Weekly Update: 7.20.24
I was just completing last week's update when my brother Jeremiah dashed into the tent. "Did you hear?" he asked. "Someone tried to assassinate Trump. They blew part of his ear off."
I was stunned. Immediately, I stood up and turned on the TV, selecting the Newsmax app -- our go-to cable-free option. As I watched the footage of the shooting, I struggled to wrap my mind around it all. It took me back to September 11, 2001, when as a 16-year-old I watched the coverage of the World Trade Center attacks. Of course, the 9/11 tragedy was much, much worse. But there are certain events that seem to shift the trajectory of America's story. No matter where you fall in the political landscape, we all know the upcoming election is going to be pivotal. There has been so much vitriol on both sides, I've been thankful no crazies had resorted to violence yet. Now, it happened, and the repercussions remain to be seen. As the evening set in, the rest of the family showered and piled into the tent, where we watched the news coverage late into the night.
It was a sobering way to start the week, but that can be good sometimes. We were thoughtful as we went about our work. It was a good week in many ways, productive on several fronts. While we had typical summer heat over the weekend, we were blessed to have cooler weather the latter half of the week. The rain has made this July beautiful, with new wildflowers appearing daily. For the first time, we spotted a couple perennial phlox plants -- some purple and some white. We had to look online to identify the plant, and we were thrilled to see that it should return year after year.
Starting on Monday, we focused most of our bunkhouse time on the electric. Grace and I actually started running wire. After so many months of talking and planning, it felt so good to be finally doing it. In some ways, it is harder than it looks -- but it is also more fun. Figuring out how to get the wire around so many weird corners is like a brain teaser puzzle -- so much so, we sometimes have to stop and strategize. Levi has worked along side us, drilling and installing outlet boxes.
Outside the bunkhouse, we revamped our laundry station. We had cracked the bottoms of all but one of our plastic washtubs, so we decided to upgrade to galvanized metal. (We plan to turn all the plastic tubs into planters.) We ordered a new wringer -- a Dyna Jet Hand Wringer from Wisemen Trading and Supply. My mom stumbled onto Wisemen Trading doing research for a quality wringer online, and she loved that they are a Christian company. Unbeknownst to her, the folks from Dalton Offgrid had recommended them to me awhile back. They seem to have great customer service, answering all of our questions about whether their wringer would be right for us. The shipping was quick, too. I have a feeling we will be ordering from them again in the future.
We were excited to get our tractor back on Monday. We took it into the McGill's Garage this spring, as it had several issues we couldn't figure out. We bought the tractor -- a restored Ferguson T-20 -- back in 2022. It was supposed to have been completely gone over by a mechanic, but we started having problems with it almost immediately. We finally made plans to repair it this spring, as we wanted to be able to brush hog regularly. There ended up being a lot wrong with it -- some of which must have been messed up when we bought it. We ended up spending almost as much for repairs as we paid for the tractor in the first place, which was disappointing, but we are so thankful for the guys at McGill's. We have been taking our vehicles there since moving to our place, and it is such a blessing to have a mechanic we can trust to be fair and thorough. The guys at McGill's went over the tractor, fixing issues from bad breaks to weird wiring, and finally putting in a rebuilt hydraulic pump. It also turns out that the tractor is actually a T-30 -- which doesn't really make a difference, but we are glad we know. All in all, we are thankful to have our Fergie back. Our dad got right to work mowing on Monday.
Our garden has started producing, and we can barely eat all of our cucumbers and peppers fast enough. Bonnie-Jean, as well as Erin and the kids, have done most of the work on it lately. They are all doing a fantastic job, and we feel so blessed to be adding fresh, home-grown vegetables to our meals daily.
On a less healthy note, when we went to Bolivar for groceries this week, we stopped for donuts at the Donut Palace. It was a typical hole-in-the-wall delight. The family business specializes in donuts and other fried breakfast items -- including breakfast sandwiches and pigs in a blanket. We bought two boxes of everything from fritters to old-fashioned to choose-your-filling maple bars (we chose Bavarian cream). They were delicious, rivaling our favorite donut shops in Springfield.
Out here in the rural Ozarks, the rest of the world can feel so far away. We are so busy just living, it is easy to focus only on what is right in front of us. The assassination attempt pulled our collective attention toward our country as a whole. When the Republican National Convention aired, we made an effort to tune-in each night. I sat, my fingers wound in green yarn, a crochet hook working rhythmically as I listened to Americans of all stripes speak about the future of our country. I especially enjoyed J.D. Vance's Vice Presidential acceptance speech. Years ago, I read Vance's book, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. Vance's story echoes much of my own extended family's experience leaving the Ozarks in the 1940s and '50s. In his speech, Vance spoke of his own Kentucky hillbilly ancestors, saying:
They are very hardworking people, and they're very good people, and they would give you the shirt off their back. The media call them “privileged” and look down on them. But they love this country, not only because it's a good idea. But because in their bones, they know that this is their home, and it will be their children's home, and they would die fighting to protect it. That is the source of America's greatness.
I've spent most of my life living in rural America's hill country, first in the Pacific Northwest, and now in the Ozarks of Missouri. Out here, so many of our culture's controversies are far away. Here, where we literally dig our hands into American soil on a daily basis -- we do know in our bones that this land is our home. And in the Bible belt, we know that the words Franklin Graham spoke during his RNC prayer are true: only God "can fix the complexity of the problems that we face today." With all that is happening in our country right now, I know so many of us are praying.
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14, ESV
