Enjoying spending time in the Garden

  I used Grammarly to grammar check this post because I would rather be working in my garden than proofreading my posts!

 This month has been pretty busy, and I haven't had the time just to work in the garden the way I would have liked. I have needed to fly in and out pretty quickly just picking the things that we need for us to eat. I have been so thankful that is has kept producing even with my neglect, but I really wanted to be able to spend some time out there too.

   This week finally I have been able to spend a bit of time working in the garden. It has been pretty hot and, the mosquitoes have been biting, but it was so nice and fun to get a little work done out there.

  It is fun to admire how fast some of the plants are growing (and boy are the weeds ever growing fast too!). I also enjoy just spending time enjoying the beauty of the garden. The way the cabbage looks so elegant, the beautiful flowers on the beans  (we are especially enjoying the Scarlet runner bean which has bright red flowers and is a new variety for us), the flowers that are blooming, the cute featheriness of the carrots. Good made so many varieties of plants it is fun to spend a little time looking at them. I also enjoy the smell that the herbs make when I brush against them.

   Our garden isn't perfect this year (it isn't any year), we are dealing with gophers that have chewed the root off of over half of my brassicas, we have plenty of weeds, some bugs too and some things never came up, but through it all we are truly blessed.

  We have eaten many a salad from the garden already as well as some cooked greens. We have yet the promise of much more coming from our garden. The tomatoes look as if they will bear heavily. The melons look nicer this year than they often do. The corn is growing very nicely. I need to go harvest herbs tomorrow morning to start them drying. I think we might have more beans than we know what to do with. God has given to us abundantly yet again.

I know not everybody likes to garden, but the work and effort that go into a garden are totally worth it for me. The garden provides a lot of good food for our family and gives me opportunities to see God at work!

How is your garden growing? Have you been harvesting from it? I would love to hear from you!

Learning to be lovely

 Something that I read recently made me think about how I would like always look lovely in my husband's eyes. That when he looks at me I would be beautiful in his opinion. That would not mean that I am always dressed perfectly or have every hair in place but more that everything about me, mind. body and soul would be lovely.

  I do want to look attractive to him in physical ways but also in my attitude, the words I say and my actions.

  Some of my goals are:

1. To think about Ken when I am dressing or taking care of my hair and try to fix things in a way that he likes.
2. Remember to smile at him often.
3. To always have a good attitude.
4. To be joyful.
5. To find little ways to serve him throughout the day.

Those are some of the things I am wanting to work on in order to be lovely in the sight of my husband.

Do you strive to be lovely?

Making a Chicken Coop with what we have (Buying almost nothing!)

 The big project at our house this Spring/Summer has been making a chicken coop. As I mentioned before we got chicks on June 18th (17 of them but one did die so we have 16). Well, they needed a coop. I figured that we could make a coop pretty well using things that we have on hand along with pallets that we are able to get for free. It did end up working out pretty well! All we have had to buy (and possibly we could have actually managed without them) was 5 2 x 4's and a box of nails.










 Here is a pictorial journal of the process.

 We started out making the framework of course. For this we were able to mostly use lumber that had been part of our tree fort that fell down in the storm last year. We also used a few boards that we had just laying around as well as a some boards that came from the pallets.

  After going through the boards we had we drew up a plan that would work with what we had. Ken helped a lot during the framing process which I was very thankful for. This was more the kids and my project but the framing process was a little daunting and I was very thankful for his help.

 Jonathan was the main one to use the drill during the whole process (even more than Ken or I). Building this chicken coop has been a great learning experience for all the kids (and me).

 We didn't have any whole days to just devote to working on it so we just worked on it whenever we could, a little at a time.

 After the frame was up we needed to add more to it of course.

  We were able to find some old political signs that we knew would work well for insulation as well as working for a temporary roof.

 Mara didn't start out being very interested in the project but after I required her to help one day she found she really enjoyed pounding nails and was out to help most times after that. Anytime we needed to work on the roof I found I had plenty of helpers as going up on the roof to work just seems exciting.

