Empty Nesters - Remember When

Today our youngest turned 25 years old.  I can't believe.  Where did the time go?  Not only that, but he bought a home.  It's about 35 miles away from us, but it is close to his work.  He was living in Welsh with his brother, Russ, but now he's on his own.  We helped move him in.  His Momma has been helping him clean and get everything in order.  We are proud of him and all of our kids.  Here he is standing by his front door:

I am positive that many of you who are reading this have experienced the same bittersweet feelings I'm trying to express.  Since welcoming them into the world, you try to do your dead level best to introduce them to Jesus, parent them properly, instill values and teach them skills so that they can make it on their own in a dog eat dog world.  You think you have all the time in the world.  But you don't!

And then the day comes when they pack up and leave.  And the house becomes big and quiet.  You are left painfully aware of the mistakes you made in parenting and wishing that you might have done things differently or better.  We are frail and faulty, right?  You've shot your quiver of arrows out into the world.  You pray for your kids who are forging their own way in a cruel world.

You are left with silence and memories of their childhood.  Time marches on.  It waits for no one.  It's a stark reminder that I should be a better steward of it.  Looking back I remember Benjamin as a young boy out in the side yard with his rifle and Confederate Kepi hat reenacting Pickett's charge.  He'd get shot by a sharpshooter and lay writhing on the ground.  We watched from a distance as he imagined various combat situations.  He and Russ fought many battles against the enemy and each other with Air-soft guns.  In fact, look what I found years later in the side yard:

Look right in the center of the photo

Can you see the bright orange air soft pellet?  I think decades from now someone will find one of these and wonder what it is.  Years ago in digging up the bed in our garden in the side yard to plant Irish potatoes, I unearthed an old blue porcelain marble.  Years and years ago, in the same place where Benjamin and Russ battled it out, another young man played marbles, enjoying times of imagination and fun, with parents looking on at the innocence and vivid imagination you have in childhood.

In that same general location, eighteen years prior I constructed a simple swing for Laura Lee and hung it in a live oak tree.  She'd swing and I'd push her.  Good times!  She (and Russ) have homes of their own now, and the swing sits dormant, swaying only when a swift breeze pushes it.

Alan Jackson sings a song called "Remember When," and it gets me in the 'feels' whenever I hear it.  

Verse 4 says:

Remember when
The sound of little feet
Was the music we danced to week to week
Brought back the love, we found trust
Vowed we'd never give it up
Remember when

Verse 6 says:

Remember when

We said when we turned gray

When the children grow up and move away

We won't be sad, we'll be glad

For all the life we've had

And we'll remember when

I think Alan Jackson puts it in the right perspective.  Although it's sad, we'll be glad, for we shared a lot of love and life.  We often talk on this blog about raising animals and plants and honeybees, but the most important, by far, crop we raise is children.

The Disappearing Stump

Our oldest son, Russ, had catastrophe strike a little over a year ago when Hurricane Laura hit the area.  The neighbor of his had a big water oak tree that was rotten in the middle.  When to strong winds blew, the weakened tree succumbed to the hurricane force winds and fell directly on Russ' roof.  It took many many months to get a contractor and materials to make his home whole again.  But alas, it is done.  Looks real nice, too!

Russ had a smaller water oak tree in his front yard.  It was slightly more than two feet in diameter.  The tree was healthy, but Russ didn't want to go through another tree on his roof.  He called a tree service and they chopped the tree down.  The front yard definitely looked a lot different.  One thing the tree service didn't remove was the stump.  He could have called a stump-grinding service, but he didn't.

He did something that I'm afraid my hard-headed self taught him.  He took the stump out the hardest way possible - by hand.  We've done it here at our house.  It is done with stubborn determination.  That's a nice way to put it.  One might also call it some less flattering words.  I had read that a good way to remove a stump is to drill a bunch of holes in the top of the stump, pour a gallon of cooking oil into the holes, let it soak it up and then light it.  Trouble is, that did not work very well.

