Chicky Baby

We've got over 300 new broiler chicks now out on pasture. It's our last batch of the season. Come on over to our virtual front porch and sit a spell! I'm learning  a lesson from our chickens...over 500 of them here on the farm. I'd like to share it with you!

Greetings from the farm!

Today we finished up the summer CSA season here at Colvin Family Farm. The last

Sweet white turnips, eggplant, summer
squash, greens, tomatoes, cucumbers,
winter squash, cilantro, and MORE were
in this week's shares!

deliveries were made today to Farmer's Markets and homes in middle and east Tenessee. It's amazing how the summer seemed to fly by! But the red and yellow leaves beginning to appear on the trees here on the mountain depict the ending of another growing season.

The fields still hold an abundance of fall crops, so the farmers are advertising a FALL CSA to begin NEXT WEEKEND. For more information,  hit this link to our website. Vegetables only get sweeter with a kiss of frost, so give it a try! We need you to partner with us till the very end.

The guys are busy in the field pulling tomato stakes, tilling under spent summer crops, transplanting the last of the late fall crops, pulling plastic and even dreaming of next year! We farmers are always a season or two ahead in our minds!

On the home farm the hogs are growing fat in the

woods, and the last batch of broilers are ready to be put out on pasture. The egg layers are taking a needed breather, so our egg production is down to less than half of our spring high numbers. Everyone seems to be slowing down.

Our broiler chickens spend the first few weeks of

their short lives in our brooder. Then they are moved to the movable pens that are pulled daily up and down the field near the house. They get fresh water and feed daily that is augmented by bugs, grass, and worms. These last 300 birds have never met their "moms"...

But I remember when we let our heritage breeds of

chickens hatch their eggs...our whole pen of chickens thought they were Mommas too! EVERYONE stopped laying, and EVERYONE mothered the new chicks. It was really interesting to watch. One hen could swell up and shelter a dozen chicks under her wings! 

During one of my devotional times this week I read Psalm 57:1. "Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be over past" 

My mind went back to those fun days of watching the hens mother the chicks as they scratched here and

there about the farmyard. Many times we couldn't see the "danger" the chicks sensed as they dashed for the nearest fluffy breast of a hen. But that didn't matter...the fact that the security was there mattered. Many times in my life, others don't sense the urgency of a situation as I do. Like one of those chicks learning about life in the farmyard, I seek shelter in the presence of God. All that matters is that I know where my security is! He is MY GOD...He has offered me the protection of His presence, and I often find shelter there. 

It wasn't always like this for me. God ALWAYS has loved me and offered His protection, but I have had to learn to trust. God has never failed to protect...I have failed to trust. Time and again He's been there, and I praise Him for it!

Often I would pray that God would remove the "chicken hawk" from my life. (Figuratively speaking) But instead He wanted me to learn to live victoriously in the midst of the trial...to learn to run to Him for safety. He wanted me to learn to cry out to Him, "Make me like You in the midst of my problems!" I can only do this knowing I am safely sheltered by God.  If God doesn't "shoot down" the "chicken hawk", I should feel perfectly safe and secure under my Saviour's wings even while the enemy is hovering over me. That's the kind of trust God wants me to learn!

Daniel, an Old Testament example, lived confidently in the very presence of the enemy in captivity. He spent a long and perhaps dreary night in the lion's den. When he emerged "no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God". Daniel 6:1-24 Oh, that this may be said of us! May God help us to seek His presence that we can rest safely in perfect confidence under the shelter of His wings! 

There may be a voice whispering in your mind right now (I've heard it myself before!) ...If you only knew what I was facing...this trial never seems to end!...I DO know some of what your are facing, for the Word says trials, temptations, hardships, and heartaches are "common to man". We are born into it. And there are times when God in His all-knowing providence knows it's not best for us to be removed from it. He wants to teach us to live victoriously in the midst of the heartache. He knows that great eternal benefits are being accomplished by our being kept in the midst of the calamities...kept in them, as well as from them. We can bring more honor to Him than should He remove all trials and pitfalls from our path.

So, come learn the lesson with me. Let us strive to be less impatient and less discouraged while we seek to be "kept" in whatever trials God may call upon us to live through daily. Let us cultivate, by the teaching of the Spirit, and the sure, unchangeable Word of God that determined trust which will enable us to say, "In the shadow of thy wings I will make my refuge until these calamities be overpast." 

                       

Abundant Blessings As You Seek His Face,

The Farmer's Wife,

Val Colvin

Visit our website @ http://www.colvinfamilyfarm.com/