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MY GARDEN

Our daughter wanted to post about her garden.  She decided she wanted to do her own garden this year.  Paul tilled her a spot and she’s done the rest of the work.  She has grown everything from seed except the tomato plants.   I think this is pretty impressive for an 8 year old.  I know I never could have done this at that age.  So here’s what she had to share :)

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Hello,

Here  are  some  pictures  of  my  garden.   I  am  growing the following:

corn

green beans

tomatoes

squash

cucumbers  &

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So going on, my  corn  plants  are  so  tall.  They  are  as  tall  as my brother, Josiah.  My  tomatoes  are  great.  In fact , I  have  little  baby  tomatoes!

I  hope  you  like  this  post.

God  bless  you  &  your  family!

Morgan

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Gardening 2009

Fried green tomatoes sounding good?

Fried green tomatoes sounding good?

Wow, what a year this has been.  Moving to a new house in January, we had no idea what (if any) garden we would have this year.  Paul wrote in a previous post here here about what we are attempting to do. To our amazement, we have an even bigger garden and lots of great help this year.  We have been blessed immensely to cross paths with some very Godly families who desire for their children to learn some great work skills.  So Paul is getting the opportunity to “mentor” a couple young men in our garden endeavors this year.   It’s also a great time for our young children to work alongside some older children too and see a model for working hard.  It’s amazing what work young people can accomplish when they are eager and motivated to learn.  Here’s some great homeschooling opportunities!

The never ending job of weeding...welcome to organic gardening :)

The never ending job of weeding...welcome to organic gardening :)

In one evening, they were able to weed most of the garden,  plant 200 more feet of bean seeds, water most of the plants, and have lots fun.
400 feet of green bean plants (600 planted in all)

400 feet of green bean plants (600 planted in all)

Bunny rabbit's view of the green bean plants...

Bunny rabbit's view of the green bean plants...

Squash plants

Squash plants

Cabbage

Cabbage

Young warrior working the soil :)
Young warrior working the soil :)

I love this picture with the horses in the background.

Tennessee is truly a beautiful place.
Even though our garden is behind schedule, we are excited about the coming weeks and the harvest, Lord willing.  It further helps us understand the process of growing food and the reminder that most of the time we live under the illusion that food just magically appears at the grocery stores.  In reality it takes many weeks, lots of time, energy, and sweat!  And ultimately we can toil, but it is the Lord who gives the increase.
So how are things growing for you in your garden?  We’d love to hear from you.
~Ma

Pan Seared Kale

We are beginning to harvest some kale from our garden.    We’ve had so much rain around here and are VERY behind on getting the warm weather crops planted.  Our cool weather stuff has faired pretty well…especially the greens.

Like any green, be sure you start out with a TON of this stuff because it will cook down to nothing!  This a fabulous recipe from my friend’s cookbook.  Thanks Kris!

My four-year-old prefers to eat the kale raw–actually he likes to get down on his hands and knees and eat it right out of the garden.  It’s true…I wish I had a picture of it!  If I can remember, I’ll take the camera to the garden next time.  The rest of us like it cooked up with some yummy butter and garlic.

  • 2 bunches of kale
  • 5 cloves minced garlic
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 1 Tblsp olive oil or coconut oil
  • Celtic salt to taste

Saute garlic in butter in iron skillet on med-hi.  Add kale and olive or coconut oil and add a top/lid.  Stir frequently so garlic will not burn.  Add salt and lid simmer for 30 minutes on low.  Kale should be soft and tender.

Enjoy!

~Ma

More pictures…

I can’t believe the baby is almost 2 weeks old.  We are enjoying his sweet newborn snuggles. 

~Ma

Proud Papa

I love these pics of Paul holding his new son soon after his birth.  Can’t you just see how proud he is!

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Our midwife got this great shot of him.  Hey, he looks great for being up all night and helping deliver his son at 4:00 am!

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Big sister and brothers stayed with Meme and Papaw during the night, but couldn’t wait to get home and hold their new little baby brother.  I love this picture…I’m calling it “Goldie Locks and the Three Brother Bears”

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Eli is already asking when Jesse will be crawling.  He also ran to his room and got a big truck for Jesse to play with.  The truck was a big as Jesse!

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This makes momma cry…

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Hope you enjoy the pics…please leave a comment (yes, you)…we’d love to hear from you!

~Ma

A NEW ARRIVAL!

We have been patiently waiting for the newest addition to our family. The Father has blessed us with a baby boy, Jesse Paul. He was born at 4:01 am this morning weighing 8lbs 8 oz. Mama did great and Jesse came through safely. Praise YHWH!!! 

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Check back in the next day or so for the birth story!

sleepinglamb

We all, like sheep , went astray,

we turned, each one, to his own way;

yet Adonai laid on him

the guilt of all of us.

Though mistreated, he was submissive -

he did not open his mouth.

