Josh Garrels

 The new Josh Garrels album came out and I love this guy. I think my friend Andrea was the first to introduce him to my music collection and I have loved it ever since. This cd blows me away. It came at such a great time. The song Farther Along is definitely what I needed yesterday. The words to the song are so good. They are so good in fact I wanted to share them with you. If you want to hear the song go to the link at the bottom and listen. Also on his website you can download the whole album for free right now. Be as blessed as I have been! Create more Garrels fans!

Farther Along

Farther along we’ll know all about it
Farther along we’ll understand why
Cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine
We’ll understand this, all by and by

Tempted and tried, I wondered why
The good man died, the bad man thrives
And Jesus cries because he loves em’ both
We’re all cast-aways in need of ropes
Hangin’ on by the last threads of our hope
In a house of mirrors full of smoke
Confusing illusions I’ve seen

Where did I go wrong, I sang along
To every chorus of the song
That the devil wrote like a piper at the gates
Leading mice and men down to their fates
But some will courageously escape
The seductive voice with a heart of faith
While walkin’ that line back home

So much more to life than we’ve been told
It’s full of beauty that will unfold
And shine like you struck gold my wayward son
That deadweight burden weighs a ton
Go down into the river and let it run
And wash away all the things you’ve done
Forgiveness alright

Chorus

Still I get hard pressed on every side
Between the rock and a compromise
Like the truth and pack of lies fightin’ for my soul
And I’ve got no place left go
Cause I got changed by what I’ve been shown
More glory than the world has known
Keeps me ramblin’ on

Skipping like a calf loosed from its stall
I’m free to love once and for all
And even when I fall I’ll get back up
For the joy that overflows my cup
Heaven filled me with more than enough
Broke down my levee and my bluff
Let the flood wash me

And one day when the sky rolls back on us
Some rejoice and the others fuss
Cause every knee must bow and tongue confess
That the son of god is forever blessed
His is the kingdom, we’re the guests
So put your voice up to the test
Sing Lord, come soon


http://joshgarrels.bandcamp.com/    <--- click to listen to the album and download it!

Shout Out

This is a shout out to an organization I'm kind of obsessed with lately. Check them out. I would love to start something like this.

http://theurbanfarmingguys.com/

First Tilapia!!!

Tonight was an epic night. After a board meeting this morning and doing various other tasks throughout the day, I decided I was in the mood for fish. Karin (produce intern) and I put our heads together and put together a downright delicious meal!

This is the finished product. Sliced tomatoes with olive oil, mozzarella, and basil. Mashed potatoes with rosemary. Green beans with salt. Tilapia.



Now let me explain how I made the tilapia so you can do it too! I first caught 3 fish out of my tank, obviously you can catch fish from your nearest fishing location or the store. I just cut their heads off right behind the side fin and then cut there belly open and cleaned them out. I then took the scales off and put them in cold water until ready to be cooked.

Then I chopped up some lemon balm, basil, and red basil from my hydrobed and mixed them into some butter. I used a stick for 3 fish. Then I put some of the butter right inside the fish and rubbed the outside. I used a cast iron skillet and put it on med high with the butter mixture in the pan. When it was super hot I placed the fish in it to seer it on both sides. I tossed some more basil in and then put it into the oven at 375. I let it bake in there until crispy and done.

Then I chopped up some cut celery and placed the fish on top of that and sprinkled some boxwood basil on top and served! It was so tender and delicious.

Karin and I invited Dolores, a new live-in volunteer from Africa, to eat with us since we had another fish. She ate the bones and everything! Haha. This was new to me. She got us to eat the fins of our fish but that's as far as I was going. She was just crunching away.

Also to drink, Karin made some lemon water with fresh basil leaves in it. So refreshing! There were only 4 things that did not come from the farm and that was salt, butter, olive oil, and the cheese! Impressive eh?

Now go! Make some fish!!!

