Update on Life part 3... Going's On

Ok, so we are busy!

Besides the farm stuff and preparation for surgery…In a nutshell:

December has been busy, Feast of Dedications/Lights… An opportunity to spend time with family and taking time for re-dedication and cleansing of the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’. We spent time searching within ourselves, cleaning out the pagan garbage and rededicating this temple.

Shelly had her Bat Mitzvah December 26th, She did a great job! (Pics are in the gallery).

I taught a class on preserving food and have been learning to knit socks and spinning! I have been working on a new bread recipe and made some awesome bread pudding! We were able to pick up a good used kitchen island that will meet our needs for counter space and storage, Yay! The wood cook stove is in the house but the tile isn’t finished and the chimney and stove pipe are not installed. So we are heating with a gas heater in the kitchen. I hope we can get it done in January.

I will be attending a class in January on natural healing and hope to share with many the new information I glean from the class.

Satch continues to work and comes home and works… He gets Sabbath as his only rest! We appreciate Yah’s Sabbath!

My Dad and Brother bought a business transporting auto parts across the state. They work swing shift, Monday - Friday. They are enjoying the job and it has helped them with finances.

Mom will be going to B-ham with us and will stay while Satch travels back and forth between there and home. She is doing pretty good, still having stomach issues and will have her gall bladder removed when we get through Shelly’s surgery.

Ricky, April and Mat moved to a new apartment last week. They love their new apartment!

Update on Life... Shelly

Life in the fast lane!

Blessings to all!

Shelly has recovered well from her last seizure event. (Praise Yah!)
Well, we visited the Neurosurgeon and she is really nice. She said she does 90 of these surgeries each year and has done them for the past 5 years and spent 7 years before that working with another Neurosurgeon on the same surgeries. We feel that Shelly will be well cared for. (She will be in Yah’s Hands!)

We were informed that she will loose all of her hair on the left side and the doc recommended that all of it come off. This is a big blow for a 17 yr old girl who loves her hair! She has decided to have it cut before going for surgery and donating her beautiful braids to Locks of Love.

We have been registered to stay at the Ronald McDonald house ($10/night), however there is a waiting list of 20 people before us! We were told that we may have to stay at a local hotel ($50/night) until a room is available.

We will go down to B-ham on Weds, Jan 20th in the evening. On the 21st we will see the doc again and do pre admittance blood work and paperwork. On the 22nd she will have her first surgery that will place the mesh on her brain. She will then be monitored for seizures until they get the data necessary to map the area to be removed. The second surgery will then be scheduled. The second surgery will be to remove the mesh and the area of the brain causing seizures.

We are planning to be there for 2 weeks, but hope to be home sooner. How long we stay will be determined by how quickly her seizures come and they are able to get the data necessary for the second surgery.

How to pray:

*For Shelly to have peace, and not fear, and her pain be minimal
*G-d’s hand guide the surgeon

*A room to open at the Ronald McDonald house the day we arrive and finances be available for the stay.
*For her seizures to come quickly and the data be gathered swiftly

*Pray against the enemy and his devices

*All is done as G-d directs

*A quick recovery

Thank you for your prayers! They are coveted!

Christie

Update on Life... from the Farm

Wow! What a Wild and Crazy ride life is! I haven’t updated the blog in a while, so I’ll try to get it all in tonight!

First on the farm…

We have dried off Shemayim for her calving in February. We had a bout with mastitis, but she is doing fine now. Winter brings low milk production because of the lack of fresh, rich green grass, so 31 is givin’ all she’s got except on Sabbath when her calf, Jaffa, gets all she wants. We are getting 1 1/2 - 2 gallons a day. She is still not bred back yet, and hope to catch her in heat soon! An interesting thought - if we eat according to the season of production, it is much healthier… this is cold season and milk increases mucus production, there is less milk available during the cold season!

The Boys are all doing pretty well! Roast will go to the butcher in February to be put in the freezer. Spot of Beef needs to be cut, will probably be done in January or February, before it gets hot and flies become prolific. Big Boy is still not big enough to take care of the girls, so we still pay for Artificial Insemination.

