Pretty slow at the moment

This mornings sunrise

11/29/07 Thursday
On the news this morning was a story about a lady with Asperger’s syndrome who had finished in fifth place in some kind of beauty contest. Can’t remember what exactly the contest was but it was a big deal. I like to see stories that raise awareness of both Asperger’s and TBI as they are both issues I live with and have most of my life. The part I like is the fact she has risen beyond this and done quite well in spite of it. Having this mild form of autism doesn’t mean you are stupid or unable to accomplish anything, it just means you have to try harder.

11/30/07 Friday
It’s 3:11 now. I am going through a major slowdown. Operating at a three on the bob scale. Ears are ringing bad and I am typing this in slow motion. Want to make a note that Don came and visited yesterday. The doctor said he needed to get on his feet a little now. That’s a good sign indicating that the healing of the fractures is progressing finally. He was glad to hear that so called to see if I was up to a visit. I’m always up for a visit unless enduring one of the go to bed and hide headaches. I’d even accept a visit now but wouldn’t be much company.

I raked more of the rye seed in yesterday and today. Ran the sprinklers. Because of being slow can’t remember if I ran them yesterday but they are running right now. There is lots of it coming up now. It is good to see.

Oh, just thought to note that I took Don over to Chuck and Lillian’s. Was going to in the beginning paragraph but forgot. Lillian was home so we talked. Don’t know what about. But both Don and I can’t stand up to long so were glad to get in the truck.


I went with Cherie and finished the last cotton field. It was particularly hard on my back. Had to take a pain pill when we got home. I took the camera. Saw lots of tumbleweeds. Ever since reading about the lady who makes over $40,000 a year selling tumbleweeds I notice them more. There must be a thousand dollars of them in this cotton field. When I get the website up I will put in a section to sell tumbleweeds. Amy may help me set it up. She offered but I haven’t gotten back with her on it.






I’ve been wanting to get a picture of one of the wind electric generators for some time now. There is a whole bunch that are going to be set up. You can see them laid out for miles in this area. I had Cherie stand next to one to give you an idea just how big they are.

Took lots of sunrise and sunset pictures. I have to lay back down so will just put these on.

Good sunrise greeting.

11/28/07 Wednesday
Woke up to the sounds of the puppies wrestling around. The little buggers had stolen a whole roll of toilet paper from the bathroom. All that was left were shreds spread all over the place. They heard about it and in the process of my expressing my displeasure Cherie woke up. “What’s going on?” she groggily said. Probably not the best way to wake up. But we are up.

Today we go to the cotton fields. There are only two left that haven’t been harvested, at least not when Cherie last checked. They may be done by now as all the farmers are pushing hard to get their cotton done. We will know when we get there. This will probably be the last cotton survey except for the two fields Cherie has to glean after they are harvested. Hope it’s not too muddy.

We were greeted with a great sunset this morning so I thought I would share it with you all.
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We got some of the cotton survey done. Worked till noon. Went into Stanton to have one of the best hamburgers along with the best malt to be found in these parts. That is at the downtown drug store. Then we came home. The ground was wet so I did most of the counting and picking from a standing position instead of sitting on the ground and scooting my butt down the row. That killed me. Had to take a pain pill and lay down. I did snip off the rest of the basil to harvest the seeds for next year. Plan on surrounding the place in basil as it helps keep some of the bugs away I’m told. Cherie had gone into Midland. Janie and Steve want her to do lots of cleaning, several days worth from the sound of it. We still need to do some more cotton work so she wants to get a head start on Janie’s.
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Didn’t write much today. I raked some more of the rye seed this evening till the sun went down and it got to dark to see. The puppies were helping me of course. They do a great job of supervising.

Cherie just called. She said she had a flat tire so pulled into a gas station and put air into it. That has me worried as she is driving home. I hope the tire doesn’t go flat or blow.

Another bright morning

11/27/07 Tuesday
It’s another bright morning with a frost covering the ground. The rye seems to be holding up very well despite the snow and frosts. I am a little disturbed this morning. Some home stuff I won’t talk about. I have a tendency to focus on things more than I should. It is a common problem for those of us with TBI. Perhaps by recognizing it I will be able to balance back out. But it makes things hard on Cherie when I do this.

I never made it over to Chuck and Lillian’s yesterday so will hopefully get out there today. I did get some of the tiller motor back together but have much more to do. It is a slow process as I am unable to remember taking it apart. I remember I took it apart but not what piece came from where or the order it was dismantled. So I slowly figure it out and carefully look over the parts. Hopefully everything will be done alright. Getting the piston in the cylinder without what is called a cylinder sleeve was a big, big, challenge. I took the metal strip from a measuring tape that was already broken and, wrapping it around the piston, managed to get the piston in one ring level at a time. Used the rubber mallet to encourage it. That is not the right way but I do the best I can with what I have. Buying a cylinder sleeve for a one time use is just not in the rather tight budget. We will see.
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This morning Cherie went to Midland to do some housework for Janie. When she started the car to warm it up I heard a loud steady noise from in the house so ran out to see what it was. It stopped before I got out so didn’t know if it came from the car or not so shut it off to be sure. Popping the hood I checked the oil. While doing so the sound resumed so I learned it came from where they were working on the oil well that had just been drilled. But it was a good thing as it was because there was no oil registering on the dipstick at all. Her car was out of oil. Not good at all. I keep meaning to check it cause I know her car uses oil but as it is with me I keep forgetting. I told Cherie to mark her calendar for me to check oil every two weeks. That is how it has to be. If anything is to happen it pretty much has to be in a written schedule. Otherwise it just doesn’t happen.

I just got back from the John Deere dealer and picked up the quote. I was surprised to see that it almost matches the one for the Mahindra tractor except it doesn’t include a trailer. The trailer is important as it allows me to transport the tractor to potential jobs, thus providing additional income.
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I’m tired and it’s getting late, at least by my standards. It’s 10:30. There was a time in my life that this was when the party was just getting started. Glad to see those days are gone. I’ll have to think hard to remember what else happened today. I went to the landfill and didn’t come back with anything. That’s new. There wasn’t any mail to speak of. After checking mail I dropped by the John Deere dealer and I see I already mentioned that earlier. Then I went home and grabbed the camera. I wanted to take some pictures of Chuck and Lillian’s place to go with some measurements so we can have a better idea of the material needs for a new roof.

I also wanted to get some pictures of this place. It belongs to Carol Yader and he had worked there with my grandmother back when it was a grocery store or something like that. This building is right on the interstate and is a stones throw (literally) from the west bound exit. And it is next to FM 829, the road our place is on. That’s the overpass for 829 right behind it. There is a half acre or so lot that goes with it. What a perfect place for a farmer’s market and store to sell our produce. I know Carol said he was going to put it on the market but have no idea if it sold or how much he would want for it. It’s all part of this dream I have, or at least can be a part of it.


I went to Midland to mail a letter to Wayne in Toledo. While there Cherie called and asked if I could run by Janie’s house as the Maytag repairman was going to show up and she was at the grocery store. That was fine and I was glad to be able to help. Mike from next door was outside when I pulled up so we talked a bit. He asked how things were going. I told him about the farm and how we were trying to get a tractor. Mike made a suggestion that caught me by surprise.





“How about I do a golf tournament to raise money for you?”. Mike is a golf pro and he began to tell me of the many charity tournaments he has put on to raise funds for different needs including a guy with a bad cancer. Once he played something like 820 holes of golf in one day, eight hours non stop. It beat a Guinness world record but they didn’t have anyone to send down and verify it. The idea really has merit. But is it right to put on a fundraiser for yourself? That seems off key for some reason but I really don’t know.

That’s all I can remember now so goodnight.

building a farm

11/26/07 Monday
It is a great morning. I am always thankful for times of lucidity and I am running a good eight or nine on the bob scale. As always I hope it stays. There have been times when I go for days without a slowdown.

It is a bright cloudless morning. The temperatures dropped to 27 degrees last night but it will warm to nearly sixty today. The puppies and I went for our morning walk. Haven’t done that in a few days so they were thrilled. We walked all the way to the well as I wanted to check on the wrapping/insulation job I did. Particularly I wanted to see if the rat or whatever had dug back under the tank. There was no sign of that, which is a relief. I wrapped a blanket around the plastic I used to protect the insulation from rain. I did this because the West Texas sun makes short work of plastics. They become brittle and disintegrate. So hopefully this job will last more than one season.

Another thing I did at the well was walked off how many paces the pipe leading to the house is from the line of telephone poles that mark the border. It is fourteen paces and that is how far the mysterious hole that had an inverted pressure cooker pot in it that I found not far from our outdoor spigot is. I suspect I will find the water pipe and perhaps a cut off when I dig farther. I had dug a three foot hole there when we first moved in to see what was under this marked spot. However the dirt has drifted four feet high right there so I may have six or more feet to dig. That is a lot of digging, almost as deep as I am tall, and will be hard on me but as always I will do what I have to do. I might be lucky and find something at four or five feet.

If I do then I can be fairly confident that the pipe runs in a straight line from the well so I will be able to accurately determine where to dig out in the future five acre truck farm. Thus I can tap in to access water closer to where I will plant. This way I can rent a trencher and lay pipe as the first step in building a drip feed irrigation system. Dirt and water are the key elements in successful farming. That and some hard work. It’s all part of building the framework, the foundations of this farm. The alternative is to piece together hundreds of feet of garden hose, like I have been doing up to this point. A hundred foot garden hose costs fifty buck or so and I think that’s for the cheap stuff that doesn’t last. I’ve got eight or nine hoses that people had thrown away in the landfill that I replaced the ends on or spliced together.

All this will cost money of course. That brings up the next thing I wish to bring up. Several people have suggested and also requested that I set up a PayPal account so they can send donations. It is a concept I hadn’t considered but in retrospect not a bad idea. So last night Cherie worked hard to figure out how to do all that. We now have the account and Cherie managed to put the PayPal icon on the blog. I haven’t seen it yet but if it’s there you should be able to click on it and make a donation, which will be deposited directly into our account.

So with that in mind I will present some of the needs we have to build this farm. One of the important investments is windbreak trees. These are vital to provide protection from the ever present and sometimes violent West Texas winds. One of the tricks I’ve learned from one of the “native” gardeners out here is to cut the bottoms out of those plastic buckets plants from a nursery come in. Then you push them securely into the ground around each plant. In this case he was referring to pepper plants.

