Spring at Lemonrock Farm

Good morning my dear friend!!

I am sitting outside this morning on the screen porch.  It is finally warm enough to do so...at least for a few days :)

Spring is here and that means busy, busy, busy!  We have cleaned out the greenhouse and prepared it to start this year's seeds.  We are a little behind, but that's ok :)

Our fruit trees are (for the most part) starting to bloom and we have started a spraying and fertilizing cycle.  Last year we had a lot of bug and some disease damage.  This year I hope to avoid most, if not all, of that nonsense and have a decent tiny harvest.  Most of the trees are not big enough to produce much, and I would really like them to focus more on being vigorous for this year, but if I happened to get a peach or two, I would not mind :).

Speaking of which, it looks like a few trees have not made it.  Our winter was brutal this year according to locals.  Some of our trees were a bit weak going into it and seemed to have succumbed.  This morning I will be digging out those trees and getting them ready to take back to the stores they came from.  Most stores are good about a one year guarantee, so we will exchange those for some others.  I need another cherry tree to cross pollinate with the black tartarian cherry I have.  I would also like to get more peach and nectarine trees.  I have pretty much decided that apricots are too fussy and will not buy another one.  We have one that seems to be trying not to die, so of course he can stay, but we will not buy more.

Our apples and pears look wonderful!  The asian pears make me so happy because they are large trees and it makes me feel good to have to look UP to a tree :).

Peach tree blooms.  I think this one is Belle of Georgia

Plum tree in bloom.  Bradford pears are in the distance.  They are GORGEOUS in the spring and everyone has them but they smell very unpleasant if you get close to them!

We have a few new projects going on this spring.  We will be planting bamboo.  There is a bamboo farm not far from here that has wonderful specimens.  I have chosen 4 typesK  arrow (for making arrows and plant stakes with), water bamboo (because it tolerates wet), moso (a towering bamboo that has gorgeous canes and is edible and used for making furniture and flooring), and sweetshoot (which is the best to eat for shoots).  We will start slowly as these are pretty pricey, but are making a plan to definitely harvest shoots for our consumption and perhaps to sell at the farmer's market.

We also will be stocking one of the ponds with....CRAWDADS!!!  This has me so tickled, I cannot even tell you!  The pond is pretty mucky and vegetative and not that fun to fish.  I want to work WITH what we have, be it mucky pond or swamp ground, and crawdads will fit the bill perfectly.  I even already have one client lined up who will buy them from me! :)

Speaking of dealing with swampy ground, we are going to plant mayhaw trees!  They are very wet-tolerant, are not very well known here, and mayhaws make the most wonderful jelly ever!  I could very easily see us going into mayhaw production if these first trees do well.

Our farm is all about diversification.  If we have a late damaging frost so that the peach and plum trees won't produce, then we have muscadines and grapes to fall back on.  If there is a virus that attacks the grapes, we have black and blueberries to fall back on.  If we have a bad season for all plants, we have fish and crawdads to fall back on.  Lots of corners and niches that we want to explore so that our farm is well rounded and resilient.

I have not even begun to talk about my strawberries (which have returned and look wonderful!) and my asparagus (which has not returned yet lol) or my ten new rose bushes!  Perhaps soon, my sweet friend, we can chat about those :)

Have a blessed day dear one!

Forgiveness and Love

My sweet, dear friend!

I have been thinking about you :)  I hope you have been doing well!

I wanted to share with you something that the Lord taught me (again!) today regarding forgiveness and love. :)

You see, I do not have many people that I quarrel with.  I am an intense person, but I am pretty laid back in terms of holding grudges or being angry.  I have a quick temper, but a slow fuse if that makes sense.  I get irritated quickly, but I do not get ANGRY at people quickly.  And when I do, it normally fades into hurt feelings instead of anger.  So generally the concept of "forgiveness" does not come up a whole lot, to be honest.

However, there are a few souls in my life with whom forgiveness is the word that I must bind upon the relationship.  I do not want to get into details, but suffice to say that there is deeply wounded feelings (I am sure on both sides).  I know their heart is hurting, and I know mine is too.  I know that I have tried to repair the damage I have caused, and I know they are still to angry to hear it.  I know that I have to be ready for them to repair the damage they have caused, and that I must ALWAYS be ready, at any moment, to hear and forgive them.

That really, I do not think, is going to be too difficult.  The Lord made me to be happy with people who are nice to me.  Apologies go very far with me, perhaps because I have made my share of mess ups or maybe because staying angry in the face of an apology is spiritually dangerous and damaging, or maybe because I just don't have the energy to nurse a grudge in the face of a proffered bandaid.

So I don't get truly angry at people easily, and I generally readily accept apologies and just want everything ok, but what DOES get to me, my weak spot, is......silence.  That period of time, perhaps years of time, between war and truce, between battle and healing, between sin and forgiveness.  It is excruciating to me.  I either want everything hashed out in battle or resolved in peace talks.  The heavy, oppressive days, months, or years of silence when eggshells cover the ground are horrible.

And the dumb part of it is that other people seem to have no problem during this time.  Some of us enjoy the silent treatment, the nursing of wounds in the dark and secret, of completely ignoring the existence of the person who hurt or angered us.  Some of us  are fine with knowing there are people out there that we are not talking to.

But that is not me.  I hate drama.  Even silent drama, like a silent poison, spreads through my days and imagination.  It is during this time that I, still on guard and waiting for a sign for either war or peace, will imagine conversations in my head.  I will assume I know what the other person is thinking.

TWS says they are not thinking about me at all.  They simply do not want us in their lives.  I am actually ok with that!  I just want the official declaration, so to speak :)  I want to be told frankly:  "We are severing ties with you.".  While I would hate that, at least I would stop hoping for reconciliation OR bracing for the next salvo.  I would simply nod and move on.  I have a full circle of good people, I do not have need for others who do not want to be part of my life BUT I also love people and want to welcome everyone who does want to be part of my life.  Those who turn their backs at the fringes--staying just in sight enough to remind me that they are not talking to me--hurt and disrupt my happy little world lolol.

However, the Lord uses these pillars of people, just a few of them, to make me practice ongoing, unappreciated forgiveness.  As He forgave people even as they were celebrating His death, we, too, must forgive even when our enemies (ohhh I hate to use that word!) are celebrating our trials.  We must forgive even when those we love do not love us back.  We must forgive when our enemies (ugh!) show us their disproval by not supporting those whom we love who are innocent--children, family, friends.

I will be honest.  I want to list the blame, the reasons I have to be upset.  In some cases I have the "right" to be upset because either the "sin balance" is in my favor or I had not sinned at all, and this is just a personal thing on their part.

I go through bouts of steeling my heart toward people.  Then the Lord makes me take down each and every brick.  It is not about them.  It is not about me.  It is about Him and His work which cannot flow through our hearts if we have walled them off.  Yesterday I made a wall in my heart, in my mind.  Today, the Lord had me tear it down--every brick.

So yes, even when we know it is going to hurt to remain soft to every insult or slight or attack, soft we must remain, pouring out love where they pour out anger and hurt.  We must offer them cool cups of water when they offer us cups of verbal or nonverbal poison.  We must fill the void of their silence with prayers for them.  We must pray for them, earnestly and whole heartedly, for the Lord to soothe their wounds, to soften their hearts, to turn their hearts to Him....and then hopefully to us.