It’s been a busy weekend that included a trip to Petals from the Past to make use of a gift certificate and bring home some plants. Last night, it was a haunting and enlightening trip to a chicken auction in Autauga County.  My friend Pat and I had been very curious about this weekly auction so her spouse and she, Sherod and I drove into an area populated with trailer parks, goats, and car junk yards.  It is a corner of life that I would never have seen otherwise.  I kept being reminded that the animals in crates would be released quickly, that they had had to be brought into the auction one way or another.  But it is a far grittier, raw, and challenging experience of raising and having chickens than the very genteel and playful version I inhabit.  I am thinking of going out to the auction for several Saturdays in a row just to talk to these folks and get a better sense of what life is like for them.  I found myself asking, “where is God in all this?” and even more, “where is the church?”.

Coming into the auction the back way

Chickens and other small live stock at auction

Bidding for 18 fertilized Americana eggs–they went for $4.75

Today has been about getting ready for a fairly busy week, doing groceries, and between rain showers, going back out to finish a few garden projects.  I trimmed back several lantana bushes that have not been pruned in years.  Sherod will pull the tractor and wagon next to my piles, I will load them up and he’ll take them to the burn pile.  My roses are in the ground now, along with a couple of purple cone flower (equinacea) plants, and lots of herbs:  chives, rosemary, sage, lemon thyme, cilantro, parsley, oregano, basil, chocolate mint and peppermint.  This week we will do most of our planting out in the garden.  Good days, these, with the redbuds blooming, the bartlett pear petals drifting like snow and gentle spring rains.

Herbs. roses and equinacea

Endless entertainment as evening falls

Sherod made the girls an amazing perch; on a rainy day no need to get your feet wet.