Stewardship and Blessing

I am so content in our farming lifestyle.  I begin every day filled with gratitude that my life has taken such a gracious turn.  And I end each night satisfied by God’s goodness and blessing. But there is no Gravy Train on a family farm. 

Gravy Train:  A job or project that requires little effort but yields considerable profits

Synonyms:  lap of luxury, life of Riley, life of ease

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition© 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition © 2012 by the Philip Lief Group.

Perhaps the picture seems idealistic:

fresh milk in the refrigerator,

eggs from free-range chickens for breakfast,

homemade jam on homemade bread,

heirloom garden vegetables,

bowls of juicy hand-harvested berries,

lush green pastures with contentedly grazing cattle,

shelves stocked with healthy home-canned goods,

delicious, grass-raised beef.

But all of these things exist only AFTER the work . . . work that requires considerable investment of time, money, education, physical effort, and emotional fortitude. 

There is a cost for living the ideal. 

I could decide that farming isn’t really for me.  I could decide that the mornings come too early, or the investment isn’t worth the benefits, or the elegantly simply lifestyle isn’t worth the muddy boots and sore joints.  But I would forfeit the blessing:

No beautiful, brown eggs. 

No morning-fresh milk. 

No bountiful, heirloom garden. 

No baskets of organic berries. 

No healthy, delicious, home-canned products. 

No lush, green pastures of contentedly grazing cattle.

I look at Christianity the same way.  There is no “Grace Train” in Christianity. 

No forgiveness without repentance. 

No blessing without servitude. 

No relationship with God without a lifestyle of prayer, Bible study, and submission to His leadership. 

Read 2 Peter 1:1-11 

The “good life” . . . both on a farm and in God’s Kingdom . . . requires a lot of work.  A life of blessing, joy, and peace in the Lord Jesus . . . and of rich, farm-fresh goodness . . . are BOTH beautiful gifts of God’s amazing grace AND stewardships that require hard work, dedication, and faith.  Both Grace and Works.  Both free gift and daily labor.  Gravy Trains and Grace Trains imply effortless blessing.  But idle hands and lazy hearts have neither the capacity to hold nor the strength to steward God’s rich, abundant goodnesses. 

This is my Sweet Caramel Royale on the day she was born at Freedom Farms.  Achingly cute, huh?  She is here with us at Kirkhaven Farm because of the faithful stewardship/hard work of Sally and Warren Coad AND the abundant blessing of our genenerous God. 

I asked my Heavenly Father for a dun heifer calf this past summer and He graciously gave me Sweetie (she is a special short-legged Dexter . . . which is a blessing BEYOND the scope of my simple prayer)!  One day she will be a wonderful milk cow with a lovely calf of her own. 

But for now, I better head up to the barn, feed my Dexters some hay, and put a training halter on little Sweetie.  If I want the blessing of a faithful milk cow, I have a newly weaned heifer to train and a budding relationship to build . . .

Farmers?

Welcome to our new Kirkhaven Farm blog!  We hope you find encouragement and refreshment here.  We are new to the farming lifestyle . . . providential farmers perhaps (because nothing is really an accident.) 

Two years ago, we began this journey with a small flock of Australorp chickens. Then we planted a small apple orchard, dug a well, excavated a bass pond, constructed a small green house, and converted our sand volleyball court into garden boxes of heirloom herbs and vegetables.  This summer . . . and really, no one was more surprised than us . . . we began collecting a small herd of Dexter cattle.  Each new venture crept into our lifestyle so gently that I always hesitated to actually ~say~ we were farming.  We were just “doing projects.”  But this cold, bitterly windy day in January . . . as I look at my 2012 Heirloom Garden plan . . .  and think about what to name our spring calves . . . the word “farmer” rolls off my tongue as easily as “stainless steel canner” and “mucking boots.”  I am a farmer.  What in the world will God think of next??

Is it possible to have been born to do something, but not even begin to experience it until your 50’s?  That’s how I feel about farming.  I remember, as a child, enjoying my grandmother’s farm in Etowah, Tennessee.  I would spend hours traipsing through her woods building fairy castles out of moss, acorns, and wildflowers underneath the tree roots that overhung a long, winding drainage gulley.  And I remember climbing Grandma’s huge oak tree . . . scrambling to the highest branches so I could perch grandly above “everything” and read a book.  And I remember building hay-bale parapets in the storage barn’s loft so that my cousins and I could scamper up them and careen down onto piles of sweet, fresh hay.  I remember collecting eggs in the hen house, holding a bottle to feed a brand new calf, and singing songs as I would lounge on her creaking porch swing.  But I never dreamed of owning a farm.

It seems that sometimes the very things you never even ~dream~ about are the secret "surprise" blessings God loves giving you the most.

So here I am on our wind-swept brae.  Eating toast with the jam I canned last summer.  Watching the fire embers glow as I thumb through a book on making soap.  And wondering when my newest heifer’s genetic test results will be e-mailed to me.

Feel free to join me on this farming journey.  I will add photos, stories, and essays to the pages on the blog from time to time.  Maybe share a recipe or two. 

Or . . . instead of only reading about our farming adventures . . . come visit us at Kirkhaven!  We have a darling new heifer calf named Sweet Caramel Royale and you ~know~ you want to pet her . . .