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!

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also:
knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
And hope maketh not ashamed;
because the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us. Romans 5: 3-5

Praise You, Almighty Father:~

• That my blog page is up and functioning once again. I don’t remember praying for patience recently, but it has been well and truly tested during the last few days. Praise God that Stephen was able to fix it, and a big thank you, also to PSD2CSS for migrating the files across properly. I also praise God that there are good friends, such as Susan, who are willing to offer their help in fixing the problems.

• For friends, who make this world a much better place to live in, friends who build us up and encourage us to look inward at ourselves, to see what God sees.

• For my husband’s relatively pain-free knee – he has been able to cut many loads of firewood recently, so that we don’t go cold this winter.

• For our children – in particular, my son, who rode three kilometres to bring my husband home with the car, and the nebuliser during a severe asthma attack. I praise Him also for my daughter’s help in cutting and collecting firewood, for she shifts all of the loose sticks so that my husband doesn’t trip over.

• For our home, which is safe, warm and comfortable and is a refuge in the times of trial.

Psalm 62:8 tells us that we need to trust in God at all times,

that we need to pour out our heart before Him,

and that God is a refuge for us.

• For warm, autumn weather, enabling us to prepare for the cold winter ahead of us.

• For farm-fresh goats’ milk, which enables each one of us to have a regular intake of calcium ( I wonder why it’s not called goatcium, when it’s goats’ milk???), and enables us to make delicious home-made goats’ milk ice-cream.

• That we have homeschooling freedoms within Australia that many countries don’t. For instance, did you know that homeschooling is illegal in Germany and Brazil, and that Sweden seeks to introduce a law stating that the only way that you can homeschool there is under “exceptional circumstances“? Please continue praying for Dominic Johannson and the swift reuniting with his parents, Annie and Christer.

The HSLDA are currently looking for families to host persecuted homeschoolers, and while we have the room, we don’t have a vehicle capable of transporting extra people, and living out here, they would need a reliable vehicle. Does anyone want to take on this important role in helping the persecuted homeschoolers? If you do, please contact the HSLDA here.

This morning, when I awoke my son, daughter and husband had already completed most of the housework, so we had breakfast, a very late breakfast I might add, and then the children washed and dried the breakfast dishes.

When they had finished the breakfast dishes, my daughter went off with her dad to collect firewood from one of the local farms, as a HUGE tree has come down in the paddock that they will be sowing very shortly. My son stayed home with me so that he could finish the vacuuming and mop the verandahs. He was still completing the dishes when I noticed fur bunnies along the skirting boards and the carpet near the skirting boards – aargh – this is why my asthma has been so severe, lately,  so I took hold of the vacuum cleaner, thinking that I could actually help with the housework. Silly me!

No such luck – I had nearly finished along the edges of the skirting boards in the loungeroom, and was vacumming one of the corners that didn’t look as if it had been vacuumed for a very long while, when it started. I coughed and coughed, my breathing became more difficult and then the wheezing started. My son was up in his bedroom, and I thought that he was never going to come down, but eventually he did, and I gasped, “Nebuliser,” at him. Of course, where was it? In the car. Where was the car? Not here! Darn it! Usually we are all together as a family, but the wood needed to be cut and the housework finished, and we couldn’t be in two places at once.

He wanted to call an ambulance, but living out here, the calls all go to Adelaide for ambulance, and by the time he had explained where we were, it would have been too late. He jumped on his bicycle and rode the  three kilometres to where my husband and daughter were cutting wood, and found them just arriving there after going to see about buying some oats. He threw the bike into the trailer, and they drove home and set up the nebuliser. I was so hot and unable to breathe, but somehow God sustained me through it all.

There were two lessons learned from this -

• Lesson one is that the nebuliser needs to be with me at all times, which was the reason that we left it in the car in the first place.
• Lesson two is that I need to explain to our children exactly how things need to be done.

