The Big White Farmhouse

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When our boar, Fred, died last fall, it felt like failure.  My big plans to scale our pork business, keeping a steady production going with two sows, disintegrated in my hands in one miserable week.  I was devastated to lose a beloved animal but I also mourned the loss of what I thought I was meant to do.  The aftermath was disorienting and confusing.

But God works all things for good.  What I thought was disaster is turning out to be an unexpected blessing.

We’re using the next few months to take a break, pay off debt and regroup.  I’ll work on some much overdue home projects.  I’ll have the time to putter around and carefully tend to my garden.  I’ll have the brain space to cultivate the beautiful, not just the functional.  I’ll dream and make plans.  And then we’ll start again, refreshed and ready to provide the healthiest and best-tasting chicken and pork we can.

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

1. A season for everything. // Despite the break from broilers and pigs, we are definitely still beginning our busy season on the farm.  Add in all of the moving parts with the kids’ schooling and activities and work schedules…and it’s a lot!  Thankfully, after years and years of overwhelm, I am finally learning the lesson that to everything there is a season.  The mantra I keep repeating to myself: “Lean in and get enough sleep.”
2. Four pigs off to the butcher. // And our easiest transport yet!  (Compared to our first experience, we’re getting pretty good at this farming thing, ha.)  Processing day is always bittersweet; we are sad to say goodbye but are also so proud of the product we produced.  This is also the first year we offered whole hog options for buyers and I’m hopeful that they love the meat as much as we do.
3. Operation “Keep our eleven hens alive!” begins. // I clearly have been living under a rock.  This week, I mentioned to my husband that I wanted to drop into Tractor Supply and pick up a handful of chicks to round out our hens for the year.  No big deal, right?  I was so wrong.  Apparently, there is a chick shortage.  Even my go-to hatchery in Pennsylvania was completely sold out for the season!  So Operation “Keep our hens alive!” is in full swing around here.  I spent many afternoons filling the barnyard with fresh woodchips and fortifying the fencing from that pesky fox.
4. Another licensed driver in the house! // Two down, four to go.
5. A fun afternoon adventure at a Lego convention. // We took the four youngest to a Lego convention and it turned out to be so fun.  The different models were incredible – plastic pieces can be an art form! – and my littlest boys were very inspired.  We bought a few mini-figures from the vendor area as a memento and they already want to go back when it returns next year.

Frugal Accomplishments //

• got a truck full of free woodchips when our next-door neighbor had a tree removed
• finally planted in a Jiffy seed starting kit that we purchased years ago but have never used (trying pumpkins!)
• shopped the sales on ThredUp for my daughter

This Week in the Liturgical Year //

March 25 was the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord.

Reading //

• It is Not Good to Read (Only) Alone from Nadya Williams at Front Porch Republic // “Reading together with people we love makes a good book even better, more memorable, more enjoyable for much the same reason as a delicious meal consumed with those we love tastes even better.”
• A Poem For Your Saturday from Pleximama
• this quote from The Hidden Power of Kindness:

Although you cannot carry out certain works of charity, your soul is a garden in which you may plant the fairest flowers of loving thoughts.  Especially at prayer, when grace is most ready to assist your efforts, try to weed out all bitter memories, all severe judgments, all suspicions, and all resentful and angry thoughts, and in their stead plant in the rich soil of your soul the noble sentiments of charity.  Carefully cherish and tend these gentle thoughts so that they may thrive and fill your day with their perfume.  Try to fill the whole of this present life with such thoughts, and you will not only do good to those around you, but you will also share in the good that others do. (p.132)

New Additions to The List // 

• The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O’Connor by Jonathan Rogers
• A Prayer Journal by Flannery O’Connor
• The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor
• The Last Hurrah by Edwin O’Connor
• A Declaration of Dependence by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Watching/Listening //

• Uncommon Grace: The Life of Flannery O’Connor on PBS
• Lectures 1-3 of The Wisdom of Fulton Sheen at The Pursuit of Wisdom at Ave Maria University // Finally got to enjoy this after sharing it in this post!

Loving //

• this drawstring bunny bag tutorial // So cute!

from the archives…

WEEK THIRTEEN 2024 // The Holiest Days of the Year

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Last May, I wrote a post about Wendell Berry and his book, Home Economics.  I wrote:

Basically, he’s saying that he’s been wrestling with the development of an argument, using essays written over many years to try to clarify/mold one idea.  Isn’t that such a lost art in our age?  To ruminate on an idea, spinning it around and around, looking at it from all angles.  To read and read some more, listening to other people’s opinions and then weighing that against our original ideas.  To fortify those original ideas or yield to a new and better one.  Does anyone still do that?

