Farm & Garden – Page 3 – Nancy Tart: Writing for Life

Our Daily Bread

Season of Uncertainty: struggles over finances and worry for me. Learning to trust in daily provision.

September 14, 2018

Our Daily Bread

Have you ever thought about the line in the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread?”

I always believed it meant to trust God for provision.

I never really lived the “daily” part.

Our life is broken into seasons and in this season, there is no weekly or monthly guaranteed income. We work daily. We get paid daily. Of course, we understand that bills are monthly, so we have to save the money we make in order to pay for monthly provisions. For the last few months, when we pray that prayer, I understand the “daily bread” part literally.

Our service work is different than a “regular job” in that we don’t have sick days or PTO to pull from when we’re sick. When I got sick with the mold garbage was a huge cut on our family’s finances. Our income has even changed from what we had a few years ago: From startup to two years ago our business had several streams of “weekly” or “monthly” income from operating, but times change. We could take a day off then and it didn’t come with worrying if rent or electric would get behind over it.

God always provides, though. God makes sure we get enough calls to keep our provisions met (we have been on time for rent & electric in this season). We get blessed in unexpected ways too. Unexpected ways are like this past Sunday when a sister from church gave us two boxes of fruit popsicles – the kids LOVE those things!

Radio preachers always say stuff like, “just give what your family would spend eating out.” It makes me feel so sad. (We do pay $200 a month to help another – plus anything God tells us to give. But that is between God and us.) We don’t eat out. We used to. If I mention a restaurant we’ve tried “the other day,” it was likely over two years ago. I don’t tell other people our financial situation. I don’t like to “bother others” because God does always provide and as long as we have rent, I’m not going to ask anyone for help. Outside of Louis buying a $20 box from the new Bojangles to try it out for a birthday lunch, we haven’t eaten out in ages. We understand that good stewardship in our family right now means spending less than $8 for each dinner meal for all of us – and one item each from the dollar menu still breaks that budget. Honestly, beans and rice (the most common) or spaghetti/zoodles with marinara (2^nd most common) cost $2.80 and $3.30 each, respectively. Most of our family dinners cost us less than $8 a meal. Breakfast (thank you, God, for eggs!) is under $2 and lunch is usually about $4 since we save full meat and good veggies for dinners. Since we make feed money off our chickens and eggs, eggs are practically “free.” We go to a local produce market a mile from us and pick lots of veggies from the $0.50/lb “scratch and dent” box. I like to think I’m pretty good at stretching money.

For us, this season has taught us to depend on God daily. That was very hard for me at first. I am a planner. I am a saver. I am very good at saying “no, that’s not on the list,” and not allowing money to be spent on something I consider unnecessary. But I find it an extreme challenge to not have the full month’s bills sitting in the bank – we used to have six months of bills in the savings account and one in the checking! I hate the uncertainty of depending on God to give us calls every day. I look at our reservations and my stomach churns. There’s usually nothing for me to plan on. Fifty-three stories online and I made zero in August, so I can’t plan on that just yet. I’m so unsure that I’m applying for every job that I can possibly pretend my skill sets fit only to be rejected by everything in the last two years. (Obviously, God doesn’t want me there.) If I get a job, it will be because God wants me there. (Maybe God wants me in this season of uncertainty because He’s teaching me to depend on Him more and worry less?)

Do I love working from home? YES! (I drive when there are calls, wait at home in-between.) Do I love being able to homeschool, write more stories, tend my garden and tiny farm, and be present as my children grow? YES! YES! YES! YES!

What is hard for me is accepting uncertainty.

Frankly, though, life is totally uncertain! A “steady job” is just as uncertain as the “daily bread” season we are in! It only appears more secure.

Only God is truly certain. Why would I want to trust in anything else?

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Additions to the Squad

Welcoming our newest little farm members: the Guinea Pig Triplets!

September 10, 2018

Additions to the Squad

If you’ve read my blogs, you know my oldest three girls saved and bought Guinea Pigs. Each thought she was getting a female, but since Ginger was discovered to be TobyMac, this amazing trio of little animals became a part of our farm. They appear to have new little ones every six months or so. They are now called “the squad.”

