Chicken Shuffle, Act Like Men
Busier than last week but nothing too exciting to talk about. Hasten and Carter did farm chores with me Saturday morning before going to Marion to deliver orders and herd shares while Amy and the other three went to the Abingdon Farmers Market.
She and the kids made their monthly delivery to Knoxville on Monday afternoon and came back to the valley Tuesday morning. Amy and I made the Bristol/Kingsport delivery yesterday afternoon. Date night afterwards with ice cream of course.
These deliveries helped free up some freezer space which continues to be a challenge. Whatever room we cleared out will be filled back up next week as we get more beef and pork back from the processor. Which is good timing as we are almost out of ground beef.
Farmwise, keeping the cows and chickens moving regularly. The pigs broke the electric fence wire, and several got out. We got the fence fixed back and hopefully got all the pigs back in. Ha.
Chicken shuffling on Tuesday. Catching and moving chicks from the brooder to take to the shelters in the field. And catching mature chickens from the field for harvest on Wednesday. With much of our processing crew back to school, we planned smaller batches to harvest for August and September. About 170 killed and in the freezer this week. A tiring but fun round of hay bale tag afterwards.
More rain showers this week which interfered with my hay making plans. A little bush hogging here and there while listening to STAND FIRM AND ACT LIKE MEN by Toby Martin with Charles Martin. Here’s a few quotes from what I’ve listened to so far.
“We could go historical, talk about how if we were born a few hundred years ago, most of us would get up everyday and go to work with our dads where we would see our dads make decisions in stewardship, in leadership, in service to others, and in hiring and firing people which is called discipleship. But the industrial revolution came along and you pair that with the ‘Great American Dream’ and we see the introduction of things like the lunch box and the Lazy Boy. And so dad, during the peak hours of his day, was always somewhere else. Dad went to work rather than worked the farm or the store. Work occurred somewhere other than the home, and the family got the leftovers.”
“It’s the stuff beneath the surface that you can’t see that matters most…Tall trees require deep taproots. Otherwise, they topple in wind and wither in drought, no staying power. They are incapable of standing firm. We all agree to this, but when it comes to manhood, boys are cutting corners left and right. Few want to put in the time to pour a rock solid base… Everybody wants to be strong, but nobody wants to be sore. That’s us. We want the benefit without the pain, the growth without the sweat. But getting stronger requires intentionally putting yourself in pain and under duress day after day after day for incremental and often unseen gains.”
“If you are the man, the husband, the dad, then you need to go first and be the chief repenter in your home. Your kids should learn what repentance looks like from you because you have modeled it for them… which means we men should be the chief apologizers.”
“And if you think, ‘Well, it’s not my fault’… When Jesus was on the cross, who’s fault was it?… Our sin was not his fault, and yet he took full responsibility for it on the cross… He paid the price for stuff he didn’t do. And he did it willingly and without opening his mouth to complain.”
“By definition you cannot stand as a man until you bend the knee and bow to the only King of all kings. There it is. If you want to stand as a man, you must bow to the King. Period… The litmus test for manhood is this: Do we imitate Christ? Do we lay down our life for those we love?”
Have a good week.
Will