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Wendi DeGrandpr
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| Posted: April 10 2008 at 12:05pm | IP Logged
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Hi ladies - the whole conversatoin about gas prices and economizing has me wondering. I am in the process of discerning how much gardening, small farming, homesteading - whatever term may apply - is appropriate for our family. I know that it is important to keep our eyes on our own family and what is right, but I am wondering if there are any families out there who really incorportate small farming life, home educating and living the liturgical year. If you do and would like to share your experience I would appreciate it. As I look around me (and I am sure I am missing someone) I don't see anyone who incorporates this.
In my efforts in various directions something always suffers - yes, this makes sense given time is limited, but in an effort to feed my family economically and healthy fresh foods raised here are important, education is obviously important and I do know this can be incorportated but what seems to suffer the most is our liturgical celebrations. We go to mass, but no to extra masses the way we used to. Family prayer time is suffering and sporatic -
anyhow, I keep writing and deleting and writing and deleting because my questions etc are vast and really not relavent unless someone can relate - so if you are willing and able to discuss this and can pm me that would be great.
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God Bless,
Wendi
Mom to four blessings
"We can do no great things - only small things with great love." Blessed Mother Teresa
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Wendi DeGrandpr
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| Posted: April 10 2008 at 12:09pm | IP Logged
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Just to clarify my "as I look around me" - I mean physically where I am not here on this vast list.  I know lots of people who home educate and raise beautiful families living the liturgical year!!!
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God Bless,
Wendi
Mom to four blessings
"We can do no great things - only small things with great love." Blessed Mother Teresa
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: April 10 2008 at 1:57pm | IP Logged
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Wendi,
I think you've asked a great question. 
I need to ponder it a little better and I also need to get off the computer right now so, real quick...
Our family has been discussing starting a "hobby farm" here. Simple. Simple. Simple. Or it won't happen. 
Everyone (bil's family as well) has agreed to manning a family garden. We have the spot. We just need someone to get the soil turned over. Looking down the road at my neighbor's garden, I believe we should have already planted seeds by now. 
We're also wanting to get a few chickens and do the whole egg thing.
Also, I'm looking at taking a home business idea and really going with it. It's a business I wanted to get my daughters involved in for their future as well. I'm just having a hard time getting all the start-up tools and that worries me.
If I can't even find the time to get our supplies together or seeds planted...is this cottage industry and hobby farm doomed to fail from the start?
Looking forward to others' thoughts.
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: April 10 2008 at 2:00pm | IP Logged
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It's really going to depend on what you need to do.
We just have a large backyard garden.. and it really doesn't take a great deal more care than watering a lawn and flower beds... putting up the foods takes a chunk of time.. but because of our short growing season.. we don't have a long ongoing process of having to deal with everything. So we can stop other things and concentrate just on that for the short time we have to.
Also, you don't have to grow all things.. we do a lot of tomatoes (they're expensive to buy) and things that we can't really get in the stores easily (fresh peas).. so we also have a limited time for what we need to do in it.
We haven't even been able to plant yet this year.. typically it's not safe until after Memorial weekend.
I recently had a priest point out to me that while time for *only prayer* is a good thing.. praying while doing other things is still prayer time oh yeah..
So if your garden needs weeding.. why not have the family prayer time while everyone has their hands busy with the weeds? or sing hymns while weeding? or washing dishes or all those many tasks that really just need busy hands and the minds and voices can be lifted in prayer.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: April 10 2008 at 2:07pm | IP Logged
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Wendi,
I did reread your post a second time and noticed you're really wanting to know about the liturgical year celebrations.
Again, there I'm a simple person.
Read a Mosaic book on that day. Bake a cake. Put flowers on the table. Color a coloring sheet. Watch a video. Do copywork from a quote of the saint. Make an altar. I also love to find neat arts and crafts for the feast days and everyone's blogs abound with ideas.
Slow and steady. I believe God likes the simple things. 
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: April 10 2008 at 2:09pm | IP Logged
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JodieLyn wrote:
I recently had a priest point out to me that while time for *only prayer* is a good thing.. praying while doing other things is still prayer time oh yeah..
So if your garden needs weeding.. why not have the family prayer time while everyone has their hands busy with the weeds? or sing hymns while weeding? or washing dishes or all those many tasks that really just need busy hands and the minds and voices can be lifted in prayer. |
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Excellent, JodieLyn! Excellent!
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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Wendi DeGrandpr
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| Posted: April 10 2008 at 8:42pm | IP Logged
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Thanks ladies for all your thoughts. Let me clarify a little as to the "reality" of where I am. I have had a very large garden yearly since we had a place to have one. I freeze berries and veggies, make jam, and other preserves depending on what we have each year. We have laying hens and had two dairy goats for about 10 months. I gave up the goats for reasons I would rather not get into. We have raised chickens and turkeys for meat for the last several years. I LOVE all of this and I very much miss having a the goats greet me when I go to the barn. I cannot explain the satisfaction I get from full cupboards and a full freezer each fall plus the fresh veggies all summer.
I have spent the last many months discerning the actual value of this to my family. Am I too distracted? We don't get a lot of "school" done when it's planting time, harvest time etc - but I have always been ok with it because it is the rhythm of life for our family. I have always endeavored to make this a family venture but well that hasn't always been the case. Again, I am discerning the time it all requires - two months ago I was pretty sure I was going to give up the garden so I could be present and "play" with my kids this summer - be in the pool and not just within view and earshot etc. Maybe we could go to mass daily, maybe I could pray the liturgy of the hours as I have always wanted to. Then, every week I go to the grocery store and the bills go up, gas prices go up and I can't imagine not having my freezer full of fresh food. I love the idea of home grown food, fresh meat, fresh milk, yogurt and ice cream - no chemicals etc. Is it greedy to want all this?
