Rose By Any Other Name....Would Be Called Something Different

Good morning!

When we were in Alaska, one of my favorite things was collecting wild rose petals for the two weeks that they were in bloom.  I would then dry them and use them as scent holders in oatmeal milk bath.

We are extremely blessed that Lemonrock (our little farm) also has roses, but these are cultivar roses from a long time ago.  They do not have a scent :( but they are gorgeous.

Our church had a ladies event where we made various bath products, including oatmeal bath!  I was so grateful that I had roses to gather and dry!

This is the pail I gathered the petals in <3

Here they are on the cookie sheet.  I dried them at the lowest setting my oven will go (170F).  They made the house smell wonderful!

This is how they look after drying.  The picture shows them a little more purple than they really turned out.  You want to make sure they are thoroughly dry so they don't mold in the jar.

We did not use all the rose petals for the ladies night, so I took some of the left overs and am making rose extract!  I will hopefully be posting about my new foray into homemade extracts soon :)

The Math of God

The Lord does wonderful math!!

If you give, He will give to you.

If you are generous to others, He will be even more generous to you.

Do not give, though, out of selfish want, but out of a loving heart.

Give forgiveness and love, mercy and time, positive regard and trust, money and food and anything else you have out of nothing but pure love.  The Lord will not forget you.

Come To Him

Come to Him, beloved.  He has rest for you.

Farm Life Realities

Morning friend!

Well this has been a hard summer for our farm.  Our wheat experiment totally failed (suddenly at the last minute, the wheat all molded).

One of our large grape vines has black spot and we have lost at least 4 gallons already.

Our blueberries took a huge hit from the heat and dryness last month and we have lost most of them.

It was too wet to get our flint corn in the ground in time.

All but three of our SIX HUNDRED onions failed.

The sweet corn is marginal at best.

We lost NINE orchard trees this year.












But like someone said, it is always a good year for something....

Our potatoes came in early and well.

Our new strawberry bed did fabulously.

Our muscadines are leafing out to beat the band.

Our green beans are producing like mad.

I have learned, though, that if one wants to actually live off of what one grows, to follow the Redundancy of Three that is used in preparedness planning:  three times what you need and three different sources.

What this means is that if one is growing, say, something to provide starch, plant three different types (say wheat, corn, potatoes) and three times as much as you will need to get to the next growing season (so if both wheat and corn fail, you still have enough potatoes to get to the next growing season). 

Of course that is if one is actually trying to grow ALL their own food.  Thank the Good Lord that we have grocery stores.

                             One of the grape vines that did not get blackspot (at least not yet).

God Chose You

My brothers and sisters in Christ

Remember, you were chosen before the creation of the world you are standing in, before there were oceans or mountains or sky or stars....

The Lord CHOSE you.  YOU.  On purpose.  

Not because you were perfect--no one is.  Not because of anything you can do--we cannot earn His love.

Just because He wanted you with Him.

Rest in His love for you.  Do not let shame or sin or fear of any other thing prevent His truth from being set in your heart, because the enemy WILL try to make you ignore His truth.

God.  Chose.  You.

      

*If you do not know God, then turn to Him now.  You will not turn to Him unless He chose you, so you do not have to wait to see if He arrives somehow with a flash of lightning or a burning bush.  If you desire Him then He chose you.    If you do not desire Him at all, hope is not lost.  You are still alive and have time to seek Him with all your heart.  Start now!

A Summer Most Fowl

Morning :)

We have a mixed marriage.  TWS raises Japanese Black Tailed White Banties.....

 

I raise Saxony, Runner, Cayuga, Appleyard, and Welsh Harlequin ducks.
(My second batch of ducklings back in May <3 )


The banty hens lay a LOT of very small eggs (I need to master the 18 egg omlet).  Here are two hens who have decided to be broody together and nest share....NOT in the fabulous nesting boxes that I worked hard on, but in the corner of the coop xsighx:



While they were awesome at hatching out eggs (well, them and Victoria who is very sensible and did use the nesting box), they are not so great at raising biddies, so we pull the hatched chicks and put them in the brooder:



My ducks aren't laying yet--too young.  So I mail order mine :D

I tried to take adorable pics of my new ducklings, but after two tries, I realized it was an exercise in futility. 

