Friday, Mama and I tag teamed the moving in the barnyard lot. It took us three hours to complete. She used her mower and I was on the tractor with the bushhog. It was fun, but it really kicked in my allergies. As is customary with Mama at one point she bit off a little too much and ended up in the tank/pond with the mower. It was very easy to get her out, but we had to go to the shop to get a strap to hook to the mower. We finished about 11 am and ran some errands to get a few supplies for a cookout we had planned for Friday evening. We also delivered some fried potatoes and onions to Bro Plumley. He was excited just to have someone to talk to in person. So many are getting so lonely in this enforced isolation.

I fired up the grill at 3:30 and Trace and his crew came over about 4 pm. By the time they got to the farm I already had ears of corn on the grill. I left them there the entire time we were visiting prior to cooking some burgers and throughout the time we finished the burgers. I have had to use out charcoal grill in lieu of the smoker that has now been returned to its owner, but everything came out well enough. Lastly, I put on some chicken breasts. Mama had baked beans, potato salad and macaroni salad. Krystal brought some slaw. We had a great supper. Afterwards, I took Trace and the boys fishing at the quarry lake. We had a wonderful time. Together we caught over thirty fish. Nathan was the last to start catching fish. I swapped out his lure several times before I hit the right combination of weight and color for his rod, but when I did, he really started to have fun. Even trace, who spent most of the time either getting fish off the boy’s lines or taking pictures, caught several large bass. One was more than three pounds. All the fish were thrown back. Neither Trace not I felt like spending the time required to clean the catch. That’s okay, we will go back and catch them again soon enough.

Saturday, Mama and I worked in the garden early. We were expecting rain, but it had not come so we tilled a bit. Hilled up the rows of potatoes and I built cages to corral the blackberry bushes. I made what resemble large tomato cages to help the very long branches of the bushes stand up versus dragging the ground or lay on everything around them. They are loaded up. Mama and I will have plenty of blackberries from both out thorn-less and our wild blackberry bushes – which have plenty of thorns. I tilled a row for sunflowers and a spot to some cucumber seeds to be planted. All of that got done only minutes before the rain came. Over the course of the day we got about ¾ of an inch total. Plenty for our garden plants and trees. While it was raining, I started some seeds on paper egg cartons. If those germinate, they will be relocated to the garden. For once, we are just about on time with our garden.

Sunday, we had great services. Jake texted a picture to Mama of him and his family watching the Easter morning service on their big screen TV. Mama was excited. When we told the Pastor that evening, he was excited. Pastor was told of one young man that got saved Sunday morning. He was ecstatic. With the upgrades in internet, the publication of the service seems to be smoother. The only constraint is that the Facebook app times out at one hour, so we have to meet that timeframe. People online are giving me good feedback about the music. We only do two songs per service, but it still seems to add to the services.

After church last night Mama was asked to take some photos of the Miller family. They are missionaries on deputation living in the house next to the church since they are prohibited from traveling. They were all dressed up for Easter and did not want to skip the family tradition of getting those yearly photos. As we prepared for the photos the younger boys were talking to me about the music. They said, “You usually do one long sone and one short song, but tonight you did two long songs.” “The songs this morning were really high. You had to sing ‘like a girl’ high, but you sounded good.” I loved that comment. It is their grandma that has been playing for our song service and she does such a wonderful job with the music. As we were getting ready to leave, the oldest son shook my hand and said, “It’s just really good just to talk to someone.” We are going to have them over this week. Just so we can let them talk.

It will be good to get back together as a church family when that actually happens.