Like a lamb to be slaughtered,

like a sheep silent before its shearers,

he did not open his mouth. After forcible arrest and sentencing,

he was taken away;

and none of his generations protested

his being cut off from the land of the living

for the crimes of my people,

who deserved the punishment themselves.

He was given a grave among the wicked;

in his death he was with a rich man.

Although he had done no violence

and said nothing deceptive,

yet it pleased Adonai to crush him with illness,

to see if he would present himself as a guilt offering.

If he does, he will see his offspring;

and he will prolong his days;

and at his hand Adonai’s desire

will be accomplished.

After this ordeal, he will see satisfaction.

“By his knowing (pain and sacrifice),

my righteous servant makes many righteous;

it is for their sins that he suffers.

Therefore I will assign him a share with the great,

and he will divide the spoil with the mighty,

for having exposed himself to death

and being counted among the sinners,

while actually bearing the sin of many

and interceding for the offenders.”

Isaiah 53:6-12

PRAISE THE NAME OF YESHUA, OUR PASSOVER LAMB AND ONCE FOR ALL SACRIFICE!

Farm Happenings

During my daily walk through the garden on Sunday, I noticed something that most any gardener has to deal with at some point…deer. I knew that at some point the deer would figure out where we were at but I never expected it this early.

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For some reason, the deer have decided not to walk down the isles in between the rows but right down the rows themselves! It could be worse though. They could have started eating all of it. Hopefully these deer don’t like succulent fresh produce! As a short term remedy Eli and I strung some disposable pie pans across a couple of fence posts. With just a very small breeze the pie pans will hit each other and make some noise. I have had a lot of success keeping deer out of my gardens with nothing more than a few pie pans. As we get the rest of the garden planted, I plan on putting up a solar powered electric fence. The electric fence will be a more permanent fix for the deer problem. It will also look better than 100 pie pans blowing in the wind!

Speaking of fences, I have somehow managed to misplace all of the fence posts I have acumulated over the past 4 years. I have been buying a few fence posts here and there for several years so that I don’t have to run out and buy a bunch at one time. I can only assume that they have been lost in the shuffle with all of the moving we have done in the last 6 months. The gentleman who owns the place we are farming has been gracious enough to let me borrow some of his fence posts so that we could get something up around the garden. Thank the Father for good neighbors!

Most of the things we have been able to plant are all starting to come in right now. The kale and mustard greens are looking pretty good along with the onions. The mesclun though has not done as well. Some of it is coming up but not as much as I expected. The sugar snap peas should start sprouting in the next week or so if it will stop raining long enough for the sun to shine. The potatoes haven’t begun to sprout yet but should be soon.

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This early in the season there really isn’t too much work that has to be done. I am kind of enjoying having the garden out but not having to work it real hard yet. I need to relish it now because in the next 45-60 days the work load will start to pick up. This just at the time my work crew size will begin to shrink. As you may know, Amy is due the end of this month with our 4th child; another little boy. So she will be out of commission about the time summer crops need to be planted. While it is going to be a lot of work, I am really looking forward to it!

~Pa

Never Cease To Praise

File:Sunset 2007-1.jpg

May the words to this song inspire your heart…

May we run this race, may we keep the faith; May our eyes be fixed on Jesus-
That we’ll not lose heart in our struggle with sin, And through suffering know endurance.

May we arm ourselves with the mind of Christ-To rejoice in trials and be not surprised.
May our hearts be so consumed by You That we never cease to praise!

May the words we share be Your grace and peace; May our tongues speak Your proclamations-
That the many parts of the body of Christ Be affirmed in their right relation.

As we long and wait for the groom to come, May we learn to love, and spur each other on.
May our hearts be so consumed by You That we never cease to praise!

When that day arrives, and the race is won, When our griefs give way to deliverance.
We will fully know as we’re fully known, All our groans will end as new songs begin.

And a multitude from every tribe and tongue, Wearing robes of white, will stand before Your throne,
And our hearts will be so consumed by You
That we never cease to praise!

I would like to begin this post by apologizing for taking so long to reply to a well thought out comment on The History of the Beard. Because it has been so long, here is the comment in full.

