Our grand-daughter, Michelle, is a very busy young lady. She has a husband and daughter to care for, a demanding 40-hour job, a horse, pony, and goat, some chickens, and all the activities of a young married mother. Naturally, she must plan her life and budget her time to get everything done. Unfortunately, despite all the planning, Mother Nature sometimes throws you a curve. That’s what gives us stuff to talk about, out here on the patio. For instance:

Up where Michelle lives in northern California, her daughter’s school was going to plant a garden for the kids. They needed fertilizer and put out a call for manure. Last weekend, Michelle decided to clean up her pasture and haul the stuff over to the school.

Shell gets her shovel and wheel barrow and starts cleaning up on the opposite side of the pasture from the horse shed. Suddenly, here comes a hail storm! The storm comes in fast and the hail stones are big enough to hurt like the devil when they hit you. Shell glanced up and got hit on the cheek by a big one. She watched as the horse, pony, and goat ran for the shed. She wanted to do the same thing but knew she couldn’t make it without getting beat up. She thought of running to the trees, but they were coastal cedars which are known for losing big limbs in a storm.

Being a smart girl, she did what she could. She dumped that load of manure, turned the wheel barrow upside down, and

crawled under it! She said her clothes were a mess and she didn’t smell too good, but she didn’t have any bumps on her head.

Dave Thomas
February 28, 2018