Yes, it’s easier to do things ourselves – well, sometimes! It takes time and effort to show our children how we want things done, but how will they learn unless we teach them?

The things of God are learned in the same way -
It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. John 6:45

My son is learning well, and this afternoon he has used the crevice tool to clean along the edges, and even went as  far as to shift the piano, which hasn’t been shifted for a very long time. Now all that we need to be able to do is to shift it back…  It weighs a ton! My husband and son managed to shift it back, and my son commented, “Now I have gorilla arms – they have stretched that far!” Now, I wonder, how often should we shift the piano???

I praise God that He strengthens us through times of trials, and He gives us His Peace – the verse that I remembered today was:~

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,

whose mind is stayed on thee:

because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3

and He did ~ He kept me in perfect peace!

This is the end result well, nearly the end result of our productive day collecting firewood – it’s going to keep us warm twice more – once when we stack it into the shed and then, finally, in the combustion fire. My son and husband went out to an abandoned farmhouse (with permission from the farmer) to cut firewood, and they came back with a trailer load of firewood. The wood that they cut is fallen wood – there are no trees felled during their wood-cutting expeditions.

After they arrived home, we had lunch, and then my husband put the wood through the sawbench, which saves using the chainsaw, and it is cheaper and quicker to run. He only has to sharpen the saw blade about every six to eight trailer loads, whereas the chainsaw needs to be sharpened every load. This is about a week and a half’s firewood for our home.

I think that the men folk have done an excellent day’s work, don’t you think? Praise our heavenly Father, for we are going to be warm this winter.

While my husband was chatting to one of our local farmers, the farmer said that he had another farm near us, and there was LOTS of dry firewood to cut. My husband and son went out to the old farm, and these were the first photos that my son took. In the first photo, you can see the dry stone wall – around here there are many of these old dry stone walls, and they have such character. In the next photo, this is ye ol’ farmhouse, which I find rather sad really, as the pigeons have overrun the house.

In these photos you can see the old chimney and probably the tack room – aren’t they gorgeous? If you look carefully at the photo on the right, you can even see the old door.

These are the old stables and the stable window, which I thought was ever so rustic.

Mind you, my son also had to load the trailer, but he took fifty-five photos while they were out cutting wood. I can see why, as it was extremely hard choosing which photos to post to my blog. They were only gone for about an hour and a half, and they have a full trailer load of wood – my husband ♥♥♥ his new chainsaw. I feel so blessed to be living in this area with all of the history associated with it. Praise God, for we definitely won’t be going cold this winter!

Yippee! My husband is teaching our son new skills – skills that he will need when my husband has the much-needed operation on his knee. My son is learning how to milk our goats – Delilah, Jemimah, Ruth, Cleo, Deborah, Esther, Aquila and Priscilla. Praise God that we have the most patient goats, and they have been extremely tolerant of a novice milking them.

Some of our goats have tiny little teats and are difficult to milk, while others like Deborah, Aquila and Priscilla have wonderful teats for milking.  Priscilla is one of the most patient goats ever, and she has LOTS of milk. My daughter has also expressed a desire to learn how to milk, and her small hands would definitely be an advantage in milking some of our goats.

Today my husband and son went out to cut firewood, and they came back with a HUGE amount of firewood in the shortest time ever. What does my husband think of his new chainsaw? He ♥♥♥ it, as it makes the job of cutting wood so much easier, and my son loaded the trailer for him while he used the chainsaw.

My husband was going to show our son how to use the chainsaw, but we have a slight problem. The chainsaw is too heavy, and when you rev it up, it kicks back- maybe next year??? I love homeschooling, as there is so much to learn – new life skills everyday!

My husband was on the sawbench, sawing firewood, and after about ten tonnes of wood, decided that he would like a break. He said, “Lord, I could sure do with a holiday – even a break would be good.”

Three hours later, he received his break – a broken finger – not exactly the sort of break that he wanted. However, he is getting a ‘break‘ from sawing firewood.

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.