Skip to main content

Another gray Saturday on the farm, with unexpected proposal

Last night I had a conversation with my daughter and her boyfriend, both of whom are GPs, and they wanted to go over my test results.  Turns out I was right, although my weight is up my muscle mass is top of the chart for my age group.  On my heart condition, she was less happy.  Before they could recommend surgery to insert a pacemaker they wanted to try changing my physical activities.  Although I work on the farm, it doesn't include any cardio workout.  My daughter suggested either running or climbing.  

I started to laugh because climbing in Norfolk is a bit of a challenge, the place is flat.  My daughter ever the mischievous one pulled out a brochure for an indoor climbing wall about half an hour away.  Guess what is my daughter's boyfriend favourite sport -- bouldering!  They booked a Saturday morning 10 to 11 am slot for both him and me.  The climbing center is only 40 minutes away.  So this morning after a light breakfast (his suggestion) we left for the bouldering centre.

Let's just say that I got a great cardio workout!  I don't know if it was the climbing or the fear of falling, but after an hour I was exhausted.  It calls on different muscles, but it was a riot.  I could easily see myself doing this with my wife.  She is thin and sinewy and I think this will be a great sport for us (we would also be the oldest people there).  The staff were amazing, fitting climbing shoes and the harness, they have a bunch of instructors the place is great.  Although the music was loud, one of the instructors, a pixi weighing less than seven stones told me that on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, there is only muted music.

On the way back Jack (my daughter's boyfriend) did ask "the question".  Of course, I told him yes.  I can reveal all because right before lunch he popped the question.  He was planning on doing it on Christmas Eve but didn't want to detract from Adam and Jilian's big day.  A thoughtful man.  

Both seem to want the wedding to occur when my granddaughter is a little older and can understand and participate in the ceremonies.  I think that's a great idea.  At two she is still confused by Santa and the whole Christmas thing.  She's a girl so by the age of four she will get it!

It was funny because my wife was completely blindsided.  Our daughter walked into the kitchen to "talk to her mother" and was gesticulating like an Italian with her hands.  I was sitting at the kitchen table going over some tax correspondence (I really need an office).  It took about a minute before my wife spotted the engagement ring.  There was laughter, there were tears, they were minute-by-minute replay of the event.

What a year, 2023 has been a special year

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ok so I lied...a little (revised)

When we began looking at farming in 2013/14 as something we both wanted to do as a "second career" we invested time and money to understand what sector of farming was profitable.  A few things emerged, First, high-quality, source-proven, organic farm products consistently have much higher profit margins.  Secondly, transformation accounted for nearly 80% of total profits, and production and distribution accounted for 20% of profits: Farmers and retailers have low profit margins and the middle bits make all the money. A profitable farm operation needs to be involved in the transformation of its produce.  The low-hanging fruits: cheese and butter.  Milk, generates a profit margin of 5% to 8%, depending on milk quality.  Transformed into cheese and butter, and the profit margin rises to 40% (Taking into account all costs).  Second:  20% of a steer carcass is ground beef quality.  The price is low, because (a) a high percentage of the carcass, and (b)...

Spray painting Taylor Swift G650 aircraft (updated)

 First, a bit of paint will not harm anyone.  These climate activities are going to learn two things in the next few days:  (1) Trespassing at an airport is a felony almost anywhere in the world.  That means criminal prosecution.   (2) removing paint from an aircraft is expensive.   So these climate activists are about to find out the reach of the British criminal system and it will not be pleasant, the UK has very strict laws about that, I would be surprised if cleaning the aircraft of all the paint will cost less than $100,000.     I am sure that when they planned (premeditation) this little show they had a very valid logic to doing this.  Tonight, they are probably realizing the depth of their troubles.   I understand that in the UK it's a minimum one-year jail sentence.    Also, good luck travelling with a criminal trespass charge against you.  I am relatively certain that the airline industry will ...

Janet Yellen from China supporter to Hawk...

There is rarely serious news in the world these days, it seems that most newspapers are filled with headlines and little else, and then Ms Yellen went to China.  Secretary Yellen has long been known in the Biden administration as the voice of moderation when dealing with China, yet as her trip which concluded yesterday a hawk was born:  She warned the Chinese against dumping goods in the United States.    fighting words! The American administration is very concerned about the lack of Chinese domestic consumption.   Even before the COVID-19 epidemic, there were already the beginning signs of a slowdown, automobile sales were off.   China is facing domestic deflation (a clear sign of collapsing demand) China imports few consumer goods, they import raw materials and intermediary goods.   It seems that the American administration is concerned that the Chinese administration will dump consumer goods abroad to keep its manufacturing machinery ...