The Farmer's Wife Returns

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The  Farmer's Wife Returns 

I know I've been away a long time. Those closest to us know the major life changes we've been experiencing over the past few years. The last you heard from me in my last post was that we had downsized to just 17 acres and were farming our "mom & pop" operation. That did happen, but instead of my monthly blog posts I was caught up in the day to day operation of a small farm with LARGE farm financial responsibilites. I'm thankful to say the Lord Jesus Christ has delivered us from those responisibilities now, but the path was a difficult one of learning, depending on Him, and just plain ole' hard work!

I began baking even more, canning even more, and working in the fields alongside my husband. Yes, we had children to help, but there were challenges there also as we helped the family deal with adolescent autism that "suddenly blossomed" in our son. The Lord was still teaching us major life lessons, despite our "smaller size". We enjoyed the challenge of marketing, but were thankful when the year wound down to one market in Oak Ridge...our favorite market Grow Oak Ridge.  Grow Oak Ridge

We retired from farming at the last market the end of February 2019. We were BEYOND BlESSED when our long time customers saw the newspaper headlines announcing our last market, and came to say goodbye! It was a thrilling but tearful day as I filled bags of cinnamon rolls for faithful customers, accepted gifts from long time customers turned friends, and our marketing family presenting us with gifts and applause at the end of our final market. A year later we are still "homesick" for those friends at market!

During our first summer "off" we prepped our farmhouse for selling it to family friends who had long admired it. This took most of the summer...all of the summer. The children joined in on the work of painting, a family novelty, as the Farmer NEVER paints anything he makes! Once the shock wore off to the whole family (the oldest children kept asking for pictures!) we had a new porch railing, (we hadn't had one because our box trucks used to back right up to the porch to load CSA shares and crates of vegetables) new screens built for each window, and the back of the house got new siding and a porch!

Our life has been linked with the land for YEARS, and when spring showed her face, our pull towards her grew just as strong as in the past. We scaled down our vision that had fed hundreds...and knowing we were moving in June, we planted a small spring raised bed garden. We started out our farm using the Square Foot Method and transfered the intensive planting spacing to our fields. We fashioned these beds after our old 1025 square foot beds that we began our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in 2000- 2002. 

I love demension in my gardens! Since we didn't have hogs this season, I used hog pannels (easily purchased at Tractor Supply) to add arbors to the garden. We grew cucumbers (pickling and slicing) and small melons on them. 

We planted with square foot gardening spacing as usual in our new beds. By using this method, we had the equivilent space of a large garden! 

A little later in the summer you can see that we're growing vertically too! Cucumbers and small melons grew up and over our hog pannel trellises. 

Our herb and flower gardens...or our outdoor classroom was a joy to us! I gave Charity (11) a daily "scavenger hunt" to do...find 5 insects and identify them...find 3 flowers and write down 8 adjectives that describe them, ETC. She would run from here to the vegetable garden  just on the other side of these snow peas!

Since we thought we we'd soon be moving I planted my herbs into a galvanized tub that would be easy to pick up and go!

Once again our gardens     naturally became the classroom of our home school. Charity loved having her own 4 X 4' raised bed and studied art, agriculture, English composition, and many other "studies" while we sat under the plum tree each morning enjoying the peace of the garden. We needed this time of "healing" after the intense lifestyle                   that farming for markets brings. 

With everyone busy amgost the varied fixer-upper projects, the summer sped by. Everyone joined in on the painting, caring for our chickens, gardening (much different than farming!) and paring down the posessions of a family of 15!!!!!!!!!!!! My, we were well stocked with clothing from sizes newborn to men's large, farming equipment, toys for all ages, our massive home school library, and YEARS of photos that were only partially put into albums. Our goal was to pare down, organize what was meaningful into albums and be ready to move into a 750 square foot "tiny house" we owned in the valley.

I acutally got to use the front porch for more than packing
vegetables this year!!

We sold most of our flock, paring down to just 30 birds.
This was a far cry from when we had over 300 birds at a time
on the farm!

I was overjoyed to enjoy decorating my front porch for it has been a packing shed for many, many years. 

The trellises we built early in the season were beautiful throughout the season.

A honey bee visits a cucumber bloom. In the background you can see our outdoor wood furnace that not only
heated our house, but our water as well!

I felt so incrediblly blessed to be able to wander in and out of our garden beds picking and cutting the vegetables
we needed for our meals that day. Instead of selling our vegetables I enjoyed gifting them to folks.

Apples

Our daily salad...

Green onions/scallions fresh in from the garden.

For the FIRST TIME we had allllllllllllllllllllll the asparagus we wanteed!!
I froze many many meals of it, allowing us to eat all we wanted over the winter.

One aparagus harvest. We grow purple and green verieties.

Our outdoor classroom filled in over the season. I also learned that the rusty holes at the bottom of my herb garden pail weren't big enough to drain well. We eventually lost most of our herbs. (But it was a learning experience!)

Our porch with its' new railing took on a whole new personality. This was a quiet
spot to sit and enjoy all the Lord was doing in our lives.

