Cherie's doing better

A recent sunset


3/9/09 Monday
Cherie is doing much better now. Whatever she had took a lot out of her. Despite that she kept trying to get things done saying “This is my time to catch up”. She would get up and do some stuff but soon she would say “I’m going to lay down now”. When she would it wouldn’t take long for her to fall asleep. I did my best to not disturb her and look after her needs. Last night she finally was able to eat some solid food instead of the yogurt I’d gone to the store and bought. She was up early this morning to bake cookies for the Kairos (I think that’s how it’s spelled) prison ministry our church is involved in. We were going to take them to Sunday school but never made it to church. I need to call her and ask if I should deliver them today. Best do that now before I forget.


Just look at all the stickers on the tiller tire. The bottoms of my shoes look the same way when I walk out in the fields.

I busted my butt yesterday. Changed the oil on the truck and while underneath it looked at the U-joint that I think is making noise. Couldn’t tell if anything was wrong with it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s OK. Then I sowed and raked rye seed. The weatherman said it’s supposed to rain Wednesday so I’m going to get as much sowed as I possibly can. If the old man calls I’ll tell him that unless it’s important I’d like to focus on working on the farm. It looks like the crew that was camping at the old store has moved on so that will be available for the farmer’s market I want to start. That means there will be a lot of work to do there to prepare for it. I wish there was two of me cause I can’t seem to keep up. We haven’t heard anything about the pipeline deal yet. Hope it works out but if it doesn’t I’m not going to worry about it. What will be will be and I am learning to be content.

Here's 7,500 feet of drip tape that we ordered. It's a couple of hundred dollar investment that should make a dramatic difference in my growing efforts. But first I've got to get it installed.

Time’s a wasting so got to go.
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I came in to take a pain pill and rest thinking it was around 12:00, it’s 1:00. My how time flies when your working. As I worked my mind returned to the problems we had at the Stanton church and it always makes me sad. I wonder what happened, what those involved were thinking, what they think of us now. I wonder what they say, what the gossip was or is. Part of me wants to confront them and ask but part of me says “leave it alone”. It will bother me till I deal with it.

The blisters on my hand are turning into calluses. There’s a pain on my left foot that feels like another blister so I’ll take a look at it while I’m in the house. Best do it now, otherwise I’ll go back to work and ignore the pain. If it’s a blister I need to cover it or it’ll burst and could get infected. Don’t have time for that. Too much to do. Hope I don’t get what Cherie had for the same reason.

We found two ticks on Ginger. You can bet the other dogs have ticks as well so we need to deal with it. Rascal and Trixie we can take to the dog wash place Janie turned us onto, along with Ginger. Ben I can get into the truck to take to the dog wash as well but Gretchen is another matter. Her fear of everything human could make it real hard to do. I’ll have to stop at Pet Smart when I go shopping to see what they have for ticks. Just read about the guy who shot and killed the pastor in Illinois. It’s reported that he has Lime disease and it left lesions on the brain contributing to his being diagnosed as mentally ill. Considering Lime disease is spread by ticks I don’t want to play around. We thought Ginger was scheduled to go to the vet for her shots today but when I called I learned it was not so.

Cherie got sick

3/7/09 Saturday
Cherie got sick last night. It came on so fast we thought she had eaten something bad but apparently it’s a stomach bug of some kind. She had the runs and threw up most of the night and is still fighting it tonight. I don’t think we will make it to church tomorrow.

Woke up early

3/6/09 Friday
I think I got a lot done yesterday but don’t remember for sure. This morning I woke up early and am more clear headed than usual, an eight or nine on the bob scale. We had a charge show up on our farm account that we don’t remember making. Cherie had just placed an order with the company, which provides seed and garden products, but not the one that showed on our bank account. She will call them from work to see what’s going on. Hopefully we didn’t have our account information stolen again. I had Cherie run the spyware program and there was a Trojan on her computer. Not good. I think we must go ahead and pay the extra money to get an updated spyware program for her computer. We put Spysweeper on my computer after it crashed from a virus so I can upgrade that to cover hers’ as well.

That’s it for now. I’m debating going out and doing some physical work or staying in and taking advantage of this time of clarity to work on the business plan. The physical work wins out because of how far behind I am. There is so much to do just to get seeds in the ground and I should have had lots of stuff started by now. Setting up the seed starting stuff is high on the list as well as getting the garden plots marked out and prepared for planting. A big part of that is putting the drip irrigation stuff in.

Time to go. Those of you who pray, please lift up our good friend Janie, who’s brother had a heart attack yesterday and was undergoing lots of surgery to unclog arteries and stuff.

More raking

This is where I left off raking yesterday.

3/5/09 Thursday
The slowdown yesterday took about three hours out of my day. The one Tuesday cost four hours. I’m making my list of things to do today. Cherie bought some notebooks I can keep in my back pocket so I can keep the list with me to refer to it as well as make notes of things I see or think of that I need to remember. It would be nice to find something similar a leather wallet to protect the notebook in my pocket.

One important happening out here I just realized that I failed to note in this journal. The truck our friends let us borrow has now been given to us. This is just one of the many tremendous blessings we have received over the last two years. Saying thank you just doesn’t seem like enough but Thank You. I’m not comfortable about revealing who blessed us for I’m sure they didn’t do it for public accolades. Not sure what accolade means but it seems to feel right.

We need to get our income taxes done. Cherie isn’t sure how to do it because we’ve received a big (at least for us) oil check last year so she will take it to our bank cause they help folks like us do their income tax.

