Jake, miserably hot and disappointing

I am trying to compose a coy email to the Licensing group to see if they need additional information from me – since I am not going to be interviewed a second time. I do not want to seem pushy or overly anxious but I am consumed with curiosity; nearly desperate for information. Or as Gru would say, “I have pins and needles where I am sitting.” Oh, well. The Lord is in control and I have plenty to do in the interim.

Jake had a bad evening last night because we were re-watching a movie he was not interested in seeing again. So he contacted his Mom via Skype and turned on the tears. I think between Mama and his Mom everything got straightened out, but it shows once again that he is very used to getting everything he thinks he wants regardless of how insignificant it may seem. We are just less troubled by his disappointments.

He is great child and when things put him at the center of attention he is even better, but that attitude can so quickly shift that it is a little alarming if you are not ready for it. He did not throw a temper tantrum; he just moped until we were done.

Yesterday Mama let him buy a balloon kit that had instructions for making balloon animals, etc. When I got home he gave me a puppy he had made with a purple one. When I asked him when he learned to do that, he said, “just now.” He read the instructions, followed the patterns on the back of the package and made puppies, hats and swords.  Pretty clever. No wonder it is hard to keep him entertained. Rosie was less impressed. She was cowering in our bedroom because of two balloons that popped as they were unsuccessfully twisted into shape.

It has been miserably hot here and the persistent, dry wind is sucking the moisture out of everything. The grass is either dead or dormant. The trees are starting to shed their leaves. The tanks are drying out very quickly. Between the dry conditions and the grasshoppers most of our garden will not survive to produce anything we can harvest. Even the blueberry plants I so carefully tended are not going to make it.

I have given up watering because we do not know the capacity of the well to continue producing water in the volume we need to keep plants alive while still meeting our water needs as well as keeping the troughs full for the livestock we have. I do not want to run it low during this continued drought.

My brother-in-law Fabian had the best synopsis of the situation. He said they bought a fifty dollar oak tree, dug a one hundred dollar hole to plant it in and put one thousand dollars’ worth of water on it before it died. That pretty much sums it up. It is a good thing I delayed plans to start an orchard.

It is so disappointing sometimes. We had some very nice rains in May and June but their effects were very short lived. For several weeks we were mowing the yard every three days. Now it has been a month since the last mowing. There is a lesson in there somewhere: do all you are able when you are able; rest after you have worked and the opportunity has passed; be ready to go again at the next opportunity.

The massive oaks in our front yard show us that the potential for long life is here but you have to sink deep roots and endure whatever hardships may come.

Will it be worth it all one day?

Yes it will; but maybe not here.