Dead as she sits, Declined, new porch, church

Early Saturday morning, I went to the equipment shed where we had the tractor parked and climbed into the seat, put in the key and turned it. Nothing. I checked the placement of all the gear shifts and the brake. Tried again. Nothing. Then I started to really troubleshoot. As I did, I found two groups of wires in the wire harness for the safety switches had been chewed through. I tried to repair one of the two breaches, but when I finally looked at the second, I discovered there was no way to repair it. It would have to be completely replaced. The rat or squirrel had chewed it through right above the connector. I gave up hope of any immediate repairs and called the tractor service center near us. They have to order the harness; $140. Not overwhelming in price. It will be overwhelming in the work required to install it. Hopefully, Grandpa can help. But it will be Thursday evening at the earliest before we can work in it. So, the tractor is dead where it sits. I told Mama I have had two bad experiences when parking the tractor under the equipment shed. I will not do so again. I feel badly leaving it out in the yard, but I have far less issues when I do.

With my plans for the morning shot, Mama and I headed to Costco. We had nothing particular to buy there but it has been a while since we had been in the store. There are a few items we knew were available there, but nothing urgent. Of course, it was very crowded when we got there. Saturday morning, just after opening. We ran into an issue at the door. Costco was not allowing anyone in the store without a mask. To be fair to Costco, everyone was required to wear a mask. No exceptions. Fair enough. It is certainly their prerogative to do so. I immediately turned back to the car. I had had a bad morning and did not want to say anything to the persons at the door to voice my objections. There is nothing they can do  and everyone else was complying. Mama, however, was not going to leave without saying something. Fifteen minutes away was Sam’s. They are not requiring masks to be worn to shop in their store, so we shopped there. You may ask why we did not comply? Not only is there no efficacy to wearing a mask, it is actually harmful for healthy people to do so. That truth will slowly come out over the next few months, but it will be hidden for as long as possible. It is a symbolic gesture. Nothing more. If Costco had required me to put on a red arm band in order to enter the store, I would not have complied. Sam’s has everything we need without the imposition of restrictions. It is like a fancy restaurant requiring a certain type of clothing to admit a patron. I have no issue with that, but there are lots of other places to eat if I do not choose to meet their demands.

Once we got home, I was not immediately focused on what to do. My tractor was down and all the plans I had for that were shot. So, I wandered around the shop looking at what materials I had. It dawned on me that I had enough pieces to start the porch on our little coop building. Since it is permanently (at least as much as we do so here on the farm) set, it needed a porch. I had a choice of facing the coop building either East or North when it was built several years ago. I chose North. It made the building more accessible and easier to watch relative to the house. The little coop was set to match, but since many of our storms come in from the North, it needed a porch with a cover to block some of the rain that will surely come. I got to the point where I needed more materials to complete the project. That will happen later in the week because we have church every night through Wednesday.

The Walker family is with us for the services. Yesterday’ services were great. We met in the fellowship hall, properly spaced out to maintain our imposed distances – sort of. It all worked out. DW, the eldest son gave a Sunday School lesson yesterday morning. It was as humorous as it was impactful.  Aimed at the children but speaking to the adults some Eternal truths as well. We sang one congregational which I was asked to lead. But after the first verse I had to ask those playing the instruments to lower it because it was way too high for me and singing it an octave lower would have been too low for the congregation. I found it is a bit harder to find my starting note when singing with instruments versus hearing the piano. No one minded the hiccup. In each service the Walkers sand a couple additional songs and Bro Walker preached. It was relaxing, enjoyable and uplifting. It was reviving.

Tonight, we will go back for more.