Trust, travel

Life conspired against me yesterday, as is often the case when we make our plans, and I was not able to service my beehives. I will take the time on my lunch break today to treat the hives as required, but they will be on their own for the next week. That is not typically an issue, but with bees, timing is of the greatest importance. As a beekeeper, I have to meet their timing to ensure the bees have all they need to expand the hive and produce the excess honey we are wanting to harvest. At this time, I do not think a week’s delay will be a bad thing, but I will know for certain when I get back. Although I have been disappointed at times with the progress of the hives – mostly from my lack of expertise – I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the bees. The more I learn about them, the more amazed I am at God’s creative insight when He made all things and pronounced it “very good”.

Mama is beginning to harvest spinach and kale from our raised bed. Onions are close to being ready for harvest and all the vegetables are growing as expected. It is a little frightening to leave the garden for a week when things look so good, but there may be enough rainfall in our absence to water the garden so that Tres will not be overtasked with that chore.  Over the past couple days Mama has made Strawberry Freezer Jam with strawberries purchased from Sam’s. Meanwhile, the strawberry plants I placed in one of the circles in our back patio are starting to produce fruit. Fortunately, all the fruit trees and bushes are several weeks away from having any ripened fruit, so our week away will not short circuit gathering that produce. It is really just a matter of Tres keeping things healthy until we get back. As far as I can tell, we have him set up to do so on a schedule he can fulfill and he is a very conscientious person.

Mama’s other big concern is the incubator and the possibility that one or more of the eggs in that incubator might hatch in during our travels. If that does happen, Mama does not want to burden Tres with caring for hatchlings in addition to all the other chores he will be responsible for. So, she has been seeking someone who could take the incubator home with them to babysit our eggs. Yesterday the Burns’ agreed to do so. Aliza is thrilled at the possibility of watching an egg hatch, so we know it will be closely monitored through the next week. I have been apathetic about the potential hatchlings, but now I am hoping one or two of the eggs do hatch while we are traveling just so Aliza’s expectations can be realized.

So, as of tomorrow morning, all our farm responsibilities will be assumed by others in whom our trust is placed. It will be nice on our part to have a week off, but we love our life here and we love all the busy-ness of the farm, so it is with some little apprehension that we turn those responsibilities over to others. Mama, for her part, has multiple little idiosyncrasies in her routines that are known only to herself. I can get close to emulating those routines, but never match them and when she tries to expound those idiosyncrasies to me it does little good. Her reasoning behind those particular actions is unique to her alone. When Mama tries to explain her normal routine to someone stepping into her role in caring for our farm animals, I often see the bewilderment in their faces as she shares that information with them. All will work out well in our absence, but the animals may be a little confused at how those necessary chores are carried out as it will vary from the routine Mama has adapted them to under her care. The goats and chickens may be confused but they will be adequately cared for…we trust.

As the packing continues and the pile of items required to be packed into the Sequoia grows, I am glad we drive the vehicle we do. Many have asked us recently about the cost of fueling such a large vehicle, but the tradeoff in owning and operating a smaller vehicle is not reasonable for Mama and me. We too often need the extra capacity of the larger vehicle and for that we willingly pay the upcharge in operating expenses. Our lives revolve less around the idea of supplying just our needs, but rather in what we can do to serve others. The larger vehicle allows us to be of greater service to others while still meeting our needs. Plus, our farm life many times prospers because we can do more with the vehicles we have than would be possible if we drove anything much smaller. So far, we are able to maintain what we have even with the high fuel costs. If that should change, we would adapt our lives accordingly. But for now, we enjoy the extra benefits of driving the Sequoia.

Please pray that the Lord will bless us as we travel especially with safety on the road, and that our vehicle will continue to run well through the miles we have to cover in this trip. Pray for Nate and Cori and the kids as well as they make the most of this short stay to the US. They have already covered a thousand miles or more in meeting their obligations to BIMI (the Mission’s Board that coordinates their support in Honduras) while they are here. There is still much they need to accomplish in these few days in addition to a couple days of downtime with us.

God is good and we hope to make the most of these next few days as well.