February 26th, 2022

Weather/Nature

Rain and more rain this week. Several rainy days totaled up more than 6″ of rain. The creek filled close to the banks on Thursday but did not overflow into our field. We’re getting more comfortable with rain events and understanding how much the creek can handle.

Daffodils – we’ve enjoyed the sight of these wildflowers on previous vacations here in early March, and this year were were able to watch them unfurl their striking green and yellow against an otherwise drab late winter landscape. They instantly brighten and cheer the observer.

While we had company this weekend, a new bird was identified for us by our friend, Liam, a White-throated sparrow. We changed our bird seed and have had much more luck attracting birds.

Down On The Farm

Our onion plants came this week from Dixondale Farms in TX. This is kind of an insurance policy for us since we’ve never grown onion from seed before. If both the purchased onion plants, and the ones we are starting from seed both take, then the more the merrier. The purchased plants need to get in the ground in the next three weeks, so the clock is ticking.

Best Thing We Ate

One night the girls made a big batch of scratch chocolate chip cookies that hit the spot.

From Family Worship

Before this week, I did not know where the Old Testament and New Testament got their names. As Chapter 7 of the Confession has shown us from scripture, Testament is another name for the Covenant of Grace. So, the Old Testament is how God administered the Covenant of Grace under the law, with circumcision, sacrifices, the Passover lamb, etc…and the New Testament is how God administers the Covenant of Grace under the gospel; with the incarnation of Christ, the administration changed to the preaching of the Word, baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

As the Confession rightly puts it, “There are not, therefore, two covenants of grace differing in substance, but one and the same under various dispensations”.

And what is this Covenant of Grace that God has made with man? It is where He freely offers life and salvation to sinners by Jesus Christ, requiring from them simple faith that receives this gift. And lest we despair that we have to work up this faith in ourselves, we can rejoice that it is God Himself who makes us willing and able to believe. What He requires, He provides.

Other Happenings

With the rain keeping us indoors, we used the evenings to make good progress on caulking all of the trim work we have been doing. We’re hoping that the house work will be finished as the weather gets nicer this spring so that we can enjoy the outdoors more!

February 19th, 2022

Weather/Nature

A violent front came through Thursday the interrupted our very mild week. On Wednesday we were in T-shirts with highs approaching 70, and on Friday the high was 40. As winter gives way to spring, I think we’ll see the same swings we did in the fall. Prior to the rain on Thursday, it had been well over a week since we had gotten any rain, which is very unusual here this time of year.

Down On The Farm

With the lack of rain, the plowed garden got dried out very well, so I got the walk-behind tiller out of the barn to see if I could break up some clods around the orchard area. Went ok until the fuel line sprung a leak. I’ll be glad to have a friend till the larger area in the spring with his tractor.

Spent some time as a family considering merits of a tractor vs a team of mules. Not getting either this year, but we’ll eventually need something, and we might be crazy enough to try mules.

The only other thing we did on the farm this week was sink the wood posts for the two deer fence gates around the garden. Digging post holes is hard in this clay soil!

Best Thing We Ate

Erica came up with a bushel of apples that weren’t in the best shape for fresh eating, so she made apple sauce, apple crisp, etc, all of which were most delicious.

From Family Worship

We press on in the Confession, this week considering that Adam’s sin is imputed to all future generations, as root to branch. From this original corruption, we are made in the natural man to hate what God loves and love what God hates. What a mess. It reminds me of the line from Norman Maclean’s, “A River Runs Through It”…

As a Scot and a Presbyterian, my father believed that man by nature was a mess and had fallen from an original state of grace. Somehow, I early developed the notion that he had done this by falling from a tree. As for my father, I never knew whether he believed God was a mathematician but he certainly believed God could count and that only by picking up God’s rhythms were we able to regain power and beauty.

Other Happenings

Our dear friends, the Webster’s, came all the way from Florida to stay with us this weekend. It did us all good to have some familiar company.

