The first days of spring, here on the farm

One thing about Ohio if you do not like the weather wait five minutes and it will change. Yesterday was a beautiful first day of spring, clear blue skies and forty seven degree's. Today looks more like February, gray skies twenty eight degree's and snowing.
                Yesterday morning I got to burn some brush, which for some strange reason I always enjoy.
It brings back memories of days past when Uncle Ken , dad and I first cleared the ground here and burnt brush for two days. It never seemed like work when we spent time together burning brush , or cutting firewood for winter, or putting in a garden. We laughed and joked as we went, Kenny Ray at times all he understands is the work. I say son it is not work to me, when you are improving your land and taking care of your family, at the end of the day you can see what all your efforts did. When you work in a office or factory you see no fruits of your labor at the end of the day. In Ten years no one will say Hey remember the day I typed that report or The day I built that washing machine, but they will remember the day you planted that apple tree or cleared that piece of ground for the garden.
       I finished burning brush about noon Yesterday and came in for dinner, Kenny Ray had just finished his math we ate and discussed what we were going to do that afternnon. I said son we need some more firewood, we need to drag some out of the woods I will cut it up while you haul some top soil and leaves from the bottom of the hill to fill some of our raised beds, we finished around four thirty, a truck load of firewood and two raised beds filled, and after supper I went out and planted onions, lettuce , as well as set some cabbage, brocclie plants that my mother had gave , and covered the boxe's with some row cover. The job of placing the row cover was made more difficult as Belle { our six month old Lab pup} wanted to help I covered and she pulled it off. I finished the day as it began Belle and I walking the farm together thanking God.

GOD has a plan for me

Once again GOD has stepped into my life and altered my plans, he has humbled me and my ego. I feel he has been working on me for the last couple of months, as I look back over some of my writings I see he was preparing me now for what lies ahead. Those people that know me , know that I have always planned on trying to retire from the body shop business at age fifty, well I did not make it to fifty as my employer let me go on January 28, I would have been in the shop thirty one years come April eighteenth. I have worked a job everyday  since I was sixteen years old. It was kind of weird as I was relived, it was like a great burden had been lifted off my back.
I have spent the last month working on getting my affairs in order, and reworking the cabin as my families new home. Kenny Ray and I have been moving our family belongings a pickup truck at a time. My wife Tari is taking care of things in our city home and is still working until the end of May or til the that house sells. I have ordered our chickens as well as some more fruit trees which should all be here by the end of the month, and in the process of planning the garden for the year.
While I have had some sleepless nights I have not been all that nervous about what lays ahead.
I walk and talk to GOD every morning as I walk over this little piece of mountain land, and wonder what he has planned for me next. I will take things one day at a time and enjoy each day and prepare the farm for my wife's home coming.

A busy April, and a walk with God

I am sorry that I have been gone a while but my ego sidetracked me a little while, but I have got my life back on the correct path once again thanks for your prayers. April has been a very busy month between work and trying to build a farm for my family. I will try to catch everyone up. April 1
Kenny ray and I drove to Chilicothe to meet the fish truck where we bought some Channel Catfish and Hybrid Bluegills to restock our pond. We also put up a automatic fish food dispenser to feed them thru the week.
April 7: Mom, Kenny Ray and I planted six new apple trees for my orchard, and I plowed under my cover crop on one garden spot which measure's 200 ft by 25 ft.
the trees we planted are from a company call Fedco Trees they handle heirloom varieties , I slected the following. 1 Baldwin a all purpose winter apple
2 Grimes Golden a all pupose winter apple
3 Belle de Boskoop a cooking winter apple
4 Cox Orange Pippin, a fall dessert apple
5 Ashmeads Kernel a winter desert apple
6 Black Oxford , a all purpose winter apple
These apples will begin to ripen from September thru November, if the deer do not get them and with Gods blessing.
April 21 Kenny Ray and I installed two, three pound packages of Italian honey bees into thier new homes as well got some of the garden planted, spinach and sweet corn and we  squezzed in some bass fishing and a picnic.
April 28 Kenny Ray checked on the bees to make sure the queens were released and we replinished their sugar syrup. It was Kenny Ray's first time in the bees by himself , I just supervised.
We also got some garden out , cabbage and onions and beets, we also weeded the garlic bed as well as his Chives. We also planted three grape vines, which we still have to build the arbor for. I then gave him some lessons on pitching horse shoes.
That was our weekend chore's plus we started garden plants and built hony bee foundation frames , mowed grass and cut firewood.
It has been rewarding, I thank God for everything.
I just finished a book this past week which I realy enjoyed,Born Again Dirt is the title.
One of the things in the book that I found that moved me was the author's suggestion that you walk your farm with God and talk with him. Show him what you have done to improve the land which is his as we only borrow it for a short time. Pray to God on these walks for the wisdom to see what the land is telling you, pray for his blessing for all that we do is for him. I have always walked the farm that he has entrusted me with  every morning that I am lucky enough to be there.  During this time I have always talked with God about what is going on with my life, to help me make wise decisions.
On my walk yesterday morning at the farm I strolled down the lane toward the pond with a cup of coffee and as I was thanking God for the beautiful sunrise to my surprise I heard a wild Turkey gobble to my left back in my neibors place, and then another gobble out further from the first about two hundred yards. and the another out the point and then another from my woods to my left maybe fifty yards from me, And just when I thought it was perfect i neared the pond a pair of Mallard ducks
rose from the water and flew heaven bound. I listened to turkeys for another hour before heading back to the cabin and another cup of coffee. In closing I would like to thank God for everthing that he has blessed me with.

