"Twas three days after Christmas....

'Twas three days after Christmas and all through the house
All the children were stirring as if they had louse
Itchy with boredom; wiggly with sight
How could they survive this week, this day, and this night?

There's mom in a frantic, a frenzy and a fury.
Clean up your room, pick up your clothes,
Wash the laundry, use your new game
And please, please, please, why do I feel so lame?

There's snow in the field and a chill in the air
The wind whips around houses with a cold wintry flare.
How come the Season has ended this way?
How can I help and repair the day's sleigh?

I'd liked to be playing, resting, or reading
But the trappings of Christmas require some weeding
The papers pile high, the boxes as well
Why in the world do I clean with a yell?

But sitting down resting, taking a spell
I practice what I know can ring those Christmas bells
Focus on the King, the Savior, the Child
And then I will find joy in the midst of this wild.

Wintery Reflections

The snow falls quietly. Drifting through the skeletonized branches of resting trees. Slowly settling on fence posts, beehives, roofs, and fields. While inside the colored lights flicker on the Christmas tree, the presents pile in their brilliant colors, and the cacophony of sight, sounds, and smells overtake the underlying reality of disorder, disarray, and disorganization.

I sat in church yesterday marveling at the beauty and wonder of the Season. The sanctuary was decorated in golds, reds, and greens while yellow-white lights glimmered and shone around wreaths and trees decorated with chains of red and gold. Every detail seemed in its perfect place. The music was traditional and memory making. And my heart was warmed and calmed.

Order, beauty, peace and hope.

That is what Jesus brings to all who would come.

But just as snow gently falling can turn to a dangerous howling blowing blizzard, so too can the Season.

Look at the manger. Tired and amazed Mary. Protective and adoring Joseph. And the Baby. He came and changed the world.

May you find order, beauty, peace and hope today from the Savior who became a Baby.

Today's Journey Joy: The Baby

Cleaned through the Fire

Cold and windy. Blustery and gray. Dry crackling leaves. Crunchy remains of trees. Coals warm and red. The dance of the flame. The laughter of those dancing around the heat.

Winter begins.

And so starts the cold. The branches gathered throughout the summer and into the autumn chill are stacked skyscraper-ish and lit with glowing embers of wooden coals. "Snap!" "Pop!" "Crack!" "Whoosh!" sing the flames. And the heat radiates and warms our faces.

In the cold and beginning of winter I am reminded that there is One who always warms us. When my heart is cold and wind tossed the Artist creates a palate of warmth and love. Remember the warmth my friends. Remember the love.

When the cold winds blow in this season of rest remember it is He Who keeps us.

Journey Joy - warmth

Let the shelling begin

This past weekend was a busy one. Tucking the gardens in, burning brush piles, moving soil, grading landscape in preparation for fencing.... and shelling popcorn. My son's friend came over and lent us a helping hand.

They took the dried cobs and twisted them in the manual popcorn de-sheller. Basically just a lot of muscling, twisting wrists, and flying popcorn.... After about 45 minutes (the boys gave up after 5), I had almost ten pounds. It still needs to be sifted of the debris but it it almost ready for packaging. But of course we had to try it to ensure its organaleptic properties. Does it look good? Smell good? Texture? Does it pop well? And most important, does it taste good? "Yes" to all of the above. Wonderful white kernels.... yum.

My daughter decided that she would be the ultimate taste tester. Did the popcorn pass? Definitely. There was not even a kernel left. I guess that's a hit!

Today's Journey Joy - Popped white and delicious corn

Popcorn

It started as a dream. A fantasy if you will. Books were read. Websites browsed. Information gleaned. Could we make our little farm profitable? Could we grow and aid in the nourishment and management of the earth? Could we?

The year started with the planting and preparation of 1200 blueberry plants. Then it was on to the fields. Well.... field. We have only one relatively flat area on our property. The blueberry field took up two of the five acres. So three acres of roughly flat untilled soil awaited us. The field had been in hay / grass for as long as folks around here can remember. Last year the yield was more grass than alfalfa. It would have been time to replant either way.

The spring rains came. And came. And came. More rain than the soil could use. More rain followed by more rain. It rained almost every other day for a couple of months. We are now over 13 inches of rainfall above our average for the year. That's more than one third of our total average. But I digress.

The rain made it very difficult to till the soil and get the crops in. And then the machinery troubles began. Well, only one machine. Our trusty, handy dandy, wonderful John Deere 2210 with the JD 450 rototiller... the machine that we use to till the soil.... the tractor broke. And it wasn't a little break. It broke bad. It would cost more to repair it than the tractor was worth.

Time delay. Tractor hunting and researching. Finally settling on a JD 3720 with a nifty JD 672 rototiller (a full six feet of tilling power!). But we had to wait three weeks. More delay. Spring was fast escaping. Our wonderful neighbors to the rescue. They let me borrow their tractor to till. It was time to plant. Finally.

The popcorn went in last. (I was waiting for the seeds). I measured, marked, and dug for the little seeds. 20 rows. 20 long rows. They came up fast. So did the grass. Which would succeed?

Remember this? I was weeding and weeding in July. Hoping to keep up and ahead of the weeds. Hoping to give the popcorn a fighting chance. I was close to giving up that day. The weeds were so plentiful.


It survived! It thrived. The weeding followed by some grass mulch left the soil between the green stalks clear. They tasseled and grew. And corn developed.