When we went to check out the apple orchard near Lubbock we stopped at the Texas Forest Service nursery. They have a wide variety of trees available, some specifically for windbreaks. The best one for our area is the Eastern Red Cedar. They come ready to plant in a square paper tube in lots of thirty. I was surprised to learn thirty trees only costs $55.00. They suggest planting them ten feet apart so it would take fifty trees to cover each side of our five acres. This five acre plot is a square 528 feet long per side so 200 trees would surround it.

In addition they recommend a shrub be planted on the outside of each row. The two mentioned in their literature as being ideal for that are Aromatic Sumac and Lilac. Unfortunately they are not listed on the order form for the West Texas nursery so I presume they must be purchased from another location. The Texas Forest Service brochure says “The Texas A&M University System” under the title. I don’t know what the prices would be or if they are available but would like to find out. They do have “Smooth Sumac” available from the West Texas nursery. It is labeled as a tall shrub or tree but no mention is made about use as an outside row windbreak shrub. The price however is attractive at fifty seedlings for $30.00. All these seedlings are one year old. Shipping and handling is $9.11 per 30 trees of the Red Cedar. The trees will be shipped in February though we may just drive up there and pick them up.

So if any of you would like to help us buy windbreak trees you can do so through the PayPal Donate button thing. Being new at this I don’t know if there is a place to specify what the donation is for but will eventually learn. If not please drop us an email at bobcarver2@yahoo.com I suppose it would be a good idea to set up an email address just for Westbrook Farms and perhaps a blog as well. I tried a blog just for the farm but never found the time or remembered to post so let it go.

One of the other needs for building this farm is irrigation. In fact the windbreak trees will require that. I need to locate sources of material to build the in ground drip feed systems such as we saw at the apple orchard. The hose is really not that expensive. I saw some with emitters already installed for something like thirty bucks for a hundred feet at Lowe’s or Home Depot but it was gone when I went there a week or so ago.

Other than that our major need is a tractor. That will be a bit harder to get (Duh!!! You think?) but it will happen. God will provide.

I’ve got some soil samples to dig this morning so we can send them in to be tested. I also want to dig to find the water pipe from the well. That I will probably do bit by bit. The tiller is waiting for me to finish rebuilding the motor so perhaps I can get to it today as well. I will be running out to Chuck and Lillian’s to take some measurements. Probably ought to do that this morning before I get all involved with other stuff. So time to get moving.

Winter wonderland

11/25/07 Sunday
So far it’s been a fantastic morning as far as my cognizance goes. I’ve been running a strong nine out of ten on the bob scale. How I wish I could stay this way. Sunday school was…well I was sharp so everything was good. The lesson was on the last part of Mathew covering the death and resurrection. I had to stop myself from answering all the questions the teacher asks to get everyone involved. I didn’t need to have my bible open to answer. There was so much I wanted to say but it wasn’t my place so restrained myself.









Wally, Dave, and I stayed after and talked about what can be done for Chuck and Lillian. There is a need for leadership in this as there is in any situation. I want to jump in and do so but can’t depend on myself to stay sharp or follow through. It is real frustrating to not trust yourself. How I want to just be healed and remain at the level of cognizance I am currently enjoying. Every year I am a bit better so perhaps I’ll get there. I’ve said many times before that I would gladly live in a wheelchair in exchange for a sharp mind. I’m not kidding.





Anyway, Cherie and I need to go visit with Chuck and Lillian. I need to get measurements on the house so we can determine the amount of materials needed for the roof. One of the things Wally suggested was to break this whole thing up into individual segments like the roof, then siding, and whatever else. That is the best way to approach it. The thought of getting a team of folks together to provide the labor is one I would like to push simply because I believe that physical participation is the best way to do this. Not for Chuck and Lillian as much as for the participants. There is a blessing that comes from getting your hands dirty and being up close and personal with giving. It is easy to just give money and keep a distance and for some that is the best they can do, but to be close to the ones you are helping really helps you understand and reach out more effectively.

It was beautiful this morning with how the snow built up on everything. I can’t help it but I love the snow, at least on this level. I don’t love some of the danger or discomfort it can cause others and it’s a pain sometimes but I see beauty here. The snow is melting rapidly and will be gone before the days end. Here today and gone tomorrow. It’s a muddy mess now and so are the puppies. In this weather they are kept in the puppy room or at least the kitchen area till they dry off.

Here they are on the couch. Little buggers snuck up there and made themselves comfortable.

I am looking forward to what this moisture will do for the four hundred and fifty pounds of rye seed I’ve got out. The parts I had been watering with the sprinklers were sprouting when the snow came but that is only a tenth of what is out there. It will be so cool to have a sea of green out here. How I look forward to building this farm and the rye is only a first step.

For those of you who haven’t been here for a while or are new readers the rye grain is to fight off the weeds that have been growing here thirty years. In the spring I will till it under on the spots where I will be planting vegetables and whatever else, thus making fertile mulched bed rows. In the isles in between the rows I will roll the rye down flat. This will kill it and leave a ground cover that will inhibit further weed growth.

Somehow I’ve got to figure out how to harvest the rye grain. It’s not like I can use a regular harvester like they use on wheat and rye because there is only five acres and I’ll only be able to harvest a portion of that. I need to go online and research that. Perhaps I can build something. There was a mention of making one out of a lawnmower I saw somewhere. I like these challenges. I would be pretty bored without them and it is these things that make life interesting and perhaps even fun.



This is where my offices for two of my companies, Westbrook Marketing and Corporate Liquidation, were.


As we were leaving church Wally asked how we were doing. That launched me as I am prone to do when sharp. I talked about building this farm and how I was trying to get a tractor. I don’t think he could get a word in edgewise as I ran down my plans and ambitions. I can’t help it as I am passionate about achieving this goal, about building not just the farm but the life that goes with it. I am motivated by many aspects of this. I want to stand on my own two feet. I don’t want the stigma, that I suspect some have, of being on disability and perhaps of using or abusing that.
The remains of what had one time been my 8,000 square foot woodshop in my warehouse. It was pretty much picked through while I was in a coma and for the year it took me to get back to Toledo. I had sold most of the equipment before the accident


I want to take back the destruction the drugs and alcohol caused when I demolished everything I had accomplished at one time. That was a lot. There were three companies that had employed a total of 127 people during one year that I had started from scratch. A reputation, something you can’t put a price on or buy, of being an astute businessman with integrity. The nice house in Michigan and second marriage I don’t really care about, only the two sons I raised and there I have great sorrow. I also destroyed the thin window of opportunity I had to restore a relationship with my father, a relationship I never really had my entire life. Perhaps if I do something with this place he will talk to me. Just once would be nice.

I love this tree. It is the lone survivor of the trees that had one time made up my grandmother's orchard. I've been taking pictures of it for over a year now in all sorts of conditions. One of these days I'll put together an album of just this tree


I am slowing down now. Tired as I usually am in the middle of the day and have the ringing ears dizzy feel that is often a precursor to a partial seizure. It was a good run though. Been up and sharp since four this morning so that makes twelve hours as it is 3:50 now. I will post and lay down.

Snow gone but coming back

11/24/07 Saturday
It was pretty painful to sit up and get out of bed this morning. Residuals from cooking chili yesterday I suppose. But the arthritis in my finger joints was making itself known last night in an unmistakable way. So perhaps it is all the weather rolling through that is aggravating this. When I think about it I’m sure it is a combination of work and weather causing this increase in pain. The finger joints are swollen and hurting this morning also. I took one of the pills I avoid as much as I can. There is always much to do so I don’t want to be slowed down.

All the snow is gone now. It pretty much melted away yesterday. The puppies stay a muddy mess so are relegated to the kitchen living room area when we bring them in, at least till the dry off. The white parts of their fur has become that West Texas shade of red from the dirt. They need a bath but I don’t think it will happen anytime soon. Maybe when it warms up and dries out I’ll fill up their pool and get out the hose. There is another storm front coming through today. It promises to bring another batch of snow but the temperatures will hover just at the freezing point, going below at night. I am really curious to see how the rye does with this. There is still fifty pounds of seed left that I will have to use after I see what if anything comes up. There were some patches of rye growing from the first areas I planted. I suspect that will be the most effected by the freeze. I’ll let you know.

We have made quite a dent in our firewood keeping the house warm these last few days. Maybe weeks, that’s the kind of thing that gets real hazy because of my memory issues. I just know we have used a lot of wood because the pile is way down. There is plenty more wood. The pile by the trailer is mostly the mystery wood I got permission to cut down the road. When I was visiting Don and Cynthia the asked what kind it was. “It’s not Elm is it?” Cynthia asked. I didn’t know but they have an elm tree in their back yard so I went out to look at the leaves. Yep, it’s elm. Cynthia told me that elm smells nasty when burned. I haven’t smelled anything bad in the house but that is good news because if you can smell the wood burning it means the woodstove is leaking fumes into the house. I did notice a less than pleasant smell outside so now understand where it came from. Elm isn’t the best burning wood. It burns quick and leaves lots of ash but it burns and makes heat so works for me. I just have to feed the fire and clean out the stove more often. We are grateful Amy for this woodstove you got us. Thanks again.
I'm sure Bud (in the pick up) thought I was crazy out there in my sweatpants, slippers, and no shirt taking this picture. I'm sure that by now they are sure I'm a few pints shy of a gallon


Right now we are preparing to go into Midland where we will return the wallet and slippers along with a pair of jeans that still have the tags on them Steve and Janie gave us. Nope, I just looked in the bag and there is a receipt so they are jeans we bought that were the wrong size. That probably means I bought them cause I can never remember what size I wear and usually have Cherie write it on a piece of paper when I go to the store. Cherie is almost done putting her face on so I best get dressed and ready to go. Heaven forbid she is ready before me. That just doesn’t happen. Uhmm…well…Ok it happens but not if I can help it. Got ta go.

Not as bad as I thought

11/23/07 Friday
I’m not doing as bad as I expected regarding this body. It was a pain pill morning and I am shuffling around as I walk due to muscle weakness but there were no leg cramps last night. That used to be a regular occurrence in the first years after the coma but has subsided for the most part. It’s a good indication that my physical condition has greatly improved over the last six years. It was a bit disheartening to see the picture Cherie took of me yesterday pushing the wheelbarrow. Boy, that gut sure is there. Nothing like a picture to bring it out. All the mirrors in this house show above the waist so…out of sight out of mind. I can see how the baldness is spreading like a disease on the top of my head through pictures too. I really don’t care about being bald anyway but not being able to see the back of my head it is a surprise to see how much is gone.