 We put a double thickness of big signs over the main part of the roof and then over the peak we bent and layered signs which worked pretty well.

 The walls going up was quite exciting. The kids very much enjoyed nailing them in place. For that we used pallet boards. My big job was to pull all the pallets apart. That created quite a workout for me as the kids weren't really didn't quite have the strength to do it and so they just helped in pounding nails out and Ken was generally working and also didn't have any interest in working with pallets.

  My next workout came when our electric miter saw (which Jonathan and I learned how to run with this project!!) rather broke and so we went to cutting our boards with the handsaw. Megan was our board sitter - a good job for her to help keep the boards stable while cutting.

 The walls going up was definitely a fun time!

 We are getting there!

 Ken took care of the slanted cuts for us which was nice!

 My brother was able to fix our saw for us for which we were very grateful (thanks to dad as well who picked it up and I believe replaced the blade as well since the other had gotten bent - as a saw sharpener he tends to have a lot of blades on hand). Jonathan loved getting to use it again.

 We decided to make a door after exploring some other possibilities. Our doorway is small so the door really needed to be custom made. When making the door we ended up learning how to run the jig saw too so that was another power tool that we can now use - yeah!

 The chicks got moved in after the door was put on. They seem to like their new home. Ken had quite a few hinges just laying around, we had a handle that had been used on the tree house and there was a lock in our stash of stuff as well so we didn't have to buy anything here either.

 My parents looked around their place and discovered some extra tin that a friend that moved to Louisiana had left at their place. They measured it and decided it would be perfect for our roof - even complete with a ridge cap. Thanks Jason, for a roof for our chicken coop!

  Dad made us a roof "kit" with pearlings (the boards that go across) cut to the right size. They were some boards that he had cut on his sawmill that weren't perfect shaped but would work fine for our situation. He also brought over the tin that they had found. Dad also brought over some roofing nails that he had but didn't need (he said roofing screws would work better but since he brought nails I decided to go ahead and use them so we didn't have to buy anything here either).

Putting the roof on was a fairly fast and fun job and definitely popular with the kids.

  I had thought I would go to the local ReStore (run by Habitat for Humanity) to find a window (and possibly roofing tin) but my parents came to the rescue on that account too and said the had an old one that they had pulled out of their house. It work well! Ken framed that in for me too.

 After the roof was done we decided we had better paint it. I actually loved the old fashioned rustic look that it had but Ken didn't quite so much and I figured paint would help it last better. I look through our collection of leftover paint and found some that was a good color for the project. It was just barely enough but it worked! The boys helped me paint.

 In this picture you can notice the little door to the side of the window. That is to go into our chicken run when that is done.

 It is so nice to have the coop done to this point. We still plan to insulate it (with more old political signs) and are heading out this morning to get more pallets to make a run with and then we also need to make nesting boxes and permanent roosts but the hard part is done.

  The project was quite a bit of work but very fun, good exercise and a great learning experience.

  We have plans and dreams of making all sorts of other things now!

Entertaining Angels

Our Hollyhocks are growing so beautifully this year!

 As I was reading in Hebrews I really enjoyed chapter 13 and here are a couple of verses that I want to share with you.....

  "Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it." Hebrews 13:1 & 2

 

  Isn't that a fun thing to think about??? I think it is so cool that there is a possibility that we could have angels come to our house when we are hospitable to those we don't know (strangers).

 

   I don't think we have had any strangers over for a while, I think it is maybe about time to be a little more hospitable!

 

  Have you are thought on the cool implications that this verse has before? Do you enjoy being hospitable?

 

A strawberry picking, soap making, baseball playing, duck loving sort of day

 Yesterday was one of those days that are just brimful with things we enjoy doing.  Our first project of the day was to go the strawberry u-pick farm. We are trying to grow our own strawberries but so far there simply isn't enough of them to do much with and we really wanted some strawberry jam.

  We tried out a new play that it much closer to town than we have been at before. Also they are careful not to use herbicides or pesticides so that was another bonus! The kids thoroughly enjoyed picking. We got 4 heaping buckets full and ate a lot while picking too (that was encouraged there so that was pretty nice).

