First Post Twenty Thirteen

Yeah!  My first post on this blog for 2013.  I have not been much in the mood for writing, if that is what you would call what I do. 🙂

Anyway, let me give you some updates of what has been going on here on the banks of Flat Creek South of Jenkins, Missouri.  On November 30 and December 1 of 2012 I began working on building a back porch on our house.  I finished enough where we could use it with the form fiberglass steps we bought with the house.  The porch, made of treated lumber measures 8 feet by 8 feet.  Not a large porch, but not tiny either.

With cold and freezing setting in for the past few days our driveway has dropped out of sight – a slight over statement of course.  Because of the softness of the soil, even where we had previously placed gravel, the road was sinking, making it difficult to drive the car of a slight grade through the gate.

This morning I went out before anyone else was up, and shoveled a pickup bed half full or so of creek gravel, not from the creek bed, by the way, and hauled it to the driveway, unloaded it where it was sinking the most; and by the time I was finished; I mean I was finished too.  Too bad I do not have a front loader and a dump bed truck to use.  It would make it simpler, and certainly easier.  It sure is good exercise loading gravel though.

Just a side note.  While I was out gathering my tools for the haul there were a couple of eagles soaring overhead, communicating with one another.  I really enjoy hearing their shrill cry, and playful screech with one another.

With all the trouble in the world, and in many of our lives; it is good to know that there are other things which are peaceful.  Those ought to remind us that God is still on the throne; and all things will be worked out for His glory.

-tim

Graveled Driveway

I found out my son had bought an old Ford pickup truck.  That is what we used to put gravel on our driveway.  We hauled several loads, but we now have better traction on our drive than we had before.

It was 18 degrees when I got up yesterday morning thus freezing the ground, and when we got to the gravel the surface of the gravel was frozen too.  After breaking through the frost layer it was not so difficult to shovel the rock.

Remember to attend worship services in your local congregation this morning and evening.  Remember that “God is Spirit: and they [we] that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”   Being born again through the death burial and resurrection of Jesus is the only way of worshipping the God of glory and all creation.

I have heard it said, “All roads lead to heaven”.  Well!  If all roads lead to heaven, then they all must meet at the cross of Jesus Christ.  There is no other way to God and Heaven but by Christ Jesus.

Enough of my preaching from the banks of Flat Creek.

-Tim

Our Driveway

For some who know where my wife and I live you know the drive to our house from the main road is a beautiful drive, and even that, this time of year you just might see an eagle, or two or more.  As you drive along the drive on the bluff overlooking Flat Creek the eagles often roost of the evening in the tops of the sycamore trees which reach out over the flowing water of the Creek.

When you get down to our home in the valley, our driveway is not so good when it is raining or shortly after a rain.  That is because it used to be pasture land, and we have worn a path through the grass, and it is without any gravel.  I have checked on having some limestone gravel hauled in and it is not cheap.  Now the thing about the limestone is that it would look nicer than the old brown creek gravel which we have plenty of.

We need gravel on our driveway, so today, I am going to go, the old fashioned way, borrow a pickup, and get my shovel and do some gravel hauling myself.  I will probably wear myself out again this Saturday, but that is good for me I suppose.

Get that gravel down, and then, we will have much better traction rolling out the drive to the road.  Last winter I could cut through the yard by the old house and get on the road.  This year we have an electric fence around the yard so it would take a little more effort to cut through.

I think sometimes it would be nice to have a tractor with a front loader and a small dump truck.  With those two items I could keep the potholes filled on the road to the driveway too.  But, that is going to have to wait.

Right now a pickup truck, a shovel and manpower is all I can do.  So that is what is going to happen today – God willing, of course.

When I got up this morning at 4 a.m. it was 18 degrees outside.  That is considerably colder than it has been all week long.  The ground will be frozen, but that will not stop the work.

Flat Creek is up and rolling right along in full view out our back patio door.

-Tim

Missed the Wading this Time

We received a whole lot of rainfall this past Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. When I woke to prepare myself for the day, and to go and drive the School Bus morning run I wondered if I would be able to cross our low water bridges below our home. I waited until it was time to go to check it out, and the rain kept pouring down out of the skies.

After I had tended to my devotional reading and prayer, tended my blogs, and took my morning dose of medicine [at least some of it] I got in the car and headed down our washed out driveway to the main road. When I arrived there I could see the water was rolling quite rapidly across the bridge, and was almost whitecapping. I pulled the front of our car into the edge of it, sat there and looked at it, thought about crossing, then I decided not to attempt it. Attempting it was what I did not want to be successful at. Attempts without successful crossing happens to far too many people. One local TV station in Springfield, and one of their Meteorologist has a saying concerning water across roadways, “Turn around, don’t drown”, so that is exactly what I did.

I then, turned around and went to see how the other side looked, and it was worse. I had already called into the Bus Garage and told them I could not get out. The one mechanic at the Garage who is familiar with where I live said, “I was afraid of that”. That is the first time in almost two years we have lived here that I could not get out, when I wanted out. There has been a time or two I could not drive the car back to the house because of high water, but I could cross on foot by wading.

The water from all the rainfall we have been getting has nowhere to go now. The ground is soaked to the point of being like a sponge in some places, and you sink in the ground as you walk across it.

I don’t want anyone to take me wrong in this writing. I am not complaining about all the rain. I actually find it adventurous, and something new. I do feel for those whose homes and lives have been drastically changed because of it. I am sure they find no adventure in any of it. Many of these homes are far above flood stage, and no one ever suspected that they would ever be flooded, but now they have been. We really just never know. I do remember the rainbow.

I am thankful that I MISSED THE WADING THIS TIME.

-by Tim A. Blankenship