God has graciously granted yet another two sets of chicks to be hatched out in the 2015!
Here is the seventh group in the mini-chicken tractor:
She hatched out five chicks, but one was something of a runt and took much more time to grow, and usually they don’t make it. You can see the little one in this video. It actually went along several weeks, seemingly getting stronger. However, one day, for some reason its little head started to twist and want to stay that way, and it just could not keep it upright anymore; and so, I made the personally tough decision to euthanize it, figuring it was now in a bad way and just wasn’t going to be able to sustain itself. 🙁
And here they are before that time. The other four are still healthy and doing well!
And this is group eight! I believe she hatched out at least eight, maybe nine, and there are seven still going strong; and thankfully they haven’t had the little sickness that has run through some of the other groups:
And here’s their video:
We are very grateful to the Lord for the continued health and safety of the hatchlings, and His continued provisions in this way!
Last year you may remember us introducing our new stray rescue cat, Ritzie. At the time we weren’t sure why God brought her into our lives but thoroughly enjoyed the time He allowed us with her. After a few months, in April, we had to make the decision to have her euthanized due to illness. It was very sad for me, in particular, because we believe there was a very spiritual side of that whole experience and things God wanted to teach me. I plan to write a blog post about that in the near future. We still miss her.
Well, fast forward about five months in early November, just before a cold snap, while we were doing our morning farm chores. I had walked past the summer kitchen and beyond the cistern when I heard William meow back by the kitchen. Then he immediately walked right in front of me. Dave and I looked at each other realizing the mewing wasn’t William after all. I walked hastily back to the kitchen and listened more intently. Just then I saw this little gray “thing” nestled safely in between the summer kitchen wall and the top of the closed root cellar door. She was crying out but really scared at the same time, growling and defensively showing me ALL of her teeth. I went and got some work gloves and a stick and tried to nudge her out but she wasn’t “down with that.” Then I brought out some goat milk to entice her but she still wasn’t buyin’ it. I finally nudged her out, but she then ran towards the barn wall where there are lots of obstacles under which she could hide. Well played, little gray “thing”, well played. Thinking of my next move, I went and got an animal cage and finally tracked her down hiding under a generator. I slowly reached out with a gloved hand and petted her furry face. Bingo! When she sensed I was not out to harm her, she melted like butter and started purring up a storm, rubbing her face against my glove. I scooped her up and put her in the cage whispering sweet sing-songy things to her. After the whole Ritzie experience, I knew Dave (let alone William) would probably not be too keen to take in another feline tenant, and was ready to accept whatever his decision was. Well, I walked in the house with the cage and Dave was on a business phone call. I stayed across the room, took her out of the cage petting her, and she just couldn’t get enough lovin’. Dave looked over, smiled, shook his head like “here we go again” and later said he didn’t hesitate about agreeing to bring her into our homestead. She had shown up out of nowhere as a 6 week old kitten, no other cats in sight, probably not even fully weaned. Dave and I agreed to take it one day at a time and see what would happen.
Here she is when we first took her in. We couldn’t help but notice how big her ears were in relation to her little body! Dave started using Google Translate to see what he could come up with, and lo and behold, apparently the Japanese word for “ear” is an English, female proper name — Mimi!!
It was cold outside so Mimi’s first BFF was the heater!
She found a resting spot “exactly” her size!
When mommie’s away, the cat (and socks) will play:
Mimi’s safe lookout spot:
Mimi and Dave bonding:
We refreshed our memories on the best way to introduce a cat (kitten) into a household with an existing cat. It was the best case scenario with William being the older, dominant, male cat and her being a small, female kitten. Over the course of the next two to three weeks, we sloooowllly introduced them. Thankfully, they have become very good friends.
Mimi ain’t no dummy. She wanted to be friends with William right away but knew he would take a little longer to realize how adorable she was – so she kept her distance:
After about two weeks of bonding and cuddling, we agreed I should take her to the vet for a once-over and a rabies shot. The vet came in the room, took one look, and I don’t think used more than her thumb and index finger to pick her up by the neck the entire time. Mimi was instantly branded with a scarlet “R” for ringworm. I couldn’t believe the avoidance in this vet. Heck, we didn’t know what ringworm looks like on cats. The vet proceeded to tell me all about ringworm, which I appreciated. But it was almost like a death sentence the way it was described. (Paraphrasing) “Ringworm is a fungus-based condition, with spores that can live up to a year, and you and all of your other animals will get it, and it will be next to impossible to rid yourselves of it”. The vet, then, proceeded to scare me with the cost of an expensive $20 bottle of chemical-laden shampoo and 30 day bathing (yes, bathing a cat) instructions. It was like a declaration of leprosy or something. I dutifully bought the shampoo and left in a stunned condition. When I got home and told Dave about it, he said, “No way, we’re going natural.” (I love that about him) Long story short, we did some research, sprayed her with diluted raw apple cider vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. A couple of weeks later, ringworm gone, and no other animals got it from her. Dave and I had gotten a couple little itchy patches we realized later were ringworm, but put some essential oils on and, bam, gone. Hurray for natural cures!!
So far so good. Then, a few more months into it, Mimi started showing signs of going into heat, so we decided to get her…shhhhh…s-p-a-y-e-d. Here she is recuperating after a successful and non-eventful surgery, thanks to God. Boy, the vet sure wanted to have a big, clear working area, didn’t he?! By the way, I took the expensive bottle of shampoo back and received a full refund which we applied towards her spaying fee! Yay!
Well, it’s been about eight months, and we couldn’t have asked for a better feline friend for William, as well as another good hunter to help keep the varmints down around the homestead.
Here are a few meow feline fotos for your enjoyment:)
No doubt, this is William’s regular napping spot, but Mimi had gotten there first on this day. As you can tell, it didn’t faze him much (Mimi: “For real, dawg?!”):
Mimi loves to hang around Dave when he is working in the orchard or the garden. She will stay for hours at a time. She’s definitely a tom(girl) cat! Can you spot her there in the tree?
Finally, here is our signature video introducing Mimi live and capturing her first known catch and kill, as well as her sweet side. Awwww 😉
As we have learned to be with all gifts from God, we are very thankful for His provision to us in Mimi, and we pray for His help to be good and righteous stewards of her and all of our animals.
After putting in the fence posts around the orchard for the more permanent fence, it was time to stretch the net wire. It had taken me a while to get to it, because it rained almost the whole month of May! (Wow, thanks to God for that gift of abundant water! It was worth the wait! 🙂 )
I did try pulling the wire after wrapping the t-post corner brace system I was trying; but once tension was on it, enough for this kind of longer fencing where I needed it pretty taught, it didn’t look like the aluminum pieces were going to hold long-term, and it appeared the ground was getting loose around the posts. So, I went ahead and installed a wood post system at that end as well.
And then, it was back to pulling fence.
Here’s a post wrapped and ready to have the fence stretched against it:
For this project, and I assume others at some point, I decided to get a good, metal net wire fence stretcher. It has ended up working great as it really grips the fencing, which has often been a problem for us using 2x4s bolted together or the like. I did find that even though I had chain pulling on top and bottom of the stretcher, I needed tension to be in the middle because the stretcher would bend once tension was applied, so I tied a piece of barbed wire from the middle hook of the stretcher to a middle point on the chain, and this has helped:
I hooked the stretcher to the come-along, and hooked it to the truck’s ball hitch:
And then moved the truck forward until the stretcher was standing up straight. Then, it was just a matter of getting the right tension on the fence using the come-along:
And here’s a corner, each strand double wrapped around the post and then wrapped tightly like a cork-screw around the its own wire going back the other direction:
With the fencing stretched, it was time to install the gate. Using the crescent wrench to turn the gate lag bolt works great!
And here is the hung gate:
And down that fence line:
It’s all stretched at this time…I just have to go back and install the t-post clips, a job I try to spread out over time, doing a post or two a day.
We’re always grateful to the Lord for granting the provisions to continue on homestead improvement!
God has continued to grant us chicken hatchings, this time they are the fifth and sixth groups!
This mommy Sue found broody up in a goat shed, and so we brought her into the summer kitchen, put some eggs under her, and she hatched out 10 I believe! I believe one ended up not making it, and we also had the same sickness problem run through several of them like with the fourth group, but we kept giving them Angstrom ionic silver, and by God’s graces all nine are still going today!
Here is their video:
This next batch was a surprise group — one day, the mommy just showed up in the middle of the barn with some chicks in tow! Wow, thankfully a cat or otherwise didn’t get them! So, we hustled them into the summer kitchen as well, and here they are, all five still alive!
And here is their video too:
As always, we are very thankful to the Lord for granting these provisions of the new chicks, and for the continued health and safety of those to which He sovereignly chooses to grant those!
In our first garden post of the year, we showed the weeding, planting and beginnings of 2015’s Spring garden. Well, it’s early Summer now, and here is how things are progressing, by God’s graces…
First, here are some green beans and zucchini from about a month ago:
And here is where things are as of the end of June…
This is Garden II, with the green beans on the right, and butternut squash and zucchini on the left:
This is a closer view of the butternut squash, some of which you can see:
And here are three okra plants, two on the left, and one behind on the right:
And here are some random turnips growing from seeds planted in previous years!
Over in Garden I, that zucchini planted last year, which sprouted this year, has done just fine!
The Lord graciously granted our fifth and final calf to be born in 2015! This time, a little heifer calf, born to our cow Casi Blanca!
And here she is:
When I went to video her, all of the cattle were there…except for Casi. Strange, and worrisome. So, Robert and I headed on out to look for her. We drove down one road, and suddenly two of what looked like owls flew away from the trees above, and then we saw turkey vultures flying above, and then one over to the left….and that’s when we saw Casi. We got out of the vehicle and walked up to her, and she was quite dead, on her side, very bloated. Sigh. She didn’t appear to be stuck in the fence, nor did I see any trauma to her:
But, these are God’s decisions, and His cattle, quite frankly.
From A.W. Pink, “Our Attitude Toward God’s Sovereignty”:
A true recognition of God’s Sovereignty will exclude all murmuring. This is self-evident, yet the thought deserves to be dwelt upon.
It is natural to murmur against afflictions and losses. It is natural to complain when we are deprived of those things upon which we had set our hearts.
We are apt to regard our possessions as ours unconditionally. We feel that when we have prosecuted our plans with prudence and diligence that we are entitled to success; that when by dint of hard work we have accumulated a ‘competence,’ we deserve to keep and enjoy it; that when we are surrounded by a happy family, no power may lawfully enter the charmed circle and strike down a loved one; and if in any of these cases disappointment, bankruptcy, death, actually comes, the perverted instinct of the human heart is to cry out against God.
But in the one who, by grace, has recognized God’s sovereignty, such murmuring is silenced, and instead, there is a bowing to the Divine will, and an acknowledgment that He has not afflicted us as sorely as we deserve.”
We are thankful for the provisions He has granted from Casi; and we decided to call her calf Casilita, in memory of her mother.
The little one appears to continue to be doing well, and it’s been told to us that her granddam Amistosa is letting her suckle off of her. That’s a gracious gift from God if so!
Here is Casilita’s video, and just to warn you, I did include the video of when we found Casi:
We are once again very grateful to the Lord for granting this new little provision of cattle!
The Lord graciously granted huge amounts of rain in May! Of course, this is great for plant life (as the Spirit’s cleansing and nourishing water is for the soul!), and it really shows in the sorghum almum (Columbus grass) field we planted earlier in the year…
As a reminder, here was Sue planting at the time:
And here is what God has granted as a result of His providence! Wow! Lord willing, the goat bucks in the video will soon be enjoying it, and the doggies, or at least Brodey, in the video are having fun running around in it — he’s soaked with dew every morning! 🙂
We’re grateful to God for what He has granted with this grass, in helping us hopefully get further sustaining here on the land!
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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