Teens on a mission trip!

Last week several of the youth and a couple of the men from my church joined about 20 other people on a mission trip to a small town to help repair homes for low income people. They did everything from fix leaky roofs to put in new bathrooms.

For my teenage son, Justin, it was the first time away from home for more than one night. I missed him so much! With the boys' dad gone, I have really come to rely on Justin to be my right-hand man. I missed having someone to take out the trash, and I missed just talking with him!

Justin said the trip was good and bad. There were a lot of cliques and not all the kids acted in a loving way toward each other, but he made some great new friends. In fact, he's been e-mailing back and forth constantly with his new friends since his return three days ago.

Justin and his best friend, Mitchell (left) pack up to leave for their mission trip.

Justin also found a great new friend in the homeowner of the house he was working on, a elderly lady who told him stories about tying strings on the legs of June bugs when she was little. She cut watermelon for him and he kicked the June bugs away when they pestered her. She was very grandmotherly toward the kids, who painted her house and built her a ramp. Justin couldn't stop talking about her on the way home. I love it when young people and elderly people develop a connection. I think that's one of the things our youth of today are really missing out on!

I missed Justin so much that it kind of hurt, but I'm also very proud of him for working hard to help others. He came back with blisters on his hands and feet, but also with that great feeling that comes from being a servant of God.

No more wild plum bushes!

At the front of my property, by the road, there sat a big stand of wild plum bushes. You may think this is good for a homesteader, but I had other ideas. The wild plums are very small and not hardly worth pitting to eat. The bushes were interespersed with some very thorny vines, and the wild plums were invasive, popping up everywhere all over the yard.

So when Nancy's husband, Ronnie, borrowed a Bobcat with a bush hogger attachement from work, I asked him to take down those pesky plum bushes. No more scraggly, thorny, bushes to mow around!

Next spring, I plan to put up split rail fencing along the road and line it three deep with various fruit trees. A mini orchard! Taking the plum bushes down gives me more room to plant some fruit I will actually eat! Eventually, I want the entire (nearly two acres) that does not have a building on it to be edible, but I need to start with a blank slate.

And Ronnie let Adam check out the Bobcat. By the way, because it had treads instead of tires, it didn't leave ruts in my yard, which I really appreciated. I still have trouble mowing through all the ruts the power company left with their trucks when they put in the underground power lines.