Our Family Jots and Tittles

This week has been a flurry of activity! We have had a busy farm of local visitors. We tried to help some elderly folks up the road with a stray Pyrenees (that just had with pups in their shed) last week and they stopped back to update us on the dog's condition and care. And when she did, she brought a young single fella with her that homesteads and grows herbs a mile or so up the road from her, who also happens to be Messianic (or at least leans that way).

1. We started off the week by planting, planting, planting. (Followed by mulching, mulching, mulching!) We are not finished yet, we hope to plow up some more ground, but this is what we got in so far:

Cabbage, lots of different herbs (culinary and medicinal), bell pepper, zucchini, carrots, jalapeno peppers, ancho peppers, chili peppers, sweet banana peppers, yellow pear tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, red potatoes, white potatoes, strawberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, eggplant, and a butterfly bush. I know I am forgetting something!

I have rhubarb, peppermint, a thornless blackberry bush that still need to go in yet, when I get their place ready. I hope to get some corn, lentils, oats, green beans in soon, and plan to start some more herbs from seed this week - to trans plant later. We really wanted to put snap peas in, but were forwarned that people don't have success down here with them because of our intense summer sun. I am told, with some experiance, people have had success starting them really early in green houses, but that they would be ready to harvest soon! So I suppose I will need to save THAT experiment for another year. :-) I also need to move my Roman Chamomile on the advice of a friend who says it doesn't do so well in direct sun down here either...so I will try to put it on the east side of the house, where it will recieve part shade.

2. We have LOTS of trees to clean up. Two of our Amish neighbors came and took what they wanted from many of our cedar trees (about 20) and 4 walnuts. Now we have the top 20 feet or so of each tree to cut up, clear and stack for firewood. I think daddy will be mostly in charge of the cutting part, we help with the stacking part and clearing part. :-) What a blessing our farm truck is for things like this!! We re taking the cedar trees down for the sake of our new apple orchard we just planted as there is a fungus that is caused by having cedars close by. The 4 walnuts are coming down because they are in the middle of what will be come a driveway/parking area for the farm and guests. (They were not well anyway, their time was close at hand naturally.) As a result, I think we are going to be well prepared for wood next winter! What a wonderful feeling.

After we get the tree cleaning up and what we can use stacked, we'll look into getting the stumps ground down.



3. The hole has been dug for our root cellar; it measures 12x32 and is a little over 8 feet deep. It rained right after it was finished, so it has almost a foot of water sitting in it. We are thinking we are going to have to pump it out to help it dry up so we can continue our work. A pond may come later...but this is NOT the time (or the place!). :-) We have a neighbor who is a construction Foreman and he excavates with his own equipment on the side. (Nice, huh?!) Our (Amish) block layer showed up after being out of town for the last several weeks, to check in. We had some rain the last couple days here, so we need to wait until our little "pond" dries up before he can start getting to work. If the weather works with us, he is projected to start Thurs.

You can really see the dirt we have here on the farm to plant in too. It's rocky orange clay...(the orange clay reminds me of PA) Its gonna take many years of adding to the soil (and removing rocks) in our planting areas to get it where we really want it. Until then, we work with what we have and make the best of it! We are very very thankful to have it!

As a part for this project, the dirt that is being pulled out for the root cellar is being used to grade the very hilly side next to the shed as well as filling up the old hand dug well that sat in front of the house (right in front of my porch rockers). It was a big cement slab with a large cement circle and metal dome cap. U - G - L - Y! My kids used to play all around, it, riding their tricycles around the circle and using it as a "home base" for tag. Which was cute, but I can't tell you how many times I have lost my breath over a child tripping over the cement slab and falling toward the big cement monolith in the center to be "safe". I am happy to see it filled in. Right now, it is a muddy mess with the rains we just had. The whole front porch is blocked by about 10 feet of mud. Imagine pouring dirt and rocks into a class of water, it's gonna over flow, right? So does a wet well when it is filled in! These pictures don't show the worst of it (If forgot to take pictures then. But this is the state of it at the time of this writing, (about 5 days after). We have had to put boards down to get over the mud to our front door - not so pretty now...but it is worth it! I am looking forward to driveway plans and landscaping in the future....(Maybe next year?? Not sure when.)

4. When Ben was in town last week he ran into our chiropractor and he excited pulled him aside, as he seemed to like to do with Ben. He loves to talk about Scripture and He loves to ask Ben's opinion on stuff. Well this week, he said, "What are you doing this Sunday?" Ben was silent, knowing that Sunday is always our biggest chore day on the farm. He knows this guy is really active in his church. Our Dr. continued, I want you to come down to my (Baptist) church and teach my Sunday School Class of 20 year olds. Ben asked what it was He wanted him to teach on and He said, "What ever the Spirit leads you to teach." They agreed that he would not have to stay for church service, that he could run the class and leave. The Dr. would be there in class so Ben agreed. We have not been in a "Sunday Church" for 5 1/2 years...Yah gave us a sense that He is going to use us in this way some how (about a year ago) to aid in the restoration of His family ...so we continue to wait (and be "at the ready) for His leading and provision and guidance, as we ONLY want to go where HE sends us and do what HE has sent us there to do!!! I am prayerful, and asking, does this have something with the "ordination papers" he just had us get???? Hmmmm....

Ben reminded me, that just a few days before, I asked him (out of 'nowhere'), "Do you ever just get a 'wild hair' to go to a Sunday Church if we were lead too?" His answer was "Yes" and that was end of that topic - neither of us had any more to say. We don't know what YHVH is doing here...but we are certainly going to follow His lead! After much prayer, Ben decided to teach "Who is Israel" to the group. It was a small group and half way through the teaching the class doubled with a group of older women who came in. This made it kind of awkward because he had been creating some "foundation" before they arrived that was lacking for them which made Ben uncomfortable. He said the whole "atmosphere" changed when they arrived, but all in all, It seemed to go pretty well, the Dr. asked him to come back another time, (although a date was not set). We would appreciate your prayers in this regard. We so long for YHVH's people to lay down this modern (false) notion of replacement theology that has snuck it's way into churches and for people to understand the fullness of the gospel in The Scriptures that starts in Genesis and runs all the way to Revelation. We hope to be used to help people understand the Scriptures more clearly in the context in which they were written, rather then the context in which their denomination (or "non denomination"!) chooses to paint it. We hope to encourage His people to let The Scriptures transform us into His likeness rather than trying to transform The Scriptures and Him into what we like. (Hence we have over 2000 denominations, theologies and brands of "churches" today.) Father please forgive us for what we have done!

We pray you all have a wonderful week in Him! May YHVH bless you and keep you. May His face shine upon you!

and the Tribe of Ben

This post was shared at The Barn Hop

Our Family Jots and Tittles

April Showers bring more May Showers: Is that how it goes? :-) It really hasn't been THAT bad here, but it certainly has been something we have had to "work around". We have had some severe storms (as have many of you!), I am very thankful that no harm has come to our family, property or livestock. We have had tornadoes touch down and take houses in our zip code and actually caused severe damage demolishing homes and property and tree lines. Our next door neighbor expressed great concern to us, as he said he was "positive a tornado went right over our house in the night". We know this is happening in many places and our prayers go out to the people who have lost loved ones and property during these storms. We had some friends from Alabama join us for a few days, since they were out of power for several days. It was a real eye opener to them, how dependant they were at this time and how quickly the roads would get backed up and even chaos would start in local stores for supplies in a crisis situation. They witnessed this first-hand where they were in Alabama. I am so thankful that YHVH has put it on our hearts to try to be prepared for such things ahead of time. He is starting to do the same in this family's life as well as so many of His people!