After several calls I finally got through to the chimney company regarding the refund we are due from returning their products. Since we made the return we had to change our bankcard numbers due to identity theft so they were unable to credit our account. That should be something around three hundred dollars.
This area all the way to the house has taken me seven days to sow and rake under. With a tractor and implements to go with it I can do it in just a couple of hours. It represents about one tenth of what I plan on doing. There is lots more than this area already finished

If the pipeline deal goes through at $4800.00 we are seriously thinking about buying a tractor. It’ll have to be an old used one but I feel it will pay for itself quickly by enabling me to produce more from the garden. Regardless it will save me a lot of pain and hard work. Oh, I’ll still work hard but will get more done in dramatically less time. But we have learned not to count our eggs before they hatch so it’s a wait and see situation though I have strong confidence things will work out. If they do this blessing can be laid on the lap of Steve, who is helping us navigate this unfamiliar arena and is protecting our interests from those who might take advantage of our ignorance or my brain injury. I’m not saying at all that the other party was trying to do this but it’s good to make sure. My naïve idea that everyone out here in West Texas is trustworthy was shattered shortly after we arrived here two years ago. By far most are great people with integrity but there are always a few who take advantage.

Time to get to work. I hope to tear into the carburetor for the tiller today but we'll see. Otherwise it's more sowing and raking rye seed. Plus I need to start marking out the plots and get the seed starting stuff out and going. At some time I need to locate and price fertilizers to be ready to purchase when funds become available. I know I’ll need at least five hundred pounds of nitrogen plus micro nutrients and other stuff.




This is the latest drilling rig to set up near us. It is different from most of the others we've seen. One of our friends was telling us about how their mother gets a percentage of a well that is not on her property but near the property line because it does get oil from her property. I wonder how that works. Is there a chance we can get a piece of this action? Is it something I should investigate? Hey Janie, your in the business, what do you think?
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I just came in to get a pain pill and see it’s just about noon. I need to fix something to eat before I take off and forget. Not getting hungry makes it important to eat by the clock. Rascal and Trixie came in with me and are busily working on getting stickers out of their feet and fur. They must do this all day long because of how many stickers are out there. They are loud as they chew each sticker up, careful to not get them stuck in their soft tissues. This happens occasionally and it’s hard to watch. Rascal got a sticker stuck in hard between his cheek and gum. There was nothing we could do as we watched him desperately try to dislodge it because he wouldn’t stand still or let us reach in to get it.

Having this notebook with me is a big help. I’ve made several notes about things I need to get or do when I think about it. While I’m out raking or doing whatever I’m always thinking about stuff, but by the time I come in it’s forgotten. In Toledo we bought an expensive little recorder that can capture two or three hours of conversation. I bought it for the same reason, to record thoughts before I forgot them. It didn’t work out because I wouldn’t remember to take it, or if I did would forget I even had it with me. Back then I was in much worse shape. I wonder if I should try it again.

I dozed off as I wrote that so probably should take my nap. It’s early, usually I can wait till two or so. I still can but I’m in and settled so might as well take an hour to rest. It refreshes me and I usually have increased energy after.

The battle is on

You can see where I've been raking the rye seed under.

3/4/09 Wednesday
Yesterday I did a lot of running. Went to Odessa to pick up a rebuild kit and fuel filter for the tiller. When I talked to the guy at the parts counter he informed me that they don’t make a rebuild kit for the Honda motors and it probably just needs a good cleaning. That’s good news, I think. So I just got a fuel filter. I also went to Harbor Freight to get one of their solid brass water sprinklers to see if it holds up any better than the now six sprinklers that this hard water and Texas sand render unusable.

When I went to poop scoop at Steve and Janie’s Steve was there. Haven’t seen him in about six months. I don’t think I’ve seen Janie since Cherie house sat months ago but I could well have and forgotten. They live such busy lives I get tired just reading about it on her blog. How I wish my energy level would return to where it once was before the accidents.

Steve finally was able to get a hold of Rusty about this proposal to put a pipeline in through our property. When Rusty first drove up and talked to me he was offering a hundred dollars on a handshake and said the pipeline would just clip the corner of our property. Now the plan seems to run it the full length of our land along the highway. We are so grateful to have friends who understand this stuff and offer to help for otherwise it would be easy to bamboozle us. When Rusty called the other day he said he was sending a check for $1500. I told him to talk to Steve and the check never arrived. Steve got a preliminary contract and the figure had risen to $3000. Steve went through the details with me to insure I understood what they proposed. Learning that the offer was on the low end of what is commonly paid I suggested we negotiate, which Steve already had in mind to do. Steve called last night and now the offer is at $4800.00. He put in conditions that will protect us and limit it to just one pipeline instead of giving the company a blanket contract enabling them to do anything they wanted forever. We would have been clueless. Thanks Steve, and Janie. IF it happens we may be able to buy the tractor that is so desperately needed.





The battle is on. The pictures tell the story. All those patches of green are little tumbleweeds starting to grow. Multiply this little five foot space by five acres and you can get an idea of the problem I face. That is one of the reasons I’m killing myself to get rye planted.









The other is the stickers. I can count fifteen stickers in the next picture and that is probably a four inch area, that is despite everything being tilled under 12 inches. Again multiply this by five acres and you can see what we face. I am constantly touched by how all five of our dogs walk barefoot through this just to be near me as I work. Rascal and Trixie are always there but the others usually join them as the day wears on. They all play in the plowed fields next to us for it’s the only place without stickers. To give them five acres to safely run is a goal. This will require intensive work and I can’t physically do it without a tractor. I tried last year and rented a tractor with a tiller once but all that did was provide fertile ground for weeds to grow and made things worse. To do it right I would need to till everything under at least three times during a season. We just couldn’t afford that last year but hope for more resources this growing season.


