To begin with, the plumbing is fine!

Yesterday was a maintenance Sunday, although a few truckers didn't get any down time. Two truckers hauled bales all day long, just catching us up. We began loading seed trucks at one in the afternoon.

I have one driver who when you tell the group it is a maintenance Sunday, no matter what other instructions you give him, he is gone, leaving all the other drivers to pull his weight. I was going to have a talk with him about this because he is also the only one who complains about his checks. He has taken more time off than all the other drivers he works with. But, the other drivers tell me leave him alone and lets just get to the end.

We are on top of 160,000 bales with approximately 20, 245 to go. It appears it will be touch and go about the 180K. The bales per module is gradually dropping. As of this morning we lack 1656 modules. The computer says 20 days to the end.

I had requisitioned a large number of filters, some brake shoes, a case of freon, and an 1" impact wrench from Chris's parts supply. In almost a week they manage to get five brake shoe halves, or enough to do two and a half brakes. When he packaged the parts he failed to send me the freon. So if things go as they did last week, I should receive my remaining parts on order just about the time we finish. I was somewhat alarmed because when I called him to inquire about the freon he told me he realized he forgot it after he had jetted, but didn't care enough to correct the order. I told him I wasn't pleased and he said that was cool, I wouldn't be the first customer to get upset with him.

That sure doesn't seem like the proper attitude to have if he wants to succeed.

With the maintenance Sunday the crews flipped so now Juan is on days and Barco is on nights. This is always something I watch because Juan's crew usually will gin more bales than Barco's.

Herberto, one of my lead forklift operators did not show at shift change this morning. He went to San Antonio yesterday morning but assured me he would be back in time for his shift. I had a heart to heart with him last time he did this and it appears it didn't work. I am trying to decide what sort of discipline I am going to administer.

My first thought is to tell him not to bother coming back, pay him a reduced incentive and send him on his way. But, Santos's visa expires on April 7th and we will lose him. If both of them are gone it would leave only one man on their shift which would necessitate moving someone from the night shift to their shift. I am also considering making him take the rest of the week off. Lots of time unless it affects their pocket book, they don't care. The first option would cost him about four or five hundred dollars, the last option would cost him a little over five hundred dollars.

It is difficult to be a boss or a parent. In this particular case I feel like both. This employee is only 19.

Enough of that.

Krl and I made a quick trip in to Midland yesterday about mid-afternoon. Made a stop at Ajuua's Mexican Restaurant and then HEB. When we do leave out here we are going to miss HEB's expanded produce section! It will spoil you!

May your day and week be blessed!

FATHER, without YOU, I would be nothing and capable of doing nothing. YOU are my all in all!

I am not a superstitious person, although I do have a few perks. I can remember growing up driving my Grand Dad around (that was my first job), when we would see a black cat cross our path he would turn his hat around backwards and tell me to do the same. Something about bad luck if a black cat crosses your path.

I never set the microwave on a zero or a five (or an alarm if I need to set one). It is always 31 or 29, 34 or 36, but never 30 or 35. Never an even hour or half hour.

Don't ask me, I have no idea when or why.

I set my clock in my pickup ahead of time fourteen minutes, not ten, not five, not fifteen.

Weird.

I will use the aforementioned insight as an introduction to today's entry.

I have been observing, I have one pair of work jeans in my closet that if worn, seem to always be followed by filth. A broken forklift hose, a problem with an oily greasy truck, having to crawl under a trailer, any of the above or any combination.

Yesterday, I decided to give up my blue jean denim shorts to be laundered. As I viewed my clothes to choose from I thought "How foolish. Those jeans don't look as old or appear to have been laundered as many times as any other piece of denim in my closet". Harummph!

And I took them from the hanger.

I even commented to my "bud" Frank (the plant super) and Jeff (the new GM), about how this pair of jeans had warped my mind. They kind of laughed and Frank told me that was why his wardrobe was pretty basic ( as is mine on the jobsite).

It isn't an issue of getting my clothes dirty. That is part of my job description here at the compound. It seems that this particular pair of jeans being put on is a precursor of gloom and doom.

I had drank coffee with the crew, visited with several patrons and finally decided about eight thirty or nine to go back to the trailer and work on settlements. When I walked in I was met with a weird smell. Krl was sitting at the table and she told me, "I turned the heater off, I could and still do smell propane". I checked the stove, went outside and checked the heater vents and returned. Everything was fine. I told Krl it was more like the smell that a holding tank has when you dump it. She inquired as to the state of the trailer park septic system. I went back outside, removed our drain line from the hookup and peered inside. It was moist, but it was drained. I called Krl and told her to flush the toilet. She did, it did, but no water ran out of our line.

I thought someone might be messing with us, so I checked the valves. Gray water, open. Black water, open. Dang the luck! I opened the storage under the trailer and began getting an arsenal of equipment ready to scare the (shall we say) contents (You thought I was going to say something else didn't you?), from the holding tank. I have a flat sewer snake, I had one of those cute little manual roto rooters (that I have never seen work), I even had a twelve foot long mote bale wire tie.

I began inserting the different tools into the sewer pipe under our trailer. At the point of hook up, it has a forty-five degree fitting, then about five foot of straight pipe, a 90 degree elbow and then straight pipe into the intricasies of the valve area. I inserted the flat snake. No luck. I inserted the cute manual roto rooter. No luck. I inserted the mote wire tie. No luck.

I have an analytical mind, always thinking about how something works or how something is put together. I will admit that when all these thoughts were going through my mind, I was having visions of Robin Williams emptying the holding tank in his RV vacation movie. I finally decided that the pipe work "T'd" and one valve was on the left (gray water) and one valve was on the right (black water). The only way I was going to be able to to this from this end was if I could find a discarded colonscopy machine where I could direct and point and turn the lead probe as I inserted it. In fact, that accompanying camera would have ween quite welcome.

