My Boy Skeeter

Have you ever had a little buddy? I have been blessed with several. Even though I have loved and treasure each one, they have all been my favorite at that time. I guess My all time best friend is Skeeter. Skeeter is by far the most faithful, the most loving and has been the most attached. He has become the most treasured gift from God I can say I have ever had. His love represents the love of Jesus. He looks to me as his master just like we should look to our lord as our master. His never ending love represents the love we should have for our master. His devotion to me represents the devotion we should have for our master. He looks to me for his every need and trust and has faith that I will provide for him. Just like we should look to our master for our every need. When he hurts, I hurt just like our master hurts for us. And when he is hurting, he will come to me and wants me to hold him and comfort him. Just like we seek comfort from our Lord. I guess that God blessed me with Skeeter as an example of his love and a lesson of what a relationship we should have with our Lord. You see without prayer and comfort from our Lord, we could not make it through our tough times. That is why when we are in need we tend to go to the Lord even more. When we are comfortable and everything is going smooth, we tend to get lax in our prayer life. We should always be constant in our prayer. When all is well, we should be constantly thanking God for our daily fortune just like we are in constant prayer when we need his help.
Yes, Skeeter is getting old. He has health issues now. He developed cataracts, and God granted me the means and the doctors to get his eye sight corrected. Now he has arthritis in his back and it is hard for him to get around. We have him on medications to ease the pain and to keep him mobile. The vet did not give him much chance to walk. But through prayer, God has granted Skeeter more time to walk and be happy. Thanks to God, he has the medications that is keeping him on his feet. He can not run and play like he did before, but he can still maintain a happy life and provide the love he was sent to me to give. If you ever had a pet like Skeeter, you know how hard it is for me to know I am going to have to soon give him up. We know that we are but temporary here on earth and that we all are put on earth to die. Sad to say but true that dogs have a much shorter life expectancy than we humans. I am selfish like anybody else. I ask God to give me a little more time to enjoy Skeeter's love. I know he is preparing me for the time real soon when he will require me to let him have back my little buddy. I dread so much that day. When I see Skeeter having trouble walking, but still so very happy to see me, I thank God for that one more day with him. I do miss him being able to go everywhere with me. You see he has to stay home, being quite and resting now. He can not take long walks. He can not run and play with his favorite toys. He has trouble just walking outside to go potty. On cold rainy days just like our old joints hurt, his hurts worst too. Old age is by all means not the "Golden Years". They are hard and sad no matter if you are human or dog. I may not have ever had children, but Skeeter is every bit as important to me as any child that you may have had. Trouble is, a dog's life goes by seven times than us humans.
So, God thank you for Skeeter. And for helping Skeeter maintain a little joy and happiness in his time remaining on this earth. Thank you for the additional time you are letting me have with him. Help me to be strong and understand that I must give him up soon. Help me with the pain, for I am selfish like any other human being, and do not want to give him up.
And THANK YOU my friend for sharing my pain and listening to my story. If you have a little buddy like Skeeter or if you ever have a chance to give a little dog a home, remember that he will represent the Love and devotion we should have for our master. I know now why a dog is called man's best friend. I may never have another dog, for at my age I can not stand the pain of loosing such a wonderful gift. In my years on earth, I have had to give up way too many "best friends" both K-9 and human. It hurts when you loose them. I truly treasure every one of them. I am constantly reminded of them and treasure my memories.

(Now as an up-date: All the prayers in the world did not change things. As it turned out as you will read the next blog post, Dr. Campbell was right. Skeeter did not make it. He lost his battle with health on May 5, 2008. Oh, the pain in having faith that God will be there and help, but when he chooses not to answer prayers for what ever reason it makes one think about things real deep. We are here but a moment. All things are his that made them and when he calls for them back, we have no chose. All the prayers in the world no matter how sincere and how much you plead and ask, nothing will change. And loosing some one or some thing you dearly love hurts so deeply. Pain of loosing never goes away, we just learn to live with the pain and tolerate it. In reality, we are here just to survive and wait until the time when he calls us to come home. )

And that is how it is,
from down on the Sugar Farm

An update from down on the farm

Have not said much about the house and barn project lately. Since I am up early and the better half is still snoozing, I sit here with a cup of coffee thinking about STUFF. Don't you just hate it when you wake up real early and can not go back to sleep? So, I will give an up-date on what is happening down on the Sugar Farm.
Thanks to my buddy, Norman (Stug) Pierce, we are getting the barn wired for lights and electricity. He and I have been working when we can running conduit and wires. Soon we can say, Let there be light. As for the house, well that is another story. Janene and I labored to get the dirt and sand fill under the house, thinking Peanut was going to get started soon on the framing. How wrong that was. Well, you see Peanut has been very sick. Between being sick and all the rain, he called yesterday and said he is so behind in his jobs that he may be another three months getting around to us.... ugh. Well back to the drawing board. We are now talking to more framers. Who knows when we can start now?
As for the FARM. The citrus trees for the most part may have survived the cold freeze. Although the Lime and lemons may not make it. They look a little sick without leaves and the bark turning yellow. I got some blue berry bushes and grape vines from my friend Bill Davis. Maybe if the rain stops soon and the ground dries enough, we can get them planted. The garden has got way too much rain too. I had high hopes for some new potatoes, but thanks to the abundance of rain I do believe they may not make it. Can you believe we have had so much rain this winter?The farm is beginning to look more like a lake. Onions and garlic are surviving the wet though. And the cabbage is looking good in spite of the soggy ground. Got some herbs started in the garage, got high hopes for them. Just my luck, we have had such mild winters, and dry weather for so long, then when I start planting stuff we get the coldest freezes and wettest weather in years. Soon it will be good Friday and we will try for planting the rest of the garden. Wish me luck.
Oh, cousin Monroe Nelson told me that the bamboo bush he has at his house originally came from my father-in-law's farm. He dug some of it up from in front of the old barn. He is going to give me some to plant. He also gave me to display an old pull plow that came from Grandaddy Palmers. My daddy-in-law plowed many of acres with the old plow. Years ago, I dug up some of the banana trees out by the old hay barn. I have moved and transplanted them everywhere we have lived. Now I have them planted by the new barn. I want to preserve as much history as I can of the old farm in the memory of James Palmer. He may have been a father-in-law, but in reality he was like a father, he was a best friend, a mentor and a very wise man. He made me feel like his real son. I will have to write about him some time and tell you about what a great guy he was.
As you see, now much to report. Just fighting the winter blues. Can not wait for the spring and pretty days to come. Maybe then we can get some real progress going. Like they say, its always some thing and it is never easy. And thats it

from down on the Sugar Farm.