I’ve been praying about needing help on the farm. I’ve not felt overwhelmed exactly, but I’ve not been reaching around to all the projects that really need to get done.
We’ve been making a bit more from selling bread and milk in town, but our income is still under 20% of our expenses. I’ve been enjoying the interaction with people in town, but I need to really step things up in order to get the books back into the black.
Add to that, seven more goats will be kidding within a month or so, and the hours of the day fly away before everything gets done. Selling in town always takes half a day besides whatever time I spend helping prepare the bread and yogurt and such.
I’d mentioned the issue to Rafael who suggested finding a teenager to help. That could work, but I wasn’t sure I’d have the necessary time to train someone. Then, there’s the issue of housing a young man here, which raised complications.
So, this morning I talked with Percy about it. I told him what my needs are and how I wanted to find a local man I could trust. That would remove the trouble of housing someone.
We talked for a good while. He asked a lot of questions about what the helper would be doing. We discussed wages and length of work days and potential length of employment, the latter which is indefinite.
He then said that he’d been told yesterday, I think, that he was being laid off from his construction crew. He’s worked with them a long time; years, I believe. But the continued lockdown has made it impossible for the owner to support the whole crew. Percy has two weeks of work left.
Well, that changed the conversation. We got into some more details. I told him I needed some time to consider it and to discuss it with Steph, but we’d be talking over the next little while. He came back early this afternoon, and had some more questions and comments.
We walked around and considered various projects. He wanted to be sure there was enough work to be on with. Lucrecia came along and discussed what we had to sell and how to sell it more efficiently and for higher prices–she thinks most of our things could be sold for more.
All in all, we had good conversations. At one point, Lucrecia said to Percy, –Hijo, si trabajas aquí para el jefe, el Señor nos ayudará y bendecirá.— “Son (a term of endearment), if you work here for the boss (me), the Lord will help and bless us.”
Percy agreed. And I think the blessing and help could be mutual. Pray for us as we consider the details.
Juan David 