Happy

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are blessed. 

Our harvest is officially underway.  It is ironic, that we began this year on the day we completed harvest last year.  But that is farming.

On our very first basket, Slats pulled up beside the stripper with the boll buggy, but was a little too far away.  When I went to dump the basket, the wind blew some cotton back on the false floor of the stripper.  I saw Slats get off his tractor and walk between the boll buggy and my machine so I figured he and Cody were going to go get the module builder from the barn.

Unbeknownst to me, while I was looking out the left window of the stripper dumping, Slats stepped up on the right rear tire and onto the false floor of the stripper.  The problem is if a person is on there and close to the front the operator can't see them for the burr extractor. 

When I finished dumping, I put the basket down.  Cody was waving for me to lift it up, which I did immediately.  I got out of the cab to see what was wrong and there laid Slats.  When he saw the basket coming down he laid down and rolled into a ball.  You have no idea how relieved I was when he lifted his head up and looked toward me.  I told him to stay where he was and I locked the basket in the upright position.  I walked around the burr extractor to where he was lying and we began talking.  I asked if he wanted me to call an ambulance and he declined.  Gradually he went from a lying position to a sitting position.  He told me, I think we are going to have to go to the emergency room.  We waited until he was ready and he got up and sat on a step by the cab.  In a brief while he was ready to get down from the machine, so with me holding his coat collar and Cody standing below and behind him, we got him to the ground.  He was complaining of his chest hurting and a pain in his chest.

At the ER, x-rays and scans revealed a broken rib.  Doctors decided to send him to Abilene for observation.  In Abilene he coughed a little blood up and doctors discovered the protein level in his urine was off the chart.  Three days and lots of fluids later, they released him.  Two days later he was back at work.

The only lasting reminders are his chest being tender and the whites of his eyes are still very red.  He is a lucky man.

We resumed the stripping one day before Slats returned.  That nearly wore me out.  Cody is a rookie, so he would follow me with the boll buggy and when I was full I would climb down from the stripper and get on the boll buggy tractor and pull up beside the stripper, get back on the stripper and dump, then go to stripping again.  When the boll buggy was full I would meet him at the module builder and change machines again.  We didn't get a whole lot done on that day.

I was sure glad to see Slats return.  Being a one man show was not much fun.

We stripped about a hundred fifty acres before the wintry weather came in.  So far we have not been able to get back in the fields.  Maybe tomorrow.

Gloria Sitton, Jani's mother, died this past Sunday.  We attended a memorial service yesterday in Abilene for her.  There were some precious posts on facebook from Colby, Kelsi and Courtney.  Gloria was a fine woman.  Kind and caring.  She would be pleased with the send off she received.  She had a difficult last few months.  Memorials can be made to the Chuck Sitton Scholarship Fund or Hendricks Hospice.

On the same day, our housekeeper Frances, lost her mother after a brief illness.  Her funeral is tomorrow.

We send our condolences to both of these families.

Thanksgiving at Memama's house is today.  We are expecting forty-four for lunch.  Once again we are doing the meal by committee.  I was in Lubbock earlier this week and met Rian and we bought turkey and ham to go with ham Pat already had.  Rian took them to his home to smoke them.  He and the boys should be here later today.  Stepahnie and JR came in and she and Pat have been preparing pieces of the meal, as have Christy and Lindsey and Christy's Mom.  We worked until late last night here at the house.  Memama has reverted to official taste tester and lets the girls do the bulk of the work.  Robyn came in last night and really made a hand.  She was a big help.  I made a run to the store early yesterday evening.

We are expecting  parts of all our family along with a few guests.

Thanksgiving blessing to you!

FATHER, Thank YOU for all that we have and all that we are.  Thank YOU for the hope and promise we have in Jesus.  Please bless us with safe travel and pleasant memories.  Praise be to YOUR name!

Last Wednesday we began spraying.  We aren't defoliating per se, we are prepping.  We are putting a light dose of chemical to dry and drop leaves and to dry and crack bolls. 

I had looked early last week with our consultant from Crop Production Services, Justin, and told him what I wanted to do and he gave me his recommendation.  So we began a staggered spraying regiment.  We sprayed two hundred acres Wednesday, the we waited until Monday and sprayed another three hundred thirteen.  We will probably wait until the end of the week to spray any more.  The only exception might be where we are considering planting wheat.

Basically we are spraying about what we could strip until the next patch is ready.  Of course all this is contingent on having a frost follow the light spray rate.  They are predicting 36 degrees for Wednesday night and if the wind would lay and if it is a clear night we could get what the farmer ordered.

We have been working on our pickup rig at the barn.  Last year we removed the header from one of the old 484 strippers and used it to pick up around the modules and behind the module trucks.  This year we are adding a suction hose and tube, which should require less physical labor to get cotton into the machine.

Outside of that, everything is ready although we still have the stripper in the barn and the header is still off of it.  I see no sense in putting it outside where it could get rained on and possibly shorten bearing life.

Since I last blogged, Brad, Merrit's estranged husband, was arrested for drunk driving.  This was DWI arrest number 11 (which goes with 19 public intoxication's).  Brad had finished a stint in TDCJ in early 2011 (I think that is right) for his last felony DWI conviction.  It now appears that he is fixing to become a guest of the state of Texas again.

What is ironic is that Merrit had been telling CPS and anyone else that Brad was continuing to drink.  The CPS caseworker had ignored this and refused to test him for alcohol.  In fact, Brad would sign his own attendance card for AA.

Crazy thing is, that since Brad's last incarceration he told me "It does not bother me to be locked up!"  I guess that is a good thing bubba!

Merrit is routinely tested for drugs by CPS and all of her tests have come back good.

I am extremely frustrated with Merrit.  She got a job and worked two days out of three weeks.  Not because they didn't need her but because she didn't want to work.  She told me that she would rather go to day labor and get paid the same day she performs the work.

What she seems to miss is the fact that she is not showing the stability and consistency that CPS is looking for, by her getting a job and working regularly.  Her living situation is much the same.  She has moved twelve times (to the best of my knowledge) since July.

She called me asking me if I could help her with a traffic ticket that is due the 8th.  I told her that last month when I paid San Angelo municipal court $800+ dollars, that she was square with them for everything.

I finished by telling her she had five days to generate the funds she needed, that I was not going to reward her for sitting on her ass.

Sometimes I think she has a grasp of what she needs to do to get Noble back, while other times it is almost like she has no clue!

We are continuing to petition CPS and Noble's guardian and attorney ad litem to move him closer.  They said they were reluctant to remove him from what is now familiar surroundings.  Our information  is that Brad's sister has sold her home and is looking for an apartment or a rent house, so there goes his familiar surroundings.

While this is my first dealings with CPS or FPS, and MHMR, I find I am not impressed by any of them, or the people.  What tax payers are receiving for the tax dollars is a joke.

I guess I will go vote today.  I am voting for water for West Texas. I wish I could vote in the school bond election in Abilene.  I support it, as I have supported all the school bond elections over the years (in fact I strongly supported the single high school concept).

Dr. Burn's has put his winning streak on the line.  He has never had a bond election fail, although this is about double the size of his largest previous bond election.  He has made every effort to push the bond through by making polling places available at nearly every school sometime during the early voting period.

My money says that this bond is what the AISD  needs to do, but it also says that if the bond election is successful, Dr. Burns and his dog and pony show will be moving on down the road.

Well, I had better get.  Have a day!

FATHER, help me to be patient and reassured that YOUR plan is unfolding as YOU intend.  Thank YOU for all the blessings you bestow upon me and mine.  Thank YOU for the hope and promise we have in Jesus!