This is our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life (Hebrews 11:8-10) along the narrow way (Matthew 7:14), even the old paths (Jeremiah 6:16), submitting to the Bible as a light unto both (Psalms 119:105). It is our prayer that these documented moments in our earthly time benefit whom God might choose to edify, but ultimately that God glorifies Himself through them.

Month: June 2013

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Kids of 2013

After putting our does and bucks together in November, so they kid in the spring, the time came, and the Lord graciously granted quite the little kid herd for 2013! And so, we thought we’d introduce you to the group.

Here are our two bucks, Rocky (left) and Shatner (right):

Dairy Goat Bucks Rocky and Shatner

And here are some sights and sounds of the offspring…

In this video, I introduce you around, including how we named some of them:

And I’ll try to name them in each of the pictures, from left to right.

This is Moe I think, I think Albert (there are 3 or 4 that look like him), Vinnie and Choco on the milking stand, either Shirley or Larry under it, Alice, Rosie on top of the front of the milking stand, and Mario and Stoney:

Dairy Goat Kids of 2013

And here’s a little video Sue caught of some of them a-frolicking in the evening:

Here are Winnie I think, and Annie (our two does), Choco, Penny, not sure the two black ones in the back — maybe Finn and Becky, from top to bottom — Louie, Daphne, Velma, and Nicki, and our doe Minnie with Donny (black) and Clyde behind her:

Dairy Goat Kids of 2013 on Hill

And this is Clyde and Penny:

More Dairy Goat Kids on Hill

Marie, with Stoney and Mario:

Dairy Goat Nannies Dairy Goat Kids Kids of 2013

Over to the left, Nellie with Velma and Daphne; Huey, Louie, Winnie our doe, and Dewey; Rosie in front; and our doe, Adeline, right:

Dairy Goat Nannies Dairy Goat Kids Kids of 2013

Our doe Annie; Choco, our doe Pammy, and Vinnie behind her; Rosie (in black); our doe Gracie, with Penny and Nicki; Nellie again, with Daphne and Velma; Winnie again with her three; and Alice way over to the right:

Dairy Goat Nannies Dairy Goat Kids Kids of 2013

Here’s a closer shot of some from the last pic:

Dairy Goat Nannies Dairy Goat Kids Kids of 2013

And another close up:

Dairy Goat Nannies Dairy Goat Kids Kids of 2013

Our doe Betsy, with Finn (left) and Becky (right):

Dairy Goat Nannies Dairy Goat Kids Kids of 2013

And this is our doe Minnie, with Donny (left) and Clyde (right):

Dairy Goat Nannies Dairy Goat Kids Kids of 2013

Thanks for taking the tour! In the end, the Lord granted 21 kids — 13 bucks and 8 does. We are very grateful to God for His graces and mercies in granting these provisions this year; for their safe deliveries (both mother and kids), especially after last year’s difficulties; and the health and safety He’s granted to them all thus far.

Soon, Lord willing, we’ll be able to get back to having goat milk, which we really look forward to!

— David

A House – Update XXII – Great Room Ceiling, Floor Insulation and Some Move In

This past first Wednesday of the month for community work day, the group graciously worked at our place to help continue with some things on the house we’re building. In preparation for being able to install a wood burning stove for the kitchen, we needed to get the ceiling paneling over to that area. As we did when the group helped put up ceiling in the bedroom, I wanted to start in the middle of the house instead of on one side, so that if the side we started on was “off” compared to the other side, we could end up with squaring problems. And so, we needed just enough panels to get from the middle of the house over to where the stove is planned to be. Running them offset by half, I figured two per row would hopefully allow us to keep the next row’s panels fairly square on the previous row’s panels.

