From the Setting of the Sun

The sun has set on the last day of the year 2015. For me at least, it definitely was one to be remembered. One full of fear, trust, change, learning, falling, growing, holding on. 

Some say that each day is the same, that the sun rising tomorrow, the first day of 2016, really shouldn't mean any more than the sun rising a month ago. And to be completely rational and practical. They're right. But, I think God in His mercy gave us the break down of days, into weeks, months, and yes, years. It helps us, to take a break, to suddenly realize the amount of time that has past, to look at where we've been, where we want to be. Where He wants us to be.

May we, may I, in this coming year, so live our lives that:

"all may know from the rising of the sun to its setting

That there is none besides Me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other;"

Happy New Year!
To all my faithful readers, to whom I apologize for my ridiculous lack, and then overload of post this year.

~Chs

A Shredding Good Time!

 A byproduct of cleaning up our acreage is a bunch of shrubbery and branches that needed to be disposed of.

Some of it we burned, but we decided to make more use of some of them by renting a wood chipper and turning the branches into useful mulch by shredding them.

We filled Josiah's truck up a couple of times.  

Bringing in the goods. :) 

Feeding the chipper.

Sadie in the meantime kept busy digging viciously for wild animals. 

We used some of the wood chips to mulch the cow's winter quarters and I'm sure we'll find more uses for them throughout the year!

~Chs

Visitors

The second week of December we had visitors from Virginia, a brother and sister that Josiah had the blessing of interning with and working with all Summer down at Polyface. 

We had lots of fun showing them our property and all our dreams for improvement and expansion. They are a couple steps ahead of us on their farm back home, and it was nice to be able to discuss ideas with people that know where you're coming from!

Josiah had the chance during the summer to go visit Benjamin and Rebekah's farm and family, and he came back with lots of videos of their jam session at their home. 

They are extremely talented musicians.. but Josiah forgot to ask them to bring along their instruments, and all we have is Faith's little Patriotic Folk guitar. (actually while they were here we discovered we have another long forgotten guitar hiding in the backroom, but alas it had a broken string..) But even so, we still enjoyed a little bit of music in and around conversation.

Unfortunately they could only stay through the weekend and had to leave Monday morning, but we managed to fit in a visit to where Josiah and Faith work, a beautiful farm in Metamora, with around 300 acres of property... most of which we walked! :) 

{We all happened to be wearing shades of pink on Sunday} 

 It was great to be able to spend time and get to know better, 2 of the amazing people Josiah got to work with at Polyface, and hopefully this won't be the last time they get to visit!

~Chs

The Challenge Accomplished

This is the 50th post this year. I have officially won the challenge. 

And we still have a couple days left in 2015!!! I'll have to see how many more posts I can smash in! ;)

Honestly I am very grateful to my "little" brother for making it into a challenge, or I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have done it! 

My own personal challenge for 2016 will be, barring any extraneous circumstances, to post on this blog once a week.... we shall see.

~Chs

A Thankful Glance Back

The year is nearly over. Just 2 short days left. So I decided to combine photos of our Thanksgiving day this year (which we had at my Aunt Carmen's house) with some of the many things we are thankful to God for this year!

People

We are oh so grateful for the people God has put in our lives. Both those that we have known for most of our lives, and those that we have had the privilege to add to our list of acquaintances this year! Family (immediate, extended), friends, co-workers (most of which fit snugly in the friend category), church family, and all other groups. 

Food

And more specifically God's blessing on our farm this year, and the wonderful edible items we were able to harvest from it. From Faith's vegetable garden, which did astonishingly well for the first year, to my squash garden, to the Turkey's we raised and so on and so forth.

Beauty

In Nature, in the home, in friendships, in the sunrise, in His Son, and all He's done for us.

Gratitude is such a huge part of joy, and a full life. We can not truly honor God and live out His best for us to His glory, if we don't take the time to be thankful. To recognize the gift, smile, and simply say, "Thank you!"

So what are you thankful for as 2015 draws to an end!! I know my personal list is long and detailed. God is good and He is faithful, and I cannot wait to see what 2016 holds, knowing that the God who loves me, knows, and holds whatever is there.

~Chs

Snow Day

 So December has been pretty much snowless for the most part, but hopefully that will change this coming week! I am holding out for a White New Year! :) But while we wait for that.. here is a look back at the incredible snow storm we had in November. The one we rushed to get the lean-to up before. 