In my paring down and organizing process I eventually got to our root cellar where there were HUNDREDS of canning jars for me to go through. I kept these -PLUS...enough for a small family of  five.

God protected me from this Rattlesnake while I was clearing out the root cellar!

Our farm kitchen where soooo many loaves of bread were baked, jars of jam and vegetables were canned. It was the hub of our home. We were country...hmmm "farmhouse" before it was "in". 

My sewing room....

In my sewing room I used furniture not needed by the family anymore...
The changing table (dry sink) and kitchen table  Steve made 39 years ago became
"my spot". 

Our deadline to move in June, then July and August came and went. With all our energy and time about spent, we saw the Lord had another lesson to teach us! The sale of our home fell through SUDDENLY, and we left the farm to spend time at my family home in Massachusettes, and on the coast of Maine. There we truely rested and enjoyed God's creation, so different than the foothills in Tennessee! During our stay we sought God's will for our future. (When you think you know His will and work towards it, and it suddenly falls to pieces you begin to wonder!) By the time we left the waves lapping against the rocky shore in front of our cottage, we knew we were  still on the right path . The Lord doesn't usually work OUR plan, but HIS ways are ALWAYS better!

Charity LOVED the water in Massachusetts and in Maine! She swam daily up until SEPTEMBER 5th!!
(That is very late to swim in the icey waters of Maine!)

We visited Plimouth Pantation near my childhood home.

We enjoyed time with some of our favorite people "on the shores of Silver Lake".

But my heart goes to Plymouth Bay where I grew up. 

Forefather's Monument
Plymouth, MA

The week we returned to Tennessee we placed the farm on the market. By week's end pictures of the interior were taken and papers signed. Less than a weerk from when we got home, on Monday evening our farm was on the market. Tuesday we had THREE showings, and we had an offer by Tuesday night! After negotiations, we had sold our farm the first week.  God's plans are always sure and best!

On the other hand the paperwork took three months to complete, teaching us more lessons of waiting on God for HIS timing. (I must be a very very slow learner!) Each time the closing date was set back again (three times) I wondered if I should unpack...and we did often because we needed something! Where would we celebrate Thanksgiving?...then Christmas? I'm thankful now that we had those last holidays as a family in our farmhouse, but it was a waiting game for sure!

Our original idea was to live in a 700 square foot house we owned in the valley. But God once again directed us to a small 5 acre farm closer to the highway with a house that needed A TOTAL RENOVATION. With a sigh of relief, we began to rent the farm we would purchase. With the closing papers FINALLY signed on the final day of 2019, we were set for a new deadline.. .We needed to get the bedrooms and bathroom liveable. The clock kept on ticking, but with the Lord's enabling we moved in by the deadline on January 30th!

We're organizing, purging our posessions, and planning our new sustainable mini farm....we were excited to return to the homesteading life of our earlier years.

There are many possibilities before us as we still wait on God's leading for the next phase of our lives. We don't want to settle in too much, as we have a heavenly home that is looking brighter and brighter each passing day! We are looking to see what He has for us to do with expectancy. 

I'll be writing more often now that I've made the plunge to catch everyone up on our lives. I'll be sharing our "homesteading" adventures, our "farmhouse" renovation,  our home schooling adventures (from the past 34-36 years),  lessons the Lord is teaching me, mini farmhouse cooking, and much, much more.

There are many "voices" on the Internet to listen to...but God has directed me to speak what He has taught me in the spirit of Titus 2, coupled with the industriousness of Proverbs 31. 

"That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." Titus 2:4-5

Come join me on the journey!

 

Abundant Blessings, 

The Mini Farmer's Wife

Val Colvin

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

The Message in the Hog's Bucket

The Message in the Hog's

Bucket

Greetings from Colvin Family Farm! As the winter

weather continues to freeze...then thaw...then freeze, no two days are alike on our farm! If I had to describe what it's like on a farm in one word during the winter, I'd say, "MUD". 

Farm attire changes during the winter...yes, we still wear layers of our chore clothes..but RUBBER BOOTS are a must. I took a few steps outside with my outdoor sneakers on yesterday, and very soon I KNEW I had made a mistake! Working with soggy feet quickly took the joy out of being outside during this break in the storm! I was soon back in to change. With my "muck boots" on, I could slop around the farmyard to my heart's delight!

This kind of weather with it's frequent storms is a delight to our hogs. During the long months of drought we had to create wallers for them to roll in...you see, they don't swet and NEED mud.

This morning Farmer Steve trudged through the

muck to feed the hogs before church...It was raining hard, and the mountain mist hung heavy over the woods in which the hogs run. In a way it was a "beautiful day"...from the windows of the farm kitchen!

