Who sped up the clock?!

Posted on March 9, 2015 by David

As my family and I continue to pursue our Country Roads, we’ve made a very curious observation. Technology has supplied us with a seemingly infinite number of ‘time-saving’ gadgets. From the washing machine to the milking machine we’ve found a way for an electric motor, or some kind of electronic device, to do the work that has been done by hand for centuries. So, net result, tons of leisure time, right? Well, sure, in a manner of speaking: we don’t tote water around on our heads, it’s piped into our homes (plus fluoride and chlorine!), but has anybody’s schedule slowed down to a wonderfully slow pace, full of time to stop and smell the roses, sip your morning coffee, and play a little ball with the kids?

Our curious observation is this: nobody’s lives have slowed down, we all get 24 hours to eat, work and play just like every other human being that has ever lived. We certainly have avoided most manual labor in our 21st century lives, but we didn’t realize two aspects of what I’ll call the “lie of time-saving technology“.

One is this: if I’ve got a washing machine and my neighbor washes their clothes in an iron pot over a fire, then I can wash my clothes in less time than they can, assuming I can pay for the washing machine. And keep paying for repairs and new machines as they wear out. So how does it pay to spend time working for money to buy a washing machine; why don’t I just wash the clothes? Ah, enter the pay scale. If I work for $35 an hour, and the guy that built and sold the washing machine worked for $20 an hour, I come out ahead buying the machine to wash my clothes, “saving” me time. So this has a whole lot of rabbit trails to follow, if an unequal pay scale worries you…..but I’ll leave that for another day.

And, how do you save time anyway? I mean, what account can anybody deposit all this time into and retrieve it later? It’s a silly phrase really; machines can’t save us time, but they can, with inequities in a pay scale provide some people with enough money and gadgets to take hand work out of their lives.

Another aspect of the time-saving lie is this: what happens when everyone has a washing machine? I mean, it’s easy to see what happens if I have one and my neighbor doesn’t, but if everybody’s got one, now what? Now if I want to wash my clothes by hand, not only am I a total nut, but I’m not “saving” all that time. But, so what, I’ll just scrub my dirty clothes over the washboard and enjoy myself. Not so fast! Now that everybody has the wonderful time saving washing machine, we don’t get to use them, we have to use them! Why? Because we need the time we saved letting a machine wash our clothes to make more money to feed the spending based economy we live in. The truth is, our over-grown, burdensome government and a society run on disposable goods is one of the greatest dampers on self-sufficient living.

So, we’ve been sold a bill of goods. But as we try hard as a family to eschew some of the technology, we’ve found a little nugget. When you work on time-consuming projects, you are spending more time on something, and life slows down! Sure, our lives are busy, but I think our concept of ‘busy lives’ is a complicated subject and it’s going to take more than just a new machine to fix it.

For one, busy is a mindset. Do we really need to run helter-skelter from one thing to the next? Sometimes the answer is just choosing to chill out. Sometimes we just need to pick the long way home and deal with the consequences when they come up. We either get to spend 10 times as long hand sawing and hand planing a board to build our own furniture, or we spend time working a job to pay for expensive machines to build with, or we just pay someone to do it all for us. I know which one I enjoy!

So, as I said, we’re finding that if you spend more time on simple, daily chores, and that’s all you need to do in a day, the pace of life slows down. And that to us is the real ‘time-saver’, or rather than use that phrase, to us, doing more work by hand lets us enjoy life a little more.

What’s more enjoyable? A fast paced life where we chase the dollar to pay for all the machines to do our work for us, or to just do the work by hand?

I realize this is not all there is to this subject. Reorganizing our lives where we can afford to do things by hand is a huge subject. But we’re thoroughly enjoying the lack of a cell phone, milking cows, growing our own herbs, and trying to find another piece of technology to live without. Here’s to doing it the old fashioned way!

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Posted in Human-powered Machines, Working on the Farm | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Hocking Valley Corn Sheller

Posted on February 26, 2015 by David

If you’re going to farm, there are a lot of people out there with lists that will tell you what you need: good land, well-bred livestock, a marketing plan, etc. I’ve decided to add one more thing to the list: a personal antique dealer.