Sorry about that. That was wishful thinking.

I reconnected the drain line (being quite optimistic) and grabbed the flat sewer snake and headed inside. Maybe, just maybe I could go through the toilet, down the drain, into the tank, and cause enough mayhem to open the blocked outlet. No luck! Where in the world is that cute tool? No luck again. The mote wire tie. You can fill in the blank.

Back to being analytical. I thought, O.K., I am going to use a water hose. I am going to insert a water hose into the sewer and let the water flush the obstruction out. After a sincere effort, I decided this too was futile. I then decided to close the gray water valve, connect a short drain line and tie the discharge end of it above the holding tank level. I then filled the hose (and plumbing leading to the valve) with water. Maybe if if let it sit and soak, the plugged line would clear.

I got busy doing other things. Pepa came and hauled a load of bales and I went to the dock and then to the fuel pumps to assist him. I went into the farm store, securing supplies for servicing forklifts on our maintenance Sunday. I did all sorts of things just to keep myself from rushing my soaking program. I finally went in to the trailer, took off my Justin work boots and sat down, drinking a Diet Coke, while making some phone calls.

Finally I decided my project should be complete. I stepped into my boots, exited the travel trailer and headed for the back side. When I arrived I untied the short drain hose, inserted itinto the septic connection to drain off the water I had filled it with, then detached it and hooked up our "official drain line". Then I began working the valve in and out, hoping to dislodge the obstruction. No lu...... . You can fill in the blank again.

Then, all the sudden, I had a brain storm. I went to my pickup, rolled off five or six blue paper shop towels, reached into the bed of my pickup and got a blower wand (it is a pipe like attachment that hooks to an air line), then I reached for the key start on the compressor on the service trailer. I grabbed the air hose on the reel and began spooling hose off as I walked purposefully toward the travel trailer and the now all to familiar sewer outlet!

I folded the blue shop towels several times, over and over, and I covered the end of the sewer discharge pipe with them as I slipped the blower wand inside the pipe, trying to seal it with the rags. I gently gave the control valve on the wand a quick, short squeeze. I could hear the holding tank as it expanded. "Boingh". Then it would "boingh" the other way as it contracted. I wanted to be very gentle in this exercise, because the last thing I needed to do was rupture the holding tank.

After about the fourth gentle squeeze on the air wand I heard a rush of liquid racing through the pipe toward my makeshift seal.

Uh Oh! Why didn't I formulate a plan past the point when I opened the restricted pipe!

Having the quick reflexes I was blessed with, I held the blue shop towels in place with my right hand and reached for the black water valve.

Uh oh! My spread, finger tip to finger tip was about three inches short of reaching the needed valve. In fact I could just touch the side of the handle, about where they have the label for it that says "Body Waste".

This had the potential for getting really ugly!

I redirected my attention to my makeshift seal of blue rags that were quickly becoming another color not blue. It seemed that at every wrinkle, every fold, the contents of the holding tank was oozing or squirting out. There was one particular leak that seemed to be growing in strength as it arched toward the tip of my boot. About this time I noticed that when I last slipped my boots on, one pant leg had not slipped down over the top of the boot, exposing an opening into the boot. As this one stream gained strength and crossed over onto the top of my boot clad foot and seemed headed for the opening at the top I had to make a decision, quick!

In a flash I grabbed the connection end of the drain line and held it under the outlet. I released the lower side of the rags into the drain pipe and as it went in I did a slam dunk and connected the hose. Of course then I had to run down to the next opening to try to fish the paper towels out or we were going to repeat this process!

The tank seemed to drain forever as I stood back, relieved that my (and Robin Williams) ordeal was over. I attached a hose to the holding tank and flushed it for a long time before I began washing and returning the different tools to storage.

I began surveying myself. I was polka dotted with splattered black water.

Maybe just maybe the dreaded jeans got their just desserts.

I walked into the trailer, declared to Krl that the crisis was over, stripped down and hopped into the shower.

By the way, I told Krl to burn those jeans!

And that is an excerpt from "The Poop Patrol", a true story by yours truly!

Hope your day was better than mine!

FATHER, I am thankful that our ordeal is passed, that with each day we have new beginnings.

Every white, rectangular shaped bale that exits the plant is a flash in the pan. Fame is fleeting, because about fifty to sixty seconds after it takes the accolades, there is another taking it away, and then another and another and another!

We had a fire bale load last night. The first of the season. Actually it is the first since 2002, I believe. It is only the fourth one since 1995. However, it was probably the worst one. The driver made a couple of judgements, ones he thought at the time were good ones, but after the fact probably weren't that good. Out of a hundred bales on the load, there were only sixteen survivors. The driver told me it didn't look that bad but when I stopped it was just like gas. For me personally, the worst thing is that the heat warped the trailer. On a high note, the trailer is a leased trailer from the GE TIP pool, and we have been paying a vehicle protection premium each month. Another positive is that the gin's insurance is first in line on the cotton load and the trailer! That should mean no deductible!

Yes!

Once again, I would rather be lucky than good.

We had been keeping a secret out here. The women of the community had planned a surprise birthday, going away party for Lillie, the GM's wife. It had been so hard to not let the GM in on the secret. Krl was invited so she got to hob knob with the locals! The funniest part was that Lillie thought she and some of the other women were going to Hobbs to the casino. Talk about surprised!

Yesterday afternoon several of the older gentlemen had gone out of their way to personally invite the GM to their Knights of Columbus meeting at the hall. Late in the afternoon Lillie called encouraging the GM to make the meeting. I had begun to wonder if they might have possibly put together an impromptu going away party for him. Anyway, it became a moot point because he was on sight at the cotton fire just South of Big Spring until after midnight.