February 12th, 2022

Weather/Nature

We’re new to this weather, but it seems lately that the deep cold of January might have loosened its grip for good. I’m sure we’ll have more very cold days, but lately it has been mild, with days in the low 50’s.

We’re hoping the daffodils will come up soon, a sure sign of spring.

Down On The Farm

We ordered our seed potatoes this week for April delivery: 20# each of Yukon Gold, Kennebec, and Red Pontiac. Hopefully in the future we’ll be able to produce our own seed potatoes.

We got the seeds started for the cool weather veggies (cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, etc), and the long-growing onions.

Our deer fence came this week for the garden and orchard. Without this, our heavy deer population would completed consume the garden. It is going to be a bear to put up in the coming weeks.

Best Thing We Ate

We ate ribs on Tuesday night with cornbread and homemade baked beans. The cornbread was made with local Amish corn meal we got recently, and the ribs were from our pigs that we butchered ourselves last year.

From Family Worship

A very sad time yesterday as our dog, Mike, had to be put down due to cancer. He has been a part of our family for 8 years, and we’ll never forget our one-of-kind Mike.

While we were all grieving, one child expressed that it didn’t feel fair that Mike’s gone. This led to a good family discussion on where loss and pain comes from, because even a child’s instinct knows something is not right. We know that loss, pain and death are a result of the curse of sin that lays on the world ever since Adam fell from grace. When we experience loss it reminds us of this ancient, yet very present truth. As we grieve, we turn our eyes to the world to come, when Christ shall return and remove this curse once for all.

Other Happenings

Some of the girls decided to hike the mountain on the other side of the creek, so they did! They are taking risks and building confidence.

We took a couple hours one day and helped some friends process a tree on their property nearby that had come down, and they kindly let us take home a load of split red oak firewood.

February 5th, 2022

Weather/Nature

Warm up! We had some very nice days early in the week with Tuesday even reaching the low 60’s. That is something we took full advantage of and got some outside work done Monday and Tuesday. Yesterday and today are very cold again after a recent front came through. Looking ahead, we are supposed to resume more normal winter weather with highs in the upper 40’s and low 50’s.

When it was rainy and still warm on Wednesday night you could hear frogs start to wake up and make some noise. Being curious, we learned that these are chorus frogs and spring peepers. They didn’t have long to make their voices heard before having to head underground again, but it was a welcome sound.

Down On The Farm

With the weather nice early in the week, we took some time and planted out our entire orchard, finishing right before a nice soaking rain later in the week. We unwrapped the bare root trees, soaked them in water, and planted them out according to their needs. 73 plants/trees in total.

Our Jersey dairy cow (Daisy) was ready to come home after spending some time at a friend’s farm nearby to *hopefully* be bred to their bull. We also bought an angus steer calf from the same farm, so this little guy will be with us for the next 2-3 years.

The hardwood cuttings that Riley and I are attempting to get to root have been hanging out inside where it is warm, and we haven’t done anything except to keep the soil moist. This week we looked closer and saw that the Easter Red Bud cuttings have started to flower! This tree is one of the first to bloom in spring with beautiful pink blossoms. We’re hoping that the blossoms mean that roots are developing. No signs of life from the other three kinds of cuttings…we’ll see.

Best Thing We Ate

We were invited by a family who we are becoming good friends with to celebrate Chinese New Year with them. Three of their children are adopted from China and so we had a big time eating tasty Chinese food and celebrating the “Year of the Tiger”!

From Family Worship

We moved through chapters 4 & 5 of the Westminster Confession of Faith this week, considering Creation and Providence. In the Creation chapter, we considered the carefully written statement about the creation of Man made in God’s image, and considered how Adam & Eve were created with the power to obey the Law, yet were also capable of transgressing. God’s Providence, or his ruling and governing of Creation, will continue to be our study for another week or so. If God’s eternal decree (Chapter 3) is his blueprint for all of history, then Providence is the actual working out of his great plan.

Other Happenings

No time for much else this busy week!