Coon Days

I haven’t mentioned the raccoons that the children have been taking care of.

A friend of ours was with a logging crew in the next county over and he rescued two baby raccoons this past spring. They kept the coons for a few weeks and then found a new home for them. Ours!

We built a secure coon lot in the ravine and the coons have been doing great. We enjoy watching them play, and they are pretty tame. Erica named one "Ta’" and the other "Da", as in "Ta-Da!" They have already grown quite a bit since we got them.

We are planning on keeping them through the winter and then releasing them next spring.

We have not taken many pictures of them, but the other day Erica was letting one of them play in the tree house in the ash-leaf maple tree in front of our house.

I’m not sure if this is Ta or Da, but here she is in the tree:




Here she is looking down at us from the tree house:



And here is one last one of Erica with the coon up in the tree house:

Some Firsts During A Hot August Weekend at Pure Water Hollow

Since this weekend saw so many "firsts" for our homestead, I decided to take a few minutes to record them. If I had time, I would write a post about each item, including some of our hopes and desires for the future. But ,alas, it is late, and I need to turn in soon. At least these things will be recorded so we will be able to look back and see when they took place.

This weekend saw our first foray into alternative energy with a solar shed light. We had purchased it last week at Harbor Freight, which is very near the meat market where we were picking up our fresh pork. It is just a small light with a small solar panel and a 4 watt florescent bulb, but it is a start. It was on sale for $20, and I have long wanted to explore solar power. I figured this would be a cheap way to get a little experience with it. I finally put it up in the chicken coop yesterday morning and it actually works!

Yesterday afternoon we went to the stock market in town which has a big flea market attached. I’m thinking of taking our pigs there and wanted to see how it all worked. Anyway, while we were there we came across a Mennonite couple selling various things. What caught my eye was the baby guineas. We have talked about adding them to our poultry flock for some time, but you have to order too many of them in the catalogs. These were 4 week old Lavender Guineas and they were selling them for $5 apiece. We were glad to welcome our first two Guineas to our homestead and we might go back next week to try to get a couple more.

Also at the flea market we came across a big black dinner bell. It appears to be the very same one that I have considered buying from Lemans for $70. I got our first cast iron dinner bell for the homestead for a much better price. It was only $35! I’ve looked at old ones this size for $150, but I think this one will do well for us. I didn’t get a chance to put it up this weekend, but when we get it up, I think we will be able to hear it anywhere we might be working on our property. It is something I have wanted for many years, and I think we will make use of it often.

We have been visiting a small Baptist church just a mile down the road for the past several months. I preached the sermon there for the first time this morning, and it went very well. I believe there will be many future opportunites to preach there. It has been wonderful attending a church so close to home in our own community. This may be the church that God will have us work and worship in.

The last first for this weekend was going squirrel hunting with Simon and Matthew. Unfortunately, we did not see any squirrels, but it was still fun for the boys to walk around the woods carrying guns. Maybe next time we will bring home several squirrels.

A first for last weekend was picking up 7 bushels of apple peels and cores and chunks for the pigs and goats. I found a church that was doing a fundraiser of making and selling apple butter. I’m always looking for sources of free pig food, so I just called them up and asked them what they were going to do with all the left overs. They were happy to let me come and haul it off for them. The animals love the stuff. Yesterday, that church was at it again and this time they had 9 bushels of leftover peels and cores and chunks! It is really good food for the animals just for the price of the gas to go get it. So after the flea market and some work around the farm, I was happy to go over and get the boxes of apple stuff.

By the way, it has been very hot, humid and dry around here. We have been in the 90′s everyday, and no rain to amount to anything. My county is under a burn ban to try to deter the forest fires that are sure to start if we don’t get some rain.

I know this post has been a bunch of unrelated facts and firsts, but I think it is better than not writing anything at all. I am still wanting to be in the business of recording these days and happenings. The overwhelming main fact on my mind right now is in no way a first, and that is God’s blessings and love so abundantly shed upon us. To Him be the glory!

