Catching up with Toto

Family and long time acquaintances remember Antoine, our first French exchange student. It's a long story how we made this crazy decision but the long and short of it is that one August day some years back we picked up a skinny boy from the airport who could barely communicate with us. It turned out to be an incredible year for us, for him and for GW Long where he attended school.

The last we heard from Toto was right after 9/11. His family called to make sure we were ok. It was a sweet gesture. They are good people. At some point we lost contact with him after a Christmas card was returned. It was no surprise, we couldn't expect him to live at home with his parents forever.

So I've checked online for him every once in a while. I'll spare you the details of point Point A to Point B, but as I write I just checked his GPS position a few minutes ago and watched him on youtube.

Antoine dreamed of driving. One of his great disappointments while here was that we couldn't get the needed papers to take driver's ed. It turns out in the years since he returned to Europe that his older brother became a race car driver and Antoine has joined the family racing team as Navigator for Nicholas. They've got a huge following.

At this writing Team Gibon, Nicholas et' Antoine, is participating in the TransOrientale, the longest rally race in the world. They started in St. Petersburg, Russia about six days ago and will end in Bejing, China sometime toward the end of the month.

Am I proud? Yes. The message we received right before they left from Russia left no doubt that his time here helped shape him into a fine man.

And in case anyone is interested, here's the links:
teamgibon.fr check on "Pilotes" for photo
race site lots of photos, video and interactive stuff
the brothers on youtube Antoine appears briefly while Nicholas (in white) is talking

Buster and the Chickens

We've noticed for a while that our dog thinks he's a chicken. We got him as a small pup and he grew up with our free range chickens. While he IS a dog, sometimes he does chicken like things. Like eat banana peels and cantaloupe rind. I guess as many times as they've helped themselves to his dog food when his back was turned he may as well hog theirs when the opportunity comes up.

Two weeks ago my dh had to confine the chickens to the coop. It was a hard decision as we all enjoy them so much, but they were scarfing down the tender young vegetable plants in the garden as soon as they came up. There was no way to keep them out without encasing the entire garden in chicken wire, including the top. Large garden plus lots of chicken wire equals lots of expense. Nope. The chickens had to stay put a while.

Enter heat wave. Yeah, it's been bad here. Even with extra shade and plenty of water they've not done well and we lost three layers this week. My dh was devastated. He buried two of them deep near the edge of the garden yesterday.

We knew the dog missed the chickens. He had caught him in the coop with them (he'd dug himself in) just hanging out and enjoying their company a couple of times. Maybe he was "sharing" their scratch feed and water too, we don't know. But this morning as I enjoyed a quiet moment on the screen porch before it got too hot I heard something sad - Buster was howling just off to my left. I wasn't able to see him, but he was howling - a sad slow howl. It seemed odd but I didn't give it a lot of thought till I got the car a bit later.

The howl came from a spot where a dead chicken lay. It was a pretty bad sight and I wasn't about to go near the disgusting thing, so I did what any good farm wife would do. I got my husband. Turns out Buster had dug her up. I don't know if he was trying to encourage her to get up and walk around with him or what, but he was howling, mourning over his friend.

There's a verse in the Bible about all creation groaning in travail while the earth waits for redemption. I would have never thought that a half wolf dog would mourn over the loss of a chicken, but that's exactly what happened.

Waving at Thunderclouds

I just heard the most beautiful sound I've heard in weeks - THUNDER! It's been another long dry spring and for the second year in a row the bees haven't made their normal quota of honey. There's probably a spiritual lesson in there somewhere but as it is my poor brain hasn't quite figured it out.

Suffice it to say I'm thrilled. If I thought it would do any good I'd go out like the hungry children in third world countries and wave like they do to the approaching cargo plane carrying humanitarian aid. I doubt the clouds would pay attention though, and I'd probably get struck by lightening.

I've spent a good part of my life playing it safe. As a mom I was constantly teaching my kids safety. Don't play with matches (Brian!), don't hang from the rafters (Mike!), don't make three point turns in curves or go wandering off in the woods (Cindy!) and don't talk to strangers (Becky!). These words of widsom were addressed to the issues I knew about (emphasis on the italics). It's the issues I didn't know about that leave me shaking my head and thanking God for watching their backs when neither their dad nor I were around to do so.

I think in adult life each of them have had the pleasure of dealing with their own unique "mom" warnings. I've lost track of the cars that have burned to toast in Brian's care. Mike got his lesson early on with a nasty compound fracture. Cindy . . . well she still drives like a mad woman and camps by herself, and I think Becky has decided that she should only witness to women or children.

Now that they're all grown however I'm cautiously learning to throw caution to the wind. Maybe the bees have helped with that. I mean after all, learning to shrug off a few stings is something of an accomplishment. I didn't worry about sunburn or what the neighbors would think wearing a tank top all day Saturday. Lila still accompanies me but I rarely give her any thought. I crave to ride the horses again. I want to go on the next family excursion to Norway or Kuwait.

Coming close to death may have something to do with it too. It's been a year and a half now.

But whatever the case, I know my days are numbered, and only God knows what that number is. That being the case I'm hanging on to something I heard, that I'm invincible as long as I'm in His service and care. That's cool. So I think I'll go out and wave at the clouds. Maybe God will see me and let some of that wet stuff fall.