Busy Summer Days!

This year Summer has brought with it a new perspective. In years past, Summer has been a time for relaxation, perhaps a vacation or two... This year, Summer is all about gardens and food preservation, and tending to our little farm. It's been busy, oh, delightfully busy! It's also been so filled with wonder, amazement, and rejoicing. When we planted these tiny seeds, we hoped for something to grow, and now, wow! Baskets overflowing with big beautiful squash, juicy tomatoes, yummy radishes...and so much more to come!

I've had lots of sewing to do as well. I wouldn't normally have planned to have sewing work during the busy season of gardening, but, with a new blessing on it's way there isn't much choice but to sew! Of course, a new blessing is always a very happy reason to have extra sewing work!

We've been trying to squeeze in some school work as well. Jacob is really enjoying the first grade. It's been so neat to see such a difference in this year's work verses earlier years. He's enjoying being able to be more independent and reading his own pages! :) I just love watching children learn.

We have had a tremendous amount of rain this season. It seems like every rain is a downpour! So many of my friends are facing droughts, and many of the farms in our surrounding area are flooding! It's unbelievable to see such deep flood waters covering the fields. So many of them look like lakes...until you notice the tops of trees out in the middle of it! In several places the flood waters are almost covering the road. It doesn't seem like it would take much more for us to lose access into Kansas City for a while, at least from the main stretch of highway. We actually received a letter from the power company saying that if waters rise too much they'll cut off power! We don't appear to be at risk for personally flooding out, although both of our gravel roads could easily flood. I suppose it's a complicated balance, too little rain and the crops can't thrive, too much rain and you have a flood!

One afternoon, Jacob and I sat watching an intense but brief Summer storm. We watched the rain moving towards us until it was actually over us. It was so neat to be able to see it coming! Once the rain stopped, this beautiful rainbow appeared behind the silo. I love how even today, the rainbow is such a symbol of God's promises to us.

Well, I should probably get back to being busy! I have sweet corn from a local farm that I plan to make creamed corn for the freezer with. I also still have an overflowing basket of squash and zucchini to put up, with lots more that will be ready in the next few days. It's busy busy, but busy is good!

With Love,

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Garden Progress!

This was the garden spot in May. It was so exciting to see the neat rows of baby plants popping up!


And now, at the end of June and into July, the plants are huge and starting to produce food! It's so neat to see these little seeds become beautiful plants, and even more exciting to see these plants giving food.

I'm excited to see what all will come from the garden. It's so rewarding to see the hard work bearing fruit!

In His Love,

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Butchering Chickens

I spent the forenoon over at my friend Hannah's house helping to butcher chickens. Evelyn and Esther had also brought over their chickens to butcher. This was my first time butchering chickens! Hannah was so patient with my many questions, and I learned so much!

They have a nifty machine that plucks the chickens. It was so interesting to watch the whole process. Joshua was very interested in how it all worked! The children all had such a nice time playing with the other children. Joshua even rode in the gator to dump all the heads and feathers off in the woods...yuck! (although he thought it was pretty neat!)

I think we butchered around 75 chickens or so. We enjoyed a nice noon meal together before heading home. Hannah sent me with one of the chickens, and two grocery bags full of chicken feet to make stock. Last Fall I helped my dear friend Deb with making stock from chicken feet, and I figured it was worth doing again. :)

My big stock pot is filled with two gallons of milk for making cheese, so I'll need to finish that before getting to these chicken feet.

Love in Christ,

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Ducks!

Several weeks ago we were at the farm supply store and these adorable ducks caught our attention. Jamie just loved them! He enjoyed them so much that we decided to take two home with us, and so we have added "Chuck" and "Quackers" to our little homestead. :)


I had no idea that ducks were so fully of personality! They are just adorable and ever so humorous! We have been keeping them in a little cage in the living room, although I think they are nearly ready to move to a pen outside. They have been growing so fast! They must be nearly doubled in size already.

