The Children At The Overlook On A Nice Summer Day

The same day we took those pictures of the children holding the piglets we also went up to the East Ridge Overlook on our property. We needed a break from working on our new pig lots and it was a pretty day. The view of the countryside was fabulous but I enjoy the view of my children even more.

Here they are:




In this next one they were acting sort of goofy and I love the picture:




I’ll leave you with a shot of just the river valley below. I have posted many pictures from up here because it always takes my breath away:




1 comment
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2gramsroses on August 26, 2007 at 8:29 am
It would be very hard to get me off that Ridge, it so wonderful to see what great things the Lord has made !!!! The veiw is wonderful and so are your children. You have a great day.

Little Piglets Are Fun To Hold And Cuddle

The piglets have been fun for the children to take care of. Sometimes the little guys squirm and squeal when the children hold them, but sometimes it seems that the piglets enjoy the attention.

We took the pictures that follow when the piglets were 8 days old, when they were still living in that barn stall. They are still cute today even though they are much bigger now. This weekend they will be 6 weeks old!

I wanted to take a picture of each of the children holding one of the piglets and these are the ones I thought turned out good:









The piglets are great, but I especially thank the Lord for my wonderful children!

Building Our New Pig Sty

A big project last month for us at Pure Water Hollow Homestead was creating a new lot and housing for our mama pigs and their 15 piglets. I have wanted to move the pigs out of the barn for a while because they were being so rough on it and it seemed so small for them. After the piglets were born, we didn’t have much choice, as a barn stall was going to get little very quickly for a mama pig with 8 piglets!

For the entire week after they were born, July 16th-21st, we worked most days, off and on, fencing a new area for the pigs. We were going to give them a type of a small pasture on the hillside where I would like to one day grow corn.

Finally we were ready to construct the new pig stys the following week. We decided to use free slabs from a local saw mill so there was very little expense involved. Matthew and I went and loaded up the truck a couple of times and then on the 23rd we cut the slabs into the sizes we wanted. We were going to build approximately an 8ft. x 8ft. building about 5 feet tall.

Here is much of the wood for one building loaded in the truck ready to go up in the hollow the next day:




We worked at assembling the walls on the evening of the 24th. Matthew and Christina helped tremendously and Simon did his part toward the end. By the time Erica came up with the camera we were all pretty tired and a bit disappointed that we were not going to be able to complete the project before bed time. Here are some pictures of the action:




Simon likes to have his picture taken while he is working:







I was good at standing around supervising by this time in the evening:




But the next day came and God gave us a nice,sunny day to finish it.





Our building projects are usually a fun time of the family working together to accomplish a goal.






Matthew does not look like he was having fun bringing up some straw for the pigs bedding! I think he was trying to look serious for the camera.




Before long it was time to move the first family of pigs to their new home. Nellie and her piglets got to move out first because they were in such a dark stall in the barn. We had trouble getting a couple of the piglets to come out of the cage:





Nellie found the new sty to be very comfortable.




And her piglets were happy to nurse in the new building:




And they all seemed to enjoy exploring their new field.






Here is another corner shot of the completed pig sty. I like that it looks like a small rustic log cabin. It is very sturdy, that is for sure!




As soon as we finished Nellie’s lot and house we began working on another lot for Sally and her piglets. We made it adjoining to Nellie’s with a gate separating them. After we got the fence up we began the process all over of making another pig sty for that lot. Here we are working on that one:




The second building took almost as long to build as the first one, but this time we knew what we were doing better. We did move Sally and her piglets in over there and they seemed to like it very much also!

Making new pig lots and houses for them was a lot of work, but it was a rewarding experience also. I think it is a much better, and healthier situation for our pigs. If all works out the way I think it will, we will be growing corn in this field some day in the future, after the pigs get it all worked up for us!

Lisa's First Baby Doctor Appointment

Yesterday was our first appointment with the doctor who will be overseeing Lisa’s pregnancy and delivery. The doctors and midwives that we had worked with in the past have all gone to other places, one even as a medical missionary, so we had to find someone new. We would like to have a midwife, but there are none that we know of in our area anymore.