Transparent

So I had to write this post first thing this morning because I have been having terrible dreams lately and last night was so vivid. Working on this farm and moving here was a huge risk I made. I make very little money and I'm in a constant state of worry that I'm going to have everything paid. Last night I had a dream that I over drafted on my checking account and there was absolutely nothing I could do and the charges kept piling up and up and up. Sometimes this makes me sick to my stomach wondering if I'm going to be able to stay the whole time here. I wanted to be transparent here because some people don't know, and I obviously don't have tons of experience, what it's like to be training for the missions field or be on it and wonder where your support is going to come from. I'm getting ready to embark on fund-raising for Uganda but I'm worried I won't even make it here to be able to fund raise for that to be able to go. I want to trust the Lord to provide but there's always a disconnect between wanting and doing. I think Paul had something to say about this disconnect between wanting and doing. Just pray that I can trust God who owns cattle on a thousand hills. This is really hard for me to write because if you know me, I don't talk about money... ever. So to post this on here is very out of character, but I want you all to share in everything I go through down here, even if it's really tough pride breaking things like this.

Just so this post isn't totally upsetting... This is the underside of the stairs by the door going into the dorm. That's Barry the cat's tail hanging down through the stairs. I got a good laugh at it and thought you would too. 

Matka

I would like to dedicate this post to the only woman I would ever want to be like... my mother or should I say, Momma! Even though I am turning 25 soon I would and do proudly say I am the biggest momma's girl ever. It hasn't always been the easiest life but I wouldn't trade it for anything. What's in the past is in the past and who we are as a family now is so beautiful because it is a family hidden in Christ.

Most people gawk at my family's weird tendency to group together but that's because we just like each other a whole lot! Some people I would say are even jealous that we have a tight knit family.

Anyway... my mom. For a little bit it used to be just me and her. Robin and Rebecca.One of my favorite memories of being little is butterfly kisses. I used to beg my mom to give them to me and made her do it for the longest time. Her eyelashes would tickle my face and I couldn't have been any happier. I also remember just snuggling with my mom. Being a little ball wrapped in her arms with my head resting upon her chest with nothing but the sound of steady flow of breath and the thump of a heartbeat.

Even now as a grown adult when I hug my mom, I then place my ear against her chest, pause for a moment and say yep, you're still alive. Haha. I also always call my mom, Momma. I can't help it. And now, now to me she is something to be admired. And I don't mean admired in the sense that she is all great and wonderful, but in the sense that she is on her knees at the foot of the cross. No greater example can a mother give to her child then that. If I have a problem she pushes me right past herself and straight to Jesus. Pray, she tells me. Pray. She doesn't claim perfection, but the status of a redeemed sinner, proclaiming who Jesus is!

I'm happy that she married my dad. A guy who stayed by my bedside praying and reading scripture while I was extremely sick with malaria. A guy who got up at 5 am to sit and rub my back as I bawled my eyes out from the pain of having two dry sockets after wisdom teeth surgery. A guy who let's me cry on him when I have a broken heart. But this isn't about my dad, it's about mom.

Mom texted me today that there was a sale on carhartts and if I wanted some she would get a pair. I just appreciate the thought she gives me. I have talked to her every day since coming to the farm and wouldn't ever miss one day. Her and dad are the only people I could ever truly fully trust. I can always share if I'm upset here or when I call saying that's it! I'm coming home! I can't take another goat dying! Or I can't take any of the crazy stuff here! She tells me to stick it out and that this is the world. Thanks mom, whew, you stopped me from doing something crazy... again.

Wow, this ended up being really long. People are gonna think I love my mom or something. Can't have that. Haha. They say you can pick your friends, can't pick your family but if I could pick I would still choose my momma. Keep the faith mom. Keep those eyes on Jesus. I LOVE YOU!

All this to say, I think I'm homesick?

By the way, the title of this blog is mother in polish.
Mom texted me this picture when I was having a bad day. Needless to say I felt better afterward. Haha.
Also, prayer for a new season on the farm for me. Kidding season is over and I'm starting the fund raising process to go to Uganda for 3 months to work with a ministry. I know you're gonna pray Andrea! So there you go! And little Abi can pray for my baby goats. Haha.