Friends: After much ado and several attempts...The Meyers finally made it here! They had hoped to stay here the week before Family Week, but their car broke down, and they ended up staying at the mechanics house! (Thankfully, that mechanic is a dear and mutual friend to us who lives about an hour and half north of here! BTW - this my dear friend whom I was away helping during her first week of postpartum and circ and she did the same for me when Chazaq was born.) Anyway, then they endured a very stormy week and half of camping with many other mutual friends at Ken Lake in KY, and finally dipped down to see us for a few days as they had to rush home to find their new Golden Retriever puppies homes back up in PA. Our visit was short, but sweet as usual. :-) It was a precious time of catching up about the year that had come between us and resting together after such a busy time. They have had another baby and been back and forth to Israel in that year we have been apart, among many other adventures. Oh...to be young..... :-) They were here Thur to Saturday night. I mess with Heather, because we always forget to take pictures when we are together. we have been wanting her to do a family picture for years...but we just do other things or NOTHING instead. :-) We knew the Meyers when they were just starting out as a family (before they became 'famous') and spent many weekends together in at our old house in PA. We even made them a "suite" out of our old office that all the kids came to call "Jake's Room" (Of course they always came together - but some reason - Jake got the title.) They are the ones responsible for raising the roof on this house and adding our 2nd floor last year. If it weren't for them, we would still be crammed in a VERY small 2br house without storage. As my dad said when He met them one time, "That Jake is a real good guy. You got yourself a good friend in him." We agreed - they are precious to us. We have an unspoken agreement that we will not try to make them feel too young if they do not try to make us feel too old. (We ARE 15 years older than them - almost to the dates!) So that works for us all! :-)

More Friends: At the same time the Meyers were here, so also were our new friends - The Stones. (They were mentioned above - they were out of electric from the storms.) We are so blessed that YHVH puts His people in our path and connects us to encourage one another! This precious family are becoming fast friends! I am looking forward to you meeting them in the future. YHVH, is bringing our families together in a special way, which will unfold through out this year. They are finishing up their time in the military as they feel YHVH is calling them into a simpler life of preparation and accountability to His Word. This is their first year keeping the Feasts. They were our guests here at Passover that I also mentioned before. We are so excited about what YHVH is doing in their lives and ours! They were here Thur to Sunday. I can't believe, I STILL didn't take pictures of them! I am sure we will have lots of opportunities in the future..so stay tuned. :-)

Three Little Pigs: We were so bad at taking pictures during our visits, but one thing we did get, was a few shots of our little boys "piggin' out" on my 'top secret' seasoned popcorn. As many of you know, I like to fiddle with herbs and seasonings and someday may put it in our business plan. This is my "flagship" creation, which may launch the whole series...well we think we came up with the name of it on this day...Three Little Pigs Popcorn Seasoning! :-) As you can see we make it in a 5 gallon bucket! (Because we have too!) It was so comical watching our little boys learn how to share and take turns and work some stuff out 'round the popcorn tub'. See...there are advantages to being "little", the "big kids" were all outside playing on the swingset, unawares as to the major snacking going on inside by their little brothers.

Hailey's Birthday- We celebrated Hailey's 13th Birthday on Sunday. It didn't go quite as we had planned. We had planned to go to a big flea market, but that part didn't work out. We gave her a "raincheck" which she so graciously accepted without a sigh, complaint, or a grumble. We were able to all the other things we had planned for that day. She also received some loving cash gifts to go shopping with that she was so thankful for. Her special gift from Mamma and Pappa was a hope chest. It was a medium sized cedar chest, made by our local Amish. She also has a large cedar chest that was her great great Grandma's that is waiting for her at her Granny's House in PA, but we are not sure when we will get it..so we thought we would give her this one..in the mean time..so we can start slowly adding things into it. She is reading the book called The Hope Chest: A Legacy of Love that I have had on my bookshelf for years waiting for this time!

Removing Trees: One of our spring chores is to remove some trees. The first four that had to come down were in the location we plan to put our root cellar/shed. They were mature (some starting to hollow) walnut trees. They will make good firewood if they are seasoned in time for next winter. We still have yet to figure our where/how to store our wood well (suggestions welcome!). We don't want to put it near the the house (because of our recent termite discovery!), or any of our buildings for that matter. Ben did this himself, although Jake and John helped him clear and load a lot of it onto our truck on Friday when they were here (which was appreciated). These was the first time he has done this process from start to finish, and He was a little nervous because 2-3 of these trees were close enough to the house to cause damage had he not done it right. Here are some photos. Of course he couldn't resist the chance to be a joker in one of them. How about that mid-timber shot?!! Look out Heather Meyers...I'm about to take over in the world of photography! (HA - HA .....NOT!)

Root Cellar Progress: We just got word today from our Amish contractor who will be doing the block work for our root cellar that he is running behind. They are building a house for someone out of town and is not planning to be back until the 16th...so the project is bumped back a little. We are neither surprised nor disappointed. It seems that the excavation would have to wait with all this rain anyway...and figured that would slow things down for the folks who are doing the work for us. However, we are relieved that our preparation (moving the trailer and trees) was completed. Well, almost anyway. When we were putting out stakes in the ground to "mark the spot', we realized that we might need to move the existing wood shed before the excavation starts...so there is one more thing. We really must decide where and how to store our wood! :-)

Tick Time: It is that time of year! The ticks and chiggers have arrived. We search ourselves daily as we pick off the little critters and start itching. I am back to pursuing the perfect herbal mix to help sooth this little side effect to country living! I'll let you know when I "perfect" it. :-) It will be a most happy day!

We pray all is well with you and yours! May YHVH bless you and keep you!

for the Tribe of Ben

P.S. What do you think of the new blog look??? I wanted something new for Spring to show more of our farm. The pictures are from our front porch. I plan to make some new "buttons" to choose from too as I am doing a little rearranging when I get the chance.

Our Family Jots and Tittles - Passover and Matzah

Blessings to our Friends and Family!

What a wonderful week we have had!

We had some new friends join us for Passover and the beginning of Matzah here on the farm. It was such a treat to get to know their family and spend time with them. They have 5 small children so our kids had lots of fun playing together. Our calendar reckoning was one day apart, so we had a "double celebration" as each Papa lead their family through keeping the Passover as they were lead, while the other family was a guest in their home. This family actually BROUGHT their home! As they are spending their last 8 months of military duty in a (very nice, new) camper. It was exciting to see what YHVH is doing in this family's life! It never ceases to amaze me how He speaks to us all individually from the inside out...then (when HIS timing is right) He connects us with others who have gone through the same experience to encourage us that we are not nuts! :-) I am so sad that I failed to take pictures!!!