Got to go to work. Here’s a cute picture of Ginger puppy sleeping on top of his dad. Look how big she is already. We let her in the house some now. She loves to steal socks or some of the dog toys that lay all over and just prance around. What a joy our animals bring us.
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10:30 – Am having a slowdown. Also have a headache. I’ve had a good streak of this not happening. Had one a couple or four days ago. I’ll have to check back in this journal to see. It was Tuesday. It’s going to be nearly ninety degrees today so I want to get as much done as I can before it gets hot. So I’ll tough it out. If I stay focused and just do simple things I’ll be fine. Was going to take that carburetor apart but that’s out, at least for now. At least I don’t hurt much. Gotta go.
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2:30 – Came in to take a pain pill. Nothing unusual, pain comes with physical work. I’ll just lay down fifteen or twenty minutes. It’s a good time to write. I’m drained from the slowdown but not to bad. Some are worse than others and this one wasn’t bad. I had written a whole paragraph when I had to go out and see what the dogs were barking at. The computer was frozen up when I got back so I’m running the spyware now. My cognizance is coming up. I remember writing about running at a six on the bob scale before it froze up. All of that is gone now but since going out and coming back in I’m up to my usual seven. That’s the way it is, up and down, smart and stupid, fast or slow, I never know. It’s like being on drugs. Hell, I used to pay money to be this impaired. Dumbass.

Being on drugs is a good illustration of what it’s like with this TBI. I’ve been thinking about that since Beau Berman came and did the TV interview. He asked us what difficulties the brain injury caused. I know we talked about the short term memory loss and also about the problems my lack of social skills caused, like being asked to go somewhere else by the church we were remarried in. Plug “Cedar Creek” (the name of the church) into the search blog box at the top to read all about that. I say things wrong, as if I’m on drugs, I get mad, I cry, and I’m paranoid about what others think of me, about what I said to offend them. That’s why I told him we were blessed to find a church family and Christians that didn’t judge and took the time to understand. You know, people who practice what they preach. There was a lot we talked about but you just can’t cram it all into a minute and a half. He brought up the movie “Memento”. Cherie and I had watched it several times after one of the people who helped me research my past at the Toledo Public Library recommended it. I told him how much it illustrated TBI issues but the fact is I really don’t remember it. I remembered the guy used tattoos to remember things and that he had a traumatic brain injury but that’s about it. I remember more about the movie “Fifty first dates”, which also deals with TBI.

Back to normal?

3/2/09 Monday
Well, it’s back to normal now. I’m not really sure what normal is and that may not be the right word to use here so…back to abnormal? No, that doesn’t work either. I know! Back to the race to get things done with this farm so I can at least get something planted. That is a big challenge for me.

Beau got here about 4:00 and stayed till 6:30. We talked a lot about the range of stories that our lives present to help him figure out what to focus on. He looks a lot younger in person than he does on TV but is a sharp kid. I’m sure he’ll love me calling him a “kid”. I was fairly sharp and lucid, for which I’m grateful. Beau said I “interview good”. We were surprised when he said the story would air at ten o’clock that night as there was a whole lot of video he took and would have to whittle down to about a minute and half. Of course we anxiously waited for the ten o’clock hour to watch the program. He did a great job of squeezing the essence of the story into that short time slot. Thank you Beau (am I spelling that right?) for doing a great story on us. We wonder what will come of this but it can’t help but help. I told him he should keep an eye on us for we have great dreams and plans for this farm and shared some of those hopes with him.

He interviewed Cherie outside for a change of scenery from my interview. When we came in he left the portable microphone that you clip on your shirt outside. When he mentioned that my response was “I hope the dogs didn’t get it”. One of them had and dragged it around but fortunately it wasn’t trashed. That was a relief.

Today I’ve a big list of things to do. One of the benefits of Beau coming over was a lot of stuff got cleaned up and it sure looks better. I’m going to take a section of fence down to continue that but then it’s back to what’s important, making this a working farm. There is no question that I’ll be losing the disability now that Cherie is working full time so making this an income producing property is vitally important. Besides I have no intention of staying on disability anyway. That’s just not me. It’s said that “Pride goes before a fall” but I don’t feel that means one should not have any pride or that pride is a bad thing. There is a point where pride becomes a form of contempt for others who don’t “measure up” to the achievements or ability of the proud one. And there’s the issue of what you’re proud of. If it’s “I look better than that other person’’ then what a shallow thing that is. For me pride has to do with overcoming those obstacles and challenges that lie before us, beating out this thing they call a disability and doing what some say can’t be done. Instead of “Look at me, I’m so good” I desire to be an inspiration for others who also face difficulties in life. Fact is there are tens of thousands who overcome way more than I and I look to them for inspiration.

So it’s off to work folks. Love to chat and get all philosophical on you but that doesn’t get the work done. See ya. If I can figure out how I’ll put the story on You Tube or someplace you can see it. I haven’t checked yet but it probably is on channel seven’s website. I think the address is CBS7 or something but I’ll look it up for you. It's CBS7.com Go to the news section and look through the list to find the story
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I had a slowdown at around noon. Haven’t had one for a while so it surprised me. I came in and fixed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and laid down. These things tire me out pretty bad. Still pretty slow, running a five on the bob scale. I can tell by how hard it is to write this.

Fran, a friend who knew both Cherie and I during our first marriage called this morning. We talked for a while about God and the world. Fran and his wife were active in the church Cherie and I were involved with back then. I wish I felt better to write about this. Perhaps I should take a nap. That usually revitalizes.

