Well folks, I had all intensive plans to tell you all about the fun of butchering chickens and picking apples and all the other fun things that have been going on around here.  The mini version of all that is:  Fall has come upon us quite nicely here at Heritage Farm.  We’ve got loads and loads of apples that we keep bringing in and slowing down all the other things.  We have 5 varieties now available and they are awesome.  Pete doesn’t think that they are quite sweet enough yet for his taste, but I love them. We have Liberty, Freedom, Jonafree, Empires and Golden Delicious.  YUM!   Garden picking is just about concluded; we still have a few things that need gathered.  The restaurant stuff like cabbage, kale, parsley, and hot peppers.  In addition to that we have sweet potatoes that we need to dig and a few minor other things growing, but on the whole we’re just about done.  Pretty soon we’ll do our yearly trip to the Farmer’s Inn.  It’s a restaurant in Sigel (Pete took me to dinner there the night he proposed) and its tradition that the entire farm staff go to dinner there to celebrate the season’s conclusion.  This year we’ll still have a week or two of turkey processing to do after the dinner but it’s all mostly done. 

 

But let me tell you about yesterday…

We needed to catch a pig.  Two pigs actually.  We had told the place in Ridgway that we were bringing them today.  The usual plan is this:  we take the trailer out to the field, put a little feed right in front of the door, and a bigger pile of feed inside the trailer.  The pigs usually head into the trailer (they were very hungry for feed)  and then we slide the door and ta-da its ready to go.  Today it didn’t go exactly as planned.  Pete, Manuel and I drove the tractor/trailer out to the gate in the woods where the pigs were hanging out at the gate waiting for us.  It was muddy, I mean REALLY muddy.  Praise the Lord for Muck boots!  I love them ( I could write an entire post about how much I love them)  The mud was well over my ankle, thick and gloppy.    I had the job of standing at the slider door, ready to slide it shut when the pigs went into the trailer.  The pigs were enjoying the little piles that we had been tossing at them, but they didn’t seem to like the SUPER thick, wet mud that was right behind the trailer.  After about 15 minutes or so, Pete decided to back the trailer back further so that the he was closer to the pigs and over top of the deeper mud.  We also swung open the door of the trailer that doubled the opening for the pigs to go in.  We tossed more feed at them and they enjoyed that, but then they wouldn’t come near the trailer where the rest of the food was.  By now Pete was getting frustrated.  The pigs kept running away and not coming close to the trailer… sometimes one would get close but not go in!  Pete and Manuel decided to use one of the gates to kind of build a trap for them to corral them into the trailer.  We wanted two in this makeshift corral, but only one would come over and eat.  Then he too walked off and went to rummage in the woods some more.  Manuel casually said to Pete, “You were so close to them, you should have just grabbed its tail and we could have dragged it into the trailer.”  Pete thought a moment, and then said yeah, that might work.  So they kind of walked them all back towards the trailer, and got nice and close to them.  Pete then reached out and grabbed the tail of a pig near him.  Oh my goodness.  If you have never heard the ear piercing shrill of a pig, you have much to expierence.  They SCREAMED, and screamed and ran and ran into the woods.  That is, as fast as a 200lb pig can run.  There is one pig that Manuel and Tim have named BBB.  BBB stands for Big Brown Butt.  The pig is HUGE.  He waddles when he walks and in no way can run very fast.  The sight of two young men chasing and grabbing for tails of these huge pigs was absolutely hysterical. After two unsuccessful attempts to grab any pig by this manner, both Manuel and Pete we’re getting kinda frustrated.  Manuel finally said, “Why don’t we both focus on just getting BBB.  He can’t run fast and if we both go after him, we can get him.”   So that became the new plan.  Both were to focus all energy on catching this pig.  By now Tim had arrived and was completely in on the plan to catch a pig by the tail and potentially ride it.  Now there was 4 of us going after this pig.  We all herded them towards the open area.  Then the fun began.  We chased him and Manuel had a good handle on him and Pete was on his way, but BBB got away again before Pete could come help.  In the process of this attempt some of the wire fence came loose.  I went over and started tying it back to where it needed to be.  While I was doing that, the boys tried again to get BBB.  I came back over to find Pete sitting atop the pig, Tim in front and Manuel had him securely by the tail!  We caught him!!  He would sometimes try and get up and try to get away, but he was unsuccessful.  We sent Tim to go to the barn to get some baling twine to tie his legs together so we couldn’t run and couldn’t really kick.  Tim returned and the legs of BBB were tied up securely. It was then decided that I should sit atop the pig so Pete could go get the tractor/trailer over to this side and we could somehow finagle a way to get him into said trailer.  I mounted the huge animal and could feel his breathing as he was calming down from his run through the woods.   Pete brought the trailer over.  There was about 7 feet from where the pig was to the fence and another two feet or so till the trailer.  Now, how do we get this huge animal onto the trailer?  We tried to roll him.  It didn’t work.  He untied his front ties, so we used them to reinforce the back ones.  We tried to “ooch” him, or slowly slide him.  That kind of worked till he would put his front end deep into the dirt so we couldn’t move him.  Ugh.. we were at a loss.  I then thought of the idea to have Pete be in front of BBB, with his feet beneath either shoulder, then have Manuel and Tim and Tim at the rear holdin his hips and “ooching” him towards the wire fence.  This worked very well.  We slid BBB to the fence, then lifted the wires and pushed as hard as we could to get him under the fence.  Finally we had him over by the Trailer.  Pete and Manuel managed to hoist him up onto the trailer.  Just as he was getting on, his back legs broke free. Manuel yelled “he legs are free, shut the door!”  I hurried to shut the huge door as quickly as I could and lock it in place.  Tim let Manuel out the small side door.  The mission was accomplished.  BBB was caught, tied and put on the trailer!  The whole process took over 2 hours, but it was done!  What an adventuresome day!