So I’m not sure what I will do today. Mostly inside work I suppose though I do want to tackle the engine rebuild on the tiller soon now that the rings have come in. I did some cylinder honing with the hone we picked up at Sears a week or four ago but it will take a lot more to get the cylinder ready. The sand and years did a lot of wear on it. I am pretty tired right now. The eyes want to close as I write so I will probably take a short nap. It is pretty early for that only being 8:30. I usually go till two in the afternoon before the fatigue catches up but I put in a hard two days of work so I suppose that’s to be expected. It is always frustrating not to be able to keep up anything close to the pace I worked at before the accident. But I think I do pretty good all things considered. Sitting in this chair is murder on the back this morning so I will probably take this laptop to the bed where I will set up the pillows to lay back on as I type as I often do. Actually I pretty much do that all the time.

Cherie has gone shopping. She wasn’t at all interested in getting up at four in the morning to catch the sales. That surprised me cause she is good at getting the deals but the weather wasn’t encouraging. Fact is she isn’t getting any younger either so doesn’t keep her former pace just the same as I. That’s the natural course of things.
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2:54 – Cherie is back from shopping. She got lots of fantastic deals as I knew she would. The slippers and wallet she bought for me will need to be returned. I’ll need to be there when she buys a wallet because I suppose I’m a little picky. Not really, I just want something that will last and most of the stuff out there is rinky dink and wont last a year. Not in my back pocket.

While she was gone I finished making the chili I started a bit ago. What gets me is that standing at the kitchen counter cooking is much harder on me than all the work I did planting the rye seed. There is just something about doing things at a countertop height that produces killer pain in my back. What a paradox. Hard labor that has me sweating and breathing hard is easier than chopping peppers and stirring a pot.

Our tomato plants are done for with the freeze. There were about a dozen peppers left so I went and picked them for the chili. One was a cayenne and the rest were habaneras. Knowing how hot they are I decided to divide up the batch of chili, making one very mild and the other not mild at all. I was surprised when I tasted them a minute ago that the one with the peppers wasn’t all that hot. Guess I’ll have to add some more. Nah, I’ll leave it the way it is. It is hard for me to really judge this stuff because my sense of taste and smell are drastically reduced from the brain damage. Strangely enough that comes and goes so that sometimes I can detect every minor nuance. The rest of the time it’s just not there. Cherie bought some Irish crème coffee creamer because she knows I like it. We also have the French vanilla flavor. I never noticed it till I looked in the fridge and saw the label on the Irish crème despite drinking coffee every morning. So yesterday I took a sip and told Cherie “This Irish crème tastes really good”. She cracked up laughing but sympathetically touched my shoulder and told me it was the French vanilla because she knows this is a problem I have.

She is so good at understanding these things. Yesterday or the day before I told her that I emailed Jen and Wally and she laughed and laughed. The reason is that I had read the email they sent out that talked about being in the city of Columbo in South America. I emailed back saying that I didn’t know they were in Columbo but hoped they were ok and would be praying for them. Cherie laughed because Jen and Wally weren’t the ones in Columbo. They had sent out the Email regarding a couple from our Sunday school class who was over there visiting a missionary couple the class helps out. It’s not unusual for me to get confused about things like this. I don’t know if I just don’t see what I’m reading or forget details like who what or when minutes after I read. But it’s good to laugh about it.

I went to the John Deere dealer here in Stanton to show them the ad that was in the Farm Bureau magazine and see if they could match the deal. I was surprised to see my cousin, Darryl, in an office working. Didn’t know he worked there. But I don’t really know much about him as it is. He pretty much has shunned us ever since we arrived. He said “Hi Bob” after I said hi to him and that was it. No greeting, no getting up to talk, just an obligatory “hi”. It bothers me but I suppose I shouldn’t let it.

I have to lay down. The back pain is up there from cooking and I started to slow down a few minutes ago. I can usually sense when one of these partial seizures is coming. Done for now folks so see ya next time.

Sure changes fast

It’s 11:48 in the afternoon now. Things can sure change fast out here. They forecasted the rain/snow to come this evening but it showed up at ten this morning. Huge snowflakes, I love it and I love the snow. Right now it looks like three inches of snow has fallen and it’s still coming down.








This is the first snow the puppies have seen and they love it. Rascal kept trying to catch and eat the large snow flakes drifting down. It was hysterical to watch. They ran and played and never wanted to come in but when they did they were soaking wet. Naturally they immediately jumped on the bed. That got an immediate “GET DOWN” response each time. Now that they have experienced getting on the bed it’s what they go for.

I'm hauling one of the fifty pound bags of seed out to where it's getting put down

9:46 – I’m pretty worn out. Spent several hours out in the snow putting most of what’s left of the rye seed down. I thought there was a hundred and fifty pounds left but there was two hundred. I got one fifty planted but gave up on the last fifty. Just ran out of...whatever. The cold didn’t bother me at all. I just stretched till I needed to come in and rest and that was all for the day.



I'm sure the farmers and everyone else driving by think this "Yankee" is nuts. "What's he doing out in the snow?"


Cherie fixed a great Thanksgiving dinner with the ham Janie gave us. We had pecan pie with cool whip to finish it off. Then I went to bed after asking Cherie to get me up at 9:00. My leg muscles are pretty weak right now. I suppose I should expect that after the workout they’ve had over the last two days. I didn’t rake in the seeds this time. It didn’t make much sense to do with three inches of snow on the ground but mostly because my legs are still suffering from yesterday. There is still fifty pounds of seed left but it will have to sit because I’m done for a while.

I know how to dress for this stuff. The quilted flannel shirt is so warm I had to take the windbreaker off as I was sweating to much. The fancy dust mask I got at Harbor Freight did a great job of keeping my nose warm.


Cherie is going shopping tomorrow and I’m not. Black Friday is the kind of insane commotion I can’t handle so staying home is the best bet. Besides I think I can use a more relaxed day and suspect the pain level will be high anyway. It’s up there now as it is.







The view of the house from the far corner of the five acre plot I'm working

Goodnight all. Hope your Thanksgiving was a great one. Thanks for caring and keeping up with us. That's one of the things we are thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving

11/22/07 Thursday
Happy Thanksgiving. It is 1:52 in the morning right now. The temp is to go down to about 30 degrees tonight and stay in the thirties all day long so I got up to put more wood on the fire after Carman Kitty woke me. So I figured that while I was up I would finish yesterday’s post. Last night I was just too tired to do it. I worked on planting rye seed from 1:00 to sundown at 5:40.

First I pull the broadcast fertilizer/seeder till it’s gone through fifty pounds of seed. Then I drag this rake with the twenty pound bag of dirt on top over the area I just seeded. That covers a lot of the seeds with dirt. Hopefully that keeps the birds from eating them all. Plus they germinate better when covered with dirt.

It’s a lot of exercise. Unfortunately I discovered that the tiller I paid five hundred dollars to rent didn’t do a good job. When the guy came out to fix it the second time he replaced the PTO shaft which has a clutch on it. Seems that the old one was slipping. This left areas where the surface grass was disturbed making it look tilled but that was only maybe three inches down, not the full foot it should have been. There are still lots of bunches of grass still rooted. However on the areas the tiller worked properly it was like walking through the sand on a beach only harder because I’m dragging a four foot wide rake with twenty pounds on top of it that is digging in. I could go about two hundred feet before I had to stop and catch my breath and rest.





The puppies were something else. They would walk right along with me and when I stopped to rest would go play, running at full speed chasing and tackling each other. Then as soon as I got up and started trudging down the row they would stop playing and come walk beside me again. It’s kind of touching, at least for me.






I was able to lay down one hundred and fifty pounds yesterday. I still have another hundred and fifty to go. It only looks like I’ve seeded half of the five acres we have. That makes two and a half acres in two weeks. (we got the seed November 10) All five acres could have all been done in one day with a tractor but I’m only halfway there. On the bright side I’m getting lots of good exercise. You know, people pay good money to get this kind of workout in a gym and I can do it for free. It does bring the pain level up but that’s ok cause the pain is always there anyway.

So Amy left a comment on Tuesday’s post with a link http://potw.news.yahoo.com/s/potw/55334/rolling-in-cash to a news story about a lady who makes over $40,000 selling tumbleweeds. I just had to dig up these pictures of tumbleweeds we’ve gotten rid of. At twenty five dollars a weed I figure this pile must have been worth nearly a grand. And it’s just a drop in the bucket. Even if I had the customers I couldn’t grow tumbleweeds on this farm. It’s a violation of the CRP contract for one thing but more significant is tumbleweeds are a bane to farmers. They compete with the cotton and mess up their machinery. Hell, they would probably pay me to remove them from their fields. They pay to take them out anyway.


I just went back in this journal to see what we did last year for thanksgiving. Wow. It doesn’t say anything about that day but Cherie tells me we painted one of the rooms and had Subway sandwiches for our thanksgiving dinner. (am I supposed to capitalize “Thanksgiving”?) Just going back and reading was something. As I state in the header at the top, this journal serves as my memory. Last November was when we first moved here. We had stayed at a hotel for just a few days before moving into the house. Virginia was still talking to us, we discovered there would be no gas for heat or cooking, and lots of other stuff. Another great picture of a sunset as well.

So this Thanksgiving will be another quiet one. That’s pretty much what we prefer, at least for now. Holidays in general aren’t times of good memories for either of us. Chuck and Lillian invited us over for dinner but we didn’t take them up on that. Janie gave us a HUGE ham so that’s what we will have. Sounds better than turkey to me right now anyway. Cooking a turkey is too much work for just the two of us. Besides all that I still have a hundred and fifty pounds of seed to put down and the rain/snow is coming tomorrow evening so I’m under the gun there. I’ll just take the pain pills like I’m supposed to and that will help me keep going. I don’t like them but they sure do help.

So it’s 3:20 now. I probably should get back to bed so will post this and try to get some sleep.

Early start

11/21/07 Wednesday
Good morning Y’all. I’m off to a good start and so is Cherie. Woke up at 5:30 and was out the door at 7:15, mostly at the puppy’s insistence. We don’t usually let them out of their room till it is light enough for them to go outside. By then they have been whining to get out for over an hour and when released their exuberance at being free is expressed by running throughout the house and jumping on us and the bed. That they have recently discovered they are big enough to do. Once discovered it has become a destination for them. First thing we do in the morning is pull the bedspread up to protect the sheets. We try to only allow them up by invitation but you know how that works. We are suckers for those big eyes and generally softies when it comes to our babies.








It was one of those sunsets yesterday where one picture wouldn’t do. One of these days I’ll get a better camera that I can use different lenses on. There is a lens that can capture a panoramic view showing much more of the horizon. Sure wish I had that yesterday. Sunsets evolve as the sun keeps dropping below the horizon and out here in the big West Texas sky it can make for some dramatic visuals. So here are several pictures.







