3 sides of the shop, and in between the house/shop. Sheesh!

Letters

2009-08-24T22:38:00.002-05:00

I am going through some old letters that have been in storage for years and came across one written to me from my sister Angela while she was off at BYU? I must have written some interesting comments to her to have illicited this response:

How are your birds? Have they mated?

And later:

I show your letters to Hiedi Jo and Jennifer and Rob sometimes but not always. When you letter says something particularly funny or characterstic of your personality then I usually show it to people.

Apparently, I must have written really weird stuff in my letters?

Working w/ Slate

2009-08-23T00:27:00.005-05:00

Here's what the fireplace looked like last night (note the paint overspray on the metal, the rotted wood, and the debris that accumulates on the tile since it is lower than the carpet):

Here's what it looks like tonight:

It was a short project (compared to most of them we undertake around here) but it was a bit stressful because I had rented a wetsaw that put a definite cost-timeline on the project. In fact, the wetsaw rental was the most expensive part of the whole project. This was my first time working with slate and it was kinda fun to do something new, but a bit tough due to the fact that slate is a natural product and the thickness of the slate varied quite a bit. That made it tough to get the joints to all line up perfectly like you would hope. Anyway, it feels good to have started and finished a project in a single day. With a little more cleaning and a coat of slate finish stuff, it will look super-spiffy and "wet" even when it is dry.

The kids were good sports about it and I appeased them with the lure of post-project swimming and ice-cream.

By the way, they are SUPER-excited about school starting on Monday and the "buzz" around here has been constant; "What do you think it will be like?" "Do you think your teacher will be as nice as Ms. Honey?" (from the movie Matilda) "What if (friend) Van rides our bus this year?" Etc.

Crappy Supper

2009-08-20T21:21:00.004-05:00

When we first moved out here to the farm, I used to say that any day that involved some time spent on the tractor was a good day. Today was a good day and it has been a long time coming....you see, a while back, the carburetor on the tractor that was only marginally functional finally bit the big one and in the process it dumped all the gas from the gas tank down into the oil pan. So after sitting for a while and then an oil change and a carb rebuild (a couple weeks ago) I was stoked to fire it up only to find that something went wrong with the carb rebuild and it was still dumping gas. Fast forward through removing the carb, troubleshooting, reinstalling and still having the same problem several times in a row to today. I pulled the carb again and started really looking for something that might have been awry. Not to get too technical, but there was this one gasket around the main fuel tube that was a tiny bit off center and it looked like maybe it was off enough for some gas to get around it. I am not sure if it was that or pure luck, but I adjusted it and reinstalled and the tractor fired right up!

So, today was a good day and I was able to get a good acre or more mowed before dark. It is sorely needed because some of the weeds were over 6 feet tall out there!

In other news, the kids and I continued our daily routine of spending at least 3 hours in the lake in and around the "new" boat. I brought in a couple of fish and we had garlic and butter fried crappy for dinner (that don't sound right does it?)

Financial Betrayal

2009-08-18T23:52:00.004-05:00

Trip into Leonard to buy a fishtank for the tadpoles and minnows the kids caught (turned into a fish tank, fish food, and a kitten): $15.00

Sidetrip in Leonard at a thrift store where the kids got sandals, socks, shorts, pants, wallets and a clipon tie: $5.30

Trip to Gainesville to the livestock auction where we purchased a new nanny goat: $32.50

That, my friends, is a total 0f $53.80 which is far too much for a day that started with no firm plans for any expenditures at all. Apparently, I need to get to selling some "stuff" so that this doesn't affect our budget.

(Sorry Jefe)

Maybe the moral of the story here is that I can't be trusted with funds when the kids are around. When I am by myself, I just wile away the days locked up in the shop. With the kids here, the things we do seem like things that cost $$.

One more note: My fishing dry spell (that started last fall) has officially ended. While the kids were jumping off the boat and swimming around in the lake today, I strung up a rattletrap and brought in a mess of little crappy and bass. I never hooked into the big lunkers, but it was fun to land a bunch of fish.

One more other note (for unkygiash):

Charly the Jersey steer seems to have managed to rip his ear tag out. I'm not sure what he caught it on. I'm guessing some barb wire somewhere? Behold the gory results:

He may not have an ear tag anymore, but he certainly does have an easily identifiable feature. I guess this way is better anyway seeing as I don't think we ever bothered to write down the number in his eartag...

By the way, Charly is about the friendliest little bovine I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with. He is very calm, lets you walk right up to him and rub him down, and is generally just a pleasant animal to deal with. The Texas grass has been REAL good this summer, so he is also very fat and is heading into fall/winter in good health.

Finally - A Boat

2009-08-17T21:37:00.005-05:00

It seems like this should have happened a long time ago, and a few visitors have made comments about it, but the right deal never came along, so we never did have a boat to explore our lake with....until Saturday. I picked up this beauty with a buddy. It is a craigslist "free" item and though it did cost about $40 in fuel to go get it, it still turned out to be a good deal.

I took this picture of Winter while swimming in the lake.