I harvested this past weekend. The stalks were brown, bent and the ears listed toward the earth. The local raccoons and other critters took their share out of the middle. That's to be expected when one doesn't put up the electric fence. But there was plenty for us. I took buckets and buckets of popcorn ears down to the basement for drying. In a few weeks the beautiful hard, but not quite dry, kernels will be stripped off and tested in a pan. Then to packaging and labeling for Christmas presents and spring markets. Hand sown, hand weeded, hand picked and harvested, hand dekernelled (what do you call the process of getting the kernels off the cob?) and hand packaged. Lots of love in these little kernels.

"Pop! Pop! Pop!" I can hardly wait. Perhaps this year we will string popcorn for our Christmas tree. Our popcorn. Sigh.... and Smile.

Today's Journey Joy: a fine harvest of golden kernels

The Market is Finished

Today was the final day of our Great Pumpkin Sale. Yesterday, was the final day of the Farmer's market. Our first year is finished. Strange.... how when I was packing up the tables, canopy, baskets, buckets, signs, table cloths, and left over produce.... strange...odd... and amazing...were my thoughts. So glad to be done. I am tired and am looking forward to one day a week sleeping until 7:00. But I will miss my many new friends. Friends from the market. Vendors as well as customers.

There's Ray, next to me on my left. He sells hand made birdhouse, feeders, tables, and other wooden crafts. He told me he was 84. He is the nicest gentleman. Always encouraging. Always helpful. And always kind. He even brought me coffee!

Sara was on my right. She too is very nice. She sells beef, pork and lamb. She and her daughter would pull right up, put their table out, don some beautifully made aprons and enjoy the day. They would always man my table when I had to be away (you know, nature calls sometimes! Especially if you are drinking coffee).

I can't tell you enough about the people I met. There's Nancy, Ann, the tomato man, the lady whom I introduced to summer squash and garlic and who would come every week, the young lady with her beautiful daughter who would buy from me because I didn't spray artificial stuff on my vegetables. So many. Wonderful faces. Wonderful smiles. Wonderful people.

The pumpkin sale at the farm was a great success. Not just because we sold about 200 pumpkins. More importantly we met our neighbors. Sure, we know our immediate neighbors. But those down or up the road? No. We see them drive by. Now, when they drive by they smile and wave. I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting these folks. One couple in particular have touched my heart. Mark and Gina. They live down the road. They are special people with special hearts. Warm, open, loving. Neat people. I hope to get to know them more.

I am still thinking about the lessons I have learned this year. Perhaps I will share it. But mostly I am left with a gladness and thankfulness. It was a lot of work, a lot of joy, a lot of time. But it was good.

I still need to harvest the rest of the popcorn and sunflowers. Then it's time to clean the gardens, mow the weeds, and till the leaves in. I will plant 500 cloves of garlic and mulch them. So the work isn't over yet. But there is an end in sight.

Today's Journey Joy: Completion

The Great Pumpkin Sale

I am so thankful for computers and laser color printers. You see, my artistic ability is limited to stick figures and painting houses... whole houses, not pictures of them. I think the sign turned out pretty. I glued it on a 22 x 28 inch foam board and laminated it with clear contact paper to protect it from the elements. "Pumpkin Sale... Sundays 1 - 4". My resourceful husband got some 20 foot rebar and cut it into ten foot sections and bent it into a frame. He then drilled holes in the sign and attached it to the bar with zip ties. It worked well. Looks very professional!

The question was whether people would come to the sale or not. It's not like we did a ton of advertising. We put three signs up and placed the sale on the local free classifieds for our area.

The day turned out to be a lovely day. It was about 65 degrees with patchy clouds and a breeze. We had washed a trailer load of pumpkins and gourds the afternoon before the first sale. And we set up my Farmer's Market canopy and tables. To the pumpkin sale we added berries, squash, gourds and tomatoes and peppers. We also had a table of our Beacon Woods Honey (just harvested!).

We had many people stop. Most of them were neighbors that we hadn't met yet. That was special. Most of them said that they had seen us working all summer and were curious to see what was going on. And most of them purchased at least 2 pumpkins. One nice gentleman and and his beautiful wife also bought one of my biggest jars (1/2 gallon) of honey.

We spoke of our dreams of the farm, of planting the orchard in the spring, of picking blueberries in July and of maybe setting up a farm stand once a week next summer. Most of our new friends were very enthusiastic about the whole idea. "This will be so good for the neighborhood." was a comment often mentioned.

We have about 500 pumpkins left. Yikes! Good thing I'm still going to the Farmer's Market on Saturdays. Hopefully, over the next three weeks we can sell them. But I must admit I'm a little discouraged. We maybe had about 15 cars stop. I was hoping for more like 50 (you know me... always dreaming!). But next week might be better. We asked many of the nice folks who stopped to spread the word and they said they would. But I am also a little discouraged because the local Walmart and local food stores are selling pumpkins either at the same price or slightly cheaper. Do we reduce our price? I believe it is a fair one. It is awful hard to compete with those megastores. But we have more variety... and are certainly more friendly! ☺ And are chemical free.

Seas of orange with brown leaves rustling. Windy breezes with gusts of chill. Canadian honkers soaring in V - shapes. Daylight shortening. Flowers fading. And pumpkins harvested. All sure signs that autumn is here with the rest and quiet of winter to quickly follow. I am thankful for the pumpkins and the signs of autumn. I am looking forward to resting.

Today's Journey Joy: pumpkins at the market