Making Pickles

There's just nothing quite like seeing someone do something you don't know how to do.  I've read at least a 10 recipes for making pickles, and I even remember vaguely seeing my mom make pickles when I was a kid.  But now that there's cucumbers in the garden begging to be picked, and I actually need to make them up I was feeling a little bit nervous about doing it by myself.

So YouTube came to the rescue again!  Here's the video I watched to learn how to make dill pickles.

I'm nervous, but excited.  My friend, Jenn, is coming over today to help us on the farm, and I think the first thing we'll do today is turn some of our cucumbers into pickles together!  I'll let you know how it goes.

Moving the Old Grass Pile

Yes, that is Hailey showing me how big her muscle is.

This is what I love to see....little girls working hard and building their self-discipline.  I'm also super glad to see that gross grass pile be gone.

Shelby LOVES trying to catch the ducks. This one's name is Enis.

Babies in Our Garden

How our garden grows so far.

William Wallace

The girls with our new pup, William.

We're back!

It's been years since this blog has seen action....but based on the huge DEMAND from everyone we know to "write a book," or "make sure you keep track of all this" I'm bringing the blog back.

So here's today's news and update to catch you up to speed.

I quit my job.  It was a wonderful job that I felt I was good at and brought benefit to, but we were starting to notice that the long hours and high stress level were not resulting in the kind of parenting successes we believed were what God called us to produce.  So after nearly a year of planning and transitioning, my last day at Vision of Hope was May 31, 2013.

My first day as a stay at home mom was June 1, 2013 and what a month it has been so far!

We've spent the past month working in the garden, taking care of our animals, getting a puppy, transitioning to me being in charge of the finances, and simply learning how to be together.  We have accomplished so much, and we have said at least a million times "This is the best summer ever."

Here is a rundown of life on our tiny little homestead farm:

• We bought chickens in February and we've raised them from babies to mature birds.  The roosters have been cock-a-doodle doing for about a week now.  That means eggs are sure to be near!  The kids and I cleaned up an old fenced in section of the yard, and Brian built me a chicken coop out of old pallets.  We have 43 chickens, about 7 of whom are cockerels.  We have a mixture of Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rock, Rhode Island Reds, and Aruacanas.  We also have about 20 straight run, breeder's choice, which are mostly a mixture of Cinnamon Queen Sex Links and Black Australorps.  About half will be butchered and put up in the freezer for winter eating.  We also have 2 White Pekin ducks and one fawn and white Runner duck, none of which will be eaten.  They're Brian's pets, but I do hope they'll produce eggs.
• We also got meat rabbits last fall, and we spent the winter trying to figure out how to breed them well enough to get a little to live.  On May 31, 2013, my last day of work, 7 kits were born to Ethel, our New Zealand rabbit, 4 of which survived.  There are 3 broken and 1 black kit, all of which were just weaned from their mother this week.  Ethel was bred again last week, so she should be having another litter here in about 3 weeks.  The 4 kits she had in May will be butchered in about another month, and they will be used for meat for the dinner table.
• On May 30, Brian picked up two pigs for us to raise to butcher.  He fenced in a smaller part of our barnyard and built them a home out of recycled pallets.  They are getting big.  Their names are Ham and Bacon.  We got sick of them digging up the barnyard so much, so this past weekend Brian and I ringed their noses.  Brian had to wrestle them to the ground, shove their faces through the fence, and I clamped down on their nose with the piercing tool.
• We have wanted goats for a long time, and just recently we found an Oberhasli Alpine Dairy goat farm locally.  They raise only registered goats, and their buck got to an unregistered doe.  We got to buy two little twin girls for a great deal.  I bought one and named her Clementine, and Shelby used her savings to buy the other twin, Penelope.  We're teaching them to walk on a lead, eat at their stations, and hopefully one day we'll breed them and milk them to make cheese for the family.
• We recently picked up our little English Shepherd puppy, William.  We searched for months to find just the right breed for our homestead farm, and he seems to be perfect.  We're so excited to have him!
• Last, but not least, Hailey's cat, Carolina, had kittens on June 3rd.  Not that we need any more cats, but it was cool getting to let the kids watch new born kittens.

