God’s Provision

The last week my husband and son have been cutting and stacking firewood, as one of the local farmers said that we could have all of the wood in one of his paddocks. What a blessing! My husband cuts the wood with the chainsaw, and my son loads it into the trailer.

Then, when they arrive home my husband puts the long lengths of wood through the sawbench, which sure saves a lot of stress on the chainsaw. It is so much quicker putting the wood through the sawbench, too. Our woodshed is starting to look as if we might have enough wood for winter, now. In this area the temperature plummets to minus eight celsius in winter, but in summer it soars to a mighty forty-seven degrees celsius.

I praise God for the beautiful, warm and sunny autumn days so that we can replenish our wood supply. In the Old Testament times, the only wood that was allowed to be cut down were trees not bearing fruit. We don’t cut down any trees – we just clean up the wood that has fallen in the farmer’s paddocks. Today was 26C, and it was an absolutely splendid day, although our old stone home is already starting to feel the effects of the weather cooling down. I praise God that He knows what we have need of before we even ask, and that He provides all that we need!

Showers of Blessing

One of our Old English x Modern Bantams has very recently hatched six adorable bantam chickens. Here, the mother bantam is teaching her young charges to scratch for food.  This last year has been an extraordinary year, with most of our chooks going broody in February, and they almost never go broody at this time of year. Not only the bantams went broody, but the Rhode Island Reds, too, so this has meant a dramatic shortage of farm-fresh eggs, but they are starting to lay again, now.

~~~oooOOOooo~~~

For those of you who have been praying for us – thank you from the bottom of my ♥, my husband’s pain is much better controlled for now. I think that the best thing that could have happened for him was to be admitted to hospital, as they have now given him Kapanol capsules, which the doctor had previously prescribed, but they have now doubled the dosage, so his pain is much better controlled. In hospital they also gave him STRONG antihistamines, and the HUGE spots that he had are starting to subside.

There have been wonderful lessons learned during these times, too. My son has learned how to milk effectively and to feed the animals, and my daughter has learned how to make a delicious goat stew and helps with the ironing and anything else that needs doing inside our home.

Around our home, it is the weekend, and things are so much more relaxed – God is so good as He gives us times of refreshing and showers of blessing as we wait on Him, knowing that He works all things out for our good!

Wordless Wednesday

Caught in the Act

Isn’t he gorgeous? This is David, our billy as he prunes the Bottlebrush. In this photo, can you see his wet beard? It is at this time of the year that the billy goats really start to stink, as it is rutting season. Call me crazy if you like, but I still love him, as he sires the most delightful babies.

Do you have any rose cuttings or native plant cuttings that you need to dispose of? Goats love them, but don’t feed any animal Sugar Gum, as  our vet informed us that it is high in arsenic!

The “Resurrected” Chickens

The “Dead” Birds???

Last night we hunted high and low for our four bantam chickens, but we couldn’t find them anywhere! My son and husband spent simply ages (until the torch battery went flat) searching under the bushes, in the Sheoak grove, in the chookhouses, in the back yard, under the grapevine and even in the compost heap, but they were nowhere to be found. Sigh! We really don’t seem to have luck with orphaned chickens.

Then, my daughter came in this morning and said that she had found two of the bantam chickens – dead, alongside the fence in the goat yard – ripped to pieces. Oh, no! This was so heart-wrenching for me, as we had them in the laundry in a box and fed, watered and nurtured them for ages before we released them back into the confines of the bantam house in a smaller cage so that they didn’t get picked on.

This afternoon we had friends here for lunch, and when we went outside to bid them farewell, there were two bantam chickens in the back yard of the house. Um. Yeah, who let the chickens out? Have I confused you, yet, for I sure was confused by this stage in time???

My son thought that my daughter must have let the bantam chickens out to have a peck around, but when he questioned her, she said that she hadn’t let them out, so confusion reigned here for a while until we looked at the “dead chickens” next to the goat yard fence. It wasn’t a dead bird at all – it was a bird’s nest. I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief, as I was beginning to think that these chickens were the missing ones.

My son went down to the bantam house and brought the other two bantams up to the house yard, and they were reunited once again. It’s no wonder that there is joy and rejoicing in heaven when the sheep that has gone astray is found, for we left the bantams that were not lost, and we found the two that were “lost”.  Imagine the rejoicing in heaven over one lost soul who repents of their sin.

After writing this blog post, I went out into the back yard to try to take a photo of the bantam chickens, but they were nowhere to be found. Sigh! Not again. I enlisted the aid of my son, and together we found them, and I managed to snap a quick photo before they disappeared into the dense foliage of our back yard, AGAIN! Praise God that He kept them safe last night!

These Bible verses have such special significance to me, now.

For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. Matthew 18: 11-14