An August Saturday Afternoon

I haven’t been taking much computer time lately, but yesterday I found myself typing an email to my brother’s family. As I was typing, It started to feel like a blog entry. Since it has been so long since I have written anything on this blog, I decided to take an easy way out, and just copy most of the email. It gives a little snapshot of the things that have been going on here. (I have taken out the names to protect the innocent)

Dear ________,

It was good hearing from you. We have been very busy here, too, with the pond construction, getting the produce in and trying to start a new schedule with school.

We are trying to be productive today. Erica is peeling the last of our peaches, Matthew is gathering multitudes of ripe tomatoes, Christina and Simon are snapping green beans, we are hoping to get most of our apples in, and Lisa is canning or freezing everything as we get them to her. She just gave Timothy some cereal and a bottle and he is now taking a nap.

The fellow that you met when you were down here finished the excavating job last Friday. He spent three days on the roads, with fixing about 1/4 mile of our ditches, putting in three tiles for drainage, and making the steep road on the other side of the pond. (It is very steep, but the 4-wheel drive truck and Matthew’s four-wheeler can make it fine.) Then he spent the last four days building our dam up the way we wanted, taking the side off of that hill next to the goat lot. He estimated that he moved 300 to 400 tons of dirt and rock to build the dam! Now we have a nice site to build a large goat shed and/or barn over there. The dam is steeper than I wanted and more narrow on top than I pictured, but we would have needed twice as much dirt to make it as wide as I would have liked. We can now drive over it, but I would have liked to have several more feet on each side of the truck than we have. It will be perfect as it is, as long as none of it slides away during this winter. He actually did a tremendous job with everything and we couldn’t have been happier with his work.

And he underbid everyone else by over half! The 56 hour total came to $3,640. The other firm bid that another fellow gave me was for $8,000 and the first outfit I was talking with would have been $8,400 if they would have taken the same amount of time. They never would commit to how long it would take them, but he was guessing around 5 days which would have come to about $6,000 with their prices. I don’t think they would have come close to what our guy did. For once, I think a hired out project has actually worked the way we hoped it would. We have been burned too many times in the past.

I still have work to do with the pond, like getting the animals fenced out, putting up some screens around the drains, putting in some shut off valves for the lower pipes and supply lines, and extending the supply lines out to be used for watering the pigs and goats. I’m looking forward to seeing if that ram pump will work for us or not. I think we have plenty of time to get it all done because I don’t expect much water to collect until the Fall. Hopefully by Christmas the pond will have filled up and everything will be in place. And then we will be able to stock it with fish this spring!

That was probably more than you wanted to hear about the pond. Anyway, we are all doing well. Timothy seems to be teething but no tooth yet. He just drools a lot and is cranky when his gums are hurting. He is much bigger, though! The other children have been devouring their new school books. They have been enjoying reading them on their own and sometimes we have to tell them to put the books down and get to work!

Speaking of work, everyone else is working and I am just sitting here typing. I need to get off the computer and get to helping them. We also need to feed the pigs for today. I was waiting to get a good collection of peelings and such to take up to them. By the way, we have sold 4 of the piglets so far and we had the 8 boys cut last Wednesday at school. They will be well enough to sell this week probably, so it is time to get the word out. I really don’t like being a salesman, but I do like the money in my wallet!

Have a great weekend! We love you all! Lisa and the children all say "hi" and send their love!

Eric

Piglet Birthing Questions

(From a private corresponence between myself and another homesteadblogger.)
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Original message from HandsNHearts:

We have a couple of new expecting sows here and it's all new to me. (We have had 1 hog — butchered and in the freezer ) Pregnant sows is totally new to us, so I have a question…

This pair is a mother and daughter, both expecting approx. the same time (give or take 4 weeks now we are told). Right now, they are living in our barn and horse pen, together. They get along fine with one another, but what about when they begin having those babies? Should we separate them, or is their being together not a problem?

We have started some rails along the walls of the barn room for the piglets to be able to move away from momma (just standard from one of my hog resources…about 10" tall and a foot away from the wall itself…a walkway of sorts for the babies).

