Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Beautiful Tuesday!

Good morning!!

I am so glad to be here this morning :).  I am standing at my dressing table, make up half on, hair half done, needing to get a move on with my day so I can get back from the grocery store before dinner.

We have started making dinner (lunch for the non-southern folk :) ), the big meal of the day.  This is for a couple of reasons:  a)I am a morning person.  I have GREAT energy in the morning.  I always had great plans for cooking huge suppers (dinner for the non-southern folk :) ), but always lost my steam by the late afternoon.  b)I have read that, for health reasons, you are supposed to eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at dinner, and a pauper at supper.  Now, since not EVERYONE feels like ribs and catfish for breakfast, I have moderated that to move the big meal to dinner.  Then we have a light supper (last night I had popcorn!).

I am so thankful to be able to try this new idea!  It is working so far, though I have a few hiccups that I need to iron out (getting used to how the microwave cooks, remembering how long or short it took foods I used to make, incorporating gluten free foods, etc).

Anyway, so I need to go to the grocery store before I need to come back and cook.  I am going to try my hand at gluten free fried chicken!

I was thinking that I might start making short notes every day or so in case anyone wants to know what it is like, day by day, to start working a farm.  Currently we are planning, God willing, to just do veggies.  We will be adding chickens soon.  For those of you who are farmers or gardeners, there might be little of interest, but for those of you, like me, who grew up in the suburbs, the life on a farm might be interesting. :)

Today TWS will be building a small shed to house the holding tanks for the well pump that we are submerging.  The Dept of Ag, years ago, asked our previous owners if they would mind if they sunk a well to test water.  That gives us, today, a 6", 100 ft well to use to water our orchard, greenhouse, garden, and chicken coop!  For free!

I love well water.  Even when it is minerally, there is something about the Lord providing vast aquifers of pure, drinkable water that bubbles from the ground that makes me so happy and blessed!

I will also, today, try to get more unpacking done.  We will see how that goes.  I also want to try to make either chili or "loaded potato soup" for the men.  TWS asked me to pick up some cans of soup for suppers, but truly the sodium content blew me away.  Plus I know how canned soup tastes--just not as fresh.  So I thought that, even if the sodium and fat content of my soup was out of control, at LEAST it will be relatively fresh ingredients (though I am cheating on this batch and using canned potatoes lolol).

I also want to compare prices from two grocery stores here to find out where my dollar will stretch farther, so I need to go for now so I have time :)  Please know I pray for you the BEST of days today, filled with faith in the Lord, calmness in your heart, and peace in your house.  Find a joy, a treasure, a tiny miracle that the Lord has left for you today--He leaves them EVERYWHERE!  Make it your mission to seek them out and see how beautiful His kindness and mercy is to us--a whole new world opens up when you do!  I promise :)

Berry Plantings

I started musing about deeper things in my last post and forgot what I was originally going to say!

Like I said, we are a bit behind in the planting.  Yesterday we came home and planted 10 blueberries, 15 blackberries, 26 asparagus, and 53 strawberry plants.  The berry patches are done, as is the orchard.  Now TWS will continue to work on the irrigation system for the orchard, garden, and tomato greenhouse.  He will be running pipe from a well that the dept of ag had put in years ago.  It is 100 ft down, hitting a good aquifer.  The house is on city water, but the land can be on free well water.


TWS is amazing.  He is a literal genius in anything that needs building.  His engineering skills are so far beyond my understanding that all I can do is watch in awe.  He tries to explain everything he is doing, but honestly, I have a hard time visualizing. It is funny that the Lord blessed him and me in ENTIRELY different skill sets. :)  It works beautifully in our marriage, as we each have a pretty clear lane of expertise and interest.  I am thankful :)


Today it is supposed to be rainy, perhaps with severe weather.  I will pray that there is no hail to hurt the trees or the bushes, but I am trusting the Lord that whatever happens, He has got it taken care of :) (that is a really hard lesson, and one I am not good at, so you will probably see me mention it often as I need to keep reminding myself) :)


I think, as the weather is bad, I will turn on a movie and do laundry.  I am not sure if I will be cooking ribs or chicken and dumplings today.  I would like to try the gluten free chicken and dumplings for Preciousness again, but I also love the Stubbs marinades I have found.  Hmmm.... I think the ribs today would be good.


Saturday, April 27, 2013

Tossing Old Dreams

Good morning sweet one!

What a blessed yesterday!  TWS's precious aunts came through the day before and we got to spend some wonderful time with family.  Since TWS and I both lost our mothers, I have been so longing for female family.  Having them here soothed a wound in my heart, and I am thankful for them.

