The rain, the doctor, the social

Overnight and into this morning we got an accumulated two inches of rain. We are in bad need of the rain, so it was a blessing. The main issues we deal with when we have that volume of rain is the flooding under the chicken coop because the water has no outlet at the front of the coop building and the softening of the ground. Mama and I must have a bad mole problem because we are seeing multitudes of their tunnels around the farm, especially near the animals. When we get this amount of rain all those hollowed out areas flood with water and get very soft. As she tended to the chickens this morning Mama sank into a hole that almost took her boot off. I will have to figure out a way to deal with the moles as well as their topside cousins, the mice. We seem to be overrun with both at the moment. I have had very poor success controlling the mice in the house. I have set out dozens of traps and have caught only a couple mice. I have no idea how to deal with the moles, but the rain makes their handywork a mess when navigating the areas where they have been working underground.

The rain is supposed to continue off and on for the next couple of days with a total of another inch expected. I had planned on working the hives Saturday but that will have to wait until Monday when we are expected to be dryer and warmer. There is no particular hurry for the work I need to get done for the bees, but the timing is fairly set as far as the season is concerned. Honey supers are supposed to go on the hives at the first of May – for our area. That ensures enough time for the bees to fill the suers with honey by early fall. Since we have no plans for Monday evening, I should be easily able to get the honey supers installed, refill the syrup feeder for the newest hive and reposition the candy boards I have left on three of the hives above the honey supers easily. The entire activity should only take about an hour. Perhaps a little longer, but not much more than that.

I took off a few hours from work this morning because of a doctor’s appointment I had early in the day. I got a very good report from the doctor. My blood pressure was right in line with what they want – and what I want – and all my recent lab work was in range. I did get more blood work done this morning and I should have those results in a couple days. I anticipate that there will be no change to the regimen of meds I am on to manipulate my body to perform according to requirements set forth by my doctors. It is a sad state of affairs when you have to take medications to be “normal”, but it is a great alternative to dying from a condition that can be easily remedied with a tiny pill. It seems to be a good tradeoff for now.

Last night after church, we had a social. Our first for over a year where we were allowed to bring the desserts from which everyone could serve themselves. There was plenty of hand sanitizer set out, not that I used any, but it was available for everyone should they choose to apply it. The activity, the conversation, the play of all the children that were there with their parents let to a noisy gathering. It was wonderful. Something I have missed for over a year. What was the risk to any one of us? No more than handling canned goods or bags of chips at any of the local stores where those items are placed on shelves by persons who are not wearing gloves. Those same items are handled by shoppers who are not wearing gloves. Don’t get me wrong. I am not in favor of everyone being required to wear gloves of masks, but what the germ police see as desperately needed, I see as wholly unnecessary.

All this continued fear mongering puts our pastor is a problematic position. Trying to balance the church interaction between those who still live in great fear with those of us who feel the fear is manufactured cannot be an easy task. We still have several people at our church that have been fully vaccinated yet still wear masks all the time. That amazes me. But these are people I love and while I do not want to add to their fears, I will not live in fear with them. Those who are still masked up did not attend the fellowship last night, but they did not fault those of us who did. Nor did we fault them.

Hopefully, they will not find fault with our pastor as he tries to find enough common ground to keep most of her congregation happy.