Summer Update

Well, summer has expanded into August already. It has been a rather hot summer here in the midwest, but unlike the previous couple years, we have had ample rainfall and it has been a good growing season. We have been harvesting sweetcorn, greenbeans, and summer squash. Soon we will be picking some tomatoes and digging potatoes. The trees are loaded with apples and we have a few pears and plums. I am looking forward to making some applesauce, jelly, and cider later this fall.

Our chickens are growing and soon we may butcher a few to sample the quality of the meat of the Barred Rock breed. They are beginning to fill up the brooder house when they come into roost! We have had good luck with them, loosing only a few as chicks and a couple to a predator. Hopefully, in a few weeks we will begin finding some eggs.

We found out in late April that Rachel was expecting. Unfortunately, a routine trip to the doctor revealed that the heartbeat was no longer present so she had a procedure to have the baby removed. She is nearly recovered from the surgery. Such things cause some disappointment, but we are both resolute in our belief that God works all things for our good.

I recently read a delightful little book entitled "Letters from a Confederate Soldier" which was compiled by Judy Inman. The letter provide some insight to the life of Isaac Yaokum, a young confederate soldier from Fannin County, Texas, who served in the 11th Texas Calvary. His father, Adam, settled in Texas in 1845.

The letters reveal his love for his family, their land, and the South. They detail his involvement in the Battle of Pea Ridge, the Siege of Corinth, and the Battle of Stones River in Murfeesboro, where he was twice wounded and later died. Most of the soldiers that left the Fannin County area did not return.

His family was deeply religious and a friend of Isaac who wrote his parents to report his death reported that he was a good soldier that was loved by his company and that he "was ready to die." He died with an optimistic view that the South would prevail against the invaders from the North.