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A Trail of Dreams Blazing Forward

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Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 One thing I have learned from a young age and as a farmer is that death is a fact of life.  Is it hard to grieve a person?  Absolutely! We miss people terribly when they are no longer with us but as a farmer that also goes for the animals too.  Oftentimes the passing of the animals is hard also, but one thing I was never prepared for was the loss of a really close friend.   It has been months since she left us here on earth but yet the desire to want to call or text her is still there.  Especially to tell her all the horse stuff, ask her questions, or just get that encouragement once again.  Then there is trips that I have gone on recently to do st...
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Is the Farmer's Faith as Strong as A Mustard Seed

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  “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.   Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches. Matthew 13: 31-32  I had recently planted a round of microgreens and for the first three to four days they remain in the dark all covered up.  While I was checking them to see if additional water was needed on day two I noticed how the mustard seeds were the first to germinate and were already the strongest.  I instantly started thinking about the parable of the mustard seed and how in Matthew 17:20 Jesus tells us that if we have the faith of a mustard seed we can move mountains.   It made me wonder why did he reference a mustard seed?  I know of seeds that are smaller than the mustard seed now in this modern day but then again those smaller seeds do not produce at the same level as t...
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Long Days Lead to Strong Faith

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 "But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded."   2 Chronicles 15:7 Over the last seven weeks things have been a little crazy here on the farm.  We have gone through lambing season, we took our idea and ran with the lamb snuggling, and we started our maple syrup.  What did this idea of lamb snuggling do for the farm?  Over the course of the seven weekends, we had over 300 visitors to the farm.  Some people drove from faraway while others were local.  Either way, the support, the purchases, and the people hearing our story was incredible.  It goes to show that sometimes an idea can help a farm thrive.  In all honesty though, this venture of farming is not always easy.  There are times that it just seems like quitting or giving up would be a good idea.  Or maybe just going back to a small little hobby farm, but when we look at the way the world is turning, we know deep down that people will need t...
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Plant Your "Idea"

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Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don't know if profit will come from one activity or another - or maybe both.  Ecclesiastes11:6  Have you ever had those moments where an idea just hits you and you aren't sure about it?  It's almost like those are times you just need to let it grow and give yourself time to really think about it, how it can work, and what you can do with it.   That's what happened here recently.  We had visited the PA Farm Show and while we were all just a little unsure of the crowd that day we did take away many different things.  We had seen a sign for goat snuggling and thought about checking it out.  We even headed for the line, till we realized it was extremely long.  It was a bummer we couldn't experience it but we knew that we had baby lambs at home that needed our attention and snuggles and well we figured we were in a much better place to get snuggles than others in that line.  ...
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A Tree for the Generations

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  For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.  Psalm 100:5   We know as humans that everything can not stay around forever, but sometimes you just want it to.  The picture is the last sunrise that our family saw come between the branches of that Maple Tree.  It might not have been "the Maple tree" the farm was named after but it was one of them.   Growing up the yard was full of trees, and there was just this one giant tree in the center.  That one was so big that unfortunately it only lived to be about 85 years old may be a few years older, but it was long gone years ago.  This tree was the last of the original maple trees.  The one that withstood 6 generations on the farm.  The one that we taught people about Maple Syrup on and of course the one people knew they were at the farm by.   However, time has once again stolen just another piece of the original farm and the...
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Time is the Inevitable Thief

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  There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.  Ecclesiastes  3:1  As we got ready to ring in the New Year, a song kept coming to mind, The Hymn of Promise, and it is seriously my favorite hymn.  It is a song that makes me remember my grandpa and just the start of a new beginning.  If you haven't heard it, you can find it on YouTube or any other place to find hymns but it always has me thinking about how there is a season for everything.  Now as farmers we realize that the seasons are very important to what we do.  Those seasons are valuable to us, but one thing I realized the other day as I was looking back on all things 2022 for the farm, is this past year went way too fast!  Honestly, where did 2022 go?  I went back through all my blog posts and I didn't get to write anything beyond April! Yet so much happened, there could have been some great posts, even better ways to tell our farm story and ye...
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  Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:10 These past few weeks have been a whirl wind, and maybe it is because literally the weather is whirl wind?  I don't really know but I am certain that things are going to finally start turning to spring soon! Today, I wanted to address something that I find in my daily life is to be so very important, the need to be a volunteer, the need to give back to others, the need to just be involved in our community.  Being that person giving back to others is rewarding and we need to highlight this aspect because right now, volunteering is a struggle and I understand that.   If you are new to the blog, let me first give you a quick run down on my life here at the farm.  Many years ago the Lord spoke to me and told me that I was going to use our farm to help people.  How I wasn't sure at the time, but eventually I knew th...
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