As the snow came down in huge, wet, cold flakes I immediately started to pray for the Lord to save our fruit. Our spring started with beautiful blooms absolutely covering our trees. Every tree. It brought tears to my eyes to see the benefit of a year of jubilee. As I prayed the Lord reminded me that only by Him do we have fruit at all. Physically and spiritually this is true because every good and perfect gift is from the Lord right!? He reminds me that first in the natural, then in the spiritual. This concept of snow on our trees threatening our fruit is the same as trials in our life effecting our spiritual fruit.

The rules of this world are subject to it’s maker. In the case of the trees, I have not lost hope for fruit, do I more easily lose hope for fruit in my life? 1 Peter 4:12-13 says “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy”. This is a promise I see playing out in our trees. How much more will I rejoice when fruit shows after this snow storm threat?

“Exceedingly”!

For those of us enduring fiery trials, be encouraged: when Jesus died on the cross it wasn’t the end, it was the beginning. When we die to ourselves it’s not the end, it’s the beginning. The beginning of exceeding joy that would have been lessened possibly… if learned without trial?

As the year of Jubilee draws to a close more and more I think about the chain of events in this year.

How often can you place yourself in a specific time of your life and remember knowing exactly what was going on in that time frame? Most of you cannot place any. Many of us will assume we knew then because we know now. Some of us will go so far as to lie and say they understood it the whole time. The truth is, we don’t get it, because we have to travel thru it to learn something new. Something NEW. New, means we DIDN’T understand it before. Therefore I tell you, you can’t list the timeframes where you knew because well…. You didn’t.

Why am I bringing this up on a gardening website? It all started with Jubilee….. My year started with feeding my fall seedlings to my chickens, no spring garden and ended with all my goats gone (some dead) and almost all my chickens picked off by owls. That’s just the gardening/animal side of my life. It also included a grand plan for my husband to quit his 65k job and take a 12k job whiling starting up a new business. Don’t forget we have 5 children….. All attainable if you cash out the retirement and pay off the debts right? Sure!! Its Jubilee…. Year of debts being wiped away right? Fresh start right?? Except the time came to quit and he did, and there was no retirement money for 1 whole year. Run and go back right? No. We had to press forward because this is what God had called us too. It was the year of Jubilee alright and He was going to free us first from our spiritual debt, then the rest will come later.

So where was my spiritual debt in gardening? Goats? Chickens?? I mean seriously, how much spiritual gunk can one find in chickens? Apparently…. Tons. I started this website thinking and being told by God that I would help people who were worshiping idols such as the creation. He told be all about the troubles you have. I of course thought I didn’t have…. Again, how do you know what the timeframe is about if it is going to teach you something new….. I truly thought I had tackled this stuff. I hadn’t. Let me tell you a story that I believe started it all.

I was digging a hole. LOL what a start to a story… Anyway, I was planting new trees the Lord had given us for 50% off the 50% off price! What a deal! It was a pear tree (though I don’t think that matters). I asked the Lord “how many people are we going to feed with these trees you blessed us with?” “Thousands, 100’s of thousands”, came the answer. As you can imagine I rejoiced! “Is this what you called us to do then?” Promptly I received the answer. Clear as day, “no” He said. “What??, why the heck am I digging a hole then?” “Because you seek me here. I bless it because this is where you meet with me”. Somewhat devastated but feeling a little soothed I finished the tree planting. The “what are we called to?” question racked my brain for weeks. Months. Slowly I received the answers. We were called to feed people spiritually first, called to minister to young couples, called to write this blog. However the full answer came to me today. I’m called to do nothing lest my father in heaven says so.

Lets review. Called to write a blog to help people with problems they had I didn’t right? Wrong. My idol? Preparation, security in knowledge and provisions and the garden. How does God become your provider, Jehovah Jireh, if you think you can do it all yourself? Second idol, outside. Hiding from my marital and family problems outside. Outside gave me time to cool off, time to work it out. Right? Wrong. Outside gave me a way to ignore the problem and not communicate it to my family. All the while leaving them wondering if I would come back in happy or sad. Third idol, garden “prayer time”. I truly thought that my gardening was prayer time. I was informed by Jesus that is was “whine at God time”. Nothing is wrong with taking things to Jesus that you’re struggling with however, if you are doing all the talking, what kind of relationship is that? If Jesus met with me in the garden because I would be there, couldn’t he meet with me at my dishes? Laundry? Driving? Eating? Showers? Schooltime? Answer… YES!!! I didn’t want to meet there. I wanted to meet in the garden…. Hence…. Idol.

