Because people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care

I'm in the throws of the busy summer season. The garden is planted and coming up. My flower pots are filled and flower beds are all cleaned up.

Our weather is beautiful, even though we had some snow and a slight frost a week ago. Living in the mountains at 7000 ft. It's really more like late spring here rather than early summer. But the warm weather is here, finally! Thankfully we usually have long dry falls and are able to enjoy the outdoors for many months to come.



Summer is break time for me from homeschooling and it is my time to emerge myself in God's word. I have a double bible study going.....Beth Moore's "Children of the Day" which is a study of 1st & 2nd Thessalonians

and I am also doing a Precepts study by Kay Arthur on 2nd Thessalonians.

This is my second study with Kay Arthur's "Inductive Study Method".

As you can see from the chart above there is a lot of marking your bible in this method so I bought a special Inductive Study Bible just for this. I like this method a lot. It really causes me to stop and ponder the who's What's When's Where's and Why's of the books of the bible you are studying. (I say it is like "picking the chicken off the bone".) 

I love learning and growing in my knowledge of God's word but

 I have heard it said many times that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.....

 I am embarking on a new path that the Lord is leading me on. 

I have been invited by Ann Dunagan of  Daring Daughters ministry to take part in her Leadership Training. It will be training for mentoring young girls in the Lord with a heart for missions and the hurting and lost of this world. 

I am truly thankful for my home and the beauty that surrounds me but there are so many things that matter more than a beautiful yard or garden............."Thank you Father for all that You are and all that You have done for me! Thank you Father for continuing to lead my heart and showing me the things (ones) that matter most to you." I know all too well that when my time is done on this earth I will not look back and be filled with pride because I had beautiful flower beds even though I enjoy them very much. It will not matter If I drove a nice car or lived in a big house. What will matter is knowing what I did with what God has blessed me with. How much I loved, how much I cared, how much I gave of my time and resources that God has blessed me with.

I believe that the reason God blesses us with more is not so that we can heap these things upon ourselves but so that we can heap love and compassion on the hurting and the broken of this world. So we will feed the hungry and clothe the poor. So we can send out missionaries and even take mission trips ourselves in order to share God's great love and His beautiful gospel with a lost and dying world..............Lord, here I am, send me!



What a great way to spend my summer time!



Have a blessed summer and may the Lord move in your heart to go and care for the widows and the orphans of the world or even right there in your own town.

It's spring, and I'm outside

It's spring, and I'm outside..........working on the garden expansion, putting in blueberries,blackberries,raspberries and grapes.......also getting the garden ready for planting......spreading loads and loads of wonderful rich composted horse manure and shavings (grin) An early spring here in the mountains will have me putting in my vegetable garden 5 or 6 weeks early!!! wooohoo, it is such a struggle here with our cool temps to really get a garden off and going very early and then early fall frosts keep us from being able to grow things like watermelons or pumpkins because they freeze before they are ready.....This year it just might work.  I'm going to give some pumpkins a try, the girls will love it!

Getting started back walking/jogging trying to get back on track for my fitness and weight loss goals.

  Watching chickens, they are funny. Waiting on one hen to hatch a dozen eggs but she is taking longer than she should???.........should be any day....The goats are bred, I think.......we are hoping to get some kids this summer and goats milk too :o).......I made homemade buttermilk the other day from fresh goats milk and it was wonderful! I made some ranch dressing with it also and used some for baking...........Last week I  took a class on making homemade mozzarella cheese at a raw milk dairy near by....I'm going to make some today.....not sure what to make with it though.

I'm working on my new bible study, "Stuck".....it's going good. I am seeing more and more of a pattern of how my expectations that I put onto others keeps me disappointed with them and how this is not good for me or for them or for our relationships.........learning to just love and give a whole lot more grace :o)

-1887-
Exercise Out-of-Doors

Every woman should take a certain amount of exercise out-of-doors. It is necessary for good health and good nature too. If by doing so you will be obliged to leave some of the work in the house undone, who will know or care one hundred years from now?

[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]
Blessings to All, and remember God is sooo good, all the time!!!

Happy Spring~

*Susan*

I'm a Crazy Lady!!!

I'm a Crazy Lady and I even have the hat to prove it. Here's yer hat! kinda like when Jeff Foxworthy used to say........Here's yer sign...hehehe

Even here in the mountains of Utah where I live at 7000 ft above sea level it is spring!!! :o)

The snow has melted off early this year. We didn't get nearly as much snow as would be normal for our area and it has been warmer than normal so the snow is gone (all but the higher mountain elevations) and the ground is drying up fast which means that theres tons of work to do!

Why I'm a Crazy Lady!

SPRING CLEANING

you know I look just like this when I'm cleaning don't you?

Spring cleaning is almost done on the inside, most of It I do in the winter months because I am home bound a lot of the time.  I don't like to go out and about if the roads are bad and I am not a winter sports person. I really do not like the cold so I stay indoors quit a bit in the winter months. This is when I will do my spring cleaning and indoor projects like painting, decorating or refinishing furniture. I have a set of bookshelves in the garage that I'm going to start this week for Paris's room.

