Thursday, May 26, 2011 2 comments By: seasonsofgrowth

Trying to organize pictures on Blogspot makes me want to hurt someone.


This is Uncle Randy with his sweet tiller.



This is a demonstration of my proficiency with a hammer and nails


Jordan carefully crafting a door for our chicken coop


Jordan with her fully finished door

Our chicken coop!

Chickens in the "ugly phase"

Ducklings in their stinkin adorable phase

First plant of the season! RASBERRIES!












Workin the soil
Change of plans...

Dirt

Old plan
Giddy with delight!

First tomato plant in the ground!

Whats done so far



Me with my sweet knife/spade/weeder tool

Sunday, May 22, 2011 0 comments By: seasonsofgrowth

oh the joy of becoming a farmer

lesson one in farming. the weather doesn't care about your plans.

we have been hoping to get moving on our garden for two weeks and have yet to plant anything out of doors. it seems as though everytime it works for my loving and caring uncle to come help, the heavens open up and cause the ground to be too wet for tilling.
its a bit of a bummer but i know the time is coming soon when we will have seeds in the ground and beautiful sunshine to help them grow....

that is all the news i have to give today.... more to come as things progress.

j rae.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 0 comments By: seasonsofgrowth

back to the city

Jordan writing...

no my friends we are not headed south... east is our direction and Chicago is our destination. we will be traveling to see my good friend gradumicate from college. Its strange to think that if would have stayed in school, I would most likely be wearing a funny square cap as well... So we will be gone for the weekend, but no worries we shall return next week to put seeds in the ground....

stay tuned to this station.. its gonna be a great summer.

Today is Wednesday.

Hello friends.  

My name is Erik. 

Let me tell y'all a little bit about how I came to find myself on a farm in the north western corner of Iowa.  I was born in Wisconsin then moved to Minnesota when I was about 7 and then when I was 21 I moved to Kansas City Missouri to be a part of the International House of Prayer.  So when I left MN I had to leave a pretty secure job that I had held for about a year and a half ish.  It wasn't all that great of a job but it was secure and my manager treated me very well.  I was an assistant manager at a gas station.  It was glamorous.  I moved to KC in April 2010 but I was in an internship for the first 3 months that I lived there and in this internship they gave me food, water, and shelter so I had no need for a job.  It was great but 3 months passed very quickly and I moved into a rental house with some friends.  I enjoyed most of this time.... Most.  I just realized.... "most" is a weird word when it stands alone.  Anyways.  The internship ended in June and savings goes away really fast when you don't have an income and are paying rent and utilities.  So to save money I bought a 25 lb box of rice and had a hunger induced mental breakdown.  This short time of my life was, honestly, a very precious time for me.  I learned a lot about trusting Jesus.  Hunger is NOT the worst thing that could happen to me.  But praise be to God I found a job!  A really good job that I still love and met a lot of people there that I love a lot.  I worked at a Whole Foods Market.  While at this job I met a lady girl named Jordan that soon became one of my favorite people and through her met a lot more people that I love a lot.  Soon Jordan, her sister Chandler, and their roommate Jeska, after many game nights and trips to Latteland and late night Wal Mart runs, adopted me as their brother.  This was a joyous day with much celebration and rejoicing.  Not much changed in my life other than the addition of some awesome people.  Which isn't a bad thing....  Right from the beginning though I could tell that this friendship was going to cause us both to grow.  Which is a very good thing.  Because, I don't know about Jordan but I can always stand to grow a bit. 

 Well we continued on, working at Whole Foods for a few months, always talking about how awesome it would be to have a garden and be able to grow our own food and eat healthy things for real cheap.  Whole Foods is definitely worth the money.....but it's real expensive.  Then one day Jordan was talking about how she was thinking about moving home to plant a garden.  To be honest, I was a little bummed (probably more than a little) that she was going to move away because I tend to be one of those people that is really bad at being a friend and I lost touch really easily.  It's a  pretty big character flaw that I have.  So I was bummed at the thought of my surrogate sister leaving.  But then she asked how I would feel about moving back to IA with her to help her and her mom, Kim, with things around the house and things and stuff.  Another part of the deal was that we would plant an enormous garden.  All I needed to hear was the word garden and I was all in.  Also there is a prayer movement stirring so that's just a bonus.  A month passed and I quit my lovely job with the hope of going back at some point and I picked up my life, which fortunately fit into my Honda Accord and headed to Podunk IA.  And now I'm here.  Writing this blog post.  And enjoying every minute of existing in IA.

More to come.... sooooon,
--Erik
 
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 1 comments By: seasonsofgrowth

Random pictures!

These are in no specific order right now.
More to come soon!  -Erik








Monday, May 9, 2011 1 comments By: seasonsofgrowth

here... and now what?

Erik and I have made it to Iowa... we were welcomed home by my mom's St. Brenard (Mika), Calico cat and her brand new litter of kittens. They were born this weekend,  so not more than 3 days old... CUTE! Pictures to come soon!

Day one of our adventure is underway. Since we are waiting on my uncle to help us till up the ground, all we can do is sit here.... or find other adventures to keep us occupied in the mean time. for example we might begin to clean out a little pump house shed so we can get some chickens... We are prolly gonna go to Bomgars (local farm store) and see the baby chicks.

I am continuing to be amazed at how different Erik and I are. It is going to be a fabulous summer of learning and growing. I anticipate that I will learn much more than I ever have about how to relate rightly to my brothers through my interactions with Erik. Praise God for giving me a brother like him, a safe friend who will let me mess up a million times and love me all the same.


Keep checking for more updates... and pictures ~J. Rae