Do you know you're a Duck?

So having the homestead has afforded us many opportunities, one of which is rescuing three hens, a rooster, and duck from a local business.  They had been dropped off to fend for themselves in the deep woods.  Now the actual rescue process is whole different blog for a different day - wow, what a story.  But today, I want to share a lesson I learned from our sweet little duck.

She came to us not knowing she was a duck.  She had grown up with these chickens and she acted like a chicken.  She tried to eat like a chicken, sleep like a chicken, take a dust bath like a chicken, even scratch with her web feet like a chicken.  She had no idea she was made for the water.  She didn't look for water.  She never sat longingly with a dreamy look in her eyes wishing for water.  She was just trying to be a chicken.  Yet, you could tell she was frustrated.  She couldn't really be a chicken.

Our goal was to make her realize she was a duck.  It was a slow process.  It was a gradual introduction to water.  First, we just made puddles in the yard for her to find.  She would find them and while the chickens would stand on the edge and just take a sips.  She found she could wade right into the middle and enjoy the puddle.  She would drink the water and splash it in the air.  This led us to making her a small "pond" out of a shallow feeding trough.  Once she found the trough she spent two weeks just circling it.  She never attempted to get in.  She enjoyed playing, drinking, and splashing from the outside.  And then it happened.  Yesterday morning as I opened the barn doors, she ran from the barn and jumped all in into the "pond".  She was amazed.  She realized she was a duck.  She was made for the water.  She spent the next hour splashing, dunking and floating in her "pond".   She is now so content.  So, ready to be a duck.  Now she is the only duck in our chicken world.  But she is an awesome duck.  And she loves the water!!!!

Ok, so do you see it!  The sermon just waiting to seen.

When spend so much of our time trying to fit into a world that we were not created for.  We try to fit in and be like those around us, knowing the entire time that something is not right.  Once we get a taste of the Living Water (Jesus), we just keep going back for more.  Until finally we love the Water so much, we just jump in.  We submerge ourselves in the Living Water.  We fill ourselves with Him.  We can't get enough of Him.  We want to swim in Him, play in Him, rest in Him, float in Him, and cleanse ourselves in Him.   We want the Water to be our reason for living.  Go back and read our ducks story again this time thinking about yourself and how you feel about the Living Water (Jesus).

I am so happy that I found out I am duck!  Jesus the Living Water has made a huge difference in my life.  He longs to be your hope and fulfillment too. All you have to do is jump in!  Trust me the Water is great!

Hold the Goat!

We share our goat milk with Cowboy, the baby goat.  He gets momma all day and he sleeps in a pen by himself at night.  I go out early in the morning and milk, Ms. Charlotte, before Cowboy gets out.  This way everyone gets milk :)

This morning however, Cowboy broke out of his pen before I had finished milking.  So here was the picture in the goat pen this morning.  Ms. Charlotte locked in the milking stand eating her morning grains, me sitting on the milking stool with a baby goat across my lap holding him down with my elbows, while I continued to milk.  Cowboy will not go in the history books as a quiet kid.  Let's add some sound to this whole scene, imagine Cowboy screaming at the top of his lungs.  Seriously folks, he sounds like a real child who is in some sort of danger.  We set for the next 20 minutes - Charlotte eating, me milking and holding (down) the goat, and Cowboy screaming.

See Cowboy didn't seem to understand that if he just rested there for a moment, it wouldn't be long and he could have all the milk he wanted.  He didn't understand that he had the opportunity to just spend some time with the farmer.  Cowboy loves his farmer, I was there when he was born.  I was the first person he saw, the first thing of the outside world to touch him.  I helped him take his first breath.  So, he trust me more than any other person on this earth and I often find he likes to just be near me.  Yet in this moment, he was so overcome with what he didn't have, he couldn't see what he already had.

If you haven't got the sermon for yourself out of this story, let me type it out for you. . .
We have the chance to lay in the lap of God almighty, while He cares for those around us.  Yet, oh so many times, we spend our entire time in His lap crying about the things we can't have.  We have no idea that if we just enjoyed the time in His lap and took in His presence, before too very long we would have our fill of all the thing we need.

Don't worry mom can fix it. . .

Don't worry mom can fix it!

How many times have I heard that coming from another room?  Too many.  My kids think I hide my handyman cape in my back pocket.  They are always coming to me with the most broken saddest looking toys to be fixed.