Our Passover meal consisted of :
Roasted Lamb
Hummus
Matzah
Parsley (and salt water)
Charoset
Baba Ganoush
Chocolate Toffee Matzah
Wine

We burned any remaining Chametz (leaven) in our fire together with prayer and reflection, before we roasted our lamb. We blew the shofar, worshipped a little, sat around the fire as the lamb roasted, played a game with the kids with some "props" as we reviewed the plagues, and confirmed the day as we spotted the full moon. We hid some Matzah for the kids to find with the story paralleling the Matzah to Y'shua. (but they didn't end up searching for it until a couple days later! Our night ran late all the littles they had played so hard together and we forgot naps!) We ate our meal in haste, with our fingers as we stood around our table together.

The next day for the First Day of Matzah we grazed on left over from our previous meal (except for the lamb!) and had a few more goodies made ahead for snacking:
Ants on a log
Seasoned Popcorn
Boursin (Dip) with cut veggies
Lentil Salad
Kiwi

It was a nice day of rest after a the busy day of preparations the day before.

Than later that evening, we had roasted goat with our guests and wine and matzah and parsley. That was the first time we ever had goat meat before. Much to our surprise...it was good! :-) It's flavor might have been a little bit more mild than the lamb, but it's texture was stringier. Our friend's were here for 4 days and 5 nights. We look forward to a long and fruitful friendship them in YHVH.

There was a lot of study and prayer this season about slaughtering our own sheep for the event....we went round and round between all the relevant Scriptures of the original event in Exodus to Moshe's final word in Deut. on the matter. Our conclusion was not to slaughter the lamb on Passover (as we knew it) based on the words in Deut. We were going to prepare one our sheep ahead...but as our week unfolded...we ended up going for the lamb roast we had in the freezer! Our friends however BYOG (Bring their own goat) and chose to remember the Passover using the model of the original Passover in Exodus. We believe that every man is the 'Priest' of His home by the authority of Y'shua as the 'High Priest' and it is his duty to lead them. We were all prayerful and respectful of each household's conclusion and prayed that YHVH accepted each of our expressions of keeping His feast and our hearts to obey the best we knew how. There are so many many personal things learned at each feast and each year it is so different for us! Of course each year, we deepen our understanding of the Scriptures and we are humbled, yet a little more in our expression of worship. Each year we learn to lean more on HIM and are so very grateful for His mercy and grace as we (seem to STUMBLE) walk out The Scriptures and live for Him. As I type this, I see a silky red sash flapping in the breeze that is affixed to our front door's frame for this week to remind us of His bountiful mercy and grace then and now through the Exodus lamb and Y'shua.

This time of year often has the overall theme of "purging" for me. It seems to start with the all the study and prayer as the Biblical New Year approaches and we prepare our hearts for His upcoming feasts. We are challenged and stretched and cleansed as our walk moves forward. We go through the practical applications of the feasts, we clean out the leaven literally and spiritually by the help and guidance of YHVH. So I also find myself reducing and reorganizing our living space too. Spring cleaning and new (or renewed!)direction often come at this time for me.

One of these "expressions" during this past week in our home was the desire to "flush our second floor" of the house. That must sound funny - but let me explain. Last year when we moved here, we raised the roof of our small two bedroom house to add a second floor. This gave us the rough framework of two bedrooms and a second bathroom and attic and some closets! Well, for the sake of budget...we had to stop there and make some tough financial choices to put thing on hold. It's exterior was finished, the rooms were framed, it was insulated and has it windows. The exterior was finished, so it is secured from the elements. Ben even roughed in the electric so they there were outlets and lights. We have a working toilet (but no sink or shower yet). All this is great right? My DH accomplished ALOT in a very short time with the help a of a good friend. I truly am grateful. This allowed us to set the kids beds and dressers up, and hang clothes in their closets. This gave us an extra toilet to run too which comes in handy for this family of 8! This also allowed us bring in tub after of tub from the barn that needed to be sorted through from our move. We didn't have to run to the barn to find a pillow case any more! We just had to find the Rubbermaid tub it was in upstairs. Clearly an upgrade! This opened up the barn for more appropriate use too. Well, here come the conviction part....During a casual conversation with our friends, we started talking about "compartmentalizing" things to cope sometimes. The topic of my upstairs came up and I became totally convicted. I stated that I deal with it by not going up there. All my family agreed that I avoid it like 'the plague' and the topic changed (for everyone else). YHVH showed me very clearly that I was NOT grateful for all I had been given and that I was being a poor steward of it. The part I haven't yet explained, is that my second floor had pretty much become a "throw hole" (as I came to call it). The kids slept and changed up there, and many of our household supplies were stored up there...but it was done without order or respect to proper stewardship. There was still some construction stuff left over from the project and tubs that were unlabeled and unorganized, because I would avoid them. I would send my older kids up there to put things away or get things out. This went on for a year!!! Ben prayed for them at night upstairs..I gave my blessings DOWNSTAIRS! I can count the times I asked THEM to dust and vacuum on one hand in a year! This environment had fed a lack of consideration in my children regard the upstairs and they treated is poorly. YHVH revealed to me my own hypocrisy in the matter of our second floor. I was training them to avoid things they didn't want to deal with. I was training them (through example) to be lazy slobs. I was training them (by example) to only do the right things when someone was "looking". There was no accountability, no discipleship and no guidance. I would dish out an occasional admonishment to the children out of frustration for when I did actually go up there and see its condition but renounced and responsibility in it myself. Shame on me!!!! If you know me...I really appreciate things to be efficient and orderly whenever possible...I also try to cultivate good stewardship in my children and try to train them (and maintain for myself) to walk with thankfulness and gratitude in ALL things. Man, was I convicted! So on the 2nd and 3rd days of Matzah, I got to work...side by side with my oldest children to transform the upstairs into a living space that reflected our values to steward the things that YHVH blesses us with to the best of our ability. So we cleared the floors and corners and rearranged and cleaned and pulled down cardboard walls the boys had put lots of holes in. We went through drawers and tubs and re- labeled and organized and filled bags for donations. We pulled out sheets, fabric and fabric shower curtains we had on hand and hang them from the studs for privacy and to cover some exposed insulation and wires. We hung curtains for the doors started to move the baby's things upstairs in the boy's room. We cleared out all the storage tubs from the kids rooms (to remove the feeling of living in a storage bin!) and popped a couple (VERY) simple decorating elements up. We repackaged many of the tubs to make them more accessible and usable. We stored things in the attic that were more seasonal so that we could have clearer living spaces. IN doing all this, everyone was renewed. I apologized to the children and let them know it wasn't going to get like that again. We talked about the importance of stewardship and thankfulness (again, a topic which is not foreign to them). It feel so good to purge the "leaven" from our gates as He reveals it to us! This has also inspired a Papa do do a couple more things up there, that we CAN do because we have the supplies to do them (it is not a matter of $), since the slate has been cleared to do that. It is still is a very rough unfinished area, but we have decided to make the best of it be truly appreciative for what we DO have by taking good care it. My children have a new spring in their step too...It is clear that they appreciate my effort and attention in this matter. It is clear that it was lacking and they are grateful that it has been restored. I have pledged in my prayers, never to let it get even close to that condition again. That I will make it a regular habit to be upstairs with my children, guiding them and teaching them upstairs AND downstairs! Thank you Father Yah for your rod and staff for they comfort me and are a an everlasting source of needed help for which I am so very grateful! May it always be so!

