Visitor

Snowy, the billy goat, is visiting our farm for the next month so that we can expect kids in the spring. 

Coyote chase

We were late to Sunday school yesterday morning due to a chase that included nine people, four or five pitchforks, a horse, two tractors and one coyote. The coyote eluded us again. After the first sighting Thursday morning, the coyote visited our outside chicken coop several times and mauled four of Libby's chickens on Friday night. Our pastor loaned us his .22 yesterday, but the coyote has been scarce except for a glimpse Libby caught of him lurking in the tall grass when we returned from church, and a sighting at five o'clock this morning. 

Morning

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love

Psalm 143:8 NIV

Hayride

There were about seventy of us last night who gathered at our house for a hayride and homemade cider and donuts. I decorated the barn with the last of our zinnias, along with popcorn, gourds and pumpkins. 

Dad read a passage of scripture before taking two wagonloads of people on a hayride. Some of the older folks stayed in the barn near the wood stove, while the rest of the group settled on straw bales for the ride down farm lanes. Dad pulled one wagon with the Ford tractor and Brian pulled the other with the 706 tractor.  

Brian worked all week cleaning the bays of the barn. Dad came home from work at noon on Friday to help with preparations. We borrowed the cider press from our neighbors, the Kindys.

Libby, Brian, Mom and Dad began washing the apples and chopping them in half before our guests arrived. Aaron and Brian pulverized the apples by running them through a wood chipper (that is only used for apples). Then the pulp was squeezed in the press to remove the juice from the pulp. We will use the biproduct, the pressed pulp, for animal feed. 

We sent our guests home with jugs of cider last night. About half of our harvest of apples remain in bushel baskets. We may make the rest of them into cider today if we have time. 

Judith joined me in the kitchen as I mixed up a triple batch of buttermilk donuts and a batch of apple fritters. Judith fried the donuts while I rolled them and cut them. We rolled the hot donut holes in cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar, or glaze. 

Apples

We were blessed with an abundant apple harvest this year. Our front porch is covered with bushels and baskets and boxes and bags of apples. We are preparing to have friends over this evening for a hayride and to press apples into cider. My job this evening is to fry donuts and perhaps apple fritters to accompany the cider.

Chicken thief

Brian chased a coyote out of the corncrib inside his goat fence this morning while completing chores. A little while later he heard an uproar in the outside chicken coop. Brian called for Aaron to join him in the chase and the boys grabbed pitchforks and a bow while I grabbed my camera. We were unsuccessful. I failed to get a picture of the coyote and the boys failed to kill him. Brian left a pitchfork beside the pen and Aaron left the bow on the back porch since the fiend will probably return.  

We all joined in the chase as the coyote ran across the bean field to our neighbor's property. Our neighbors raise rabbits, so we called them to inform them of the coyote alert.

We found tell-tale signs among the nearby cornstalks. The coyote hid in the standing popcorn for a few minutes before the boys chased him out. 

Brian, Logan and Libby count the chickens. Libby was upset that the coyote would try to kill the chickens she raised from chicks. In a few weeks the chickens will be ready to be butchered. 

The coyote was attempting to pull this meaty rooster out of the pen when Brian scared him away. The bird has wounds on its neck, but Libby hopes it will survive. 

Even if

If the pump dies in the washer

and the nob falls off my dresser

if the light stays on in my car

and the dishwasher has to be replaced

If the cell phones refuse to charge

and the camera malfunctions

if the computer is unresponsive

and I neglected to back-up recent photos

Even then I will praise the Lord

and thank Him for His care for me.

See Habakkuk 3:17-18 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18.