Something new

Over the past two weeks, we have had four kids born into our herd. Jersey gave birth to two little girls, who are blues, and Minnie gave birth to a little chocolate boy and a little blue girl. The term “blue” is kind of applied loosely to the grayish coloring that the goats have because of Blue Boy as their father. One of the challenges Mama is facing today is that she has to take one of the two little girls from Jersey’s twins to the vet to find out why they go is so lethargic and seems to be in pain. We have no good understanding of what may have happened to the little one, but now, at less than two weeks old as she seems to be very stiff, not wanting to get up and move around not even wanting to nurse her mommy and that’s troubling. 

The unusual color of these four babies all four of them, the blues, and the chocolate, will make for easy high dollar sales of these baby goats so, we’re hoping that we can save the life of this little one, not only for the money that she might bring us, but just for the sake of saving her. 

Driving back and forth from Glenn Brose, every Thursday and Friday it’s going to be a challenge. Not a huge challenge, but a challenge, nonetheless. As I was talking to one of the men in church last night, who drives to Arlington every day, his commute to Arlington (much closer in mileage than Glen Rose) is about the same timeframe that my commute to Glen Rose, which is 92 miles away. Taken into perspective, it isn’t that big a deal, but it does chew up four hours in transit every Thursday, and four hours in transit every Friday. Long-term, I don’t know how this will work out, or how long I will keep this up, but for now being a part of the ministry of the Creation Evidence Museum is something that I enjoy. Whether I will get to continue to enjoy that is the question. 

Our garden has grown in scope and breath over the past couple of weeks as Grandpa, Mama, and Norman add plants to the garden. We now have blackberries blueberries, figs, along with all of the vegetables we have in the garden, and a few days ago Norman and Grandpa bought two grape vines to plant along the fence separating the garden from the backyard. If we get any production out of this garden, it will be the first time in nearly 15 years that Mama and I have gotten any produce out of the garden. 

I have to give a lot of credit to Norman and Grandpa for their fastidiousness, and tending to the garden, but also to Mama for her desire to have such a large garden. The good part is I haven’t had to do much of anything for the garden. It has all happened as I have worked on other things. 

Among those other things was the completion of the work needed to be done to the container, so that we could begin to move furniture and rugs into the container to occupy it. Last Saturday Mama loaded up the two shelving units I installed earlier in the week. We also put down two rugs in the container and added Mama’s glass desk to the sparse furniture we have inside. Will soon make it the workshop that we have wanted. 

I decided to try something new recently. Since I am having trouble dedicating the time to sit down at the computer through the day, I am exploring the possibility of just recording notes to my phone and sending those completed notes to the computer. I could then copy the notes into my blog. I do have time to sit and talk to my phone especially as I’m making the two hour drive each direction to and from Glenn Rose. I’m going to see if, even though the days when I am not in transit to the museum, I can just dictate notes to my phone and then compile those notes at the end of the day so I can continue my blog. It may not work out, but technology will allow me to do it, so I’m going to give it a shot and see if I can make this work. I do want to continue writing the blog. I do want to continue publishing it. But sitting down at the computer in the evening, when I have exhausted myself through the day has become problematic for me. So, I’m going to try an approach that will allow me to record in bursts throughout the day and then hopefully spend less time in the evening compiling those notes into the blog. We’ll see. 

At the museum, attached to the scanning electron microscope is a device called an EDS, which stands for Energy Distributive Spectroscopy. This allows us to see the elements in the sample that’s being scanned by the electron microscope. That makes for interesting observations as we take bones, either fossilized bones, or non-fossilized bones and look for organic material in those bones. Since the bones look like stone, it will be interesting to see how much of each sample is made up of carbon, which is indicative of life. The EDS will allow us to do just that.

It is fun to watch from my little atrium/labratory, where the scanning electron microscope is set up out into the museum. Several of the people who work in the labs spend time just talking with the crowds that come through, explaining to observers what they are actually looking at. Perhaps in the next few months, I will become one of those museum guides to try and give context to the displays that are nearest to the laboratory. But, for now, I allow those who are far more experienced in that interaction to handle those discussions. 

Since this week happens to be spring break in Texas, the crowds at the museum have been pretty big every day. I am told that this week the museum will see about 2000 visitors - as compared to weeks in January February when they might see 100 visitors each week. The people coming through seem genuinely interested in the displays. It’s nice to have evidence, something we can see with our eyes, that compares to what the Bible record has told us was true all along. 

Meanwhile, back at the farm, the vet told Mama that the baby goat we have been worried over may not be in a life-threatening situation. She definitely has an infection and is in considerable pain, but it does not appear that what she has is life-threatening. We will have to maintain a close eye on her to ensure that we get her past this infection to a full recovery but for now Mama is relieved that the problems the tiny one is suffering is curable. 

Maggie and her crew have managed to stay sick for some time now. The last victim has been Walter’ who has a serious case of flu. This too shall pass but it seems to have been an ongoing issue for them more than three or four weeks now. I am hoping and praying they can get well, especially Walter seems to take these kinds of infections very poorly.

Please keep them in your prayers.