Freezing Temps, Repairs, One Year After

Temperatures fell below freezing Sunday afternoon. Barely a few hours of above freezing temperatures since then. Hard to get motivated to do more than what is necessary. Keeping cows, pigs, and chickens watered has obviously been a more intentional chore than it usually is. Keeping water to the pigs in the woods proving to be the most challenging with over 100 yards of above ground line to supply it. 

We tried twice to load up the pigs in the woods to haul them back to the barn. We failed twice. Maybe better luck today. 

We still have some stockpiled grass, but with the dusting of snow and cold windy temperatures, I went ahead and unrolled them some hay. A few of the bred momma cows we purchased back in the summer are still calving. Three newborn calves died this week during birth. 

Trouble with a hot tubs at one of the rental cabins required calling out a repair man. Trouble with one of the walk-in freezers meant calling out another repair man. Thankful for fine folks who know how to fix things. 

Amy has been keeping the bone broth simmering all week in the on-farm kitchen. Today she makes a quarterly delivery down to North Carolina. 

I’m ready for spring.

This week I listened to William R. Forstchen’s One Year After which is a sequel to One Second After as the aftermath of the EMP attack continues. 

“We did have a lot to do with it. We had all grown… so complacent that we always let someone else worry about such things, even though we knew that those we allowed to be in charge were far too often incompetent, or worse, self-serving and blind in their arrogance.”

“Just following orders” was a theme of this novel. Without following orders, order reverts into chaos. For the sake of maintaining order, sometimes we follow orders we disagree with or don’t want to do. But what about when those orders are morally reprehensible? And rarely are those orders as black and white as we like to think. How do we know when to obey orders we disagree with? Or when to defy orders that contradict what we believe? And at what cost? There’s always a cost.

“So any order from on high, regardless of its moral worth, must be obeyed? Is that really what America has become?”

“The Constitution must stand untouched. That is a rock solid bottom line for this country and for me personally. I will not serve a government that abrogates the Constitution… If we tear out the bedrock of the Constitution, we will find ourselves on shifting sands that will eventually swallow all of us up into the darkness.”

Have a good week.

Will