We are making progress in our quest for completion. I find myself so anxious, and I know better!

This isn't my first rodeo!

Yesterday Krl and I made a trek to Midland for some supplies. While we were there we both got haircuts! Yea! Finally found Ajjua's Mexican Restaurant, home of the $6.99 fajitas everyday! Krl got chicken fajitas and I got Uncle Edgar's favorite. It was good, service was quick and price was a pleasant surprise! Frank tells me I need to go on Sunday when they have a mariachi band. I bet that is loud!

In a weird development we are enjoying three straight Sundays when we are off. A maintenance Sunday, Easter Sunday and another maintenance Sunday. It seems as though I am living for days off!

May your day be blessed!

FATHER, our hearts, our bodies, and our minds are weary. Renew us. Fill us. Continue to carry us.

At 5:34 this morning bale number 155890 came off the conveyor. Rah!

Forgive me for not being more enthusiastic. We still have a ways to go. About twenty-four thousand+ bales. We are under two thousand modules to go. Yahoo!

Not much to report from here, the new GM is on site. We had just begun talking specifics when he had to take a call from the Coop's insurance agent to possibly enroll him and his wife in the group hospitalization plan. We never got to continue our conversation. He seems nice enough, very nervous though. I am sure it is difficult coming in and only knowing a handful of people.

Keep us in mind. We are needing all the moral support we can get!

Oh FATHER, we continue to struggle. We are so homesick. Abide with us.

154,995, that is our big number this morning. Our old record, which was a state record set with the 2005 crop, is 155,889. However, several plants have eclipsed our old record this year. To date the leader of the pack is Oasis which ginned 169,000 bales. Sources tell us they averaged 475 lbs. per bale. We are on track to gin 180,000 or maybe just under, with an average bale weight of 500.1. At the lighter weight we would gin 189,473 bales. All of these numbers seem so out of whack, it is unbelievable.

Sometime in the early hours of tomorrow we will eclipse our record. Every bale thereafter will be a historic bale, with the next one coming out taking over the record distinction. The GM told me yesterday that the final bale will be purchased by the gin and set in a permanent display. We are living history.

The new GM finally showed up yesterday. Three weeks late. He arrived in a brand new pickup, purchased by the Coop. He didn't get his Denali, although I had campaigned for an Escalade pickup for him. He got the standard issue four door, four wheel drive, white pickup that has become the Coop staple!

My truckers have been straggling in. All but one have made it in, for the second day in a row, he is telling me he is almost here. We will see.

Our Eagle Sys computer is telling us 25 days, 22 hours to the end. I can hardly wait. All I want to do is get to the end. I am trying to be "non-confrontational" with my workers, just to get to the end.

Equipment issues seem to be surfacing. Brakes, tires. Everything that can wear out, is either worn out or almost there. Items that we felt would easily make it through the season, suddenly are suspect.

Truth be told, I am probably as worn out as the worst piece of equipment.

Pray us. For the completion of this season.

Have a day!

FATHER, we are so blessed. Thank YOU! Praise YOUR name!

Well, I have talked with all the boys except Drew.

For the life of me I cannot understand the association of Easter and the Easter Bunny and Easter Egg hunts.

What gives there?

My staunchest warning to Reid and Holt was "don't get sick eating Easter eggs!" Their Dad is on his own, he should know better!

It has rained here all almost all night long. Initially our travel trailer was a rockin' and a rollin', but finally the rains came and lulled me back to sleep. Not before I got up and unplugged my computer from phone and power cords though! Everything out here has been so dirty with dust, lint and grime. I don't know how much accumulation of rain we have had, I do know it has not been enough to wash everything clean, but it has been enough to see the edges of what lies underneath. What a contrast.

Hope your day is a good one. Happy Easter.

Death cannot keep it's prey,
Jesus my savior.
He rolled the stone away,
Jesus my Lord.

He is risen!

FATHER, thank YOU for seeing through all of our dirt and grime and knowing what we can be. Bless-ed assurance, JESUS is mine!

Once again, silence is golden. All is quiet at the compound.

At about six-thirty this morning I heard Juan, the ginner, kick the plant into neutral. It ran all the cotton out of the system and began coasting to a stop.

I made a quick run to survey loads and found we only had one more load to move before we shut down for the weekend.

This year is a milestone. Never before have we been ginning at Easter.

Not being Catholic in a community dominated by Catholicism, it has been very interesting to watch and listen. I have always enjoyed the different Priests assigned to the local parish, probably Father Tom is my all time favorite. I have also been amazed by the traditions of their faith.

Father Tom was young and his trademark was the wide assortment of Catholic University sweatshirts he wore. He was always soft spoken, a smile on his face, and never left without a blessing for you. Last I heard he was heading the diocese efforts on the college campus at Angelo.

It has been interesting to watch this small community since Ash Wednesday, through lent, Palm Sunday, and Good Friday.

Yesterday I heard one older gentleman who had just returned from his other farming operation as he told someone else that he had come home to do nothing except observe the Holy days.

I'm not sure where I read it yesterday, but I read an article either on-line or in the newspaper about Good Friday. It is a day to celebrate or a day to mourn?

Krl and I talked about this last evening.

May you be blessed in these Holy Days.

FATHER, thank YOU for JESUS, for HIS sacrifice, for YOUR sacrifice, for our hope and promise through him. Amen.

Things just can't move fast enough to suit us out here!

It is worse than watching paint dry.

We are on top of 152,000 bales this morning. My quick figures indicate 28,000+ bales to go. The computer says 29 days, 18 hours, and 18 minutes until we are through. Still no one has told the computer we are getting off Saturday and Sunday. It's projections and estimates are so screwed.

