JOHN DAY — No column this week.

MONUMENT — Winter is here! OK, it’s still around the corner but we are really, really close. The weather seemed like it just changed drastically overnight. I don’t know about you, but I was kind of caught unawares. I guess it could be due to the fact that we are behind at least a month on doing things around our property from the fires we had this past summer. Sigh. Hopefully, we can get everything done before the snow flies! We just have to put our trust in the Lord.

Our greeters at the table were Bob Cockrell and Sue Cavender. They checked in all the guests. Bob and Jan Ensign counted up the money and Jan filled out the paperwork. Bob led us in the flag salute and yours truly prayed the blessing over the meal.

We had a most fabulous lunch and it was definitely a very popular one. Our cooks, Terry Cade and Carrie Jewell, made us a very tasty meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, dinner rolls, and Oreo crumb chocolate pudding with whipped cream. It was a nice comfort food, especially in the cold weather. There were many takeouts of this meal. We thank and appreciate our awesome cooks!

We thank Max Breeding for donating a sewing machine with a cabinet to the Monument Sewing Group. I believe it can come out of its cabinet and be used without it.

There will be a free dinner for the veterans at the Monument School on Saturday, Nov. 7. For more information, please call the Monument School.

Well, I got rid of most of my wild and crazy goats. It is a whole lot easier to manage with mostly tame goats that follow you around, don’t run and jump away from you when you approach them, and will eat out of your hand. The tame ones can be a pain in the butt at times, though, because they are too friendly! LOL. They come over and have to get in your face and investigate to see what you are doing, and you can’t get anything done because they start to nibble at what you are working on or nibble on you!

I will be putting the girls with the boys in the next few days or so. I definitely don’t want my mamas having babies in the cold weather and prefer to have them kid in May. I lost quite a few babies the year before because they were born to some new mamas who did not know what to do and had them in the open while it was raining! Seriously?

I am going to sell my alpaca family. It is just too much work for me to take care of them and my goats. I think I will just focus on my goats, and that alone is a lot. I probably will have to start selling some of my bottle babies, which is hard to do since I am very attached to them, because I will be up to my eyeballs in bottle baby goats! Ha.

Psalms 98:2 The LORD hath made known His salvation. His righteousness hath He openly showed in the sight of the nations.

PRAIRIE CITY — Hooray! The Dodgers won! I was able to listen to the last game, and it was exciting!

Learned something new: There is a situation called “catcher interference” that I had never heard of before, and that happened in that last game. Having played that position many years ago, I would not have been called on it. No way was I going to get any closer than I had to to be able to catch the pitched ball!

Now we can go on to football and basketball and hockey … whew. On standard time!

Colin led the flag salute; Carla Wright was the winner of the $10 gift certificate donated by Huffman’s Market; Tom asked the blessing. The white board informed us that Election Day is like Christmas: You can wind up with fruitcakes that last four years. Our volunteer helpers included Sharon, Mary, Gwynne, Carla, Tom and Brenda. Thanks so much for all you do every week.

We had a delicious meal for the last week of October. Pam and helper (sorry, I didn’t get your name) prepared Salisbury steak with a baked potato, green beans, lime Jell-O salad, pears and birthday cake.

Thanks to Driskill Memorial Chapel for providing the birthday cake each month. It must have been a Halloween’ed theme because the piece I chose was chocolate. It is too bad we don’t get to see the artistic work that the cake decorators do. It is amazing what can be done with a sugar frosting.

Jessica and Katy from the Prairie City School-based Health Clinic came to give the seasonal inoculations before and after the meal. We appreciate them coming to us.

On my journeys to get sand for my “garden,” I noticed that there were some little burros in Cousin Penny’s barnyard. So when she came in today to get her meals-to-go, I inquired as to why. Answer: hopefully to protect the cows from the encroaching wolves.

She witnessed them driving off a coyote from a cow that was calving and hopes that they can do the same for the newest predator. Bet that procedure was not in any book or lecture on Agriculture Management Techniques. So pray for the little burros …

Back to the sand: I managed to get both stock tanks and both bathtubs renovated before the rain came. The first day was hard on my old body, but by the time I was done with the fourth one, the muscles had got loosened up, I guess.

Now I just have to wait for spring to rescue the garden plot. Can do planting in the tanks and tubs early. Did dig up some big weeds from the garden and threw them over the fence. That night I watched the deer herd come along and eat them. All right! Good job, Bambi!

Isaiah 35:3, 4, 5, 6, 8 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way. … Your God will come … to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The highway … there … will be called the Way of Holiness.