We slaughtered 6 chickens and put them in the freezer last Sunday. They were from our hatching last spring and were roosters needing to leave the hens alone! Before the butchering we were getting 2-4 eggs daily, now we are getting 7-8! Those ladies were just being harassed!

I finally sorted out the sheep and goats to know who is who and hope to get pics and names up soon (can’t post them on the blog, will put them in the gallery). But at any rate, they are all doing fine. The sheep are due to lamb in February, and since it will be too cold to shear them, they will get a crotch cut in January and then will be sheared in March.  We plan to butcher the lambs at a year old for the freezer. The plan for the goats is to get a boer billy to use for breeding for meat. Of course, the fiber from the sheep and goats will be turned into yarn and used to make socks, sweaters, hats, gloves and anything else we may need to stay warm (and feed my knitting habit.)

As for Hicks and Sasha, what can I say? Spoiled and useless! They are being spoiled and have not worked since the weather has turned cold. They are becoming fat and lazy horses. Spring will come too soon for the both of them!

The back porch has been closed in and is ready for use as a green house to grow our seeds for the upcoming year. The planting boxes haven’t been built, but I hope to get some done soon as the weather permits.

We have spent the past several weeks working on the fencing to keep the dogs in … well, Sumi gets out anyway, I think she is just walking over the fence! Anyway, it is a plague! Still working on fences (an ongoing process).

The bees are being fed and they are staying warm and happy. Next spring we will split the hive and buy 2 more splits. We hope to have 8 - 10 gallons of honey this summer from the 4 hives.

Next installment: Shelly

Update on Shelly 12/03/09

Hello to all,

Shelly had been seizure free since 12/12/08 until this past week. She had a bad event that took her to the hospital. She is still recovering from the effects of the seizure and I am not sure the extent of damage cognitively as of yet.

Shelly’s attitude about the surgery is getting better and she is learning to trust in the Father for all things. She still has some fear but she is overcoming it with her sweet spirit.

Her tests have been completed and the doctors have decided that she is a candidate for brain surgery. We will be seeing the neuro-surgeon Dec 17th. They will do another MRI that day as well.

They have decided to do 2 surgeries. Jan 21st we will go to B-ham to see the doc and do pre-admittance blood work, etc. Jan 22nd they will remove a portion of her skull and insert a mesh eeg monitor directly to her brain. They will induce seizures until she has 3. Once the data is collect from the seizures they will map the area of the left frontal lobe that they will remove. They will do the second surgery to remove the mesh and the area of the brain that is causing the seizures. She will come home the day after the second surgery as long as everything goes well. This process will probably take 1 1/2 to 2 weeks.

We continue to covet your prayers.

Pray for the seizures to come quickly and that the doctors will be led by the Holy Spirit.

Pray for Shelly to have peace and that the pain she will experience will be minimal.

Pray for us to continue in our faith walk with G-d and that accommodations will be available for us to stay in B-ham during the time she is in the hospital.

Pray for our finances as we prepare for the stay in B-ham.

Thank you again!
Christie

Veggie Preservation Class

I will be doing a class on drying and canning on Sunday, Dec 13th from 1-4 pm. If you would like to participate in this class, please contact me at clberryr@gmail.com. Hope to see you there!

Co-op Order, Buckets, eggs and milk

We will have a co-op order to send in Nov 2nd. Please get your order to me before then.

Also, if you ordered buckets, please come get them (they are bulky and I don’t have much room.)

Eggs are low, so we cannot sell eggs right now.
Milk production is up please take advantage of our increase milk supply to make cheese and butter for your pets for leaner times.

Talk to everyone soon!

New Animals

Well, it’s been a bit since I last posted… so here goes all the stuff that’s going on!

We have 3 angora goat does and 4 new sheep…  2 cotswold, a romney ram and another, not sure the breed. I’ll try to get pics up here as soon as I can. I also got a spinning wheel… so ya’ll know what I’ll be doing this winter! I’m so excited!

The bees are wintering through well so far.

We need to get hay, but everyone is doing pretty good.

Eggs are still in low supply… in fact we are getting about 2 eggs a day, barely enough for us!

