He who goes out sowing...

The current bush was stunning this year, and the cherry trees loaded as well.  It's awesome to see the plants and trees I planted five years ago thriving just in time to move along.  The many seeds I've sown are taking good root and baring abundantly.  The bee swarms I caught last year survived the winter, sold two in trade for a beautiful topbar hive to move one of my first topbar hived swarms into.  That hive has survived many a wind,hail, and rain storm much to my surprise as the lid I made kept blowing off!   I've got them moved to the new house, the beegloves I just ordered arrived and I will attempt to move them into their new home perhaps this weekend.    I've tucked in a few heirloom tomatoes, basil, an zuchini plants but working with people has taken a priority over the gardening lately.  

Garlic harvest this year has been great.   Really great when you know I've spent almost no time tending the garden in two years.   Instead I've been gardening in the souls of men with teaching healing.   Planting seeds of Hope, Joy, Faith have taken priority over the physical garden, but we need a balance of both in order to stay fully grounded.   Liver cleansing is my next internal adventure and the interesting timeing as one of the liver cleanse protocols encouraging a potassium broth made with 50 cloves and eating at least 5 raw garlic cloves daily coinciding with my garlic doing so well and being ready right now is just, well, that would be this scripture in action:  Proverbs 3:6
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Our Cherry trees have done well this year, though they're really too small to easily pit.  I've been trying to figure out what to do with them and don't want to make jelly as we don't need excess sugar.   I came up with juicing them and freezing them in ice cube trays for smoothies!

This ice cube tray is from my first experiment with this idea:   I attempted juicing the cherries with their pits in my green star :(   locked it up.  Had to use my ice cream scoop to pray the juicer parts apart, and was worried I'd broken it, but, happy day, the juicer's fine, but it wasn't gonna work to do all raw juice.   So, I've pulled out the steamer juicer to cook them down, then will freeze in cubes.

This vine is the only cutting that survived from our move 4 years ago and this is the first year it's bearing fruit.   There are roses, garlic, and other herbs and apples planted nearby.

Micah 4: ⁴ But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.

What's a Chibi?

See the needle with the curved tip? That is a chibi

Because the tip is blunt and curved, it makes it delightful to weave in the ends on knitted items.

barrelponics frame complete - almost

OK, we got this all done today, and the drill battery died with only ONE screw left to complete the support for the flush tank.

warping for andean pebble weave

So, I splurged and bought warmi's Andean Pebble Weave book. This woman has inspired me and deserves great credit for the time and energy she spends sharing and teaching!

Working with natural color fibers

May 21, 2011, I decided to measure out 1 oz each of my Navajo-Churro and shetland (the red/brown and white have some fiber from both breeds, the other 4 colors are Navajo-Churro).

Then I decided to see how much 1/2 ounce looked like spun up and 2 plied. Came out to 18 wraps around the niddy noddy at approx 17 wpi.

Chicks arrived!

Thank you Lord for cackle hatchery and the USPS. We have some polish, assorted japanese bantams, and some mille fleur bantams. Put the polish in a separate box as they're twice as big as these guys.

Sweet Potatoes

We moved to this home a bit over 4 years ago and while I've added some soil amendments in some areas, we're really on a rock with a high water table. This means that root crops need more soil than I may have, so a visit to a friend's garden has me thinking about planting sweet potatoes in buckets. He's planting them in containers because rats ate his ground planted sweet potatoes in prior years attempts.

Well, soil prices are up, so my decision will have to be ground planting! Just doesn't make financial sense to me to purchase unknown 'organic' soil in a bag. Perhaps its justified if one has no soil or too wet a ground, or contaminated soil, but I'm thinking if I simply tuck these slips in areas that have had some building up mulch, we should get some good sweet potatoes.

Right up there with watching fish in a tank, watching my sheep graze is so peaceful.

Livestock waterers

One of the other fiber farms (owned by a water gardening expert) really impressed me by how each livestock tank had water plants and fish in it. Last year we began implementing this at our place by simply adding cheap goldfish ($6.52 lb at our local baitshop) to each waterer.

I never managed to get any water plants besides one with water hyacinths and minnows, yet the goldfish survived on just mosquito larva. In the fall, I didn't think ahead enough to bring them inside and we lost them. This year I plan to bring the fish into the hoophouse for overwintering!

http://www.pondplantsdirect.com/ sent me beautiful water lettuce, a giant sensitive, and a water hyacinth lickaty split last week, so I have 2 1/2 barrells in the garden now with a few goldfish and plants in each. I'm thinking I will buy 3 larger livestock waterers for easiest management over this summer (I had smaller waterers last summer and that was difficult) as we've completed the interior fencing for rotational grazing which means I need to not have to worry about moving the waters where the sheep are.

Soap milling

Last month I did several demonstration classes showing people how to make soap from basic fats, lye, and water. These batches of soap I didn't have time to properly turn out and slice into bars, and one of them ended up very lopsided from the trip home!

So today I milled them into pretty bars and boy, I've missed this relaxing process.

Sheep Shearing May 3rd, 2011

This is Thunder, my Navajo-Churro Ram, who threw predominantly black lambs this year. So happy to get the sheep shearing done, we've had some hot afternoons and with them NOT getting sheared in the fall, a few of the fleeces were felted.

my ram

Knitting with color

My favorite online knitting supplier these days is by far Knitpicks.com Not only do I love working with their pink corded circular needles, before Christmas my dd#2 and I bought each colorway of their Sipalu bag kit. An amazing value, for about $50 including shipping, we got supplies for 4 bags, each kit came with more than enough yarn to knit two complete alternate colorway bags. I decided I didn't like the pattern's strap and wove one on my inkle loom.