 

John 15

The True Vine

 ¹ “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;^[a] and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
⁵ “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will^[b] ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. ⁸ By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

Love and Joy Perfected

   
⁹ “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. ¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
¹¹ “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. ¹² This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. ¹⁷ These things I command you, that you love one another.

My pastor spoke on this piece of Scripture on Sunday.  If you actually look at the Greek for the phrase in verse 1, the Greek for “takes away” has many meanings actually, one of which that actually fits better is, gathers up.  Like a vinedresser gathers up the vines off the ground and ties them up so they can become fruitful and not on the ground.  If you look at this piece of scripture and see that if you are producing fruit, that is if you are producing a  group of people that follow Christ, you might at times get pruned.  Pruning is just that, it’s trimming back, and sometimes it isn’t fun and kinda hurts.  Pastor Jesse posed the question that I’ll pose to you, “are you rebuking the pruning shears of God?”  Are you mad and rebuking the times when God might just be pruning you to have you be more fruitful?  Then we look at abiding.  What does it mean to abide?  Abiding means “to remain.”  Abiding looks like this: reading your Bible and thinking on it as much as possible, spending time in prayer for others and your world, and ministering to others around you.  The results of abiding look like this:  1. You will pray!  (pray big prayers) 2. You will bear more fruit 3. Abiding produces life.  The piece of scripture goes into telling about prayers being answered.  Prayers are answered when we’re abiding in Christ, and our hearts are in the place that they need to be.  Pastor Jesse made this statement about praying being answered: “Your prayer will be answered when the most glory will be given to Him and you’re greatest joy will be filled.”  What a thought.  My prayers will be answered when the most glory will given to God and when I will receive the most joy.  Verse twelve thru the end of the chapter talks about loving.  Great love = Great Sacrifice.  There is no greater way to love than to sacrifice.  Think about that, there is no better way to show love for another person, or to love them, than to sacrifice of yourself for them. Wow, that’s a lot to think on.  I’ll leave you with this:  Do what Christ has commanded us to do, love sacrificially. 