Nothing in my books says anything about separating the ladies for birthing, though. I just want to make sure we don't have any casualties from someone getting upset or hungry….

Deanna

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Hello Deanna,

Sorry I am just now replying. I haven't had much time with the computer lately and only found your message tonight. And thanks for the blog award! Very flattering, especially since I have not been writing much of anything lately. I saw the comment, but haven't gotten around to acknowledging it publicly.

You may have already decided on what you are going to do with the pigs, but I wanted to reply anyway. We have two sows that were sisters and raised up together from piglets and they each had their third litter a month ago. We never knew exactly when to expect the piglets, but I did separate the sows the day we thought they were going to give birth.

The first time, we had the sows separated before they gave birth, but both of the other times they were together and we just found the piglets in the morning. At that time I would separate the sows with their hours old piglets for "proper bonding". (I never read that "bonding" was needed; it's just what made sense to me.) I always tried to give them plenty of straw so they would be less likely to accidently squash one of the babies.

The first two times we had the litters the sows gave birth on the same day, and they didn't mind swapping each other's piglets for nursing. This last time they were 5 days apart, and they tended to keep their litters separated and would not let each others nurse. They were not mean to the other piglets, they just snorted at them when they came around and maybe a gentle snap to scare them away.

After being separated for a week or so, however, the sows did go through a few hours of "fighting" with each other when put back together each time. I guess they have to re-establish the pecking order? Neither sow has ever shown any hostility toward any of the piglets at any time, though. (They are also happy to have chickens in their lot eating the corn right next to them, and dogs, too. We may have an unusual group of animals?)

Thinking of your chicken casualties, I would be more concerned with the sows eating the piglets; even their own. I have heard that such a thing is common sometimes. If you could be present when they give birth, it would be an awesome experience and you could make sure the babies are safe. My thought is, once they are nursing good for a while, the mothering insticts should kick in and she won't mistake any of the piglets for the after-birth. By the way, we always take away and bury any of the after-birth we can find, instead of letting the sow eat it.

Have you gotten to look at the birthing pictures of our first litter of piglets? I am so glad the Lord let us have that experience. If not, you might want to go back to our blog and go to the category "Learning About Pigs". It has been fun chronicling raising our own pork, getting the little pigs when they were just feeder pigs, building the lots for them, watching them grow up, give birth, raising the offspring for sale and the freezer, and watching the little pigs become 700 plus pound sows and a 900 pound boar!

I hope your first experience with birthing piglets can be as successful as ours was. We really had no idea what to expect when we started raising pigs almost two years ago, and I am amazed at how smoothly it has gone for us.

One other thing; you might want to brace yourself for some of the piglets not making it. Maybe the rail walkway you've constructed will help, but our experience has been that not all of them make it. It is not because the sows have gotten vicious toward the piglets, it just seems to be a natural part of having large litters.Of our three times, only the first had no casualties, and they only had 7 and 8 piglets. The second time they had 10 and 11 piglets, but only 19 survived the first week. This last time was really rough. One had 13 piglets, but 3 died (one was maybe born dead?) and the other had 10 piglets, but 4 of them died in the first week (they were all rather puney). Instead of thinking about the ones we lost, we thank God that we have 16 healthy piglets to sell and raise!

I hope this message is in time to be of some help to you. I will be looking forward to hearing about how it goes.

God Bless,

Eric

Another Short Generic Update From Pure Water Hollow

We are enjoying some fruit of our labor:

Lisa made a wonderful cherry cobbler back the first of June and we have enjoyed strawberries and many raspberries. It looks like we will have an abundance of grapes, peaches, and apples. Blackberries are waiting to be picked, but they did not do as well as other years.

Vegetable update:

We have been blessed with fresh green beans, broccoli, kohlrabi, onions, cauliflower, peppers and new potatoes. The corn has tassled in the upper garden and is still growing on the river bank. We have an abundance of tomatoes ripening and many potato plants still growing, although some have died.

