A Slice of Sowers4Pastors: A Sampler of Ministry Updates

 This week’s blog is like a cheesecake sampler – a little bit of everything for everyone! Let’s dig into the sweet (and sometimes bittersweet) highlights from Sowers4Pastors.

Goats and Gratitude

Brandy recently received a thoughtful gift of two goats from a pastor supervisor as a token of thanks for the ministry’s support. One goat, a pregnant female, gave birth to twins, but complications sadly claimed her life and that of one baby. That left a tiny, orphaned baby goat in need of care. Brandy and Rachel, welcomed little Canela (Cinnamon in English) into their family. For a time, Rachel was managing four “kids” in diapers – three human and one goat! Thankfully, Canela is thriving, and bringing joy to everyone.

Tropical Storm Sara

Tropical Storm Sara hit Honduras hard, particularly on the northern coast, where some areas experienced up to 30 inches of rain. The devastation has included road and bridge washouts and damage to homes. Meanwhile, in Gracias, the storm brought several days of steady rain, a blessing for the ministry’s coffee farm and others in the area. Please pray for those dealing with severe damage and for the missionaries assisting these communities.

Citizenship Steps

Rachel, Brandy, and their kids (minus the goat!) spent a chunk of the past week in Tegucigalpa, taking steps toward U.S. citizenship for their children. Due to the time Rachel has lived in Honduras (and thus not in the US), the process is far from straightforward. They’ve started with the application for “automatic citizenship for a child born abroad,” knowing it will be denied as part of the process. The next phase will involve lots of paperwork. The final step is a trip to the US. Just as with Nathan’s citizenship journey, Trish will accompany them when the time comes.

Backpacks in Record Time

In Maryland, the backpack container was loaded at lightning speed by Fredericktowne Baptist Church volunteers. The experienced team finished in just two hours, thanks to great weather and even better teamwork.

Dispensa and Container Updates

To ship the backpacks duty-free, the ministry must file a dispensa, an itemized breakdown of container contents. Timing is critical, as filing too early risks expiration. All the necessary paperwork was approved just in time for the shipping of the container!

Meanwhile, a separate food container is on its way, with goods sent from Minnesota to New Orleans before heading to Honduras. Pray that both containers clear Customs and the Honduran FDA quickly and intact. Trish humorously noted, “Toothpaste gives them fits!” Also, pray that storage fees don’t pile up if there are delays at the port.

Seeing Clearly: Eyeglasses for Kids

Through the ministry, a new batch of over 20 kids have received eye exams and are now set to receive new glasses. A generous ophthalmologist is volunteering to ensure every pair fits perfectly. Clear vision will help these children thrive in their studies and daily lives.

Future Home Sweet Home

Rachel and Brandy’s new home is nearing completion! Allen, despite his back issues, has been overseeing the grading of the yard. After Thanksgiving, an electrician friend from the U.S. will be coming to finish off the electrical work, ensuring that everything meets U.S. standards. The hope is to move in before “team season” kicks off in January. It’s a race against the clock, but everyone is hopeful! Your prayers for on-time completion are appreciated! 

 - posted by Christi

The World Beyond Trish's Desk . . .

(Insert throat clearing and the sound of a spoon clanking against a glass.) May I have your attention, please? Trish has almost completed updating all of the children in the sister church programs. It’s a huge task that has consumed most of Trish's time since mid-February, and she is more than a little bit giddy to be at the tail end of the project. Most of the sister churches have already received updated picture cards. Whew! Now, will someone please let Trish leave her computer to stretch her legs? Even though she’s still at her computer finishing up the last little bit, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Here are some of the things she might notice when she finally looks up:

Gifts for Pastors

It’s like Christmas in June as the gifts for pastors make their way to the intended recipients. Every few days or so, a denominational supervisor arrives on the property and leaves with a mammoth truckload of boxes to be delivered to the pastors under his supervision. 