After taking the morning walk with the dogs I got to work wrapping the air conditioner for winter and the cold snap that is coming tomorrow. You know duct tape is a farmer’s best friend and I used almost a whole roll on this job. It’s tape designed to be used outside so should hold up well to the sun. It better at seven bucks a roll. But it sure doesn’t want to stick well when it’s forty degrees out. I cut a piece of plastic that something had come wrapped in, think I got it at the landfill, and wrapped it around the unit first. Then I took the roll of saran wrap that Cherie got at Sam’s Club and wrapped that all around the air conditioner about a dozen times. To hold it all down I gave it a good dose of duct tape. Later I’m going to caulk where it fits in the window. I should have done this when Jib and Jab installed it this summer but never got to it as is often the case with me.

Yesterday I went to the well to get that all wrapped in insulation. Some animal has dug under the pressure tank and excavated so much I’m afraid the soil will collapse and the tank will fall in. I filled it with rocks, dirt, and some of the bits and pieces left over the years of things being replaced on the well. I need to make it a point to keep checking on it. Then a pack rat made a home under the barrel top I had covering the pressure valve. The sucker filled it with cotton from Bud’s field next door. This isn’t good and they have a reputation for chewing on wires. That could cause some big problems. I hate using poison because it will kill any hawks that might eat the dead rat. Perhaps I can find a better trap. The regular rat trap wasn’t enough to take care of the rat in our garage and there is another one in the old henhouse. It hasn’t even bothered the trap I put in there.

Today I will put as much of the rye seed down as I can. I figure that with the snow or rain that’s supposed to be here with the cold front it would be a good time. I am pretty sure that a freeze won’t hurt ungerminated seed as most seed freezes in natural environments anyway. I’m gambling that we will have a period of above freezing temperatures long enough for the rye to get established and then hope it will survive. In total I am putting out four hundred and fifty pounds of seed. Sure wish I could have done it sooner.

Time to winterize

11/20/07 Tuesday
Well, today will be a day of winterization. I had already intended to wrap the evaporative air conditioner and even talked about it in this journal but, like many other things, it never got done. So Cherie reminded me this morning and put it down on the scheduler that is vital for me to get anything done. I’ve got lots of plastic laying around so should be able to find pieces big enough to cover it.

So I took the dogs for the morning walk they have become used to and beg for every morning. Getting to the halfway point, where I usually turn around and head back, I looked up to where the well is. Then I suddenly realized that the insulation we had wrapped it with last year to prevent it from freezing was no longer there because we had to replace the entire unit when it had been shot out by the neighbors. This had totally escaped my mind as so much does. It’s a good thing I noticed this as a hard freeze is coming Thursday that will last at least three days maybe four. This potentially could destroy the pipes and the tank that keeps pressure even or something. We will run to Lowe’s and buy some insulation. Fortunately we have a thirty dollar credit from some countertop parts we were able to return. We’re back to being tight on the finances again. The CRP check is long gone and we didn’t even get the new glasses both of us need.

Speaking of that, Beene Tractor just called about the credit application we submitted for the cheaper tractor. It had been unequivocally denied. That is not a big surprise. They said that if we had a cosigner they would have to have strong credit. As with most things it is a struggle to push forward. I don’t give up but it is hard not to get discouraged. I’ll just focus on the things that need to be done around here and do the best I can with what I have as always. Building a farm from scratch on a disability check is an obvious challenge but I’ll do it, probably with the help of others, but one way or another something will happen.

Here are some pictures of life on this farm. Every day we kill twenty or thirty wasps in the house. Sometimes more. I haven’t been able to find where they are coming from but they keep coming. This house is so full of holes we may never get it sealed up. So I swatted this wasp and it fell into the waste basket. Evidently spiders had built a web on it overnight because these came out of the behind our files to take on this wasp. They all lost to my fly swatter. Hopefully the winter freeze coming will reduce the wasp problem. Spiders are constant no matter what we do. They congregate behind furniture were we can’t reach them. I think we will probably fog the house come spring to reduce them for at least a few weeks or months.





The other day I noticed two little apples on our trees. That was a surprise but nice to see. Mostly I didn’t encourage apple growth this first year because I read that they can take a lot of energy out of a tree and I wanted them to get established this first year. Especially because they were just about dead when I got them from Ace hardware. The nine trees seem to be doing quite well all things considered. It’s a shame I didn’t have the funds to pick up the other twenty five trees Ace was getting rid of for four bucks each. But this is the start of our apple orchard. Just a few steps at a time we will get there. After visiting Apple Country Orchards I have a goal of five thousand trees on twenty of the seventy five acres we have. Then we want to have peaches, apricots, pears, and a little of anything else that will produce fruit in this part of the country.

Some of the Rye grain I’ve planted is coming up now. It’s just in time for the big freeze. Now I’ve read this is “winter hardy” and it is indeed called a winter cover crop so I will be fascinated to see how it will do. Honestly I really don’t know what I am doing but am trying the best I can. It would be nice to develop a relationship with some or a farmer who could advise me. But developing relationships is something I am not good at and have never been good at. That is part of the Asberger’s syndrome I’ve had since childhood and exacerbated by the multiple brain injuries. Social skills are the areas most hit by both of those ailments. Add to that mix is my background that gives me little to relate with the average person. So the Rye is just another part of my ongoing education in farming.


I just called Wayne in Ohio. He tells me that the lawyer at the Zeph Center said that my ideal of his sending his money here as a loan to prevent Social Security from reducing his check by one fourth amounts to money laundering. That is nuts but I suppose legally true. It’s a crying shame and what a catch 22. They screwed around three years making me fight to get Wayne his disability, that there is no question he needs. Then when we finally won and he was coerced in only taking two years of what was owed him they are going to reduce what he will get monthly because the lump sum he received exceeds what Social Security says he is allowed to have in order to draw benefits. I wasn’t comfortable with it but suggested he give us a loan for real to buy a tractor with and thus it wouldn’t be money laundering. “We can pay it back in two years or so” I let him know. He’ll think about it but probably won’t. It’s really sad how the government is treating him and all the others like him. Medicaid just cut off his physical therapy along with denying him getting into the cheap medicine program.

One of the comments on yesterdays post suggested we set up a PayPal account for donations to help us get this farm going. That is an idea I think we will pursue.

More confusion

It was a real foggy morning

11/19/07 Monday
It is frustrating to find another thing I’ve gotten confused on. We took the credit application to Beene tractor for the Mahindra tractor we are thinking of buying. I had a few questions about the price and was surprised to find that the tractor we got the quote on didn’t come with the frontend loader I thought it did. The one with a front end loader costs five thousand dollars more. Not good. There is a lot of dirt we will need to move all the time with this farm. First is setting up the raised beds, there is making and turning compost, hauling it to the garden beds, a henhouse and small barn, and lots of other areas it would be useful and save wear and tear on my back. Another five grand makes a big difference in what the monthly payment will be. We went ahead and told them to run the original credit application for the tractor without the frontend loader.

I just called and asked her to go ahead and do the math on the one with the frontend loader. For one thing that tractor has power steering but more importantly is what they call an auxiliary remote hydraulic valve. This means that tractor can use a wide variety of implements otherwise unavailable. It greatly enhances what we can do with it in the future as the farm and it’s needs grows. Also the tractor has a dual clutch system which I suppose is much better but I really don’t know much about it yet. So she called back with the new numbers. The final price goes up from $14,563.00 to $20,310.00. It will require a down payment of $731 versus $356 before. And the monthly payment goes up to $283. Not as easy as the $210 with the bare bones one (model 3325) but still doable.

I went online to look at used tractor prices and found that used ones are usually higher in price for something comparable in a John Deere or other American brand and that is without a front end loader. Hell, a 1973 tractor was listed at $7,000. Nothing will be easy but most things good aren’t easy anyway. I think things through by writing so as I did so the idea of buying the better model (# 3525) without the frontend loader on it came up. That should bring the price down close to the other one as they are pretty close to the same tractor. I could always add the frontend loader later after we start making some money with the farm. I’ll just have to work harder for a while.

So what else has happened in our life? I know we went and visited Don and Cynthia (I’m finally remembering your name). Don’s leg is a mess with fractures that are having a hard time healing due to diabetes and his kidneys not working well. Then to add to all that he has blood clots in the leg, which are potentially life threatening. Don is the guy who let us use his mower for a while. Anyway, I know how hard it is to not be able to get out and do things so knew he could use a little company. We had a good time visiting but probably stayed too long. I know he was getting tired, or at least I think he was. I don’t figure things like that out real quick. They showed us some work that people we had recommended did for them in their garage. They talked about how good a job it was but it didn’t look that good to me. They might just be being nice. I don’t know.

It’s such a small world out here. In talking about our past we brought up the bible college Cherie and I first met at, Christ for the Nations Institute. They got a big smile on their face and Don pulled out CFNI’s magazine. It seems that some of their relatives, Cynthia’s sisters I think, had attended that college. They knew the campus well and we talked about that trying to learn if we knew any of the same people. Come to find out Ron Wahlrobe, my favorite teacher had been the pastor of their church. He died tragically in a plane crash while we were at the school. Such a small world here in Midland. Don and Cynthia also know some of Steve’s (of Steve and Janie, last name left out because…) brothers.

I can’t think of much else that has happened in the last couple of days. Today we went to the “Homebound Ministry” meeting at church. That is where folks visit with those who are not able to get out and about, at least not without help. We had tentatively signed up for it but I am unsure how well I will do at it. Cherie and I will visit one elderly couple to see how it goes. This is the kind of thing that I will only try if Cherie is there with me as she provides a degree of security that helps me stay on track. I know I have problems but don’t allow this disability to totally hold me back. I can do a lot with a little help from my wife and friends.

Speaking of a small world we ran into some we know from the first church of Stanton. She was nice and said she, or they, missed us but we wonder if she really meant it. You would think that if we were all that missed someone would have come out to visit. To date no one has in the year we have lived here. In all fairness one person Cherie ran into did invite her to come out and visit but Cherie has yet to take her up on it, probably because she feels so insecure.

So that is all I’ll write for now. I’m still frustrated about the tractor but it will work out one way or the other.

Early start

11/17/07 Saturday
This is one of those two in the morning entries. I am much sharper now and after putting wood on the fire am wide awake. Yesterday was pretty much a lost day with almost nothing getting done. I managed to run the sprinklers, watering some of the spots I put Rye seed on, and caulk part of the new window Bob Trimble and Jay put in for us. I still have more to do on it, mostly inside. And that is about it. It is real frustrating for me to have days like that.


