"I had a monumental idea this morning, but I didn't like it." - Samuel Goldwyn

It's 7 a.m. and I've already been at an unbroken list of tasks for two hours.
Next time Pam leaves to visit family she's taking animals with her!

The two bottle babies get fed four times a day. Each feeding requires mixing up the powdered formula, putting in three different additives including an antibiotic pill that has to be crushed first, and then putting the right number of ounces into each kid's bottle (different amounts because of their different ages). Heat the bottles in the hot pot and then serve them up to two baby goats who attack their particular bottle with an eagerness that can't be described. Then thoroughly wash the bottles and nipples for the next feeding in five hours.

The good news: in four days we'll be down to THREE feedings a day, seven hours apart.

Stella is old enough that she's well past bottles, but sure lets me know she wants the handful of the grain mix I give her to win her over. Yikes! Then, if it's one of the two times a day she gets a clump of alfalfa hay we go through the same pestering a second time. Actually, we go through it four times a day because she hasn't figured out she'll only get it twice.

The chickens require far less attention and I'm very thankful we're past the sub-freezing weather that required thawing out their water each morning. The last few days they've been losing feathers, or more likely, pulling them out. They've got a supply of crushed oyster shell, so it's not a calcium shortage. Best guess is that the cold weather and snow kept them trapped in the coop, and boredom led to this behavior. So I expect things to improve quickly. I think we're going to try letting them out of the pen every morning like we did at the beginning. I'm pretty sure they're all too big now for any hawk to carry one of them off like happened last time.

Bear, Pam's dog, does two things: whine for his twice daily cup of dog food and sleep on his pillow.
OK, three things, but that one he does when he goes out with me at goat feeding times and it doesn't require any effort on my part.

This is parked in front of MoHo. It's a custom ordered trailer which is why it has two doors on the side in addition to the standard double doors on the back. Our church ordered it as an empty shell that will be turned into a shower house with two fiberglass shower units and a bench for each. It will also get a tankless propane hot water heater. I've been asked to do the interior framing and fashion some kind of removable cover for the already-in-place breaker box and the as yet uninstalled water heater. I got the 2x4's yesterday and should get the framing done today, and hopefully fashion, make, and install the cover tomorrow. Then it will go to a guy in the church who's a plumber and who will do that stage of the work.

When it's all done they'll tow it to city run homeless camps so those people can get a hot shower. I'm unclear about water supply and grey water disposal, but they've got that figured out.

I have questions about the long term wisdom of things like this, but I've learned that Eugene has a distinct culture that I just don't get so I defer to our church's leadership and will do what I can to help where I can.

If I were to choose one word to describe my understanding of the Christian life it would be servant.
"You are not your own, you were bought at a price" (1 Cor. 6:20).
Seven times in his letters Paul describes himself as a servant of God and tells us we are slaves (same Greek word as servant) of God (Rom. 6:22).
Servants exist to serve their master, have no inherent rights or privileges, and expect no recompense. They do what they're told in whatever way they're asked to do it. A slave's behavior should always enhance their master's standing, NEVER cause him embarrassment or disapproval.

It's not about me. I do not expect to hear him say, "thank you." The most I hope for, what I long for, is to hear him say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."