Cleaning for the news

3/1/09 Sunday
Unless some big news story breaks channel 7 (CBS) will come out here at 3:00 or so. We’ve been working hard to get things cleaned up, so it doesn’t look to awful bad, since yesterday and are back at it this morning. I suppose that if we had company over more often this place would always…Nah, it’s a farm and will always have stuff laying about, especially with me forgetting to follow through on projects. My pain level is pretty high from all the work I put in yesterday, not only picking up for the news crew but preparing the ground for planting.

We’ve been wondering what they will focus on for the news article. There are so many stories here. Our miraculous reunion and love story is one, surviving multiple severe brain injuries another. Then there is the help and love we received from the Christian community we were blessed to find in Midland, and I think the reviving of the old family farm is one too. I came in to rest the back a little but can’t dally so must get back out there. Cherie’s been pushing through as well despite her ankle hurting so bad. If someone happened to see us both hobbling around they would think we’re both in our 80’s or something. I hope I’m not too worn out when they get here. 2:00 is when I often take a nap because of the mental fatigue thing that comes with this TBI. Clarity of mind is what I pray for today, to not get easily confused or lost in the conversation. I think I told the reporter that it would be nice to sit and talk a little so I can relax and have a good idea of what he wants to talk about. That will help me prepare and function better. Just had Cherie review this to insure I didn’t say something wrong, as I often do anymore, and it passes so now I’ll post it and get back to work.

2/26/09 Thursday
Cherie’s off to work and soon I will be. Actually I’ve been out raking the field for an hour. I’ll be going to help the old man in about a half hour. The first thing I’ll do over there is turn that pump on and see if the lines hold up. After three blowouts yesterday I decided to let the glue set up overnight before turning it on. I’m glad it was a warm day yesterday because I sure was soaked and covered in mud. It’ll hit 90 degrees today. I do great in the cold but the heat is tougher on me.

While out raking this morning I started to get lightheaded and realized I hadn’t taken my medicine so came in. Otherwise I wouldn’t be writing at all but it gives me something to do while I lay down. Ginger puppy is growing fast and will be a beautiful dog when full grown. I love her eyes, which match her coat. I’ll post a picture here later. Gonna go online, check email, and post this entry. By then it will be time to go to the old man’s.
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2/26/09 Friday
I can’t believe it’s 2:00 already. Just got back from returning a water sprinkler I bought yesterday. It’s a bigger one and I had high hopes of being able to reach a larger area with one sprinkler. That’s not how it worked. I don’t have enough water pressure to push it so until I get the additional pump set up I have to live with only being able to run two normal size sprinklers. When I run the drip irrigation I will probably only be able to water small zones one or two at a time. Matt has that problem as well. It makes getting that improvement done even more important.

I went to the landfill and picked up the mail, along with dropping off the electric bill payment this morning, so I got that done. Doesn’t seem like I’ve done a thing and there is tons to do. There’s lots of cleaning up for when the news reporter comes over among other things. Don’t have time to write much. Just came in to get something to drink and look at my to-do list.
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6:29 – Cherie just came home from work. I had just pushed as far as I could go and was coming in to lay down and take the last pain pill for the day. I won’t take them after 7:00 because they keep me up. Maybe that was why I couldn’t get to sleep till about two in the morning last night. Because I’m working harder I hurt harder so take more pain pills. Don’t worry, I’m real careful about it and note each time I take one to insure I follow the prescription. I have to do that anyway because I can’t remember if I took a pill five minutes after I did so. There’s a potential danger there you know. I’m tired.

Wore myself out

Just got back from working for the old man. That wore me out. I’m repairing some plumbing that was exposed when he put the new septic system in. It was one of those situations where you fix one thing and something else breaks. Several of the joints were not holding and blew out each time I turned the pump back on. One of them was my fault as I simply forgot to put glue on it at all. Duh!!! That isn’t terribly unusual as it’s easy for me to get distracted and forget where I was at. There was a lot of bending over so now I’m laying down after taking a pain pill. It’ll ease up in a bit.

I’ve been meaning to put a link to this blog, “Family life after a traumatic brain injury” It’s written by the wife of a man who sustained a TBI in 2007. She is his caregiver and support and writes well of the trials they go through. She reads this blog and we've emailed each other. Please drop by and give it a look. Real touching stuff and reminds me of my first couple of years though his injuries are more severe.

A television station contacted me and wants to come out and interview Cherie and I. They will come to the farm Sunday afternoon. That will give us some time to clean the place up.

Ginger goes to the vet

2/24/09 Tuesday
Worked for the old man yesterday. One of his cows gave birth to twins and they aren’t doing well. They brought them in and are hand feeding them. One of them is blind and it is in the worst shape. The other seems to be doing good and is feeding well. They are about a week old.

I lifted a heavy bag of concrete for him and as a result my pain level is pretty high. I’ll work for him again this afternoon. This morning I take Ginger puppy to the vet for her shots and first check up. If I can I’ll do some laundry as well. This will help Cherie out and I’m glad she is allowing me to do it.

Just got back from the old man’s. Dug dirt all day (That would be two hours) so hurt bad. Took another pain pill, probably more than I’m supposed to but there’s lots to do so need to keep going.

