The Adventures of the Night Continue (written in 2021)

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The adventures of the night continued. Around 2 A.M. we spied a mouse in the chicken house and we both chased it up and down the house with a broom and a crank. I think we just wore him out.... triumphantly, Leslie carried said mouse outside to the cats.

Then we headed into one of the doghouses to replace a worn pulley on the tunnel curtain. Leslie decides he needs some needle-nosed pliers and heads for the door...unsuccessfully turning the doorknob-to no avail.

"Deborah Ann, we are locked in." LOL! Worked and worked to get that door to open...tore the handle off in my hands...we both did a little kicking. Believe me, the door doesn't just fly open when you do that. The movies lie!

There is no other door.... the doorknob by this time is totally torn up but the pin is still in the door. No tools with us except a box cutter and a cheap small pair of scissors.

Halfway through tearing the doorknob up the phone rings around 4:00. Leslie answers but no one answers on their end. Hangs up. Who calls and hangs up at 4 in the morning? I'm thinking that might be a sign to call for help. You hate to do that...not at 4 in the morning. I then get the bright idea that we can go THROUGH the cool cell pads. There's one on the end that's about half the size of the others...I push on it...it gives just a bit...I push some more....and it falls outwards. So I turn sideways and step outside to blessed FREEDOM! LOL! I try to get the door open for Leslie then we just decide to remove another cool cell pad. And now the clock shows it's 5:30...we head for home, take a shower, fix a bite to eat and are about to head back for some last-minutes chores before the truck gets there with the chicks. I think I've had enough excitement for the time being...who says farming is boring?

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Close Encounter of a Smelly Kind Part 2

 Part 2 (Okay, bear with me...I didn't know there were two parts, either...)

Leslie went out last night (well, now it's night before last) and closed all the big doors on the chicken houses due to the impending rain.

This morning (well, now it was yesterday morning) we went out to lower the water lines. Leslie was operating the drill motor in the center of the house and I was going to both ends to lower the lines into the slots in the migrating fences and then on down to raise the sight glasses.

I walked down towards the big door of House 1 to raise the sight glass. As I started to reach for it something dark caught my eye in the corner which was only about six feet away. I froze 'cause, you know...after the day before I was thinking that possum had finally caught up with the skunk and done him in! Oh, wait...was that a movement? I thought maybe he'd crawled in there and died. But no... its dark back was to me and it was curled up in the very corner...here I am again...is there no end to this madness?!

When I definitely see a slight movement I slowly remove my hand and back up a bit, wondering what I needed to do. Obviously, Leslie had closed him up in there and since he was trapped he did what anyone would do-curled up and took a nap. A nap, I might add, that I was disturbing.

As I stand there he raises his head and turns towards me...that stupid possum again!

Do they not know how to do anything but bare their teeth and hiss at you? I got the bright idea that if the big door was open he'd vamoose pretty fast. I walk over to the walkthrough door and go out and raise the door. Come back in and Leslie is coming down to see what I had been talking to for the last two or so minutes.

I figured he just might be mean enough to charge so I jumped up on the cool cell ledge, hanging on to the angle iron and telling him over and over to go, get out. He just sat there and hissed. I thought about hissing back but decided not to push my luck...just might sound challenging and any possum that would attack a skunk several times in a row just might decide I was easy game. We both had already asked politely, which didn't seem to work so we both had also thrown clods at him...just seemed to make him hiss more.

I got the bright idea of the broom I'd left in the doghouse in front so ran out to get it. As I'm coming back in Leslie tells me he's got it. Not sure how he managed to make him move when all my efforts fell by the wayside but whatever floated that possum's boat was okay with me as long as he left. He scooted under the door which I'd only raised a couple of feet and took off for the side. I figure he's the little critter that has a hole dug under one of the big fans at the back of that house. I sincerely hope he decides it's too 'busy' around there and packs up and leaves.... he needs a new home. Preferably one where he can take a nap, undisturbed. Like...maybe somewhere across the pasture or maybe even in the woods. I'd gladly lend a hand and help him move. 'Course, he may not like my kind of help...

Close Encounter of a Smelly Kind!

Leslie and I spent the day and evening working inside the chicken houses. He was greasing fan motors and I was blowing down. (For those that aren't familiar with the term, just means I had a blower on the back of the tractor and was blowing cobwebs and dust from the ceilings, walls, vents, fans, heaters, etc.)

We had finished up the third house and it was already dark, making it rather hard to see inside the houses, even though we had all the lights on. Leslie had already raised the big door and I went on inside to start on house #4. I had gone on down to the end and turned around, making my way back up the other side. Leslie had been working ahead of me so he finished up and went on elsewhere. After a while I saw him pull up by the big door where he parked the truck and sat waiting for me to finish up.

