Garden Update

I've had a tough go with my garden the last few years. This year I am seeing a bit of hope again! My arch trellis is actually working this year. I've got cucumbers, peas, watermelon and cantaloup doing their thing and I can't wait to see if we actually get any fruit with the growing vines.

I also tried okra for the first time and I actually got a handful to cook up for dinner. I'm super stoked about that. I planted more flowers to attract pollinators this year so maybe that helped. I've got the usual herb favorites, squash and peppers. My pepper plants are TINY but they have been producing peppers so I guess that's all that matters, lol.

September

September was full of settling into new rhythms, watching our kids flourish doing things they love, lots of outside time, lots of friends and the tiniest garden harvest known to man, lol

Looking Back April 2023

Easter, friends, seedlings in the garden and a trip to Mendoza Argentina pretty much sum up our month of April. 

Looking Back March 2023

We introduced our boys to the art of shared mowing responsibilities and it has been a game changer people! We finally bit the bullet and invested in good soil for the garden to see how we do this year. Last year was a bust but I have the capacity to put in the energy for it this year with all the house stuff behind us. We had more family in and out this month. Uncle Ray even came to a couple soccer games this season! Chicks were hard to come by this year with the egg prices skyrocketing in grocery stores. I made a phone call every morning to tractor supply to check on their chick shipments and if they had some I would rearrange my schedule just to make it before they sold out, lol. Craziness I tell you! March brings March Madness, which our family has quickly fallen in love with. Josh found us some super cheap tickets to one of the first games so we piled in the van for a Field Trip Friday to go see Xavier and, well, I'll have to go back and see who they played. But it was a GREAT game!

The Life Cycle Of A Colony Cuke

Stage 1: The Colony gardener will sow her tiny cucumber seeds in the garden

Stage 2: The tiny cucumber seeds will grow and actually THRIVE (at least in 2018)

Stage 3: The plants will bear an obscene amount of fruit that the Colony gardener will not realize until stage 4

Stage 4: The Colony gardener will realize her garden hasn't gotten much attention over the course of a 2-week span and will then spend a hot afternoon in the garden playing hide-n-seek with a bunch of cucumbers.
(Clearly I won the game!)

Stage 5: The Colony gardener will then assess the victorious bounty
(Sorry little premature carrots that I accidentally uprooted. You were still very tasty AND you prove that others are still out there fighting for their lives well)

Stage 6: Some of the cucumbers will be cut into slices for the Colony children to consume with humus or homemade ranch
(rather quickly, I might add)

Stage 7: Other cucumbers will be cut into slices and paired with freshly picked mint from the garden to infuse in deliciously refreshing water.
(which will be consumed just as quickly)
(cucumber infused water has several health benefits!)

Stage 8: The leftovers from the water are then fed to the chickens as a nice refreshing snack.
(Did you know that by feeding cucumbers to your chickens you can help lower their body temperature on hot summer days?)

I love it when things can be used to their fullest!

Lessons From The Gardener ~ Perseverance

This whole gardening process can be pretty tedious.  Maybe it's just because I don't know what I'm doing and I'm just hoping with everything in me that some of those little seeds I placed in the soil will do something.  At this point I just want some healthy green foliage, I'm not even asking for the vegetables and fruit to produce bountifully, I just need those little seeds to start poking through the soil to let me know that they are doing something.

I have spent around 40 hours personally digging and ripping up old roots, vines, shrubs and trees from our "bunny bush" area that the kids loved to play in (but our neighbor despised looking at).  It was an old grapevine that had been under cared for LONG before the Colony moved in (and under-cared for it even more!).

Then another 20 hours or so was spent preparing the soil and covering the ground accordingly so it would be ready for a garden in the spring.

I waited all winter long in anticipation of what was to come.

Then February rolled around and I planted these tiny little seeds, following each instruction to a T.

Then, miracle of all miracles, several of my little seeds began to grow into beautiful little seedlings.
I know I shouldn't be shocked, but I typically don't do well with plants that die if I don't keep them watered;).  (I will say that I have gotten better over the years and last year's little garden did surprising well!)

So, I prepared the best way I knew how.
I consistently watered and fed those little seeds.

Next came the transplant, where I had to uproot the tender little seedlings from their safe home and take them out in the "wild" where they will have to strengthen their roots and grow strong to be able to withstand the impending storms (and fuzzy, hungry critters and probably even a peck or 20 from the Colony chickens) that will most certainly come their way.

Sadly some of the little seedlings didn't make the transplant so well.  And even after tucking the Colony garden in for the nights before the frost, some of them have not weathered so well.

It's hard not to get discouraged and even harder to push away the thoughts of defeat and desire to quit.

But wouldn't you know that this month's lesson for the Colony kids at Journey is Perseverance.

Perseverance to keep going when things feel impossible.
Perseverance in the failure,
and in the embarrassment,
and in the feelings of defeat,
and to keep planting those seeds, even when we feel like the roots will NEVER take.

Because the roots and fruit and growth are not OUR responsibility!
Oh no, we could NEVER do that.

Our job is to plant the seeds in faith.
Not knowing what is going on under the soil.
Maybe never even seeing the growth we think we should.

That is the job of the Lord over creation.
The author of life and the finisher of faith.

It's all part of the plan.
And we GET to be part of it.

Harvesting a garden and harvesting souls are so intertwined its no wonder why Jesus used this picture to teach his people.

This Colony garden has taught me more about my own walk with Christ and the mission HE has given me than almost ay other thing I've worked through.

"So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything,

but only God who gives the growth."