“Pure Water Hollow Chicken Flock: The Next Generation” began on June 24th.

That was when our new breeds of day old chicks arrived at the post office. We have tired of the game/mixed hens that have been so good to us for the past several years. We have been getting plenty of eggs from them (we have been selling some), and we have taken advantage of the free meat, but we decided that in the future we want bigger eggs and bigger and better meat. We have 28 chicks of four heavy breeds: Buff Orpingtons, Light Brahmas, Black Giants, and Partridge Rocks. We’re talking future hens of 10 pounds and roosters of 13 pounds! Our current chickens are only 3 to 5 pounds, I guess.

2 Litters of Piglets: Take 3!

Our new batch of piglets came sooner than expected this time, but since we just have our boar and two sows together all the time, we didn’t really know when the sows were bred. Sally gave birth to 13 piglets on July 1st and 10 of them have survived. Nellie gave birth to 10 piglets today, July 6th, and so far they all look good. This is the 3rd batch of piglets for us, and this is the first time that Sally and Nellie did not deliver on exactly the same day.

Our two sows were born in September 2006, and they had piglets July 13th, 2007, February 9th 2008, and now July 1st & 6th 2008. We raised or sold 15 piglets the first time, 19 piglets the second, and it looks like we have 20 healthy ones this time. One guy called today and has already asked to buy 3, and some other fellows were over today looking to buy some. It appears as though they will again be able to sell easily.

Genesis Colony of Honey Bees:

Our honey bees have been working hard and we need to rob them again right now! Don’t know when we will get around to it, but it’s time. We have another hive body set up and are hoping to start a second colony. We will see.

Goats:

They are doing well and clearing the hill side of the kudzu just like they are supposed to.

Pond Project:

Maybe we will get to do the pond before summer is over. Wish I had it done already. The people I am hiring think they can do it the end of July, but I will believe it when I see it.

Misc:

Much more has been going on it seems (like all the Christian camps the children went to: they had great times but I am glad things can now get back to normal), but I just wanted to get some sort of an update in. I would have liked to do separate posts on each topic with pictures and all, but this is the best I can do for now. At least these things are now recorded for the memory book, even if I did not polish the writings up like I usually enjoy doing.

God is continually blessing us every day. By the way, Timothy is doing great, starting to sleep through the night and is growing almost too fast. He will be 4 months old next week! Where does the time go?

We are trying to sit back and enjoy these blessings and not allow everything to happen so quickly that we miss out on what’s really going on. We do desire a simple life of hard work and quiet reflection. The quiet reflection is often left out but it is so important. Without some quiet reflection the hard work can turn into just aggravating busyness that is less than the goodness God wants for us! We desire God's best!

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3 comments
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sheryl on July 12, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Sounds like you all very busy. I just wanted to stop by and say hi. I have been wondering what you all have been up to. I can`t believe the baby is almost 4 mos. old. We got a new baby here on the farm. Not us, my cousin. She delivered him early and he just got to come home two days ago. He was nine weeks early. I just hope she lets me help spoil him. Take care and happy homesteading, Sheryl
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Schatzi on July 25, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Just stopping by to see how everyone is doing…can't believe your son is 4 months already…how exciting. Also sounds like you are busy harvesting all the goodness and blessings from the Lord.

Well, I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Connie
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HandsNHearts on July 29, 2008 at 10:19 am
I have passed along an award for you blog…stop by and collect it when you have time!

Deanna

A Short Update From Pure Water Hollow

I don’t know if there will ever be a great time for me to jump back into this blog, so I decided to just jump. I did not intend to leave off recording our happenings for such a long period of time.

Then I had an idea that I would back-date several posts and still record some of the things that have happened. That might have been good a month or so ago, but too much time has now gone by to do that with any continuity.

I have many pictures that I wanted to gradually post as I catch up on everything, but I have been foiled in that plan, too. For some reason I can no longer upload pictures to photobucket the way I used to, and I have not yet found another photo hosting site that will work with my computer. I never have fully embraced the technology of the 21st century and now the computer age may be passing me by...

