Update from Mom

We have been having so much fun cleaning out the woods beside our house. Everyone has been involved. Gerald saws up the trees the power company sawed down when putting in new power poles. Then the girls and I drag, roll or rake things away. We are pulling out a lot of bramble and honeysuckle vines. We’ve been raking the piles onto sheets and dragging them to another location. Shanna “hired” the younger ones to do our dragging to make it go faster. You should have seen the work! And for only ten cents a load too! They earned $2.60 yesterday. They brought out pencil and paper to keep the loads tallied up. Before we had them piling up rocks and carrying out sticks, but we thought they couldn’t handle the loads. We just lightened the loads and the work went so much faster.
Shanna always goes out ahead of me to work and wants to concentrate on the upper part closest to the house. She’s already begun some detail work of rocking a path and laying off some gardens. When I come I want to work on the lower part near the road and clear it a layer at a time. So we compromise and start at her end working towards mine, doing a layer at a time. Then she goes back to her favorite area and does some detail work when she has less energy. And I go and do detail work on the bank. Gerald can only help us on Saturdays. His chain saw is so small it seems to groan while he chucks away at a big tree. So he has to stop often, which is good for him. That way he doesn’t overdo it.
During one of his breaks Saturday he decided to dig a trench with the mallet so the ditch would drain better. With one of the slings the handle jerked back and hit him hard in his surgery sight. He fell to the ground in terrible pain. I thought he had hit his foot. When we all realized what had happened we just froze, watching. Time seemed to stand still. We began to pray silently. Gerald had just been telling me how well he had been feeling and was praising God that he had not had any pain during the last two rainy days. And now this! He decided to stop for the day and take a shower. He seems to be doing fine now even with the rain. Praise the Lord!
Gera keeps the meals going while we work and sees that the little ones get their naps. We even got peach cobbler on Saturday and no-bake cookies Monday! Yum!
Today, since it is raining, Shanna is sewing at Grandma and Grandpa Millers’. Ryana wants to get caught up on letter writing and I’m planning to do some grading. Faith is dressing Gerald Jr. up in his armor to fight Goliath. Not sure what Gera’s gonna be doing this evening, but I’m sure it will involve a visit to Grandpa and Grandma’s. :)
Have a nice cozy rainy day!
~Vicky~