In the Garden (Part 1 1/2): Of Seeds and Such

This blog post contains photos that may cause you to be discontent with your present lovely surroundings (if you are in Michigan or somewhere else cold and snowy that is), so please proceed with due caution.

Well folks, it's that time of year again.

Spring is just around the corner . . .

(o.k. so I'm being optimistic here) and our mail boxes are being inundated with seed catalogs. Or at least mine is. Mom commented the other day that there seems to be as many seed companies as there are letters of the alphabet. Choosing the right one to order from can be a bit confusing, if not frustrating.

Please don't think that I am the final authority on this, but for what it's worth, here are my "two cents" about the whole thing; take it or leave it.

Organic? Heirloom? Open-pollinated? Hybrid? Help!!

Unless you are planning on getting your land certified, or will be selling your produce this summer and plan on touting it as organic, don't worry about getting certified organic seed. This is where IFHO comes into play. (In Faith's Humble Opinion) I am all for chemical free gardening, and only use natural fertilizers on my plants, (fish emulsion, liquid seaweed and other great smelling stuff like that) and I have yet to do an in depth study on how/if the chemicals in seeds are passed to grown plants, but when the price of certified seed is two or sometimes three times as much as the regular seed, (and the "regular seed" doesn't mean it is chemically grown, but just not "certified" organic - read the fine print in the catalogs.) I'd rather buy the "regular" seed and save the money.

That said, here are a few certified organic seed companies for you to check out:

~ Seeds of Change

~ Peaceful Valley

~ Park Seeds - Organic

Some other seed catalogs have an "organic" section so look into that if you want more options.

Although opinions vary on how old a variety should be to qualify as an heirloom, most consider seeds grown prior to 1950 as heirlooms. I decided to try to grow almost all heirloom vegetables this year, primarily so that I can save the seeds for next year, (only heirloom and open-pollinated seeds will come true to seed) and save on the garden bill, and they also have many old varieties with flavor and other qualities that the modern hybrids can't touch. Plus it is a good start in learning how to be self sufficient. Heirlooms also have nostalgic properties, for us sentimental people:-).

Here are a few places that sell heirloom seeds:

~ Heirloom Seeds (very original:-)

~ Baker's Heirloom

~ Victory Heirloom Seeds

~ Granny's Heirloom Seeds

Hybrids are "something of mixed origin or composition." And just because I touted heirlooms as being so wonderful, doesn't mean all the work people have put into making hybrids is for naught. Many hybrid plants have resistance to diseases that some of the heirlooms do not. You will have to decide for yourself. It isn't imperative to grow all heirlooms, especially of those plants from which it is difficult to collect seeds(i.e. lettuce, onions, etc.).

(click the banner to go to their site)

I have the terrible habit of second guessing myself when it comes to ordering seeds. Just when I'm sure I've found the perfect catalog; wonderful selection, great prices; invariably I happen upon another company that sounds just as good or better! Well last year, about a week or so after I had ordered my seeds, a catalog for Pinetree Garden Seeds arrived in the mail. I mentally kicked myself and immediately decided that this was the place I was going to order from next year. They grew naturally, had superb prices, and carried a fine array of heirloom seeds. So when our mail box began to fill with seed catalogs this year, I didn't even blink as I sat down to order from Pinetree Garden. And of course what did I find a week or two later? The above mentioned "Granny's Heirloom Seeds." Now, I'm still not sure that Pinetree isn't the best out there for me. Every one will have a company they are more comfortable with, for some reason or another, how else would they all stay in business! But perhaps next year I will have to do a bit more research and comparison.

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O.K. now everyone refocus your eyes and wipe that bit of drool off your chin . . . you have been staring at the computer screen for way to long. Sorry this got so lengthy, but once I get going, there's no stopping me. I hope you found this a wee bit helpful!

Take care y'all,
Faith

Genesis 2:8 "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden . . ."

At the Cock's Crow

Here is a little video Josiah took of our head Rooster "Big Boy." He enjoys crowing . . . at all times of the day. :-) He has one sassy hen who talks back to him sometimes. The large Barred Rock you see in the nesting box is Sphinx. (Don't ask about the name) Shortly after this filming, she laid a large egg, with light purple speckles! I kid you not!

~ Faith

The Chicken and the Egg

Hallelujah!! The Chickens are laying eggs! We have been collecting 6-8 per day, the last few days. Most are quite small, but are getting bigger every day. It is so satisfying to have your own source for home "grown" eggs!


Here is a sweet little Buff thinking about it.

She gets some company from a pesky Rhode Island Red. They argue in subdued chicken voices for a while, before the Red finally decides to move to the next box.

Well, pluck me and call me a chicken!! Did I just do that!!

A precious egg! Free-range, organic, fertile . . .chicken egg. Yum!

Here's looking at you, Chick!

~ Faith

PETA: People Eating Tasty Animals (Rated PG14)

Dear Friends and Family:

This post contains some potentially disagreeable content. Please be advised that those of you with a weak stomach might want to just skip it. I apologize in advance if anyone is offended.
(Two animals were harmed in the making of this blog post.)

