It's funny the things a person can miss. Five years ago, my family made a major, non-military related move from beautiful Southern Maryland to Northern Alabama. Alabama is pretty, but I have to say that Maryland had a charm that is hard to duplicate. One of the major things I miss in the strong Mennonite influence. The Mennonites I was familiar with in Maryland were Old Order Mennonites, which means that many of them dress and live like the Amish. I never was real clear on what made them Old Order rather than Amish, and I don't really care. Because of their presence, there was a greater emphasis on gardening and food preservation. I had a large garden, and put up alot of food, and what I didn't grow, I could buy at many of the vegetable stands run by the Mennonite community. I have not found anything like that in this area. I try to duplicate the life I had there, but it's just not the same. For example, there are no True Value hardware stores in the Huntsville. I lived within five minutes of one in Maryland, and would go there to buy canning and kitchen supplies that are not available at WalMart. Imagine how happy I was yesterday when I found a True Value (of sorts) in Fayetteville, TN. I made the trip up to the store. It was on the main square and was more like an old time hardware store and a True Value combined. But I was happy because I was able to find this food mill. I'll use it while putting up peach and apple butters this summer. While I was in the store, I found this dehydrator. I had one before, and used it to dehydrate many fruits. One of the kids favorite things was dried strawberries. It's been years since I had used one, and I've toyed with the idea of buying another one for a couple of years. As you can see, I gave in and bought this one (I'm not sure it wasn't a case of temporary insanity). The dehyrator I had used before had a large base with trays that stacked on top. This one is smaller, enclosed and has the heating unit and fan on top. It has a temperature control on top; a feature that I like. Last night I put some blueberries on to dry, and it did a nice job.

Last May I was very run down and sick with walking pneumonia. During a rare doctor's visit, I was dignosed with anemia, and have been taking iron suppliments. While I think the suppliments are helping, I am still easily fatigued. One afternoon, Eric came home with this bottle of liquid B vitamins. He had tried it at work, and it was so helpful that he wanted me to try it. I have used it for three days now, and I believe it is helping. The main thing I notice is a greater mental clarity. I have more energy as well.

Peaches are in season now, and these are from a local orchard. They are really sweet, and I love being able to buy them. I cut up a little over half of these and they are in the crock pot as I type, cooking down into a peach butter. I wish there was a way for you to smell them cooking. It makes my mouth water. Hopefully I will be able to do this a few more times while they are in season.

These are some of the blueberries I've picked from my bushes. The heat and dry conditions have kept the berries small this year, but they are sweet. I used some of this batch to dry and the rest I used to make blueberry pie filling. I want to use the dried berries in granola.

This is a picture of the chicken coop that Eric built last spring. The picture doesn't do it justice. I wish I had taken pictures of it while he was building it. It is portable, and has a mesh flooring to make clean up easy. I took this picture as a thunderstorm was blowing in. Maybe I'll get some better shots in the next few days.

Last year I planted sunflowers. These flowers are volunteers that came up along the edge of the garden. I bought seeds to plant this year, but didn't get them in (being so sick during the prime planting season). I'm glad these came up.

Life is busy these days. I've thought about what to post for a couple of days now, and this has just touched to surface of what I want to say. It's been so long since I wrote anything. I'll try to post again real soon. Until then, I wish blessings on all who read this.

When I started writing this blog, I had so many ideas of what I wanted it to be. Primarily, I wanted to record what I did on the "farm". I had so many dreams for what this summer would hold, and how I would finally get everything perfect. The first problem I encountered was breaking my camera. Then I got really sick, much sicker than I have been in a long time. Chores built up during the time I was sick, and I have been playing catch up every since (the truth is, I was playing catch up before I got sick). When I finally felt better, and was able to see some daylight at the end of the tunnel, the weather turned HOT! I am a southern girl by birth, and the heat seldom bothered me as a teen-ager and young adult. But I can't handle it now. So all the wonderfully impressive things I had planned to do, photograph and document on this site remain strangely a dream. Add to all this a descent into laziness, and it just isn't a pretty picture.

But hope springs eternal. My days are much less cluttered by outside activities, and I am making progress on my household chores. I still dream of canning lots of food this year, although some of it may be purchased at a local farmer's market rather than grown in my back yard. I still dream of painting my little room off the barn and having a mini-greenhouse in it. But I am starting to recognize that these are only dreams. Now don't misunderstand; dreams are important, and I believe that nothing of value is accomplished without a dream. But dreams can change. And if I keep my focus on my Lord, and love and enjoy my family and friends as I walk toward my dreams (goals), then my life will be a good one. And if I never arrive at what I had imagined, it will be alright.

Blessed is a man who endures trials, because when he passes the test he will receive the crown of life that He (the Lord) has promised to those who love Him. James 1:12

I am not a bible scholar. I say this as a disclaimer for all those who are more learned than I am. I have had so many questions to ask of the Lord in the past year, and in my questioning and studies, I have read alot about tests, trials, afflictions, etc. In my studies, I have come to believe certain things very strongly. One is that God is a teacher. He calls Himself that on numerous occasions. I believe that He has a plan and purpose for each and every person born. I believe that our lives are planned to an extent, yet we are free to make our own choices. This is a contradiction that scholars have debated for centuries, and I certainly will not be the one to give the definitive answer. Paul said in Timothy that he had finished his course. Another part of scripture talks about our running our race without hindrances.