Picture Update Time!

 So I'm just going to give you pictures and some stories possibly along with them.

This is our kid barn. We had a really bad storm that knocked the wall down to the paddock the steers were on. The storm also destroyed all the bags of goat feed and the steers kindly helped themselves. Haha.

This is a soup/stew thing I made for lunch the other week. It has a lot of different veggies from the garden. It was so so so good! 

One of our classes last week was held at MCC in Waco and was about parasites and fecal testing. There were a bunch of these jars with interesting things in them. We tested a bunch of our goats and our steers. All the goats came back positive for parasites and I treated them all a few days later with dewormer. 

 First leaves of lettuce from my hydrobed!!! Ali and I made huge salads on Monday from what we harvested. It was so satisfying to eat something I grew. Has to be the best feeling ever. 

The aquaculture as of 2 weeks ago. 

The dairy herd has been grazing on our Sorghun Sudan pasture recently. They love it! 

Baby goat time. This little one is the other half of a pair of twin girls. They are the sweetest little girls. Don't be fooled though. She is just trying to get milk from my face. Any time you are around the baby goats they nudge you constantly looking for milk. It's cute but kind of annoying after having it done to you every day. 

 Ok, this on is disgusting. I have this goat who's udder seriously EXPLODED! It burst open one day and cottage cheese type stuff was just pouring out it. We are not really sure what's wrong with her but it was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. This picture was taken a few days later and doesn't even do it justice of what I witnessed. Bleh! 

This is Teagan the turtle. I found him out by my fish tank one day and we kept him for a week or so and then the kids let him escape. It was fun while it lasted. 

This is my new 30 gallon tank! I bought it on craigslist really cheap and I now have tilapia in it. We are going to let the fish do their 'thing' and then we will have baby fishes from the baby delivering stork, because that's how it works, right? Haha. 

A plant is blooming in the hydrobed.

Some things I seeded in the hydrobed. Really exciting to see my artichokes doing so well! 

Bottle feeding.

First time eating a fig! We have a fig tree and they are really good! The texture can get to you some times but over all I approve of figs.

Annali and I made our first batch of mint jelly from mint here on the farm. It was a lot of fun! I love canning! 

Our finished cans of mint jelly.

My homemade peach pie. 

Annali with her jelly. She was obviously overjoyed. Haha.

The Wunder Goat That's Not So Wunderful

So I had a crazy experience within the livestock enterprise this week. I was challenged in so many ways by a little 3 week old baby goat. On Tuesday I went up to the dairy to milk the goats with the new pecan intern Jess. We walked down the road to go herd the goats in and I noticed that all the kids came running over to the fence except for one. It was just laying under the tree not moving. So I threw some some pebbles from the road to see if it would respond to movement around it and nothing. So I dropped my stuff and hopped the fence and by hop I mean almost fell just sliding over it and went over to the goat. Still didn't move. She was laying with all fours in front of her straightened out, labored breathing and a stomach that looked she swallowed a volleyball. I sweep her up in my arms and hand her over to Jess and again "hop" the fence. We rush her up to the dairy where all my medical stuff is. My first instinct is bloat, not me, but the goat. I go to my dry fridge that houses all my medicines and supplies and look for my awesome medical booklet Jess the previous livestock intern wrote me. I should tell you now that there are 3 different Jess's in this story. The book wasn't there! Crap. Now what do I do. I know the remedy for bloat is powered laundry detergent in water but how much! So I called Jess and said I was in a bind and couldn't find the book at it was an emergency because this goat was seriously dying! We talked about the symptoms and she said it had to be bloat. So I dissolved some detergent in water and gave it to the baby with a syringe. She swallowed it well enough but she wasn't moving. She was incapable of standing. As you can see in the photo she was really
pathetic looking. Her stomach was hard and she was having difficulty breathing. An hour later, her stomach seemed to soften but not decrease in size. So I gave her another squirt of laundry soap water. Note that if you happen to find yourself in this situation, do not I repeat do not use liquid soap, it must be the powdered laundry detergent. That's for all you dreamers out there wanting to raise goats. An hour after that there was no change and now David, the farm manager had joined in the great mystery of what was happening with this goat. I was very calm but freaking out on the inside. If you have been keeping up with the blog you might recall another story of a baby goat that dyed in my arms and I had no clue what to do. Well now this kid had similar symptoms!

