What's happening on the farm

10/29/12 Monday

          Start of another week. I plan on running to Midland and work on the tree we are cutting for firewood. It would be nice if I can finish it up today but I know from experience that I often overestimate my abilities and seldom get things done as quick or as well as I think I can.

          What should I write about this morning? Often there are many things on my mind and it’s requires I choose what to express. Not so this morning. Oh, I have lots on my mind for sure but nothing springs out with a sense of importance. We watch the news about the storm and understand there will be great pains and maybe even death from that, so I pray that God will bring good from the bad, something He is good at.

          The corn is growing well. I am not sure if we will get a harvest before a freeze wipes it out but I knew that when I planted it late. What I know is that sweet corn stays sweeter when the weather is cooler and have been trying to grow some for six years without much success. However each year I do better and this year I harvested enough as seed to plant a significant amount when spring arrives.

          Part of what I am trying to figure out is what I will plant, and were I will plant it. I know that it is not good to plant the same things in the same place each year. What I read is that doing so amplifies the diseases and bugs that prey on those particular plants, plus it uses up the nutrients those plants take out of the soil. So it is good to rotate your crops. 

           A lot of the winter wheat has reseeded itself. That is a good thing for sure and at least I got that benefit out of it, because I was unable to harvest anything significant from it. The rye did not reseed well, thought there are a few spots that did come up.  You can barely see the green coming up like little blades of grass in this picture.

          When I first started growing stuff I would plant all kinds of stuff, everything that hit my fancy. Of course with the bad memory I would then wonder what was planted where. Most of what I tried to grow didn’t, but that is part of me learning how to do this. But I would forget what I did and how I did it so learning was, and still is, difficult. But I have learned some of the things that can grow in this harsh environment and thus will focus on them more. I will however still plant stuff just because it sounds good.

     

     I have spent much time replacing drip irrigation lines. I hope to put in some new lines along some fencing that will work well as trellises. In these areas I plan on planting stuff that needs to be supported and is vine, like some kinds of peas and beans.

   

       We discovered two areas in the house that need to be addressed. Both are where water has leaked in and caused damage and both are in the area of the house we call the office. It was added on by my grandfather decades ago. Part of the problem is a roof leak that showed up when we had one of those torrential rain storms. The other area is from where the wood sill on a window has rotted away. We have several areas of major rot around this house but I do not have the means or skill to fix them. Regardless it must be addressed. There is evidence of mold on one area and that is bad news.

          Seeing as how this is mostly journaling what has and is going on here I suppose I will put in another of those memory issues I must fight with. The reason I do this is because we continue to get people who can’t seem to comprehend that I do have not one but multiple brain injuries, and they do cause lasting problems that exist whether I like it or not. The widow we had been so happy to help snapped that I was just using this as an excuse, that I had no reason for not remembering what she told me. She shot this angrily at me 7 times during the short conversation we had before I was told to never show up there again.

Here you can see the damage from a roof leak. You can also see the top of our door frame, another project I haven't finished. Had bought trim and it sat out in the weather so is not in good shape. You can see how the wind blows in sand and stains the wall.

          I was heading to Sam’s Club with the specific task of buying bottled drinking water being the only reason I was going there. Cherie called and asked if I could pick up something for dinner while there. “Sure, I’d be glad to” I replied and asked what she had in mind. She described an area in the store that has premade meals that only have to be warmed up. I went, I saw, I picked one out, I tasted the many samples being offered in the store, and then I paid for it and left. Getting water had escaped my mind the moment Cherie asked me to get food. It wasn’t till the next day, when Cherie asked “didn’t you get water?” that I realized I forgot. That is how it is. This seems to be hard to explain and hard for some to understand. You see, I do remember, I remember a lot of things, but it is the momentary distractions that mess me up. It is like a child, who is focused on whatever is in front of them and thus forgetting whatever else they were told to do. I focused on getting dinner, and then focused on getting free samples, so water was out the window of my mind.

          You can only imagine how frustrating this is for me. Day in and day out I wander, able to do a good job on what I am focused on. We all have those moments when we go into a room and can’t remember what we came in for, but for me those moments are every minute of every day. Sometimes I do better and sometimes I don’t. This only adds to the misunderstanding of others, who then can’t comprehend and suspect I use this as an excuse to be lazy or whatever judgment they choose to have at the moment.

          My world is one filled with unfinished projects, things started and never finished because something else caught my attention. It is hard on the wife and frustrating to me. I would do much better if I had help to stay focused but I am a grown man and the idea of needing a nanny to supervise me does not sit well. When I built my companies I had the same issues, though they were not as pronounced as they are now. But then I could afford to pay a full time secretary, whose job it was to keep me focused, remind me of where I needed to be and what I needed to do, and let me know who a person was because I could not recognize faces well. I don’t have that luxury now but will do the best I can with what I have.

          That is it for now. I had to do some work on the diesel pickup we just had repaired. It stopped running on me four or five times yesterday as I was driving in Midland. The battery connection had long been bad and even melted the plastic manufactured on it from the heat generated. I pulled that off, cut the melted plastic away, twisted some copper wire on it to make a better connection, and hope that will work. Will find out today for sure as I head out to cut that tree.

          Still waiting to learn what will happen on the other truck. The mechanic was supposed to have the radiator tested and verify it was the problem. He has been dancing around that and if the radiator is good it means his guy did not flush the transmission fluid like he was supposed to. That would mean he is responsible to replace the transmission and I am sure he does not want to do that. This could be messy for sure.

Cya later.