Our normal, gifts, prep for travel

Thing have been quiet and normal at the farm for the past few days. That is a blessing considering what has been going on around us in our nation and in the world. The overlapping stories and rebuttals, the shouting down of one narrative versus another, the lies being exposed and the posturing of those now proven to have lied is enough to put a rational person in a prolonged bad mood. But when I look carefully at our animals there is a powerful object lesson the be learned. Our chickens don’t care about the political turmoil. They still like Mama’s treats and they continue to lay eggs for us. Our goats don’t care. They still want to be fed twice daily and will try to knock you down to be the first at the feed trough even though they know that the feed will be the same as it has been every day prior. The dogs don’t care. They still want our attention and the still work hard to protect our property. Their dependence on us for their daily needs reminds of our dependence on our Heavenly Father for our daily needs. There is a constancy for us.

We still need to do our part to make things right in the world, but we cannot be so distracted by all the hubbub that we lose focus on those things that anchor us to truth and reality. Our garden will still grow in spite of the confusion around us. We will still eat several meals daily in spite of the cost of everyday items rising faster than we imagined possible. I cannot say that we are unaffected by the condition of the world around us, we just get the chance to compare that to something predictable, something reassuring in our everyday lives – more so that many around us who are absorbed in the conflict, wasting so much emotional energy on things that we have little influence to change. Little ability to determine the outcomes for the better. So, Mama and I pray, we plant, we feed, and we stay alert for the chance to make a difference. Limited though those chances will be. We connect with others at the individual level and keep our local connections current. We may not be able to affect the nation, but we can affect the neighborhood.

Mama is on a shopping mission today for one of those individual connections. She bought a Bible for Yilin for her birthday but has not been able so far to get a case for that Bible. Today she hopes to rectify that fault. This has been a several weeks long frustration for Mama. Since Yilin's birthday was last week, Mama decided to make the trip today in the hope of finding the Bible case she has her heart set on so the gift can be completed and given. Mama will make several other stops in her outing, but we are guarding our finances for the trips we have planned for the two weekends coming up after this weekend. One trip will be to Amarillo and one to New Jersey. We are excited about both visits and Victoria has arranged time off for each of the trips, which excites Zoe and Sophia immensely. It cannot remember for certain, but this might the first time Victoria and Gailyn will meet. That will be fun.

In our absence from the farm for each of those trips, Trace will take over the feeding and care of the flocks and herds. Both he and Mama are fretting about that, but Trace, to his credit, has gone with both me and Mama multiple times to see how things are done in all the areas where feed is put out and water is provided. He is learning all the hidey holes our chickens seek out to lay eggs when they do not want to make the trip back to the nesting boxes in the coop. He has taken a good deal of time to try to learn all the nuances of Mama’s thinking for providing treats, keeping our two roosters apart, and looking for stragglers every night to ensure all the chickens have come home to roost. Something we definitely think of in a positive way. Barring any unusual circumstances, he will do fine. My only concerns are with the weather and that he knows what to protect from overnight freezes. Ultimately, we will deal with what we find when we get back, but I think Trace has a good enough handle on the major needs of all the animals. All the idiosyncrasies of Mama’s logic are still not fully known to me.

Trace will certainly not master them before we leave.