Toby and Taylor’s first little angel, whom we called “Sweet Potato,” found a home with some lovely ladies and an animal-loving girl. (Picture is TobyMac & Sweet Potato)

Sunday, we came home to discover that Taylor had done it again! She had birthed triplets!

One is a mottled gray-brown color. This one looks just like a squirrel (she’s not, I promise, we watched Taylor birth her!)

One is multicolor (black, brown, orange, and white), this was the youngest. Jaquline is holding this one.

One is pure tan just like TobyMac.

These beautiful babies haven’t been named just yet as they are brand new and smaller than Sweet Potato was at birth. (Guinea Pigs usually have twins, but their offspring are larger if single and smaller if triplets.) These tiny babies were about 1/10^th of mama’s size. Taylor is a very good mama, and has burrows in the nest for all three of them to hide and snuggle. Baby Guinea Pigs are super curious as soon as all their adult Guinea Pig elders lick and groom them clean. (Even Avery, our second adult female, was helping Toby and Taylor groom these three adorable fluffy balls!)

Now we get the joy and privilege of raising these little animals. Three little Guinea Pigs. Kimberly (Avery’s official owner) plans on saving some money to make another Guinea Pig run and if one of these littles are a male, she’ll keep him for Avery to pair up with. Of course, Jillian has claimed ownership and caretaking of the next one they keep. Kimberly and Jillian are now mapping out money-saving goals to have $80 for materials in six weeks. I see lots of lawn-mowing and car-cleaning in their near future.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Yummy Harvest

Yummy harvest for us, fried treats for our doggies!

August 4, 2018

Yummy Harvest

Primrose (Christina’s 4-year-old Aussie mix) is waiting by the stove while we walk in and out. Nothing is cooking there yet, but she knows this is harvest day, and she knows Rebeccah’s special treat is to fry up livers in butter. Mom likes them, but it started as a treat for the doggies.

Funny how they know. Sheba (our family’s 11-year-old Aussie mix) pretends she’s too old to move and half-wags her tail from her favorite spot in the house – curled up on top of the air vent in the den. She strategically puts herself in the room where most people congregate, next to the shoe shelf so as they are leaving she can shoot them with sad eyes to see if she can guilt anyone into talking her outside. Sheba perks up each time one of the kids comes in the back door, but since no one is carrying the big canning pot yet, she knows it’s still sleeping time.

In I come with the canning pot – Louis has decided to barbecue the chickens, but only three fit on the grill, so the fourth and all the trimmings are in that pot. Usually, all the chickens are in the pot to be dissected, wrapped, and put away. The gizzards and hearts are wrapped and frozen (I’ll fry them next time we have fried chicken). Today’s harvest was tender young chickens and the preferred method of cooking is grilling or baking, whole. So the fourth is wrapped and frozen. This leaves the trimmed skins and livers. The skins are saved for broth (I’ll add the bones and whatever trimmings from the birds being barbecued and simmer with some seasonings, this round should net about 2 to 3 quarts of “concentrated” broth.)

Rebeccah takes control of the livers. Now Sheba and Prim are sitting by the stove, wagging their tails and almost begging. They know that stuff is going in their bowl. Livers don’t freeze well. They are best fresh. The only one in the household who likes liver is Mom (me), but I don’t like to eat a ton of them. So I’ll take a few ounces and leave the rest for the pups.

Finally! Rebeccah is done (it really only takes about three minutes, but looking at the dogs, you’d think they were waiting for years). She rinses the pan in just enough water to make sure all the yummy goop is washed into the dog bowls and splits the contents of the pan between the two dogs. They’ll get all the skins and other meat bits off the bones after I’ve boiled and strained the broth the next day too, but fried livers are their every-two-month treat, and they LOVE it.

Our theory is that Prim realizes the chickens are the liver treat source and therefore protects them jealously from any other animal – but she’s never hurt a chicken because she likes the finished product.