Newfarmer,

I was the single awkward kid in high school who had a full beard at 15, and have kept a closely shaved one ever since. The single exception being one summer where I created controversy similar to yours, only by loosing it!
But of particular interest to me is your question of, “could it be that the Father wanted me to keep a beard?” Now, I confess that I am actually quite attached to my beard, and it to me! But I wanted to discuss a few of the verses you used to support Biblical beardhood.
I love your view that the Law is of immense benefit, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16) The first verse I was ever taught to memorize was Psalm 1, where David meditates on the Law day and night! Jesus himself came not to abolish the Law, but rather fulfill it, and upholds it until heavens and earth pass away. (Matthew 5:17) But there is an idea which I do not see reflected in your writing, and would love to see what you think about it!
You see, in fulfilling the requirements of the Law himself, I believe Christ inverted the Church from that of the Old Testament from being inwards to outwards.
Consider:
Romans 7:1-4 states that, dead to the law which only binds the living, we now are joined to each other, and Christ himself instead. So in your quotation of Romans 7:12, we see that the law is holy because of the life it could not bring to us. In 6:14, we see that we are in fact not under law but rather grace. Galatians 3:23-25 affirms the law as our tutor until we might be justified by faith in Christ.
On this topic, there is something that might be of particular interest to you that my pastor only recently learned from a man who has studied classical Hebrew all of his life. He claimed that God never originally intended to place Israel under the law, but did so because of their stubbornness.
Look closely at Exodus 18, where God desires to make them a kingdom of priests to the nations, and then shortly thereafter brings down the law in Exodus 19 instead. This seeming inconsistency is explained in Deuteronomy 5, which explains that God’s people drew back from him and sent Moses, instead of themselves meeting God as he desired.

Now look at the New Covenant (which is the literal translation of Testament in Greek.) In 1 Cor. 9:22, we see Paul speaking of becoming all things to all men that some might be saved. Jesus himself sends out his disciples to the ends of the earth in Matthew 28:19. And while we are still set apart, 1 Peter 2:9 speaks of it being so that we might “proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Therefore, Paul urges us, we aught to strive to be set apart in our behavior, rather than our appearances.
In the Torah, God asks his people to separate themselves from the nations around them that all the earth might see who they are, and come to them to seek the Lord. But in the New Testament, Christ sends his people out into the world, to become all things to all people but still true to Christ and his commandments. This is so that God’s temple might reach the furthest corners of the earth by the means of his people, the individual living stones which comprise it. (1 Peter 2:4-12)
The reason I speak any of this at all, is because I latched on to your second paragraph speaking of being holy and separate. Yes, being set apart is of immense importance! But this seems not to be in practice of outward appearance, as it was with Israel in Leviticus 19:27, when God wanted his people to abstain from shaving their beards as was the custom of the pagans around them. But rather than an outward sacrifice, as Jesus reiterates 3 times in Matthew alone, quoting Hosea 6:6 (Matthew 9:13, 12:7, 22:23) he would rather see steadfast love that manifests itself in actions towards others. This is therefore our reasonable act of worship, and the holiness he desires to see.
I fear that I often sound fanatic or accusatory in my passions, but I write only because I hope to shed more light on what God desires from us, especially as relates from the law! I reflect that, perhaps my diatribe is already known to you, and by it you affirm the father and speak “amen!” Or maybe by some chance, someone else should stumble across it even as I have, and it speak truth to them.
Keep strong on your beard growing, and I heartily affirm you on resisting our culture’s obsession with youth! I look forward to any response.

In His Grasp,
Jacob Cotten

I would like to address the idea that Yeshua’s death inverted our separation from outward separation to inward separation only. Our separation is not intended to be only outward or only inward. We should be separate in both flesh and spirit. When Yeshua said “Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law or the Prophets . I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” (Mt 5:17) He was stating that He has come to correctly interpretthe Law. When a teacher of the law was misinterpreting scripture, it was said that he was “destroying the law”. When a teacher of the law correctly interpreted scripture, it was said that he was “fulfilling the law”. Yeshua fulfilled the law by correctly interpreting what the Father’s desire for that law was. As an example, Yeshua taught that adultery was not only a physical act but a mental or spiritual act. “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whosoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Mt 5:27,28) He was teaching that the law is to be kept both inwardly and outwardly. The Father desires for his law to be written upon our hearts. Not hearts of stone but hearts of flesh that we may receive blessing from His law (Psalm 112).

Obedience to the laws of YHVH is in itself an act of separation. The fact that my family keeps Sabbath separates us physically from the rest of the world. Our family lives on a completely different weekly schedule than most. Fridays are spent  getting ready for Sabbath. While most of the world carries on doing all sorts of things on Saturday, we are usually at the house taking it easy. While many are going to church on Sunday morning, I am working on my ever growing honey-do list and miscellaneous farm work.  Not until we began worshipping on Sabbath, did we understand that obedience  to the commandments of YHVH would separate us – physically.

Most of the modern day church holds to the idea that we are to live with Christ in our heart but look and act like the world so that we may draw unbelievers to Yeshua. Is it any wonder that much of the modern day church looks more like the world and less like Yeshua? Things that are hidden away in our hearts are easy to leave by the wayside when they are inconvenient. While not directly pertinent, I am reminded of James 2:18 “Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works.” What is written on our hearts will inevitably be made known on the outside.

While it is important to be physically separate through obedience to His laws, we must never mistake that our obedience has any merit in itself. Our hope comes only through the shed blood of Yeshua Hamashiach (Jesus the Messiah). A good friend of mine said “If it doesn’t begin and end with Jesus, it is useless.” Amen and Amen! May our lives begin and end with Yeshua!

~Pa

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