A view into our barn, or rather.....bathroom.

Disclaimer: I typed this last spring, but forgot to post it!!!!

New life is abounding everywhere.  We are enjoying spring, everything is turning green, all the animals seem to be giving birth. New goats, New kittens, New bunny, and even new chicks.  But the chicks have needed a little Dr. Ford OB/Gyn intervention!!
How lucky our chickens are to have an OB/Gyn as their owner!! You see, our chickens were not being very broudy, (for all you non-farming people, that means they didn't want to sit on their eggs, thus, no hatching), so we, or rather Dr. Ford, had to intervene.  This is what he does for a living, saves lives of unborn babies, and does all he can to help get them into this world, healthy and strong.
So, Ray headed to Tractor supply to purchase an incubator.  Again, Ray, being taken aback, by the price of the durn thing, turned on his heels, and headed to google, to see if he could figure out how to make his own.  And low and behold, wouldn't you know it, we had everything we needed right in our own home, to make our own incubator!!!
Ray, wanting to make this a family affair, gathered all the kids together on a Saturday morning, and we built our very own incubator to hatch our own eggs.  How exciting!! We used an old white styrofoam ice chest, a light bulb and socket, some old chicken wire, straw, a bowl of water, and a thermometer, that measured temp and humidty.

We began the next day, collecting eggs, marking them with their dates, then carefully placing them in our homemade incubator.  Much to my dismay, the only place in our home, that we were able to acheive the perfect humidity for them, was OUR bathroom, so for the next 3 weeks, we had this glow, every day and night, coming from our bathroom, from the incubator.

As we got closer to the due date of the eggs hatching, excitement was rising in the household.  At last, the first egg cracked!! Amazing!! Did you know, that even before the first crack happens, you can hear cheeping coming from inside the egg?! I do know, because we heard it in the middle of the night, coming from our bathroom!! 

The next morning, the whole family could hardly leave our bathroom, as we hovered over the incubator, watching the first signs of life emerging from the oval eggs.  It is a miracle, whether human, as my husband gets to experience on a daily basis, or animal, as this was.  Every birth is a miracle!! 

What a beautiful picture of new life.  Christ gives us new life, through the cross.  I love spring, especially being married to Ray Ford, who seems to bring it, not only right up to my doorstep, but into my  bathroom!!!

Happy Spring,

JJ

Opportunities and Creosote

I can't believe it has been 9 months since my last post!! We have had alot going on.  Alot to do with my Dad's fight with cancer, and keeping his blog up to speed. Dad went home to be with our Savior on Jan. 21, 2012, and we will greatly miss him.  You can read about his last few months or even the last few years and the memorial service on my other blog www.teamjanszen.blogspot.com  . He was an amazing man.


Knowing that scripture says, laughter is good medicine, I have a few things to share about another amazing man in my life.....
We have had some ups and downs this past year.
Some of them have been opportunities......."opportunities" are what Ray calls his projects for the whole family!!
The pool..... Well, this past summer, it turned green, and looked natural, for the second half of the summer. We had an extreme winter, and then very hot summer, so our pumps froze, cracked, then melted because of the temps in Texas this past year. We limped the pool along half way through the summer, then when it finally all died, we decided we had to get it fixed or fill it in.
  
Oh please, don't fill it in, the five kids love the pool, and it is a great place to have people over and cool off in these hot Texas summers. But, we can't swim in green, or we might as well be swimming in our pond! 


So, after Ray got several bids on fixing the pool, and about had a coronary every time he received one, he made the famous announcement, "I will fix the pool and save us thousands!!"
Oh boy, here we go again. Honestly I doubted, and kept praying that he would give in and let me call someone to come fix it.  But no was the answer to that, and as we began to receive large boxes from the UPS guy, with the words "Discount Pool Supply" stamped on the side, I knew it was inevitable. We were going to fix the pool ourselves.