Milk is coming in at about 2 1/2 - 3 gals daily, still sharing with the baby.

I’ll be making cheese soon, need a few more supplies, then I’ll be in the cheese! I want to try a few different cheeses I haven’t done before.

Well, I guess that’s about it. Hope you enjoyed the short update!

Bountiful Harvest

Today was a busy day… even tho our harvest was week, we did get a gallon of huckleberries. Someone gave us a bag of green tomatoes and a sunflower that has been drying for a while. I bought 2 nice pumpkins from the apple farm. So I needed to get some stuff done!

Shelly and I cleaned and froze the berries for another day (they don’t have much flavor, but they have nutrients).

We cut the pumpkins in half and cleaned them, saving the seeds for roasting and planting next year. In the oven to cook for such goodies as pumpkin bread and pie! I cleaned the seeds and have them soaking in salt water til tomorrow when we will roast them. Shelly took the sunflower seeds off the head and put them in a zip lock bag. We need to salt them and roast them as well but we will save that for another day.

Plan for tomorrow is to make butter and cheese, bread and spaghetti for Sabbath. Yum!

Bucket order is in

just got buckets in. If you ordered buckets or need some, give me a call or come by to pick them up. I also have some mylar bags, O2 absorbers and water filters left.

Water and Milk Kefir

I have water and milk kefir grains available if any of you have an interest. Please contact me and I can get some to you. I will have to charge to send through the mail, but it is minimal.

If you are not aware of kefir please check out the healthy living area of the website. www.health.onefaithmin.com

Update on Shelly

Hello to all!

First, let me thank everyone for the prayers and concerns that everyone has offered up on our behalf to the Creator. He continues to answer faithfully.

Today is Yom Kippur. We have been fasting and praying for our souls as we stand before the Father. This morning Shelly and I had a talk about how sometimes the Father asks us to do things (like fasting or having surgery) that we don’t like to do. We need to be obedient even when we don’t feel like it and when it isn’t something we want to do. She has had a good attitude about fasting today and has done a good job. (She was on a limited fast due to her meds.)

I talked to the Nurse at UAB today regarding the surgical review board’s decision for Shelly’s surgery. Shelly has been determined a candidate for the surgery. However, they want to do an invasive monitoring prior to the surgery to pinpoint the exact location of seizure activity. This means that they will implant an internal monitor directly onto the brain and induce seizures. When they remove the monitor they will do the lobectomy and remove the area of the brain causing the seizures. This also means 2 surgeries and up to 10 days in the hospital (could be shorter but a minimum of 5 days). We will see the doctors a couple times and the surgery could be scheduled for January.

After the discussion with the Nurse I asked Shelly if she wanted to know what was said. She said, “Sure,” and I told her the procedure. She isn’t thrilled but was not real upset (thank you Father!)

I must say this is NOT the direction my flesh wants to go and while the nurse was telling me the procedure, my stomach was in a knot! (Father forgive my weakness of faith.) It seems the talk this morning was for both of us as we continue this journey in a direction we don’t really want to take. I know that we have asked the Father to open every door in the direction He wants us to go and to close the doors if this is not His will, but… We still have a will and He won’t make us do it, just like fasting. He will tell us this is His wish for us, but we can choose if we follow it or not.

Continue to pray for:
* The doors to be opened in the direction He wants us to go and closed in the direction we are not to go.
* Shelly to be able to fight the spirit of fear that continues to fight with her and torment her.
* We be obedient to the leading of the Father even when it doesn’t feel good or we don’t want to.

I know that this will build our faith as we could never imagine and I know that all things He plans for us is to bring Him glory and us to maturity.

We may also need the finances to stay in a hotel for the 10 days or the graciousness of hosts to provide a place for us to stay while Shelly is in the hospital. They require 1 adult to stay with her constantly, but they will not furnish meals for the adult… this means that someone has to relieve the adult to go eat. We will need a place for 2 adults to stay while one is with Shelly. I believe that my mom, Satch, and I will be with her for the week and they will only allow one to spend the night.

