We had a broody hen I believe in the main chicken tractor, so we put her and a bunch of eggs in the mini tractor, and God graciously granted a 2nd round of chicks this 2023!
These are obviously a little older 🙂 :
We just moved them into the pen area the other day too.
Sadly, one has some eye problems, but has made it all this time, and hopefully it will be ok in the pen area.
And here’s their video:
As always, we are grateful to the Lord for His provisions, and we pray for their safety and health!
We have continued to work through learning the Psalms from the psalter we use, and have finished recording them — Psalms 106A-107E, in the hopes they might help someone be able to learn them too and sing them to the Lord.
And here they are:
(If the above player doesn’t work, or if you would like to save any of the files locally to your computer, you can click the Download link below, or right click it and click Save As in the popup menu.)
The Lord has graciously begun to grant new turkey chicks this 2023! We’ve been “collecting” them and putting them in the summer kitchen (which is really just a brooder barn) as they’ve been hatching in the barn, and have rotated a couple of mommies. It’s kind of a bummer “stealing” their youngin’s, but we don’t have a place for every mother hen and her hatchlings. We are thankful though it appears most of the turkey hens have been nesting in the barn so far and not out and about wherever.
And here’s a video of the progress thus far:
We are grateful to God for His kindness in providing these new turkeys, and we pray He might grant continued health and safety for them according to His will!
After one of the worst droughts I believe in Texas history last year, which was almost certainly a contributor to the the wildfire we faced, the Lord has graciously brought much appreciated rain this year. We estimate He granted nearly a half-year’s average last month!
But with that came several severe storms — some of the severest we’ve had — some of the highest winds we’ve experienced, and the largest hail — golf ball sized, with a few maybe up to tennis ball size?
And so, we thought we would take you through some of the results…
This just shows how many of the leaves were knocked off the oak trees:
This is the meat dryer upside down and pushed up against the clothes dryer. I had the legs wood-staked into the ground, but I believe over time the wood rotted and couldn’t hold against the winds:
The hail did a number on all the gutters and downspouts:
My wonderful wife has gotten us by for a while with a superb tape job she just did on her own! 😀
The hail punched holes through the window sills, and tore up screens. I don’t believe we had any broken windows through it all though:
Here’s a video of how I attempted to repair these:
I had these goat sheds staked into the ground as well, but they probably had the same problem (that middle shed is upside down).
Worrisome at the time but a funny story now: our rooster Albus (who was the inspiration for a hymn I put together, and who is one of our musical roosters from long ago) goes up every morning to hang out with the boy goats. Well, after a storm with the shed flipped over, I went up there and couldn’t find him. Uh oh. But, I wondered….and sure enough, he was in the upside-down shed, standing on the roof that was not the floor. Yea! My guess is he ended up going with the shed as it went over. We’re thankful the Lord spared him. 🙂 :
This shed’s roof and one of its sides were blown off, but this below is it stitched back together.
I also was tired of sheds rolling over, so I pounded t-posts next to the opening on each side and tied the roof and shed to them. Hopefully that will generally hold them now, unless God has other plans for them. 🙂 :
When the winds came through the first time, this solar panel, which is attached to a palette that has three cinder blocks holding it down, ended up face down with a cinder block on the back of the panel. Well, that put some cracks in it.
And then when the hail came through, that finished the job. 🙂 …although I believe it still functions fine:
And finally, here’s the car. I figure it must have been one of the big ones similar to some that hit the roof of our house — a sound I don’t believe we’ve heard before — big pounding bangs on the house roof. I figure those must have been bigger than the golf ball-sized ones:
Then, after some road renovation to keep water from flowing off the property, our original pond overflowed — the first time since we built the extension some time before 2008.
This is the far side. When it was overflowing its worst, it was really going over much of this back side:
And here’s an overflow trench I dug to try to keep that from happening much more, although I probably need to make it wider because I don’t believe it will keep up with what can flow into the pond on a heavy rain:
Lastly, here’s a video of some of that overflow after I had dug the outlet trench:
In the end, we believe all these things are by the hand of God fulfilling His purposes:
Psalm 148:8 – “Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word:“
But, the Lord was very merciful through it all as things could have been worse, and again, He has granted some very much-desired rain. We pray He applies it to the land to bring healing after being so parched last year, and pray for His continued mercies in the weather.