But I’m awake and seem to be fairly cognizant now so figured I will take advantage of this moment of clarity and write. There is always so much to do. I downloaded the pictures we took in Lubbock at “Apple Country Orchards” the pick your own apple orchard we are researching. We learned so much there and the time we spent with Cal, the owner, was very encouraging. He started this business in 1981 if I remember right. We got there at 10:30 or so. Cal wasn’t in so we had plenty of time to look around till they served lunch at 11:00.

The gift shop is small and homey. Nice simple atmosphere with lots of items for sale that are somewhat related to apples or at least fit in with the whole theme. From a business standpoint I would call it a bare bones operation in that there are no expensive displays or equipment visible. Just an efficient low cost set up that gets the job done.

The most prominent display is this one that features a wide variety of canned fruits, jellies, and other confections. Everything carried the “Apple Country” label. I asked the lady who was cooking in the readily viewable kitchen if they canned this stuff on location. She said they used to but send it all out though much of it used their recipes. There was a little of everything you might imagine and probably some you couldn’t. All kinds of preserves including “Huckleberry”. I had to get that. Especially being a fan of Mark Twain and reading all the Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn books in my youth. Besides, I have a great interest in growing the unusual berries and plants that can be found in this country. There were all kinds of salsas and not just apple butter (one of my favorites) but pumpkin, peach, apricot, strawberry, and a whole lot of others I don’t recall. Obviously these are not all items grown here so they are purchased and labeled “Apple Country Orchards”. Good marketing.


The lunch they served was fantastic. It was a buffet style lunch offering a chicken spaghetti dish we both loved. The kitchen has pretty old equipment that I am sure was picked up for a low price. The same holds true for the dining area with the drinks offered being tea and water, both poured from a small crock type container. It was a Styrofoam dish and plastic silverware meal but was great. These comments on the age of the equipment are not judgmental but observations of what I saw. Fact is keeping costs down are generally good business practices and with my liquidation company that was exactly what I provided for others. I would buy out companies and business equipment for pennies on the dollar and resell it for an attractive price.

This is where they have weddings. Another feature of Apple Country Orchards

Cal wouldn’t be in till later so we decided to go visit the Llano winery that was on our agenda. That was about a half hour away. After reading their website I had expected a much larger facility. I mean, they put out tens of thousands of bottles of wine every year. The wineries I’ve visited in Ohio are all older with that traditional feel. Llano isn’t more than a generation old I don’t think. The tour was very informative, giving us a great insight on what it takes to be a successful wine maker. They only have three acres of grapes on site though there are many more acres elsewhere. Plus they purchase grapes grown in other vineyards, most in Texas and some in New Mexico. That’s the motivation for us visiting, to investigate the possibility of growing grapes to sell to them and other wineries.

The gazebo is part of the wedding area

To that end they had their expert chemist, who probably has a title denoting his expertise in wine, come out and talk with us. He told us about growing grapes and will email us information on where to order grape stock that is formulated specifically for our soil and water conditions. That was cool to learn. They can actually graft certain types of vines into specific root stock that is designed to withstand the rigors of West Texas growing. It takes two years from when we order it to when it arrives ready to plant. Then another five years or so till the vines produce in a significant quantity to be viable as a cash crop. That falls right in place with the apple orchard and other fruit trees.

I love how they trained these apple trees to make a base for the bench

After the tour there was a wine tasting thing where we could sample many of the different wines. That was interesting and educational. Of course what we liked the best cost the most. I got to try Port wine for the first time ever, at least I think so but with the memory loss could well be wrong. Cherie’s taste and mine are very different regarding what wines we prefer but that is no surprise.





After all this we headed back to Apple Country Orchards. I called Cal’s cell phone to insure he was there. The fact that his employees even gave us that number speaks to the openness of Cal. But I guess that is not unusual out here in West Texas. Still something we are not used to for back in Toledo you guard your phone number carefully and protect your privacy.

Cal looked to be in his sixties but you never know. He could have been eighty for all I know. He is very knowledgeable regarding apples and the orchard business. In fact he spends a lot of time as a paid consultant to apple growers. We are grateful for his sharing some of this knowledge without charge. When I asked about the money involved with this business he was very careful, saying he didn’t want to mislead us. I had to work to pry any figures out of him.



In response to my question about revenue he said it could range anywhere between twenty thousand to two hundred thousand dollars for his place. I think he mentioned a cost of $8000.00 per acre to get started. But he also said this was his worst year because the late freeze this April totally wiped out his crop so he only made $60,000. Now he has a working relationship with other apple orchards so he was able to bring in apples to make up the crop loss. Whether his figures were gross revenue or profit after expenses I am not sure. One of the significant things Cal said was that the café and store ended up being a major source of income. He said this had surprised him. That is an important fact when it comes to our business plans.

Cal went out and showed us his trees. He demonstrated how to properly prune them, which I will immediately use on the nine trees we have now. I asked about the difference between dwarf and semi dwarf trees and was surprised to hear that it didn’t have as much to do with the height the trees grow but with the spacing between buds. Dwarfs have closer spacing which I suppose means more fruit per branch. I have lots to learn and perhaps later I can afford to buy the books that can provide that education. I can pick up some on the internet but much of what shows up on Google searches are the books for sale.







We talked of equipment needs. They are pretty basic. He suggested getting what is called an “Orchard tractor” which has a narrower wheelbase to better fit between the rows of trees. I’ll have to research that. Then there was a big pruner attached to his tractor that is important. Other than that he said we need a sprayer. He mentioned spraying hormones twice during the growing season. I wonder if that fits in with organic growing methods. I would prefer organic but mostly prefer having a profitable operation. Of course organic is a selling point and commands higher prices. Again there is lots to learn.








The sunset in Lubbock




We bought about forty bucks worth of stuff there. He has the preserves and canned stuff priced at $5.95 for the most part, which is not cheap but an indication of what things like this can be sold for. All in all we drove 330 miles and the trip cost us $150.00 including gas. We also stopped at Gander Mountain to purchase a dog crate (It was way better and cheaper than Walfart) and I got the small pocket knife I’ve been wanting. It’s one of the few personal niceties we determined to get out of the CRP check. It’s a Buck knife, which is a good quality knife that has good steel that keeps an edge and is made in the USA. I lost the little Case lock blade somewhere and had used it fairly regular so this is something that I needed and will use.

We need to get over to Steve and Janie’s now to do some cleaning. I will work on their garden, removing a Hibiscus that died and cleaning the porch. Cherie will do laundry for them along with house cleaning. We are grateful for the opportunity to earn a few bucks and need it now, especially after the trip to Lubbock. The weather predicted a hard freeze next week. I hope it doesn’t affect the Rye to bad but probably will. It’s a shame that we didn’t get the CRP check till the last day of October because we couldn’t afford to buy the seed or rent the tractor before then. It is hard to farm when the money isn’t available. I look forward to the time that will change and we are slowly getting there, one little step at a time. Next year is unsure right now. First thing is to get the tractor and I am confident things will fall into place for that. But getting irrigation set up and buying seed are the next hurdle.





The puppies decided to pose for this picture. Aren't they getting big? Janie says they are almost as big as they will get




Gotta go. I am doing very well, sharp and running an eight on the bob scale.

a struggle

11/16/07 Friday
Yesterday was a wonderful day. We drove 330 miles total and got a lot done. Unfortunately everything is a struggle today, or at least so far. Yesterday I was sharp but today I am down to a three on the bob scale. Everything is a struggle. Deciding where to place a sprinkler and what setting to use is very hard for me to do. I am typing in slow motion. This sucks. There is much I want to write but it will have to wait till I am doing better. Got one of those killer headache on top of it all. This is all I’ll write for now. Probably need to lay down. It’s the middle of the day damn it. There is so much I need and want to do. Need to wrap the air conditioner in plastic cause cold air just blows in. The covers they make for them cost forty of fifty bucks and we have used up the CRP money so don’t have any to spare. I’ve got some plastic laying around here I can tape up around it. Cherie just called and said Steve and Janie have some things they would like me to do around the house. I’ll have to do it tomorrow cause I can’t even take care of here now. Cherie told me to rest. And bring the puppies in.
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The puppies stole and ate a chocolate bar I had on the dresser while I was writing here. Chocolate is toxic to dogs so will go online and search to see.

It will be close but they should be all right. Don’t know if only one dog ate it or both. We will have to keep an eye on them. As I often do I exploded when I saw the wrapper. They ran to their room.

Sunrise to sunset

I may have lots of problems but being lazy isn’t one of them. From sunrise to after sunset I have been able to keep working. I love to work and am grateful for the times I am able. Those times seem to come more often and last longer than before and I am grateful for them. I think I may have about an acre planted with the rye now. Been keeping the sprinklers going and have the timer set to remind me to turn them off at ten tonight. You can’t count on it to rain out here and it’s important for the rye to get established before a hard freeze. The puppies stayed around me the entire day, helping me I suppose in their mind. Too bad they aren’t huskies so I could have them pull the seed broadcaster.

I finished making the chili this evening. Somehow it turned out really good. It wasn’t too good at first but I played with it, adding some cilantro and bacon along with adjusting some of the spices. It’s a huge pot but I will be proud to hand it out to those we know. I think it will bless them.

We went to the hospital today. Cherie has a bill there that is about nine hundred dollars and they were just about to send it to a collection agency. I told Cherie that you can often negotiate these things so went along to do so. The lady asked about our income and upon hearing my disability check is only $900 said that we qualify for a charitable program they have as we are at indigent level. She told us to go apply for Medicaid knowing we would be denied, then bring the denial letter in, thus qualifying for the program. So we went to the place where you apply for Medicaid. It’s a bit strange to expect and perhaps even want to be denied for something but that’s what happened. This way her medical bills will be covered.

It’s going to be cold tonight, just a little above freezing so I have the woodstove fired up. We’ll be warm and cozy for sure.

Tomorrow we head out to Lubbock. First we plan on visiting the Llano winery. I read on their website about how they are having other farmers grow grapes for them so wanted to check out that possibility. Then we will go to the pick your own apple orchard up there. That’s the important one as it will be one of the models we will pattern our orchard after. Skyler knows the family and said they would be happy to give us some advice. Advice I always like and seek.


I am real worn out now and the pain pills are wearing off so the price of hard work is making itself known. No biggy, I’ll sleep well and tomorrow is another day. Good night all. I love these pictures. Great sunrise and a better sunset.

