Sunday, March 31, 2013

He is risen, Happy Resurrection Day, and Happy Easter.

Today is the day of our Lord's Resurrection, glory to God his son is risen.  Praised to a God so loving that he would give his only begotten son to die for such an unworthy creature as human kinds. I know that I am not capable of giving my child to die for anyone.  I know that I am not capable of dying for some one I know not, though God knows each of us from the foundation of time.  He knew us all but so many indicate the he died for people he did not know, he knew, and that is why he loved us so much. No love could be more precious, God's love for us is boundless, to give his beloved son so that we might live life eternal.  Oh, how glorious that we such a wretched creature could be loved so much.  Jesus lives, he is risen and he loves us enough to willingly die for our sins.  He spent three days in a devils hell in the clutches of death and rose from the grave for such a one as I.  I know of no love more precious and pure gift, so is God's grace.  Our God he is alive and in him we live.  Today is the day of resurrection and today you too could be alive for eternity in him.  Heaven awaits, the free gift of life in yours for the asking.  Today of all days is the day to accept your salvation and God's love.  Amen..... tomorrow. 

Saturday, March 30, 2013

BBFC, Bake s ale, singing at the nursing home,eggs to dye and stuff to make for potuck.... can you say busy.

Spent the morning getting my stuff ready for BBFC, no time yesterday the list came in late and I was helping the little bakers.  They did great, both ended up with 2 cakes, 1 pie, 1 pan of buns, 1 regular loaf of bread and 2 braided loaves.  That should give them a goodly amount, with Easter tomorrow they should sell all their stuff.  They will be on their way to earning the 100 donation they each need for relay for life, they are on the 4-H team.  It will be from 11 to 1 this morning. 

The lady that is buying one of my little withers is stopping by to see him around 2, I have to be at BBFC at 3:30, after dropping the girls off to sing duets at the nursing home and assisted living with the church for services with them.  When baskets are all distributed  we have to come home and make up stuff for potluck and dye eggs.  Today will be a whirl wind of time and time management. 

Poppie got half of my divider stained and it really looks nice,  he made sure to get a stain that matched my oak cupboard very nicely.  I can't wait to get to use it.  We will be working on the isle next,  I am going to add hub caps from my beloved Mercedes that I had for several years it was a 1975, but unknown to us some one had welded the A frame and it finely fell apart, we had to scrap it but I have the hub caps and they should be cool for hanging pans from on my antiques side wrack.  I know that sounds silly but Poppie is on board, probably again due to the use of automotive parts as an element of the design. 

Printing to do, packing and taking ladies to the bakes sale next and on down the line, I just might make it if we stay on schedule.......lol... tomorrow.

Friday, March 29, 2013

Bake sale baking, bread to make, a new tooth.....not really.

The girls got a call last night from the president of the 4-H, her mom had told her my girls have both volunteered to be on the relay for life team for 4-H, they are going to have a bake sale . They were going to be baking today anyway, we were to make bread and pies for potluck on Sunday.  They have decided that they will make Easter Cakes, pies, dinner buns and bread loaves.  They will be part of the 4-H bake sale at Castles from 11 to 1 on Saturday.  They are going to practice some decorating techniques on their little cakes, they should sell better with an Easter theme.

Bug is gone back to ND but he did get to go to teacher's conference with his kids and visit with them for 6 hours.  It was so nice that he actually got to go the conferences.  He took the kids ice skating, they had a wonderful time with their dad.  Such a blessing to see, or I guess hear about.  They are doing well in the program they are in, hopefully rebuilding their bond with their mom, a blessing if she succeeds.  I am glad they got into the program, in Zootown. He will be back in May.

Years ago the "dentist" here in town decided to fix my teeth by grinding the front off of teeth that I already grind the back off, and then put a compound on the front to "build them up".  Well if the compound would have stayed on the teeth that would have been wonderful but alas it did not so in the end I have teeth that I naturally grind off in the back, I have tried the night prosthetic to stop it but ground through it, I digress.  Anyway, in the end I have front teeth with the enamel ground off the back naturally and ground of the front by an idiot.  I also have a front tooth that was broke half off when I was in the 4th grade that could have been fixed if my mom had let them but she thought I would be ugly with a silver tooth so instead of it being fixed, I just ground the other one to match it.  Needless to say I have messed up teeth.  It the last few weeks one of them, the most ground off in the front that had gotten a hair line crack finally gave up and broke in half and then broke off completely at the gum line.  It looks ugly, I really need to go to the Zoo and get it fixed but a couple days ago I woke up and it really hurt.  Well the root is now infected so I will have to get ride of that before they could possible pull it.  So to make a long story short, now that the big pain makers I had for 5 years are gone and I should be enjoying my relief, I now have a new tooth that couldn't wait to remind me that some of my teeth are really bad (the ground off ones in the front), and the rest are small, ugly but as good as gold.  I really didn't want to spend another spring with tooth pain, but say la vee. 

Kids are here, all eating their breakfast, three left over pancakes from yesterday, some coffee cake Mokie brought , and one who has thrown both on the floor and is now screaming at the sippy cup her mom wants her to drink, instead of her bottle, trying to take a nap.  Nannie has to go and sooth a fit with tears, the angry ones, the fake ones.....  I hope the Lord blesses your day, I hope he allows you pain that makes you know you are alive and you need him.  I hope he talks to your heart in such a way that makes you run to his open arm, just like any father he awaits us with open arms when we are in pain. He is our father he loves us always, and forgives as only a father can...  tomorrow.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

The divider on it's way, a side rail to be a pot hanger.....

Poppie and I worked on the divider most of the afternoon.  Poppie put little nails from one side to the other.  It was kind of funny he had to put them in blind, he didn't want pencil marks on viewable side and since both sides are viewable he had to work harder.  It makes the room look a lot different but since he has been watching DIY shows that upcycle old items into new it is much more open to some of my idea.  We are going to us an old bench from the goat pen to make an isle, I think I have mentioned that, but I also want a pan wrack over it and have ben looking for a likely candidate.  Yesterday I notice a bit of blue paint on an old pickup box wrack.  The pickup is a 1953 and I have no idea how old the wrack it but is has bits of paint that match shelves already in the kitchen, so imagine my surprise when I suggested it Poppie said that would probably work.  I am so excited that he sees the possibilities in old things, but then maybe it only because it's a wrack from and old truck, who knows but I get a cool wrack either way. 

Bug is home today to visit but it will probably just be for today and gone back tomorrow.  It is nice to see him and know he is still on the right path with God in his life.  I am glad he is blossoming and going forward with is life.  I have kitchen to rearrange and stuff to do so this is short and sweet.... tomorrow.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Zootown, CAKls, Church and a new divider all in one day.

Mokie and I got up bright and early, were on our way to the Zoo by 6:30.  Did all of our shopping, got Yogie's Kinect game resurfaced, ate a quick early lunch at Costco and back home before noon.  Poppie was ready to string Mokie up as she had chosen yesterday to change Bubbles to a full time cup, mostly because she could not find her bottle.  Poppie told me later he found the baby piglets bottle but could not find the nipple or he would have given it to her.  I said "you mean the nipple on the window seal",  he just rolled his eyes in disgust that he couldn't find something so obvious.  I thought he was funny, and that didn't help his mood.

 He finished making the shelves for my divider. We are putting a divider on the snack bar.  We don't actually use it as a snack bar and due to it being so big it quite often becomes a catch all.  We have decided to but a 12 inches by 7+ foot set of shelves on it.  One side, the side toward the computer desk will have four shelves 9x6 inches wide for books.  The other side will have three shelves one 17 inches and two 14 inches, again six inches wide.  One for my cookbooks and canister set, the other two for maybe two sets of plates and cups I don't usually use except of special events.  I can wait until he get is finished.  He has gotten the two shelf units made now he is going to put an oak panel between them and face them with oak and finish it up with oak molding so it will match my kitchen cupboards.  I want to stain the pine boards with oak stain to finish them up.  He had them done when we got home so that was cool, probably to keep his sanity from the crying Bubble, but I digress. 

I made the kids quesadillas  when I got home and then I was off to CAKLs  there was a large group of ladies there so that was extra nice.  One quilting, one making a monkey, one a rug, one darning socks with a light bulb and one making a baby Sacket set.  We talked, shared and cackled to be sure.  Lady and I got to run a few ideas about BBFC see past one and other.  It is getting so close to perfect that we may not have to tweak before long at all. 

I came home where Mokie,  Yogie, and Booboo were waiting for me to go on a ride to pick up a few items that were left by family member in sort of storage.  We got a table, some chairs, some family photos, some books, some cleaning supplies and a special sacrament set I had forgotten about, sort of like one I had been have really been wanting lately.  I had actually looked on line for one almost identical, how cool is that, and this one had family meaning.  Poppie is going to help me restore it and then has promised to study up on the scriptures to use it.  I am so looking forward to using it, it has been a big hole in my heart that we have not been doing this sacrament but soon and very soon we will have it again as a family. 

