Farm Sitting Day Five

The best laid plans...

I've come to the conclusion that planning is what you do to make yourself feel less than successful. I truly wanted to be done with the weed eating around the pasture fence today but after the yard, I didn't even get to it and the yard looked a little iffy at times.

Let me start at the beginning. I took Bowser on his morning run, which I decided today is more to let him relieve himself outside the yard than for the exercise, and this time we visited an oil/gas well by going to the left instead of to the right on Signal Ridge. This oil/gas well isn't on my parents' property, although the road that dead ends at it cuts through their property. I had visited it when it was relatively new and there was a lot of raw earth in a crude mud mixture around it. Now it looks relatively benign but I still wouldn't want to eat any food grown on the ground around it, including the meat from animals that grazed on the grasses around it.

West Virginia is one of several states that allow mineral rights to be sold separately from surface rights and when it comes to getting to the minerals, the surface owners have very few rights. They receive no compensation for the surface that is violated or directly used by the mineral gatherers. In fact, out of spite one mineral rights owner made a well pad for a well that he never intended to drill. This included bulldozing down a few harvestable trees--that as a result were never sold.

I got back to the house, turned off the electric fence, and started mowing with the riding mower. The temperature was perfect. Unfortunately everything on the farm just seems to be low, particularly the branches of the three apple trees that line their drive. While I lost my hat three times on the riding mower, I didn't bump my head seriously until I was using the push mower. Even though the brim of the hat may have partially contributed to my not seeing the branch I stepped into, I was glad to have it on because it at least kept my scalp from getting cut. (I don't normally wear hats but when I'm out in the sun for prolonged periods, I like not having to put sunscreen on my forehead and not getting my scalp sunburned. By the time I started using the push mower, the temperature was no longer perfect. In fact, it had risen to 94.

I doggedly continued with the weed eater and didn't really notice when it started to rain a light rain as I was already wet. After completing only about half of the weed eating around the yard and running out of gas, I started hearing thunder. Now normally thunder wouldn't bother me either, if I'm not seeing the lightning but working around an electric fence means that if lightning strikes it anywhere, I could provide the ground. Discretion being the better part of valor, I stopped. I could say that I had a late lunch or early dinner but since I had already eaten lunch and had even more later for dinner, I have to say that I just ate, again.

It never really rained much and the thunder moved on so after the sun tried coming back out, I went back out and finished the weed eating. At least the temperature had dropped a full five degrees.

Just after I made it back into the house, it had gotten dark and really started to rain. My day was over just in time for me to relax in front of the TV. Just as the Heat and Pacers began to play, the rain was hard enough to knock out the satellite reception but it did come back on in time for me to see the ending and overtime. I was convinced that the Heat had won and the Pacers hit that three pointer. In overtime, I was convinced that the Pacers had won after their third foul shot dropped and then LeBron made that drive and layup in just 2.2 seconds.

I hesitate to make plans for tomorrow as I know the grass is going to be wet with still a high chance of rain. One thing I know I need to do is get some poison ivy medicine. It's definitely not psychosomatic.

Farm Sitting Day Four

DOMESTIC DAY! At least the morning was. I had to bake the bread of the dough I mixed up last night and do the dishes I had dirtied in its mixing, as well as dirtied in two spaghetti meals. So much for dieting.

Since I couldn't get out and do the dirty work because of the bread (ha ha), I went in to town to mail the WEDDING INVITATIONS I had addressed. (This also was supposed to allow me to call Lori on her lunch break.) On the way out of the hollow, I got behind a very careful driver who was bound and determined that the only ticket they he would ever receive would be for obstructing traffic, never speeding. Since he had a West Virginia plate and I had an Ohio one, I knew that my only hope was that he didn't go my direction. He did. Fortunately, I was able to pass him about half way there after already having spent all the time I thought it was going to take me to get into cell signal range. I did make it in time to make my call.

Next, was lunch--Fish Fillet at McDonalds. At least I didn't prepare it. And then to the Post Office. I gave the clerk one of the invitations, she weighed it and I bought twenty of the appropriate denomination wedding stamps to send them. That's when she asked if I minded stepping out in the public area to put my stamps on because the office WAS CLOSING! I made it by just five minutes.

