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...