We’ve been blessed to know Don and Sam Maulding for years now. They own five acres just two miles away and have helped us raise our Jersey calves. We were very sad to lose Don after a long fight with leukemia just late last year. But Don and Sam have been antique dealers for a long time and we’ve enjoyed buying (and receiving as gifts) numerous antiques over the years. Don even gave me this dovetail saw:

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I also bought a .45 Colt from Don and had it worked over by a gunsmith, but that’ll have to be another blog post. Just a few weeks ago, Sam generously gave us an old corn sheller. I’ve been grinding rust, scraping old grease, and repairing it for some time now. It was in decent shape but had been rode hard and put up wet. The shafts were quite worn, some of the woodwork cracked and the big flywheel was bent…

Here’s the sheller half disassembled; I’m working on cleaning the rust here, and repairing the other wooden side that was broken in three places.

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One of the leg supports was missing and this was the other one:

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This is the other side being glued back together:

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Rusty old bolts being cleaned up:

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The flywheel was bent badly. It looked as if the whole unit fell over at some point (probably after the feet were rotted off…) and gave the wheel a good whack. I laid the flywheel on the floor and with the help of a huge air chisel (it just happened to be a close fit into the arbor) I managed to stand on the wheel and straighten the hub by eye.

Willie enjoyed helping me a bit:

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The top board was cracked in two, so Willie helped me make a new piece:

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Most of the restoration went great, but one part is proving a real trouble-maker… This corn sheller is a rather unique one. It had a special, cast iron fan mounted below the sheller mechanism that blew the chaff from the kernels of corn as they fell from the sheller. The fan was driven from the hand crank shaft via an old leather sewing machine type belt. But, alas, this was the rustiest part of the whole thing, and I’m not the most experienced rust doctor in the world… I got one half of the fan broken loose, but the other half, well it just broke:

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I’m still hopeful I can repair the fan though. The break isn’t a high stress area and I could even replace the metal part with a wooden one. I did that on a wheelbarrow when the brackets that held the axle together broke.

For now though, the sheller should work just as it should! Here’s the finished project, minus the blower, minus most of the rust, plus a few repairs and a coat of linseed oil:

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DSC03773Next time we grow some dried corn, we’ll be sure to take some videos of Willie shelling corn so you can see it in action!

 

Posted in Human-powered Machines, Woodworking | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Healing the Land – Snapshot 2

Posted on February 11, 2015 by David

If you’ve ever tried to till up a plot of Georgia Red Clay that hasn’t been amended in any way, your thoughts will immediately try to figure out how to heal such dirt – something that hard when dry and that sticky when wet must need healing! Nothing amends the soil like compost. I won’t try to cover composting in a technical sense here, but even though I’m not a qualified expert, the good news is: you don’t really have to be.

Really, there are two compost piles. Or two ways to approach composting. The best way is if you can keep some animals. Even in your neighborhood a couple of rabbits in the garage can greatly help a compost pile with their rich droppings. With our Jersey cows, we are never short manure and urine. The cows spend at least three hours a day (milking morning and night) in the barn where we manage their manure and urine with wood chips or wood shavings. This mixture alone, once composted is fantastic on the garden!

The other compost pile is without animal manures. This takes a bit more work because you need to work hard to get enough ‘greens’. Grass clipping are probably the best bet. When we lived on a half-acre lot growing up, my brother and I cut about a dozen yards around the neighborhood and we would bring the clippings home – we had deep, black, rich garden soil because of those clippings!

Here’s a shot of some compost we put on the garden last fall:

To build a compost pile, mix your greens (animal manures, grass clippings) with your browns (straw, wood chips/shavings, leaves) and turn the pile as often as you can. Small bins turned by hand or huge piles turned with a tractor all benefit from the aeration that moving and stirring creates. When you can’t differentiate between the greens and browns (it’s all black!) and you can’t smell strong, pungent manure, you’re ready for the garden or raised beds.

Whether you’re keeping a couple of raised beds without animal manures, or you’re gardening to sell veggies and using cow manure, compost is one of the foundations of healing the land!

Posted in Gardening, Healing the Land | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Joel Salatin: ‘Liberty is Risky!’

