It's Plantin' Season

I love the smell of dirt.

The earthy, wet, and sweet smell of organic material in it's humblest form.

Soil.

God surely knew what He was doing when He created this world with all it's many cycles of life that are contained on this globe.



My Sis and I got busy today doin' what we do. We planned our strategy or more like I was whipping out seed packets and getting ready to plant while my sister being the studious one that she is, read the directions on the packets and separated the seeds into categories. After looking over my shoulder and realizing that she wasn't on board, I hopped to it and joined in the proper planning and categorizing. There are a pile of seeds we didn't end up planting because they need to be sown directly into the soil after the last frost. Seeds such as:

• onions


• carrots


• kale


• spinach


• lettuce


• garlic chives

We did however get to plant quite a few things and it was quite the nice time. I love spending time with my sissy and I love the prospect of food as well. It is such a cool thing to get to plant a few seeds in some dirt and with the addition of water, wait for the little sprouts to pop up. As a child, I never knew that watching plants grow would be such a thrill. Well it is. Here is what we DID plant:

• cayenne peppers


• jalapeno peppers


• pumpkins


• cucumbers (regular, lemon, & pickling)


• broccoli


• watermelon


• cantaloupe


• I'm sure I've forgotten a few. It's late...

As you can see in the above picture, we still have a lot to plant. I will be getting more seeds this weekend and finishing what we started. I'll just say the obvious, we are lacking a huge staple in everyone's garden. Ummm....TOMATOES!





I sure hope this black thumb of mine can turn green, heck brown would even be an improvement. I am so very excited for a garden this year and I'm sure there's a future post that's going to be filled with pictures containing dirt and little green sprouts.  Ooh, yes!

Please forgive me, it was such a beautiful day that I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of Spring's arrival.













Isn't it just beautiful this time of year?

Happy planting.

Oh, I mean...happy Spring.

Confessions of a REAL Foodie

I woke up to a glorious morning. It rained yesterday and so this morning was an array of glistening leaves, dew-dusted blades of grass, and that wonderful smell of a Spring drizzle. I love it. I have hopes of actually making it outside today since yesterday was what I like to call 'Day of the Kitchen'. Oh yes, it was one of THOSE days. I spent every minute of the day either chopping, stirring, shaking, grating, fermenting, baking, and preparing food for the young ones. I'm not complaining mind you, I love to cook. It's a good thing too since I spend so much time doing it. There are many reasons why I love to cook which brings me to the reason for this post.

Here is where I do my confessing.

I love to cook because I LOVE to eat good food. It is one of my favorite things to do. Eating that is...no cooking...hmmm, both? There are several reasons however why I enjoy my time in the kitchen. I have come to the conclusion and conviction recently that I want to feed my family well. Not only should our food taste good, but it should also be good for us. I no longer wish to eat just to eat. There's no reason for that. Sure I could probably spend less money on groceries by using coupons for everything and not choosing to buy organic, but I am looking to the future. Will we thrive on prepackaged, boxed, processed, and essentially cheap food for long? I don't think so. I do know that if I cook from scratch it will help A LOT in the grocery bill department and health department. I also know that our garden that we're growing and animals that we're raising will help as well.

It is my conviction that God made our bodies in a most amazing way. We truly are 'fearfully and wonderfully made', and since I believe this I wish to feed my family and myself with the most nourishing and whole foods as possible. In this past year and a half I have been on a search for a better way of eating. I am not interested in fad diets or those that cannot give our bodies all the vitamins, minerals, proteins, and so on that we require. In my search, I have come upon traditional eating and I think it is the way we were meant to eat.  Meat, fat, fruits, vegetables, grains properly prepared, dairy, and fermented everything. When you decide to cook this way you are deciding to take it upon yourself to make almost everything from scratch. It takes time, work, and energy. Time that I think is very well spent. This may not be what everyone wants to do, but it is my desire.

I grew up cooking and baking with my mom, but my love of cooking wasn't ignited there(my mom is a great cook, so it didn't have to do with her skill...she was great in the kitchen). I really didn't care much though in my younger years about food. I would have to honestly say that my love of cooking was fired up when I went to work for a good friend. I came home from being away for a year and got a job at a coffee shop. This was not your ordinary coffee shop. We made coffee (and good coffee at that), but we also made breakfast and lunch. My boss-turned-friend Terri taught me to love to cook, gave me confidence in the kitchen, and imparted her wisdom of cooking using your senses and not always be tied down to a recipe. If I wanted to keep up with her then I had to watch her closely, learn her tricks, and duplicate her recipe's using my taste buds as a reference. I LOVED IT! Terri taught me how to make soups, sauces, bread dough, and so much more. I am eternally grateful for the impact she had on my life and for instilling the love of the kitchen and all things homemade to me. I'm pretty sure my hubby thanks her too!