We came home unloaded the items from the car, Booboo went to Mokies to watch a movie with the kids, we had dinner and then Yogie and I went to Church services.  We had a very nice time, I like Tuesday nights as it is a little more laid back, less formal and more family like.  Booboo didn't go as she almost always falls asleep as she is not an evening person, Poppie was too tired from watching kids and rarely goes to Tuesday service because setting is so hard for him to manage with his back more than once a week. 

All and all a wonderful day, busy, busy, busy but rewarding on so many levels.  I hope the Lord gives you a rewarding day, I hope that today is the day of your regeneration and today the Lord opens your eyes to the secrets of his word.  All can be yours if only you have faith and believe...... tomorrow.

Monday, March 25, 2013

My Ladies are home all week, have grands too....

We are happily doing our Bible studies one hour late this morning, I was soft hearted and let them sleep in until 7.  We took off of our regular readings to read each of the gospels accounting from Palm Sunday to Resurrection/Easter Sunday.  This morning we started in Matthew.  They are now eating breakfast and studying their 4h books to see how much to feed their piglets they got this weekend.  Son had two left and sold them each one. 

We spent most of the afternoon outside yesterday.  Poppie scrapped up most of the goat manure in the pens, he has some pig manure to remove as well but he had taken a hiatus in the middle of the removing to dig a hole for Son and broke the pen in his bucket.  He is going to stop at Fosters to see if he has one to replace Poppies on the way home from the Professors.  We moved piglets around a little, tried to milk Lucy Lou for the first time.  I check out the old pig pen, did a little cleanup,  Poppie is going to put Charcoal in it today,  he is the boar and he is getting to old to be with the little sows and the barrow. 

I am having too much fun making up mixes.  Poppie loves the ranch dip/salad dressing mix so good I have had to make two batches of the mix, it only take 1 tablespoon of the mix for each batch, too cool. He also likes the mac and cheese mix I made better than homemade or bought so that is a plus for every once in awhile. I am going to make one of parmesan cheese to see which he like better.  I made creamer yesterday, who knew the coconut oil was the secret ingredients.  Today I am going to use my creamer to make a latte mix,..  okay, I am a geek.

I finished the little upluks,  I have to tweak it a little but they are cute.  Kids to watch so gotta go.  I hope the Lord blesses your day and you think of Jesus especially this week of Passover, and Easter.   He gave his life the we might live.... tomorrow.  

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Carnal or Spiritual.... I had no idea most of my life.

I have said before I was raised up Christian I am not sure that I ever thought of not being one.  I was saved and baptized when I was 16, in the summer of 1977 with three of my siblings. I never questioned in my life that I would be save and baptized it was like getting married part of what I would do with my life.  I was raised in a lot of different churches.  Not different denominations or anything like that just a lot of different churches.  I was raised in the church of Christ.  I was raised in the older style of church of Christ that didn't even really consider the church of Christ a name of an individual church but part of the one true church that Jesus is the head of. It is not really like the Church of Christ that is now.  I did learn right off from all the travel that one was as different from the others as Nazarenes and Baptists. When I became nearly an adult I had opportunity to worship with friends one a Baptist and one a catholic. I attended the Church of God youth group growing up (the minister actually married me and Poppie in the funeral home but that is another blog.)  I soon read and studied up on numerous churches, trying to understand the similarities and differences.  In the years since my parents left here, my father was the preacher and now there isn't a church or Christ here, I have tried several churches.  The Methodist, the Baptist, and thought of others.  I have searched in myself for where God wants me to worship and I am now going to the Baptist Church, I do not know if I will ever be totally at peace or totally comfortable but for now that is where God has called me to. I know that where ever God calls me to I am a new testament Christian and happy where ever God calls me to assemble and that the local church is where I should be in that. 

I have always wondered why one Church makes so much of their service about works and baptism while another church focuses on asking to be saved with no worries about baptism at all.  I wonder why one has no communion and an other has it ever Sunday?  I know that I could name a million idiosyncrasies and that would not cover the differences in churches.  I don't think one church is better than another in God's eyes as long as it is new testament church and following him.  I think that God sees us as one church and that people make the distinctions about the specifics.  I do know that the one thing I have found is that in the differences there are extremes.  One church is totally scriptural and lives by the Word on a daily bases, the people obey, or try to obey all of God commandments, they try to do good works in the Lord.  They don't cuss, the don't drink and they don't associate with bad things or people.  They fight the good fight against the devil and his minions daily.  This is the way I was brought up and I never could live up to the standards of my family, extended family or the friends in the church.  I fell so short.  I now see churches where Sunday is the only day that the people try to be with God, they cuss, they drink, the do drugs, have broken marriages, their are gay people in their congregations, they sin and they sin with no remorse daily. I think how can this be, how can both of these be the church, and how are they both the church with Jesus as the head? 

I have only just learned by studies, what I am sure that people already knew, I guess I just messed that sermon.  There are spiritual and carnal Christians.  There are Christians like Noah, and there are Christians like Lot.  Both in Genius were saved from Gods wrath and destruction.  They alone were saved with their families,  God held his wrath just for them.  The second they were safe God destroyed all but them.  Noah was a spiritual Christian, okay you don't think he was a Christian but he was he looked forward to the cross with faith just as we look backward to the cross with faith, but I digress.  He was a spiritual Christian and Lot was a carnal Christian.  He lived in the carnality, his wife was not saved, he witnessed and was swayed by the carnality of his time, his town and the peoples in it.  He was saved but did not change and obey Christ to live a better life.  He is like so many of the saved that live among us that were not changed by salvation but for a short time before they go back to their ways.  You know what I mean, you see it every day.  The newly saved that are transformed and the newly saved the sort that are still afloat at sea.  God sees them both as saved but they will receive different judgments in heaven and different rewards.

I now know that I spent a large part of my life as a carnal Christian, I do also know that carnal Christians can become spiritual Christians, for some it happens in an instant and for some, like me it takes a life time of mistakes and transgressions to listen to Gods word and hear what he is calling me to do.  What kind of Christian are you? are you saved? have you even asked God into your life?  Have you accepted God's free gift?  Old or young his invitation is there forever and unto your last moment you but need to ask him for his forgiveness and salvation and it its yours.... tomorrow.    

Friday, March 22, 2013

Cook book trolling on the web, sunshine, and plans to fulfill

I spent most of the day yesterday making stuff or surfing for more stuff to make on the net, okay I am a self admitted A personality when I get my mind on something, most of my close friend know it and over looked it, thank goodness.  I found recipes for pudding mixes, dressing mixes, bran flakes and corn flakes, and all sorts of things none of you really want to hear about.  I have to go to Flower Childs place to get spices, and she has some jars she offered to sell me, half gallons that will be so cool for my mixes and concoctions.  I manage to remember Little Sisters advise when I cook, it sort of gave me permission to be me.  Read or make a recipe once and then the skies the limit for your imagination, I like that she included just reading rather the obligatorily need to actually have to make it even once.   I always adapt so have gone to actually writing it down because some one always asked me how to make it and they roll their eyes when I say you just do this.  They actually like written down recipes, go figure.  I literally can't wait to try the end results of some of the recipes.  My ladies actually eat them and I don't have to worry about the hidden formula's in the simplest things.  I have recipes for hot chocolate, creamers and latte's, shelf stable dry versions with nothing in them I can't actually even pronounce. I digress and you don't want me to go on.

It is sun shining out what a wonderfully beautiful day.  The kids and the kids are all leaping about and having such fun.  We may even let the indoors kids play outside with the outdoor kids later.  They will be ecstatic.  Poppie is going to put my stove in and work on my new isle, I gave him my drawing of what I wanted and he didn't give me a stink eye so I think I may be golden.  I am going to take the improvised table out of the studio for more open room, win win, I am going to use the board for the table top I am wanting to make for the library.  I have an order for a pair of upluks for a little 7 month old, spent hours messaging back and forth with her lovely mother yesterday. 

I am reading the Sign of the Times, by M R De Haan, it is amazingly enlightening.  I do so love his work, and would gladly share my copies of his work with anyone interested in reading them.  I love that he uses so many texts from the Word and explains them with so many scriptures.  I am also glad that I am saved and don't have to worry about the coming Tribulations and Biblical wars.  I do so wish that society and politicians, in general, would take heed and believe on the Lords word, they could so change the coming times but alas God knew before time they would not, so the future is inevitable. The Lord has never lied to us and has no idea of it in his being.  Today is the day to read the Bible, take in the scriptures and believe before it is too late and the Lords has come, oh to be one of the lost with out being in Jesus..... tomorrow.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

The times, our time, time.... The end of time.