They left after lunch, with many promises to return, and we came home and got to work.  We have been very behind on our planting, mostly due to weather.  We have a very ambitious schedule that involves the orchard, berry patches, an 80x40 personal garden, and the tomato farm.  I am so thankful for the potential bounty, and I welcome the hard work.  Precious daughter has taken to manual labor joyously, and is considering farming as a career.  To help ensure a "fall back plan", she would major in Ag and in organic chemistry.  Both of those compliment each other, and chemists can enter a greater number of jobs.

As we start this farming venture, I am finding a lot of personal scraps of dreams and "somedays" that I need to be rid of, like cleaning out the refrigerator of my heart from little bits of left overs that are too old to eat.  I used to have ambition and desires and formless, shapeless clouds of "what if" that had no solid basis but rather just floated in my soul from time to time.

I worry, from time to time as I try to sniff a dream that had been a major force in my youth, if I am throwing away something good that the Lord had for me.  "Perhaps I am to do this too," I wonder to myself, loathe to toss anything into the garbage forever.  "In the pantry of my spirit, I have this spice of experience, this flour of talent, that can of unused skill that I could add to this dream and make it something wonderful.".

I am not discontent here.  No.  It is not that I WANT to look for something more, it is that I do not want to ignore something the Lord has for me.  But I remember that if the Lord wants that dream or this ambition or the other idea to work, then He will make my path straight.  This farm, this path, however, is perfectly straight.  It is not a "what if" or "maybe" or the vestiges of a memory of a movie I saw that had tapped into my subconscious.  This is real life.  This is dirt under my nails and rest in my heart.  This is chasing geese from the pond, allowing herons to stay, and standing on the driveway eagerly waiting three wonderful aunts to come visit.  It is earthworms in my hand, indigo buntings at my windows, and the sound of my family's voices ringing like bells in my ears.  This is not a dream.  This is a glorious blessing-turned-real.

So I step out in the weakest of faith, because this is a strong blessing and I am afraid to lose it, and I name the farm, and I pinterest farm pictures, and I write about it.  An old dream of being a physician that cures disease gets thrown in the trash with vigor as I research how to cure the real disease that causes the leaves of one of my peach trees to curl with little rust holes in them.  Instead of leaving my family to pursue the ambition of curing someone, I am curing a fruit tree so that my family will have food.  That is more than a fair trade.

See, it is not that we will be happy or content when we get xyz.  If the Lord had allowed any other of my dreams to come to fruition, I would be sitting in that lab, or in that EOC, or in that testing facility, or in that bunker and be musing about a pastoral life, if perhaps I needed to go home and figure out how to work "farm" in with my day job.

No, the key is not waiting for life to change or to start, as I have done for way too long.  It is to know that this place, right now, where you are, is exactly where you are supposed to be.  There is good work and blessing for you there.  You will find joy and contentedness.  Give every dream up to the Lord and let Him pick the one that is best for you.  For me, after almost half a lifetime of excitement and threat and war and danger, He has placed me on a farm, around family, under tall skies and green fields.

This is my farm.  I am a farmer.  This is my life, the path He has chosen to place me on.  I will embrace this precious, perfect time with joy.  Amen :)

Friday, April 26, 2013

Orchard Hopes

One of the projects we have for the land is an orchard.  There is just something about an orchard filled with fruit that makes me happy.  The Lord created a beautiful garden, and I guess there is some of that in me (though He has a lot greener thumb than I do! :) ).


