Sunday Afternoon

I can hardly believe that Sunday is here again. It seems that just yesterday we were enjoying a quite Sunday! Many things have been tackled this past week in spite of Michael's long work hours. He did some car repair on both of our trucks. He has continued to work on removing the large tree out at the front of our house. I have been working along to get our home put in order for company that will be here over Thanksgiving. We even took Saturday for just a day of fun. Our zoo was hosting a free day, and we decided that our children would enjoy a day out as a family. We had a wonderful time. I was very thankful for a day to relax with everybody.

I have also started on my winter farm to do list. I find that taking time to plan in the winter is crucial for summer success in the garden. I spend many afternoons in the winter reading and researching for our upcoming garden. We are wanting to add at least 4 more raised bed over the winter months. I am sold on raised bed gardening. (Thanks Cheri)!!! I spent way less time this summer weeding than I ever had before. I was very happy with the production of the raised beds. I was able to plant in them by myself. By that I mean it wasn't back breaking work. Michael quickly tilled the bed for me, and then I was ready. Right now I have lettuce and collards growing in 2 of our beds. However, I planted the collards way too late. I am still hoping to reap some a little later.

grace and peace,
julie

Taking things for granted

I have found myself guilty lately of taking the blessings of the Lord for granted in my daily life. It seems that life just has a way of happening when I am not paying attention. All too often, I am planning the next event or chore that needs my time and attention and not really taking time to enjoy the things I put my hands to. (Can anybody relate or am I by myself on this one)? Well, God does have a way of getting our attention and He has done just that the last few days. I am so thankful for all that He has done in my life, but more than that...I am so thankful for who He is in my life. I often ask my children a question that helps keep me on track. Are you seeking the hand of God or the face of God? Are you seeking God's blessings or God Himself? I am thankful that He takes the time to get my attention.

grace and peace,
julie

Resting

We have been required by our bodies this weekend to slow down a bit and get some much needed rest. Michael's work schedule has been very long, and will probably continue this way until Christmas. He gets so frustrated when his body shuts down and MAKES him rest. I believe that God built our bodies to do just that so that we will stop and take care of ourselves by getting some much needed sleep! We did awake early this morning, and he headed out to our woods to deer hunt. Michael always takes at least one of our children with him whenever he does anything. I am so thankful for this because it is great for our kids to spend time with him. However, this morning I was happy to see him head out alone. I know for myself there are times that I just need to get alone. These are times of refreshing for me, and it gives me time to just be still before God. Michael has often said that being in the woods is a precious time for him with the Lord. I pray that the Lord meets him there this morning. I am also praying that a nice deer would end up in our freezer! I personally do not like deer meat, but everybody else in the family enjoys it. For me it is a state of mind rather than taste, but I will work on it.

I remember not too long ago when people would share their fresh killed beef with us it was hard for me to cook it. I liked my meat wrapped in plastic on a nice tray with a label. Now I am just the opposite. I would love never to have to buy meat again from the grocery store! We are working on that too.

Speaking of grocery stores...if you plan to make soap you can no longer purchase lye (at least in our area) at the grocery store. I went all over yesterday looking for lye. I had to laugh because most of the people just looked at me like I had 2 if not 3 heads because they didn't have any idea what I was talking about. Finally I found an older woman who worked there, and she at least knew what lye was. She informed me that they no longer carried it. I finally got tired of looking, and called TnFarmGirl. She informed me that our local stores where no longer allowed to carry lye because people could use it to make meth. UGHHH!!!! (Maybe that is why all the young people that worked at the grocery store was looking at me like I had 2 heads...they thought I was going to brew up a nice batch of meth)!

grace and peace,
julie

Just a quick note

The weather here is still beautiful, and we are working very hard to get a few things caught up around here before winter sets in for good. We are also hosting my family for Thanksgiving this year, and working to get everything in order for that weekend as well.