As he fed the bags of feed to the hogs as usual there was a stampede from the woods as the hogs know

the sounds of feeding time! Next he threw the slop bucket from the kitchen over the fence to the awaiting hogs....literally! Usually only the slop goes to the eager pigs, but today bucket and all went INTO THE MUD ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE! Now, a little hog mud science...mud sucks you down, makes you stinky, and soon the bucket would have been trampled in it's depth! The longer it stayed on the other side of the fence, the less chance it would ever be usable again. The only hope in retrieving it was for the farmer to climb the fence and save the needed bucket! 

The next time I saw Farmer Steve he was spraying the muck...I mean mud off the bucket (and himself) before coming inside to get ready for church and a hot breakfast. Without a THOROUGH cleaning, that bucket wasn't coming into my kitchen!!

At the breakfast table Steve told us the parable of

the slop bucket. I'll pass it on to you. The bucket is a lot like us...people. We often wonder about life "on the other side of the fence" where things look more exciting, even more enticing than what we're experiencing. We sometimes choose to "cross the fence" and get into the mud of life...our sin sucks us down, makes us stinky, and soon we'd be trampled down and lost forever if it weren't for God Himself, the Lord Jesus reaching down...pulling us out of the sin (mud) and washing us off (with His blood shed on the cross of Calvary).

So, as we sat listening to the parable of the hog

bucket while we sipped hot tea, ate our eggs and apple cinnamon scones, I thanked God for saving me out of my personal muck and mire. It wasn't anything I did...just like my much needed hog bucket, it or I couldn't save ourselves, it took a farmer...it took a Saviour! 

What side of the fence are you on today? Jesus wants to reach down and save you from the muck of your sin and wash you off, giving you a                             new life! 

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God."

Romans 2:8,9

Abundant Blessings!
The Farmer's Wife,
Val

P.S. I found this neat article recently on the advantages of naturally raised hogs. I think you'll like it too! Next, visit us at a market and see for yourself. If you have any questions about pork or the "mud of this life" and need help, just talk with Farmer Steve next time you see him...or contact me here. :)

Starting Fresh!

Greetings from our snowy farm! The temperatures this morning were hovering near zero, and the ice and snow sparkled in the midday sun...we're off to a frosty start to a new year. Our chickens first hesitant steps out of the coop were fun to watch this week as they are a new flock which is just beginning to lay well.

Our 2017 farming year is coming up quickly! Our CSA sign-up has also begun, as plans are being drawn up for crops, and our livestock, and hopes of a wetter growing                                                                          season                                              are in everyone's                                                              prayers. 

  Our family's winter schedule,

Charity is learning to sew!

which 

allows hours of indoor study time, pleasure reading, and for the boys, time to play with Legos is a more restful time of the year. Charity's free time is now spent playing detective! (Last week it was a composer and playwright, the weeks proceeding this she was an inventor...she has an active imagination filled with countless possibilities!) Faith Anne is sewing a new dress with an eye on being ready for spring.

 Everyone loves to bake and cook, so we all enjoy taking turns weekly with meals. Occasionally our

customers at winter markets have delighted in their fresh doughnuts or jelly rolls! With only 2 markets a week with an occasional 3rd one we have MUCH more free time indoors perusing areas of interest!

We are excited about a new WINTER market in Oak Ridge sponsored by Grow Oak Ridge Farmer's Market. Each Saturday through February 25th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. It's held in the St. Mary's Church gymnasium at 323 Vermont Avenue. There is a growing community of people visiting, finding local foods in the middle of winter, while the children are learning something new

with each visit with the activities planned for them! Food trucks are there with their specialties, crafters are there with their unique wares...there are even

chefs demonstrating how to cook new recipes with what is available locally. It's a well rounded market with something for everyone. Come by and visit farmer Steve and his sons each week! 

Our farm needs your support this time of year. When

the snow flies is when your farmer is buying feed and seed to start plants in the greenhouse...he's still paying the farming bills, and supporting his family without the abundance of markets to sell at. We all learn and appreciate more that our Heavenly Father supplies our every need.

aWe're getting our website all set for you to purchase

your CSA shares for the season so we can plan for your needs. There are several payment plans available that will enable you to spread the purchase price out over the coming months. 

If the CSA idea with it's weekly pick-up doesn't seem to "fit" your lifestyle or you think a share of vegetables may be too much for you to handle, consider purchasing a CSA Farm Card. It's an alternative to our traditional CSA. With the prepaid card you can mix your purchases from our naturally raised vegetables, jams/jellies, breads and other baked goods, along with our eggs and pastured chicken and pork. This way you can pick which market you visit, or what you plan to purchase. These farm cards also make great gifts for parents, students, and friends for any occasion.  Both ways of supporting our farm in the winter make it possible for us to begin the growing season prepared.

We've all heard it numerous times by now, "Happy New Year!" As I've taken steps into the unknown of the new year, I find comfort in knowing my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is already there! He knows the plans He has for me, my family, and friends. And He knows exactly what to bring into my life to fashion me into His image, and won't put more on me than I can bear. This is comforting to me...and I pray it is to you.

2017 is a new story to be told...let's tell it together! Join our farm now. Visit our website to learn more about our farm today!

Abundant Blessings,

Val

The Farmer's Wife