Faith's New Rabbits

Peter

Precious and Angel

I got my rabbits 2 weeks ago. My work payed off, they are so soft and fuzzy .
Peter is 2 months older than the girls. Angel isn't growing as fast as the rest.
They are more friendly than I imagined. I give them their pellets in the morning and after the frost
thaws, I let them eat clover till 4pm. About a week ago mama put them out in the clover and forgot about them.
They all got out and went exploring. In the morning I Had got up and was knitting on the couch
and the boys came running in and said my bunnies had got out and one was missing.
We looked and looked but no bunny. Finally, we all prayed it and about 20 min. later mama said she was under the house. Once again it was God that saved our animals.


Post written by Faith.

A place in the past

I was at the drug store yesterday getting some asthma medicine for my nephew. I was carded for it, of course, as the drug lords love this stuff....Anyway, the lady noticed I was from Georgia. This is not an odd occurrence, since GA is just over the border from Chattanooga, so most people don't even blink if you say you're from GA. She did notice that it was an area she had never heard of, so she asked which region of GA I was from. I have always loved living in Oxford, so I was happy to tell her about our old town. She said she was from a place like that,Her town grew and grew, until it was hard for a small-town-minded-gal to live there. I too could agree. The Wal-Mart was the first to help with the super growth, then the Home Depot, then the Dollar General, then the other strip mall stores, the fast food restaurants, the QT (of course) then to help the little back roads that can't handle this kind of traffic they have to widen the road and make a direct route to the highway. Finally, to house the growth in population due to the industrialization, they must build more housing and a bigger school, by buying off the farm land.

This is a very popular story for small towns across the nation. The insatiable hunger for the bigger, better, closer, more mentality. I do not fault people for wanting things more convenient, it is a prevailing thought system in our country as it does give us a sence of security. I also liked how close things were when I had to go shopping, I just hate traffic. I am also not the most social of people...big surprise, I know. So the growth of our nice small town made me long to be in a quieter place. One that shares my love for the past. Maybe not all the conveniences gone. I do like being able to run out for groceries we run out of between shopping trips, to get gas and animal feed, but I like that despite the fact that this town got a Wal-Mart 5 years ago, it has refused to let any of the other massive conglomerations join in the party.

The motto of our town Whitwell, TN is this: I quote,
"Whitwell has become a town that deters any type of growth, because the
citizens here prefer Whitwell to stay as a small town flavor, yet have the amenities
of the big city closeby, and they aim to keep it that way, sooooo...
               When you're in Whitwell, YOU ARE IN AMERICA! GOD'S COUNTRY!!! "

Close by to them, I must add is 15 minutes away. LOVE IT!!!

I didn't know that God had placed me EXACTLY where I belonged until I had lived here for a week and read this on their web page while trying to look up my electric bill.

I also must note a couple of other things I love about here:

-I can drive a truck with my kids in the back down main roads without being in fear of someone crashing into us and killing them. Other people here understand the lack of funds to get a bigger vehicle to house all those kids and oblige the others by driving slow and safe.

-I have neighbors who stay out of your business and yet are always there to help. I must add that having our closest one be a 1/2 mile down the road doesn't hurt either.

-Free is just part of life around here. We are far enough away from the city, that most people don't make their living in it, and costs haven't been raised because of it. So when you go into the feed and seed in Whitwell to get some goat supplies, there are no prices. When you go to the counter the man says "UHH, how does $5.00 sound for all that." Wow, o.k. Or you go to the tire store to get a tube valve stem and the man hands it to you, you ask how much you owe, and he says," UHHH, Nothin' " Like you've lost your mind for even asking. Or Your Neighbor comes over and asks if he can 'Hay' your field. I asked how much that would cost me, and he looks at me as if I suddenly sprung something from my forehead. The Parks are free, the mountains are free, the water falls are free, the river is free!This is in my budget.

-The electric company, the Phone company, the Water company, and the county feed store are all co-op. This means that you can be a part of them for services or you can buy a share in it and be part of the services rendered. Now this is excellent for prices-it keeps them low. My electricity bill was $111. Now this also means that you don't pay a deposit, so you can actually afford to get it turned on without having to save for a few weeks or months, depending on how high your deposit is (ours was $500 in oxford, of which I only had $250 returned upon move out. Why, because I had a bill I payed late. I did pay it, just late. Therefore penalized for it. What!?!)