Posted on February 7, 2015 by David

I caught this article on the web not long ago. Joel always has a unique, succinct way of writing, and although this piece is highlighting a piece of legislation he hopes will help the food/farm situation in Virginia, the topic is quite critical to all of us. It carries deep correlations to nearly every area of our lives, as our government is racing to steal all our freedoms away from us.

But as I’ve tried to figure out why people are so willing to give up their freedoms, I’ve come to realize it’s largely because they don’t use those freedoms anymore. We buy our food, we don’t grow it – so who cares if it’s illegal to grow tomatoes in our front yards?

Well, I thought Joel’s article was worth passing along; enjoy. (Follow this link if the type below is too small.)

 

Liberty Is Risky

   Liberty is risky.  When you let people make their own decisions and self-determine what they eat, decisions can be quite subjective.  You even risk making bad decisions or allowing scofflaws to sell snake oil.

 8536935455_5d9ef792f6_z  But is the answer government oversight on every decision?  Does regulating every morsel of food insure its safety? Certainly not, as the number of food-borne illnesses and recalls attest. The truth is that a perfect system does not exist. Offering more freedom is risky, but so is complete governmental control. Government experts marched together telling the populace to eat trans-fats and carbs. The official USDA food pyramid probably did more to destroy America’s health than any other single official act.

   Subjecting all food to bureaucratic intervention between producer and buyer simply insures that all food must please bureaucrats. That’s an important reality. Government regulators are subject to the same nature as anyone else. Politics, power, and prestige afflict all people, regardless of where they work.

 Pleasing bureaucrats requires pleasing cultural orthodoxy. What happens when the orthodoxy is wrong?  The heretics are burned at the stake nonetheless. Today, many of us dare to question the orthodoxy du jour. 

   Here is a sampling of today’s orthodoxy: 

1.  Chemicals are safe; compost is unsafe.

2.  Mono-speciation is safe; multi-speciation is unsafe.

3.  Sterile is safe; biologically active is unsafe.

4.  People should not visit farms; people bring diseases.

5.  My body belongs to the state; self-determination is unsafe.

6.  People can’t be trusted;  people in government can be trusted.

7.  Local food can’t feed the world; we need concentrated animal feeding operations.

8.  Sick animals are merely pharmaceutically disadvantaged;  the terrain theory is nuts.

9.  Food should be cheap; expensive food is elitist.

10.  People are too stupid to make food decisions; bureaucrats must make all food decisions.

   On it goes, but you see the drift. The orthodoxy is palpable and clear. But what do you do with nonconformists? Do you burn them at the stake? Or is it not indicative of a liberty-oriented, person-respecting, diversity-loving culture to let the heretics practice on themselves, to innovate?

   Those who suggest that allowing food to be grown and sold without governmental intervention will plague society with poor food and sick people have no basis for the assertion.  Today, those of us who want to produce for our neighborhoods do so with a plethora of knowledge and infrastructure unavailable to our ancestors. Microscopes, stainless steel, indoor plumbing, on-demand hot water, soap, and refrigeration were science fiction in our great-grandparents’ days.

   The Virginia Farm Food Freedom Act, known as HB1290, leverages this knowledge and savvy to a futuristic place of innovative food. Rather than being stuck in outdated orthodoxy, freeing food and farm entrepreneurs to access their neighbors with heresy food like raw milk, home-made beef stew, and microwavable shepherd’s pie identifies Virginia as a place that embraces liberty and the future. 

   The future is always scary. Would you rather go there with several heretics, or securely wrappedin the protection of today’s orthodoxy? Many of us would choose the heretics, knowing from history that these folks understand thought and practice freedom. When you’re facing uncertain times, you usually want someone willing to think creatively, not someone stuck on forms, licenses, and an archaic orthodoxy.

   So let’s join hands and push the Food Farm Freedom Act forward in the upcoming General Assembly. Let’s dare to dream about a food system that embraces innovation.  Today’s orthodoxy will give us more of the same: cancer, Type II diabetes, obesity, autism, and food allergies.  How about something different? Your heretic farmers who fertilize with compost, make cheese in their kitchens, and build immune systems rather than using drugs are ready to take us into tomorrow’s solutions. Get on the freedom train.

