Blessings

Good morning! Most of you are sleeping, so I'll tell you what is going on out the window. It's snowing! Pretty gusts are blowing in sheets down the sidewalks like powdered sugar, it can't melt, it's way too cold! Pretty safe to drive in, but all my inspiration to get outside and work just faded away. So I made coffee, and warmed up the old laptop.

Interesting how God chooses to teach me lessons in humility. In blessing me even more. How does that work, God? I know I shouldn't complain, and complaining to people about other people is gossiping. Agh.

It's this blackberry war. I found out the owner of No. 72 (the treed lot between our house and pasture) had *planted* them. On purpose. This is the lady who mentioned she wanted to do some gardening, so she was holding onto No. 72. I laughed inwardly, and then outwardly later to my man, the S's, and my mother in law. Wildly successful gardener, she has become, if she intended on growing blackberries. Now all the neighbors have them too from over her fenceline! My man said, "Next time you see her, ask if she'll help get rid of them." Good idea.

As I showed my mother in law our home for the first time, I heard this chainsaw nearby and I was annoyed, because I wanted her to experience the quiet of this rural area. As we stood in the yard and talked, suddenly the owner of No. 72 walked into our yard to join us. I wanted to disappear. She confronted me, "I am having some work done, and we'd like to take down some trees - can we drag them across your field?" "Sure....let me see what you're doing." "OH! You speak German too!" she said. Well yah: ) (She's the one who started with the English last time!) So I followed her and the noise got louder and louder...

and then I got my gentle lesson. A man with a chainsaw had made a tunnel through the blackberries (a tunnel because they go way up over our heads). He had cleared almost the entire fenceline I'd been working on. He turned off his chainsaw to say hello. He had blood trickling down his face from various cuts (See Melanie's story of how blackberries sent her mom to the hospital.)

"You've done this all in one day!" I was beaming. I continued, "Yesterday it took me an hour to get through one meter here!"







In this photo he was catching his breath. You can't see the blood, which he said is the "latest fashion": ) I couldn't believe my eyes, looking at the path he cleared. That helps so much.







The green paint indicates where I've cleared blackberries, and in No. 72, where the chainsaw man did too. You can also see the little green dot in the middle of our Hang, that is what my man and I did yesterdady together. Just a little green dot that took 3 hours.






***

Yesterday my man and I went out to show our barbed wire to a man from church who would like some. They said it's illegal to use as horse fence in Germany. I wondered if it's illegal, why so many people ask me why I'm so insistent upon removing it? Dont' they, like, read Fugly? (I offered to show my man some of Fugly's "Consequences of Barbed Wire" photos. He politey refused.)

My man had his first experience cutting some barbed wire, until he said, "I have to play bass in church tomorrow, so I can't keep doing this." So we went over to our Hang and started cutting blackberries. He has a cold, so I was impressed that he lasted the entire three hours in the bitter wind. He kept blowing his nose.

We made what can only be called "a dent" in the Hang's blackberry cover. The dent would have been much, much smaller if I had been alone. I am so grateful he was so inspired to help, and he'd point to his pile of cut vines and say, "Look, my pile is bigger than yours" and I'd say, "My pile is more orderly than yours.": )

Finally it happened, we met our next door neighbor. His is the house right next to ours. He also had a chainsaw going, but then he stopped, leapt over our wimpy little fence between our Hang and his Hang, and greeted us with a huge smile. He already knew our names, and that my man is a teacher. We knew he's a cop. He insisted we talk with first names - that's new! He said we should use the informal language with each other, what a relief: ) I asked him what his Boxer's name is. Spanky. SPANKY? I couldn't believe it. He asked what it means. My man explained what spanking is. I laughed and wondered if I'm the only one who laughs: )

He was so nice - I think he's secretly an American, cuz 1.) big huge smile and 2.) laughter, lots of it, directly upon meeting us. And get this - he and his wife own two horses. She's an English riding instructor, and he said I will really like talking to her about horses - they can help with things like finding a good vet, and even dentist! He said they brought the horses home once, but it was an unbelievable amount of work to have horses at home, and paying for board is way easier. Well, aside from maintaining a fenceline, I think I'm pretty aware of the actual work involved, since we're in a Co-Op situation now. I didn't tell him that it's my lifelong dream to have my horse at home with me. I asked him a very big question, one that had been in the back of my mind since we found this house.

"Are there riding trails around here?" (please please please)

"Oh yes! You'll be delighted to see how many there are, around the watershed and beyond. You'll love it! You see those neighbor girls riding their horses by our houses often, there are trails back there (pointing)."

Oh thank God! I was so worried that I'd be riding on roads and roads and roads just to get to a trail. Since he's a cop, I said, "Oh, I'm so happy, and I just bought my 2009 horse license, so we're all legal on trails."


What blessings continue for me! I'm sure I didn't do anything to deserve it, so right now I'll just be thankful, and try to keep my mouth shut when I get annoyed with people. Here's a picture of our field, and if you look closely you can see a little hunter "booth" where hunters wait for deer. I have never seen a hunter before. Oh, but as we were walking to our field, a park ranger drove his Jeep across our field and out. I asked, "What on earth?" and the lady said, "He was feeding the wild animals. Not sure which." I hope he doesn't feed my horse too...well, an apple is OK.

I love my field. It's eye candy for me. It just needs new fencing and Baasha to make it perfect.

Hm. It stopped snowing. I should get outta here.