I shipped the first red cotton stripper to Hawley yesterday. I must say it was a tremendous relief to see it leave. However, it had only made it twenty or thirty miles before the driver got to the TA truck stop and waited for his oversize permits. As of last night he was still parked and waiting.

The stripper I shipped is the only one of the four that is not running. I like to do the hard part first, after that it is all down hill. We were able to use the other red stripper to tow the one not running onto the trailer.

I called K.O. and told him I hoped he was as proud of it when it got there as I was of it when I shipped it! Ha!! I warned him that someone would have to be on the machine when they towed it off the trailer to brake it to keep from running over the tow vehicle. He asked if the brakes worked. "I don't know", I replied. He told me he didn't want on the stripper if he had no brakes! Finally I told him to tow it off on an uphill grade.

Lately I have been waking very early and lying in bed listening and watching. I have decided it does not matter what my sleep comfort number is because the pups rule the bed. I am sure they know their sleep number!

Yesterday morning I woke, extremely sore. I felt like a pretzel. As I became aware of what was going on I found Maple was on one side, Foo Do was on the other and they were both pressing or pressuring me into an abnormal "S" shape! I gradually moved to a more comfortable position and was lying there soaking it all in when I began to hear Barco's rooster crowing. I heard it once, then again. I watched as Foo Do had heard it too. She sat up in the bed and each time the rooster crowed, she would turn and tilt her head, trying to decided what in the world was going on.

Stuff like that sure confuses a city slicker hound!

This morning I had made my rounds and decided to go to an area that usually has a strong telephone signal, just north of the plant. I was sitting there with my window down making my calls when I became aware of some other sounds of nature. Lambs were baa-ing in the background!

I am sure Foo Do will have to have some counseling when we get home.

I began to wonder what sort of internal alarm clock the rooster had to crow. It was still dark out when he began alerting the general populous of the approaching day. Did Barco turn a light on? Was someone or something stirring about? I don't know, but every morning since, my day has begun with a hearty cockle doodle doo!

That may be one of natures mysteries!

Have a day!

Oh FATHER, I am struggling so. Lift me, strengthen me.

Oh, what a fitful night I had.

I went to bed early, to waken shortly after midnight, sweating profusely. Brandy was having a bad night as well and wanted out, so we moved to the living area of the travel trailer for the remainder of the night.

Settlements, that is what has been going on. Hourly yesterday, then work began in earnest on the bale truck and seed trucks and their respective drivers. Since we have let go of two of the seed trucks (or given them a reprieve to return home at least for a while), and since we are limiting the loading hours to daylight only, it has cut down our loads by almost forty loads a week.

I try to load shipping and receiving numbers as well as weights of the seed loads on a daily basis. Since there are no lease trucks running seed that I have to furnish the drivers for, it has really streamlined this operation. In fact only one seed truck is leased with me providing fuel and charging it back to the truck owner.

Bales are a different story. There are thirty-nine loads on a sign out sheet, so usually I pick a sheet up shortly after it is finished and begin loading that info into my laptop. Best part is there are no trucks using slip seat drivers.

This has been a long story, but I can whiz through my settlements like a champ! This morning Krl had the corrections laying on the table and I have already made them, so my day is looking good!

Yesterday afternoon Krl and I had talked as I labored over my keyboard. She had informed me we needed just a few staple items from the grocery store, but more importantly she had a hankering for pizza. Those of you familiar with our location know that the closest full service grocery store is in Stanton, 37 miles away, and in that store they have a Pizza Pro! Depending on which girl is working, it will either be the best pizza you will ever eat or the worst.

While we were there, we picked up some ready made salad and we had a meal ready to eat. While standing at the checkout line I thought the pizza might be suspect, first of all because the good girl wasn't working and secondly because the pricing appeared to be too cheap!

Krl had ordered two pizzas, one our regular fare (beef, mushroom, bell pepper, and black olive), and the other being a splurge pizza of beef onion and jalapeno. So far I have eaten half of the splurge pizza and so far I have found THE jalapeno and ONE piece of beef! It is kind of like a treasure hunt because the girls used the toppings so sparingly! It would be sad if it were not so hilarious!

Yesterday's pizza is a far cry from when we first discovered Pizza Pro with their three pounds of toppings. Rian, Krl and I could eat on a medium for a couple of days!

Tomorrow is a maintenance Sunday. Thank goodness. I need the break! I can't wait until next weekend when we get Saturday and Sunday off! In a really strange move, I am giving my seed trucks off from this afternoon until Monday morning. Bale trucks are pending performance.

Here at the plant we are very quickly closing in on our record of 2005. This morning we were 8,000+ bales away. We are hearing rumors that Oasis Gin, near Seminole, Tx., has broken our old record and completed their season this past Monday. So far we have received no bale count, although we are hearing that they only averaged 475 pounds per bale.

Our average per bale weight has stayed just over five hundred pounds. If in the end we do fewer bales than them, we still might do more lint pounds than Oasis.

This morning I was in the office doing some calculations and found that our bales per module average is settling very rapidly. We had maintained 12.43 for a long time, but this morning it had dipped to 12.27. This could mean that the 180,000 threshold is disappearing as well. In fact the GM told me he thought that 180,000 was not realistic anymore.

Yesterday afternoon the GM, a patron, and myself were talking in the office. The GM said when we get through he didn't know if we were going to have a party. I told him, he should know, he will be the one that makes that decision. With that he told me that there would be a season ending party and it would put the one at the end of the 2005 ginning season to shame! He said we may have steak and ribs, and instead of thirty thirty packs, he was getting sixty thirty packs. That may be overkill, but then it is the GM's swan song as he is retiring effective the end of the ginning season! I accused him of trying to get all the employees and the patrons who help with the party inebriated so he can quietly slip away.

