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.