Michael has asked me to locate garlic bulbs to plant this fall. Does anyone have suggestions as to where I can purchase good quality organic garlic bulbs to plant? I checked Johhny's Selected Seeds, and it is in stock. However, I wasn't sure if it was at a good price or even good quality garlic. I plan on purchasing Herrick Kimball's book concerning making garlic powder, but I was wanting to go ahead and order my bulbs before receiving the book. (That is about the way I do things. I am the one who gets the pigs, and then says "oh, where should we put them"???)! Michael is the planner of the family so I guess we balance one another out pretty well. He is working VERY long hours right now, and I am just trying to help him out a bit by finding the garlic bulbs for him.

grace and peace,
julie

Good Sunday Evening

Just wanted to make a quick entry on this beautiful Sunday evening. We have enjoyed our weekend once again. O.k.... Michael has tiled the kitchen all weekend, but the rest of us have enjoyed it. The kitchen is getting close to being completed. Well, the tile is close to being finished, and then we still have the grout. I helped Michael grout the dining room, and I was in for quite a rude awakening. I thought it would be like icing a cake, and was I ever wrong. It was a lot of hard work, and I thought we would never finish cleaning it! I will keep you updated as we continue this project.

The weather here is glorious today. We are heading out to a bonfire tonight in our community. Everybody is looking forward to it.

Oh!!!! I almost forgot to tell you our chickens started laying eggs!!! I was fussing just yesterday about having 17 chickens and still not getting any eggs. I guess the chickens heard my rantings and decided they better start producing something. I was getting tired of finding chicken droppings in my nest boxes! I can't wait to have many more eggs. I love the results of baking with fresh eggs. The real eggs make all the difference. I just can't wait now to get our cow and have real milk! (Truth be told, I am glad she won't calve until summer. This girl was a little worried about learning to milk in the winter)!!

Grace and Peace,
julie

Thoughts on Homemade Soap

After reading TnFarmgirl's blog I decided it was time to get out the soap making supplies. I haven't made soap in 2 years. Wow, the time does fly! Michael and I started making soap several years ago. I truly loved the product, but with so many other things filling our lives we had to let a few things go by the wayside. Soapmaking was one of those things. Cheri (tnfarmgirl) has been very gracious over the past 2 years to share soap with us. I have very dry skin, and in the winter it burns and itches. I have found when I am diligent to use the homemade soap, my skin keeps its moisture better. Homemade soap takes a little getting use to. It is different from store bought soap, and that is why I really like it. Soap making is not hard, but you do have to follow the directions carefully. Children should not be in the area where you are making soap. There are just too many chances of really burning or hurting a child. I am the kind of cook that splashes and dashes a little of this and a lot of that into the pot. This methodology is not the proper one to be using when making soap. When we first became interested in soap making, I bought a book by Country Living called Handmade Soap. I bought it because the pictures were beautiful, and it explained the process very well. One of my favorite soaps is the Peppermint Wake up Bar. It has a pungent smell of peppermint, and it tingles the skin just a bit. This will be the batch of soap that I start with as soon as my supplies are delivered. There are many places to purchase soap making supplies on the internet. I do not buy bulk supplies because I just make the soap for my family. If you are going to make a large quanity of soap, it would be good to look for a bulk supplier because it will save much money in the long run. If you want to try homemade soap with out making it yourself, go to TnFarmgirl's blog (link to the right). She has a web page, and she sells her soap. It is wonderful, and she has a great variety.

grace and peace,
julie

Good Monday Morning

Wow, this weekend has flown by with much gusto. I feel like we have opened a Bed n Breakfast. We have had friends from Ohio come and stay with us a few days. We had a great time with lots of cooking, eating, visiting, walking, and hiking. I so enjoyed watching them being refreshed here on our farm. Sometimes we get so busy that we forget to really savor the moments and beauty before us. It is always fun when someone comes here for the first time because they reopen my eyes to the beauty all around us. The mountain behind our farm is turning into an artist canvas. Each day it looks as if God has colored even more beauty into His masterpiece as each tree takes on a different color for fall. I truly love this time of year. Our older children spent much of their young lives living in Florida because it was Michael's last duty station while serving in the Navy. They had never seen fall or spring or much snow for that matter. I will never forget my oldest son's reaction to his first fall. He was so in awe of the beauty of it all because he was 10 years old before he had actually seen it first hand!