Our Family Jots and Tittles

Here it is Friday and I am going to try to recap our week as best I can. Things have been so busy around here. We get up early and go, go, go, until we can't go 'no more'. :-) So typical of Spring time, as the days get longer so does our activity. We stay outside working until the sun squeezes us back inside, then have a late dinner. The children's winter bed time is 7pm. We have been eating dinner around 8 this week. But I also find they are sleeping in a little later in the morning, so they're still getting what they need. :-) I let them, because it gives me some "quiet time" for prayer and planning and such...so it's a win win. :-) We have been working on getting these big olive barrels clean. They are 55 gallon food grade drums that had olives imported in them and we want to use them for grain. However, we can not seem to get the olive smell out of them! :-) We have tried various methods: castile soap, power washing, thieves essential oils, simple green and even bleach. We tried about a qrt of bleach and filled it with water and that wasn't strong enough. So now we are trying a half gallon of bleach in one barrel to see if it is effective. We put it in at the end of the day yesterday (now only testing one barrel until we find a solution!). I think I'll just let it sit until Sunday and then dump it dry it out and seal it up and then sniff it on Tuesday and see what we've got. Does anyone else have any suggestions??? We really wanted to use these barrels for our own grain...but may end up just using them for animal feed and other farm uses if we can't get them clean. :-( Hey does anyone know if there is such a thing as food grade bags that fit in a 55 gallon drum???

Do you remember that super long list of projects we were hoping to accomplish with out big chunk of tax money this year? Well, we had to take off one of those projects...the sewer. Man, it was a tough call! We have a "drain field" right in our back yard that seeps more than it ought! We have had it assessed and estimated for new pipe to be run to fix the problem...but our money is not going to stretch that far. The YUCKIEST part - is that our super huge wooden play structure has been sitting in it!!! It has been quarantined for quite some time because we were hoping that it would be a moot point with the fixing of the sewer this fall....well once we came to the realization that we just couldn't swing it - the reality of moving the play set sunk in...Yesterday, Ben disassembled into three large sections and took the goodies off of it (swings, slides, rock wall,etc.). Then Elijah and I pitched in to move help move it. We had a (really faithful) friend stop by and help too which was really nice because we were at the largest section at that point and it was very nice having the extra man power! We took 4 pieces of 4" PVC pipe that was 10 feet long, and used it to roll the structure to the side field. We used wood pieces and a couple strong 2x4's as levers to tip each section up onto the first pipe, then some got in front and some got in back and we rolled it up on the pipe. We gave a couple feet between each pipe and rolled another pipe under. Once we had two pipes under it was very manageable...because we could "teeter" the unit over the pipes to get the next pipe under. We would roll it a ways then the last pipe would spit out the back and Elijah would grab it and run it around the front and we we would repeat with two pipes at a time. The pace was slow and steady, yet smooth and it went without a hitch. No back injuries or anything. The grossest part was getting it out of the initial sludge patch and dealing with those "messy" pipes. (YUCK!!!) Papa was able to get the whole play set reassembled and leveled before the sun went down. It was another victorious homesteading moment! We found the first pipe in our woods some time ago and that is what gave us the idea. We ran out to purchase three more at $10 each. The cost to move the play set ended up being $30 dollars, but having it relocated...was priceless! :-) We figured since this method of moving very heavy, awkward and large objects, was so effective, that we would probably use it again in the future...We thought they might fill another need in the future too...so we decided the pipes were a good investment to clean up and keep.

We have been "meaning" to upgrade our fencing for the sake of our new flock of sheep. It has become clear to us that it is not adequate enough for them. But we did pretty good in our first week, they were content just where they were, as is. Well...that all changed as the end of Shabbat was approaching. We were eating and one of the kids looks out the back window and yells the sheep are in the back yard!! The whole flock of 17 was grazing right outside the back door. (The grass is always greener on the other side, right?) Well our breed of sheep are known to have very keen defensive instincts ...in other words, they are very weary of activity of others and are quick to flee if they sense danger!! Long story short....we had a very difficult time trying to get them back into their field. So difficult that, in fact, we failed -- that night at least. We got one baby in the barn and hoped that would lure the flock back. It was dark and our efforts were fruitless. They did come back by morning and as it turned out, they were back in their field...all but one that is. We have lost a baby...Despite our searches on foot, four wheeler and car, we can't find him. We pray He finds his way home. But at this writing he has been gone 2 days. :-( Needless to say...the following day was fence amendment day. We picked up over 6oo ft of sheep fencing and did the perimeter of the field they are in. We have so much more to do in the front field and are going to create more paddocks which will help up manage the flock better and move them around more easily. What a learning process! I am sad about our lost lamb... On top of him being lost, it is turkey hunting season, and we have coyotes and dogs that run free in our area! Not to mention..he was nursing...I am not sure how he will fair with out mamma ewe in that sense either. :-( So...that is all I am going to share for this week.

Until next week - May YHVH bless you and keep you and may you keep your flock within your gates!

Much Love, The Tribe of Ben

Our Family Jots and Tittles

Good Morning Everyone!

Late Tittles again! :-) This has been a wonderful and busy week, but I have been away from the computer, so I will try to recap as best I can.

Last week our dear friend had her baby at home, a healthy little boy - named Ezra Joseph on his 8th day. He is a precious little boy. This is their 5th child. I was able to spend the better part of her first week, helping around the house as she healed and bonded with baby. It was such a precious experience. She did the same for me during our last baby. Our families are very close even though we live over an hour and half away. We are truly blessed to have such good friends!

It was our original goal to try to BE THERE for the birth, but I had a very strange "reaction" when she was in labor. I has severe leg and abdominal pains that put me in bed for a whole day and one of recovery. We joke with each other and say it was sympathy pains in the Spirit for her labor (you know like those weird stories about twins mile away who feel things when the other has some sort of physical trauma)...because this was the first time I ever experienced anything like this before out of the context of my own pregnancies!! Weird Huh??!!! I WAS very prayerful for her through that time but told her I would like that to go much differently next time if she had anything to do with it!! :-)

I took Chazaq (my 15 month old) with me as well as Hailey (almost 13). Chazaq is still nursing, so I wasn't ready to be away from him for that long yet. Hailey was the helper's helper. :-) As was Morgan, Amy's daughter, who is 10.

Amy had prepared a lot of meals ahead which really made my job easier, it was so wise of her to do. In the last couple months of her pregnancy, she simply doubled the meals she was making and put them in tins pans in the freezer. She marked and labeled them. She had plenty of food in the freezer when I left, too!

I returned home on late Thursday night. We had a busy Preparation Day the next day. Ben did a great job while I was gone, but there were lots of things to "catch up on" before Shabbat.

Ben was so instrumental being able to help Amy during this time. He held the fort down like a champ, even without me and Hailey there! This was a very creative effort on all their parts, because He still continued to work (bank sales) AND farm chores while caring for 4 kids (10,7,5,4) all the while. What a Renaissance man!!! So we really had a chance to "serve others" last week!

In the midst of that all, we also brought home our herd of Barbados Black Belly Sheep!! 9 Ewes and 8 babies. This also included lots of last minute preparations. We made a shelter for them in the barn, and changed some fencing around (MUCH more of that needs to be done this week.) They are so neat and we are learning how to care for them as we go. The family we got them from was a widow whose husband used to care for them. They had a larger herd and she was eating her way through them, but had full freezer and filler her adult children's freezers and still had all these sheep. She was ready to move the herd on, since she has arthritis and did not want to care for them. We got a pretty good deal and she was relieved of the burden. I hope to post more about them another time, with pictures and such.

