December 18th

Weather/Nature

Rainy and warm this week, but temps are dropping now, should be in the 30’s most of the day tomorrow. There’s still a lot of talk about last week’s tornadoes, and understandably so. The local paper reported we had straight line winds here in the neighborhood of 55-60 mph, and the more we get around the more we see trees down but only minor damage. A poultry house with 10,000 chickens on the west side of town was destroyed by a small tornado – what a way to go for birds kept indoors and unable to fly.

Speaking of birds, our bird feeders haven’t been visited much, but there are lots of birds around. At this point I’m sure they’re all winter residents and that migration is a thing of the past. Carolina Chickadees, Song Sparrows, Tufted Titmice, Yellow-Rumped Warblers, Carolina Wrens, Cardinals, Blue Birds and Blue Jays make up the usual suspects in the underbrush, and we think they’re all getting full from the seed and mast that is still around from the bounty of fall. We’ll see if they visit the feeders in the winter. Overhead we see Red Tailed Hawks as the dominant hawk species, which is exciting – in FL it was the Red Shouldered Hawk. Lots of American kestrels here too, which are one of my favorites, and at night we hear the familiar Barred Owl asking, “Who cooks, who cooks for you?”

Down On The Farm

John and I embarked on a trip towards Nashville to pick up a number of used corral panels that we found on Marketplace. After learning that SR 52 was the main east-west highway before I-40 was built, it was interesting to take this road through small towns, now largely forgotten – very similar to taking 301 in FL instead of I-75. We eventually made it after getting a flat tire on our trailer and having to change it on the side of the road. How many travelers of the past had to stop on SR 52 to change their own flat tire in the rain?

The reason we need the corral panels is because Daisy, our milk cow, will be ready to come home soon and we need a temporary pen while we decide how we want to fence our property. These panels should work out well.

On Wednesday after work, Quinn helped me forage some free firewood, cedar and box elder, courtesy of last weekend’s storms. She is a hard-working girl.

Best Thing We Ate

The winner this week was an exquisite shepherd’s pie made by Samantha on Tuesday night.

From Family Worship

One of our readings from the Psalms this week touched on the idea of God’s faithfulness to all generations. This got a good discussion going about how each generation is like a link in the chain of God’s people, unbroken since the beginning of time. Only three or fours “links” are alive at any given time – those links who have gone before are at rest, having run their race, and those links to come are unknown to us. That God is faithful to maintain this unbroken chain of generations is a comfort to us, and the reality also adds weight and significance to our daily lives. What seems mundane at times is incredibly profound.

Other Happenings

New skill for us to learn this week was using a pneumatic brad nailer. This handy little air-powered tool shoots a very skinny nail (brad), which we used to attached 3/4″ trim to the edge of the birch plywood shelving in the girls’ closet. After a couple of poor attempts, I turned it over to Riley who made it look easy and who even came back and used a nail set to sink a few brad heads that weren’t flush.

Today marks our 17th wedding anniversary, and we went to downtown Cookeville for a nice lunch and a little shopping. Erica and I marvel at God’s goodness to us over the years.