Wrapping up September

Yes, I know September was 3 months ago. But bare with me, I'm catching up, and I don't want to skip over some fun stuff and random photos I have. :) 

Squishy getting introduced to "Mr. Wombat" the single baby bunny I told you about earlier. Poke poke...so soft. 

Another neat event in September was being able to view the "Blood Moon" or full Eclipse. Pretty amazing.

Faith's Morning Glories she had planted on the bean trellis finally bloomed... after the beans were all done! :)

My amazing oldest Sister celebrated her 33rd birthday! 

Another big announcement we got, was that Josh and Theresa are expecting their second baby.

Due to arrive sometime in May 2016.

Gabe wasn't completely sure about his new title! :)

And that I think wraps up September.. phew! Time to move on!

~Chs

Polish Luau

Just over a year ago, we were able to find a wonderful church that we started attending. We have gained so many wonderful friends, been blessed with wonderful sound preaching, and really become a part of  a new family!

One fun thing we got to experience this year, was when our church did a "Polish Luau". We had never heard of this before, and weren't really sure what we were getting into, but really it was a lot of fun!

Basically it's like a big New England Dinner. Each family brings enough Cabbage, potatoes, corn (on the cob) and sausage links for the people in their household.

On the driveway their was a large (clean..) metal garbage can full of water, that is sat down inside of a metal drum, which has a hole in the side, and a fire burning in the bottom.

The Polish Luau was held at the home of one of the Pastor's sons, and while we were waiting for the water to heat up we got a tour of their impressive pumpkin Patch.

Sweet "Miss Beth," the most wonderful Pastor's wife ever!

"Is it ready yet!!"

The different vegetables were dumped in the boiling water, in a systematic way, so they all cooked properly, then the sausage was thrown in last.

When it was all done, the guys lifted out the can with a 2x4 and chains, and then one of them got a pair of strong pliers.

Everyone else grabbed a sheet, and held on tight as the big dinner in a can was dumped into our "sieve". 

Then it was time to dig in!! 

It was a fun, unique, time of fellowship! And the dinner was pretty good tasting too, even if we did eat it off the ground! :)

~Chs

Multiplying Rabbits

One of the animals that has been added and multiplied at our farm this year, was Rabbits. Faith got 2 Does (female Rabbits) and 1 Buck (male Rabbits). 

Then Josiah brought her home a pair of apricot colored Rabbits from Polyface. In addition to these grown ones, we have had 2 litters of bunnies this year.

The first litter happened to be only 1 rabbit.

1 very fat and chubby rabbit, consequently.

This is the little single baby rabbit all grown up!

 Violet, our grey and white Momma rabbit had the second litter of 7 little bunnies. 

7 darling soft fluffy adorable, babies.

Momma and her little bunnies.

So round and fuzzy. :) I am simply going to fill the rest of this post with just photos of Bunnies. No boring words. You're welcome.

~Chs

Consider the Birds

"Consider the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?"
Luke 12:24

(I was able to capture a shot of this beautiful little Warbler in September while helping my Aunt and Uncle at a missionary retreat in Port Austin.)

The other Garden

Since we're on the subject of  gardens, let me finish up. This year we had 2 gardens. The main one with all of our "normal" vegetables and then one behind the pole barn where we planted squash and corn.

For the squash patch we simply did 16 mounds.. well as we found out later we kind of planted intensively. In fact I don't have a picture of the garden later on.. but try to imagine the above image, completely covered with a moving green mass of squash plants, growing in, over, on top of, and through each other. It was pretty crazy!

But to leave the squash for a second.. right above the squash patch I decided to have a little fun and plant a corn maze. Well really a corn spiral! With a help of a friend from church we planted the corn, with sunflowers in the middle and at each entrance!

Behind the maze underneath all the crazy growth, little baby squash began to form.

The corn patch actually did relatively well for how haphazardly its was thrown together; we even got quite a few yummy meals with corn on the cob as side dish.

But the Squash patch... that outdid itself! Seriously!! I had planted 6 different kinds of squash. 2 we have grown many times and love, Butternut, and Spaghetti Squash, but the other 4 were experiments of sorts. In the above photo from top to bottom, we have a Blue Hubbard (huge odd looking vegetables, but with an amazing taste!) then the Galeaux d' Eysines (don't ask.. long french name, and that's really only the ending of it!), The Long Island Cheese (a squash, which is actually a pumpkin, that is called a "cheese." Identity crisis just happened.) and on the bottom, the Hidatsa squash (native american heirloom variety)

This wasn't even all of our harvest!!! (you can see the pile behind the cart... uhuh)

In fact we loaded so much in the cart for the photo.. but then had to unload them because it was too heavy and the wheels went flat! 

All in all, I think the "other garden" did it'self proud.. and if the world runs out of food this winter... we have squash.

~Chs

Glimpse back at the Garden

 The weather the last couple days has been almost mild enough to convince some that it's spring and time to start gardening again! But alas for them, it is not so. We still have the delightful season of Winter to go through yet. So, to help satisfy that gardening itch, here is a collection of photos from our summer garden!

Early July! A lovely green garden, still really at the beginning stages. Lovely lettuces, pretty peas, and lots of stuff still coming!

Faith's Peppers did fabulous this year! So much so, we were rather overwhelmed. Especially because she decided to try out quite a few new kinds of peppers, including some hot ones!

Faith tried something a little different for cucumber trellises this year. 

For some reason our cucumbers didn't really enjoy the weather, or something, because they didn't produce very well. But that just goes to show the truth about farming/gardening. Each year is different; some plants do great one year and not so much the next... and visa versa. You just do the best you can and leave the rest up to the Master Gardner! 

It's amazing how many vegetables are actually extremely photogenic. Purple Cabbage is one of those! And Faith discovered this year that they have an iridescent glow in the dark! Believe it or not!!

Our sister in law Theresa gave Faith this creative sign for her Birthday, and it fit as a wonderful reminder standing at the front of one of the garden beds.

As mentioned in this post, Faith built a Cattle Panel Arbor for the pole beans! It was a great use of space and visually stunning (especially later when the morning glories she planted at the front bloomed).  Even though it was a little hard on the neck picking the beans, I think we're definitely going to do it again!

I love that Faith plants flowers along the ends of her garden beds.. 

Here's something that has never appeared in our garden before. Faith decided to grow some eggplant this year! And while it's not our absolute family favorite taste wise.. It sure is gorgeous to look at! It looks like it belongs in a painting or something. :)

A rainbow of vegetables.. fresh from the garden...and...

Cooked up for lunch! 

I have decided if none of my other jobs pan out, that I would love to be a photographer for a seed catalog!

Faith had some extra produce to sell, and wanted some photos for her ad.. 

Lets just say I had lots of fun with that project!

The little spicy Aurora peppers were particularly attractive to capture! They start purple and turn orange and red. Definitely a plant that could be used in edible landscaping!

Mother is a pureist when it come to her vegetables and fruit. Tomatoes must be red, Carrots orange.. etc. Faith on the other hand loves exploring and experimenting. And also it is a fact, that the original Carrot was actually white.. and Tomatoes.. well they weren't red. So we grow some of each in our garden.

When one of your sister's Heirloom Tomatoes she tried for the first time this year just happens to compliment your family Heirloom chair your Grandpa re-upholstered.... Photo bliss. :)

So there is your little glimpse of summer garden delight. Hopefully it'll help hold you over till we can garden outside again for real! 

~Chs