Can you guess what they are now?

Little Big Man

Piglets?

So it's been, not 21, but 28 days since both of the girls last heat cycles.  I have not noticed any signs of heat in either of them.  Could they be knocked up?  Buns in the oven?  Cookin' bacon?  With piglet?  Preggers? 

EEEEK!  I"m so excited!!!

For the Bible Tells Me So.....

Cling to God like tighty whities to a man.

Jeremiah 13:11

My Dragonflies

I was walking Jon out to the car as he was leaving for the day.  Something caught my eye above me.  I looked up and the sky was filled with Dragonflies!  We walked across the yard to discuss our current project and there again the air above us was filled with dragonflies.  I went inside to grab Andy (my android).  When I got back outside there were no dragonflies.  In a few seconds of standing there they appeared again!

The dragonflies were following us!!!  How cool is that?!  I thought we probably wouldn't have dragonflies this year because of the drought.  Guess I was wrong.  I love my dragonflies.

Farewell Ploppy

Or should I say Mary.

I was completely correct in my assumption that Mary (aka Ploppy), was a 4-H project and some little girl was home crying over her lost cow.  Except in this case the poor little girl was away at church camp so she didn't know Mary was missing yet.  IF she had been home she would have been crying over her poor lost cow.  We did get to meet another neighbor though, and one who will have milk in September!  What's better than a milk cow?  A neighbor who has a milk cow and is extremely grateful for you keeping his daughters prize winning milk cow safe!  Yippee!!  I can taste the cheese already!

On another note, I'm not sure I will ever get used to small town people (not trying to be condescending)thinking that I know everyone that they know.  It's always extremely awkward when someone you just met refers to a third party as if they were both of your closest friends yet you really have no idea who they are talking about.  In a way it's quite endearing and I'm sure in a few years I may actually know who all the players are and be in the same game.  I also don't like it when people refer to THEIR mother as mom in a sentence.  It really bugs me.  They should say MY MOM, not just mom.  But now I'm just rambling.

"PLOP"

It's a running joke around here....well not really a joke....that if we want or need something then "PLOP", It falls from the sky.  God is nifty that way.

We wanted a nicer house...PLOP

Wanted a fort. "PLOP". Nature had made one already.

Wanted Horses. "PLOP". "PLOP".

Wanted a rolling desk. Jon was on his way to Wal-Mart to by one. "PLOP" The exact one was on the side of the road.

Wanted Livestock Guardian Dogs. "PLOP"

Well the next thing on my list was a milk cow. I really want a milk cow. Remember the 3 cows in our front yard on Sunday?  Well they got close enough that we could see their brands.  They were our landlords so we put them back in.  The next day I was out weeding in the garden.  All of the sudden I hear: clop, clop, clop, clop.  I look up to see another cow out.  I was kind of confused at first because the area of the fence she would have escaped from was right next to me and I for sure would have heard her jump it.  Oh well, I thought.  I'll just put her back in.  On the way to the gate I got a good look at her.  She didn't look like any of Mr. Lancaster's other cows.  She had a distinctly "dairy" look about her.  I've been studying up on cows, but what do I know?  The next day our landlord came by and we got to talking.  I asked if he found where the cows were getting through and he said yes but he was still missing two.  He also said he had a stray in there!  I said which one, the one that looks like a Jersy?  He said yes, but that it was a Brown Swiss.  Then he said "I guess you have your milking cow." 

"PLOP!!!!"

And yes we are trying to figure out who she belongs to.  Either God delivered her to me fully trained and socialized or someone has put a lot of time into her.  She doesn't mind being approached or pet.  She's very sweet and we will love her forever if she stays.  Maybe I should name her "Ploppy".

A little Insight and a Soap Box

Ok...In response to so many people calling and emailing asking me if I'm ok.  Yes I'm fine.  I'll always be fine.  My hope and strength is Christ who is greater than I.  That post wasn't written in the depths of the pit, but in reflection over 20 years of falling and being rescued.  I'm fine and I will be fine.  I'll have my moments, days, months.  But I'll be rescued.