-People are less stressed, therefore more friendly. I really like that. It took me 5 years in Covington/Oxford to know my local shop keepers and clerks well enough for me to recognize them and them me. Here it has taken a whopping 3 months. Mostly because there isn't as many people and also because when you are building things from scratch you visit your local stores often, and need a lot of questions answered about their area. The locals love that, the old people love to talk about the old ways and love the fact that they are still being carried on.

-Lastly, that my children get to grow up a little less afraid, a little more free. They work hard, play hard, explore freely, visit neighbors at will. They get to tend to animals. And endure the ups and downs of life lived communally.

The people here are proud of their town, its smallness, it heritage (most people here have descendants who climbed these hills and discovered this valley and have lived here ever since). They are a proud and welcoming people, as long as you like it small too. Everyone here would take up arms, in fact most people carry rifles at all times, to defend their country. Not because they have some idealistic standard for doing it, a need to defend the equal opportunity of the masses. Not because they need gasoline to survive, or because they want the industrial revolution and capitalism to survive. They do like having these things to a point, but they don't need them for their survival. They would fight because they have  a land of freedom, a land that their ancestors had to endure hardships and survive to keep. They have fought for this place and will continue to. I would fight along beside them, and I don't even believe in War, but I beleive in being left alone to live your life acording to GOd's purpose. I am proud to be allowed to be one of them. They have welcomed us with open hearts and minds. They are our people now, and we are theirs. I know there is never anything that could happen here, even way out in the woods, that we would be alone to endure. They understand the need of neighborly help, but the pride of doing things yourself until you need it. I admire this town and its people. May God bless America and its small towns!

The lady I was speaking to asked what I thought about the way this area stays 10 years in the past. I replied that I hope in 10 years it hasn't caught up to now.

Foundation complete and other stuff

We have officially completed the foundation. All 29 of the blocks were poured. And now that the rain has been out of the area for over a week all are dry and solid.

They don't look like much, as we had to shovel 3 inches of water off them, and they have silt and leaves still on them, but to us they are a work of art. True 4 foot thick 2x2 blocks of genius. Our first building feat conquered! Now the home site looks like a mine field....

This is o.k. though, because at least WE know what they are.

We had made some moulds out of scrap wood to be able to gauge the size of the hole, so after we drilled, we dug out these 2x2 ft holes so we can place the cinder blocks on top of them. Now if we could just get the tractor to work again so we can drag the trailer down here with the bricks on it.

Since we were down here taking pictures, I thought I would go ahead and take some of the other things we are doing down here. Like chopping wood and making garden plots, i.e. my front yard. I don't mind having a garden and pastures for my front yard and woods for my back. Way less upkeep, and with the mountains in the background, I don't think I could ever show up God's handy work here, so I am happy.

 With all the trees we felled to get this home site cleared it has taken us half the time to chop it and stack it. The four boys have really busted butt to do all this. And this is truly just half of it. Every where you look there is more wood. Wood stacked, wood chopped, wood waiting to be chopped, wood waiting to be stacked. It almost sounds like a Dr. Seuss book if you added a who or something....

And did I mention all the wood waiting to be burned. Wow, it is almost overwhelming. The kids and I are going to start the massive undertaking in the morning. We have 4 enormous piles that must be burned off so we can set up a construction zone, and get vehicles in and out. All the men are out of town or at work, and my sister and her kids are gone, so I guess its just us... I have been assured by the men that the boys are very knowledgeable and capable, but I am a mom. Why do they keep asking me to be a non-worrier? This is just so unnatural!

Right now this is the front yard, now cleared of all the Privet. To you guys who have pristine yards and lots of grass, all I can say is don't judge. I will to some day... That's what I'm bringing the pigs in for!



Cusi's Memorial

We lost a goat this week. Our first major loss. We are used ot the chickens being eaten. Even the dogs that come and go. We don't like it, but we understand its part of farm life. So is this, I've heard. Lots of people lose goats, or other animals, for various reasons. But I think because we only had three goats, and they are our first, it was just more of a loss than I had thought it'd be. Anyway, I thought I would just do a small memorial piece on Cusi.

He was never a terribly strong goat, kind of a whiner, but he was a nice goat. Looking back and knowing what I know now, I should never have bought him. He was not healthy. But I didn't know, and we did. One day he would be stronger-looking. He would eat and wag his tail and go with the girls to graze, and then another he would just stand there and look pitiful. We tryed hard to save him, but he had a problem up-taking his protein so he waisted away.