Did I mention a couple weeks ago we got a donkey???? He was free (meaning $0) and we know very little about his history, which we know is NOT ideal for getting livestock!!! But we thought we would take the chance. Our hope was to use him for a guard donkey for the herd. However, we are thinking now that it might not be a realistic job for him under all the circumstances. (We hope to post more on him with pictures too...if we can! This season is so crazy...so many things to do it is hard to blog about them too.


Last Shabbat we took a trip to visit some dear friends over in Russel Creak (about an hour and half away). We had lots of catching up to do. They are a lovely family with 11 children, many of which are now young adults not yet married but still living at home to help and serve as a family until Yah leads them to their spouse. Purity and simplicity, service and love pour forth from this family who are zealous for YHVH, His Torah and His Messiah! It was a long long day but it was so worth it!
Their oldest daughter was married last year and she and her husband live on the farm in a separate house. They just had their first baby, and we missed their shower because all that sickness we endured last month...so we got to see their precious little baby girl and visit with them too. They have also been instrumental in encouraging a family in the "plain" community in their area whom YHVH has hearkened to Torah!!!! How exciting is that??!!! This is a very tumultuous situation for this family, because the Father is showing them so much in Scripture they never saw before. Lights are going on left and right in their spirit, and our friends have been there to help encourage them when they have questions. This has been such a challenge for them because the community down on Russel Creak is "Plain" -- very similar to Amish (they are often called Amish, but they are not - however they do adopt many similar practices of dressing plainly, living in CLOSED community, with strict religious control and choosing to live off the land and give up many modern conveniences). Long story short, the family (the McJ's) are under great strain and persecution from their Community. They are trying to share what YHVH is showing them in Scripture, but the group is in great opposition and see them as "going astray" and are trying to break them down with guilt and many many interventions to get them to stop talking about such crazy heretical things as is plainly stated in Scripture (but conflict with their understanding). Living in this tight community, they have given up all their "wordly" assets and are feeling very stuck. They know they must leave, but are "tied" with no place to go or resources to get there - they really are dependant on the community. Our friends, the F-Family have been trying to connect us with them. They were supposed to come over for this Shabbat, but they were struck with a similar sickness as were we for the baby shower when we were supposed to meet weeks earlier. So the men walked up to their place, this last Shabbat to meet with Mr McJ and encourage him (shortly after they were there a van pulled in from out of State, from another branch of the "brotherhood" for another intervention to try to talk the family back into their senses!) Long story short.... after the van left, Ben offered for the family to come to our farm as a retreat and regroup place. However, we only have the one small house. We have the matter of a shelter for them to figure out! (With no funds!) They have 7 children in our family's age range and she is expecting #8. They are much younger than us. :-) So if you would please pray for this precious family and how we may help them...that would mean so very much to both of us!!! They really are feeling desperate and trapped and hoping to be "set free" to follow the Scriptures as the Father is leading them to! They are also hoping to go to Family Week with HaYovel for their first Passover. This would be such an amazing blessing for them to see and experience some of our community from all over coming to together for the Feast.

Lastly, the other thing to "catch up" on is rather strange to announce. But 2 weeks ago, we completed our process of ordination. We are officially legal paper carrying Ordained Ministers! We hope to post more about this, as it too was a precious day and piece in Yah's puzzle for His plan for us (that we do not fully understand...but continue to follow Him step by step as He unfolds it). It is funny because this "piece of paper" means nothing to us....but was clearly something he was calling us to do...so we do what anyone who is living for HIM and walks in the Spirit does - we obey...whether we understand/agree or not!!! We have become quite resolved to being on a "need to know basis". He tells us what we need to know, when we need to know it...so we don't go getting our own "big ideas" and going ahead of Him and spoil His plan. We have learned to embrace this sovereignty and protection and LOVE it....this is just one of "those things". :-) We hope to post more about that later too.

I am sorry I don't have pictures to share this week. It is all I can do to get this typed out.

Love to You All in His Precious Name!
The Tribe of Ben

Our Family Jots and Tittles

Hello Precious Friends and Family, We seem like we are operating in a perpetual place of "catch up" these last few weeks with the colds and things that have happened. Always find ourselves "still behind" so our attention has not been on blogging and updating things well. Its all we can do keep things rolling. So please bare with us. We do hope to get back into the swing of updating things better in this next week (or two). :-) Naomi had her 7th birthday! We had some sickness still in the house, so we still have our date at the museum to do...but we had a nice day at home. Naomi helped make all her requested birthday meals with Momma. She opened gifts from family and Papa out together a scavenger hunt for her and her siblings (which is always a hit!). Here is my littlest helper, helping Mamma do the laundry. Notice the tongue of intensity.

Mom and Elijah digging holes to plant the Orchard. We are missing picture of our other two helpers Papa and Shiloh. :-(

Wednesday our dear friends had a baby boy at home. I have been able to help (and will continue too) throughout this next week as momma takes the time to heal and recover. What a precious time!

Turkey Season is here and they are up close to the house with Shiloh gone. I do hope we take few shots and bring a few in! We hope to get some pictures of them. We have big ol' Toms strutting their stuff, puffing up and playing their "drums" for the ladies. It really is a beautiful thing to behold!!!

We had dear prancing and frolicking near for from our orchard. We had forgotten how brazen and close to the house they would get before Shiloh came! Instead of passing through, they hangout and play games like kids in the front yard! Again... a really neat thing to witness!

We have discovered termites in the house! We have someone coming to take a look in two days. :-(

I know I am forgetting so much!!! Again..please bear with us!

Loving Life and Embracing its Complexities in YHVH's Name!

The Tribe of Ben

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

Our Family Jots and Tittles

Sunday - Built a livestock cage - We built our first livestock cage for transporting sheep. If you would like to learn more about that CLICK HERE. (Pictures and all.)

OK..here are some bonus pictures below of the transport cage. Ths kids love playing in it. However the cage made Ben and I think of the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang so he told the kids to line up and make really sad faces, like we captured them. He wanted to put the caption on it that read "Lolli Pops! Free Lolli Pops!" I, on the other hand thought we should make some homeschool jokes in the caption. Then Ben said...eeww eww.... aren't we due for an update report for the orphange? (We are suppose to send updates to Haiti on the girl's progress from time to time.) Seriously...they were having a blast in there and were supervised the whole time!!!

Boiled down our first maple syrup- Well this year we were not prepared fast enough to make a large maple syrup harvest of the trees we marked for tapping. It was our hope to do 50 and really get a substantial harvest. Instead we only tapped 3 as a trial, since we did not have all the supplies we needed. It was a great mini run. We learned a lot. We will be ready next year. We shared about the few things we learned here. We all got to taste the sap for the first time and got to sample 2 breakfasts worth of syrup....we are excited about making this a regular part of our farming every year!