Russ went to the tried and true way to do it - using an ax mainly.  The ax is used to chop slivers of the stump off.  You keep doing this round and round the tree.  Over time the diameter of the tree is being slowly reduced.  Th chips are saved, piled on top of the stump, and used to burn the stump each day.  He also used a sledgehammer and a wedge to chop the stump.

A few days ago, we received the following text from him: "My stump is missing!  I can't find it"

There is only a hole in the ground where the stump once was.  Three ax handles, numerous blisters, and gallons of sweat later, the stump was gone!

It is a testament, I think, of persistence, hard work, stick-to-itiveness, and endurance.  Maybe it is a bit of insanity, too, in following after my crazy methods of doing things.  What can I say?  He's a chip off the old stump block!  It is pleasing to see the fruits of your labors.  No more stump!

He will plant another tree in its place - one that isn't known for falling on homes.  

After Four Long Months and One Week!

As you know in late August we were visited by Hurricane Laura - the first of two hurricanes to drop by this summer.  Russ' home had a large water oak tree that fell on top of it, puncturing his roof in many places.  The day after the storm, we arrived and began freeing his house from the grips of the tree.  It was hard work.

Midway through the afternoon allowed us to visibly assess the damage.  Large limbs not only fell through the roof and fell onto the floor inside, but they broke rafters.  Russ was discouraged.  We kept encouraging him, telling him that this is exactly what you buy homeowner's insurance for.  The adjuster was called, contractors sought out, and then the waiting commenced.

And waiting continued.  Trouble is, EVERYONE needed contractors.  Everyone needed roofing materials.  Shortages in supply.  Increases in price.  We put up some blue tarps to try to protect the interior from rain.  Large holes in the roof exposed two bedrooms and two bathrooms inside to rainwater.  

Prior to the second hurricane (Delta) rolling through, we put down more tarps and fastened them down with more nails.  Continued rains caused rainwater to come into the house.  Russ had rooms filled with 5 gallon buckets and pots and pans to collect rainwater.  He had a dehumidifier to try to dry things out after each rain, and he sprayed things down to discourage mold growth.

On Christmas Eve we found a gift of sorts in his driveway.  A pallet of shingles and other roofing materials were delivered to his house!  

And this afternoon on my way back home, I stopped in and saw the roofers put the finishing touches on Russ' new roof!  Lookin' good!

Four months and one week later, Russ has a brand spanking new roof.  No more holes.  No more leaks.  No more raindrops falling on his head inside his house.  What a nice way to start off the New Year!

The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock

When I was a kid in Sunday School, we learned the song, "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock."

The wise man built his house upon the rock,

The wise man built his house upon the rock,

The wise man built his house upon the rock,

And the rains came tumbling down!

The rains came down and the floods came up,

The rains came down and the floods came up,

The rains came down and the floods came up,

And the house on the rock stood firm.

Of course the song was about building your life, your hopes, your dreams, your eternity on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Many people build their "houses" on the shifting sands of success, money, recognition, fame, and the like.  When storms come, their houses are decimated.  When eternity comes calling, well, those that don't know the Lord will be tragically separated from God.

In today's post, I'll show a few more storm damage photos.  As we drove down the road, the first thing we came to was our church.  We noticed that our sign had blown over and that many shingles were missing, but the main thing was that the high winds had blown our steeple over.

Superficial damage, mainly.  There was some ceiling damage to the church along with other minor issues, but really not much compared to many other people nearby.

We drove on to Welsh, Louisiana, a town 10 miles to our west where our son, Russ, lives.  Hurricane Laura moved in to the coast about 40 miles south and west of us.  The closer you move west, the more destruction.  We were saddened when we drove up to Russ' home.  His neighbors had a large water oak tree that fell over his house and onto his roof, puncturing the roof in numerous places.

You can see in the photo below that the tree was hollowed out and weak and should have been cut down prior to the storm.

While we were sad for a minute, we began to work to clear the tree from his house.  The whole family pitched in to work.  It was hot, but we pressed on.  

