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!