 

Really quick little note:  Grapes don’t like too rich of soil, they also like rocks in the soil.  We are compared to vine branches and vines.  Think about this: the Apostle Peter tells us that hard times produce the best stuff in us.  Isn’t that an interesting correlation? 

Heritage Happenings

9/16/11

Hi everybody! We have some exciting news! Last time I wrote I said that Pete and Tara were getting married in October, but the date was moved up and they got married on September 3 in our orchard. It was a beautiful (but cooking hot) day for a wedding!

Pete, the ball of nerves

Giving away the bride (top) and exchanging vows (right)

Salt Cermony: an old Jewish tradition, symbolizing that just as you cannot separate each person's grains of salt from that of the other, so you cannot separate their lives from one another.

                    Husband and wife!                                                             Forever One!

 

The bride and groom with all of their guests! Yep - that's all of them!        

Feeding cake to each other. There wasn't any face-smearing, much to my disappointment! They were much too nice to each other! :)

I decorated their car nicely for them!

When they opened their trunk to stow away their luggage for their honeymoon (to Lake Erie), what did they find, but A HAYBALE! How fitting for a farming couple! Somebody thought they needed to have a Haybale Honeymoon! And no, I didn't do it - honest! Usually such things are my fault, but this time there were other culprits involved... :)

I have another announcement! I started college this fall at Faith Baptist School of Theology in Seneca, PA. I am a "Sacred Music major", or a "Scared Music major", if you pay attention to the typo in our church newsletter! :) School is going very well so far and I'm greatly enjoying it!

ATTENTION: This will be my last post on this blog, though I will be beginning a new one. Tara will now be in charge of the farm blog. She will probably post a lot more frequently than I have been, so you may enjoy following it more than ever! She will do a great job, and since she is new to the farm, she will probably have a unique point of view to present. Click here to visit my new blog, however, if you would like to follow my adventures at school as well.  

God bless!

Anna

PS: Well, as a parting thought on this blog, I’d just like to say that Jesus is more wonderful than anyone or anything else in this world. It blows my mind to think about what He has done for me! Before I was saved, I was a miserable, rotten sinner, so lost and blind that I didn’t even know it. It was as if I lay above the mouth of hell, suspended by nothing but a single strand of a spider web. One car accident, one house fire, or one case of e coli could have snapped that fragile strand, and I would have fell, screaming, into everlasting torment. But instead, Jesus reached down, plucked me off of that strand of spider web, and folded me into His protecting arms forever.

I should have been the one on that cross, paying the penalty for my own sins, but Jesus, the perfect Son of God, died a cruel death in my place, simply out of his overwhelming love and mercy. Then He rose again in power and glory, crushing even death itself under His feet. I am His and He is mine, and there is no one who can pluck me out of His arms. He promises me a home in heaven someday where He will wipe the tears from my eyes and I will live in His presence forever. I can’t wait for the day when I will be able to gaze into my beloved Savior’s eyes and fall at His feet in worship!

              I also have the opportunity to worship and rest in Him while I am here on earth, however, and there is nothing sweeter than a relationship with Jesus Christ. Sure, there are times of difficulty; Christianity is not a bed of roses. In the last couple of posts I talked about tears and sadness, but the fact is, that whether you are saved or not, tears are a fact of life, and Jesus Christ is the only one who can comfort you and turn your tears into joy. I can honestly say that the times of greatest happiness in my life have not been times spent with my friends and family, but in times spent with Jesus. There is an incredible sweetness in His presence that doesn’t compare to anything else you could ever imagine!

            If you have taken nothing else from all of my posts on this blog, then please take this with you: Jesus is worth more than anything else! Are you hanging over the pit of hell, suspended by a single strand of a spider web or are you safe in the arms of Jesus? If you were to die in a car wreck today, where would you spend eternity? Or perhaps you are in Jesus’ arms, but failing to enjoy His presence. Are you ignoring Him and choosing to handle life on your own, or are you spending time with Him, enjoying the sweetness that is found in His presence, and resting in His strength?