It's a fiberglass beater, but it does float, doesn't seem to take on water, and while it is a bit on the large side, beggars can't be choosers.

The kids and I spent most of the day on the lake (I am taking a vacation week to relax, work on projects, and watch the kids while Jessica does BYU Education week) and they wore me out pulling them back into the boat over and over again just to have them jump off the bow again. So while they were taking naps, I welded up a little ladder that fits where the motor normally goes that allows them to climb up on their own.

The kids were stoked and we had a good time. Winter blogged her thoughts about it for our FHE activity (followed by Oreo Cookie ice cream.)

By the way, it did come with a little 9.6 horse outboard motor, but I haven't jumped into that project yet. I've got too many other pots in the fire for now. We used a piece of 2X4 lumber (in true redneck fashion) to pole and paddle around the lake. It's a good thing there wasn't much wind.

With a touch of a sunburn ( I should have got their faces better) and after spending the day in the lake, let's hope that they get a REAL good night's sleep.

Drywall Texture

2009-08-11T21:41:00.004-05:00

While Jessica and the kids were gone, I did get started on finishing our master bath room (which has been partially torn apart for over a year) and I was able to get a good start on it, but the project was far larger than I anticipated and being a bit "green" to drywall, I was unsure how good was good enough and so I erred on the side of caution and spent a ton of time working on minor imperfections that probably would have been fine to leave alone. Just getting everything taped off to protect it from the over spray was a monumental task in and of itself.

I was unable to get the texture sprayed before Jessica got home like I wanted, but last night I was finally able to get the hopper loaded up and I sprayed the whole room. I think it turned out pretty good (although I was running low on mud and a couple areas probably could use another pass or two with the sprayer). Tonight, I knocked down any "doobers" and high lumps with a rasp and officially turned the project over to our resident painter. Here is the current status:
Yes, that is the toilet in the middle of the room - can't wait to get that baby back installed where it belongs...

My Personal Battle w/ Cats

2009-08-06T10:49:00.003-05:00

It all started as a newlywed couple living in FL during our internship with Disney. We had an orange tabby cat that we had brought down with us from UT. It lived (and barfed/pooped/etc) in our apartment and I have to admit that I was not a real big fan of the animal living in such close confines with my own person. When the appointed time for the internship to terminate arrived, Jessica hopped a plane to SLC and left me to pack/drive the moving van (we had acquired some earthly possessions and had recently been "de-carred" by a careless driver so it worked to drive a van back instead of the recently demolished car. After a friend and I had packed the apartment up, we were doing a few final checks and hauling out the last few items when Jessica's cat ran out the door. It was the first time the cat had been outdoors there and it straight-up dissappeared. Here's where Jessica's beleif in my story parts ways with what actually happened. Contrary to her every assertion, I DID try to find that cat. I may not have been sad that it was not to be found, but that is irrelevant to the true fact that I did give it the ol' college try.

The cat was not to be found and so began a legacy of false accusations hurled against me for plotting to leave the cat in FL and so be rid of my scourge.

Fast forward to a few weeks back. Jessica leaves for a vacation in DC leaving me with the responsibility to care for:

1 mama cat

2 unweaned baby cats

1 just weaned baby cat

1 other cat

Fast forward to today.

There

only

one

cat

left!

Yikes! When the woman discovers this, I can see it now - renewed accusations of skulduggery and plots to dispatch the cats. I swear - the timing could not be worse. When cats dissappear when she is around, there are no accusations of foul-play - just an assumption that the dastardly coyotes have done their work. But now....

Another Steed in the Stable

2009-08-05T15:48:00.004-05:00

Last night I picked up this beauty for the princely sum of $200:
It has a good transmission in it which will go nicely in our other metro (whose transmission is totally crapped out - ironic since it has a freshly rebuilt engine.) Since we bought that metro in April of 08, we have spent about $1,000 in repairing it (not including any labor) and it has been "broke down" for probably 75% of that time. Not zactly a real success story....yet.

Jessica's Garden

2009-08-01T21:55:00.005-05:00

With Jessica gone, I am taking care of her garden. Luckily there has been plenty of rain so I haven't needed to do much work, but tonight I did spend some time out there picking.

There are probably five or six 5-10 pound zucchini on the bottom of the pile and there was more than that in the garden. I plan to take the majority of it to church tomorrow for dispersal. I don't know what we would do with all that.

Pigtails

2009-07-25T22:21:00.003-05:00

I was just talking to Jessica and mentioned how I really like wearing pigtails in the shop...and how today I actually went into town (the tiny redneck haven of Leonard) to run some errands in them. I guess I must really be getting old seeing as I no longer seem to care what other people think of my appearance? Or perhaps my transformtion into a quasi-new-age-redneck is complete? Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, Jessica, here they are in all their glory:

Carburetion

2009-07-25T21:19:00.003-05:00

Jessica is out of town for the family reunion for a few weeks, so I get to do pretty much whatever I want to around here with no interuption. Of course, it also means that I am eating frozen pizza every day, leaving the toilet seat up and occasionally talking to myself....but I digress. Today, I spent pretty much the whole day wading through carburetor parts. I was knee deep in parts from the tractor (which has always had a problem with the float sticking and just recently started draining the entire gas tank through the carb and down to the ground and (it looks like) into the oil pan) and from our "new" Honda fourwheeler. It is amazing that it pretty much took all day, but it was nice to get it done and it really needed to be done. I have been having to intermittently tap on that carb with rocks to get the tractor going.