But I did manage to get two marginal photos of a Welsh Harlequin and a Cayuga






They will join my other 15 which consist of Indian Runners (the bowling pin ducks), Saxony, Silver Appleyard, and one Cayuga.  Because drakes are really difficult on hens (proper term for a female duck is actually duck, but that gets confusing, so many folk just say hen), you need a ratio of several hens per drake.  5:1 is best, but I am going to try to squeak by with about a 3:1.  If that does not work, then I will have to get rid of some drakes (OR order more ducks :D).  This last batch is 10 hens.

(Ok, I admit it, the biddies are SO cute when they are starting to get their big boy feathers!)


So now we have two brooders on the screen porch, one containing biddies and one containing ducklings.  One smells worse than the other (but is also filled with more cuteness, but don't tell TWS I said that ;) ).

The ducklings will stay in the brooder for about another week, then we will turn them out into one side of the chicken run so they are safe from the bigger ducks but everyone can get to know everyone else.  I will try to post pics when that happens :)

We also have more hens going broody (or the same hens....not sure) so we might be overrun with Black Tailed Whites here soon...anybody want a chicken?  I need to make room for my ducks.

  "Um, excuse me ma'am?  My chicken was a little under done...." :D

Git Yer Gun!

Nothing like going out side to fetch TWS from the barn at night, seeing that the ducks are still out, and hearing coyotes in the clearing as you are walking to the barn.

Now, I know tht coyotes normally will run from humans but a)I put out the most recent brace of ducklings in the pen b) there is a lot of land between where the big brace was and where they needed to be and c) there has been a lot of rabies here recently.  Coyotes shouldn't be bold enough to come get ducks if they can catch the scent of humans, but if they are rabid, all bets are off.

We scouted, found nothing, got all the ducks tucked into the coop, and now (hopefully) I can rest easy!

The Blessing Of Illness

Hello!

I am sick.  I woke up two nights ago because the dog needed to go out.  I got a drink of water, laid back down, and my lower lip swelled up hugely.  I had no reason to believe it was allergies--I am not allergic to water--but I took a couple of benadryl just in case and went back to sleep.

Flash forward two days and it is very obviously a virus of some sort with a sore mouth, headache, malaise, etc.  For some reason viruses tend to start in my mouth.  I have been on the couch or in bed for two days, and today is the first day I don't have the "fever/chills/pitiful/virusy" feeling.

But truthfully this bug is a blessing on so many levels!  First of all, I get to rest on purpose without (much) guilt (though it was funny, apparently I was apologising all day yesterday and did not realize it.  I must have been more out of it than I thought.).

Second, four words:  Ice. Cream. For. Breakfast. :D

Thirdly, this bug could be sooooo much worse. 

Fourthly, and most importantly, I am spending a lot of time with the Lord.  Generally I would be binge watching Pride and Prejudice (though the first day Precious and I did watch several hours of Star Trek Voyager).  However, instead I am able to use this time to hang out with God.  I get to practice stilling my soul (which is like holding the ocean back with a broom for me).  I get to feel His Sweet Presence around my bed.  He is not talking to me, but just sitting quietly with me.  I got to finish the autobiography of St Ignatius on my Kindle, which is an amazing account of his life. 

I get to examine my soul and my spirit and my heart and my life--like a weekend retreat without the bill.  There are things the Lord is wanting me to learn and He has given me this time to do so. 

For example, reading the autobiography reminded me to accept this illness for His glory.  There is no suffering that we as His holy and beloved children will endure that He will not turn for His glory and our good.  Therefore there is no fear for us anymore.  If we suffer for Him, we will be rewarded by Him.  Like the Word admonishes, we can live contently in plenty or in want, in persecutions or blessings.  In all things we live for Him and He in us, and there is no more wonderful place to be.

In fact, I will confess that I was sort of hoping for a bit of a cold several days ago.  I knew I needed forced rest, to be too sick and out of energy to feel driven to "go and do" (which is my normal mode), but not so sick that I could not function or think, so that I could have some time with my God.  I know that sometimes a physical ailment can bring health to the spirit.  The saints of old used self scourging to bring focus to their spirits.  I just need a sore throat (not sure if that speaks to me being easy to teach or a wimp :D )

Then my sweet friend, who knew nothing of my desire to draw closer to the Lord in this illness, last night prayed for my healing BUT ALSO prayed to the Lord "to turn this time into something precious between the two of you".  How beautifully ordained that she would pray that spontaneously!  It is the Lord.