Once the warm weather gets here I DO NOT WANT TO BE INDOORS!  When it is warm you will find me out at the barn clipping and bathing a horse, riding or giving lessons to the kids, working in the garden or in a flowerbed, chicken watching *grin*. Now that the girls are getting older they want to be doing the same things as me. :o) (happy Grammy) Here's yer hat!

Why I'm a Crazy Lady!

                                                               GARDEN PLANNING

We will be garden planning, preparing the garden area and getting it all planted. Last year we tripled our garden area. I have some new ideas for the new areas but it will probably evolve over time. Some of the ideas that I have take $$$$ others take time. Things like a cottage looking garden shed (with a porch) ;o) $$$, a fence $$$, stone pathways (time), and fruit bushes/trees will be added, more $$$ and time.

I have this huge bronze looking rooster that is about three ft tall that I want to use out in the garden somehow, maybe at the entrance $$$ or as an ornament alongside the garden shed. There is a lot of clean up to do outside, everything looks dirty after winter and before everything greens up. Also depending on the year we can get a pretty bad muddy season. (I hope we don't this year)

I have asked my hubby to install a clothes line out in the yard (I have asked this for the last two years ;o) so that when weather permits I can hang out our clothes to cut cost on our utilities and just because I love the smell of line dried laundry and bedding. Also I need it for our big blankets and comforters, we have a king size bed and that comforter won't even fit in our dryer. Also I usually have a few horse blankets and sheets to hang out. DH says OK! he gets it.....the clothes line will go in this spring! :o) He likes to eat.....Heres yer hat!

Why I'm a Crazy Lady!
  I need to finish a couple of books I have started. This one is tough I have two I am reading now, oh wait.... make that four that I need to finish so I can get to some of the others I bought that I want really to read. I also have a few I want to reread because I read them while going through a stressful time in my life and I don't even remember what they were about. :o)

My book list:

Reading now; Fool Proofing Your Life (how to deal effectively with impossible people in your life) by Jan Silvious 
The Scarlet Cord, nothing but the blood of Jesus (a concise call to world missions) by Jon & Ann Dunagan of Harvest Ministry 
As Silver Refined (what if your circumstances are actually the flames of God's grace, intended to burn away all that is undesirable in your life, leaving you pure, like refined silver?) by Kay Arthur
The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer

Next in line;

The Mission Minded Family by Ann Dunagan
The Mission Minded Child by Ann Dunagan
Make Your Place (affordable, sustainable nesting skills) by Raleigh Briggs
The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency used by the Mormon Pioneers (I do live in Utah :o)
Forgotten God by Francis Chan (reread)
Radical by David Platt (reread)
Crazy Love by Francis Chan (reread)
Indescribable by Louie Giglio and Matt Redman
Revolution in World Missions by K. P. Yohannan
Redeeming The Time by Chuck D. Pierce
A Beautiful Offering by Angela Thomas
Because He Loves Me by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick (reread, I only got half way through it and don't remember what I read)

Heres yer hat!


I totally look like this when I read! :o) Don't you read in pantyhose?

Why I'm a Crazy Lady!
 It seems like I have a hard time reading the books that I want to read. I read to and with the girls every night for about an hour before bed time.  We just finished reading The Horse and His Boy by C.S.Lewis and now we are reading Cheaper By The Dozen and will watch the movie when we are done. (sometimes I like to order the movies if there has been one made of the books we are reading, it makes for a fun movie night and makes for some fun conversations about the books/stories/people/lifestyles/choices etc. ) It also helps to build a better visual picture in the kids minds of there story and they just remember the stories better. (me too ;o) I have a whole other list of books we will be reading together.....Heres yer Hat!

Why I'm a Crazy Lady!

Then by the time I can take a breath from all the outdoor clean up and garden planting and maybe go for a few rides on my horse it will be summer and what comes next? Canning Season!!!

Here's yer hat! :o)

Just in case you were wondering ..........Why I'm a Crazy Lady!

Blessings and Happy Spring!!!

*Susan*

May Showers bring June Flowers

Even though we don't get many May flowers there are plenty of other things around here that tell me winter is over and spring is here. It seems like every year I tell myself that it has been a long winter and this year is no different. It's been a long winter!


We ordered 25 baby chicks from McMurry hatchery. They came in the mail. The lady from the post office called me a 7am Monday morning and said "we have your baby chicks, come and pick them up so you can put them under the lamp to get warm". I was worried that when I opened the box some of them would be dead but they were all alive. We did loose one last night and it was one of the ones that have feathered feet. :o(

We ordered several different breeds, some with feathered feet, some with feathers on top of their head like a top knot. Those ones look like they have a pom pom on their head right now. Most were selected for good egg producers and ones that lay well in the winter months.
My hens are two years old and several of them have stopped laying. Out of 11 hens we are only getting 3 or 4 eggs a day right now.....We ordered 25 this time from the hatchery (because that is the smallest order you can place) so by fall we will have eggs coming out our ears! I will have plenty to sell to my neighbors.

The one with the yellow on top of his head is a pom pom head

We started some plants for the garden inside and used the top of the dog create for a table.