 We have made 4 batches of jam since, frozen quite a bit and made (and ate!) yummy fresh strawberry pie.

 After picking strawberries we went over to a friends house because she said I could come watch and help her make soap. I was very excited to get to do that and my kids had a lot of fun playing with hers.

  Thursday evenings are always are homeschool baseball games. It was a beautiful evening for the kids to play ball, the dads to run the game and the moms to sit around and visit!

 When we got home from baseball some friends were waiting for us with a baby duck. It had been rescued after it's mother got run over. The kids named it Spunky. It is adorably cute.

Unfortunately this morning when Jonathan was letting it have some exercise in the lawn it took off into the woods (it is amazingly fast for a tiny duck that only weighs 1 1/2 ounces!) and though we looked and looked for it and listened and listened for it's little voice we did not find it. We have hopes that it made it's way to the swamp behind our house and will survive. Jonathan feels very badly about it but perhaps it is all for the best. I am not sure that the chickens were going to accept it very well as a new companion anyway.

 Today we got ready for and then have enjoyed having company and I best get to bed so I can get up at a decent hour to make breakfast in the morning!

Abundantly Blessed

 

 You may remember that my bees have given me a bit of drama this year. First they struggled with chalk brood and then one hive decided to swarm as well. I was able to catch the swarm and put it back but I admit I did really wonder if this might not be such a good honey year after all the extra excitement. But at this point I think we are going to have a great honey year after all. On Sunday afternoon I went out to check them quickly (as it had been around a week) and discovered that both hives needed more empty boxes but I only had one empty box left. I needed to extract soon! To have basically all my boxes filled by the beginning of July is absolutely wonderful!

  I called a friend who had wanted to come over to help with the bee keeping sometimes (she is interested in doing it herself) and we arranged to have her (and her kids) come over on Monday morning.

After removing many full frames of honey comb we then extracted and gave some of the empty frames back to them to fill again. We were blessed with a very good honey harvest and I am truly feeling abundantly blessed! It always amazes me how God can work even through difficulty. Nothing can stop our great and mighty God. He can do anything!

It made me start thinking about other ways that I am feeling abundantly, overwhelmingly blessed. I thought I would share a few of those reasons......
When I was working on the Republican float for the parade this year ( I was left in charge of the signage and decorating after some of the men in our group did an awesome job of turning the frame of an old car into a float - super impressive work on their part!) and feeling overwhelmed with how much there was to do and didn't feel like I had the strength - friends came to the rescue and helped and it got done. God abundantly blessed!

 When riding in the parade this year and able to see and recognize so many from our community and have so many recognize me and call to me or wave I feel abundantly blessed with all the friends I have and the community that we can live in.

Hearing Mara play the piano for the congregational singing for church on Sunday night and her doing a pretty good job left me feeling abundantly blessed. I am so thankful that my children love music and that most of all they want to use their talents to glorify God.

 Going on a walk hand in hand with my little Megan in order to forage some stuff from the edge of our road left me feeling abundantly blessed. Not only because I have a little girl who loves me and wants to be with me but also because God has given us so many, many plants growing all over with so many, many different uses. When I start studying the things that He has made I am just in Awe and I feel abundantly blessed!

  Getting to pick various produce from our garden always leaves me feeling abundantly blessed. Not always do the things that we work hard on produce well but something always produces and we eat and are blessed!

  Have children that are willing to work hard with me on projects (like a chicken coop which is almost completed!) leaves me feeling abundantly blessed.

 Having a husband who loves me (enough to even survive most of the summer without air-conditioning since I don't like it) and provides for our family leaves me feeling very abundantly blessed.

  Having a Savior who was willing to come to earth and be a sacrifice for my sins so that I don't have to carry that burden of guilt or pay the penalty leaves me knowing that I am super abundantly blessed!!! (I have been loving reading through Hebrews lately that reminds me of His sacrifice.)

God is so good and I could share so many more reasons but I think I will stop for now and just encourage you to notice all the blessings that He has given to you!

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