Now on to the short update:

I have not really blogged anything since February, when there was snow on the ground. Now it is June and we have been having near record high temps for the past 4 days in the mid to upper 90s each day, and there is no end to the heat in sight. What a difference 3 months can make!

March at the Pure Water Hollow Homestead was of course dominated by the arrival of our newest blessing, Timothy. He will be three months old next week and he has grown so much. He is already about 20 pounds and can hold his head up by himself. Everyone here has been loving him and pitching in to help take care of him. He has truly been a wonderful addition to our family and a tremendous blessing!

Those piglets that were born in February all sold the same week Timothy was born. All kinds of people wanted them even though they were only 5 weeks old, and in just a weekend we sold 16 of them! We wanted to keep three for ourselves, or we could have sold them, too. I must remember that spring piglets are in greater demand than fall piglets, and therefore should probably be priced higher, but the $400 they brought in has been helping with the feed costs for our 2 sows, boar and the other 3 pigs. The three that we are raising for the freezer are 4 months old now and weigh about 129, 136, and 155 pounds based on their measurements.

April and May seemed to be pretty busy around here with getting the gardens tilled up and planted, the spring cleaning, getting the mowers and weedeaters working, working on our goat lot, and taking care of a newborn. We planted more vegetables than we have ever tried and tilled up more ground than we have in the past. I still do not have a tractor, so we have done it all with a tiller. We enlarged the goat lot, almost up to the ridge, so the goats now have an abundance of food that they are loving. All 5 of them are doing fine, even the crippled Tiny Tim (we are trying to call him just Tiny now) which the vet thought was not going to live very long over a year ago! We also rebuilt the chicken lot, enlarging it quite a bit (they are now giving us plenty of eggs again), and completely rebuilt our grape arbor for the seeded concord grapes, and made a new trellis for our seedless grape vines. The grape arbor is about 30 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 6 feet tall and the vines are hanging off the end and will touch the ground if we let them! Our Genesis colonly of honey bees are doing well and this last time we robbed them, Matthew put the suit on and helped Lisa get the honey. She got a neat picture of him in the suit with the smoker!

It has not been all work and no play, however. We opened up our pool on May 31st (the river) and the children have been enjoying wading and swimming and splashing in the cool water of the shoals.

This first week of June has been a hot one, but I have been in the gardens with the hoe most mornings. Our beans have had a lot of trouble and we need to re-do them and the corn on the river bank is very small (I am wondering if they get enough sunlight to do any good). The potatoes on the river bank are looking great and are blooming now and the tomato plants are forming little green tomatoes. Some time I will list all the vegetables we are trying to grow this year. Many of them are first timers for us, so we don’t really know if they are doing well or not.

June this year is also camp month for the children. Mathew goes next week, Christina and Simon the week after, and Erica and Matthew goes to another camp the following week. We are going to be working a bit short handed arounded here for the next three weeks!

I think that pretty much does it for my short update. So much has been happening it is just impossible to try and recapture it. God continues to be good to us and we are enjoying living life here at Pure Water Hollow! I will try to journal a bit more often again, to better record things for the memory book. If the updates are slow in coming, however, it is probably because I am hoeing, or reading, or mowing, or watering, or building, or swimming, or feeding, or hiking, or hoeing, or watering, or fixing, or feeding, or napping, or hoeing….

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4 comments
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mountainmama on June 10, 2008 at 6:42 am
I had missed your posts and I am glad you are back. I do understand about spring busyness, I have not been able to do much posting either.
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sheryl on June 10, 2008 at 11:55 am
I was tagged by vicksmom and now I am tagging you. Go to my blog and read what to do.

I have been missing your posts. I know this time of the year it is hard to get on here and post. I haven`t been on here much lately. I am so glad to hear everything is going good for you all. Sheryl
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CandyFoote on July 1, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Have a happy 4th of July!!

Candy
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Schatzi on July 4, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Thanks for the update on your family life….you all seem very busy and so we are thankful for any updates that you give us….will check back again shortly…Happy Fourth of July.

