MISSION MISSOURI: The Journey Continues

*Typed Sunday, March 14, 2010
We apologize for the delay in updating everyone on our progress. Our first week in Missouri has been quite busy. It has been a week of firsts in a lot of areas. Among them were our first overnighter on the property, first tick sighting of the season (a month early), first tornado warning (not for where we were though), first storm, first illnesses, etc.

So, where did we leave off? Sunday, March 7 we met with the fellowship here for a meeting and had a wonderful time. It was a good time of teaching and singing, followed by a potluck (which included stewed opossum) and some entertainment. Several of the families play instruments, so we were blessed to listen to a little concert. Later we all listened to a demonstration by one of the older brothers of a sea shell collection from Guam. It was interesting to see some of the variety the Creator has placed on the ocean floor.

After the meeting, we all trekked out to the property for our family’s first glimpse at the 5 acres we intend to call home. Then it was back to Jefferson City for a couple days to rest and regroup. Sunday night I came down with the stomach flu, but it proved to be a 24 hour bug and I quickly recovered.

With our health restored, we all returned to the property on Tuesday for an overnighter to try and get some work done. Mostly, we realized there is much more work to do than we anticipated and we spent the majority of our time getting the truck out of the mud. Oh, yes! We were blessed to find that the ticks are out already without anyone actually getting bit. So, with plans to make better plans and return soon, we escaped back to the city.

Wednesday evening we had dinner at the home of the self proclaimed Hillbillies that we met at the fellowship meeting. They claim the title of Hillbillies because not only do they raise chickens, bees and goats, but they do their own butchering, to include the opossum that we all enjoyed at the fellowship meeting. Opossum is not a regular part of their diet, it was bothering the chickens and one of their sons decided it would be a fun home experiment to try to cook it. Dinner was wonderful and came with a great light show. During the meal a storm had kicked up outside and there was quite a bit of lightning. The Weatherbugs (the Hillbillies children) were thrilled when the weather radio sounded a tornado warning for surrounding areas. We will be getting one of these radios. Even when they are off if there is a storm warning for your area, they come on and notify you.

Thursday we went to our first auction and came away nearly empty handed. It seems that auctions that happen too frequently are more of an excuse for the locals to socialize than anything else. We then spent the afternoon at the library doing some online searching for things we wished we had found at the auction.

Friday was spent catching up on our mountain of dirty laundry and organizing things on the homefront a bit.

Saturday was a pretty restful day. We went to Lowe’s to try and find chicken coop materials to build a little home for the three chickens our Hillbilly Friends so graciously offered us. As soon as we can we will be taking one rooster and two hens down to the property to deal with our creepy crawly problems (there are a few more spiders and ticks than I care to think about).

And today we are hanging out around the house recovering from a round of head colds. After nearly a week of temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s, it turned quite chilly here, with clouds and misty rain to boot.

Well, that about does it folks. We’re headed down to Laurie tomorrow to take care of a few things.

Until next time, may the Lord bless you!
My Family
(Wife Speaking)