I need outside for me and my writing

I have not been motivated to write too much this winter. With my shoulder broke it has kept me in the house allot more than normal. I have missed rabbit hunting ,but have been more afraid of falling before my shoulder healed, I did not want to break it a third time. I am motivated by being in Gods outside world not so much his indoor world. I was planning on going to the farm this weekend to cut some firewood and clear some ground for the apple trees on order. But they are now calling for bad weather again tonight and tomorrow. I hope the weatherman is wrong as I need to also work on the tractor and get ready for planting potatoes. I have been flipping back and forth on where to plant my garden this year here in the city or on the farm. Oil prices are trying to tell me here in town but I my heart say 's on the farm.
Tari fixed my last quart of green beans last week for supper and I am already thinking of some fresh beans , tomatoes and corn bread. Tari , Kenny Ray and I have been trying to change the way we eat as Tari was diagnosed as a diabetic and it has hit pretty hard and are trying to learn how to cook. I also know we need to plant more vegetables and store more as well.
I have been doing some editing on some of the stories that I have written and if you read this blog you know that might writing is rough at times. I have had a couple of things published in the past, I am hopeing to get paid for one. I am always afraid that proper english takes away from my story telling. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

A little bit of summer

Well the end of January is upon me now and I made it threw another one. This one has especially tough due to my shoulder it has kept me in the house. I am getting my strength back slowly in it, at least I can hold my gun up now. So come next Saturday me and ole Jack will it the fields in pursuit of Bugs bunny. Anyway I decided to bring some better weather here at the house yesterday as I fired up the grille after cleaning several inches of snow off of it .

I pulled out the backstraps of the deer I killed a month ago and put along some mushrooms and peppers and onions and wrapped in foil and one the grill it went some baked potatoes. And Tari pulled out a bag of Black Raspberries that mom and I picked last summer as well as a bag of sliced apple's that came from my trees. She put together two cobblers as Kenny Ray does not like the seeds in the raspberry pie. After supper Tari and I returned to winter we sat down by the fire in the living room with a cup of coffee and a dish of summer berries and vanilla ice cream.

Dreaded month of January

Well it is almost over, this dreaded month of January. This year has been one of my worst as I have been house bound with my fractured left shoulder. I tried to rabbit hunt one time but was unable to hold my shotgun steady from the pain but I get a little better each day. I am looking to forward to February as I hope to get every weekend even if it is just to run ole Jack some.I think Tari is looking forward too
as I have been aggravating her just pacing the house.
I did get down to the farm last weekend for the day to check the propane tank and I was going to do some cleanup. All I really got done was take a walk out to the pond and take a nap on the couch.The cabin seems more like home every trip I make down whether it is to hunt or fish or set on the porch or by the heating stove, it is home. I am trying to decide whether to have my garden at the farm or here in Dayton, I keep changing my mind,but right now with the of gasoline going up it might be Dayton. I am looking forward to planting season as I am tired of the cold and snow of January.

Batteries recharged

I was reading my favorite blog yesterday The Deliberate Agrarian. It always helps me when I get depressed and wander If I am doing the right thing by trying to move my family full time to the farm. I always have the same questions is it fair to Kenny Ray? Would I deprive him of opportunities? Am I living in the past?
These things always worry me. Most of the people around me think I am crazy for wanting to give a successful career and lower my standard of living. I always need a pep talk sometimes then all I have to is read The Deliberate Agrarian. It reminds me that I am a slave to a economic system meant to drain me of all my money and hope. The banks and my own Government are in this brainwashing of the middle class working man.In Mr. Kimball posted and essay the new Agrarian movement as well one about the current economic time from a book written in 1952 and how the industrial system is unsustainable. But the one essay that really struck me was about a obituary of a Mennonite man by the name of Mr. Ralph Yutzy. He was a farmer and a cabinet maker he was 86 years old. He left behind a family of 13 children, 152 grandchildren and 438 great grandchildren. What a family I really envy Mr. Yuttzy. I would love for my son to have such a family and the only way he would be able to do so is make is living from the farm and not enslaving himself to a bank. And so with this in mind I am going to double my efforts to get my family and my son on the farm as fast as I can.
All I can do his help him with the farm I am afraid he will have the harder task of finding a good woman that would be willing to have 13 children.