T-Post Problems, Freezer Filling, Pray Without Ceasing.
I created more water trouble this week. A steel T-post I was driving into the ground not only happened to find a waterline buried under the ground, but it busted the line in two. As I was finishing off the post with a couple final hits to make sure it was driven down far enough to stay secure, water started pouring up out of the ground like a spring. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said to myself. As always, Ronnie and Brandon with Circle B to the rescue to fix the waterline.
I’ve never had a great relationship with T-post drivers. Thinking back to driving steel posts about 7 years ago, when putting the final couple hits on a post, driving it as hard as I could, I raised the driver up too far over the top of the post. The driver came off the post and the force of the blow brought the driver down on my head, sending me to the ER to get 6 staples in my noggin. One of many embarrassing recollections. If driving a T-post required a license, I’m certain mine would’ve been revoked by now. Ha.
We got more beef and pork back from the processor this week. Seven pallets of meat to go into the freezers. It took most of the morning to get it sorted and put in the freezers in a way that allowed us to know where to find everything when we need it. This was the last pork we’ll be getting back for a few months. Piglets have been harder to find. We have another group in the woods that will be ready to harvest in the summer, but there’s a good chance our pork inventory won’t be as well stocked throughout the year as in years past. Welcome to farming. There’s no “pork” button to press that makes it magically appear. As always, we prioritize filling herd shares, once we fill those we’ll add remaining inventory to the online store as long as it lasts.
Amy has been working hard to summarize last years bookkeeping in preparation for the upcoming tax season. As she was working on accounting for last year, I was planning out our chicken production for this year, placing an order for over 5,000 chicks this season. With February now upon us, thinking about chickens is getting me excited for spring. It’ll be here before we know it.
Amy and I are always bouncing ideas off each other as we look ahead into the future. At this point in our lives, most ideas bounce off the other and roll away, probably for the best. One idea that has continuously resurfaced over the past few years is hosting weddings. We’ve not taken any action in pursuit of the wedding idea, but this past week a couple reached out to Amy through Airbnb with interest in having a destination wedding on the farm this summer. We’ll see what happens.
This week I listened to “Pray Without Ceasing,” a short story by Wendell Berry included in “Fidelity: Five Stories” about the Port William membership. I love the sense of community that Berry illustrates in his Port William stories. Community, even at its best, is not without its problems. Few problems within a community have the ability to tear the membership apart as when a man kills another man. Not an enemy killing an enemy, but a friend killing a friend. How can the community remain in tact after such an event? How can the families cope with loss and seek restoration in the future? A great story packed into a couple hours. Here’s a couple quotes:
“This man, who was my grandfather, is present in me, as I felt always his father to be present in him… But even the unknown past is present in us, its silence as persistent as a ringing in the ears. When I stand in the road that passes through Port William, I am standing on the strata of my history that goes down through the known past into the unknown.”
“Ben Feltner never had believed in working on Sunday, and he did not believe in not working on work days. Those two principles had shaped all his weeks.”
“People sometimes talk of God’s love as if it’s a pleasant thing, but it is terrible in a way. Think of all it includes. It included Thad Coulter, drunk and mean and foolish, before he killed Mr. Feltner, and it included him afterwards… He saw his guilt. He had killed his friend. He had done what he couldn’t undo. He had destroyed what he couldn’t make. But in the same moment he saw his guilt included in love that stood as near him as Martha Elizabeth… But surely God’s love includes people who can’t bear it.”
“When your time comes, you must go, by the hand of man or the stroke of God… It’ll come by surprise. It’s a time appointed but will not be notified… So we must always be ready. Pray without ceasing.”
“I am blood kin to both sides of that moment when Ben Feltner turned to face Thad Coulter in the road, and Thad pulled the trigger. The two families, sundered in the ruin of a friendship, were united again, first in new friendship and then in marriage. My grandfather made a peace here that has joined many who would otherwise have been divided. I am the child of his forgiveness.”
Have a good week.
Will