Well back to our weekend.... Thirty minutes after the first family left our home we had another family stop by for a visit and lunch. We have been so blessed over the years to make covenant friendships that have lasted the test of time as well as distance. This particular family came into our life just 6 weeks after our first baby was born. That was over 15 years ago, and they have been family every since. This woman has been my Titus 2 lady in my life. She was the one who encouraged me to stay at home with my little one, and she helped me along the way to encourage me with home making. Shortly after I met her, she taught me to bake bread. She not only showed me how to bake it, she bought me bread pans and books to get me started. Wow, what a legacy she has had on my family. She didn't stop there...she continues to mail me recipes and teach me new techniques every time we are together. This time around she brought me some of her beloved bread pans as well as a wooden bread board that she has used over the years. A few years back I decided I wanted a grain mill to grind my own wheat. Guess who helped us purchase that? I had just had our 5th baby, and instead of a baby gift she sent money for the family to purchase a grain mill! She also included some of her favorite whole wheat bread recipes!

We may never know the seeds that we plant in the lives of people. We may never realize the crop that we have sown in someone's life. I know this lady truly has no idea what she has done in my own life.

This upcoming week we will be taking time to clean up from the storm. There is still a large pine tree laying in our front yard. We love to have bonfires on cool evenings. Hope, our daughter, had already been asking her Daddy to make a fire pit and some type of seating. Well, God did provide with the large tree. Michael will be making log seats to go around our fire pit out of the tree, and Hope has been collecting rocks from all over to make the fire ring. I am enjoying the time we share around the fire roasting marshmallows and drinking hot cocoa or hot apple cider.

Well, I have rambled enough and now it is time to actually do all the great things that I know to do to keep this family running smoothly.

grace and peace,
julie

That Was Close

Our current home remodeling project almost expanded greatly overnight. Nature has a way of testing our patience, especially when we are right in the midst of making things happen. We are currently finishing up the improvements to our home that Julie mentioned in a previous post. Additionally, I have just completed a new chicken tractor and had it in service for about a week. We are about to make some changes to our barn to accommodate a new milk cow coming from Tn FarmGirl. All this and we wake up to the pictures below. The area we live in has extreme wind storms about 7 or 8 times a year and last night was the worst we've had since we moved here. Wind gusts near 100 mph. Oh well, I need to get to cleaning up, and wait for the insurance adjuster. More to follow.
God bless
Mike

My work car is not in a good spot.

My new chicken tractor, roofless.

The old chicken tractor, roofless.

The kids' trampoline had fight with the clothes line, still not sure who won.

Home remodeling continues

Michael is experiencing a long weekend, and he will be starting a new work schedule soon. He has decided to spend this weekend working on our house remodeling. When we found this farm almost 3 years ago, I really did not like the house AT ALL. I had in my mind a beautiful country home with a wrap around front porch that was just full of character. When we first looked at this house, it had character alright, but it was vintage 1970's!! It had the darkest paneling I had ever seen, and the kitchen floor was harvest gold flowers complete with harvest gold appliances! I didn't even walk through the entire house because I knew that I knew this was not the house for me. I took the kids and waited in the van for him. When Michael came back to the van, he was heartbroken that I wasn't on the same page as him.(At that point, I wasn't even in the same book)!! He told me it was his dream farm, and it was like taking candy from a baby that I wouldn't be interested. Our oldest son says that is the only time in his entire life he ever heard his Daddy whine about anything! We left, and I began to feel bad so I told him to call the man back and we would go and look at it a second time. I at least walked the entire house the second time around, but I still wasn't sold. I smiled on our way home, and told him I didn't like it any better the second day than I did the first. Later that day I was praying, and I felt convicted by the Holy Spirit that I wasn't honoring my husband with this situation. I went to Michael and told him that if it was truly his dream farm, then I would support him 100%. I would be willing to move to the house, and I would make myself be happy there even amongst the dark paneling and ugly kitchen. He was thrilled, and I felt great. I had already figured out the asking price was way more than we could afford so I would come out smelling like a rose when the bank denied the loan. (Ladies, this isn't the way to handle these type of situations with our husbands, but I am just being honest). Later that weekend the owner of the house called and asked what he could do to get us to buy the house. Michael told him he had to come down on the price, and he agreed. I went from smelling like a rose to feeling like a skunk because ten days later we had closed on the house. Michael was thrilled, and I was in complete dismay as well as disbelief. The first thing that we started redoing was the kitchen. Michael had a cabinet and furniture shop in times past, and he makes beautiful cabinets. He planned our new kitchen, and began the cabinet making process. Our kitchen is about three quarters finished, and I love it. Our entire family put so much work into those cabinets. When our children have company, I grin when I hear them tell their friends to watch our for the cabinets because it was a lot of hard work making them! This weekend Michael has decided to start on the tile floor in the kitchen and dining room. This is a large area and it is an enormous job, but it is already looking great. I am so very thankful that he is so talented in all of these areas. As the project continues, I will have him post pictures to keep you updated.