It felt good to provide for my family. It felt good to grow something and watchhard work produce something. It felt good to go outside and relax where no one was talking and I didn’t have to parent or wife for a minute. Those things ARE good. They are not good when done with the wrong motivation. Faith, not fear, should propel our every move. How can it be by faith if you haven’t heard to do it from the Lord? You can’t. This year I’ve watched Jesus provide for us in ways unimaginable, with truly nothing to do but pray “Lord, keep doing what you’re doing”. In the hardest parts of this year, (45 days past due on most of my bills if not further, dead or dieing animals around me, dead or dieing trees around) the one thing I KNEW….. This was what God had called us to. I couldn’t judge my success this year in the worldly ways of security and well-being. I HAD to judge it by obedience. The more we obeyed the more the Lord provided in other things. Love for my husband, joy in my children, and security in Him. Peace truly in my life. You don’t get those things with your bills paid and your self-sufficient homestead I don’t care how much you say you do, unless they are what God has called you to.

Miraculously, (ha ha sarcasm here) every time I sought Jesus elsewhere than the garden, he was there. I admit, I sought Him less because I didn’t know how to seek Him elsewhere fully yet. So this is why He started stripping me of everything I would “do” to seek Him; gardening, outside, goats and eventually chickens. Till finally I cried out to Him in desperation “Lord, take it all if that’s what keeps me from you”! Suddenly, we were making progress! Suddenly I could hear him when I drove again, see Him in the scriptures I read to my children, lie down and hear him during prayer service at church. Suddenly, I get it. If I seek Him everywhere I go, in everything I do, then I don’t have any idols, I have worship of Jesus and Him alone. I don’t need a garden to do that.

I need to address something briefly. Is God a “Mean God” by stripping me? No. If I would have listened fully in the beginning, there wouldn’t have been anything to strip. I would have just set it down. It wouldn’t have to be ripped from my hands like a toy a kid is clinging to after winning the tug-a-war with another kid over the toy. I’m sorry, I’m cracking up at myself here…. The visual is hilarious to me. The look of pure horror on the toddlers face as we mom’s explain how sharing works… This was totally my face during parts of this year.

My children and husband have been freed from things also and amidst all this learning obedience, God has blessed us with a 6th child. He’s not a mean God, He’s a just a righteous one that wants us to move from fear of a spanking for disobedience, toward obedience because we want to part of the team, part of the plan, part of the miracle of this thing called a relationship with Him.

I challenge you, ask yourself a few questions. Who is my provider really? Why do I garden? Why do I have animals? Why do I like being outside? Why do I like my yard to look nice? If those answers don’t include obedience to a calling from Jesus, do something about it, quick. Repent, ask and obey. Desire His will for your life. Trust me, it’s the best life you could imagine.

Amen

If you search for information online about GMO’s you may become overwhelmed at the intensity of opinions on both sides. To sum up, one side is saving the world one crop at a time, the other is convinced GMO’s are the world’s demise. Let me clarify. It’s neither.

Having an easier time raising huge amounts of the same crop in one area can be very convincing toward hunger issues. However, Jesus said a man who doesn’t work doesn’t eat. A few good farmers providing ALL the food was never part of the plan.  Adam was told that by the sweat of his brow he will eat his food… So I’m a firm believer that each of us must take at least a small part in growing our food. If we all did, we could give and trade an abundance available.

On the other side, GMO’s are NOT the end of the world. Sin is. He says He will surely burn up this world due to the sin residing in it. “Global Warming” is not how he plans to do it. Furthermore, GMO’s are NOT the root to every sickness. Again, sin is. There are consequential sin sicknesses such is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11 concerning the communion, also mentioned in Proverbs 14:30 that envy is rottenness to the bones. There are also sicknesses that reside because of sin in this world and it falling short of the glory it was originally made in. For example the flu or cold virus and other bacteria that attack us. Each sickness needs to be individually assessed and addressed. We can NOT put blanket causes on things though we’d like to.

So then the question arises…. Why No GMO? Well, simply put, God didn’t design it that way. I feared GMO’s as much as the next guy before the Lord told me that I cannot do anything fear based. Only Faith based. So He showed me what to have faith in. It’s in the beginning…. Surprise surprise I know…. Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. Then He said it was good. FYI the bible never mentions vegetables, it’s either herb or fruit. So this lengthy debate on whether tomatoes and avocados are fruits or vegetable, solved! Both fruit by biblical definition. Ok that being said… Note the language here in verse 11 it specifically says that a plant is to give a seed “after its own kind”. In fact, He mentions it twice in row, case we missed it! Everyone who has done even tiny bits of research on GMO’s know that they are NOT a seed after its own kind. Admittedly, they are seeds with drastically different “kinds” engineered into them. This is enough for me. However if you want to dig deeper, I dare you to look at what the bible says about genetic engineering all together. If this blows your mind, don’t worry, I used to think it wasn’t addressed in there too. It is. Jesus says “there is nothing new under the sun…” Ecclesiastes 1:9

So, if Jesus says that a plant should grow a seed after its kind and from a seed of the same kind are we going to have some small variances? Yes! You don’t look exactly like your mom or exactly like your dad but you are human! Well if you plant a corn seed you wouldn’t expect a tomato or worse yet, an amphibian? Yet dna from radically different plants and animals are exactly what is being engineered into these GMO’s.

