Finding Joy in Disaster | Gideon Turns 10

Hey, happy birthday, Big Ten! I like your sock choices. Uh-oh, I thought y'all already did that. They're mating on your birthday, buddy. That gives us piglets in January. As you can see, as you probably know, our farm is— our lower farm is a disaster. It's like Everything right now in western North Carolina. A lot of people are running out of bottled water. Gas is also an issue in this region. Again, life goes on despite our troubles, despite the world's troubles. Little boy's turned 10. You excited? He's gonna be on best behavior today. Of course, we couldn't get Amazon, we couldn't get his gifts. That's partly why My mama snuck off to, you know, went off to Greenville yesterday to get Gideon some birthday gifts. Look at that disaster. It's like that everywhere. Bridge is gone, roads is destroyed. The struggle today will be finding joy in the midst of disaster. Opening your letter from Grandma. Oh, cash money!

Then you got some cash.

Gideon, you're gonna stay here and play? Yes. All right, Gideon's up there happily playing at Grandma's house. Joy and disaster. I've got an idea for this greenhouse. Thankfully our greenhouse made it, albeit our high tunnel did not. I think it's because Well, the greenhouse is so close to the house. Wind was coming from that direction. I think that's how my chick shawls made it too, is the pole barn full of hay, and that blocked a lot of wind. The electrician came yesterday and we got our hot water, our washing machine on the generator. Mm-hmm, we're good for a while. Of course we can't run the dryer, so I'm thinking This is our solar-powered, uh, dryer. So let's clear everything off the table, let's get things off the floor, let's get it cleaned up in here and ready for some clean clothes. We were thinking we were going to do a regular clothesline, and then we had the thought Why not the greenhouse? It'll get warmer in here during the day, and if we don't take our clothes out at night or they're not finished by night, we can just leave them out and the dew won't get on them. Look who's come to help me. Okay, Gideon, what should we do? Should we hammer little U-nails in and hope they hold? Like right here? Or should we screw screws up through here?

Or from there and then we can do another one all the way to there.

Couple screws on either end. Clothespins coming soon. 1. 2, 3, and 4 right in the middle. We'll see if that's enough. Now we need some ventilation in there. Time for the morning generator run and for lunch. Uh-oh, our generator isn't starting. I'm hoping the battery's dead on it. Let's try again. Generator starting, preheat, shoot, initializing. We are up the creek without the paddle. That does not start. Oh boy, dinner party's ruined. Our meat's gonna be ruined. Is it battery? Oh, they're back. Okay, that's helpful. Nothing. Card got full, but jumping that generator worked. So we might be going to town this afternoon to find that extra battery just in case. In the meantime, these boys want to open gifts. We got to give him one so he leaves you alone all day. That's big box underwear. Go ahead, open up your socks, Henry. Oh! Legos! Legos, and you got a steamroller.

Oh! I remember looking at this and I wanted it. Oh good, I'm glad. You know why I got it? You know what I was looking for? What? Do you know who I was looking for? Do you know which character? Nope. Who's that character? That's Boba Fett.

I was looking for him.

Boba Fett. 'Cause you always talk about him.

How's it having your dishwasher back, Laundry back, babe.

Fabulous.

Jonah, let's try our solar dryer. Looky here. Since the storm Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, it was crazy. You got to go 20 minutes before there's power, but not that— not so crazy. We were able to get generators. Boy, they were flying out the door. At Ace. We got a generator for Big Daddy. It's a gas generator. Yeah, let's take it out, put it together. This is propane. We're afraid he's gonna run out of propane and the trucks are not gonna be able to get here to fill it. Just needs to power Grandma's chair to get her up, up from sitting. At least 3 more days without power. I kind of— they're saying Friday, but well, yeah, I don't know. It's looking pretty rough out there. What is this? That's cake dance. The cake dance.

I'm gonna bring some back to Grandma.

Okay, yeah, do you have to use our oven?

I said, you want dinner too? And she said, no, I just want cake.

She's gonna go straight to the cake. Right across, straight ahead, behind those bushes. There's a bear. Sweet. Oh, there's more than maybe— wow, how pretty. Next stop in the Justin Rhodes Show. Apparently Jonah found something very special down the creek. That's almost back to normal. We're standing on it.

Oh my God, this is a bridge, Papa!

Wow, that's our bridge! Our bridge is still intact. We're going to rescue it. Oh, we are. Let's get it back over. I missed this bridge. Mark came, got his generator started right up. Being brand new is what you call paper lock. Hair caught up in the line. Hey, your birthday meal of choice: bratwurst, rice, And hey, where's the fried onions, peppers? You're not a fan?

I don't like them.

You don't have to eat them on your birthday. Look who else likes it. What's this? Is it your birthday? Yeah. Gideon. Oh, that's what it is.

Gideon.

Henry.

Thank you, Mama. Matchbox.

Matchbox cars. A gift certificate to Underwear R Us. This is from Lily. I will give you 2 free riding lessons. Ooh, she wants you to be an equestrian. I will bake you whatever you want. That's a big one. Gideon, we have a candle shortage. So one for one decade, okay, buddy?

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Gideon. Happy birthday to you.

You did it! Hey, Henry, birthday blessings.

Can you say something nice about Gideon?

One nice thing.

Say, I like to play in the dirt with Gideon. Is Gideon your best friend? Yes. Do you love him? Gideon's a good little brother and he likes to play in the dirt and play with trucks and Megas, and he's a good little brother.

Gideon's fun to play with and he's a good little brother. Gideon's a good little brother. He likes to play in the dirt, swim, a lot of fun things. He's a good little brother to have around.

Gideon is actually very smart, and I think some of his rambunctiousness is that he's bored because he's so smart.

Yeah.

And what time is it?

Oh, it might be almost his birthday. Birthday.

You're not even born yet. So I think we just put all this away and start tomorrow.

He was born in the bathtub at 9 o'clock.

Born in the bathtub. You were our only surprise baby. We found out all the other children, what we were gonna have, but with you We didn't do that.

Oh, we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl.

You mean that's what I meant? I was shocked that you were a boy, but you're a great addition to our family. Henry loves you a lot.

Get in. I'm gonna steal Joel Salatin's blessing on you, which was, yeah, you're gonna be it. You're the entrepreneur. You're an entrepreneur. Joel looked at your mom and I and he said He's your entrepreneur, isn't he? And he said, what do you mean? And Joel said, because he's got his own ideas. Yep. You do have your own ideas. And you use most of your ideas you use for the good. It'll be interesting to see where you go in this 10th year.

Happy day.