Danny Gets His First Elk!

 Danny just turned 13 last month, and Saturday he shot his first elk at about 300 yards first thing in the morning! At first he thought he missed, but then he and Carrie, with whom he was hiding by the meadow, decided to go have a look. And Danny had gotten one!

The family at home readying to go hunting. They pull the trailer as far as the mountain road will let them, and then drop the trailer and drive the 4-wheelers up a ways further to where they camp with friends.

The day before they left, a neighbor got permission from another neighbor down the way a bit for the children and Jonathan to sight in their rifles at his little shooting range. Otherwise, they would have had to pay $10 each to go to a shooting range that is a big business, just to sight in.

Sam's turn was first.

Ear muffs and ear plugs were found and shared around. Jonathan's turn now (below).

Rose's turn. I had decided to get out of the house and go along for some fresh air, and it was great to get acquainted with some new neighbors. We even found out that David Beitzel, a builder friend Jonathan has known all his life, built this neighbor's house!

Several neighbors gathered that day to enjoy the fun and to visit.

Sam handing to Hannah the baby Carrie was babysitting. She is such a dear!

That evening, I couldn't help getting this silouette picture of the old fourwheelers on the trailer in the sunset against the distant mountains.

I also couldn't resist this picture of several of the puppies that Carrie is selling for somebody else.

They are so darling when they are all sprawled out on the deck!

The second batch of dishes after the rest of the family left to go hunting was not so darling.

I also cut the best cornstalks in the garden and decorated the mailbox. I know, this is not very great compared to Pennsylvania cornstalks, but this is all that grows at 7000 feet altitude on the high prairie!

Friday afternoon, to keep from getting too lonely, Hannah wanted to go to the birthday party of a friend, and so we did. Shelby had baked these delightful pretzels for one of the snacks.

I asked Hannah to get a snap of us ladies working on the quilt the family began at the party. Sorry I look a little weird here, but I am trying to show the strips of fabric we ladies cut out. The pattern has you cutting long strips and sewing them together, and then cutting them into certain size pieces. It was fun. I cut out about 19 dark blue strips. Then others cut other colors, and others sewed.

Danny and his daddy hauling the elk back to camp.

Jonathan texted me this unusual photo of the tree branches silouetted on the tent roof where they were camping.

Saturday Hannah and I ran errands in town and stopped at Smith Family Farms stand on our way home. Hundreds of cars had been parked along the road earlier, with thousands of people there at the special event that day. There had been a Largest Pumpkin contest. Hannah sitting on one.

The pickup in the distance is carrying one of those humongous pumpkins.

Back home that evening, Hannah and I made two pumpkin rolls. Carrie had asked if we could send a pumpkin roll down with Sam when he drove down to meet the hunters two days later. She said taking pumpkin rolls has been a tradition, but she and Rose didn't get to it. So we tried to help out. 

Carrie had also forgotten to take her bull tag! But we sent that with Sam as well.

Then on Sunday afternoon, Hannah and I took plates of pumpkin roll slices to two of our neighbors and had a lovely visit both places. One elderly lady whom my children help almost every week is a retired "cop," as she calls herself, from Los Angeles. She said I have her number on my phone, and if I ever have any trouble while the family is away, she will come right away with g u n s blazing!! :) :)

The other neighbor regaled us with stories about the corgi pups and dogs she has raised in her life, and the horses she has trained. She told of how a corgi saved the life of a friend three times--once alerting her owner that her kitchen was on fire, the second time running to the neighbor for help when her mistress fell and knocked herself out in frigid weather. The third time, the corgi was almost killed by a German shepherd which attacked it, but it roused itself when the German shepherd then turned on the corgi's mistress. The corgi grabbed the attacking dog's leg and pulled it off the lady. Later the vet found two German shepherd fangs in the neck of the brave corgi!

Well, after all those exciting stories, Hannah and I came home to do chores and play a game of Bible Scrabble before going to bed. We didn't follow the rules this time, but we had fun. We even learned some things, such as that Ar is a word in the Bible. It is the name of a place that is mentioned several times. "Bell" is in the Bible about three times.