My reaction to these questions in typical melancholy (the personality) form is: "I guess I need more writing classes."  Although I was compared to Hemingway and he has a collection of furniture dedicated to him now.  My intention in writing the previous post was to be encouraging to others who might feel that they are the only ones who feel that way, or that there is no hope.  

Now the soap box.

Our culture is afraid to feel.  Not only are we afraid to feel pain and sadness as indicated for the wide variety of drugs available to eliminate them, but we are timid in joy and pleasure as indicated by the typical Sunday Morning church service. Someone mentioned that I always seem so happy and carefree in my posts and that this one seemed such a drastic difference.  How could two such extremes follow each other?  They don't!  I feel them both at the same time!  One might think they would explode experiencing such extreme emotions simultaneously. CORRECT!!  You do explode....into song, the written page, canvas, or a dance floor.  Don't be afraid to feel, even if it's sadness.  Some of the most moving symphonies, beautiful paintings, and touching hymns were created in the midst of turmoil and pain.  Yet they were able to feel the joy and peace that passes understanding all at once.  FEEL!  Embrace your emotions.  GOD GAVE THEM TO YOU!  We are special and unique among creation.  CREATE!  Creation itself was born out of longing for relationship.  How much can you feel at once?  What can you create from that?

*Quarter Turn Arabian Soap Box Dismount*

(disclaimer:  I do acknowledge that there are conditions and circumstances that warrant medication and I'm not suggesting that anyone stop their meds not seek professional help for a serious issues.)

For those of you who struggle......

Where did I go?  Where have I been?  What dark hole swallowed me up?  I feel like the girl who fell down the well.  There I was playing happily in the safe, sunlit world and then I was falling into darkness and loneliness.  Swallowed up by the night and squeezed in on all sides.  I couldn't move.  I couldn't breath.  I couldn't see, and there was no way out.  There was pain and panic.  For a long while I struggled and slipped back.  Then, my strength depleted, I resigned myself to live out my life in the unyielding pit.  Because unlike her, no one was looking for me.  No one looks for you when you fall into yourself and into a hole of depression.  To everyone else you look, feel, sound the same.  They don't know that you're really trapped and broken somewhere needing rescue.  They don't know that you screamed for help so long you lost your voice.  It's not their fault.  You couldn't tell them. 

But help was on the way.  It didn't come from the tiny point of light far above me that had been my hope.  It did not come how I expected it.  Someone had been carefully, oh so slowly as to not cave me in, digging along side of me all along.  He was prying away and removing, piece by hard packed piece, the dirt and rock that surrounded me.  Suddenly He was there.  It was only a small breech of my suffocating prison, but I wasn't alone.  There was air.  There was hope.  Hope renewed my strength. 

There's still work to be done.  Sometimes the excavation hurts, pushing in on me tighter.  Sometimes things are knocked loose and the air chokes me.  I have to trust that it's for my good and not my harm.  He's coming to save me.  I will walk in the light and air again.  I will be free.

New Additions

The thing about farming is that everyday...nay....every hour can bring a surprise. These guys were in our front yard this morning. We can't find out where they got through the fence so there is a possibility that they just wandered up the driveway from someone elses property and not our landlords.

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Freedom Celebration

We had such a good time this weekend.  There was a great group of family and friends here.  We ate, went hiking, ate, swimming in the river, ate, popped fire crackers, ate, talked, ate, sang, and ate!  I'm officially exhausted.  We did reserve some fireworks for yesterday to do on our own when people left but it was actually threatening to rain and there was lightning!  So we will probably have a late 4th fireworks show tonight.  Lots of news on the farm though.  I'll try and get pictures to do it justice though.  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

Best Nephew EVER!

Hiking and swimming at Chickasaw National Recreation Area.

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After Bath Aftermath

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Peeping Roo

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Look What I Got!

Do you know what these are?

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