We are one hand down for today. Herberto went to his cousins quincinyetta. Once again, Julio and Santos are holding down the fort. This will be the first test of Herberto's will power since he left for two days and came back six days later.

One thing is for sure out here. Many of the employees might not speak very much English, but they can calculate their paychecks and they have already begun to realize that bonuses are approaching one thousand dollars for an employee who has been here from the start. While the gin pays so much per bale to it's employees, we pay fifty cents for every hour an employee works, start to finish. We have begun week 23 of the season.

Well, I've rambled and rumbled. Hope you have a good week end. May it be restful, renewing and blessed.

FATHER, I know it isn't me, it is YOU who keeps me going. Rest me, renew me, restore me. Thank YOU FATHER.

Woo Hoo!

Everyone at the compound has one eye on what they are doing and the other eye on the production board. Yesterday we were 37 days and a few hours to completion, today we show to be at thirty five and lots of hours. That means we had a good day yesterday! In fact we ginned 106 modules. That in itself is not unusual for this plant, but lately we had been ginning high bale count modules and only around 85 a day. That means yesterday we were either in a batch of small modules or they were stripped modules. Usually that will bring our average bales per module down, but we know we have lots of picker modules to come which will pump the average back up.

Many of you have been aware of my quest to purchase some older equipment with diesel engines and hydrostatic drives. In February I had purchased two older red cotton strippers at a farm sale. While one was field ready, the other was missing some pertinent parts to being ready to strip. Both were guaranteed to run. For a month, any time Delfino and I could get away for a few hours we would go there and piddle with these machines, trying to get them ready to move away from the sale site. One of these we could start with ether, but it would not run or come off idle. Later it would run, only if you feathered the air intake with ether. Yesterday Julio and I went to work on these machines again. I had been thinking and thinking about what might be wrong and I had decided it had to be an obstruction in the fuel lines. When we arrived I backed in beside the machine so we could blow air lines with the air compressor and I instructed Julio to begin by removing the fuel line to the fuel bowl. When he pulled the line away, it was barely dripping fuel. I was getting ready to blow air through the line, removed the cap from the fuel tank and was tracing the line when I realized two lines crossed and I had been assuming the destination of the line. Upon closer scrutiny, I found that the line did not go where I thought it did and said line had a valve on it. Although the valve appeared to be open, when I firmly grasped it, it opened more. Long story short, fuel began to flow and the mystery had been solved. We filled all the fluids, attached the booster cables and started the machine! It ran like a champ. I even drove it before we directed our attention to the other machine.

I love it when a plan comes together!

We removed a flat steer tire from the second machine, went into Big Spring to pick up Krl's meds and a few groceries and while we were there picked up a new tube. Later that evening we broke down the tire and installed the new tube!

Maybe, just maybe, we will make a quick jaunt back to Lomax this afternoon.

Krl and I had been wanting to make OUR beef enchiladas. Often we make them flat and in layers. Corn tortilla flash fried, meat sauce mixture topped with cheese, then a layer of lettuce and tomatoes, with the process being repeated until you get the desired serving size. The final topping is a fried egg. In New Mexico I have seen several restaurants that offer this entree, in Texas the only place I have seen it on the menu is Abuello's and it is called Grandfather's favorite!

While I was in town, I secured all the missing ingredients and last night we feasted!

Carlos, one of my truckers who had been gone returned yesterday. He was only three days late. He was rewarded with a load of motes to Lubbock.

L.M., another driver, is off today. he had a doctor appointment.

We are so excited. We have a maintenance Sunday this Sunday and then we will shut down for Easter at seven in the morning on the 22nd, and not begin until again until 7 in the morning on Monday the 31st!

Eighty degrees out here today! I can't believe it! I may have to find my shorts!

Hope your day is a blessed!

FATHER, I find myself anxious. I ask for YOUR calm!

Thirty-seven days, 12 hours, forty-two minutes.

That is not significant to anyone but us. But it means a lot. It means there is hope. It means there will be closure. It means....... we will get to go home.

The plant has a computer program and system called Eagle Sys. This is the program that all the modules are tagged into and tracked through the process until they are ginned. The last stage is when the module is being fed into the feeder and the ginner scans the barcode into the system. Of course the computer works either with the average speed of the last twenty modules ginned or with a pre-programmed number of minutes for each module. Over the last few years Frank, the Plant Superintendent has come up with eighteen minutes per module.

That means we will have ginned for 262332 minutes or 4,372.2 hours or 182.1750 days or 26.0250 weeks when we get through. What the computer doesn't know is that we are getting two days off for Easter, and that isn't in the program estimates.

What I do know is that we have been here 141 days, 3,384 hours, 81,216 minutes, 4,872,960 seconds, and .......... I am ready to go home.

I am tired of fighting the same old battles day after day. I am tired of drivers who are tired of driving (and I don't blame them). I am tired of equipment failures and repairs. Let's face it, too much of a good thing is bad.

As you can probably tell, we have rounded the bend and begun to think of getting through. I catch myself beginning to plan an exit strategy, figuring how many trips it is going to take to move everything home! I have begun to think about what I want to do first when I get home. (A long soaking bath using all the hot water won out!). I can't wait to be able to make a phone call and people deliver prepared food to our doorstep!

Krl and I go through this same thing every year. We will go out to eat with very frequently, experiencing all the fine cuisine that Abilene offers, from Larry's Better Burger burgers to their nachos supreme, to Red Lobster, to Ideal Barbecue in Tye! I am salivating just thinking about it!

But we have things to do before we get through!

Thanks for allowing me that Pep talk! I am back to chasing the carrot hanging in front of me!

By the way, I overheard Frank tell the GM that we have 2985 modules to gin as of 7AM. this morning.