Anyway, that is the story of the day - pretty much totally boring, but Jessica wants updates, so....

Jessica's B-day Party

2009-07-11T23:03:00.003-05:00

Today, we took on the torch of tradition and in the spirit of our ancient ancestors from the old country (Yugoslavia,) my immigrant grandfather, and most recently, my uncle by slow-roasting a goat (traditionally it has been lamb, but I am sure the old ways included goats too) on an open spit. Uncle Bill was kind enough to offer his custom-made spit with electric motor to the task and for that we are VERY grateful. It made the whole chore a pleasure. We started early with the slaughter of one of our homegrown goats (see this post and this post) Homegrown means we know that he never got into any sort of nasty medications that could be lingering in his flesh and that he has been healthy. He was born here on the farm, raised on this farm, and consumed on this farm. That is kind of a fun concept.

We had a bunch of family and friends over to share in the fun/food (part of the ancient tradition) and everyone brought tons of tasty side dishes and it was awesome. After all was said and done (and after Sterling's brazen cat nabbed about a pound of meat right off the table right in front of our faces and ran off in a mad dash to the bushes with it) we still ended up with at least 15-20 pounds or so of good meat for the freezer! Everyone seemed to enjoy the meat and for all you Benac relatives, it was actually very similar to the lambs we usually do. Today I discovered the benefits of being at the table when it first comes off the spit. Those who are cutting the meat off and putting it on the platters for all the others are those who get first dibs on the best cuts of meat. There's a mental note to keep for the future!

For my own personal reference the next time we do this, here's the important info:

Shopping list:

1 bottle of pepper
1/2 pound salt
10 or 12 large garlic bunches
4 bags of charcoal
Some olive oil for basting

We slaughtered the goat at 10:30a and it took till 12:45 to get it skinned/cleaned and all the garlic "implanted" in it. The salt/pepper went on quick as did the process of getting it onto the spit. We pulled it off the spit at 7p and it was perfectly done.

Thanks to all who contributed by bringing food, helping with the prep or cleanup, etc. We had a blast. Jessica will remember this B-day (hopefully) with fond memories - I know she really enjoyed all the company.

Happy B-day America

2009-07-04T23:36:00.003-05:00

We woke up this morning at Robber's Cave (near McAlester, OK) and spent a few hours exploring the caves before the heat kicked in. The kids and Jessica retired to the lake and I hit a hiking trail around the lake which pert near killed me. It was hot and while the trail was excellently marked (blue spots on every other tree) sometimes, it simply wasn't marked. Also, it was a hiking trail and so there were quite a few areas that were totally unridable (requiring "scrambling" skills) but it was nice to get out on the bike on a trail. We drove home in time for "burgers and bullets" at the Huber's house (Lenore was there as was Julie Anderson) where we threw a half ton of lead into a dirt bank demolishing targets comprised of everything from toilets to effigies of B. H. Obama.

There were fourwheelers and I thought Winter had bought it when I looked up just in time to see her roll a small 4-wheeler in a horrific accident on flat ground. She was very banged up and is going to have some major bruising, but seems to have come through it with nothing permanent. Those little cheapo foreign 4-wheelers seem to be (in retrospect) too tall and not wide enough - a recipe for roll-overs. Our best guess is that Winter tried to hit the brakes while turning and got the rearend of the thing sliding to instigate the roll. I thought for sure that she had broken her back or something - it was really scary. She had a full-face helmet on and still ended up with a fat lip too. Wow.

When we finally got home this evening (at like 11p) we lit off the fire works that I found on the side of the road and they are the best fireworks I have ever lit. There were 4 or 5 successive volleys of 3 rapid-fire rockets that went up into the air 40 or 50 feet before exploding in fun colors and crackles. It was our own mini-fireworks show. I took care of the farm chores and unloaded the sub and it is bed time for this tired ol' dad.

No more bottles!

2009-07-03T12:08:00.002-05:00

Sammy (the bottle calf) took his milk from a bucket today. That is
great progress. Another month or so & we can wean him.

More On (not moron) unkigiash

2009-07-01T17:01:00.003-05:00

You far-flung siblings will appreciate these (even though they would look like 1,000 times better with a little lightening in Photochop):

And lest you think no fish were caught - behold this monster bass that was singlehandedly brought to shore and subdued with bare hands after a fierce struggle by our own unky - this lunker was released to be caught another day. Be sure to note the contented look of a man who has conquered beast which shines through the unkempt mop of hair to betray unky's true nature:

Sterling

2009-07-01T09:26:00.006-05:00

I arrived home from work yesterday to find Sterling had just been stung by a wasp (again) within an inch of his eye (again) and was starting to swell up (again.) We kept him dosed up on benadryl and this is the result this morning:

By the way, he is not winking at you. The eye is completely swollen shut and is apparently getting a bit uncomfortable.