I had other hopes and plans for Sunday afternoon and evening, like reading the book Kisses for Katie,
or blogging or posting on Facebook some really  neat thoughts I had.
Instead, I sat and listened to stories of one lonely lady, and the other lonely lady listened to stories from Hannah and me! I helped feed the horse and goat and other animals and made something to eat and then Hannah asked to play a game.
And that is how it goes
when the hunters are away! :)

Crystal's Walk-a-thon-- and Christ Walks Our Road

 Crystal took part in a 5-mile Walkathon at Penn View yesterday with Julie Poe, Tonya [Sickler] Poe's step-daughter from Iowa. I love to see my daughter making friends with so many people, especially such nice people as Poes and Sicklers! :) :)

I had written this poem only a day or two earlier after reading a few simple words in Colossians,
"Seek those things which are above, where Christ is." (Col. 3:1)
"Where Christ Is"
So, where is He? Besides in heaven and at the Father's right hand, of course.
And this poem came to me.

Christ Walks Your Road

by Anna Lucas

Christ walked the road to Bethlehem,

Past shepherds' fields and Roman base,

The Babe in womb could find no room

Except for a stable in Bethlehem.

(Timmy with newest cousin in PA a few weeks ago)

He walked the road to Egypt's sand

Escaping evil kings' intent,

While mothers wept and babies bled,

Cut down by swords the cruel king sent.

He walked the road of Nazareth,

Learning the lowly carpenter's trade,

Wielding the hammer, saw and vice. 

With village children He surely played.

Christ walked the road to Jerusalem,

Sat near the religious teachers' seat,

But home again He followed on

With obedient heart and willing feet.

He walked the road to Galilee

Where fishermen toiled and hearts were warm.

He fed the hungry fish and bread

And walked on water in the storm.

Christ walked the road to Capernaum

To a wedding running out of wine.

Plain water filling earthen pots

Was transformed by a power divine.  

(Crystal's friend Larisa Kolva and Anthony Watt, Sept. 2019)

He walked the road to Bethany,

Christ, at healing so adept,

Yet He waited long till Lazarus died,

And his broken-hearted sisters wept.

He walked the road to a lonely tomb

Where a four-day body stinking lay.

The Resurrection and the Life

Proved to the sisters a Living Way.

Christ walked the road to Calvary,

Dying so our souls might live,

Hanging bleeding He forgave

That we, too, may our foes forgive.

He walked in every phase of life,

In every need, in every place.

He walks beside you every day.

Just look, and You will see His face!

What Does Granola Have to Do with the Ends of the Earth?

Today I ate my bowl of granola three hours late. We had run out of milk, and I was waiting until Rose came home from the dairy with our weekly milk. But then I got busy cleaning up and starting the morning school. I forgot about granola until I tried to shred a bar of laundry soap for homemade soap and, after choking on the powder in the air, wore out completely after just a few minutes. That is when I remembered to eat the rest of my breakfast!

And then I thought I would get my Bible to read while I was eating and while the children were outside on break. 

I read Psalm 65, up to verse 5. And that is where I stopped. 

"By awesome deeds in righteousness You will answer us, 

O God of our salvation,

You Who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of the far-off seas."

I had written a note by that verse, "April 1, 2016, PNG."

God had given me that verse as we were making plans to go to Papua New Guinea, three and a half years ago.

And it would be a good verse for plans that Jonathan is in the process of making all over again for another Mission Helps trip to an island of the sea, this time Grand Bahama, to help with repairing roofs of a church and homes after Hurricane Dorian.

Jonathan told me a few days ago that Harold Martin had called asking for a crew for roof repairs in Grand Bahama and saying the crew would have to stay in tents.

"So you probably wouldn't want to go this time," Jonathan said, as we both envisioned a group of about eight guys trying to survive in a couple of tents next to buildings they would be repairing.

I guess I will just be staying home again this time while he and perhaps two or three of our sons go along with him to "the ends of the earth, and of the far-off seas."

