There are many prayers going out for rain in the area. Some friends are already selling off cows and putting out hay. Those are not good signs for the beginning of September. Everywhere you go in the area, large trees are losing their leaves that have already turned brown. It is heartbreaking to see the ravages of this drought and hot weather.
Coach Burkhart is taking extra care with his athletes after the death of the student in Griffin last week. We have had weeks of 100+ degree weather. He believes he has them ready for their first game on Friday, the 4th.
If you went to "Meet the Coyote" night last Thursday, you will have seen a fine group of young men and women preparing for this athletic school year. Mind you, the games are reduced in number and COVID protocol must be followed especially for indoor events.
To that end, the First Baptist Church will be holding the first 5th Quarter in the Tabernacle. The servers will be masked and gloved. Hopefully, we will be out of this COVID mess soon, and we can go back to meeting indoors.
I saw the plans for the school repairs and the new gym. The board of trustees has put together a proposal that will be on the November ballot. It will be on the bottom of the ballot. The priority will be for a new gym. The old gym will be kept for practices and probably junior high games. I’m not sure about that fact. I do know our great old gym will stay in business. Remaining funds will be for updates on other parts of the campus. I don’t need to remind you that this election is an especially important election. Please be sure to register this month, and vote in November.
The First Baptist Church delivered the last boxes of Farm to Families last Saturday. The funding for the program has elapsed. If Congress ever gets back to work, perhaps they will be able to work with each other and get the stimulus package passed. When they do, the Farm to Families will be refunded. I know the boxes of fresh produce have been a blessing to many in the area.
Since the program was ending, the Llano center had each group take extra boxes to prevent spoilage. It looked a little daunting, but with help from Shiloh, the Church of Christ, and the Christian Church, we were able to deliver 128 boxes of food. Thank you to all who helped.
Coach Burkhart has mobilized the students to gather food for the local food pantry at the First Baptist Church by challenging each class to bring food pantry products. The class with the most points wins a prize. This will be a wonderful help to the pantry. Please remember that donations can be made to the First Baptist Church, Richland Springs. They will accept monetary donations as well as food items. Unfortunately, they cannot accept home canned items because of government regulations.
There are at least two hunters who are donating venison once hunting season starts. Once again, the meat must be commercially wrapped, not home wrapped. For those in the Richland area, the pantry is open the 1st and 3rd Mondays from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. All are welcome to come and pick up a box of food.
It was hard to gauge how successful the first drive-thru lunch fund raiser was on Sunday, but the kids were doing a great job. It showed a great amount of ingenuity during these troubling times. Bring your wallet to the game on Friday; the fan wagon has a large amount of $5.00 shirts from last year. Let’s help the Howlers Club clean out that old stock. They will also be signing up annual members on Friday. I hope I get to see many of you at the game. Physical distancing will not be difficult in that big stadium.
The chickens know I am the source of goodies, so they will come to me when I call. They have also decided my rose bushes are good daytime hiding places. It seems my poor roses can’t get a break. First, the armadillos were digging them up, then the grasshoppers ate them and now the chickens are burrowing under the branches and around the roots. Once upon a time I had a lovely, manicured flower bed. They don’t lay eggs, but they squawk and run like mad if I get too close. I’m not sure they are good grasshopper hunters, but they can lay down a good layer of chicken manure. I just wish it wasn’t put on my front porch. I am beginning to believe I am not a good chicken person.
COVID-19 has had a strange effect on stores. Russ and I searched for a new printer for over a week. Walmart didn’t have any in stock and wouldn’t sell me their demo. I searched Amazon, Best Buy and several other stores to find a printer, and all the mid-range printers were out of stock. I finally bought one directly from Canon.
The same thing happened with pressure cookers. I infer that thanks to stay at home orders, most Americans have become canners. Whatever the cause, there were no pressure cookers available, until today. Kay McKee called me from Walmart to say there was a Presto canner available, did I want it? The answer was a resounding yes. So now I can put myself to work canning potatoes and beans and other good stuff.
School is going reasonably well. We are getting used to the long hours of a four-day week. I think the kids are doing better than I am. Once school is out at 4:15 p.m., then I have all the paperwork to complete. That means it is between 5 and 6 p.m. when I head out the door.
Which reminds me, progress reports will be out this week. If your student has some low grades, it may be because he or she is not making the transition to being at school all day. The workload is much heavier in person than online. We have some great kids; they will figure it out. Parents and teachers will just have to stay on them a little bit more until they buy into the all-day program.
We have several new students because of some students not being able to handle virtual classrooms. As a teacher, I can tell you that in-person is much better than online except for a very few exceptions. We need to be in school.
The Mask family needs our prayers. Will Robertson, Amber Moreno, Tiny Shannon, and Bob Johnson are all fighting cancer in one form or another. Walter Stratton is up and running after his surgery. We have several others in the community who need our prayers as well. Billie Behrens is recovering from a fall in the rehab center in San Saba.
Our upcoming elections are extremely important. Please remember to pray for our President and legislators. We need to pray for a restoration of law and order in all our cities, no matter who runs them. Our police officers are under siege and need our support and prayers. Most of all pray for our precious troops and their families.