Recently I asked the youngest, why do you play so hard with your toys?  Why do you push the limit of their usability so aggressively?  And with a twinkle in his eye, he looks at me says, 'cause I know you can fix them!

Wow, are you seeing the sermon here, guys?  How many times do we push ourselves past the limit?  How many times do we teeter on the edge of right and wrong so aggressively, because we rest on the fact God can fix me.

Truth is yes He can.  But you know what, each time I fix a toy it weakens just a bit and it never really looks the same.  Oh yeah, it will go a few more rounds of play; but it could have gone many more had it not been pushed and broken.  If it wasn't weak from all it's fixes and scarred from all the extra stuff it took to put it back together.

How much more useful we could be for God, if we didn't need to keep being fixed.  If we just stopped pushing past the limits. . . If we stayed on the right side, instead of teetering on the edge.  How many more thing could we do, if we weren't weak and scarred from all our fixes.

God,
Thank you for being a God that specializes in fixes.  But please allow me to be the kind of woman, who doesn't use that attribute of you to push my limits.  May I strive to be the vessel you intended me to be.  May I end this life with as few fixes, as possible.

Is your freezer full?

I know I don't blog as often as I like, thing on The Homestead keep me on my toes.  But today I must slow down just a bit to tell a few God stories.

Not to complain, but just to set the backstory - Times are lean on The Homestead these days.  Praise the Lord chicken still sells, just not as fast as it could.  (Those would be Travis' chickens, not mine!)
With that said, know we are a two frig family.  One in the kitchen and one in the laundry room for overflow.  Teenage boys are hard to fill up!  That also means two freezer spaces.  And most times those stay at or to capacity.  We also have a small reach in freezer, that was given to us awhile back that we have stored in the barn because we did not need to use it.  We were making do with what we had.  Well, this week we went dry. . . our inside freezer's went bare.  We like game meat and usually I always have some wild boar or venison in there; or fresh chicken from The Homestead or even grocery store meat I found on sale.  It came down to the last venison roast and we savored each bite.  We knew it wasn't really in the budget to load up on meats - Meat is expensive.  So we thanked God for the meat, we have had and carried on.
Early Friday morning, God told me to go get the reach in the freezer from the barn, clean it up, and plug it in.  I kinda did a double take, ok God, run that by me again.  I can't even fill the freezer space I already have and you want me to do what?  CLEAN IT!!! He said.  So clean it I did.  I carried it in and plugged it up.  As I shut the lid, I said, Ok God, I cleaned it - now you can fill it!  Ten minutes later - no joke folks - ten minutes, Travis texts me and says, someone just asked me if we wanted two coolers full of venison.

I don't know why I marvel at how God works - after all He is God.  I think I marvel most at the fact He choose to be my God.  That He cares enough to fill my freezer.

I, also, can't help but wonder - what would have happened if I hadn't cleaned the freezer?

Bread . . .mmm!!!

A couple of people have asked for my bread recipe.  I thought I would just post it here for easy reference.  Keep in mind - Bread making is an art, not a science.  This is only a base to follow.  Temperatures in your house, humidity, flour type, etc all effect the bread.  Don't give up on first try.  I made bread every week for three months before I got right.  And I still have weeks were it's edible, but not great.  Happy Bread Baking!

               Medlin Homestead Bread

Ingredients

2 Cups of Warm Water

1 1/2 Tablespoons Yeast

Pinch of Sugar

5 1/2 Cups of Bread Flour

3 Cups of Whole Wheat Flour

1 Tablespoon Salt

4 Large Eggs

1/2 Cup Honey, Molasses, Sorghum, or Syrup

2/3 Cups of Oil (Olive, Vegetable, etc.)

Pour 1/2 cup of warm water in small bowl and add yeast and sugar - let set 10 minutes 

Prepare in mixing bowl 1 1/2 cups of bread flour, salt, eggs, oil, remaining 1 1/2 cups of water and your choice of honey, molasses, sorghum, or syrup.  Each of these will give your bread a slightly different taste and color.  ex. Molasses gives you a more rustic tasting darker bread, while honey will give you a sweet light bread.  Mix these ingredients with paddle. 