Ginger reports she "stepped on a bee and a snake" so she had to have her picture taken too. You can tell from the look on her face that the pain and anguish from the reported event have been highly traumatic (not)

Dead-eye Unkigiash

2009-06-29T20:36:00.003-05:00

Unkigiash came out to party for a bit yestiddy and since he was picking up his rifle that he had left, we happened to have it in hand and loaded when Justin (our dog) scared up a widdow bunny wabbit. It took off with Justin in hot pusuit and unkigiash drew a bead on it and winged off a shot. I gfigured it was a wasted shot (at a full-speed rabbit with a rifle) but I was proven wrong when Justin was treated to a nice little snack. That's right, unkigiash took out a rabbit that was running at full speed with a hunting rifle. Amazing.

Today, after a surprise major rainstorm (that was sorely needed) I sold my stock trailer for a thrifty profit. (well actually, seeing as I spent a good bit of $$ and whole lot of time doing repairs to it, I guess it probably isn't such a big profit after all - but it is nice to be rid of it) It really was just not the right trailer for my needs. I am constantly wishing I had a utility trailer and the stock trailer served semi-ok for that, but it wasn't perfect and was often too large and not suited for the work. I now have my eye set on a utility trailer that can be converted temporarily into a stock trailer by bolting on a "cage." Jessica thinks I should just get a utility trailer and be done with it, but I don't really see how I would ever move the livestock without some sort of cage for it. At least now that the stock trailer has been converted to cash we have options.

A Salute to Zeus

2009-06-27T21:48:00.003-05:00

This is Zeus. I believe he is an English Mastiff and, in his prime, he was probably near 200 pounds. His head is absolutely humongous and he has a great brindled coat. He was a great dog loved by one and all. Zeus was raised by my good friend Tyson from the time he was a puppy and today, after living out a full life of 8 years, he was laid to rest under a Texas mesquite tree on "the back 40."

While he has recently lost a lot of weight, and was barely able to walk back there and had to take frequent breaks to catch his breath (the fact that it was well over 100 degrees today certainly didn't help with that,) he was able to fill the last few moments of his life instilling fear in the hearts of our longhorns with his ferocious bark. He was noble till the end and we're glad to have been privileged to provide him his final resting place.

Here's to you Zeus!

It's Hot

2009-06-24T23:26:00.004-05:00

eOK, apparently, I haven't blogged recently and readers may be misled to believe the cow is still missing. Well, we got her back. The neighbors had rounded up their cows for sale on the very day she entered their field and so she was loaded up will all of them and hauled off. Luckily, they cut her from the herd at their sorting facility (over a street from us) and kept her there a few days. Those few days bought us the time we needed to:

1) get the fence fixed to prevent a recurrence (coincidentally, this particluar fence repair marks my initiation into the historic old-western tradition of stringing barb wire - I had never done it before)

2) get the truck fixed so I could go over there with our stock trailer and get her

In the meantime, it has gotten officially too hot. I realized that yesterday as I swam in my own sweat while loading a few thousand pounds of granite pavers into my truck by hand and then again today as I worked to unload them dipping into the swimming pool between wheelbarrow loads to try to stay cool. Unfortunately, that pool is getting to almost be bathtub temperature and is just barely refreshing at all.

In other news, our electric fence has been restored to its former glory days and again has the potential to kill small animals and knock a grown man to his knees (kids beware). After Sam Allred was here a few days ago with some buddies, they tested their mini-manhood by grabbing the electric fence to feel the shock. That was the last straw - that fence has grown weaker and weaker and since the winter I have not been able to get it back up to full shocking power. Between Josh's cow walking through the fence and Sam holding it for fun, I decided that it was time to figure out why the voltage was not hitting like it used to. I grabbed the weedwacker and cleared weeds that were touching the lines over a mile or so of line. When I got back to the shop, I found that it had not helped at all in terms of getting the voltage up, BUT apparently it made enough of a difference that I could now here a rythmic "popping" of an electrical arc underground over near where the line reemerges from its underground path from the shop. To make a long, dirty, hot, mosquito infested story short, I dug up and located, fixed and re-buried the line and the fence was magically back to full power.

That may seem like small potatoes to the city-folk (or is it to the sane folk?) but I am just pleased as punch to have that thing up again. The real good news here is that now Josh's steer can learn to respect fences and I can actually release the big mama longhorn that we got a month or so ago so she can also learn the boundaries of our farm (she has been locked in a smaller pen and has seriously depleted the grasses in it - she really needs to graze over more territory).

