A cold start

(Click to enlarge and see the things hidden in this Beverly Doolittle painting)

4/7/07 Saturday
What a day yesterday was. Of course by the end of it I was too tired to write it all down. I’ll cover that in a bit. We are off to a cold start this morning. I woke up at six and the power was off. It has been popping on and off this morning and about an hour ago went off and has stayed that way. During the short periods we could watch the news we see that there is freezing rain all over our area. Just a few miles up north it’s snow and a few south it’s rain. They said that with the freezing rain on the power lines and tree branches were causing power outages all over the area. Thank God for the wood stove Amy gifted us with. Thanks again Amy. It’s a gift that keeps giving. What an example of your faith that is. It is seeing those few who actually practice what they say they believe that may bring me back to the fold. But there are so few of you. To my jaded eyes most people have a “God in a box” religion where they pick out the kind of God they want. It’s like going to a store of religion where you choose the belief system that is comfortable for your lifestyle and doesn’t really challenge you. Then you can be surrounded by others like you who pat you on the back and tell you how great you’re doing. There is a sense of security that is provided by that. Then there are those who will perform some little thing and parade it like it was a fantastic feat of self sacrifice, again to get the pats in the back. But the real ones do things out of compassion with no desire for recognition. That is giving from the heart. It might only be giving someone a dime but it carries more weight than giving a million dollars in order to gain the accolades of others.

So I digress. Cherie says it is snowing out now. That’s better than freezing rain though it won’t do the corn any good. The power just came back on. Time to bring some of the wood Kevin got for us in. Thanks Kevin. We’ll be burning that for the next two days. It’s not all the way dry but it makes heat. We have long since burned the dead wood I had cut out of the mulberry tree. Well, the power went back off.

Now to yesterday. When I went to wrap the well up so it wouldn’t freeze I found a surprise. The pressure tank Leroy had put in to replace the one shot out is half the size of the original. That didn’t set well at all. I called Leroy on the spot. He tried to avoid me pinning him down on this, telling me the smaller tank was just fine and would work well. “It didn’t cost as much” he said. I don’t care if it cost less or more, I wanted what was destroyed replaced apples for apples, not with a cheaper product. Especially because they were paying for the damages they caused. Finally Leroy conceded and asked me what I wanted him to do. That’s all I wanted to hear. “We’ll leave it as it is. I’m confident it will work fine but wanted to say my piece. I’ve done that so nuff said”.

When Leroy learned I had been digging the garden by hand he said he would bring his tractor out and till up an area. Now he didn’t find that out by accident, I brought it up on purpose because he told me he would do so when he first put the we in. I just talked about one of my creeds “Say what you mean and do what you say” in n earlier entry and it is a standard I hold others to. Leroy was quick to offer doing that again and I was equally quick to say it would be a blessing.

With that done I finished wrapping the well and came back to the house. There was a black pickup in the drive. I knew who it was. It was the guy who had interviewed Cherie for the job with the Department of Agriculture. She had been expecting him as he said he would be by to pick up her paperwork. Cherie also hoped to learn if she got the job or not. Here is the good news folks, SHE GOT THE JOB. It won’t really start till some time in May and is not a full time job but it is a perfect match for our plans and situation. She will do surveys of surrounding farms whenever there is a new batch of information the government desires to gather. There is no certainty of how much work there is in any given year but the pay is good and there is always something.

While we were talking Leroy drove up with his tractor on the trailer so I went out to talk with him. I had chosen an area that I was comfortable would not contain hidden surprises beneath the surface. There is so much I don’t know about this place. When I dug the beds for the corn I found all kinds of things like an exhaust manifold and broken auto glass.

Here is a picture of what he tilled. If that had been done earlier I could have had the whole garden planted. But if I had it would be all freezing right now. Leroy’s garden has been planted and many of his plants were well on the way but they will be hit hard by this freeze. We invited Leroy in for some coffee and talked a while. He doesn’t seem to have any issues with my earlier phone call so that would seem to be settled.

That’s it for now. The battery is going down so I’ll get this posted before it dies.

Here is a picture of the corn. I had planned to get it covered somehow and even wrote about doing so but as you can see it never happened. Not unusual here and part of the TBI curse where if it's out of site it is out of mind. This sometimes costs me. Oh well, such is life. No matter how bad it may be I am still blessed.