I’ve been thinking about asking the old man to let me use his tractor. I really don’t want to be a bum so have been pondering on this for some time. There’s about three acres on the outer perimeter of the garden that I’m not going to be able to plant. I just don’t have it in me to sow, rake in, and water that much area. Hell, I’ve barely touched the two acres I intend to cover with rye as it is. And here’s the rub, in order to beat out the sticker grass and other weeds I need to do it three times. First I must till or disc in the entire area to kill whatever is growing. Then I will seed it fairly densely with rye and water to insure it grows well and competes with the weed seeds that will be germinating at the same time. Many of those weeds will take root so I must watch carefully for when they start making seeds (stickers!!!) and till everything back under again. Then I start the process over, sowing more rye, or some other crop. From what I read it takes about three cycles to virtually eliminate the weeds and sticker grass from the area. It’s just not physically possible for me to do without mechanization. The old man has lots of livestock that he feeds so I’m going to ask if I could grow hay for him in exchange for using his tractor. That way he could get some kind of return out of it and I’d feel better too.

It won’t be long till we have our own tractor. You just watch. Things have a way of working out around us. When we have a need it is met. Look at Cherie’s car. It dies and a friend lets us use their spare pickup truck. Cherie's car is back home by the way. Here’s a picture of it in the back yard. Hey Nate…I’m going to take you up on your offer to get a steering column from the junk yard and send it down. Give me a call or email about it. Wayne has something he wants to give me that could be shipped with it too.

I’m tired on top of hurting so I think I’ll just nap for a while. Just thought of something I should record in this journal. Rusty called me on behalf of Pioneer regarding getting permission to run a pipeline through the farm. He had first gotten in touch with us last summer about this and I instantly called Steve and Janie because I’m pretty clueless on how this stuff works. I had Rusty send Steve all the information. Steve’s got a whole world on his shoulders and is rarely home because of how hard he’s working so hadn’t gotten back to Rusty. Rusty said he was going to mail a check along with an agreement for me to sign. I told him I wouldn’t do anything before I got with Steve but he said he’d send the check anyway. I guess we’re holding him up from doing the job. But we can sure use the money. That’s how it works. We need money it shows up out of the blue. Some guy pulls in the drive and says he’d like to run some pipe and needed to pay us to do so.

2/22/09 Sunday
Yesterday ended up in an upsetting way. Cherie complained of a heavy feeling on her chest and started taking her blood pressure several times in a row. It was high for sure. Then she said she was nauseas and felt weak. Finally she said “Take me to the hospital” so off we went. At the emergency room they took all kinds of tests and gave her an EKG. Nothing was wrong. The last test was for blood clots but the hospitals machine for that test was broken so they were sending it out to Odessa. That would take two hours to get a result back and we had already been there four hours so elected to not wait and go home.

It appears that Cherie had another anxiety attack. This is nothing new, we went through the same thing in Toledo and Cherie told me this has occurred several times over the last ten or so years. Every time there was no detectable problem. My opinion is that she worries herself sick, letting the anxiety amplify till it causes her blood pressure to spike. It settled right down in the hospital. She has high blood pressure anyway so there is a legitimate concern but this emergency room visit will cost us at least a thousand bucks. I’m glad she’s ok but not at all thrilled about the whole thing. However there’s no taking chances with something like this so I’ll take her to the hospital when, or if it happens again. Today she will stay home and rest. Perhaps this will motivate her to start exercising.

Time flies

2/19/09 Thursday
Hard to believe it’s already the 19th. I’m making slow progress on the farm, painstakingly slow. I always think of things to write as I work out there but seldom remember them when I finally get to this laptop. Our new puppy, Ginger, is doing well and Rascal and Trixie play with her now. That’s good to see. We wish we had kept another puppy just so Ginger would have someone her age to play with but…

I’ve lots of pictures so when I get the chance will post them. They will help tell what’s going on.
These are the pictures I took from the roof showing all the area I've tilled and am starting to sow with rye. It took five pictures to get it all in. Click on them to enlarge and you can see the white posts which are the faucets we put in for irrigation.
The front area where we had planted apple trees last year is visible over the garage roof. Two of them lived and I'm anxious to see if they survived winter.



you can see the old school bus, which we want to make a vegetable stand. Several people have asked about buying it and I saw someone steal the thirty foot chain I bought to move it but couldn't get to him in time to catch him.
The procedure for planting rye is to spread the seed with a fertilizer spreader and then rake to cover as much as I can. The fertilizer spreader broke yesterday. I'll spread seed the old fashioned way by flinging it out by hand if I have to. With a tractor and the right implements for it this can be done in a couple of hours. I look forward to the day we have one. It'll mean a lot less pain for one thing but mostly it drastically will increase my productivity.

Gotta get to work.

Start of another week

2/16/09 Monday
It’s the start of another week and the number of things I need to do is overwhelming. I loaded up the truck with all of our garbage to take it to the landfill. As I put the last bag in and closed the door it dawned on me “This is Presidents day”. That means the landfill will be closed. Nuts!!! No way am I going to unload this stuff so it will stay in the truck till I get to the landfill. I did this last summer and two hot days in the sun ripened the garbage inside till I feared there’d be an explosion if a spark was struck. The back of the truck smelled for weeks.

I’ve been busy all morning, doing this and that as the need became apparent. As usual I haven’t started on a main task like sowing rye or mapping garden plots. Cherie’s been getting good at making lists of things for me to do and it helps a lot. I need to start making lists for myself as well.

Ginger puppy is a sweetheart, wanting to play and fit in. Rascal and Trixie are not excited at her presence and probably never will be. I keep them in check when it comes to how they act with Ginger. It’s about impossible to play with Ginger with them around so I’ve put them in the house so I could do so. It’s real important for Ginger to get lots of playing exercise for her development. Ben plays with her but Gretchen? Not as much. Rascal and Trixie kind of try on occasion but don’t seem to know how to play with a puppy. So I try to make time and get her to run and play but there is so much to do. She wants to play so much she was attacking the broom as I swept up sand, balancing back on her hind legs and then bouncing to the broom in two bounds.

