Slice of Almost Heaven Blog

Keep Your Fork

6/6/2020

This is a picture of some on the wild blackberry bushes here on the farm. With favorable weather in August we will have blackberries. It is such a treat to be walking by and pick off a ripe blackberry straight from the bush. As I took this picture it reminded me of the saying "Keep Your Fork". The story behind "Keep Your Fork" is after just eating dinner next is desert. If you do not have your fork you cannot enjoy desert. So "Keeping Your Fork" is to remind you of better things to come later.

I have heard of people having a fork in their hand in the casket, acknowledging that there are better things to come.

It also reminds me as precious and dear these temporal things are, I also plan on keeping my fork for the blessed Resurrection to come!

God Made a Farmer....The Reflection

5/6/2020

Drawing provided by Oak Apple Farm. Please visit them, if you click on the photo it will take you to their website.

Yesterday was a day that every goat herder dreads, a kid who is too large to be born and a dam that is too small to have him.

This was not one of my goats, but a friends. He trusted me to do the right thing and I feel like I let him and this goat down. Since the event happened yesterday, I have been turning it over and over in my mind. What could I have done differently? Would it have made a difference? Or was her fate settled when she started pushing?

Farming is not easy, it never was. Death like a crouching predator is always in the corner, waiting to pounce. Are you going to make that one mistake that costs an animal their life? Or will you defeat death this time?

Most days farming is hard but good. When then girls (and stinky boys) come up to you and want scratchies or to rub against you like a 130lb cat (I would suggest if you have hills stand on the upward side!) It makes it all worthwhile.

Death is a part of life, but it was not always this way and one day, it will not be again.

Mankind was so selfish they wanted to "be like God" and threw away the gift of never physically dying. Not only did mankind condemn themselves to death, but all of creation. But, all is not lost, one day death will be no more.

Oh how I long for that day.

A Father's Gift

4/28/2020

My dad went home to be with his Lord and Savior in May 2011. In his later years we grew very close. Hence I would call him each Saturday night to fill him in about the recent adventures on the farm. This blog is an outgrowth of those evening calls to my Dad. I used this to preface the story below...

For the last few months we have been having problems with our electric fence on the goats pasture. Try as we might we could not find the cause of the problem. We had spent hours looking for the fault but to no avail.

Then I thought about something I had not remembered in over 45 years. When I was growing up my Dad would teach me basic radio and electric theory. As a young teenager I was not interested in this but out of respect I listened to him. Well those lessons he taught me years ago did sink in a bit.

On a dark and rainy night, I remembered what he taught me. I thought could this really be the problem after all this searching?? In my head I heard my Dad's voice "Peter that is the problem", and my response "Ok Dad how do I fix it?" I paused there in the rain and he spoke again through all those years with the answer. I did what he told me and a problem that had me stumped for months was over.

My first thought was I need to call and thank him, to tell him that it was his lessons all those years ago that gave me the answer. Then I caught myself and realized just how long it had been since he was gone.

So here and now I say Thank You Dad for teaching me even though at the time I did not want to learn. I so miss you....!

The Goat Hokey Pokey

3/22/2020

You put your right hoof out
You put your right hoof in
You put your right hoof out and you shake it all about
You keep us guessing as to when you're comin' today
That what it all about.....

This weekend our doe Suzuki gave birth. In a normal goat birth there is a "water bubble" that comes out then the bubble with the baby goat. Well, the baby kept playing the "Goat Hokey Pokey". She would show a right hoof then it would go back in the it would come back out. This kept up for over 30 minutes, until Levona was born.

Please know doe and kid are both doing well. We hope she will not whisper this to Gigi our next goat to kid on how to do Goat Hokey Pokey! We will keep you posted.

This is a picture of Levona, Suzuki's kid. it is Hebrew for Frankincense. For those of you who do not know frankincense is a resin from a tree. It has powerful antiviral properties. It was also given to Jesus as one of the three gifts from the Wise men.

We named her Levona as a hope and prayer we and all our friends make it through the Covid-19 virus safely.

Ivy

2/10/2020

Today was a sad day on the farm. Ivy, one of our does had a miscarriage today. She was three months pregnant. We are not sure the cause of the miscarriage. But, it reminds us again of the fragility of life and how precious it truly it is. Each and every time one of our goats give birth we marvel at God's creation. Countless times I have remarked “and they say there is no God!”

As I write this I am reminded of this scripture: “I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works! My very self you knew; my bones were not hidden from you, When I was being made in secret, fashioned as in the depths of the earth. Your eyes foresaw my actions; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be.” Psa 139:14-16 NAB

Ivy is in her stall softly bleating for her kid, she does not understand what happened. But she knows something is not right. This reminds us again how we long as with all creation for the time when death has been swallowed up and The Prince of Peace reins!

So God made a farmer…

Regret

12/29/2019

This Christmas has been hard but educational. You may ask why I chose those two words? It is because my father passed away on the 23rd. It was hard because it is never easy to lose a parent, even if you didn’t really know them. It was educational because in the few days since his passing I have learned a great deal about him.

A background story so you understand the circumstances, this will be the Reader’s Digest version. My mother and I moved out of our house in OH and moved to WV in 1979 and my parent’s divorce was finalized in 1980. There in the beginning we were in contact but as time moved on our relationship fell apart. The last function he attended was my HS graduation in 1986. Over the years I have tried to mend the relationship, but to no avail. My last time trying to contact him was a friend request on Facebook about a week before he passed.

Now for the educational part….everyone has always said I look and sound like my mother (maybe that was part of the problem), but all of us are a part of each of our parents. I knew the traits that I had inherited from my father, my mom reminded me of them many times (whenever we argued, she said I had his temper). But I knew something else that I inherited that my mom rarely acknowledged and that was my technical abilities. When it came to fixing things that was my job around the house.

