What a day!

I guess our "day" really started last night. Right about the time that we were supposed to be having dinner, Dad and Caleb came home with six sheep. And a dog. We discovered that the electric fence didn't have quite enough strands of wire when the dog jumped right through them. Then Caleb decided that the sheep really needed a corral. So he and a buddy went down the road to fetch a few cattle panels, with the idea that they would be back in just a minute. Sure. After arriving at their destination, loading up the panels, and tying a couple of fancy boy scout knots to hold everything together, they made their way back down the road only to find "some dude" that was stuck in the road and holding up traffic. So they waited, very patiently I'm sure, and eventually were able to proceed. It wasn't long, however, before Caleb realized that the cattle panels weren't clanking against the trailer anymore. He stopped and checked, and sure enough, they weren't there. Somewhere along the route they slipped off the trailer, one by one, into the road. So anyways, not to bore you with all the details, they did end up making it back home. . . with a few panels at least. The rest of us are still laughing.

The next phase of our "day" came in the middle of the night. A rather large storm hit our place at about 1:30am, every bit of which I quite happily slept through. Caleb, though, was out in it the middle of it, rigging up a shelter with a tarp for the poor sheep in the field. Along about the same time, Mom started having contractions, and her water broke.

I woke up this morning hearing Mom walk down the hall dialing a number on the phone. The clock said 6:21am. I heard Mamma say something about contractions, and I bounced right out of bed, meeting Daddy in the hallway, who confirmed that Mom was indeed in labor.

A short while later I woke everyone else up. In the midst of little ones getting dressed and the midwife walking in the door, the post office called to let us know that our chicks were ready to be picked up! Thankfully, our wonderful neighbors were able to run the errand, and, as far as I know, not a single chick has died.

While Mom and Dad stayed at the house, the rest of us went over to our neighbors' place, and right after eight o'clock or so, we received a phone call saying that it was a boy, that he weighed in right at nine pounds, and that both he and Mommy were doing fine.

The rest of the day went on as normal, or as normal as the circumstances would allow, until sometime in the afternoon a friend dropped by to deliver bee supplies (the bees are coming in next Wednesday) and the dog went missing. They guys jumped on the ATV's and combed the woods looking for the little guy. I joined the search party a little bit later, and we looked all over the place for that dog up until dinnertime. By that time we had convinced ourselves that we wouldn't be able to find him and that he wasn't coming back. Caleb had to check on the sheep again before he went in, and guess who came charging down the hill that we had just been searching all over for that past 45 minutes or so? Yeah, the dog. Don't know where he was or what he was doing, but we're glad he's back.

So it's been a little crazy around here. No lack of excitement, that's for sure. It's fun, and we're praising the LORD for all His blessings!