Well if my bio mother were alive she would be 99 years of age today, but she has been gone for 20+ years and while we never lived together after about my 4th birthday she did give birth to me, so Happy Birthday. I grew up being raised by her younger brother who eventually became my legal guardian and stayed with him and his family on the farm until I reached the age of 17 and graduated in '64 and left the home for good. I did go back and visit from time to time and still do visit with his 3 girls who are my first cousins but claim me as their older brother. I never knew who my bio father was, but my uncle was there to give me guidance and at times it was rather punitive and filled with hard work. There was always remembrances of those times which kept me away for years, but eventually I brought my family back for reunions and thankfulness for taking me in as a small lad and then forgiveness as well were evident. Now I'm the oldest of all the first cousins among the 6 brothers and sisters who made up bio mothers family. All of them are gone with my guardian being the last to go a couple years ago.
Well I remember how lucky I was to be raised on a farm in the country and how to work usually from sun up to sun down caring for farm animals, tending to gardens, butchering every Thanksgiving Day and learning to drive not only farm trucks and tractors, but a team of mules as well as using a chainsaw cutting timber and pulpwood. I'm was no stranger to hard physical work and now I truly love being able to do those jobs and chores which I think help with my being young in this old body which will turn 79 tomorrow, oh well. I went from a country farm boy raised in a small community to seeing many foreign countries during my 7 years of service as a crew member on a huge cargo jet that entered a combat zone weekly in Viet Nam. I did get a college diploma being the first ever in my family in '73 while living in California before eventually moving to Florida. I spent 30 years as a traffic homicide investigator with the Florida Highway Patrol before retiring in '04. Life has had its up's and down's and my story is one filled with the love of Jesus which has been the life blood of mine.
I stared the day on Monday with a 6'ish rollout to my routines that begin with some quiet moments to honor my lord, Jesus, give thanks for another day and to lift up several for comfort and healing. All seem to be holding that is within my circle of associates and friends. I did my stretches on the back porch before heading out to check on the gardens for deer damage but first donned a flannel shirt as it was quite chilly with temps in the 50's. The skies were finally showing some blue but that changed as the day wore on to overcast and eventually a light rain and fog during the evening hours. I'm getting a little rusty with all this rain, oh well. Since it looked like a great day with clear skies I decided to get in some chain saw work cleaning up a huge dead tree limb that fell in the backwoods yard as well as some debris from earlier downed tree limbs in the backwoods area which were unsightly. I dug up three blueberry sprouts and planted them along the gully in the backwoods cleared area. They come from the main bushes via the roots, so I'm not sure it they will make, but what the heck. I then hoed all of the gardens as the rain had the soil packed from the last several days of rain.
Nancy decided to take a hike after getting some laundry out on the clothesline and while it was tough going for her at times we did the whole hike across the top of the mountain with stops along the way to visit with neighbors who were out and about. We actually sat and visited with Laura, a widow at 84 who lives there during the summer and she looked great after some issues of health concerns and then we saw Rick another neighbor along the way and chatted with him for several as well and then checked on the blue berries at another neighbors place which we have picked a couple times already. I'll go back this day and harvest them again to give away as mine are starting to ripen. It was a busy morning and early afternoon as we held off on any lunch after a big mountain breakfast since we were eating an early supper of leftovers around 4, due to having our respective Bible study classes at Cornerstone at 7.
Well it was after 9 before we got home and we had left around 6 for the Food Lion in Sparta for some items for when we entertain the Frankis Family for supper tomorrow on my big day. Their son's big day who will be 3 is the day after mine, but we will celebrate with them on Saturday evening at their place with a party. Lots of celebrating going on here in the mountains and we are lucky and thrilled to have so much fun here with awesome folks at our church and then in this neighborhood, LATER
