Thursday, May 26, 2011

Turns Out....




Remember "Norman the Lonely"?

Turns out, he is a SHE. Did you know that male Indian Runner ducks don't quack? Well, "Norman" does. She will henceforth be known as Nora, if we can kick the habit of calling her a he. ;)

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

It's the Little Things

My dear friend Joy sent this to me via e-mail recently, and it touched my heart.

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books. I thought to myself, 'Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd.'

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on. As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him...


He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes.


My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye. As I handed him his glasses, I said, 'Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives.’


He looked at me and said, 'Hey thanks!' There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.


I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He said he had gone to private school before now. I would have never hung out with a private school kid before. We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends. He said yes. We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him.


Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again.


I stopped him and said, 'Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books every day!’ He just laughed and handed me half the books.



Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends.

When we were seniors we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown and I was going to Duke. I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem.


He was going to be a doctor and I was going for business on a football scholarship.

Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about being a nerd. He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and speak.

Graduation day, I saw Kyle.


He looked great. He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses. He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him.
Boy, sometimes I was jealous! Today was one of those days.

I could see that he was nervous about his speech.


So, I smacked him on the back and said, 'Hey, big guy, you'll be great!'


He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled....' Thanks,' he said.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began ...'Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach...but mostly your friends....I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a story.'

I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the first day we met.


He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home.


He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile.



'Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable.'

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment. I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile.
Not until that moment did I realize its depth.


Never underestimate the power of your actions. With one small gesture you can change a person's life. For better or for worse. God puts us all in each other’s lives to impact one another in some way. Look for God in others.


'Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.'


There is no beginning or end. Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift.



I have a firm belief in this, that with a small gesture you can make all the difference. I have been told of my actions having this effect, but much more importantly to me, I have had others follow promptings to reach out to me, and through that, have changed my perspective on life and how I feel about myself.

Some of you may have heard this from me before, but it was pivotal to me so I will share it again. Last summer, during a point of confusion and great difficulty in my life, I received a phone call. I was in a bad place, so I probably let the call go to voice mail when it came through, but it came from a friend who, bless her heart, admittedly "didn't know why [she] was calling" and then went on to tell me that she had been thinking about needing to call me for a few days. Please note, we weren't that close at the time. I knew her, I respected her, and I believed she had positive feelings towards me, but the idea that she was receiving and listening to promptings on my behalf, especially where it had to feel so awkward to call....

She went on to let me know that she was there for me and a few other lovely sentiments. But what moved my heart so much was when she spoke, "I want you to know that I love you." The power of those words, spoken with such sincerity, by someone with no obligation to say them, buckled my knees and brought me to tears. I needed so badly at that very moment to hear that someone loved me.

This message remains to this day in my voice mailbox.

We are God's angels and agents. His work cannot go forward without us doing as He asks. And part of what He asks is that we ask whom we should help. Many times it will feel awkward, and we might wonder why, or if what we do might make someone else uncomfortable, but we have to do it. It's for our growth, but at the same time, you never really know what kind of an impact you can make. And we will be responsible for those missed opportunities.

I believe that Christ attained His level of perfection in deep correlation to His constant devoted service to others. We've all heard the saying, "God is Love." There is a reason for that. Every person on this planet has their own personal struggles, failings, and pain. But we are not designed to suffer them alone. And the beauty of reaching out with love is how it beautifies and edifies every person involved. There are no losers in the scenario. Even if you reach out and are rejected, you are free to receive the blessings waiting in store for you, and I firmly believe, that the positive energy you offered to someone else does not go to waste. It plants itself in the other person's heart, whether they know it or not.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here on loving service. But what I guess I feel like I'm trying to say, perhaps for myself more than any of you, is that no offering is too small, particularly if its an offering you know Father wants you to make. As in my example, it wasn't anything as devastating as turning the tides on a suicide. Regardless, I would say that one phone call did in fact change my life. You never know the far-reaching effect you may have. But He does. Each of His children have particular gifts designed to build up and create goodness. We can't see all the time how our gifts might help, or even what our gifts are. But He does, and can, and will, teach us what they are and how to use them.

Thank you for all the ways you reach out to me and offer support. I can't tell you how the most basic of unsolicited encouragement lifts my soul. You each have so much "wonderful" inside of you. Thank you so much for sharing it with me, and with the world around you. This world...it's a more beautiful place because of you.



Friday, May 6, 2011

Bringing the Crew Up to Speed

2011. This year has been eventful so far. Particularly on the homestead. And...frankly...particularly in a negative way. We've had our share of successes, too, but *sighing and shaking head.* I LOVE Sam for his energy and focus and wanting to do this for our family, and what it has taught us all. But, what happened in the first few months of this year...well, they are exactly the reason why I didn't want to marry a farmer!