 

The boxes contain items such as the best used clothing and household item donations that arrived on the containers. The pastors and their families also receive toiletry items. Every box contains a backpack full of school/office supplies, and pastors with school age children receive backpacks filled with school supplies. It is not always possible to provide a backpack for each child, but Sowers4Pastors is committed to easing at least some of the educational burden as the pastors make sure their children attend school. That means that each pastor with children will receive one or more backpacks to help toward the cause.

Teamwork

Next week, a team of thirteen people from Edgewater Alliance Church in Florida will arrive. The EAC sister church program encompasses five different schools, in multiple communities. The team will be putting on a VBS program at each location. Having a team next week means this week is a busy one as well, filled with prep work. Aside from the traditional VBS-y preparations that are being completed, the mechanically inclined people on staff are making sure the vehicles are all road-ready for the team to use.

RAIN!

Rainy season normally begins in earnest in mid-May. A few rains usually trickle in before that, then by May 15th… BLAM! This year, the rains were delayed by several weeks, much to the consternation of farmers throughout Honduras. Cornfields and beans that should have been planted weeks ago, are getting a late start.

Farmers aren’t the only ones planting things right now. There’s a whole lot of planting going on at S4P and this time it’s happening in the areas near the buildings instead of on the farm. When Brandy and Rachel began working with Sowers4Pastors, they were able to look at things with fresh eyes. They have been leading an effort to make the property look more attractive and to plant more fruit-bearing trees.

For months now, Kirstin has been keeping plants alive by hand-watering the new plants, in pots on her porch. Now that the rainy season has finally decided to show up, the plants are going in the ground. There are citrus, mango, and avocado trees. There’s even a starfruit tree that Ben planted from a seed years ago that is now big enough to move from a pot to its forever home. 

Requests out the Wazoo

There have been many church construction requests this year. That’s good news because it means a lot of churches are growing. The problem is that with so many requests it isn’t possible for S4P to take on every project. Please pray for the staff, as they sort through the requests and take on as many worthy projects as they can. Trish reminds us that, “God has always been faithful, and we will continue to do the best we can with what we have been given.”

S4P assisted with this church construction project
in Nov. 2022, in Cabañas Copan

If you are interested in donating toward a church construction project, you can earmark a donation to "church construction" through the Sowers4Pastors website.

 - posted by Christi

PS from Trish - Brandy, Rachel, and their boys are currently home sick with a nasty stomach bug! Please pray for their quick recovery! Thank you!

If You Put Some Missionaries on Coronavirus Lockdown . . .

Are you familiar with the children’s storybook, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie . . .? It’s about what happens when a hungry mouse shows up on your doorstep and one thing leads to another. You give him a cookie. He asks for milk. You give him milk. He wants a mirror to see if he has a milk mustache. The book was so popular that it became a series of If You . . . books. If You Give a Pig a Pancake . . . If You Give a Moose a Muffin . . . 

And now, it seems that Sowers4Pastors has the opportunity for their own spinoff: If You Put Some Missionaries on Coronavirus Lockdown . . . 

The story will probably go a little something like this:

If you put some missionaries on coronavirus lockdown, they are going to want to stay busy. They’ll look around for projects to keep themselves and their crew working. They’ll probably look up toward the heavens and realize that Russell and Iris need clay tiles on their metal roof. After they put the tiles on that roof, they might look around to admire their handiwork and realize that Allen and Trish need a new roof, too.

Allen and Trish's ten-year-old roof

This idea doesn’t actually come out of the blue. A few weeks earlier, they had experienced some blustery days and that didn’t do Allen and Trish’s roof any favors. The roof is made up of three parts. There’s the interior wooden ceiling, a layer of sheet metal, and then clay tiles on top. When the roof was originally put on, the metal that arrived for the project was kind of cheap and not in the best condition. Still, they went ahead and installed it because it’s what was available. And if you give some missionaries roofing materials, they’re going to put on a roof! At the time, they knew it would only last about ten years.

The missionaries originally think they will just spruce up the existing roof. A third of the back side of the roof never had clay tiles because the original plan was to leave a place where they could use solar power to heat water. That's where the roof was having problems, with wind blowing up the pieces of metal. So, the missionaries first think they will add clay tiles to that spot. However, knowing that ten years had passed since the roof was installed, Allen realizes it would be good idea to go ahead and change out all the metal at this time.

