RU, Youth rally

Friday night we had a fish fry for RU. It turned out pretty good and we had a few visitors as a result. It was encouraging to Lee to see a bunch of new faces – including a couple of his boys. I get confused whether the two that came are Laura’s sons or Lee’s but it was good to see them at Ru again. (Both of them were in church Sunday morning and evening also.)

I had a hard time getting Mama to leave Friday night. She got to talking with a couple ladies there and while I cleaned up they must have gotten onto some deep subject – like shoes or purses or curtains – because it was very difficult to tear her away from the conversation. She probably is lacking in grownup conversation right now, besides my old adage still holds. If she uses up her words on someone other than me I will not have to bear the whole load personally.

I finally went to her and said, “I finished cleaning up so we can go anytime.” That interrupted the train of the conversation and got a laugh out of the three women talking but it was still about fifteen minutes later that we finally left. It was almost 11 pm before we got home. Even Victoria called to see where we were.

Saturday we worked at the farm in the morning; working on the equipment shed (which is a much neglected project), painting mirrors for the master bath and cleaning the chicken coop. The outside portion of the coop has gotten so wet that we are closing it off to the hens for the time being. Mama will have to let them out more but it is too great a risk to have them in the dirty muck – and it is very difficult to keep it even marginally dry, much less sanitary. We have gotten seven inches of rain so far this month and have already passed the 21.5 inches we received all last year. It is a soggy, nasty blessing.

Later Saturday afternoon we went to the church to help with a Youth Rally. The theme was from a rhyme by C.T. Studd “Only one life will soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.” The church was decorated (?) with tombstones complete with names and dates. Most of the deceased represented were young when they died. It was a somber but potent theme.

Mama kept the nursery and I helped grill 200 hamburgers. It all came off without a hitch. We served about 180 teens and adults in all. As is customary, cleanup took the most time and Mama and I were there until about 8 pm. While I was sweeping the floor aand tables and chairs were being put away, I heard a burst of laughter from the kitchen – with Mama’s unmistakable laugh being at the center of it.

What started it was Mama picking a piece of lettuce from the trash - announcing it as she did so -  so she could feed it to her hogs. One lady, who doesn not normally participate in these events,  did not know the reason for the dumpster dive so she was quite taken aback. She offered to give Mama the money to buy a fresh head of lettuce if she needed it. That innocent comment struck everyone in the kitchen as too hilarious; especially Mama.

Mama and the lady in question, whose name is also Kim, came looking for me. The other Kim told me she was going to give me “what for” until Mama explained that the rescued scraps were for her pigs. Sunday morning I would not have been surprised to see a couple heads of lettuce sitting on the pew where we normally sit. But that did not happen.

It is what I would have done.