watching the sky

It's not unlike a cloud burst. The skies darken, edges first. Light slowly softens to hues of faint blue. Then the clouds let loose the rain... 

Just as BC picked up a fantastic in town job for a beloved client and the lawyers fired the opening shots in the developing custody fight to help Fisher (the step son) stay in Utah for pending school, the financing for the Moab job suddenly went through.

I am near speechless at the complications. None of this was in the forecast. 

A custody fight over a 15 yr kid who has already decided (power to make the choice backed by state law and the existing custody decree) his education is better served here, not there.   

A winter start for an out of town job, evidently delayed even longer now by the need for BC to be in 3 places at once.  

If you are standing on the higher ground the rain is not what is to be feared- it is the lightening. And in the  near distance an electrical storm is brewing. 

I have felt it moving towards me for about a month. I tried to ignore it but I keep returning to the realization it cannot be out run. 

I honestly thought in the moment our son graduated from high school the last ties between me and my ex were gone.  You can laugh at how short sighted that was of me, I've never claimed to have emotional intelligence.  And I see now that you never truly get to walk away- no matter how fast you are running.

Our son C-Boy is all grown up and expecting a child of his own; a little girl. 

Being together again as a family is unavoidable.  That day in June I honestly thought I was walking away for the very last time.  Holding my high heels in one hand. The other the hem of my dress so as soon as I was out of sight of the crowds mingling on the lawn of the graduation, I might run the rest of the way to my waiting car. I wish I would have understood it was only a reprieve. I would have savored my time away more carefully.   
      

lost in the tomato jungle

the last stand of the gimpy chick

It is hard to count the moving carpet of speckled chicks moving noisily around the yard but if I were to guess I would say there are 15 medium, 14 small, and 14 extra small. 
Beach loves and knows only one. 
She has been complaining for days about its not quite right leg demanding we do something- but what she wanted, she didn't know.
BC offered her a life shut up in a safe pen where she could learn to sit for us be the mother of all the eggs we pull to raise.... like in the Giver.

Beach hated the idea. "You need to do something." she whined after trying to fix it a perch with a Frisbee so it might safely roost in a low fruit tree "like the others". 

Do you want us to kill it, we asked. 
Of course not, was her answer.
For now it keeps up just fine, we would tell her but to this she strongly disagreed. 
It struggles and is always far behind them plus it falls all the time...."

In the dark before the rain the skunk that had been circling came back. And in the dark before the rain BC, the good farmer that he is, once again walked the farm yard at 3 am counting heads. 

"I found the victim," he said sitting heavily on down on the bed. "It was Beach's gimpy chick."

By morning August rain had washed most of the skunk smell away. In certain corners it still lingered mixing with sweetness of the river and wet grass.

I watched the chickens grazing the lawn as I waited for coffee to drip.  Most of us have survived July.

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to do nothing. 
To sit back and let time pass...

Wendi M. Brown- Bevan, born May 2, 1970 to Jon and Julie Brown, in Slat Lake City. In the pouring rain, on August 1, 2006, long after her spirit had left this world, the body of Wendi M. Brown-Bevan was laid to rest.  Wendi leaves behind a family she loved most of all two beautiful children, Chloe and Jonah.  Wendi loved her children more than word can say, she existed because of them.  She will be remembered for her kindness and compassion, and her love of animals. Her gentle loving spirit may have been no match for this world.  Wendi, we know your sight was often unclear, your path mostly unpaved, but whatever life may have held for you and all of us who cared for you along the way, we want you to know that you were, and forever will be truly loved by us. 

May you find the peace you were seeking…

She was my sister.

independence day on the farm

We all milled around in the grass watching them. Everyone of us, dogs, cats, chickens, and people. Captured by the sight of simple minded birds free ranging for the first time. 

Freedom day for the turkeys fell on July 4th.

Turkeys break all the farm rules. They go from nursery coop to yard dwellers.  

All summer in a day. 

 They skip the slow graduation process the chickens go through to gain their freedom. It is their size that enables them to do this. The only thing dangerous to them is themselves. It is so nice to see turkeys in the yard again! 

Free range turkeys are a 24/7 vaudeville act. 

The rest of it is Mayberry... 

Unit it comes to these two wiseguys...

life in the family lane

Bowling, a perfect family night activity. Soccer playing on the tv, beers on the table, and a kid who is over the moon about getting a small icy root beer for herself.  

We had been trying to go bowling for months, yes literally months! Tuesday night we finally made it happen. Of course I had to reassure the 10 yr old that she would be in bed at a reasonable hour. A lie as it turns out.  At 9:15 with 2 frames left in the second game she informed her parents it was time to wrap this up she had to get home to bed- she had to get up early for gym.

The list of small victories for the day:

For the first time Beach saw the mirages on the hot road.  Never before has her vision been good enough for her to see them! (thank you Yellow Car game)

I broke 100 on my first game AND was bowling with a 12lb ball, not a little 8lbs kiddo one! Got stronger wrists? *Multiple small fractures from way-back-when in my wrists had left them weak and troublesome. >oh-yeah, stronger!<

BC, while on the phone playing contractor bowled a strike. Honestly?! 

He also bowled a 185 in the second game!

Under the nothing new category: we were still not allowed to talk to or make noises before, during, or after Beach bowled. 

Picking up a spare. 
And BC breaking the no talking rule. 

Bowling magnificently while on the phone.

Must have been the monogrammed screen name that gave him his super bowling powers.