So, if God is our teacher and we have a course set for us (it helps me to think of this in academic terms), then it stands to reason that the tests, trials, afflictions we suffer in life are meant to show how we are doing in our "studies". If we endure these trials, and if we pass the test, we receive a crown of life. I have spent most of my Christian life supposing that this means that if we do not steal when tempted to, or murder someone, or commit adultery, that we have passed the test of temptations and will receive this crown. But I wonder more and more these days if it's not something more like how we respond to the daily affairs of life. For instance, two days ago, Sara was hurt in an accident. This accident was preventable had I been obeyed. It cost hours of time at the doctors, and much pain on her part. She had to have several stitches, and one finger has a small fracture in it. She has to wear a splint for several days (we don't know how long just yet), and there is no way she can play in her softball tournament. Is the crown of life something you win for responding correctly to things like this? If you are able to help, comfort and do what needs to be done without resentment or reproach, does that qualify you for the crown of life? Or is it being able to cheerfully work on endless piles of laundry when your mind is active and desiring to do "important and impressive things" ? Is the crown of life something that can be won by simply realizing that Jesus Himself was a servant, putting aside His own need for private time after the death of John the Baptist (his cousin) to minister to crowds of people and following His example in our daily lives?

Just Touching Base

It's been a while since I lasted posted. I was sick for most of May with walking pneumonia. It's been along time since I had been so sick. It wasn't coughing so much as aches, pains, and headaches. At times I felt so bad that I simply cried, and I do not cry easily. I was just so tired, and I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even think and plan and scheme, or even read because my thinking was so cloudy I decided not to post while in this state of mind. Maybe I should have - it might have been very entertaining (but there is only so much I want to have to live down).

There have been several significant things happen since I last wrote. I found out that my son and his wife will be having a little girl - our first granddaughter. My middle daughter graduated high school on May 21. And my two other daughters have had birthdays. Jesse's birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. Each of these deserves it's own posting, and maybe I'll get to it in the following days. But if I don't, I at least wanted to have mentioned them.

After I went to the doctor (first time in many, many years) and got antibiotics, my fatigue gradually left, and my thinking cleared up. I have found myself in a reflective mood. Of course, there is the typical musings on the passing of time and what it means. Mostly I've thought about people I've known. The relationships forged through the years, and how some people have touched my life for good, some for evil, and some just in passing. I wonder what difference meeting or not meeting a particular person has made, and what difference I might have made in the lives of others. I've learned through hard experience that things are not always what they seem. and the silence of so-called friends can be deafening when things are judged by surface appearances. But I am not the first to ponder such things, and the philosophers of the ages have tried to make sense of it all. So, the task is not to be too philosophical while still enjoying the insights a little reflective thinking can give, and to get on with the good things of life. And, I think equally important, is to give thanks for men and women who dedicate their lives to the study of medicine and the development of cures.

Strange justice

A few weeks ago, I talked about my love for storms. It was during the time when tornadoes were tearing through Arkansas and flood waters were overtaking Tennessee. I regretted not being there, because I really do like a storm.

Over the years, I have been in the path of tornadoes, but never felt the full punch of one. While I was still a child, my mom took movies of a funnel cloud starting to rotate outside our back window. When I was a young married woman, a funnel cloud passed over our neighborhood, blowing off shingles and tree branches, but doing no real damage (it did touch down in a rural part of the county near our home, taking down a few trees, but that was all). I remember that night, because I was up feeding Jesse, and I heard the signature sound of a train coming before it passed over. Many years later, we were driving to Eric's parents home through stormy weather. The rain finally became so heavy that we pulled over and waited it out at a convenience store. Later, we found out that a tornado had passed through that area only moments after we had pulled over (this is the story that prompted Jesse to tell me "dad would pull over in weather like this" during another one of my tornado escapades). Another day was while we lived in Maryland. The forecast was for bad weather, and I was outside putting up lawn furniture, bikes, etc. when Eric got home from work. We were talking outside when he heard what he thought was a siren. I didn't hear it, so he went in to check the weather. Sure enough, it was a tornado warning, and the track put our home in the storm's direct path (yes, our street on the weather tracking thing they do). He packed us up in the car, and we left. When we came back, we saw that there had been no touch down. But our trampoline was blown into the woods, and the tops of the trees in our woods were twisted off in a path between our home and our neighbors. If it had touched down, our home would have been destroyed.

Even with all that, I still revel in storms (maybe even because of it - who knows). But this past weekend we received a phone call that made it personal. We own property in McNairy county, Tennessee. There was no home on it, just a garage and several large old oak trees. My brother called to tell us that a tornado had touched down in McNairy county, and you guessed it, it hit directly on our property. All the trees along the road were taken out. We will have to go clean this up. It will be no small task, and I dread it. It's now my family that has to do the clean up, taking time and money to do it. There is some sense of justice in that (it's wrong to take pleasure in what does damage to others and that's what I have done through the years). But even in this set back, we can rejoice that no one was hurt and no home destroyed. The sad thing is, I am the one who chases the storms and takes pleasure in them, but it will be my sensible husband who has to use the chain saw and physical labor to clean up the mess.