Connie

Welcome To Our Family, Timothy!

I had a nice detailed post about Timothy’s birth written here but accidently deleted the post! I’ve put the pictures back up, but haven’t had a chance to do a propper write up yet. I will hopefully write more some day when things are less busy...

20 minutes old :



With daddy :



2 days old; going home for the first time :



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13 comments
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Rilda on March 20, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Hallelujah! Doing the happy dance with you all. He is so adorable and lovable. What an adventure and blessing. May God's riches and best be yours in 2008. Thanks for the update. Trusting all will be well as blessings continue to flow to overflow. You are worthy!!! rilda *U*
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Crooked Creek Farm on March 20, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Congratulations!

He's a cutie!
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Karen on March 20, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Congratulations!
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HSB Front Porch on March 20, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Congratulations on the newest addition to your family – he is beautiful!

Kris Price

Senior Editor, HomesteadBlogger.com

senioreditor@homesteadblogger.com
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Morning Sunshine on March 20, 2008 at 5:08 pm
I was just thinking yesterday about you guys, and wondering if little Timothy had made his appearance yet. I am glad mom and baby are home safe and sound, and the family is all together again. enjoy that baby!
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LittleHouse on March 20, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Hello!!! I am So excited for all of you! Timothy is SO cute, sweet, and precious! We all can't wait to come and see him soon!

I am so glad that you are all doing well and are at home! I have been praying everyday for Timothy and all of you!

I love you all and Congratulations!!

Love and Prayers,

Jessica Aka. Mary

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Eric and Lisa,

Thank you so much for adding a picture. It is so wonderful to put a name with now a beautiful face.

You both have shown our family how truely wonderful God is through your faith and obedience. We have watched you go through many things to get Timothy here. God has been with you through it all. We hope you inspire many people through your testimony.

We Love you!!!

Marc and Renee

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Hello!!! Congratulations on having Timothy! He is so cute! I can't wait to come and see him and hold him.

I love you all!!!

Love,

Sarah aka Laura
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Trixi on March 20, 2008 at 7:57 pm
He is absolutely beautiful. I am so happy for your family. I know that he is covered with more love than can be imagined.

Blessings,

Trixi
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Rachel on March 20, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Congratulations!! He's so beautiful. So glad to hear little Timothy arrived safely. Enjoy these days….

Rachel from New Zealand
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SimpleFolk on March 21, 2008 at 11:14 am
Congratulations! I have prayed for little Timothy and I am so blessed to see his sweet little face. He is precious! Enjoy your new little boy.

Amy
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Anonymous on March 21, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Hey Eric, Lisa, and family~

I had to run home and quick check your blog after Eric told me pictures had been posted!

I'm so happy for you all! I know you are exhausted but so excited and happy, too.

If you need *ANYTHING*, we're just over the river & through the woods!!!

Love,

Lori

for The Underwood Family
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sheryl on March 22, 2008 at 6:47 pm
I am so glad he is here! I haven`t been on here much lately and I was wondering about you all. Keep you all in my prayers and take care. Sheryl
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Chas on May 12, 2008 at 9:18 am
Oh, I am just praising the Lord with you! What a beautiful precious baby… and what a proud Popa…

Congratulations to you all!



Chas
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Schatzi on May 30, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Congratulations on the birth of your son….I have started a new blog and deleted my old one…I forgot what the name of your blog was…and wondered about the birth of your baby….so glad I happened across the blog today…will had you to my friends list again.

Blessings,

Connie

Maple Syrup and Misc Stuff

(The following is from correspondence between myself and another homestead blogger.)
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Original message from stitchesbyteresa:

I just read a blog from "Belle" about tapping maple trees for syrup. She told me she got the info from your blog. I live in N. Ga and wasnt sure if this is something I could do w/maple trees here. Does it have to be a certain type of maple tree, I really don't know much about it. Also, how big does the tree need to be before tapping it…and how far up would I measure? Your pics of the candy and sugar and syrup were beautiful!