The missionaries and their crew will want to put on new sheet metal with a 50 year life expectancy. They can do this because the hardware stores have now reopened. So they’ll climb onto the roof and start taking off the clay tiles. They’ll plan on removing the metal from the front pitch of the roof first, replacing the metal on that portion,  and putting on the new clay tiles, and then repeating the process on the back pitch of the roof. But when they start to put the clay tiles on the oiled metal roof, they’ll realize that the tiles are sliding right off the roof! The tiles were supposed to just stay in place, as they do on other homes in the area, including Russell and Iris' house. But it seems the missionaries will underestimate the effect of gravity, along with the lack of friction, when clay tiles are put on slippery oiled metal with this level of slope. So, they’ll scrap the original plan and finish replacing the metal roof on the rest of the house. (They’ll plan on trying to put the clay tiles on again after the rains have washed away some of the oil coating.)

If you remove the old metal roof from a house, dust and other sketchy sorts of mud dauber debris are going to fall through the wooden boards that serve as the interior ceiling. This is going to shower a coating of dust down upon every conceivable area of the home, via nooks and crannies in the wooden ceiling.

A lovely depiction of the type of debris falling into the house
(from: https://ssec.si.edu/stemvisions-blog/inside-one-wasps-lair)

If dust showers into the home, the missionary who is isolated from her handy-dandy roofing crew is going to realize that she needs to clean up her nitty-gritty abode. She even gets to clean up extra things because she has asked Ben to bring in some stored items from the bodega so she can sort through them while she is quarantined from the others. Trish, the quarantined missionary, will probably pat herself on her dusty back for being so industrious.

The missionaries will be extremely grateful that a potential leaky roof problem is caught before the rainy season comes in a few weeks, as some of the metal roofing that was removed was completely rusted through. Trish will laugh at her good fortune that about the time she gets through cleaning up the current grime, it will be time for the annual arrival of the flying termites. The flying termites always arrive with the first rains of the rainy season. They will fly in, mate in the air, their wings will fall off, and they’ll die. Their little wings and separated bodies will be in every nook and cranny of the missionary’s newly roofed - and recently cleaned - home. There will be several swarms of termites over the course of a couple of weeks, so Trish will try to keep them cleaned up in the kitchen and out of the food, but will save the big, whole-house termite cleaning for the end of their season.

An actual photo of some of the debris that Trish is currently cleaning up

She will probably want to eat a cookie while she contemplates the fact that she has the opportunity to do so many deep cleanings in such a short amount of time.

And if you give a missionary a cookie, she’s probably going to want a glass of milk. And a lot more cookies!

 - posted by Christi

The Pilot Episode of Missionary Mayhem

If you know her personally, you know Trish Sowers is most emphatically NOT a drama queen. That’s why it’s more than a little ironic that this very laid back woman is generally surrounded by enough mayhem to make Lucy Ricardo feel right at home. Since Russell and Allen were out and about during the time of our weekly phone call, I had a chance to catch up with Lucy, er, Trish. Think of this as more of a script for a pilot episode of some sitcom about Honduran missionaries than a blog post.

Setting

The political situation in Honduras appears to be semi resolved. It looks as if the winner of the election is probably going to actually be the president. The other side will probably continue to protest, but they have said they will be non-violent protests. And both sides made a point of saying they will keep things calm over the holidays.

Because of that, the Sowers4Pastors shipping container, which was being held at port until it was safe to transport was finally able to make it all the way home on December 26. But, due to the delay, the container was scheduled to arrive the same day as a short-term missions team. Let the zany antics commence!

Allen drove to San Pedro on Christmas night so he would be able to meet Michelle Spanos and a team of college students on the 26th. The students were arriving from various parts of the U.S., due to the holidays. There was a plan that Russell would drive to San Pedro and transport the earlier arriving team members back to Gracias, while Allen stayed to meet the late comers.

