On the top of Timber Butte

It’s been a late Fall here at the base of Timber Butte. I can hardly believe we are still able to harvest the last of the green tomatoes in November.  It’s unheard of. The weather man promises a change next week, but today the thermometer is forecasted to reach into record breaking high temperatures.  It is hard to decide to fret over the idea of an abnormally changing climate or just saddle a couple of horses and take Nancy on one last ride around the butte being thankful for such a beautiful warm Fall day.

There is a simple satisfaction knowing that the barn is full of hay, the wood pile has been stacked undercover and all the vulnerable water lines have once again been drained and winterized in preparation for the frigid temperatures and snowpack that will surely come soon.  I know there is probably more I could do in preparation for the inevitable, there always is, but after a point of doing one’s diligence it somehow seems wiser to call it good and saddle the horses as a statement of thanksgiving for a productive summer and the provision to face the changes that are out of human control.

When I feel uncertain about what the future might bring I try to remember and practice the words of Jesus in Matthew 6 where he said, – “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? ”