So these past two weeks on the farm were still a lot of work. My back has been bothering me, so my kids have picked up much of the slack. But while I’m trying to take care of myself, my children and I have made several really amazing discoveries and learned some important lessons.
Lessons and Pitchforks?
So my daughter brought me outside on Tuesday and showed me this picture on the left. If you don’t look close it just looks like a tree. But look closely and you’ll see the bottom of a pitchfork! Amazingly the previous owners must have left two pitchforks against those trees, and the trees grew around them! How cool is that?!?
This isn’t the only time something like this has happened. There is a well-documented instance of a tree growing around a bicycle on Vashon Island, Washington. The story says that a young boy Don Puz was gifted a bike because his family had recently lost everything in a house fire. He didn’t like the bike and abandoned it in the crook of a tree branch. The tree grew around an entire bicycle, and at the moment, all you can see is the front handlebar and the back wheel.
Animals 
So this week, I’ve started walking around our 1 1/3 acre pond each day that it isn’t raining. I take our dog Bailey with me so that he has a chance to explore more than just where his tethered leash allows him to go. While he and I were walking around the pond, he discovered a family of mice in a mound of dried grass that we had recently cut. When he stuck his nose in 3-4 mice came running out quickly in different directions. Yes, we still have a mouse problem in our farmhouse. My daughter, however, is highly allergic to cats, so an indoor cat is out of the question. We are considering getting several outdoor cats to combat the mouse population.
But then on Wednesday of this week, I had set my boys to do some weeding around what I’m calling our Potting Shed. It’s not set up as one yet, but that is its intended purpose. But while they were out there weeding the area I specified, they found a bird’s nest with two baby robins which had obviously just hatched and one more that was still an egg!
Trees and Bushes
So on my walk around the pond today, I was paying greater attention to the trees and bushes around the perimeter. As I walked the area, I used an app that has been incredibly helpful on the farm this week. It’s called Plant.net. It’s not a website, so don’t go searching for it, but if you have an android phone, you’ll be able to find it in Google’s App Store. So using the app, I found several things. We have five black 
mulberry trees (on the right), a black raspberry bush (On the left), and two wild rose bushes (lower left). We also found a grapevine in an unexpected place – with grapes on it!
So besides finding two wild rose bushes, I knew we had another rose bush (lower right), which is flowering up nicely right now. We’ve been using our peonies to decorate our table, but soon, we’ll be able to use these roses on our table soon enough.
Sunsets 
Besides enjoying the beautiful plants already on the farm, we also have been enjoying the beautiful Sunsets on the farm, and they have been really beautiful especially over the pond. I love sitting on the back porch or standing at the window and watching the sun as it makes its way down over the horizon.
Lesson About a Fire 
So our boys (one is back from college for the week) were out mowing this last Saturday. We were sitting on the back porch having breakfast with some friends, when our son ran up to us and said that there was a fire in the front yard. Indeed there was. Some grass had gotten caught up under one of the mowers and a spark from the blades caught that dried grass from a previous mowing on fire.
We ended up calling 911 because we couldn’t get it under control quickly ourselves. I was thankful that there was no permanent damage before the fire department got there. But it was quite another indoctrination to country life.
Lessons Small Victories We’ve Had
So I’ve shared some of our struggles on the farm when we moved in. So I wanted to update you on some of the small victories that we had.
Internet
Our internet woes are DONE! We switched from cellphone-based internet to a local WISP provider. We have line-of-sight to the signal. It is greatly improved. We’ve moved the router into our office, and our signal is amazing now!
Mowing Lessons
We’ve got into a better routine with the mowing. Since we’re keeping on top of it, it doesn’t take near the amount of time that it had those first few times that we tried to get it tamed. We were also gifted a larger riding lawnmower with a larger mowing deck, so we can do more in less time.
The Work
While work for me has slowed down a bit because my back has been bothering me, the kids have had to pick up some of the slack. My oldest daughter has been working outside planting and transplanting, watering, and weeding, and loving every minute of it. She told me today, she loves that every day she has dirt under her fingernails. She loves working outside. My other children have also been helping her.
My sons have learned lessons about what it means to weed, and surprisingly, they’ve done a really good job at it. I didn’t expect them to be quite so thorough, but they really have done well. They are also clearing out the moldy hay from the different outbuildings that still had hay in them. Just a couple hours of work a day, but each little bit adds up.
Electricity Woes
Our electricity problems have been fixed! Apparently one of our connections between the road and our house had lost the ground wire. We were able to get it fixed, and now we are no longer having any brown-outs. But we still have two projects that we want to tackle including: putting more outlets in our office. Two plugs – we only have TWO-two plug outlets in our office, and one of them is IN the FLOOR. We also want to update our indoor electrical panel. But both of these are going to wait until we’ve closed on our previous house.
Hot Water
Well after three weeks, we finally have hot water! Because of the setup in the basement, the only thing they could legally put in was a tankless water heater, which with that and the water softener that we required, was rather expensive, but even the Lord took care of that for us! On top of that, we also had to replace the sump pump. So now, we have a working sump pump as well as an emergency pump in case the sump pump gets overwhelmed by heavy rains.
What About You?
What lessons have you learned about preparedness or other life lessons these last two weeks. Share with us in the comments below so that we can all be better prepared.
Together, let’s love, learn, practice, and overcome.
