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Purple Manna

10/28/2022

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Walking through the yard one morning, I stopped to watch one of my frequent Hummingbird visitors eating nectar from my Ruellia plant.  The little bird had to be diligent in collecting nectar, as all blooms would fall off by the end of the day.  I was thinking how these blooms are a lot like the manna God provided for the Israelites.  The Ruellia is bursting with purple blooms each morning, but by the end of the day all blooms have fallen off.  No worries though, as God will provide more in the morning!
Exodus 16:4-5
      Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you.  The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day.  In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.  On the sixth day, they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days”.

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This serves as a reminder to me that just as God has provided for the daily needs of the Israelites and Hummingbirds, so too will He provide for mine.  There is work involved to receive His provisions.  And yes, many times there will be grumbling and complaining as we do not like what we are called to do, or the challenges we must face, in preparation for what God has in store.  Have you ever looked back to notice the lessons learned, information gained or connections made during a trying time in your life?  I believe these were no accident.   In fact, they were exactly what you needed in preparation for God’s plan for your life.  No matter how lost we become, or how many detours we take in life, we will always be given something from the experience that will help us to grow and give us the courage we need to keep moving forward---even if we slip and roll down the hill again.  Who knows, it might be on THAT hill, as we are climbing back up, we find the gold nugget needed to be prosperous in the plans laid out for us.
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There have been many times in my life when God has provided exactly what was needed at just the right time.  Not my time, but His time!  At this, I paused to thank the Lord for His daily provisions in my life.  To be sure, there were times when it was a rough journey getting to that place.  There have been many times when I
look back at the skills or information learned, from a variety of random situations along the way, that I have truly been amazed at God’s guidance in my life.  And the connections!  People from such backgrounds that I would not have otherwise crossed their path.  I am only beginning to see now how everything has worked together to prepare me for where I need to be at this moment.  Who knows, the moment I am in now may be more preparation for what is yet to come.  We must learn to be patient and attentive as we wander through the wilderness of life, for there is a promised land at the end.  Be it this life or the next.
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Between the Chair and the Coffee Pot

10/28/2022

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           Have you ever noticed all the things that come to mind once you sit down for your Bible study or prayer time? Suddenly a multitude of thoughts are calling you to get up and do something. Thoughts like ‘Fold the laundry so you can fully relax while reading the Bible, put dinner in the oven and it will be ready to eat after your prayers, or go warm up your coffee
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so you can get cozy and enjoy your time with God.’ Well, I don’t know about you, but for me a lot can happen between my chair and the coffee pot! Research suggests that passing through a doorway causes memory lapses. You know, like when you go to your closet and find yourself standing there trying to remember what you came after.
    According to Professor Gabriel Radvansky of Notre Dame, “Entering or exiting through a doorway serves as an ‘event boundary’ in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away.” I have to walk through three doors to warm my coffee. This can lead to many distractions. Sometimes taking an hour or more to get back to my Bible. Some days, I never make it back. These distractions are real and intentional.
               Satan is real, and he has many weapons and strategies he uses to defeat us. One of his favorites is distraction! He takes a victory lap every time he manages to distracts us and keep us from spending time with the Lord. Why would he want to do that? To keep our focus off God. He’s gotten pretty cunning at distracting us with things that sound good. Things like you’ll enjoy your prayer time more if your coffee is hot, or convincing you it’s okay to skip your Bible time today so that you can volunteer at the food pantry.  Take note of the times you are suddenly bombarded with distractions. Is it during your quiet time with God or when you are doing the work he has called you to do? I know that happens a lot to me. We need to be aware and pray for our eyes to be open. We can fight these attacks as the lord has armed us with far greater weapons.
               Another tactic of distraction is when our thoughts begin to spiral as we focus on the worries of life, our fears, or self-doubts. If we’re not careful, they can spiral out of control.  We keep rethinking the same things over and over again. Often times trying to work out our situation on our own instead of taking it to God and trusting him to help us through these difficult times. Jesus understands how we feel when going through these spirals. Maybe we’re going through rejection or experiencing sorrow. Jesus understands these as well. He was rejected by his own family (John 7:5), the Jews he came to save (Matt 21:42), and even his disciple (Luke 22:54-62). But Jesus forgave them and he will forgive you too. You can read how Jesus re-commissions Peter in John 21:15-19. Jesus understands your sorrows as well. There are three times in Scripture when he wept. John 11:35, Luke 19;41, and Hebrews 5:7-9. He truly loves you and cares for you. Jesus understands your heart and your pain. Go to him instead of the distraction of your spiral.
               Redirecting our actions down paths leading us away from our God given purpose is another way the devil and his staff like to distract us. God’s purpose for our life should be our priority. The devil will do anything in his power to keep us from making progress in God’s plan for our life.
               One last tactic I want to mention is that of self-focus. This is a big one in our society today. We like to follow our own desires, seek success as the world defines it, and make our own plans. Taking pride in self-sufficiency can lead to a separation from God. We become far too busy to find time for God or to stop and listen to his plans instead of our own. We may think we know best, but he sees the much larger picture of where our life is going.
               The next time you feel like you don’t hear God’s voice, take a moment to stop, take a deep breath, and look for the distractions in your life that might be pulling you away from him. If you’re like me, it might be time to make some honest confessions as well to restore your relationship. Confessions of distractions, pride, and not turning our spiraling thoughts over to him. Whatever it is, God can handle it. All you need to do is spend time talking with him. You can warm up your cup of coffee after that.
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A Garden Adventure of Three Sisters

