Spring fever has hit! I’ve been reading gardening magazines and flower books. As the sun shines more brightly through the windows, I see the dust and grime that has accumulated over winter and I want to scrub everything. The snow is melting just a bit and the chickens are venturing outside.
Now, I know there will be more cold days and probably more snow, but for these few warm days I’ll pretend spring has sprung.
Today I tackled my cold cellar.
It needed a serious reset. While we did get some produce to store over winter, I think I was kind of scarred from the growing season and I just left it. And, well, you know what happens when you leave produce. It tends to rot.
Judge all you want, it is what it is. And so I needed to do a good deep clean. And the chickens scored big time!
My kids did a great job scooping out old carrots and throwing squash to the chickens.
Then I scrubbed shelves and reorganized! Just like that, it’s ready for another growing and canning season!
Prayerfully, this next gardening season will be more fruitful than the last! And for now, I’ll just remember it’s ok to fail, it’s ok when things don’t go the way we hoped or plan. God is always faithful, and he promises to always bring about the seasons.
Genesis 8:22 ESV While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
I haven’t said much this summer. It’s been a weird season, where God has asked me to be quiet and listen. And I honestly haven’t heard much from Him yet, but I can trust He’s working.
We were so excited this spring when it warmed up early and the ground was ready to plant in April. That hasn’t happened since we moved here! We were eager to get our crops in and get to growing and serving.
We spent hours and hours hoeing, planting and marking our rows. Everything looked pretty good.
Then it started to rain. And rain. And rain.
From the beginning of May to now, mid July, we’ve had over 53 inches of rain. That’s almost four and a half feet of rain! It came in torrents. Three inches in an hour. Seven inches in an evening. Five inches in a weekend.
Early June
It’s hard to watch your garden sit underwater, all your time and effort literally being washed away. After every flooding, we’d replant, sure this time it would grow. It couldn’t possibly keep raining, could it?
Yes it could. And it has.
Last week we finally made the difficult decision to shut down our CSA for the summer. We just have nothing to give out. Even the lettuce that was looking good quit growing and just started wilting away. The leaves on all the plants are turning yellow. Tomato and pepper plants are still the same height as when we planted them.
Then yesterday, as if to confirm our decision, our property got hit with hail and over 3″ of rain. Any plant that was desperately struggling to survive, was shredded AND flooded.
Dying, wilting plants early July
I don’t know if I’ve ever asked God more often “What are you doing?” than I have this summer. I still have no idea.
I’ve stood in the garden and cried. I’ve stood there and yelled at God. I’ve walked out there in silence just wondering.
The Lord has told me this week repeatedly to be obedient to Him. He keeps reminding me, I don’t need to know the end result, I just need to know He is good. He loves me. He knows the result He is working out. He is still on His throne.
This morning in church we learned about the parable of the sower and the four soils. One thing the pastor pointed out was that while this parable is about four different people, it’s also about the different seasons our heart can be in. When Jesus explains the seed that falls on rocky soil he says, “and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.”
The pastor had us all say, “when, not if”. When, not it. Tribulation and persecution will happen. The Bible tells us that numerous times.
Our response is what matters and is our responsibility. I can’t control all the rain. I can’t stop the flooding.
But I can control my response.
What should our response be in times of trouble, devastation, and sadness?
July 14th, 7th time flooding, with hail
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his;[a] we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100
We are to be thankful. Say thank you to our good good God, who loves us more than we could ask or imagine.
It might seem contrary to our nature. And it is. But we have to learn to fight against our nature everyday because it’s sinful. We’d rather complain and groan and say, but God, give me the answer now.
We can still say thank you for all God has done for us, for who he is, for his steadfast love and faithfulness.
So, though I have no idea what He’s doing or why, I will still say…
Thank you, God, for loving me well, for refining me in this trial, for walking beside me and guiding me, for cleansing my heart of selfishness, and for turning my eyes to you. Thank you for never leaving me nor forsaking me, thank you for dying on the cross for me, and defeating death to give me a place in heaven. Thank you for providing for my every need, even in the midst of flooding and devastation.
Spring is sprung, The grass is riz, I wonder where The flowers is
That little poem is on a beautiful handmade mug a dear friend gave me. My kids have memorized it and say it often with a smile.
Spring has in fact sprung. And so have the projects around the farm. There is a never ending list of things to be repaired, changed, built, painted, planted, and on and on.
Someone told us once that we wouldn’t feel settled for at least five years. Well, it’s been 8 and we are still drowning in things to do. But we love it.
I started wondering recently while painting our chicken coop, why do we make lists of things on our property to fix up or change or make better. The answer came to me as I’ve been studying Genesis and Revelation.
Siding the coop last summer.
Where did God put Adam and Eve? In a beautiful, perfect garden, of course. We all know that answer. Think about it though. They were in the most perfect setting where God dwelt with them. Everything they looked at, every tree, every flower, every animal was beautiful and breath-taking. There was perfection all around them. And when they sinned and were forced to leave that beauty, they spent the rest of their lives striving to make their new home as beautiful and perfect as Eden.
And ever since then, we’ve all toiled and striven to return the earth to its former glory. There is, deep within each of us, a longing for beauty.
