Welcome to our Journey To Fruitfulness! Here is the plan:
Well, we did it! Hubby (Trev) and I moved our cat Sampson (Maine Coon/Manx mix) and Trev's service dog Delilah (Black Mouth Cur/Golden Retriever/Lab mix) to five acres, still in East Texas. While we are not starting from scratch by any means, there is a lot we need to learn, and a lot we need to do to get it where we want it.
**What exactly are we looking to do? What do we have to start with?**
Well, we're looking to take a beautiful five acre property with a house, two car ports, an RV port, pool, and solar system, and turn it into a farm...later adding my sister and her house, along with her critters as well. The kind of farms we want are duck, orchard, maybe bees, and a greenhouse/garden farm. We're going to call it "Serenity Acres."
Right now, it's not quite serenity, though. We have a tiny lawn mower, and not much else at this point, except the knowledge provided by books and the internet. While I say that, we're determined and confident that with time we can get it to where we want it - self-sustaining. Here's what it currently looks like, and this will come into play as you watch the land transition:
As you can see, there is much we need to do, starting with a lawn mower of some kind besides your standard tiny one! LOL! The grass is beautiful, but getting long! The second is to get the ducks. The last pic in the square above, shows where we're probably going to put the ducks.
"Ducks?!?" you ask. "Why ducks?"
Well, the tiny little buggars have a lot of value. No, I don't mean the wooden ones, nor do I mean a car. I mean that their eggs have more protein than a chicken egg. They also lay more consistently than chickens. And, they tend to get along better, and accept new ducks better than chickens. Plus, they're pretty good to eat, too!
Well, goal one - ducks - will hopefully be figured out soon! I've been in touch with the lady who raises ducks and chickens, we'll call her "Duck Lady, Pam." While the ducks haven't hatched yet, we're first in line for when they do. We plan on getting two male and two female. Yes, we even have names already picked out: Donald & Daisy, and Duke & Daphey (play on Daffy Duck's name, but a female version). Have the spot picked out and everything!
Now for the lawnmower! Yes, this is what our current lawn mower for FIVE ACRES looks like:
When we first arrived, this lovely beast was left. We thought we were blessed...until we tried to start it! Trev did his MacGyver thing, and got it working after several hours! It is currently MacGyver-ed in order to work, but it works! And, until we sell our old house (Currently on the market for anyone looking - it's a GREAT house, but we wanted land. Check it out on any realtor website if you're interested - 719 Cimarron Trail; Holly Lake Ranch, TX 75765), we have to potentially hold off on getting exactly what we want.
Until then, Hubby has been doing research (that's one of his many strengths), and think we have a riding mower, but we're still looking. When we do, that'll be my mode of mowing the lawn. Until then, it's the above pic!
As for the orchard? Our former landscaper and friend, we'll call him "Landscaper Matt," will hopefully be putting in our orchard and a sprinkler system for it in the fall. Stay tuned for that one!
And finally for the greenhouse! Hubby (we'll call Trev "Super Hubby" or "MacGyver" depending on the situation), will hopefully come up with a design, and we'll start building it through the fall and winter, so I can start planting in Spring of 2020!!
Now it's time for the application of the heart:
In looking around the yard, I saw the beauty in the weeds and wildflowers (pic of shots around the yard), and then I saw this one vine. This thing is positively evil looking! It has thorns, and roots itself at the base of the tree, stealing precious nutrients the tree needs. Then it wraps itself around the trunk, climbing out onto the branches, stealing the sunlight as well...basically choking the life out of the tree!
This vine, at one point, had wound its way around a great tree near the back of the yard. When we worked on it to get it off the tree, it took two days, but I'm sure I saw it breathe a sigh of relief when we were finished, knowing it wasn't going to be choked by the weed anymore.
Here are a few pics of the weed around another tree:
As you can see, the vine is not a good one. It thrives on living off of other forms of nature. Once we cleared it off the other tree, it was free to grow and bask in the sunlight, in turn, providing us with much needed shade from the brutal Texas sun!
When I think about this, the parable of the sower comes to mind:
Matthew 13:3-8 - "And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, "Behold the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the the road, and the birds came and ate them up. "Others fell on rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. "But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. "Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. "And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty."
You see, we cannot get the fresh air, sunlight, and nourishment we need, if we are getting "choked out" by the thorny vine. God, Jesus, and The Spirit come along and took some of Their precious time to prune us of tree branches weighing us down, potentially causing damage later. They also take a few days to not only tear off the vine from the trunk and those branches infiltrated, but also to dig the root of the evil vine out from around the base of the tree, so it doesn't come back.
Yes, the pruning, tearing, and digging caused a lot pain, but in the long-run, we will be much better off for it! We will be able to breathe the clean air of His word. We can soak in the sunlight of His glory. We can shade our friends and family from the brutal heat of the world, by giving them time to heal as well, since we have grown stronger in Him. We can also encourage, by sharing our food that we produce, which grows from Him, and also the Bread of Life we find in His Word.
God is the Master Gardener. He knows what will benefit us, even if it initially causes a bit of pain. However, in the end, we will not only be better off, but will also be a better witness for Him in this world.
Until next time, know He is doing the work for a reason. Please ponder these words from:
Philippians 1:6 -
"Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."
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