Walk The Agrarian Path With Us

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Bits and Pieces

This has been one challenging growing year! We have been in a severe drought here this summer which means feeding hay since early June, using all of our hay, and trying to buy hay to feed when noone has any. The pastures were used up long ago. BUT! We were very blessed with a little under an inch of rain last night. What hope that brought! It also wasn't as hot today. We have been in the hundreds so many days this summer I've lost count. About a week ago I put a piece of gutter that had been given to us on the side of the big chicken coop to catch the runoff. It has a metal roof so the water is safer to use than it would be if it came off the shingled house roof. I put rain barrels at each end. I hurried out to look this morning and there was water in them! I know that God is very good and kind so the rain would come sometime. I  feel that we need to be deliberate about everything we do and not be wasteful or take things for granted.
Everything seems to be running a month or two ahead this year. Strawberries and peaches picked much earlier than usual and a couple of weeks ago I noticed that the insects were acting like they do in the Fall. I guess the most surprising thing has been that asparagus started coming up again the other day. That's something I've never heard of. We got more than ever this Spring due to the early warm weather but we've never had it come up again in the same year. I'm going to go ahead and plant Fall seeds now anticipating an earlier than normal one.
A lady that was visiting the other day is a geophysicist and said the earth was thrown off 4 inches by the earthquake in Japan. I could tell that this Spring because the sun was taking a different path. When you're outside a lot of the time you notice these things. We have very little shade now, even on the north side of the house. It worked out better for the neighbor because of the way their house is situated and they have had more shade, which was nice in this hotter than usual weather.
I want to share a recipe for a scrubbing cleanser that my daughter-in-love gave me. It works very well and is safe to use. Smells great, also. Mix baking soda and dishwashing liquid (I like a clear unscented one, but use what you have) to make a paste. Add grapefruit seed extract to kill germs, if desired. I then add orange essential oil, which also kills germs, and makes it smell wonderful. It's nice to use something scented with real oils and enjoy that smell while you clean.
Boots was in town and spoke with an older gentleman  who was selling bushels of his homegrown tomatoes. I was not only excited that someone was selling tomatoes in town but that he was selling them by the bushel! That's almost unheard of now.
Things are out of whack in every area now in our world, but this is  good opportunity for things to get back where they should be.

Psalm 82:5 "They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course." 

3 comments:

  1. I think moving to our new property in mid-June was a blessing. We didn't get a chance to plant a spring/summer garden and will wait for next spring to start acquiring animals so the only thing we have needed to worry about during the drought is keeping our trees from getting to stressed. We have had two days (seperate from each other) that a good rain fell. It was indeed a blessing.

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    1. Glad to hear you are on your property! Hopefully, next year will be a better one for growing.

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  2. What an appropriate Scripture verse to add, considering what the geophysicist had to say. Much of Canada is in drought, too. I don't remember ever seeing it this bad. I read that our farmers are feeding their winter hay here, too. These are sobering times. It's good to know the Lord as our Provider.

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