I was a little nervous wondering if we would find a doctor that held to our beliefs of keeping everything as natural as possible, and if we would find one who could understand our desire to have more children at our age.

Any fears we had were relieved at this appointment. We have a lady doctor whose grandma was a midwife and she told us she had been in delivery rooms and even cutting umbilical cords ever since she was 3 years old! She has 4 children herself and she is our age. She has no problem with our idea of letting Erica and Christina be in on the delivery and she said she would let me help, too. She gave us plenty of time to talk and she was very nice, even though they had a full waiting room. I think we could become good friends with this doctor.

We brought the whole family in for the ultrasound, so they could hear the heartbeat and see the image on the computer. We were quite a sight, with all 4 children and I crammed into the ultrasound room!

The ultrasound revealed a normal, healthy, developing baby and we got a picture of the peanut shape that is our baby. As far as the age factor, the doctor saw no reason to be alarmed, even though Lisa will turn 40 before the baby is born. The doctor said the oldest lady she had delivered a baby for was 54 years old, and it was a healthy baby, delivery and recovery!

Our next appointment is not until September 27th. Instead of the customary 4 weeks, the doctor thought it would be fine for Lisa to come in every 6 weeks, unless Lisa feels that something is going on. Then she said Lisa could come in at any time and they would see her.

We are very thankful that the Lord has led us to a doctor who will be good for us. I am also giving Him thanks and praise for the good report and praying that He will continue to bless. No matter how good of a doctor we find, we will always remember the He is the Great Physician!


5 comments
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Debbie on August 17, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Congrats on the new little one. I am glad everything worked out good for you. I went to read about the bees and this site popped up. Is the bee story going to be on later?

Debbie

~From Purewater:

Sorry about that. I began to type about our adventure robbing our hive for the first time, but didn't get to finish. It's in the drafts right now. I probably won't be able to get back to it until next Monday or Tuesday.

There are several pictures I want to put up with it. The children get a kick out of seeing us in our hat and gloves and veil and everything, and Erica got some good pics. It was a successful experience and we took one super full of honey with no one getting stung! We are letting the honey drip out of the frames right now. That is going to take a long time, it seems.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Edited by Purewater on Friday, August 17, 2007 at 2:45 PM
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Melanie on August 17, 2007 at 3:31 pm
What wonderful news about the new baby!! That is great! So glad you were able to find a doctor that suits you, God is so faithful! I understand the desire for a midwife, I have had one too. With this pregnancy I again have a midwife and it is a pleasure, but it sounds like your Dr is more of the midwife mindset anyhow with the safety of the hospital.

Melanie
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2gramsroses on August 18, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Wow I haven't been on your page in a while, I'm so sorry I have missed so much…..A baby….wow… there could be no better news for you. I know you will be truly blessed. I'm going to finish reading about your homestead, We want to get to were we have our debts paid off and live off our land, I know it can be done, with the help of the Lord. God Bless, Sherry
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Carrie on September 11, 2007 at 2:39 pm
It's been some time since I checked up on you folks. I'm glad I did!

I'm so happy everything is going well with your wife and the baby!

Still praying for you,

Carrie

Our Home Grown Pork Tastes Better and Costs Less

We finally got our hog, Porky off to the butcher on August 1st. We had intended on butchering him when he was about 6 months old back in April but things were pretty busy and before we knew it we had let him get to be almost 10 months old! Porky was issued two reprieves back in June and July due to our inefficiency at getting him loaded into the truck. On two different days we had tried to take him off, but he won those battles and wore us all out.

We may have lost a couple of battles, but we ultimately won the war. Last Wednesday I called on a friend for help and between Matthew, I and the cavalry, the three of us were able to hog-tie and wrestle that big critter into the truck with the rest of the family holding up the sides to our ramp to prevent him from taking a detour. It still took us a couple of hours, but we were at last triumphant.

This past Saturday we picked up the pork and we have been eating well this week at Pure Water Hollow. The hog dressed out at 343 pounds!(including the head and all the fat for lard); On Tuesday we had our first pork chops for dinner along with our own corn, green beans, tomatoes, and peppers. A dinner composed of only our own home grown food! We have also had some of the sausage with our own home-grown eggs for some of our breakfasts.

