Its not Monday

I hate the days that seem like a Monday but really aren't Monday. Today is a perfect example. Its Tuesday...but it sure seems like Monday. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for the long weekend....I needed to catch up on some much needed rest and relaxation. It just that these non-Monday Monday's make me wonder if the extra day off was really worth it because two days worth of work now needs to be done in one day.

Stay away I am contagious

Update - its conjunctivitis and a sinus infection behind my eyeballs. I visited my doctor and that's what I've got. Its continuing to get worse...I am having trouble seeing out of my left eye due to the discharge from the infection. Driving home should be fun, I think I will go drive some heavy equipment this afternoon. Hopefully the drops and antibiotics work their magic...I want my vision back. I am just thankful I can't see peoples faces when they look at me and go ohhh what's wrong with your eye? So stay away, Dr. Joel says I am contagious.

Can't Kick It

Man, I can not just kick this cold/flu/sinus thing. It will be a week tomorrw that I have been fighting this thing. I can still feel it in my throat, my head is full of congestion. It started with just a pounding headache and moved to the area right between my eyeballs. Now it is like right behind my eyeballs. This morning when I woke up I think I actually had snot coming out of my left eye socket. Real nice way to start the day.

I took some non-drowsy cold/flu medicine and it is definately making me non-drowsy. What does non-drowsy mean? I think they should relabel it WIRED or HIGHLY STRUNG.

My little friends

I spent last Saturday afternoon working with wood and wax. I did some building and assembly, there was wood shavings and nails flying. Thankfully no bandaids were required. When I had everything finished I loaded up my work and headed out to visit our bee hives.

I have no explanation, but somehow we have bees that survived this year. We lost our last two hives almost 2 years ago. Last year we decided to take the year off from bee keeping. For some unknown reason two swarms decided our empty hives would make a good home. We figured they would die off over the winter like all the others, but to our surprise they actually lived. I had been checking on them throughout the winter, on my rabbit hunting trips, and in the early spring, during our early tree digging season. One warm mid April Saturday Natasha and I took a trip out to the hives and opened them up, cleaned them out, tried to spot the queen(no such luck), and tucked them all back in. We were very excited at their condition when we last left. They had a good supply of honey, there were plenty of workers working, even though we couldn't find the queen it was obvious she was busy laying eggs, and with the spring blooms hitting full force they were beginning to bring in pollen and nectar.

So, I arrived with my boxes full of brand new frames filled with their wax foundations. I came alone...I had infected my wife with my cold/flu thing(along with 5 and counting employees) but that's another story. Now before I go further I must explain I have not always been a fan of the bee. I had suffered, what I believe is an above average amount of stings from the little fellers in my younger years. I probably ranked in the 90th percentile. Of course I also inflected an above average amount of pain into the lives of the bees I encountered also. A swat with a rolled up paper, a stone thrown through a paper nest...ok it was never just one stone, bottle rockets, a high pressured stream of water, plenty of bee killing spray, and yes I've used fire. I'd definitely say I ranked in the 90th percentile of most wanted by the bees. But I've changed my ways, it started with my wife's fascination with insects. Her studies at MSU involved entomology...we still have her "bug collection" and no I am not bitter that we, I mean I have moved it to three houses. But, we have to get back to the story...I unloaded my two boxes and surveyed the scene. There was a bit of a breeze and there was a lot of bee flying going on. I figured, with the wind, the smoker would be of little use so I put on my long sleeve t-shirt, a pair of gloves, and a veil. In my hurry to get out to the hives I had left the hive tool, used for prying apart the lid, frames, and supers(boxes). Thankfully I had a screwdriver that was able to do the job. I opened the top on the first hive and carefully pried off the inner cover...one does not want to upset a couple thousand bees while only wearing a longsleeve t-shirt...on the top of the inner cover I found a nest of ants. Not a place I would pick for a home if I were an ant, but they seem to think it was a good spot. I took the cover over to my truck where I scraped them off it...some went to ant heaven, others were smarter and hit the ground running. I went back to the hive and began preparing it for the new frames I had brought, this involved a bit of scraping and usually gets the bees flying around to see what is going on...today was no different. Did I mention I was just wearing a long sleeve t-shirt...well I began feeling this poking feeling on my neck, where the veil met my t-shirt, and where the back of my neck was not covered. I stepped away from the hives and took off my glove. I began feeling for what I thought was an angry bee trying to inflect some bee pain into me. The first swipe I felt nothing, second swipe still nothing, I began thinking it was just my imagination, on the third swipe I found what it was it was one of those ants. He must have not appreciated the hospitality I showed them. I returned to the hives and finished what I came to do. When I was done I took off my gloves and veil and just sat down next to the hives.