By the way, this farm as well as house has become my dream too. We had lived here for about a year, and we were walking in one of our fields and I knew that we were right where we belonged. As we were walking hand in hand, I told him he was right. He grinned at me, and asked me what he was right about this time. I told him he was right all along about this house and farm, and I was so thankful that the Lord blessed us with it. I thought our farm home would look totally different. I wanted one of the old homes with tons of character, but God knew exactly what we needed. I also realized that our home has character too, but it comes from us.

grace and peace,
julie

To Play or Not to Play

How quickly 5 months can go by! It has been a busy summer and early fall for us. A great deal of my time has been consumed by my day job due to a labor union strike at my company. With the labor force on strike, salaried have had to keep the company running and that has resulted in considerable more hours than usual. Additionally, our three oldest boys play baseball and football and that too has kept us on the run to some extent; more on that below. As far as the farm goes, we have continued to care for our new fruit trees, enjoyed our first season with the raised beds, and have nurtured our layers throughout the summer, eggs should be on the horizon. A great deal of our farm work and progress is actually going to happening this fall. It seems like fall and spring is when we accomplish the most on the farm. We have also recently invested a fair amount of our free time into completing some remodeling projects on our house. I may touch on remodeling in future post.

I mentioned sports above, and that is what I'd like to focus on today, probably because it's been on mind a lot lately. Something I've noted in the last year as I've spent more time reading agrarian blogs, is that youth sports are not mentioned much. I'm curious as to the reason. I'm sure that some bloggers may not have young children or teenagers at home. I know that many are homeschooled and therefore do not have school related sports available. Others may not believe that children should compete in sports. Whatever the reason, I'm interested in hearing why. As for us, we homeschool and have children in public school. But, in both situations our children have competed in youth sports, both public recreation leagues and school teams. I coach many of these teams and the events are family affairs for us. One of our children is on traveling baseball team that I co-coach and we have struggled at times wondering if it is too much, but have still come to a decision that as long as we enjoy it and the sport is kept in the proper perspective we will continue.

Sports in America is an idol to many and this is a fact we are fully aware of. We go to great lengths to keep athletics and sports in the proper perspective with our children. It is a great enjoyment for our children, it keeps us and them active in our community, and it is physically healthy. There are a variety of positive aspects to sports that get overstated; some of them true and some of them not so true. But, when approached with the appropriate Christian mind set, I believe sports can be a healthy beneficial part of a Christian agrarian home.

What say you fellow agrarians. (Don't be afraid to disagree, we are not easily offended.) Just be sure and give me a reason to satisfy my curiosity.

God bless
Mike

We're Back

We are back and hopefully to stay this time. Many updates are soon to follow as well as discussion topics. Life has taken us away for the last several months and the time to share with you just wasn't there. But, Julie and I have both felt a need to start sharing again and spend more time conversing with like minded folks. Check back today sometime today for a more detailed post.
God bless
Mike

Pictures As Promised

Here are some of the pictures Julie promised.

"Missy" the newest member of the family

The first two raised beds, there are now four.

The view off our deck, the raised beds are just below the bottom of the picture

Jake coming back from feeding Violet, (there's Roxie the senior K-9 of the family

God bless,

Mike

Enjoyable Weekend for the Most Part

We had a very wonderful weekend. It could have been more productive, but sometimes you just need to catch your breath. We did that very thing this weekend. My honey do list is still there, but we enjoyed ourselves and our family.

