It's All Good

"It's all good, Mom," is one of my son's favorite sayings.  My youngest is the Joe Btfsplk (Al Capp's bad-luck cartoon character) of the family.  Whenever something unfortunate happens in his life (right now he's awaiting surgery on a blown knee), his ending comment is always, "It's all good."  Where this kind, gentle man got his unfailing sense of equanimity, I don't know, but I try to learn from him and act accordingly.  Some days that's harder than others.

The drought has placed terrible stress on the oaks.  This "branch" like a pretty good-sized tree actually fell the afternoon before, but I wasn't ready to go out and assess damage then.  We walked down the drive in the morning to see what was what.

It was a clean break.  The reason there was no whump when it fell is because the "trunk" never hit the ground, the leafy top cushioning the blow.

This puts perspective on the size of this branch.

Dollar signs flying past my eyes and mightily discouraged, it was time to find the good in any of this.  You know what?  There's plenty for which to be thankful.  This tree is far from the house.  Only leaves brushing past with inches to spare, it did not take down the board fence by the front pasture.  As tall is it is, the branch did not fall across and block the driveway.  The deer are grateful for the now within-reach snacks.  There is really no rush to do anything right at the moment.  Linda has volunteered to help use the loppers to remove the twiggy stuff so whenever I get around to asking the helper dudes of the day to use chainsaws (not me, baby!  I don't touch those things) their job will be easier.  The goats like oak leaves better than anything.  The wood will need to age, but I see a stash of firewood in my future for next year.  As Larry would say, it's all good.

Sweet cob in the breakfast bowls for the girls and dropped on the ground for the mice earned me forgiveness.  Every girl came in on the run (I think the word spread quickly) and every single one licked the bowl clean, including picky Esther and Cindy.  Crisis and revolt averted, peace has been restored in the barn.  Whew.  It's all good.