The times we live in are truly a changing, so much is new and makes our live more convenient but is convenience always better.  I hear people saying every day they wished they lived in the good old day, you know every one has a different opinion of when those good old day would be but they want to live in them.  Could most of us really live in our ideal of the good old days, could we really give up running water, the toilet, the TV, the radio, the computer, social media, smart phones, cars, trains, planes and what ever it is you depend on?  NO, the reality is we wouldn't willingly go back to our golden age or good old time if given the chance, we are not fit for it.  We have lost the ability to survive in our good old days.  Have you ever killed to eat, not just for sport but killed because you wouldn't eat if you didn't, could you kill your horse to safe you child's life, could you eat grubs and rodents because you don't know where you are going to get food for tomorrow, no the good old days didn't have a convenience store or microwaves.  It had hard ship and tragedy or they wouldn't have striven so hard to make the changes that have became all our modern conveniences.  Time is ever changing, we as people always look back to the good old days in any age but run ever forward toward making changes to easier things, IE, modernization and the next new thing.

Did you know that a hundred years ago there was no such thing as an old folks home or a day care?  They are both modernization, convenience that make our lives easier.  Thousands upon thousands of years we took care of our old and our young,  the family did it,  a mother did it, but alas not now.  I know mothers now have to work or they can't afford to live, fathers have checked out and mothers have to figure out how to work to feed their kids.  Why is that a sign of our times?  When did working become more important than raising your child, or you aged parent, when did it become better for someone else to do it?  I know it frees a mom up to live her own life.  Why then did you have a child if your life was more important than you taking care of that child?  School starts earlier and earlier in this country, is 5 years, or now 3years, to much to devote to the infancy and toddlerism of your child?  When did Mom and Dad become such a burden or too much work to take care of?  Did they not change your diaper, well probably not if you were in daycare, but I digress.  Why in the good old days did we add on a granny room for mom and dad and now we send them to an assisted living or nursing home, as far away as we can get away with, so we don't actually even have to go see them?  Have you ever spent anytime in a nursing home, the sorrow, the loneliness and the agony is palatable.  They are almost all literally thrown away like yesterday trash, someone else is responsible for them while you pursue your life, your career, your freedom to do what it is you are seeking.  No worries, well not until that child you left in daycare gets to make the decisions about your end days anyway.  Daycares and nursing homes a sign and invention of our times, such a wondrous evolvement.

I often wonder at the times we live in, some see it as exciting and becoming something wondrous and free.  I see liberal expounding up all the freedom of living their lives as all should be allowed to, and the conservatives shuddering at the "new found freedoms".  One sees it as wonderful and the evolvement of man, the other sees it as the devastation and the living epitome of sin, the times of Noah relived.  I am a confessed conservative, a Christian and a follower of the risen Christ so I don't see the times we are living in as enlightened by any means.  I am called to say that the end times are not to far away from us. 

1 Thes. 5:1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to
you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3
For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon
a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day
should overtake you as a thief.      


I don't see eons of time in front of human kind, I think that the season of Christ's second coming is already foreseeable, and soon.  Maybe not in my life time but sooner than most of the enlightened can imagine and there doom is on the horizon. 

Time is a precious commodity, we only have a finite time that God gives each of us. He new at the foundation of creation and long before he created the heavens and the earth how much each of us get.  We get to use it any way we like, on ourselves, on others, on God or on having a good time.  I hope you use yours well, I know that daily I misuse mine and will answer for it.  I hope you are prepared to answer for your usage of your time here.... tomorrow.



Wednesday, March 20, 2013

The end finally comes, plans, and granola......

This morning the end came to the last of the piglets.  It was really heart breaking to wacht the last of the piglets slowly die.  They had been doing so well and then they took a turn for the worst and there was not saving them.  I had read it was very hard to succeed at raising piglets from newborn.  I know that the goats milk gave us the best shot we had.  There are so many variable that can cause them not to thrive.  The list of causes has so many possible diseases from ecoli to piglet wasting disease, lack of iron or almost anything.  We gave it a good try and if time spent caring for them would have saved them they would be fat and sassy now.  It was much like years ago when I bred Pekingese puppies, I would spend days and weeks saving a runt only to have it die at a month old.  I learned the hard way to let them die at birth.  We will have to learn the hard way that when a catastrophic pig event happens to just know that it is God's will and not try to fight it.  I know not why but this litter of pigs was not meant to survive.  We have made arrangements to have Miss Chops butchered next month.  The little piglet I was to get for a second sow was born dead on Sunday so we must not have been meant to have her.  We bought one of Son's from his October batch so she will be the same age as Chocolate, our little Berkshire sow.  It will be good that they are similar age, They will each have there own stall next to each other and we will breed them to Charcoal in October.  Not sure what we will call her but she has a lot of spots that that might be in the running, if Poppie has a say it will be Momma and he will just be cutting to the chase.  He calls them all momma.  Adventures in pig husbandry is a evolving process.

I have been making plans to change around my kitchen and living rooms.  Poppie is making plans to turn my end tables and coffee table into a cool desk, I have worn off on him it seems imagine him upcycling in such an advanced manner.  I can't wait to see it completed we have to measure the slot under our snack bar to see how long he will make it but it will be like a built in but not actually built in.  We are going to use four poster giant bench that has been stored in the goat pen to make me a kitchen isle, some old boards and a table from Belle to finish the design.  I am going to be giving the hutch out of the kitchen to Mokie and adding the second stove, Poppie is going to buy replacement burns to fix the one I have messed up like new.  I am going to put in the one from Drama so I can split the wear and tear of canning and I will have two ovens, a true blessing.  He is putting in a second frig I got from Bug that has been in the driveway for months. It had gotten really smelling when his electric was out and he was not living in his house, so it has been airing out, so I am going to use my trusty Lysol and make it clean enough to use.  We are going to move the upright freezer for easier access for veggies and my mixes, so lots of moving and shaking come soon.  The girls will be off of school next week so we may do some of it then.  Poppie has decide to paint their rooms and make one wall, or a big part of one wall each, a chalk board so they can draw, doodle or do home work on the walls.  I thought that was a cool idea he came up with, I am so proud my art student is blossoming.  

I am going to be making granola again today,  it was such a success that the whole gallon is all gone.  I am going to make the basic granola and add different fruits and nuts to them and make it up in 1/2 gallon jars.  Booboo wants the coconut, craisin, almond,  Yogie wants raisin, regular coconut, almond (with her braces she can't eat the bigger coconut chunks).  I am just glad they are eating it with such glee.  I watch a piece on the news this morning about the scientists for the food companies making a salt, sugar and fats formula in their foods that purposely addict you to their products.  I am so glad we have made such deliberate steps to break away from so many processed products.  No pops, and less and less prepackaged foods.  Poppie who once lived on salt eats less and less, I was never big on it so never missed it.  He even had me make the cream soups last week with no salt, he said I could add it to the finished dish when I cooked it if needed. 

I still have to go get my vanilla beans and vodka today, didn't get away yesterday, totally forgot that Pre-school was coming was just coming out of my bedroom, in my jamies, when she knocked on the door.  She was very kind at my faux pa.  Lots to do, and since I only answer to God, Poppie and myself I suppose no real time limit.  Still lots to do.   I hope that God smiles on you today and that the holy spirit moves you in your life, he is always there and will listen if you but ask.  Today is the day of asking.... tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Concentrate, syrup, maybe cookies, a winter wonderland.....

We are awaking to a winter wonderland in our yard, so we couldn't buy a snowflake in January but we are more blessed than we want to be in March, Spring please come and dry it all away.  I spent most of the day yesterday making lemonade concentrate and lemon syrup.  Okay so next time I will plan it out better and not decide that I don't want to waste all the peels until after I have already juiced them.  I had juiced 72 lemons and was faced with a mountainous pile of them when it came to me I needed to use them for something.  Off to my trusty computer to look up candied peels and the by product of making it is lemon syrup.  I was bemoaning my plight of zesting the already piled peels when Drama suggested I might try flavoring with huckleberries.  I took her idea and flavored the lemon syrup with huckleberries.  I am going to use it to make kids drinks and teas this summer, lemony with a huckleberry hint.  I spent the whole day on only 2/3's of the box.  I am going to juice some more of it this morning to add to the syrup,  the peels gave it a nice lemony taste, as did the huckleberries give it a nice taste but I think a little lemon in each before I can them will give it just a little more kick.  I think I actually ended up with 16 quarts so that will be great.  I think it will be so much better than sugar and I am usually to lazy to whip of simple syrup when I am making teas and kids drinks.  I will have it already on hand.  Open and make the drink when it will last indefinitely in the frig for more drinks.  yay. 