Also on our property are 2 huge gardens.  We have lettuce, spinach, zucchini, green beans, pickling cucumbers, dry beans, sunflowers, cantaloupe, watermelon, carrots, radishes, beets, sweet peppers, hot peppers, eggplant, brussel sprouts, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, wheat, and turnips planted.  We are planning to can and freeze a lot for the winter.  Brian built me a little greenhouse this past winter, and I started most of those plants from seed.  

So, things on our little homestead farm are going well so far.  The transition to being home full time is going better than expected.  There have been a couple little bumps along the way, but overall I think this has been an overwhelming success.  There are little adjustments that needs to be made to our daily schedule, and how we have the kids spend their day, but those adjustments won't be hard to make.  The kids are playing a little more video game and watching a little more tv than we would prefer, but we did warn them that this week we're going to be making some adjustments.

I am so thankful to God for the amazing life He has given us.  This is better than we ever dreamed it would be.  We are so grateful, and we are so excited!  God gives good gifts to his children!

Hope for the Hurting Conference

Hello Conference guests!

 

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first conference guest this week.  The staff is busy getting last minute prep squared away.  The VOH girls are anxiously preparing the house.  We are all buzzing around getting ready.

 

We can’t wait to meet every single one of you!  We are confidently praying that God will bless your time with us and that you will go away from the week with new tools and resources in your fight through suffering.

 

In order to make your stay in Lafayette be as productive and beneficial as possible, here are some things to consider.

 

1.       This year’s Hope for the Hurting conference will be held inside the Vision of Hope home on the Faith Ministries campus.  We believe we will be able to serve you very comfortably there.  Please be aware that there are some security policies that we will be asking you to take into consideration.  You will receive more instructions when you check in to the conference.  We thank you in advance for helping our residents pursue their goals of loving and serving God with all their heart by helping us observe these safety precautions.

 

2.       Conference check in begins on Wednesday, July 20 from 5 – 9 pm at Vision of Hope.  The Vision of Hope house is located on the Faith Ministries campus at 5652 Mercy Way Lafayette, IN.  If you are unable to  make it to the early check-in please be sure to check in on Thursday, July 21 by 8 am at the latest.  Because the conference is meeting inside Vision of Hope we ask that every person attending present picture ID at registration.  After the initial check-in your conference badge will serve as your security clearance for entry into the secured home.

 

3.       We are expecting weather that will be quite hot this week.  Heat indices are expected to be in the 100’s with real temps in the upper 90’s.  While the house is comfortable with central air, you may want to dress in layers.

 

4.        There are several events occurring this week, since it is VOH homecoming week, that you may want to take advantage of. 

 

a.       After the race on Saturday evening, the Race for Hope 5K walk / 8K timed run will be occurring on the Faith Ministries campus. This event raises funds for both Vision of Hope and Faith Bible Seminary.  If you’d like to participate you may register at this link.  Registration costs just $20.  All registrants are encouraged to raise as much for their ministry as possible by seeking additional sponsors.  Vision of Hope has the goal of raising at least $30,000.  At this point, with pre-registrations and pre-race donations, over $10,000 has been raised.  Will you please consider how we can make this event a huge success?  Additionally, if you would like to stay to help volunteer during the race please communicate with me via email, and I’d be happy to give you an assignment.

 

b.       On Sunday afternoon at 1 pm after church services at Faith Church, Vision of Hope staff, interns, residents, and supporters will be enjoying a Friends and Family reunion picnic.  Tickets are $5.  We would love to have you join us.

 

5.       Finally, although we are excited to have the conference we are anticipating that there will aspects that are difficult for everyone involved.  We ask that you would lift this conference up in prayer over the next two days.  We pray that our conference guests would arrive safely.  We also pray that the VOH girls would be able to fully participate in the conference schedule and would easily make new friends with the conference guests.  We pray for health for our speakers and volunteers.  We also pray that God would keep the message clear and restrain evil so that each and every member of our guests would learn and be ministered to.  Finally, we pray for comfort for our guests.  No one attends a conference on suffering because their life is particularly easy.  We pray that God will strengthen and encourage each individual guest while they are learning about truly difficult content that is applied to very challenging settings.

 

Again, we are eagerly anticipating serving you this week at Vision of Hope.  If you have any questions as you prepare to leave home, please do not hesitate to ask.

 

Jocelyn Wallace

Executive Director

Vision of Hope

Residential Treatment Center

5652 Mercy Way
Lafayette, IN 47905 

765.447.5900 - phone
www.vohlafayette.org