How do we spend our time?

A pioneer woman in the spring would be getting a spring planting in. This would give her family nourishing food after the long winter. The gloomy months of winter would be a time of rest. Planning her garden would take a good deal of time. Getting the garden ready as soon as the soil is workable. Sometimes this can be done as early as mid to late Febraury. Seeds can go into the ground as early as the beginning of March in New Jersey.

Everything has a season!

We can learn from this woman, her hands were not idle. Up early, getting breakfast

ready for her family. Planning the rest of her day.

Planning meals took a good amount of time.

Just imagine how hard it was for the Pioneer woman.

Can I do what she did in her time?

That depends on my question.

How do we spend our time?

She had no choice of food. Her carefull attention of what was in her

pantry was so very important. She planned her meals by what

she had, sometimes it was not much.

What's in your pantry?

Can you fix all the food that's in your pantry for all the food your

family will need?

Can you grow the food you will eat?

Today I will ask God to give me the strength to provide food for

my family.

Show me how I have the time to grow a garden full of vegetables.

I pray for the wisdom to carry out this task of raising nourishing food.

The European Starling

Hello everyone Rachel again. We have some Starlings in two of our bird houses. one is red, the other is just plain ply wood. as you can see, starlings are really nice looking, but if you've ever had them in a tree in your backyard, you can know what a din they can make.Also, starlings will stand in groups on the little grass things on the side of the road walking with a jerky movement.

They do that because they are looking for bugs in the ground. I hope you found this both interesting and helpful.Rachel

Lettuce

Lettuce

Growing lettuce is one of the first items I begin to grow in the early spring. There are so many varieties on the market today. If you like the mixes you buy in the grocery store consider a Mesculan mix. It is one of the easiest to grow and it is not hard to germinate.

After the seedling begin to look like a real plant it is time to move them. You can use

plastic containers, peat pot containers or any small container.

I try not to pick anything to big, since you will fill it up with your soil. After, you

transfer you seedlings make sure and give them a week does of fish emulsion.

It is also vital that you water from the bottom. Just fill a tray of any sort with

your fish emulsion liquid and

then put plant containers an to soak up the liquid.

.

In a few weeks you seedlings will begin to look like lettuce.

Just imagine the tasty salads you will be making.

Your salads will be full of flavor.

The Wren

The winter wren is a cute little bird, they always love to go and see what's happening . For
instance,
We have wrens that love to fly in and out of a pile of pine tree branches in our backyard. They
also like to fly up on our deck. They are also very brave. Flying here, flying there, I love wrens,
and I think they are very nice little birds. Rachel Bunk

Nature Study

Nature Study of a Bird

Home educating with nature. My daughter and I like to watch the birds from our window. We have these little birds that like to come up to the windows. They are some of the smallest birds we see in the winter season. The wren is what they are called.

In the afternoon, can be a time to go walking in the woods. What is nice about doing this is we can come back into the warm house and have some hot tea. Luckily, in the summer months I collected some flowers from my camomile plants. I cut the flowers off and dryed them. The flavor is intense when you collect them from your garden.

I found this poem which I thought went along with our nature study today.

A Little Bird Song

Once I heard

A little bird

Singing very clearly;

And the bird

That I heard

Sang:"God loves me dearly

Please stay now

And tell me how,

Little Bird, you know it

"Everyday,

Come what may,

Many kind things show it.

"Sun and rain,

Ripening grain,

Food and water given,

Leafy trees...

All one sees

Under the blue heaven."

Then the bird

That I heard

Sang it very clearly:

"God loves you"(off it flew)

"Loves you very dearly."

Taken from The Collected Poems of Amy Carmichael Mountain Breezes

Planting

Planting

Planting is just the process of your getting your seeds to germinate. Now, that you have gotten your lettuce seeds lets get them in moisten soil. This is how they will germinate and become plants.

To moisten the soil I will start by using concentrated fish emulsion. If you take a 1/2 gallon of tap water or rain water and add it 1/2 tablespoon of fish emulsion. Take your soil that you have prepared and moisten it with your water.

