Livestock, Becky, work/life balance

Daisy and Dash are back in their own pasture but I get the distinct impression that neither of them is happy about it. I believe she will settle into the routine Mama will get going for them but they are herd animals and they will miss the friends they made in the pasture with the bull and his harem. The downside is that I will have to buy hay to begin feeding out very soon because there is not enough grass in the four or so acres we have her and Dash on to support them without supplementation.

Mama’s two guineas seem to be doing well for now. The larger one is very confined in the cage where she is housing them but we should be able to change that this weekend. We have a cage set up in the chicken coop but Mama is afraid that the guinea will either get out of that cage or could be eaten by a hungry snake – since the cage is sitting on the ground in the yard area of the coop. I can’t argue with that assessment; especially since we have taken several large snakes out of the coop recently.

Becky called Mama yesterday to announce that she was leaving the man she has been with recently. (I never bothered to learn his name.) But I suppose those of you who see her posts on Facebook already know that; she is not shy about it. The relationship actually lasted longer than I had anticipated. I do not know her future plans nor to where Mama and I will have to travel to meet Becky and her child, nor what last name the child will have. It is not a situation I envisioned for my children as I was raising them.

I continue to show up for work every required day but there is very little happening. No projects in the pipeline, no discussions about taking on future projects, no assignments for anything past maintaining the current state of business. As we draw closer to the layoff announcements it will be even more oppressively silent. September will be a very long month for us – if we make it that long.

The price of our company stock has fallen further in the past several days and that has to be worrying the upper management of this company. All the financial signs point to the inescapable truth that even what they plan to do by the end of this year will not be enough to reverse the dire financial situation we are in corporately. Those who survive this round of layoffs will face the same situation next year and quite possible the year after that.

I was telling Mama last night that it is nearly impossible not to be overcome by the melancholy that hovers over us every day but I know we have more to hope for than what my employer offers. I know in my heart that God will take care of me and Mama but I struggle to get my mind to join in the certainty. But the truth is, I do not have to see the answer to know there is one. I do not have to see the path forward to know God has placed one before me; one that will give Him the glory and produce good in my life.

So I count me blessings; a goods wife, a good home, a place to raise our meat and grow our food, good health and a positive balance in the bank. We are off to a very good start.