Joel Salatin is a Farmer, Author, and a Local Foods Advocate. He and his family operate Polyface Farms in Swoope, Virginia. You can learn more about him and his farm on their website: www.polyfacefarms.com
Posted in Joel Salatin | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Three Handcrafted Chests

Posted on January 30, 2015 by David

I have this friend. Well, I know him better than he knows me. And I’m not sure if I still call him my friend. Actually, I wish he would go away. Far away and quit writing, quit publishing, quit building furniture with hand tools and just leave me alone…

I’m talking about the hand tool fanatic, prolific writer, blogger and furniture builder Christopher Schwarz. He’s the co-owner of Lost Art Press, an old-school publishing house that is putting some great, old books back into print as well as pumping out some of the best new content in woodworking from some of the greats in woodworking today; from Peter Galbert’s upcoming book to Matt Bickford, Roy Underhill and many others.

Willie and I got to meet Chris at a Lie-Nielsen show at Highland Woodworking in Atlanta.

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Christopher Schwarz wrote two books that I wish he hadn’t. If he hadn’t written them, my life would have been a lot simpler. No scrounging pennies for rusty old tools I’ve spent endless hours scrubbing rust off of, no catastrophic withdrawals from the bank for checks written to some guy in Maine called Tommy Lie-Nielsen, no litany of late nights in a shop slaving away with a hand plane in an era of electric power tools, no……well, let me start over.

Chris wrote a book called The Anarchist Tool Chest. I had heard about the book, bought it not long after it came out, and then devoured it on the spot. It’s the only modern treatise of any value about the storage of hand tools, and more importantly, the book includes a first-class, real-life, necessity-driven list of the tools you need to build simple furniture by hand.  Not a list of all the latest power tool gadgetry that allows you to build furniture as if you were a machinist and after you spend $50,000 dollars setting up a shop, but a list of about 50 hand tools you need to build basic furniture. His philosophical thrust (the Anarchist part of the Tool Chest) rings true with my sentiments about sustainability: the simple act of buying a few hand tools, building a chest to protect them and organize them, then building the things your family needs is a kind of anarchy in light of today’s Chinese produced, cheap goods that fill our lives. He outlines a full size chest in his book, as well as a traveling version. Chris was so compelling, I built both chests!

If that wasn’t enough, he’s writing a second book he calls The Furniture of Necessity. This book isn’t published yet, but Chris leaked out some of his writing on the ubiquitous six board chest that fills every antique shop from America to England. Again, his compelling writing, his anarchy and my thoughts of sustainability converged and I couldn’t help but head to the lumber store for some 5/4 Poplar to build my own blanket chest.

I’ve forgotten how many endless hours I spent sawing dovetails, flattening lumber with a jack plane, tweaking and fitting six sliding tills in the tool chests, installing hardware, uninstalling hardware, finishing, finishing and a little more finishing, but all this tongue-in-cheek aside, these three chests have been liberating, therapeutic, and simply fantastic!

There is no way to work at any craft without well tuned tools, stored in an organized manner. It’s foolish to try otherwise. The English styled tool chest fits the need remarkably well.

And for all of our sheetrock closets filled with the latest and greatest plasticized, particle-board organization schemes, a simple blanket chest filled with a few linens for our home is a breath of fresh air.

Here are a few pictures and details about the three chests.

The full size tool chest:

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I dropped the saw till all the way to the bottom of the chest and gained a fourth sliding till – two deep and two shallow. I really like this change. I still have all the accessibility I need to get to everything, but I feel like I get more organized space with that extra, deep till.

Here are the top two tills – miscellaneous measure tools, coping saw, hammers, block plane, shoulder plane, side rabbeting planes and scratch beading tool:

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Here is the third till – a couple of egg beaters and bits, two braces, my router plane:

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And here’s the fourth – sharpening tools for saws, odd sharpening stones, extra plane irons:

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I put a tool rack on the front and back wall. I got away with this because I made my tool chest slightly wider than Chris suggested. I think this is some very valuable room to add. And, I put some 3″ casters on the chest which acts like a toe-kick, so I don’t have any trouble reaching into the bottom, back corner even with the extra width.

