Dare to Dream

7/4/06 Tuesday
Happy independence day folks. Here in Midland there are to be no fireworks fired off anywhere. This is because it is so dry. They even had the governor of Texas declare a state of emergency and issue an order to that effect. I think the city will still have a professional fireworks display.

My pain level has been high ever since I sprayed the killer bee nest and ran like crazy. That pulled something that made lifting my leg to walk excruciating. It was just a little sore yesterday morning but didn’t take long to make itself known. I tried the footed cane that had belonged to Minnie Lee. That helped allot but I can’t do much carrying a cane. Today we will take it easy so this can heal some. It is hard to take things easy because we are so motivated to get things done.

We will have to wait till this holiday is over to get things like registering the truck done. At least we now have electricity. One of the first orders of the day will be to get a window fan or two to move the dusty air out of the house. This will be especially important when we start sweeping. Yesterday I opened the windows to get some air blowing through but it didn’t seem to work. Oh well, we kept going anyway. Then Cherie noticed that these windows had the storm glass in. Because the screens were still in place I didn’t notice. OK, I felt dumb.

This lone pecan tree is the last of the ten plus trees Rudy had planted at this part of the farm. How it survived when everything else died of thirst I don't know but we will replace the orchard and give this guy the care it needs to thrive.

As we work we contemplate the things we would like to do with the place. Of course we dream big and may never fully reach our goals but we will stretch for them. My philosophy is that if you reach for the stars and don’t make it you will still go farther than you would have if you had never tried. So always reach for the stars.

This is the old grape arbor that will get rebuilt and replanted.


We will do some shopping this morning. Get some basic things like the fans, a dust pan, and whatever else we can think of. I didn’t play with the bees yesterday. Figured that if I can’t run it would be a bit uncomfortable. I did pick up a dead bee so I can show it to the county extension office who is responsible for keeping tabs on killer bees. Maybe they will come eradicate these guys if they are truly the killer variety.

Still not sure what to do with the old bus. It was purchased to move my mother to Texas from Chicago. Still has some of her stuff in it. Someone smashed the glass in the back door to go in and loot it.

I think we will start measuring the house so I can draw up an accurate blue print of the place. This will include every wall and even the pitch of the roof. From that we will draw up the renovations we would like to consider. That blue print will be part of the package we will present to the bank for financing. That package will also be useful when we look at government programs and incentives. Those programs include Federal and state incentives for farmers, disabled veterans (that’s me), energy incentives such as wind power electric generators, and whatever else we can find. There is much help out there but it must be searched out.

Well that’s the start for the day. We find ourselves sleeping in later than we were used to. In Toledo the alarm was set at 5:30 in the morning and we would often wake up before the alarm went off. Of course Carman kitty would wake us. When we get back I suppose there will be some adjusting to do. Last night I was wide awake despite being physically exhausted. Didn’t get the blog entry published till almost 2:00 in the morning.

Be back with more later.
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We took it a little easier today. My pulled muscle or whatever it is was made every move painful. We left at five or so and decided to drive down FM 829 (The road our house is on) to see where it went. As we drove I explained to Cherie how the land is set up in what they call sections.
That means that other than a few driveways and dirt roads it will be twenty five miles between intersections. We took some pictures of some rigs where they are drilling for oil. It is amazing how many abandoned buildings there are out here. Here’s a picture of one.

We are tired and calling it a day now. Goodnight.