Good morning. It is a rainy, soggy, 54 degrees morning. The weather perfectly matches the mood in our house this morning. We received a text yesterday afternoon from our middle daughter, Heather, that her daughter Lauren has found her dad dead at home. I don’t know the specifics but suspect possibly a heart attack or stroke. He had a history of both. Heather had divorced him I think six years ago and Lauren lived with her dad and son Jon lived back and forth between his mom and dad but mostly with his mom. Needless to say, our hearts are breaking for our grandchildren. They are 22 and 19 and far too young to have to deal with this. So I’ll ask you to lift them up in prayer for comfort from God.

We’re supposed to have a full day of rain today, maybe up to two inches. That should take us outOf a drought situation. Heck just a week ago we were all under burn bans here in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky. We are told though that even with al of the rain today, we won’t be in any danger of flash flooding because the ground will soak it all up. It’s a good thing as Martha Stewart would say.

My co-pastor, Pastor Art asked me yesterday morning if  I knew how to get rid of raccoons. I guess he has several and they are doing damage to his yard barn. I told him I had just the traps he needs and I took them over to his house and set them for him. He used some dry cat food; I would have used wet because it is more pungent.  It is too rainy and wet in his back yard for hi to go check so far this morning. He said he checked on them around 1700 last evening and still didn’t have one. He has two acres of yard surrounded by woods so it is a natural habitat for raccoons. I hope he starts catching them though.

I guess I’ll finish this and then my cup of coffee and then get on the bike for a ride. Have a blessed weekend; stay in touch with God. Shalom.

It’s a cloudy, dreary Friday morning and fifty one degrees. My Accuweather app says we’ll have racing starting in 34 minutes and it is generally spot on. Forecasters have predicted showers on and off today and then tomorrow we are supposed to get a real soaker. But we are still officially i a drought situation so bring in the rain and bust that drought!

Wednesday we went with the church group up to an Amish restaurant in Washington Indiana which is about an hour drive from us. The food was good as it always is and we had I think about 27 people go. It was a nice time.

Yesterday we had the plumber come and put in a new garbage disposal. He told me that the old one had been leaking for quite a while as it was full of gunk. I think we had that one put in about 2004 so I got fifteen years of service out of it. Anything over 10 years for an appliance like that is gravy so I have little to complain about. My one complaint though is that this seems to be a week of $300.+ expenses. Between the truck and the garbage disposal my billfold has gone dry. Today we’ll get all of the stuff put back up under the sink and can maybe put our kitchen back in order.

I’m working on the park bench still and it isn’t going all that well. I’m having trouble keeping things lined up to put them together. It is not only heavy, but it is awkward to work with. It is definitely a two person job and I ain’t two persons. But where there is a will, there is a way. I went to the hardware store last evening to get some new bolts and what I got is too short. I should have bought inch and a half and bought inch and a quarter instead. There is a common saying that doing FIY projects always requires at least three trips to the hardware store. I’ve had two now so no telling what else I’ll need. But, I will probably go today and get what I think I need. But, as aggravating as it might be, it feels good to be doing something wood working relate again. It has been too many years.  I don’t know that I’ll actually work on the bench today though. I twisted  my knee last night working on the thing, (yes, the same leg as the ankle problem) so I may lay off of it. I want to ride my recumbent bike today for awhile and maybe kind of work the soreness out, or it may make it worse.

It has been a busy time at the Backyard Buffet this morning. I have a few cardinals out there but mostly it has been squirrels out there running and chasing and fussing and fighting. Their running across my roof sound like a herd of elephants. Very entertaining.

Speaking of elephants, Ms. Kate and I are going over to Louisville, KY on Monday and meet Julie and Jim and their friend Karen at the Louisville zoo. They have a new baby elephant that is old enough now to be on display and we want to see that. As you know, I love elephants.

The weekend is here so I'll remind you to take time to go to your house of worship and give God God’s due. We’ve ll had another week of blessings and we need to acknowlege where those blessing came from and be grateful for them. Have a great day.

It is a chilly morning to say the least at 43 degrees. But the sun is shining brightly and I don’t see a cloud anywhere.

Yesterday was a roller coaster of a day. It was a day of good things followed by periods of “well, crap!” I decided that I was going to try to figure out what was wrong with my truck so I took a couple of gallons of water down to the street and poured a gallon into the radiator. As I was looking at what I was doing, I saw water starting to drip from under the engine block. As I suspected, the water pump was bad. So, I called AAA to have them come tow it.  Amazingly enough AAA had a tow truck at our house within thirty minutes and we had it towed to the garage owned by one of our parishioners. Two hours later, I had a new water pump and the truck was ready to roll. Win, win!!!