Garlic

How do you decide how weird is too weird? And if it is too weird, should you let people know? Especially when you are not sure who reads your blog, and who doesn't. But I think I will share this, because someone else shared it with me, and I think it has helped.

I have been sick since last Monday. It started out with exhaustion, followed by aches, chills, and head aches. I didn't feel bad all day every day, or I would have gone to the doctor. But I am usually pretty healthy, so I assumed this would pass quickly. It did not. By Saturday morning I was feeling desperate. The sickness had progressed to what I assume was a sinus infection. I didn't recognize it as such, because I had none of the typical cold-like symptoms. By Saturday, I could feel the pain spreading from the left side of my face to the right side. I didn't want to go to the doctor on a weekend after enduring an entire week, so I resorted to a home remedy. I went to the store, bought juicing carrots, apples, beets, and garlic. I juiced everything but the garlic, and drank it throughout the day. And in an act of desperation, I used my blender to blend 3 cloves of garlic with warm water. Garlic has been recognized for its anti-bacterial effects for centuries. I usually take odorless garlic tablets as soon as I feel myself getting sick, and it seems to help. If it is only a placebo, at least it is one that helps. So why blend garlic in warm water, you ask. To release the compounds that give garlic its healing properties, it must be crushed. The anti-bacterial compounds in the garlic are the same ones that give it such a distinctive and lovely aroma. I did not want to lose any of the benefits that come from from eating a whole raw clove. I also did not want to eat a clove by itself. So I mixed it up, drank down as much of it as I could as quickly as I could. It was not a task for the faint hearted. The drink was nasty - hot and bitter. But I got it down. All that was left to do was to sip my much better tasting juice and wait to see if there were any effects from it. I know there will be skeptics, but I have to say that I could tell within a couple of hours that the congestion was beginning to break up. The soreness in my neck began to leave. Today I am feeling a lot better, although not completely healed. So there you have it. I know that some will say that after a week, it was going to get better on its own. Maybe so, but it didn't feel like it was getting better. I believe the garlic was the turning point in my recovery. I would not use this on children, and would only suggest it as a possibility for adults. But as for me, I am convinced of the benefits of garlic. The downside; I am not allowed to go out into polite society until the garlic smell surrounding me subsides :-)

I really miss having my camera working. Rachel has given me her old one. It needed batteries, and Ben put some in for me today. Hopefully I can post some pictures in near future. I want to post some of the chickens, which have grown so much. Eric has the chicken coop framed, and it is looking really good. The garden is almost completely in. It's taking a while to plant, because I have so much going on and can only work on it a couple of days a week. Today I worked in it, but it was mulching the areas around the fruit bushes. I got my mulch the old-fashioned way - mowing the yard, raking the clippings and hauling them out back. I have used black plastic for mulch for a number of years, and really like it, but I read that black plastic is not good for fruit bushes, so I am putting down a layer of newspaper, then covering them with the grass clippings. It's alot of work, but I like knowing that I am improving the soil and using what I have available in large amounts.

The chickens have almost outgrown the container we've kept them in. Most days we put them out into a small fenced area that Eric made for them. I love to watch chickens as they scratch for bugs. I keep wondering which ones are roosters. I think I may have two - not bad for just guessing in the store. Of course, two roosters are more than I wanted, but at least I do have some layers. I am really proud of the coop Eric is making for me. It's an A-frame, and will be portable (this is a real advantage, so we can move them before they scratch all the grass from a single area). If I remember right, it will have a mesh floor, so their dropping will fall to the ground. Rebekah still has nightmares of cleaning out the chicken coop in Maryland (her job - Jesse got to clean out the goat house - I don't know which was worse - let's just say neither one of them will ever have farm animals for themselves). It's just really going to be nice, and I am very proud of it. I'm proud of my husband for building it for me, and taking the time to make it really nice.

If all goes according to plan, I should have the main garden completely planted and mulched by tomorrow evening. It always gives me such pleasure to do this. After it's done, I just sit an look at it. This year I am experimenting with lasagna gardening in certain sections. I have a small potato patch planted that way, and I have an area that I started last year that will become my herb garden this year. I put down cardboard boxes (or newspaper), then covered it with straw, grass and potting soil. I planted sweet potatoes in it last year, but a rabbit or some such thing ate them before they produced, and I never did anything more with it. After I finish the main garden, I will put concrete blocks around the area, put some more straw and grass clipping in, cover that with newspapers, then garden soil. This will be my permanent herb garden. Speaking of herbs, my echinnacea died again this year. I think it was eaten by aphids while we were down south. I believe it's just a curse. I have seeds, and will start some more. Maybe someday....... I really did have high hopes for this year.

Well, that's it for tonight's update. Tomorrow will be Rebekah's first Mother's Day. I know it will have a different meaning for Kathy too. There are just mother's everywhere, and that's just fine with me.