Here's a couple of fun stories demonstrating the power of the fence:

Today I had the truck backed up to the fence to unload granite and the lower line was touching the tow-ball of the truck. I was actually shocked by the truck body as I climbed into the back and also as I opened the door to try to move it!
The arc can jump a 1/8" to 3/16" gap (with a bright white flash and loud "crack")
As I undid a chain to open a gate at the calf pen, the chain accidentally hit a hot wire. I was shocked enough to call out audibly even though I was holding the chain probably 6" from where the chain touched the hot wire

I guess I'll have to go back to disconnected the fence when visitors come over...

Errant Cow

2009-06-17T23:25:00.002-05:00

Bad news. After scouring the property and all the neighboring lands (both at day and after dark, when I figured she would be most ready to come home) one of our longhorns is long gone. I can't figure where she might be, but it really stinks. I was motoring all around the neighboring farms on the little minibike and saw nothing.

More bad news. I finally got the new front wheel bearing for the truck that is on blocks in the shop and the 40mm socket I would need to get the old one off. I was all set to get that whole project done and out of the shop tonight. I went out there and hooked up my new Harbor Freight breaker bar to the new 40mm socket and after jumping on it with no luck at all, I set a 6 pipe on the breaker bar to increase the torque and promptly proceeded to break the new breaker bar - and no, the nut still didn't budge. So, after hammering on it for 5 minutes with the impact wrench and breaking the breaker bar, the nut has yet to budge, and I am unable to do anything on that project. Seriously though, how much torque is it going to take to get that stupid thing off?

Motorin'

2009-06-16T00:05:00.002-05:00

This may sound retarded at worst (cliche at best) but I garner great satisfaction to eat breakffast every morning in our windowed breakfast nook as I look over the livestock peacefully grazing in the fields. I don't really know what it is, but it makes a man feel good to see the livestock out there doing their thing.

ANyway, this morning one of the longhorns wasn't to be seen. This happens from time to time when they are laying down or behind a tree, but I watched for her all day every time I was in the kitchen to grab some water and by afternoon, I was convinced that we had a problem. After work, Ginger and I finally installed a new chain on our awesome 5-horse mini-motor-bike and together, we took off on a tour of the premises to locate the errant bovine. After a brief mishap involving a lack of gasoline in the tank, we finally made it up to the far corner where we immediately saw the missing kine on the other side of the fence. Boo!

There was no time to do anything about it, but it was sure fun to get out on the motorbike after what has been like a 6-month hiatus (due to the broken chain.)

This evening, we had a family over for FHE and swimming and after they left, with the kids tucked away, I headed out with a can of sweet feed (on the minibike) and tried to lure the cow back to our side. It didn't work, but I soon had her in my grips with some "cubes" (which are just bigger cubes of feed) that I spread all over the ground on our side of the fence. She walked right back over onto our side and then ditched the food and headed for her herd. Apparently she was very anxious to get back to see them.

Switching gears, I hit the shop to continue on a project started on Saturday - working on my truck. I installed another shock and pulled the brake rotors (so they can be turned) and it is all ready for the new brake pads. I also discovered what I think are two potential sources of a rattle-sound that comes from the truck. First, it appears the anti-rattle springs from the passenger side of the vehicle are just plain missing. Second, the lower shock mount on the passenger side was totally loose and was probably just banging around down there. It's nice to solve problems. Oh yeah, it also appears the bumpstop is missing on the passenger side. Sheesh.

Finally, I think it is worthy to note that tonight marks the night that I broke my Husky brand ratchet (which I love, by the way) for the 4th time. Home Depot (or is it Lowes?) always replaces them for free, and I have to admit that the source of the breakage is generally easily identified (blatant abuse) but it is still a pain in the keister to have to take them in for a trade in. Perhaps tomorrow I will just break down and buy a $5 breaker bar so that I can stop breaking my ratchet.

Farming Update

2009-06-11T23:14:00.005-05:00

Two factors caused me to spend a lot of time with the kids today:

- Jessica has been really sick over the last couple of days (appears to have eaten something that is not agreeing with her.)

- Our internet has been down all day (due to last night's storm.)

The kids spent a lot of time outside and we had some good fun - here's a synopsis of the good times:

I went outside barefoot to tell Ginger not to walk across the clover barefoot (to prevent beestings to the bottom of the foot) and was promptly stung on the bottom of my big toe by a honey bee.
Sterling was walking through some tall blue flowers in the pasture and got stung on the leg by a honey bee (yeah! not in the face!)
Winter fell off the end of the dock into the lake - then kept jumping in for fun. She ended up with a tiny leech on one leg so she wins the prize as the first one in our family to get a leech.
Ginger and I rode down to the mailbox on the lawnmower to get the mail and saw two rabbits (I later got the .22 out and took care of half of that problem)
I only ended up spending about 75% of the working day with work
We went fishing and caught a couple of small bass, but couldn't seem to get the big one to bite - so we switched gear to catfishing with breadballs (without any luck) and finally resorted to cooking angelhair pasta for dinner. Unfortunately, the kids had eaten most of a loaf of whitebread (catfish bait) and so they left most of their angelhair for Biggy Smalls (the pig) who was duly grateful.