Growing up in a rural ag community, so much hangs on the crops. I remember from a very young age being on edge, worrying about the words "blight" and "drought" etc. coming up in conversations. I remember being so concerned about hard frosts and too much rain, or too little rain, or rain too early or too late in the season. I hated it. I wanted nothing to do with that kind of stress that was completely outside the scope of human control.

And, yet, here I am, back in the middle of it.

True, and thankfully, our livelihood does not depends upon it. But, I'm beginning to wonder if it is just as difficult on me emotionally! Okay, probably not, but still!

We had several does kid early this year. We had so many kids! It was awesome! Every time a new baby anything is born, it's a wonderful experience. I sort of felt, "Wow, we might come ahead in the game this time." We had several stillborns, at least one for each kidding, which was not fun, but as we only had one batch of doubles, it wasn't a big deal. Just one of those things. UNTIL the boys started dying.

It was concerning to me that all the stillborns were male, but when the other males started getting sick, it was a big deal to me. All these babies had the same sire and it was FREAKING me out. Was there some serious genetic defect he was passing on to his male babies??

One thing I've learned this year is that goats, as herd animals, won't manifest symptoms of illness unless extremely ill. I mean, there are symptoms, if you pay attention to your herd. You can tell if one of your animals is looking or acting "off," but if they are sick with something you haven't seen before, if you find them acting ill, like lethargic, lying on the ground, moaning, those types of things, your goat is already at death's door. To let on earlier is a sign of weakness reflecting on the entire herd, and the instinctive programming won't allow that. So, at death's door is how we kept finding our kids. It got so bad, I almost didn't want to enter the barn everyday, I was so concerned about what I would find. I got to the point that I didn't know if I could handle one more goat dying.

Every time, Sam and I would try to nurse them back to health. Sam's medical background is very helpful around the homestead, and it was nice to feel like we were helping a little. But, in the end, there was nothing we could do. Each time, we'd bring them in the house, tube feed them, give IV fluids, work to keep them warm. Every time they would improve, look like they were getting stronger and healing, and then....

It's rough raising animals that are "exotic" enough to the United States that vets don't know all that much about them, so we were doing a lot of trial and error and relying on the internet a lot. Finally, we were able to capture a stool sample and the vet did finally diagnose a parasite. So, we knew what to do with the rest of them, thankfully, but not before we lost three little boys.

And THEN...grrrr. In December we decided we needed a barn dog to fend off the possibility of the fox who decimated our chicken brood last year, including our rooster, returning. As it turned out, dogs are not the best guard animals for goats. One of our favorite kid girls was lost to this animal last month. Needless to say, we no longer have a barn dog.

Next adventure: ducks. Sam's been very concerned about our pest population, particularly the Japanese beetles that have been mentioned in previous posts. We don't want to use pesticides, so it takes getting a little creative, and looking into several different methods. One of them is DUCKS. Who knew? :) Not me. Apparently, they are great foragers. So, we invested in 20 Indian Runner eggs to incubate and add the results to our farm. UNFORTUNATELY, the egg turner got unplugged at some point, which left us with ONE surviving duck.

Dubbed "Norman the Lonely," :) he is something of a miracle. He should not have survived, and yet he did! We have our suspicions about his...um...soundness :) but he's kind of fun to have around, nonetheless.

Here he is, starting to lose his baby feathers, and his downy white is starting to come in. We don't even know if he's really a boy :) but he makes us laugh.

Norman loves to follow his people around. His favorite place to be is between our feet. LOL. This has resulted in more than one inadvertent kick that has sent Norman tumbling. Not enough to deter him, because he still walks there. Whatever makes him happy, I guess.

To make up for our losses with the Indian Runners, Sam ordered some Welsh Harlequin ducklings. We decided to not mess around with incubating eggs this time. (Hooray!) They arrived earlier in the week. Aren't they sweet?

We are also taking on the challenge of pigs again this year. I used to love pigs. Now, not so much. YUCK. But, it's difficult to argue with the striking argument the freezer full of delicious makes.



Sam's been fantastic, listening to all of my complaints and trying to rectify them. I didn't want the pigs rooting up the pasture land. I didn't want the huge holes in ground. I didn't want to deal with the smell if I could avoid it at all. I wanted the feeding and watering system improved. :) I really did not want to do pigs again. So, he did his homework, as he is so good at doing, and found solutions across the board. He continually impresses me.

I still don't like the pigs. Which is good, I guess, because they will be dinner someday. :) But, at least they aren't a "problem" anymore.

So, there you go, crew. :) That's what we've been doing around here, as far as the animals go. I still need to fill you in on all the work Sam's done in the garden, but that will be another post. Fun times! :) We love our little Serenity Farm!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

We Have News...

It seems come the end of August, we will have one very happy daddy.

We are having a BOY!

We are excited and trepidatious about this new adventure...two girls set you in a slightly different rhythm, but I grew up with four boys...so, it shouldn't feel too unfamiliar, right? ;)