I must admit to a catastrophe yesterday.  I had just finished making the syrup up, after I had canned the lemon concentrate, I put the pan on the stove, about 4 gallons and sat to drink some coffee.  I heard a loud noise come from the kitchen just as I sat down, I wondered what it was but since it didn't reoccur I just ignored it.  Poppie was off to the store to pick up 25 lbs of sugar and get the kids from school.  I was sitting talking to Cubbie about half an hour later when we heard the loud noise again, but lots of it, and then saw smoke coming from my kitchen area.  I have an open plan kitchen, dinning room and living room.  We ran in and got the pan off the burner and turned off the stove.  The front big burner was a flame, it had burned to the wires on one side,  I never had that happen before.  Well, maybe when I burned my Grandma Thelma's pressure cooker to the stove when I was making potatoes at 10 and boiled it dry, but I digress.  I don't know what happened maybe the 5 gallon pan I regularly use on the stove took it's toll or maybe it was just an accident.  I sort of looked at the bottom of the pain, at a glance it looked fine, so I slid it to the back big burner and it started to cook away.  Poppie removed the big burner when he got home sure enough it was burned out but he didn't really know why.  I was cooking the syrup when all of a sudden there was smoke in my kitchen again a little later.  I went to check and there was a fire under the pain.  The pan was leaking, the burner had burned thru may pan, very sad Son bought it for my at a rummage sale for 15 dollar it was a 100 dollar pan that I could not otherwise afford.  Poppie may be able to weld it.  Poppie thinks the first noise I heard welded the burner to the pan causing a whole, it burned a pin hole through which caused the syrup to drip through and coated the burner causing it to burn the burner out completely.  Sad tale, but thank the Lord no real catastrophe.  I am truly blessed, how scary a fire would have been.  I am going to talk Drama about a flat top she has from an old trailer we gave her.  I know a flat top is not ideal to can on but my mom and Lady both have used them successfully.  I will just have to practice my patience, maybe God is giving me a test to over come my impatience.  We will see. 

I found the coolest lemon cookie recipe yesterday so if I have any lemon left I am going to try them and maybe a practice recipe of lemon curd with the thought in mind to get two cases of lemons next time.  I hope you have a great day and remember that you are special, God created you, he loves you and you are the most important person he ever made in his eyes, yes he loves us each as his special child..... tomorrow.

Monday, March 18, 2013

More snow... isn't spring to begin on thursday?

Poppie is not one bit happy with the snow we have gotten the last two days.  We had new babies on Saturday,  I read somewhere that much to the dismay of "old goat breeders" assumption that most babies are born into the middle of the night they are most often born around two in the afternoon.  It does seem that a good many of ours are born around then and these two were on that exact schedule.  I was getting ready to go to BBFC and had just gotten into the tub when Yogie came running in saying "daddy needs you".  I told her I would come out as soon as I could.  Poppie had to deliver his first baby.  The little guy had presented one foot and head first,  Poppie was happily waiting for me to come when he noticed that the baby was gasping for breath, he awaited a contraction and pulled the little one.  The momma let our a loud scream and the little guy slid to the ground.  He is a wonderful red color with black and white markings.  I joined them and in just a short time we had a little white spotty female that needed no assistance to come into the world, her brother had paved the way so to speak.  We are now up to three live girls and three live boys.  We have had two females have babies early so the babies didn't end up living.  We think our herd leader may have hit them and caused trouble so Poppie is really getting on her for butting.  She is starting to be nicer.  If she doesn't she will have to be penned up with her babies in a separate pen.  The two new ones are Lucy Lou's so they are Lollipop and Larry the cable goat.  My girls have a sense of humor sometimes. 

We have more snow this morning and Poppie is grumbling about it, we are supposed to get 1 to 3 inches so by noon he should really be whining.  I hope that spring gets here and stays before long I am tired of it's teasing and running away.  I do like that it hasn't been raining, it rained all fall and enough is enough.  I want glorious warm productive spring.  We have so many things we want to get done.  Poppie did get some backhoeing done in the goat pen and he says we have a bumper crop of manure for the gardens.  I am looking forward to using it in the lawn, the gardens, gifting some and just having nice old pile of manure for future use and project.  Funny how much of a blessing a little manure can be. 

I am making lemonade concentrate and some lemon curd today.  I am excited to get on it.  I am also going to buy a bottle of vodka and make up some lemon extract and some vanilla extract.  I can't wait to see how they come out, I may just never buy extract again, well since I can't afford the extract and only get the imitation I may never have to get it again either.  I can imaging the extracts I could make, anything could be...... I digress.  I have had to buy two cases of jars lately, I am looking to find a good case price on lids but haven't found one.  I do know you never want to buy jars on eBay, I can get them locally for around 10 to 11 a case, a little less in Zootown, on eBay people are selling them for around 25 plus shipping.  I am thinking that only new to canning people are buying these and being hoodwinked, they need to go to their local walmart and get real.   I do totally go crazy when I find a bunch at a rummage sale, what a blessing.  Okay, well enough about me,  I hope you have a great day and the Lord blesses you or gives you a tribulation that causes you to seek his solace.... tomorrow.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Do you minister? To who and how? Do you even know?

Yesterday was BBFC day and it went off great, the flow is great and we have finally got it down to a machine, could be a well oiled machine but I don't want to jinx it by being overly confident.  My Ladies went with the Churches to the services for the nursing home and the assisted living.  They had practiced two songs all week, they wanted to get it right and know that they could sing loud enough for the old folks to hear them  The Preacher and the Violinist both told me when they picked up their baskets that the Ladies did well.  Praise the Lord.

This morning during Sunday school services the Preacher praised their efforts and their ministering to the old folks.  They were both proud and have both decided that with 4-h, the relay for life and with singing at the nursing home that they do not want to play organized baseball this year.  I kind of think their choice is a good one for them.  They won't be over extended and they chose singing praises to the Lord to people who need their ministering over other options, maybe I am getting it right the second time around after all. 

I did have to contemplate the Preacher's message that we all minister.  It is what we are called to do in the Bible but so much of the time we don't think about it or maybe we think it is the preachers job, or maybe we don't have time or maybe we don't know how or maybe a dozen other things.  We don't minister.  What is ministering?  We know how to minister to a child with a cut, or a booboo.  We know how to sympathize with a sobbing child, of any age, as we age as mothers or fathers but do we minister to people for God?  I know that as parents Poppie and I both taught our children about the Bible and God.  We did it to the best of our ability at the time so the degree of our ability my have varied as we aged.  I don't think we questioned that we are to minister to our children but do we ever think of ministering to others on purpose or by accident?  Some of us do more accidental minister than any that we would plan I am sure. 

Accidental minister can be as simple as how we live our lives and what people see us doing, do we treat people well?  Are we sober, or drug free?  Are we gossips, or slanders, do we care for our fellow man? do we make our lives good examples to others?  Do we give of ourselves?  All are good ways to minister if the person we are ministering to sees our examples as being the result of  living our lives for the Lord.  I know that I am not someone who has ever gone door to door ministering with an intend to minister.  I do know that I speak of the Lord as part of my daily life.  I try to never be ashamed of my faith in God, people who know me either listen, over look my speaking of the Lord and ignore it or understand that I am the Lords.  Those are the people you can talk to later and discuss the Bible with  or just the Lord, in general.  Those are your ministry.  I have only just really began to think of my blog as a ministry for the Lord.  I always thought that it was for my kids, grands and that if any one ever opened a Bible in curiosity because of my faith in God that I would be so glad and I would praise the Lord for giving me this little space to have spoken to just one lost soul.  Recently, I have begun to think that for some reason, I have regular readers, maybe it is for the antics of my goats, kids or grands and that is great, but what if it is for the little bit of the Lord I speak about? what if just one person wanted to know more of my experiences with the Lord? wouldn't I be ministering to that one soul?  Wouldn't God want that of me?  I do intend to speak more forthright about the Lord and hope that some of you see the Lord for the first time,  maybe just maybe that by hearing you believe and seek the Lord.  I am telling you, so I am thinking you are hearing but it could really just be reading after all, but think of the joy of just one lost soul seeking God from reading one word or hear one thing I might share.  That would be such a praise to the Lord, how glorious would that be?....... tomorrow.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Do your old man and your new man battle?

I sometimes sorrow for people that have it all and nothing bad ever happens to the them.  Do they not see that God has completely left them alone in this life?  I know that God knows, and has known, from the beginning of time which people will seek his grace and which will not.  I don't agree with people when they say that God does not work in a life until you are saved.  I know that they say that God only does things with you once you have been saved and I do believe that but doing thinks and working are not necessarily the same thing.  Most children, the ones that are not of accountability, have the Lord in them, so isn't that a contradiction? If God in his all knowing knows which of those children will become his why wouldn't he speak to their hearts, or for that matter the hearts of the ones that will be his at any age.  I do know that I don't know what God thinks at any given time and would not presume to try to tell anyone what God is ever thinking.  I know only what God tells me in the Bible and that he has said that some will never understand his word, I am thinking those would be the ones that never become saved but who am I that I would know? 