And here’s the crew helping do just that:

House Putting Up Great Room Ceiling Panels
House Putting Up More Great Room Ceiling Panels

And here are all of them in place. The stove is planned to go over there on the right near the wall where there aren’t any windows:

House Some Great Room Ceiling Panels in Place

A very long time ago, probably when we bought the wood for the floor, I had bought the floor insulation, and it had been sitting in our barn for years. Recently though, with the roof on, we moved the insulation into the house, and I had started to install it. On this last workday, with the ceiling panels going up fairly quickly, and with the time left over, the men helped continue and finish installing the insulation:

House Floor Installing Insulation

Sue had been in town at one point fairly recently, and I had asked her to stop off at the hardware store to try to find these insulation holder-type things that slide between the joists and apparently help keep up the insulation. I guess the store didn’t have them, and someone there said people often use chicken wire, but that can be expensive for this type of application. Someone else suggested using wood-strip runners, which I thought was a pretty good idea, since we had the left-over 2x6s we were using as braces to twist the porch posts, and so I took them and starting ripping some of them into runners for the insulation. For a 2×6, I found that setting the guide on the rip saw at 23/32s (1/16 past 5/8 + half of the next 16th) worked just about right to evenly rip the board into 7 pieces:

House Floor Installing Insulation Runners

And here’s a picture showing them installed:

House Floor Insulation & Runners in Place

After this work day, thanks to the help, all of the floor insulation is in place, and I only have the runners to finish for the last two sections.

The ladies helped us with some things on workday as well. They helped clean up some of our furniture that’s been in the barn since we moved everything in there, and we were able to move a lot of it into the house.

Here the ladies are helping clean:

House Furniture Cleaning
More House Furniture Cleaning

And here is the wardrobe I had built when we had first moved here now in the bedroom closet:

House Bedroom Closet Wardrobe

Here’s the living room:

House Living Room

And toward the kitchen:

House Living Room Toward the Kitchen

And here are book shelves, where we’ve finally been able to unload many of our books from the tubs we had them in from our move to Texas:

House Library Books in Shelves
More House Library Books in Shelves

And this globe was a nice gift, which we finally get to put up:

House Library Globe

Finally, with the heat of summer already starting, and with our camper getting very hot during those times, with very little ventilation, a few weeks ago, we decided to set up our bed that’s also been in the barn since we moved everything into it. The plan was to be able to position ourselves right in front of the window screens while we slept, so hopefully any breeze would keep us a bit cooler, and thankfully, it has worked pretty well.

The bedspread and other accoutrements we were able to get using gift certificates we had received for our wedding back in 2003! We had been saving them for things for the house, and we’re grateful to be able to finally use them:

House Bedroom Bed Made Up

As always, we are very thankful to the Lord for His continued provisions, and allowing progress on the house. And we thank Him and the folks here for the help and service from this workday to be able to get some of these things done.

Here was a moment of relaxing:

House Workday Fellowship

We pray the Lord glorified Himself during our activities on workday, and that He grants a blessing on the group here for their help, and that He grants us growth in service to Him and each other.

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: First Chicks of 2013

Back in late March, one of our australorp hens went broody, and 3 weeks later, by God’s graces, she hatched out I believe 9 out of 12 eggs (11 were fertilized, but two of the young ones either died pretty quickly or didn’t make it out of the shell), and she raised the others very successfully! She hatched them out originally in our chicken mini-tractor, and then we moved them into the summer kitchen where we had our chicken nursery last year. Finally, just recently, I moved them to the chicken pen. As I mention in the video below, a few of them started getting sick in a day or two after moving them to the pen, and sadly, one died. I started feeding the other two that didn’t look well a little elixir the Lord granted I come up with — using an at least 3cc dropper, fill it with 1/4 cc angrstrom silver, then up to just past 1.5 cc’s with egg yoke, and up to 3 cc’s with goat milk (I did 2 1/2 for these little ones; rinse it down with semi-clean water — and they appear to be doing much better, thanks to God.

And here they are about 6 weeks into it:

First Chicks of 2013

And here’s a little video, that includes the mother hen:

And maybe 12 days ago, another autralorp hen went broody, and here she is in the mini-tractor:

Next Broody Australorp Hen

We are very grateful to the Lord for granting this provision of being able to continue the flock, and we pray they are used for His glory and the benefit of His Church.

— David