The flavor of these pork chops and our sausage has been unbelievably good! At first I thought it was my imagination, but the more bites I took, the more I realized how superior this meat was compared to what we had been buying at the store. The whole family agreed.

I was curious as to how the cost of this meat compares to store bought pork so I did a little analysis. We spent about $479 in commercial feed for our 4 pigs since we got them back in October and November. That means that Porky ate up about a fourth of that, or $120. The butcher bill for the 343 pounds, including the kill fee, came to $129.90. So the cost of raising Porky from a 20 pound piglet to a 400 plus pound hog to 343 lbs of finished meat was about $250. 343 lbs of meat divided by $250 comes out to about .73 cents per pound for our freezer full of pork! That is very, very good considering the quality of the cuts of meat. There is no meat at the grocery for only .73 cents per pound! We are going to pay an extra 25 cents per pound to the butcher for them to cure the hams and some of the bacon, which we have to wait a bit longer to pick up, but that will still be less than a dollar per pound for the cured ham and bacon.

We are planning on keeping 2 of our piglets to raise ourselves for the freezer. If we stop them at 6 months, I’m thinking that the two of them should give us about as much meat as this first big one, but less fat.

If all the pork tastes as wonderful as the first we have sampled, than raising our own pork will definitely become a regular occurrence on our homestead. One day we will learn how to do all the butchering ourselves and save even more money!

1 comment
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Beth on September 3, 2007 at 11:13 am

WISHING YOU THE BEST..DO KEEP US POSTED WE LOVE NEW BABIES:)

The First Honey From the Genesis Colony of Honey Bees!

We found gold in them ther hills! Golden honey, that is.

Actually we were hoping we would find gold when the time was right, back when we first set up the Genesis Colony of honey-bees at Pure Water Hollow in March. We jumped into the honey-bee business without much prior knowledge or experience, but I think things have gone very well. All the credit really needs to go to Lisa. She seems to have a natural sense as to what needs to be done with them, as well as taken some time to study up on honey-bees.

We have donned our veils and gloves a couple other times checking on the hive and adding additional supers, but this is the first time Erica got a picture of us.

Here we are ready to break into the lid of our hive and "rob" them. I have the smoker which should calm the bees down, but at this point, we really did not know what to expect from them. I guess I was picturing a wild and fierce attack on the part of the bees when we would open the hive, but they stayed calm. On some of these pictures you can note the time. We began as dusk was settling in at 8:16 pm



The heat index for this day was supposedly over 100 degrees again. The outfits made it even hotter, but the heat did not bother us too much. Here was the Genesis Colony on this warm evening as we approached:



When we took the lid off, there were bees and honey comb right up at the top. It appeared as though the top super was filled up completely with honey!





We smoked many of the bees on down into the hive and lifted the top super off the hive. I could not believe how heavy such a small box was. When we weighed it later, it came to 43 pounds, which is a lot to lift slowly, straight up, trying not to stir up the many bees that were still in this part of their hive!



It looked like each frame was full of honey and honey bees! This picture came out a bit blurry, but you can get an idea.



We put an empty super, with all the frames ready to be filled, on top of the hive and then put the honey-filled super back on top of that. The idea was that the bees left in our honey-filled super would go on down into the new, spacious super we had just given to them. With some encouragement from the smoker, many more of the bees deserted the super we were wanting to take by crawling on down into the new super.

We then took the super full of honey off again and began to take out each frame. Here we are looking at the frames:







There were still plenty of bees that were staying with the honey so Lisa gently brushed all the remaining bees off of each frame in turn, into the new super. A few of them were crawling around on us during this time, but not too bad. Erica got a picture of some of the bees on Lisa’s veil and arm.



Here are some of the frames, all the bees brushed off, and ready to go back into the super:





After we replaced each frame back into the box, we were ready to transport the super full of honey down to the house. There were still a few bees that accompanied us along the trail, but by the time we got to the house, we could find only two bees.

Now that we were in the house, we could examine the frames in better light.



Some of the cells had come open, and golden, delicious honey was oozing out! We immediately knew that it was delicious as we licked our fingers that had gotten covered with honey. Of course everyone had washed hands!



