Preparations

So there we were in the Georgia mountains, enjoying some of our life and just feeling lonely at the same time.  I was four months pregnant when we moved.  Just when you think you need the most support and family around you, we moved and really had to completely rely on the Lord.  God really used that time to  draw us closer to Him and each other.

Since there wasn't a ton to do at first, I really took a lot of time and researched home birth.  I read about that years ago, and even some friends of my parents had home births and loved it.  My sweet friend Melissa had two home births.  I was there for two of her births and that alone was so helpful to watch some one give birth with no drugs.  My other friend Kelly, who so wanted to be at the birth , had attended home births before.  She had a family emergency and was unable to be there.  Her prayers meant so much during that time.  So, everything I read made so much sense to me.  God brought us a fantastic mid wife.  She is so knowledgeable in so many areas.  All the good food she had me eating, and the smoothies she had me drinking just made me so healthy...so I thought. 

It was kind of scary thinking about home birthing, but my  sweet twin sister Allison was going to be there, and my dear dear friend Melissa was going to be there as well, so I felt very supported and encouraged.  My husband Mike, was very much on board with it and he was such a huge support and encourager as well.  I just love him!!!!

One of the things I had to eat to prepare for the birth was tons of salad!!  The more greens the better!!  I had two huge salads every day.  The kids cut up every vegetable imaginable and I would have that for lunch and dinner.  I found it to be very filling and cleansing.  I really did not gain a lot of weight and my hands and feet never really swelled up like with my other two pregnancies.  Also, Spirulina was a key factor in keeping my bodily functions flowing smoothly.  It also gave me a boost of energy in the a.m.

Another huge blessing was a friend, Tina Farewell sent me at least a dozen books on home birthing.  What a fantastic education I received during that time...spiritually, physically and mentally.  It was such a difficult time in my life, but looking back I would not trade it for the world.    Being together, alone, with just me and my immediate family, along with the Lord was just the time and the strength we needed for the next adventure in our lives...the ALMOST home birth of our little girl Caroline Faith Sarka!!!

I Never Knew

I never knew the County Fair could be so much fun!!  I grew up going to the South Florida Fair.  It is a HUGE event!!!  I used to walk through the exhibits always wondering how people "entered" things into the fair to be judged.  Prizes won.   Well now I know.  Anyone can go to the 4H office and fill out the proper forms to enter something.  Our daughter Jessica who is 14 entered in Peppermint Candy,  Canned green beans,  and a vest and hat that she made in the Sewing Club.  She received 3 first place ribbons and 3rd over all for her hat and vest combo!!!  It was such a surprise to walk into the exhibit hall and view all the entries!!!  Everything looked so delicious and bright and beautiful!  You could tell everyone had put so much hard work into their projects.

Another thing that was new this year was showing goats.  We have 4 goats.  Three males named Petey, Paul, and Two Socks.  One female named Patty.  Patty, was pregnant, so we thought, so we didn't enter her.  But Jessica showed Petey, and two friends showed Two Socks and Paul.  Paul gave his handler the hardest time.  We thought it would be awful once they got into the ring.  But once the competition started, he did just fine, not perfect but just fine.  Jessica actually won a 2nd place ribbon and trophy for showmanship-which is where the handler is judged on how they handle the goat and how well they pay attention to the judge.  Our friend's daughter showed Two Socks who wasn't the easiest to handle, and she received a first place ribbon and trophy for Grand Champion.  Another friend handling Paul did receive a 2nd place ribbon in Market Goat.  So everyone did well and had so much fun being in the barn for hours with all the animals!!!

Caroline, our three year old, had so much fun just playing in the dirt and mud!!!  She was so tired but didn't let that stop her from having a good time.  She even showed Petey, along with another 4 year old, with the help of Jessica, and received a trophy and blue ribbon too!  Our son Dillon decided to help this year and did a dynamite job cleaning up the goats and getting them show ready!!!  On a sad note a cow got loose.  It all seemed like fun with kids chasing him/her around the barn.  Then the cow headed straight for the crowd, down a narrow aisle.  The owner jumped in front of it to stop it, but she got pushed up against the side of the barn trying to stop the cow, got caught under the cow and shattered her knee.  I pray she is well and recovering quickly. 

All in all it was a wonderful experience and we all can't wait til next year to do it all over again!!!

Here's How Our Ventures Turned Out

One of the last posts talked about things going on on our little farm here.  Well it all sounded great in theory, but some things didn't turn out.  The fence turned out great and is working out wonderfully keeping the sheep and goats in a new pasture.  It's cool because they are right by our driveway and we can see them more often instead of being further away down the pasture.

Speaking of goats and sheep: our one female goat, Patty, is pregnant, or should I say was pregnant.  I think she lost the baby.  Her udders should be getting bigger and they are getting smaller.  Her "tummy" is no bigger than the male goats (Paul, Petey and Two Socks).   So I talked to a 4H extension office agent and he was saying the goats won't really miscarry, but the baby will reabsorb back into their bodies.  Interesting.  I haven't seen evidence that she had a miscarriage, but it does seem as if she is getting smaller and not bigger.  Plus I think one of the goats had worms.  Oh joy...

Also, we tried to make grape jelly and guess what...it didn't set.  It sealed from the canner but didn't set.  So we have to do it over.  That's okay.  It will be a good learning experience for us.  It turns out we were looking at two different recipes and I measured incorrectly. 

So there you have it, the short version of a long day in the life at our farm.

