Midtown Garden Clean Up Day

No more snow!! It's spring!

Wanna see the Midtown garden and lend a hand to clean up and get ready for planting? Come out this weekend!

Date:	Saturday, March 27, 2010
Time:	10:00am - 2:00pm
Location:	61 Holland St. NE Grand Rapids

You don't have to stay the whole time, just come when you can.

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Seed Starting party!

It's Spring!! (I know, I heard it's still going to snow, I don't care!)

Click on the pic to see the event on Facebook.

Come celebrate with us! Saturday, we are going to start some seeds for the Midtown Community Garden, but you are welcome to come out and get your hands dirty with us! We are going to do some indoor seed starting and some winter sowing. Bring some milk jugs or other plastic containers and seeds if you've got them, we've got dirt and some seeds to share. You don't have to be a Midtown neighborhood resident or commit to working in the garden. If your excited about spring and gardening, even if you've never done it before, come on over and let's get our hands dirty together! If you want to help us start the plants for the garden that's great, or if you want to take some starts home, that's fine too. We'll be working inside, so don't worry about the weather report!

We went out to the farm last night for the first time and saw all the brand new baby sheep! I love spring! There are something like 17 baby lambs so far this spring, 7 lambs born yesterday alone!

This is Percy! Her momma isn't doing a very good job at nursing her so we fed her a bottle. She is soooo sweet! Her name is short for persistent, because in spite of her mom's (sheep are not very smart) head butts she doesn't give up trying to nurse.

Remember Pìo?She's big now!!

HAPPY SPRING!

Where oh where do we go?

So we thought we'd be moving today. We had planned on renting a house about a mile from the farm and we were supposed to start moving in today, but we found out on Monday that it all feel thru. This is a very hard readjustment for us and we are struggling with it and confused about what to do now. We are grateful though because as disappointed as we are about the major change in plans, we did pray specifically that it wouldn't work out if it wasn't the right thing for our family. So please pray for us, everything seems a little uncertain right now, and we are desperate for God's guidance in our decisions. As much as we love living at the farm, we are ready to have our own house and our own routine. We had our hearts set on being close enough to still be involved on a daily basis, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see how things turn out.

If you know of anyone who is renting a 4 bedroom house for a reasonable price or needs a house sitter for the winter let us know!

As for the farm, things are going very well. The number of animals seems to be increasing exponentially. We have three new goats, two new sheep, and more chickens than I can count. It is so fun to see the babies following their mommas around the farm. There are 40 chickens of which the females are being raised into new laying hens and the roosters will become dinner. There are 100 brand new little chicks that are being raised for meat and another batch to be ordered in the next week or so.

Three of the hens that went broody successfully hatched 8 chicks and are doing well.

This chicken made a nest behind an old sewing machine in the upper part of the barn and hatched 4 chicks all on her own. One poor little chick was stuck in his shell and Jenna helped it along a little. It was very weak and we didn't think it would make it, but after a couple hours in an incubator we returned it to it's mother and it is doing fine!



We are looking forward to harvesting apples and pears soon and we have been eating tomatoes, broccoli and herbs from the garden. I am not really looking forward to the digging to harvest the potatoes but we are going to have lots of them! Stay tuned, we are planning a harvest party for the fall, but in the meantime let me know if you want to come out and visit!

update

The new Rich and Jen. We are farmers now. What do you think? Do we look it?

We are planning on renting a house very near the farm for the next year. I really thought this would just be a summer adventure and that we would end up back in the city, but we have fallen in love with farming. We even have a couple of our very own goats. We are making some major decisions right now about housing and school, so please pray for our family and our community as we sort things out. I'll let you know as soon as I do what we'll be doing.

If you'd like to come out and visit the farm and see what we've been up to, let me know! There are lots of animals out here now and the garden is growing. It's been an amazing transformation over the last few months. If you were out last fall or early this spring, you'll be amazed.

Peace and Blessings!

A day of celebration!

We are learning about the important balance between work and rest out here on the farm and also learning the importance of celebration. We had a great on the 4th. we worked hard all day cleaning up the farm and in the evening had a crazy parade and did some sparklers.

The big blue Ford

crazy little Daisy

Rich lead the parade in style.

We hope that you are finding time to celebrate this summer!

New Life

It is an exciting time at the farm. There seems to be new life everywhere. This old farm is slowly coming back to life.

