Anticipating Rain

How we stay busy...
Amy needed something to do in anticipation of summer vacation and the rain storm that is coming. We went to Parana (we visited when we transported Juancho and his family for a cancer treatment) and purchased some material and thread to make a quilt to cover a very disgusting- looking sofa which had its origin a century ago. The technique she used was a pattern found on Pinterest using the Brother sewing machine owned by The Ranch.

Here is the finished quilt customized to fit the strange shape. Natalia, Yucca's wife, mentioned that it is colorful. That was her way of saying that she did not particular like it. I, Gregg, for one think that it is not only beautiful but very appropriate. We now have somewhere to sit and not worrying about what might be lurking below us.


Victoria, the youngest daughter of Natalia, is protecting her dainty fingers from future wear-and-tear. She is a very talented and creative 12 year old. These were left over pieces of a wall hanging she is making. More on that later.
 This is what cans usually look like when we open them. We have a can of peaches in which the hand can opener encountered four dents surrounding the opening. Nothing seems to be customer friendly, but we are trying desperately to always have a good attitude. I think more than anything we are developing a strong passion for our homeland.

The strange bird sound we mentioned last week does not actually come from a bird at all like we were told. The sound comes from a bug called chicharra (similar to cicada). Now you know the rest of the story except the chicharra sounds more obnoxious than the cicada that we've heard in the states.

Leave them alone, and they will come home, waging their tails behind them. These are all three month or younger calves anxiously waiting for supplemental food. The ranch will fatten them for the next three months then ship them to Los Perales for continued fattening until they are two and one half years old. It will then be decided to either butcher them, breed them or offer them as studs.

 They were very curious as we finished the last of the gate painting. Yes, you read correctly--we are finished painting gates. We thought we would run out of paint before we completed the last two posts but somehow the last drops of paint covered everything we needed it to.

This morning on our way to Feliciano to the local branch we stopped to unlock the gate and travel the dirt and gravel road for 16 miles. As Gregg got back into the pick-up to exit, a stray horse bolted through the gate to begin a journey with us to the church. We tried to get his attention so as to coax him back thorough the gate onto the ranch but to no avail.

On our way back home a few hours later we encountered the runaway traveling in the opposite direction. I got him turned around heading home in a trot with the pick-up riding his tail. However, in the end, we had to alert Yuca to the problem so he could bring him back in. The animals around here keep us amused. They are more like humans than we realized sneaking out the gate before we could get the truck in a position to lock it up again and then running away like he wanted us to chase him--crazy.

The predicted rain hasn't come. The first time since we got here last August, a predicted storm didn't happen. In any case, we went to church today and Gregg read Amy's prepared testimony in Spanish. The Branch members got an opportunity to understand the senior missionary's real thoughts and feelings in their own language. Afterwards, many of the female members congratulated and thanked her. It was touching.