Open pollination crossing has been done for centuries to provide a variance that suits a particular growing situation. However, the variances never produce a completely different genus. Let me explain Hybrids. A mommy tomato with a particular trait you want and a daddy tomato with a different trait you want cross pollinate to create a baby with both or a trait you can’t get otherwise. If you plant the seed produced from baby you may get a plant a lot like the grandma, or a lot like the grandpa but it’ll still be a tomato. The only way to guaranty that you get baby over and over with your favorite trait is to keep a mommy and a daddy cross pollinating. The beauty of heirloom is the babies and grandbabies are all the same as the original or darn close. Again, never giving anything other than a tomato.

In summation, I plant seeds that are after their own kind because that’s the kind God planted. It’s a beautiful picture of generational blessings as well. I suppose that’s a topic for another time though!

Happy planting!

Amen

I woke up this morning to my alarm reminding me that I’m supposed to write something today. I didn’t know what to write about honestly. I’ve not had much gardening going on because of Jubilee but I’m supposed to be proclaiming the JOY of my jubilee! So here are some things I’m grateful for. Time with my family, diving deeper in my trust of the Lord and good friends.  Today I’m going to tell you about good friends.

Every experienced gardener will tell you some plants like it around certain other plants. I’ve heard it said that carrots love tomatoes. Why? Is it because tomatoes are the best kind of person, I mean plant, out there? Heavens no. Tomatoes have something carrots don’t and vice versa. You might think your attracted to people who share your same interests but actually your attracted to people who bring out something in YOU no one else can. Your attracted to a behavior or attitude YOU don’t possess. This is the same with companion planting.

It works because it shows we need each other. Jesus says; And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. He also says; Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

My friends, learn from companion planting. Don’t over think it just try it. You might learn that a good friend is harder to find than you thought but worth the effort to keep.

In my last blog about dirt I encouraged all of you to not let a little dirt keep you from planting something. Today I’d like to explain one of the best ways to make your dirt better!

Mulch… Mulch… Mulch… This is a concept not talked about enough. Mulch has three main jobs to do, water retention, weed suppression and soil enhancing. If the sun cannot beat down directly on your soil then your much savored water will not become relative humidity so quickly. An added benefit of sun being kept from your soil is weed seeds cannot germinate. Less well known is at the end and beginning of every good growing year is the turning over of your soil which mixes the mulch into the soil and thereby enhancing it!

Using mulch as an additional way to create micro-climates is just killing multiple birds with one mulch! Color of your mulch can be very important. Choose color by the area in which you live, area the plant will live and the overall need of the specific plant. For example, you would not want dark mulch around a lettuce patch planted on the south side of your garden with full desert sun. In contrast you would want it a the base of all your tomatoes on the south side, in full sun!

Lay mulch thick enough to disable weed seed germination. Go all out here! Less germination means less time on your hands and knees pulling pesky weeds! Enough said right?!?!

Every year at the end of the season, or at the end of a particular succession planting, turn the soil over. This goes for all your perennial beds too. It takes a little more care with perennial beds so as not to disturb to much of your roots, but well worth it. I moved 4” deep mulch in a friends garden bed to find the dirt underneath impenetrable. This of course is going to make most water run off and limit the expansion of roots, which in turn limits the health of a plant. Though it seems like a waste to have to re-mulch every year, the more you turn your beds the deeper your nutrients and composting mulch can be effectual. A bonus is changing up the scenery!

Mulch should change every year keeping a minimum of a 3 to 4 year rotation. Thankfully there are varying mulches in every color! Each with its own benefit to the soil when composted. My mind boggles when I try to research all the ins and outs of different decomposing mulches. Here’s the idea, as with a varied human diet you introduce a wider arrangement of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals to your body… so as with a varied mulch diet for your dirt! Even some food scraps make great mulch like coffee grinds and crushed eggshells. If there is a particular problem you are facing, look it up, otherwise don’t get to overwhelmed by the influx of information on the subject.

Listen, the bible is pretty clear about the hard work it takes to eat. It says in Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground. Another is 2Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither shall he eat. Jesus did a wonderful and powerful thing when He freed us from sin. However sin is still an option and inherent in this world. Until He burns this world up and makes a new one, we are going to battle with inherent sin. For example, I’m certain this fallen world is responsible for noxious weeds and pesky bugs! We can win though! When we approach gardening with appropriate respect for the Creator and deep understanding that life ONLY comes thru Jesus, we can see a temporary lifting of the curse and a beautiful blessing of bounty. Then the work is no longer a curse but a blessing. A type of rest, in Jesus.

