Baby dolls and big brothers, weekend updates

Friday night at RU we had a little girl named Ella. I would guess she was about four years old. It was our first time to have her but I think she had been there before since James and Jacob seemed to know her. She did not come in right away but when she did she really enjoyed all the activities we had going on. She was a very pleasant child, very pretty and expressive. She took to Jacob in a big way. Having the three of them made it a very enjoyable evening.

When we went over to the gym after the Ru meeting was over to eat together, as is the regimen of the meeting, we got to meet the mom and older brother. What the older brother said put me in mind of something I imagine our grandson Blake saying in a few years. When Laura David told the older brother who was maybe ten that he was cute he remarked, “if you thing I’m cute you ought to see my little sister. I’m nowhere as cute as her. She’s a real doll baby.” Clearly he was comfortable with that truth.

I slept in on Saturday morning until 8 a.m. It was great. When Mama and I got up we did not get into too awfully much but spent the day cleaning up around the farm and the house. In our absence one of the dogs had been perfumed by a skunk and the smell had gotten ingrained into the pebbled overlay on the front porch. I took everything off the porch and swept thoroughly – getting up an enormous amount of fine dirt left by the dogs as they sleep there. Then I used some bleach and soap and lots of water to clean the area. It looked much better when I was done and I think it smelled better too but time will tell.

While I was out a soaked with sweat I got the tractor out and tried to clean the barn lot. I managed to get a few scoops of manure and dirt out of the confined space but it was so dried and hardened that I had to give up after an hour of wrestling the tractor into the spaces I needed to clean. I put all that I did remove onto the garden. Then I hooked up the brush hog. Boy, was that a chore.

What should have taken me a half hour took well over an hour because the collar that attaches to the power take off on the tractor was rusted over. In that collar is a ball bearing that acts as a locking latch on the PTO shaft of the tractor. That ball bearing was rusted in place and I had to work it loose from the rust and grit with generous amounts of oil and careful persuasion (translate that beating) with a wrench.

Mama has expressed an interest in continuing the work with the brush hog through the week so I felt it was important to have it convenient to her through this week. I told her when I got to the house after mowing on the property for an hour or so, that I am very thankful that we have such a nice tractor to use – and that it is fully paid for. That will be a great blessing in the months to come.

We called Grandma on the way to church yesterday morning to wish her a happy birthday. Norman’s birthday is today followed by Grandpa’s birthday tomorrow.

Friday my boss told me that I have less than eight weeks in my current role. Time really is short.