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 . . .