Switch to dough hook and slowly add remaining flour about a cup at at time.  The dough will begin to form and pull from the sides of the bowl.  Once the bowl is free of dough on the side, allow the dough hook to knead the dough for about 4 minutes.  

Gentle lift dough out of bowl and spray the bowl with non-stick spray.  Drop your dough back in and spray top lightly.  Cover with thin cloth and allow to rise for 2 to 2 1/2 hours in a warm place.  Dough should double in size.  Temperature and time of year will vary your rise time.

After dough has doubled, carefully punch down dough with your fist, cover and let rise for another 1 to 1 1/2 hours, again watching for it to double.

Turn the dough onto a lightly oiled surface. Use dough knife and divide into four equal parts.  Theses will be your loafs.  You may gently shape them how ever you wish.  Once shaped gently drop loaf onto work surface to allow any air bubbles in the bread to escape.

Place in greased baking pans.  Be sure to pinch and tuck the ends so the loaf will rise correctly.  Beat one egg with tablespoon of water and brush on top of loaves.  Allow them to rise for 45 minutes - about an inch over the pan. 

About 20 minutes before baking turn oven on 350 and move rack to middle of oven.  When rise if finished glaze again and sprinkle top if you desire with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, oat flakes, etc.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes and immediately remove from pan and allow to cool on cooling racks.  This is when I rub my crust down with butter.  This is optional.  Slicing is easiest with an electric knife.  Bread can be frozen.  Slice first for easy thawing and double wrap for air tight freezing.  By making four loaves, I find you have a loaf to eat hot out of the oven with butter, a loaf for sandwiches early in the week, a loaf to freeze for later in the week, and a loaf for the neighbors.

Once you get the hang of it you can experiment with folding in lots of the goodies on the final rise, dry fruit and nuts, cinnamon and sugar, garlic and herbs.  This recipe can also be used to make buns just shape and mold before the final rise. 

You might be a mini-farmer . . .

You might be a mini-farmer . . . 

if you wait by the mail box for your seed packets to come.

if you realize the time it takes for highlight dye to sit on your hair, is just enough time to feed and water the animals.

if a horse is your lawn mower and fertilizer.

if you measure time by the sun coming up and down instead of the clock.

if your husband knows to be careful when coming up the driveway, because the chickens or the goats may be free-ranging.

if your children know the breeding habits of your goats and talk about them with strangers.

I am sure I will think of more . . . you may have some too.

A foo-foo dog in a redneck world.

     We have a very small Dachshund Hound, Gracie.  She was given to us many years ago, by a good friend.  She has been with us from our first house, to our big house and now to our country house.  One thing we have learned through all this, She prefers inside to outside most days.  She likes her pillows and tv.  When outside, she becomes so anxious by all the birds and squirrels on the property she almost goes into fits.  Yet, once inside she curls up in her pink princess blanket and enjoys watching our inside day go by.  She seems so out of place, compared to our chickens, goats, and horse.  She is a foo-foo dog in a redneck world.

   Kinda how we are supposed to be as Christians.  King James Version of the Bible says we are to be a peculiar people set apart for His kingdom.  As Christians we should be living a life that is so different from the world, that it doesn't take much for people to say - wow, they are out of place!

     I must admit, I am more of a redneck in a foo-foo world.  But I pray that I keep my eyes fixed on Him and become peculiar and set apart for His Kingdom.

     So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.   Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)

Are you a rooster or a hen?

      After building a coop from scrap material left on our property, I promptly filled it with hens.  I had decided a couple of things after all my research.  One - I didn't want to start with bittys.  I needed my chickens to start out semi-grown and healthy.  After I learned adult chicken care, then we would see about babies.  Two - I didn't want a rooster.  I had done lots of research on the pro's and con's of a  rooster.  I had decided, I could get all the eggs I needed without a rooster.  And my neighbor's would be happy.  So the hen house was filled with two layers, two soon to be layers, and three pullets (teenage chickens).
      Well, my pullets have grown up, they are adult chickens.  Guess what?. . . . I think I have a rooster!  They told me all three where hens, but it looks like a rooster, acts like a rooster, and yet after all my research on rooster telling - I still don't know.  Sounds crazy doesn't it.  One should be able to tell.  Really it's what on the inside that counts, because it's what's on the inside that will or will not produce an egg.  Looks, personality, characteristics, those are all surface thing.  Things that hens and roosters both can show.  But it's those internal things we can't see that determines, if I get eggs or not.