I am splurging this morning and cooking breakfast! So far I have sausage cooking, and I am not sure if it will be sausage, oat meal and biscuits or maybe Hagerman specials! One thing though, Krl will be able to eat it! The other day Roy, one of the permanent plant employees was walking by and I asked him what was in the menu today. Roy is Pepe's wife's salesman. He sales taco and burritos and if he sales enough he get his free. Roy called Mrs. Pepe and when he got off the phone he told me bacon and egg tacos. I told him to get me two and I gave him the money. A short while later he came by the trailer and dropped of a foil package. I sat it on the table and waited for Krl to wake so we could eat together. When Krl woke and was ready we opened the foil to find not bacon and egg tacos, but chorizo and egg! I had never bought chorizo for Krl because of her volatile stomach, but she decided to try it.

Never again!

Well, think of us often. Keep us there and in your prayers! We need all the help we can get!

Have a day!

FATHER, thank YOU for hope, in this life and the hereafter!

I hate this time change. I am also not shocked or surprised that new studies show that there are no savings with daylight savings time.

It has been an interesting week so far. Sunday my bale haulers were behind. Monday they were more behind. By days end they had caught up, but it required seven trucks to do it. They pulled fifteen loads total. Last night was supposed to be better but Carlos, one of my hard runners, had pickup trouble in Houston Monday and has yet to come back (he had a child support hearing Monday morning). It would be a shame if we fitted enough equipment in place where he didn't have a spot any more.

I had talked with him yesterday and he told me the fuel pump had gone out on his pickup truck. He was trying to find a pickup to rent and pull his truck home. Of course he would have been better served of he had just rented a pickup or SUV and kept the other information to himself, gone to U-Haul, got a tow dollie and headed toward Abilene! The only place willing to rent him a pickup was Enterprise, but they don't do one way rentals. I asked Carlos to call me and keep me informed of his situation. I have not heard from him since that conversation. Pepa said he called him and Carlos told him he was unable to rent a vehicle and he was going to have to have his truck fixed in Houston!

It seems about a week ago I had given Carlos' brother-in-law the same "call me" speech. Apparently we have a failure to communicate. I did charge "Bubba" a hundred dollar stupid tax for failure to communicate, of course that probably just covered everything he stole. (Maybe).

3068 modules to be ginned! That is what we lack. Sources tell me Inadale finished Monday, Roscoe will finish Wednesday, Producer's in Colorado City will finish this week, and Loraine Coop will finish sometime this week. The only other gin I know of is Anson and they are targeting April 1.

I talked with K.O. the other day and he told me they lacked a little less than three hundred modules at Anson. I told him "Three days!" "Huh?", he replied. I told him, " Three hundred modules would take us three days." "I don't want to hear it", he replied. It will take them three weeks!

I think we are looking at 40 days. That is counting Easter and maintenance Sundays. that makes us get done April 20th. That's two days before my day on the board. Who knows, a little trouble I might win the jackpot. I would sacrifice it to get done!

I have one employee wanting off this Saturday to go to a Quincinyetta (I have no idea how to spell it). One of his relatives is turning 16 down in the valley. This is the same employee who I talked with about his time off. He has had more family emergencies, more funerals, more travel problems than all my other employees combined. He has been warned, he is here at his shift Sunday night or don't come back. I was shocked that Santos and Julio were willing to cover for him. I guess they are just that ready to have some time away from him.

Reid begins T-ball tonight. For Rian, the adventure begins. He said they have been working on Reid's hitting. It seems Reid has a big problem with dropping the bat. Rian says it is really funny! I told Rian that it would be after the first game before they would know "what" they had to have to be in style! I told him a bat, a custom batting helmet, a signature glove, some sort of warm up jacket, and of course an embroidered bag to carry all this in. Rian begged to differ. He went to Academy and bought cleats and a clearance glove along with a bat and four balls (two for the house and two for the league). He said all the parents decided to buy britches, belt and stockings from Play It Again Sports (a resale shop in Lubbock). Obviously some of these parents have been through this before!

Oh, by the way, Reid's team is the Grasshoppers!

Well, I have some computer work to do. Anything to keep my mind off everything that is going on around here.

Krl and I have really been homesick lately. She said that all four hound girls have contracted cabin fever too!

Have a day!

OH FATHER, see us through the remainder of this season. Deliver us home!

We've had a busy day.

Of course with daylight savings time we began our day in shock. Pedro lived up to our low expectations and only hauled two loads, we had cotton on the ground but we didn't let that dampen our day or change our plans.

At ten thirty I went to the fuel island to fuel up Krl's Expedition. I came back, hooked up the service trailer, went into the trailer and helped Krl put all of "our necessary" stuff in the SUV and at ten forty-five we pulled out of the compound. An hour and fifteen minutes later we got a call asking where we were at. "Twenty minutes away", Krl said. Shortly, we rolled into Memama and Pepa's house.

It had been in the works for a couple of weeks but Pat, Linda, Joni and Christy had been putting together a surprise birthday party for Memama. When we walked in she was so shocked. In a few minutes, another vehicle pulled in and Memama went out back to see who it was. Rian, Erica and their three boys! While she was out there a Escalade SUV pulled in with Colby, Courtney and their girls along with Coach, followed by a Mercury Mountaineer with Jani and Kelsi!

It seems all morning long Memama had been asking why there were so many tables set and Linda and Joni would diffuse the question with some general answer. Joni and Linda had gone by earlier to decorate, but Memama had failed to "Spring forward" and she was running late. In a changed plan Christy and Joni left Church early to get the decorations up! Pat had already told Memama that they wanted Ma Allen's for lunch and Pat had ordered a lot of it!