So, my friend....if you are suffering currently, if you are sick and weary or tired and hungry in heart, body, mind, spirit, I gently urge you to reframe your troubles into the understanding of the glory of God working in you.  His power is made perfect in our weakness.  He does not let us suffer wantonly, uselessly, but will give beauty for ashes.  Our faithfulness in hard times, in condemnations, in thirsts is a crown of glory for us.

It is when we can say, and truly mean "Poverty and riches are the same to me as long as they are being used for His Glory.  Being in chains for my God is the same abundant blessing to me as being in His garden.  As long as whatever situation brings me closer to Him, I welcome it.", then I think we will have achieved a holy state of being.

                               

Oh potato-tomato-potato-tomato.....

Morning!  Hope you are having a GREAT day.

I wanted to tell you a bit about our fantastic chip experiment.

The land we bought is thick Alabama clay (and swamp).  In order to amend the garden soil, we have a plan of rotating raised beds to different plots each year.  These raised beds are filled with good soil, compost, whatever we can find.  We grow potatoes in the beds, then till under the looser soil at the end of the year.  Then we move the wood frames to a different part of the garden to help amend the soil for next year.

I love to grow potatoes :).  It is such a treasure hunt to find them in the dirt.  I feel like I am digging for gold.  Plus I love how long potatoes keep.  I wish I had a root cellar, but the aforementioned swamp means that holes generally fill up with water.  In fact, when they dug the pond out, they hit ELEVEN springs.

Anyway, last year we harvested potatoes when it was about to turn cold.  My poor fingers were numb and the potatoes were pretty sad--bug et and weird.

This year TWS and I noticed that the potato plants started looking like something was bedding down in them at night.  Since our garden has a 6' tall fence, I knew it wasn't deer, and nothing that is small enough to get in would make that big of a bed in the potatoes.  TWS checked the beds and the potatoes were ready!  The plants were just falling over, done!

So in June we harvested our fabulous potatoes.  This year we planted German Butterball, Kennebec, Purple Viking, and Mountain Rose.  (We also have planted sweet potatoes, but those aren't ready yet).

These are crates that a guy just gave to us in the parking lot of Sams.  He owns a food truck called Strap's Roasted Corn and Grill (Locals, look him up :) ).



Fast forward to the 4th of July.  TWS made some fabulous hamburgers and we made potato chips out of some of our potatoes.  I will spare you the debacle of trying to find something to cut them into suitable slices (a potato grater that only slices UP, a mandolin that does not slice reliably, and a vegetable peeler that slices GREAT as long as you were not particularly fond of the skin on your fingers.  We found out that the best thing is definitely the kitchenaid attachment for slicing.  Worked like a breeze!).

TWS had been told that if you soak the potato slices in salt water, they will not stick as much.  It worked fairly well, but you still need to sort of separate the slices with your fingers when you put them in the oil.

They cooked in a matter of a couple of minutes.  I found out that you really want the slices thin.  I sprinkled them with popcorn salt (a much finer grained salt) when they came out of the oil EXCEPT for my own personal batch that were sprinkled with lime salt--goodness I love that stuff!

Soaking the Slices....



Here are mountain rose, kennebec, and german butterball chips.


Look how pretty the mountain rose potato chips turned out!  Like flowers!


Let's approach the incredible Crispy Utopia, visually savoring the numminess slowly....


A little bit closer...


Closer Still....


Ahhhh.....Salty.  Crunchy.  :)


A jar of happy, right there :)

Where Is Your Light Pointing?

Good morning!

I wanted to get a bit serious today about faith, love, support, mercy, indulgence, righteousness, and how we Christians should choose to act in the face of things that go against the Word of God.

There has been much discussed about the recent Supreme Court ruling on same sex marriages.  Now, I am not going to get all wrapped up in the discussion (at least not yet ;) ), but I did want to address my fellow Christians, some of which who oppose it, some who approve.

Imagine you are in a dark room.  You do not know your way at all.  You are not even sure which door you are supposed to walk through, even if you could see the doors.  You are blinded by the dark.

Picture the last time someone shone a light right in your eyes--what happened?  If it was in a dark room, then your eyes probably blinked with pain and tears.  Your eyes were not prepared for the light (insert 5th grade biology lecture about rods and cones and night vision here :D ).  You had to shut your eyes to the light.  It was too much and you wanted to turn back to the dark for comfort.