There is something amazing about bees that just draws me towards them. I could sit there for hours just watching them come and go. Coming with their little leg pouches full of pollen and mouths full of sweet nectar. They do their little dance, hand over the pollen or nectar to another worker that stores it in the hive. They are amazing little creatures so delicate and simple, yet so complex and detailed. I will take you on another rabbit trail here...I like the song, "Our God is an awesome God", when ever I hear that song I think of things like the bees. At first glance they are annoying, simple little things that you only notice because they can be annoying. But God somehow dreamed them up...these little creatures that are so simple yet so complex with their antennas, pollen sacks, wings, and legs. They are attracted to flowers where they get the nectar and collect the pollen and at the same time spread the pollen around from stamen to stigma causing pollination. From that flowers turn into fruit that contain seeds that are the future...freaking amazing, it blows my mind...all I can say is, what an awesome God.

Knocked on my butt

So Thursday afternoon my voice started feeling scratchy. Then I started getting a stuffed up nose and by the time I got home from work I also had a pounding headache. I crawled into bed early and woke up Friday morning feeling like utter crap. I stayed home from work and laid around...mostly complaining. When I get sick I get needy and whinny. My wife doesn't seem to like that, although I thought that was what first attracted her to me...my neediness and whining (I will probably be getting knocked on my butt again for saying that).

As I am coming out of my sick stupor I wonder if God doesn't sometimes feel like my wife. That I am needy and whinny. Because I think he wants so much more. Its pretty much only a one way relationship when I am needy and whinny...its all about me.

Ever since I finished the last Nav 2:7 book I have had a hard time staying in the word. It is so easy to find an excuse, I do my reading in the morning...its been pretty easy to convince myself that breakfast, a shower, loading the dishwasher, getting gas, moving a load of laundry, checking the sprinklers, or getting to work earlier is more important on any given day. Not very Joshua 1:8

First buck of the year

Well, I got my first deer of the year. It was my first one using a four wheeled vehicle too. This afternoon I was heading back to a jobsite to fix a sprinkler we broke. Out of nowhere a nice deer with his developing antlers decided to play a little chicken with me and my truck. Unfortunately for the deer my truck has a plow frame on it and when neither of us "chickened" he met it...and my tires. I felt bad for him because it was not a pleasant death he experienced.

Who do you say that I am?

I have been thinking about this question a lot this week. It is out of Matthew 16, when Jesus asked his disciples the question... Who do you say that I am? Simon Peter responded, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. I think if I would have answered that question when I was growing up I would have said that Jesus was a distant God, that he wasn't very relevant to my life. Now that I look back on my life I can see that there was distance between where I was at and where God was at...but that distance had nothing to do with anything God had done, it was things that I put in front of God that created the distance.

When I think of who God is now, I think of someone who does the unexpected...who is untamed...who is forgiving...who is alive. Through my relationship with Christ it feels like I am finally getting a glimpse at who God really is. Not necessarily the blue eyed, long brown haired, bearded man I pictured as a kid. So now when I think of God and who he is this is what I think of...

Expecting the unexpected
Accepting the unexplainable
Seeing the indescribable
Believing the unbelievable
Trusting the unknown
Accepting the unacceptable

Tree Growing

I think most people have no idea what it is that I do for work. So here is a snippit into part of my life at work. This is the most relaxing part of my job...I grow trees. The pictures are of some of the goofballs I get to work with.

Time seems to slow down out on the tree farm.
The birds chirp louder.
The geese fly lower.
The grass is greener.
The turkeys strut more.
The clouds seem closer.

On most days its a great place to be. I have some pretty fond memories of the times I have spent here. Its been a great place to think. You would be surprised at the ideas and decisions that have been thought of or made while spending some time with my seat on a tractor or walking rows of trees while pruning.

Some days it blows my mind that God put me where I am and gave me what he has given me because it is exactly what I need.