Yummy barbecue for us, yummy treat for our canine protectors.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Watching Growth

From plants to chicks to rising bread: we all grow at a different rate!

June 18, 2018

Watching Growth

Have you ever watched bread dough rise? It takes FOREVER!

Have you ever planted a seed or set out a new plant in your garden? You sometimes don’t see the slow growth – sometimes you don’t notice until, “Oh, wow, there’s a red tomato on that bush!” The plant was watered, de-bugged, and looked after for about 100 days but never really watched.

I planted my elephant ears in spring… now they are taller than me!

Our baby chicks were cute little fluffs of fur, totally dependent on us to keep them safe, feed, and water them. Now, they are nine weeks old. Fully feathered, they look like miniature adults. They don’t need us to pamper them and hide them from the rain or help regulate their body temperature; just some food, water, and a cat-proof shelter is fine.

My oldest daughter is almost considered by the state to be old enough to command a 1-ton vehicle! I still see her as the tiny bundled angel in the picture on my wall. Of course, I literally see that she’s grown. Sometimes she doesn’t see it.

Sometimes I don’t see my own growth.

God is always working on us. Since none of us are dead, we are still improving. Sometimes we get frustrated at ourselves because we don’t see any growth. Maybe instead of imagining ourselves as rising bread, we should think of ourselves as growing plants. Maybe not elephant ears – okay, sometimes we do grow quickly. But with some things we are like the White Cedar (growing about 6 inches per year) or the Saguaro cactus (gets only one to two inches tall in the first 10 years!)

Sometimes slow growth is hard to see.

A wise man plants trees under whose shade he will never sit.

Wow, that thought says to me that those who choose to invest in long-term growth are wise. So rather than expect instant results when I’m allowing God to work on my life, I understand that sometimes tiny steps in the right direction eventually lead to the finished product. I will choose not to be frustrated with myself for not being a fast enough learner; I will choose to rest in His care and allow time for growth.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

The Bossy Hen

Chickens can be very entertaining!

July 16, 2018

The “Bossy” Hen

Chickens all have their own personalities, but like humans, they tend to fall in categories. Today, we’ll discuss the bossy chicken.

This is the hen who thinks her feathers are better than everyone else’s. (That’s because she doesn’t see the white spots on the top of her head or the drooping rump feathers!)

She has the loudest cackle in the yard announcing when she laid an egg. (Her screaming can be heard over ten miles away and the other hens wish they had fingers to plug their ears!) She is absolutely sure that the most beautiful chicks in the nursery pen are hers, and will argue this point by pecking the other hens mercilessly.

She is the first at the water trough (unless Rex, the king rooster, is there) and shoos the other hens away from the fresh scraps tossed in the yard. (Of course, Rex doesn’t like a hen bossing his other hens around, so he will crow loudly, puff his feathers, and announce his dominance.)

Sometimes bossy hens will actually steal eggs from other hens and roll them into her nest!

They are fun to watch – and discuss.

One such hen is our Pearl. She is an old White Rock who seems jealous because she doesn’t lay eggs anymore so she swipes everyone else’s eggs and sits on them, cackling as if she just laid them! We keep her because she’s laid lots of eggs in her 4 years and she’s a pretty addition to our flock.

Another bossy hen is one of our Plymouth Barred Rocks, White-Head (so named because she has whiter feathers on her head than most females of her breed). She thinks all scraps are hers! She will chase every younger pullet away from the feeder too. If one of the roosters, especially Red, her favorite, goes after a younger pullet, she will act all fluffy (chickens fluff out their feathers to “fight”) and try to chase the younger pullet away! The roosters do not like this! White-Head lays 6 eggs every week and is an “Irma chick;” only about 8 months old. She just graduated from “pullet” to “hen!”

There’s plenty of entertainment “hen-watching” in my backyard!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Guinea Pig “Toddler”

June 30, 2018

Guinea Pig “Toddler”

Since we had a baby Guinea Pig (Sweet Potato) born on the fourth of June, we’ve been studying Guinea Pig growth.