Meanwhile…

Russell got word that the container would be arriving very early on Monday morning, so he changed the plans, having Allen to collect the earliest arriving team members, while he stayed in Gracias to unload the container and then headed to the city to collect the later arriving team members. After waiting a few hours for the container to arrive, however, Russell got word that the container wouldn’t be pulling into Gracias until noon! So, Russell hopped into the new-to-them, big, white van to head to the airport to pick up the visiting team. He left the crew in charge of meeting and unloading the container. Russell was less than a half hour out when he saw the container heading the other way. He waved to it as it passed, knowing the crew was about to get down to the work.

The view out the windshield of the van, as the
container truck arrives from the other direction

At some point during Russell’s trip to San Pedro, the driveshaft on the aforementioned new-to-them, big, white van broke. If you recall, this van was purchased especially for use with visiting teams. This was its maiden voyage, so to speak. Russell was able to rent a vehicle to transport the team, but because it was the last minute he was only able to rent a pickup truck for a one day rental.

The visiting team members were bundled and put in the back of the pickup along with their luggage for a chilly, drizzly ride to their lodging. Keep in mind, their hotel is a few hours away from the airport! Trish referred to that as their “mission trip adventure number one!”

The following day, while Allen took the team out for their activities in the Gracias area, Russell was making another trip to San Pedro, to return the pickup truck and collect the newly repaired van.

Scene at Home

Because of the overcast, drizzly weather, not much power is coming in at the ol’ homestead. The generator has a problem in its breakers and every so often it stops charging the batteries. It runs for about five minutes and then someone has to go out to do whatever it is you do to make it start running again. Trish and Ben have been taking turns getting it up and going, so that the buildings have lights through the night. Laundry is piling up because of the lack of power, too,  but even Trish is not quite ready to go out and beat the clothes on a rock. She’ll wait until she can use her washing machine, thankyouverymuch.

Random possum photo 

Oh, and there’s still a possum at large in Allen and Trish’s house. It mostly keeps to itself, but you might run into it if you have to get up in the middle of the night. Since the family is busy with back-to-back teams, Project Possum Removal has been penciled in for about two weeks from now!

 - posted by Christi

Little House on the Mission Field

When it’s time for new blog topics, Allen, Trish, and Russell generally get together and toss around ideas. By the time I talk to one of them on the phone, it’s simply a matter of writing down what an enthusiastic Sowers says. This week was different. Allen and Russell are off building a bridge and the duty of brainstorming for a blog topic fell on Trish and me. Now, we’re both pretty creative people, but suddenly there was a momentary brainstorming drought and we were left hearing crickets in our heads. Trish jokingly messaged me that we could write about the Honduran bug infestation and was probably surprised when I thought it sounded like a great idea! I’ve read enough stories about life on the mission field to know that things like bugs, snakes, and monkeys are hot topics. Since I haven’t heard Trish say a word about snakes or monkeys, I jumped on the bugs.

Party Time for Bugs

This is the year of the grasshopper in Western Honduras. More specifically, every third year grasshoppers arrive in numbers most North Americans will only read about in a missionary story. Cicadas also show up every few years and this year the grasshoppers and the cicadas synchronized their travel schedules. And beetles are also underfoot and flying nightly dive-bombing raids. Not to be left out, the flying termites are expected soon. As Trish said, “It’s like a party going on with the bugs. The scorpions are like the wallflowers of the party. They’re not coming out and dancing, but they’re the ones you don’t want to mess with.”

Grasshoppers
 

This is what the full-grown grasshoppers will look like.

These are not mambi-pambi grasshoppers. These suckers will grow to be about five inches in length. Having read the Little House on the Prairie series more times than you can shake a slate pencil at, I know that bugs tend to not be the farmer’s friend. I asked how the grasshoppers will affect the coffee fields. Fortunately, the grasshoppers seem to abstain from coffee. Trish has a few house plants that live outside and the grasshoppers don’t seem to care for plants with glossy leaves. Coffee plants have fairly glossy leaves. Trish’s accidental tomato plants, which just popped up from the compost heap, have not been as lucky, and she’s quite thankful their diet does not rely on her gardening abilities.

The current appearance of the grasshoppers.
They have not yet achieved their full size, and they
will also lose their stripes and become solid-colored.