            Don’t miss out on Jesus Christ, either now or in eternity, for He is more precious than anything this world has to offer!

 

 

8/17/11

Hello there, folks! Long time no see! Yes, I've been slacking a bit in the blogging department! :)

This is the first week since June that we have not had houseguests and the house feels a bit too quiet! We're so grateful for the beautiful farm and peaceful home that God has given us to welcome them with!

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                           I have an ANNOUNCEMENT to make!!! (A very, very late announcement) My brother Pete got engaged a couple of months ago! He and Tara Fisher will be getting married on October 29, 2011! Tara is a wonderful girl with a vibrant personality who has fallen in love with both Pete and the farm. She comes often to visit and has already become an integral part of the family and farm. I am so excited for them and can't wait until Tara is here all of the time!

We've been painting Pete's house pretty colors to make it a cozy home for Pete and Tara after their wedding. Here are Tara and I, complete with blue paint on our noses, which you may not be able to see in the picture.

One of the benefits of raising our own chickens is that we get to enjoy them ourselves, anytime we want to, without having to think ahead or run to the store! Enjoy the recipe below.

Herb-Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

Serves 4

1 pasture-raised chicken, approximately 4 lbs.

1/2 Tbs. salt

1/2 Tbs. black pepper

1/2 Tbs. dried thyme

1 Tbs. dried oregano

2 Tbs. olive oil

1 clove garlic

 Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Rinse chicken and pat it dry with paper towels. Place all other ingredients in a blender or food processor and purée into a smooth paste. Rub the herb paste all over the chicken, being sure to get underneath as well as on top of the skin. Allow to sit for 2 hours in the refrigerator, or roast immediately, roughly 1 1/2 hours, until the legs are loose, or until the internal temperature of the breast reads 160 F and the internal temperature of the thigh reads 165 to 170 F. Let rest for 10 to 15 minutes before carving. Enjoy!

 

Tim with a giant head of Romaine Lettuce. Whose head is bigger?

Vegetable washing!

We bring a vanload of fresh chicken and vegetables to Pittsburgh every Thursday.

The Farmer's Markets are booming this year! We sell in St. Marys, Ridgway, and Clarion. The tomatoes are beautiful! We eat tomato sandwiches for lunch every day this time of year and absolutely love them!

 

We also now have a FACEBOOK page! Click here to see all of the exciting things that go on around here on a daily basis!

 

'Til next time,Anna

PS:Do you struggle with pride? I have for years, but recently it began to weigh on me like a 100 lb. sack of pig feed. (Believe me – those are heavy!) It seemed like every place I turned I was hearing about how much God hates pride and how important it is to be humble. I think God was trying to get this concept through my thick head, because every word I heard was like an arrow that pierced my heart and weighed me down. I badly wanted to be rid of this burden, so I tried – and tried hard – to humble myself and get rid of my pride, but the harder I tried, the bigger and more terrible it became!

            Two Sundays ago our pastor talked about how everything in our lives is due only to God’s grace and how we must die to pride and give Him the glory He deserves. Talk about conviction! It was a powerful message and I felt like it drove a thousand arrows straight into my heart! God was hounding me about this issue, and I couldn’t escape the pressure. I detested my pride and so badly wanted to get rid of it, but I didn’t know how. I had tried already and found that I was powerless to do it.

             Then in Bible study after the service, guess what took a prominent place in the conversation? Yep, you guessed it: pride! Inside I was wilting and crying out in frustration, “I’ve been trying! Somebody, please just tell me how to get rid of it!” Then during the study one neighbor compared our life to a set of keys. Some people may tell us to just give our keys to God and surrender everything to Him, but this neighbor said that he himself can’t do that. He asks God to come and take those keys from him, because he doesn’t even have the power within himself to give them up. Even repentance and surrender are gifts from God and we can’t make them happen on our own. Wow!