4/13/2022

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   I've wanted to try the three sisters method of gardening for a while. Today, I planted the corn! You can follow me on this journey and we can both see how it turns out.
   Three sisters gardening is a method of companion planting. Native Americans have used this method for centuries. The three sisters are a nutritional benefit to gardeners, as well as a gardening to each other.
   The corn plant provides pole-like support for the beans to grow up. The beans provide nitrogen in the soil that benefits all three crops. The squash provides shade to keep the soil cool, moist, and prevent weed growth.
   The corn variety I planted today is called Golden Bantam. This is my first time to try this variety. Last summer I ate Rattlesnake green beans for the first time. They were delicious! I will plant them next to the corn in a couple of weeks when the stalks are a few inches tall. Haven't decided which variety of squash I'm going to plant yet. I hope you will follow along for the adventure. Until next time, take a few minutes and check out the link above to the video showing the start of my three sister's garden.
    Happy gardening and God bless!
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Egyptian Walking Onions

3/30/2020

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Coronavirus got you sheltering in place? Then there is all the rain on top of that which may have you trapped inside, preventing you from getting you garden planted. No worries because there are lots of wild edibles growing in the spring. Many of which are as nutritious, or even more so, than what's growing in your gardens.

We have a ditch full of one such wild edible. More on that in a second. For a few of reasons, our yard is WILD during the spring. First, we let it go wild intentionally as all the spring flowers and 'weeds' are a great nectar and pollen source for our honey bees. It also makes for great tasting honey according to our repeat customers. The second reason is something we don't have much control over. The rain. We couldn't mow if we wanted to for all the standing water. Specially the ditch! For an added bonus, many of the weeds growing in our country yard are edible for us as well.
Today I want to talk about the ditch, rather what's growing in the ditch. During my fresh air, daily exercise walks over the past few weeks, I've been watching the wild onions grow. We have a PLENTIFUL crop of Egyptian Walking onions growing there. To be honest with you, it wasn't until I attended a local garden club meeting a few months back that I actually knew what they were called. I had also been curious in past years if this onion smelling plant was edible. Turns out it is. If you would like more information on this plant, Dan has made a wonderful video on harvesting and cooking this beauty.
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This might be one of those 'weeds' you transfer to a safe growing area in your yard before mowing them all down. Who knows, there may be a run on onions in the grocery store some day. These days, you never know.
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Egg and Chicken Terms

2/5/2019

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"Free-range" 
"Cage-free"
"Omega-3 Enriched"


What does it all mean?

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Let me take a few minutes to break down all these confusing terms according to the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension office.  Be careful, sometimes you may be paying extra for nothing!

Cage-free - Hens are raised in an enclosed structure with unlimited access to food and water.  They are NOT required to have access to the outdoors.

Free-Range - Hens are cage free with continuous access to the outdoors during their laying cycle.

Vitamin Enhanced - Hens are given a special diet that helps them produce eggs with a higher vitamin content (e.g. Vitamin E)

Omega-3 Enriched - Hens are fed a diet that includes flaxseed, algae or fish oils to increase the Omega-3 fatty acid content of the eggs.
USDA Organic - Certified organic eggs are from uncaged hens that have free range of their houses and access to outdoor spaces.  They are also fed an organic diet.

100% or All-Natural - Only means nothing was added to the egg (coloring, flavoring).  Does NOT indicate how the chicken was raised.

No Added Hormones - No eggs have added hormones, regardless of what the package says, because the use of hormones is NOT allowed in hog or poultry production.  If you see "No added hormones" on a package, it must be followed by the statement:  "Federal regulations prohibit the use of Hormones."

