Praise, leaves, travel

Good news from Honduras. Cori told Mama that the medical team that worked the clinic earlier this week treated over 3,800 patients. 166 of those made professions for Christ. That is pretty amazing. Mama and I wish we could have been a part of that ministry. Maybe next time. The medical team headed home yesterday so Nate, Cori and the kids should be getting back to normal today. What a good report Matt will have to give to the church on Sunday.


Yesterday evening Mama and I spent about an hour mulching leaves. She mulched leaves in the front yard, the back yard, the coop area and the goat enclosure. I used a large leaf rake to move the leaves away from trees, fences and other obstacles so Mama could reach them with the mower. My eyes are burning this morning from all the dust the mulching/mowing stirred up. It did not take long using the mower to help us recycle the leaves. We left a drift of leaves at the fence on the west side of the house so the big dogs could bed down in them on cold nights. I am not sure they will be able to do so this weekend because we are supposed to get rain before the cold comes. In those instances, they sleep on the front porch – pressed against the door. We still have huge accumulations of leaves in the pasture areas of the farm. Mama and I will have to team up on those areas. Her on the mower. Me on the brush hog. That will take longer than the yards and animal enclosures took. But it does the farm good to have the leaves chopped up so they will decompose faster and more evenly. Our farm ground had been too long neglected when Mama and I took over. It will take a lot of lime, fertilizer and mulching the annual leaf piles to infuse some health into the ground. But those are small improvements done in stages over multiple years. So far, I believe we are gaining but it will be another five years before we know for sure we have reversed the neglect.


For now, the coop is clean, the hog building is clean and the leaves near the house have been shredded. Mama and I are ready to take the afternoon and travel to Lawton. I took only a half-day vacation so I can conserve the time I have this year in case my departure schedule has to be extended. We may need the vacation time to make a couple early auctions in Arkansas – which start April 2^nd. Mama and I may get a better feel to a timeframe as we talk with Glenn this afternoon, but I am not counting on that. There is only so much he can do to help us as we get started. We will have to meet the pace set by the business to make sure I do not get ahead of our money at the beginning.


Brittany and Mama were talking last night about a special ceremony Andrew is participating in for the commissioning of the aircraft he has been studying to fly. There will be a big ceremony next Friday at the base in Wichita Falls. Families of the commissioning team are invited. In fact, they are encouraged to attend. Mama kind of invited us to attend. Brittany was thrilled by our interest. It is a very big deal for Andrew, and he has no family that can make the event. I do not know the details of the ceremony or the actual time table for that and the reception following, but Mama seemed excited about going - if only as an excuse to visit the twins. While Brittany and Andrew are close enough for us to get to, we need to take advantage of every opportunity to spend time with the babies. We are planning on heading up either Thursday evening after work or leaving very early Friday morning. Knowing Mama, we will go earlier rather than later.


That is one of the things we will talk about as we travel this afternoon.