Doing our best, Fall, new to us

Mama met with a friend a couple days ago whose 45-year-old son is dying from alcohol induced terminal illnesses. It is a very sad story. But not, unfortunately, uncommon. Another friend of ours at church has a son about the same age that has been sent to prison for twelve years for a drug possession and distribution charge. That son, like the alcoholic son walked a long but predictable road to their own destruction. No intervention was sufficient for either son and now their families are suffering as well with the consequences of those destroyed lives. The families of the sons may not bear the penalty of the choices that led to the current circumstances, death or imprisonment, but they will bear the loss, the regret, the guilt of the “if only I had” or “is this partly my fault” accusations that will haunt their thoughts for many years.

Such are the musings of many parents that, though they had done the best they knew how to raise their children, have nonetheless, watched certain of their children make one bad decision after another leading them to a very certain end. It is sad, especially when the outcomes are so predictable; yet every warning offered, every caution spoken are scoffed at and trivialized. The Lord allows us to each make our own mistakes and forgiveness is available when sought from a sincere heart. However, though the sins are forgiven, the heart is set right, and the penalty for our sins has been paid in full, the consequences of our errant decisions and presumptuous sins can affect our lives and the lives of others – especially those who love and cherish us - for many years to come. My cautionary note: If you have someone who loves you cautioning you about something you are doing or allowing in your life, take the words to heart and at least give that person a fair hearing. It may save you from years of hurt and loss.

Mama and I have the windows open today. It was just over sixty degrees outside in the early morning. The ground is still moist from the inch and one half of rain we had overnight Wednesday, so the dust is minimized as a light breeze stirs the leaves on the trees. The change in weather happened so quickly. Only a week ago we had high temperatures near one hundred degrees. Then, overnight the forecast changed, and we will have days with high temperatures in the low eighties and nights in the forties and fifties. We moved from Summer into Fall in just one day. Our animals are loving it!

Norman who has been staying with us, has been doing several remodeling jobs in the area. One took him almost a month and he was able to stay in the house he was working on as he worked. Anyway, he has come across multiple items in those renovations that he has passed on to Mama and me. The most recent of which is a table and chairs that are absolutely perfect for our eating area. Mama and I have been through four table and chair combinations over the last two months and none of those arrangements seemed to fit all we were needing in that small dining area. Until now. This set is everything we did not know we were looking for, but nonetheless wanted. It is an oak pedestal table with one leaf that can be inserted to expand the table. The four chairs are the most comfortable we have had in any of our dining areas. The pedestal design allows Mama to prop her feet up as she sits at the table. That is the first of its kind for us. With Norman’s help we installed it yesterday placing the higher table with the granite top in the sunroom.

Also in his travels, Norman located for us a one-time rabbit cage that we have repurposed into a quail condo. It was into that that we put the recently hatched quail. Only five managed to survive but at least we have that small success. So, to bring some new genetics into our quail flock we are negotiating the purchase of hatchlings from a coworker who recently set up a large quail farm operation. The newly established quail breeder sells fertile eggs for one dollar each. They also sell hatchlings and young quail, up to three weeks old, for three dollars each. We will probably buy the older quail in the hope that we can distinguish males from females at two to three weeks. That would take some of the disappointment out of raising hatchlings to discover that the majority of them are male. Not that that is a bad thing, since we can eat the overage. At least, I can. Mama and Victoria are reluctant to eat what we raise, be it birds, goats, or sheep.

Last night I candled the duck eggs we had in the larger incubator. Twelve were viable and nine were clearly not fertile. Those that were not viable were removed. The twelve viable eggs should be hatching by the 16^th. It is fun to candle the eggs at this point. You can actually see the embryonic duckling moving around in the egg. It is kind of freaky looking because mostly all that can be seen are large blood vessels and a dark shape, but it is clear that there is a live, developing ducking in the eggs. Only a few more days to wait. Again, we will not be able to determine males from females for months after they hatch, and again, we will cull the males from the mature ducks and either process them for me to eat or sell them to someone else to eat.

Either way, we come out alright.