July 30, 2022

Weather/Nature

Warm and muggy, more rain now than earlier this summer and slightly lower highs. Cicadas humming in the trees, and the sound of distant thunder make late July unique. The uncomfortable conditions outside make you want to be lazy indoors, but you can’t get away with that like you can in late January. Things are busy around here.

Down On The Farm

The okra, tomatoes, hot peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon and potatoes are coming in heavy now. Erica has been amazing as she continues to can, freeze and dry all sorts of produce in all sorts of different forms. We are also trying to keep up with weeding in the berry beds, and the kids have been working really hard both indoors and out. The pigs are growing fat on garden scraps, some firewood is getting split, a few more fruit trees are planted. We imagined that this time of year would be the busiest, and that is certainly true!

Best Thing We Ate

We told the kids that in summer we’ll eat like kings and queens, and so it is. Our garden abundance puts out a spread for breakfast, lunch and dinner that is deeply satisfying.

From Family Worship

After finishing the Gospel of John we moved into Acts, reading and discussing a chapter each night. It is wonderful to hear the older children share thoughts and insights that make it clear they are embracing the Christian faith as their own. In the early chapters of Acts, we’ve all been impressed at the boldness of the Apostles to proclaim the gospel in the face of personal danger and loss. They rightly counted it more important to obey God than to obey man, and were willing to suffer the consequences of being faithful to the Word of God.

Other Happenings

We were able to visit Erica’s parents near Charleston, SC last weekend, which was our first time seeing them in their new home since they moved there from Florida at the beginning of the year.

John and I were able to steal away Friday afternoon to go check out the nearby trout hatchery and dam at Dale Hollow Lake. Any day I can spend time with this guy is a good day.

July 23, 2022

This week we were visiting Erica’s parents in Charleston, SC, so more on that next week.

Here’s some good memories from the six years we spent on our Florida farm prior to moving to TN.

July 16, 2022

Weather/Nature

A good rain pattern has been established, which we are grateful for. Things are healthy, lush and growing again. Mornings are in the 60’s and days heat up to low 90’s. Crickets in the evening have replaced the lightning bugs, although a few can still be seen. Peak summer.

Down On The Farm

We are done harvesting cucumbers, zucchini, onions, broccoli, and kale for this year. We’ll use this space to plant fall/winter veggies once we get it cleaned up. We tried a watermelon and a cantelope, but they are not quite ready yet.

A friend who does tree work called to say there was some white oak he was trying to get rid of from a job site, so John and I went and got a pickup full of rounds that we will chop for storage. We’re always on the lookout for good firewood, and hopefully we’ll get up to having 3-4 years worth stored.

We mowed the medium red clover in the fallow garden area for the first time. We will grow red clover there for two years before making it our veggie garden and planting the current garden site to red clover. This two year rotation should add organic matter and enrich the soil, making it better each time instead of depleted.

Best Thing We Ate

A nice “garden soup” with tomatoes, onion, zucchini, and cabbage from the garden, served with a warm loaf of homemade bread.

From Family Worship

John 14 on Monday night was memorable. Comfort for the downcast, tender reassurance for the doubting, peace for the worried, all given lavishly by the One whom we are not ashamed to call “the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. He alone is the gate through which green pastures are found, and the Father is known.

Other Happenings

The Samilian’s were with us last weekend and into the beginning of this week. It did us good to see old friends and their effort to come see us was appreciated. Some pictures from the second half of their visit:

July 9, 2022

Weather/Nature

And the rains came. After two modest rains earlier in the week of 1/4 and 1/2 an inch, yesterday and overnight last night we got a total of 3 inches. It poured. The ground had been so dry that when it was light enough to see this morning, there wasn’t a puddle on the ground; it all soaked right in to the eager soil. The leading edge of the thunder storm brought high winds, so corn was my concern in the night. Most of it now being over 8′ tall, if it lodged at this point, I’m not sure it would be able to stand itself back up. Thankfully it was strong and hung in there.