Fast forward to now, almost 9 years later, my love of cooking hasn't waned because I still find it fun and challenging. I've always cooked from scratch, but when you become a REAL foodie, it brings a whole new meaning to homemade.



Yesterday in my kitchen there were many things taking shape. I started the day with some sourdough bread made with spelt flour. I purchased this book a while ago and it teaches you how to make bread using natural yeast and not the highly processed commercial yeast you find in the store. Sourdough is especially good for you since the fermentation process breaks down the hard to digest parts of the grains and makes the vitamins and minerals that are present more easily absorbed. A plus in my book and I also happen to love a good sourdough over any other kind of bread. I can't wait to sink my teeth into the buttered slice later today (it's doing it's second rise). I consider bread making to be highly therapeutic and so I enjoy the making, kneading, and eating process. Especially the eating...



Next up on my list was to get my other ferments going. I make Kefir everyday and it is truly the easiest of the bunch. Just pour milk (we drink raw) over your grains, set in a warm place for 12-24 hours, strain the grains from your kefired milk, and voila you have a delicious probiotic beverage that boasts 30+ healthy bacteria that will benefit and aid in healthy digestion. We are all about optimum digestion on the farm and so I try to get as much of the 'good bugs' in us as possible. Which leads to Kombucha. I make about 2 gallons of kombucha every two weeks. I let it ferment longer because I heard it helps the mother and baby scoby's to be stronger. I really enjoy the process and get downright giddy when I see the mother hovering underneath the newly formed 'baby'. It's a thrill for me. My kids beg for kombucha. I love to hear Ella ask for it because she shortens it. "Mom, can I have some bucha?" Music to this mama's ears.





My biggest task of the day was rendering 'Little Miss Suet'. In reality, she wasn't pretty to look at, but she'll sure make my cooking taste nice and delicous. Suet is the fat that surrounds the kidneys of cows, sheep, and pigs. This lovely was from a cow. Rendered suet has an extremely high smoking point which means it doesn't easily burn, can be used for all my cooking and baking needs, and retains most if not all of it's nutrients during the cooking/baking process. It's downright cheap as well. I paid $15 for the hunk of goodness and got almost 4 quarts of rendered fat. I'm sure I'm only going to have to do this process maybe twice a year. It has a long shelf life in the fridge and is highly economical. How many of us can say we paid $15 for any kind of cooking oil that will last this long?









I also made my yearly homemade laundry detergent as well. But alas, this is not as exciting as suet. No?

With my return to the farm I have had many conversations with my husband and many a quite time spent musing on the blessedness of this kind of life. It may not be for everyone, but it sure affects everyone. We all need to eat. Not to get off on a tangent though...

Lately I have been wanting to emphasize to my kids the blessing of having food to eat. It can be taken for granted that we can almost always count on a good meal. It is a blessing from God and one not to be taken lightly. I want to please the Lord with all that I do, and I think it would be pleasing to Him for me to take the time and effort to cook for my family in a way that will nourish their bodies and minds.

So here's to being a REAL foodie.

I'm off to go drink me some bucha.  *wink, wink*

A Letter To My Son

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth.

Psalm 127:3-4

My dear boy, oh how I love thee. Everything about your precious face, your adventuresome spirit, and your strong will make me smile. My womb has surely been blessed. On the day you were born the Lord was doing a  great thing. You were placed in my care and when you breathed your first breath, I was then at that moment, made a mother.

Words cannot be sufficient when it comes to the awe of staring into the eyes of a newborn babe. God, the Creator of life, had perfected you in the womb and when He was finished, He had you arrive in the ordained day. And what a day it was. One cannot be in labor, be filled with pain and in travail, birth a child, and NOT see the hand of God. To refuse this is to be blind.

My son, our Lord has great plans for you. I know it for I already see Him at work in your heart. You've been given an able body, but whats more, you've been given a strong mind and a clear tongue. I pray you will grow up in wisdom and in the fear of God. I pray that you will be courageous and yet ever gentle in spirit.