But, for every up, there must be a down I guess. I decided that I would work on the park bench that has sitting in my garage for two years and rebuild it. About the only tool I required was a drill. However, every battery I had for my cordless drills was dead as a door nail. One was even sitting in a charger but I guess the charger doesn’t work anymore either. So, sometime today I need to go to Lowes and get new batteries and charger. In the mean time, I pulled out an old hand drill to do what I was working on.

Ms. Kate was busy making apple sauce yesterday evening. She had cooked the apples and was going to put the waste down the garbage disposal. It didn’t work. We had been noticing a bad smell somewhere around the kitchen sink but had not been able to locate it. Well, she reached under the sink into a pan to reset the disposal and found that the pan under there was full of water and it smelled just like sewage. Yuk!!! That’s a win for apple sauce and a loss for disposal. We have pulled out some of the stuff from under the sink and I have called a plumber. They will be here tomorrow.

Today we are going with the senior folks from the church to an Amish Restaurant about an hour north of here. Hopefully today is going to have ore “wins” than bad. Although, if the day goes like trying to write this blog has gone, it is gong to be aa long day. I have missed more letters in words and had to go back and correct more words than I can count. Some how I keep missing the “a” and it is driving me a little crazy.

Have aa great day. Peace.

Hello Tuesday my old friend. I’m glad to see you back again. It’s eleven degrees cooler this morning than it was yesterday morning. The temperature is sitting at fifty degrees with a nine mile an hour breeze. I took some stuff out to the compost bin a little bit ago and it felt a bit chilly.

Had a busy day yesterday. My big news though is that I finally made my goal of doing ten miles on my recumbent bike. It took me 76 minutes. I was pooped by the time I got off of the bike and stiff too. But, I was determined that I would make ten miles for no other reason than I wanted to. BBut, I’m not going to ride today. I try to ride three maybe four times a week for at least thirty minutes. And —- I did it without my orthotic. I can hardly believe how well my ankle area is doing. God has truly blessed me through this process.

Cardinals, finches, Woodpeckers and a fat squirrel make up my guest list this morning at the Backyard Buffet. i still haven’t made it to Wild Birds to get more safflower seed. That feeder is n’t totally empty but is getting very close. I like to use that because for whatever reason, the blackbirds and starlings don’t eat it but the cardinal love it. I see the nuthatches going after it too once in awhile. And, I have the wooden 4x4 that that feeder sits on shielded with a three foot wrap of aluminum flashing and the squirrel have given up on trying to climb it. There has been more than one trail of blood running down the pole from where they cut themselves trying to get up there. I think I have had that feeder for ten years now. It is a wooden gazebo with a plastic cylinder in the center to hold the seed. I bought it at an Amish woodworking place on one of our day trips and it has really held up well.

Today I need to see if I can figure out where I’m losing the water from my truck. My son-in-law gave me some ways to try to figure it out. Then I’m going to call AAA and have it towed to the garage. I don’t want to be driving it and be worrying about it running out of water. And, I pay for AAA every year and never use their benefits.

Ms. Kate has apples cooking this morning for some apple sauce. We bought a bunch of apples before we left for vacation and by now many of them had big brown soft spots on them. We bought them knowing they were “seconds” but I think they had been picked up off oof the ground. We still have enough good one left to make a pie or two though.

That’s my life for today. I hope you are having a great day, I certainly am having a blessed day thus far. Peace.

Good morning on a rainy warm (61 degrees) Monday. We’re having what folks Call “a good rain”. It is slow and sporadic meaning it will rain for a few minutes and then stop for a few minutes, and then start again. My new grass is coming up nicely and this is exactly what the yard needs. So, all praise to God for  yet another morning of blessings.

I’m doing “Pastor on Call” this morning and working from home. The office at the church is being renovated still. Right now all of the furniture is out of the office. It has been painted and new drywall has been put up but the old light fixtures have been taken down and new ones have yet to be put up. The secretaries office is the same way. I don’t know what she is doing but all of her office stuff was in our conference room yesterday stacked everywhere. I think this is the last of the renovations that we are doing at the church for awhile. I know we need to be thinking about new A/C units but that will have to be on next year’s budget. Hopefully Zoar will have a new “settled pastor” by the time they put those in. We’ll be on year six of the pastoral search come January.

We have a busy week lined up. Tomorrow we meet with or financial dude to take care of some investment stuff. Wednesday we are going to Washington IN for a “Senior’s Day” trip for lunch t a really good Amish restaurant, then Wednesday evening will be choir practice. I haven’t looked at the calendar beyond that. But, I’m still tinkering with my sermon for next Sunday and need to finish that up.