Front tool rack:

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I liked my chisel rolls before the tools chests, but once I had the chest, they seemed unnecessary. So rather than ditch them and make wooden racks for my chisels, I just hung the rolls. This shot also shows the bottom of the tool chest where I store my bench planes and a Stanley #46 Combination plane:

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Here are the casters:

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Another shot of the bottom of the chest shows the rest of the planes and my saw till:

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The traveling size tool chest: Chris gives measurements for this chest as an option to build for hauling around almost all your tools. I built this version and have filled it with tools for green woodworking like spoon carving and chair-making. I put a chisel roll on the back wall and two sliding tills; besides that, the bottom of the chest is just a cavern for all the odd shaped tools involved in green woodworking.

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Here are the tills and chisel roll:

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Everything else was pretty much as Chris described a traditional tool chest out to be, save one more major change that I incorporated in both chests. I broke some wood movement rules and put the dust seal skirt all the way around the lid of the chests, and I gained a very satisfactory, air-tight fit. So far, the chests have been through the end of a winter, a wet spring and a hot summer, so here’s hoping I continue to get away with the risk.

Here are two shots of the wrap-around dust seal:

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On the blanket chest, I stayed pretty simple: one straight piece of moulding on the front of the chest, thumbnail edge on three sides of the lid, and some simple, hand-hammered hinges. I also used these traditional nails to put the carcass together. I didn’t want to pay for nice hand wrought chain so I used some I had. It was bright and shiny so I scuffed it with steel wool and then cold blued the chain and screws before I installed it.

Here’s the chest with the hardware installed and the woodworking done:

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And now finished with black milk paint:

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I used milk paint on all three chests. Two to three coats of milk paint, then two to three coats of oil, then steel wool and wax.

There is something immensely satisfying to own a kit of tools with which I can provide for some of the most basic building needs of my family. A tool chest is just a box really, but there is comfort in knowing my tools can be well cared for, ready to pass on to my son one day.

I have the blanket chest in our bedroom and it’s quite a feeling to enjoy the simple beauty of hand work and old-time finishes on a piece of time-tested furniture design, doing something useful and taking me one step away from dependence on some corporate, greed driven, government-controlled machine…

My city seems to have more and more country roads; how about yours?

So, thanks, Chris. The world needs more hand tools, tool chests, and blanket chests; more handmade furniture of necessity!

Posted in Woodworking | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments

Food Security in Pictures: Gallery #3

Posted on January 24, 2015 by David

Strawberries go in the ground in October but bear in the Spring, starting about the second week in April. Most of us (me included) think of planting time in the Spring, but if you want to eat and preserve one of the finest small fruits there is, fall is the time to prepare! Food security at it’s sweetest is found with strawberry plants quietly enduring the winter cold, slowly growing, and preparing for a flood of sweet berries come April. Smoothies, fresh with cream & honey, jams, and jellies… Yum!

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If you have the opportunity, one of the greatest animals to consider in regards to food security, is a dairy animal. Our preference is obviously the very fine registered Jersey cow for innumerable reasons: she gives the richest milk, she’s been proven to make less milk than the infamous black and white Holsteins, but she does so more efficiently (more milk from less feed than the commercial Holsteins), she’s as docile an animal as you’ll find, and she makes a large enough volume of milk to feed her calf and provide plenty of fresh milk for the farmer.

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One of the greatest aspects of a dairy animal is the many, many things you can do with milk. A lot of people hear that a Jersey may give you anywhere from 2-5 gallons of milk per day (depending on her diet, how much the calf drinks, and where she is at in her lactation – beginning, middle, or end) and think they could never use that much milk! In many cases, this causes people to consider milking goats. Goats are great animals for some very particular circumstances, but like all animals, they have both positives and negatives. Goats give less volume of milk, the cream doesn’t separate while chilling, careless handling will result in a strong flavor in the milk, and they will deliver 2-3 kids each pregnancy. This can be a positive or a negative, depending on your ability to sell or raise the kids. 2-3 kids also cuts sharply into the amount of milk left for the farmer! Also, a goats ‘ability’ to climb and their preference for browse (limbs, twigs and leaves) as opposed to just a diet of grass can also add to the difficulty of keeping goats. That said, if you need to clear some land of brush and briars, if you plan on raising goats for meat, and if you would like to make goat cheeses (like feta), they can be great!

