Meat, meeting, more chicks, mission’s

All my plans for last weekend got scuttled when we got a text from the processor that our meat was ready to pick up. The text Mama got implied some urgency. Their freezers were full, and they were needing everyone to come get their meat as soon as possible. So, I headed to the processing plant early Saturday morning and go there about an hour after they opened. I was the fourth or fifth in line to get my order but as I began to talk to those who were ahead of me as issue came to light. One gentleman had been waiting over an hour to get his order. Another had been waiting almost as long. One of the first in line was a local rancher who knew the owners and when I suggested that we help them pull the orders, he went inside and got permission to do so. I had brought a jacket with me that morning, so I put it on and headed into the freezers. When we were told that the freezers were full, they had not exaggerated at all. There was only a tiny space in either of the freezers to move about enough to read the names on the boxes containing the processed meats, but I eventually gathered my five boxes and ten of the fifteen boxes that the rancher was looking for. I left about an hour after I had gotten there and headed straight home with the meat. I do not think our meat was frozen thoroughly because it had thawed more than I expected by the time I was loading it into the chest freezer.

To fit the five large boxes of meat into the freezer we had to take out three of the six turkeys and two large hams we had in that freezer. Even then it was a tight fit, but we got it all in. I thawed one turkey and one ham to smoke. We gave one ham to Katy Shaw who was at the training with Mama that morning and we took two turkeys to the church for the pastor to smoke. They will be served tomorrow for the meal we provide for the missionaries that are at our Mission’s Conference. Nothing went to waste. We were thankful for that but since we have so much meat, Mama and I are selling off a large portion of it in package deals. Offering a defined package for a set price seems to appeal to those we offered the purchases to. We had three orders as soon as the package and price was mentioned.

Since Mama and I had to deliver the turkeys to the church we went to Tractor Supply to get some pine savings for the coop and a couple cans of Mocha’s food. As we were walking into the store, we crossed paths with a couple carrying out a brood box for a beehive. When Mama asked them about their bees, they told us that they were taking the brood box to their home to catch a swarm of bees in a tree by their flower garden. I explained that the box they had bought was not a full beehive and would not do what they wanted if to do. They would need a full hive to provide a home for the swarm. They mulled that over as Mama and I went into the store to get our few items and on a whim, I went to the area of the store where they had the beehive kits for sale. They had only one available. As we were standing there the couple approached us again and we had a long discussion. Phone numbers were exchanged and late that evening we found out that they followed our directions and set the hive on a couple cinder blocks near the swarm, baited the hive with lemon grass oil and sat back and watched and the entire swarm marched into the hive set up for them. The couple was overjoyed by their success. We put them in touch with a member of our bee club that lives near them so they would have help relocating the hive in a few days.

After all that, Mama and I went to the Wycoff’s to get the 15 additional chicks Mama had ordered back in February. Brittany had over 100 chicks in the order, so she had held on to Mama’s small order for us. We had already prepared a place in the garage for the tiny ones, so it was no real trouble to get them situated. They will stay in the totes for a week or so while I retrofit the nursery coop to accommodate them. I have to separate them from the six-week-old chicks we now have in the nursery coop, but that should not be a huge problem. We visited for a long time while we were there. We were in no particular hurry, so by the time we got back home, our day was spent. I had not gotten anything from my list of chores for the weekend accomplished, but we did get a lot of other things done.

Our Mission’s Conference started Sunday and it has been great. It makes for a busy week since we have services every night through Wednesday, but it also makes for a wonderful week of focus on the work of missions. Every so often we need to be reminded of the work that is at the heart of God – saving lost souls.