I am astounded by how much can grow here.  In Alaska, we relied on berries, as fruit trees could only grow on the hills, where it was warmer than the valley we lived in, and even then I am not sure how much could grow.  Nowadays, they have developed several apple types to grow better in the lowlands--wish they had had those when we first moved there! :)
So one of our plans if/when we got land was to put in many fruit trees.  The past few days have been spent gathering fruit trees and bushes and plants from several different areas.  We have gotten some from Lowes and Home Depot, as well as getting many from a local nursery.  This nursery is ahhhmazing!  First of all, it is like walking through a botanical garden with winding paths and a little model train and unique specimens.  Secondly, they have coolers filled with cokes and water that you can partake of for free.  There is something about coke in a glass bottle that just....ahh :)
It's a very smart move on their part too--the happier the kids are, as well as keeping folk hydrated in the hot summer sun, the more they will linger and buy.  So it works out for everyone involved!  The customers feel like they are going to a park and the business gets business.
Anyway, so last night's total was:
2 pears, 4 apples, 3 willows (two green, one gold), 5 peaches, 3 apricots, 2 nectarines, 2 cherries (these are sort of a wishful thing.  I do not expect them to produce), 6 plums, 2 asian pears, 29 strawberries, 8 blueberries, 12 blackberries, 4 gardenias, 2 swamp cabbage, and 2 azaleas.
As soon as we can, we are going to start putting these in the ground.  Our household goods are coming Thurs and Friday, so it might be this weekend or even next week.
Update:  The orchard is in!!!  My wonderful family had to take up all the slack because I had hurt my shoulder and could not do anything but fetch drinks and write tags.  DD loved the hard manual labor.  She is very smart, but that means her brain goes a million miles a minute and it is wearying for her.  Hard digging, planting, hefting large bags of soil and mulch gave her focus to her mental energy and she found it refreshing and delightful.  Hard labor makes for good rest, fresh air makes for a hearty appetite, and being outside, away from the computer and tv, makes for an active, but peaceful mind and spirit.
Update:  The orchard is in!!!  My wonderful family had to take up all the slack because I had hurt my shoulder and could not do anything but fetch drinks and write tags.  DD loved the hard manual labor.  She is very smart, but that means her brain goes a million miles a minute and it is wearying for her.  Hard digging, planting, hefting large bags of soil and mulch gave her focus to her mental energy and she found it refreshing and delightful.  Hard labor makes for good rest, fresh air makes for a hearty appetite, and being outside, away from the computer and tv, makes for an active, but peaceful mind and spirit.
Only one tree, a cherry, seemed to get hit hard by frost (or something) and may or may not make it.  There is a peach that needs some help for something on the leaf.  The rest of the trees are doing fantastically, thank the Lord!  There were a few times when we were supposed to have hail, and I was trying not to fret that my trees might be stripped of their leaves.  However, the hail never hit, and the Lord was merciful to preserve the little orchard. 













Good Morning!

This is a beautiful day on the farm!  We are way behind on tilling and planting.  Between weather and  equipment failures, we have had a hard time.  However, I am not worried yet :).  In fact, some of the delay was actually a blessing as we have had some frost since then.

Here is a photo of one chilly morning a few weeks ago:



We are very close to coming up with a name for our farm.  There is one name that I think is going to stick, but I do not want to reveal it until we know for sure.  Here is a hint:  Limestone. :D

God bless you, everyone.  May God keep you in the palm of His hand, and may you draw closer to Him.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Joy and Fear

Good morning all!

It is almost a week since the Lord provided us with this amazing piece of land.  I spent the first few days in awe and wonder and humbled beyond measure.  I love this land!

However, a few "little foxes" have made their way into my garden of praise:  brown recluse spiders and wasps.

We have not seen any recluses at all.   However, I spent the first few nights terrified that one might bite the children.  During the day, I was praising the Lord, but at night I was overcome with fear and sleeplessness and haunted by bad dreams.  Suddenly brown recluses were the hot topic on facebook (seriously, it was weird!).  I am not afraid of spiders, in fact, of all the creepy crawlies, they are one of my favs.  However, the idea of a poisonous one biting my babies was horrible.

Then the brown recluse spider fear was replaced by the very real wasp fear.  The wasps are out in force and building nests around the buildings.  Ever since I was a little girl, I have been positively phobic about stinging things.  In Alaska, in the past few years, we have had some REALLY BAD hornet years.  One day I killed 40 hatching queens in the windows of my house!  They were so bad that it made the front page of the paper.  I spent one entire summer inside, and the rest of the time I carried spray with me everywhere I went.

There are no wasps where we lived, so I have not been around them much in 13 years.  However, they seem to be prevalent here.  My fear that the kids would be bitten by a brown recluse was overcome by my fear that my son will be stung to death once he starts exploring the woods.  The fear leaves a pit in my stomach and robs me of every joy that the Lord has given me.  I was trying to figure out how to make the woods safe for us, so glad it was too wet to go back there yet, and sorrowed in my heart that after only a few days, the gift that the Lord gave me of this property was overrun by fear and dread.  My praise started to ring hollow, tinged by terror and subdued by sadness.  Not worthy praise for Him at all.

This morning, somehow, the Holy Spirit got through to me.  When He teaches me an important truth, He usually starts by a simple question.  I remember the moment He turned me from pro-choice to pro-life.  All He put in my mind was "When do you think God puts a soul in a person?".  At that moment, I knew I was changed forever--the Lord puts the spirit in the body at conception, and it is therefore a life.

This morning the question was more like "You trusted God with Ash's brain tumor.  You trusted God with this property.  Why not trust Him with these fears?".  At that point, I knew.  I knew that He had put me on a different path than one of fear and dread.  Oh I am going to nuke the heck out of these wasp nests!  But I am trusting the Lord that our every step is ordained, stings or no stings, and that He is God of all.  I do not want my fear to overwhelm His blessing, because we can choose not to partake of blessing and instead cower in fear.  But I am tired of fear.  I am tired of the tight fist it makes of my stomach and the nightmares and sleeplessness it brings.  I know this was a spiritual attack, but the Lord is using it to His glory by prying my fingers off of my fear.