Back to the amount of milk from a Jersey. Several gallons a day may overwhelm you at first, but think of the possibilities: Butter. And more butter! Clarified butter (aka Ghee or Butter Oil). Cream for eating with fresh fruit and making ice cream. Also, cream with culture, then drained, becomes the finest soured cream in the world! Skimmed milk? That’s for the pigs! And skimmed milk turns good pork into world-class pork! Yogurt. Kefir. Both powerful probiotic foods for your gut and digestive health. Cheese. Even without fancy equipment, farm cheese is mighty good, and mozzarella on homemade pizza is to die for!

So as we face increasing problems in our food supply, not only in quality but in possible access as we create a more fragile food system each year and not just trucking food around our nation but also around the globe, think about a dairy animal. A placid Jersey grazing out back is one of the greatest hedges against crisis God ever created.

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Here’s some of that yogurt I mentioned above. If you don’t have room to keep a cow yourself, we’re keeping quite a few for you! Taking our milk and turning it into even more nutrient dense, (and in the case of yogurt and kefir) probiotic super-foods is a great way to improve your diet!

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Check out the recipes we have on our website for some delicious ways to use extra milk:

Maple Vanilla Ice Cream

Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

Eggless Holiday Egg Nog

How to Make Yogurt

Kefir Instructions

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Below is a picture of Maggie, our very first cow we got started with many year ago.  In which ways are you making your life more dependent on God’s natural food resources that He’s provided us with?  Is there a berry patch or milking animal in your backyard?

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Posted in Food Security | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

A Real Man’s Miter-box

Posted on January 9, 2015 by David

When I first started collecting hand tools almost fifteen years ago, I couldn’t figure out how I could afford a hand saw miter box. They were several hundred dollars and a tool that you didn’t have to have early on as you put together a kit of hand tools. But I sure wanted to find one. Super-accurate cuts, repeatability, and just downright cool kept me hunting one for years. Here’s one right now that’s ready to go, but also ready to drain your wallet!

Enter Art Abercrombie’s father. I never new Art (though my dad did) and never met his father either. But Art’s father was an old-time framer with hand tools, and when he got out of the business, he sold his tools to folks who knew him. My dad got a few things, and my Uncle Phil got Mr. Abercrombie’s Millers Falls Langdon Miter Box. I called my uncle several years ago to see if he still had the miter box and if he would want to get rid of it. My Uncle Phil still had the miter box and not only said he would give it to me, he was kind enough to bring it to me!

I immediately started disassembling it so I could clean all the rust off the parts, re-paint the box itself, restore the saw handle, and sharpen the saw. As I took the miter box apart I found one of the posts that holds the saw was bent. A little time with a torch and I had the part as good as new.

Now enter: life. Well, I don’t remember what got me off the restoration of the miter box, but months went by and it just sat in pieces in a cardboard box. Last winter, I tackled the rest of the restoration project.

Here are a few pictures of the finished project:

My first project for the miter-box was putting the shelf below my bench-top. I used some tongue and groove 8/4 Yellow Pine from the tack room that was here on the farm originally (that room is now where my mom pours up all the fresh Jersey milk!). I cut a 1 1/2″ by 3/4″ rabbet on the end of each board, and I used the miter-box to make the cross-cut, and it worked great! A little sweat in exchange for almost zero danger in use; the miter-box will be a great asset to my hand tools shop.

I love the juxtaposition that comes with using old hand tools in a world gone mad for speed. We use so many tools today, from electric chop saws to our vehicles that we zoom around in, that kill and maim a certain percentage of their users, year in and year out. Have we really progressed in a worthwhile direction to trade a little time and sweat operating a hand saw miter box for all the injuries the electric version causes each year? Don’t get me wrong, just like my Crosscut Saw Post, we’ve got a chop saw in our shop, too. But I hope that each year that goes by it will just collect more dust. Food for thought! Are you opting out of this rat race in any way?

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Happy New Year and 2014 in Pictures!

Posted on January 1, 2015 by David

We want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!  I thought we’d share some pictures from 2014 as we look forward to 2015:

The biggest news of last year was our precious Ellie who was born on January 16th!