NOW, what if that person instead came up beside you and pointed the light right at the door you were supposed to walk through?  Suddenly you could see your way!  Your eyes did not burn with the harsh glare but instead the light was used to illuminate a path to the right door.  They walked with you, holding that light steady for you, and eventually you two come out of that dark room and you now can see what you were missing.  Outside of that dark room is color and beauty and joy and rest. You now can see that inside that dark room was fear and lose and loneliness.  At the time it seemed comforting, but really it was a prison.



Flash forward (ha ha ha!  FLASH forward?  See what I did there?) to the discussion on same sex marriages OR on gluttony or swindling or drunkenness or on adultery or lying on your taxes or whatever.  It does not matter what the topic is.  We know that everyone has dark rooms of sin.  We know that the Lord's way is a bright, beautiful garden --the garden of His righteousness and mercy and love that only grows in the Sonlight, and we can only enjoy it if we come out of all the dark rooms of our pet sins.

Now, it is tempting to come in with the flashlight of truth and shine it right in someone's eyes, demanding they be used to the light.  What do they do?  They turn away and retreat back in the dark, away from the onslaught, holding even more strongly onto their sin for comfort.  You did not show them the outside of the dark room, you just took bright light with you and shined it at them.  They still don't know what door to go through.  They do not even know what you look like in your heart or spirit. 


Now, imagine you link arms with them and use your light to walk them across the room to the right door of eternal salvation!  Only then will they be able to see how dark their lives and hearts really were.

I get it.  You want so much for people to do the right thing!  You know they are on the road to destruction, their souls becoming pale and diseased and anemic in the blackness of sin!  However, there is a way to show them the right door and a way that just hurts their eyes and spirits.


NOW NOW NOW let's address the other side of the coin:  the Christians who fall into the temptation of going TOO far with the idea of kindness.

Picture you are back in the dark room again with a flashlight and see someone in the dark.  You know how much it hurt their eyes to have someone shine a light in them so you feel sorry for the person.  You want them to be comfortable so you encourage them to stay where they are comfortable--in the dark.  Yes, the Lord says to come out of the darkness and into the light, but you don't want to be mean or make anyone feel badly and they really seem to like that dark, dark room of their souls.  They say they have everything they need there.  They are happy (so they think), and you are angry at those who have shined the light in their eyes, so you go even further and pretend the garden of God (His Word which blesses!) is not for them and that you support their decision to stay in darkness.

That person, though, will never learn to walk in the sun.  That person might even stick their head out the door, seeing the Son, but then will choose to live back in their dark room because you encouraged them to do so.  They will think that they are supposed to be there because it feels natural to their carnal selves (remember, EVERY sin feels good!  If it hurt and made you smell funny, no one would sin!) and you said it was ok.  They will never taste fresh cherries grown on the tree of righteousness because they will not step out of their dark room enough to do so.  They will never be able to go to the eternal fields of Heaven because they will not step out of their comfortable room enough to be able to walk on the path of righteousness with the Lord to Heaven. 

If we focus on the temporal comfort of any sin in ourselves or others, and refuse to obey the Lord (because His rules are not there to take away our fun but to give us Life to the full!), then we are lost and we are leading others into darkness.

The thing is that by not recognizing a dark room of sin for what it is, either in ourselves or in others, we are not doing anyone any favors.  The Word of God is very clear on homosexuality AND other sins (again, this is just the sin of the day, but there will be other sins that pop up in society).  We do not tell someone who is lying that it is ok to lie or encourage adultery in our friends.

So what is a Christian to do?  The same thing Jesus did.

1)  Know the Word of God
2)  Seek those in dark rooms and walk with them.
3)  Illuminate their way by walking WITH them BUT
4)  Not fall into the trap of thinking that our emotions overrule the Word of God.

Trust Him.

PS-The original idea for the flashlight analogy was one I saw on fb.  I just fleshed it out a bit, but I didn't want you to think I had come up with that fabulous analogy on my own! :)

Not A Barn Cat

This is Saint-14. Or, as I call him, Squinky Pinky Dinky Pants.


He is not a barn cat. (Don't adjust your set, he does not sit still for my dreams of taking adorable kitten-in-berry-pail pics, the blur is all his fault.)


