Spring Flowers

"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?"

Double Azalea

"Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?"

Snowball Bush

"Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?"

Climbing Rose

"And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:"

"And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

"Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?"

Habiscus

"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?"

"(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things."

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

Matthew 6:25-34

Gone Fishin'

With Dad and Ray in the construction business, we have many customers and meet many people. Some are near and some are far. Some houses are small while others are huge. Some jobs are a cinch, and others are....well....they wished they had estimated just a little bit higher. : )

One customer that they have worked for for several years lives on the lake, and that is almost like heaven to them! The man gave them free reign of the fishing pier, so when they have any jobs in that neighborhood, lunchtime sees a little procession of fishing poles and tackle headed down to the water's edge.

And one day the other week was just such a day.

As they were down there fishing, a fish almost dragged one of Ray's rods in. The only thing that saved it was one of the eyelets got caught on the swimming ladder. Whew! Close call! He got the fish off the line and cast it back out. He began throwing a rubber worm with another rod and was just reeling it in when the first rod bent over from the handle to the tip. Grabbing it up, he realized that he needed to get the other rod out of his hand, so he pitched it down and began reeling in the fish. But wait....something's not quite right. The tip of the rod he had put down was just disappearing beneath the water's surface. He felt like a complete idiot, but that's o.k. -- he's over it now. He fished his rod out. : )

The catch of the day

Mmmmmmm...looks tasty!

Ohhhh! So that's how you do it!

Give a man a fish; feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; feed him for a lifetime.

~Lao Tzu

A New Venture...

The day after sheep shearing, Mr. and Mrs. Lattimore decided it was time to start their new venture and asked if we wanted to help. Sure thing! It was decided early on that it would not be early in the day (worn out from sheep shearing!), so we got together after lunch. After some complications with the trailer, Mr. Lattimore, Ray, Sara, and Valerie took off down into the lower pasture to cut and drag logs for their soon-to-be mushroom farm.

Each log had to be cut to about a 4' length.

Then the logs were dragged to the upper edge of the pasture ready to be loaded onto the trailer.

One of the trees had fallen into another tree, so Ray and Sara had to pull it out.

You may wonder why in the world there is a picture of a hat, but if you look VERY closely, you can see the sweat droplets dripping off of it. Ray had soaked it through and through.

Taking a break while waiting to pump the trailer tire back up

We had gathered about 100 of the needed 200 logs, but the other 100 will have to wait 'til another day.

Sheep Shearing '10

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door of the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flea from him: for they know not the voice of strangers."

John 10:1-5

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One of our favorite annual activities has to be sheep shearing. So when the call comes in to work out the scheduling, there is much excitement.
April 16th dawned bright and clear with only a very little chance of rain. That is definitely a miracle! The Lattimores have never been able to shear on the first scheduled day! The second phenomenon occurred when the sheep didn't give us any trouble when herding them into the pen. They only broke loose once during the day, but once again, they cooperated perfectly when herded into the pen. We thought for sure something really bad was going to happen with everything going so perfectly. But the Lord, in His mercy, saw fit to give us a good day with only minor mishaps.
Ray, Jr., Valerie, and Sara got to the farm at 8:00, and as soon as the fences were put into place and everything else was set up, the shearing began.

Fred, the shearer -- the sheep's most dreaded person : )

It's a busy day that requires a smooth working team if all is to get done in one day.

Sheep may safely graze -- on all days but shearing day : )

A back breaking job

The routine is quite simple and flows smoothly as long as each does their part. Here it is, step by step...

The holding pen
As you can see, the sheep don't volunteer.

Caught 'im!

Checking to see if it needs wormed
(Hint: as long as the sheep is on its haunches, it is calm and docile. All procedures, if cooperation is desired, requires the sheep to be in this position, or rather, off their feet.)

I may LOOK innocent....

The shearer starts on the belly and works his way around the sheep, keeping the fleece intact.

When it is let up, the sheep doesn't quite know what to do with its liberty. : )

The fleece is thrown onto a rack, and there all the tags are pulled from it. It is then rolled up and put on a tarp ready for bagging.