And an update on the cattle situation:

Josh's steer is growing (prolly 350 lbs or so now) and is doing fairly well with his halter-training
Our little bottle calf is just starting to nibble on grass and sweet feed. He still takes two warm bottles per day. He spent the night in the shop last night due to the major storm that blew through.
The two longhorn heifers are gonna end up as progeny-less old spinsters if we don't figure something out soon. I found a guy that has local semen from a fairly decent bull (pictured below) for $25 (no shipping charges!) and that looks like a good option (although I'm not a huge fan of his coloring and my heifers are already too white, so this isn't the most optimal breeding for increasing the odds of darker progeny.) The total cost for insemination per cow would be ~$100 which is approaching half-reasonable and we may go that route.

The one longhorn mama still hasn't dropped a calf. She has fattened up noticeably since she came to live on our farm and from the looks of her, she must certainly be getting closer to birthing. We'll just keep our fingers crossed.

In other news, I was perusing the web looking at Ankole-watusi cattle and I now have serious horn-envy. The longhorns I once thought so spectacular now seem puny and pathetic when compared to the racks on these things. Check these things out:

Are you kidding me! I even saw a watusi heifer on CL for like $400. I have to admit, I like them big horns!

Revision to the Semen

2009-06-10T11:22:00.003-05:00

Yikes! Nevermind on the semen. I signed up to pay $50 for it and they called and said the total bill would be over $130 after factoring in various fees and shipping charges. Add that $130 on to $75 or so per cow for the actual AI service and we are getting into too much $$ to pay for some silly unregistered longhorns. It looks like the neighbor's bull it is then. Bummer man....here's my favorite story to cheer you up (which I believe engendered the story that is the basis for the movie with Alex the Zebra and the crazy militant penguins - which one was that?)

I love animals: I'm always talking about animals, I love 'em. But the thing is that, you know, whenever you see animals on the telly, it's always the show-off animals. Yeah? It's always the leopards and panthers and crocodiles. Lions milling about, going "Oh, I'm very good, I'm on everything", and it really makes me annoyed, you know? Because what about the English animals, you know? The British mammals, yeah? Hah, what about the muskrat, or the tiny northern root-vole, with his little banjo and hat made of elastic bands, yeah? Who's representing them, eh? No-one, that's who.

I was furious! I went round all the heavily wooded regions in England. I just went round with this small pamphlet, recruiting like a huge slave rebellion. I was like Spartacus. I was there, going, "Okay, we're gonna go to Africa! We're gonna kick their arses", and I got a huge sort of tiny little mammal slave rebellion. They were all wearing tunics, we were there rummaging about in Greece... Well, Kent. And I said, "Come on, we're gonna go over there, and we're gonna show 'em. I'm sick of the lions, I'm sick of the crocodiles! You must be too. Come on, now!"

So I got them all in a big rusty bomber, and we flew over to Africa. But we needed a strategy. We couldn't just go over there, you know, go "COME ON!", and give them some aggro. We needed a strategy. So what we did was, um, we built a huge wooden shrew, like the wooden horse of Troy, but with just a little bit more stoat in it, with tiny little stoat's arms holding the spear, and what we did, was we lined it - to make it double dangerous - we lined it all with kitkat wrappers.

Ah, it was fantastic, it was like a glossy b!7c4. It was so bright, it was a metallic wonder. Small boys would rather eat a pair of scissors than go near the glossy b!7c4. "Don't make me go near it, I'll eat another pair of scissors. I can't look at it, it's doin' me pupils in!" Ah, it was fantastic, it was very warlike, the body was very warlike. But the eyes? They were telling a different story. Hardly warlike: eyes, like the eyes of an old russian lady, who had seen too much. An old russian lady, with her arm caught in a loom, and big sailors would walk past and go "Hello!" and she'd go "No, not hello. My arm - it's in a loom." And they'd go, "Yes, hello!", and she'd go, "No, not hello. It's gone maroon. My arm, it is in a loom." And they'd go "Yes, hello!", and she'd go "No, not hello -", and in the end she'd have to pick up the two-ton loom, and walk them, follow them home, and knock on their front window, and they'd be going "Oh, you're scaring me a little bit now". That's what the eyes were like: dangerous, but beautiful at the same time.

And what we did, was we cut two circles out of the base of the shrew, so that Martin Pinemarten could stick his little stoaty, weaselly legs through, and wheel us around - it was fantastic. And there weren't any windows, so we were crashing into antique shops, knocking over stationary yachts. We were having a nightmare!

And eventually we found the plains, and we waited till dusk - waited till it got a little bit dark - and we looked through a crack in the shrew, and they were all out there, lions milling about, and we thought, "Yeah, we're going to get you, you freak nuts."

So, what we did, was, we waited till it was dark, and we went out, and we went "CHAAAARGE!" and we ran at them, and when we got out there, we couldn't believe it, they were HUGE! Lions the size of transit vans, we couldn't... we didn't know what was happening! Leopards like marquees, "Oh, he's like a Victorian tennis house, look at the size of him!" Martin the pine marten was in a right state, he said, "No, I'm not going out there again, they were bloody huge, you didn't say anything about them going to be that huge!" Martin, what's happening to your voice? "I don't know, but I'm a bit scared."

