Just another update of what's been going on in our life.
On the homestead:
Luke's grandma gave Jordan this riding lawnmower. All it needed was a new battery and it runs like a champ. After mowing every area that was able to be mowed, he took the blade off and has been using it to get around. . .
. . . and give rides.
Luke, Jordan and Dylan worked at the property for 10 days straight.
Progress made:
- 100% done with soffit on 3 sides of the house
- 75% done with the siding on the same 3 sides of the house
- 95% done with all insulation in the house
- 90% done with sheet rock on ceiling of house
- Started on Fuel Reduction Project (goal is to clear 100' of timber, slash, junipers, bushes, etc. around the house to reduce fire danger)
- Cleaned up, organized and swept house
In the garden:
(Made Dilly Beans with those!)
My baby watermelon might make it after all!
Our first eggs! We are up to 14 total since they started laying last week.
The new fence in the chicken's front yard (they have a side yard and back yard for shade during the day).
This is what the chickens did to the potato patch. The bungee cord snapped sometime during the night and the wind blew the gate open. Good thing they don't care for the potatoes ~ they were after worms!
So, we harvested potatoes this morning.
Early this month we had a special visit from Luke's grandma ~ the kids got to show her the chickens (she loves chickens!).
In the kitchen:
Making dilled green tomatoes. . .
zucchini relish. . .
. . . and zucchini pickles ~ love the pretty color, but not that it stained my counter yellow.
My super helper, Nathan, peeling garlic . . .
. . . and showing me how to pack dill for award winning pickles (literally!).
Nathan won a blue ribbon and 2nd place Open Class at the County Fair ~ and received a $15 check in the mail!
Canned pineapple and red plum preserves that I canned this summer. The plum preserves were so yummy and the sauce made the best syrup topping for vanilla ice cream! I can only imagine it is great on pancakes.
I have been dehydrating as well. I actually prefer to dehydrate ~ it takes up so much less space. So far I have dehydrated some zucchini and cucumbers. I made Autumn Stew yesterday for supper with summer squash that I dehydrated last summer ~ and it was great! (So thankful to eat in an air conditioned dining room because it was 95+ degrees out!)
In The Scriptures:
I passed the check-in for day 60 right at day 50 of the challenge. I am currently on 1 Chronicles 20 and only one more book until I finish the Tanakh! We started school this week so I am going to need that head start!
Luke got off to a slow start, but he is catching up fast ~ he is only 16 days behind me! He is on day 49 of the challenge and determined to catch up (he is so competitive!). He said he "wanted to make sure that I didn't totally smoke him." =) I am so glad that he is doing this challenge with me. Nathan is also doing the challenge ~ he is on 2nd Samuel or 1st Kings (can't remember for sure and he is asleep). I am so proud of him! I will often go see if he is awake in the mornings and find him reading his Bible. =)
Life:
Life has been full ~ and hard. I am so happy to have my husband and boys home! I have missed them!
Today we started our first day of school. I will be stepping away from this blog for awhile so that I can hopefully keep a record of our homeschooling on my homeschool blog. I will update there when I have finished the challenge and tie in as much as I can with our learning!
You have been one busy lady!! Your produce looks great~one of my favorite things is fried green tomatoes-have you ever made them?
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Nathan for his prize winning pickles!
When I was growing up, we never had a riding lawn mower-even though we had a very large yard-but once a year, I got to borrow my uncle's riding mower and "roll" the yard--it was the highlight of my summer! :-)
Thank you for sharing about the feasts. We have always been very low key about them (not even remembering Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur) because we really didn't know what to do or how to do it and were sort of afraid of doing something wrong. Now I feel a little better about it.
We are probably still going to remember them, but I will share your post with my husband tonight to see just how he wants to handle them. I do think that we'll probably still build a sukkah because we had already mentioned this to our girls and they got very excited about it-but I will definitely be teaching the girls about them from a different perspective. I do want to do what's right though and honestly I never realized that we really shouldn't try to keep them.
As you can tell, I'm not that far in my reading-and I'm not sure that I would have had the insight to pick up on that verse even if I had already read it. :-/
I think we've pretty much decided to go with FIAR for our girls this year. I've really enjoyed seeing all that you've done with it and although I'm sorry that you won't have time to post on this blog, I definitely would rather see you post on the homeschool blog! :-D
Take care and thanks again for sharing your heart.
Michelle, I wholeheartidly agree. I still remember when it first came to my spiritual understanding that WE ARE IN EXILE. Just the other day I mentioned to someone how meloncholy I always feel during the Feasts, spending them in exile, away from my Beloved Israel. The command to be joyful at Sukkot, for example, is really hard to do because it is during these Feast days that I am most aware I am living as one of the scattered ones, awaiting the return to my rightful inheritance in the Land.
ReplyDeleteYour warning is well founded! thank you for writing this post!
Of course, I LOVED the garden updates and the pictures of your precious family too!
Thank you for your message regarding the Feasts. I was actually thinking the same thing just the other day. A deep sadness filled me...
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this information on the Feasts. I've been very much struggling and felt like I what you shared, but felt torn .... I think your wording fit perfectly as describing them to be mourned. Certainly will be in prayer.
ReplyDeleteI have been walking Torah for 6 years now, and only in the last three have I came to the understanding of the two house, and who Israel really is. I have longed to go home to Israel a pace I've never been, and I look forward to the Day HE gathers us. We almost celebrated Sukkot in Israel last year, I remember feeling like there was no where else to celebrate them but there(after all that's what Scriptue says) but it was our timing and not YHVH's timing, we didn't force our way to go, and HE didnt make a way, so we just wait! I really have always looked at the Feasts as a dress rehersal but I can see your point so clearly, I want to share this with my husband and possibly, with your permission, on my blog. I do not want to continue in sin and I don't think others do either,Thank you for sharing this!!!! I pray YHVH bless you and keep you!
ReplyDeleteShalom,
Moira
Hello again Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI felt I needed to clarify my last comment.
I remember last year when we were so close to spending Sukkot in Israel, this thought of~ WHY havn't we ever before even thought about the possibility?
Scripture says that we should be setting aside monies all year long for Sukkot~ and if we are doing that~ then WHY don't we send our men to Jerusalem?
I started to think~Is it possible that we could afford to do that and don't act on it?
Have we become wise in our own eyes? Do we feel like we can make a substitute what for what Scripture says?
That is really more what I was thinking. We long to be in the land, and we try to follow Torah to the best of our ability~ then maybe we should be praying about sending our husbands to Jerusalem for the feasts each year~ to see if YHVH would open a door for them to be obedient. It would be nice to go as a family of course but who could afford that? And that's not what Scripture says, it says men. I just wonder if we are not thinking of this at all as an option. Have we ever thought of it, or did we once and then stop, and if so why?
Does that make sense? Sorry I felt the need to clarify.Also~ We are currently not in the land; well during Jeroboam’s time Israel was. They also had a temple at that time.