After the soil is in your planting trays add your seeds. Only lightly cover your seeds with soil. Next, place your lid on the top of your seed tray. If you place your seeds on top of your refrigerator it will give your seeds a jump start. Now, we will check back on the tray in a couple of days.

Growing Lettuce

Growing Lettuce

Growing lettuce will be the first crop I will grow. It is easy to start and it has a short growing time. Since my husband and enjoy eating salads it will be easy to start with. I have a catalog from the Seed Savers Exchange that I choose to order from. While I am waiting for my order to come in the mail I will get soil ready and the container set up.


First, I bring the pots inside as we are having freezing temperatures in New Jersey. It will take overnight temperatures in the house to thaw the soil.

I use last years soil from my pots. There is no reason to throw the soil out. You get rid of any pathogens and bacteria from the soil by placing it in your oven for 2 hours at 200 degress. To do this I take a flat cookie sheet and place aluminum foil on the baking sheet. Then, I place the soil on the aluminum foil. Place it in the oven.


Now, you are ready to start planting. While, waiting for the seeds to come in the mail I choose to educate myself.

Here are a few books I found to be inspirational at my local library.

Storey's Gardening Skills Illustrated Seed Sowing and Saving by Carlole B. Turner

Growing Herbs and Vegetables from Seed to Harvest by Jerry and Mark Silber

The Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman.

Setting Goals

Frugal Living

January is great month for setting up your goals. It is a great time to look at things you would like to accomplish. Wouldn't it be great if everyone tried to grow some of thier own food. Bring back the family farm, when all families were growing thier own food. It can begin with growing one crop this spring. If you live on a large area of land or just a small piece you too can grow something. Now is the time to open up those seed catalogs and find something you always buy at the grocery store.

Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. 1 Thessalonians 4:11

I love this verse as it helps me to go on living closer and closer to my goal of frugal living. God gave me hands to use for his glory. Growing my own food has been on my heart for a long time and every year I strive to become closer to this goal.

The change of season

The change of the season is the title that I choose today. Often we look at seasons of the weather changing. September seems to be the most likely times when we notice the weather changing. School begins after the hot summer months, and the cool air comes in. Our lives are always changing, the seasons we walk through will come and go. We raise our little boys to grow up and to be God fearing men. The Lord seems to always have the answers we may have. Following his lead is the way I want to go.

Psalm 37:1-6 Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the disires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

I was a young mother in a earlier season of my life, raising two young boys. Going to and fro doing lots of active things as you do with boys. Today those two boys, are young men going their own way. The season has changed as you can see, I am not a young mother anymore. God has made me wiser and gave me a daughter to raise. I am thankful I have learned a few things, since the boys were young. Raising a young maiden will be quite a different challenge. Another season has come upon us.

Spring Has arrived

Spring has arrived and of course the spring planting has begun. The robins are here to give us a new song to listen to. The temperatures are nice and cool here in the northeast. Great for the early planting for the spring. The new beginnings, what a great time to start new. Just as the rising of our Lord. Looking at spring and Easter as the beginning of something new.
I am doing things and completing tasks I thought could not be done before. That only shows you what you can do through Gods power. He is such an awesome God. Sometimes, we feel we can only ask God for big things. I threw that thought out of my mind and began praying for little things. My Lord can direct my day and the things that I need to get done. As long as I don't try to take control and go off on my own wants and desires. If you keep your selfish ways out of your mind and think how will this benefit the family. This is the same as trying to raise vegetables for the family table. Using my energy to create food for the family is one of those concerns . Now this will benefit the whole family along with teaching my young maiden a tool for life. My grandmother was taught to raise vegetables on the farm. She then taught my mother about gardening as a child. My mother then gave me crops to grow in her garden. Now, in my garden I am teaching my daughter the same tool of raising vegetables. God plants things in our hearts to carry them to the next generation of mothers.

