Hearing their heart, brief cold, deer

Many years ago, when I was fishing with Chase at the seawall in Seadrift, TX I was listening Chase chatter as we set out lines. Chase was six or seven years old at the time. The seawall is only about two feet tall and wide enough that you can easily walk it. It goes on for some distance at the point where we stationed ourselves. It took about an hour to get the lines baited and cast. All that time Chase kept his dialogue going with minimal additions on my part. As we got set up for the wait required when fishing from the shore, a fellow fisherman slowly worked his was towards us. Casting and reeling as he approached. I greeted him and we made some small talk for a minute or two. He finally looked at me and said what was on his mind. Nodding towards Chase, he asked. “Does he always talk this much?” I answered. “He used to not talk at all, but recently, he has become more vocal.” “Do you ever ask him to be quiet?” “No”, I answered. “As long as he’s talking, I can hear what’s on his mind.” “Good enough”, He replied and moved away from us. Another time Chase and I were running errands in Victoria and he suddenly blurted out, “Hey, Dad, to ants grass is trees. Right?” I still love those moments of pure, unguarded expression. Sunday afternoon as Cheyenne handed Mama a birthday card that Mama had sealed and then unsealed to put some cash into the card, Cheyenne told Mama, “All your licking is gone.” Listening just to hear their mind and heart is a delight to me. We just have to be ready to hear as they speak.

For instance, Maggie was relating to Mama yesterday that Walter was reminiscing about the lesson he had heard in Sunday School a couple mornings ago. The lesson must have been on Creation. A more important topic to settle in a child’s mind today than at any time in the past. Anyway, his teacher had said that after God made what he had made each day of creation, He pronounced that what He had made was very good. It had obviously taken several days for the idea to settle in Walter’s mind, but once it did, he began to extrapolate the idea a bit. “Mommy”, he asked. “God made everything, and it was very good. Right?” Maggie replied that that was right. What God had made was indeed very good. “Well,” Walter continued pensively. “God made me and I am very, very good.” It would be hard to fully understand the meaning behind the pronouncement, but at least we know a little bit about how his mind is working – and what he thinks of himself right now.

I worked in the rain yesterday evening getting things set for our coming cold nights. So far, the forecast is for only tonight and tomorrow night to be below freezing. Things warm up after that. Not much, but enough that the nights will be above freezing. I got caught in heavy rain three times through the course of the work I was doing. It was a very cold rain. The ambient temperature was 41° F. The rain was colder than that, but it came in spurts, so I was able to take shelter until it let up. Once in the shelter with the bucks. Once in the coop with the chickens. Once in the goat barn with the nanny goats. Today the rain will be ending. The sky will clear. The cold will be blown it with 40 mph winds out of the north. Fortunately, we have a warm, dry place to spend the day. Our animals will have to muddle through with just a dry place to bed down in the cold. Hopefully, they can find a place with limited drafts from the high winds. I was not able to add more metal to the buck’s shelter because of the constant rain, but they will survive in the igloo. I watch all three of them crowd into the igloo last night as I was finishing up. I still need to apply the roof sealant to that shelter to limit the drips through the holes in the used metal I put on the roof, but there is still a lot of dry room to bed down. This cold snap just helps to remind me that I need to stay busy getting ready for winter.

Mama and I are seeing more deer on our little farm, so she is hoping I can get one for the freezer this winter. I do not know if that will happen, but we can try. I did buy our licenses – hunting and fishing combo licenses for each of us. Using tags on both licenses would technically allow me to get six deer total. That is not likely to happen. I really bought the licenses so we could fish legally. It seemed a waste to not spend the extra to include hunting in the purchase price. Whether or not I will be able to harvest a deer is still questionable. But it is certain that Mama wants me to plan to try to do so. Honestly, I do not enjoy the cold anymore.

I guess I’m getting lazy and soft in my old age.