So we all ran back into the shrew, we were like, "Oh, no, what are we going to do?", and we had to come up with Plan B. Luckily, Morris, the wood-pigeon, went, "I've got an idea". Now, he'd brought some Japanese Tourist costumes along, and we popped them on, went out there, and we took photos of them all. But we used them cameras that fly water! Oh yeah! Some of the zebras were soaked, cheetahs wringing out their gussets. We went over there and we kicked their arses.

Semen Purchase

2009-06-10T08:16:00.004-05:00

OK, I finally got off my lazy keister and bought some semen. The results of the bull poll to see which sire was favored were for The Shadow and after many months, I am still leaning that way - so I bought two straws of semen from The Shadow.

There is a guy I found locally that will take shipment of the semen, and will then take care of the artificial insemination process for me. He claims a 70% success rate, so we'll have our fingers crossed, and if the AI fails, I have a neighbor who is supposed to be getting a longhorn bull in a couple of months for his small herd - he said I can run my hiefers over there for a few months if needed to get them bred.

So, The Shadow is the main plan and the neighbors bull will be the backup plan.

A Fun Story About Pig Poop

2009-05-27T22:29:00.003-05:00

Your kids will love this:

So I was taking care of our pig (Biggy Smalls) and he had buried his water bowl in the mud (like he always does.) When I pulled it out of his wallow, it had a pretty good bit of mud still in it but it was dried in place (or so I thought.) I had to get it out of his pen somehow (visualize reaching through a wire fence with 4" X 4" square openings - you reach through at the bottom and grab a bowl, but now you can't get your arm out until you get rid of the bowl, so you fling the bowl up and back to get it out of his pen to a spot where you can clean it.)

I flung it and it floated in a perfect arc up and over the fence. Of course, about half way through that beautiful arc, I realized that it was headed kind of towards my foot. I immediately implemented evasive maneuvers, but apparently I am not as spry as I once was. It landed within about an inch of my foot and the dry "mud" that was in it ended up being more like very wet pig-poo and my toss gave it just enough momentum to cause a very nice distribution of pig poo all along my leg and inside my crocs (they are all the rage with farmers these days.)

I washed up in the hose and came home to discover that I had somehow smeared pig poo on my face in the process. Just a few words on how you can tell pig poo is on your face....well, never mind - use your imagination...it was odorific.

Anyway, after thoroughly washing my face, I couldn't figure out just why the smell was lingering. Jessica confirmed it though - I smelled like pig poo...specifically, around my face. I couldn't figure it out, but luckily about 5 minutes later Jessica was sitting by me and took a good look. She discovered a very large splash of pig poo that was matted into my hair.

The good news (and you'll be happy to hear this) is that once you wash the poo out of your hair, the smell miraculously disappears.

Stock Trailer Done!

2009-05-26T20:51:00.008-05:00

Finally some closure - the stock trailer "bow" replacement job is over and done with. Here is a short progression in photos:

Bows are rusted through and the top is collapsed:

Several bows removed (I ended up taking out one more than shown in this picture and probably should have just done the next one too - I ended up spending a ton of time welding in new metal patch sections into it...in retrospect it would have been easier to just replace it.

The new "bows" are bent and ready to install:

New bows welded in place:

New top bar supports getting ready to weld on:

All welded up, primed and painted:

What's next you ask? Well, I have my eyes on a different trailer that is convertible from just a regular flatbed utility trailer to a stock trailer (the cage portion is removable.) I'm going to try to either sell this on outright and use the proceeds to get a convertible trailer or try to find someone who wants to trade.

Since I have owned this trailer, I have had to rent or borrow a flatbed trailer over and over again for various tasks and jobs. Utility trailers are usually shorter (12' to 18') than this trailer (20') so this trailer should actually be worth more than most utility trailers so it shouldn't be too hard to get a good trade. I don't mind having a bit smaller of a trailer since I don't really run a lot of cattle. Having the added utility of the conversion from stock trailer to utility trailer and back though, would be very cocnvenient. Cross your fangers - I'm sure the magic of CL will hook me up.

In Memorium (or something)

2009-05-25T23:12:00.003-05:00

Back when I was a youngsta, me an' a pal made ourselves a (pathetic excuse for a) boat out of 2X4s and plywood. We christened it the "Dawg" and though we used it frequently, it certainly made a good show of living up that that name. Somewhere (I can't seem to find it) I have a picture of my grandpa and me taking that dog of a boat out fishing - it is one of my favorites. For some reason, that picture is one of my favorite memories of my grandpa. It combines fishing, boating, etc. and it made me proud at the time that he trusted me enough to trust his life to my construction skills.

Another moment like that where I tend to think back on an event with fondness was the time Grandma came out and drove around on our tractor or when Mark, Jessica and I took Logan and Roscoe camping in southern UT.