When the grasshoppers first appeared a few months ago, they were teensy little things that could go by unnoticed. They are currently about two inches long and, since they like to hang out in crowds, they are noticeable. They are now starting to come into the house with regularity. Trish described the many times she’s sitting in the recliner, working on her laptop, and having a grasshopper peering at her up over the top of her screen. She said, “You know if it’s facing you and decides to jump, it’s landing on you. They’re not scary, but they have little hook things on their legs. It’s kind of creepy and it will be relentless until the end of summer. They’re kind of beautiful if you’re not horrified by them.”

Termites

Termites swarming near our roof line.

Soon, the grasshoppers will be joined by the flying termites that arrive each rainy season. Trish said there will be a termite competing for every cubic inch of space. She described them by saying, “They start off as delicate little bugs. They are flying ant size, but their bodies are more wormlike. They have delicate wings. Wingtip to wingtip, they’re probably less than an inch. After they have mated, the wings fall off. Then you have loose, black wings EVERYWHERE! They’re light and feathery and not easy to sweep up. Like glitter! Their little bodies become like worms and they’re everywhere, too--inside your sheets and clothes. You can’t cook because they’ll be in your food. The house has open rafters, which are quite high up. Every time there is a breeze, bug parts will waft down--gently, over the course of the entire year. They are able to spread out their annoyance level.”

Perspective

While she takes the buggy stuff in stride, toward the end of our conversation, Trish laughed and said, “God has put me on this earth to make other people more content with their lives.”

I think she may be onto something!

 - posted by Christi

A Tale of Two Sisters

Six of Ginger's puppies

Ginger and Nutmeg are full sisters from different litters. They are lab mixes, but they both have the shape and coloring of chocolate labs. We didn't intend to breed them this year, but with life in such an uproar this fall, we weren't as in control of this situation as we might normally have been.

We recognized in November that Ginger was pregnant. We weren't as certain about Nutmeg - she showed some indications of pregnancy, but she didn't get fat enough in the belly for us to be sure.

Ginger gave birth to a dozen puppies in mid December. One died the first night, while she was still birthing. The rest did splendidly, and Ginger proved to be a competent, gentle, and easy-going mother.

A few days after Ginger gave birth, Nutmeg showed signs of being in labor. She staked out a spot for her nest, and she began to discharge fluids. We didn't like her chosen birthing spot - right up against my brand new couches in the living room - so we moved her into a bedroom. She wasn't delighted with the new location, so we had to close off the doorway to keep her in there. Eventually she settled down, and was moaning in labor.

We waited and waited . . . but there were no arrivals! Nutmeg didn't seem to be in distress, her labor pains gradually eased, she was eating and drinking, wagging her tail at us and moving about normally - but she was still emitting a small but steady flow of blood, and there were still no puppies!

After about three days, we figured there really weren't going to be any puppies coming from Nutmeg. Poor girl, though, she had LOTS of milk, and she kept going into the room where Ginger had her litter, and staring at those puppies longingly.

On Christmas Eve, when the first batch of pups were just under a week old, I decided to try an experiment. I wanted to see if Nutmeg would accept a few of Ginger's puppies. Ginger had her paws full with eleven, and having Nutmeg nurse some of the pups would ease her workload, as well as possibly making life nicer for poor, puppyless Nutmeg. 

Nutmeg had no idea what to do with the babies we put into her bed. Eventually, we gently forced her to lie down, and we put the three puppies up to her nipples. Nutmeg may have been confused, but the puppies were NOT! They began nursing eagerly, obviously thrilled with the lack of competition and abundance of milk at this new eating location! Nutmeg remained perfectly still; she was apparently terrified to move! All that day she refused to get up unless we first removed the puppies from her side. Only then would she leave her bed to drink, eat, and have a short run in the yard. As soon as those needs were taken care of, she would be back, staring again at Ginger's litter. Then we'd return the three puppies to her, and she'd nurse them some more.