David looked her over and then Aaron joined in sitting in the grass with me while David ran back to his house to search for some remedies and reasons online, whoops sorry reasons first then remedies. Can't do it the other way! I'm not Quentin Tarantino here. So I'm thinking maybe it's floppy kid disease. Pretty sure, 100 percent that the other kid dyed from it. Only there is one symptom missing, the flop. So I said I think I want to proceed with the treatment for floppy kid, which is baking soda water orally and a shot of penicillin. David didn't really agree with me but said whatever you think you need to do. So I mixed up some baking soda in water and did the same thing as the other liquid except instead of 6 mL, I gave her 15 mL of this stuff. Then loaded up my syringe and gave an intramuscular shot of penicillin. Intramuscular shot is one right into the muscle, opposed to the subcutaneous shot which is right under the skin.

After this I decided it was time to call... Jess M, the livestock intern a few years ago. She is almost a full blown vet tech now and very knowledgeable not only from her time on the farm but from her schooling and experience there. Now I'm super intimidated by the idea of this Jess because I've heard some crazy stories and Jess if you're reading this I'm sorry but I have to be honest here in the best way. This girl had to be the best livestock intern ever! She went above and beyond for every goat. She slept in the dairy during kidding season to catch all the births to reduce CAE in our herd. She got a goat fully recovered from a broken leg once. Anyway, Jess was super helpful and she asked me a ton of questions and we threw around all the possibilities. She walked me through putting a tube down into her stomach to relief some of the pressure. She also suggested I give her some pepto. So I did both these things. Then I checked her temp which was 104 and that is good, meant she was still fighting.

By 9 pm there was nothing more I could do and I called David the farm manager and left a message saying that when he got back to the farm, he could put her down. So I stayed out there til 11 and then finally wrapped her up in a blanket and put her in the warmest and most dry area of the kid barn and left. I was worried sick about her and when I got up in the morning, I knew I would just find a dead goat wrapped in a blanket who suffered all night.

When I got to the barn, she was standing away from the blanket! It was amazing! She was doing so well, still a little weak but she was on the mend. So I continued to give her the penicillin shots to finish her cycle and gave some pepto for her tummy. I put her on an electrolyte solution made of molasses, salt, baking soda and water. We gave it to her in a bottle. For 4 days she was constantly getting better. Then on Saturday she just crashed. She stopped eating and was laying down again not moving except no large belly this time. So I got a bottle of electrolytes in her and some pepto with the help of Annali who was on weekend duty. We left her there and Annali called me in couple hours later saying she found the baby goat dead. What the heck? I felt so good about this one and thought surely we will save on that gets really ill. It's just a total bummer.

So Annali took care of it and farm life moves on once again. I feel better prepared now for next time something happens. I feel comfortable putting a tube down into the stomach now and it wasn't hard at all. I'm getting more and more shots experience. It's good to also have a community that is there for you and shares in experiences like this. I don't have to be bummed alone because Annali is right there with me on this one. We have our joys as well, like baby goat births! I'm still waiting on one last momma to give birth and then kidding season is officially over! We also got a great health inspection last week. Nothing wrong! Well, except for our somatic cell count in our milk. That is an up hill battle but one I'm working hard to get down. I sent in milk samples from all my milkers this week and should have results by Friday so I know who to treat for mastitis and so on. Well, that's it for now. I'll post a more general overview of the past couple weeks after this. Just wanted to get this story out. So until next time.....