Sunday, November 2, 2014

Rainbows, promises and mutton busting



That place in Panoche
 
Several Saturdays ago my husband Brad and I went to Panoche with our daughter Jenny. It was the first time we had visited our granddaughter Melissa, her husband Spencer and their three daughters since they moved to Panoche. We also visited their three calves, two kids (goats) and several dozen chickens. The beginnings of a farm to be. Spencer works at the Claravale Dairy there, a raw milk dairy which is rare even in California. Of course they showed us all around the dairy including the milking cows.

It was one of the first days of autumn rain and it poured just as we reached the dairy.  As the rain dwindled to a drizzle we went to see the milking cows. They all gathered at their fence where they eat hay. But in this case they wanted to visit with the people who had come to visit them! My husband was enchanted with them. He got as close as possible petting them, talking to them and feeding them handfuls of hay.  As the clouds begin to clear a beautiful picture appeared.


My husband stood there leaning across the fence and above his silver white hair, far above, but actually meeting the ground in a far pasture, was a beautiful rainbow. God’s promise of mercy and grace.


I earlier posted about the two areas of my life that was changing in my posting Turning toward home. I said that my husband had some tests overseen by a neurologist, for what we believed was dementia. Now we know it isn’t dementia but what is called mild cognitive impairment. It has the potential of becoming (a 15 to 20 percent chance) Alzheimer’s so we stand with hopefulness holding to God’s faithfulness. As the hymn states our times are in his hands.

So just to give you something fun to read and see, great granddaughter Molly the oldest of Melissa and Spencer’s girls, on her sixth birthday won the mutton busting event at the Fresno State Fair. So what is mutton busting you ask? The kids ride sheep and the one that stays on the longest wins. And not to worry an adult stays with them the whole way.
 

 


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