Yesterday somehow filled up. We have been getting only one egg per day for the past week from eleven hens. The children have been disappointed not to find more, so this morning in devotions they all prayed that the chickens would lay more eggs. And they did! We found seven yesterday! That was a great delight for our family.
After school, I began working on building better nesting boxes for the chickens. That was a fun project. Anne helped me finish up after lunch. We filled the boxes with straw, but the hens seemed uninterested. I went in and got eggs from the pantry to put into the boxes to encourage interest. Behold! All the hens wanted to climb in and sit on the eggs.
I marked the encouragement eggs with a Sharpie so we can easily keep track of which ones are new. Today we found four so far. Some of the hens seem to lay late in the day.
After the nesting boxes were complete, I began computer work. I was stumped on how to move forward, so I called the owner, who helped me break through my ignorance. I made a little actual progress, but I made significant knowledge progress.
Lamar and Joel removed the fence along the ditch running from their place to ours. We are planning to start the new driveway project next week, Lord willing, as well as the septic drain field relocation. I did not get to help with the fence today, sadly, but Dane was able to help. He was probably more fun to work with than I would have been anyway.
We decided to combine our staff meeting and prayer meeting evenings, so Lamar’s came down at 6:00 p.m. We had a long list of items to discuss; the evening became late. It is incredible how much only two families have to discuss! But there are many things that are necessary to get life started up here. I’ll give you a glimpse of our agenda before the meeting:
1. The driveway project
2. Lamar’s entrance and culvert
3. Inviting neighbors and people in Izcuchaca to our services
4. Church cleaning schedule
5. Kristina’s arrival & adding to group & English class schedule
6. Bethany and Josiah’s visit
7. Schmidt Interpol
8. Eggs and more chickens
9. Wed evening schedule
10. Friday evening: Rafael said he’d like to learn to make pizza sometime. When?
11. Visiting Alicia and Rene
12. Planting schedule for garden
13. Relating to the lecheros
14. Teacher for Schmidt chilluns
15. Cow plans
We have a good team to work with. I appreciate what each one contributes. We are so very different from each other! We are working to see the value in the varying strengths we bring, rather than allowing ourselves to become frustrated at our differences. That’s the test of love and brotherhood.
This morning I’ll hit the computer work again. Working with numbers is not my first love, but I’m thankful for the opportunity. If you have a writing or editing opportunity for me, I’ll consider it! [grin]
I plan to be with Rafael for the afternoon to exercise my Spanish. Pray that my brain opens up. It often feels that I’m hitting a brick wall. I find it incredibly difficult to form new sentences. I can understand what I’m being told, but I cannot answer. Very frustrating.
We have a free evening, and we are all looking forward to that. We need time just to catch our breath. Perhaps we will go to bed early!
Juan David 