How does your garden grow?

My garden has surprised me this year. I rarely get out to it....we've been doing a major remodel at the coffeehouse. My care of it has been an occasional weeding frenzy while talking on the phone, or rushing out to grab a handful of greens for dinner. Even without daily supervision, we've manage to harvest lettuce, turnips, cabbage, raspberries, and carrots. Corn was waist high by the fourth of July. And of course, there will be more squash and zucchini than anyone needs. All I can say for the success of it this year is a big thank you to whoever invented automatic watering systems! That, and years of compost and hard work.

Reminds me of our spiritual lives. There are seasons of hard work, pulling out the weeds in our souls, allowing God to turn the bad stuff into good stuff, planting a few seeds.  Then He allows us a season of just-add-water. Regular watering of our hearts. He's in charge of the rest...the growth that occurs daily without us even noticing. A week, a month, a season later, we look back and say, "Wow, look how much I've grown! See what God can do if I let Him be in charge!"

Thanks God, for being faithful to attend to the details in the garden of my heart.

Livin' La Vida Local

Today the kids and I went for a What-cha-ma-call-it hunt. The local library hides this crazy handmade sock puppet in one of the downtown stores. Whoever finds it and reports back to the library first, gets a brand new book for keeps. Hearing of the new quest last week, the kids made their strategy.
"We'll only go to the stores that like kids. And not any of the ones where the What-cha-ma-call-it has been hidden. We'll start at 9:30 after some of the stores have already been open, and get back to the library by 10, when it opens."
Things didn't go exactly as planned. I had forgotten "The Plan," and headed out for errands while my Mountain Man struggled to herd everyone out for a day of work at the coffeehouse. The car died, so I took it to the Subaru guy and walked back to the coffeehouse, dressed in full out paint clothes. Finally around 11:30, we were walking the newly renovated 6th street searching for a sock puppet. Tried the pet store...only really cute puppies. Tried the pottery place...nope. The card shop. Then, the shoe shop across the street from our soon to be opened coffeehouse.
Over the past couple of months, I've gotten to know Steve, the shoe guy, a bit. He's one of our new "neighbors" downtown. We chatted a bit while the kids searched the store, finally spoting the sock puppet in -where else?- a boot. That ended our conversation quickly in a "controlled sprint" to the library.
Two of our favorite librarians, Heidi and Linda, were bombarded by my kiddos three all whispering (loudly) "We found the What-cha-ma-call-it! At Steve's shop!"
Linda says to us, "It's always so cool when our regulars find it!" She and I chat about the coffeehouse....Our librarian friends are excited for it to open too! We gather our prize, find a couple of more movies to check out, talk with a scrapbooking buddy, then head out.
Oh, but it's Monday...the Farmer's Market is half a block away. So we peruse the veggies, buy some kettle korn, beans, nectarines, cherries, catch up with an old neighbor. Finally at 1:30, we walk back to the coffeehouse ready to eat our Farmer's Market lunch.
All that within walking distance! All that among people we know and love! I'm lovin' this Local Life!!

A touch of spring

Monday, I got to hang my laundry on the line.

Ahhh....Peace!

Maybe laundry lines don't do the same for you as they do for me. It's God's way of letting me feel like I'm accomplishing something, but at the same time breathing and communing with God's thoughts in the center of a beautiful landscape. (I'm mean the mountains that I can see from my backyard...not my brown twig and bare dirt flower beds.)

Thanks, God, for quiet moments in a crazy day.

You know it's Christmas vacation at the GoodSoil home when......

....door decor is skis, sleds, and snowshovels.
...little monsters take over the house. (jbug & bugaboo made these for boodlebug for christmas.)
....kangas and snow boots are the outfit of the day on jbug.
...snow boy appears.
...baby jesus wears a peruvian hat
....boots out number people.

Chickens with Frosbite

I feel like such a bad chicken mama! But it did get below zero the other day....Now the chickie girls have a heated water bowl, lots of straw, and daily vaseline treatments. Huh...a hot tub and facials? Sounds pretty good, girls!

My Mountain Man!

Back in my college days, I did the suggested make-a-list-of-the-qualities-you-want-in-a-husband. My list was this: a rugged outdoorsy guy who can sing and play the guitar. Well, to some extent, he can sing and play the guitar. But look at this: 8 degrees out and he's still bike-commuting to work!! That's a rugged outdoorsy guy!

Story of Stuff

A friend sent this link to me today. An amazingly simple version as to why our economy & environment is where it is today. Yep! The two issues are connected! Although the movie is simple, the site goes very in depth as to what we, the little people, can do. http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Chicken love!