            Well, I went home from that study miserable and about ready to burst, feeling like I was under the weight of a whole house, not just a bag of pig feed. God had brought me to a breaking point and I simply couldn’t stand it anymore. I collapsed on the bathroom floor and sobbed my heart out, crying over and over, “God, I can’t do it! I can’t! I can’t! I can’t! Please come and take these keys - I can’t even give them up on my own! I am nothing, absolutely nothing!” I think that’s what God wanted to hear. He simply wanted me to give up trying on my own and come to Him in brokenness, without anything to offer. He wanted me to acknowledge my own weakness and insufficiency and His power and amazing grace.

            I can’t tell you that I will be a wonderfully humble person from now on, but I can tell you that my God is “able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think.” (Eph. 3:20) I don’t know why I can’t seem to get it through my thick head that I can’t live a holy life on my own, but since that time two weeks ago, God has had to teach me that same lesson over and over again, though none so dramatic as the first. After every time, I stand small in my own eyes, humbled, amazed, and awed at His power, love and grace. I need Him every moment of every day because without Him I am nothing  and can do nothing - absolutely nothing, but He is everything and can do everything – absolutely everything.  

     So what about you?

 

 

 

 

6/8/11

Well, it feels like summer around here, folks! We had a cold, wet, late spring, but it has turned into a warm, wonderful summer, so far! Everything is moving along quite well. I'll just give you little snapshots of everything going on around here. We've planted all sorts of things in the garden and some of them are beginning to pop up out of the ground and flourish!

 

Pete got a little too carried away with his watering one day! Don't worry, I deserved it - I've pulled countless pranks on him! :)

We have an answer to prayer! We have lost our apple crop to frost two years in a row and we were holding our breath this year, but, praise the Lord, it didn't frost and now our little apples are out of the bloom stage and out of danger. Have you ever walked through an orchard with about 80 fruit trees in full bloom? It smells heavenly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our broiler chicken operation is in full swing right now. We generally order about 300 chicks each week and they arrive in the mail... yes I said the mail! Someone from the Post Office gives us our "wake-up call" every Thursday morning and we drive to the Post Office to pick up our noisy boxes. Three hundred chicks in the car on the way home can be deafening! I think the people at the Post Office must be glad to get rid of them! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The chicks are kept in a warm, dry brooder until they are three weeks old, then they spend the remainder of their lives on pasture, eating grass and bugs, and soaking up fresh air and sunshine. Pete moves the pens each day to fresh pasture. Do you want a "Happy Meal"? Get a Pasture-Raised Chicken!  :)

  

I don't know how many of you have ever smelled a freshly cut field of hay, but to me that's what summer smells like and it's wonderful! The non-stop rain this spring was pretty annoying, but at least it made the grass grow fast! Pete has been able to make some hay already and he's planning on making a lot more. Between equipment breakdowns and unpredictable weather, however, hay season always comes with its share of headaches, and this one is no exception! It's worth it, though, once we have a field of finished haybales in store for winter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our herd of cattle is doing quite well and we have nearly 50 head now. Pete moves them every day to fresh pasture using an Intensive Rotational Grazing method. Every day I enjoy watching them - there's not much more beautiful than a herd of contented cattle grazing on beautiful green pastures! Just think of how great the Creator of all of this grandeur must be! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tim loves driving the tractor whenever he gets a chance to!

Pete's girlfriend Tara is here visiting for a few days and she has been helping out with everything! She is a joy to have around and she has been having fun helping out on the farm! She got a kick out of wearing Pete's straw hat! I think she looks pretty good in it, don't you?

'Til next time,

Anna

PS: Do you ever look around at this world and feel overwhelmed at the mess you see? Do you ever feel utterly weary of dealing with your own or other people’s problems? Do you ever long for a time with no more tears and no more pain?

