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 2014

Community Singing – June 2014

It’s been a while since we have recorded our Psalms singing from the psalter we use, but this past Lord’s Day/Resurrection Day, we gathered together and recorded the next set of Psalms. As always, it is our prayer that God glorify Himself and that He benefit His Church through these:

Psalms 28A-31G

Previous Psalms singings:

Psalms 1A-12B (minus 4B)

Psalms 4B & 13-18L

Psalms 19A-22E

Psalms 22F-24C

Psalms 25A-27F

Once again, we are eternally grateful to the Lord for His Word, and this opportunity to sing it, and His praises. We thank Him for bringing circumstance in our lives so that the words have much more meaning, and we pray He hears these cries of our hearts, again for His glory and the praise of His name! Amen!

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: Third Chick Hatching of 2014

About a day after the hen from the second batch of chicks went broody, another hen, one of our Game Hen breed I believe, went broody as well, in a garbage can in the barn, if I remember correctly. And so, we moved her into the piano room with a set of eggs under her; and by God’s graces, a day after the other hen hatched out her chicks, this one did too! Nine in all, and eight are still going strong!

Here are a couple of pictures:

Third Batch of Chicks Hatched in 2014
More of the Third Batch of Chicks Hatched in 2014

And below is their video. There was one chick hatched out that was cripple — it couldn’t stand up and would just lay on its side, moving its legs almost swimmingly, trying to stand up. If you got it standing, it would just fall over. I tried working with it, feeding it to try to keep it alive, making a runway for it to try to learn to walk. I called it Tiny, because it was such a small little thing:

Our Little Chick "Tiny's" Walking Trough

And for a while I thought it might get it — it would walk along, eat the food I had laid down in the trough, even preen a few times, and seemed to be getting better with its balance; but in the end, sadly, about a week after hatching, it died.

Still, one thing that was interesting to me was that I would place it in its runway, come back later, and it would have crawled its way out, and slide-crawled itself through the 1-inch chicken wire around the cage area, I assume to try to get to its mommy. This happened at least twice. It was an inspiration in dedication to me, and led me to think and then pray that we strive after the Lord Christ Jesus the same way. May we be able to hide under His wings, and may He maybe grant a sense of that (see these several Psalms references).

Although I wasn’t able to capture those times with Tiny, you can still see it in this video:


We are once again very grateful to the Lord for granting us the continuation of the flock, and we pray He always glorifies Himself through these things, including in His sovereign giving and taking of anything, in accordance with His will.

— David

The Barn – Update II – The Loft – Update I

Recently, my brother Kevin, whom I hadn’t seen in quite some time, graciously offered to take some time off and come out and visit! It’s the first time he’s been this way, and it was very nice to see him!

David with His Brother Kevin When He Visited

He was here for around five days, and during the time, he graciously helped around the farm. With him here, I decided the main project he and I could work on was continuing with the barn loft, which I talked about in this blog post here. And so, since the beams were in place, it was time to start adding the floor.

Given the approximated 10-foot span, and I decided to go with 2×10 joists spaced at 16-inches:

Barn Loft First Floor Joists

Before implementing this phase, based on costs, I decided to use 3/4-inch plywood for the floor with 2×4 blocks, instead of 3/4-inch tongue-in-groove OSB or plywood; and here are the blocks on the back side:

2x4 Blocks Between Joists

And then for the blocking over the second beam, I decided to use full 2×10 blocks for added stability. While this picture shows the joists extended over the beam, we eventually slide the joists back so the blocks and joists would only cover half of the 4 1/2-inch wide beam, so Lord willing when the floor is extended from beam 2 to beam 3, half of the block-joist end covers the other half of the beam:

Full 2x10 Blocks Between Joists Over Second Beam

Since there was going to be some overhang of the plywood because of the horizontal metal purlins of the barn, I added a couple of 2x4s to help support under the plywood that was going to extend over. Quite frankly, I probably didn’t need to do this, or maybe I only needed one 2×4 instead of two:

2x4s Attached to Extend Floor Parallel to the Joist Blocks

And I added one to the joist running parallel to the barn purlins:

2x4 Attached to Extend Floor Parallel to the Joists

Here are the 2×4 blocks to support under the edge of the plywood at four feet. Before we tacked down the floor joists to the beams, we squared the whole section from corner to corner:

2x4 Blocks at Four Foot Spaces to Block for Plywood Sheets

And here is the first piece of plywood in place:

First Plywood Sheet in Place

We then added more floor joists along beams 1 and 2:

More Floor Joists Extending the Floor

And then added more plywood. Now, we need to add more floor joists to be able to continue adding plywood:

Several Plywood Sheets Installed

And here are Kev and I standing on the loft:

David's Brother Kevin and Him Standing on the Barn Loft

We are very thankful to the Lord for granting the resources to be able to make some progress on the barn loft, and we are very grateful to Him for allowing us the time and resources He did for Kev to come and visit!

— David