Finally on Monday, just wouldn't eat. Then he lay down and wouldn't get up. My daughter, Faith stayed with him most of the morning and tried to coax him to eat. He refused. I knew it was time to put him down.

My wonderful son, Calob and his cousins, took him to the back of our property and shot him. This is hard for me. I don't take it lightly to lose an animal, whether it be one for food or whatever, but I feel really bad whan we have fought so hard and still lost the fight.

We all take solice in the thought that for the first time, he is able to run and jump like the other goats, in heaven. That he was welcomed in by Jesus and led to the happy grazing grounds, where there are heavenly cars and big stacks of rubble for him to jump on and Jesus won't mind if they run around on his car. Now I don't know what is true or untrue about animals and the afterlife, but this makes us feel good so we go with it. I don't think Jesus will mind.

Pigs, Pigs, Pigs

Well, our boys are now in business. They have made their first investment in their future. They purchased 6 pigs. Two will be for the home, and 4 will be for sale. They worked hard making a fence for them. I chose the garden plot for this spring, as I have heard that pigs can uproot, deweed and till under and fertilize an acre of land every few months. Since we will have these pigs until around February or March it is a perfect place. We had already purchased electric fencing so they worked all day last Saturday putting it up. Then we got the pigs.

Now I have never been much of a fan of pigs, but I must say that besides their ferocious smell, I find them quite enjoyable. They are a real investment. Having payed $30 per pig at 50 lb size(which we found out are called feeder pigs). We will raise them on pasture, acorns and slop, mostly. We will have to supplement with some oats and corn, but mostly they will be cheap to feed. Then they will be resold at around 200 lb.s for about $1.50 per lb. This will be a nice price for farm raised free-range pigs. And the boys can take their money and invest it in a new thing or more pigs.

When we went to pick them up it was so funny.  We drove up to this nice little farm and they directed us to the back pasture where they kept their stash of pigs. Upon smelling them I knew why they kept them back there. The gentleman asked which ones we wanted and I stood back and let the boys do the transaction. At first they looked at all the squealing pigs and chose the ones they liked. The man told them to go in the pen and catch them. What ensued looked like a greased pig contest in a muddy pigsty. The boys ran after one, then the other and totally looked lost and slightly panicky until the man came to their aid and just started catching pigs. He would take them by the hind legs and hold them up as if they were not 50 lb pigs squealing and kicking with all their might. Then he would hand it to the boys and they would hand it to me. Now I did not go into this thinking I would be involved in toting nasty pigs over my shoulder, but that is exactly how it ended up. When we were done, we couldn't care less if those were the pigs they picked, we were covered in mud and stunk to high heaven. We then had to load up in Brian's work truck and drive an hour home. I had to stop at the closest gas station and we all half bathed in the sink. Then we had to drive with the windows down regardless of the cold temperature, because no matter how much we scrubbed we still smelled like pigs.

All the attaches that we all hear about pigs like 'happy as a pig in mud' ,'your room looks like a pig stye', 'you live in squaller', 'that looks like slop' all of them true. Wow are pigs disgusting. And yet when they look at you, mud up to their eyes(literally), and their ears are up and they wag their little curly tails I actually think they're cute!

Bandit the 15 yr old border collie is almost as happy as the 'pigs in mud' at her new charges. She is on constant vigils. If one escapes the pen, which they do several times a day, she is always behind them keeping them from harm. Then she will help to get them back in the pen when she sees you want them to. I think she is the happiest she has been in years. It gives us great joy to see her reliving her prime. I think it does everything under the sun good to do what we were created for. And I believe this farm was created for pigs.....

Golden Morning

My husband commented on how he came up over the ridge, the fog was just lifting, and on display was God's infinite beauty-a golden morning.
What a way to start the day. Even when you don't necessarily want to go out there to the city to work, you get a touch of the beauty that God has for us.

We went on a walk through our land today. Down through the field where the maple grove is. The joy that surrounds you when you see how the last ditch effort of the trees, to pull down their sugars and protect themselves from the winter to come, bring out their most beautiful side.  The bible verse, "Oh death, where is your victory. oh death, where is your sting" comes to mind. Even in the midst of dieing, the trees bring forth their glory!I feel like I am a bit like the trees right now. I am dieing to my old self and being reborn into something I have yet to find out.

