My Christmas wish.

We had the longest run we have had all harvest season.  Six days.  We made good progress, but still have a ways to completion.  Best part is, all the wheat is in the ground and was prior to the rain we were blessed with.

It is crazy, because only a farmer can complain about the weather in one breath and be thankful for it in the next.  Rain may be bad for this year's crop but is like money in the bank for next year's.

I have caught myself thinking this past week.  Farming is not a living, it is a way of life.  No two years are alike and it is the challenges presented out of the blue that provide for never a dull moment.  What a blessing to smell the freshly opened earth, to see the small plants emerge with hope and vigor, and to see a crop to completion and harvest.

Yes, It is a wonderful life.  Filled with God miracles everywhere along the way.

I talked with Rian earlier in the week and he told me it is official, he is single.  I joked with him that we would look back on this one day and tell stories about, "Remember when we were single Dad?"
I told him I would have to ask which time.  At the time of my divorce from Rian's mother, Rian was just 9, yet for some reason he always referred to it as "when we were single", like we had a wonderful bachelor pad and all sorts of fun things going on. 

I suppose it is all in the eyes of the beholder.

Now I feel that to a certain degree, my son is reliving my life.

I have known this time of year was going to be much more difficult than Rian had imagined.  First of all he does not like being alone.  Second, his boys are his life.  His job, the house, and all else is secondary.  No doubt about it, he love his boys.

Rian texted me yesterday that he was really battling depression.  So  am I.  Christmas is a tough time of year, especially after suffering loss from death or divorce, or both.

My Christmas wish would be to instill in Rian the hope that everything is going to work out, that he can put the wheels back on his wagon and life will be grand again.  It just doesn't happen over night, and I hope he does not rush it and make additional mistakes.

He and I have talked about the feelings that you go through.  The feeling of wasting twelve years in a relationship that apparently was a lie and a farce for your partner.  But I tell Rian, you change any of that twelve years you run the risk of changing it to where you don't have the boys, because without the relationship there would not be Reid, Holt and Drew.  These three will always be Rian's greatest accomplishment, only matched if he chooses to remarry and have another child.

Rian has always told his boys, "Freeman standards".  Meaning that we hold ourselves to higher standards of behavior, and trying to excel scholastically, athletically and any other way possible.  It is ironic to me that the biggest violator of this mantra is the boys' mother.  Apparently the twelve years of marriage were a cleverly designed scam of lies and deception.  I really believe that the boys' mother has her family's gene and is mentally ill.  At least that would be explainable.

So, my Christmas wish for Rian and his boys is that better times are ahead.  There is a plan and we may not understand it, but someone much greater than us has made it and is working it every day.

As for all of you who visit here, have a Merry Christmas!

FATHER, let us always remember the reason for the season.  And on this day, a KING is born.  Thank YOU for baby JESUS.

Can't catch a break!

Well, I titled this post and immediately wanted to retract it.  We did catch a break, Slat's broken rib!  Lol!  He is doing well.

Well, we got to strip three days before we had another winter storm.  One day was fair, one day was horrible and one day was good.

The fair day it began with just Cody and I.  Slats had a follow up doctor appointment.  We were doing pretty good until we broke a module builder chain, it took a couple of hours to fix it as we needed two master links and had only one on hand.  We finished the home place after dark, so all we needed to do was pick up cotton and move the following morning.

After the guys had serviced the machine, I went ahead and moved to Wastella.  The guys were going to bring the boll buggy and module builder shortly.  I stripped a basket and they weren't there, so I called them on the two way and they said the front wheel on the module builder tractor had become loose and was wobbling and they were jacking it up to tighten it.  They went another half mile before the problem occurred again.  Luckily we had already moved a pickup truck over the previous day, so I headed to it while getting on the phone to find a new hub for the module builder tractor.  I located one in Colorado City and went and picked it up along with bearings races and seals.  We prepped it at the barn so when we arrived at the tractor we just pulled the old hub off and put the new hub on.  Then we mounted the wheel with new lug bolts and tightened them with the impact since we had the service trailer there.  Finally we made the move complete, but it was after dark when we finished the first module.

Days like this really frustrate me, so I asked the guys what they wanted to do, build another module or go home.  They all voted go home.  The following day we had our best run all season.  An early start and a late finish.  The following morning we stripped one basket before a winter storm blew in.

I parked my stripper and the guys were going to pick up a little cotton with our revolutionary John's Deerest Super Sucker 6000.  I told the guys whoever got to the barn first needed to build a fire in our barbecue pit.  I ran to Sweetwater and picked up some sausage and steaks, flour tortillas, potato salad and bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos.  I still made it to the barn first, filled the pit with charcoal and fired up old rosebud torch and in about three minutes had a roaring fire going.  I was preparing to throw the meat on the grill when the guys drove up.

It was a great meal.  We had our diesel heater on one side of the table and the grill on the other.  Initially we didn't open any doors on the barn but finally opened a door opposite of where we were to let smoke draw out of the building.  It is nice to relax with co-workers and I think it builds relationships beyond that of boss-employee.  Good morale builder.

Now it is Tuesday and we are still out of the field.  Another front came in with fog so thick it is freezing on the trees and cotton plants and making the roads hazardous.

I submitted my list of people yesterday for CPS.  In September I had told the CPS and Noble's attorney that it was my desire to have Noble at Memama's for Christmas so I had to prepare a list of everyone I thought might be there with date of birth and address.  I sent in 55 names, down from the 62 who attended last year.  I feel sure that CPS will say there isn't enough time but I am hopeful that Noble's attorney will help me get it through.

Rian and his campus policeman came through yesterday.  Shallowater was playing Graham in the state 3-A quarter finals at Mustang bowl in Sweetwater.  The game was originally scheduled for Friday, then Saturday, then Monday.  I had taken Memama to Snyder to have a tooth pulled and we raced back because she was going to prepare chicken fried steak with all the trimmings.  Originally we thought there might be as many as seven traveling together,  but the other car travelled on to Buck's.  Upon finishing the meal Rian and Officer Pearce put their warm clothes on and on a whim I grabbed a heavy jacket and some gloves. 

It was cold!  The score was 14 to nothing before Shallowater every got the ball.  35-7 at the half and as I was leaving early in the third quarter Shallowater made it 35-14.  Final score was 42-14 or something like that.  A tough loss, but a great year for the Mustangs. 

Next year they will remain in 3-A which means  in actuality they drop a classification.  They should be a power house.

It took me a long time to warm up.

I don' think we will be able to strip this week.  But that is O.K..  Back in September I made plans to go to San Antonio and got a great deal on a room at La Contessa on the river walk through expedia.  Georgiana is going to a seminar earlier in the week and I am going to drive down and we will take in the lights on the river walk, possibly eat at Salt Grass and then plan on hiring a horse drawn buggy to take us back to la Contessa.  It should be fun.

Hope all of you are staying warm!  Have a day!

FATHER, thank YOU for warm homes, warm clothes and good food.  YOU truly bless us every day.