Farming in the shade

"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in  Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." --2 Corinthians 1: 20-22 Happy Pentecost!

Products we use in our everyday lives come from plant and animal byproducts produced by America's farmers and ranchers. Health care: Pharmaceuticals, surgical sutures, ointments, latex gloves, x-ray film, gelatin for capsules and heart valves. Construction: Lumber, paints, brushes, tar paper, dry wall and tool handles. Transportation: Fuel, lubricants, antifreeze, tires and upholstery. Manufacturing: Adhesives, solvents and detergents. Printing: Paper, ink and film. Personal Care Products: Shampoo, cosmetics, lotions, finger nail polish and toothpaste. Education: Crayons, textbooks, chalk, desks, pencils and paper. Sports: Uniforms, baseball bats, leather equipment and shoes.

So I'll give you something lovely to look at instead: Machine pieced, hand-quilted, with wool batting inside from our sheep. A gift from my talented mother-in-law to us. This inspires me to do something new with the bedroom.

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." --John 15:13

Americans consume 1.12 billion pounds of popcorn a year. Peanuts are not actually nuts. Peanuts, like soybeans, are members of the legume family.

Finally, the rains have let up enough for us to get on the fields. May is our normal planting season here in Michigan, but we were concerned with all the extra rain that we might never get on the fields.  This field of weeds is being plowed under using a moldboard plow. This traditional plow turns sod over, and is something we didn't use for many years. The moldboard plow is being replaced (in my humble opinion) with herbicides in modern agriculture. Now that we're transitioning to organic farming, the struggle against weeds demands new (or old, in this case) strategies. It's a tedious job, back and forth, back and forth. I am pretty sure the time is well used in planning and thinking through what comes next.

A week ago, my second daughter and I went with her tech school class on a field trip to Mackinac Island. The Mackinaw bridge always amazes me (though to be honest, I'd rather look AT it than be ON it).  Because her tech school class is Travel and Tourism Marketing, we visited many of the touristy places on the island, including the Grand Hotel. It was amazing! We were told that it was built in 3 months, which I can hardly believe. But I did notice a lot of creative slants and angles to the stair landings and walls. We enjoyed a fabulous lunch buffet there. The island is very beautiful, especially once you leave the main "tourist" area. We wanted to explore the beauty of the other parts of the island. Mackinac Island does not allow cars--horses and bikes and golf carts (on the course only). So we rented a couple of bikes and rode around the perimeter of the island.   We left on the 3 o'clock ferry, tired and pleased with ourselves.  We thoroughly enjoyed our day on th...

"See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth;  the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land." --Song of Songs 2:11-12

In a year’s time a dairy cow produces 1,500 gallons or 6,000 quarts of milk. A Jersey cow will give as much as 3 to 4 gallons or around 16 quarts of milk each day. Dairy cows provide us with milk and milk by-products like cheese, butter, and ice cream. In addition, milk is also used to manufacture glue, paint, and plastics. Straight from the cow, the temperature of cow’s milk is about 97 degrees Fahrenheit.

Michigan's agricultural industry remains as steady as a farmer's plow, bucking the norm in a state where manufacturing and other sectors of its fragile economy continue to shrink. Read more of this article from the Detroit News here.

A hive of bees flies over 55,000 miles to bring you one pound of honey. A honey bee can fly 15 miles per hour. Honey bees must tap two million flowers to make one pound of honey. Each worker honey bee makes 1/12th teaspoon of honey in its lifetime. Honey bees visit 50-100 flowers during one honey collecting trip.

May flowers: Busy with spring here. Just so that you know we are alive and well, I'm posting this photo taken by my daughter. It's a flowering something-or-other tree that is mostly neglected, but manages to wow us every spring. Isn't God an amazing artist?

We got another batch of baby chicks last week. We raise them from day 2 of their lives until about week 15 or 16, just before they are ready to lay eggs. Then they go live at other farms. Baby chickens need it about 90 degrees F the first few days. It's also very important for them to find the water and food (in that order). Sometimes we start baby chickens in the dead of winter (which makes for a hair-raising gas bill). Fortunately for us, the warm spring weather will help keep the gas bill down this time. One very strange thing about baby chicks is that they peep ALL THE TIME for about the first day. Then after that, they only make noise when they're startled. So the first day, when we're working on them, they're making noise all the time. We don't realize how much noise, until we are out of the coop and it's quiet! Aren't they cute?

Thank you to all who played along with my giveaway! We printed out all the lovely comments, cut them up and placed them in an old hat. And the winner is... cdziuba! Congratulations... off to email you.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway  here! Pigs can't sweat. Pigs have no sweat glands, that is why they roll around in mud to cool off. Heart valves from hogs are used to replace damaged or diseased human heart valves. A pig can run a 7-minute mile. (This I believe with all my heart, having chased a few pigs.) A baby pig, or piglet, weighs about 3 1/2 pounds at birth and will double its weight in just 7 days.