Phil v. Rocky: Whose "Guns" are Bigger?

As in many areas of the country, Virginia has had an extremely cold winter. The Virginians ask us how we’re dealing with the cold. We have heat in our trailer—not efficient, not well-insulated, but functional. Last week, though, I noticed that the children’s hands and feet were frequently chilly, and I wondered why I was colder than usual. Saturday night, Isaiah asked me to PLEASE turn up the heat. When I finally remembered to do so, I realized that somehow the thermostat was at 59 degrees.

No wonder we were cold. But as long as the thermostat is set correctly, we’re doing fine.

Sunday we went to Charlottesville Community Church for the third time, and I think we’ll keep attending. We like churches that meet in schools, and churches that don’t have the same pastor preach every week (Kyle and Bill have alternated), and churches that are missions’ minded. But the single thing that pushed me into the “WOW” category is that when Bill preached, Kyle was in the nursery with the children and some other helpers. When Kyle preached, Bill was in the nursery with the children and some other helpers. Imagine—a church that puts the children on equal importance with the adults. I’m thrilled.

We visited the Bessettes all afternoon yesterday. We tried Dennis’ bacon and ham that he cured himself from their own pig. What an amazing BLT we had. Even the boys ate bits of BLT, lettuce, tomato, and all. And they all had seconds! Incredible.

When it was time to go, I told Jonadab to get his shoes. He walked through the dining room, the kitchen, and into the foyer, got a shoe and brought it to me. After I put it on, he went and fetched the other. HUGE smile on his face.

I spent my evening finalizing a seed order from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, a local seed company that specializes in the mid-Atlantic growing zone. Even though I have seeds from last year that didn’t get planted, gardening catalogs entice with succulent descriptions. And I would be delighted to grow more food for the animals, too: feed corn, sunflower seeds, kale, turnips, rutabagas. We’ll see how it all plays out. Spring is right around the corner, and we still have no trees in the ground. (But we have a pump on order, so we’ll get the water out of those holes one way or another!)

Today Phil made incredible progress on clearing the land. He’s pushed through the most recent growth, and he downed the most slender saplings. So what’s left are the larger trees, most of which require the axe. His muscles are almost obscene—swinging a 6-pound axe for a couple hours a day grew his muscles quickly. He is very sweetly proud of them, and gives me "gun shows" showing them off.

While he wouldn’t quite match Arnold Schwarzenegger, he’s probably giving Rocky a run for the money.

In other news: the cat has been banished to the outdoors permanently, as he cannot control his bowel movements. The unrelenting cold has gradually frozen most foodstuffs in my barn. Although the temperature is not lower, more things turn up frozen every day. Today it was the eggs that had frozen and burst their shells, falling into the pan in a gelatinous frozen lump. Bizarre.