Grounded

While sitting here watching it rain and stuck at home, it's time to update.

In the last six weeks, since the quarantine began, I have been to a store twice!  I went out yesterday for my second trip to Farm and Fleet.  Also, the last two Sunday mornings I took my laptop to the oldest farmer and my mother's so they could watch services and feel a little more connected and less isolated.

I got started planting on Monday morning, and by Thursday afternoon when the rain interrupted us, most of the corn was in the ground along with the first 40 acres of soybeans.  The old farmer's wife received a quick lesson in tillage operation, so she and Son#1 were able to keep me in the planter most of the time.  Our start was a month and a half ahead of last year, so I am pleased so far.  I disked all the corn stalks earlier and the ground dried out, so I was waiting for a rain before hitting soybeans hard.  Now we have plenty of rain, and it will be a while before things dry out again.  It would be a great time to go visit grandkids (and their parents), but not sure if we should travel because of the stay-at-home orders.

I recently finished the book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah.  During the civil war in Sierra Leone, Ishmael became separated from his family, and was a child refugee just trying to survive.  At the age of 13, along with his friends, he was carrying an AK-47 and fighting in the war against the rebels.  These kids were fed drugs and were taught how to pillage, torture, and kill.  This became his life and family.

At the age of 15, some UNICEF workers showed up in the village where he was stationed.  They were allowed to pull him from the squad and send him to a compound in Freetown, the capitol of Sierra Leone, to be rehabilitated.  After almost a year of rehabilitation, he was repatriated and reinstated into normal society and allowed to live with an uncle and his family.  About the time the war reached his uncle's town, he was asked to go to New York and speak at a conference at the United Nations about children affected by war.  After the conference, because of the connections he made in New York, he was able to move to the U.S. to finish school and attend college.

It is a very eye opening story about what war does to children, especially in third world countries.

One evening in late March while I was pruning fruit trees, an owl flew in to watch me from on top of a utility pole.

We donated an old wood burning cook stove that belonged to the Schlipf family to the Braker's Market in Eureka.  We were ready to get it out of our garage and that seemed like a good home for it.  They cleaned it up real nice and are using it to display merchandise.

Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.
Ezekiel 27:17