My father had died last summer, and we were given his fishing boat. We just made a trip to Ky. to get the boat over the Easter weekend. Michael finally took the time on Saturday to work on it a bit. This boat was something that both my Dad and my husband enjoyed working on together. It means a lot to Michael to have it and share it with his own children.

I guess I am still in shock and disbelief, and my brother even stated that I needed my head examined for what we did on Saturday morning. The phone rang while I was making breakfast, and it was our neighbor. She had raised a litter of English Mastiff puppies, and she was wondering if we would be interested. She offered us a great deal, but at that point I wasn't sold. I REALLY DID NOT NEED ANYTHING ELSE TO CARE FOR. I am a busy mother, and a puppy wasn't in the plans. However, 4 of my 5 children overheard the conversation. They B-E-G-G-E-D me. They even went to the ploy of stating the dog could be their combined Christmas present. I was suckered to the max! We went and picked our "little" puppy up Saturday. She is as cute as a button. This breed tends to be a bit on the lazy side. That was the only reason I consented! I will have Michael post pictures of her soon. She is turning out great, but it is still early. The children named her Missy, and I am saying "No, Missy" at least a hundred times a day!

The only glitch in the weekend was that Michael dropped some part of a tractor on his middle finger. He was tilling the large garden spot, and the tiller wasn't going deep enough so he went to adjust it. The cotter pin (I am not for sure about that spelling) rammed into his finger. We ended up going to the emergency room. UGHHH...he got 7 stitches and a shot. It is a nasty puncture type cut, but it hasn't slowed him down too much.

Since he took the time and donated his finger to till the large garden, I decided I should just quietly go plant my flowers over there. I did just that today. I planted quite a few flowers for cutting. I also planted our first large batch of corn. The real problem for me in this garden area is that our 4 hives of bees are over there. Now I know bees are suppose to be all busy with other things, but I tend to attract them. I managed to get a bee sting this WINTER. Our whole garden area will be filled with bees!! Oh well, maybe next year I can plant my flowers in one of my beautiful raised beds away from all the bees!

grace and peace,
julie

Happy Dance and Weekend Plans

I am so excited that Friday afternoon is upon us, but I am even more excited than usual. We are in the midst of baseball season at our house. Three of our boys play baseball, and it can be a bit overwhelming trying to schedule everything around games. Our third son plays on a traveling ball team, and Michael helps coach this team. This has been a great experience for him as well as our family, but it is very time consuming. We were suppose to go to Knoxville and play a tournament all weekend, but PRAISE THE LORD the tournament was cancelled. Now I know that a good baseball mother wouldn't be so excited about this cancellation, but this ball mother jumped up and down!!!

I was at the breakfast table this moring with my cup of coffee in one hand and a pen in the other writing as fast as I could. I wanted to make sure Michael and I were on the same page for our new weekend plans. We took a few minutes before he left for work to outline our plans. Our farm list grew by leaps and bounds, and if we get half of our list accomplished then I will be more than thrilled.

Our raised beds are coming along wonderfully. I am already thrilled with our results! I will have Michael post pictures a little later in the week. We are ordering lumber for 6 more beds, and that will give us a total of 10 beds for this year. I was hoping for 20 beds, but I will be thankful for the 10! As of today, we have 4 constructed and ready for planting. I tried my best to get Michael to let me use one of our beds for nothing but flowers. Growing flowers has been a passion of mine for a few years now. I love having fresh flowers all over our house! He told me no way was I to take a whole bed that we should be raising food in and grow flowers. Well, I have now decided that I am going to ask that my family build me my very own raised bed for Mother's Day, and you better believe that it will be full of beautiful flowers!!!! I'll let you know later how this one turns out!

grace and peace,
julie

Mundane Things

I wanted to take just a few minutes this morning to touch base with everyone. There hasn't been much to report here on the Covered Y farm. Don't get me wrong...things are being done, but I didn't figure you were too concerned with the mundane chores of daily life. However, this is a regular part of life even though at times it seems that we are at a stand still. I have more raised beds to put in, but first we have to finish mowing the grass!! Which one would you rather do...mow the grass or build more beautiful planting beds? You get my point. The wise King points out in Eccl. 10:18 that the man who does not take the time to work on general maintenance will find his house crumbling and leaking all around him!