I wondered, in that moment of seeing that verse and the note beside it, what "the ends of the earth" meant for me personally.

I usually thought of the "ends of the earth" as somewhere far away, like Africa or China or PNG or the Bahamas.
 

But that would mean God is only far away, too.

Just because I am living here, in my home in America, and having to stay home while others go far away, does that mean God can't be my confidence, too?

I've been struggling through teaching Timmy and Danny geometry about an hour a day.

We are learning some things about logic, Venn diagrams, and about valid and invalid conclusions based on given statements. In a day or two, we'll be learning about the inverse and converse of statements, and learning whether or not they work.

So--if the ends of the earth include Africa, China and Bahamas, does it necessarily follow that the Lucas ranch in Colorado is not included? 

Not necessarily. 

In fact, not at all.

The Lucas ranch can be and is a part of the "ends of the earth" whose confidence is in God.

So when I am facing one burden on top of another, 

I can still know that based on God's Word, I can have confidence in God. 

This morning, in weakness from forgetfulness and with my eyebrows twitching from stress, I can look up to Him and remember that even though I am the one who stays home while the others go hunting next week or off on another adventure in the Caribbean,

even though I stay home teaching subjects I can hardly figure out myself,

God can be my confidence.

"We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, of Your holy temple," the Psalmist said in the same Psalm.

In my end of the earth in Colorado, wherever and whenever I am lonely and disappointed and overwhelmed, I can find refuge in God's house--

in the secret of His presence whether that be on an island of the Caribbean or in the four walls of my very own home, surrounded by children and geometry books!

Harvesting Before the Frigid Temps

This week we pulled beets and carrots from our little gardens before the predicted below-freezing temperatures.

Our soil must have unbalanced PH because most of the beets and carrots were small despite growing for several months. They had lush tops but hardly any roots!

Last week I had picked a few zucchini, yellow squash, and even a few green beans. But this is about half of what we harvested from the garden with the Indian corn. Not much, I'm afraid.

We were thankful to get at least a few vegetables after all the work of collecting last year's seeds,

digging, tilling,

planting,

weeding,

transplanting (I transplanted a few tomato plants but left the rest in the greenhouse in big bins).

A few months ago we heard a good message about Jesus' parable about the Sower, the Seed and the Soil. 

1. "Good soil will produce good fruit," was the first point.

   The Holy Spirit enters our Bad Soil Heart and makes it soft.

2. "Good fruit takes time."

 It took probably six months before this tomato plant started to bear in our greenhouse. We had such cool weather earlier in the year and I had to just buy starts to transplant.

 

"It's fun to put others down because it makes us look and feel better about ourselves," said the speaker. "It's easy to make snap judgments about others--'They can't be Christians because they aren't doing or growing or looking like....'"

I mean, look at this awful looking tomato plant (although it is, to our embarrassment, producing almost as much fruit as the lush green ones). 

"Tares look just like wheat until the head appears," the speaker told us. But "tares are not fruitful."

Here are wild sunflowers taking over where the pepper and tomato and beets and carrots were planted.

 I also had to fight off aphids on especially one pepper plant in the greenhouse.

There were hundreds of aphids on just one of the leaves. I would spray the aphids off with water outside, and sprinkle diatomaceous earth on the dirt and leaves.

3. "Good results will vary," the speaker let us know.

 There doesn't seem to be much here. The one day I brought in one cherry tomato, one hot pepper, and a sprig of parsley.

The beets in this area of garden did not do well at all. They didn't have as much sunshine as other parts, and perhaps not as much water, either.

"The numbers are in God's hands," we were reminded.

It is God Who sends the sunshine and rain and creates the soil.

It is He Who controls everything from the weather to natural disasters to the way people work in their gardens--or don't work much!

Let's learn from Christ's story about the seeds and the sower and the soil.

Let's be patient with ourselves and with the other guy or gal.

Let's grow the best we can.

Let's weed out the bad attitudes, the distractions, and the snap judgments.

Let's focus on growing and bringing forth fruit--

as much fruit as God can produce through us earthen vessels!