To top it off, I still had 40 minutes on the parking meter. Unfortunately, there is very little to do in downtown Glenville let alone something I wanted to walk to. Anyway, I was only out a nickel.

Instead, I drove to the grocery store to get some more spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, bananas, and miscellaneous other food items. Best of all, I got some cleaning aids that will help me do the few dirty dishes I create after each meal rather than letting them stack up requiring yet another DOMESTIC DAY.

Finally I put on the work clothes I had washed the night before. Aside from the stink from sweating in them, I washed them because of the amount of poison ivy I walked through and chopped up with the weed eater. I don't know whether my itching is psychosomatic or I have a case of poison ivy. I'm hoping for psychosomatic as I didn't get any Caladryl or Calamine Lotion.

I kept hoping for it to cool off but finally I gave up and went out to do more weed eating. In two hours I didn't even finish one whole section. Not only was the grass thick and the whacking slow, but one of the strands was broken. This meant going back to the stretcher on that strand twice to release wire so I could tie the broken ends together with what my Dad calls the butterfly knot. The second time I took off the whole stretcher and put it back on near the repaired break. Here is an attempt to take a picture of what the results of the weed eating looks like. I held the camera level and yes, it's a lot steeper than it looks and I walked down it.

Tomorrow I'm mowing the yard, weed eating around the yard fence, watering plants, and hopefully finishing the pasture fence weed eating.

Farm Sitting Day Three

"Why isn't there a Day 2," you may ask? Basically, I slept. Didn't even have dreams that I remember. It probably had something to do with not having had caffeine since I got here--that and staying up late the night before.

However, Day 3 was feed the sourdough starter day. This I did in the morning. It then requires that I either make bread or throw half the starter away in the evening. I chose to make bread, which will actually be made on Day 4 as it is supposed to rise overnight. The good news is, I just checked and it is doing just that. It probably is doing that so well because it is 80 degrees in the house now.

It almost got up to 90 degrees today and I was out in the heat of it--the afternoon. I went across the creek to weed eat the pasture fence section my Dad hadn't already done. I just started and discovered this:

A tree was down and by being across the corner, was actually on two sections of fence. This meant that I had to go back to the house, find the chainsaw, and then chop it out. The new chainsaw my Dad has is really easy to start and use. My only problem is that I must have difficulty determining the compression side, the side of the log that will get squeezed together. The last time I used the chainsaw, I got the blade stuck really well and it took me almost an hour to hand saw the blade out, moving a log to act as a fulcrum to lever the tree it was stuck in, and finally catching the new chainsaw before it hit the ground.

Fortunately, I was careful and lucky and my cuts didn't bind the chainsaw. I did get even more exercise when it came to moving the resulting logs off the fence. Since I didn't see the spanner when I went back to the garage to get the chainsaw, I had to move the logs by hand. I was able to use possibly the only benefit to weed eating on a hillside, stuff can be rolled downhill.

After all of that tree, the wood post that was flattened by it was fine and no wires were broken. There were two connectors on a post down the hill that were sheared and one anchoring wire not doing its job but they may not have been related to the tree falling.

I finished weed eating that section and decided to do something a little less strenuous and still needed doing: I rode a lawnmower around the triangle. The triangle is a section of the pasture in front of my parents' house outside the yard but visually part of the yard. I didn't want it to grow too high and make it even more difficult to mow. I don't know how large it is but it took me a good hour to mow with the mower in the fourth gear.

Getting cleaned up and making bread dough was truly a perfect ending to a productive day. Tomorrow: bread, more weed eating, and a trip into town to mail wedding invitations!

Farm Sitting Day One

While my parents and sisters and their significant others are traveling about the country, they asked me to farm sit. My dad was kind enough to include a suggested list of chores so I wouldn't get bored.

The first chore was finish the weed eating under the electric fence on the upper portion of their farm. I first tried to go to the top, which had the added benefit of taking me up to "signal ridge," where I was able to call my fiancee, Lori Kokales. After the wonderful conversation, I wasn't able to make it up the last little rise.

Then, coming down, I was sliding down more than rolling down the hill. Fortunately it was all on the road. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I didn't have to walk up the hill nearly as far as I would have had to, if I had started at the top.