After we had gotten about 60 or more fleeces stacked on the tarp, Sara looked up from the sheep and said, "Uh, Mr. Lattimore....you have a live fleece over there." We all looked up, and the fleeces on the tarp were moving like waves. Upon closer inspection, we saw the little head of a yearling bobbing up and down as it waded through the sea of fleeces. It probably smelled its mother somewhere in the pile.

As soon as the sheep is let up, the wool is swept away ready for the next victim.

And so the process starts over...

Do you ever wonder where the saying came from...

"The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence."

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"Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep."

John 10:7-15

Making A Stink

The week of April 11th-16th was the week of our revival meetings with Bro. Paul Crow at our church in Kings Mountain. It was a special week with many decisions made and many lives changed.
That Monday, the pastor and assistant pastor of one of our supporting churches in WV stopped by on their way down to Georgia. It was so much fun and so encouraging to fellowship with them the short time they were with us. We probably had a little too much fun..... : ) but we really couldn't resist. : ) After a late night coffee/tea time on our front porch and a few hours' sleep, they headed on their way.
Wednesday, we had a meeting in Yanceyville, NC ~ about a 3 hour drive. We ministered in music, and Daddy preached. It's been a little while since we've traveled, so we had to get back in the swing of things.

Wednesday morning, Valerie was taking the covers we had used for our company back out to our enclosed cargo trailer. As she opened the side door, some of the stuff inside began falling out. It looked like a tornado had hit! What in the world!?! Then upon looking up, she saw the culprit....a large black and white cat commonly called Clarkey. Oh NO! Another factor that awakened her senses was a strong smell.....and it was NOT a pleasant one. Apparently he had sneaked in while they were getting the covers and air mattresses out Monday night. We certainly had our work cut out for us! Everything had to come out, anything cloth had to be washed in OdoBan, and everything else had to be washed down. We first tried just airing the trailer out and spraying it with OdoBan, but when we arrived at our meeting Wednesday night, there was a strong odor of cat permeating the trailer as well as the things in it. Whew!!! SO the next day, it was emptied again, and this time, scrubbed out with water and laundry detergent, then sprayed once again with OdoBan. We were ready to disown a cat! Yes, the things in the trailer needed sorted through and inventory checked, but this was a little more thorough than we had in mind.

And the moral to this story?

Before you shut the trailer door in the dark,
Be sure to check inside for a cat named Clark!

Extreme Makeover

There is one simple truth to this "blogging thing" : )......either you have tons to blog about and no time to do it, or you have all the time in the world and not a thing worth writing. The latter is VERY seldom true, but nonetheless..... : ) SO, you have probably already guessed it. Yes, there is a lot to catch up on. : )

"O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing."

Psalm 34:8-10

As Spring approaches, it seems like everything begins beckoning one to the outdoors. Everyone begins their mowing, planting, mulching, sprucing.... so our family took a little trip out to Conover to do just that. Aunt Crystal needed some work done that with just one set of arms and legs would be overwhelming, but with many hands it surely did make light work.

There was mulching...

...and more mulching...

This could go on forever, but you get the idea...there was a LOT of mulching! : )

The beautiful side yard -- COMPLETED! : )

Doin' a little bit of everything

He really did have a purpose up there...

cleaning out the gutters

The neighbors decided it was time for their mulching to be done. Their three small children pitched right in. So cute!

Smart...

Thorough.

Here comes another load of mulch!

The front yard -- COMPLETED! : )

Pa Paw decided he wanted the sod to put around in his yard.

Pa Paw doesn't tell many jokes, but he sure does have a wealth of hilarious incidents that have happened to him during his MANY years in rock masonry.....like the time a lady called him to see if he could spread some concrete for her. When he told her he would have to come out to see how much she needed, she said, "Well, I already had the concrete delivered yesterday, and I had them pour it in a pile in my back yard." Needless to say, he told her he wasn't the man for the job. : )

Snack time!...or is he just monkeying around? : )

"Say 'Cheese'!"

Brett needed a walk...

The other side yard -- COMPLETED! : )

The brush pile was bigger than our truck!

Daddy decided to join the neighbor....not sure whether he was helping or just keeping him company. : )

The finishing touch

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"Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new."

II Corinthians 5:17