I encourage you that as you work these mulch and compost concepts out in your dirt that you remember the parable of the seed told in Matthew 13. We are the dirt. Remember we are dust. How are we letting Jesus water us? Mulch us? Turn us over? How are we willing to hear, understand, process input and therefore produce fruit? As the sweat does drip down your face remember that Jesus puts much more work into us if we will let Him. Do not be fooled into thinking that you are automatically “good dirt”. Almost all dirt will grow something…. what are you growing?

See you in the dirt!

Amen

Oh they are wonderful aren’t they? All winter, diligently working every day to make sure they get kids.  . . The kids I mean. . . Oh the puns!  My children and I have even caught ourselves  wondering why we do what we do when it’s cold in January and there is 20 inches of snow to shovel a path thru just so the goats can get to the feeder! Not including the path to the goats!  Then one morning you peek outside and you see little bouncing fur balls!

It never ceases to amaze me how spry these little guys are! When we see them we all drop what we are doing and run up to the barn. (Even if it means burning my granola….) It’s truly what we have been waiting for, the joy of life after harsh winter.

We snuggle them, play with them and make sure they are latching on. When we have had our fix we go back inside, finish breakfast and then go back outside to do our chores.

Our chores change slightly, we add making sure the babies are latching the first day. We also add locking them in the barn at night with mommy and food and water so they are warm. We don’t interfere much but we make a point to snuggle those babies as much as possible and well, I suppose that’s not really a “chore”! Once the babies get good nursing and sleeping habits we scale back to just snuggles.

I love this time of year. I enjoy watching my kids learn from kids. They learn fragility and strength of life. They learn responsibility and the effect obedience and disobedience has on those we are responsible for. The learn the joy of life and all the winter work becomes worth it.

My friend, winter can be hard. However, it is always worth it. Life comes when we… rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:2-5)

Amen

My daughter received a neat hat loom kit as a gift recently.  This is what came with it.

I started reading the directions and was enthralled at how easy this was!  I have crocheted since I was little but this was different.  My kids could do this and not fumble around a crochet needle figuring out how to keep the right tension, count the right number of loops, count how many you did before you had to do that one stitch at that one time…. you get the point.

To start you make a basic slip knot. Put it on the knob.

Take your yarn from the knob to the inside of the circle and wrap counter clockwise around the post.

Keep going counter clockwise around each post while working clockwise around the circle til you make it all the way around.

Now wrap your yarn around the knob and hold it.

Push all your wraps down.

Loosen from the knob and start wrapping counter clockwise on post, clockwise again.

When you are all the way around again,  wrap it on your knob and hold it. Grab your picker and pull the bottom over the top.

After you pick them all,  push them down on the post, wrap and pick again. When you get a few circles done,  loosen the slip knot and let it dangle in the center.  We’ll tie it later.

Just keep wrapping and picking till your hat is long enough.

Now it’s time to take it off the loom. Take your yarn and measure enough to go the full perimeter of the circle and cut it.  I cut this short one time and it was a pain, so a little waste is better than the hassle of short.

Thread your craft needle and push the yarn thru the loop while taking the yarn off the post. Pull your string thru.

Repeat going clockwise all the way around.

Pull tight.

Tie by pulling your yarn halfway thru and tying the string together.

Tie the starting string the same way.

Done!

The basic hat curls a little at the edge. It’s flattering but remember to put enough length on it to accommodate.

I quickly started to experiment and found that a cuff on the hat gave it a nice feel and a little extra warmth. This is what it looks like.

When wrapping and picking stop about 20 wraps in and find your start string.

Take that first loop and put it over the first post.

Working counter clockwise pull each first loop over the post.

Pick like normal.

Wrap and pick again til your hat reaches your desired length and tie.

Excellent!

Here are some variations the kids and I have accomplished.

Alpaca yarn….. all I have to say is ooohhh so cozy!

A couple of tips. When wrapping, use your left hand to wrap and right to hold so that you don’t wrap to tight or have it come completely unwrapped if you slip.

When done wrapping if you pick the last wrap first it will hold your wraps while you pick.

If you accidentally miss a post try to wrap it pulling tight with the picker.

If it doesn’t make it, don’t worry too much. Pick over it and you’ll never know it is there later.

Doubling the string is fun and is even warmer for my fridgid winter friends!

I’m experimenting on how to add beads and charms to the hat. I’ll let you know how as soon as I figure it out!

Happy hat making!