Nearly everyone had been informed and the turnout was good! We were disappointed that none of Terri and Edwin's crew made it. Krl and I visited on the way home about how TJ would NOT have missed the party! Of course TJ was a party waiting to happen! Fred would have been there with bells on as well! Both were missed, but not forgotten. Thankfully, the healing process is "in" process.

Funniest thing was Pepa was not told. We knew he would probably let it slip, so we just kept him in the dark!

It was a fun day!

There was a houseful of little kiddos of all ages!

Hope you had a good day!

FATHER, thank YOU for the tremendous day, for the safe travel, and Thank YOU for Memama! (And help my guys get caught up tonight and tomorrow!).

Need to catch up a little!

Happy Birthday Addie! Big number 9! That was the second of March.

Yesterday, the seventh was Memama's birthday. Happy #77 Mom!

Today, the eighth, is Makai's 28th birthday. Happy Birthday Kali!

Winter has visited us once again. I was hoping all of that was behind us, BUT, it wasn't. Maybe this will be our Easter spell.

It has continued to be wild and wooly here at the compound. I have a couple of drivers on two different trucks who have been problems. One doesn't want to do much and he is taking big time advantage of his friend who helped him get the gig. Now he is wanting to just run two loads a day and then only daylight runs. He isn't aware of it but I am gradually phasing him out.

This man had been on a different truck which has been in the shop and he has been asking me when it was going to be back out. Thing is, since he is wanting to just do two runs a day, I am putting a better driver on there who can do three. I think this will probably make him mad enough to quit.

I had a lease operator (a driver who owns his own truck) who came to me Wednesday afternoon telling me his oldest son had been in an accident in Dallas. They needed one of the parents to come there to help them make a decision about a mangled arm. This man told me he would be back the next day, but he would see if his dad would cover his spot while he was gone. I told the driver to do what he needed to do, but to keep me posted.

Turns out this man didn't go to Dallas Wednesday like he told me, and he never called. I have left him messages and finally gave him a deadline telling him if I didn't hear from him by a certain time I would fill his spot with someone else. Thing is, his inability or unwillingness to communicate caused an unnecessary hardship on the forklift operators and remaining truck drivers. I think I see a stupid tax coming on this man's settlement! I did talk with his brother-in-law who told me not to wait on this man so I sent another driver to get the trailer and he said ALL of my stuff was on the trailer, even the ratchet bar this man had stolen! I guess this guy is the G. Jones of his generation, as long as he has little money in his pocket there is no reason to work!

It makes me upset with myself for even allowing him the opportunity!

Then I had a driver who needed off to go to Houston for a child support hearing Monday. Initially he had asked me to let him off Sunday, then it moved to Saturday. Yesterday he didn't want to haul a load of motes to Lubbock because he needed off. I told him I had just about a belly full of changing parameters. Another driver volunteered to drag the mote load to allow the man needing off opportunity to pull two bale loads before leaving. This driver had made an argument that he would pull only one load because he needed to have a side window replaced. I told him that could be done Monday when he was in court. He hooked up with the truck owner, who should have known better, and didn't come back. When the truck owner called me, I told him he had better saddle up and get here in the drivers place. He did, but of course he was tardy. He was full of baloney when he arrived, telling me the driver was doing exactly what he had told him to do. I told him maybe he needed to be the one paying that driver. Then the owner began telling me how he has had two trucks out here running for me and they have been making him money!

I guess he thinks it just happens! If I set this operation up to make it easy on me, I woul dhave an abundance of trucks and never worry about covering a load. No one would make any money. As it is, it is a pretty good deal for any truck or driver running out here because it is designed and fitted to be profitable for the truck owners and drivers!

The next six weeks cannot go by fast enough!

The GM and I have met twice and decided to let two seed trucks go home. We have drawn down our surplus of seed in the storage warehouse and as before, whenever we get it down he wants to fill it back up. Go figure!

By the end of the coming week, there should just be a handful of gins continuing to run.

The GM did tell me yesterday that if things work out we will shut down the 22nd and 23rd of March for Easter. If things don't work out we will have to run straight through. What he means by "if things work out" is if the employees in the gin agree to come back AFTER Easter.

Many of the employees want to keep working and get through! Krl is in that group. Me, I wouldn't mind having a couple of days off!

I talked with K.O. yesterday and to my surprise he wasn't going to Hobbs, Nm. to the tractor pull. He said he was just too tired to go off like that.

I talked with Rian late yesterday but I didn't ask if he was making the drive out there! At the time of our conversation I was fighting with the self checkout line at WalMart. I think that the self checkout line just makes it more appealing for people to steal! It just isn't worth the hassle!

I had to make a trek to Midland for a few supplies yesterday. While we were there I was needing to do some research in one of our folders so we went to eat. We ended up at Abuello's. It was really good. Much like we remembered it to be in years past. After stops at Petsmart, an RO water station, two auto parts stores (for forklift filters), and WalMart, we were headed home!

It was good just to get away from the compound!

I have finished my reading project, The Secret, yet I find myself backing up and re-reading portions. Here is an excerpt from the final page:

I believe that you're great, that there's something magnificent about you. Regardless of what has happened to you in your life. Regardless of how old or young you think you might be. The moment you begin to "think properly" this something that's within you, this power within you that's greater than the world, it will begin to emerge. It will take over your life. It will feed you. "It will clothe you. It will guide you, protect you, direct you, sustain your very existence. If you let it. Now that is what I know, for sure. ~ Michael Bernard Beckwith~

I like to think there is something magnificent about me. That is kind of inspiring.

Have a great day and weekend. May your life be blessed.

FATHER, thank YOU for making me, me! Bless-ed be your name!

Some days are just better than others.

We got a Priority mail envelope from Abilene today. Trc had picked up one of my blood pressure meds and mailed it along with all the mail we had received the past week.