Raising young maidens to be ladies is another generational carrier that my grandmother wanted me to have. She taught my mother look at yourself before you leave the house. Don't leave the house if you don't feel put together. Are you dressing for your king, has he made you a woman. In the victorian days women never left thier homes unless they were fully dressed. Women of today can look as women and know the difference.

Raising maidens

Raising Maidens, is something God placed on my heart. A mother nourishes her baby and now that she is a young girl a mother must also nourish her into womanhood. As a young girl matures we want them to have God charcteristics not world charcteristics. Mothers need to take this thought into consideration as our daughters mature. We must teach them about Gods word and His ways or the world will teach them instead. Raising my daughter to be a lady and to be busy at home is what God commands. Titus 2:4-5

One hundred years ago raising our daughters was something mothers took seriously. Girls by the age of thirteen would be taught how to sew, cook and carry herself like a lady. Through the years I loved carrying on old fashion ideas. Before I was a christian I would tell people I was born in the wrong time. Now I understand that I was not born in the wrong time , God has placed me right where he wanted me. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2. According to the Bible we are to be set apart.
A book I bought last year through Vision Forum was a real eye operner, Raising Maidens of Virtue helped me see things more clearly.

The Freezing Temperatures

Freezing temperatures came upon us right after the Snow. Now it seems the deep freeze of winter has come upon us. My winter garden is as hard as rock. My first thought was why did it freeze? The thin sheet of plastic is not enough when your having 10 degrees temperatures. You could say that in the raw cold we need extra care. This means ourselves our animals and yes our winter gardens.

My inside garden is soaking up all the sun that February brings. My lettuce plants are in the windows upstairs. I didn't feel they were getting enough sun. Putting up a white poster board on the window has given them extra light. The plastic greenhouse in the kitchen has most of the plants. Putting the white poster board in there also has produced heat. Do you know whats so amazing, its the simple things that create.

My little mother sheep is also in need of care in these freezing temperatures. One day my mother sheep, Lila did not stand. That was the most upsetting sight, anguish came over me. This time I called the vet right away, a nutrient lacking in her diet is the problem. Plus she was cold, her temperature showed this. Pulling my trailer I went and got 10 bales of straw. Surrounding her with straw to keep her warmer, I only hoped this would help.

Winter Garden

It is the end of January or the beginning of 2007. Winter Gardening is a topic I felt was worth researching. How to produce cold season vegetables in the winter months. I always preached eat whats in season.
Different vegetables grow well at certain times of the year. Here on the eastern coast of the United States we always have some sort of sun. Why not use this to our advantage in growing vegetables? New Jersey got its first real snow which accumulated to 3 inches. Snow can help when trying to conduct solar energy. The Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman is a book which helped to begin acting out a winter garden. We had just experienced a period of tempertures well below freezing. Now, I needed to figure out how to defrost the frozen soil. For a week, placing blankets and a tarp over the soil did the trick. Last week before the snow came uncovering the blankets proved defrosted soil. Placing fencing wire over the raised beds to make a tunnel with plastic covering made a winter garden. The next step will be putting the plants in their winter garden.

The Return

The Lord Will Do Amazing Things Tomorrow, Joshua 4:6. I have been saying that scripture for a long time now. God has been walking me through a difficult time in my life. Sometimes He wants us to be alone with him. Growing in the Lord and showing us what He wants us to see.
The return is the title, someone coming back. I am truly glad God has walked with me. Back in Feburary I wrote about closing a chapter and opening a chapter. Opening my eyes fully is what I needed to do. Faith can help you believe the impossible, Believing God Can Do What He Says He Can Do.
Psalm 103:1-5, Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord , O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins, and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
Answered prays is an amazing thing to see happen.