Possum in the hen house - when we had friends new friends visiting last (The Taylors) we talked about lots of farming things (they have some experience and we were pickin' their brains). One of the things that came up was something they said a friend of there's does, and he intended to try - but hadn't yet. Well, we got a chance to...This is really gross, so some of you city folk might want to skip to the next paragraph. He said to take a small dead animal, put it in a 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled in the bottom and put the lid on. Hang the bucket somewhere near your chicken pen. It decomposes in there and draws flies up through the holes. The flies lay eggs in it. Then lots of larve are born and they fall through the holes and the chickens have a fresh protein filled snack that they love and it didn't cost you a thing. The body decomposes very well in the bucket and leaves you nothing but bones to dump. Well, we had an possum on the hen house the next day and Elijah took care of it with (papa's supervision) and a .22 and thought this might be a good time to try this...so we did. We have had cold nights and moderate days, so it isn't happening as fast as it would in the summer...but it seems to be happening. Told you it was gross....

Monday - Special Guests- Today was a special day, we were able to host the children of some friends for a night and a couple days. They we were a real treat to have over...there was lots of excitement because we thought we would be taking them home to a new baby sibling. However, it ended up being a false labor...so ....we sent them home with a meal (and unfortunately, our colds instead!!) :-( ----- At this time of posting (on the following Sunday) still...no baby!

Ladies Meeting canceled - I meet with a group of Christian ladies about every other week on Monday nights for a "book study". I decided it was best to stay home...Ben said he could handle it, but I didn't want to leave him alone with 9 kids. Three of which were away from home and 5 of 5 of which had colds.

Poll Results are in: Thank you to everyone who voted for our future business name. The winner is HomesteadCountryStore.com! It will take some time to get up and running (likely a few years) but, we have to start somewhere right?? It was fun to watch the poll progress all week long. It was interesting, even though the votes increased, every time I checked it was in the same percentage range 65% for Country Store and 35% for family store. That was also the winning ratio. Again, thanks for your help; we think our little poll was a success!

Tuesday - Garden Planning Continues- I have been going through piles of seeds trying to plan our garden for this year. We plan on canning this year on a large food prep scale out of the garden. I have canned and I have gardened, but I really haven't canned what I gardened on a large scale like I hope to this year. We also hope to fill our (soon to be) root cellar with a large variety of root veggies. We have three 20 gallon cans we also hope to fill with local apples, if we can find a good orchard to get them from this year. (In years to come we hope it will be from our own little orchard!) We have been using a new software program, to help plan our garden which I hope to post on in the next week or two.

Started co-ordinating meals- I jumped into coordination mode today - to coordinate meals for our friend who we thought was having a baby. The kids were still with us and we thought it was "only a matter of time". Of course it is! Just more time than we thought. :-) So I emailed the folks I had started scheduling to deliver meals and asked if they were willing to be "on call". They were.....gracious and willing...so we are "at the ready" for when the baby comes. :-)

$80 doesn't even fill our tank! When we stopped to get gas today in the Maxi van....we had smack of reality...$80 did not fill our tank!! We are so thankful to have the sports car (aka mini van) back for Ben to be driving for work.

Focusing on math with Naomi - Our academic focus for Naomi this past year has been language and reading. She has done such a good job learning the language AND learning to read it!! She is now like her big brother and sister...we have to pull her away from books to do other things! It's a positive problem, we think. :-) So we have shifted our focus this week into math. She was "behind" because of taking one thing at a time and comprehension being something we struggled with before...but those days are quickly disappearing! A spark has gone on in her with math and she is really starting to grab onto foundational concepts that will make her breeze through the future years. So we are both tickled, at our new focus in school for Naomi....MATH!

Hailey is developing her writing skills - It seemed like this week was a one of "new things". Hailey has been really motivated to learn typing. She wants to start her own blog, but I told her we needed to work on her writing first. She is diving in with enthusiasm in writing book reports like she hadn't before, knowing that she is going to re-type what she wrote and use them as one of her categories on her blog. We'll let you know when she launches it. Of course I love the idea, because it will be an extension of her school work and be a wonderful exercise in many wonderful skills.

Skinning a squirrel - Elijah and His friend Andrew had a blast spending Monday and Tuesday together. In one of their hikes in the woods, they came across a (freshly) dead squirrel. They knew exactly what they wanted to do with it. They wanted to try to skin it. Elijah had read about it, in his survival type books..so he was ready to seize the moment...So what's a mama to do? We already put a possom in a bucket this week and hung it over our chickens...skinning a squirrel is nothing right??? So we thought that was worthy of its own post too! Click here if you would like to read more.

Wednesday- I was really looking forward to getting together with 3 other ladies today, to let our kids play. One is a good friend and the other 2 lovely ladies are friends of hers whom I have recently become acquainted and look forward to be good friends with! Both are also Torah Keeping Believers in Yeshua....I just LOVE it when The Body of YHVH connects! I was hosting the gathering here and had to cancel it because of colds and all the extra excitement/guests we had this week. :-( I do hope we can reschedule it!!

Thursday- Dinner Invite Our neighbor invited us over for homemade vegetarian pizza...but we had to cancel because of our colds not pretty.

We are going to be real shepherds!

Looks like we secured a deal with a lady to buy her small flock of sheep. 9 mama ewes and 8 lambs. Her husband died 6 months ago, and she doesn't want to keep the sheep now that he is gone. He used to care for them. She says she has filled her freezers and her children's freezers and now she wants to just sell the rest. The breed we are getting is called Barbados Blackbelly Sheep. We will raise them for meat. These are hair sheep, they don't grow wool. BBB sheep are indigenous to the south so they can handle the heat. They are hearty grazers which is good, because we have yet to enhance our fields for grazing and higher grade hay. ( We are also looking into a breed for milking...possible St Criox...not sure yet.)

Friday- Went to the square- The kids and I got our prep work done early again today, so decided to take my little helpers on a field trip. Our closest town has an old fashioned square that we have never explored. It was a nice day, so I thought we would go downtown and walk around the square and visit the businesses to see what was there. This little town is not very affluent, so many of the stores were empty or closed. However, we had fun and found a couple cute little treasures. We went into a couple of really large antique shops and found a Christian book store we didn't know was there. We also discovered the "Old Jail Museum". It was closed too...but I promised the kids, I would ask around and see if I could find out when it opened and that we would come back and explore it. I felt like like a Momma duck with her long line of ducklings crossing as we walked around the square and crossed the 5 streets around the circle. Everyone stopped for us to let us pass. (They are so kind down here in the south!) The kids were disappointed to find that the Cherokee Museum was closed. The tribe at this particular museum, claims to be a lost tribe of Israel! Ben has been in there, but we have not yet. Maybe...next time....

Sam's Club - Ben got some really good news today. He has been hoping for placement with some sort of alliance for his sales down here. It has been slow going, but it finally came to light today. First Data (Ben's Employer) has a huge account with Sam's Clubs nationwide by doing their merchant services. Ben has been assigned to Florence, Alabama. (It's actually closer to us than Nashville - so that's WONDERFUL!) This is also wonderful for Ben because it really gives him the best packages he has ever been able to offer to his merchants. Because Sam's Club is such a big customer base, they have been able to negotiate a KILLER deal for merchant services. This is such a gift for Ben! He knows he has the best deal in town and can give it to whomever he tries to service. He can even do this for his old clients in PA over the phone!! This is just the incentive he needed at this time of steadily and quickly decreasing income, fewer businesses close by to service since our move, and the MANY tasks of spring on the farm beggin for our attention....Long story short...this is very promising...and we are very thankful!