I am probably really rambling at this point. I just don't want to fail in the responsiblilty I have to my children's faith life and education. I was not raised Catholic nor did we have a strong Catholic marriage from the beginning so as we have journeyed through the ups and downs I guess I am afraid to get distracted from my faith. Jodie - I so loved the idea of praying while weeding (or doing any chores for that matter) see ... so simple but it just doesn't come naturally to me. So if you farm how do you do it without losing sight of the day to day liturgical flow of the year.
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God Bless,
Wendi
Mom to four blessings
"We can do no great things - only small things with great love." Blessed Mother Teresa
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juststartn
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| Posted: April 23 2008 at 2:50pm | IP Logged
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Good question Wendi! DH and I just moved to our place in the country (he retired from the army), and we are FINALLY getting the "life in the country" we've been wanting/planning for for almost 10 yrs. We've got our chickens due the middle of May (earliest we could get any here), and the garden is thru its first tilling (we'll be doing another one this weekend or early next week)....as much as we'd like to do more this year, with food costs the way that they are, and three dc eating alot, and two more soon to be, wellllllllll, the food would come in handy. But I don't think we're up to it yet.
As per the religious elements...well, with one car, and gas prices the way that they are, daily mass is out of the question (the closest is 20 miles away each way)...I wasn't raised Catholic, and DH A)isn't home, and B)didn't have the most Catholic upbringing, even though he's a cradle Catholic...so we're both feeling our way along....
So I'll be very interested in anything anyone has to say, and any of your experiences....
Rachel
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bfarmmom
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| Posted: April 24 2008 at 1:12pm | IP Logged
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Hi All,
I missed this conversation earlier. Wendi, you bring up some excellent concerns. It is hard to find a balance and I struggle with this daily. The homeschooling and farming always seem to come first around here and there never seems time for daily mass or a lot of extra liturgical things.  (We are also 25 minutes from church.) I fit in what I can, sometimes feast day tea. I also have to remind myself of all of the little things we do, instead of beating myself up over all of the things that we don't do. It took me a long time to get to this point. I don't know how much help I will be.
We have chickens, horses, (not necessary but fun!)And now 2 dairy cows (only milking one now). We have raised our own beef in the past. I have a garden in, which is doing really well. I will probably expand our garden in the fall. That was kind of trial and error this year. It definately needs to be bigger to feed all of us consistently.
Farming is a lot of work. My husband works full time and travels quite a bit with his job. A lot of the farming chores fall on myself and the children. DH handles the bigger jobs on the weekends if they can wait. But I will admit it. I love it 
I do a lot of my praying while I am watering the garden, milking the cow, getting hay, etc. I tell the kids to do this also.  It is nice quiet time with God, taking care of his animals and plants.
How about following the rythm of the seasons. I imagine in the winter it is slower for you as far as farming chores go. Take that time to really dive into Advent and all of the beautiful feast days.
Wendi, you said you gave up your dairy goats. I also gave up my cows for a while, when I was pregnant with my last baby. It was just to much, something had to give and it was the cows. I felt so bad, I missed the fresh milk for the family, and I felt guilty that I couldn't handle it all, but to everything there is a season. I have the dairy back now and the children are older and taking on more responsibilities.
We are learning as we go. My husband and I both grew up in the city. He was a mile from the beach. This is all new to us. But I feel there is GREAT value in this type of lifestyle. Someone has to farm right? And what a great education our children are getting! I have visions of my kids when they are all grown up sitting around the table together and talking and laughing about living on a farm and growing up in big Catholic family. And saying "Remember when....." Corny, I know.
A great book someone gave me was Apostolic Farming by Catherine Doherty There is a description on the website.
Hope this helps! God Bless!
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Peace,
Kirsten
ds13,dd12,dd10,ds7,dd6, dd 4, ds 2
Sonlight Garden
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Wendi DeGrandpr
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| Posted: April 28 2008 at 6:40am | IP Logged
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Farming is a lot of work. My husband works full time and travels quite a bit with his job. A lot of the farming chores fall on myself and the children. DH handles the bigger jobs on the weekends if they can wait. But I will admit it. I love it
Kirstin - this is very similar to my situation!! DH travels pretty much M-F. We are using weekends for bigger projects like updating our meat bird coop and our layer coop. I would love to range my chickens but anytime I let them out a hungry fox arrives and well .... thats that.
It has taken me so long to get back to this thread because the weather was BEAUTIFUL last week and until Saturday evening there were no black flies, so we spent the week outside preparing gardens and creating new planting space. I have started many plants under grow lights in our kitchen and I am really focusing on production this year so we have to buy as little as possible.
I was encouraged to hear you were able to bring your cows back. I really would love to bring back the dairy goats and we are praying about it and discussing it. At this point it looks like we will, but I am still a bit hesitant as I don't want to bring them back and have to get rid of them again. I miss having the fresh milk available daily without going anywhere as well as the fresh yogurt and ice cream.
I love everything that it takes - I really don't even mind lugging water in the winter as our barn water is seasonal. My two youngest are learning and loving watching the plants emerge and they love helping to collect rocks and grass as we till new space.
As far as making all of this work - I feel guilty because I have daily mass available 10 mins away but with the chore schedule it has always felt like too much. We have gone through "seasons" of mass or daily readings at home after breakfast or nothing but I haven't found what works right now. Still praying about it. May always encourages me as we watch the Mary garden emerge. We will miss our parish May crowning due to piano recital but we will honor our Blessed Mother here on our own.
My time is up - it is good to hear about other people's experience!!!
Thanks to all of you!
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God Bless,
Wendi
Mom to four blessings
"We can do no great things - only small things with great love." Blessed Mother Teresa
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