The chicklets are here!

Today I bought the first chicks for our new homestead. I bought 10 black australorps. As you can see, my furbabies are just as excited about their arrival as I am! They are such cute, tiny little fluffballs of black with yellow on the undersides and sides of the head. They should start laying in July. I can't wait to have my very own fresh eggs!

Chicken Day!

We are buying our first baby chicks for our new home today. I am planning to get black australorps (like the picture)this time. They are a dual purpose bird who are excellent layers and have a mature weight of around seven pounds. I will buy straight run (mixture of both sexes) and we will butcher the males when they achieve full size, except for one or two that I will keep so that the eggs will be fertile and the hens can raise babies next year. I hope to get to the point that I won't need the assistance of a hatchery for my chickens, unless I want to try a new breed. That will take a few years, though. I decided to choose several different breeds, and allow them to cross in the hope of producing babies that are better than their parents. Time will tell.

I want a goat... and some bees, please.

I know... you think I'm nuts. You're not alone. Most folks who know the real me think that, too. But I am serious. I want to get a milk goat and a hive of bees as well as a flock of chickens and a big garden. I want to make every square inch of our 2.36 acres count toward being as self sufficient (with His help, of course!) as possible.

I am researching the different breeds of milk goats. It seems that the most popular dairy goat around here is the Nubian. I like the fact the Nubians are dual purpose, so we could use the male kids for meat, though I don't know how I will be able to make myself do that. I really like the sound of the Saanen, too.

I have made out my list of seeds to buy from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I am buying only open pollinated heirloom seeds. No GMOs or hybrids for me, thanks! I am going to be able to save my seeds from year to year, and therefore, I should only have to buy seeds of new plants I want to try in the future once I get this first crop harvested. I think that is an amazingly wonderful plan.

I am researching chickens as well. Part of me wants to choose only one breed so that my flock will be uniform and successive generations will be purebred and also "normal" looking. The other part of me wants to choose about three different breeds that I like the characteristics of, so that I am not "putting all my eggs in one basket" so to speak. If a certain breed succumbs to illness or predators, maybe the other two breeds will not. Also, the offspring of the crosses may be better than my original breed selections. Hmmm... which way do I want to think?

I'm Gonna Miss Her

Today we helped some friends move. I was so sad to see them go. It was a real bummer to discover that our husbands got along famously and we could have been great couple friends! (Dear friend and I had just been girlfriends , but never involved the guys.) However, life is not over, and we have an open invitation to visit them in their new home which is two hours from the mountains and three hours from the beach. What an amazing setting that must be! The first picture is the guys working hard, or is that hardly working? The second is us girls taking a break.

Matthew 10:16

"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."

I've been contemplating this passage of scripture a lot lately. I find I am much more jaded than I wish I were. Some translations use the word "shrewd" to describe the serpent, and "innocent" to describe the doves. How, exactly, does one maintain innocence and harmlessness in a world that seems to assault at every turn? I see in my friends an openness and warmth that I have lost somewhere along the way. In the name of protecting myself, I've become cold and emotionless. I don't wish to be that way. I don't want to wear my feelings on my sleeve, but I don't want to appear uncaring to others, either. I am seeking to find the appropriate balance.

Galatians 5: 22-23 says "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

How does being shrewd align with gentleness and meekness?

Titus 3: 2 shows me that this gentleness and meekness are necessary to my witness of our Lord and Savior: "To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men. "

James 3:17-18 "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace."

I pray the God would cultivate in me a meek, gentle, and humble spirit, so that I may bring honor to Him in my words and deeds.