Well, life does not stop, nor does Ray's schedule, babies coming, emergencies at the hospital, so the pool continued to turn into a deeper, lovely, aquamarine color, all while these large boxes sat posed on the back porch, ready to be unpacked and installed.
  
Again I asked if I could hire someone to come finish the job....No way!  
Eventually, the job began to unfold, as Ray would find little sections of time to unpack the pumps, begin the fitting process, and carefully place them onto the concrete slab, to connect to the already existing pool equipment that had not died. 
Well, these pumps are heavy, and awkward to lift, so as Ray was working on this, he was also working on making his back worse. (he has some disk issues) 
So, about 2/3 of the way into the job, he was out, with back surgery!! 


Yikes!! what are we going to do now, not only with the pool, but with Ray's work?


In short, God got us through, He provided, and He used some of the men in our church to help meet the need. As a matter of fact, I had 2 of Ray's good buddies tell me, "When Ray tries to do something stupid, call me, and I will come do it for him." (Partners in crime :) ) (He was supposed to be on total rest for 2 full weeks after his surgery!!) Needless to say, he was out trying to work on the pool equipment to finish the job, the day after surgery!! I quickly called these guys, and they came over several times during the week, and helped him finish the job.  They truly were the "hands and feet of Christ" to Ray.  Literally!!


I have to say, I never thought the water would be crystal clear again, aside from hiring help, but it is!  He did it, Wow!!! What a man. And really without much encouragement from me, I am sad to say. It only took a few extra months, but he "gotterdone!"


Now, one of the additional things Ray wanted to do, was build a shelter around the pool equipment, so that we would not have this problem again. (you know, protect it from the heat and cold) He did wait another month or so, to let his back heal, before he began to tackle this job.  When he finally did, he headed out to Home Depot to purchase a prepackaged shed to build around the equipment.  Again, he came home with just some lumber and nails. 
"What?! where is the package deal?" I asked. 
"Oh, those stinking things are so expensive..... I can do this for so much less!!!"  Really?!


Oh boy, so here we go again.  Jesse and Ray started building the foundation to this shed, trying to level it, trying to get it just right.  I have to say it actually looked pretty good, but because of time, it was a slow process.  Over the next couple of weeks, they completed the floor, but before adding the walls, we had a friend stop by, who is a professional builder.  Such a kind young man, who loves Ray.  Ray took him out to show him his progress.  
He didn't say anything negative, he just offered to come help Ray out with the rest of the job. He said he could come the next day, but that was Ray's surgery day, so Ray wouldn't be available until later on in the day to work with him.  The friend came on out anyway, that morning, and when Ray got home that afternoon, He had completely redone the entire job, it was perfect. 
Ray had mixed emotions, sad that what he had done was gone, and obviously had not met the professional builders specs., but also amazed and thankful/overwhelmed at what he had accomplished in such a short amount of time. :) 
Again, the hands and feet of Christ, at work in our lives. Ray accepted the help from our friend, to get the walls and roof on, but Ray and Jesse are finishing the job, as I type, of putting on the tin roof, and building doors to the shed.  I saw the doors a little bit ago, and they are amazing.  


Who knew?...he can deliver a baby, save a life, and build some pretty good looking doors.  Maybe he needs help on leveling the floor of a building, but, hey, you can't be good at everything!


As I think back over the past few months, Ray has tackled a few other great feats.  One that stands out was burying the large square trampoline in our back yard, like Kanakuk's if you've ever been to Kamp.  


Some asked "why are you doing this?" Ray said "Why not?" Sounds like what Robert Kennedy said,

 "Some men see things as they are and say why. 

I dream things that never were and say why not."

It really is cool, and the kids love it.

Digging the hole

The funny thing was, that when Ray finally got the hole dug, this took weeks, it is a huge trampoline, he wanted to line it with creosote soaked railroad ties, to keep the dirt from caving in.  He found some at the local feed store, and was so excited to get these ties cut and in the ground. 