We are now full fledged farmers, country folks, red-necks, backwoods-men, or bloodthirsty murderous villains . . . whichever you prefer. We also now have a very real appreciation of where our food comes from, and that life on a farm is not always glamorous, but at times, and of necessity, can be a bit gory.

Once upon a time we got some cute innocent little chicks. Who, with our loving care, (and hundreds of pounds of food!) grew into big chickens. (no really!) This is the "End of the Story" for two of the five roosters we raised. The above picture is our very high tech "Butchering Board" that Dad made, along with Joshua's Bowie knife. It is the before photo, and below is the after.

I won't go into details here; let's just say that we learned a lot about how not to butcher roosters, and that a shark's death roll, ain't nothin' compared to a chicken with its head chopped (or shot) off.



Whew! Once the nasty work was out of the way, I enjoyed the plucking and gutting part . . . kind of. The headless horsemen . . . um . . . I mean Rooster, was dunked in a large pot of hot water and then plucked clean. Let me tell you something folks; the smell of hot, wet feathers, is not exactly one of the finer scents in the world.



Next I cut the feet off. Baby, who was very attentive during the whole process, greatly enjoyed the scraps we tossed her. It was quite amusing to see her trotting around with a chicken foot hanging out of her mouth.



O.K. so I had never gutted a chicken before. The laptop came in very handy as Christianna read me cut-by-cut directions from a website. It actually was easier than I thought. Granted it took me over half and hour to finish the first bird, but I didn't rip the intestines or cut anything that I wasn't suppose to, and the second one was a whiz.

Here he is, all clean and packaged for freezing!

And here they are, nice and comfortable, in a bed of veggies, rubbed with oil and seasonings ready to be popped in the oven . . .



. . . for a tasty Sunday dinner! And boy were they good!

And to all you real PETA people out there . . .Get a Life! (and eat some fresh, farm raised, roasted Chicken) Genesis 9:3

~ Faith

Sledding Fun!

Yesterday we went on a sledding outing with our friend Mr. Reiche for Josiah's birthday. We have been wanting to try out this new hill we heard of recently but never had the opportunity, or the park was not open due to the harsh weather conditions until yesterday.

Heading to the hill.

I stayed at the entrance to grab some fast action pictures while everyone else headed up to the top and gave great exclamations of amazement as to how steep the hill looked...we soon found out how bumpy it was too!

The birthday boy went down first on the tube. We quickly realized that the tube was pretty much the only thing you could get all the way down on because of how bumpy the slope was!

Josh ended up outside his sled about half way down most of the time. Then Faith and Christianna would follow and the same thing would happen resulting in shouts of frustrations from them and laughter from us at the top because of how comical they looked! =)

Heading back up.

The view from the top. You can't see them but this part of the hill had the appearance of a mogul slope with all the lumps on it!

Christianna zooming down. She finally made it all the way down by finding a path that skirted the bumps.

The toboggan made a few runs down on the less used side of the hill.

Sorry Josh! You should have heard him afterwards though! He wanted to come back and bring all his friends...to experience the thrills of getting bruised I guess. =)

This picture was a chance capture. Check out the flying ball cap!!

They finally persuaded me to take a ride down. Unfortunately we were not allowed to use snowboards and I wasn't about to kill myself on the moguls so I took the "train" instead.

Taking a break from sledding we took a walk through the woods surrounding the hill to find the skating pond.

The birthday boy!

After a few more runs down the hill we headed on home...thankfully without any injuries to speak of then though today everyone is announcing their many found bruises! However, I'm sure we will be back for a visit again soon and bring some friends to share in the adventures at Suicide Hill!

The boy king turns 14!

Cows, tractors, chickens and barns...these are just a few of the things that have been filling the mind of the youngest in the family lately! So in honor of his birthday we tried our best to accommodate his interests and make his 14th birthday a special one.


Christianna designed and decorated (along with some help from Mom) this Jersey cow cake!


The farmer boy and his cow!




For dinner we made his favorite meal (when he was younger he used to help cook and this was his meal) of "Pigs in a blanket", baked beans and jell-O.

Opening gifts! Another one of his past times is puzzle-ing!

Josh was the photographer for this event and was snapping pictures...

...of the gift givers and receiver.

We don't believe in dating...but Josiah sure breaks that rule as he would love to have a date everyday! ;-) Charity's gift to him was a whole box of pitted whole dates!

Josiah with the jean quilt I made for him.

Remember this picture? Christianna created this friendly fella in a fun way to present several of the gifts at the end of a treasure hunt she made for Josiah. The farmer boy is now all set to dress in style in his brand new overalls, flannel shirt and straw hat.

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Happy Birthday Josiah Thomas!

May God bless you with many more years to come and may He give you courage to stand up for His Word, be a true man of God and live for His glory!

Love you little brother!

~Grace

Our trip to Texas and the SAICFF

John and I had been planning to go the The SAICFF since July of last year so excitement and anticipation had been building for quite a while and where at the highest peek when we finally set out on our adventurous trip on Monday, January 5, 2009.