Got me to thinking - One may look "Godly" on the outside, but really it's what on the inside.  It is the condition of the heart that determines, if we bear good fruit or not.  And it is the fact that we bear good fruit that proves the condition of our heart.

This is Caroline.  She is most certainly a hen.  She is a consistent layer of beautiful eggs, and the self appointed keeper of the nest.  She works all day to keep the laying box clean and ready for all to lay eggs.

2/20/13 Update:  Enough time has passed for me to positively verify - I have a rooster!

When a goat won't be a goat. . .

We have a goat - her name is Charlotte Goat #1 (long story).  She has become very dear to us.  And perhaps we have babied her too much.  She came to us to be a supply of milk.  Well just like all mammals, she must first have a baby to produce milk.  This process has proven quite tricky.  After coming to us "with goat", and miscarrying.  Our only option was to find her a companion.  Jehoshaphat Goat #2 came to live on the homestead.  Charlotte was ticked, what was an old goat doing in her pen.  She had no idea she was a goat!  Well here we are two months later and still no baby in process.  Charlotte is completely put out at the idea of living with an old goat.  Jehoshaphat is tired of Charlotte not wanting to be a goat (if you know what I mean).  So, here we are . . . still no milk, but a couple of hilarious old goats.

Did you ever think that maybe we loose perspective of who we are?  God intended us to be a working part of the body of Christ, producing lots of fruit.  Yet somehow, we got it all of whack.  We spend our days scuffling with the very people we were intended to produce fruit with.  And here we are inside the four walls of our church chasing each other; mad because the other is not acting like we think they should.   So busy trying to be something we were not intended to be that no fruit is ever produced.  What would happen if each of us let God take control and we became the part of the body of Christ He intended us to be?  We would have so much fruit, the walls could hold them.  Wait isn't that how it is supposed be . . .

When it rains it pours. . .

Garden should have had it's final plow and potatoes should be in the ground.  But here I sit blogging, because . . . well, when it rains it pours.  

That statement has often been used to explain why we are stuck in a bad situation - life keeps overwhelming us with rain after rain.  We have so many good intentions; yet we find that we are inside huddled up waiting for the rain to stop.  God never intended for the rain, to bring doom and gloom.  It is meant to refresh, quench, and heal a dry and thirsty life.  How have we gotten it so out of whack?  Why do we dread the rain?  Why can we not see that God intended it for our good.  So we could huddle up inside his presence and pause while everything around us covered or even flooded with "healing rain".

Healing rain is coming down
It's coming nearer to this old town
Rich and poor, weak and strong
It's bringing mercy, it won't be long

Healing rain is coming down
It's coming closer to the lost and found
Tears of joy, and tears of shame
Are washed forever in Jesus' name

Healing rain, it comes with fire
So let it fall and take us higher
Healing rain, I'm not afraid
To be washed in Heaven's rain

Lift your heads, let us return
To the mercy seat where time began
And in your eyes, I see the pain
Come soak this dry heart with healing rain

And only You, the Son of man
Can take a leper and let him stand
So lift your hands, they can be held
By someone greater, the great I Am

Healing rain, it comes with fire
So let it fall and take us higher
Healing rain, I'm not afraid
To be washed in Heaven's rain

To be washed in Heaven's rain...

Healing rain is falling down
Healing rain is falling down
I'm not afraid
I'm not afraid...

words by Michael W. Smith

Homesteading Medlin Style

New Homestead = New Blog Address

Over a year ago, God put our priorities in check and rearranged our lives.  We sold our big house in the city and moved to a smaller house in the country.  We left our church of 450 in the city and moved to church of 75 a bit farther out.  We took a step back from the electronic age we all live in and can not avoid (here i am blogging about it) and got rid of cable tv and our kids became unplugged on school days.  We purged and purged and purged some more through all our material possessions.  And found that we really didn't need that much after all.  But most of all we decided that this little family of five (+God) was the most important thing happening right now.  Our God, our marriage, our kids nothing else mattered.  When we lined all that up the rest of this stuff just fell into place.  Why?  God told us too.  How?  Only with His help, it wasn't easy.

So the "Little House in Tomball" becomes the "Little Homestead in Hockley" . . . let's see if I can keep blogging through all this :).