 Ray finishing the logs and the trampoline leveling.

Well, did ya'll know that creosote burns??  We didn't!!

Ray was working on this job alone, for some reason, all the kids were gone, and he had a free Saturday, so he attacked, knowing he could get it done if he just kept plugging along. I was in the house, it was hot, hot summer, but would occasionally go out with a glass of lemonade, or an encouraging word, to cheer him on.  

He would use the tractor to lower one of the logs into his hole, then use the chain saw to cut the log into the exact length he needed.  

Chain saws usually cause sawdust to fly in the air, and coat whatever it lands on.  Ray, being careful, had protective goggles on, but because of the extreme heat of the summer, had on work boots, with shorts, and a short sleeve shirt, along with work gloves.  

After several hours of cutting, moving, placing, and shifting railroad  logs, he noticed a little burning on the exposed parts of his skin.  He assumed it was the sun, and he was feeling the affects of a sunburn.  He thought if he could just keep going, that he would finish quicker, and get in out of the sun, so he kept working.  

He was almost done with the lining of the hole, when I looked out and noticed him, almost hopping around.  Puzzled, I walked outside and asked if everything was ok.  He said no, and by the sound of his voice, I could tell things were not good.  He said, "I'm on fire, something is burning me!!!" 

What?

Then he hollered something about creosote.  I ran back in and googled creosote.  The first thing that popped up was, "Danger, do not touch creosote with bare skin, can cause severe burns!!"

Oh crud!!! I then quickly read what the treatment was, and as I ran back to the back porch, Ray was running, no, sprinting to the house.  I hollered what I had just learned, and instructed him to remove all clothing that had creosote on it.  Well, this included everything he had on!!! Thank goodness all the kids were gone! As he ran from the back of the yard toward the house, clothes were flying, leaving a trail behind him.  As he came in the house, I sent him straight to the shower, where he was to rinse off with soap and cool water for at least 20 minutes.  I then made ice packs, and had him lay in the recliner, where I had to rub "Preperation H" of all things, all over the burning parts of his body, which was most of his legs, arms, and face, then we packed him in ice packs.  This was supposed to stop the chemical from continuing to burn.  I felt so bad for him, but kept thinking, this is great stuff for the blog.....you can't make this stuff up!!!

The good news is, the treatment worked, and within a few hours, the burning had completely stopped. Thank the Lord for google.

I am never short of being amazed at the crazy life the Lord has given us to live here.  We truly are trying to worship the Lord through all of this stuff.  God is good, and funny at times. He is faithful, even in, and especially in, our crisis.

Thanks for reading.

I will post again soon, Lord willing,

JJ Ford

I hate Goats..... Pictures.

Bruno, one of our billy goats

  

Ok, well, let me just say, God answered prayer. 

Yesterday, had all the potential for evil, as well as good. 

It was a great day.  The weather was perfect, beautiful to be outside all day.

We started off by having a big breakfast, and discussing as a family, stewardship.  How does God want us to be good stewards of what he has blessed us with, time, things, gifts, talents?

Ray then, handed out job lists to everyone, and we headed out.  Each had their part, whether is was mowing, so we could get the fence put up, feeding animals, herding them here or there, or handing Ray the tools he needed to fasten the fencing.  (a few of them picked blackberries along the fence as well, not part of the job list, but oh so fun.)

Good day of work

For those of you that have ever worked at Kanakuk, it felt just like work week to Ray and I.  The coolness of the day, the hard work we were doing, the fun we were having just being together and accomplishing something.  It was a great day. Certainly not because of me, I am naturally a griper.  But God, gave me a joy, working side by side with my husband, on a project.  It is not what I would choose to do on a regular Sunday, but it was exactly what we needed to do, and we really had a great time doing it, all together.  Obedience is better than sacrifice.


No, the fence is not complete, we still have some work ahead of us, this week, but a huge part was accomplished yesterday.

