The Grapes are Juiced!

Hey Y'all!
I finally finished juicing the 2 bushels of grapes I bought.. and all the 'mash' is in the freezer for making jam. Whew!

I made a home-made juicer using my water bath canner, a stainless steel bowl and colander. I'll try to get picks to put up soon. It was a bit tricky and I may make some changes for next week when I get the next bushel of grapes, but it worked pretty good! We averaged about 4 quarts of juice for each 1/2 bushel box. I didn't try to get more, I'll use the rest of the juice for jam next week.

I still have a bushel of tomatoes in the back fridge that I need to put-up and the honey to clean. They will have to wait until Thursday cause I'm tuckered out and tomorrow we have to run to town.

Today, I went to a gentleman's home that had some interesting items for sale. I got an old popcorn popper, ash bucket, butter mold, coffee grinder, potato and onion bin, and pitcher and bowl for under $50. Everything is usable and in excellent condition. I look forward to popping some corn!

Well, if I can find the cord for my camera, I could put pics up... but alas, it is missing... I'll keep looking so I can get some pics up here!

Big Bee Adventure!

I woke up this morning expecting to work with the bees, remove the supers and harvest our honey. I looked forward to this with eager anticipation and sent DH out to get a 5 gal bucket we had in the summer kitchen, turned puppy play area (we have 12 puppies almost ready for their new homes!) As he was walking toward the back door with bucket in hand I saw a huge wasp nest swarming with wasps inside the bucket and yelled, “NO! NO! NO! Wasps!” At the same time he felt them crawling on his hand and he threw the bucket down and ran into the house. We watched safely behind the glass storm door as the wasps flew angrily around our screen enclosed back porch. I intended to work with the bees, but these were not the kind I wanted to work with!Finally, the wasps settled down and I could get to my bee keeping equipment and off I went to work with the ‘real’ bees. Our three hives are good and strong this year! We got 6 very full supers off and ended up with over 12 gallons of honey (to be strained and bottled next week.) What a wonderful Yahovah we serve! He has truly blessed us with a little piece of land flowing with milk and honey!

Pears and Plums!

We picked up pears and plums today! More work but it will be worth it come winter! We have 2 bushels of plums and 2 bushels of pears to put up this upcoming week. Yummmm!

I think I will make plum preserves and syrup. The pears will just be canned.

Yah blesses continually!

The Puppies are Here! 12!

Maya had her puppies! They are adorable! So, we didn't plan on having puppies. Maya was supposed to go in to get fixed just after her first heat... well, she found a way out of the fence and was promiscuous, the naughty girl. Needless to say we now have 12 puppies that need homes! I will try to find the camera cord so I can get pics up!

We have Peaches!

I just got 3 bushels of peaches from our fruit co-op! Mom and I spent all day Sunday canning them, whew, were we ever tired after that!

But, we now have fresh canned peaches for the winter! 58 quarts to be exact! We will really enjoy these come winter time! I put another 1/2 bushel in the freezer for smoothies. Yah is good!

4th of July - No Celebration

The past few weeks have been difficult. First the Water Hemlock scare and then Shelly's horse Sasha is sick. She came up colicky and we had the vet out on Sabbath. We walked her around and around the back yard all weekend. She finally was feeling better but she had started getting sores on her hip bones. We thought it was from rolling, but they were not getting better... we called the vet again and he gave us an antibiotic to give her.

Then Shelly's cat, Barucha, was hit by a car. The neighbor came over to ask if it was hers. We found her collar. :( Shelly was devastated, her horse is sick and now her cat was dead.

Four days into the antibiotic, Sasha was dead. After talking to the vet and discussing what may have happened, as well as deciding we couldn't afford an autopsy, we had the county come out and bury her.

I prayed, I pleaded, but alas, there is death and dieing on the farm along with life. Sometimes there is no way to know how or why. This has been a tough year of losses. Maybe it is preparation for things to come. Maybe it is a test to see if we continue to give glory to the One who gives life. Maybe... ?

In all situations, we give Glory to the One True Creator and Life Giver of all things, YHVH, for His love for us is above measure and understanding! As with Job, what he takes away, he will restore if we remain faithful.

Water Hemlock Scare!

This past weekend we had a scare. As we were sitting in the swing under the shade of one of our big Maple Trees in the back yard on Shabbat watching the sheep graze, Ester (one of our new lambs) stood up, shook her head, then fell down! Then she began convulsing! I watched as she stopped and attempted to stand and the convulsions started again! 

I ran in to the computer to see what could cause seizures in sheep or lambs… WOW! there are a lot of options! But the one that seemed the most compelling (through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I’m sure) was Water Hemlock poisoning. I researched Water Hemlock and seizures in sheep (all of this as fast as I could out of concern for the poor lamb that was convulsing in the back yard) and found that most sheep die from this and if they have eaten enough to have seizures they most certainly die. We went out to where she was just grazing and found LOTS of Water Hemlock! We had never had it growing here before, not in the past 11 years!

Well, I made a black liquid mess of water and activated charcoal and took a large syringe and shoved it down her little throat! After two syringes full, she’d had enough and got up and wobbled away, still listing to the right and shaking her head, looking for mama. We kept an eye on her for the day and prayed that the Father help her survive and for us to find all the Water Hemlock on our little homestead. We found it growing in moist areas around the water troughs, the water spigot, and our rain tanks. We cut it down carefully and got as much as we could away from the sheep.

Sunday morning we went outside, Ester was still listing to the right, but no more seizures. However, Moshe, our ram, was down on his side. Not really convulsing, but not getting up either… I went immediately to make the charcoal and water remedy, twice as much as I had made for the lamb and headed out the door. Satch helped me get the solution into him and we helped him to his feet to keep him moving, if possible. He moved slowly at first, and finally went to where the others were.

By Tuesday, both Ester and Moshe were symptom free and eating heartily at the grass in the back yard.

I thank Yahweh for His hand on the little ones he has put in our keep and for the leading as to what to do. We have since found that we have Gypsum Weed, Water Hemlock, and Buttercups, all poison to the animals… we have our work cut out for us! We hate to use poison on our farm, but these plants are too dangerous to have around the animals, so we are spraying them with roundup in some areas and 1 year sterilizer in other areas where we don’t want weeds, grass, or anything else to grow. The enemy will not have the victory on Shekinah Farm!