I will keep your wife and newest addition in my prayers. I also noticed you took your wife to see Doyle Lawson for valentine's day…My hubby would have loved that! He is a bluegrasser through and through…banjo picker…

ANYWAY, thanks for sharing your part of the world.

The little piglets are so cute. I dont think I could raise them b/c I'd get too attached to them, especially seeing them play w/the chickens and all. Of course I never ate the chickens I raised growing up, I just cried when my dad would kill one for supper! Somehow I was always able to eat the turkeys of which I had no part in raising…silly on my part, I know…congratulations on that new baby boy!!!

Teresa

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Teresa,

I'm glad you've enjoyed the blog. I'll add you to our friend list.

No one around here (in eastern Kentucky) knew anything about making maple syrup. Anyone I asked about it thought we would be too far south, but I couldn't find any explanation as to why it wouldn't work where we were. We have sugar maple trees. I just decided to give it a try and see, and I was glad that we did!

What I've read is that you have to have successive freezing nights with above freezing days. We have plenty of those in Kentucky. I wonder what happens to the sap if the trees do not experience weather like that. I also wonder how far south maple trees grow? (I think I'll look that up after I send this.) I'm guessing that a sugar maple tree is a sugar maple tree and a sugar maple tree should have sweet sap just before spring no matter where it is growing.

The trees have to measure at least 32 inches around about waist high, from what I've read (a 10-12 inch diameter, but I thought measuring around was easier).

Apparenly sugar maple trees are the best, but they say any maple tree can be tapped. I think it might take a larger amount of sap to make the syrup with other maple trees, but we did not try any other. (Actually I did tap a box elder tree (also called ash-leaf maple) but the sap tasted so bitter, we did not bother boiling it down into syrup. Maybe I will another year, because maybe it would make good syrup even though the sap tasted horrible by itself?)

We enjoyed Doyle Lawson very much. It was our first time seeing him. I love bluegrass gospel and bluegrass music, but I don't care much for break-up songs or drinking songs even if the instrumentation is great pickin. The group that was with Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver was a group called Fast Lane. I think they are an up and coming bluegrass group and are quite talented. Their big song, however, is "Tina At the Tear Drop Inn" about a husband committing adultry with Tina at the Tear Drop Inn and his wife follows him and shoots him dead. In a lot of ways it was a good song, but it is really a bad song, if that makes sense?

Thank you for praying for us. It is very much appreciated, and we will pray for you. Glad to hear that the bone scan was ok.

God Bless,

Eric

The New Piglets Are Two-And-A-Half Weeks Old

We got a little snow last night and it has been snowing all day today. I wanted to get some more straw into the pigs and goats beds because we are supposed to get more snow through the night. I took the camera with me and got some pictures of the piglets. They are 19 days old now, and they have become quite energetic.

We still have Sally and her piglets in the barn. They have plenty of room and straw and they can go out into the old lot. They are at the age now when they climb all over a person who sits down in their straw. They love to lick on muddy boots and they like to gnaw on metal things like zippers and buttons.

Here is Christina enjoying some time with Sally’s piglets:





When we went to Nellie’s piglets, they were all running all over the place. They are small enough that they can go through the fence and they like to scratch around outside of the lot under the trees in the leaves.

This is a neat picture with a piglet peaking around a bucket and you can see the barn in the background (where Sally and her piglets are).



Today was the first time I saw the chickens up near the pig lot. Matthew said they were there the morning the piglets were born and I guess they go up there regularly, but it was new for me. The piglets would run around the chickens, scaring the chickens. Then when the chickens would quickly scurry away they would scare the piglets! It was hilarious! The piglets would quickly dive under the fence and run back to their straw and the chickens would flap and squak away down the hill. Then they would each come back together a few minutes later to play some more and do the whole thing all over again. I was laughing out loud a couple of times!




Here are a few more shots of Nellie’s piglets playing outside the lot. They sure are cute!





