We’ve had some interesting and sometimes new visitors around the homestead this 2015, so we thought we’d show you some of them…
Texas Redheaded Centipede
Ran into this fellow next to our cattle trailer. A little creepy given its size, but this was a relatively small one as they can get to be 8-9 inches, and has beautiful colors. Apparently, their bite is painful and mostly just causes localized swelling, but some people can have worse reactions:
Butterflies, Tree Cricket, Roadrunner, Ring Necked Pheasant
Here is a video of a bunch of beautiful butterflies that decided one day to be or fly around the front of the barn, a tree cricket “singing” its song, a roadrunner that had been hanging about quite a bit, and what we identified as a ring necked pheasant—a new visitor we haven’t seen before. The tree cricket is a little blurry given the video was taken at night, but it can sure vibrate those wings!
We are thankful to the Lord for allowing us to see His marvelous works in creation!
The Lord has graciously granted our garden to continue through most of the Fall. But, our first freeze came recently, so we took some final pictures…
We kept the beans going through the Summer, even though we had to water with pond water, but they never really did much after the beans we got in the Spring. But, the okra just kept going and going!
The tomatoes have kept going too, although about the only thing actually fruiting are the cherry tomatoes:
And here’s more okra:
With the first freeze on the way, about the only thing we could cover were the tomatoes, which we did, with double blankets in some places:
And here they are after the freeze. The double blankets worked really well! The rest of the garden plants basically were killed in the freeze.
That was about the last of trying to maintain it, with freezes coming and going, and we have had several light freeze nights, which have pretty much finished off the tomatoes. And so, this is the final garden haul from this year from just a few days ago!
We are very thankful to God for the garden provisions He granted this 2015! Lots of okra, which Sue lacto-fermented for long-term storage! Again, we are very grateful!
Mid November means it’s time for our goat bucks to go to work and earn their keep! 🙂 Breeding time!
Here are all of the goats tied up for milking. We kept them here while we moved the sheds. Last year, we showed the moving of the sheds, although now I start the shack caddy inside the first goat pen and drag it into the destination pen, all the way to just about where they’re going to be set—it’s much easier that way. 🙂
Shatner’s ready!
And Rocky!
And Sue’s bringing our first customer!
And the full action of the move is in this video:
We are grateful to the Lord for granting the continued health and safety of the herd, and the opportunity once again to try to breed them. We ask He might grant what He might come Spring time, in accordance with His will!
We gathered once again this Thanksgiving to meet together in fellowship and unity of thanks to the Lord for all of His spiritual and temporal provisions!
We started with prayer and a couple of psalms:
Then it was meal time. A big “thank you” to the folks who gave us the turkey and dessert!
And then the children worked on some coloring crafts!
Ruth came over and wanted to say hello! 😀
It was a very nice time together!
We pray the Lord shine His light brightly in our hearts, may He grant us the heat of His graces, and may the fire of thankfulness be ever burning in us!
Psalm 118:1-9:
1 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever.
2 Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
3 Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
4 Let them now that fear the Lord say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
5 I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.
6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?
7 The Lord taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.
8 It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.
9 It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.
After a couple of years since we started putting insulation in the attic, and after last year laying down 6-8 feet insulation “fingers” coming out from the ends to plug up the gaps between the wall frames and ceiling panels, we’ve recently been able to finish laying down all of the insulation! Hopefully this will make a big difference in being able to maintain heat in the house.
My hope was to have this ready for winter, and the Lord graciously granted that it would be. Thanks to Him, and for those who help to make continued progress on the house possible!
That time of year rolled around to where any pecans that were growing were starting to break forth from the green shells in which they grow on the trees. One of our trees has some, but something appeared to get to them as the pecans were eaten out. But the other tree that had pecans was okay, and so it was time to gather them in!
Here are some of them on the tree:
And then the 2015 haul!
We are always very grateful to the Lord for the least grain of food He provides, as each one is a miracle of providence from Him!
One day when bringing up the YouTube main page, there was a video thumbnail displayed with the title something about unlimited fuel for fires, and showed a bucket. Intrigued, I clicked on it, and it ended up being about a fellow who came up with an inexpensive way to press paper into burnable bricks using Home Depot buckets!
Here’s his video:
Nice! Simple and inexpensive…right up my alley! With all of the feed bags we have, I thought I’d give this a go!
Here’s the drilled out bucket:
Then drawing the pressing block on a left-over piece of 2×12:
And the circle drawn:
Then being cut:
And finally cut out:
After putting the drilled out bucket in another bucket, I added water and paper. We’ve been tearing up the feed bags, along with snail-mail waste, and old doctrinally-incorrect books we’ve had laying around 🙂 I’ve been letting it sit all day and over night:
I didn’t think I could make the saw blade device he made, but found a left-over broken goat lead tether we had laying around:
And using that, it actually works pretty well to mulch up the paper:
Here the drilled-out bucket is stacked on the other bucket ready for pressing:
And here the pressing block is set:
Then a third bucket is set on that, and here, in first attempts, a cinder block to try to get it started:
And then me laying on the cinder block:
And here’s the result when I tried to sit on that. Oops 🙂 :
But, coming up with a better way, I put a board across the pressing bucket, and am able to sit on it now no problem:
And then, I tried putting a couple of feed bags on top, which frees me up for most of the pressing process — I just come back later and sit on it a bit to finish it off:
And here’s the result!
They fit nicely on the bucket lids, so here are several drying in the sun:
And several finished ones:
The only thing left is to try them once we get to where we’re using the wood burner this winter. It’ll be fun and interesting to see how they work!
Hopefully they will, and we’re thankful to the Lord for granting this idea to maybe be able to use some of the extra resources we have for good use!
Heb. 11:8-10 - "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
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