I think that’s part of why so many have turned to homesteading, gardening, having animals, and working on their land. We all want to be in that beautiful, perfect garden again. And someday, we will be. Revelation tells us that there will be a new heaven and a new earth. We don’t know exactly what it all will look like. John tells us about the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and there is a tree that bears 12 fruits, one for each month. I’m sure there will be amazing gardens with unbelievable plants and animals. The new Jerusalem sounds awesome, like nothing any of us could create. There will once again be beauty all around us.
For now, God has given us this little patch of dirt on a windy prairie to make beautiful. He tells us in Luke 19 to occupy until his return. We should be good stewards with what he’s given us, using our money, time, land, and resources wisely and to his glory. I thought while I was painting, does it really matter that the chicken coop had tan siding? It was free but high quality siding so we put it to good use. But, I really enjoy looking at things that are beautiful and that coordinate. So, yes, it does matter. The chicken coop and the shed on our property are now white with blue siding, opposite of our house. And it truly looks lovely when you come in the driveway and see it all together.
Proverbs 21:25 states, “The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.”
We are not called to be idle or lazy.
So, we are called to work. And we have an innate desire to make things beautiful and lovely.
And so, we make the to-do lists and we schedule the projects for sunny and rainy days. We prioritize what needs to get done and we switch gears and repair what’s broken. And, we’ll do it until the Lord calls us home or creates that new earth for us.
Crispy, crunchy carrots. One of our favorite treats right out of the garden. My kids asked all summer long if they could dig a carrot while we worked and I always told them yes! Why not enjoy it fresh and teach them a love of healthy foods. They learned how to carefully dig them up and rinse them. Then you could hear them crunching and chomping all over the garden. Next year we need to at least double our carrots!
Eventually they all come out of the garden and then what? We all want to keep enjoying those carrots.
Well, some get eaten fresh, obviously. I’ve canned and frozen them which is fine. But what happens when in January you get that hankering for a crisp, crunchy carrot? Don’t tell me to go to Aldi and grab some baby carrots. It’s just not the same! Even the organic carrots don’t taste even remotely like the fresh ones from our own land.
Purple Dragon carrots…they have a beautiful purple exterior and bright orange interior.
I’ve discovered over the years that you can preserve them just as they are! I get an inexpensive plastic tote and some inexpensive tube sand and start layering. Sand, carrots, sand, carrots, all the way to the top! Other than digging them straight out of the garden, my kid’s favorite thing to do is dig in the tub of sand and pull out a fresh carrot! Just rinse them off and they’re perfect.
My helper! He loved layering the carrots and was so careful!
Eventually, come February or March they start to get a little soft. Then I pull them all out and freeze or can them to throw them in soups and hot dishes for the rest of winter. Nothing goes to waste!
And next summer, carrot seeds are going into the ground much earlier so hopefully we can enjoy them earlier too!
Someone asked me recently, did you grow up gardening and canning and preserving? Nope. I’ve just decided that each year I’m going to learn something new when it comes to homesteading and becoming self-sufficient. And God has been faithful to put very knowledgeable people, who I can learn, from in my path.
When we moved to this property, one of my top priorities was to give my kids a place to run and be free to be themselves. I still love and cherish that priority. But the Lord laid a new one on my heart since we’ve moved here: to be self sufficient in healthy ways. With as tumultuous as this world is, with food chains being sabotaged, with prices increasing across the board, with unrest, the Lord is still good. And He’s given us this haven that we so desired and has blessed it beyond our wildest dreams. As I lay up food for the winter I can’t help but think of Ma Ingalls and smile. The first settlers did it! And their lives were much more rough without plumbing, electricity, and heat! God is providing for us each and every day in multiple ways, one of which is crispy, crunchy carrots!
We’ve begun another project. It’s one of those “I guess this has to be done NOW” kind of projects. For the last couple years, our porch railing has been rotting. We’ve put bandaids on it and told people not to lean on it. At one point I almost fell through one section.
But it has been on the back burner because, well, we live in an old house and things are always breaking. Plus we drive really old cars and those are always breaking. We spend most of our days repairing something. It always reminds me, this is not my home. Someday in heaven I will have a mansion that never wears out or needs repairs!
But, now, it’s past time. It’s all falling apart. And the Lord blessed us abundantly with aluminum railing for the price of wood! We had always wanted to replace it with aluminum but the cost was way too high. We were going to settle for wood but then the Lord surprised us with some free parts. We just had to buy a few things! He is good!
So begins the project! Tear down is always fun and the kids got involved. Having a large family at times like this really pays off! Many hands make light work!
Hanging flower baskets has to come down. Then the railing. Some of the sections were so rotted Andrew literally just pushed and over they went! Others needs a saw and grinder.
Unfortunately it sat long enough where the posts had started to rot where the railings were attached. So, we had to grind out the rot and do more repair. Huh, funny, more repair! We spread rot stop on and then we’ll have to fill in those places and and and paint before railing can go on.
Demolition never takes much time…but all the little steps sure do. It’ll be a couple weeks without railing before the new stuff can go up. Don’t lean!
Samuel came home as we were tearing down and said, “hmm, something looks different. I just can’t quite put finger on it!” Hopefully soon it’ll look different again… and last a long time. One less repair for the future, prayerfully!
Desired Haven Farm 