DARKNESS, A GUIDING LIGHT AND A STEADY HAND

Another life's lesson and chicken house story

I"m about ten years old and have one more farm chore to do before I can say it is a wrap on a very dark night.  Unless you have experienced it, you can't imagine how dark it is out in the country on the farm.  There are no street lights, no flood lights in the yard or along the beaten paths.  In fact at this time we had no electric service on the farm.  The night was especially dark; one of those moonless nights.

It was my responsibility to shut the chickens safely in at the on- coming of night.  You see, chickens have a very regimented life. They spend the day eating, scratching for minerals and small gravel for their craw and drinking lots of water.  Laying hens go to the same nest every day to lay one egg, then eat some more. Chickens that range outside go inside as night begins to fall and find their perch on the roost where they spend the entire night.  The chicken house door must be closed at this time to keep predators out.  This was why that closing that door was my most important task of the day.

Mom was wiping the last dish dry as I steeped into the kitchen. She looked at me and said, "Did you close the chicken house door?"  I dropped my head and said, "No not yet."  She replied with, "Well, go do it now."  I steeped to the back porch, put my hand on the screen door, pushed it half open and looked  where the chicken house sat 250 feet down the hill but I could not see the chicken house it was so dark.  Mom stood in the kitchen door and saw my hesitation.  Without saying a word or urging me out into the night, she reached for the old lantern hanging on the wall.  After striking a match and lighting the lantern, she steeped past me and out the door and said, "Lets go."  Down the hill I followed close on her heels until we came to the door which I dutifully closed and secured those precious hens for another night.

We turned up hill toward the house.  Mom took my hand in her's as she with the other held the lantern in front of us to light the path back home.

I have thought about that experience many times and thought how it is so much like what our Savior does for us in those dark times in our lives. The scriptures says, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path."  When I come to that darkest hour and walk life's path for the last time He has promised to see me safely to my Heavenly Home.  Claim Him today as your guide for the rest of the journey if you haven't already.

My Word: ALMOST A TRAGEDY AT THE BARN

My Word: ALMOST A TRAGEDY AT THE BARN: Hold Your Nose. Barn Cleaning Time. As I stated in another blog about the barn, Wayne was at home when the barn was being construct...

ALMOST A TRAGEDY AT THE BARN

Hold Your Nose. Barn Cleaning Time.

As I stated in another blog about the barn, Wayne was at home when the barn was being constructed but then he joined the army and was gone for five years except some furlough time. I remember just where I was the last time that I saw him before he shipped out for Japan. I was walking home that day and he was heading back to his base in his 41' Plymouth Coupe. I had rounded the curve which brought me into view of the home place. When he saw me, he stopped and we chatted for a few minutes and then he was off and we would not see him again for four years. During his stint in Japan he served as a MP but during that time he became ill with an unknown disease which put him in a hospital bed for many months. When he was able to travel the Army brought him back to Fort Campbell Kentucky where his treatment continued until his discharge and he came back home to the farm.

While back home Wayne worked with Floyd and dad at the sawmill and with me on the farm. We carried the larger part of the farm work.

The barn was still the the center of farm activity. One of the least desirable farm tasks was the annual cleaning of the barn. We were fortunate to have a front end loader mounted on the WD 40 Alice Chamber tractor. Before we had this piece of equipment we would fork and shovel the manure into the manure spreader. Wayne went to work on the barn cleaning operation one day while I was in school. As you can imagine the ground in the barnyard was slick from having been frozen and now thawed. Loading the manure spreader involved going into the open end of the cow parlor, getting the scoop full and backing out and dumping it into the spreader.

After getting home from school about 3 PM, I would help with this smelly task. On the way home from school on the bus I remember wondering, if he was dong well at the job. As the bus rounded the curve on the hill opposite the barn I was alarmed at what I saw. The tractor was at the bottom of the embankment below the barn. From that point it seemed that the bus began a slow crawl because I could not get to the barn soon enough. Where was Wayne, was he at the bottom of the embankment or under the tractor, where, where? The bus finally rolled across the bridge and stopped for me. I never ran so fast; up the driveway and past the house as I hurled my books in the yard. I continued on to the back of the barn. Thoughts, horrible thoughts swirled through my head. Would I find a scene too much for my young heart and mind?Finally I got there and I saw the most wonderful sight that my eyes had ever beheld. There standing at the edge of the embankment, looking down at the tractor below; stood my brother. That experience made Wayne even more dear to me and I have held him closer to my heart since that day. When you think that you are about to loose someone you love; you love them even more.

I asked, “what happened, are you alright? When he spoke I knew he was a living miracle. The tractor had rolled several times. When it flipped the first time it threw him off and down the embankment and on the next roll the rear wheels straddled him without touching him. The tractor continued to roll until it came to rest at the bottom. He picked himself up and climbed back up to where he was standing when I arrived. Thank God he was alright, though shaken up a bit.

God had another purpose for his life and although he would become crippled, he would marry and he and Nanny would produce four wonderful children, all of whom are serving God and each are such a blessing and asset to the Gibby clan.

FROM THE BARN TO THE BIG HOUSE

Another true Barn Story

The barn was home to cows and horses and the black mommy cat.  There were plenty of large rats and some black snakes which dined on the rats provided they got to them before "Black
Cat" did.

One cold winter evening as dad was looking after the livestock, he heard Black Cat's pitiful cry.  Dad was not known to be a cat lover, however, he did appreciate her efforts to keep the rat population under control.  As she continued to cry a very mournful sound dad was drawn to the hay manger where she had made a nest to keep her just born babies warm during the cold winter night. When dad looked into the manger where the heart wrenching cries came from, he fixed his eyes on the reason for her cries.   She had given birth to three tiny kittens but to her sorrow, two were dead.  Dad removed the two and tried to improve the warmth and comfort of the cat's hurried made nest.  Feeling a little good about himself, dad made his way to the house safe from the chill of the winter night.  He settled into his favorite chair with the Ashville Citizen in front of the glowing fire.  As he engrossed himself in the Citizen, he waited for supper which mom was preparing.  He heard that same mournful cry which he had heard in the barn.  How could it be, he left her in the barn.  He continued to read.  There it is again and so near.  He lowered the paper and looked toward the sound and his eyes were telling him something he could hardly believe.  There she stood with her only little offspring lying at her feet.  Dad never allowed cats in the house and true to form he stomped his foot and said, "get, get out of here."  She did not move one inch but continued to cry for help.  After repeated attempts to get her to take her kitten and go dad rose from his chair and walked toward her but she did not move.  It was like she had nerves of steel which she had never demonstrated before.  He stepped past her and into the kitchen and asked mom, "did you let that cat in?"  Mom replied "I heard her outside the door and let her in."

"Do you know where I can find a box and some old rags,"  he asked.  "Look in the can room," mom replied. After finding the box he fashioned yet another nest and placed it near kitchen range.  He gently placed the little guy inside where he was joined by his nursing mother.  He did not put her out the next day, nor the next month.  That box was home to her and the kitten until he was weaned and mature enough to be on his own after which time she went back to her home in the barn and left her son in the "Big House."  We affectionately called him "Tab" and dad allowed him to stay in the house.  Tab had truly been gifted to live in the big house instead of the barn.

In a small way, that is like we are.  We live in this old dangerous world and then someone brings to the One who can change our destiny.  One day we will move from here to the House prepared for us above.  Jesus said, "In My Father's  house are many mansions.  If it were not so I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you...that where I am you may be also."