Tim the Toolman!

 Tim the Toolman!

 

My admiration for Lewis’ ability to use all kinds of tools was renewed tonight. Patty wanted a couple of brackets placed in an inner window from her dining room to another room so that she could finish hanging up some blinds. The spot was awkward to get to, and the wood was like cement, but my drill bits did the work of drilling the holes. Then came the F U N part! Yes, it took some of those words that Lewis used to use quite often. Getting the screws started into the holes just about flummoxed both of us. Turning my back to the other room, reaching above my head, lifting the heavy drill with its bit placed into the screw slots—and then it would slip out of the hole or the danged screw would drop and hit the floor. If the screw part had been magnetized, it would have helped considerably. But you know how that word “IF” works out, don’t you? We finally got the brackets up and the blind inserted into the brackets. We decided that D.G. could tighten the screws later when he comes to visit/help. Patty has a list started for him. Grinning real big right about now thinking about the list that is on my desk for Lance! Poor kid!

 

One of the Copper Marans has lost all the feathers on her neck and looks SO pathetic! Those hens have really been tossing the feathers right and left! But the hens have no idea how much work that is going to require just to rake up all those feathers! Not that they would really care about what it takes to keep them in clean surroundings. As it is, two eggs turned up in a basket that Isa had lain at some point. Who knows when? So those two eggs went into a container for the dogs to eat. They don’t exactly come out labeled as to date and time.

While visiting with Patty earlier, she expressed disgust at whoever made the decision to prevent a woman from getting a kidney transplant because she had not had the vaccination. She already had a donor, mind you, but was not allowed to have the surgery. Some of these “rules” sound like something one might have expected from Germany during Hitler’s reign of terror. And then one can just think about going on a flight anywhere—or on Amtrak—and wonder if it will even be possible soon to travel anywhere in our country without proof of vaccination. Honestly feel as if we are living at the beginning of a dictatorship. Freedom does not always guarantee safety. Never has. But what does freedom mean now? It has definitely changed definitions.

 

Tomorrow will require a trip to Tractor Supply sometime during the day. Meant to ask Michelle Malay what time she would be stopping by, but she said that she would call first, so maybe it will be after my return from picking up feed. Have decided to move one of the feed cans into the little coop to make it easier to feed in there. The hens will adjust to the move—eventually. The roof leaks in the long coop right over the area where the feed trough had been. Argh. Moved the trough, of course, but hate to lose ANY of that expensive stuff. All the hens really need is the pellets, but they are pretty spoiled rotten and enjoy screaming their heads off to remind me that they like the scratch. And dear hearts, they DO yell if they think they are missing a meal—even if it is only a snack.

 

Just went out to close up the coops and got attacked by mosquitoes! Argh! Frost time can come anytime now without my growling about it!

Also did a pocket call to Connie! How that happens is beyond me, but there it is. Can’t figure out how to get a call to look like a phone on this gadget either. Maybe when Lance comes, he can teach me how to make it appear like it does when my calls go out. Not being able to put it on speaker is a problem since it is so hard to hear the other way. Oh well. Not to gripe, but at least we can keep up with folks now much better than when the best we had was a party line! Kids today have no idea what it was like to not have instant communications. About the best we had was the neighborhood grapevine! Ask anyone who grew up in the 50s about how often their parents got a call from a neighbor or someone who knew “those kids.”

 

Mariellen Rose’s sons have said that the pneumonia she had is beginning to fade out, so now the doctors can work on whatever else is causing problems. Thank you for your prayers for her. Have not read anything further from Stilton Jarlsburg about his wife Kathy. Please continue to pray for her.

 

Our world is as beautiful as it could be considering the messes we make, but it must have really been a wonderful garden when God created it for mankind. Seeing “shooting stars” while standing out on the deck the other evening, it occurred to me that it was probably “space junk” burning up on re-entry. We are messy and so unthinking, uncaring, and just pretty stupid sometimes. But God can not only forgive us our sins against mankind, against our earth, and against Him, but He can heal us of all the diseases and destruction. Just look at how dandelions can grow in concrete where they can have even a tiny connection to the earth. We need that connection to our God, to our earth, to each other. Pray for that ability to see and reconnect.

May you have peace and rest. You are loved.