We pulled limbs to the side of the road, building a big windrow that blocked off the view of the road.  The town crews will come to pick up the limbs.  They've got their work cut out for them (pardon the pun.)

Slowly, we made headway.  Inch by inch, it's a cinch!  

As more and more of the tree was removed, we could clearly see the extent of the damage.  When the tree fell through the roof, it damaged the house structurally and it rained in the house, causing more damage.

Thankfully, Russ has insurance and the adjuster has already come to inspect the damage.  We pray that Russ will be made whole.  

When we finished, we realized that the larger parts of the tree would have to be removed by professionals.  The large parts of the trunk leaned against the house and threatened additional damage.

The goal was to remove the tree and put up a tarp to prevent further damage by rainfall.

At the end of the day, I think we accomplished that.  Although Russ is sad, so many people lost so much more.  We are truly blessed and grateful.

An Old Swing (and a New Electric Chain Saw)

My oldest son bought a home in a nearby town.  It is an older home, but was in great shape.  He's been working on it, making small repairs, painting, and working on landscaping.  He really enjoys home ownership.  He called us and asked if we could come give him some help on a couple of projects that he needed assistance on.  There are a few things that need an extra person or two. 

We drove over Sunday afternoon after church on a beautiful afternoon to assist.  The first project was hanging a swing on his back patio.  The swing has a story.  Tricia recently made a trip to Corpus Christi, Texas to visit her mom and attend her high school class reunion.  While there she brought a swing back that her mom gave her to give to Russ.

The swing was in an old cardboard shipping box that was deteriorated.  Tricia's Dad passed away many years ago.  Before his death, he had bought a swing that he intended to hang.  It is still unclear whether he wanted to hang it at the Garcia home in Corpus Christi or at the ranch.  Regardless, it never got hung and has resided in a box on the floor of my mother-in-law's garage for years.  Tricia's mom decided that she'd like Russ to have it.  He put it together and we hung it on Russ' back patio.  I took the photo below of Russ and Tricia, sitting on the old swing.  After many years, it got hung and will provide relaxation and enjoyment for years to come. 

"Just a swingin'"

Russ had asked me to bring my pole saw.  I have a nifty electric chain saw on a pole that extends out to catch limbs way up high.  Russ had some limbs that he wanted to prune to get away from the roof as well as to thin out excess branches to allow more sunlight to filter in to allow grass to grow better on his shady property.

It was the first time I'd taken the electric chainsaw out of the box.  I have to admit, I was a little leery of an electric chainsaw.  I wanted an electric one because I felt that it was so rare that I used it, if I got a gasoline powered saw, it wouldn't crank when I needed it, but it just doesn't seem like it would be strong enough to do the job.  It did have good ratings on Amazon, but I wanted to see if it warranted those "stars" on the review.  It did!  Russ climbed on top of his garage roof and trimmed limbs from his magnolia tree.  I dragged the cut limbs to the road where his town provides pick-up.

He told me that he was working up on his roof the other day and the ladder fell off the side of his house when he was up on the roof.  I asked him how he got down.  He told me he jumped off the side of the garage and into the magnolia tree and climbed down the tree.  Magnolia trees are great for climbing.  While he trimmed his magnolia tree, I told him to leave limbs to give him a back-up plan should he get stranded on the roof again.

In his front yard facing the road, he has a water oak tree that shades the yard.  The limbs block sunlight and prohibit grass growth on certain parts of the yard.  Russ trimmed limbs until he felt things had opened up a bit.  He is facing east in the photo below and the morning sun will now shine into his yard.

When we were done, Russ asked us to come inside.  He paid us for the work with a slice of chocolate cake and strawberry ice cream.  That sounded like pretty good wages to me!

As the Twig is Bent

As the twig is bent the tree inclines. Virgil

The above quote illustrates that lessons learned early in life have a tremendous bearing on you in later years.  In nature, you see this sometimes when young trees are blown by ravaging, hurricane winds.  These trees continue to grow at odd angles throughout its life.  In people, often early experiences - good or bad - mark us for life.  Of course, many people overcome bad experiences early on and achieve successful, happy, fulfilled lives.  In contrast, some people through bad decision-making, end up negating positive beginnings.