This is working out well because the heat from the heat lamp that keeps the baby chick warm also keeps the plants a little warmer. All of this is in the garage that is also heated and kept at 60 .

My oldest son built these tents over the garden boxes so we can extend our growing season. This is working very well, I can't believe how warm the soil is inside the boxes.

These cupcakes look kinda springy don't they?

Portia had a spring birthday, # 11

Signs of Spring And a totally random day The snow has melted all but for a few small patches. The ground has thawed out and is trying to dry up a bit. But we are supposed to have stormy weather the rest of this month. grrrrr I'm so ready for warm dry weather. Sooooo much to do! But yesterday my husband got three of the horses runs cleaned out with his bobcat, he also cleaned out their water tanks. We now have a huge pile of manure and shavings from the horses stalls for composting.....I really have to dig in my heels to keep my husband from hauling this away......Still struggling to get him on board with the use of compost. We do create quite a lot with 6 horses that live in stalls with runs all winter and only go out for turn out time to run and buck a few times a week in the winter months. I know this looks like a lot of compost.

This is the compost pile from last year. This has composted over the winter and we will now be able to use it in the new garden expansion. We will mix this with a load or two of good top soil.

My mother and dad come and get some every year to put in their garden and flower beds.

My mother calls this stuff "Gold". She had really bed soil that was heavy clay but after a few years of mixing in our composted manure/shavings it is very nice soil that contains a lot of organic matter.

I love it when my horses runs are all cleaned out and they don't have to clop around in a big mess and when all the moss is cleaned out of their water tanks and their water is fresh and clean. We try to keep them clean but in the winter this is a bit of a pain because we have to put in tank heaters to keep the water from freezing so then there are cords that have to be covered to keep them from getting a hold of them and getting shocked. All this then has to be dismantled in order to clean out the tanks then it all has to be put back together. We do it but just not as often in the winter.

I was thrilled to seee that my Swiss chard had survived the winter and is now coming up. The ground in the garden boxes can be worked now and I have several things coming up in the herb box. I cleaned out this box today and was surprised to find that I had left some carrots over winter and they survived too.....I had no idea that they would live through the winter like this........I pulled them all up and washed them then took them out to the barn for horse treats.

The horses love the carrots from the garden!!! They are so much more fragrant and so much sweeter then the ones you buy in the grocery store.

Proverbs 28:19

Cyn, this one is for you! I can soooo relate!!!

One of these things is not like the other.......

last summers garden

March 2011........not quite time to plant yet I guess! :o(

Proverbs 28:19 (New American Standard)

He who tills his land will have plenty of food; But he who follows empty pursuits will have poverty in plenty.

Proverbs 28:19 (The Message)

Work your garden - you'll end up with plenty of food; play and party - you'll end up with an empty plate. LOL

I love The Message translation!! ......I have a parallel bible with The New King James version on one side and The Message on the other side. The Message version cracks me up some times but it definitely sheds a different light on the same bible passage.

I am so ready to get going on my garden , Iv been looking at seed books and making plans as to what to plant. Also making plans to tear out some of the oak brush and plant some raspberries, strawberries and blueberries. I'm really looking forward to this because these will come back every year. We will have berries coming out our ears!

I also found a bush type of cherry tree that will grow in our cold climate ( Gurney's.com) :o).....I was excited about that because we can't grow fruit trees here like apples, peaches, pears ect. Not at this altitude.

Only problem is it is still winter and I won't be able to get my garden in until the end of May.

I am looking into ways to extend our growing season though.

The Secret Garden

We will be having a wedding here this summer for my Niece, Laura.

This gives me a really good excuse to finally get "The Secret Garden" finished.

This is just the beginning I have work a little here and there for years but have never finished the project and it has become totally filled in with weeds. As you can see I have recruited some help (I bribed them with cash). Hey! whatever it takes.

We have tons of weeds to pull and dig. Then flowers to plant. The reason I named this spot the secret garden is because there is a path that goes through the scrub oak and comes out at the other end. When you go in it feels like you are in the forest. It is also near the swing set/play house and the trampoline where the kids play. I think it will make a great place to hide and pretend.

A Happy Place

Sorry this post is a bit like me this week, all over the place. LOL
This is my new happy place.........There are rules here. No winning, gripping, *itching, yelling or complaining. If you are not happy you may not come in to my happy place.

He doesn't look very happy

If you zoom in on this picture you can see he is grinning......:o) I told him about my rule

Hay and water, what else does a goat need?

another goat........this one crys all the time, she is lonely! :o(

Kids love animals!

He worked hard on this project too.

My husband has been very busy with all his spring time honey do's.

He enclosed one of the horse stalls for the baby chickens so the raccoons can't get in and kill them and Rustin enclosed a large barn yard with wire fencing for the new goat and chickens (and who knows what else, will see, (maybe something with long ears?). This is Zoie the goat, she is the newest resident at the barn. The chickens are getting big and now have feathers. When they are a little bigger I will be able to let them out in the new barn yard to scratch and peck all they want. They are fun to watch, one of the chickens got a worm and several others chased it all over trying to get her worm, it was funny! hopefully this fall these 11 chickens will give me lots of eggs.