Leg of lamb, Honduras news, loose teeth, Mama

Saturday afternoon I roasted/smoked a leg of lamb on the grill. Since I knew it would be difficult to tell if the meat was cooked properly because of the large bone in the roast, I used a temperature probe to tell me when the roast had gotten to 165° F – the suggested temperature at which I should have gotten the meat to the medium well stage. It worked out perfectly. There were a couple strips of meat I cut off the bone that were more of a medium rare, but that was fine with me. The meat we got from the roast is so tender we can cut it with a fork and the flavor is delicious. Mama is hesitant to eat the meat because it has a dark color to it, not unlike roast beef, but she has an aversion to “dark” meat for some unexplainable reason and will painstakingly avoid all dark meat on a chicken. I, on the other hand, love dark meat (especially chicken) so I have enjoyed the roast lamb. I have encouraged her to give the meat a try since it is on the beneficials listing for her blood type. It is on my avoids, so I will be judicious in eating it, but I do not want to see it go to waste.

I got the chance to talk to Cori last night and catch up on a few prayer requests. Cori is dealing with some significant flareups of pain in her joints – especially her knees, but her shoulders, wrists and chest as well. Most of the pains are related to heat and stress. Some are related to diet. Being in Honduras limits the resources for mitigating the pain as some remedies we have here are not available there, but she has found enough relief to make it through each day. Praise the Lord!

Nate is spending a lot of time to prepare himself to preach and teach. It is not necessarily a matter of the material development to deliver teaching lessons or sermons, it is more a concern with the delivery of those speaking engagements. All are of necessity presented in Spanish, and that language is not yet as fluid for him as he would like.  He is getting there, but still needs time to practice the delivery to make that delivery smooth and comfortable. All that requires time. The remarkable part is that all the time spent now in practice will produce results that will last a lifetime, so it is time well invested.

As we talked, I found out that Savanna is losing the first of her baby teeth. She and Bridgette seem to be going through the losses at the same time and both our granddaughters have taken it upon themselves to do their own extractions of any and all loose teeth. Savanna told Mama/Grammy that with her last tooth, it hurt to pull the loose tooth but she “yanked the snot out of it” and it came right out. Bridgette, in the other hand, wiggled and twisted her loose tooth until it came loose. Either way works.

I spent the evening yesterday cleaning the wellhouse. Mama, who checked on me several times, was a little surprised by the detail I went to in getting the totes cleaned off and rearranged as well as getting the shelves cleaned and the floor swept. It was long overdue, but the amount of mouse droppings was far less than I had expected, but it was good to get everything at least brushed off and somewhat cleaned. I only got half of the wellhouse cleaned because of the time it took to get one wall done. The other half should be done this evening if time permits. In order to get the most out of the cleaning, I will need to replace the threshold of the entry door. That repair will take some time, but I am planning on having it done this week so that there will be less air blowing under that door into the wellhouse. That way our wellhouse will be sealed up against the winter and somewhat better sealed against the dirt and dust that has been blowing in under the door.

The creep feeder I built for the goats has had less that stellar success. The little ones, which are the only goats that can access the restricted area are very hesitant to go into the space. They are content with the feed they can get as they compete with the older, larger goats during the morning and evening feedings. Our little male, who is half the size of his sisters, is getting no milk from his mother. That was the urgent reason for setting up the creep feeder, but he is not accessing the feed placed in the smaller troughs in the creep feeder. Hopefully, he will figure it out, but for now he is getting enough feed to stay fat and healthy. Albeit smaller.

Mama had been very busy with her Color Street business. She is excited. It is exciting from my viewpoint to see her business grow and prosper. We have made it a matter of much prayer and it is wonderful to see those prayers being answered.