As I think about that quote, I reflect on parenting our kids.  I pray that God will bless good intentions and forgive short-comings in our attempts in child-rearing.  We are flawed people living in a fallen world.  I think we did good in some things and not so good in others.  Why am I being so introspective?

This Sunday night after church our oldest son ate supper with us, loaded up his car, and moved out and into his own home.  Our eldest daughter has been on her own since she graduated college.  We have one more at home, and he'll be moving out this fall when he goes off to college.  We'll soon be empty-nesters.  As Russ pulled out of the driveway, Tricia and I stood in the driveway and watched him drive off.

We prayed for him that God would bless him in his home and in this new chapter of his life.

Did we give him the right tools in his toolbox to enable him to be successful in this life?  Will he continue to grow in the direction we've tried to point him?

As he spreads his wings and flies, we trust that God will protect him and guide him, cover him in His Love, and that he will know that his entire family loves him.

The LORD bless you and keep you;

The LORD make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

The LORD lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace. - Numbers 6:24-26

Another Bird About to Leave the Nest

Our middle child and oldest son, Russ, recently purchased his own home in a town west of our home.  It was a big step for him and a big step for us.  With Laura already out on her own and now with Russ moving out next weekend, our little nest is getting empty!  This weekend we helped him load up some of his belongings.  Tricia helped him do some cleaning and organizing at his house.  We had to move a couch and some chairs and other things from upstairs.  We got it loaded onto the trailer.

Tricia and Russ

The home was built in 1953 and is in remarkable shape.  He lives in a quiet neighborhood and it will take him ten less minutes to commute to work each day.  Here he is unlocking his door and opening the door to a new chapter in his life - a new chapter for Mom & Dad, too!

Russ, being the horticulturalist, is excited that his house has a fig tree that is loaded with figs, two pear trees (no partridge), a grapefruit tree, and a tree in the front yard we had never seen before.  It is a tree from Hawaii called the Orchid Tree.  It is filled with beautiful blooms like this and has been blooming for 3 months straight and still going...

The tree is about 8 feet tall and has long bean pods hanging from it, similar to a mimosa, but bigger.

One thing Russ has at his house that he is NOT excited about is carpenter bees.  Here is one in flight that I captured with the camera on my phone.  That dude is heading for the rafters to his shed in the back.

These carpenter bees drill holes into the rafters and cause all sorts of damage.

Some really good friends of ours gave us a Carpenter Bee Trap.  It is a homemade device that is simply a mason jar with a block of wood from a landscape timber attached to the lid.  Holes are drilled in the landscape timber at angles that lead down to the jar.  The theory is that the carpenter bees crawl into the wood thinking it was a hole they drilled.  It leads down into the jar.  They fall in and cannot get out.

At the time I took this photo, he had already caught one!  But at the time of this writing, he's already caught four!

 It is going to be a big adjustment for Tricia and I when he moves out next weekend.  At that point, we'll have two of our three kids out of the house.  Our third, Benjamin, will be moving into the dorms at college this fall.  Time marches on...  Don't blink!

A Crawfish Boil for Russ

When Russ graduated from LSU back in May, he wanted to have a crawfish boil in the backyard and celebrate with family.  That's just what we decided to do.  My Dad was able to get a few sacks of crawfish from the farm and we washed them up real good in a washtub in the backyard.  The weather was absolutely perfect for a boil.

The crawfish were perfect, too.  They were clean and a nice size.  We started up the fire on the burner and waited for the water to come to a boil.

While waiting we seasoned the water, cut up lemons, gathered onions, potatoes, corn, and garlic and visited.

The boys got out the Marlin .22 and set up a target and began sighting it in.  Pretty soon, though, the smell of Zatarain's Crawfish Boil seasoning wafted through the air beckoning hungry target shooters to eat.

