One Less Worry

     "Anyone who doubts that God will provide for His followers need only look at the meticulous care and love with which He maintains the natural world. If God adorns the flowers so beautiful, doesn't it make sense that he'd lavish even more support and love on His children"?
Matthew 6:28-29

     We arrived home last Thursday afternoon.  As we came down the drive, I noticed that all our Day Lilies were in bloom.  The farm looked to be well, except for Bucktooth Betty, who had lost weight and was acting sickly. 




     I made mack & cheese and hotdogs for a late lunch or early super... depending where folks were at on their eating schedule.  I did chores while the "kids" watched the movie "War Horse."  Joe mowed when he got home from work and Dan and Valencia took Alexsys to the train station.




     I decided Betty was too weak to eat on her own, so mixed her some baby bird feed that she was better able to eat.  It had the water and nutrients she needed.  She slowly ate the whole bowl full.

     Betty looked much worse Friday morning and I had to use an eyedropper to feed her because she would not eat out of the bowl as before.  I checked on her during the 40 minutes I had, between Water Lilies and taking Kaysha and Abbey to the vet for their annual shots.  I moved her to a hidden corner in the coop so she would not be disturbed.

     The trip to the vet was traumatic for the dog and cat, but went fairly quickly and without a hitch.  I did buy some expensive cat food to see if it will help Abbey gain weight and not throw up so often.

     After lunch I checked on Betty and she was so cold I moved her out into the sun.  This is when I noticed she had mites and other little bugs all over her skin between her feathers.  Evidently, her beak had gotten so bad she could no longer groom herself or eat.  I knew she was not going to make it and e-mailed Joe to prepare him to "take care of her" when he got home.

     I moved Betty under the lawn chair after she was warmed up, but then while Britney was out painting our picnic benches and a sign, she yelled because Hercules had grabbed Betty out from under the chair.  So, I moved her to this fenced off flower bed, not wanting to put her buggy body back in the coop.  It was warm but shady for her.














     These pretty wild flowers are growing along the fence, where they haven't gotten mowed down.  I'm not sure what they are, but I like them.  Trying to complete last weeks blog, I worked on weekly house and yard chores for a break.  I had the horses in during the heat of the day and then put on their fly masks and sprayed them before turning them back out into the back pasture with the cows.





     I checked on Betty and she had ants crawling on her.  I couldn't wait to have Joe put her out of her misery.  He called to say he was on his way home and I went out to dig the grave.  By the time I went to get Betty for Joe, Hercules or a chicken had bent the fence and drug her out of the flower bed... and pecked her comb all up.  I think she was already dead, but Joe made sure of it before burying her, while I sat far off, crying.  I guess now I have one less worry.

     I am ready to relinquish the labor and worry of keeping horses, cows, chickens and cats.  One reason I would like to scale down on our number of pets and livestock, is because they can result in hardship, often cause too much worry, and be so expensive.  They also really tie us down, making travel away from home complicated.  As much as I love them and love having them, I feel less critters would make my life so much easier.

      We plan to just take Amiga, Abbey, and Kaysha to Tennessee with us.  We will board Amiga at a stable where I can ride with other people, but it will allow us the freedom to take off for a vacation whenever we want.  I do think life off the farm, with no livestock, will make for less stress.  If I need a barn-cat or horse fix, I'll just go to the stable wherever I end up boarding.

     When I shut the chicken coop Friday night, I only counted seven chickens.  I recounted two more times.  Then I remembered, Bucktooth Betty was no longer with us.  One less chicken to count or worry about.

     It was a typical morning doing my feeding chores Saturday, except Bucktooth Betty wasn't first out of the coop.  And during the day I missed her following me around, begging for food. 






     Joe and I have decided to try selling this place (by owner) before spring.  We plan to put up a sign out front by the first of August.  We put together a "to do" list, consisting of several items that need to be tackled before we start showing the farm to any interested buyers.



     Tree trimming is an annual job, and with all the trees we have, takes a few days to do.  I worked on the trees along the drive to open up the view of the side pasture, since the horses have broken many of the low branches anyway.  Then, after Joe left to golf, I started mowing the front ditch, with the tractor, but ran out of gas.  Dan, who had also come to mow, ran out of gas too.  We both didn't want to bother with the effort of going to town for more fuel and gave up mowing for the day.   

     Joe and I went to see the Superman movie, but after watching two trailers and the start of the Monsters University movie, realized the movie we wanted to see was not showing.  We got up and left.  The theater had messed up the times in the paper, so gave us a refund. 



     Sunday morning's sunrise... had me thinking of the Matt Redman song - 10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)

"The sun comes up, 
it's a new day dawning
It's time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass, 
and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing 
when the evening comes"

     The trees in the above photo are some I trimmed the day before, leaving my right wrist really sore from all the sawing.  Joe rode to Church with me.  I worked in the nursery and he went to first service.  I met Britney for second service and Joe went to a poker tournament.  Britney and I went to four stores and then Courtney's for water on our way home.