Patience is something I was not granted enough of when I came to earth, but am having ample opportunity to learn. I think when I was sitting around dreaming of this land and this life, I saw it as happening instantaneously. Not taking months and months to take shape. There is so much potential. So much I want done right now.....And yet so little actually gets accomplished each day. Some days are very full, and some are just sitting around and waiting. Oh so much perspective! The fall leaves and trees are helping me with my perspective.


I think that things ought to manifest in a quick and definitive way. The trees take their time turning. They know that they are dieing, falling. But are they worried? Not a bit. They know that they are just one part in the whole of the tree and of life itself. They give food to the tree during the summer, but they know that for the sake of the tree in the winter they would tax the tree too much. So in the wake of their going, they put on such a display that even a blind man would have to stop and ponder 'what is this great light he sees'.
The mountains bring forth this glory in an even more spectacular show, by putting millions of these minor displays into a broader focus. All of a sudden you see the contours that you never saw. Or that one hickory, that during the summer was just another tree you didn't notice, is all of a sudden the most beautiful tree in the forest! Even the "weeds" in the field are in full bloom. What wonderful color, what awe I have.

 For a moment I need not think of the death of my "self" nor the time which it takes to be recreated. I just stop and ponder this moment of perfection, in which everything is finished, everything is in its element. The trees are not afraid they will not reawaken in the spring. They know they are just going into their rest faze. They do not think whether or not it will happen within a certain time frame. They just know.

When the winter cold is over and the warm winds of spring come through. The ground will thaw and they will live again.

Now I am not saying I will be able to be like the trees exactly. But maybe I can learn from them. Maybe I can read back over this and see my epiphany. Who knows, maybe in the throes of winter even the trees contemplate whether it will ever end.

 I will try to trust more like they seem to. I will try to just be. I will try to just enjoy these golden mornings while they last.



God must love me.

As I stare at the fire that was made in the fireplace, our only source of heat, I think maybe I won't hate winter so much after all. I have always had a deep-seeded resentment for the cold, bleak winter months. They represented death, sickness, and cold, cold misery. I have also never had a fire. No wonder so many songs of winter, and Christmas that we know and love contain some reference to fire. Primitive man wove the fabric of his existence around it. The Cherokee Indians knew that if they carried their fire coal on the trail of tears that their culture would not be snuffed out, but would endure.  The fires of my youth are still etched in my memory. The stories, the snuggling, the s'mores....Ahh, and now I own my very own.
My husband gets up at 4am every morning and then makes coffee and then wakes me up at 4:30 to read the bible and have coffee together before he has to go and face the world inside of time. Our coffee maker broke last week and we have been forced to use a percolator that has to go on the propane camp stove that serves as our primary stove top. This is located outside. It has gotten down right cold here since the middle of last week. Plummeting to the oh so cold temperature of 48 degrees high. Oh you northerners may laugh at my chill point, but I am also a southerner through and through. I get cold when the temperature hits 65. Let alone when it goes from 70 to 48 in a matter of days. It is a different climate here, we live in an elevated valley in the Appalachians, but I just wasn't ready. I am just not used to this! My winter clothes are still lost to a box in storage.What is a girl to do? Get her husband to make her a fire!
So I have told my husband if he wants me up I need coffee and a fire.
This is how that request/demand goes:
Monday:
My  husband: "Baby, its time to get up". Me: "coffee?" Hubby: "Uhh, was I supposed to do that?"
Me:"uuhhh, coffee..." I go back to sleep.
Tuesday:
Hubby: Baby, time to get up." Me: "coffee?" Hubby: Uhh, I don't know how to do that" I go back to sleep.O.k. this is getting rediculous. If it took me this long to get something through my head he would be pretty upset. But oh no, I am supposed to just get up without heat or coffee? How is a girl supposed to work under these kind of conditions!
Wednesday:
Hubby: Repeat of every morning. Me: "Coffee?" Hubby: "Oh yeah, got it on the stove. Fire going too." I crawl out of bed. Go out to the living room. Wait something is wrong, I am cold. No fire....No coffee...Hubby:" well since you're up, I can't find the percolator, and I swear there was a fire....."
I feel totally duped.
Well since I'm up I have no other choice than to find the percolator before my eyes involuntarily close again, and I run into a wall or something. Oh, there it is... on the counter... by the coffee....
Really,you couldn't find that? Well gotta love him.
So anyway, here I am now, warm and cozy with a roaring fire, a cup of hot coffee, sweet rolls in the convection oven, and a quiet house with everyone sleeping.
I don't initially like getting up, but I do like being up completely alone. There are precious few minutes of silence in this house. The older 3 boys will be up momentarily, wondering where is the coffee, Then they will go out and split wood or some other chore before they start school. Then Manny will be up groggy and blanket in hand wondering where is breakfast. Then the 3 girls will wander out with messy hair and curl up on the furniture and also wonder what is for breakfast. Then it will be time to get the animals fed and watered, the older boys fed and then school and housebuilding...you get the picture. But for now, there is nothing but silence. Blessed silence And my fire.
Just like my ancesters, the Cherokee, I will not be snuffed out, I will endure! I have fire!

