Taste and See Family Farm Pt. 1

I promised that I'd do a post about the launching of our new family business: Taste and See Family Farm. ( I drew the image for the logo, and Sarah did all the graphics designing :)
We are doing this business with the Walkers, (our cousins- think the "mysterious Matthew" :P ) as a way to use our land profitably. The vision is to grow produce and flowers to sell at farmers' markets, co-ops, and other venues like that. So we have set out to do just that. Dad hauled loads and loads and loads of cotton tailings from the cotton gin down the road to use as fertilizer in the garden. Then he tilled up around 2 acres of land. Now keep in mind that it is advisable that one adult keep up with 1/2 acre of land, full time. So we have a garden that would keep 4 adults occupied full time. Needless to say, that keeps us on our toes, seeing as we already have a landscape business, and a house to run! :P
The flowers for cutting and selling are down at the Walker's land, and the vegetables are up here with us. But before we could do any sort of "in the ground" planting, though, we had to start seeds inside.
So into channel trays and 512's (meaning a flat with 512 cells) we planted flower seeds, some herbs, and tomatoes and peppers. In our house alone, we had over 4,000 plants. Yes, 4,000.

Euphorbia sprouts :p These can make you go temporarily blind if the juice gets in your eye! :P
Once the plants got their first set of true leaves, we had to transplant them into new flats- 72's. (72 cells per flat) So we'd go along the channel trays and 512's with little skewers and prick out the seedlings, transfer them to the 72's and so on.

This is Leah, Mama, Anna, and I pricking out some seedlings in the dining room.

My hand- see how tiny the seedlings are! They often grow in clumps, and you have to separate them!

We are getting to be prime little Latin scholars, rattling off lists of plant names as if they were the times tables! :P

Stay tuned for Part Two- We'll tell you about the growth and hardening off of all the plants....and how you direct seed flowers about the size of a grain of salt- by hand! :P

Candid Shots- family pictures, large-family style :)

For some people, the most cherished family pictures are the ones that show them to advantage...the ones that capture the adorable moments in the lives of their children, and where everybody has a clean face, clean clothes, and everyone's smiling.

But I love to look at the not-so-good pictures and find the funny, large-family moments therein :) I don't recall a single "this is our family" picture that we would dare send anyone who didn't already love us! ;)

A candid picture of my dear Abby with the garden hose in her mouth...and yes...this is an everyday, and usually multiple-times-a-day
happening :)

Gracie in a wild get-up. This too is merely a sampling of her typical dress-up outfit, and her typical face when she wants us to laugh at her....

The cousins provide plenty of funny shots too- Bekah obviously enjoyed her....whatever it was she had been eating! :P

Umm....I'm pretty sure Benj and Abby just got the news that the South lost the War. :P

I don't always have the most well-behaved subjects when I preside over the tea-table ;)

The little ones took their responsibility to bury the poor lame chick rather "gravely" :P Ahem.
So what do you think? Aren't these more fun that the usual family pictures? :)
~Rachel

"Who I am in God's Eyes" Series: Week 9

Who I am in God's Eyes Week 9

I..............

Have a new name!

Isaiah 62:2, Isaiah 45:4

I hope you all have a great week and remember what this week is all about! :)
-Sarah

Admit it- English is strange :)

Have you ever stopped to wonder at the strange language we speak? It's amazingly complex and unstable. No rule is applied the same way twice, and yet we who have spoke English from our birth, have somehow learned it and make shift with all we know. :P Hey, we've even contributed quite a few geniuses who, despite the handicap of the complexities involved, wrote something amazing. ;)

Lewis Carroll added some words into it....

Dickens used it to write his beloved novels....no problems there! :P

Shakespeare concocted many famous sayings, and will go down in history as the most amazing play-wright ever!

But when you really stop to consider the ins and outs of English, you must admit it is a little ridiculous! :P Hee-hee. So here is a funny essay I came across several years ago, and it still makes me laugh! English, is admittedly, ridiculous, but I love it anyway! :P

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple... English muffins were not invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So, one moose, 2 meese? So shouldn't the plural of choose be cheese?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

In what language do people recite at a play, and play at a recital?

Ship by truck, and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

When a house burns up, it burns down. You fill in a form by filling it out, and an alarm clock goes off by going on.

When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?

And a few more quotes to make you shake your head and laugh...

"If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur." — Doug Larson

"Not only does the English Language borrow words from other languages, it sometimes chases them down dark alleys, hits them over the head, and goes through their pockets." — Eddy Peters

"The quantity of consonants in the English language is constant. If omitted in one place, they turn up in another. When a Bostonian “pahks” his “cah,” the lost r’s migrate southwest, causing a Texan to “warsh” his car and invest in “erl wells.”

— Author Unknown

"If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers." — Doug Larson