Oh my, do they grow fast!

Not only do these amazing animal moms deliver live babies with a full coat, open eyes, claws, and teeth, but the baby is about 20% of the mom’s size. (About 10% to 15% of her weight though.)

Sweet Potato’s mom is Taylor (Picture is mom & baby)

Her dad is TobyMac (Picture is dad & baby)

At 22 days old, Sweet Potato learned how to go down the ladder from the hutch where she was born to the ground to graze on grass (Guinea Pigs are better tractors than chickens! They graze grass down to about ½” tall and then squeal because they want more!). The girls have now stopped calling her a “baby” and claim she’s a “toddler” Guinea Pig.

The girls have been loving on Sweet Potato since she was born. They snuggle with and coddle all three adults, but Sweet Potato is the sweetest. She knows how to tickle!

One day soon, Sweet Potato will find a lifetime home, but for now, the girls love “raising” her so she will keep being sweet and friendly!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Red n Rex Company

June 28, 2018

Red n Rex Company

So I just discovered the name of our chicken flock: Red n Rex Company

This is Red (Rhode Island Red Rooster)

This is Rex (Plymouth Barred Rock Rooster)

And this is Company (all the other hens, but all the colorful ones like our Buff Orpingtons, Pheonix, and an Easter Egger are not in this picture).

Red is a newcomer who has claimed Prissy and the red hens as his. Rex didn’t like that, but we love it because Red will make full blooded Rhode Island Red babies!

These are some of Rex’s baby brood, notice the full-blooded Plymouth Barred Rocks. Next batch will have some of Red’s full-blooded Rhode Island Reds!

A cock-fight (the two roosters stare at each other and fluff up their feathers until one backs down) erupts.

Red is the dark side. (He’s red)

Rex is the light side. (He’s got some bluish feathers)

I’m listening to the girls narrate Jedi battles as they watch the roosters negotiate over hens.

I am inspired by their vivid imaginations. And, yes, we are a nerdy family… who else sees lightsaber battles when roosters are doing the wing thing?

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Houdini Hot Wings

June 26, 2018

Houdini Hot Wings

“Mom, he’s out again!”

The most idiotic of all chickens is this Buff Orpington cockerel who hates the safety of his pen. I mean, what is it with this bird?

He has food, water, playmates, and protection from things that would pick their teeth with his toenails! Like the hawk flying overhead, licking his chops (no, hawks can’t lick their chops, but still). Okay, so the big Plymouth Barred Rock rooster can manage – he’s five times bigger than the hawks. But little Houdini (no, his real name is “buffalo” like the hot wings) thinks his half-a-pound scrawniness is a match for the 1-pound hawk. He struts around the yard squawking, “I’m free, come get me!”

Seriously!

The girls race outside, skipping with glee. They love chasing the escapee teenage chickens. Future-hot-wings squawks in horror. Yes, bird, you should have stayed in your protected yard with all your friends!

“Come on, we don’t want the hawks to eat you!” Yells Jillian.

“No, you’re our dinner in a few weeks!” Kimberly reminds him.

(If this is supposed to reassure him, it’s not helping.)

Jaquline finally grabs him, “his feathers are pretty, maybe someone will buy him to raise before we eat him.”

“Why?” Kimberly asks.

“Because then we don’t have to chase him all day anymore.” Jaquline replies, dumping said bird back in the pen with the others, “if we wait for him to get fat, he will start getting on my nerves.”

10 more weeks of chasing this escapee? I certainly hope not. Maybe the hawk gets him tomorrow – or someone chooses him as a 4H rooster. Whatever happens to Houdini Hot Wings, he’ll forever be a character in the Long Tail books!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Welcome Sweet Potato

June 8, 2018

Welcome, Sweet Potato

The girls started a new project: guinea pigs. Christina saved and bought a female from the pet store. Rebeccah and Kimberly “rehomed” two females whose family was going overseas.

