Our Family Jots and Tittles

Sunday - Moved Some Friends- Ben and Elijah took the first half of the day moving some friends. A 15 passenger van (without the seats and an open trailer can be handy for this purpose! Ben said it was the best organized and largest out pouring of help in a move that he had ever had the privilege to be a part of. (We have moved a lot and helped people move a lot --so that made it a big statement.) It is beautiful to see community in action!

Monday- Seed Inventor - Hailey I spent a good deal of time today inventorying seeds today. We hadn't taken the time to do that in a way that separated them into planting times according to soil temp. So that really helped us get a better perspective of what we are looking at. I tried to order more seed from Seeds of Change, but much of what I was requesting is back ordered. I called Whole Foods in Nashville since I am going up there next week to see if they have their seeds in yet. They do...do we thought we would fill int he gaps there. It is our goal to start saving our seed this year (Sorry Monsanto! We're not playing your game!). This will be a big gardening year for us. So much to implement and learn!

Tuesday- Chuck Wagon and 2 More Roosters -Tuesday is our day to deliver a meal to a local family who is at the end of their pregnancy. We set this up about a month ago. They are vegetarian, so it keeps me on my toes with how I order produce, but I think it have been going pretty well. We have been doing this for a month now and will continue it for another month or so.

We also added two more Roosters to our flock. They were given to us (by the family mentioned above), because their flock of hens is smaller and didn't need as many roosters. We were going to put them in the pot, cuz we already have a rooster, but thought we would see how they do together (they are all Road Island Reds). They seem to be fairing well...so they have a little more time, before they hit the pot. :-)

Wednesday- Jars and a Surprise Visit-I got a surprise visit from a new friend who placed a big jar order for folks in the area (she gets a lot together for the Amish too). We had some that were back ordered, and has brought them by today. So we got to take a break and visit for a few hours in the afternoon. They are dairy farmers and I love to pick her brain about dairy cows, she is so patient with me. :-) I picked her brain about Wood stoves right before we got ours too. :-) It is so nice to have people who have "gone before you" to talk to! Its where the best learnin' takes place in my book! I am looking forward to a many years for friendship with her!

Thursday- I just can't think of a thing to share about Thursday.

Friday- Amish Contractors and Rain Barrels -I wish Ben could retell this part, because he had funny parts of this story to tell (which I could not do justice trying - I wasn't there). SO you just get "the facts" from me. We have been searching for large used plastic containers to use as rain barrels to collect rain water from our barn roof for our garden (and possible some livestock). We have seen many, but they are often used for chemicals and "questionables". If you know us...that is not OK. Many people who resell them can't (or won't) tell you what was in them before. So it made the search more difficult than it would be for most. Today, our search ended. We found an Amish farmer who had some for sale that were food grade and had food in them before and for only $30 each! It pays to stay the course to one's convictions! These containers are 275 gallons each. We were tickled! We will post more on the blog once we get it all set up.

While Ben was connecting in the Amish Community, he also found an Amish contractor to help us with the root cellar construction at a fraction of the cost of our previous quote. That was also very very good news...because while this is still an expensive project...it is much more realistic for our budget now...so that was great cause for celebration!!

Shabbat- Friends from afar- We have some friends from about 3 hours away, that joined us for Shabbat this week. Two families (9 kids between them) and the family we meet with regularly (they have 5) plus our 6..lets see, that was 28 of us between 4 families. Ya gotta love it when the house is packed. We were actually expecting more, but we had friend in common who had a special guest from Israel who came to speak and many folks went there... (about an hour and half north) It was much earlier than we usually meet (10 AM!! That's early for Shabbat in our book) and went 'til well after dark...it was a good long day. Always a treat to see our friends from afar. They had a trailer and also loaded up a bunch of jars from the order previously mentioned on their way out after Shabbat had ended. I have a couple more to deliver to some very patient people...and ironically, I have an order in for my self with another group (I was not able to order on the last one..the $$ wasn't in the envelope!)...so my jar reports aren't over yet. ;-)