Chicken Season, Garden Tilling, Cattle Drive, Point Man
And the chicken season begins. We have our first group of baby chicks in the brooder. Another 300 chicks on their way to the farm today. We’ll keep them in the brooder for about 3 weeks with heat lamps before putting them out on pasture in the chicken shelters. We’ll start harvesting these chickens on the farm in June which means no ORVF chicken to sell between now and then. Having a seasonal chicken production, we try to stock up our chicken inventory for the off season. We’ve been out of breasts, tenders, and wings for months. This week Amy sold the rest of the chicken parts as well as the whole chickens. I think she saved some chicken for the 4th Annual ORVF Cookout May 25th. Mark your calendars. And if you want pasture raised chicken in June, Amy is taking orders. Or if you’d like a whole chicken share or a chicken parts share this coming year, please let us know.
Amy and the kids delivered meat to Knoxville on Monday, then came back for their last weekly homeschool co-op meeting of the school year at our church on Tuesday. Considering the school year’s rocky start last fall at the end of the chicken season, Amy feels good about their progress made and the curriculum they’ve covered through the winter months. Only a few weeks of homeschooling left. Everyone is looking for a break from school this summer, aside from reading. Their time spent in studies will soon be spent with the chickens.
One educational point of emphasis this summer will be in the garden. For years Amy had a small garden in the backyard, but when Carter was born and we listed our house for sale a couple years ago, the garden was too much to keep up with along with everything else. Most produce Amy gets from the farmer’s market while she’s there on Saturdays. It’s great. We’re thankful for all the farmers in our area that devote themselves to feeding their communities. Although it’s a lot easier to not fool with the garden and just shop and barter at the farmer’s market, we love the idea of growing our food and want our kids to get their hands dirty this summer.
A garden is a miraculous thing. Dead seeds in contact with good soil at the right season bringing them to life. Life that produces food to sustain our lives. Through the grace of God and the work of the gardener. It was not by accident that Adam and Eve were placed the garden of Eden to work it. So much to be learned about life from the garden. So much not learned without it. So this week we borrowed my uncle’s tiller and worked up a small patch of ground behind our home. I’m sure there will be times where it is neglected this summer when things get crazy. I’m sure the reality of the garden won’t measure up to the ideal, but many lessons can be learned, even from the weeds that desire to take the ground back over.
We had a big cattle round up this week as we transition from winter feeding to spring grazing. Desiree, who’s back at the cabin for her third time, helped block the road and turn the cows into the barn lane. A lot can go wrong while trying to drive 100 head of cattle about a mile up the road. A lot certainly would’ve gone wrong if not for my brother John’s help in the endeavor. His lifetime of experience around cattle has equipped him with a sense of where to be and how to handle them. Not only did he help with the cows, he helped pass on his cattle knowledge and experience to Hallie and Hasten, who hang on to every word that comes from their Uncle John. The round up was a success. Then Amy and I sorted out the oldest and biggest of the herd that will be harvested throughout the next few months.
Lots of mowing this week. On top of our yard, I mowed and trimmed around the barn area and the yards at both rental cabins. I finished the mowing just in time to go with Amy to the Bristol and Kingsport meat deliveries. Of course a stop for ice cream on the way home to make the date official.
I’ve been listening to “Point Man: How A Man Can Lead His Family” by Steve Farrar. He talks about how families have changed. The strength of society is directly tied to the strength of the families that comprise it. As the family structure falls apart, so society falls apart. If God’s desire is a family that he can share eternity with, the devil’s desire is to tear that family apart. How better to tear the family apart than to divide the husband from the wife? To make men weak leaders of their household. Or make them no leaders at all.
“What will turn the tide in the war on the family? In the months prior to last presidential election, I heard many evangelicals talk about the necessity of electing a Christian president. ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have a committed Christian in the White House,’ they asked. I would like to suggest something else that in my opinion would have far greater impact. If hundreds of thousands of men seriously began to lead their own homes, the impact on America would be far greater than one Christian man leading in the White House.”
“In 1750 farming was the most important occupation of all people. The ordinary man was a farmer and lived in a village. He raised his own food. And unless he was near a large town, he grew little more than he needed… The ordinary man bought little outside his village… Notice how life was built around the home prior to the Industrial Revolution. Four out of five Americans were farmers. Men worked at home. Women worked at home, and so did the children. Their jobs were different, but everyone worked. The pattern remained the same as it had for centuries… The point is clear: prior to the Industrial Revolution, the normal pattern was for fathers to raise their sons. They were together nearly every waking hour, but this continuous style of family life was soon to change.”
“The test of leadership is crisis… I know that some of you right now are in the biggest storm of your lives. I have written this to encourage you to get your roots deep into the Bible. That’s what will keep you strong and steady in the storm.”
“Prayer and scripture go together, and we are most effective when we have a good balance of the two. The man who studies the Bible without praying will develop a good mind with a cold heart. The man who prays without knowing scripture will consistently pray outside the will of God, for that is where his will is revealed. This balance is critical to standing firm in spiritual battle.”
To emphasize this point, Farrar references Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 6:17-18 - “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”
Have a good week.
Will