Our Family Jots and Tittles

Sunday - Cancellation Blues-Today was a very special day. We were supposed to celebrate the birth of a new baby today, Elisheva. We had been looking forward to this for a month. The first gathering was canceled by the family because little Elisheva caught a cold. It was rescheduled to this day. Now we have colds now and we didn't want to re introduce the precious baby to it once again. Especially if she might have a sensitivity from the last cold. So with much sadness, we had to tell them we couldn't come. :-(

Since our colds were still "functional" in other words, our symptoms were not so bad that we could not continue to work...we decided to take our mind off our cancellation blues and get to work on the farm...and that is just what we did.

Garden Preparations- Ben and the kids were working hard preparing the garden. The soil had been tilled, but it is VERY ROCKY. They got about 4 wheel barrels full (with an estimated 2 more to go). The kids were filling buckets full of rocks from the tilled beds then dumped them into the wheel barrel. They started to tire of the laborious task, so papa got creative and started a "contest" to see who could collect the most, and there would be a special prize for the winner. This kicked them all into HIGH gear with a 180 degree attitude change. Instead of looking for way not to work, they we diligent and motivated. Pappa was so proud of them all, that they all got a treat.

Among the many "regular rocks" were a plethora of geodes. Our property is loaded with them. We joking said we can write a new book, it will be all the rage...it will be called "Geode Gardening". We got about a 5 gallon bucket full of geodes (about 50 of them). Elijah wants to see if we can find a place to sell them.

After all the rocks were cleared from the first half of the garden, and the soil was freshly turned again with a hoe, it was covered with a very thick layer of decomposing straw. We were storing it under a tarp, but the tarp got tattered in that big storm (when I chased the flying shed) so its intended purpose changed from feed/coop bedding to garden mulch.

Clipping the Hen's Wings- chickens have truly been free-range since we got them. We let them roam the yard and put them in at night. We sacrificed our bark mulch that was put around the house and trees with that decision. They scratched all through it and made a real mess of it. Now that the garden is becoming a fast reality, we realized that this previous arrangement needs to come to an end. They have a large "run" that was set up for them off of their chicken house, but they could easily get out of it because we never clipped their wings...until today. So now they stay in their own little field, and we can garden without the chickens tearing it up. We still have to clean up the bark mulch mess; we're gettin' there. I can't blame it all on the chickens, because the dogs made part of the mess too. When there was a little piece of landscape cloth revealed and flapping in the wind, that was just an invite for the dogs to play with.. They mistook it for a pull toy....how does one balance animals and esthetics ????? I am still trying to figure that out!!

Jack Was Punctured- One of our cats, Jack was injured last night. None of us knows what happened, but he seems to have a puncture wound on his back thigh. It is our suspicion that it might have been from the head Rooster...but we can't know for sure. He was limping and moving very slow, which is how we discovered it. We brought him into the porch for a few days, cleaned out his wound and put some of my homemade salve on it. We watched it closely to see if we would have to make a trip to the vet or not. Update written Friday - Jack is back to his old self, no infection set in, his wound has scabbed over nicely and he is climbing trees and show no signs of hindered activity or mobility. We are all very pleased. He is our best natured cat and a wonderful mouser!

Monday- A Big Day - Today was a big day, even though we still had our walking colds...we decided to proceed with our plans for the day. We were going to Nashville to celebrate Gideon's 5 birthday (which was 2 days prior). It was his pick to go to the science museum when asked what He wanted to do. (We like to celebrate our birthdays with a family adventure of some sort instead of having it be terribly present-heavy. The grandparents are faithful to send gifts to the children on their birthdays - which is very nice, so they have the element of both blessings on their birthdays.) This was wonderful for us, because we went last year and joined and our membership was still good. The budget was tight, so we were very happy that that portion was paid for. The other thing he asked for was a trip to the Rain Forest Cafe, where he could get "Lava Cake". We found out the day before we left that the mall where that restaurant is was flooded out last year and is still under repair, so He didn't get that wish...but he took the news like a champ.

Real Pizza- Before we went to the Museum, we made a lunch stop. We decided to go to the food court in the Galleria Mall in Cool Springs on our way to the Museum. We gave Gideon the tour of the all the options and let him choose where we would eat. He chose pizza. I think daddy was more excited about this than anyone. (Its the New Yorker in him. We can't get "real pizza" where we are...so he was as bubbly as our 5 year birthday boy was!)

The Museum- We arrived at the Museum and were set back how busy it was. We thought for sure a Monday in March would be dead. But the parking lot was full and there were BUSES there! It was Disneyland in July! Pappa and gave each other a "what ya gonna do?" look and proceeded with the plan. We felt so guilty knowing we had these mild colds entering such a group of people.

The gift shop- Gideon got to take some birthday money that Grandpa David sent him and spend it in the gift shop. It was such a sweet quite time for him and I alone. He was so reflective and careful about his choices...I felt like he was growing up before my very eyes. Here was my little "bull in a china shop" picking out gifts for his two little sisters before he even thought about what he wanted for himself. It did a mamma's heart good.

International Grocery Store - Mamma got a special treat this day too. When we pulled into the Museum, we saw across the road and International Grocery Store. My mouth watered and I got all giddy..."Please say we can stop there on our way out!!!" Papa humored me and let me run in and stock up on my Chinese food supplies. I was tickled!

18 Fruit Trees- The last stop of the day was a stop to get fruit trees north of Nashville. I failed to mention, on this day were were also hauling an empty trailer behind our 15 pass van. We got 10 apple trees (3 Pink Lady, 3 Gala, 3 Granny Smith and 1 Yellow Delicious), 4 Cherry trees (2 tart and 2 sweet) and 4 peach trees (Red Haven and I forget the other kind). It has been exciting trying to decide where to put our little orchard. Oh what an adventure this will be! We hope to add bees into our orchard plan one day too. How exciting!

Tuesday- Passover Lamb We visited a sheep farm about an hour and half away today and brought home male lamb in his first year for Passover. He is a little guy, called a Shetland sheep. We are planning on spending Passover with some new friends and they really wanted to express the Passover Observance similar to the one in the first Exodus...we have done a modified version of this in the past, but never used a whole lamb...so we thought we would give it a try. We hope this doesn't freak people out...We know who our Passover Lamb is (Yeshua)...however, we have learned that walking out many things of old are wonderful learning experiences that contain amazing lessons that you would not receive otherwise. Now that we are becoming farmers and have gotten some experience processing our own meat, it's not such a "crazy idea" like it once was. It is such a beautiful thing to "get back to the basics". I am amazed how "going back" moves us forward in so many ways.

Wednesday- Friends for Dinner- When we tried to "give an out" to our friends who scheduled for dinneron Wednesday night, because of the colds in the house - they turned the tables on us, and insisted on bringing dinner for US and said they would load up on echinacea to protect themselves. We kept Hailey up stairs (quarantined) She had been up and about today, but she was still coughing a lot. It was a lovely evening. Please pray for the H family, so that they do not get sick...This ended up being a very serious batch of the bad stuff.

Thur, Friday and Shabbat- 8 people and 14 symptoms- Deep chest coughs, sore throats, fever, loss of appetite, achy-ness everywhere, sinus congestion, headaches, diarrhea, puke, sleepless nights, lots of flem, dizziness, chills and weakness.

OK maybe that was TMI (Too Much Information) - It's been rough. To add to it, pour little Chazaq is breaking in three molars at the SAME TIME!!!

Ben and Pamela and the Tribe