Our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life along the narrow way, even the old paths, submitting to the Bible as a light unto both.
Once again, one of our hens got broody this 2021, and after tucking her away in the brooder barn, she hatched out a bunch — not even sure how many…maybe at least 9, and I believe they all have made it so far!
Here are a couple of pictures of them all:
And here’s their video:
We once again thank the Lord for His gracious provisions in granting this next set of 2021 chicks! We are thankful the eggs can go to help others!
— David
That time of year rolled around again this 2021, hens getting broody, and some of ours don’t always get broody in the barn or chicken tractor…
One of our hens didn’t come back to roost one night. I think it was the next evening, I thought I’d go see if I could somehow find her out in the woods somewhere, which is where I hoped she was vs. having been eated by a predator. I circled around the back side and west areas behind our house. I headed down one direction, and saw what I thought was a plastic bag in a thicket of weeds with no leaves because it was still winter-ish, and I thought, no way was that the hen. But, lo and behold, it surely ended up being her! An amazing gift from God to find her back there, somewhere I would not usually look!
When we tried to get her, she ran off, but we were able to track her down, and so we took her and her eggs and put them in the brooder barn, and God graciously granted I believe it was 5 chicks, and all 5 are still going today, although sadly, it appears one is having a problem with its foot — she’s walking on it crimped backwards…don’t know if it’s an injury or a disorder. But, we pray the Lord might grant it healing.
Here are a couple of pictures of them all:
And here’s their video:
As always, we are very thankful to the Lord for these new provisions, and we pray they benefit His people in some way!
— David
We are very thankful to the Lord for granting our 8th chick hatching of 2020!
We found this mommy in the barn on a bunch of eggs, and moved her into the brooder barn, and by God’s granting she did her job, and hatched out quite a few! I’m not sure exactly how many there are, although we did lose one a couple of days after it was hatched, but the rest are still going strong!
And here’s their video. Watching the new life here reminds me of this verse:
John 11:25 – “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:“
Once again, we thank God for His provisions of these new chicks, and we pray they’re used for His glory and the benefit of others!
— David
Just catching up on the garden this 2020, after our Spring-time update. The Lord has been very, very gracious in what He has granted this year…
The zucchinis were coming in fast and furious, and we needed a way to preserve them, so we decided to lacto-ferment as much as we could. That meant lots of shredding, so to help Sue out so she didn’t have to hand-grate everything, we got this nifty contraption that worked just great!
And here are some results!
We had some help from the neighbor children too!
And Sue made some yummies from it all too!
Zucchini muffins:
Breaded zucchini:
Zucchini cake:
Here’s some okra. We did get a few beans, but those just didn’t work out:
For the okra, we’re storing them in cheap apple cider vinegar. This works great, even over a long period of time. Before we eat them, Sue soaks them in a bowl of water to remove some of the tartness, and that works well too.
Here was the garden back in early August:
And then October before our first potential freezes. We tried to get the zucchinis and okra through (a little spooky on the okra 🙂 ):
And here are the Goji berry plants, with a bunch of berries!
And this is the garden after the freeze. After we took off the blankets, we ended up getting hit with a freeze on a night that it wasn’t supposed to. It did hurt the zucchinis:
But, with a freeze, it was time to go get any sweet potatoes out of the ground God might have granted, and here they are, including supervisor William making sure everything is copacetic!
And the final haul inside for curing, and then eventually wrapping in newspaper for long-term storage:
Finally, this is the garden as of today. Not much left:
But, some of the zucchini plants actually started to recover from the freeze, grow new leaves, and one put out it looks like one more zucchini for the road!
As I said, the Lord was very gracious this year. Here are the final jars of preserved zucchini and okra. The jar on the left is the top-numbered pint jar, the counting of quart jars in the middle picked up after that number, and then the jar on the right is our final-count okra jar:
We are humblingly thankful to God for His most gracious provisions. It’s such a blessing to see Him work His direct providence in the garden, watching Him apply the water and nutrients to plants to produce fruit. We pray He do the same in our hearts, producing the fruit of the Spirit, for His glory and maybe the benefit of others!
— David
The Lord in His graces and mercies granted another two chicken chick hatchings this 2020 — the 6th and 7th!
Here’s group 6. No interesting stories, just a broody mama and her 9 new youngin’s!
And group 7. This hen has been around a while, and I believe this is her first, hatching 8 new little ones!
And here’s their video. Watching them here reminds me of this verse:
Matt 23:37 – “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!“
May we gather as the saints of God in praise to Father, Son, and Spirit, and especially for the Lord Christ Jesus, who He is as well as what He has done!