We are now still letting the honey drain from the frames. This is taking a very, very long time. We do not have any fancy extractor or anything, so as of now we are just cutting the beeswax open and letting the honey drip out. At first there is much honey that pours out, but then it takes a long time for each drip to come out.

We are very thankful that no one got stung and that it looks like we have a good harvest of honey for our first attempt. I am looking forward to seeing how many quart jars of honey we can fill from this one super. We would also like trying to make some beeswax candles some day. That would be a fun project on some cold winter day when we are all snowed in!

Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to learn about honey bees and providing us with such a delicious, natural food source!

The Journey Of A Thousand Miles… My Sterilization Reversal Testimony

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" is an ancient Chinese saying. My journey of a thousand miles began with a single step of faith… and a prayer of repentance. And it was close to a literal 1,000 mile journey , one way, to be obedient to the Lord.

I had my vasectomy operation just a few months after Simon, our fourth child, was born in 2000. It wasn’t long after that when I began to think that having a vasectomy was a mistake. It is hard to put my finger on it, but I just did not feel at peace with it early on. Another year or so went by before the Lord began convicting me that it was actually a sin. I had no right to tell God to get out of my business concerning our family size. That was what we were ultimately saying by having the vasectomy in the first place, even though it never crossed my mind like that consciously.

I also began to be seriously convicted about my responsibility to the Lord to raise up my children to be used for His cause. As the Bible says in Psalms 127:3-5, "Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate."

A serious time of repentance was in order. As part of my repentance, the Lord led me to learn about the possibilities of having a vasectomy reversed. I began checking into reversal surgeries, and it was strange to me that none of the hospitals or doctors around here could give me a final price. They could tell me what their fee would be, but could not tell me how much the other various fees incurred would be. How could I count up the cost with such a run-around? The best estimation I could come up with was between $6,000 and $10,000 if I went with the traditional route that my eastern Kentucky doctors were recommending.

I then began exploring the doctors listed on the Blessed Arrows website who supposedly did such surgeries at a reduced price for ministry reasons. After much prayer and investigation, we felt the Lord leading us to try one of the doctors in the Chicago area in the fall of 2004. We made the appointment even though our van broke down on the way. Thankfully it was not a major break down. To make a long story short, we were not overly happy with that visit at the time and discovered later in 2005 that the reversal surgery was not successful. We had tried to put everything back into God’s hands, but I was still sterile.

Perhaps it was God’s will that we have no more children. I had repented of the sterilization surgery and even acted on it in faith. We were certainly overjoyed with the 4 children the Lord had given to us, and maybe we had done enough to try to fix the situation my sin had put us in.

We went through a time of more prayer and searching.

Then we found a new doctor on the list; a Doctor Wilson in Muskogee Oklahoma. We were pleased that the total price tag was only $1,500. The one we went to in Chicago was $2,000 and, he was raising the price. After talking with Dr. Wilson on the phone and much more prayer, the Lord led us to try another reversal surgery. We would go on the 900 plus mile journey to Oklahoma by faith. It was a longer drive than we wanted, and we did not have so much faith in our old van, which had broken down on the way to Chicago the last time. This trip we decided to borrow a nice RV from a friend so we could go in comfort and style and not have to worry about breaking down.

So, our journey of a thousand miles began with a single step of faith. The surgery was performed on July 19th, 2006 even though the RV did break down before we got to the office! We made it to a campground about 30 miles away from our destination, but the RV was dead. It seemed clear that Satan did not want us to have this surgery! We borrowed a truck from a maintenance worker there at the campground (a total stranger) and made it to the appointment. God does provide when we put our trust in Him! After the 6 hour surgery, a tow truck, a rental car, 5 nights in a hotel waiting on the RV to be repaired, and a $4,200 new motor for the RV, we were ready to go back toward home! (As you can tell, that was really the short, short version.)

By the way, Dr. Wilson was ever so professional and Christian. It was a blessing just being with him and his good wife. In my opinion, they are the real deal. They are truly living a Christian life and providing this reversal surgery service for the glory of the Lord. I cannot recommend him highly enough to any one contemplating a vasectomy reversal.