Tribute to Captain

We lost one of our puppies the other day. He showed up when he was but 3 weeks old. Found in a box with his sister. Covered in fleas, half starved, and frightened. The boys picked them up and brought them home. They knew we couldn't turn out pups.

 This is Captain

This is Layla

They were nursed back to health by my sister, who kept vigil over them for the first week we had them feeding them by bottle every 4 hours.

They grew and grew and decided they had to have a mother figure so they adopted Dixie, who is one of the other puppies that was dumped here down by the river with her sister who we call Lucy.

They of course are older, as they came to live with us when they were 8 weeks old about 2 months ago.

So as they grew Layla showed signs of being an explorer and Captain more of a homebody. He pretty much just stayed by the barn and play with Lucy.

One day Captain disappeared and the kids went out and found him exploring by himself about a mile from the house in the back woods. Alone and scared and totally confused ,because he had never followed us out there before, was rescued and brought home to safety. Time went on and he was once again content to stay near the barn and play happily with other dogs. Still not venturing out with us. Until one day...He followed us all out to the home site while we were working. When it was time to come back up, he was nowhere to be found. The kids looked around, but it was dinner time and they were hungry and tired and decided to come up to eat and come back down to look afterwards. Unfortunately a HUGE storm blew in and they couldn't go out in the rain and now encroaching dark, so we retired for the night to reestablish a search party in the a.m.  The next day dawned still storming, but at least light, so the kids donned rain gear and set out in search parties. They looked for several hours, following trails of markings and poop. When finally they came upon a small pile of puppy poop and a little farther intense scratchings and finally to a pile of entrails. Alas Captain is no more. Eaten in the wild woods by a beast-probably actually just a coyote-but never-the-less, it is a loss. The children said their prayers for his arrival into heaven, as they always do when we lose a part of the clan. He will be greatly(words of my sister) missed. He was a beautiful and fun loving part of God's world and we were blessed to pet him for awhile.

Happy playing in the heaven! Say Hi to Jesus for us!

Ground Breaking

Well, yesterday was ground-breaking day! Finally....It seems like things go in bursts. We do one thing for a long time i.e. 2 months of clearing trees, then rest. Then another burst. So the new auger is a dream. Best money spent yet. Well for now anyway..but we were able to dig 29 holes in an hour. It would have taken us another 2 months to just dig the holes. But thank God for power tools!

He's so proud of his new toy!

O.K. So here is how this goes. First you mark out the 3 rings of post holes with pretty orange flags. Then you stare at them through 3 days of rain. Finally the sun breaks through burns off the fog and voila! They're still there. Well except for 2, which the dogs ate half of the flags, but the stick and part of the flag is still there, so no re-measurement necessary.  Then you painstakingly back up to get right over the flags, and then pull forward, and then back up....well you get the point. By the time we made it to about hole number 20 we had the process down pat. I would flag him back, sideways, back then he would roll slightly over the flag. Park, which on the incline makes you roll forward just enough  to land within an inch or two of the flag. Then he would hop off and trade places with me and then pull the PTO arm to exactly over the flag and then I would start on the controls.

You must lean all of your weight on the auger if you don't own weights, but still this is far less work than digging the holes yourself.

Then he flags for me to pull the arm up and it miraculously throws all the dirt and clay and tree roots out of the hole!

I will blog again as soon as we finish pouring the concrete in the oles which we are in the process of right now. As we speak the boys are working on this. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! We are on our way!