With all honesty, I have had a very happy and carefree life in my almost 18 years. God has blessed me beyond all measure and I never realized how much pain there was in the world until I went to Haiti last November. The intense physical pain I witnessed there opened my eyes to the intense emotional pain all around me right here. It had been easy in Haiti to have compassion for people who were so obviously suffering and dying. Here, however, it is harder to have compassion because emotional pain, though perhaps even more painful, is less obvious than physical pain. I knew that if I wasn’t careful I could stop truly caring about the needs of the people around me right where I am.

So I asked God for compassion … I mean serious compassion! I prayed, “Break my heart with what breaks Yours and let me weep over the things that You weep over.” I wanted to care, I mean really care about other people! I did not want the kind of compassion that would simply cause me to say, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I’ll be praying for you.” … and then promptly walk away and forget all about it. Instead, I wanted the kind of compassion that would drive me to my knees with passionate tears and a broken heart, lifting up these people to God and begging Him to intercede for them. I wanted the kind of compassion that would cause me to give up my very life for them if they needed it.

This may sound silly, considering the fact that I asked for a broken heart, but I didn’t realize how overwhelming it would be! It hurts to care! It’s depressing, in fact! And the pain isn’t even my own! But do you know what? I don’t have to bear this burden alone, and neither do you. Jesus already bore all of the sins and griefs of the world as He hung upon the cross. He bore the very burdens that you and I are carrying today. And then He rose again and conquered death itself!

As long as we live in this world, bad things will happen to good people and bad people alike because we live in a sin-cursed world, but Jesus has won the victory, though for now we see it only in part. He gives His people joy in this life despite our trials and tears, but someday that joy will be made complete. Jesus Himself will wipe every tear from our eyes and there will be no more sadness, no more sickness, and no more pain.

So will I continue to ask for a broken, compassionate heart? Absolutely! It is a good thing; it causes me to cry out to God for others, to give, and to serve. But whether we are carrying our own burdens or the

This is your first news item. With some sample lorem ipsum to take up space below.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Quisque ultrices tincidunt dolor. Praesent nonummy, diam mollis adipiscing sollicitudin, neque eros consectetuer augue, nec iaculis tortor orci sed lacus. Nulla non dolor in purus volutpat suscipit. Nunc sit amet nisi nec eros tincidunt scelerisque. Aliquam rutrum pretium tortor. In laoreet lacinia tortor. Proin eu neque sed mi egestas adipiscing. Fusce velit arcu, aliquam in, hendrerit vitae, porta sed, risus. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Suspendisse ultricies convallis arcu. Mauris sodales auctor ante. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

Mauris vitae lacus ut eros rhoncus varius. Aenean viverra sem nec justo. Proin dui. Aenean enim nulla, rhoncus a, euismod vel, faucibus eget, nunc. Vestibulum pretium, enim at congue mollis, diam nisi auctor augue, quis vestibulum nibh justo non mauris. Aliquam convallis, lacus sit amet viverra ultrices, urna ante blandit nisl, vel blandit tellus nisl at dolor. Praesent ac augue. Aenean vitae nisi a magna fermentum vulputate. In semper tempus ligula. Nam vitae erat.

Praesent vehicula. Integer turpis. Maecenas viverra. Integer orci leo, fermentum vitae, mattis eget, sagittis id, eros. Aliquam erat volutpat. Donec tincidunt gravida tellus. Praesent mollis. Nunc rhoncus enim sit amet dui. Fusce vehicula, odio ac sollicitudin adipiscing, nibh diam pharetra ante, ut tempus nisi metus pellentesque urna. Etiam pulvinar mauris eget enim. Mauris fringilla nibh et turpis. Maecenas lobortis. Mauris vestibulum cursus tellus. Integer eget nisi. Maecenas ligula leo, semper in, lacinia in, interdum id, magna. Ut turpis justo, rhoncus ac, blandit quis, mollis a, lectus. Aenean imperdiet turpis a pede. Maecenas posuere quam sit amet magna porttitor molestie.