But in the past 6 days I have learned that we were more alike than I ever realized. On many topics my mother and I were polar opposites, especially in politics. As an adult our arguments almost always centered around politics or religion. From what I have learned I would have had a staunch ally in my defense of those topics. Don’t get me wrong, on many things my mom was somewhat conservative, but not in her politics. Whereas I was the conservative, and as I grow older, I have become even more conservative, but that is not the topic of this discussion.

I wish now that I would have worked harder at getting that relationship renewed, but now time has run out and I feel regret, but at least I am able to take care of his final wishes and learn about the life he led from others. As I thought about what would happen over the years when he would pass away, or if I would even find out. The last thing I thought would happen was shedding tears. Yet, as I sit here and write this, I am crying for what could have been.

I am sorry that we could not have the relationship that I think we could have had, but now with your passing I can finally change your name. I have always called you my father, because I respected your position as my father, but I couldn’t call you dad. I felt dad was a term that meant relationship. I can now say, even though I didn’t know a lot about you I can call you,

DAD

I am happy that you became a believer in Christ as your Savior so I know I will see you again.

Doyle Been
March 16, 1945 - December 23, 2019

Christmas Eve Memories

12/24/2019

Not the best picture of Mary, but it was taken at one of those get togethers so I felt it was appropriate.

Today is Christmas Eve, while warming myself near the fire a long deep memory came to me. It was a long time ago. But I remember it as if it was yesterday. Shortly after I married Michelle, we traveled to Clarksburg from New Jersey to see her mom and to go with her to the family’s holiday traditional get together. They would meet on Christmas Eve and exchange small gifts, eat and have a good time.

This struck a very deep chord with me. You see the people there did not know me at all but welcomed me into their home as if I was born into the family. Never in my life have I felt so accepted and loved. We went to several of these gatherings over the years. It was always the same. Further, Michelle’s mother over the years did not treat me as a son in law, but as her own son. As her time grew near to depart this life our bond grew more and more, that was Mary. I am almost ashamed to say it, but I loved her as much, if not more than my own mother. You see I was blessed to have “two moms”.

As I write this the tears are flowing hot, but this is tempered with the wonderful memories of a family that took me in as their very own.

Thanksgiving Memories

11/30/2019

On Thursday of this week, Michelle and I bowed our heads and gave thanks for the rich blessings we have received over the past year. Since our parents have passed, we celebrate the holidays with each other. The holiday season unfortunately is a time of the highest amounts of depression and loneliness in the whole year. This in many cases is caused by people missing their loved ones and not know how to deal with it. For us, it is a different story. Any small detail reminds us of Thanksgiving past, and we relive those times and celebrate the memories.

Neither of us, by far, are a Norman Rockwell painting of Thanksgiving. That being said I can remember the sights and smells of some very unique thanksgiving dinners. From sawing off the bottom of burnt rolls so there was something edible left behind. To eating turkey after thanksgiving until you swore that you had the container of unending turkey (similar to Ezekiel’s container of oil and flour, 1 Kings 17:16 for reference).

Michelle remembers the first Thanksgiving that it was just her and her mother (parents divorced). Her mother had to work so it was up to Michelle to bake the turkey. She knew how to cook, but had never baked a turkey before, so she followed her mother’s directions until something happened that her mother did not warn her about…the legs fell off!!! Michelle did not know that it meant the turkey was done, she thought that she had done something wrong. She called over to where her mother worked and asked the ladies working with her mother how to put the legs back on the turkey. Needless to say, it all worked out ok and the turkey was wonderful.

I remember the first holiday meal that we had at Mary’s house (Michelle’s mother). The meal was one of the best I had ever eaten, but what I remembered the most was just how welcoming Mary was to me. She treated me like I was her flesh and blood son and not just the man who had married her daughter. I have never had anyone to be so welcoming to me in my entire life. She always treated me that way, I was her son.

So, as you can see from this small sampling, Michelle and I are not alone at Thanksgiving, but we are surrounded by all of the precious memories of holidays past to feast upon.

We hope that you had a blessed Thanksgiving.

The Box Vampire

10/28/2019

We have a strange creature in our home, he tries to look so cute, but he is far from it. He appeared out of nowhere back on a full moon in June. Up until that time everything was safe and cozy in our home among the hills.

But now.......our paper products tremble with fear. For they have come upon an enemy that takes no prisoners....he is in it for pure chewing pleasure....he is

THE BOX VAMPIRE!!!! (cue scary music)

The box vampire is always hungry. He is always seeking his next victim. He is cunning and he has no pity for his prey. He has no natural enemies the only thing he fears is.....

Not garlic

Not holy water

Not even crosses

The only known thing that repels him is a camera. He does not fear the camera when he is “camouflaged” but when his fangs come out the only pictures of are of the aftermath of the havoc he has dealt. No box or package is safe from

THE BOX VAMPIRE!!!!!

Photos of some of his "victims"

Remembering.....

9/11/2019

Something strange happened today, a lone figure was seen before dawn slowly walking towards the 9/11 memorial at the downtown campus. As he approaches it he sees the two cadets standing vigil. He slows his approach. He then stops and utters something through a veil of tears, it sounds like “thank you", but because of the hoarseness of the voice it is hard to determine. But the cadets can see that he is visibly shaken. He states, "I was there that day.” He then quickly walks off not saying another word. They can see him sobbing as he quickly walks away. He is not seen again that day. They do not know anything about him, just his greaf and his thanks for remembering...

I am that man...

Today is 9/11, for those my age or older, this is a very somber day. Over the last 18 years I have observed a variety of ways how people who lived through it cope with their grief, this is my way.