Becky, Mama, farm trials

Becky called me yesterday morning to tell me Charles was headed to the courthouse to get divorce papers. It is often difficult to tell what is going on in their marriage because Charles does not talk to us any more and Becky has an odd way of communicating. Her immediate take on the issue was that she had made a C in Algebra and Charles felt she had been hiding her grades from him because she was doing poorly.


I am not really sure, but I told Becky that with her working nights, fulltime, and going to school part time, a C was a good grade – especially in Algebra. Considering that Charles had been going to school fulltime, not working at all, and he flunked out of his classes, she was doing okay. So there has to be something else. I do not know what that something is, nor do I want to, but we need to pray for them. Right now we need to pray especially for Becky.

Mama is hurting pretty badly right now, physically. Her left knee is giving her fits. Sometimes it bends painfully, stubbornly. Other times it seems to give out on her. We are going to get it evaluated after the first of the year but she would appreciate your prayers for strength to keep going for now.

I realized as I was driving home last night how disengaged I have been from the farm lately. It is in part due to my focus on the building projects and the financial strain associated with that. It is also because the workload associated with the farm has slowed. Winter on the farm is the time to plan for the spring and repair the equipment needed for that plan to be activated.

I obviously miss the morning feeding of the calves and I have not made it home in time to help with the evening feeding for several days now. Grandpa and Grandma have been experimenting with feeding schedules and amounts for several weeks to try to get the calves we have past the illnesses they are struggling to overcome. I think they have been having great success but it has been a strain on them – especially Grandpa.

Mama had been doctoring chickens and has met with some success there. We have had trouble getting the medications for them locally so I had to do some research to find what we were looking for and order them. I have been constrained by money in ordering them. Everything seems to come up at once. You know the routine. But now the meds are here and she has started to apply them. We will see how it turns out.

The horses do not seem to like the cold but God has gifted them with the ability to endure it. We have to feed them supplementally since they have chew down to nubs the pasture where they are kept. Honestly, it looks like Mama has mowed and trimmed it. We are very new to horses so our tendency is to over feed them. Right now I feel confident that is not happening. If you were to ask the horses, you would get the sense that they are certain that they are on a starvation diet. They look good, healthy, trim and slick.

Grandma and Mama have both been very concerned about the two big dogs lately. They do not seem to be interested in the dog food we have been getting for them. I went to great lengths to find out what they would eat and we have stuck pretty close to that and that alone, but Wal-Mart ran out of the preferred type. The substitute does not seem to interest them. Grandpa solved the mystery yesterday. They have been eating on the bodies of the calves he buried.

No wonder they were so dirty.