You can donate to help us via Paypal to clberryr@gmail.com

Blessings to all!

Farm Journal 9/10/09

Well, it has been busy here. Mama Cow (31) is milking fine now and letting the calf eat. All animals are doing fine. My hired hand, Cody, helped with getting some water collection gutters on the barn, repaired and added gate handles to the electric fence, and helped us with building.

“What were we building,” you ask. Well, we worked on the Hexayurt prototype! Yep, LaRahna has been here working on the Hexayurt design. We got the walls up! Ok, so here is a link that will take you to the videos we have been taking…

Hexayurt build video 
Take a look! There are about 20 some videos so scroll down and check them out.

So, needless to say, it has been busy here!

Our chickens have been molting so we are down on eggs. Milk is good, getting about 3 gals a day (and that is with the baby eating all she wants.)

Staying blessed on Shekinah Farm!

Update on Sick Mamma Cow

Well, 31 is out of the woods, so to speak. This morning she got her last antibiotic treatment. Tonight we were able to milk her bad teet out and have infused an antibiotic in the quarter.  We will repeat this in the morning after milking to encourage the infected milk to move on out of the udder. Her udder has softened and she has much less pain. She is letting the baby nurse even on the infected quarter. This is a good indication that she is doing better. We won’t loose the quarter and we won’t loose the cow… Praise Yah!

With all the antibiotics, we won’t be using the milk until the antibiotic leaves her system. That takes about 3 days. The infused teet can’t be used for 3 days after the final infusion. S0 we should have milk again Sunday from the 3 good teets and Monday from the infected teet. The good news from all of this is that she is letting the baby eat… surprisingly!

The chickens are molting - early! We must be in for an early winter, possibly a cold one… not sure about that yet, haven’t seen the thick coats on the cows come in yet. I will let ya’ll know when it does! We may be in for a long, cold winter… we’ll see!

Sick Mama Cow

Well, I went out this am and 31 has mastitis. She is prone to it so we have been watching. This is the kind that doesn’t show up on the ‘litmus’ test. I milked as much as I could and could still not get enough bad milk off the quarter to put the meds in the teet. So, off to the vet I went to get antibiotics, pain killer and oxytocin. I gave her 35cc of antibiotic , 10cc pain killer, and 2cc oxytocin in the muscle this am and that same amount of pain killer and oxytocin this evening before milking. She is to get pain killer 2x daily if she is in pain, oxytocin 3-4 times a day and antibiotic today and again on Wednesday. What a hard time. She is still eating so she should be ok, but it is stressful.

On a good note, she was letting the baby suckle on the other 3 teets tonight when I went out there and that is a good sign that she isn’t hurting as much as she was this morning.  Well, we will have to discard the milk for 3 days after her last antibiotic (it will go to the calf) and then we will have lots of milk!

We lost one of our bee hives. I think the hive beetles attacked. We still have one, but will need to buy another next spring. I am very sad at the loss.

I hired a young man last week to work on the fence. He is coming back tomorrow to work on fence and a water collection project we are adding to our barn. Gigi and I are painting wood panels for the completion of the hexayurt this coming weekend. Yay!

I saw a living model of paddock paradise! I was so excited that I turned around, drove by again and stopped at the house to ask about it! The lady was very nice about it and walked out to the paddock to discuss it. She had what looked like a maze made out of white electric tape. I was enthrawled! I have been a bit intimidated at thinking how I could use this great pasture management system on my 7 acres… but when I saw it in use, I finally figured out how to do it in steps and make it work for us, cows and all! I’ll give you more specifics as I figure them out on our pasture. Oh, boy! Another project! Just never have enough to do ’round here!

Co-op price list

We finally got it! The newest price list is posted on the site. The next order will be September 14th. Check it out and get your orders and checks to me by the 7th if you can.

Farm Journal 8/23/09

Well, our new heifer is healthy, however, 31 is not letting her nurse. So we are milking 31 and bottle feeding the heifer. That will make her more friendly anyway, so we don’t mind. We haven’t come up with a name yet, any suggestions are welcome!

31 has a hard spot on her udder but she doesn’t have mastitis.. hope it will clear up as her milk comes in.

