Hay Cutting Time Again at Go Away!

We are on our second cutting this year. 44 Round bales the first cutting, and we have to be quite a bit ahead of that on this cutting. Not that we need it. We should make it over the winter with roughly 35-40 bales, based on the severity and length of the winter.  But, with abundant rainfall comes plenty of hay. I love to see the hay in the field and smell it being cut. That hay baling is a hot job!

New Conference Room at Go Away is ready!

The new conference /  training center is up and running. Wayne Sumrall has been working tirelessly to get things completed. We're finally there after 8 long months. There are a lot more details that go into something like this than you can even imagine (unless you've built something in the country and waited on the locals for help:-). 

We are very proud of the place and look forward to some wonderful experiences for us and the guests. 

We are blessed!

God is at work!

Yesterday, we had an appraiser out to the farm to take a look at the place and to give us an update on the value now with the addition of the guest-barn and training facility. The lady that came to the farm had never met us, had never stepped foot on the place and didn't seem to be at all a spiritual person to me. I gave her a short tour of the houses, then the pool house, then walked ahead of her probably 10 steps out to the barn. As I stepped up on the porch of the training center, she said, "Sir, I don't know what's going on here, but God is doing something great!" I was speechless. Here this woman I had never met, and had zero spiritual conversation with, had just confirmed what God is doing with Mikki and me and Go Away Farm. She said, "I'm covered with goose-bumps"... and she was. We entered the conference room and she told me that her brother-in-law was just moved to go to Buena Vista Colorado to buy 80 acres and start up a Pastoral Retreat to help pastors and their wives recover from the burn-out they're experiencing. Well, what she didn't realize is that we were expecting Steve Trafton and his lovely wife Rajan any minute. They have The Hideaway Experience on the rim of the Paladuro Canyon in Amarillo, Texas where they minister to marriages in trouble and pastors that are tired and weary from the journey. When they arrived, we shared what had just happened and they were touched. God works through the unexpected and it is just amazing me every day! The timing of my leaving adplex is no doubt the handi-work of God himself. You couldn't have timed things any better than He did. To God be the glory! We are so blessed to know Him.  As JR Ensey wrote me these words yesterday: "This is what the Lord says: "When seventy years are completed in Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

The ponds are full...

The recent rain this week has once again, pushed the water levels to the spill-way. We've had about 4.2 inches this month, and its August! We've had 37.4 inches this year! That is a lot of water. Our hay is prospering in grand fashion. We cut 44 bales off of about 40 acres only 6 weeks back. Now it's ready to cut again but the hay man is far behind and can't get here. Too bad there isn't an economic way to share hay with those in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida that are desperate for rain.  Speaking of lakes, about 5 or 6 years back we had a bad weed problem in the ponds. I tried raking it out, but that was just too much hard work. You'd get out there with a rake and waders, and end up stuck about 24" deep in muck. Not quite worth the trouble for a spot to cast a spinner bait. So I inquired with the State of Texas about grass carp. They gave me a permit to fill out and it was approved once we showed that the carp couldn't enter the waterways of the rivers and streams down below our place. Even though the carp are sterilized, they are still wary of them getting out of your local pond. We put in about 20 of those little rascals total into the two ponds. Today, there is only a few left, but they make you think of Jonah and the whale story. They are huge beasts, and very ugly. I caught one on my fly rod a couple years back and it was like dragging a dead man onto the shore. This morning, while sitting by the tree in the swing at the large pond at sun-up, I witnessed one of the grass carp trying to eat grass on the shore. There are plenty weeds, but this thing wanted to get to the better grass outside of the lake. Kind of like us, huh? Never satisfied with the weeds we have.

The Go Away Farm Blog up and running...

The barn is almost completed. We're about 95%. Now the woodshop is next on the list finally. Okay, maybe behind the garden shed:-)