New screen

This mornings sunrise

11/14/07 Wednesday
Hurray!!! I am writing this from My laptop. The new screen arrived yesterday in the mail and I installed it this morning. I was nervous when I turned this computer on, afraid I did something wrong putting it in or that something else would be not working. I had five little screws left over, never a good sign. Getting the old screen out I found where I had taken them out unnecessarily. That was a relief. So far it is working just fine. What a pleasure it is to work being able to see the whole screen. Now all my software is accessible and that will make things easier. Plus all the links and writing I have done regarding the farm are now available.

I just talked to Wayne in Toledo. For those of you who don’t know, Wayne is the veteran with MS I have been helping ever since I met him at a homeless shelter. He is also diabetic. That makes the cold he has right now particularly dangerous so pray for him if you can.

There is much to do today so I need to get moving. Cherie is checking cotton fields this morning and will probably do laundry later. I need to get as much seed down as I can. It’s going to get real windy today and has already started to. Maybe that will help spread the seed better. Hopefully we will get rain Friday. I also need to finish rebuilding the tiller now that the rings and gaskets have come in. I intend to finish writing the vision I have for this place from a business standpoint as it will help others understand our goals and perhaps want to help us achieve them. Gotta get moving so see ya later.

Building blocks of life

We see a fair number of these out here. This is a small house compared to some that have gone by

11/13/07 Tuesday
Today is Adam’s birthday. He’s the youngest of the two boys I raised from the second marriage. I wish I was there.

Not only have I been given life but a life as well. I was raised from the dead so to speak, having been declared at the scene of the accident and revived on the way to the hospital. Oh, things have been tough since I woke from the coma with the mind of a child, but slowly and steadily things have been, or are being put together. It’s like building blocks being carefully placed following a predetermined plan, creating something that is a mystery now but is slowly taking shape and beginning to be discernable. Kind of like an artist’s painting in it’s early stages where your not quite sure what it will be but you know it will be good. Such is my life. It is now “our” life with the restoration of the marriage between Cherie and I. Each step forward seems to have requirements or milestones to be achieved.

Using this rake by hand wasn't cutting it. Too much wear and tear on the hands and too slow. So after making a handle I got the strap off of the weedwhacker and after slinging it over my shoulder hooked it on the handle. With twenty pounds of dirt in the sack I pull it behind me like a mule. works pretty good. Pulling this in the deep tilled up sand is a major workout. Get the heart rate right up there like a stairstepper of something

So we are building a home and farm together. Building a life. Nothing is easy but every hardship teaches lessons and strengthens us. The one most essential thing you need for a farm is a tractor. Now I need to buy and plant seed, install some kind of watering system, and do all kinds of other things but a tractor is still the key.

So as I was out putting garden hoses together to get enough to reach where I needed the cell phone rang. It was a friend from church. I’ll leave his name out cause I suspect he would like it better that way. After asking how it was going he said that he felt led to cover the first six months of payments on that tractor we were looking at. It is a loan that we will pay back but should give us time to start earning some money from it thus enabling us to do so. Unfortunately it looks like we will have to find a cosigner for the loan due to the bankruptcy and low monthly disability income. I am confident this will work out as all things seem to. I suppose you could say I have faith it will. All the other expenses of starting this farm will appear when needed. You watch.





It was dark when he called so I had the flashlight with me. Walking back to the house I spied this guy. It was sitting right on the path I needed to take so, not wanting it to escape I walked around the back of the garage and grabbed the hoe. I like snakes and they are beneficial, keeping mice down for one thing, but I can't have them around the house, especially with the puppies. So it's dead now











There was a telephone pole that had been on the side of the road for a few weeks, evidently it dropped off the power companies truck or something. So I strapped a chain around it and drug it down the road the mile and a half it was to the house. This was when we had the rented tractor and I figured I would use that to drag the pole to where I want it. But that didn't work.










So I needed to get the thing moved. After trying to drag it by hand I figured out I didn't have what it takes so searched for a better way. Finally I spied the two wheel dolly and with some effort managed to get the end of the pole on top of it.












It was bend the knees and keep the back straight, Heave, lift the end up and pull. The pole would move six to twelve inches each time. A tractor sure would be nice right now.


This morning I went to Harbor Freight in Odessa to get some needed tools. Afterwards I stopped at Lowe’s. The sprinkler I was using to water where I planted Rye broke. That was part of why I went to Harbor Freight, to find a replacement. They didn’t have much. At Lowe’s I found what looked like a hell of a deal but decided to check Home Depot and Ace Hardware to see. Yep, Lowe’s had the best deal. It cost nineteen bucks for just a replacement sprinkler head at Ace but at Lowe’s I got two all metal hi volume complete sprinklers for the same price. Score!
This is as far as I got with the pole. Maybe fifty feet but it hurt

I’m falling asleep as I write this so probably should take my afternoon nap. It irks me to have to do this. There is so much to do. I got the chili started that I am making with the venison Janie’s friend gave us. There is so much I’ll probably need to make two batches. One of the two packages is labeled “Elk”. Never had Elk before so that should be interesting.

Good news, bad news

11/12/07 Monday
The weather report this morning is both good news and bad news. The hoped for rain tonight and tomorrow probably won’t happen. They think now that we will have rain on Friday. The good part of this is that it gives me more time to get the seed out, which will reduce a lot of the pain this work will cause me. The bad part is any delay getting the Rye to germinate increases the likelihood of a killing freeze wiping out all this work. But that’s all part of farming and why it’s important to get things planted on time. I also have several types of vegetables that should have been put in the ground by now. Lots of work to do preparing the beds for that. I like being busy but need to schedule these tasks so they get done in a timely manner.

So we are getting started nice and early. At some point I would like to go to Harbor Freight in Odessa to see what they have for sprinkler systems. You can get some fantastic deals on stuff there. Mostly tools but there are lots of other things to be found in the store. I need to call Steve Porter and get the name of the company in California that sells the drip feed irrigation tape he uses. That’s another long term investment that will pay for itself. Plants do better with water you know.

Time to get to work now so see ya next time.

Got some stuff done

It was a great day because I got a lot done. That always makes me feel good. They have a guest speaker at church who will be talking about the name it claim it faith healers like Benny Hinn every night till Wednesday. Both Cherie and I have been around that kind of stuff and have soured from that exposure. Cherie intends to attend all the sessions and I would like to as well but planting all this Rye seed will take a lot out of me so I may not be up to it at the end of each day. I’ll play that one by ear.





We came straight home after church so I can get right on the planting thing. The first task was to make a handle for the broadcast spreader so I can pull it behind me. Seeing some branches that looked like they have the right bends I cut down this section of the Mulberry tree. It was dead anyway and I had planned on cutting it eventually for firewood. The new chainsaw chain we bought out of the CRP money to replace the old worn out one made quick work of it. I so wish I had the woodworking equipment to cut usable lumber out of this log. It is a beautiful dense gold colored wood. Hard as a rock though and dulls the chainsaw in a hurry. It’s tough stuff to carve as well. I might try to make a walking stick out of some of it. Meanwhile I made the handle for the spreader.





I pulled one of the fifty pound seed bags out of the truck and it took half a bag to fill the hopper of the spreader. Being a seed spreading virgin I had to experiment and try to figure out what setting to use as well as how fast to walk. It didn’t take long to use up the fifty pounds. Pulling that sucker in the loose sandy soil had me breathing hard pretty quick. This is going to hurt. As much as I dislike them I am thankful for the pain pills. They will enable me to keep going. I ran the second hopper at a slower feed setting so got more ground covered. I suspect we may have to get two hundred more pounds of seed to cover the entire five acres.





At first I raked over the seeds by hand. Steve and Janie had given us a special rake landscapers had left behind that is perfect for this. I think it’s about four feet wide. Raking the seven foot wide swath the seed spreader covered really works out my grip and forearms. And it was a slow ponderous pace so I decided to try something different in the hope of being more efficient. I took the empty seed bag and shoveled about twenty pounds of dirt in it. Putting that on top of the rake I just pulled it along. Works well but is still hard on the hands. I think I’ll fabricate some kind of handle that is geared for pulling in the morning. Just the three hours I put in today has effected my hands to the point typing is a chore. I’ll have to dig my carpel tunnel braces out now. A real hot soak in the tub along with another pain pill helped some but I know I’ll be sore in the morning. No big deal, I live with pain as it is so it’s nothing new. When/if we get a tractor all this will be a snap but till then I will do the best I can with what I have, as always.






There was a fantastic sunset that I was glad to get some pictures of. I usually take a bunch of pictures and then delete the ones that are not as good. It was hard to decide what to delete this time. It will be so nice when the new computer screen I ordered comes in. Then I will be able to post the pictures to my Flicker account. I can’t access it now because the passwords are on my computer and I wasn’t smart enough to write them down.






As always you can click on these pictures to enlarge them. Worth doing I think




Time to hit the hay folks so see ya next time.

Things coming together

11/11/07 Sunday
It is two in the morning right now. I woke up with much on my mind so, unable to turn it off and go back to sleep, I am writing this. Cherie came home bothered about a phone call. There are new pressures or worries that come with my starting to farm for real. Cherie has her share of fears and insecurities when it comes to having relationships with others and they are rising up now, I think because I plan on asking for help. Her back pain has been back for days now but she never called the chiropractor despite my urging. When I asked why not it was because of those fears and insecurities. She thinks her friend doesn’t want to help out with that anymore and has no basis for that fear. I will have her call the friend tomorrow to clear her thinking. Our relationships are not based on what others do for us, a friend is a friend without strings attached. I understand fear and uncertainty as they are foes I personally struggle with so I know how they taint your thinking, how fear makes one imagine what is not there. Communication best fixes that.

Yesterday things went great. We met Steve at his farmer’s market along with his parents. It was a good time of visiting and getting to know them. We talked of farming, what to grow and how to grow it, and lots of other stuff. Early on in the introductory phase Steve exclaimed “You’re the photographer”. That caught us by surprise. They had seen the pictures Jimmy Patterson published in the newspaper and put two and two together. That felt really good, thanks Jimmy.

I told Steve that Matt Harmon had told us about him as well as Skyler Wyght (the rancher we met but I can’t remember how to spell his name). Steve went to school with Matt so that’s how they know each other. As we talked Cherie went off with Steve’s mom over to the garden. They hit it off well, which I was glad to see.

Skyler had told me Steve works on old tractors (and I suppose newer ones as well) and they had three antiques setting out there. They were all restored and looking good so I was surprised when he said that he still gets them out and uses them. I asked if he knew of any that were for sale but he didn’t seem to. That’s just as well I suppose because we couldn’t get one anyway no matter how cheap. Strangely enough it’s easier to get the new one because of the financing. I just can’t cough up a couple grand for an old used one that would probably need work done on it anyway.