I climbed up on the roof to take pictures of the five acres around the house. This way I can get a kind of aerial view of the garden areas and show what’s been done. I’ll download those later. I came in at 1:00 to fix a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and it’s 1:30 now. Half an hour is long enough for lunch. I need to keep moving and take advantage the time I’m feeling good to get as much done as I can because I never know how long it will last. I’m getting pretty tired and this is the time when I often must nap but there’s no time for that now. See ya.

Puppies are adopted out

2/15/09 Sunday
Well, I got the tiller loaded but did it by myself. I knew I would pay for that and I did but it’s no big deal, just a little pain so I took a pill. When I got the tiller uncovered I saw it isn’t a self driven machine like I hoped but a standard tiller with the tines at the front. It’s been sitting for a while so some of the rubber fittings are dried up and cracked like all rubber and plastic do out here in the desert so I’ll go through that before I try to start it up. Sure it isn’t as nice as the Cub Cadet machine but if the motor runs steady it will be an improvement. When we can afford it I’ll find an “authorized” service agent to tune up the Cub Cadet. The manual specifies that and I think is required to maintain the warranty. That machine is just too sweet to let sit.

Yesterday all the remaining puppies were adopted out at Pet Smart. When we took them into the store in a shopping cart a young boy saw Spot and instantly wanted him. We are keeping Ginger but Spot is the other one I didn’t want to let go. We discussed keeping him the whole drive to Pet Smart and at the store the debate continued. The boy listened to us as he petted Spot. Cherie told me “We need to go” mentioning something about being able to afford to keep Spot. With that I heard the kid say “I’ll give you a dollar. No I’ll give you two if you go” knowing that if we did he had a chance to get Spot. I looked up and saw he had his wallet out and was pulling out two bucks. That did it. It helped to know that wherever the puppies go they will bring joy so I let him go. Cherie escorted me out of the store to get me away from the puppies.

Most of the drip feed irrigation order arrived except the most important part. That is the 7500 foot roll of drip tape. Matt wasn’t happy and neither was I. I’ll need to go through the order and make sure all the other parts I ordered came in because we put our order in together.

There is much to do on this farm. I finally finished the tilling Friday, working with my headlight on till about ten that night. It went slow with the tiller going six to ten feet before sputtering out. Part of me wants to tear into it and try and fix the problem but after the fiasco with Cherie’s car I can’t trust what they call my “executive reasoning skills”. I ended up trashing her car trying to fix it. It’s frustrating for me for at one time I rebuilt motors and fixed all my vehicles and now have difficulties doing it. Actually I do ok with most stuff like replacing the U-joints in my truck but the ignition lock was beyond me. The mechanic who has Cherie’s car said it would cost over seven hundred dollars to fix and the car’s book value is only worth $600.00 in fair condition and they didn’t list a price for the poor condition it’s in. So it costs more to fix than the whole car is worth. I think I’ll takes Cherie’s nephew’s (Nate) offer to send the whole steering column that he can get for $75.00 and try to put that on. Then at least we can sell it or find someone in need and give her car to them. So we’ll tow the car back here and park it somewhere in the back where I can work on it and it’s out of sight so we don’t look like hillbillies or something. Actually out here it’s not uncommon to see multiple junk cars parked around properties. At least out here I don’t have to worry about city inspectors giving us fits about it like they do in Toledo.

Cherie loves the truck our friends are letting her use. It’s a 1998 Silverado and has lots of bells and whistles we aren’t used to. Things like electric windows, electric seats, and a CD player. Plus it’s got a V-8 so has more power than mine does. While it’s four years older than my truck it’s nicer and runs better. Sure it’s not pretty but pretty isn’t an issue with us. The windshield is cracked pretty bad but in Texas that doesn’t seem to be an issue with the state inspection. In Ohio a small crack is enough to fail inspection. Regardless it’s still safe so also isn’t an issue with us. Little things like the windshield wipers not working are probably not hard to fix but that gets back to my ability to make good decisions. Anyway, it will be a blessing to be able to buy the truck so keep your fingers crossed.

We are both going to skip church today. There is just too much to do and with Cherie working she hasn’t been able to keep up with house cleaning stuff so wants to catch up on that. Today I plan on mapping out and marking the garden plots in preparation for planting. The other thing we need to do is get a seed starting operation set up. I want to use the greenhouse for that but it’s pretty damaged from the wind so I’ll have to figure out how to repair and fortify it. Another big task is to start building trellises for what is called “vertical growing”.

Time to get to work.

up and going

2/12/09 Thursday
I’m up and going. Cherie just left for work and I’ve had my three eggs and toast to start the day. Now I’m headed out to fire up the tiller and hope that it magically fixed itself overnight. For the last few days I’ve been babying it and coaxing a few more feet of tilling before it quits running. It seems to be related to how hot the engine gets for if I leave it to cool off it runs well for fifteen or so minutes and then starts having fits of coughing and sputtering. Sometimes that clears up as I proceed, only to come back a few minutes later. I’m over halfway done now. I started this tilling twelve days ago and am still going. Once I get a tractor this can be done in a matter of hours, it can be done in one day. How I look forward to that and what a reduction of physical strain and pain it will bring, on top of increasing my productivity by many folds. Till then it’s the same as always, I do the best I can with what I’ve got. I’m going to talk to Tommie and Jamie about the possibility of them getting involved and helping out for a share of the production. Tommie talked about fixing Chuck’s tractor and that would help for he said that he will let me use it.

