After Rain Cleaning Tragity

Ok, so, before I tell you everything that happened last saturday, I want to tell you something that happened about a week ago. We went to a gift exchange! 

Yup, a gift exchange! We had loads of fun with our good friends, and the Cookingham family attended. A lot of strategy happened and pretty much everyone ended up with something that they wanted. Little Jon got a light saber, Isaac got a cool helicpoter thingee, I don't remember Noah got a lot of candy, and Nathan got something that I dont remember. Then there came the adult gift exchange and that was just as fun! Me and Ellen did our strategy to the adults and we both ended up with what we wanted. 

So, Saturday. It had rained on Friday all day so my goat pens were.....disgusting.

Translation: over 4 inches deep in gooey mud mixed with weeks old hay, manure and urine.....yeah....like I said....disgusting. 

Anyways, my dad's company's little skidstear was on the property doing a little work, so my mom asked Leon if he could clean out the pens with it.

His response: Sure!

So in we go! We opened our big gates, let the goats out for a joy run with all the boys chasing madly after them, and Leon and I set to work getting everything cleaned out. 

Everything went really smooth. After the goats had been out for maybe half an hour, we brought them into one of my pens that hadnt been cleaned yet and that wasnt going to be cleaned for at least another day. So once that was done, all the boys helped me take out some old rotten wood pallets that had been in the pens for a couple years. We were having fun, needless to say! By the time that was done, Leon has pushed everything in the pens to one corner and everything was in a huge pile taller than the fence. The boys commenced to play "Who has the coolest pose?" Noah thought up a grand idea and went and found Little Jon's new light saber. Holding the light saber as a torch and standing elegantly on the top of the mud hill, he said,

"I'm the statue of Liberty!" 

We all laughed, but we had to get out of the way because Leon was beginning to move the pile somewhere else, just outside of the goat pens. We we went out and watched. Noah put the light saber on  the ground and went to play with the others among the piles and livestock trailers. Leon came out, driving the little skidstear with it's scoop of muck and....

I just saw the few days old light saber a few split seconds before 

CRACK!

The skidstear ran over it and shattered it. 

My eyes went wide and I put my hand to my mouth, gasping.

"What?" Leon shouted from the skidstear. He drove forward and I ran and picked up the remaining pieces of the light saber. I held them in my hands, dreading showing them to Little Jon... the pieces of his new favorite toy. 

I turned around and there were all the boys looking at the broken plastic and shattered motherboard remains in my hands, and Jon's face the perfect picture of disbelief and utter sadness. His bottom lip trembled as I put the pieces in his hands. I wrapped my arms around him and said, 

"It's alright, Jonny!"

He nodded, but I saw gathering tears in his eyes.

"Hey, at least Christmas is close! You will probably get another one!"

He gave a chuckle and a halfhearted smile and nodded. His chin fell and he inspected the pieces that he held tenderly in his hands.

Isaac came forth, and looked at them, "I think that I can fix it! I am really good at fixing things!"

Jon shook his head and I said,

"No, Isaac, you cant fix it."

"No, really, I think that I can fix it!"

I looked at the shattered light saber, the outside part of it was completely split in two, the red plastic saber was in countless pieces, the spring was gone, the mother board was history.....no, there was no way that Isaac could fix it. I told him that, but he took the pieces and tried to make sense of them. After a few moments he came to the same conclution. As for Jon, he is alright now, and I am pretty sure that he is going to get a new light saber some way or another. Poor Noah felt responsible for getting out his new toy that all of them liked...a lot. But everything is ok now... Jon goes on as if nothing had happened. My pens are now as clean as the day that they were made and life goes on.

In His Hands,

Jenna