After reading that book, I’ve often wondered what my big question would be.  What theme would I hold in my hands and contemplate like that?  And then…

I’ve been writing these weekly reflections on my blog for over a year now.  Some are quite thought out, others are more of the rambling type (sorry about those).  But as I recently browsed through my collection of posts, I started seeing some common themes.  I realized that I had a big question without really knowing it: What does it mean to be human?

I’ve pondered it in relation to technology. I’ve weighed it against the cultural push toward materialism. I’ve investigated life-giving alternatives with useful handcrafts and meaningful work. I’ve meditated on the Creator who made us this way.  My quest is certainly not over and I’ll continue to hold this theme lightly in my hands, turning it this way and that, letting the light shine on each new facet.  I’m excited to see where it leads me next.

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

1. A room makeover for the little boys. // One evening at dinner, I made a comment about moving their beds around.  One thing led to another and they had an entirely new arrangement by bedtime!  I love that we were able to make things feel like new without having to spend any money.
2. Farm projects in full swing. // It’s go time here on the farm and I seem to be adding more and more outdoor tasks to my daily lists.  This week, we had pigs acclimating to the trailer (headed for the butcher soon!), prepped paddocks for others to go onto pasture, worked in the garden, planted peas and made plans for new chicks.  Spring is a wild ride.
3. Crafty perseverance. // I have nothing finished to share for Make Stuff March, just slow and steady work on existing projects.  This is what I hoped to strengthen in myself during Lent and while it’s been hard not to start something new and exciting, I know this (boring) middle part is where the virtue is found.
4. Postcards! // In an attempt to restart my snail mail habit, I decided to begin with something small: postcards!  I purchased a handful from DalekoUSA and dug out my stash of postcard-specific stamps.  Highly recommend the postcard route if you’re short on time or just want the recipient to know you’re thinking of them.
5. A trip down memory lane. // When we moved into this house almost eight years ago, I started a One Second Everyday project and kept it up for three years.  I just found a bunch of the raw footage from those videos and we spent over an hour watching them.  My kids were probably ages 11-1 and it was so fun to return to that crazy season.  We haven’t laughed that hard in a very long time.

Frugal Accomplishments //

• accidentally tie-dyed a load of kitchen towels when a pen snuck into the wash, but mitigated the damage with Oxyclean
• listed a few things on Pango/Poshmark/ebay
• made banana bread from overripe bananas
• saved $5 off each ticket to a Lego convention after searching for a promo code
• used my homemade compost in the garden (not nearly enough for all of my plants, but I’m insanely excited that I actually made it!)
• sold chicken to friends
• made broth from chicken backs in the freezer

Reading //

• Thou Shalt Not Destroy from Hadden Turner at Over the Field // “We must remember this. We must remind ourselves daily of our high and noble calling: the calling to create, to build, to fashion, and to grow, and then to steward, preserve, maintain and protect what we have made. It will be helpful to remind ourselves when tempted by destructivity that destructiveness, though often the easy and pleasurable option, rarely, if ever, creates value — and almost never results in beauty. And an action without value and devoid of beauty is probably something we ought not to do.”
• Do you remember how life used to feel? Flip phone February: how I downgraded my phone and upgraded my life from Catherine Shannon // This is partially behind a pay wall but the free section will resonate with a lot of people, I’m sure.
• On Kneeling from Heidie Senseman at Dappled Things // “We’re meant to feel strange and wobbly on our knees. We’re meant to reach out for a tether, something upon which to lean. And there in our flailing we find the Christ, the God-man, The One who condescended to meet us in our lowly humanity, The One who comes down even further to meet us in even lower places. Like here upon this kneeler, in humble posture. Of course we’d find Him down here.”  A good example of lex orandi, lex credendi: as we worship, so we believe.
• Why We Need Graveyards from Paul Lauritzen at Commonweal // Thought provoking.

New Additions to The List // 

• The Smile of a Ragpicker: The Life of Satoko Kitahara – Convert and Servant of the Slums of Tokyo by Paul Glynn
• The Eighth Arrow: Odysseus in the Underworld by J. Augustine Wetta

Watching/Listening //

• Lessons 16-21 of the How to Think Like a Thomist: An Introduction to Thomistic Principles from Aquinas 101 at the Thomistic Institute // Done!  This course was excellent.

Loving //

• this interpretation of The Iliad // Reading this to my littlest boys.

from the archives…

WEEK TWELVE 2024 // He Provides