Life moves on

Your whole life you spend getting your kids ready for college. It always seems so far away when they are little. My second son is a junior in high school this year. Computer programming is where he thought he was going. He has played games for many years and then started to want to develop them. He began training himself how to program, which was not as easy as he thought. We bought this book for him called
C++ Primer and worked through about 4 chapters and then got stuck. Thats when I said I think we need to find someone with more training than myself. There is a computer programming course we are going to let him take with Keystone High School, it is distant learning programming for high school students. What he has decided this will be a side hobby as God has called him to do his word.
Visiting Washington College this weekend I think will be an eye opener. It really is only a year and half before going to college. Oh, where have the years gone...
Recently visiting in California with my cousins. One of them has a son that is also into computers and programming games. I was able to have conversation with this young man. It is amazing you can have two people within the same family so much alike. I am sure not in everything they do is the same, but there are a lot of similarities. In time I hope the two of them can get together and share what they each know.

This is a quote from my Bible:
In my opinion, there are no coincidences. When we make Jesus Christ the Lord of our lives, the Lord orders everything that happens to us. Psalm 37:23-24 says, that when the Lord approves of a persons path, he makes that persons steps firm; even if the person stumbles, he won't fall because the Lord upholds him.
Quoted by Thelma Wells

The chapter has closed

The chapter has closed in this part of the book. Since, I have been home I have been going through pictures of the last 20 years. Lots of pictures and different phases in my families life. Returning to taking care of putting scrapbooks of life together. God has given me the courage to close a chapter but to open my to a new chapter. Its funny thinking of closing a chapter in your life. I have had a medical condition since I was about 15 years old. I did not allow this to give me an excuse to do less in life. Through the years and through my ups and downs I had people in my life who helped me through it. In the end God was the one who helped close that part of my life. To me it seems as though my eyes are fully open now. I now have to live fully for God, and what does he want from me in my life.
I am thankful for some people who have helped me in ways they don't even realize. Starting a blog and then slowly I began getting to know other people in the blog world. The Homesteader Life was the beginning and then I read his wifes blog and she opened up things.
http://reformedfarmerswife.blogspot.com/ The Reformed Farmers Wife shared a website sometime ago. www.visionforum.com I then placed an order for this womens ministry bible study called Spiritual Rest In the Life of a Woman by Yvonne Welch. The order did not come in before I left for California but was waiting for me when I returned home. What an eye opener, she talked about bitterness in her life and how it effected her. God used this ministry to get to me, what a blessing. Due to bad circumstances, bad things can happen to people. Having a seizure disorder all these years helped me see I too had to let go of ALL bitterness. Not some, but all. Then, when I saw this my eyes were opened, Thank You God. I came across this scripture the other morning, Psalm 40:1-4
I waited patiently for the Lord;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the Lord.
Blessed is the man
who makes the Lord his trust,
who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods.

My Grandma

A garden is where we will go. Grandma had stones in the garden to
place your feet. A little yellow Iris poking its ways through
the soil. Around to the front all the roses were blooming some
red, some yellow, and OH some the scent. My grandma and I would
love to go to the garden. Titi, come over here and smell this
one, I'm coming Grandma. Oh what a beautiful smell, the color
is so red. In the house to have lunch, Grandma stop, take a
sniff. What is that smell? Wisteria is its name;look at its
delicate purple color. In the day, of sharing a day with Grandma,
oh where have the years gone... Thank you for being you, goodbye
till we meet again.

My grandma was a special person to me, as I am sure thats the way it was intended. She called me Titi, as when my brother and I were small he couldn't say my name. When I was a teenager I would sigh when she called me Titi. She would reply that is what I will always call you. Today I am happy she had a special name for me. At times sitting in her room I felt like that little girl again. Then, God revealed to me she helped form and shape you in more ways then you know.
The morning of Saturday, I chose to walk where she shopped. I came back to her room to show her the flowers I got for her. Purple Iris's those were my favorite, Yellow roses were her favorite and the love of the outdoors. My grandma and I love to work in the Garden and put our fingers in the soil. She had lots of different types of roses in her front yard that she shared with me. I was able to be with her right up till the end. I was chosen to be with her, I had opened the window so she could smell the air one last time, then God took her into heaven. I was able to be part of things from her past, that is one way I felt special. Isn't it amazing how God allows certain people to be part of your life.
When I would visit her we both loved Norman Rockwell portraits. So, we would sit for hours looking through all the different ones she collected. Through the years I chose to cherish those plates as something we shared. Its not the meaning of dollars but the stories of how we looked at those plates. She will always be with me where ever I go, God has chosen that. After I came home I noticed something about the plates I own, they are grandparent plates. Its amazing how things work out, and you don't really notice.
I read these scriptures below at her funeral service.