My Backyard Buffet guests are sporadic this morning. A few cardinals come by in between the rain showers as do a couple of woodpeckers. The squirrels are staying in today so far. I guess they don’t get hungry if it is raining which is too bad. It is fun to watch them try to climb wet metal poles and they get part way up and slide back down. I need to go to Wild Birds and get a bag of safflower seed for the cardinals. That feeder is almost empty. My sun flower can is down to half too and I could pick up another 40# bag of that. The weather forecast call for sunny days for most of this week sso there will be a lot of birds coming by.

Right now though,, I need to finish this up, drink the last of the coffee in my cup and get on the bike and ride. I hope you have an excellent day full of blessings.

Until next posting —- Peace.

A blessed Saturday morning to you. It is a chilly 40 degrees outside but the sun is shining through a partly cloudy sky. It will warm today to about 70 degrees. So, we are in for a pleasant day.

I’m sitting here watching the squirrels play in the trees. The neighbors trees. All of the trees in my yard and the neighboring yards are large enough that their branches intermingle. It makes for a very large “squirrel highway” or playground, depending on their mood I guess. They go from tree to tree chasing one a another and fighting. It is quite entertaining. This morning I absolutely must fill the bird feeders. They still have food out there that they are “making do” with but if I’d fill the feeders, they would be very much happier and I think I would draw in a larger crowd. Of course, the first in would be the danged starlings and blackbirds. This morning my guests are several cardinals and a couple varieties of woodpeckers. One lone goldfinch sits out there eating thistle seed. It is time to empty out the hummingbird feeder. The temperature has not officially reached freezing yet but I’m sure our hummingbirds have packed their suitcases and headed for Arizona. Hopefully when they return next April they will bring lots of friends.

We had a wonderful visit with Ms. Brenda and her dad, Mr. Bob. Brenda's husband was out on the combine harvesting soybeans. He had wanted her to run the tractor and disc yesterday but she had enough other things to do, including meeting Ms. Kate and me for lunch, so she left him on his own. Ms. Kate and I bought a pig from them and it will be delivered to the butcher shop on the 30th of this month; —- “Trick or Treat” little piggy. LOL It will be great to have a freezer full of meat. The hog should weigh in around 250 pounds. I don’t know the loss is when butchered but that will still provided a lot of pork chops, sausage, ham, and tenderloin. I think I have mentioned that I prefer pork to beef although a good steak every now and then or some good ground beef is pretty good too.

Tomorrow is Sunday and it is my Sunday to preach. I suspect that the crowd will be a bit small. One of our members is getting married in another state and her family will all be gone. The girl’s grandmother is also my Sunday school teacher so I told her that I would handle teaching the class. It will be a busy day. That reminds me that I need to read our lesson today and prepare for the class. I hope you wil take the time and go to church tomorrow and give thanks to God for any and all blessings that you have received this week. You know, I think most of us go from day to day with out considering what all God has made possible in our lives. So, we need to sit an hour aside to do that. And, I’m convinced that if we can do that with others it makes the event much more special. So, I urge you to attend a house of worship this weekend. Have a blessed day.

Thursday morning and we are home. We left Lisa’s house on Tuesday morning and drove mst of the day; finally stopped in Corbin, Kentucky at the same hotel we stayed at on our first day of travel down to Lisa’s house a week ago. The weather was perfect on Tuesday and we made good time. Our only holdup was a traffic accident that had happened at the seven mile marker just inside of North Carolina. We caught up with that accident around the fourteen mile marker and traffic was at a standstill. We had maybe a 30 - 45 minute wait there but once we started to move, it was good traveling from there on.

We stopped in Louisville, KY for lunch at P.F. Chang’s. It is Ms. Kate’s favorite restaurant. From there it is a two hour jaunt to the house. We got home and immediately took a nap, and then unpacked the car after we got moving gain. Ms. Kate got a load of wash going right away and we can put our suitcases away until December.

It is a brisk 40 degrees here this morning. My bird feeders are empty and that means I’ll need to put on my jacket and go full feeders sometime today. I see I also have a bunch of leaves to take care of today. Bless my sister-in-law Karen, she kept the yard watered while we were gone and my newly seeded back yard is showing a good stand of grass now. We’re starting to get rain again so I think I can pull the hose back in. This morning I have cardinals and blue jays, and finches here and they’re all giving me the “stink-eye” and looking toward the house, accusing me of not doing my job. I noticed too that the goldfinches have almost all turned brown now with little to no yellow showing.

While we were on vacation, I only did one day of doing any bike riding. Lisa has a recumbent bike identical to ours but I never got off my rear end except for one day to to day riding. So, that too is on the agenda for today. And, I also need to take Ms. Kate to get her hair trimmed. It;s aa busy day and we are playing “catch-up”  Having said that, I guess I better get out of the recliner and get started. Have a most wonderful day. Peace.