Working hard on the fence

Joshua by the post hole digger!!

Jesse on the mower

Anna helped some, but mostly picked blackberries.

Ruth and Esther

Enjoying frozen lemonade at the end of the day.

I hate Goats, or at least when they are on my porch!!

OK, I am in confession mode, and frustration mode right now.


We still have goats, I will soon post pictures of what spring has looked like out here on our little farm.


But, yes, we have goats, about 12 or so.  Our little heard has been doing fine in the back of our property, where they have been eating and having a great time, and I have been having a great time, because they are not up on my porch, or in my flower beds eating my plants.


Well, as of this past week, the goats had eaten most of the GREEN stuff in the back, sooooo, they broke through the fence, and are eating the GREEN stuff up by the house.  Which means, they are on my porch, pooping, and basically taking over wherever they want to.


I have been reading LOVE and RESPECT (highly recommend it for married people!!!) this spring.  A wonderful book, with lots of interesting thoughts on marriage, and how important it is for husbands to love their wives, and for wives to respect their husbands (UNCONDITIONALLY).

We have been having a great season in marriage this spring, (last year was rough!) But part of it, I am sure, has to be with how I have been applying the Love and Respect ideas in my marriage.


Well, when I woke up Wednesday morning to goats trying to ram through my glass doors on the front.  (I have double glass (storm) window doors on the front, and the goats see themselves in the reflexion, and try to butt themselves!!!) It scared us to death, like someone had a battering ram, and was trying to knock the front doors down!!! 


I screamed, yelled for Ray to get up and save the house from the goats, then proceeded to steam in my frustration of "why didn't he have the fence fixed better in the first place, to keep the goats in?!"


He ran outside, and I ran to the bathroom, so mad, knowing that this just meant more work for us, in fence repair, and/or new fence to be put up, and also, more goat poop on MY PORCH!! I know you are laughing right now, but believe you me, I was not!!
In the bathroom, I began to formulate the lecture that I was about to give Ray, then my heart stopped, as I heard the Lord begin to whisper in my ear, respect him, no matter what.


Without giving you the long boring details, Praise the Lord, I was able to march back out there, and give him the respect that God has called me to give, even with goat poop on my porch.  (we all have some kind of goat poop on our porch, in our lives, don't we? It just comes in different forms, shapes, colors.)


But, sadly, the rest of the week was hit or miss.  Literally, wrestling with my flesh, on a moment by moment basis!! Some moments, the Lord would win, and I would surrender to Jesus, and show great respect, join him in helping build the fence, encourage him in his work, remind him of all the great things he is doing with and for our family, and then....... sometimes, my flesh would win, and I would carry on like a spoiled, angry, frustrated wife, who was not getting my way, and who was sick of the poop!!!


Right now, this morning, we stayed home from church, to be together as a family (we have been going crazy the last few weeks, with spring football, volleyball, wedding stuff, out of town) and also stayed home to work on the goat fence!!! Again, what is more pleasing to the Lord, Obedience over Sacrifice.  We have a wonderful opportunity today to work together, hard work, but treat each other with kindness, respect, laugh as we work, or, we can be mad that the goats have kept us from church, gripe and complain about the fence, the poop, etc.  What, I ask myself again, is more pleasing to the Lord?
I am about to put my boots and jeans on, and head outside, to work side by side with my husband and kids.  I will be praying, moment by moment, that my heart will be to respect, encourage, and laugh.  Not to be bitter, gripe and complain.
I do have much to be thankful for.  Give thanks in all things, right?
God is good all the time, goats, not all the time, but God is still good.
If you want a great book for your marriage, read Love and Respect.


In Him,
JJ aka, fence builder

You can pay someone to do this!

A few weeks ago, we had just finished dinner, and were about to settle in, to what I thought, was going to be a quiet evening.  I had some plans in my head to work on a few things on the computer in the recliner, as the kids played outside for a little bit longer, before time to get ready for bed.  All was going as I had planned, until my husband walked in and announced he needed my help.