My sister, who is a professional cake baker, made purple and gold cupcakes for the graduate.  They looked good and tasted good, too.

The crawfish were boiling in the heavily seasoned water and it didn't take long for them to be ready.

We spread out newspaper on the table and poured the hot, boiled crawfish on the table.  Everyone rolled up their sleeves and began peeling crawfish and eating until their bellies were full.

The crawfish were delicious.  We enjoyed each other's company.  Russ wasn't fired up about us singing, "For he's a jolly, good fellow," though.

We actually had some left over that we couldn't eat.  No worries.  We gathered around the island inside (because the mosquitoes started really bothering us) and peeled the rest of the crawfish, packing the tail meat into quart-size Zip loc bags.

We had quite a few bags when we were done.  Some got given away, some got frozen.  In a few days, Tricia thawed out one of the bags and made a big, delicious casserole baking dish of CRAWFISH FETTUCCINE!

What an enjoyable evening!  We celebrated the graduate with good food and family togetherness.  Let the good times roll!

The Graduate - Our Graduate

In the 1967 movie, "The Graduate," Mr. Maguire pulls young, Benjamin Braddock aside and the following dialogue takes place:

Mr. Maguire: There is a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it? 

          Benjamin Braddock: Yes, I will.

To be honest, if Benjamin Braddock took his advice, he probably was met with great economic success as plastics took off.

We have our own recent graduate, our middle son, Russ, who recently graduated from LSU in Baton Rouge with a B.S. in Agriculture.  He won't be going into the field of plastics, but we pray he finds success in his field of Plant and Soil Systems with a concentration in Environmental Horticulture.

We met for his graduation on a rainy Friday morning at 11 a.m. in the Field House for the ceremony.

We took our seats in the crowded field house where indoor track is run among a crowd of proud parents and family members.  They marched in to Pomp & Circumstance and many had their mortar boards decorated.

When I graduated from LSU in December of 1988, the person who gave the keynote address was Senator John Breaux.  It was in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center and poor Senator Breaux had difficulty getting through his speech as he was dodging champagne corks.  Things have changed since then.  Not one champagne cork went off during Russ' ceremony.  One other change was that the graduates all got their names called and got to walk across the stage and received their diplomas.

When it was over and before we went out to eat, we took a family photo with Russ in front of a blooming magnolia tree.

My Dad, Mom, and brother were also there to celebrate Russ' big day.

Here is Russ with my brother and parents in front of some stately oaks.  In the background, you can see the Huey P. Long Fieldhouse and pool.  The pool is now in disrepair, but I took a swimming class in college (we had to take a PE class) there. If you saw the movie, Pitch Perfect, one of the singing competitions was in the Huey P. Long pool.  It was empty, of course.

To commemorate the happy occasion, we got a nice Commencement program that had all the graduates names in it.  While sitting down and thumbing through the book, we were very surprised!

Russ hadn't told us about something very important.  Okay, I apologize in advance for boasting about my son, but we were in shock to see on page 5 that Russ graduated Summa Cum Laude.  He was the only male to do so.  In fact, 75% of the graduates in the College of Agriculture were female.

Russ will be starting his career in June, working for Doug Young Nursery in Forest Hill, Louisiana. I told him that if he can find something to do that he is passionate about, he'll never work a day in his life as it will be a labor of love.  We are proud of the old fellow and wish him the absolute best that life has to offer.  He will do great things, I am sure of it.  May God Bless our graduate!

LSU ALMA MATER 

Where stately oaks and broad magnolias 

shade inspiring halls, 

There stands our dear Old Alma Mater 

who to us recalls 

Fond memories that waken in our hearts 

a tender glow, 

And make us happy for the love 

that we have learned to know. 

All hail to thee our Alma Mater, 

molder of mankind, 

May greater glory, love unending 

be forever thine. 

Our worth in life will be thy worth we pray to keep it true, 

And may thy spirit live in us, forever L-S-U.