Coming back down towards him I got about a third of the way down the house when all of a sudden I smelled an upset skunk! This was about the same time I saw a flash of light and heard the slam of a truck door...no sign of life out the door but the dome light was shining so knew that door slam had been from Leslie. I was thinking he had walked around out there in the dark and disturbed a wandering skunk. All of a sudden he flashes a light at me several times...ah! A warning! Just then I saw a small animal come bounding inside the door and head over towards the wall...okay. If he would just decide there was nothing to see there and go back the way he came we'd all get along just fine. Oh, no...not in his plans. He comes bounding towards me where I sat-spellbound-on the tractor wondering if he'd spray me as he passed or if I actually had time to jump down and head for a side door. All of a sudden he stops moving.. oh, that's good.. but he's not leaving. I figure I haven't much to lose so decide my best option is to make a sound loud enough to not startle him (who needs another whiff of that?!) but to make him leave. Trying to hit just the right level of noise to make him leave but not make him nervous I start clapping my hands...maybe that unfamiliar sound from the other end of the house would make him turn and head back outside. He stops moving and just stands there. I can barely see him but KNOW he's still in there! I add a verbal "Whoo!" a few times to the clapping. All of a sudden he whirls and takes off out the door! Yay! But wait.. Leslie's still out there.. but no, he's safe inside the truck. Hopefully, neither of us will have to deal with tomato juice or Dawn and apple cider vinegar or any of the other 'fixes' for skunk smell.

I start forward again and make my way down to the door and-since the skunk is nowhere in sight, I turn and make another round. I finally finish up and head out the door. Leslie has gone around to the control room to turn fans and lights off. When I see the lights go off I get off the tractor and shut the door.

I'm all about getting with Leslie to discuss our excitement of the night and hear his side of what happened. I start about the skunk only to be told that a possum had attacked the skunk outside two or three times before the skunk had had enough of it and sprayed the possum. I look at Leslie and ask, " Well, what was that that came into the house?"

That was the possum. What a LETDOWN! Here I was so excited that I had outsmarted a smelly skunk only to find that it was only a possum in there the whole time! Do I feel silly? Well....

Sounder!!!

 Folks (mostly us) in the vicinity of our farm can rest a little easier as far as the constant destruction of their farmland is concerned. At least in part. Jake from USDA trapped these 20 of 23 several days ago at our farm. They had been destroying large areas each night. Called in Jake from USDA who baited the trap a couple of days. Then Leslie baited it on the weekend. Then next morning Jake dropped the gate on these. I almost felt sorry for them but they have been SO destructive and would have continued. Got the remaining three of the sounder the next morning. Twenty-three each night for hours at a time in different areas of the farm. Our place is torn to smithereens from these things-- good riddance!

3Corinna Booker, Linda Jean Parsons and 1 other

Mom's Miracle

 Ten years ago today (November 27, 2021) my mom was in a horrific house fire. Not only did she lose everything she had but she was burned on 1/3 of her body. She spent two days in Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee before we even found out about the fire. When we got there, they told us not to leave-that they could only give her comfort care. Josh prayed with all of us over the phone that day. Mom was lucid enough to hear when the phone was put to her ear. We were then told to go back to the hotel for rest and to come back later that evening. When we returned, what did we find? Mom sitting up in the hospital bed watching the interns. Talking, albeit not well. She went through some horrible days followed by even more horrible days and weeks and months of daily dressing changes and rehab. It's been a decade and they didn't think she'd make it. What do I credit her remarkable recovery to? Josh's prayer, our prayer warriors and the incredible hospital staff at Vanderbilt...but even more, I credit God with the miracle of Mom's survival. I thank my son, our prayer warriors, the hospital staff, the doctors...but mostly I thank God for his mercies and grace. Happy ten-year anniversary, Mom....

Please, don't chance it!

 Ever pulled up to a traffic light that you just KNEW was going to be a long one and thought of something you needed to text to someone? I'm pretty sure that's what happened yesterday when I was on my way to get my granddaughter from school. I was sitting behind another car at a traffic light, watching for the light to turn green when I was -very gently thrown forward. Some young girl in a little red sports car behind me jerked her head up with the most dismayed look on her face...apparently, unable to fathom that she had just rear-ended me. After all, she was probably one of those that never went over the speed limit, never ran a light...always following the traffic laws. After all, just answering that previous text wouldn't take but just a second and the light had JUST changed to red so she had plenty of time...

Folks, try to remember-so many times we think, " Those things won't happen to me-it's always someone else that it happens to." Truth hits hard sometimes. This time it was just a little bump...scarred the rubber on my bumper and took off the paint in two little spots that weren't any larger than a No. 2 pencil. That girl was lucky...

Please, don't be texting and driving...don't even be LOOKING at that phone while you are behind the wheel! Don't think that your reactions are quick enough to avoid an accident. Don't think that you can keep an eye on that phone while also watching what's going on outside that car. Don't think that even if it happened to you, it'd just be a little bump that wouldn't hurt anyone. Is there REALLY a text you have to read or send that simply will not wait five minutes? Be safe, leave that phone where it is while you are driving. I hope that accident woke that young lady up to what COULD very well have transpired. Please, don't chance it...

Out of the mouths of babes

 A memory from a couple of years ago...my sweet little Gracie...(2020)

The other day when the kiddos were here and helping on the farm, Gracie and I were going to check the chicken houses that evening after having walked them that morning, put out hay and range meal...the usual farm 'things'. We were talking and I said, "I sure am glad to see the end of this day!" She says, "Well, I kind of am and kind of not."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I kinda am glad it's over because I'm tired. But I kinda don't because...Life is short." She left it at that.

Folks, it doesn't take an 8-year-old to understand that sometimes we are pressing our luck and wishing our life away when we are trying to hurry up one day just to get to another. Take a moment when you are tired and just thank God for that opportunity to savor the day you've been given. Thank him for letting you see that one and ask him to let you see another. It beats wishing it away. As Gracie said, "Life is short."