The chickens have gone broody! Which in case you didn't know, like I didn't know, means that they are sitting on their fertilized eggs. We are experimenting with letting them hatch and raise their own chicks instead of the modern method of using incubators. This chick is the first one, see her nestled in her mother's wing peaking out just her little head? The mother is very protective.

They are the sweetest little pair foraging around the farmyard together.

The kids have some tadpoles from the pond in a big bucket that they are keeping an eye on.


...and last week Sunday, Brian brought their cow here from the farm where it had been living. The day he went to move her, he discovered she had given birth to her calf. Her name is Sunday and she is so sweet and playful. The cow must be milked every 12 hours and it is a very time consuming job, one which would be much easier with a milking machine. There are many things that make sense to do the old fashion way, but some that become such a burden without modern tools.

Solaya is 12 weeks now and growing so fast! All of our children are growing and learning so much. It is so exciting to see them having so much fun.

Farm Life

...is very busy. I have not had time to spend in front of the computer. I have been busy cleaning up things, building fence, cooking meals, and planting the garden. It is very hard work living out here, but today is rainy and since I can't work in the garden like I had planned (I am very grateful today for the rain actually, it is just what the garden needs and it offers me rest) I thought I would share a little bit of our farm experiences so far. Our family is learning so much and really enjoying being out here. I hate to think about how fast summer is going to go by. I am already amazed by how spring has slipped so quickly into summer. Time seems different out here, it moves in a strange slow and yet so fast kind of way, one I have never experienced before.

This tree is the first thing I see when I look out the window from my bed in the morning and every day it has changes. Now it has all it's leaves.

The lilacs are already gone. I am so glad I took some photos. The smell was so sweet and beautiful. There are many large trees out here and many bees buzzed around them. Now that I am growing I appreciate the bees in a new way realizing how necessary they are to the plants. Farmer Brian also keeps bees here on the property.

When the sheep first arrived here the lambs were so small. Now they seem almost as big as their mothers.

We also measure time by the growth of sweet little Solaya. A baby growing happens in the most amazingly fast way. She is 8 weeks now I believe.

We have been working ground that has not been worked in years, and praying that our hard work will bear fruit this season. First we had to pull trees and overgrown bushes out with the tractor, then we used this plow to begin to break up the earth.

It is a strong ancient looking thing and when I look at it I think of how old it is and how amazing it is that it is being used all these years later for the same purpose that is was created. It has been resurrected. I think of how God promises to resurrect all things and I feel a little closer to understanding.

Next we used this disc to break up the soil even more.

In all I think that we plowed the garden twice and went over it with the disc at least 4 times. There are so many roots that after all this we still had to rototill each bed before we could begin planting anything, and there are still big clods of dirt to work around. So far we have planted more than 50 pounds of potatos, oinions, lettuce and spinach, and tomato, kale, broccoli, cabbage, and bean transplants from David's greenhouse. This week we need to plant our pumpkins and hopefully some grains. We are going to expierament with gluten free grains such as quinoa, millet and teff and see if they not only work for food, but also as mulch for next years garden.

This is the outhouse that Rich built. He is really developing the handyman skills out here!

Here is Rich and his new toy... I mean "farm implement". He sold his motorcycle and used some of his profit to buy it. I sure like it better than the motorcycle though! He has been using is to haul dirt and things for the garden, but he sure does enjoy riding it on the trails too.


Amy was out this week helping in the garden and she has put together a great blog post about it. She takes such beautiful photographs, it makes everything look so romantic. She also has some photos of Rich and I hard at work. She also posted about our trip to the farmer's market so take a look at that too.

We are planning to head to the Fulton Street market again this Saturday, so come on out and buy some plants! Amy and I are also baking some gluten free goodies to sell. MMMmmmmm, penut butter cookies!

An Amazing Easter

This year was one of the most memorable and meaningful Easter holidays I am sure I will ever celebrate.

I know that I keep saying it, but it has been a long winter for our family filled with lots of viruses, tiredness and sadness. We really seemed to identify with the dark season of advent season this year. It is the season of waiting. We looked forward, with much hope, to Easter and the season of renewal. We longed for Resurrection... waiting and waiting. Hoping and praying. We knew it would come, but it felt like such a long wait. We were waiting for warm weather and sunshine, waiting to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, waiting for healing, and waiting for new life.