I think that every organic gardener should consider keeping chickens! Just out of curiosity the other day, I did a bug-comparison test on my sunflowers. The sunflowers in the front yard, just like every other year were covered in aphids. The aphids attracted the ants, wasps and ladybugs. The whole sunflower was buzzing. (I love the ladybugs, but could do without all those wasps. My kiddos agree wholeheartedly!) After pulling a few weeds, I made my way to the backyard. I took a close look at one of my backyard sunflowers. NO APHIDS! And because there were no aphids, no wasps! The difference? Our little flock of chickies have made use of their free range privileges by eating up all the aphids!

Way to go, Girls!!

What's this about a Coffee Business?

Back in our college days, there was little (single car garage size when it started) coffee house just off campus. A great many of our getting-to-know-you conversations took place there. With a rasberry mocha in hand, I could tackle homework, deep philosophical conversations, and even throw in some quiet book reading, journal writing, music listening and dreaming.

Ever since, we've had this dream to provide a place like that for our local community. Really good coffee, a safe place for conversation, a venue for community to flourish. We see it as a way to combine our way to make a living with our desire to serve people. We're excited about the possibilities of not only reaching out to our local community, but also supporting our global neighbors. We will be making every effort to roast, sell, and serve only fair trade or direct relationship with farmer coffees.

We've been amazed at the way God has started to move us this way. Through many "minor" miracles, our garage is now filled with almost everything we need to start our coffee roastery/house, including a Probat L12 roaster. We're just waiting for a myriad of other details to fall in place. For example, what do we name this business?

That's where you come in, friends! Give us your leading by voting in our poll. (If I could do this in the good ol' Quaker way of consensus, I would. It's hard to "sense the Spirit" via the internet.

I guess I'll be adding a lot of coffee grounds to the compost bin!

Compost Happens!

My friend has had this bumper sticker on the back of her car. Yesterday as I watered my compost bin, I thought, "That is so not true." In our high desert environment, compost does not just happen. I have to water it like some prima donna plant, and pitchfork turn the pile, if I want anything more then just a bunch of stinky rotting veggie scraps and chicken crap. If I wait long enough, pretty soon I've got some really good soil to spread around my garden.

A better bumper sticker would be: When life gives you crap....make compost!

What if we would take the junk of life, and instead of just letting it mold and putrify into bitterness, treat it with a good watering of the Holy Spirit, and a turning away from sin? With healing time, those deep hurts, and painful events, decompose into some wonderfully rich wisdom and a deeper love for our Creator. A Creator who can turn crap into good soil.

This is the day.....

that the Lord has made, not like tomorrow or yesterday. He made today in a special way, so let's all sing and be glad." This little song, learned when I was young, has become an oft sung meal-time grace for our family. Sometimes, when it's been a tough day, I'll sing it in a cranky voice with a grouchy face, just to make the kids smile. I'll replace the word "glad" with "mad" and finally raise a chuckle among those around me.

But, today, there is no need to sing it cranky style. This whole day has been amazingly perfect. Here's why:

Beautiful sunshine
Happy chickies in the violets
Dear friends moving in with us for a bit
One week till the Church Basement Roadshow (www.churchbasementroadshow.com)
Laundry on the line
Helpful kiddos and most exciting of all....

a brand new niece arrive safely today!

Thanks, God, for a sweet day! May I be as able to praise you as readily during the hard times too.

Going Farm Girl!

I have this strong desire to live on a farm....all these overly romanticized ideals of corn as high as an elephants eye, chickens (no poop) free ranging happily, and a sweet cow (all milk, no poop). And of course, the animals all sleep past 9am. So, having toured a couple of 2-6 acre properties for sale in the past few months, I finally have come to my senses. I love my sleep too much, I can hardly keep up with my 1/4 acre yard, and I get tired cleaning up after the dog, much less multiple bovine. So, we reached a compromise. 4 cute little chickies.....hopefully, all girls! I keep telling the kids, "Don't get attached...if one turns out to be a rooster...he'll have to become soup." I was absolutely amazed how quickly I became attached! (You knew I would!) On the way home from the farm store, I was struck with how fragile these little lives were! We got the last four at the store....of course the slowest, least desirable ones. But I think that was God's purpose....knowing that these four could quite possibly become the most pampered hens in Central Oregon. (The feed store employees already think I'm nuts.) So, we'll be happy on our quarter acre with our 4 new little girls. Although, they've already shown me the idiocy of my no poop ideal. Oh, well, it's good for the soil, right?