May we thirst for Him, and may He fill us with His Spirit so His graces in godly fear of Him, holiness and obedience flow from us for His glory.
Psalm 63:1 – “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
John 7:38 – “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
The Lord has graciously begun to grant new animal life this Spring of 2023, the first here a little chicken chick! I believe it was just hatched out by a mommy or several just randomly in the barn (ie. we didn’t set her aside to hatch any out).
We have quite a few chickens and turkeys doing that this year (we’re thankful they’re choosing the barn!), and so we’ll hopefully see how that continues to go.
Anyway, here it is again:
And here’s a little video:
We always thank God for His continued provisions and His creation in action!
2 It maketh me to “lie”[2] in red/green/blue[3] pastures: it leadeth me to post still pictures.
3 It distracteth my soul: it leadeth me in the paths of pretentiousness for its name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of the Internet, I will fear not God, for it is with me; its “Likes” and “Shares” they comfort me.
5 It preparest a table of venomous speech before me in the presence of mine enemies; it anointest my head with “Friends”[4]; my “Followers” runneth over.
6 Surely witty-quips and memes shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of Facebook for ever.
[1]: Lack
[2]: As in not truth, some intentionally, in the putting forth of a persona that is not really themself, but in the end, the real person cannot be actually put forth or known truly via this medium
[3]: Color model for computers
[4]: How do Facebook “Friends” compare to these?
Exodus 33:11 – “And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.“
James 2:23 – “And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.“
Proverbs 18:24 – “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.“
I believe social media isn’t social — it’s a fake replacement for it. More lies, along the same vein as “oh, all these modern conveniences will give you more time in your life”, when they required dad to get a factory job away from the family all day, and mom eventually at her job, and the children raised by society’s school system, all instead of dad being right there, hands on, to raise his boys in how to provide for a family, and mom doing the same in how to take care of one, being much more present to “bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).
And I think you can see how far has this type of lie has taken us: I think you can see it when a family is sitting at a table for a meal with everyone fiddling with their individual devices, like they and the rest aren’t even there.
And what about family worship, something that was most likely at least known about, if not actively participated in, in Christian families not too long ago?
I could lament some more but will stop for now. And I understand the irony that this will be posted on social media by us (near hypocrisy?), but even Christ visited and helped those outside of those to whom He was originally sent; see the Canaanite women in Matthew 15:21-29. And I understand that it can be beneficial to have important information available quickly, or that it’s nice to share some pictures with your family, but I believe there is a larger issue at play, that even goes to what is important to people in their hearts and how much time is spent not in prayer, or Bible study, or keeping our conversation [behavior] in heaven, or renewing our minds:
Philippians 3:20 – “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:“
Romans 12:2 – “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.“
Anyway, I came across a version of Psalm 23 for TV someone had done, and after briefly glancing at it, wondered if I could do something similar for something I am extraordinarily not fond of, not just because, but hopefully to bring forth a point of view, FWIW.
May God help us to redeem the time, for the days (by themselves, without us doing anything) are evil.
To keep family updated after moving here without having to email anymore
To hopefully help someone with the things we did, learned, etc.
My favorite things are the spiritual things posted, I’m thankful for Sue’s postings, and most of those from me are from things I’ve read that I thought were spiritually important; a few others being just how I’ve come to see things, spiritually and in worldview, for whatever that is worth.
Which leads to this:
Ecclesiastes 11:1:
Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
I don’t know if we’ve helped anyone ever, in temporals or otherwise, but hopefully by casting our bread upon the waters, it will come back, as Ecclesiastes says, in the form of someone seeking God more, either to salvation or to living more godly and obedient to Him, and someone living more for His glory, and then maybe God receiving some revenue of glory to Himself.
We pray maybe some day, in some way, that happens, and that we always point people to the Lord Christ Jesus, who, with Father and Spirit, alone are worthy to receive honor, glory, praise and adoration forever and ever, amen!
Jeremiah 6:16:
Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. . . .
Hebrews 11:8-10:
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Heb. 11:8-10 - "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
Receive New Blog Posts by Email
Usually only 1-3 a month. We will never share your information nor solicit you.
