Moving day, signs of life, treatment

Saturday morning, I was planning on going to Muenster to get hay but that fell through because the seller was not available to meet us. I will go instead today or tomorrow. In going to Muenster, I was also going to get a bag of feed for the hog. We are taking her to be processed this weekend and had run out of feed, so we improvised. She is getting the sweet stock we had bought for the calf and some goat feed – both of which she likes better than the store-bought feed we had been trying to get her to eat. The stock trailer is in place at her pen so that she can be loaded Friday night for her trip Saturday morning. The feeder we have used to feed her has been placed inside the shelter so that we can close her into the shelter on the evening we intend to load her. Our hope is that she will simply walk into the trailer without too much coaxing. We will see how that works out when we try it. Patience is the key to getting her into the trailer. She is large enough that she has to make the decision on her own. We will not be able to force her to go but we can gently coax her into the trailer – hopefully.

With the morning given back to me, I started moving the little goats out of the paddock and into the small enclosure we have behind the shop. I tried carrying one of the babies from the paddock to the shelter and it was all I could do to make all the way across the farm to transfer her that way. She only weighed about forty pounds, but the walk from point-to-point took more effort than in had anticipated. The second one, I told Mama would have to wait until I had rested a bit. As I let my back and arms recover, I thought about getting the tractor and a dog crate to make the transfer and as I went to get the crate Mama and Victoria teamed up to make the transfer, but it was not a wasted trip to the barn to get the crate. While I was over there, I got the trailer and moved it to the hog pen. Making the repairs to the lights on the trailer will be easier with it closer to the shop. Plus, the hog will get curious about the trailer and maybe want to investigate once she has access to it.

I have been checking the fig trees and the grape vine for signs of life and am finally starting to see those signs. I have only two fig trees right now that have put out leaves, but I am obviously hoping the other ten start to show me that they are still alive. I have been concerned about the grape vine. I was not sure at all if it survived the brutal cold, but it too is starting to put out leaves. In the garden we have potatoes, green beans and a couple types of squash breaking the ground. The blackberries are fully leaved out and putting out flowers that the bees are diligently tending to. Same for the peach, the pear, the nectarine, and the apricot trees. I also planted the contents of a box of seeds we had bought several years ago, and they are sprouting as well. Supposedly the flower they produce will be attractants for bees and butterflies. Things are looking up for our little garden. We have more plants in containers than in the ground, but all are doing well so far regardless of where they are planted. How the plants mature and fruit will tell us which is the bast way to get a harvest in the future. At least the plants in the raised bed and the pots will not have to survive assaults by the rabbits.

We had great services Sunday. I think we take for granted how necessary it is to have a church family, how reviving it is to meet together to sing, to pray, to hear the preaching and to visit. Last Sunday we had five young people baptized and this Sunday we had a couple join the church. Although I was feeling very poorly yesterday, I made it through the song leading and sang a special before the sermon – only by God’s grace. When we got home, I laid down and slept for a few hours. I felt better that night. Mama did not. She stayed home due to some severe sciatic pain, but she listened to the online broadcast.

This morning Mama is going to the orthopedist to get a shot in her right knee. We are not sure if the treatment will give her any relief, but we are praying it does. It has been eight to ten years since she has gotten such a treatment and the last time she did so, the relief was amazing, but we are a decade past that, and things have changed as far as the cumulative damage to the joint is concerned.

We will know soon if it was worth the money, but we have to try since we have been given this opportunity.