Remember your favorite, David. He was a shepherd boy and cared for the lambs, but he killed what would have them. Remember his zeal for the Lord; his faith that God would protect him; his loyalty and honor; his remembrance of past promises and how he looked forward to the future promises of God.

Remember also my son, that the mighty in faith, even David, can fall into terrible sin. But God, He gives new hearts to His children and so be quick to turn away from sin and folly, be quick to fall on your knees before God with tears lamenting of your sin and ready to be filled with God's grace, mercy, and forgiveness.

Be humble.

You are still but a child and I, Lord willing, have many years more with you. I pray that God would make me a wise woman and mother, that He would make it clear how to raise you well, and that my love and labor with you would not be in vain.

My dear boy, my son, my heart, I love you.

Always know that there's One who loves you more, One who made this world, One who gives true happiness, peace, and meaning...and only One with the power to save.

Jesus.

Cling to Him as I do. For if you do you will be blessed with all spiritual blessings heaven has to offer.

I love you.

Love, Your Mama

One of my favorite passages of Scripture:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption though his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:3-14

Here's a myriad of pictures from Jude's birthday party last weekend.

 Praise God!

Death Lurks in the Shadows

We had a death last night. A healthy reminder of what can and does happen on a farm. When darkness covers and the shadows reign supreme, death lurks and waits for the opportunity to strike. It's ugly and it's grim, but so is life in various seasons.

Death has a name.



This morning, Seth and I saw two large dogs running in our back pasture. We've never seen these dogs before and due to losing a ewe last year, we are highly cautious and will take action if need be to protect our property. We would expect the same from neighbors if our dog was roaming; all is fair, which is why I always make sure Franco is tied when I'm not outside and that he's in sight when I am. We watched these dogs chasing something (probably a rabbit) and I was amazed at the ground they could cover. Such great strides.

Later this morning, my Father-in-Law came in and told me what happened. My heart sunk and the dogs came instantly to mind. I grew up on a farm and I KNOW what dogs can do, even the nice ones that no one thinks could hurt a fly. You get two dogs together and the 'pack' instinct kicks in...and it's a strong instinct at that. Now I can't blame a dog for their instincts, in the wild with out it they'd die. Fact is fact.

However, we also can't let dogs run loose. Any farmer you'll meet will have a story or two about loose dogs. This is fact too. Dog owners need to be responsible for their pets or in turn farmers will be responsible to protect their livestock.



After the breakfast dishes were done, I decided to go have a look.

My mind was changed.

Death didn't come in the form of dogs of the domestic kind.  They don't kill the way the wild ones do. Coyotes will kill, devour, and strip their prey. The word 'thorough' comes to mind when I think of a coyote kill. Dogs will kill and maybe a chew a bit, but not the way their wild counter parts do. This friends, was a coyote kill.



Protective measures will be upped. Sheep will need to be locked in the barn every night, the electric fences will have to be in working order, and ears will need to be tuned in the the yip's and yowls of these night seekers.

Lord willing, we'll have lambs in a few weeks and you can bet that these opportunists will have to find their easy meals somewhere else.



Or else.

Become An Escape Artist...

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you go? Why would you live there?



I have found a website that is dedicated to selling real estate in other countries. I've loved it since I found it years ago and I visit it from time to time.

Escape Artist.

I have always, ALWAYS wanted to live in another country. Ever since I can remember I've always thought the experience would be thrilling and exciting. I very much have an adventuresome spirit and even though we have settled into our place, I still have this lingering desire to go abroad and live. I have quite a few places that I'd like to go...Greece, Russia, Hawaii, Portugal, Chile, Argentina, and I could continue, but I won't. Not enough time.

*Disclaimer- We had a terrible camera when we were in Mexico. Please forgive the quality.

I've seen my fair share of the world, but not enough by far. I've been to Mexico, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, France, and England. Mexico is absolutely amazing and my sissy had a destination wedding in Puerto Vallarta Mexico and it was so lovely. I went on a month long trip to Europe after I graduated high school hence the number of countries I've visited. I want to go back soooo badly, but now is not the time since I've got babes to love and care for. Some day though, when they are older, I hope to take them all over this world that the Lord has created. I want them to see that there is so much out there. So much.

So where would you go? Would you just want to just visit or stay and live for a while?

How about a farm in Portugal?



A Villa in Norway?



Maybe your own island in Panama?



Or perhaps a mansion in Mexico?

*This one's my favorite!

I am a dreamer and I'm letting you in on some of my dreams.

Come and dream with me.