God's Grace

I don't think this day could have been any more beautiful! The morning began with sun, which may be taken for granted elsewhere, especially during the summer. But here in the Pacific Northwest just because it is July, that does not guarantee sunshine. It seems the more normal routine for weather is to begin the morning cloudy and overcast, around 60 degrees or sometimes even cooler, with the clouds burning off by 12 and the day heating up to high 70s. I will not complain about this pattern, but to wake up to sunshine is one of the most glorious things, in my mind. There was sunshine and a cool breeze when she came in my room at 715 for our daily snuggle. This is new for us ever since baby #2 came along... Mama just can't quite seem to pull herself from those sheets quickly. So Little One has come to me and we lay for a few minutes more before the day begins.

First a little snack for us, then on with the boots and out with the milking bucket. First round is the chickens, as they have been squawking for the past 2 hours or so. They are given a few handfuls of feed here and there and then are let loose to "free range" it the rest of the day. Next stop, a quick jaunt to let the goats out as Lillibelle can be seen looking so forlornly out the window. They are let out to
graze their field before milking time. On to the pigs, which get a full ration of grain morning, noon, and night. A full tub of fresh water is needed for them as well. A turn in the garden to water and to see what new bounty awaits us for the day and then finally on to muck, feed, water, and milk the goats. And this our daily morning chores, taking all in all about 45 minutes.

By that time Tirzah, Baby and I are quite famished and so with a basket full of harvest from the garden, we set about cooking something up. Yesterday morning we were having a get together with Melissa and Elias, our friends from DuPont whom we miss so much. The menu:

Fresh beet juice (beets from the garden) with blueberries and apples.
Warm buttered toast
A 5 egg omelet with fresh eggs, goats milk, homemade mozzarella with a sprinkling of garden basil.
Served overtop a sautéed mixture of homegrown onion, potato, and yellow summer squash.
Accompanied by sautéed garden Swiss chard and onions.
Grapes and blueberries
Fresh sugar snap peas


The spread, I have to say was beautiful in its bounty, and delicious like only fresh can be. I am in awe of this garden and this lifestyle, feeling finally like I am fully entering into the rhythms and appreciating the goodness that flows from the hours of hard work. For during those first weeks of pregnancy, I was not having any of it. Mainly because I was found in bed all the day long, but the barn yard smells and even the thought of milking had me completely grossed out, if I am honest. And you couldn't get me near the kitchen to cook without me needing to go sit outside for a few minutes of fresh air. Daniel has since told me I said fresh air about 15 times a day.

But isn't the Lord's timing so gracious and perfect? For when I was low, Daniel was home and Greg and Marlene were here to toil and to tend. And now, with Daniel in Singapore and just myself and Tirzah here, I have the strength and energy returned to do and enjoy the tasks at hand. AND to enjoy to the fullest once again being in the kitchen!

I remember vividly last year when Tirzah and I met my brother and Danae out on Galiano island at the farm. One morning, I remember, we went to the garden, looked to see what was in abundance, returned to the house, and made our meal with what we had brought in fresh from the land. It was perfectly scrambled eggs alongside Swiss chard sautéed with caramelized onions and tomatoes, with a bowl of fresh picked blackberries from the yard. I remember lingering long over that meal and in my mind thinking: this is what it looks like and feels like and tastes like to eat the way we are supposed to eat. And now? We can do that here! On this little patch of the land The Lord has given to us for this season. I don't think I could have nor would have appreciated this, even two weeks ago, but now I can just not get enough!

I delighted in serving Melissa this type of food and I delighted in sending her home with a CSA type bag of produce. I truly don't know what the future holds... If we will continue this lifestyle forever or if this is just a season for now... Are we staying in the military or are we getting out... All these questions left unknown at this moment, but I do know that I am so thankful to have had this place for now so that we can forever hold it in our memories. This land and this garden, this pasture where the picnic table is and where dinner is served. This swing where she runs to after each meal and where the breeze is cool.

But of course there are some bad aspects... Like the rats. Becoming more and more it seems by the day. I am totally thinking of a barn cat that will live in the garage where the rats and the feed are and maybe that will settle the rodent problem? Or possums living under the house... Or the wasps that stung me as I mowed the other day and that have now moved into the goat house. Or that our carrot crop has just taken a turn for the worse and our tomatoes are most definitely not the most pretty or most prolific plants I have ever seen. Or the fact that the pigs are becoming so aggressive one drew blood from my Mamas arm.

But life on a farm is a little picture of life itself. You have the good and the hard and you hold them together, loosely of course, and you give thanks and you labor to make beautiful and bountiful and nourishing for all those that you love. And where not every moment is one to love... Like when your friends baby falls and lands in a fistful of chicken poopoo, but where there are those moments in which you long to stay forever, like last night pushing her on the swing beneath the maple tree, watching the sunset sky. And with both you simply sigh and see it is God's grace in both.