I think that this life is hard and you can see the saved by the trials and tribulations that God gifts them with in their lives  Yes gifts.  Iron is a wondrous mineral but unto itself it is just a mineral.  You have to put it to the fire, pound it, quench it, fire it and more to make it into some thing,  you can make it into a simple thing if it is broken and pounded a little.  If you break it and fire it and test it more and more it can becomes so much more the something that you want it to become. God uses us like iron, he tests us, put us to the fire, quenches us breaks us down and reshapes us, to his will.  We are just a born man with out him. Some never have hardships and seem to live a carefree life of easy, they may seem to have a silver spoon and life of privilege, they do anything they want and never answer for anything to anyone.  God never seems to allow them any hardships, that's because he  isn't tinseling them, they are not his, he has no interest in them  They will live their whole lives as the person they were born as.  They will only have an old man that will die, they will never have a new man that will never die.

God gives us that new man when we by grace are gifted with salvation  Our bodies is still the same but we get the new man of spirit, and the holy spirit comes to live in our lives and guides our new man.  We are still living in the old mans body we were born with.  The flesh, the body we were given at birth.  The old man, our flesh is weak and wants to do so many things of this world.  The old man is a sinful creature and is not interested in our eternal life.  The old man gets us into so many trials and tribulations, that its will wants us to do.  God allows our old man and our new man to battle, so that our spirit is tinseled.  We need to learn that it is not our will as a saved person but the will of God we need to follow.  We have to over come the pride of the old man, the lusts, the carnality, the what evers, and there are so many,  we have to become humbled, prayerful and obedient to God, we have to learn to love and know that God is our all.  We have to come to the fact that with out him we are nothing, have nothing and will be nothing, he is our all and the only answer that does not lead to eternal nothingness and eternal damnation. 

My dad always taught me that God would provide and take care of all we ever really needed, he never  taught me to save and plan really, he taught me to give to others and be of service.  I am a person with a lot of the old man, and I don't mean my dad, in me.  I try to figure and plan, I try to worry the results to a new conclusion and I try to control the outcome so much of the time.  I never seem to accomplish any thing I set my mind to if I don't remember to let the Lords will be done,  he will provide for me.  I have to remember to do it his way, do his will and in his time.  I have to learn patience, that my time is not and has never been God's time. 

I remember when Mokie was about a year old I wanted another baby so bad but had made a deal with Poppie to have my tubes tied if she had been a girl.  He had wanted two children and I had wanted 4.  I remember praying and praying for a child.  I even got Poppie to agree to adopt a few years later but I never got another child.  I finally gave up and lived my life as God wanted me to, then when Mokie was 19 God blessed me with two beautiful girls to raise.  My time was not God's time.  I have learned so much more in this life from waiting on God's time and trying to understand that my time is for naught.  I have survived, hunger, abuse, loses that I thought I could not endure, I have questioned my Lord in anguish.  I have been in a hurry, and in despair, but I have learned how to have patience, I have learned to do with out and take joy in the simple.  I have learned to serve others and to understand how a person who looses a loved one feels, I have also.  I have learned to know what the sexually abused feels and how to have compassion in their loss.  I have learned how to have empathy for so many things, as I have been there.  God has truly blessed me, I know how to hold the hand of some one who has lost, I can talk or more times I can just be of use listening.  I thank God ever day for all the things that he has given me that make me of more support and use to others in need, because with God there go I.  Without God to have helped me through I don't even want to think how I could have gone through the trials he has blessed me with.  I know that with God my new man wins more and more of the time.  I pray for patience, I pray to be humble, I pray to service and I pray that God can mold me, like iron, in to something he can use.  I know that I could never be anywhere near to Jesus, my old man fails daily,  but even to be only fashioned to a shadow of Jesus makes me so much the more for God having worked and broken me to it .... tomorrow.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Zootown, Sunshine, and Spring.....

Poppie and I had eye appointments first off in Zootown yesterday.  I got a new pair, my prescription was close to the same.  I got my old glasses all tightened up and they feel like a new pair.  I wonder why when we tighten them it isn't as good.  They must have magic tighteners.  Poppies old glass, that were supposed to be worth 4x what I paid for mine good are so bad he can't see out of them.  He got two new pairs same quality as mine, they well probably last longer than the fancy ones he got last time.  He got his second pair for 20 percent off, one for daily work with the instruction to actually use goggles to do wood work or metal work, hope he remembers, and a pair of good, like Church or reading.  Had time to kill between our appointments and Yogies ortho.  We went to Perkins for breakfast and much needed coffee.  We did a little shopping and off to the ortho.  Yogie's teeth are almost in after a year of waiting.  She may be able to have her braces off by Christmas if they come in soon.  Imagine having all her brace work done before most kids get there braces.  All done by the fifth grade, a blessing to be sure she will not lose a single adult tooth and the alternative was that she would lose multiple adult teeth had we waited. 

We stopped and did chores for our friends at Lozeau on the way home.  We got home to a yard full of kids playing in the wondrous spring sunshine.  It was right at 70 here the Lords blessing shinning down on our lives.  We milked the goats, feed them, gave them mineral blocks and a new worming block, we will have to see how that goes.  We came in to feed the 'starving' little piglets.  This morning we started them on pig starter and they are all happily up to their little knees in the bowl eating like little pigs, well they are you know.  The little one with the cut has been assimilated in with the other three and all are getting along just fine.  I have a little doe that will probably have babies today,  this will be her first time so we hope all will go well.  The baby, or babies, should be white and red and she is all black with a little white so it will be funny to see them together. 

We are supposed to get rain later but are going to enjoy the sunshine while we have it, Sunday is to bring nasty snow again.  I hope to enjoy the spring day today, and do some raking and burning.  It is just to tempting to be out of the house when the lure of spring is just right out the door.  I do so hope this early spring weather with fulfill it's teasing and bring us a nice long real spring, we haven't had one in several year.  I just don't like when all it does is rain, not nice spring rain but the terenchal downpour stuff we have had for these last year.  I can't wait to move rocks, rake, burn, build and just enjoy.  I hope you enjoy your day, I hope the Lord brings sunshine into your life, spiritually or physically.  The Lord gives us all possibilities with nothing out of his ability...... tomorrow.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

New baby, the last runt goes, Poppie mending.... Broken things

We were surprised by a slightly preemie baby yesterday, he had a twin but it was small and didn't make it.  He is a lovely red guy and feisty. his momma has taken it all in stride she is 8 1/2 so his arrival is not all that new or exciting to her.  He surprised Mokie as she heard crying in the barn that seemed odd.  We weren't expecting him for close to a week.  His momma had left him to his own devices as she merrily chomped on hay, he was unable to walk yet and making it known he didn't like that she had left him.  I went out when Mokie called and put momma and baby in a separate stall so they could bond.  He is bright and sassy this morning at his momma's side.  Her name is Daniell so his name is Danny. 

The last little runt, that we had been bottle feeding, lost his battle last night, he had just sort of been in limbo all along, only ate enough to get by and had slowly gotten smaller.  The girls tried to give him a chance but in the end he passed away,  a lesson learned for them.  You can't save the ones that aren't meant to survive.  The other four are doing well, the one with a cut is a good eater and still on the bottle because we can't put him with the other three until the cut mends better.  The other three eat our of a pie pan and they are pigs to their core.  Give them a pan of food and they have to see who can pig more before someone else gets any.  Pigs by any other name.

Poppie has pulled a muscle per the Dr, as expected.  He didn't have any major new damage.  He does have some damage above but he told the Dr. that that was something he didn't intend to have fixed, because it would just lead to more surgery, the Dr honored his wishes and didn't order ex rays.  He did have to have new high blood pressure meds.  The one he was one at first wasn't what he needed and the Dr had no problem with us having managed with natural methods but he said natural methods only work for a short time and then your body goes around them.  He is now on a med that should get him on track.  The Dr said Poppie was the kind that if he ever has a heart attack he will be dead before he hits the floor, unlike my family that have warning heart attack.  Poppie and I got to thinking and his uncle who died of a heart attack was only 48 when he died, he had been a hard working logger his whole life, seemingly a thin health man.  Dead before he hit the ground.  Poppie is glad to be on the right track with the right meds.  His uncles passing had been very hard on his family at such a young age.

I just got my book, Broken things, by M. R. De Haan, it is supposed to be one of his best.  I am so excited, just the one chapter I have read has been wonderful.  I seemly is a book that explains, those horrible things "that God allows" to happen to us in this life.  God's grace can only use you if you are broken, can't wait to get into my book more.  Have a great day, the Lord love and keep you.... tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Poppie hurt himself, 4h and BBFC...