Scripture taken from John 17

They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed
that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world,
but for those you have for those you have given me, for they are
yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through
them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in
the world, and I am coming to you.

I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in
the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within
them.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you
protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as
I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth;your word is truth. As
you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For
them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

My Hearts Desire

My hearts desire is what came to my mind after reading a blog, A. Victoria. Check her out if you have never read her blog. For the Christian it can be very inspiring. My hearts desire is for my family to run a farm. My husband and I have visited many places we would like to call our own. This past October we went up to Ithaca, New York. We have fallen in love with this area. Here in New Jersey, there is building going on all around us. The horse farm by our home has sold to a developer and so more houses will be built. We have often thought of moving to Kentucky to be by my family. God has not led my family to do this though. Coming closer to being the Godly woman that is another hearts desire. It probably will help me to live out my hearts desire in the Lord. There is a book on the market which I found very helpful to being a help meet to my husband, Created To Be His Help Meet by Debi Pearl. This book has helped me in many ways this year due to the world we live in. If I had a recommended list of books for the Godly Woman this book would be on it. I am your servant; give me discernment that I may understand your statues. Psalm 119:125. God has surrounded me with Godly Sisters which have incouraged me, I am very thankful for this. Here in New Jersey and through the blog world.

Medicinal herbs

Today as I went out to feed animals and care for them I put my rain coat on. The temperature is still mild here, so I don't need my hat and gloves. Mr. Homesteader said to me this morning" Some people get depressed in the winter but you get sad when there is no winter." I am planning on being in the basement cleaning up and making soap. It has been awhile since I did this, but it won't be cold downstairs today. No working outside today as it is going to rain all day. That is okay with me, since shoveling the chicken yard this past week.
As we go into the winter season this is when I start making herbal medicines. A couple of years ago I found some recipes for lotions. I began making all different types of lotions for my family to try. I do have a favorite I even make today, Rose Geranium Lotion. This lotion has very good products in it such as aloe vera and rose water. The rose comes from the rose water and Geranium from the essential oil. This year I started thinking you should make your own rose water. I bought a book called The Herbal Medicine-Makers Handbook. It has showed me how to get started in making my own Rose Water or hydrosol.

Since, I began making soap so many years ago to relieve some skin problems. The learning did not stop at soap making it went on to other things. My interests were in essential oils and how they can help us in everyday life. This is when I stumbled on a book called Clean, Naturally recipes for body, home, and spirit by Sandy Maine. This book opened a whole new world. In this book she uses essential oils for thier different properties, for different products. I began making cleaning products and removing manufactured cleaning products one by one. Today, I only use products that are made in our home.

The New Beginning

The new year of 2006 has come. I found myself asking, what does God have in store for my family. I am so thankful for the Lord bringing me closer to him. My life is changing right in front of me. My boys are not baby's anymore. There is a certain change a mother goes through when she gives God her son. My son was a gift, but God only lends children to you. Then one day you have to let God lead their life.
I had my boys 3 years apart, back then I thought that was the perfect space. My oldest is so full of energy always on the go. He always wanted to be the good guy when playing. Even when I said no guns in the house, he would make a stick a gun. Now he is going into Criminal Justice, guns will be part of his life. My second son is going to be driving in the spring. Then, he will graduate high school next summer. Why is it when they get to this age time is going to fast. He has gone through so many changes, its amazing to watch. I use to think he was going to be a scientist. A couple of weeks ago he told me God wants him to be a Pastor. Its a amazing how changes happen so quickly. Now, their ages seem to close.