He is supposed to be a barn cat. (This is him hiding under The Boy when we tried to take him outside that one time.)

But, y'know, he prefers to be inside watching tv. (He really does watch tv.  And 'helps' you play video games....maybe we should not have given him such a geeky name.)

And being loved upon


And snuggling with Precious who has a Fabulous Robe.

And eating the dog's food. (My poor Brisco just sits there and waits for him to finish.)


And terrorizing my other cat.


He is a bit emotionally high maintenance and does not want to be in a room without other people or critters. ("But I LOOOOOVVVEEE you!  Oh look!  You're eating!  I love eating, too!  Wanna share?")

So now we have two indoor cats and a barn with mice. (See the barn in the back?  He isn't in it.)

It's a good thing he's cute.  xsighx

Bread and Butter Pickles

Hello dear one!

I have to admit that out of all the homesteady stuff I try and like to do, I am daunted by canning.  I am convinced that I will accidentally give the entire family botulism or something.

However, last year I made refrigerator pickles that were a huge hit, particularly with TWS.  I like to do things that make him happy--he's a good guy :).  This year we had a ton of Bootheby's Blond cucumbers come in all at once--much more than we felt like eating.  I figured I would make fridge pickles and everyone would be happy.

The best laid plans.....  First of all, I picked the cucumbers on Monday, intending to can them the next day, but ended up having to wait (thank the Lord they did not rot on my counter!  These cucumbers are pretty sturdy with a thick rind and dense flesh that is extremely aromatic when sliced--they make the whole fridge smell like cucumbers).

Then I tried to find the Ball's Bread and Butter mix that I had thought I had squirreled away last year (the stuff that got me rave reviews), but could not find it.  Went to FOUR stores--still nada (though I did end up with a plum tree and stuff to make cheese bread, so I still was a winner :D ).  So I bought Mrs Wage's Bread and Butter mix to try.

Finally on Friday I was ready.  Then I started googling.  Never do that. It is like pregnant women googling what can go wrong or using Web MD (Elbow pain:  could be elbow cancer). What I thought was perfectly safe (fridge pickles) apparently can develop listeria and one has to eat the pickles within three days to be safe.  I could not even eat this much CUCUMBER in three days, forget eating that many pickles.  xsighx.  SO I figured I would water bath AND make sure there was a ton of vinegar AND keep them in the fridge.  Layers of redundancy, yes?

Then, because I also could not find my canning pot (and it would not have mattered if I could because my stove can't handle it), I needed small jars that could be processed in my pasta pot.  BUT I did have a case of small, "mainstays" brand jars that I had bought at Walmart for a ladie's "bath salt and milk bath" thing we did!  They were half pints, sort of square-ish, really cute, and small enough to fit in my pasta pot for processing (I do love surprise alliteration :) ).  I also found a few Ball Pint jars in my cabinet.

Of course I had no rack for that pot,  BUT I am nothing if not obstinate about work the problem, so I tried a disposable aluminum pan bent into a round shape and resting on canning rims (ok, in this case, google came through with the canning lid trick :) ).

As much of a slow start as I got, the process itself went really smoothly.  I had to lose the aluminum pan (that didn't work at all), but the jars fit really well in the pot.  I processed them for a few more minutes than I probably needed to (one recipe said 5 minutes, one said 10...and again, this is not my comfy place anyway).  I also discovered that ball canning lids are awesome for the "ping!" that they do, but mainstays lids are very difficult to see if they have sucked in.  Next time we are just going to stay with ball lids.

The results?  Golden Deliciousness.  I used some pickle crisp so they are nice and crunchy.  I couldn't even wait 24 hours to try them :)  Plus the Bootheby's Blond cucumbers make very pretty pickles as their rind is a yellow, not green.  I also realized I need to put more slices in a jar, as the canning process makes them shrink up.  That was difficult though because the BB cucumbers were big fat things so I had to put in one slice at a time and shove it in--some of the slices didn't really fit!

Here is what I ended up with:

 I ended up with 3 pints and about 11 half pints of pickles.

 The juice looked so pretty with the light shining through!

 You can see how much room is left at the bottom.  I am not sure I could have shoved more slices in there and still closed the lid, but I will try next time.

Such a pretty yellow color and fabulous stacks--perfect for a burger!

I am now inspired for small batch canning.  Next stop:  Grape Jelly!