Okay, so Poppie was getting out of the car yesterday at the store and slipped on the gravel.  He caught himself with the steering wheel but it really wrenched his back.  He rarely lets me talk him into going to the Dr as the reality is that he can have no more surgeries on his back.  If he has to have one they would have to go in threw his stomach, his back has to much scarring on it to go in from the back.  Each surgery in and of itself causes more pressure on his back and makes more damage.  He has had more damage for some time but just learns to live with the pain.  Which he can do with his manage pain meds but the government has decided that people like him need to go off their meds and live with the pain.  They are supposed to wean him down and they told him to just become inactive, how sad that that can be something that the government can arbitrarily mandate, the older people/disabled people can just live with it.  Poppie can be and is a vibrant person but needs the meds to be able to do that.  I hope his visit to the Dr is constructive but not thinking it will be if they just decide it is more damage, a pulled muscle would be a blessing, how sad it that.

I took the girls to 4h last night, short sweet meeting.  They volunteered to do the relay for life so now they have to each make a hundred dollar in donation.  They are planning on doing some bake sales at Castles, the owner said they could sell luminarys too.  I have to find out what that actually means. Lots of work no doubt.  They are going to do a joint demonstration on the 6th of April for 4h, so they have to get that going as well.  This Saturday they are going to the nursing home to sing with the Church while I am at BBFC, busy little Ladies I hope they manage their schedules well. I do try to keep it with in reason with their chores and I like them to have simple play time something that so many do not give time enough for in this day and age, no electronics just play in the great outdoors.

We are going to be on 5th BBFC pickup this weekend.  We have continually tried to fix the flow of the distribution and hopefully this week we have got it worked out to our satisfaction.  Funny how we both tend to expect more from ourselves than others do.  We are are worst critiques.  We think we are close to getting it up to our satisfaction, wish us well.  We did put in for and receive permission to set our distribution time back a half hour so that should helpful.  The exciting part is that we are getting great produce and so many people get to participate.  I hope the Lord blesses your day in big, and little ways that maybe only you can see but blessing that are to be cherished all the same, all blessing tell us that the Lord loves us and cares about our lives.... tomorrow.

Monday, March 11, 2013

One more passed, one doing remarkable... cake mixes and brownies..

We lost the littlest runt during the night, but the little red piglet with the bite mark on him is doing remarkable well.  He is up and eating like a pig, pun intended.  The three bigger piglets are doing great and no longer want to be held when they are eating, they are pigs after all and want to stand.  I am going to give them a pan of milk and baby cereal today I think they may be reading to go on their own as far as eating.  The last little runt is still hanging in there and making strides so their is hope she will live.  I am going to be getting a half wattle and have Berkshire piglet from my crazy lady in Polson to raise up as a second momma.  We will be well and truly only heritage pigs then, so maybe there will be a blessing besides just ham and bacon in the end.  I know that that sounds cruel to not even seemingly pause at the butchering of a well loved animal, but the reality is that she is a part of our little farm and had a job to do as part of the farm.  Her job was to breed babies, suckle them and raise them up to be sold for weaner piglets.  She failed at her job, which is what payed for her food.  She can't be trusted now to do her job and we can't justify a 800 hundred pound pet, that eats a lot of food.  She now has one job left, to feed our family with the almost 600 lbs of meat she will become.  That is the reality of having a little farm, nothing wasted all to its own purpose and need.

Today I am excited I am going to make homemade cake and brownie mixes.  I am going to try and move the upright freezer into the kitchen, so I can have handy access to my berries, veggies and mixes.  I am excited I have been looking through recipes and came upon ones I think I will really like.  I have cake mix, brownie mix and baking mix recipes.  I am thinking it will be a tremendous savings, money and time.  I like mixes but they are costly and I am not sure I want all the "extra" junk in my food that the store mixes provide, plus they are expensive in comparison.  The sites I visited showed the making them was a cost savings of almost 500%, which is wonderful.  I am making the mixes because it is a time saving and the littles can still make the mixes without a lot of supervision which they sort of have to have if they are mixing all the ingredients together themselves, which they don't have to have with a mix.  Imagine, 40 cents compared to two dollars for a cake or brownie mix.  The baking mix will be whole wheat and flax, not white flour, and I can add my sourdough to it to mix it up, how much better that will be.  I am putting them in the freezer to keep the grated butter in them fresh and most likely the flours will like the freezer as well.  Win win.  We are slowly becoming more and more grocery store free, between home canned, frozen, meat from the farm and BBFC all good things.  This will be the first year I don't buy any canned cases from the store, yeah, I am so glad I have gotten to that point in my working to sustainability. 

We can't wait to get started on our garden this year and our cellar.  I may even get to grow some mushrooms this year if not for sure next year.  Poppie has gotten his plans going on putting in the cellar and more gardens around it.  I am here to tell you God is great and I am blessed that he is my redeemer and holds me in his hand.... tomorrow.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

NIce day a Church, pig tragedy......

We had a nice morning at Church but then going to Church should be nice shouldn't it?  Yes, sometimes we should feel that we got a little chastisement and other times we should go away thinking that we should do better in the Lord but all in all going to Church should be a glorious occasion.  We got to commune with the Lord as well as our brothers and sisters in the Lord.  So, we had a nice time at Church.

Yesterday was not so nice a day all in all.  We made it through the night of taking care of one baby pig, baby pigs like company so it was a little trying.  We went out and checked the piglets right off, another one was dead laid to the side.  We noticed one had a cut on it where maybe it got stepped on, Poppie sprayed it with wound coat and shoveled some of the soft dirt out of the nest.  I noticed one little one was smaller than the one we had in the house so we decided to try putting our lonely little one back in with it momma and siblings.  We put her in and she tried to fit right in, her siblings were happy to have her.  Momma was eating so we left them and went to play with the baby goats.  A short while later the piglets were making a ruckus.  Poppie went to check and the momma was pushing the little one we had had in the house out of her pen.  Poppie picked it up and we took it in the house.  We were in the house an hour or so and then came out to work on the garden areas.  I heard the piglets making a bunch of noise.  I asked Poppie to take a look at them but he said they make noise all the time,  I said no they are making odd noises.  Poppie reluctantly went to check on them.  He hollered for me to come help.  Momma for no reason we can think of had gone off her rocker.  She grabbed one piglet by the stomach, with her mouth, and threw it out of the nest.  She was stomping the one with the cut into the ground and just trying to hurt them.  She had always been a wonderful momma, this was her fourth litter.  She was such a good mom that could count on only loosing one or no babies.  We do not know what came over her but Poppie got all the piglets out of the pen and we took them into the house to save what we could.  He said he was going to butcher her he couldn't take the chance of losing so many again. We had 7 when Poppie and I took them in the house.

I rinsed all the dirt off of the one that was really cut up and pressed down his skin,  I forgot but I should have super glued it and I will remember that next time.  I then cleaned out the cut on the one that momma had thrown with her mouth.  He was deeper but not as expansive a cut.  I used wound coat on both of them and Poppie got butterfly strips and bandages.  I then wrapped them with strips of tee shirt around their little bellies.  They were both in shock.  The others all seemed to be okay.  We feed them, stoked the stove to get the heat up.  Poppie went out and got a heat lamp to get the little bathroom warmed up.  They like 90 degrees and the little bathrooms seems to be our baby animal catch all.  Baby piglets can be almost feed from a bowl from day one so I will  feed them on the bottle for about a week, maybe less depending up on the size of them, the bigger ones wean faster.  I feed them all afternoon and Poppie took the night shift, he was up four times with the small ones, once for the bigger ones.  The little one with all the cuts didn't make it through the night.  The other one is out of shock and starting to eat, he has a little infection but I gave him a penicillin shot so that should do the trick. 

The Lord truly did bless our day, 6 live babies, hams and bacon to eat soon enough.  A new second momma to come.  We will have two first time mommas come spring when we have new babies next year.  Death brings new birth and new birth brings the foretelling of death to come, as my Booboo was say it's the cycle of life here on our farm.  It's the cycle of life in Gods plan I am a thinking....tomorrow.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Piglets part deux....

Poppie took the girls to school and checked on the piglets.  There were at least 12.  He came in an had coffee, we took the two little girls out with us to see the babies.  Miss Chops had dug a hole of sorts to have her babies in.  The amount of them piled all one on the others was very heavy.  Poppie feed her slop and went to check the babies.  There were a couple that had been possibly laid on during the birthing, which is pretty much normal in a barn setting.  The ones you lose you usually lose in the first 12 hours or so, they learn pretty quick to move when momma says move and she knows how to say move.  He removed those it a shelf in the pen to dispose of later.  He dug to the bottom of the pile and there were a couple more in the soft dirt, their little noses full of dirt and the weight of the others smothered them.  We ended up losing 5 of the 13 babies.   The was one little female, the runt that had dirt in her nose laying to the side,  I told Poppie to bring her to me I would save her.  He didn't think I could.