This next image may go down as one of those moments. This is my mom feeding her first bottle to a calf. Good times.
It was fun having mom out for swimming, dinner, FHE, and smores and the moment pictured above reminded me of her dad. I guess that is a good thing for memorial day.

Pics

2009-05-25T12:50:00.002-05:00

Calf-raising V2

2009-05-24T23:23:00.004-05:00

Last night, we had a new delivery here on the farm. This time in the back of a pcikup truck. One of our neighbors dropped off a little 10-day old? bottle calf. He is:

50% Angus

25% Hereford

25% Holstein

In short, what that means is that he should turn out to be a very sizeable bull or steer (not 100% decided on that just yet, but leaning towards steer) that will fetch a pretty price at the sale barn once grown. He is mostly black and for some reason, in Texas, black cattle are worth more. (research into this seemingly local-to-Texas phenomenon indicates that black cattle have been favored here since the 1800s and the very earliest Texas "cowboy" days.

He currently gets a bottle twice a day.

Puttin' In My 8

2009-05-19T12:57:00.001-05:00

After getting up shortly after 4am for a dash to the airport, you can
imagine how excited I am to be sitting in the Atlanta airport (having
missed a connecting flight to Chicago) waiting on a 4:00pm flight to
my final destination.
Oh well...at least I now have some time to meditate?

Cinderella (w/ a welder)

2009-05-15T00:01:00.003-05:00

The wind has been pretty rough lately - which makes outdoor welding with gas-shielded MIG wire a bit tough. Tonight the wind was low, so after the kids were all put to sleep, I hit the ol' stock trailer with the welder. I actually made progress a lot faster than I thought I would. I started by cutting down all the old rusted off stumps and soon I was slapping the new 'hoop' top bars on left and right...until I ran out of welding wire. Yep, right about as the clock struck midnight, I ran out of welding wire and my spree was over. Here's a pic of where she is at right now (sorry for the quality - it is dark out there!)

For a comparison from "before" take a look at the images in this post from a week ago.

By the way, I have to give props on this project to my old pal Jess who, at one point, built his own bender. Without his can-do attitude towards anything metal, I might never have even tried bending the top bars by myself. I am extremely satisfied with the results!

Cowboyin'

2009-05-13T17:09:00.003-05:00

We had a special treat today - Uncle Keith, Uncle Bill and G-pa Earl came out to test out some weaponry on the back-40. While they were here, I convinced them (it wasn't hard) to see if they could help me get the new cow (hereby christened Big Mama) into the stock trailer so I could move her from one pasture (with low grass) to a fresh pasture (with nice tall grass.) I had been slowly trying to urge her into the trailer with feed, but she wasn't having it. Bill and Keith suggested that we relocate the trailer to a less muddy spot and that worked well enough to get her very close to the trailer, but she still didn't seem very motivated to get in it, so Bill suggested we cut some of that nice tall grass from the new pasture and use it to lure her into the trailer. It didn't take long after that to get her into the trailer and with a swift and correlated bump of the gates to her backside (Keith and I synchronized our watches and then sprung the trap,) she hopped right in. It was a short and pleasant trip up to the new pasture and she was shortly romping around in nice fresh hay and getting acquainted with all the other livestock that were up there waiting for her.

It would have been really difficult without all the help (I tend to drive my trailer by braille when I am working alone) and I sure appreciated it. Hopefully the other parties involved enjoyed a little bit of good ol' fashioned texas longhorn cowboyin'

Bye Bye Bessie

2009-05-11T12:54:00.004-05:00

With all the trouble we have had getting folks to come over to feed the dog and other animals when we are on vacation, we have come to the realization that regardless of our desire for fresh milk, we just aren't really set up for a milk cow that requires twice daily devotion without fail. If you miss a milking, it can actually harm the animal and we dont want to deal with that...so, I traded Ol' Bessie (our future milk cow) for a 3 year old longhorn cow that is bred to drop a calf here anyday. We loaded Ol' Bessie up on Saturday and took delivery of our new herd queen (she's the queen just cuz she is now our oldest cow) - here she is:

This is a picture of the Bull that is her father (a nice looking animal eh?)
This next one is the bull that sired the calf that we are expecting any day now.

So, we now have an officially all-longhorn herd (except for unkigiashes little Jersey steer who is here on only a temporary basis.) Feelin' kinda Texas now....

Stock Trailer

2009-05-09T19:00:00.003-05:00

It must be Christmas. Ma & Pa took all 3 of the kids for the weekend. It is awesome!

I got a ton of work done on the trailer today. Here's all 5 new top bows bent and cut to size:

Here's the trailer with all the old bows broken out. I just need to get some new cutting wheels to cut off the stubs so I can weld in the new bows:

I also traded 'Ol Bessie off for a new longhorn cow - more on that later....

Playin' in the Rain

2009-05-06T20:33:00.003-05:00

The rain is still coming every other day or so and today it was gushing again after a full nights storms. Here, after it warmed up to near 80 degrees, the kids play in the aftermath at the bottom of the dam. Earlier in the day, the water was shooting out far harder and would have easily washed Ginger off the rock she was standing on.