Shabbat- A nice, eventless quiet day at home with the (coughing, sneezing, and wheezing)family.....ahhhh Shabbat Shalom! (We had to cancel our fellowship meeting that was planned.)
I think we canceled more in this week than most people schedule!

Lots of love from Ben, Pamela and the Tribe on Shalom Farm

Our Family Jots and Tittles

Sunday

Butchering Two Sheep - Some time back Paul called us and told us someone had two sheep they were willing to give him to butcher. They use them for wool and they were rams that were getting too aggressive, so they wanted them gone. So He and Ben decided they would bring them to the farm and butcher them here. This was a first time for both of them. It was a really good experience. They had both already processed their own deer and found out it is very much the same (although the wool coat is a BIG thing to navigate around). The owners would have sheered it first, but it was very cold over Shabbat and we didn't have a heated place to put them. It would have been a slow and cruel death to die in the cold with no sweater, so nobody wanted that! Paul did save the hide for the owners. There wasn't much meat to speak of, but it was a good experience for them both. Fruit Tree Farm. I am excited to have found a fruit tree farm up by Nashville. We plan to go there next time we are up that way for Gideon's birthday mid-month. They have small trees for sale for $12 each. It is my hope that we are able to put a small orchard in the ground, about 6-8 apple trees, 3 cherry, 6 peach or so. They have blackberry and blueberry, too...It would be so nice to get that started, since it takes a while to yield much from them. I think I know where I want to put them. That is the hardest part about having such a blank slate of a property to work with. We have so many hopes and ideas for the land, yet we can't "see" it all, and sometimes that doesn't work out so well. For instance, if you plant an orchard...its not a really handy thing to move!

Monday -- A call from Germany - Yesterday we got a call from some new friends we made this year on line. We connected via the internet through the blog. They are a U.S. Army family who was stationed in Germany while the husband served in Iraq. They are new to Torah and keeping the Feasts and are being called to Homestead. He still has a little more time to serve, but is following the Father's call to leave the Army. Long story short, they are being stationed less than a couple of hours from here and coming home! They will be spending Passover with us here on the farm and we hope they will stay a little longer during their transition to their new assignment as we get to know them better. We are very excited about what YHVH is doing in their family and so blessed to be a small part of it. John called today and we had a chance to talk on the phone....YHVH never ceased to amaze me how He knits his people together to make a beautiful tapestry to call His own!

Tuesday - My girlfriend Michelle and I were emailing to get some ladies together for an afternoon of girl time (and kids play) as she was trying to connect me to some lovely ladies she knows. I have been planning the garden and buying seeds and trying to figure out all that stuff in the midst of this emailing with her and wondering how in the world we were going to till our rough ground without equipment (or money). We had asked around to see if renting a tractor might be a possible option. She had offered earlier to help us get Blue (our farm truck) out of the mud at edge of the woods their tractor. Long story short...they said they would bring their tractor up with plow and spreader and help us do some of the larger patches we couldn't manage with a rented tiller! I was so overwhelmed with gratitude that I just balled at the computer when I read it. I was feeling weary, ill-equipped and overwhelmed. The Father used her generous heart to minister to me with a tractor! Isn't He awesome! We are so blessed with good folks around us.

Wednesday - Co-op Order - Glorious organic produce! It truly is one of my favorite things! This month's order for our family was, a case of red bell peppers (1/2 price!), portabella mushrooms, tangerines, pink lady apples, mandarin oranges, pineapples, spinach, lemons, green onions, eggplant, garlic, and banana's. We have sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, red potatoes, and russets in cold storage....life is good! The only thing better would be if we can grow it ourselves. (Good luck with pineapple, bananas and citrus - right?!)

Our Sports Car (the Dodge Caravan) is ready - Our car has been sitting at our friend's auto garage since November waiting for repair. Our delay...not his-- A whopping $1880 repair! It still could use a break job, but we had to draw a line for now. Ben was driving the Maxi van around by himself (15 passenger) for sales calls, is getting a bit ridiculous with gas going up like it is. So we are praying those brakes will hold out for us until we have the money to take care of them. Our Maxi is looking a break job in the near future too. Its good to have the caravan back!

Dinner with Friends - I have been trying to make plans with some other friends up in Dixon, for what seems like FOREVER, when we got the call to get the van, we called them up first thing to see if they wanted us to drop in...they graciously accepted as we were driving up and even fed us dinner. It was a nice visit (but too short). I got to hear my dear friend play the harp for the first time. It was a long, hard, and sleepy drive back though.

Thursday - Today our friend Joey called and said, "Hey - how about if I bring my tiller over and tear up some of your ground for your garden today." WHO DOES THAT????? We are so very blessed. Our garden is very big and the ground is hard, unprepared, untilled and rocky. Again....we are blessed and so thankful!!

Ben was working on getting a lid fashioned for our last-minute replacement maple buckets. Remember those cheap ones we mentioned we got? Well Ben went to wash them out before using them and notice a very toxic smell. He turned the bucket upside down and read the warning on the bottom that said specifically said not for food use, materials use are known to be cancerous! WHAT???!!!! YIKES...needless to say the buckets we thought we might be able to use for one season....have been quickly demoted! What do we do with them now???? Anyway, we have some 5 gallon buckets...not enough for the 50 taps we have marked...but between 7 and 10. So...we are going to do a small scale experiment this year. We'll see how things unfold. We will be much better prepared next year. The weather seems to be right for tapping, but it is calling for rain...so we need to keep the buckets covered. Ben is fashioning a tube to go from the spout to though a hole in the bucket lid. We'll see how that goes. We only tapped three today as we are playing with things. A little sap has dripped so far, we all tasted it..it is very light clear liquid that is slightly sweet. It reminded me of coconut water actually.

The kids and I worked on some projects the kitchen today. Yesterday we roasted 18 eggplants. Today we turned them into a HUGE batch of Baba Ganoush. During the process, we started discussing what the name might mean, so Pappa looked it up. It means "Spoiled Daddy". (Ben liked that!) I was a little heavy on the garlic in this batch...but the funny thing is Eliana went to TOWN on it. She was licking the spoon and the bowl like she hadn't eaten yet this week. She is so funny. She is the tiniest little thing, but she loves spicy food. She eats things that are too spicy for me to eat!

Friday We took our first spring walk on the "back 40" today, and saw the first flowers of the season, daffodils and forsythia. We also rediscovered "funky tree", a weird pine-tree that is tall and mis-shapen, that is abnormally full of pine cones. There was also several trees down that are perfect for next season's firewood. More chainsaw fun later in the season! We came home covered in burrs. This is also tick and chigger season, so time to re-instate "tick check" upon the end of each outdoor adventure.

Shabbat After a wonderfully restful day, we hosted a new family that lives on the other side of town for a nice visit. They have an actual working farm...with real animals and everything! Do we sound envious? It's 10 acres and it seems like they must be using every square inch. If our family didn't scare them off, they may be a great resource for farming wisdom. They were very nice and easy to get to know.

Ben, Pamela and the Tribe

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. ;-)

Our Family Jots and Tittles

Sunday - Blur- As I sit to catch up on some "Tittles" on early Wednesday morning, I think back to Sunday and it is a total blur. Have you ever had that happen? I am trying to think of what happened that day...reaching deep reaching deep in the recess of my noggin'..........nothing but "fog" resides there. I HATE that!
(Update - Now I remember something...we ate the last of the oatmeal pie an Amish neighbor brought by for us, as "a thank you" for helping them a couple weeks ago. Do you think the white flour and sugar put my brain into a coma? I must say...it was tasty though! You don't think there was lard in that crust do you?????)

