The Bakers, down from the mountains ...

"The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In."
Isa 58:11-12,

Friday, March 1, 2013

Jay and his horse - Cocoa

Cocoa came to us in early 2012.  He was a rescue horse - actually, he is a Hackney Pony of about 25 years of age, but with lots of spunk.  Cocoa belongs to Jay!
Here is Jay up close with Cocoa.





And here is Jay riding Cocoa:


Oh, how can we possibly forget about you, Fender puppy?

Now here is Jay riding Cocoa:






Amen and amen.

Winter views

Here is the view out Mimi's new kitchen window - she likes it very much.




Farm update

Well, we have spent many months thinking about what name we want to call our new farm.  Many of you have heard some of our thoughts in this area.  We finally have selected it:
Wellspring Meadows Farm

Secondly, we have enlarged our farm this week with the addition of a 2 month old Guernsey heifer.  Her name is Blossom - isn't she beautiful?

This is Blossom with Mimi at the farm in Virginia where we purchased her.  She had been with a wonderful family in the Blue Ridge Mountains who helped us "cow handling rookies" immensely.  The boys made some stall changes in the barn to accommodate our new family member.  

If you are in the neighborhood, drop in and see what we have cooking. :) 

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Our house is old, but how old?

When we bought our home, we were told the house was built in 1860.  While we have not yet tracked down the records at the court house to see that date for ourselves, we have been on the search at the house for any clues to the age of the house.  On a later post I will give a more fully elaborated discussion of this, but the oldest date/item we have found so far is this corner piece of a newspaper - from September 1869.


This was found on the wall, just under the plaster, covering a brick, on Zac's wall just below the ceiling.  The metal casing running vertical next to it is wire-guard over his electrical wiring (it has blue painters tape on it.)
Maybe you can see it better here:

Pretty cool, huh?

Friday, February 8, 2013

Quoteworthy

“Roses grow upon briars, which is to signify that all temporal sweets are mixed with bitter. But what seems more especially to be meant by it is that pure happiness, the crown of glory, is to be come at in no other way than by bearing Christ’s cross, by a life of mortification, self-denial, and labor, and bearing all things for Christ.”

— Jonathan Edwards,
in Images or Shadows of Divine Things, 1748