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No Antibiotics - Hens are raised without any antibiotics of any type.

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Upcoming Workshops!

1/22/2019

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Backyard Garden Series

I'm really excited to announce that I am offering a four part workshop series.  It gets even better.  The workshops will be offered at three different locations!  If there is not time on your calendar to take all four, you can easily take the individual classes of your choice.  Each class is a stand-alone class.  However, there is a connection and building of information if you are able to take the entire series.
 

The topics include...
Soil - Composting & Worm Bins
Plant Choice & Planting Methods
Garden Design & When to Plant
Harvest - Storage, Cooking & Nutrition

For information & to register
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Blueberries on the Farm

6/29/2018

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While taking photos of my berries this morning, I couldn't help but think of lines from Robert Frost's poem, "Blueberries".  I can only imagine the sight he describes in the poem...  "And all ripe together, not some of them green and some of them ripe!  You ought to have seen!"  It is a rare sight for all the berries on the bush to be in the same stage of ripening, as you can see from the photo.


This mornings harvest made for a nice touch of fresh fruit with breakfast.  All the berries picked today came from one bush.  There are several  still to ripen.  I planted this, and one other bush, last year in an old bathtub that was once used for a water trough.  The two bushes have more than quadrupled in size over the past year.  Wish I knew what variety they are.  It seems to be a late variety as they are just now becoming ripe. 

Excited about how well the bushes were doing in a container, I bought eight more this past spring.  I was even able to get a few berries off each.  I can't wait to see how they grow over the next year!   Four of the new bushes are Premier and the other four are Tiff Blue.  Their berries have since come and gone for the season. 

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I want to leave you with another image Frost created with his words, "You ought to have seen how it looked in the rain, the fruit mixed with water in layers of leaves, like two kinds of jewels, a vision for thieves."  
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Backyard FARMacy  Summer Guide is here!

6/25/2018

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Download

your

free

copy

now!
Free Summer FARMacy Guide
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Farm-To-You  @  Woodcreek Today!

5/15/2018

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Wondering what's on the carte from the farm this month?

Eggs
Honey
Fresh cut herbs - multiple varieties
Tomato plants  (Homestead - Heirloom)
Calendula plants (Pot Marigold)
Shasta Daisy plants
Vermicompost
Composting Worms


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Shasta Daisy

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Calendula

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Our Little Barnyard has two missions when it comes to growing edible plants.  Our first priority is to grow plants listed on the Dirty Dozen list in order to have healthier food. Foods on the Dirty Dozen list are the top twelve foods containing the highest levels of pesticides and herbicides.  We do not use pesticides or herbicides on the farm. 

Our second priority is to grow superfoods.  A superfood is an exceptionally good food naturally high in vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants or omega-3 fatty acids.  These foods are good for improving one's health and for boosting the immune system. 

Herbs

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How Does Your Garden Grow?

5/14/2018

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WOW!  The cooler temperatures are gone and my gardens are growing like weeds!  Oh... the weeds are also growing in the garden, but so far I've been able to keep up with most of the weeding.  Check out these pictures from before and after a two week trip I just returned from.  Can't believe how much things grew during my absence.  Scroll on down to find out what all is growing on the farm.

Before

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After

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What's growing on the farm?

On the arch gardens, we have several varieties of heirloom squash, watermelon, pumpkins and gourds growing with a few marigolds and nasturtium mixed in for insect control.  Inside the arch gardens we have a variety of heirloom tomatoes.  One will also find a few hay bales in one of the arches growing a mix of lettuce and carrots.  It will be interesting to see how the carrots grow in the bales!  During my time away from the farm, the swiss chard growing in one bale did not make it.  Down he side on one garden you can see the okra off to a good start.

We have additional hay bales growing rhubarb, collards, yellow squash and both green and gold zucchini.  I can't wait to try the gold zucchini!

The raised beds contain a variety of herbs, beets, kale, broccoli and various other veggies. 

This year we started a small blueberry patch.  So far it looks like we will have a few berries to harvest and sell at our Farm-To-You events.  The blackberry patch we started last year, and greatly expanded this year, is off to a great start.  We are not expecting to harvest many berries this year.  Our hope is to have a large harvest in the next couple of years.

Whenever possible, we grow heirloom and/or organic varieties of vegetables.  Our goal is to totally avoid GMO varieties.

We are a small farm with several small gardens that produce an abundance of foods.  If you would like to learn how to grow a lot of food in a very small space, check out our workshops!

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