I did plant some beautiful squash and zucchini plants thanks to tnfarmgirl! She has a wonderful green house, and I always love to walk through her space. We have received many plants from Cheri, and we have always been more than pleased! Keep up the great growing, Cheri!!!

Michael is pretty particular about how he plants. He uses a tape measure to make sure that everything is just perfect. He is the man that plants his lettuce seeds in alphabetical order! Which by the way, turned out to be great in helping to know what type of lettuce we were eating. I on the other hand am very haphazard. Don't get me wrong, I like things done right. However, with little people under my feet and so many things to do, sometimes I just don't have time to use that tape measure to make sure everything is spaced just so. Due to a very busy schedule, Michael informed me that I would have to do most of the planting this year. THIS IS A HUGE LEAP OF FAITH FOR HIM. By saying this, he understands that the rows wont be perfectly straight. After planting the squash and zucchini, Michael wanted to go see our plants. He was pleased, but remember by the time he got to the garden area it was almost dark. On his way back to the house, he noticed that I had filled the whole raised bed with squash and zucchini. He gasped, and stated that I had planted enough to feed an army!

Well, I must go tackle some more mundane jobs!

grace and peace,
julie

Home School Encouragement

We had a very lively dinner last night. As we ate, our children started discussing what they wanted to be when they grow up. As usual in our family, our discussion went from serious to silly. Our 9 year old stated that he wanted to be Julius Caesar, but without friends. We all laughed because we knew instantly that he was referring to the fact that Ceasar's friend Brutus was the one who literally stabbed him in the back. Many public school children would not have known any of this history.

Our oldest son started public school for his freshman year. This was his first year to be in public school instead of home school. While I was preparing dinner, he came and sat down. I could tell by the look of disgust something was wrong. He was so frustrated by the lack of education in school. He begged me to apply to teach high school English. (Obviously he forgot we still have 4 other children at home for me to teach)! For the first time in his life, he understood why kids didn't enjoy reading. He concluded if the public school was the only exposure to good literature no wonder the kids hated to read! He told me how thankful he was for his home schooling years.

Now for the encouragement...

Home schooling is worth the time invested. I left the kitchen last night feeling so satisfied because Matthew saw first hand what his Dad and I have preached for years. He realized the value of the education he had been given at home, and he was truly thankful for what we had instilled.
As we are all building our farms, let us not forget the value of pouring into our children. For those of us who home school, we are making a difference in our children's lives...EVEN WHEN WE DON"T FEEL IT. Keep up the good work, and remember summer is on the way!!

As a side note... our decision for public school was something that we had never considered in the past. Matthew came to us and told us he had been praying and was feeling led by the Lord to check out public high school. After much prayer, his Dad and I enrolled him in our small public school. There are many Christians in his path, and the Christian principle keeps a tight rule of her roost or this decision would never had been made. We saw high school as an opportunity to prepare him for college while his Dad and I still had much control over his decisions in life.

grace and peace,
julie

After reading KSMILKMAID'S post one day, I became inspired to try out my clothes line. After all, her laundry pictures reminded me of spending time on my grandmother's farm. As a child, I use to help her hang out clothes. I got such a warm fuzzy from the whole walk down memory lane that I decided I would recreate the scenerio for my own family. (On a more logical side to my decision, our laundry room is located just off of our kitchen. The laundry room has no air or heat vents so in the summer it is HOT. I had already been toying with the idea of hanging out clothes to help remedy this problem. Between cooking and drying clothes, our kitchen can become unbearable during the summer time). The only child that was excited about the whole process was our daughter. She enjoyed the whole process so much that I knew that I had made a good choice. Then came last night.... The clothes weren't quite dry when I had to leave for a ballgame. I knew I could get them off the line when I got back from town so I wasn't worried. They were almost dry, and I knew a few more hours would finish the job. Well, I didn't account for how long our family was town last night or the fact that we still hadn't eat dinner. When we got in from the game, I had to make a choice...finish supper or get the clothes. Hungry husband and children helped me make the choice quickly, and I decided that the natives had to be fed. I was still in the thought process of getting the clothes after dinner. Well let's just say that after we ate, Michael and I sat down and had a wonderful talk. During the conversation I had remembered that the milkmaid let her clothes dry at night. I formulated a plan, and I aksed my husband the weather forecast. He assured me it wasn't going to rain until the next day. I asked him if he was sure, and he confirmed that it would my clothes would remain dry until morning. The clothes did remain dry until morning...4:45 a.m. to be exact!! I woke up to the sound of thunder and downpouring rain. I nudged him and told him that all of our 4 loads of laundry were getting wet. His response was that he was right. It didn't rain until morning!