     The day had gotten quite hot, so we shut windows and turned on the air.  Joe was eliminated halfway through the tournament and home earlier than expected.  We started on inside, spring cleaning tasks, like washing ceiling fan blades and some window shades.  I was feeling very lazy and was not much help.  I need more sleep at night, and a boost of energy.  Cathy had complained on Facebook that she lost her gumption.  My sentiments exactly.



     To aide in our digestion of dinner, Britney and I drove, with Kaysha, to a southwest Bloomington neighborhood to walk.  We quit early because the dog had gotten too hot.  Once home, I removed a window in the chicken coop and put up a screen, because it too was too hot and needed better air flow.  The apple tree that shades the coop has been dropping apples, but they are too small to mess with.

     Monday we dropped off the Expedition at Hutches then went to Water Lilies.  I continued with some tree trimming and finished mowing the front ditch while Britney dug up thistle in the back pasture and painted bare spots on the picnic shelter.  I keep the garden (and flowers) watered, and they all are thriving.  It reached 90 degrees... too hot to work much more outside, so I did computer searching and organization of our Tennessee house hunt while Britney did school work.  Joe and I ended the day with Growth Group as usual.

     Tuesday a load of sand came just before we left for Water Lilies.  It was dumped in three different piles.  Britney and I stayed inside all morning, working at our computers, then went out after lunch.  Britney did more thistle removal out in the very hot sun.

     I transplanted some Day Lilies from the field to around the shaded picnic shelter where there were bare spots.  Below, Hercules and the seven hens were keeping an eye on my digging project, wanting to get into the dirt.  I put up fencing to keep them all out.

     Joe moved the new sand into smaller piles when he got home, then I spread and smoothed it out even more.  Britney and I went to LeRoy to walk at dusk.  Afterwards, I had an ice cream while she drove the car home, exhibiting more self control than I.

     Wednesday morning I rode Roni in the newly refurbished round pen and then out and around the newly mowed pasture path, while Britney went to town to run with the high school team and then buy new running shoes at the new store her former Spanish teacher opened this summer.


     In the afternoon, Britney finished thistle removal and helped me pick a bunch of veggies from the garden... green beans, sugar snap peas, yellow squash, cucumber, and zucchini.  Missy was in on the action too.

     Dan and Valencia dropped by.  He put a new battery in his Caballero and got it out of storage, hosing it off to clean it up. Valencia helped with washing veggies, and I sent a bunch home with them once Dan was done messing around with his car.


     I cooked green beans for dinner and Joe grilled hot dogs.  These are our sugar snap peas, which are full of tasty pods. 










     At 7:30pm I met Lisa and Dayne at Moraine View and rode with them for an hour.  When we got back to the camp ground, Lisa and I rode Leo and Roni around, playing Leap Frog.  The person in back trots their horse past the one in front, going 30 or more yards ahead of them, while the person in back keeps their horse at a walk.  Then the new person in back does the same thing once the front horse is walking again.  It was really good practice for Leo and Roni.  Getting home after
dark, I set up fans in the barn for the horses, finally coming in at 10:30.

     After Water Lilies Thursday, Britney and I joined Shelly for breakfast at Jack's.  I ate a ton, came home and got quite sleepy, and didn't amount to much the rest of the day.  I moved horses in and out of the barn as usual, cleaned stalls, made sure all critters had cool, fresh water, etc.  It was 95 degrees and too hot to do any thing else outside, but for some reason, I had no motivation to work inside either.  Ugh!  Hercules wanted to come in and Kaysha wanted to go out.  

     I was up an hour before the break of dawn Friday.  I skipped Water Lilies and was out working in the yard by 7:30 instead.  I did a lot more tree trimming along with some weeding.

     I watched a video on "staging" your house before putting it on the market.  De-clutter, organization and cleanliness are the three key concepts.  I plan to do one room at a time, and started in our master bathroom.  I re-potted two of the plants, and moved them and a bench out, to give the room a more spacious feel.  Next I will wash the walls. 

     The chickens have trampled this Day Lily bed out front, while scratching around in it.  It looks nothing like it did at the start of the week when we came home from vacation.

     Dan and Valencia dropped in thinking Carol would be visiting, but her herding Fun Day had been cancelled due to the heat, so she wasn't coming.  I was still working outside and Joe was going to a poker tournament, so I had decided not to cook.  We ordered and picked up dinner from Jack's instead.

      My Rose of Sharon are looking pretty and will be blooming now until mid fall.  This will help with the "staging" of the outside of our house. 

                                                                 I'll have one less worry when...
this farm sells, we find our retirement home, I sell Roni, we no longer have all the farm chores, we get all our junk moved out of here and into our next home, etc. etc.  But!... who knows what new worries will crop up in Tennessee.  Mom always warned, "Out of the pot and into the fire".  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough
                                                           trouble of its own.  Matthew 6:25