We’ve already used most of the CRP check despite being real careful and frugal with it. Tilling the five acres was a must as the rye cover crop should have been planted in September. We are really stretching it this late but had been hoping to get the check early in October instead of November first. Putting down the rye is the best way to beat out the weeds, especially the grass burrs, but you have to beat the freeze. I know there was a farmer who said he would till for us but that was a few months ago and we haven’t heard from him. It could well be too late now and nature doesn’t wait so I had to get it done.

I brought up our difficulty finding Rye seed with Steve and he and his father both chimed up saying they have plenty at the co-op. Not being from here I presumed they meant the Stanton Co-op and said “no, they don’t have any”. Well it was the Midland Co-op they were referring to. I guess Steve and maybe his dad work there. Steve’s dad said that the co-op closed at 12:00 and it was already 11:30 so we excused ourselves and, after getting directions, rushed to get there.

Yep they have Rye. After looking online for days the best price I could find was $128 for two hundred pounds and we need two fifty minimum to seed five acres so I figured that’s what I would have to do. We got two hundred and fifty pounds of Rye seed for $79.00 at the Midland Co-op. What a savings and blessing that was. Once again things seem to be coming together. There is a possibility of rain Monday so I will be spending the next two days seeding, raking it under, and pressing down the soil by hand. We bought seed and fertilizer broadcaster that is designed to pull behind a riding lawnmower at Lowe’s. I’m going to fix up a harness to pull it with behind me. With the freshly tilled soil a riding lawnmower would just get stuck anyway. I’ve got a three foot tall plastic fluid container I picked up from the landfill that I plan on putting an axle in so I can pull it behind me as well and compact the soil. That greatly enhances getting the Rye seed started. So I’m going to be pretty busy and probably pretty sore for the next couple of days. It’s 3:30 now this morning. I would love a cup of coffee but know I need to try and get some sleep so that wouldn’t be good

Dawn of a new day

11/10/07 Saturday

A new day dawning? We hope so and are confident it will happen. I think it wise to talk more about yesterday’s “Bad confession” entry to insure it isn’t wrongly received. The person who brought this up definitely had my best interest in mind. I have been told many times over the six years since I woke from the coma that I was too negative, and there is truth to that. While I accept or at least acknowledge that I was seriously injured I also understand that I have been getting better. Fact is a man reaps what he sows and my poor decisions in the past resulted in these injuries, so I take responsibility for that.




The same tree maybe an hour later.

However, when it comes to our future and the life we are building I am very positive. Our country loves to hear about those who beat the odds, who overcame adversity and triumphed, making lemonade out of lemons so to speak. I intend to be counted in that number. While the future remains shrouded in a fog I have a plan, a course to follow. (Just had to put it that way after this fog rolled in) I will soon be releasing that plan for you to see and hopefully give useful advice on how to achieve these goals.






The view of our house from the back edge of the tilled five acres

Yesterday was a busy and exciting day. We started out getting the truck inspected but that wasn’t the exciting part. While they did the inspection we ran over to the farmers co-op to see if they have rye seed. Things are at a real cross road here at the farm. Having tilled five acres we are under the gun to get a cover crop planted. If we don’t the weeds will come back with a vengeance having freshly turned soil which is full of grass burr seeds as well as other weed seeds. From what I’ve read we are late for planting so that just adds to the urgency. Rye should have been in the ground September and October. We just couldn’t do anything till the CRP check came and it came on the last day of the month. So we will do the best we can with what we have.

The co-op was sold out of rye or didn’t stock it this year. I don’t recall accurately but I know they didn’t have any. The guy at the co-op was easy to talk to and very familiar with what goes on in the area. As others came and went the topics often involved truck driving and the need for drivers. One fella asked if I could drive truck and said they pay $80,000.00 a year for drivers with hazmat certification. That’s a chunk of change for sure. To bad I can’t do that cause just one year would give us what we need to get this farm rolling. When asked the co-op guy said we should try a feed store in Midland for the rye seed. They too did not have any and I think had sold out if they did. Nuts.

We went to Metro, the rental company we rented the tractor and tiller from after that. I wanted to see what else they have available because there will always be things we will need equipment for. Besides I wanted to get my pliers back from Richard, who came out to fix the tractor the second time it broke. Jason and Russell (I think that’s his name) of course knew who I was when I introduced myself. We talked about how the tiller broke three times and come to find out it was pretty hard on it when I would make the sharp turns to go around the mesquite trees. Now I know. I priced their broadcast spreader and the trencher that I will need to put in subsurface irrigation.

I asked about the cost of buying one of their Kubota tractors. Jason gave me a speech about them, telling me that they were not John Deere or Cat’s, which cost much more, they were good reliable machines. I heard a price of twenty thousand for a used one like we had rented and twenty eight for a new one. Ouch!

The path home took us past Ronnie’s tractor business and I decided to stop in and visit. His Mahindra brand of tractors come in a lot cheaper. After paying $450.00 to rent a tractor for a day I am motivated to work on buying one for the farm. You really can’t be a farmer without one. It’s an absolute necessity. Ronnie has a comparable tractor that is priced new at $9900.00. Actually I think it is bigger and stronger. We sat down and discussed what it will take to get one. Right now Mahindra has a no interest financing program where they will stretch the payments out seven years.

Ronnie has taken a liking to me over the two years he has known us. We visited him way back before we moved here when he just had a few old used and what are called “grey market” tractors. We have watched his rapid growth into a full fledged factory tractor dealer. I have stopped in several times and just sat down to talk about farming. He has an extensive background with farming and gave me lots of good advice, which I am incorporating into our plans. So as Cherie and I discussed getting a tractor Ronnie gave us some greatly reduce prices. We can get the tractor, which has a nice front end loader on it, a tiller, a shredder, (that’s a big brush hog mower for you city folks) and a sixteen foot trailer that can haul them for around $14,500.00. The payment on that would be only $203.00.

We could almost make that payment on my nine hundred dollar a month disability check but it would be incredibly tight. However I am sure I can earn enough with the tractor on mowing and tilling jobs in the spring to more than make those payments. Then the possibility of earning enough to pay for the entire loan with crops raised on this land is good and I think it could definitely happen in two years. We grew forty watermelons, about seventy honeydews, and a couple hundred spaghetti squash just on this small plot. Earning enough to cover $2400.00 a year in payments I think is very doable. Unfortunately with the bankruptcy we had to file because of the nearly quarter million dollar hospital bill I had and the limited disability income it is doubtful we could get approved for the loan. Just another hurdle to overcome.

I think that for the first time we will specifically ask for help from our friends. We did ask Janie for a few bucks to make ends meet once but for the most part the incredible blessings we have received from others they did on their own when learning of a need. What blessings they have been. We have heat, hot water, a kitchen with new cabinets and working oven and stove, a new bed (helps Cherie’s bad back), and other wonderful gifts (just had a new window installed) that are an expression of love and compassion from the Christian community and the friends we have made. But this tractor with it’s attachments will enable us to build a farm and provide the ability for us to earn a living and stand on our own two feet.

Cherie is almost ready to go so I will end this long winded post. We are heading out to one of the farmer’s markets. There are three now we know about and they are all avenues for us to sell our produce next year. That plus the old school bus we plan, with Wally’s help, to pull out to the road and turn into a roadside vegetable stand. So gotta go.

bad confession?

11/8/07 Thursday
I just noticed that I had yesterday’s entry down as being Tuesday instead of Wednesday. After looking on the calendar I see that today is Thursday. A few days ago (exactly when I don’t remember) I was at someone’s house (who exactly I can’t remember) and was chided when I said something about having brain damage. “You need to quit confessing that” was what she said, or something like that. I remember because I thought on it long and that helps cement in memories.

What brings this up today is the fact that I am in the midst of a slowdown. I was talking with Cherie and suddenly knew it was coming because of the unfortunately familiar precursors that often herald one. “I’m slowing down” I told her and conversation got hard with me forgetting what I was saying as I said it.

So it’s a bad confession to say this? I am familiar with the concepts of positive thinking and the confession doctrine that you find in some Christian circles and agree with them for the most part…but… But I can’t deny reality. I so want to go to the store and buy the drill and extension cord I need but don’t go out by myself when I am like this. I don’t like it, it frustrates me, but like it or not I can’t deny it for it rises up and makes itself known. I have diminished ability because of the damage done to this brain. They show up on the MRI’s as big dead spots in several places of my brain. But at the same time I have been steadily improving over the years. The doctors say I will never return to my former level of cognizance but I continue to improve as this brain steadily rewires itself.

So the tractor broke again. I got the last of the tilling done and was just starting to move dirt around with the front end loader when a clevis pin broke or came out. I give. There is plenty more I wanted to do but I’m tired. I called Metro up and told them it was broke so they could pick it up now. I know I could have kept it longer but this is the third day and didn’t want to abuse or take advantage of the situation. I’m just not comfortable doing that despite paying four hundred bucks to rent it. Part of that is I don’t want them thinking bad of me, I want to maintain a good reputation.

So I am tired as I usually am with a slow down. There is lots I want to do but it will have to wait.

Gonna be busy

11/7/07 Tuesday
It’s going to be a busy good day. Yesterday we went to see Patrick Duffy, our attorney. He is quite a personable guy, a real pleasure and comfortable to talk to. I was happy to give him the final payment and made sure to let him know how grateful we were he gave us so much time to do so. We discussed the best way to open the business bank account for the farm and then got into the issue of getting my name correct on the estate and particularly getting the oil lease transferred to my name. Patrick called McGillivray, the attorney who handled my grandmother’s estate. He couldn’t find my file so the two of them joked about that a bit. Then they got down to business with Patrick explaining how to fix the name problem. I find it disconcerting that Mr. McGillivray didn’t seem to know how to do this. Hopefully this estate will get settled after two years. Virginia seems to be the hold up.


So I rented the tractor with a tiller so I can start preparing this five acres for next years planting season. When I called and priced rental Metro had the lowest price at $155.00 for the tractor with an additional $75.00 for the tiller attachment. Cool, I thought. $230.00 for the whole shebang. I didn’t know if there was a delivery charge but didn’t think it would be more than $75.00. After all the tractor with bush hog Wally had rented for us ran about $300.00. What a shock I had to be handed a bill for $457.00. It costs $155.00 to rent the tractor and $150.00 to have it delivered. If I had known that I would have rented a trailer or borrowed one. What a hit that is. I called Metro to express my dismay. I told him that he should have been forthcoming about that while at the same time admitting I should have asked about it. He dropped fifty bucks off the bill which we are grateful for, but it is still a chunk out of the CRP money.