Being the Godly wife I am :), I quickly hopped up from my chair, and headed down to the barn.


He was on the last step of a project that he had been working on, for literally, months.  He was replacing the awning on the trailer.  You see, when we got this trailer, it was a hand-me-down from his brother.  A great little trailer, but the awning was in great need of repair, better to say, replacement.


We had taken it down to a repair place, here in Cleburne, a few months ago to see what they could do, and as soon as they quoted Ray the price, out we pulled.  No way was Ray going to pay that!!


So, he started looking on line, googling "How to replace your awning on your trailer."


There are youtube videos for EVERYTHING!!  


Anyway, all of these sites that gave instruction on "How to"... all had a warning that said..."This is very dangerous!!! Do not attempt alone, and must have at least 3 to 4 adults helping." The tension that is wound up inside the tube of the awning, is appearantly very strong, and can take a finger or hand off!! 


This is what ALL the websites said.  Yikes!! After reading that, I thought we would surely take it back to the RV place, but NO Way!!! Not Ray Ford.


After we very carefully took the awning off of the trailer, and took it apart, Ray found the part numbers and ordered what he needed to replace. Several weeks went by, and I kinda forgot about it, until he came in to get me the other night.


After briefly instructing me, and reminding me of the danger (He didn't have to do that, I hadn't forgotten!!) , we started the process.  We actually didn't have too much problem getting it threaded onto the tube, and then actually winding the tension.  It was a little nerveracking, thinking that this thing could spin, and take off one of Ray's fingers, but we did it!! The funny thing was, I was so nervous, that I lost count of the turns on the spring a couple of times, so we had to start over 3 different times!!! 


The worst part was yet to come.  After getting the thing wound onto the tube, we then had to pick up this huge tube, with the awning hanging off of it, and thread the other end onto the side of the trailer.  No problem, except the thing weighed a ton, and it was just the 2 of us. Remember the warning, "This is a job for no less than 3 to 4 adults!!"


All I can say is, it was a total disaster!!  Ray was trying to balance one end on his head, while I was holding the majority of it on my shoulders, and then needing to pull the end of the material, so it wouldn't bunch up as Ray was pulling it through the track!! It was windy to boot, so the tarp part was flapping in the wind, and eventually blew us over as well as the ladder we were standing on to reach the side of the trailer where the track was to attach the awning.


We just stopped, looked at each other feeling completely defeated, (I did), but not Ray.  He said, "Hey, let's get Joshua to help us!!!" 


"He is FIVE!" I said.  Not exactly another adult to help us.


"Ok" he said, "we'll wait until the big kids get home from youth."


When the kids got home, my sister,, Joy was with them, she had brought them home.  Oh, thank the Lord for another adult!!


We quickly recruited her and Jesse, our 14 year old son, to be the other 2 adults!!  As I was explaining to her about what we needed her to help us with, I said, "You know you can pay to have someone do this, but......" Joy interrupted, "Hey, another blog post, right!?"

Anyway, after recruiting a few extra abled bodies, things went alot better.  it was still rough, but we did it!!! Yeah, success, or so we thought.

We all waited in anticipation as we watched Ray pull the switch, which should have caused the awning to roll up all by itself, with ease, into a nice tight roll to travel down the highway.  Much to our dismay, nothing happened...well something happened, we heard a whizzing sound inside the tube for a moment, but no movement of the awning rolling up. Nothing. What??? What was wrong?

Much to our dismay, we had wound the tension in the wrong direction!!  So, it was going to roll out like a champ, but rolling back up was a different story!!
I asked, "Can we just leave it, it is sooo late?" No, we couldn't, a storm was coming in that night, so we all had to use our strength, to roll it up, as tight as we could get it, but it was very heard, as we were all rolling against the tension, the super tight tension, that we were warned about on the websites!!