New Calf!

Shabbat Shalom!

Yah has blessed the farm again with His increase! 31 had her calf today! It is a heifer and she is gorgeous! She has a white spot on her face and a white leg (She is a spotted Jersey). I will post pics soon. Mama and calf are doing great. We will be milking Mama this week because her utter is so big and the calf could not possibly use all the colostrum. We will save it for future calves or to sell. We will have extra milk for sale in a week or so.

Co-op News 8/13/09

It has come to my attention that several people are not getting our emails from the list serve. Please check your settings on your email servers to make sure it is not being sent to the spam folder or deleted.

We will also be posting on the new blog on the website, so if you aren’t getting the emails you can check the blog and find info here.

We will be having another co-op purchase on September 14th, we need your orders in by September 7th so we can get the correct prices to you. The prices are not correct on the product list. Once you receive the correct prices you can mail or bring by a check to cover the purchase.

Sorry to all that missed the last co-op purchase.

Busy Times

I have been so busy… Satch and Kevin have been keeping chores up. I was in B-ham with Shelly for her neuropsych eval for possible brain surgery. I spent Sunday with PK in the morning for breakfast and shopping and with Shelly all afternoon running errands and hanging out. Monday and Tuesday I spent the day at the hospital with my mom. She had part of her thyroid removed and the goiter and nodules removed. She is doing fine, but I’m tired.

While at the hospital with nothing to do, I read a novel called Etta. It is set in late 1800’s early 1900’s and is an historical fiction about the life of Etta Place, the infamous running mate of Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy. It was a great story filled with all the great things a good novel should have. It is difficult to know where reality/history ends and fiction begins and this makes for a very believable epic.

Tomorrow I take my FIL to the doc and should be settled down again for a few days. Monday and Friday next week we have appointments again. I was looking forward to the start of school, but that will have to be on hold for another week. Maybe we can get started Monday morning and take Friday off.  Praying for Yah to continue to lead and guide us, keep us and train us as we walk this tedious journey.

Journal 7/29/09

Short note today. All animals are doing well except my mom’s dog Buster… she has been sick for some time. She coughs all the time and is having a difficult time breathing. I got 8 eggs and 2/3^rds gallon of milk this morning and worked with the puppies. Nothing from the garden. Tomatoes are still not up and it is raining.

Took my mom to the doctor. She will be having thyroid surgery on Monday, and tonight she decided tomorrow to have Buster put down so she isn’t suffering. She asked if I could go with her and started to cry. It’s an emotional time here. Yahweh keep us and support us during this time.

Farm Journal 7/28/09

Another late morning and another busy day going to town. I arrived home last night after 10:30 and didn’t get to sleep ’til after 11… needless to say, getting up early didn’t happen! I went out to milk and the dogs were out waiting for me. Notsumi (Japanese for Summer), a Great Pyranese, Anatolian Shepherd cross, is about 5 months old and was a rescue dog my son, Ricky, picked up. She is very skiddish and needs lots of TLC. Ziva is almost a year old and is my daughter Shelly’s dog. She is a Pit Bull, Bull Mastiff mix with a wonderful disposition. We hope to teach her to be a companion dog for Shelly. Egypt is a Lab, Chow, ??? mix and was left here by someone that can’t keep her right now… She is around 2 and is very shy. Bones and Spunky are about 4 months old and some kind of Terrier mix. Bones is my brother Kevin’s dog and Bones’ sister Spunky belongs to my Dad. Two other doggies that don’t meet me are my Mom’s dog, Buster, and my Dad’s other dog Bandit who are both very old.

It is a rainy day today and cool. We got 11 eggs and another spaghetti squash. Shemayim gave 2/3 gallon this morning. Another busy day and rain… the tomatoes are rotting on the ground! I can’t get out there today… Praying that they will be ok ’til I can get them propped up… I will try to get some done tomorrow morning.