That’s it for now. Odds are that when my day is done I’ll be pooped and won’t even open this laptop to check email so you may not see an update. Or you might, who knows, I sure don’t.
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It’s 12:15. I just came in to give my back a rest and grab something to eat. Had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the last two pieces of bread. I keep intending to tell Cherie that we are about out but forget. Maybe she’ll read this from work. The tiller is still giving me fits but I’ve figured out some better ways to coax it along. If I raise the tiller up where the engine tips forward and rap the accelerator a few times it seems to clear up for a bit. I suspect the problem is in the fuel system. Perhaps a float bowl is sticking or perhaps the fuel filter is plugged up, or perhaps it’s both. I’d bet a hundred dollars that sand is the culprit. But at least I’m making progress. Took a pain pill so am heading back out. A half hour rest helps.

Ben's back

Here's Ben and Gretchen, happy to be back together. We tuck them in every night, covering them with this blanket on the cold ones.

2/11/09 Wednesday
I guess I spoke too soon about Ben finding a home. Cherie got a call yesterday from Laura, who heads up Animal Outreach Association. She runs a heck of an organization and paid for Ben to get fixed along with shots for him and the puppies. As a non profit Laura depends on donations to pay these expenses so if any of you want to help her out send me an email and I’ll give you the particulars. She told Cherie that Ben wasn’t working out for the family who adopted him. Ben was terribly depressed and kept trying to dig his way out of their yard. Of course we were anxious to get him back after hearing this.

I met Laura at the beer store that is halfway between us and Midland to pick up Ben. He was just whining terribly when she opened the hatchback of her car and it hit a crescendo when Ben recognized me. Laura wanted to hand me a bag of dog food the family gave her for us but I told her I wanted to get Ben out of the cage first. I just couldn’t leave him in there for another second. Ben was all fear and kisses when he got out of the dog cage. He wasn’t just depressed, he was traumatized but he knew the way home. When I had taken Ben to the vet and Pet Smart I couldn’t get him to jump in so had to pick him up and put him in the truck. Now Ben wants in the truck in the worst way, running from one door to the one on the other side and back. I opened it up and Ben loaded right away. He was crying during all of this and continued after I got in, pushing his head underneath my arm desperate for pets. He got them, lots of them as I sat there trying to calm Ben down before I started the truck. As soon as I started driving away Ben settled as if he knew he was going home. He was.

It is clear to us now that Ben cannot be adopted. I suspect ours was the first home he has experienced love in and we love our animals well. He found family here and companionship with other dogs when we rescued him off the intestate. I don’t know what his life was like before that but there are clears signs of abuse. Add to that the fact that Ben is a father and you can see how connected he is to this place and understand his anguish at being taken away. So I guess we won’t have any outside cats. Plus this changes the equation for keeping puppies. Before we thought Ben was gone and thus had room for two puppies. Now I think we will only keep one. Probably Ginger.


Then we had a sand storm blow in. Yesterday I planned on getting some serious tilling done but it wasn’t to be. The tiller was running better but still giving me fits when I got the call to get Ben. When I got back there was time spent as I watched Ben run around everywhere to find every familiar landmark after being welcomed by Gretchen and the puppies, all of whom were happy to see him. Rascal and Trixie were not as thrilled. Then I got back to the work I so need to do but as I ran the tiller the wind started to blow. At first there were little squalls that would come and blow cold air for two minutes and be gone. As it picked up I went to the garage and put on my goggles to keep the sand out of my eyes. Then it got too bad to work so I decided it was a good time to go to Midland and poop scoop. That’s when it got really bad. There were times I couldn’t see ten feet in front of me so I turned on the strobe light that’s on top of the truck and crept along.

The wind never let up so that was the end of tilling or doing anything else outside. Hopefully I can get some done today but I go work for the old man this afternoon so that will cut into things. If I don’t hurt too much I will work on stuff after I get done at his place. Right now I feel guilty taking valuable working time to write this so got to go.

West Texas sand

2/10/09 Tuesday
I’m planning on running the tiller as long as I can. Monday we were blessed with 1/8” of rain, a most welcome sight and the first rain we’ve had this year, at least that I can remember. The rain gauge also showed we have gotten a ¼” of sand as well, that constant West Texas feature that permeates everything. With the storm that brought rain there was a high wind with some sixty mph wind gusts. This coated everything in the garage with a layer of sand.

The tiller has been not running well, backfiring and stalling out in addition to losing power. When I fired it up yesterday I coaxed it along as I have been doing for days but it had gotten so bad I hauled it into the garage to see what I could do. What was the problem? SAND. It had plugged up the air filter and when I took that off I found that sand had managed to get passed the filter and contaminated the carburetor. Nuts! That’s not good at all and I hope it hasn’t done too much damage to the cylinder. I removed the carburetor and cleaned it out. Sand had also caked around the cable and mechanisms that controlled engine speed and was making them stick. While I was tearing the motor apart I took off the pull start because it too has been sticking, with the pull rope not retracting back into the housing. Once again sand was the culprit.

So that cost me the whole morning as far as working on this farm goes. I went to work for the old man at 2:00. He had me digging up the water line that goes to a small building he’s removing and then digging around some fence posts that were cemented in and breaking up the concrete with a sledge hammer. So I was swinging a grub hoe and sledge hammer and they don’t work well unless you do it with vigor. I love to work and attacked the concrete with enthusiasm, but work doesn’t always love me. After breaking up the concrete I looked at the old man and said “How about I put the tools up and call it a day”. I just hurt too much to continue on. He understood that well (He warned me to not overdo it) so agreed. I came home, took a pain pill, and laid down till the pain subsided. So I’ve got lost time to make up.