So I spent all day tilling. Drove that tractor until 9:30 last night when I finally took a bathroom break. Climbing off the tractor let me know I probably should call it a night. I was so full of dust and dirt from the extremely dry soil that Cherie took a broom to me and made me disrobe and take a bath without touching anything. It was pretty bad. Despite spending all that time steadily working it looks like I only got about half of it done and the tractor is almost out of gas. I’ll be hitting it as soon as I eat some breakfast this morning as they will come to pick up the tractor at 1:00 and for the price I want to make sure I get my money’s worth. Unfortunately I will be billed for any time beyond eight hours. I so look forward to owning my own tractor.




So today Bob Trimble (? I think that’s his name) and Jay will come and install the window. They should be here this morning. Bob runs the Christmas in April ministry but is doing this on his own time and expense. Learning the cost of the window I asked him if we can buy the remaining number of window we need. He said we can discuss that when he comes to install. I am thinking of paying for them out of the CRP money but it is going fast. But still it would be a wise long term use of the money.

Well I’ve got lots to do so see ya later
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The quail are back. Been seeing them alot more

It’s after 5:00 now. The tractor has broken down twice. Last night I noticed that the tiller was rubbing on one of the tires so when I looked at it in the light of day I saw a bolt or clevis pin had fallen out of one of the support braces. I called Metro and he sent one of his guys out to fix it. I think it was Jason I talked to but maybe it was a Russell. Whoever it was he extended my time to make up for the tractor not working.

As soon as it got fixed I went back to tilling. Got most of it done but something else gave way so the blades stopped turning. I called Metro and let them know. “You guys are going to love me” I started that conversation with. I get nervous at times like this, afraid I’ll say something that will be taken wrong or that the other party will think I’m an ass.

I don’t know. I’m pretty tired right now and a bit slow on top of it. Bob Trimble and Jay got here this morning and put the window in. It’s a big improvement and Cherie couldn’t stop smiling and saying “Oh! It’s so nice” and stuff. I helped where I could but mostly stayed out of their way.

It’s 8:00. The tractor got repaired so I should be able to finish tilling tomorrow. Even more tired so will write tomorrow. It was another great sunset.

Here's today's sunset

11/5/07 Monday
I went to the bank today to try and work out what we need to do to open up a business account for the farm. After explaining I needed to talk to someone who was up to date on this stuff I was asked to have a seat to wait. There was a Monday paper on the table so I picked it up to see if Jimmy Paterson had used any of my pictures again. Jen or someone from the Sunday school class had emailed us last week and let us know they saw a picture of mine in last Monday’s paper. I knew Jimmy was going to use a picture or two but was amazed when, on opening the paper, I saw the entire page filled with five of my photographs. Wow. Caught me by surprise.





I love to record the beauty I see all around me. Sunsets and sunrises happen so fast and then are forever gone so to be able to stop time and keep it is a wonderful thing. There are many times when I am busy doing things or having a slow down that I will walk out and see the vestiges of a great sunset I missed. I always regret not capturing these moments. It’s not just sunrises and sunsets, I see so much that I want to record, so much that I feel would make striking images. I suppose having a fancy camera would be cool but I’d have to go to school and learn how to use it. This basic Kodak does pretty good. But a better camera ostensibly means better pictures and I enjoy learning.




So here are tonight’s sunset. We went into Midland today to pick up a late birthday present for my sister and one for my youngest son, Adam. I just got Robin (my sister) a Barnes and Noble gift card and Adam one from Walmart. Not terribly original but I really don’t know what they would like. My sister is a stranger in the sense that we have had almost no contact in thirty or more years. Adam has grown much in the seven years since my coma. I think he is twenty four or five but really don’t know. That’s all part of the memory loss. I was able to ask his and Bruce’s (my oldest) birthdays during the few moments we met after I woke up. They are written in the calendar along with my sister’s to help me remember. I still forgot Robin’s birthday until noticing it on the calendar a month after.

The CRP check is just now enabling me to get something. I saw a calendar at Barnes and Noble that would be perfect for Bruce. He is a Sheriff’s deputy, done two tours in Iraq, and a federal firearms dealer so he loves his guns. When I got him involved in historical reenactments he developed this healthy interest. He has guns for most time periods from the flintlocks of the revolutionary war to Vietnam. So this calendar has historical weapon comparisons. That’s what he’s getting for Christmas.

Anyway, we had done some shopping and as we drove home I looked in the mirror and could tell it would be a great sunset so drove a little fast with the hope of getting home in time to grab the calendar and catch it. What ya think?

I was pretty sharp earlier today. Cherie said I was running an eight or nine on the bob scale and had a hard time keeping up with me. I’ve slowed down a lot now, about a four. That’s just the way it is. Up and down like a yo yo. Got one of those headaches and am tired so goodnight.

What a start

It seems that overnight this blog was targeted as a link point for porn sites. They were posting their links in the comment section. I spent almost an hour deleting the comments. As a result I now must moderate comments and you have to go through the inconvenience of doing that figure out the numbers and letters thing in order to post a comment. Sorry for the inconvenience folks but that's the way it is in our world now. Would love to have a Zapper that would fry these peoples computers.

Dalight savings time

11/4/07 Sunday
Daylight savings time is here. Now the puppies want to get us up at 5:00 instead of 6:00. Didn’t bother me as I was up anyway and had been quietly using this laptop in bed while Cherie slept. Now that the check is here I am excited about being able to start something with the five acres we pulled out of CRP.

I can rent a tractor with a tiller for $230.00 a day. First thing would be to pull the mesquite out of the ground, then till it. But I must be prepared to do something right after it’s tilled. I’ve been thinking about planting a Rye/Hairy Vetch mix as a cover crop. This is to compete with the weeds, particularly the grass burr, and then would be tilled under in the spring to prepare the soil for vegetable crops. But as I read up on stuff I find all kinds of different things to do and…well it’s a bit confusing so will take a while for me to sort through. Lots of factors to consider. One of the first things to do is finally get the soil tested now that we have some spare cash. I got the sample packs from the extension agent early in the year so we’ll get them loaded and sent of to Texas A&M (the university that does the tests). That will help me make a better decision. It’s also time to get the water tested as well. The CRP money isn’t going to last long but I’m going to focus much of it on our long term goals of getting this farm going. That is where our financial future lies. Little by little we can build this future. Just a few little steps at a time as resources are available.

Cherie is fixing French toast and then we are fixin (in Texas they say it this way. I just added “fixin” to the computer dictionary so it won’t keep telling me I spelled the word wrong) to go to church. After that I don’t think there is anything scheduled but there is always plenty to do here.
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Had a real bad spell at church. Conversations were hard to follow and much of the Sunday school lesson was lost on me, just lots of words that didn’t register. Wally asked me about how the lawnmower he gave us worked. I searched for a memory to answer him but couldn’t recollect anything so had to say “I don’t know”. I still don’t. Cherie thinks I’ve used it. Perhaps I wrote it in this journal. Another lady told us how she has been reading lots of the blog and how it touched her. I wish I had been doing better and hope I was able to put up some semblance of conversation. But if she’s been reading this journal she understands. I was in bad enough shape to have Cherie drive home. Am doing better now but these things drain me so am laying down and will probably take a nap. There are hundreds of wasps outside, buzzing everywhere looking for a winter home I suppose. Kind of disconcerting.

Check came

11/3/07 Saturday
The check came. Now we must carefully consider what we will do with it. We will finally be able to pay off our bill with the attorney we were forced to get when they tried to railroad me into selling the property. He helped us a lot so I am happy to be able to pay him.

We went to open a bank account for Westbrook Farms but ran into a snag. It the bank said that we couldn’t both be listed under a DBA, only one of us despite the fact that the official State of Texas form we signed and filed at the courthouse has spaces for several individual, partnerships, and businesses. I’ll have to figure this out.

I haven’t been feeling to hot since I ate some apple sauce this afternoon. I think it might have been bad. We bought some trash cans with lids on them to keep the puppies out of the trash at Walfart. Looked at their dog crates because we want to get a second one for the puppies as they are two big for both to fit in the one we have. Forty bucks seems a little steep so we will look around to see what we can find.

That’s it for now. I’ll write more when I feel better.

November already

11/2/07 Friday
Well it’s November. Hard to believe it’s already here. Cherie spent most of yesterday at Steve and Janie’s where she cleaned house and mostly puppy sat. OOOOH, puppy sitting…what a tough job. Actually it did wear her out but it was a pleasure at the same time. I went to Don’s and mowed his lawn. Used the string (I’m not sure what to call it) part of the weed whacker the Sunday school class bought us for the first time. Up till now I’ve only used the heavier brush cutter. When I get the funds I want to buy the straight shaft version as the one that came with it has a curve making it shorter. With my six foot two inch frame it requires me to bend over a bit, hard on the back. Still it works well and did a fine job, just designed for shorter people I suppose.



This is the first full day I’ll be able to here. I’ve been doing cotton surveys with Cherie all week and have been worn out by the time I get home so haven’t gotten much done. I did manage to build this sifting screen for my compost. Saw one at the composting seminar we went to in Midland and will be an improvement over what I did before, I think. We have lots of the cotton picked for the survey that I will try to compost. Always experimenting and learning. I think I will rn the mower Wally gave us over the areas I already mowed. It has a grass catcher so I want to see if it will suck up any of the millions of grass burr stickers left on the ground from that. Right now I can’t walk without getting an inch thick layer of stickers on the bottom of my boots, and the poor puppies are constantly getting stuck.

I look forward to getting the tiller finished for then I’ll be able to churn up some soil and plant the Rye that should beat out these weeds. Another thing on the CRP check shopping list, set of rings for the tiller and three hundred pounds of Rye and Hairy Vetch seed. That’s enough to do the five acres we plan on gardening. First we’ve got to get that tilled and that will require a tractor. Can’t do it with the hand tiller. Janie said the farmer who offered to till our place would be getting in touch with us this week but odds are, with the cotton harvests happening, he’s pretty busy right now. If need be we will hire it out and pay for it out of the CRP check. That still hasn’t come in yet. Maybe I can rent a tractor and tiller and do the job myself. I also need to pull up the mesquite trees (They are bushes in size) that are growing on the five acre plot. A tractor will help with that. Otherwise I’ll try to use the pick up truck. Hope it won’t tear the bumper off. Getting a tractor is at the top of my list. It will pay for itself pretty quick I think.