Home is Where the Heart is

This past year has been a whirlwind of activity and the funniest thing started happening this fall...I've been busy with anointing with oils and playing taxi mom with one in vo-tech not driving by herself yet. My husband was working way too many hours in town and out of town and sometimes out of state.

We kept getting water in the basement and it wasn't raining. Hot water tank cracked, so replaced that, only ruining one shopvac before realizing we were overfilling it before dumping. Dry floor for about a week, then the washing machine seal went, so we were back to sucking up water till we figured out the problem and then hit the laundromat for several weeks. At some point the dishwasher that's fairly new quit working first. Then the garage door opener refused to work. Then we noticed we couldn't shut the sliding glass door on the sunporch anymore. Turns out the whole porch settled an inch due to a 1/2 eaten by termites board that needs replaced.

Last year I heard about this book titled something like "My Car, Myself" in which the guy lists what health problems in the driver result in which car problems -- the gist of the book is that if your cars keep having the same kind of trouble, it might be the driver, not the car. I haven't read the book, just heard a book report about it. So when the house started fallin' apart I had to laugh because my husband is Mr. Fix-it man and it was like the house was saying it was done staying in order without him.

One of my friend says that computers will function IF her husband is home and that they can act up all day long and as soon as he's home, they suddenly work fine again.

Just as people can taste the difference in food made with love, I think our house knows I don't want to live in it anymore. I do however want functioning appliances and to make a home for my family wherever we live, so I'll endeavor to be sure my house doesn't take my wanting to move elsewhere personally. Dani Johnson has a story on one of her CD's about being a good steward and thankful for her smaller downsized home before she was able to move on again to a different home. I'm going to be more consciously thankful for the warmth and shelter my house provides us. Handwashing dishes still and the sunporch will get fixed soon, new hot water tank and new washing machine working well and the garage door is fixed...

Folks, Treasure your babies!

OK, I ended my previous blog with this post and a number of events have occurred that remind me I cannot stay silent about what's happening to our children. We're in a major health and spiritual crisis in this country and every single person out there is responsible. If you see a young mom or a pregnant woman, every thought you think has the opportunity to bring life or death, just as every word you speak to her does. Folks, the youth of this nation are dying from cancers, crazy illnesses, and neglect and it doesn't have anything to do with poverty, we were the wealthiest nation, but our lack of Biblical values has turned the tide. Choose LIfe and encourage moms to raise their own babies in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

A tribute to a precious little one I knew:

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Last entry - Death by Pharmaceuticals and lack of mothering

Thanks folks, it's been fun to share this space for a season. My life has changed, and I'm moving from Glory to Glory.

Driving back from doing town errands yesterday, it hit me that my last post needs to be about a sweet little girl who is no longer with us. I first met this child via her pregnant mother as the grandmother was a neighbor of ours.

I was very happy to meet her because to me every pregnancy is to be cherished and nurtured with great gratitude.

The grandmother shunned my gift of some copies of Above Rubies, saying it would be condemning to this mom. Within 6 weeks of delivering a beautiful baby girl, the mom went back to work and shuffling baby to daycare and grandma and the doctor visits and pharmacy visits were in full force. Of course she didn't breastfeed because that's too inconvenient, formula is so easy. The entire family smoked, and so of course baby girl had breathing problems and was given 'breathing' treatments.'

One Friday night fellowship at our home, baby girl came with grandpa and grandma and danced and danced before the Lord and us as people played guitar and sang praises to the Lord. Thank you Lord for this sweet memory of this babe who came before you just as she was.

At age 3, the mother found her body in her crib one morning. The autopsy said it was a brain aneurism, and nothing could have been done. I choked when I heard this and choke now writing it. Folks, this is another case of death by pharmaceuticals and a mother who preferred working and letting someone else raise her children. The mother Could have bathed her baby girl in love and the Word and breastfed her and stayed home with her and NOT given her baby toxic medications.

May those of you with girls to influence give them a vision for MOTHERHOOD, it saves lives and brings JOY. And those of you with young men around, teach them the importance of providing for and encouraging women to raise their babies in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Children are an heritage from the Lord.

Lord forgive us

New Seasons of life - homeschooling transitions

My children are now 21, 16, and 12. When my oldest was merely 3 (I had made a stupid choice in marrying a man I thought was 'spiritual' when in reality he was one the Bible tells will always be like a wild donkey) and I prayed for the Lord to bring me a 'Christian' husband, I had no idea what a journey I was beginning. It's a journey that I do not regret, going from glory to glory is never dull and yet I've had peace that passeth understanding through a series of trials and come out singing still I will say "blessed be the name of the Lord!" His Word endures forever and He is the way, the truth, and the life.

My oldest daughter recently thanked me for raising grown-ups. At a time when most don't have a clue what they want in life, she pays her own bills, works 2 jobs, goes to school, has her own young living business, and still manages to prioritize family gatherings. DD#2 started office computers and multimedia classes at vo-tech and is really excited about the program. both girls are amazing self-starters, something I think is good fruit from the way we lived our homeschooling days using Charlotte Mason ideas, praying, letting the anointing teach.

So, now my job changes again as primarily my homeschooling job is now a matter of working more with my son. He's quite different from the girls in his interests and already reads fluently and can for the most part be reminded to do his penmanship and math lessons. I want him to grow in the Word and skills with tools and to find a few more areas of interest outside of computer gaming. I'm thinking we'll make the aquaponics project his to manage, if he shows more interest in it. He has enjoyed our goldfish in the livestock waterers.

The Lord's timing is so awesome and perfect. As my younger children are so close to leaving the nest, I've entered into new fields of healing studies and business ownership. As usual, learning all the time how much I don't know, but thankful I don't have to know it all, I know the ONE who does. I wake up excited to see what the Lord's going to bring next!

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