A NEW BEGINNING

It's been a very long time since I've posted a blog. Thank you for your letters of encouragement to come back to my blog space and share what the Lord is doing in my life. I'm here again...a bit wiser, a bit more humbled by God's hand of grace, and ever so much more thankful for His deliverance....Here's our story.

We started Colvin Family Farm full-time in ...... It was to be an old fashioned family

farm, where our family worked together. This gradually ended early last spring. It was hard to watch the vision slowly die, but we were assured that God was in CONTROL and has a plan for our lives. Our sons and their new wives chose to manage another farm and to also sew weighted therapeutic blankets for victims of war and Down's Syndrome children. They are all thriving in their calling, and being blessed by God with growing families.

We saw God's plan of downsizing and making the farm a "Mom & Pop" operation.

 We've sold most of our farm land, and have gone from a lil' over 100 acres to 17 beautiful backwoods acres of fields, pond and streams. We are still growing naturally grown vegetables, chickens for eggs and meat, and beautiful cut flowers for our CSA and farmer's markets. We also have

added a full line-up of baked goods to our table at markets. Our whole wheat and white sourdough breads, along with stone ground whole wheat breads are popular along with our

cinnamon rolls, brioche braided pastries, cookies, scones, and many other wholesome baked goods. 

Going into this new year we anticipate much less stress! There is still a lot to do as we clear out of the other farm where we had 2 1/2 acres under high tunnels, a packing shed with equipment inside, and all that goes into a productive farm must be moved to the home farm. BUT we are now relieved of much of the stress of carrying the responsibility of a large farm on our shoulders. We praise God for His deliverance.

I know I cannot convey the relief we feel, or even the stress of the past year. I don't want to condemn our young men in any way, as they needed to choose their life's work themselves, and follow God's leading. But we are THANKFUL to be on THIS SIDE of this lesson. I am thankful for the many times I felt God's out-stretched hand of provision...His strengthening presence in our weakness...and His ever patient lessons to grow us up further. 

I finally removed all the frost blankets from our beds and
hung them up in a small tree to dry. PRAYERFULLY the cold and
torrential rains are behind us! 

Going forward! 

Our eyes are set to the future! God has shown us only the next bend in our journey. This season we are farming this acreage with our children, Luke, (15) Levi, (12) and Charity Rose (10). We are selling a limited amount of our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture ) shares and will be

selling at two farmer's markets in Oak Ridge on Saturdays and also Ebeneezer Farmer's Market in Knoxville on Tuesday evenings. We are looking forward to sharing the wonder of growing alongside God to our youngest children. They've not known this scale of production before, and will prayerfully fall in love with the slower paced "homesteading"/farming life. 

The asparagus was smart...it kept its nose below the surface while the spring snows blew, and  has finally begun to produce...over a month
later than previous years. 

   As ya'll have experienced, this is an unusual spring! We planted our first

lettuce the first week of March, shortly
followed by spring onions and snap peas.

All of these things have been snowed, iced and RAINED on several times. They haven't grown as much as we expected...but now that the sun has shown its face a few days in a row I pray they are waking up! :)

   Life has changed a lot for us in the past few years. We've gone from a houseFUL of children down to 3. We've gone from farming about 30 of our 100+ acres down to 17 home-farm acres. We've "lost" some things but have gained far more by God's grace. We're ready to serve HIM and you this season. Come join us! 

   Join me here by subscribing to this blog. Monthly I'll be sharing with you what God is doing in our lives here on our farm, and what He's patiently teaching me as I go about my days serving HIM. You'll see what's up in the farmhouse kitchen, what's new in the gardens, and what's "growing" in my spirit as I follow the Master Gardner. Let's walk the path together. 

Abundant Blessings,
Val,
The Farmer's Wife