As with other weed eating expeditions, there are always things discovered about the fence that need repairing. This time two connectors were completely gone on one post and another was still on the post but not holding any wire. This was easily enough repaired--all I had to do was find the connectors and walk back to the trouble spot.

Another problem didn't have such a simple solution. This was an extremely loose wire. The good thing was that it was the second from the top and not likely to cause substantial problems like touching the ground, but it did need to be fixed.

This necessitated another trip up to "signal ridge," which wasn't happening. This time I found myself slipping down the road backwards until I got to a relatively flat spot that was wide enough to turn around.

When I got back to the house, I discovered that I had the ATV on 2-wheel drive. After lunch and a nap, I went back up to tighten the one strand. This time on 4-wheel drive I made it up with no problem. When I walked down the hill to the loose wire, I expected to see a set of wire stretchers which would let me tighten one. There were none. Thank goodness I went prepared with a single stretcher of my own.

At least Bowser got two runs out of it.

Thai Food in Columbus

One of the foods that I dearly loved while living in California was Thai food. We actually had Thai "belly stops" around California that we ate at when we were traveling but regularly ate at Sala Thai, http://www.salathai-restaurant.com/, in Fremont when we lived there and a couple times after we moved to Pacifica. But the best Thai restaurant in the Bay Area, in my opinion, is Sirayvah Organic Thai, https://webpos.wlinformation.com/Sirayvah-Organic-Thai-Cuisine/.

I have now eaten at two Thai restaurants in the Columbus, although the last one says Chinese and Thai and the first one certainly served both what was purported to be both Chinese and Thai food. I discovered the first one through a Groupon Coupon, Basil Thai, http://www.basilshortnorth.com/. I've eaten there twice with the last time getting a dish "Thai Hot." It was spicy, almost too hot even for me. Others eating with me got mild and thought it was too spicy, but that is the nature of most Midwest tastes.

Today, a day I should have been out riding my motorcycle but wasn't because of a need to do laundry, (I would have gone to buy more clothes but my storage is limited and someone wants to "help" me select them and she is working.), I decided to try "Chi Thai," http://chithairestaurant.com/, a restaurant sign I had noticed in a strip mall on my travels up and down Hamilton Road north of Morse. Chi Thai, which I was pronouncing CHEE Thai, is actually CHEYE Thai in deference to their Chinese and Thai cuisine.

While I didn't go through their entire dinner menu, in which some of the appetizers were obscured by their lunch special insert, I didn't notice any obviously Thai dish, one that featured Thai basil, limes, or a peanut sauce. While the Hot & Sour soup was truly as good as some of the best that I've had in Chinese restaurants, the Hunan Chicken wasn't as spicy as I expected and the sauce tasted as if it had caramelized just a bit too long. The saving grace for Thai was the Thai Ice Tea. I had to pay extra for it, since it wasn't a lunch special option, but so far it has been the most authentic Thai anything I have had since California.

I will just have to keep looking for Thai food.

More Loss

My brother-in-law passed away from a huge heart attack. He was younger than I am. His mother has now survived two of her children's and her husband's passing.

He lived a hard life for most of his years but was both gentle and quite competent. He was soft spoken and quite willing to speak. Thank goodness he was also eclectically knowledgeable. Perhaps the reason he was is that he interspersed his conversations with lots of questions, inviting the people he was conversing with to share their knowledge.

Due to the circumstances of his life, he was living with his mother. Just before his passing he had come home from a job and told her he loved her. (This is a lesson for us all and reminds me to let my family and friends know how much I care for them every chance I get just in the off chance that I won't get another one.)

I was not at the memorial service his close family had for him but his sister shared this eulogy with me:

"We thought we'd share with you what Tom read to us on his last Friday at lunch. I had no idea that he'd just read his eulogy to Mom and me. He said, 'I really like this and it's me. I have the right ticket.' Life has been hard for Tom because of the choices he made in his life, but we're thankful he listened and soaked in salvation from preachers setting in his chair with Mom listening to TV with her in the evenings and from going to church at St. Mathias. Just reading this piece from the Daily Bread on 2/24 that he thought fit him, les us know he's home safe with the Lord."
"Read: Matthew 16:21-28"

"For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? -Matthew 16:26"

"[At an exhibit of artifacts from the] infamous Titanic voyage, exhibit visitors were given a replica ticket with the name of an actual passenger or crew member who, decades earlier, had embarked on the trip of a lifetime. After the tour group walked through the exhibit viewing pieces of silver dinnerwar and other artifacts, the tour ended with an unforgettable twist."