Jacob has been taking on the task of cleaning out the duck cage and caring for them. The boys really enjoy taking care of animals. They are going to make rather good farmers someday. :)

We took the ducks for a swim in the bathtub! Oh, did they ever enjoy that! It was just precious to watch them learn to paddle. Chuck was quite giddy when we figured out he could swim backwards! We are planning to put one of the little plastic child's pools in their enclosure. We do have a pond but it's not close to the house and they are too little to be out there.

We are really enjoying having ducklings. They are such a joy!

Love in Christ,

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Planting Garden

My friend Sharon and most of her children came over to help with planting our garden. Their help was such a blessing! They arrived in the forenoon and were there till about four in the afternoon. It was hot (the high reached 93 degrees!) and hard work but we got the garden in!

Sharon and I sorted through seeds and made plans while Leon went over the garden spot with the tractor and tiller once more. Karen cut the last ten pounds of seed potatoes. Jamie loved playing in the big bowl of potatoes!

The children had such a time playing together. The Eicher children are some of their favorite playmates, so they really enjoyed spending the day outside with them. Bethany and Victor pushed the littler ones around in the toy cars. Leon took all of the children on a ride in the trailer behind the tractor.

Leon took such care in explaining to Jacob all about how the tractor works and what such and such does. Jacob really enjoyed learning all about it! Victor is one of Jacob's best friends, so they really had a fun time together. Jacob likes playing with the older boys, since they do such big things! :)

Justin and Joseph caught a toad! They played with their toad friend and chased him around. Finally they decided to let him go into the tall grass. What fun!

All of the children enjoyed watching the big tractors at work on the farmland around us.

For our noon meal I made two casseroles of homemade Beefaroni, vanilla pudding, and fresh bread with apple butter. The sweet tea was certainly refreshing after working in the heat!

It was so wonderful to all work together and to see how much we could get done! We managed to get everything in, except for pumpkins and watermelons. We ended up plowing two additional spots to make it all fit! Sharon was such a help in figuring out how much of what to plant and where. She answered my many questions with such patience!

I am excited to watch our garden grow, and to see what will come of the fruits of our labors. I am so thankful for the land to plant, and the resources to plant with, and for such great friends to help! I feel so blessed indeed!

In Him Who First Loved Us,

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Jacob's Nesting Boxes

Jacob is so excited about getting chickens that he is really looking for ways that he can help. We had purchased this cubed shelving unit to use for nesting boxes and he asked if he could try putting it together. At first I figured that I would just let him help, but I thought about it more and realized he could do much of the work himself. I read him the directions and helped him sort out the pieces. I helped him start the screws, but he did all of the rest. I was amazed at his diligence and his ability to actually do the work!

He was so excited that he was doing it himself! I was so excited for him. His eyes were so bright with joy in really being able to build something.

As he was building he said, "I can't wait to see eggs in these nesting boxes!" Rick was so pleased with Jacob's efforts that he decided to buy him his own little tool set, and a project kit to build a bird feeder. I know Jacob is going to be thrilled!

Great work, Jacob! Thank you so much for your help!

With Love,

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God Gives us Work

God's plan is for work,
For me and for you,
Each one in the family,
Has something to do!

This little poem is in one of our favorite Little Jewel books, "God Gives us Work". It has become a little source of encouragement around our house. It is a wonderful reminder that we each play an important role in making family life pleasant, edifying and fruitful.

"And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing." 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

Having a good attitude about work is something that has always been important to us as parents, and something we have worked to instill in our children. Especially with having sons, it is important that they understand the value of working hard. God willing, these little boys will one day be big men with families of their own to provide for.

We have had great opportunities lately for teaching hard work. We are just beginning our little homestead here, and so there is much to be done! This week we have been working on our chicken house. We had a hog farrowing house that hasn't been used for many years, and it seemed like just the right place to house chickens. There were old pieces of wood, and scraps of metal and who knows what else piled inside. Someone had dumped mounds of dirt inside two of the stalls, and so we had to level back out the floor. Most of the windows needed to be covered in new chicken wire, and there were some cracks that also needed to be covered. We are also planning to put up a fence to make a little yard for the hens. Needless to say there has been (and still is!) quite a bit of work to do!

