Happy Earth Day

The earth here is freshly washed and well watered. We had an actual thunderstorm and gullywasher last night, complete with lightning, and the rain continues off and on. We get so little thunder and lightning here in the Willamette Valley; it's one thing I miss about the Midwest (they can keep the heat and humidity, tornadoes and damaging hail, thankyouverymuch ;-).

The four boys out the in the wooded lot looked bedraggled this morning; Benny needs help with his coat but didn't want to be caught.

Bart and Browning are still tucked in the Ram-ada Inn. There is no change in Bart; every time I go down to check on him I brace myself for the worst. I don't know how he's hanging on; there's no evidence that he's eating, drinking, or peeing. The other day I offered him fresh maple leaves, one of the sheep's favorite treats, and he barely sniffed at them. I'm afraid he's dead on his feet. That's the way sheep are; they are incredibly tough and stoic, hiding symptoms from the casual observer as a survival mechanism. By the time their distress is obvious, it is often too late to successfully intervene, hence the old adage that "a sick sheep is a dead sheep."

That is not a dog toy; it is Brian's beloved Bear. Brian felt the need of his company yesterday, but made me swear not to tell anyone. (You're not "anyone," right? Hey, I'm not sharing the photo of Brian holding Bear while taking one of his tests!) It was a tiny ray of sunshine in a dark and stormy day – and I'm not talking weather. Sometimes I think my defiant, disrespectful teenager will be the death of me, trampling my time, energy, and trust on a daily basis. God must have some powerful lessons for me to learn in this season of life, but it's hard to see them in the midst of it. I try to keep looking up with hope, like Dozer:

And yes, Dozer's hope was realized. I need to remember that as an object lesson! ;-)

Speaking of looking up, it looks like we'll have a bumper crop of fruit this year; above are some of our baby cherries, apples, and prunes.

I'm so glad it's Earth Day, as it gave me a theme to get the blogging ball rolling. God made us an amazing planet to call home; we humans aren't always good stewards of it. Soon the time will come "for judging the dead, and rewarding your servants the prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and small – and for destroying those who destroy the earth." Fair warning!

I'll leave you with a sweet little ditty from one of my favorite musicians:


That's it for now from . . .