It took all four of us, but we finally get it rolled up enough for it to not catch the wind, but I was done.  The thought of having to take that thing down, and start over was a little too much for me.  Needless to say, I think Ray knew that, and actually he and Jesse were able to reverse the tension and get if fixed, working perfectly, without me at all.  They both felt a huge amount of accomplishment, and what a great feeling to get it done, and save us all that money.


Anyone need any RV repairs, check with Ray first!


Have a blessed week, and remember, He is Risen!
JJ

Unexpected Trip

Just a quick note about a trip Ray and took last week.  

We HAD to, we really did, Have to go on a CME, (continuing medical education) trip for Ray's work, in ARUBA. 
 Yes, that is right, Aruba.  It was bad timing with work, kids, etc. , but since Ray had a quick approaching cut off date to get in all his CME's we really did have to go. It was amazing, God knew best that this would be a good thing for us! But the funny thing we realized  when we arrived, is that our personalities changed somewhat.  
When we arrived in Aruba, I, who am usually the cautious one, didn't care if anyone knew I was a tourist or not, I was just sooooo excited to be in another country, and to finally have my passport stamped.  Ray on the other hand, the adventurous one, who usually is the risk taker, became like Jason Boerne on Boerne Identity!!  I am not kidding!  He was analizing every person we passed, every street we walked down, every alley we went by.  I didn't care, I was just so happy, but he was totally in CIA mode.  It really was funny to me.  
Ray's name means "protector", and boy was he doing that.  

We did have a great time, went snuba diving, kite surfing, and walks on the beach, and Ray got all his CME credits in!!
Just had to share how my man was totally into "Operation Treadstone" mode while we were there, and I was "Sabrina," clueless to any danger, if there was any.
Thankful for my protector,
JJ

Boer Goats

If you have been a part of our lives for the past year, then you know about the goats.
It is almost hard for me to write about them, because this is not just a distant memory, it is closer to home than I want to accept and has been a source of contention to say the least.
A little over a year ago, back in October of 2009, the kids and I were at home getting ready for our evening routine, when the phone rang.
It was Ray, of course, calling to let me know that he was on his way home, but for all of us to come outside to the porch... he had a surprise!!
Oh Boy, was all I could think.  The kids all got so pumped, because Daddy's surprises were always very exciting.  Not like mine.  My surprises were things like, making brownies for dessert, or renting a fun movie to watch as a family.  Good surprises, but not life altering.
Daddy's surprises are always, "in your face, get ready to embrace whatever curve ball he is about to throw our way, you REALLY will never guess" kind of surprise, and always very exciting.


We all went out to the porch, where we stood and looked down our driveway for Ray to come home.  We saw a truck, that we didn't recognize, pulling in the gate through the trees.  As it got closer to the house, we could see Ray in the back, holding on to something.  It was alive.


As the truck pulled up to the porch, the kids all started to scream, "It's a goat!!"  The girls, especially Esther and Anna started calling it "adorable." The rest of us just approached it slowly to check it out.
Now, to Ray's defense, we had discussed having some animals on our 10 acres, besides dogs and cats.  The summer leading up to this, we had started raising chickens, and had entered the "farm fresh" egg business.  We had also talked about getting some goats, eventually, because I love goat cheese, and thought it might be kinda fun to have fresh goat milk.
But, at this point, our property was not fenced for goats.  Cattle and horses, yes, but not for goats.  We have bob wire and pipe fencing around the entire property, and cattle guards.  This is great for large animals, but not so good for goats.
After the excitement wore off from the kids, I inquired as to where we were going to put this goat.
Ray said, "Oh honey, it will be fine, he will just walk around and eat all the weeds and brush."
So, for the night, we turned her loose, by the way, her name was "Sassy."  Also, she was FREE.  You have to be concerned as to why someone wants to give you a FREE goat.