Down On The Farm

More cucumbers, okra, cabbage, zucchini and kale are entering the house daily. We’ve put up enough cucumber pickles to have a quart per week for the next year. We filled a three gallon stone crock with sauerkraut that will now ferment for a few weeks. We’ve got to either freeze or pickle cabbage now, since we only have the one crock for sauerkraut. Riley has started seeds for the fall garden which will include things for winter storage in the cellar. These will be ready to plant later this month and will be in the ground until the first frost. John and Quinn also worked on the strawberry patch this week to weed it and mulch with old hay.

The pigs are benefitting from lots of garden scraps, which lowers our feed bill. They are growing nicely and haven’t caused any trouble – yet. The three chicks that hatched are doing well, and we are incubating another eight in an electric incubator.

Best Thing We Ate

Pizza Hut with friends!

From Family Worship

Our friends, the Samilian’s, joined us last night for family worship, which was a delight. We read John 14 together and had a very encouraging group discussion on some of the highlights of the chapter. The slowness of the disciples to believe, the instruction of Christ to obey his commands out of love for him, the promise of Jesus to send the Holy Spirit, were themes we thought and talked about as families.

Other Happenings

Brian and Katie, along with their girls (Olivia, Charlotte and Rachel) drove up from Jacksonville on Thursday to visit us for the weekend. We’ve known the Samilian family for 16 or 17 years, all the way back to before either of us had any children, and we’ve been good friends all these years. We went to the lake yesterday and have some more fun planned.

A follow up on our newest farm addition, Presby. One evening a feral, half-starved dog showed up and killed two of our chickens (that aren’t normally out). I was out that evening, so Erica put the dog in our kennel so I could deal with it later. When John heard the standard fate of feral dogs that start killing valued livestock, he began an earnest and prolonged protest, oft repeating the lines, “He doesn’t have a family”, and “He was being careless”. We went out the next morning to get a good look at the culprit and he surely was pitiful. We let him out and decided to see what he would do, and he showed himself to be a friendly and sweet dog – maybe John was right. So the next day we started feeding him and petting him more, and it seems he’s here to stay. He stays outside and sleeps on the porch at night, and is a good companion for Anya during the day. Why Presby? Because we’re Presbyterians of course!

July 2, 2022

Weather/Nature

We got up to 19 hot days without rain before finally getting a nice shower, about a half inch of rain. It was welcome, and I think the corn grew a foot in the couple of days after the rain. We’ve noticed that in the summer here we’ll still get an occasional high pressure system that brings drier and cooler air, which is also welcome.

Down On The Farm

The harvest continues. Our broccoli is all in now, and we are continuing to bring in cucumbers, kale, and now cabbages. We’ve blanched and frozen most of the broccoli, and the cucumbers are being pickled and canned. Sauerkraut will be the next big project.

We started to keep a record of the retail value of the harvest, because our hope has always been to actually buy fewer groceries as a result of the farm’s produce. It isn’t a perfect system, but we’re able to lookup the cost of produce per pound online and get a rough estimate. This doesn’t account for our cost to produce the veggies, but that is trickier. Would we just include the cost of the seed packet or seedlings, or also count the cost of the deer fence, tools, or even the land itself? There’s more than one way to track it, so I’ll work on that later.

We’ve also had a broody hen that we let sit on five eggs and 21 days later three of them hatched! She’s doing a good job protecting her chicks.

Best Thing We Ate

From Family Worship

We’ve been reading a chapter of the Gospel of John each night, and it has led to some great discussion. Last night we reach chapter 8 and considered how differently Jesus deals with people depending on whether they are humble or proud regarding their sinfulness before God. The woman humbled by her adultery is treated with the tender mercies of Christ, while the proud-hearted Pharisees who think they have it all together are confronted and condemned boldly by Christ. The application is not hard to draw, “for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble”. 1 Peter 5:5

Other Happenings

We had our friends, Al and Carolyn, visit us from Bradenton on their way to Massachusetts for the summer. To come here was way out of their way, and a big encouragement. Al and I served together as deacons at Providence OPC in Bradenton, FL and he and Carolyn became our good friends. A real treat to see them. And that dog in the picture? That’s Presby, the newest farm addition…more on him next week.