Make Learning a Constant

Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance

Proverbs 1:5

This past week has proven that 2021 is not going to start out much better than 2020 did.  Here at the farm we are always interacting with people and making friends, sometimes those friends become family and others are always family.  Well in one day we had tragedy strike two of our family friends leaving us feeling emotionally and mentally exhausted that day.  My godmother lost her father, who so happens to be another farmer here in our small county so that was a big shock and then we had a close neighbor lose her house in a devastating fire.  She was also severely injured but managed to get three dogs out.  We decided to bring the dogs to the farm and care for them here till other options could be found so we quickly found ourselves caring for three beagles who require a lot of exercise.  They love walks and do well on them, and thankfully we have had people in the community come out and help walk them.  I view all this as a step for learning not just for me but also for my boys.  I want them to learn that helping others is an important part of being a good person and I also want them to find learning fun.  I think that is why I enjoy homeschooling so freely.  We learn in so many different ways and we don't limit ourselves to just text books.  Not only are they learning to be caring and decent men through helping others, but they are also watching us learn in different ways.  

My husband loves to be frugal and look at ways to use what we have here at the farm to make things better to suit our needs.  We have hopes to grow greens year round in our high tunnel in the coming year, but first we needed to look at ways to create some sort of heat source.  We installed a wood burning stove, however found that it was not putting off enough heat and we had some things get frozen when we tried to grow them so, he did some research and decided to utilize compost heat.  He watched YouTube videos, read others articles, and he started designing his own set up.  I have the philosophy that you can ask ten different farmers the same question and get ten different answers, but its all in how you apply those ten answers to your needs that makes the right answer.  So here we are filling up two compost bins in the high tunnel with some piping and fans to blow out the heat that is created to help keep our plants warm so that we may be able to create a space to raise fresh items year round.  This is an exciting concept for us and although the high tunnel is not huge, it offers enough space for our needs and for the desires of our consumers.  Sometimes learning doesn't always have to be done in a classroom but it can be done right in the space you have already created! I am excited to see if this new venture that my husband has created will work as we plan because the cool part is we can then look at selling compost to others for their gardens! A farm has so much potential to be an awesome business and grow in diversity! It's all in how you move forward and desire to learn and grow.  

I am excited you are joining me on this journey as we learn and grow our family farm into something for the next generation and the next.  I hope to continue to build a passion for farming and learning in my boys and I hope they watch how things either succeed or fail and learn from those experiences.   I can't wait to update you as we are starting to monitor the temperatures and the heat.  

In the meantime please pray for our friend who was injured in the house fire as she has a long road ahead of her and for the doctors and nurses to help her heal through the grafting procedures.  Also pray for my Godmother and her family as they take on this new life of farming without her dad/grandpa.  We just traveled down that road over this past year and so we know from experience that it is a hard road to travel without that wisdom there.  

As Always We are Farming with Faith and Family! 

God Bless, 

Amanda