I will still continue to use the clothes line. However, I will check the weather forecast MYSELF!

grace and peace,
julie

Our First Fruit Trees

Although, we have owned property with fruit trees already present, we've never planted our own. This is something we've looked forward to for years and it has finally comed to "fruition", pun intended. After our recent update as to what was happening on our farm, The "Covered Y" Farm, we promised some detailed discussion on the various projects; well here's the first installment, fruit trees.

This fall several more trees will be added, but we were so anxious to get started we decided to do some spring planting. It is very motivational and uplifting to simply get started and know that your dream is underway. As I mentioned before, we are very thankful to Tim at The Urban Homestead for his help and knowledge and his beautiful and healthy plants.

Cherries

We chose one each of two varieties; Montmorency, a sour cherry for baking and Stella, a dark cherry for eating out of hand. We certainly intend to plant more trees and additional varieties, but we are off to a wonderful start.

Peaches

We also selected two peach trees for now. First was Raritan Rose, a white fleshed peach, supposed to be very aromatic and tasty, it is a semi-clingstone which grows well in East Tennessee. Second we chose a standard variety, Redhaven, it is a more reddish peach that is a freestone type peach.

Apples

We only planted 3 apple trees for now. Our plans are to plant several more in the fall; Tim at The Urban Homestead says despite popular opinion, fall is the best planting time in our neck of the woods. We planted one Macintosh and Tim had a couple of York trees with burnt roots that he made us a deal on. We removed the root ball and planted the tree deep hoping for new root growth above the graft, meaning these trees wil come in as standard trees rather than semi-dwarf.

Pears

We planted two pear trees as well. The first choice was a Seckel, we've read and heard so many good things about it that we had to have one. Second, we went with a D'Anjou which will be a good pollinator for the Seckel and is a good pear in its own right.

Grapes

The last fruit that went into the ground was 10 Concord grape vines. We have not established any trellis or lines for them yet, but will soon.

All of the plants and trees went in the ground on the 27th of March. The trees were all approximately 3-5 ft tall and will probably producee fruit with 3 years. We are excited and anxious, but unlike the times we live in are willing to wait for the proper timing and enjoy the fruit in its season. That's it for now. Check back soon for details on bees, raised beds, chickens, hogs, barn improvements and more. I may also post some baseball pictures from recent tournaments we've played for the sports fans out there.

God bless,
Mike

Home Schooling ALMOST completed

This is the time of year my children and I struggle with home schooling. We are all ready to get outside and enjoy the sunshine, but there are still many things that need to be completed indoors. I have home schooled long enough to know that one way to combat this "i don't want to do school syndrome" is to add something different to the curriculm. For instance, we have spent much of our school year studying ancient history. We finished our study of Rome yesterday, and we placed all the history books on the shelf. We will pick up with the Middle Ages when we start school next year. Now, we will spend extra time with science. We have done bits of science all year, but now we are really digging into it. This change of pace excites us all, and I pray it will help carry us until the end of May. Working in the garden also is part of our study of science, and this helps our children learn while they do.

We are also a family of readers. I am a firm believer in reading out loud to children even after they have the ability to read. My older boys and I have shared many wonderful hours spent reading together. We try to find books that go along with the history that we are studying for the moment. For example, when we were studying ancient Rome, my 7th grader read The Bronze Bow, and The Eagle of the Ninth. My 4th grader read Detectives in Toga and he and my 2nd grader listened to other books being read aloud.