"A large board listed the names of all the passengers, including their status--first class, second class, crew. As my friend looked for the name of the person whose ticket he was holding, he noticed a line across the board dividing the names. Above the line were the names of those who were 'saved' and below the line all those who were 'lost.'

"The parallel to our life on earth is profound. It really doesn't make any difference how the workld ranks your status. The only thing that ultimately matters is whether you are 'saved' or 'lost.' As Jesus said, 'What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?' (Matt. 16:26)."

"Perhaps you've already trusted in Christ for your salvation. But what about your fellow passengers? Instead of sizing them up by the externals, talk to them about their ultimate destination."

"It's not what I achieve that qualifies,
It matters not if I gain wealth or fame;
The only thing I must be certain of
Is 'Have I put my trust in Jesus' name?' -Hess"

"In light of eternity, what one believes is far more important than what one achieves." [-Daily Bread]

"Tom knew this was for him. God is faithful...all the time."

"Blessings to you all - Tom's Family
March 12, 2011"

I'm sure my in-laws would have chosen a longer life for Tom had they a choice but they have a measure of peace because of Tom's recent choices, including what they used in his eulogy above.

Rest in peace, Tom.

Why is it?

With still more to write in the "Living Memories Tour," I stopped writing anything else and wasn't writing that either. Sometimes that just happens when life starts truly happening again.

There is a lot to the saying "Those who can't do, teach," but the cause effect is twisted. I've been teaching the last few months and what with preparing for classes, participating in "other duties as assigned," and particularly the endless grading, I haven't had time to "do" much else.

What else I have been doing, if I ever get around to writing about it, could be the theme of yet another blog but for this one, let me just say that it has taken me to Ohio, particularly Gahanna, Ohio, repeatedly over the same period of time that I've been teaching.

In fact, it is the most recent drive back from Gahanna that inspired this blog entry.

I don't know whether it is just Ohio drivers or the fact that cars just move faster on relatively straight dual lane highways but I never seem to have problems with slow drivers until I get to WV 47. Now most non-expressway roads in WV follow the curves of the hills, or worse the waterways and sometimes both. In fact, the straightest sections of most of these roads are generally the ones that go straight up or down one of those hills but on the other side, it's usually back to the curves.

All of this just means that you expect to go slower on these roads, at least around the many curves. But tonight, in the dark, I got behind a car that appeared to be carrying eggs, loose, not in cartons. I say this because the this car started out very slowly from the last stop light, where I had the misfortune to catch up with it, and never got up to the approved speed limit. (I assume this was because the driver didn't want to slow too abruptly for the next curve because of all those loose eggs.) Unfortunately, this was on the parts of WV 47 in Wood and Wirt County before the curves have suggested speeds of 20 to 35 MPH, the stretch of road that I could make good time, if I weren't behind the egg car.

At the light I wasn't directly behind it. There was another car between us. It took this car all of 500 yards to pass the egg car and it's driver didn't even wait for the dashed lines. I was too far back to take advantage of the next set of dashed center lines and then there just didn't seem to be any--for miles.

While I've driven this road several times since I started teaching and know it well, I generally plug in my Garmin to give me an estimated arrival time. All while I was trapped behind the egg car, I could see my estimated arrival time creep up--by minutes, which made the time I was trapped seem like hours.

To top it off, the car is riding the center line, which makes it even more difficult for me to look ahead and see whether or not there are some dashes in my immediate future. Finally, by creeping even further into the oncoming lane than the driver ahead of me, I saw some dashed lines. What does the egg car do? It speeds up. The only time it approached the speed limit was when I could have passed. My 2001 Ford Ranger XLT on its best day could not build up passing speed and catch up in the time the lines were available so I stayed behind it still longer.

Finally, there were some dashed lines up one of those hills. I floored the accelerator. I passed the egg car! By the time the egg car crested the hill behind me I was already so far in front and around some curves that I wouldn't have been able to see its headlights, which was good. I would have hated to see them turn off behind me.