I walked in the trailer, firmly shut the door, and pots and pans that Krl had stacked for drying began to catapult off the cabinet and to the floor. Of course one of them had to hit the edge of a dog food dish which wildly scattered its contents across the ribbon rug in the kitchen. O.K., maybe I shut the door a little too firmly.

Krl was picking up dog food and I was standing just inside the door opening envelopes. The first one was from a facility that where I had a medical procedure last summer. Inside was a refund check for an over charge of over $600. Yippee!!

Krl was as surprised as I was. I told her she had a letter from the other medical facility in Abilene and I handed it to here. She immediately opened it to find a bill. Yuk!!

Next was an envelope from Texas Work Force. I opened it and they were refunding some money to us that we had paid in earlier in 2007! Over $300! Yippee again!! It seems that in my divine wisdom I had inadvertently mis-figured when Krl and I met the wage ceiling for TWC.

This mail opening is fun! I think I could do this all day long and make money! Two envelopes, a thousand dollars!

Things are beginning to shake out at the jobsite. I am getting a feel for my drivers drive on the shorter haul. I am finding which ones can carry the mail and which ones can't. So far only one can't!

I spent part of the morning wiring equipment on the service trailer. The last couple of days we have had a great demand for its use. I need to make a trek and finish equipping it with tools.

Sometimes it is interesting to visit with my on the ground employees out here. The other day I was talking with Santos. He is a first year employee although his brother has been with me four years. Of course he is a Mexican National, working on a visa or permit. He is single and usually he is the target of his sister who always is needing or wanting money from him. Thing is his brother-in-law works out here for another contractor and makes good money too!

When Santos and I were visiting I told him his pockets were getting big from all the money! He told me "No, I have no money for my pockets, it all go to Mexico."

I told him he was getting a big bank account in Mexico.

He told me "I going to buy one cow or maybe a goat, or both"

I told him he was becoming a rancher!

He smiled broadly.

The more I think of our conversation, I am amazed at the patience Santos has. He has a long term plan. He knows how long it will take to build his dream, but he has started, and one cow each year, one goat, plus the increase from the prior year. He will attain his goal. 1+1=3+1=6+1=10 and so on and so forth!

Currently I am reading in my book about The Secret and you.

FATHER, thank YOU for good days. I pray for health, I pray for patience, I pray for YOUR perfect peace.

It is quiet on the jobsite.

Maintenance Sunday.

I need today to regroup. Truck drivers are really beginning to get to me. I have one who can't work a plan, another who muddles through, and a third who had talked to me about buying his own truck.

The first driver, slept Friday night in Andrews, the last night he was in the motel. Then he drove to the compound and picked up a load to go to Sweetwater. When he was off loaded he called me and I told him to go to the house, get his medications and get some rest. When the driver he is teamed with finishes his shift he would call to bring in the resting driver. Late yesterday this man's team driver called me and told me he was hauling his last load and he was calling his team driver. Minutes later the driver who had been off called me and told me he would come in about midnight and head to the jobsite. I told this man he had all day to get a nap and he told me he was too busy to sleep.

I've got a feeling this sleepy head driver can't make the cut. He was marginal on the Lovington run but now that we are going back to Sweetwater, it is imperative that you try for a four hour turn (or trip). I have one driver over the years who could do this consistently while others could do it on rare occasions. If a driver does his four hour turns, he can do three in twelve hours. I've found that many driver can only do two turns in that time. These are usually the ones who can't drive past a convenience store, Dairy Queen, or truck stop.

I probably have a mismatch on this particular team. The one guy will run hard and fast getting his loads done and then giving way to his teammate who takes way too long, so one driver is getting minimal sleep while the other is getting too much! Thing is one is old, the other young, but they have been friends for a long time.

The driver who talked with me about buying a truck did just that. Against my advice I might add. It is not that I don't think it is a good idea, it is that the truck he bought is extremely suspect.

The truck the man bought is the truck which repeatedly failed to be up to the work out here. Everytime we needed to count on it, it wasn't up to the task. The former owner bought another truck. I am afraid for this driver that he has bought someone else's trouble. Of course the clincher in this deal was the seller was willing to carry the note.

Usually the first three or four months set the tone for whether a driver who becomes an owner operator can make it. If he can run trouble free for that period, his odds of succeeding go up considerably. Then it is up to the owner operator to be a good enough business person to not think all of the money he is making is disposable income. Some of it had better be available for maintenance and preventative maintenance.

In this particular case I think I am more disappointed in the man who sold the truck than the man who bought it. I think the seller led a lamb through a long seduction and then swept in for the kill.

As I said earlier, we are now hauling back to Sweetwater. This is familiar territory. In the past I have done this haul with as few as two trucks and four drivers. Right now I have five trucks and five drivers (even with the one who quit). I also have my two standby locals out here. I have been inundated with calls lately from drivers who want to drive, so right now it might be the best time all season as far as driver availability is concerned.

My biggest fear right now is that my drivers will begin to think that since we are back to Sweetwater they don't have to run as hard. (I've always said the most dangerous thing in the world is a truck driver who thinks). The key to the who operation is consistency and predictability.

My driver who wanted to delay coming in last night had a brain fart and couldn't find his fuel card. Herberto called me about 2:14 in the morning to ask me if he needed to come to my trailer to get a fuel card for this driver. I am thinking this driver views rules as mere suggestions.

So today is rest and regrouping for me!

Another excerpt from my reading project.

"A person who sets his or her mind on the dark side of life, who lives over and over the misfortunes and disappointments of the past, prays for similar misfortunes and disappointments int he future. If you will see nothing but ill luck in the future, you are praying for such ill luck and will surely get it." Prentice Mulford ~ taken from The Secret.

Have a day!

FATHER, oh to be like YOU!