Nutmeg, lying perfectly still, with her first three, well-fed puppies

That evening, we still weren't certain that this experiment was going to be a complete success. Although she was allowing the puppies to nurse, Nutmeg seemed to have no idea how to care for them. She hadn't licked them at all - she was apparently still paralyzed with fear. We had tried putting the puppies into her nest while she was out for a break. When she came into the room and saw them, she looked at them longing, but wouldn't lie down with them. She seemed to be afraid of them, or possibly concerned about potentially hurting them.

At the end of the day, we decided to put the puppies back with Ginger, since we wouldn't be able to monitor the situation during the night. With the next day being Christmas, we didn't move the puppies over to Nutmeg all of that day. 

The morning after Christmas, however, Nutmeg was lying as close as she could get to Ginger and her litter of pups. She clearly wanted another chance at motherhood, so we brought the same three pups to her nest again. Gradually, Nutmeg's mothering instincts kicked in, and she relaxed and started to manage the puppies in a natural way. Later that day we moved another puppy to Nutmeg's group, and then one more after that. Success! We now had two happy mothers caring for separate litters. It was a good situation for Nutmeg, Ginger, AND the puppies!

A full belly = a happy, contented puppy

The puppies are now over a month old. Nutmeg is healthy and happy with her five adopted puppies, and Ginger with the remaining six. The sisters show no sign of recognizing that anything odd has happened here. Neither dog bothers the other mother's litter, and everyone seems perfectly content with the results of our experiment!

My Minions

Very early this morning (before it was light), I heard a small, persistent noise coming from the kitchen. Frequently noises of this type indicate a situation with which I need to deal, so I listened hard to try to figure out what it was.

I ruled out dripping water, and it didn't sound like a mouse gnawing. Eventually I dragged myself out of bed to go find the cause of the disturbance.

The noise didn't stop when I turned on a light (roaches and mice would stop for light). I followed the sound and found that it was coming from somewhere near the back door. I still had trouble pinpointing the source.

Then, I examined a large metal stockpot, which had been used to make dog food yesterday. Ben had left it on the floor near the door, after he'd fed the dogs. There were bits of food stuck to the pan, and some burned-on food.

The sound was a group of large ants, scraping off the burned food - loudly enough that I could hear it in my bedroom!

I'm not fond of scrubbing pots, so I decided to let them continue. Life is good when the ants start helping me with the housework!!!!!

A LIfe Without Screens

Our house doesn't have screens on the windows or doors. This means that we sometimes have lovely guests like the one above, which landed on our kitchen table.

We also sometimes have less lovely guests. But for today, we'll just think about this one.

Pig Breeding Success!

 

Sadly, the two piglets we were bottle feeding didn't make it. 

Happily, this thriving litter of eight piglets was born on Sunday, Ben's birthday . . . during his birthday party! Mama and babies are all doing well!

More Piglet Pictures . . . because CUTENESS!

 

The piglet above was smushed into the mud by the other pigs soon after birth. Boo dug him out, we warmed him up, and now he's doing great. He still has some mud on his face. He loves to nurse, and does it expertly!

 

This piglet has lovely reddish stripes down her back. She is a lousy nurser, and insists on having the bottle enter her mouth from the side. This decreases the suction, so we increased the size of the hole in the nipple. We weren't getting her to eat much before, but now she's happy. Those closed eyes in the photo indicate a nearly sated piglet!

 

Ahhh, here's some enthusiasm from the pretty piglet we thought we'd lose, due to her previous disinterest in nursing. She's doing so much better now!

A note: All gender references in this post should be disregarded. We don't know whether these piglets are male or female. LOL

SURPRISE: Piglets!

We knew it was going to happen sooner or later. I mean, we have male and female pigs, together in the same pen, so it was kind of inevitable.

Only, we've been a bit distracted the past few months, and nobody was paying attention to the timing . . . and when Boo checked on the pigs this afternoon, one of them was giving birth!

The first few piglets were already born and dead when we found them, but two of the babies were rescued from the pen alive. Unfortunately, either because of our involvement, or possibly just because she is a first time mother, the sow refused to let her piglets nurse . . . in fact, she attacked them whenever they got near to her.

You know what that means, right? Uh huh. We're bottle feeding piglets now.

