The cantata

The cantata was pretty much the focus of our entire weekend. I helped Mama feed Saturday morning. We had some rain overnight and the feeders all had to be dumped and wiped out before we could set out fresh feed – that took some extra time. (Goats will not eat the pelletized feed if it is the least bit moist; much less wet.) Then I went bus calling with the pastor. Normally, that takes until about noon, so I did not go home after we got back to the church. Instead. Mama and Victoria met me for lunch at Moua’s. Mama and I went on from there to play and cantata practice. As we left the restaurant I realized I left my director’s book at home. I could not do the practice without it because I had spent a couple house practicing with the CD of the cantata and had all my markings and reminder notes in that book. So, I had to rush to the house and back. I think I was about fifteen minutes late for the 1 pm practice.

We were at the church for several hours running through the play with the songs. It takes a good deal of time to get down where each song is staged, how quickly we need to get into position and how to arrange ourselves when properly set so I could see the instrumentalist to lead the song. But, the choir members were gracious and willing to do whatever was suggested – even providing a few suggestions themselves. Some of them are true veterans at this. We finally got done with practice at about 4 pm. The teens went caroling after that. Mama and I went home, fed the animals, started dragging out decorations, etc. I got to work in the well house for about an hour while I filled the large water trough in the barn lot. It was so near empty that a hungry crane ate all the fish we had still living in the trough. I am not sure if they would have survived the winter, but it was sad to see them become part of the food chain.

Since the trough was devoid of fish, I dumped out the remaining smelly residue of water and scrubbed it clean before filling it back up. The reason it was empty was twofold. First, I had disconnected the hose from the well because of freezing weather. Second, when the bigger cows invaded our little farm, they sucked down the contents of the trough before they went back to their normal foraging. Our calves could not reach the water in the trough because of the low level so it was somewhat important to get it filled before the next cold snap. It was very close to dark by the time I got done. I did not realize how long it takes to fill a 500-gallon trough through a ¾ inch hose.

Sunday afternoon we started our final rehearsal at 4:30, running over some rough spots in the music and finalizing the choir’s placement for each song. I called a halt to the rehearsal after a little over an hour because I was worried about wearing out our voices before the performance. As we performed the cantata there were places where we could have done better, but overall, I had to commend the choir members and the musicians on how good the songs sounded. At one point, the choir started to go up onto the stage to sing and we were not supposed to do so. I quietly got everyone’s attention and set the young men in the choir to their task of getting the stage reset for the final couple scenes. I realized as we were coming up to that part of the play that we had not rehearsed what we were supposed to do at that point but there was no way to communicate that to the choir without taking away from the performance of the ongoing play. A minor hiccup. The good news is, that’s behind me now and I really can relax and enjoy the Christmas season. Mama is ready for me to get onboard.

Tonight, we get our first cooking lesson with Alex.