Broken Ground Farm

Sunday morning started with coffee, food, and overalls. It was church day and we got up and got ready for church. Sunshine Girl and Lovey Boy both wore their overalls and were “overall buddies”.

It was good to be in the house of the Lord. Worship went well, I can’t tell you what songs were sung, but Jesus was in the house. It was good to be in his presence with my church family, to worship and pray, and come together as the body of Christ.

As I worshiped, I prayed. So many times we come to God with issues. Issues that are deep rooted and growing up through our surfaces and into our lives. He wants us to come to him. Sometimes we think WE have dealt with the thing. Fear. Worry. Anxiety. Whatever it may be. We think its been handled. Sometimes we just remove things at the surface level. We remove what we can see and think we are all good. As I prayed I asked God to take issues out by the root. I could picture a plant growing and only being cut off at the surface of the dirt. It wouldn’t been seen, but it would still be there and be growing and sending out roots. Sin has to be dealt with at it’s roots. Fear, worry, anxiety, whatever is grabbing us and wrapping roots around our hearts has to be removed from the root up. That’s a God thing. I don’t have to the strength to remove roots on my own. When I try its surface level. I have to let God come in and take hold of the thing and rip it out. It was a beautiful picture that we can see in the physical to show the spiritual. Imagine a blackberry growing up. We don’t want it in our patch of carrots. I take the clippers and lob off the prickly top and throw it into a compost pile. The carrot patch is now clear of the thorns. I feel freedom to move and work around the bed. BUT. I didn’t take it from the root. So underground, not seen, not thought of by me, the roots are there. They are growing and digging deeper ever day. They wrap more into what was supposed to be good soil. They reach out into other areas of the carrot patch and spring up in places that I haven’t had to weed them out of before. The longer I leave the roots, the bigger they grow and the harder they are to pull out and the more damage they cause. I have to dig down and pull hard and they rip out soil and whatever is near it as the pull out. Now put this in the spiritual. If that sin takes hold of my heart, mind, my life it is going to cause issues. If I try to deal with the sin on my own and don’t fully surrender it to God, then it will continue to grow. It will take up my energy, strength, emotions, time, and suck the life out of me. I may not notice it at first because it is a slow process. The action or attitude or thought creeps in, seems real, even justified, and takes root. By the time it is noticed there is serious damage. It is so important to self-check and make sure my heart lines up with the Lord’s, that my thoughts line up with the Lord’s. I want my heart to be good ground and weed free. Sunday was a good and gentle reminder of this. We will reap what we sow, but God is so good that he is willing to take my “weeds” when I surrender them to him. Not that actions, don’t have consequences, but the Lord is faithful to search me, know me, and create that good ground within me.

Psalm 51:10 – Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Church went well. Kids got to watch Little Dogs on the Prairie. Classic. C.N.R. ran that for them while we other teachers worked on curriculum and cleaning up for the fall.

After church we came home, ate lunch, and I had a small nap.

Farm work for Sunday included the normal check on animals and then we moved some dirt. Somehow, I ended up being the only person on our homestead with no shovel. So, I helped moved downed branches so the others could move the dirt. Dirt that we moved went into Lovey Boy’s garden bed. This was just scrap dirt that was piled up when we moved here. We are mixing it into raised beds with compost in order to get ready to plant for the fall. We hope to turn this mound into useful soil.

They were working hard. Yes, Sunshine Girl is in Minnie Mouse boots and Grinch socks.

Here is a tiny toad that C.N.R. scooped up out of the way.

Family drink of water.

We learned that our piggos like to eat poplar leaves and that they are nutritious for them. They also are good for silvopasture. Our goal is to have silvopasture. According to Joel Salatin silvopasture is a “tree dotted grassland”

Found them in a sleep pile. So sweet.

They woke up and Oreo was staring me down. I had to go give her pets. Shortly after this picture she found some briars to chomp down on. That makes me happy.

Sunday night we were able to get C.B. to flop down for belly rubs. This was the first time that he has done this for us. It was so sweet! Just to note, he has nipped C.N.R. twice now. They are cute and sweet, mostly, but they are still livestock animals. C.N.R. wasn’t being rough with him, but he got nipped. Always be aware a cautious.

.This big fella. Let me tell you. He gets his backside in more pictures of mine than I would like to see. Sunday night his backside got him in trouble. He was not paying attention and backed up his sensitive area into the electric fence. Let’s just say the fence works!

By the time we all came inside it was after 20:00. This made a late night by the time we all got clean and settled, but it was a good night and a nice day on the farm.