I took her in the house and gave her a bath in warm water in the sink.  I decided to make her a bottle, I didn't have a pop bottle so I thought I would just give her Bubbles bottle and have Poppie go get another one for her.  I had some baby animal milk mix, so I mixed it up and filled the bottle.  I got her a box and a towel and started to feed her.  It took her a little while but she caught on and eventually got warm and full of milk.  As I was feeding her, Bubbles tried to pet the baby and then her face turned into a frown.  Little tears began to stream down her face, her lip stuck out more and she began to cry.  She got louder and louder.  I wasn't quite sure what was going on with her, I thought maybe she thought I was hurting the baby pig then it dawned on me.  I was feeding her bottle to the baby pig and she wasn't liking it one little bit.  I told her Poppie would go get her a new one at the store.  She just answered by howling and crying all the louder.  Poppie went to the store and got her a bottle, and an extra for Nannie for the baby.  She settled down when Poppie brought her a shinny new bottle. 

The piglet did well, and we  thought about giving it back to her mom but Miss Chops rarely abides a runt, she usually just eats them so the babies she has are more balanced.  We figured she would just eat her.  Poppie went out to water and feed Miss Chop later, and was going to dispose of the baby bodies but she had picked them off the shelf and eaten them before he went to get them.  I always think she is one smart pig, she uses the bodies of the piglets that didn't make it to bolster the piglets she is feeding.  She is truly an uncycler at it's most primal.  Poppie put straw on the babies, but Miss chops spent a good 20 minutes taken all the straw off of her babies, she didn't want the straw there and she wasn't going to stand for it being on her babies.  Poppie just let her do her thing on her terms. 7 good healthy babies will be a good thing  8 with little miss runt,  I do regret the loss of the bigger babies that smothered by accident but so is the cycle of life. 

Poppie and I had a baby all night long to take care of, I had told Poppie that Belle might want the runt for her kids to take care of as they home school and they do enjoy it but he felt we could do it.  He was up about 4 times in the night and I a couple more so this morning he is all for talking to Belle about the runt.  The Ladies were at the grandparents so they didn't "get" to help. We haven't named her encase Belle and kids might want her.  If not we will pick out a good name for the tiny little baby.  The Lord blessed us with a new littler of healthy babies, such a blessing.  I do pray that he blesses you in your life today as well.... tomorrow.

Friday, March 8, 2013

New baby piglets.....

This morning when Poppie let the dogs out he heard funny noises coming from the barn.  He suspected we had been blessed with little ones.  He got his flash light and went out to the barn.  There Momma, as Poppie calls her, we know her as Miss Chops, lay giving birth to her 9th piglet.  The others all fat and sassy were suckling as Momma did her work.  She had them all in a hollow she had rooted out in her pen.  She is a really good mom and they were all in the soft nest she had made for them.  Poppie is dropping the kids off at school picking up his heat lamp and returning to see how many we end up with.  Momma is a great pig mom, she will whittle out any runts, if you don't retrieve them, she likes all of her piglets equal ready to go.  She begins feeding them grain almost from day one,  I have been told that a piglet never actually needs to be bottle feed, they can be feed from day one on grain and milk in a pan.  She does feed them right off. Poppie says they are all black and white, but usually their are some pinks and reds so we will have to see.

The grands will be so excited to see them when we take them out.  I do so love the baby piglets, it always amazes me how they are so ready to go when they are born, they are perfect little beings and complete.  They almost don't need their momma, but she does like to have them to care for.  I do love the spring when all is new and life is so fresh.... tomorrow.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Two Pictures.... so sad so much truth in its words...

Two Pictures....... Unknown author.

Two Pictures hung on the dingy wall
Of a grand old Florentine hall —

One of a child of beauty rare,
With a cherub face and golden hair,
The lovely look of whose radiant eyes
Filled the soul with thoughts of Paradise.

The other was a visage vile
Marked with the lines of lust and guile,
A loathsome being, whose features fell
Brought to the soul weird thoughts of hell.

Side by side in their frames of gold,
Dingy and dusty and cracked and old,
This is the solemn tale they told:

A youthful painter found one day,
In the streets of Rome, a child at play,
And, moved by the beauty it bore,
The heavenly look that its features wore,
On a canvas, radiant and grand,
He painted its face with a master hand.

Year after year on his wall it hung;
'Twas ever joyful and always young-
Driving away all thoughts of gloom
While the painter toiled in his dingy room.

Like an angel of light it met his gaze,
Bringing him dreams of his boyhood days,
Filling his soul with a sense of praise.

His raven ringlets grew thin and gray,
His young ambition all passed away;
Yet he looked for years in many a place,
To find a contrast to that sweet face.

Through haunts of vice in the night he stayed
To find some ruin that crime had made.
At last in a prison cell he caught
A glimpse of the hideous fiend he sought.

On a canvas weird and wild but grand,
He painted the face with a master hand.
His task was done; 'twas a work sublime —
An angel of joy and a fiend of crime —
A lesson of life from the wrecks of time.

O Crime: with ruin thy road is strewn;
The brightest beauty the world has known
Thy power has wasted, till in the mind
No trace of its presence is left behind.

The loathsome wretch in the dungeon low,
With a face of a fiend and a look of woe,
Ruined by revels of crime and sin,
A pitiful wreck of what might have been,
Hated and shunned, and without a home,
Was the child that played in the streets of Rome.

This has been one of my favorite poems since I first learned what poetry was.  I have had a copy at hand since I was in junior high.  I find of late that it brings to mind so many of the people that we know and meet as we pass through this life.  I hesitate to guess at how many a child is the beauty and light of his or her mothers eyes that becomes the broken loathsome person at the end of their days.  I cry at the thought of the loss of that precious child.  How is it that so many a person fail to see that God can make such a difference in their lives.  I think that this poem so clearly tells us the difference of a life with God in it and the complete loss when a life has not God in it.  Evil is the complete lack of God, a life of evil therefore must be a life of complete lack of God in it.  Oh, that the wretch would just understand that God can make a difference in a life even if ask in the last moments of life.  God gives the same salvation to the man who begins the journey to God in the youth of his life or in the agedness of his life..... tomorrow.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Marriage and loves evolvment......

I have had reason to contemplate the involvement of love and marriage of late.  This past week has seen my 33rd anniversary pass and the move of my parents for the third time is the last 4 years.  I don't see their moving as all the unusual, as during my childhood we moved 42 times.  It was actually more odd that my mom only moved two times in the years she lived here, but I digress.  Moving is hard on you in any instance and causes stress at the best of times. 

I think on marriage and the ones that I have been blessed to witness in my life.  There is nothing, almost nothing, more glorious than watching a young love develop.  I am not talking about the hookups of this age or the shack ups but a true long lasting loving love that begets a marriage with all its wonders to see.  The innocence of true love with God in the mix.  Last week a friend congratulated Poppie and I by saying that nothing could be more strong than a love where all three were braided together, God, man and woman.  I have been blessed to experience that kind of love in my marriage. You do see those kinds of loves in this day and age, I have witnessed them my self in the young, but more and more you witness relationships that are so not of that cloth. 

I think when you look on a young love you see two people that would do anything for one another, they have so much to look forward to in their futures, especially when God guides their love and their path.  They have their love, then eventually they have the love of  and for their children which just makes the loving relationship grow.  I think that you have to always remember the love of the original three in any marriage and when you don't there in lies the seeds of a marriage that begins to unravel.  I know in my marriage my children always came second and third.  God and Poppie always came before.  I do see marriages where the kids soon take over as the number one relationship and the marriage soon begins to go off track and when the kids grow  up and go on to their lives what does the marriage have let?  Is it able to be braided back together?  Do the partners in it even want to or can they?  Marriage at it's easiest takes a lot of work but what about the lost people who no longer know who they live with?  What about the marriage that has lost the respect for each other?  What about the marriage that money has destroyed because the couple didn't learn to talk to one another or have forgotten to love one another?  So many things can take a marriage off in so many different paths.  God can make a marriage stronger but you have to keep God in your marriage.  You have to remember to put you partner first, next to God.  You have to remember to work at you marriage.

I think if you look a people who have been married along time you see that they have learned to become one, not two opposing ideal battling or competing with one another.  Those are the couples that have learn to embrace their marriage with their combined ideas, their beliefs, their morals, their goals, rarely is it possible to be in a happy marriage if you aren't simpatico, opposites do attract but seldom do they stay opposites and succeed.  Think about the marriages that work are they really opposites with contention long term? not. 

I think there is nothing sadder than to watch a young loving couple evolve in to an abusive older couple that has lost their way and now are just the shell that holds two enablers together.  They lost their respect for one another along the way, they stopped putting their mate before their children, they have let money destroy them. They have let age, health or lack of desire take away their intimacy, and they no longer know who one another is but they have been together so long they can't live without the other.  Love has given way to abuse, verbal and in some cases physical. The hand that once loved now does damage and brings pain. This is the sad lost marriage that tears your heart out to see, that love once so pure what has it become?  How is it that this is the marriage of one set of elders and just across the way you see the little couple that still adores one another and dotes on each other until death parts them?  Could it be that God was always the answer in any great marriage, could it be that that was the way God intended it along?  I don't know or pretend to know the secrets of marriage I am not sure there is any one answer but a unique answer for each couple just as each marriage is as unique as a snow drop.  I do know that the answer has to be love and without it comes the lost marriage, the marriage where God was abandoned along the way..... tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

OCD, why do people more and more have it?