Jump 4 Years Ahead

So today August 3rd, 2011 we are attempting a few things:  canning concord graped jelly, canning green beans in a pressure canner, freezing green beans, picking more green beans and cukes from the garden.  We are also attempting quarts and quarts of pickles!!!  We've never canned pickles or grape jelly from juice-which is very easy so I'm told!

Once again, being the city slicker that I am, I've always loved being able to drive two minutes to the grocery store and have so many fresh fruits and veggies and foods available to me.  Attempting to grow and process our own foods has been an extremely difficult challenge for me.  But I think I'm up for it!!

So right now my three year old, Caroline, is helping Jessica my 14 year old snap beans.  Dillon, my 15 year old is working on the fence so we can move the goats to another pasture.  That will be helpful in keeping the pastures trimmed down and poison ivy and briar free; hopefully.  The goats we are told will eat every briar known to man!!

We also have one female goat, named Patty, who is pregnant and about to give birth anyday.  So we might attempt to milk her to make goat cheese!! Yummo!!    But, city girl that I am, milking a goat is going to be very humorous!!!

Another new thing, is hanging laundry on our clothes line.  Some of our friends told us the laundry line is unsightly, but I'm glad we kept it up now for two reasons:  1) it's a very green thing to do, great for the environment, and 2) it is so peaceful being out in the breeze and sun.   Plus, our dryer doesn't work right now, so we are resorting to hanging!!!!!  LOL!!

Well my family and I had a wonderful time that fall, 2007!!!  We were living in the GA mountains, and loved being able to have the windows open and sit out on the front porch and read and read and read...and eat...and read!!!!  We took it really easy with our schooling that year.  There were so many changes with the move and the baby coming we decided to pretty much, just read...and finish our math work books!!!  I believe we also finished 3 of the Ralph Moody books that year!!! 

One of our favorite past times was taking car rides.  We got lost so many times just driving through the mountains and exploring.  We ended up at the top of this mountain once.  We were positive no one lived there, but there at the top was a beautiful log cabin.  I guess these people didn't get much company.  They invited us in right away and showed us around and also let the kids swing on their tree swing.  You don't find friendliness like that in the big city that is for sure!!!!

Another thing we decided to do with Dillon and Jessica was to teach them how to cook.  They learned how to make oatmeal, pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon (actually they knew how to make that already), Roast chicken in the oven with carrots and potatoes, pasta, meat sauce; just to name a few.  It ended up being a huge help after the baby was born.  They loved having the grown up responsibility.  They loved knowing that they were needed to keep our family going.  Especially with me being pregnant, I didn't have the most energy to do all I needed to do!!!  So thankfully they took on the culinary part of our lives with much enthusiasm and it was a huge blessing to Mike and I!!

Back to Our Story

So anyhow, there we were packing.  We had like 2 hours to be out of the house and we had so much junk to pack still.  So many things did not "make the truck".  Thankfully Chris, Dan, and Jerry came by.  They strapped all this stuff to our trailer!  We literally looked like the Beverly Hillbillies!!  It was hilarious.  It was also nice to have a little humor after all the sadness I had been feeling...so much for JOYFUL submission.

Anyway, we stayed the night at the Abell's home.  They saw us off the next morning for our 15 hour trip.  We ended up stayin the night at Cliff and Janann's house.  They had moved to that same area about 2 years before us.  Janann was also pregnant at the time.  My being pregnant caused frequent stops  along the way.  I'm so thankful my family was very patient with me, although I'm sure they were thankful for my Dairy Queen cravings!!!

We set up shop in our new rental home!  The kids (Dillon who was 11 at the time and Jessica who was 10) were thrilled. Everything was exciting for them: the stillness and quiet all around us, seeing so many stars at night, hiking, four wheeling, the thrill of the upcoming Fall season!!!  They loved small town living right away.

Our first Sunday, we tried attending a church not far from us.  On the way we got stuck in "traffic".  They traffic turned out to be the neighbors' cow who had escaped from its pasture and would not budge from the middle of the road.  The traffic also consisted of two whole cars in front of us!! LOL!!  The kids and Mike loved it!  Now that's what I call small town living!!

So What Happened Next????

So what happened next? I'll tell you what happened next...I cried...I cried like a baby wanting my momma!   I was just learning true joyful submission, mind you, I had not arrived and still have a long way to go.

I grew up in Florida.  35 years of everything I knew was there:  family, church, routine, friends, convenience, family, love, laughter, the beach,...did I mention family?  Anyhoo...back to the crying.  I cried, and told my adventerous husband that I would love to stay in Florida, and I would rather stay there.  He kindly told me that it is his hearts desire to go.  How could I say "NO" when he had given me my heart's desire just a couple of years before that.  But that is a story for another post.

Because of his kindness to me, I wanted to reciprocate in a major way.  So, I reluctantly and unenthusiastically said yes.  He put the house on the market that week and with in a month we had a contract!!  I couldn't believe it!!  There were other houses in our neighborhood, nicer, newer, with more updates than ours, but God said it was time to go, much to the dismay and sadness of our families and friends.  There were a few encouragers along the way.  Encouraging Mike to follow his dreams and follow where he felt like the Lord was leading. 

The house sold in June, we went to Georgia to find a place to live. My grandma died in July. My sister had her 4th son in August, and by August 29th 2007 we were on our way to the Georgia mountains.  Oh did I mention that I was 4 months pregnant at the time?  That is a story for another post.