December 11th

Weather

I had written some thoughts Thursday about this week’s weather, but that’s dwarfed now by the tragedy of last night’s tornadoes. We got the tornado warning around 4:00a and had a decent amount of time to watch the radar and make the decision to use our cellar/storm shelter. I’m glad we did. We only needed to be down there for about 20-30 minutes, and it was kind of a fun adventure at the time, but when we learned the devastation in Kentucky we were quickly sobered. We were here for a vacation in March 2019 when nearby Cookeville, TN was hit hard by tornadoes, so there’s no doubt in our mind now that we’ll use the shelter when there’s a warning. We’re cured of any complacency we had about ignoring the warnings.

There were no tornadoes rights where we are, but we had some trees down on the road, and when I was in town running an errand I heard there were some small tornadoes just west of us maybe 20 miles away.

Down On The Farm

We got our friend Rick to bring his tractor over and use our two-bottom plow to turn the garden and orchard area. Now that turned sod can rot over the winter before Rick comes back in the spring to till the whole area with his tractor. Satisfying to watch the rich brown earth peel open for the garden we’ve so long planned.

Riley has taken an interest in tending the wood stove and we’ve learned the perfect stove temperature to keep the house just right on the cold days. Easy to let it go out or get too hot in the room.

Riley and I designed the closet shelving for the girls’ room, and on Sam’s farm shift with me she measured, marked and cut the shelf boards from 4’x8′ birch plywood, which cost us dearly but should turn out nice. They’ve all been busy sanding and staining the boards.

I learned how to make an “H-Brace” which allowed me to hang our driveway gates straight.

Best Thing We Ate

Samantha has officially taken over our daily bread making, and her newest sourdough loaf is a real winner. On a side note, I did a little community research this week and went to the local diner to try out their fried chicken lunch. I was not disappointed.

From Family Worship

Our Old Testament reading in morning worship at church this week was Isaiah 33, and my eye caught on verse 6, “And He will be the stability of your times”. We discussed this at length as a family and took much encouragement that during this time of change and upheaval in moving to a new place, it is God who is the only safe and true source of stability. We recognized that we often limit ourselves by looking to the lesser, temporal things to bring us stability, when we should first and foremost look to the giver of these gifts; the Creator instead of the creation.

Other Happenings

We were invited to an English country line dance one evening this week and had a good time. I embarrassed myself, the girls and Erica were graceful, and John ran around with a pack of boys, a la Wendell Berry’s short story, “Turn Back the Bed”.