This week has been very difficult so far and it looks busy the whole week. Yesterday I had to take Grandpa to the doctor and run errands. Today I had to take Shelly to the Dr, get a prescription, run to the bank, library, meet with Dad and when I got home I had visitors. Made dinner and then crashed into the chair at 6:40 pm. Tomorrow I will be going to take my mom to a doctor’s appointment and help a friend with a health issue. The 5^th day this week will have to be preparation day because the 6^th day I will be with Shelly in B-ham all day having tests done. I look forward to Sabbath!

Farm Journal 7/27/09

This morning I woke up late and didn’t make it out to do chores ’til 7:15. It was overcast and about 78 degrees. All the puppies went with me to milk. I spent a few minutes convincing Notsumi (Ricky’s dog) that I was a friend – once she relaxed we all went out to the barn for some warm milk!As I was milking I noticed a hen with 5 chicks in the barn – no one had told me we had new chicks. Later, when I asked about the chicks, Dad (my dear husband) said there were 2 batches. I didn’t see the younger batch. The calf was working on tearing down the barn wall, while I worked the milking machine (which is in need of repair). We really need to get the barn fixed too – soon before it falls in on our heads. I was thinking about finding an ‘Old Timer’ that could tell us how to fix it and supervise while we do the work. Would be nice! We got 2/3 gal of milk from Shemayim. 31 is dried off for calving next month.

I gathered eggs and fed the hens. There were only 2 eggs in the nestboxes. I checked in the house to find 7 more on the floor. The hens don’t like to lay in an empty nest and it was definitely empty. I added straw to their boxes.

The water troughs were low so I filled them and moved the horses to the back yard to help with the unmown grass. They love to be in the back yard with the different weeds and things to get into! A mama and daddy Cardinal were helping themselves to the chicken feed while I waited for the troughs to fill.

I decided to pick some of the weeds that I couldn’t identify and take them to the extension office today while I was in town with Grandpa for a doctor’s appointment. I know there are many of them that are medicinal or edible. While I was searching for odd plants and weeds I headed out to the garden – not really sure what I would find (I’ve been in Atlanta for 3 weeks helping a friend). Well, the tomatoes that my dear husband said didn’t need to be propped yet (because they are still short due to planting late) were sprawled out on the ground heavy with tomatoes! I definitely need to get them up, but today was not to be the day. I found two overgrown spaghetti squash, 3 beautifully bright yellow summer squash, 1 crookneck squash, and Italian cucumber and a table cucumber to pick. The cabbage is heading nicely. I have several volunteer corn stalks near the chicken house.

I had to take Grandpa Buster to get some lab work, so I quickly poured the milk through the strainer into the bottle, got a quick shower, grabbed my basket of weeds, a couple mylar bags and O2 absorbers for a friend and headed out the door.

I arrived home, finally, just before 4 pm, exhausted from the running of the day. I hate going to town… by the time I get home I am through! My day was still ahead of me, the tomatoes needed to be propped, dinner made… I needed to be propped and someone else better make dinner! Dad arrived home and started dinner for me. My neighbor came by needing a ride to the ER. The tomatoes will have to wait ’til another day.

Horses

While I was in Atlanta for the past 3 weeks helping out a friend, I found myself missing the farm. It wasn’t just because I was in a concrete jungle and the air was yuck . It wasn’t just because I had no fur babies to hang out with or that I had to eat unnatural foods at the cafeteria. It wasn’t just because there were too many cars and people… it was all this and more…

I missed the sights, sounds, and smells of the farm. Seeing the geese in the pasture, at the pond, the horses getting frisky in the field, the sound of the roosters in the early morning giving us the wake up call and the mama cows bawling when it is feeding time and we aren’t out there. I missed the buzzing of the bees when I check the hives, their wings keeping the hive temperature just right and the silly puppies pouncing about the back yard. I missed the smell of fresh mown lawn, dirt and even the manure. I missed the routine of the chores and spending time with Yahweh each morning thanking Him for all that he has put in my charge. But the thing I missed most was the musky, sweet smell of the horses.

Our Farm

Well, here is our first post about our farm… this blog will be our farm journal and most things will be boring to most people, I will try to share some of the old farm stories that I remember along the way so it isn’t too boring for you!

I hope you enjoy reading about our busy little place the Father has given us.