Monday- Check Marks on the List - Today was such an exciting day. It seemed like we just nailed down lots of little things that have been in conversation for a long time now. Not finished these things, mind you, but started them. It is the next best feeling to finishing them! Here are couple of those things.

1. We went to an Amish neighbor and put money down on a 12 x 32 shed which will act as our new pantry. It will sit on top of our new root cellar and cold room. (We will post on it when we have pictures to show.) We had seen and talked with him about it before, but I got to stand in one he had on the property thatw as already built....Oooohhhh it was NICE! A huge upgrade from our current 8x20 car trailer we have been using for a year.

2. Decided on one avenue we will go for income to "bring Papa home again", requested our business license, secured our web address, established contact with our first wholesale account for it. It is a work in progress and will take a couple years to come to pass...but it is a PLAN that has been activated. An object in motions, stays in motion...right?

3. Received our bulk grain co-op order and chatted with friends in the process (always a beautiful thing when you here the crackle of a friend's car rolling up the semi gravel road!)

4. Ordered our stainless maple syrup cookers/waterbath canners that we have been shuffling around to find/build/get. (Hope to post more on that when there is more to tell too.)

5. Received our 50 cheap buckets for collecting maple sap. Unfortunately, cheap did mean CHEAP in this case. Hopefully we will get through our first season with these...but we will have to look for another vessel for collection for next season. Almost 1/3 of them were cracked during the chipped shipping process!!

6. The kids layed the last of our tin roof out for our garden row (to kill the grass and prepare it for an initial tilling). The last bit of the fire pit was moved. Elijah started diggin our second 2o gallon garbage cans for mini food cellar, (as seen here in a previous post) we have a third one on deck to go next to it. They a small extention of our large root cellar project and "in the mean time" method of storing some organic produce we buy in bulk as it warms up. we think they will probably function as our "apple cans" once the root cellar is in place, since we want to store them seperatly, because of the ripening effect the apple gases have on other produce in storage.

Tuesday- Friends, Hats and Cement Block, My Tortilla Master
The Watkins live about 2-3 miles away from us, they moved here the same month we did from Georgia. They too are homesteading and Torah Keeping Believers. She is pregnant with her 5th ready to go any day now. They will be having the baby at home (which has been renovated from a garage in a flurry of activity in this last two months). She is "in the window now", we are excited for the wee one's arrival and will be hosting the kids for a few days (or as long as they need/want) when momma goes into labor. Anyway....we had a nice dinner with them here this evening. The table gets extended so you have to squeeze by to get between it and the counters. (Thats what it looks like at our place when we have company.) It is so sweet to sit and talk with friends. The time always passes so fast...before we know it, we are all yawning and little kids are melting down because it is 3 hours past their normal bedtime...it's an oddly beautiful thing! :-)

Met with someone to talk about cement block for the root cellar. It is going to be more expensive than we had thought. (Isn't that always the way?!) We are exploring alternatives and asking around. Suggestions are welcome!!

Knitting (hats to start) is all the (NEW) rage in our house. We have been recently introduced to the beauty of loom knitting and we are very excited to use to make baby items so many of our expecting friends. (Will post more later when we have something to show.) I love working with 100% cotton!

My Tortilla Master (and assistant):
You gotta love the flour all over the shirt...it is a very realistic picture in action! Elijah has become my tortilla master. He loves doing it and does a fine job at it! Our favorite recipe was posted by our friend Carmen. It has become a staple in our home. Here you also see his number one helper and apprentice, Naomi. She is helping him put them in a towel lined Ziplock back to keep them warm and moist for dinner (which will not be for another hour and half later! It works quite well!)

Wednesday- 'Til Next Time Papa decided to take advantage of the warm weather and rent a rototiller and get to turning up some ground in the back yard. We are planning a very large garden by anyone's standards, but it seems MONSTEROUS to us. :-) I hope we survive it. The 'tiller he got was...less than wonderful...but he was diligent. I was glad it was him and not me! Elijah was eager to help and Hailey even gave it a whirl. It was the little kids job to chase the chickens out of the garden (we will have to secure them before seed goes into the ground!) As they were stealing our worms! Most of the while, I stayed inside and finished a baby quilt. (I am hoping to finish the next one this week.) It was only a dent in what needs to be done, but it is a start! Equipment would be SO nice!! Here are Hailey and Elijah, I can't believe we didn;t get pictures of Papa! Next time..we're not done yet!

Thursday- Makin' Hamentashen
The kids and I had fun making Hamentashin today. We made three batches! Apricot, strawberry and aprocot chocolate chip. That was LOT of cookies. They require rolling and cutting out and filling, but its worth it. Gideon, Naomi and Eliana, each ogt to work with momma to make tehir own batch. We had the help of Hailey and Elijah to speed along the rolling and cutting stages of it - which was a real blessing! One tray got a little darker than we liked, so we had to "take care of those". :-) It was a family fun day.

Friday- Preparation Day The kids were so excited about Purim that we were done with all our Shabbat Preparations before noon! We ate (a celebratory) lunch and read some books out side and even went for a walk 'til daddy got home (and we started getting the puppet show stuff ready). Like all my kids, Chazaq LOVES the outdoors. We put him in the farm stroller (which has become cracked, ductaped, stained and she is not looking pretty. Back in the day, I would not be caught dead with my baby in that stroller. Man, have things changed! We bought a little cheap one for "public", but it is so small and rinky dink. We rarely use it. The "farm stroller's" days are numbered though, we have used it hard. If left unattended, our Beagal confuses the wheels for a fire hydrant -without fail and 3 of the 4 barn cats think it is their personal chariot.) Anyway - back to the walk.... We started to see green buds emerging from some plants and we snacked on all the rose hips we could find on our walk (we some rose bushes that line the road on our property) That was a tasty foraging treat! For our "picnic lunch" out doors, we had ants on a log, milk and hamentashen. We had roast chicken, steamed carrots, sauteed spinach and chocolate chip peanutbutter pie for dessert. We prepared muffins for breakfast, soup for lunch and tater bar for dinner for the next day.

Shabbat- Today we celebrated Purim with friends. If you don't know what that is, it the retelling of the story of the book of Esther from the Bible. Unlike the other Biblical feasts, this one is not commanded by YHVH, it was decalred by one of the main characters in the Story, Morichai. But we enjoy celebrating it as it is a wonderful reminder ot YHVH's faithfulness to His people and His people's faithfulness to Him. This holiday is a light hearted one full of meriment, comedy and joy. We like to celebrate it by acting out the story in various ways. This year, we re-did a puppet show we wrote a couple years ago. My kids made 3 pointed paper hats for everyone and all the kids decorated them with crayons and colored pencils. They got to play with the puppets after the show. We got it on video if you would like to watch it (its run time is about 25 minutes). we also had surprise company that day, Troy and Genie, the former owners of our farm. We keep in touch every so often and they like to surprise us with visits, and we like to receive them. They arrived after the show, but got to join us for cookies, fellowship, and dinner. It was a good day!

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