Hard Rain, Full Freezers

First off, thanks again for you all’s continued trust and support of our farm. Amy stays on the go all the time. She’s a full-time mom, teacher, farmer, and everything else. She made multiple meat deliveries this week in addition to the Abingdon Farmers Market every Saturday. She always comes home exhausted, but she always comes home telling me the same thing. “We have the best customers,” is a phrase I hear from her on a regular basis. We know it’s not convenient for you to come to the market on a Saturday morning or meet us in a parking lot somewhere during the week. We appreciate the sacrifices you make and the hours many of you drive to feed your family ORVF meats. And we appreciate your forgiveness and understanding when we (most likely me) mess up your order. Whether you continue to eat our meats or not, thank you for prioritizing eating local, for prioritizing your health and the health of your family, for caring about the health of the animals and the land. You all keep us going and give us hope. 

Sunday’s afternoon of rest consisted of family fun across the mountain at Hungry Mother State Park. 

Mother nature is making up for lost time. Pouring buckets. Springs are overflowing. The farm reservoir is full for the first time in weeks. The pastures are soaking up these showers like a sponge. I got soaked as I finished moving pigs to a new paddock Wednesday afternoon. Soaked again moving chickens and taking care of chores on Thursday. After this dry spell we’ve had, I didn’t mind getting rained on. I think the kids were as excited about the rain as I was. 

Yesterday’s rain would’ve been a good chance to catch up on paperwork and admin stuff that I’ve been saving for a rainy day. But to be honest, I didn’t. Other than chores, I didn’t do much. 

Our reservoir is not the only thing overflowing this week. Our freezers are also as full as they’ve ever been. We got beef from 12 cows back from Mays Meats and pork from 10 hogs we took to Anderson & Sons. Next week we’ll be putting our last batch of chicken in the freezers. 

Not only did we put thousands of pounds of meat in the freezers, we got a lot of it back out to fill this months beef herd shares and then put it back in again. It’s hard to tell how many boxes or pounds of meat Amy and I both carried in and out of freezers this week. Hallie did her fair share of carrying 50 lb boxes as well. 

It’s been a while, but we finally fired the smoker back up to smoke four Boston butts and four beef briskets. ORVF pulled pork and smoked brisket is back in stock. Until it’s gone. 

This week presented it’s typical yet atypical set of challenges. For starters, the tractor wouldn’t start (no pun intended). Acting like a battery problem, but after multiple failed attempts at jumping it off, it still sits there. The auger on the pig feed bin isn’t working. A new one is ordered and on the way. Just trying to figure out what to do between now and then. Finally, I pulled one of our chicken shelters apart. I’m continuously tacking on boards and adding screws here and there as needed for repairs, but this might be the first one I’m considering dragging off to the burn pile. Fortunately, with the end of the chicken season around the corner, we had some vacant shelters that I just moved the chickens into. 

After last nights winds, I’m sure more chicken shelter repairs will be in store. This morning all but two of the lids were blown off the shelters. I felt like I was being flown around like a kite trying to put them back on. I’m sure they’re blown back off again by now. Power is out. Thankful for the rain, but hopefully the storm will subside soon. Prayers for all those being hit hard by the storm. 

Speaking of chickens, we did some inventory on our remaining whole chickens. If you’re interested in signing up for a whole chicken share (1 chicken every month for a year), we have 5 spots left. We are sold out of chicken part shares. 

This week on the road and out farming, I finished listening to “The Gospel’s Power & Message” by Paul Washer. 

“The marvel of the gospel is not that God chose love over justice, but that he was able to remain just while granting forgiveness in love.”

He has a pretty churchy take on the power of the gospel that I didn’t necessarily disagree with, but I felt it incomplete. I believe God is all-powerful. But it’s not his power that makes God good. It’s his willingness to limit his own power for the sake of love that makes God good. To make love possible, God voluntarily put limitations on his own power in order to empower us with free will. 

We are not preprogrammed robots. If God used his power to force us to love and do good, what kind of love would that be? He designed us to love, but love cannot be enforced through use of power. He wants us to choose love. Which means we also have the power to not choose love. He doesn’t want us to rebel, but for the sake of love, he allows us to rebel if we choose. Our rebellion comes with pain and suffering to ourselves and the world around us. Then we get mad at God for not using his power to fix it. 

A world of love requires free will. Us having free will opens the door to a world of problems. How then does a good God use his power to fix the problems of the world without interfering with the free will that love requires? In a word: faith. God put faith in us by giving us free will to begin with. He put faith in us by giving us authority to rule over his creation. He already chose to put his faith in us, when when we choose to put our faith in him, that’s when the power of the gospel is revealed. Not solely in the power of God, but in the relationship between us and God.

He knew we would rebel. He knew it would bring trouble. He knew we would blame the world’s troubles on him. And he was willing to take the blame. All for love. He chose us, though it cost him everything. In hopes that we would choose him. Even if it costs us everything. 

Have a good week.

Will