The first leg of our trip that was planned in driving straight through in hopefully 28 hours was soon to be squelched as the first day of our trip came to a close and we found ourselves behind time, behind semi's and heading straight into a nasty ice storm! I do not have any pictures from this time of our trip due to the fact that at this point I was starting to not feel so well and also was supposed to be trying to catch some winks so that I would be able to take my turn driving. That never took place though as we found ourselves weary eyed yet wide awake as we drove (at about half the speed we normally would have gone) through the rain and ice, stopping every so often at rest stops for those of us (which at one point was about all but 1 of us) who were suffering from a big dose of nervous sickness! Coming on somewhere around the 5 am range we all realized we could not take another mile of this agony and therefore pulled into a rest stop and tried to get some rest for an hour or so. That Tuesday morning found us all still not feeling so well, but trying to stay positive we made a quick stop for some breakfast and then got on our way continuing our travel through the ice glazed state of Arkansas.

Then finally! I started to see signs that we had finally reached the border of that long sought after state of Texas and we were heading into warmer air and sunny skies!

Texas country is beautiful! At least along where we were traveling and for these weary eyes. Our spirits were lifted and my stomach was starting to settle down enough that I took a turn driving for about 5 hours so John could get some rest. He took several of these images as we traveled through the beautiful country side.

Gorgeous! No more snow...no more ice...

Sunny and smiling! Oh, did I not mention that we were traveling with the Eddy's and two of the Bryson boys? Theresa joined John and I for most of the trip and helped make the miles seem not so long as we sang, laughed and admired the gorgeous Texas landscape before us!

Yes, I did take this picture. =) The other two were catching some winks and we came over this rise and laid out before me was this gorgeous picture (much better than what you see above) of this huge reservoir that we were going to be driving across! The setting sun make it even more beautiful!
Finally at around 11:30pm the end of the road came for me as John dropped me off at my host family's house in San Antonio. Even though it took us 34 hours instead of the hoped for 28 we were thankful for the blessings of safety and God's mercy on our travels.
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Wednesday greeted us with blue skies and warming temperatures as John and I headed out on our day to visit friends and sight see before joining my host family back at their place for dinner.

Morning stop for coffee. I was so amazed and couldn't stop marveling at all the "living" plants that were everywhere. Yes, they do have a sort of autumn and some trees lose their leaves but others don't so it was weird to see flowers blooming and all the greenery everywhere! Michigan was heading farther and farther from my mind...especially when we stopped in Old Navy to buy some much needed flip flops that I had forgotten to bring! =)

Heading down to the Alamo.

In the middle of town.

We got there too late on Wednesday to be able to go inside or walk the gardens.

Our group in front of the beautiful memorial.

John and I.
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The next day we came back to take the tour, see the gardens...


Kiss cactus....

...and take pictures. =)

Thursday was the opening day for the Festival so we headed over to the convention center to register and check out the program.

Dr. Voddie Baucham.

It was really neat to be able to see so many people we have heard or seen on the internet in person!

Mrs. Baucham and their youngest.

The Duggar family!

The vendor hall. Notice Pendragon's booth in the corner of the room. =)

Then the excitement began! Here is the crowds before the doors were opened for the beginning of the Opening Ceremonies.

Doug Phillips welcoming everyone to the 2009 San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival!

A sneak peek to their next day "concert"...The Von Trapp Children Singers!!!

George Sarris

Charlie Zahm with Doug Phillips narrating.

From beautiful hymns to courageous ballads...Charlie Zahm is a favorite among many!

The Von Trapps in their authentic dress.

Yodeling!

Kirk Cameron. A great actor and the man who made Fireproof the great film that it is!

Steven Kendrick and Kirk talking about the making and behind the scenes of Fireproof.

Dean Jones.

A man with a powerful testimony and life devoted to Christ.

The Lifetime Achievement Jubilee Award presented to Dean Jones.

"I Wouldn't Trade This for an Oscar."

Doug Phillips, Dean Jones, two brothers (don't remember their names) and Chuck Bentley - the visionary behind Abraham and Isaac, The Widow and the Oil, and The Rich Man and Lazarus, all three World Premieres at the 2009 SAICFF.

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Saturday morning found us sitting in the front of the big screen watching the showing of Pendragon! Afterwards Aaron, Chad, Nic and Marilyn went up front for an Q.&A. time.

We also watched The Widow's Might that day. A funny, cute and most uniquely - musical film!

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"drum roll please"..... And now ladies and gentlemen...let the award ceremonies begin!

In the company of wonderful friends...waiting in anticipation for the awards to be presented!

The whole Duggar family...all 21 of them (including Joshua's wife Anna) got up on stage to present the Biblical Family award.

The Widow's Might won "Audiance choice"!

Fireproof won "Best Feature" award

"And now....the winner of the 2009 SAICFF Best of Festival is.................

.....THE WIDOWS MIGHT!!!"

http://www.widowsmightthemovie.com/

Even though we were all very dissapointed that Pendragon- Sword of His Father did not receive any awards, we are very happy for all those who did win and above all, I am so grateful for this awesome opportunity I had to even be there and be a part of this great work in Christian filming! To God be all the glory!

Farwell from the Phillips family....until next time.

Check out Doug Phillips blog for more images from the Festival.