Our 4th grader just finished up the book Along Came a Dog by Meindert DeJong. He so loved this book, and I found myself enjoying it too. It was about a farmer who was trying to start a chicken operation, and while he was preparing his farm, this black dog kept coming to find a home. This farmer had such a big heart that he couldn't just kill the dog so he kept putting him in the car and taking him away from the farm. However, the dog kept returning, and found himself becoming protector of a beloved red hen. The book was well written, and my 9 yr. old consumed it quickly. He is the child that we call Chicken Jake because he loves his chickens. As he read aloud to me and I read to him, we had many discussions concerning chickens. Tnfarmgirl or Cheri as we call her here, stirred our interest in chickens about 4 years ago. She gave us a few layers, and Jacob fell in love with those chickens. He has always been the one to feed them and gather eggs. We kept chickens until recently, but after reading this book we put in another order for 25 hens. They are already growing by leaps and bounds. Soon they will be ready to go outside. We have all enjoyed watching them grow, but Jacob has spent the most time with them. He is the one that came upstairs with a cold chick and asked what to do for it. He spent the afternoon giving it water and holding it hoping to keep it alive. (This chick did die, but Jacob knew that at least he tried save her). We enjoyed reading this book because Jacob had experienced much of what the author was describing with his own chickens.

I have a child coming with a book in hand begging me to read so....

Grace and Peace,
julie

Whew!!

Sorry we haven't posted in the last week and a half. We have been at it hard and just didn't take the time to set down at the computer. I took a week off from my day job to make some things happen around the farm, (and to relax with the family) and that is what we did with the majority of our time. I will be posting about some of the individual items we accomplished complete with pictures, but I'll give a short synopsis for now.

With the coaching of Tnfarmgirl, we began building our raised beds. We have two completed and are ready to knock out two more. Although, they are a considerable amount of work up front, they will be well worth it down the road. After tilling up the bed area, we put up green lumber walls approximately 10 inches deep and filled with our organic soil mixture recommended by Tnfarmgirl. This included well composted horse manure mixed with cedar bedding (about 50 cubic feet), black rock phosphate, green sand, peat moss, lime, and a few bags of mushroom compost. We tilled it all in together, closed up the ends and installed drip tape for watering when necessary.

We also got several fruit trees in the ground. We visited a somewhat local nursery in Bristol, VA, The Urban Homestead. Tim was a huge help, he met with us on Saturday afternoon the 25th and spent a good deal of time teaching us and helping us select plants. We will be going back in the fall for more apple trees. Very nice Christian folks with a very unique nursery, I hope you will give them a call or check out their web site. In short we planted two cherry trees, two peach trees, two pear trees, three apple trees, and 10 grape vines. I provide more details later. After mulching them heavily, we set up a watering branch connected to the water lines to our raised beds. We will be raising these fruits using organic, or should I say, natural methods.

We received two new packages of bees from our local supplier on Tuesday of last week. Thank God, we had warm sunny weather and were able to get the bees into prepared hives on Wednesday. By the weekend my queens were out of their queen cage and the bees were busy working on setting up their new home. Although, this makes 4 hives for us, I don't think the two I had are in very good condition; more to follow on this.

We also received a free chicken tractor from the friend who supplied us with the composted horse manure. It was in need of some minor repairs, and I started those. It should be ready for the chicks we received a couple of weeks back to move into by the weekend. We also started preparations on using an old dog kennel as a second "portable chicken coup".

We also used the time to catch up on several small jobs around the house and fix a few broken things here and there. And scattered throughout the nine days off, my oldest son had 6 high school baseball games, my second son and I had two little league practices, and my third son and I had three traveling team practices and four game tournament this past weekend in Kingsport, TN. Did I mention that we love baseball, and for us it is a family outing, when we travel to games we go as a family and really enjoy the time together and with our many friends we have through the baseball teams.

Now, some folks might say they were ready to get back to their day job after a week like that. It certainly was tiring because we tried to use the time to get a great deal of work done. But, I feel more rested and content than I have in a long time. I hope someday to be able to come home and provide a living using our farm, but God has provided a great job for me now; and for that I am thankful. But, I must admit, I miss being at home already.

God bless,
Mike