A year after the 2nd surgery, and still no baby on the way. We were beginning to believe that God was not going to give us any more arrows for our quiver, and that was going to be fine with us. God’s will be done.

And then… on July 28th, 2007…

a positive home pregnancy test!

The health department has since confirmed the positive test and we have a due date of March 28, 2008!

God had richly blessed us with a new baby now growing in Lisa’s womb! We were told it was almost 6 weeks old already! (That means that we were pregnant before the one year date of the surgery, but we did not know it at the time! Thanks to the Lord and to Dr. Wilson!)

To God be all praise and glory!

So, a journey of a thousand miles really does begin with a single step… of faith. Please keep us in your prayers. Especially for the new little one and the mother.




11 comments
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Debi on August 3, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Congratulations!!!!!

God is so awesome. I am so excited for you and your family.

Blessings,

Debi
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gokings13 on August 3, 2007 at 1:34 pm
May God richly bless your obedience!!

What a beautiful story.

Laura
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harmonyhomestead on August 3, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Congratulations!
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Ashley on August 3, 2007 at 2:17 pm
For sharing your testimony!

and . . .

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

I hope that your wife has a very healthy 8-ish more months.

Ashley
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Staci on August 3, 2007 at 5:51 pm
How wonderful! What a blessing for you! Congratulations!
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HSB Front Porch on August 3, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Thank you so much for sharing your story. So many people need to hear it and it may even help some folks find a good doctor!

~Nancy
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~Melissa on August 3, 2007 at 10:14 pm
It was very interesting to read your story. My dh also had a reversal in Jan of 2004. We also joined Blessed Arrows for support, not financially, but emotionally. We had our reversal done in Indianna (near Chicago, possibly the same one?) It was successful, we had our first Mar. of 2005. No more on the way. *sigh* Anyways, congratulations. I'm glad your experience was a blessed one!

Warmly, ~Melissa
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LittleHouse on August 4, 2007 at 7:36 am
I hope you know this was not a surprise to me. I believe God blesses the faithful and you all are that. We can't wait to meet your new little blessing's:) I am sure there will be many more to come:)

Tell Lisa she will be in our prayers.

Love to you all,

Ma
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HandsNHearts on August 4, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Congratulations! What a great blessing, and an awesome testimony to share with everyone!

Deanna
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sheryl on August 7, 2007 at 8:51 pm
I am so happy for you all. March 28 would be a great day to have a baby. That is my oldest daughters birthday. I wish you all the best. sheryl
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Henry on August 16, 2007 at 8:45 pm
What a blessing, my brother! My the Lord continue to bless the Mrs. and you. I heard a lady years ago say something that really impacted me. She asked, "What is the difference in the women who gets an abortion and us who cut off God's blessing by having an operation. Did she not do it because she felt children were a bother? How is our attitude as Christians any different?” The lady had had her tubes tied and the Lord convicted her husband and her to have a reversal. He blessed them with a third child some yeasr later. Your testimony was a blessing to read.

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****FOLLOW-UP NOTE****

Our baby boy was born on March 12th, 2008. We enjoyed celebrating his first birthday and many more of his accomplishments as time quickly marches on.

He is healthy and doing very well. Praise be to God!

Our Kittens and Piglets Befriend One Another

Our kittens and piglets seem to like each other! We caught them playing together and got a few pictures. The piglets are 2 1/2 weeks old in these pictures:





Puff wasn’t quite sure about the piglets. He wishes he has eyes in the back of his head:



The smaller kittens were having a blast with the piglets:



You can tell how small Runtsy is compared to Puff in this picture:



The piglets seem to make friends quite easily:



One piglet wanted to give his brother an ear full about those kittens:



And what do kittens think about 400 pound mama sows?



A nice warm place to rest? Splotch seemed to enjoy her vantage point to watch her piglet friends nurse.





And there you have a few cute piggie/kitty pictures. We are really enjoying watching our new additions to Pure Water Hollow. They are so unpredictable!

1 comment
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Morning Sunshine on August 13, 2007 at 3:05 pm

Oh cute! I love it!