Dad, equipment woes, wild hogs, puppies

The call came early today that Dad had passed away in his sleep very early this morning. Martha told me that she had spent the evening with him yesterday, fed him his dinner and visited as much as was possible with his limited ability to converse. According to Hospice he passed away quickly; peacefully as much as they can tell – and they have the expertise to know something like that. It is as much a relief, a rejoicing and a grieving moment all at the same time. He is home. The desire of his faithful service to the Kingdom of God for more than sixty years is now fully realized. I can imagine Mom meeting him as his eyes opened in Glory, welcoming him; introducing him around. After all, she has been there for almost a year. I know her first words to him would have been, “This is so much better than we ever thought it would be.” Think about the changes we know will be there. The presence of the savior. The absence of sin. The wonder of a clear mind, a pure heart, a new body. Understanding beyond all that we have ever been able. Knowing even as we are known. No confusion. No wondering. No pain. No sickness. No death. No night. No spiritual struggle. Perfect peace. Perfect understanding. Perfect rest. He passed from debilitating inability to unlimited ability. He finished his race. He won an everlasting victory through Christ! May God give me the grace, the persistence, the patience to finish as well as my Dad did. My prayer now is that the Lord will continue to bring to my remembrance all the great memories He gave me through my Dad.

But life goes on here and last night presented a couple challenges for me and Mama. Just after I got home I went to get the tractor but it would not start. That has been an ongoing issue that could be rectified by purchasing a new battery – which I will do today or tomorrow. Anyway, I went to the garage to get a jump starter I used the last time we started the tractor, but it did not work this time. I do not know if the battery was so bad that it did not have any residual power or if the jump starter was not functioning properly. Together, they did not have enough power to turn over the engine with enough speed to get it to start. It got close, but no success. So, I pulled the battery and abandoned the projects that required the tractor; moving on to finishing up getting the feed stored, cutting the top off a barrel we bought last week to use as a burn barrel and burning the portion of our trash we set aside for that. As I was working at the burn barrel, Mama, who was tending to the animals – specifically the feeder pig -  called out to me. There was a wild pig on the other side of the fence at the back of our property; less than thirty yards away. I walked to the house and got my .22 in case I could get a shot at it. It was still there when I got back out and when I was as close as I could get, I took the shot. The way it hollered and jumped before it ran off led me to believe I wounded it. That was better than killing it and having to deal with a 160# hog carcass.

Shortly after that the Burns family came over to look at the puppies. They are debating getting one. It was dark by that time but they enjoyed the little fur balls and the puppies thoroughly enjoyed the attention – especially from the four-year-old. Not long after they left we had a visitor who purchased one of the little females. Mama and Victoria set up the puppies that were still available in the sunroom when the prospective buyers were on their way. There were a couple rearrangements required because they could not agree on which puppies were still unspoken for, but I think they finally got the order right. Victoria is the authority on the pups. They are very attached to her. As soon as they hear her voice they come running out of their house to greet her. That is quite a picture. Five more to go.

When Zach and I were talking he asked if I ever fooled with the puppies. “No”, I told him – then a little louder so Mama could hear it, I added, “I may have to shoot the ones we do not sell so I try not to get attached.”

You can probably imagine Mama’s response.