Sadly, the odds are against these little guys. They didn't nurse from their mother at all, so they didn't receive the first milk, called colostrum, which they need to help them fight off diseases. We'll give it our best shot, however, and see if we can keep the babies alive.

Another of the pigs is pregnant (we discovered that when we were dealing with this one), and so I'm hoping that, if she gives birth in a day or two, and if we can keep these piglets alive until then, maybe we can sneak these two in with the second litter. We manage this easily with our dogs, but we don't know much about pig nursing . . . so it will be an experiment.

Boo's Botanicals

I'm back from being sick, hurrah! I'm still moving kind of slow, but today I was working on organizing some photos, and I came across a few really lovely pictures Boo took of plants in our yard. I hope you enjoy them!

Want to see my puppy?

 

Remember my Great Dane puppy, Duke? Remember when I posted a photo of him . . . back when he was about the same size as our cat? That was in April.

Look at him now! Way to grow, Duke!

So much to tell . . .

 

Life hasn't stood still while I've been too busy to blog - in fact, it has been pretty eventful around here. I'll try to get caught up, starting by sharing this new addition to our family.

We have a new Great Dane puppy! I've had a lifelong love of gigantic dogs (I have my parents to thank for this, as they bought our family a St. Bernard when I was a child), and when the chance came to purchase a Great Dane from a local litter, we jumped at the opportunity! This dog is officially Allen's birthday present to me, and I think it's the best present ever!

Buddy (as we call the pup, while we await naming inspiration) is about 6 weeks old. In Honduras, puppies are sold at a younger age than in the US, and this litter of pups wasn't going to be around if we waited until the puppies were older. So, we're giving him a bit of extra care and attention (read: spoiling him), since he's really a teensy baby.

All of our adult dogs think Buddy is a nuisance, but Ginger, our 4 month old Labrador, thinks the puppy is a new friend/toy. We have to watch them when they play, because of the difference in their sizes, but Buddy isn't intimidated. He's just thrilled to have a playmate.

We're having such fun with our new baby. Buddy hates to be alone, he grumbles in his sleep and when his belly is really full, and he has now grown enough that he can get up and down off the couch by himself (using the footstool to help). Oops - that letting him on the couch thing might have been a bad idea! Don't worry, though, when he gets a little bit bigger we'll train him to stay off the couch. We have to . . . either that, or purchase an additional couch. Once he's grown, he'd need the whole couch to himself!

For now, the baby gets to sleep on the couch, and I love seeing him snuggled up to our long-suffering cat, Splotch.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

We recently had another batch of puppies, and Boo took this amazing photo of one of the pups sleeping on his mother's foot.

Happiness regarding computers and scorpions!

I believe I've resolved the problem we've been having with our computer not wanting to communicate with the internet. It took many hours, over the course of several days, for me to pinpoint the cause of the problem and to research and eventually find the solution. Then it took more hours for me to figure out how to implement the solution - which was re-installing a faulty driver on our "ethernet adapter."

Actually making the repair was a two minute job. (Now I know why the IT guys make the big bucks!)

Since the re-installation I have turned the computer on and off about half a dozen times, and it has connected to the internet without any problems every time. Before the repair, it would easily take a dozen tries before we could get it to connect. So, although I don't know if I've managed a permanent solution, I have definitely made a significant improvement in the situation.

This causes me great happiness!

Want to know what else is causing me happiness just now (at 3 in the morning)?

Today I worked on emptying out my bedroom, so that I can do a very thorough deep cleaning. My allergies told me this couldn't be put off any more, so I've been gradually getting it done. Today I moved the bed out from the wall, although I didn't get a chance to clean behind it yet. When I woke up a short time ago to let out one of the dogs (he really did need to go out, LOL) I noticed that my earlier work had disturbed a largish scorpion, and it had climbed up the wall beside the bed . . . and I was able to dispatch HIM before he got ME!

Double happiness!

Back to bed now . . . but my thoughts and prayers are with the East Coasters as the big storm arrives. Be safe!

Found in the garden

Beautiful, don't you think? We kept it for a few days to enjoy looking at it, then let it go.