Jenna and Brian were waiting for the arrival of their 3rd child and first daughter. I was anxious for her arrival too, especially since I was to be at her birth. Jenna was growing tired and uncomfortable and we knew the day must be coming soon. Saturday afternoon, Jenna called to tell me that she thought things were happening and by late that evening she called to let me know she was definitely in labor. Amy and I met her and Brian at the hospital at 12:30am Sunday morning. Easter, what a beautiful day for a birth. After about 4 hours of much hard work, (I am leaving out so many beautiful details here, because it's not really my story) Jenna gave birth to Solaya (from the french word for Sun) Jubilee at 4:30am in the darkness just before the dawn on Easter morning. I have been so blessed by the whole expierience and I am so honored to have been invited to such an intimate event.

Solaya Jubilee Chisholm
Weight: 6 lbs 6 oz of sweetness
Length: 18 inches

So at 7am I finally snuck into my bed, praying that I would not wake my children and hoping for at least an hour or two of sleep before it was time to get up for church. I was exhausted, but I made it to church at 10:30am and sat with Amy and her Father, who one year ago was dead. He had a heart attack and was pronounced dead. Then he came back to life. It was a very emotional Easter. The resurrection is here and feels close and very real. The LIGHT of Christ shown brightly!

After church we got together for Easter dinner with Rich's family. The kids played Red Rover outside in the sunshine and we had a very fun egg hunt. I found myslef praising God for my beautiful children, my neice and nephews and how much they have all grown over the past year.

Daisy

Rosie

Cody, who was born last January weighing only 3 pounds and spents weeks in the NICU

Lily and her cousin Brieanne

I hope that your easter was a memorable one too and that you are enjoying this new season!

Spring and Seeds!

Yeah for Spring! I can't beleive it is finnally here! It has been such a long winter for us, filled with virus and illness after illness. I don't know what happened to us, but I am hoping that it will end with the change of seasons!

We spent a lot of time this weekend starting seeds out at the greenhouse. In all we probably started 500 or more seeds in little blocks of soil! Tomatos, lettuce, peppers, onions, strawberries, kohlrabi, cabbage... and more. It's a co-op of a few familes working together to feed ourselves for the season. We also started extra because we also planning on selling some tomato and pepper starts at the Farmer's Market.

Here's farmer Brian getting ready to mix some potting soil as our kids play in the toasty warm green house as our kids play on a blanket. It was 100 degrees in there! But it felt great!

Stay tuned to see these plants sprouting and growing!

Thank God for the sand pile! It keeps the kids busy like nothing else so that we can get some planting done. When they get bored with that, they chase after the chickens and ducks!


Lily and Bella got a chance to hold the first baby gossling that our friend Ethan hatched! So sweet! I am so excited that our kids have an opportunity to expierience all this!

The Farmhouse BEFORE AND AFTER!

It's moving day at the farm! The house has come a LONG way and Brian and Jenna are moving in! We had our first dinner there together Saturday night! For those of you who have seen it, you won't believe the improvement! For those of you who have not, there is really no way for me to describe how bad it started out. The photos can't illustrate the dirtiness of it all or the overwhelming stagnant mustiness. It has been transformed from a dilapidated, neglected, mold infested dump to a warm cozy home thanks to a lot of hard work! The smells now come from the toasty wood stove and Jenna's homemade beeswax candles! Check out these before and after photos:

THE KITCHEN

THE LIVING ROOM
THE DINING ROOM

Jenna feels at home already, now that she has a place to sew!

THE BATHROOMThe best part is that there is running water and you can flush the toilet
without hauling a bucket of water!

THE BEDROOM

We're moving next and we can't wait! Rich and I and the girls are going to rent out our apartment and move to our camper on the farm for the summer. Now that the weather has turned we are going to start setting up our home on the farm and start staying out there on the weekends. Since the housing market is so bad, instead of trying to sell our house we are just going to rent out our apartment and store our stuff in the basement. We are aiming to have it rented by June 1st. This feels like a good way for us to transition out of the home we have been living in for the last 7 years and to begin to discern where to go next. We are going to spend the summer exploring country life, living with our dear friends and growing our own food. We are praying that during this time God will give up some insight and guidance for our next steps for a more permanent home in intentional community with others.