Tasty Grit In My Teeth

Nothing says yummy like licking dust off your teeth.

Today didn’t start off gritty.  My cousin (one of my favorite people on the planet) and I gathered a pasture of cows into a set of corrals to be checked for tuberculosis (yep, cows can get it too – luckily for us our cows were healthy).  He and I have similar values, but we are very different – which is very cool.  We’re never trying to outdo eachother because we’re into the same stuff.  Just lots of low-key good times.  We rode horses to gather the cows in the morning before the wind picked up and it was a beautiful day in a pretty pasture.

Then we got to the corrals.

Somehow it happens to be extra windy on the days I help my family work cows.  There are several places we work cows.  Some of those places have a little bit of wind protection – by that I mean trees, or hills, or well, something to slow down the wind.  The places we worked today somehow missed the day God was handing out extra trees and hills for wind protection.  These two corrals are out on the plains where trees are scared to live.  Several moments made me wonder what the dust bowl must have been like.  I think my lungs are a pound heavier from the dust I inhaled. There were times when I was walking behind a large bunch of cows and I couldn’t see them in front of me. 

We didn’t have to be out the wind too much.  The particular job that had to be done in the dust-bowl-throwback corrals was pretty easy.  The job got done.

How much of life is like that?  A lot I think.  Parts of a day start nice, then it’s time to work.  Sometimes work pleasant, but sometimes it is eye-squinting, grit-licking, grime-pushing work. God gives us work to help us get past ourselves.  There was no time today to focus on “my” issues – there was just the job that needed to be done.

Have you thanked God for your work lately? 

Fun With Crowbars And Sledgehammers

Well ventilated!

I’ve said it about chainsaws, but it applies to these “toys” as well:  if you can’t have fun with a crowbar and a sledgehammer, you just can’t have fun.

No, I’m not talking about some weird WWE cage match with toolshed weapons (although that may have a certain appeal to it).

I started remodeling our chicken coop today.  There’s no way of telling how old the coop is.  I could radio-carbon date the wood, but I hear that process is kinda pricey.  The newest third of the coop is still in pretty good shape.  The oldest two-thirds needs a new roof.  Today I finished tearing off that roof.

The first picture you see is the coop with the roof that eventually came off. The second picture is my progress at the end of the first day.  Notice the nice hole in the roof.  The third picture was taken after my second day of demolition.  Notice the huge sag in the lower wall and the sag in the rafters.  That wall and the rafters will be rebuilt.  Don’t you like how the pile of junk grows and grows?

There's a hole in the roof!

So why am I bothering to blog about a construction project?  Believe me, this is not about me showing off my construction prowess (it’s more of a comedy of errors).  Its about motivation, action and accountability.

Motivation: Jodi and I want to expand our chicken flock.  Ideally, we would like to supply our entire little town with eggs.  We started out with 2 guineas, 6 hens and a rooster about a year ago.  Between bad fences and hungry dogs and owls, we’re down to one hen (who still gives us an egg a day).  We’d love to buy laying hens, but they’re very hard to come by.  That means we’ll probably be ordering a bunch of chicks from a hatchery or a semi-local farm.  Chicks need a dry and warm place to mature. Clearly, the old coop wasn’t going to work as-is.  The old section of roof was about 12 feet X 16 feet and covered with old tar paper and even older tin.  Snow and rain left that section of the coop nice and muddy.  Although mud is good for facials, it is definitely not good for raising baby chicks.

Action: Good intentions mean nothing if you don’t do anything.  As much as I’d like to wake up one morning and magically have a baby-chick-ready chicken coop, that would never happen.  I needed to start.  Hence the crowbar and sledgehammer fun.  Without the initial action, the project would never get started, let alone completed.

The roof is gone!

Accountability: I am convinced that posting this project on my blog will help me get the construction project done faster.  There are still several days worth of work ahead.  Setting ties, building walls and a new door, putting up rafters, more roof support, then tin. None of it is rocket science, but it’s good, physically tough work. And if it doesn’t get done, the flock doesn’t grow, and the town doesn’t get their fresh eggs.

The Bigger Picture: How much of life is like this project?  Quite a bit, I think.  I tend to get stuck on different phases in different situations.  Sometimes I don’t see the need around me (a problem with motivation).  Sometimes I have a tough time taking the first step (a problem taking action).  Most of the time I have a great idea and get started on it, but I don’t see it to completion (a problem asking for accountability).

Tonight at youth group we discussed Jesus’ teaching on meeting others’ needs in practical ways, then we talked about helping a family in town who just went through a horrendous car accident.  One student came up with the great idea of making a get-well banner for them with signatures from everyone in school.  Great idea. The action needs to be taken tomorrow to start the project and then it needs to get finished by the end of the day.  As their adult “leader” I’ll need to help them along the way to make sure it gets done.

Sometimes we’re in the position of needing accountability and sometimes we’re the ones to help keep others accountable.  Which side have you been on lately?

13 Adventures In 15 Days

Today I got to thinking about how awesome life here in Branson is. The awesome part comes as I stay open to Jesus and go through doors of adventure he presents. Here the 13 adventures I’ve had over the last 15 days.

1. Hiked to a Mountain Lion’s Kitchen Table a Second Time. Yep, the dogs and I found a place with a recently gnawed bone and a big pile of fresh big cat scat right next to it. I didn’t stay there very long. As if once wasn’t enough, the second time around I took my sister, a good friend, and 2 girls I was trying to convince to be our female sponsors for our adventure camping trip along. No one was eaten.

2. Mountain Biking at Night. I didn’t blog about this one, but I did talk about it in a recent sermon (listen to it or download it here ). Downhill, no visibility, rocky road, oak brush…. nuff said.

3. Worship Under the Stars. The night before we rafted, we were invited to join a college group for some music and worship around their campfire. It was breathtaking.

4. Whitewater Rafting. Blogged about this here.

5. Camping 15 feet from a raging river. Ditto on the last post.

6. Rock Climbing. Blogged about it here.

7. Hitch Hiking. I’m working on that blog right now. That whole day was crazy.

8. Hot Springs Swimming. Warm, fun, waiting for lost keys to show up…. oh no, I’m giving away details on the upcoming blog!

9. Horseback Riding. I helped gather a pasture of cows and calves with 2 of my favorite people on the planet: my cousin Dan and my Grandad Tanky.

10. Swashbuckling. I was Pirate Bones (the comic relief) and the game guy for our pirate-themed VBS, which was this past week. Talking in a pirate voice for 3 straight days will leave your throat trashed. It was awesome. Here’s a highlight video.

11. Standing next to 2 Kodiak Bears. They were dead. I got to visit a homestead where a friend had grown up. His father was a serious big game hunter and had an incredible trophy room. 2 Kodiak bears, a polar bear, a moose, several caribou, lots of antelope, a bull elk, and lots of knickknacks from traveling the world. That room had volumes of adventure stories to tell.

12. Wild Grass Fire Fighting. I just blogged about this here.

13. Cliff Diving. Today I made my first trip to Trinchera Falls: the local swimming hole and possible greatest kept secret on the planet. The swimming was phenomenal. There is an archaeological dig just up the creek if you want to see some ancient cave drawings. Oh yeah, and I jumped off a 25 foot cliff into the water.

Coming up in the next month: a 50-mile bike ride and adding a third little boy to the mix (in that order).

So who wants to move to Branson?

But really, location doesn’t matter if you’re open to adventures the Lord puts in your path. There will always be details to take care of and bills to pay. Take advantage of open doors and let God weave some wonderful memories for you. It’s quite a ride.