May 28th, 2022

Weather/Nature

Rain this week, which has been good and needed, and with it some cooler weather. An inch of rain Thursday and a third of an inch the day before. Fragrant outside from the multiflora rose, Chinese privet and other wild blooms. Some of the birds that were passing through on their migration north have left us, like the Rose-breasted grosbeak, but we are now hearing whippoorwills in the evening, and the flute-like Wood thrush fills the air during the day.

The phoebe chicks that were being raised on our porch finally took off one morning this week. Erica and I were there to see them all take off with a burst at the same time. They hit the porch ceiling, landed on the porch deck, flew into the side of the chest freezer, but eventually made it out and into a tree. Mom bird was 5 for 5 raising eggs into birds!

Down On The Farm

We are trying to give the chickens some more time in the yard once our dog Anya is done outside for the day. Hopefully, we can get her used to the chickens to where she guards them instead of eating them. In other news, our garden is absolutely taking off. More pictures on that next week.

Best Thing We Ate

Braised barbecue chicken – same winner as last week, but this time it wins because we ate it with my parents who just arrived for a visit!

From Family Worship

We’re now into Chapter 21 of the Westminster Confession of Faith, “Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day”. Broadly, this chapter asserts that it is God alone who spells out for us how it is that we are to worship Him, our Creator. Certainly this is His prerogative. This is a wonderful and helpful truth that keeps things clear and simple, and guards the church from many peculiar innovations. The chapter also addresses the 4th commandment and states the church’s historic view of keeping the Lord’s Day as something special – a day set apart for Him. This, regrettably, has somehow become a very controversial thing among Christians in the last 50 years, or even less, and has largely fallen out of practice. In our family’s experience, keeping the Lord’s Day is not about a bunch of rules about what you can’t do, but more about not letting lesser things sneak in and spoil the gift of the Lord’s Day that God in His kindness has given to us. By God’s grace (because it wasn’t always this way), Sunday has truly become our favorite day of the week, something we look forward to all week long. To worship God morning and evening on the Lord’s Day, in fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, is the clearest foretaste of heaven we will experience on this side of eternity.

Other Happenings

May 21st, 2022

Weather/Nature

It has been another warm, mostly dry week, with evenings cooling off into the 50’s and 60’s. We are through most of the pollen season, it seems, and things around us are starting to look more like summer time.

Getting water at the creek for the pigs one morning I interrupted a family of otter that were playing in the water. They scolded me as they swam away, and I was sorry I had not walked up slower to maybe have a chance to see them without first being seen.

We have an eastern phoebe who is raising chicks in a nest on top of a light fixture on our porch. All day long she brings insects to her brood, and it seems like they can never get enough. We marvel at the mother’s instincts to reproduce, from making the nest, guarding the eggs, and feeding the hatchlings.

Down On The Farm

Best Thing We Ate

Braised chicken over rice with sautéed kale

From Family Worship

One evening we considered a portion of Psalm 106 where the psalmist recounts Israel’s history when they grumbled against their circumstances in the wilderness, just after God had miraculously delivered them through the Red Sea. If we’re honest, we can identify well with the Israelites, and can also learn from their poor example: instead of complaining (or worse) during difficulty, recall God’s prior faithfulness to preserve and uphold His people, and honor Him with trust, resting in His promises. Surely, He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, can be trusted in life’s trials.

Other Happenings

Big week for John…

May 14th, 2022

Weather/Nature

Warm and dry with cool mornings, beautiful time of year. The birds are at their peak activity and fill the air with birdsong. More and more time is spent down by the creek to cool off after hard work.

Down On The Farm

Mowing the grass, and cultivating and hoeing the garden rows are becoming the main work on the farm. Cows and pigs are gaining weight and look happy and healthy. Hens have settled into a laying routine. It has been a weird week, but I hope to have a better update on all of this next week.

Best Thing We Ate

Homemade pizza with bacon and pineapple, and kale salad from the garden.

From Family Worship

Erica ran the show while I was away this week, and it is always sorely missed when we can’t be all together, but the Lord is faithful to sustain and provide for all our needs. We finished our recap of the first fourteen chapters of the Westminster Confession of Faith, so this week we’ll forge ahead into new material starting with Chapter 15, “Of Repentance Unto Life”.

Other Happenings

I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time with Quinn in the past week or so. We went on a nice hike together, and then she came with me on a business trip I took this week back to Florida. We stayed with my parents and she got to have some quality grandparent time. Hence the weird week as Erica and the rest were holding down the fort in TN.

Last Friday night the girls went to the spring ball for the English country line dancing class they’ve been participating in. Here they are with their friend Evelynne on the way to the ball.

May 7th, 2022

Weather/Nature

Got a little less than a half inch of rain for three consecutive days, perfect for the new garden, then a good soaking rain yesterday. The spring wildflowers seem to have run their course for the year, their locations now shaded by the full leafing out of the trees. Incredible how fast that happened.

Down On The Farm

I ordered 50 red oak trees from the Kentucky Dept of Forestry for next to nothing, and so far we’ve planted about 30 of them around the edges of our property and in the woods. We don’t have many oaks, so hopefully this will add some diversity and ultimately replace some of our junky boxelder.

I clipped the pasture with tractor and bush hog in the hope that more sun will get to the low-growing clover. Once pasture gets mature it is not as palatable or nutritious for the cows, so we’ll probably clip the pasture 3-4 times during the growing season to keep it healthy. Overall, we’re impressed with the condition of our cows on this lush pasture, even without feeding any grain.

Best Thing We Ate

A homemade apple pie with ice cream was made for company this week, and whenever that happens it is a shoe-in for best thing we ate. I should have taken a picture of it.

From Family Worship

Our friends from Florida, Matt and Pam, came to stay with us Wednesday night on their way to Michigan for the summer. It was great to have them join us for dinner, family worship, and an evening of catching up. The fellowship of the saints is a great blessing, and the shared bonds in Christ endure over the miles and years.

Other Happenings

First off, an amazing thing happened with our dog, Anya, who was run over by a truck (and trailer) last week. After getting hit, she ran off and disappeared for 36 hours, leaving us to assume the worst. But last Saturday night when we got home from being out, there she was on the back porch! She was tired, thirsty, and banged up, but she was back! We have no idea where she went or where she spent the night. Vet check up confirmed that she didn’t sustain any serious injuries.

We had the chance to go to a nearby barn dance that’s held twice a year, which we went to last October. The family that puts it on goes all out, including 500+ old fashioned dresses for the girls to have fun picking from in the days before the dance.

This week marks a double anniversary of sorts. It has been exactly 3 years since we first visited the property here in Tennessee, and almost exactly 6 months since we moved here permanently from Florida. What a journey!

Here are some side-by-side pictures from when we first visited 3 years ago to look at the property listing (on the left) vs the same perspective this week (on the right).