I was watching on the news that they are worried about a new occurrence of OCD.  They say that more and more new mothers have it.  It is when a mother with a new baby are obsessively worried about what might happen to their baby.  It can be a normal occurrence that occurs shortly after a new or usually first time mother has a baby, it usually goes away.  These moms are overly worried about germs that might over take her infant.  These mothers are obsessive about if there baby could stop breathing in the night, might fall etc.  I do know that for some reason I have notice in the last few years more of these kinds of mothers.  I know several right now, funny how our society seems to make up new "diseases" at it goes along.  I have always thought if you want a messed up kids pay attention to how the mothers reacts over it.  A laid back easy going mother makes for a well rounded easy going child, so what is to become of these children that are scared of a cough, fearful of sleeping at night because they may stop breathing or are afraid of being outside of the child proof gate?

I was taught years ago, when I went to a series of trainings on how to train employees or volunteers, that you never critique as the first option or give criticism to as your first step.  I was trained you always find something good about what they are doing, follow with a criticism, then follow up with another good about their works.  I think that lately I have seen a lot of well meaning people, who know very little about the endeavor they are hoping to help with, that could use a bit of the compliment, criticism, compliment approach in their "helping".  I find it ironic that you could go somewhere see an operation, that you have only just seen for the first time, and you have the "enlightened" answer to the whole problem, why didn't God send you to be the super hero sooner?  Why is it that you have magically grasp and discerned the answer, that the idiots doing the works of the operation, couldn't see? Really your genius is miraculous needed, you must get the answers to those fools who can't see them the way you see them?  Could it be that a group that has never seen the working of a machine knows the problem when they have never even seen it run? Isn't that how the platypus was designed, by committee? I digress.  How could the people running the machine not know why it isn't working properly and that you the genius, who never did it before, could fathom the answer the first time you saw it run?  I am wondering if these well meaning people or groups have babies?  Do those babes hide when they hear a lone cough echoing down a hall? or do they have an alarm that awakens them to make sure they don't stop breathing? or is it that maybe these geniuses and groups all have a stack of baby gates in their trunks.  Maybe OCD is not new? 

I love when people are well meaning but find it a necessity to pray for patience when they are well meaning in the extreme.  I know that God is patient and he wants me to be so as well so maybe he is just sending me a test to see what I am capable of and how long my patience is good for? ... tomorrow.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Booboo sick, again, Jam, the Zoo and salvation.

We had a very nice time at Chruch, since most of the people at Church are BBFCer's we all had to share our joy of our baskets.  Several were sad they did not get add ons so will be getting more add on next time.  I am so glad that we have BBFC and our little town can share in the produce and comradery of doing something good for our community.  The message was very good, it was about how to help some one to their salvation.  I liked that your answer would not have to be "oh, let me find someone else to help you".  I think that God calls all of us to spread the Gospel and that we are all called to be able to open our Bibles and show someone how to seek their salvation.  I am not of the mind that winning souls to God is a thing of numbers and that we should have a count of people we have helped.  I don't think that any of us saves any one, God is the only salvation and believing in Jesus is salvation.  None of us save anyone, we can not even save ourselves.  I have just read M R. De Haan. Romance and redemption.  The story of Ruth and Boaz, it was a marvelous read with so many insights to salvation and our redeemer.  I like that when I read De Haans books I see new things in the Bible that seem to make more sense to me.  I have about 6 of his 25 books so looking to acquire the rest.  It always amazes me when I study during the week something specific in the Bible that God seems to direct the Preachers message toward incorporating my studies in to the messages.  Coincidence, I think not. 

I have prayed most of my life but have never been some one that prayed for me specifically or for others specifically.  I was more a general prayer, or in general for some one.  I was never taught to asked for things, as I always found that that would be selfish or greedy.  I guess I am not explaining this well, I guess I just only prayed for myself in desperation and sort of prayed as a compromise, which I knew to be wrong at the time I did it, so rarely prayed that way, or only when I found myself in despair.  Of late I have prayed much differently, still not really for myself vary often but more for understand, patience, maybe just more with love and understanding of others, not quite sure how to explain it still.  I have prayed for my enemy, I have prayed for my friends and one night in sure pain I prayed for the acute pain to please leave me.  I have gotten answers from God for all.  The night I prayed in pain, it just quit, only the acute pain and in an instant, it just went.  I have no other explanation than it just left.  My regular pains and aches stayed but the acute agonizing pain just left, no other explanation than that God took it.  I do know that my redeemer lives. 

Booboo and I were in the process of making jam yesterday.  I had out the 13 jars it would take and we were squishing berries.  Booboo of a sudden got sick to her stomach and exceedingly tire, she went to lay down, I check her and 5 minute later she was asleep and snoring.  She needed the healing time so I finished the jam.  Yogie helped me finish up the jars.  I was to get 12 pints, but we ended up with 13 pints, 1 quart and one bowl of jam.  It was setting up great right away so a wonder success.  Blackberry with a little huckleberry to complete the fruit amount. 

Today Booboo is home sick, she threw up in the night.  Poppie has to go get some hay and I will be going to the Zoo with Mokie.  I am not sure if her kids are going with us, Bubbles is still sick and has lost some weight in her sickness.  Cubbie looked to be pretty sick yesterday.  So today will be a long busy day.  I hope your day is what you would want it to be, and I hope that the Lord calls you to your salvation today or some one asked you to show them where to seek their salvation...... tomorrow.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

33 Years...

Today we celebrate 33 years of marriage.  I am proud of my life with Poppie, but more importantly I am so glad that God sent someone that could love me for me.  He has never tried to change me or thought me anything but his perfect match, I thank God ever day for giving me loves in my life.  He gave me the love of a good man, and the ability to love that one man for all of my life, he gave me the love of my children and through them my grands.  He gave me the love of good friends and companionship on this world.  God gave me the greatest love, the love of a God that loved me so much that he gave up being God to become a lowly man, that lived a perfect life and gave that perfect life for my sins.  God does love me so much and today I celebrate one of the most important loves he gave just to me, my love of one of  his sons, my Poppie.  I hope you have a love on earth, which is so important but more importantly I hope you have the  love of our eternal father...... tomorrow.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Little Ladies, ever evolving sickness, today open burning begin......

I haven't had the little grands for a couple days, it has been a nice respite, though I am sure their sick dad is struggling with having to take care of them but I have no sympathy or willingness to volunteer.  I am taking this time to try and get fully well but did get a nauseous feeling all afternoon so maybe Bubbles has shared, lets hope not.  My Ladies each have a friends over and they had a sleep over, Poppie and I escaped to our room and shut the door and them out, yay for us.  They are all just awakening now so they weren't up all that late, we do adhere to the 8 o'clock rule and they do respect it pretty much.  I have not a clue of their plans for the morning.  I am hoping to take my two out for part of the afternoon, so I really hope the party brakes by noon but we shall see.

Open burning starts today and we have been awaiting it with bated breath, it is so renewing to get to burn all of the winter blues away by raking and burning.  I think that this spring will shape up to be one that we can, the last two have been a deluge and burning was not all that profitable as we didn't really get to do a good burn. We have to fix the garden fence and put up cross boards to keep the goats from pushing the fence in.  We are also not going to allow the goats to have the run of the yard this year, they have actually really helped to change it for the good but we have plans to redo the pond and grow new grass so they would just hamper that so they will be in their various pens this season.  I am really trying to change the composition of my herd to a more strongly meat goat, after the set back of the cougars it is seeming to now come to fruition.  I have gotten to beautiful full blood females, which are a replacement for their lost sisters.  It has just taken two years.  I lost Caesar over the winter so we are looking forward to some of his last progeny.  I have the younger buck Rootbeer that has some different genetics to strengthen my breed in an inline breeding manner.  I am looking to having to buy a new out sourced buck next season or the one after to develop more.  I am hoping to get some good breeding stock from Rootbeer between now and then.  I have 5 or six does still to kid.  Can't wait to see the out come.   I love the renewance that spring brings, to our lives and souls. 

I think that God gives us great tribulation so that he can give us great renewal and for some reason I have had a sad, tribulating winter and am looking forward to his gift of renewance.  I some times wonder if God helps me understand others problems by giving me some so I can have compassion for those who struggle as well.  I do know that being down and sick makes me prayer for my fellow man all the more.  I  know that sometimes the ones I pray for the most are the ones that add to my depression and sadness.  I send out prayers of joy to all those who struggle hoping that they should know that God is the answer to all our struggles and is the only way to true happiness in this life and the next... tomorrow.