Anyway, the next morning, was a Thursday, and I was leaving on an annual get together with some friends from college.  I had lots to do, as the homeschooling mother of 5.  We had to pack their bags, leave meals for Ray, load up all school work, pack my bags, get the kids to where they were staying, and just get out of town for the next 3 days.  This is always a stressful thing anyway, getting out of town with 5 kids, but then to top it off that we had this goat roaming around.


Now, I will say, that it would have been no big deal, except that this goat is a friendly goat, loves people, and thus, wanted to be as close to us as possible.  So, she had camped out on our porch all night, and if any of you know goats, anywhere they stand for any amount of time, they poop. (Sorry if this grosses you out!!) Little goat poop everywhere on the porch.  And if you don't know goat poop, it doesn't really look like poop at first sight, it looks like little black balls, not really that noticeable at first, until you know what you are looking for.


Well, I had not been outside that morning, I had just been sending kids out with armfuls of stuff, loading the car for the 4 day weekend.  On one of the many trips, my sweet daughter came marching in to get her pencils for school, and I saw her tracking, what I thought was mud, into the den on the carpet.  Once I started cleaning it up, with her helping, we realized, it was not mud, but poop!!!


I screamed halt, for all people to remove their shoes, thinking at first that this had been a mishap, and Ruth had accidentally walked in the grass.  What I didn't realize was that all of them had been walking back and forth through the goat poop, since it was all over the porch, and we hadn't noticed it, since this was a first for our family.
I went outside, after cleaning it up, and saw that it was EVERYWHERE.  We were living in a goat litter box!!
I screamed at the kids, to get in the car, we were running late now, because of the clean up, and I called Ray on my way out of town.
With the most Godly voice I could muster :( , and with the most respectful words I could find, I basically told him, that was it!  After only one day, it was the goat, or me.  That goat had better be off my porch when I get home!! I am sure the Lord was honored in that conversation!!


I headed off for the great weekend, hoping to forget this all happened.
On Saturday, my cell phone rang.  It was Ray.
He said, "Did you know goats can jump 12 feet straight up in the air?"
"What?!"


Ray had decided, since he wanted the goat to clear out the brush on our property, and the only place we didn't want the goat, was on our porch, that he would lay an electric underground fence around the house and yard, so that the goat would not come onto the part where we lived and played, but would still have access to all the other parts of the property to eat the brush down.


Do you know that goats are related to sheep.  Sheep are thought to be some of the most dumb animals in the world!! That is why the Shepherd has to LEAD them to water, and MAKE them lie down.  We are compared to sheep in the Bible....but anyway.
Ray thought it would be a good idea, to put a shock collar on the goat, Sassy, and then flip on the electric fence he had soooo diligently worked on to keep this goat off of my porch.
He turned it on, then shooed the goat towards the house.  Ray said, as Sassy approached the electric underground fence, she began to baaah a little louder.  By the time she was on top of the wire, she jumped straight up 12 feet in the air!!!
Ray couldn't believe it.  She turned and ran!! Ray thought he had Victory!!
He was so proud of himself as we drove in on Sunday afternoon.  So proud of the way he had fixed the problem.
He demoed it for me and the kids several times to show us how she would turn and run. Success.
That night, as we unloaded the car, and all were on the porch, I guess Sassy just couldn't stand it.  She would get closer and closer, and as the current would get stronger, she would just keep pushing through, until finely, she would leap across the current, baahing loudly the whole way.  She would then happily walk up to the porch, for us to pet her.
Ray thought maybe he just didn't have it turned up enough, so he cranked up the current to the highest setting, then we all snuck into the house so Sassy wouldn't see us, and prayed that she would stay outside that underground fence.
To our dismay, the next morning, there sat Sassy, all curled up on our porch, happy as could be to see us!!
UGHH!
Well, all I can say is the Lord is using this as a refining fire for me.
More to come on the goat story later.

Have a great day in Him, the Maker of all things, even Goats,
JJ