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!