We adopted out three puppies at Pet Smart Saturday. That makes four we have found homes for and leaves two more to do for we are going to keep two of them. Our thoughts on that are that the two we keep will be outside dogs and that it’s better to have two of the same age as companions. What we are grateful for is that we found a good home for Ben. The puppies we know can find homes but Ben we were worried about. He went to a family that has an eight month old puppy who needs a companion as well. They brought their puppy in to Pet Smart where we had Ben to see how well they got along. Ben is good with other dogs and has exhibited great fatherhood instincts when it comes to his puppies. I miss him already and wish we knew who adopted him so we could visit but that’s not going to happen. Now the problem is choosing which two we will keep or I suppose which two we will give away. We love them all so it’s tough. Part of us wants to keep them all but that is not practical. We’re spending about $80.00 a month feeding the dogs we have and as the puppies get bigger they will eat more. We would like to adopt out Gretchen but don’t think that will happen. She had been so abused that even after being with us for half a year she is still full of fear, ducking and cowering at every move or when I yell at Rascal and Trixie to quit whatever they are doing at the time. It’s sad but Gretchen wants to be loved. She will crawl up to my lap when I’m sitting down to be close and get her pets. And I love to pet her, empathizing with her pain. Every night I spend some time petting her on the love seat she sleeps on and will cover her up with a blanket. Her foot is still bad but she can get around better so it seems to be healing.

What else? Can’t think of anything right now despite the fact that much has been going on. Time to get to work.

Adopting out puppies

2/7/09 Saturday
We got Cherie’s car towed to a garage where a mechanic will look at it and decide if it’s worth fixing. The trade in value for a 1998 Prizm in the condition it’s in is only $350. Odds are it will cost much more than that to fix. Friends are letting Cherie use a spare pickup they have so that helps a whole lot. Cherie had to return the church truck she had been using. I tried to explain to the friend that Cherie’s car is old and worn out so isn’t worth putting lots of money into. Even if it had not broken the car is on it’s last legs so we have already set a goal to replace it, this just makes it more urgent. I asked the friend if they would sell us the truck and she commented that we might not want to buy it because of the scrapes and dents it has. Some people would be embarrassed to be seen driving Cherie’s car because of how it looks but at our level of life we are grateful just to have a car that runs. All that pride in appearance gets tossed out when necessity comes knocking at the door.

Gretchen hurt her front leg sometime last night. We can’t see any obvious swelling but the pain level is obviously high. She won’t put any weight on it at all. We were surprised to see she wasn’t waiting at the kennel door to see her puppies. When they ran to the front to see her after I let them out, Gretchen just growled and snapped at them so something really hurts. We’ll just let her lay on the loveseat out there and nurse her as best we can.

Today we take Ben and four of the puppies to Pet Smart to see if we can get them adopted. We can only take four puppies at a time. The lady said that was because of how much poop they produce while in the store. We gave one of the puppies away yesterday to the lady who’s a caretaker down the street. Deciding which one we want to keep is pretty hard as they all are precious. I would love to adopt out both Gretchen and Ben but finding a home for Gretchen will be hard. If we could find homes for both of them I’d keep two puppies to replace them. That way we can raise and train them to fit in well here.

Thursday I ran the tiller till after eleven o’clock that night, just kept going till I finished the area I was working on. Worked late last night as well but not as late as Thursday. My leg gave out so ended that. Now that I’m doing so much outside, partly because it’s warmed up a bit, my pain level is up there so I’m taking more of the pain meds. As much as dislike that I am grateful for them for they allow me to keep going. After three days of tilling I’m not even halfway done. I so look forward to the day we can afford a tractor for this would be done in a day instead of taking a week of painful trudging.

Pay the price

2/5/09 Thursday
It’s a pain pill morning, I ran the tiller until way after dark, using the fisherman’s headlight to see with. Now that I’m out working I’m paying the price in pain. That’s just how it is. It’s a packed morning as I will work for the old man this afternoon. I finally got the drip irrigation parts order done, and sent it to Matt. We are ordering together to reduce shipping cost. I made what I thought was a bare bones order but it still came out to over $400 so I pared it down to $380. Called Cherie to confirm with her we could spend that much and she said we can squeeze it through. I’m kind of guessing on parts of the order, having never used this stuff before, but it will work out.

I really need to do something about Cherie’s car.

Been real busy

2/4/09 Wednesday
Sorry I haven’t posted folks. Been real busy and will stay that way for a while. When I go work on the farm I get slapped in the face with how lazy I’ve been and how much work it costs me. Then I visited Matt’s garden and he already has lots of stuff planted and growing. That’s another slap in the face as I realize how far behind I am.

There is so much going on it’s hard to keep up. I guess I pretty much trashed Cherie’s car working on it. Now we must tow it out of where she works because it’s been there over a week now. She is allowed to drive their work truck to and from work. It’s a big help but we don’t know how long that will last.

I worked for the old man yesterday but had to call it quits early because my pain level got too high to work and all I was doing was raking his lawn. So I came home, took a pain pill, laid down for an hour to ease the pain, and went out to work around here. I’ve been running sprinklers to soften the ground where I need to till. It is so nice to have that water system installed. It saves me a lot of work and time by being able to hook in through any of the twenty six or so faucets that are spread out all over the place.

Today I go the VA for my doctors appointment. Right now I’m going to fire up the tiller and will run that till I must come in and lay down to let the pain subside. Then I’ll go run it some more.