1 Corinthians 3:7

Lessons From The Gardener: A New Way To Recycle

Pinterest has become my greatest resource as my black thumb ripens.

I have become a little obsessed with all things yard related.  We have been whittling away, area by area, as we fix up our yard.  And I have to say, I have really enjoyed it!  My body always regrets the 4-6 hour days I put in when I wake up the following morning, but it's a good kind of hurt.  Kind of like when you have worked your butt off in a difficult workout and you KNOW it's good for you but man it hurts.

Anyway, I wanted to share one of the greatest ideas I have found for keeping weeds away from landscaped areas.

It's brilliant, simple, biodegradable and FREE!

Are you ready for it?

Brown paper bags.

Yup.

Here's how it works:

1 - Find a helper that will wear snow gloves to help you dig.  This is mandatory for success;)

2 - Ask for paper bags every time you go to the grocery story and save them.

3 - Cut the bags so that they lay flat.

4 - After you have weeded, uprooted as many bushes as you can and level the ground, place the bags down so that they lay flat and slightly overlap, making sure that you cover every patch of exposed dirt.

5 - Cover with straw.  If you don't want to pay money for straw, come on over here.  We have an endless amount.  In fact, it seems as though we get a fresh layer every week. Seriously.

This is pretty much what our entire front landscape area looked like.  I have slowly been digging it all out and replacing it through this process.  I haven't had to do a THING to it since I laid it down!

These are the roots I still have to dig up, but at least I weeded around it to get a head start once my hands heal from all the holly bush "poinky" attacks they endured this week.

In The Morning, When I Rise

The eggs the peppers the tomatoes the greens.  All from the Colony garden/chickens.
We haven't ventured into the cheese yet;)

It used to be that I would roll out of bed, wipe the sleep out of my eyes and quietly cozy up in my chair with my Bible, books, notebook and cup of hot coffee.  I would read until the natives got restless and/or time demanded for me to get up and get them ready for the day/school.

While none of this has changed over the years I have added a few other rituals to my pre-morning activities.

I finish my reading and giddily dive into my new responsibilities.
I roll up my jammy pants and hit the chores.  I walk around the yard and water all the plants and flowers, pruning the dead places as I go.  Then I head over to water the garden.  I have to check the tomato plants every morning to rid them of the caterpillars (that later become "treats" for the chickens).  I unwrap the cucumber vines from the peppers because SOMEONE planted them too close together.  Amateur.

Then I get to pick from the bounty within the little plastic perimeter containing my garden.

Next I move inside the chicken fence and unlock the coop to wake them up for the day.  There is always a cute little story to share with Areyna about how Bean jumped on my shoulder and wouldn't come off or how Serenity cocked her head to the right in the cutest way.  (these stories help her "happy heart" wake up in the morning)

Ah, the joys of farming.

I know it is comical, and we don't even have a "farm", but the fact that we have chickens that ACTUALLY make us eggs, and a garden that ACTUALLY produces something we can make into a an ACTUAL meal is absolutely blowing my mind this year!  And I have enjoyed every bit of taking care of these new found blessings to the Colony.

Saturday Morning Mashup

While I was with my mom a month or so ago Josh and the littles were in a car accident.  Everybody was fine, but the fact that Josh dialed my number at the exact same time the 2014 Mustang behind them plummeted into our bumper, causing the phone to be thrown to the floorboard, causing me to hear only scurrying around and a bunch of crying little Colony members as I nervously yelled from the other side of the phone for ANYONE to answer, was a little unnerving.

(I'm pretty sure that was a really long run-on sentence...which only confirms my belief that I am completely done with school...and the dozens of books that keep appearing on my doorstep are in fact my husbands, and NOT mine!)

Back to the accident...
there really was a reason in me telling you that story.

We finally had our appointment to take the car in to get fixed but the damage is much for extensive that the insurance company had originally thought.  Meaning that instead of us being out of a family car for 3 days has turned into about 2 weeks.  And our insurance doesn't have the option to rent a car, and the other man's insurance company has been a little difficult to work with.  Therefore, Jude and I have spent a lot of time at home.  But that's okay, because our lives needed to be unpacked and put back in order from the track-out events that occurred.

This morning I walked into the kitchen to a scared little chickie.  She has already gotten to the stage of jumping up onto the side of the box.  And as of this morning, hopping down onto the vast kitchen floor to see what this big world has to offer.  The only problem being (besides the obvious poop surprises that blend into the wood flooring), they never figure out how to get back into the box with their friends.

Rainy was invited to go see a movie with her friend last night.  My little bug is old enough to go to a movie theatre without us now.  That doesn't seem right...

Our garden has exploded!  I love that I can go out and get fresh lettuce EVERY DAY for yummy salads.  Our peppers are beginning to grow and the cucumbers are blossoming.  I am already making plans for a garden expansion for next year!

Zeke's little brain and body are utterly exhausted after his first week of school.  It's a good thing we don't have any plans this weekend, because the Colony attitudes have been less than stellar around here.

We are in the middle of ant and fly season here in Rolesville.  Like, you can stare at the window and see them putting their strategy together on how to get inside!  They are just WAITING for the opportunity to sneak into the home to annoy us the rest of the weekend...and with 5 Colony members in and out all day long they have PLENTY of opportunity.

I can't wait to tell you all about the family camp we attended, but that would take much more brain power to put into words and I have very important plans with my hammock and book (my books don't consist of systematic theology and leadership/discipleship training techniques though) today, so I have to get going.

Happy Saturday ya'll!