finally

7/10/11 Sunday
It’s been over a month since I posted on the blog. I did make an entry in the journal on 6/12 but never posted it. Nate asked on facebook, “Hey Bob, you still alive?” so I guess that is a hint I need to write. Had my birthday on the 8th of June, didn’t do anything. We started college classes at night and a friend from the Kairos prison ministry learned we were hurting so gave me some work helping him clean up his shop. So I get up and do some farm work when the sun comes up, leave for Odessa by 8:15 in order to make it to work by 9:00. It’s a forty five minute drive and costs us $30 in gas each day I go, but it’s work. I help Jim till 4:00, when I must drive home, take a shower, grab some food, and then leave with Cherie to go back to Odessa for class. We get home just when the sun is setting so there is only a few more minutes to work on the farm. By then I’m exhausted and it’s bedtime.

Our wedding anniversary was on the 20th. I forgot all about it. Didn’t forget our anniversary was on the 20th, just wasn’t cognizant of the date that day so I spent the day working. Cherie didn’t say a word till later. She’s a sweetheart. So I forgot but we celebrate being in love every day.
Here is some of the Tuscan cantaloupe. It's doing much better than the Hales variety

The drought is hard, along with hundred plus degree days every day. It’s killed lots of plants and is hard on the rest. Without regular air conditioner we are suffering a bit. The swamp cooler doesn’t really keep up on these real hot days. We spent some precious funds to get Cherie’s air conditioner on her truck recharged, but it’s hard to tell a difference.

I’ve been building more hills to plant melons on. The rabbits destroyed many of our cantaloupe so I have replanted 4 times. We have two less rabbits than there were before. The dogs got one and I got the other. Still lots of rabbit tracks.

Jim had some old farm equipment he was planning on selling for scrap metal so I was able to talk him out of them. Got some old plow blades. One I modified to fit on my tractor, took lots of grinding to do so. It is great for making trenches I can bury irrigation hose in for drip line. With that I was finally able to finish the area for blackeyed peas so they are now planted. I had worked by hand on it for weeks and gotten little done but with this plow blade I was able to do it in two days.

Then I created a new area for melons. We planted the Israeli cantaloupe I bought a melon of to get seeds and about 25 hills of regular watermelon. Pain level is always a factor but I’m used to it and just keep pushing through. Jim doesn’t know how bad I hurt, I just take lots of water breaks.



The other hinge on this laptop broke today. One had broken months ago so this is the other one. Now I must keep a pillow under the laptop to see the screen, or hold it with one hand as I type and do stuff with the other. Poor computer. I’ve replaced the motherboard, two hard drives, two screens, and a power supply to keep it going. Sure be nice to make some money and buy a new one.

When we get done with this class we will be certified to inspect homes. There is good money in that but it requires anywhere from five to ten thousand dollars in equipment. Five gets us the bare bones cheap stuff to do the job. More gets better stuff that does a better job. We’ll depend on God to supply that.

So here’s some pictures.