The chickens are going to be a huge lesson in teaching responsibility to the children. They are going to help with feeding and watering, egg gathering and cleaning the hen house. The boys are excited about the challenge ahead!

On Wednesday afternoon, Jacob and I worked outside pulling overgrown ivy off of the front of our house. We trimmed back bushes, and cleared out a large bed for planting. We worked hard. I was impressed with how hard he was willing to work. Near the end he was beginning to get tired and complaining a bit about when would we be done. At that point I was quite tired myself. It occurred to me that this was the time when real lessons were learned. He knew that I was also tired. Would he see me give in to that, throw down my tools and go inside? Or would he see me push through and finish the task at hand? Would we leave our tools and yard waste laying about, or would we push through and clean it all up despite our aching backs and tired hands? We can talk all that we want about what we should do, but these are the moments where lessons are truly learned and most effectively taught. I told him that I was tired too, but explained the importance of doing a job right. We pushed through, and were both so pleased to sit back and see the work we had done!


It has been so neat lately to see how the early years of child training are beginning to bear fruit. In the beginning, teaching your children to work with you is more about principle than actual help. But now, he is getting bigger and stronger, and his "help" is actual real help! There were quite a few vines that we had pulled together, and I'm not sure I could have done it without his help. He was working with me, side by side, and his help was such a blessing. He carried big vines and bush branches off to the wooded area, he pulled vines and helped rake up leaves. All the while I kept encouraging him about what a help he was. After our work was done, I really enjoyed sitting with him and smiling together about a job well done!


"Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul." Proverbs 29:17

Jacob is especially excited about our garden, and has asked for his own little garden spot. I am excited to see how he will do!

Children really are such a blessing!

In His Precious Name,

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Homesteading, Sewing, and Candle Light Dinners

It feels like we are in such a time of growing, and that life is just full of new discoveries right now! We have really started down the path towards simple living, and this path seems so full of hope and the peace that comes with trusting God. We have no false illusions that this is going to be easy, but we do know that by leaning on God and trusting in His providence, that great good will come. To document our journey towards a life of homesteading and simple living my husband and I have created a blog, Happy Hearts Farm. ( http://happyheartsfarm.blogspot.com/) Here we will share the joys, trials and triumphs along the way.

I still have quite a bit of sewing to do. I have started working on a slip (from the other half of the sheet that I made my new apron from), and I have pieces cut for another dress. Yesterday I did a little mending on a few dresses, and I converted two short sleeve dresses into jumpers. I also mended a nightgown. I am also saving all of the scraps from things that I have sewn. The smaller scraps I am using for a quilt, many of the larger scraps I am using to make baby dresses (even though we do not have any little girls as of yet :)). I'd like to use the leftover material from my last dress to make a bonnet.

The children have been greatly enjoying our candle light dinners! It makes something as simple as a pot of chili seem extra special! Jacob said that it is beautiful, and it does add a peaceful atmosphere to the dinner table. I can't help but worry that Joshua (of course) might throw something and knock one over, but he is doing much better about understanding when it is time to be calm.:)

My husband said yesterday that I make the best chocolate chip cookies in the entire world. He asked me what I do that is so different than anyone else, and to be honest, I am not sure! I have made my cookies the same way for many years, and the recipe seems pretty basic to me, and yet these cookies are always so delicious. Even I must admit (humbly, of course :)) that these are by far my favorite cookies. I sent a batch to work with my husband earlier in the week, and now here at home there are only two left (and only briefly might I add, as I am quite sure they will not make it through the afternoon). Perhaps next time I send cookies to work, I will have to make even more!

I decided that I really like my new dress pattern. It is simple, and certainly not overly fancy, but it feels pretty, and it is easy to work in, and I always feel modest. I think I have finally found just the right pattern for my everyday dresses.

Happy Homemaking!

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