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Somehow, February was photo-less, but come March of last year it was warm enough for us boys to ditch our shirts, get to work, and get the cows out on the first green grass of the spring:

In April we received our very first Freedom Ranger chicks, had kittens born on the farm, got potatoes planted, and last year’s group of calves were turned out on the fresh grass.

May had us catching bee swarms and eating fresh sugar snaps out of the garden!

Come June, we were digging those potatoes we planted, processing chickens with friends, eating blueberries, I started carving spreaders, and the gardens were in full swing!

July was really busy! We had two new calves born, Willie and Ellie enjoyed the front yard, and customers were coming again to pick up fresh chicken.

And July was also full of day after day of preserving tomatoes and corn!

August was time to turn the cows into the picked over corn patch, repair the gutter downspout on the chicken house, cook out on the grill, and rob honey!  Meanwhile, Ellie was growing up and loving her time with the farm animals.

In September, Benjamin came to visit, we had another new calf, and it was time to plant strawberries for 2015.

October saw the group of calves growing and getting halter trained and our Shittake mushroom logs fruited! Willie turned 3 years old on the 29th and had fun riding ‘Ole Bluey’ the tractor.

In November, Willie got to help me in the shop, Tina continued working with the now very large group of calves, and we caught a double rainbow after a fall shower.

December was busy, too. I started selling my Spinning Tops and the girls started selling Muddy Moose (chocolate syrup)! We had our last calf born for 2014 and we got a surprise visit from some friends down from Pennsylvania (they also happen to be our suppliers of beef sticks & jerky ~ Stony Mountain Ranch). The last shot is of some very tired cousins on Christmas Day!

May God bless you and your families as we embark on a New Year!

Posted in Other Posts | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 24, 2014 by David

My parents have read the Bible to their five children their whole lives. One of my most vivid memories about the time they took to read to us, even long after we were old enough to read it ourselves, is the story of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke.

Through the years, we’ve read all the different accounts of the Birth of Christ, along with the related prophesies about Jesus’ coming to earth, but Luke’s account has been the most visited in our home. One year, our parents worked with us to memorize the second chapter of Luke; I suppose this is why it remains sharply in focus for me. Thank the Lord for parents who take the time to teach the Word of God to their children!

Here’s a copy of the second chapter of Luke. Rather than get run over with the consumerism of the world this December, step back and remember: the Great American Gift Exchange that stresses most people to no end was our idea, not God’s! Enjoy the true story of Christmas and try to take a step towards a holiday not so obscured with the swapping of toys. Tina and I made a very conscious decision, when we got married four years ago, to do no gift swapping in our new family at Christmas, and to the best of our ability do the same as it relates to our extended families. With the gift swapping out of the picture, we can truly enjoy the celebration of our Savior coming as Emmanuel, God with us!

Luke 2:

1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

21 And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

22 And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;

23 (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;)

24 And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.

25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.

26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,

28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,

29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:

30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

33 And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him.

34 And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;

35 (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

36 And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity;

37 And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

38 And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

39 And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.

40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.

42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.

43 And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.

44 But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.

45 And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.

46 And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.

47 And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.

48 And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.

49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?

50 And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.

51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

Merry Christmas!

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Eggless Holiday Egg Nog

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Anna

Egg Nog…..yum! Just the name makes my mouth water.  Yet, we often run into a problem when trying to make it from scratch. Since the winter holidays are when we usually drink this, we are often very low on eggs during that same time of year!  Inside, there may be a warm fire crackling while sweet-smelling scents waft thru the air and twinkling lights create an inviting glow, but outside, the cold weather and shorter days have caused the faithful chickens to go on strike (actually a God-given, built-in ‘break’ for the chickens).  To solve this conundrum, I’ve created an “Eggless” Egg Nog recipe that our family just loves!  Give it a try this winter and tell those chickens to hang in there til spring.  🙂

 

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                             Eggless Holiday Egg Nog

 
4 cups      Whole Milk
2 cups      Cream (use 3 cups to put it over the top)
1/3 cup     Raw Honey
2 tsp.        Nutmeg, ground
1/2 tsp.     Sea Salt
 

Thoroughly mix all ingredients together.  If you have time, mix it up the night before as it tastes best after being chilled several hours in the fridge.  Stir well before serving & enjoy!

 

 

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