As always, we are very thankful to God for the new chicks, and the miracle of new life; and we ask Him for continued health and safety for them, and perhaps for them to be a benefit to the farm and others some day, according to His will!
— David
The Lord has graciously granted our 4th and 5th chick hatchings of 2020! Both have some interesting stories…
This first mommy I believe was hatched last year, and when older last year was attacked by a hawk! I was able to get out there quickly to scare it off, but she was lying on the ground looking dead. When I picked her up, I realized she wasn’t, and took her into our brooder barn to a place of hopeful recovery. Well, she recovered from the initial shock, but couldn’t walk very well. But over the next few days, God granted she continue to recover, and by His graces she did fully! From all this, I called her “Hawk Girl”. 🙂
And so, when she got broody this year, I thought it’d be great if after all that, she hatched out some chicks, and again by God’s graces she did! She hatched out 6 initially, but one didn’t make it past a couple of days, but the other 5 are still going strong today! I call her “Hawk Mommy” now. 🙂
And here she is with her chicks:
Now, one day, Sue walked into our camper and down the stairs under the desk, there was a mama chicken and 2 chicks! What? And then we found the nest — up the stairs of the 5th wheel, into the bedroom, in a nook next to the bed. We think she got spooked by a cat, and that’s why she was down stairs. I still want to know how she and 2 little tiny chicks made it down the stairs! 🙂
Anyway, there were quite a few eggs left, and one was starting to hatch, so we gathered her up and the eggs and put them all in the brooder barn to see if she needed to finish. In monitoring the chick process, the one wasn’t continuing to hatch, and another was also hatching but didn’t seem to be making progress, so I decided to go ahead and help, even though apparently it’s supposed to weaken the chicks we’ve heard, but also, if you don’t get them out of the shell, they won’t make it. I got them mostly hatched, and put them back in the nest, and we waited to see what happened.
Well, those 2 ended up making it ok, and another hatched after! And so, she ended up with 5 as well! What a nice special gift from God!
And here they are:
And this is a video of each group, including when we found camper mommy initially, and a catchup addendum to them all as of today:
We are very grateful to the Lord for granting these chicks, for sparing Hawk Mommy last year, and to bring her this year to perpetuating the flock, for the special camper chicks gift, and for their continued health and safety!
— David
Back in November of last year, it came time for our annual goat breeding season — when we put the females with their respective males — in hopes the Lord grants goat kids in the Spring!
Well, indeed God graciously did, and here’s a little update…
First, over the Winter we lost one of our favorite does, Hannah. She succumbed to something pretty quickly over a day and a half or so. She was one of a kind — sometimes we called her Houdini, because she would be hooked up to the fence line or in a shed, and Sue would turn around to do something, and then Hannah would walk up behind her. And so, Sue would hook her up again, and turn around, and not long after, again, Hannah would walk up! 🙂 She was also our most LaMancha breed of the females we had, and I had wanted to keep one of her female offspring, but the Lord in His perfect wisdom and goodness had other plans. But, we are thankful for the time He granted her to be with us, and the offspring and milk from her over the years. We miss her! This is she with her kid from last year. Bye Hannah-bo-banna…
But, continuing on, we try to time it in November so the kids are born when it’s past the cold, but we had later cold this year, so it was goat coat time! 😀
Here are two of the bucklings in a barn stall with their mommy Nellie:
And Annie with her triplets, two bucklings and a doeling. With this one, the first kid started trying to come out back (not back end, but back) first! So, Midwife Sue got in there, spun the kid around to get hooves heading out, and then Annie was able to deliver that kid, and then kids two and three came out shortly after (we show just after kid three was born in the video below). Wow! Thanks to the Lord for helping Sue and for granting the safe deliveries!
And Adeline with her two bucklings:
Finally, Lucy brought up the rear this year, although sadly she gave birth to two underdeveloped, stillborn kids (last year, she aborted all her kids prematurely). And the little doeling that was born was pretty feeble, so Sue syringe-fed her mama’s colostrum for a couple of days. But the Lord saw fit to keep the little one going and get stronger, and she ended up doing just fine, thanks to God!
Here are a few more pics:
To start to replenish the herd, we decided to keep the two doelings, so they are officially part off the group now, Hassie and Lilly (you can see more of them in the video below)!
Lastly, here’s the video of them all for this year (BTW, in the video, one of the females we’re keeping isn’t “Haddie”, it’s “Hassie” 🙂 ) :
We are very grateful to God for these continued provisions; the milk He grants from them (which is why we raise goats); again, the safe deliveries for the moms and youngin’s, and His guidance for Sue as “midwife”; and for granting continued perpetuation of the herd!
— David
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