We built a big cage for them to graze and roam in. (Guinea pigs hop like bunnies when they are really happy!) Well, “Ginger” was really “TobyMac.” Since all three of these animals were happily living in one cage together – Taylor surprised us with “Sweet Potato.”

(Now, the girls know for sure how to sex guinea pigs from birth so they won’t be fooled by a salewoman again.)

Now their guinea pig project has become hand raising babies to sell. They are gorgeous! Baby guinea pigs are born with open eyes, full fur, claws, and teeth! They are about 20% of the adult’s size but 10% of the weight (they are skinny, long things).

Sweet Potato stretches to look half her mom’s size, but when she curls up in a cute little ball, she’s so tiny – about the size of a ping-pong ball. By weight, she’s only 10% of mom’s size. Baby guinea pigs grow super fast. Between three and six weeks, they are independent. They actually start trying to graze the first day! About 3 months, they are adult size! Males get bigger than females. However, TobyMac is only 4 months old so he is still smaller than the over 1 year old girls, Taylor and Avery.

The girls are super excited to “spoil” Sweet Potato for a few weeks so another family gets a loving, cuddly, super sweet little pet!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Crafting Cages

June 5, 2018

Crafting Cages

Last month we built two big mobile cages for our livestock

One is for the “teenager” chickens (those between just feathered and adult, about 6 weeks to 24 weeks). Rebeccah bought the clearance Buff Orpington straight run (mixed males and females) from Tractor Supply at the end of their chick days and they are now a little over 12 weeks old – time for selling the males before we eat them at 24 weeks!

The other was for Rebeccah, Kimberly, and Christina’s newest project: Guinea Pigs. They had one named Jack, who, just like his namesake, was adept at getting out of cages (starting with a two-day excursion on the day she brought him home!). On one of his excursions, he decided to disappear into the wild for good (I think he’d heard some Wild Kratts: free and in the wild!).

But TobyMac stayed with his two girls, Taylor and Avery.

The bright orange is TobyMac and the pretty one below is Avery. Taylor is camera shy.

Shop day had us designing and building the cages. They are night-time predator proof and easy to move. We discovered that Guinea Pigs are a perfect lawn mower: one day and they graze the grass to ½ inch height. (Formula = 3 adult pigs to 32 square feet of grass.)

Kimberly and Jaquline using the portable drill to make pilot holes and drive screws.

Rebeccah tacking on the chicken wire.

Notice the painted guinea pig on the door when it’s open.

Even Lucas was helping! He painted, held screws, fetched tools, and helped measure boards to cut.

The best drill ever! Plus wire cutters for the chicken wire.

Three different lengths of screws and our poultry staples

We precut all of the lumber for the second cage!

The girls learned and practiced using power tools, critical thinking (this looked good on paper, but in reality it will cause this problem, how can we fix it?), planning, budgeting (looking prices up online and estimating our actual cost before we went), and applying this knowledge in a practical way to create a final product. We painted the walls to help keep them from rotting, but Rebeccah, who is never satisfied with leaving something plain and functional, turned them into a work of bi-colored art. (I only had white, so she had to mix dyes to get another color!)

Although this was a “day off” from school, the girls learned and used various practical skills and developed two products for our family livestock. They had a blast! They learned a lot. They had a very successful and memorable day creating and a huge surge of pride when they look out there now – something they made is being used everyday by cute little animals!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Category: Farm & Garden

Our Daily Bread

Like this:

Additions to the Squad

Like this:

Yummy Harvest

Like this:

Watching Growth

Like this:

The Bossy Hen

Like this:

Guinea Pig “Toddler”

Like this:

Red n Rex Company

Like this:

Houdini Hot Wings

Like this:

Welcome Sweet Potato

Like this:

Crafting Cages

Like this:

If you liked it, please share!

Like this:

If you liked it, please share!

Like this:

If you liked it, please share!

Like this:

If you liked it, please share!

Like this:

If you liked it, please share!

Like this:

If you liked it, please share!

Like this:

If you liked it, please share!

Like this:

If you liked it, please share!

Like this:

If you liked it, please share!

Like this:

If you liked it, please share!

Like this: