Around the Farm

Some pictures from this past Summer...

Lily-Mae, one of the milk cows

Glamorous bush-hogger;)

Lucky the goat, watch out! She bites:)

Partners.

Cowboy Gabe.

Will and a piglet

Blueberry and calf.

Hazy morning.

Curious piglet.

Hungry little piglets.

One of the many new calves born recently. Coconut is this little one's name.

A new FQF enterprise headed up by William (12) He is raising rabbit's for meat this season and hopes to have it available soon.

Curious bunny.

Hoop houses for the broilers. Just processed our last batch of the season!

Volunteer Sunflower

A new farm building addition. A laying shelter for the hens. (Part of it's even painted pink!:)

We're gearing up for our final push of the season. Thanksgiving Turkey processing and pick-up. After that begins our down time. A slower season of rest: more family time, fixing things and planning for the next farming season. Our family has really come to appreciate this farmer's downtime, if we really purposefully take it slower during the winter months than we are refreshed and ready to jump back into busyness again come April. This year has been another good year of growth for our family, not all easiness, but good nonetheless. The Lord is good.

"Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love."
Hope everyone has a good weekend!
-Morgan

Give Thanks Unto The Lord For He Is Good!

It's been a while! Is anyone still out there?:) It's a lovely day out today! It's near peak here and the weather is cool and brisk. Apple cider and hot chocolate are welcome refreshments on these crisp afternoons. This afternoon a large buck was chased onto our property by a pack of hunting dogs. He broke through several fences, (causing the cows to go crazy!) and got himself caught in some wire, he was finally able to free himself and he bounded away into the neighboring woods. This week is a busy crunch week for us leading up to the butchering of our large flock of Thanksgiving Turkeys and then the huge Pick-up day this Saturday. The Lord has abundantly blessed and we are sold out of the turkeys. (We take reservations before hand) As we draw closer to the season where we pause and remember of our Pilgrim forefathers, and God's providence in the founding of our country, I reflect on God's Hand of faithfulness in our family and in my own walk. How great is our God and worthy to be praised!

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

~

"This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed,
because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, saith my soul;
therefore will I hope in Him.
The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him,
To the soul that seeketh Him.
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait
for the salvation of the Lord.
~Lamentations 3:21-26

This has been an amazing year of growth for our family, as a whole as well as the individual, which has been exciting to see. Now, I didn't say that growth was easy!:) But the refining, the drawing closer to the Lord, the heartaches, the happiness, the struggles, the joys and the tears alike have made this year one that I will remember and look back on with thankfulness to God for the work He is doing in our family. As this year draws to a close I am left with the feeling like unto nearing the end of a journal. A satisfied full feeling of contentment, while flipping through the pages that hold the year's story. I have not nearly finished all of the "goals" I set for myself for this year:) But God has brought about much higher and loftier things for me to accomplish then I ever imagined, some I had thought nearly impossible. But I am now all the more assured of this truth... "With man, it is impossible. But with God, all things are possible" Such joy and thankfulness wells up inside of me as I contemplate on His goodness, His amazing might, His perfect ways, His realness in my life. "Great and Marvelous are all Your works! Lord, God Almighty!"
Well, I hope you all have a blessed week and a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families! I will close with this hymn....

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing,
Sing praises to His name: He forgets not his own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, wast at our side, All glory be thine!

-Morgan

Hello All! How has everyone been? Today we are taking it a little slower as we've been very busy this week. On Thursday we butchered chickens and started out Joel Salatin style :) At least according to the time of his book "Pastured Poultry Profits". Dad got up at 4am to start the scalder and the rest of us got us at 4:45 had coffee or tea and a boiled egg and then we trooped out at 5am to process about 150 birds. It was lovely be finished by 7:30am! Then we ate breakfast and did the morning chores. We also received a surprise batch of turkeys that day! A whole month early! There was some sort of mix up with the hatchery and so we received (over the process of two days) 200 extra turkeys in addition to the 400 we are to receive in July! Needless to say we will have plenty of thanksgiving turkeys!:) At first we got a little panicked at the prospect of raising double the turkeys we had last year! But as Mom pointed out, the Lord knows what He's doing; we needed them for some reason! After breakfast and chores we cut some of the chicken and then packaged and bagged everything. We were finished by about noon. Then we had the rest of the afternoon off! Needless to say we have adopted a new schedule :) Though not quite so early... We get up at about 5:15 have coffee and meet out in the backyard at 5:30. It lovely to be sitting down to breakfast at 8:30am instead of 10:30am! On Friday we got 11 of our pigs back from the butcher. So we scrambled to find room in every nook and cranny of our freezers:) We were able to fit everything just fine. So today we are taking it a little slower. I find it is so easy in all of the busyness to get off focus, and shift my sights off of the things that are most important like spending time with the Lord and family, not using all of my free to time seek my own pleasure and overlook the needs of my siblings and parents. Making sure I am honoring and obeying my parents from the heart and not just surface cooperation. I need to be sure I am setting a godly example to my younger siblings who look to me as their big sister to see how I react to the many and diverse situations that arise during the day. I need to make sure I'm taking the time to really smile into their little hearts and let them know how much I love and care about them, whether it be stopping to take the time to read a book or include them in whatever I'm doing. Being their friend and confidant and not only their "bossy" big sister :)

Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

-Morgan