And here is one last cute picture a bit closer up:



It was fun watching the piglets play today. They are all doing very well and both mama’s are doing great too. (Rufus seems sad to be in a lot all by himself and I think we will put them all together again soon. He may break through the fence because sometimes he acts really anxious to get in with Nellie! Other than that, the proud father is doing great, too.)

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4 comments
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Trixi on February 27, 2008 at 6:26 pm
They are too cute!!

Blessings,

Trixi
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Belle on February 27, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Awww….those piglets are so cute……..and little!!!! Some of the chickens in the pictures are bigger than the pigs!

I enjoyed the pictures! Have a great day!

~Belle~
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Rachel on February 28, 2008 at 12:54 am
They are so cute! I love all their different markings too. It was fun reading about it and seeing the pictures.

Rachel from New Zealand
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faithfarm on March 20, 2008 at 6:37 am
Congratulations!!! I seen your ticker that Timothy is 1 week 1 day old!!! That is such a wonderful blessing! I am so happy for your family. Blessings to you! >faithfarm

TheseTimes AreToo Progressive (now and 130 years ago)

We’ve been reading the book The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder out loud to the family. Last night we came to a sentence that brought up some thought and discussion.

We all enjoyed thinking about how different our times are today in 2008 compared to the time Laura was writing about when she was growing up 130 years ago. (We figure the book is actually taking place in 1881 because Laura is 14 years old.)

If you know the story, you’ll remember that the Ingalls family was in an emergency situation when they were faced with blizzard after blizzard and 40 below temperatures. The snowdrifts were as high as their store and the trains could not get through with any more food or supplies. They were running out of everything needed for survival.

“If only I had some grease I could fix some kind of a light,” Ma considered. “We didn’t lack for light when I was a girl, before this newfangled kerosene was ever heard of.”

“That’s so,” said Pa. “These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraph and kerosene and coal stoves : they’re good things to have but the trouble is, folks get to depend on ‘em.”

We think things are changing fast today with the world wide web, cell phones, credit cards, direct deposit and the like. They thought things were changing too fast 130 years ago. They were right and so are we!

We don’t even think about our electric lights, except when they don’t work, and we enjoy our propane heaters that light with a push of a button, as long as the tank is filled up. Ma had probably taken her "newfangled" Kerosene lantern for granted, too, until they ran out of lamp oil, and her coal stove was wonderful, as long as they had coal. They had modern railroads that brought in goods from afar and telegraphs that brought news and communication from a distance, much like people today rely on the web to buy whatever they want from anywhere they want and cell phones and satellites to keep connected to the world.

I think Pa hit the nail on the head, “they’re good things to have but the trouble is, folks get to depend on ‘em.”

How much can we do on our own if all our modern conveniences were suddenly disrupted? Could we survive if we had to, with just our own resources?

I think the answers are very discouraging for most Americans today. We have become too soft as a society, and too dependent upon our high standard of living.

Here at Pure Water Hollow, we would be fine for a short while, but we would be greatly suffering if we had to endure prolonged hardships. We have so much more to do in our quest for greater self sufficiency. Some day, I would like to believe, that we would be able to survive anything that may come our way, even if life as we knew it was severely disrupted.

I think one of the first considerations is to be careful how much we allow ourselves to be completely dependent on the “new fangled” technologies and methods that are so prevalent today. I think we should make use of things that make life easier, but not become entrapped by such luxury to the point that we would be lost without them.

We will likely finish the book tonight or tomorrow. I think the Ingalls’ trials and constant fight for survival is a good reminder for us soft Americans of how life used to be in this great country. I want the resourcefulness modeled by those pioneer families like the Ingalls to be examples for us to live by, even in this age of ease.

With the Lord’s help, we will rely on the God-given resourcefulness that He blesses us with, and recognize that He is the strong tower that we must always turn to!

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2 comments
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faithfarm on February 26, 2008 at 7:01 am
Wonderful Post! Thank you for sharing it. Blessings>faithfarm
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Morning Sunshine on February 26, 2008 at 7:13 am
wow, great point. I would like to think we could do it. but I am probably fooling myself