In the space of less than 12 hours the whole world was covered in a thick white blanket!!! 

I was gone in the morning, but Josiah and Faith took advantage of the snow and went sledding on our steep hill back in "the bowl."

Ready.... Set........

GO!!! 

I completely missed out on the sledding, so that's one of the many reasons I can't wait for it to come again!!

The next morning, we woke to beauty! Just think that this thick layer of blinding whiteness is made up of billions upon billions of individual tiny intricate snowflakes! We serve and incredible Creator!!!!

The animals all had different reactions to this sudden white out. The piggies rather liked rooting around in the cold moist fluff, and Sadie Rose of course has always loved snow!!! The goats on the other hand, weren't exactly thrilled, but they were nice and safe in their newly built run in. :) 

Hope these photos helped assuage your desire for snow.. till the next Snow Day!!! 

(Hopefully soon!)

~Chs

Preparing for the Snow Storm

The project we were using the little blue tractor to clear away trees for, was to build a run in, or lean- to on the back of the Pole Barn as winter housing for the animals. The plan was to also cut a door into the Pole barn so we could bring the animals directly in to be milked. 

This had been on the project list for a while, but it climbed quickly to the top with the threat of a snow storm. 

Jim Pierce, came to lend us his building expertise (which was invaluable) along with some tools. Josiah had fun using the nail gun, and of course was the one that got to climb on top and nail everything together.

We used one side of the existing roof, for the top of the run-in, and then replaced that side with new roofing. They had a very very good reason for this, but it would take too long to try and explain it. :)

They made me climb up the ladder, and traverse the slippery roof, to take pictures. It was terrifying getting there (I'll be honest. I don't like heights) but I have to admit the view was lovely.

It was getting dusky, but it was neat to be able to get a different perspective of our farm!

Not to be outdone, Sadie tried to climb the ladder to join us!!

Seriously!! She would climb up a few rungs all herself!! Apparently she doesn't share my fear of heights.

We finished it just in time!! We received the accumulation of around 8 inches of snow all in one day! But no fear, the animals were all cozy in their new homes.

~Chs

In Which The Tractor Helps

This is the newest farm equipment on the farm.. and the girl riding it, is the girl who wanted a tractor over a car. :) Faith fell in love with tractors this summer working at the farm Josiah worked at. And when she found out a friend of ours was selling this beautiful Blue FORD Tractor, it was tops on her list. When she bought it, she drove it home 2 1/2 happy hours. 

When she got home, Sadie was pretty excited about the tractor too. She thinks it's hers. :)

We put it to work pretty much the next day. The job: clearing the 10 year + accumulation of weed trees.

Josiah started by chopping around the base of the offending trees and shrubs, and then Faith would pull them out with the little Blue Tractor.

Happy FORD Farm girl!! ;)

Josiah and Faith's boss, Jim, came and helped us with the cleaning out process. He also came and helped out with the next project: Building an addition/lean to on the Pole Barn, but that'll be another story! 

The Tractor also helped pull down a "big" oak tree. We are very happy for Faith and her little Blue Tractor, and also very happy to have such a useful new implement on the farm! Josiah already used it to plow our driveway!! A TON faster than the little lawn tractor he used last year! But that also is another story!! :)

~Chs

The Piggies Post

So you have seen the Piggies throughout some of the other posts, but I don't think you have been properly introduced to our Flying pigs. 

This is Orville. He started the whole Flying pig thing. For some reason Faith, decided this little black and white porker, looked like an "Orville". And once we had an Orville, we had to have....

Wilbur! The second of the Wright brothers. :) and the cutest, sweetest, and friendliest, of the three. Oh, and.. he loves apples! 

The little pink pig we got, was a girl. And while at first we were going to name her Petunia.. we realized that we had a flying pig theme.. so her name is Amelia.

Sadie Rose liked the piggies, when they were little, smaller than her that is. Now they're more than twice her size!! and 4 times her weight.

Yum yum yum!! Grow piggies grow!

Dirty little Pig snout! They love digging around in the dirt, and we use them as natural plows of sorts! They tilled up Faith's new big garden for next year, and we are now rotating them up the hill into the woods where they just love snacking on the acorns and rooting through the leaves!

For our first venture into the pig business, it has gone quite well!

~Chs